Sally & Bingo

Look who we brought home yesterday!

Meet Sally!  She's our new Australian. Shepherd. We've been looking for a female Aussie for a while and we finally found her.  She's 18 months old and has a very sweet temperament.  

She and Bingo (our dog we've had for a while now) instantly hit it off.  They get along great.  We all love having these two dogs, but Evie and Adeline CAN'T wait to run outside to play the dogs.  

 Welcome to the family Sally!!

Evie at FIVE Years Old

Evie turned FIVE in May.  I finally got her five-year-old pictures taken and you MUST know more about this darling girl.  She is so sensitive and sweet, yet fierce and determined.  She's had our hearts since before she was born and that hasn't changed one bit!  We love this Evie doll and love how she makes our hearts explode with love constantly.

 Here's a little birthday interview I did with Evie.  Her answers are raw and I put down exactly what she said.

Birthday Interview - Evie at 5 Years Old
Mom's clarifications are in parentheses.

1. Who is your favorite person in the whole world?  Freddie (The CUTEST and NICEST little girl in our neighborhood.)
2. What is your favorite color?  Pink
3. What's your favorite television show?  America's Funniest Home Videos.  (She seriously loves this. We love Sunday evenings at 6pm because we all snuggle up on the couch and get in some good laughs.)
4. What is your favorite outfit?  Mermaid Shirt (She got this for her birthday.  She loves the mermaid and the sparkles on this shirt.). 

   

   Evie on her actual birthday.

5. What sport do you like best?  Gymnastics (This changes by the season.  She has loved soccer and swimming, but hasn't done gymnastics for a few months and she's missing it.)
6. What song do you love?  "I Am a Child of God."  (She actually does love this song.  She loves us to sing it to her when she goes to sleep at night.)
7. What is your favorite cereal?  The circle one.  (Honey Nut Cheerios is her current favorite.)
8. Who is your best friend?  Lenna  (A few months back we met this darling girl in our neighborhood and Evie and Lenna seriously hit it off.  It's like they had been friends for years.  They have so much fun together.)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Vet.  (She even plays "animal doctor" with all of her stuffed animals.)
10. What is your favorite book?  The wallet book.  (I didn't even know what she was talking about and she had to go grab it and show it to me.  It's actually a pocket music dictionary book.  She loves that it is small and has a picture of a pocket, a place for a wallet, on the cover.  She does pack this book around.  When I further prompted her for a book she actually likes to read, instead of play with, she then said the Scriptures.  Again, she actually does love her scriptures, but I kept prompting her for her favorite children's book and she just wouldn't drop the wallet book or the scriptures.  So, these are her definite answers today.)
11. What are you really good at?  Riding horses, swimming, and soccer.  (She is indeed good and all three of those.)
12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation?  Disneyland.  (Ever since our Disneyland trip this past February, she can't wait to go back.)
13. What would you buy if you had $1000? A lollipop . . . a Mickey Mouse one.  Candy.  Surprise Toys.  (She loves all of these things.  When we go to the store, she definitely asks for candy and surprise toys.)
14. What vegetable do you love the most?  Broccoli.  (She is a great vegetable eater.  She prefers her veggies raw and will eat most of them.  She also loves carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers.)
15. If you could have a wish, what would it be?  To fly.  (She talks about wishing to fly almost daily.)
16. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Strawberry.  (She does indeed love strawberry ice-cream.  She loves strawberries plus she loves the color pink.  Thus, strawberry ice-cream is the best!)
17. Who is your biggest hero?  Dad  (Shouldn't every little girl's dad be her hero???)
18. What do you like to do best with your friends?  Play at the park or in a swimming pool.  (For sure!  One of her most favorite things to do.)
19. What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday?  Clean up and do my chores.  (What a funny answer.  I sure hope she does clean up and do her chores before her next birthday.  Ha, ha!)
20. What is your best memory?  When Codee died.  She was getting old and then she died.  Now she's in heaven.  (Our dog Codee died last August.  I don't thing this was her "best" memory, but I do think that having Codee as a dog is one of her best memories.  Evie misses her constantly.  She often continues to still tell me on random days, "Mom, I really miss Codee."  We all do.  That dog was the VERY BEST dog ever!)

