Happy Birthday Mikayla and Sophie!

This just makes me laugh and think of them as 80 year old women going shopping with their purses and bad hats and jewelry! Cracks me up!
March 2007

Oct. 2007-- These first few are out of order, they just make me smile! These girls love to play dress-up together and the outfit combinations they come up with are priceless! They are great friends and only 5 days a part. Sophie is older and Mikayla is tired of her being older first every year, so she has asked us if she can please turn 5 before Sophie next year... makes me laugh how something soooo trivial can seem like such a big deal to a four year old!
Sept 2007

At Mikayla's 1st birthday party (Aug 2005)
Playing at Lance Apts, 19months old (March 2006)

Halloween 2006
Sophie's 4th birthday party. The girls REALLY wanted crowns so since I couldn't find enough of one style at the store they got to make their own instead! They were huge, but they loved them! So happy birthday big 4 year old girls! I cannot believe how fast the time has flown and how big and beautiful you two are. May you always stay just as sweet and loving as you are now.

A Little Bit of Randomness...

For some reason this is THE pose lately. I say "smile" and I get this! Cute shades though huh?!
I can't resist taking pictures of the girls while they sleep. I can't get over how big Megan is getting and she looks bigger to me each night. *sniff*
Am I a nice mom or what? :) She wanted a heart pancake for breakfast so not only did I give her a heart, but her whole name! Despite what the picture shows, she actually was really excited for her pancakes! 7 letters wouldn't fit on her plate in a straight line so note to self: give next kid 3 letters in name or less. lol

Our Golf Date

We went golfing with Ben and Kim on a double date. For Kim and I, it was our first time to golf, so the guys taught us how to hold and swing a club and to tee off and putt. Kim and I learned a lot, had some good laughs, AND I even tied Ben's score on a few holes (don't tell him though since it was my first time and he's a major golfer!). It was more fun than I thought it would be and I found that a 4 iron hybrid is my club of choice. lol We went to Baja Fresh afterward for some yummy dinner and to talk. Seriously, it doesn't matter what you do, when it's without children, it is so fun to go out and spend time with your hubby and friends.

Me and my golf teacher.
Getting ready
Annika ain't got nothin' on me!
Ben checking the angle and slope before Kim sinks her putt.
At dinner afterward. Such a fun night!

Time for Some Campaignin'

Have you seen this yet? Hilarious. I laughed even harder the second time around! Whether you like Obama or not, you can't but help laugh when you see him riding a unicorn. And I don't care who you are, but Hillary hitting Bill over the head with a frying pan all while smiling at the camera--that's funny stuff. Nothing like some good political satire. Enjoy!

Matching Dresses

How cute are they?! I love this picture! Even if they aren't looking AT the camera, at least we came close! These are pics of the girls before church last Sunday.
Megan just likes to wave "hi" at the camera
She desperately wanted her paci during the photo shoot and I had to stick it in and then pull it out real fast to get a pic, then stick it back in again!
She's MAD that I took away the paci!
Give it back Mom!

I love matching clothes and Mikayla LOVES picking out matching dresses for them to wear to church each Sunday. Thank you Magaw for these pretty pink matching dresses. So pretty! I wonder for how long I can keep them matching? Something tells me when they are 10 and 7 they won't be into it so much.... oh well, I'll enjoy it for now!

My Monkeys!

Mikayla wanted to pretend she was Dora and Megan was Boots today. So, naturally, they had to eat bananas--Boots' favorite food.
Mikayla wanted a picture with the banana in her mouth and I couldn't get Megan with it in her mouth, but she's cute nonetheless. :)

No joke! This pint-sized monkey will actually devour the entire banana singlehandedly! I have NO clue how she stays so small eating as much and as often as she does!

Baby Blessing

The Nelson Family after blessing Baby Ben.
Kim. My friend. We've been pregnant together, been gym buddies, gone out together on double dates, shared numerous birthday parties, family dinners, lunches out, and playdates with the kids. We have a friendship in which we can laugh, cry, share every part of our lives with each other, help each other through the good and the bad parts of life, and she's someone I know I can always count on. I love you Kim!

Chico Loves America More Than Sacramento

So says my almost 4 yr. old!
Driving in the car yesterday...
Mikayla: Did you know Chico loves America more than Sacramento?
Mom: No, I didn't, why do you say that?
Mikayla: Because, you see how Sacramento sells lots of fireworks, but Chico has lots of flags. So they love the 4th of July more there.

