She Makes Me Smile

Adam picked up Elley last week from preschool and when I came home from a meeting I was at, Elley ran up to me and said, "mom, I have a surprise for you!"

She was so excited. She brought me this flower and said, "isn't this the most beautiful flower you have ever seen?"

And of course, I would have to agree. It is the most beautiful flower I have ever seen.

She picked it with her teacher while waiting for daddy to pick her up.

She told me that we needed to put it in water because it was going to die in the spring.

Later that week I was making some brownies. I needed some eggs out of the fridge and I asked Elley to grab them. She got them out and then asked if she could help make the brownies. When I told her she could she asked if she could hatch the eggs. I giggled a little and then proceeded to let her crack the eggs into the bowl. After she was done she said, "I'm a good hatcher right mom?"

Oh my little Elley Joyce. I love her so much and all the fun things she says sometimes. I love how her mind works and love to hear the things she comes up with!

Snow Day

A few weeks ago, we had quite a bit of snow fall in our area. 6-8 inches, which doesn't happen very often. Schools were canceled, work was canceled and so we played!

The neighbor kids came over to play with us. We buried both Rachael and Hailey in the snow. Elley thought that this looked like fun but she didn't last very long. We also had snow ball fights and tried to build snow forts.

After awhile, we all got cold, so we went inside and had......not hot chocolate but.....snow cones. I also made cookies and we watched The Grinch.

We had so much fun and hope it snows like this again!!!

Christmas Tree 2010

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas tree. The older the girls get, the better the holidays get. It was fun to see Molly and Elley get excited about the ornaments and put them on the tree. Over the weeks that our tree was up, the ornaments were rearranged quite a few times. Too bad we never celebrated Christmas with this tree. More to come on our Christmas away from home.

Thanksgiving 2010

I am so far behind in blogging it's not even funny. Happy Thanksgiving, even though it was a month ago.

We were so lucky to have Grandma Pat and Grandpa Dan come to our house for Thanksgiving. We love all the yummy treats we get to make with Grandma! The girls and Grandma worked really hard to make the perfect pumpkin pies.

Stories with Grandpa and Grandma

Here we go, making the crust for our pumpkin pies.

We have so much to be thankful for. We're glad there is a holiday that lets us celebrate it!

And a big THANK YOU to Grandpa and Grandma for making the long drive to be with us!

This Month is Such a Special One

I am such a slacker. Molly has been 2 for a few weeks now and I'm just getting around to posting pictures. I talked to my dad today, who's on a mission in South Africa, and he reminded me that I haven't put new pictures on my blog for awhile. So, this post is mainly for Molly, and mostly for my dad!

I feel sometimes, that I have a love/hate relationship with my camera. Sometimes I can produce pictures like.......

this.......

and this.......




and this.



But sometimes, I get in a hurry and forget to check my settings. Or, I get lazy and put it on auto. And that's when I get the following. Not bad, just not what I wanted.

Oh well, at least she had a great birthday complete with Red Robin and a little mini party. She loved all of her gifts and was excited to have all of the attention. Elley did pretty well herself. It's tough having a little sister who has a birthday. She got Play Doh, Silly Bands, a doll, toy animals, a stuffed animal kitty, Toy Story 3, a new dress, and on and on. What a lucky girl.

And now, I just need to brag for a minute......because I am her mom, and I can!

Molly is the smartest, cutest little girl I know. I've read that the second child can be a little slow to talk because of the fact of having an older sibling, but not Molly. Molly is talking so well, even better than her sister did at this age. Her sentences go on and on. It shocks me sometimes. We call her our little parrot often saying, "Molly want a cracker?"

She had her 2 year old check up, and her doctor said she felt like she was doing a 3 year old check, not a 2 year old.

Today, she was sitting at the table eating a snack and she said, "mom, I went potty at Brittney's house."

And that's another thing about this girl. She's potty trained!!!! About 4 months ago she started to show interest in the toilet. Fine whatever, you're not even 2, I'm not going to potty train you. Well, she had a different plan. She did it all herself. She now wears diapers only at night. Don't get me wrong, we still have our accidents....but come on, she just turned 2.

She is the cutest little girl! I just want to hug her and kiss her all day long. And, she's lucky she's cute because she gets into everything. She loves to get into my makeup, and LOVES to color on the walls. It's hard to keep tract of every pencil and pen in this house because she has a sister at that age where art, drawing, and coloring are a big part of her life. Thank goodness for washable markers and crayons.

I'm thankful everyday for my little Molly. ( who's really not that little anymore )
I love you Molly, Happy Birthday!

Desperate for Make-up

Halloween

Holidays are so much fun with little kids around. Here are pictures of Halloween and all the fun things we got to do.

Ward Trunk or Treat

Halloween night with our friends from the neighborhood

Pumpkins with Jay, Leah, and kids!