What else is Evie up to these days?

• She has progressed by leaps and bounds educationally.  She went to preschool this past year and learned several sight words and started to actually learn how to read!  She loved school.  She loved the social aspect, the learning aspect, the art that she got to do, and all the performances she participated in.  We all loved and adored her awesome teacher, Mrs. Jensen.   Her Preschool Graduation was epic.  :)

• She is a little second momma to Miss Adeline.  She is always watching her, telling her what she can and can't do, tries to keep her out of trouble, and stands up for her, and protects her.  

• As Adeline continues to grow, Evie is finding that she is more available to play with and wants to do what Evie likes to do.  They have recently been escaping to the playroom for long periods of time to play.  I love it when they play so nicely together.  
• She has a tender heart.  She cannot stand hurting someone when it's on accident.  She totally breaks down in tears and can barely handle it.  We help talk her through it and explain that accidents happen, that she still needs to say she's sorry, and then it's usually all okay.  She just always feels so badly.  
• That being said, she also has a fierce side to her too.  She is a fighter when she has a cause to fight for.  She's super competitive and will fight for the win.  She also gets pretty serious and determined when she sees someone breaking the rules.  She also gets ramped up if she sees someone messing with her little sister or best friends.  
• Evie continues to shine as an athlete.  She competed in fall and spring soccer this past year.  It took her a few games to figure out the game, but once she did .  . . there was no stopping her when she would head for the goal.  Her first game this past spring she ended up scoring FIVE goals.  

• She also made the swim team this summer.  There was only one other 5-year-old that competed all summer in her league. Everyone was amazed to see this little peanut out there swimming like a champ.  She is wicked fast with Freestyle, and when focused she actually beat out all the 4 and 6-year olds one meet.  She also competed in the Backstroke and continues to get faster and faster with both strokes.  She ended up winning lots of ribbons, medals, and even a trophy!

• She went elk hunting her with daddy this past year.  They were gone for 3 days and Evie rode her very own horse all 3 days.  She rode all by herself and did awesome!
• She still loves to play with friends!  We try to get together with her cousins regularly and then we have some fun girls in the neighborhood that she loves to play with too.  
• She hates doing her chores.  She's wonders why we have to make our beds every day and keep our rooms clean.  But, she's getting better at them.
• She LOVES to help more when we're outside.  She'll help pull weeds, water plants, feed the horses/chicks/chickens, and anything else we can find for her to do while we're outside.
• She LOVES to play in the snow and then drink hot cocoa afterwards.  
• She loves corn on the cob and watermelon and corn dogs.
• She loves to play games.  Board games, video games, physical games (like hide-n-go seek), and paper games (like word searches, connect the dots, etc.).  Her mind is so sharp and she loves to strategize and figure things out.
• She loves "daughter" dates.  She loves to go on mommy-daughter dates, daddy-daughter dates, and when we all go out as a family, she calls those family-daughter dates.  

There's so much more we could write about this darling, expressive, sweet girl.  We love her so and CANNOT  believe she is going to start kindergarten this year.  Man, they grow so darn fast. We're blessed to call her ours.

Adeline at 2.5 Years

Time keeps flying by.  Miss Adeline is growing like a weed and seems to keep "growing up" in so many ways.  She's so darn adorable!

Here's what she's up to now.

