You'll always be my BABY

A few days ago Ben took Hailey with him to wash the truck. Don't ask me why the truck needed to be washed, because it hasn't left the safety of our heated Garage for over a month...and it was clean when it entered it's hibernation. It was all beyond me. But I guess you can never really understand a man and his truck.
Anyway...the story. So he took Hailey with him. 5 minutes later he called and told me he left me a surprise in the mud room and to go check it out. I was pretty excited because he OWED me big time for the last 'surprise' he gave me *I'll tell you about it later*. So I ran down stairs and found this:


What a sweet little surprise. Even though this little 3 year old NEVER naps anymore - and hasn't for over a year, and even though she tells me to "get out of her room" regularly like she's a teenager, and even though she has the vocabulary of a 30 year old, and even though she's soooo grown up ALL the time...

She will still always be my baby.

p.s. the story about my last surprise. This last December I spent a LOT of money on clothes. I felt guilty so decided that they would be my Christmas presents from Ben. So Christmas eve I told him to wrap my presents...they were in a bag in our closet. So he did. Christmas morning, I saw that I had some presents under the tree...I also saw that MY presents were still in the bag in my closet unwrapped! YAY! That could only mean a surprise gift!! Ben's usually so great at Christmas time so I just KNEW he had bought me some amazing gift! I was truly excited to open the one present under the tree I didn't know about...what could it be? Imagine my surprise when I found a size 5T winter coat - meant for Hailey for next year - in the present addressed to me. Turns out Ben wrapped the clothes from the wrong bag in the closet (i.e. he wrapped the clothes I got on sale at Old Navy for the girls to grow into). Merry Christmas to me. Next year I'll let Ben do his own shopping...it seems to work better that way in this house.

Making Candy necklaces

So a friend of ours dropped of a little 'make your own candy necklace' pack for each of the girls. So thoughtful. So fun.We were so excited to get started. I figured this was an activity best left to the few moments during the day when Paige is napping...so we quickly put her to bed and Hailey and I got started.

The excitedment quickly turned to frustration. Is there anything more fun then 50 little tiny candy beads that need to be strung by 'three year old fingers' onto a tiny elastic string? This kind of thing is just up our alley...of course no one cried when the candies fell on the ground or the elastic moved a bit, I never tried to convince anyone that they should just eat the candy and forget the necklace part, I also didn't hide the other one from Paige. Nope. We just happily enjoyed making the necklace.




Actually in all honesty, the kit was really cute. We had lots of fun...and once we figured out how to work together (a little mommy daughter bonding here) it was really easy and fun! We definitely will buy more and make them again. Hailey LOVED it! She wore it for a whopping 45 minutes before all the candy was gone. She even begged me to buy her another one. And I will. Soon.

Pushing Chairs

Someone...the 18 month old...Paige, has learned to push the kitchen chairs around the kitchen to facilitate her getting into everything she isn't supposed to. Things like:

the rice
the flour
the candy stash
the chocolates (which are not the same as the candy stash in case you were wondering)
the chips
the sink
the dish soap
the dishes
the silverware
the recipe books
the iphone
the ipod

The list doesn't end there. And neither does the list of things she gets into without chairs, these would be things like:

the tupperware drawer
the toilet water
my toothbrush...
...and the toilet water
my toothbrush and anything dusgusting you can think of
bath soap
toothpaste
diaper cream
lotion
shampoo
conditioner
her clothes
my clothes
Bens clothes
Hailey's clothes

You get the picture...or shall I go on? Other things she does that are a little crazy include:

jumping off the couch
jumping off the stairs
dives and somersaults
headstands on the couch
climbing out of the bathtub...headfirst
climbing back into the tub...or jumping in from the ledge that is
climbing onto ANYTHING!

the one thing she hasn't done yet?

Climb out of her CRIB!

Honestly, how has this child (the child who honestly has no limits) not climbed out of her crib yet? I'm not about to ask her though.

So many reasons

There are just so many reasons why I love having two girls...and why I would love more one day. Girls are just so fun! I especially LOVE having these two little girls for each other - they LOVE each other (well, to be honest...there are times when the love's not so strong). BUT - the over all feeling is love and friendship, and I'm so glad they have each other to play with.

Now...today's reason why I love having girls is:

I just don't think boys would give you this kind of picture opportunity.... where else can you see Rapunzel brushing Tinkerbell's hair...while Tinkerbell is sitting patiently in a baby stroller. Do you see that little purse with a cell phone hanging out of it? Well, Rapunzel may have JUST finished her conversation with her Prince Eugene...I think they're planning to meet up to get married later this afternoon. Don't tell her Dad.Or:

Where else can you see Rapunzel giving Tinkerbell a ride in the stroller because her 'wings are broken'? Only girls. And that's why I LOVE mine.

The Year in Review

2010...what a year!! This has been the busiest, most stressful, yet most rewarding year of my life...so far that is! Our Year Consisted of:

Babies growing bigger, Girls growing older, Husbands turning 30, Wives turning 27 (not quite as exciting), Houses being bought (well just one), Houses (just one again) being rented - and then vacated, Camping...and more camping, and then when we thought we were sick of camping - even more camping, trips to Vegas, Missionaries coming home, Siblings getting married, weight lost - and then gained and lost again, 3172 Pictures being taken, a million hugs and kisses given....even more received, 7 years of marriage celebrated, good friends enjoyed, cousins played with, some said goodbye to (for the time being at least), Grandparents adored and loved, grandpas/dads retiring, and so on.

It's been a good year. So in honour of this Good Year we've had, I put together a little video of pictures. You've seen most of these pictures, but some of them are new. I mostly just enjoy watching how the girls have grown this past year.

Enjoy (oh...and I should warn - when I was uploading this video I accidentally uploaded the wrong one...which means it's got some stuff wrong - like the month of the Olympics and a few other things. I would upload the correct one, but I maxed out my weekly limit. So next week, I'll fix it, and you'll get to see the newer and better version - with correct dates, and a few more pics. OK?)



Now onto 2011...what are our plans? Maybe we'll go camping some more, maybe we'll travel somewhere fun, hopefully we won't be moving or selling or anything like that, maybe we'll start thinking about another baby? One day. But mostly we'll just enjoy being together.