All we could do was laugh and wonder how in the world this little girl can be so perceptive to the world around her sometimes and interpret the world in such a simplistic yet complex way. In her mind: more flags than fireworks means more love for America. Nuff said.
We had lots of fun yesterday! We had a stake pancake breakfast in the morning complete with games and a kiddy bike parade. Then we went to the Astle's for swimming, bbq, and fireworks in the driveway. So much fun and such tired girls I have today!

Mikayla and her buddy Erik ready for the bike parade! We only got Mikayla to smile by bribing her with a red popsicle. Megan was just ready for a nap, no amount of bribery could've worked on her!
The aftermath of a red popsicle!
Seth gettin' some air!

Mikayla's finally gotten somewhat over her fear of putting her face underwater and learned to jump off the side of the pool all by herself yesterday--LOTS!!
Me and Megan at 10:00 last night, I CAN'T believe she would not fall asleep! She just sat there quietly watching everyone and the fireworks, but would not close her eyes until her head hit the bed.

Trent and Seth chillin in the pool.

Mikayla and Gavin ready to see the fireworks!
Mikayla with the twins, Brooke and Celine.
Seth and April

Happy Canada Day!

Here's my half-Canadian cuties! Thank you Gramma D for the cute Canadian shirts! The girls loved them and Mikayla thought it was cool that she had a map of Canada on her shirt so she could see where her grandparents and cousins live!

I know Canada Day is July 1st and in a perfect world I would've posted this yesterday. But, in a perfect world my girls would also both be smiling and looking at the camera at the same time! Grrr... welcome to my imperfect perfect lil world. :)

Girl's Night Out!

Thank you Ashley, Ruth, Kim, Laurie, and Kimberly for a fun-filled night out to dinner and a movie! I love our girls nites and I love these girls. We have kids the same ages and have been married about the same amount of time and all have fun sharing our life experiences--the highs and lows--together. Thank you for a much needed night out, let's do it again SOON! :)

Thanks Ashley for the pic I stole off your blog :)

Okay, so how cute is this little guy?!

I took these pics a couple of weeks ago of baby Ben and I am in love with them. I took 85 pics so fortunately some of them turned out! So yeah, I took these and then my camera crapped out a week later and I'm having to deal with the manufacturer/company over getting it repaired. Aarrgghh. I hate that. Oh well, that's not what this post is about.
It's about how cute Ben and Kim's baby is and how looking at these pictures makes me wanna cry seeing how different he already looks and how quickly my baby girls are growing up and aren't babies anymore.

Girl's Camp 2008

Me and my crazy funny cousin Samantha. Reason for the costume? None at all, it's Girl's Camp! Me and a coupld of my achievement day girls turned young women. I just love these girls! The lei and the coconut bra went along with our camp theme by the way.
We were "Go Fish" since the overall camp theme was "The Game of Life" and each group chose a different game as their theme. So we took the fish to a tropical level because, well, that's more fun! (hence, the coconut bra)
This is Grandma D with Mikayla at Fresh Choice, Mikayla's favorite restaurant! We are so glad and thankful Grandma and Grandpa (who Mikayla has now decided to affectionately call Gram and Pop) were able to come out and stay with the girls for the week while Trent went to school and work. They all had a great time without me and we look forward to seeing them again at Christmas!!

So, I haven't been to Girl's Camp in 8 years, but got to go this year as a leader for our stake. It was tons of fun and lemme just say the job is cake. :) I was over the 3rd year girls so 14 yr olds that have already been to camp and know the drill and where to be and what to do. Basically I went away for a week and someone else cooked for me, I didn't have to clean anything (okay, we had a few chores, but no big deal), no laundry, no kids to chase and we basically got to eat as much candy as we wanted. Any time of day.

I really had a great time on the overnight hike, tubing on the lake with the girls, making s'mores, lip syncing in a skit, singing crazy loud songs and getting to know the people in our stake better. It's funny, I've always been in Primary at Church so this was my first time with the youth and on the hike I was talking and probably acting like a loud, 17 year old girl when a girl said, "Wow, I never knew you were cool! I know your husband is but we just never knew you were." Might sound kinda offensive, I took it as a major compliment from a 17 year old with a personality I myself admire.

Oh yeah, and I spent my 26th birthday there too, complete with 100 people singing to me and I got great gifts too! Almond MnM's, Almond Joys, and a CASE of Diet Pepsi (perfect present huh?! I loved it!) oh yeah, the best gift--I got to sleep in a tent that night instead of under the bug-infested trees dropping ticks down all night long. thank you Dawn for the gifts!