• She's counting.  She is solid on 1 through 5.  Then she skips around all the way up to 13.  Playing hide-and-go-seek is awesome because she does her best to count with her eyes closed and it's adorable as she works her way through the numbers.
• She's singing like crazy!  She loves to take my phone, open the music up, and sing along to the songs (children's songs, church songs, pop songs, old country songs, Disney tunes, etc.).  It's amazing how well she knows the lyrics and how well she can keep up with most of the songs.  
• Along with singing, she's still a dancer.  She loves to dance to the beat of songs and dance parties are VERY common in our home.
• She no longer has her bottles.  After we got home from Disneyland in February, Addie got sick AGAIN!  I knew that we had to give up the milk in order to get her better.  So, I just got rid of her bottles altogether.  She LOVED her bottles, so she was VERY sad for the first two nights and then she kind of just moved on only occasionally fussing about the absence of her bottles.  She got over her sickness and got over the loss of her bottles, and she has NEVER been healthier.  I know she doesn't have a milk/lactose allergy, but I do believe that the enormous amount of milk she was drinking threw her body out of balance.  Now, she has maybe had 1 cold since taking her bottles away.  This is a miracle because she was sick at least ever 4-6 weeks during her first two years of life.  
• Now that she doesn't rely on her bottle, she is eating like a champ!  She is seriously such a great eater.  She definitely loves her sweets still, but otherwise she eats incredibly healthy.  She loves to eat eggs and avocado almost every morning for breakfast.  She loves to eat almost everything I cook for lunch or dinner.  She'll eat all my healthy food like crazy.  I'm sure this is also contributing to her health.  
• She still love her blankies.  She has loved them almost to shreds.  They are getting holes in them now and she has nearly worn them out.  
• She just got a "big girl" bed.  We converted her crib into a toddler bed.  She loves it.  She doesn't stay in it very well.  She keeps getting out of bed when we put her in.  It usually takes 3-4 times in walking her back to her bed to get her to stay.  But, she's sure feeling more grown up now.
• She loves whatever Sissy (Evie) loves.  This has probably always been the case, but as she gets older, it becomes more evident.  She copies Evie in almost everything (from behavior to favorite toys to things she says).

• That being said, she still has her own unique interests.  She definitely LOVES anything that makes her look pretty.  She loves lip gloss, chapstick, makeup, nail polish, bows, jewelry, etc.  More so than Evie does.  

• Adeline is a great cheerleader!  When we go to watch Evie play soccer or swim in her races, Addie will be cheering, "Go Evie!" louder than life.  It's adorable!
• She's entered the stage where she loves us to watch everything she does.  She's constantly saying, "Look at this!" as she does tricks, or dances, or simply makes a funny face.  After she gets you to notice her she'll often say, "When I do this, I do this."  Then she'll jump, or do a dance move, or something silly, etc.  
• She insists of doing things all by herself.  She wants to potty all by herself, buckle her carseat all by herself, dress herself, feed herself, drink from water bottles all by herself, etc.  She is adamant and gets so frustrated if we try to help her.  And, then with things she really cannot do by herself after trying, she'll break down in frustration and beg for help.  
•  She gets SO excited about stuff.  We'll be driving down the road and she'll see a baby horse and she'll yell so loudly, "I see a baby horse!"  It's cute and hurts our ears all at the same time.  She'll do this with anything she quickly gets excited about.
• She loves to break and ruin stuff.  Oh, this is frustrating.  She'll purposely write on my leather couch, rip an important paper before you can get it from her, stomp on something breakable, etc.  
• She also loves to make messes!  She'll just throw stuff on the ground, break up chips and scatter them on the floor, dump stuff out, etc.  
• You say, "don't" . . . . she'll "do."
• She loves to go swimming, but only because she mostly loves to play in the water.  She has very little interest in learning how to actually swim.  She's even hated people splashing her.  However, I have recently convinced her of the necessity of learning to swim and she'll actually practice putting her face/eyes under water.  We're making progress in this departments!
• Her favorite articles of clothing are either swimsuits or pajamas.  We seriously go through about five changes of clothing a day.  The changes usually consist of 2-3 swimsuits and 2 pairs of pajamas.  When she does have to wear clothes, she'll choose skirts or pants. She's not a huge fan of shorts.  I love it when I can talk her into the shorts though.
• She still is great at praying.  Her prayers are now consistently about going to Disneyland or the park.
• She still loves the movie "Frozen", but she also loves "Moana" and "Zootopia" and "Enchanted".
• She still loves to talk about going to the temple.  She'll constantly tell me how she wore her cute baby shoes when she went there.
• She is so sweet and will constantly tell us she loves us.  She'll tell me, Beau, and Evie at random times saying, "I love you sissy/mom/daddy."  
• She is LOVING her daddy so much these days.  It's so sweet and beautiful to watch.  
• She is seriously so silly!  She is constantly trying to make us smile, loves funny things, enjoys laughing, and we absolutely love it!

• She is starting to venture off and play a little bit without me.  When we go to the park or the pool, she'll actually go play with Evie for a few minutes at a time.  She's finding a bit of independence.  
• Her time frame for anything is 2 minutes.  You can ask her when her birthday is and she'll say, "In 2 minutes."  If she's headed to the store and asked when she'll be home, it's always 2 minutes.  Anything that can be calculated in time will always be 2 minutes worth when you ask Miss Adeline.
• She is downright beautiful.  I cannot go anywhere without having people (even perfect strangers) tell me how pretty she is.  Oh, she's a heart melter.

This sweet, silly, mischievous, adorable Adeline has our hearts tighter than we can describe.  She's so great and we can never seem to get enough of her.

Disney Love

We got to go on a Disney vacation!  I love Disney.  I grew up going to Disneyland almost every year of my childhood.  Beau . . . never went to Disneyland until after we were married.  He's not a lover of theme parks.  But, guess what!?  We ALL had so much fun.  Beau loved playing with and watching his girls navigate through all the Disney fun.

Of course the rides were fun.  Surprisingly, Adeline could go on A LOT of the rides.  With the exception of one of our days in the parks, the wait times were only 5-20 minutes long.  So, it was totally bearable with our two littles.  We loved seeing the smiles and hearing the giggles as we rode the rides.  Evie's favorite ride = Radiator Springs/Peter Pan.  Adeline's Favorite ride = The Carousel/Peter Pan.  Mom's favorite ride = Radiator Springs/Peter Pan.  Beau's Favorite ride = Splash Mountain/Peter Pan.

Our favorite part of the whole trip for ALL of us was meeting the different Disney characters.  The girls were seriously "star struck" every. single. time.  We loved watching them get excited and bashful as they would ask for their autographs, take pictures, and then give/get hugs.  It was plain old adorable. 

We started off with Mickey himself.  Both girls LOVED him.

Here are several more characters we met.  

Here are the princesses we met.  We did a character meet-and-greet with these princesses where we ate dinner and they all visited us at our table.  They were all fun, but Cinderella stole the show.  She was so sweet and fun with the girls.

The highlight of the character meetings was when we met Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  The girls were definitely star struck here!  All Adeline wanted was for Anna to hold her.  And, Anna was honored to do so.  They spent about five minutes with us.  They interacted with the girls, held them, asked them questions, and took pictures.  Oh, it was amazing.

We also got some beach and swim time in while we were in sunny California.  The beach wasn't so sunny the day we went, but it was still a good time.  It was the first time I actually drank hot cocoa on the beach . . . and loved it.  

Without a doubt . . . swimming at the hotel was a highlight.  Always is.  :)

We had such a great time!  We loved spending time with great friends, building memories as a family, and having Beau to ourselves for a full week!  I LOVE MY FAMILY!!

Adeline is 2!

It's flying by and it's amazing that my Adeline is two-years-old!  She's really grown up a lot in the past three months making all kinds of strides and hitting milestones like crazy.  She stayed so baby-like for so long and then just exploded with talking, mischief, keeping up with her sister, and much more.  Even when she's naughty, she's adorable and lovable.  It kind of makes me mad sometimes.  LOL.  Despite that, she's still the most kissable and huggable little person on the planet!

Here's what she's up to now.

• She pretty much potty trained herself.  In Mid-November she took her diaper off, said "potty" and we put her on the toilet.  She peed and the rest is history.  
•  Her speech has exploded.  She went from barely putting two words together at 18 months, to now speaking in at least 3-word sentences.  
• Along with speaking . . . she's singing.  She's trying to sing words to songs.  It's darling!  She tries to sing, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and it comes out as "Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle" all to the right tune.  She also does this with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," "The Wheels On the Bus," and "I Love to See the Temple."  
• She also tries to sing along to our favorite pop songs that we play often and dance to.  She has picked up on several background phrases and repeats them when the song is playing.  (Trolls "Sound of Silence" song she says the background "Hello".  She says the "Come on Girl" halfway through "Shut Up and Dance With Me."  And, there are others.)
• She knows her colors!  Woot!  For a while there everything was PINK.  And then we got to the point where we would ask her what color something was and she would still say pink, but then we could say, "No.  What color is it really?" and she would give the correct color most of the time.  Now, she is almost always correct with the right color.  Yay!
• She is starting to count.  She can't go in order yet, but she recognizes numbers and loves to try to count.
• She can jump with both feet leaving the floor.  She just barely started doing this and she's pretty proud of this new trick.  She'll jump several times in a row saying, "Hop" with each one.
• She loves to say her prayers.  She's always asking to pray.  It's darling.  We start her prayer for her and then she lists who/what she's thankful for.  Grandpa and Ty Ty are always first on the list and the the list varies after that.  
• She wants to touch everything.  When she sees things she'll constantly say, "I want to touch it."  This goes for EVERYTHING . . . . new clothes, food, fabric, the sun, the moon, her own poop (I know.... gross), and much more.  
• If it's not stationary she wants to ride it.  If she sees something moving she'll say, "I want to ride it."  Passing cars, trucks, trains, flying airplanes, etc.
• She started saying, "Okay Mommy" to just about anything I tell her.  I can be asking her to do something or just simply telling her something.  Some times she even says it out of frustration (like when I remind her 20 times to stop making messes . . . "OKAY MOMMY!").
• One of our most favorite sayings of her right now is, "I like it!"  She'll say it so cute and enthusiastically.  This is usually after she eats something she likes, but it can also apply to trying new things like going on new slides or swings or whatever.
• She has a few cute "baby talk" things that are worth mentioning.  She puts a "d" on the end of words that typically end with an "n."  Downd is her most commonly used word in this category.  She also loves to push buttons, but calls them buntons.  Fruit Snacks are nack-nacks.  Garbage is garbib. 
• She LOVES the movie, "Frozen."  Anna is her favorite character.  When given TV time, this is the movie of choice.  Needless to say, we have the movie memorized from start to finish.  
• She's a smart little cookie and learned that taking the step-stool from the bathroom to just-about-everywhere allows her to access more things.  Thus, she is constantly taking that stool with her everywhere to explore more places, grab more things, etc.
• This girl knows what she wants and she does what she has to do to get it.  You want to try the "cry-it-out" technique on this girl . . . good luck!  She doesn't stop crying, screaming, or begging until she gets her outcome.  She's really always been this way.  Very calm and quiet as a mouse, until she needs/wants something.  
• Food wise - she still loves to drink from her bottle and loves her milk.  Her favorite food right now is probably soup (and she eats it on her own surprisingly well).  She still eats several foods and spits them out when the flavor is gone (this is most commonly done with fruits and vegetables).  She also loves to smell her food before she eats it.
• She loves the temple.  She loves to read her birth story book to look for the temple.  She loves to drive by the temple (and as referenced above, always wants to "touch it").  
• She pats our arms or backs in an endearing manner.  It's so sweet.
• She loves to draw and color.
• She just started fake crying and whining.  Stinker!
• She tries to read books on her own.  She'll open a book and start talking in gibberish as if she's actually reading.
• She works bedtime as well as any of the best 2-year-olds out there.  I'm certain if there was a competition, she'd win it.  And, remember . . . . she doesn't give up on anything, so sometimes the bedtime process has taken 90 minutes.  Stinker, stinker stinker!
• She loves girlie things.  She loves jewelry, shoes, makeup, fingernail polish, etc.
• She is a little obsessed with car crashes and throw up.  We passed a car crash on the freeway and there were lots of emergency vehicle lights and she thought that was awesome.  So, now she's constantly wanting to find car crashes.  Sometimes she'll even tell us that she got her owies from car crashes (because we told her that car crashes are not awesome because people get lots of owies.). Throw up - she recently caught the stomach flu and so now she talks about throw up all of the time.  She'll tell you that when you throw up you should do it in the toilet or the garbib.  :)
• She is in love with her new kitty, Boots.  Luckily, Boots is so patient with her and has endured her pulling his tail, holding him upside down, and much more.  She constantly wants to hold him and pet him.  She loves how his fur and whiskers tickle her.
• She seriously is so naughty sometimes.  Nobody believes me because she looks so sweet and innocent (which she uses to her advantage, BTW).  She will sometimes purposely do something naughty.  For instance, she'll grab a cup full of water, get your attention, give you that look that says, "I'm going to dump this out before you can stop me and it's going to be so funny", accompanies that with a grin, and quickly dumps that water on the floor.  Then, she runs like mad (laughing the whole way, mind you) before you can catch her because all along she knew that was the wrong thing to do.  Lately, the worst of all her naughty acts was when she grabbed an open bottle of nail polish (I was painting Evie's toes) and before I could even grab it back she flung it all around my bathroom and herself.  That was pretty epic.  I took a picture of it so that I can proof to all of you non-believers that she can definitely be naughty. And somehow, she remains huggable and kissable after the fact.  (But, don't you worry . . . she still gets her punishments too.)
• Speaking of punishments - she's a hard one to punish.  She thinks timeouts are funny.  She'll start to do something naughty and we'll say, "Do you want to go to timeout?" thinking that this will deter her behavior.  She simply replies, "yes."  She doesn't care.  She seems to hate timeouts if I put her in her bed and close the door (as she doesn't like to be out of ear/eye shot from me.  But, even then, it's pretty short-lived.  She's silly . . . . 
• She loves to be silly.  She's always looking for a good laugh, doing something to get us to laugh, and finding things that are so silly.  She loves to giggle and laugh and I'll constantly find her and Evie laughing and playing together.    
• When she tells you she loves you she says, "I loves you."  Oh, it's a heart melter.  "I loves you mom."  Oh, how I loves her!!
• She LOVES her people.  Her people are her thing.  She connects everything with her people.  She remembers who gave her what gifts.  She remembers what places she has been with what people.  She knows what things belong to what people.  Her memories center around her people.  She LOVES her people!

That's a long list and I'm sure it's not everything, but I'm sure it gives you a good idea of who she is and what she's like right now.  She's silly, naughty, funny, fun, mischievous, girlie, a talker, and loves her people!

Happy "Frozen" Halloween

Happy Halloween from our "Frozen" family!  We hope you have a fun, safe, and memorable Halloween.

Pumpkin Patch Fun

The girls LOVE pumpkin patches.  Evie has always loved them and Adeline is WAY into "punkies" this year.  So, off to the pumpkin patches we went.

We met an aunt, a grandma, and some cousins at a local pumpkin patch one afternoon and had loads of fun!  We played in the corn pit, went down the slides, pulled wagons full of pumpkins, went on a hay ride, enjoyed the petting zoo, and picked out pumpkins to decorate our porch.

Then, we also took our annual family trip to Cornbelly's.

It was COLD!  I packed our fall jackets, but we seriously needed winter coats, gloves, and hats.  We still tried to have fun and enjoy our night for as long as we could still feel our hands and toes.

The girls played on the multiple playgrounds, played in the corn pit, we watched a dog show, and jumped on the air trampolines.  The highlight of the night was definitely the Pig Races!  Evie got chosen out of the crowd to participate.  She was assigned a pig to cheer for, if her pig won the race, then she won a prize.  Well, her pig won!!!!  She was given a gift certificate to Brick Oven and was also given a pig nose.  Oink, Oink.  She was also encouraged to turn to the crown and offer a piggy victory dance.  She was darling and did it.  She received LOTS of cheers from the crowd.  She was so dang cute!

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to dinner in a warm restaurant and our dessert was hot chocolate.  Well, actually a Pumpkin Spice Steamer from Kneader's.  Oh my!  Those things are to die for.  I'm only telling you because I love you.  I'm slightly upset (not really!) I found out about them because I'll have far too many of them over the winter months.  They taste like the holidays all in one cup.  So delicious!

Well, since our night was cut way shorter than we had hoped, I took the girls back two days later.  The weather was the EXACT opposite.  It was sunny, warm, and no jackets were needed.  We even got a little sunburned on our cheeks.  We had LOADS of fun.  We stayed there for over five hours.  We did everything and anything that was suited for my littles (corn pits, cow train, bounce houses, dance parties, pumpkin princess stories, the giant slide, face painting and much more).  I even ended up taking Evie back after dark to see the fireworks.  While the two of us were there we snuck in a haunted hay ride, ran through the corn maze, and played some more in the corn pit.  We also watched the "chicken show" (for the 5th time) where fake chickens were set up on a stage and told jokes and sang (Evie's favorite attraction).

This is certainly a highlight every fall.  We LOVE pumpkin patch fun!