Abby's Birthday, October 2010

Abby is three years old! She wanted to have a dinosaur birthday so that's what we did. We had plans to go to the American West Heritage Center for the party but as soon as we left the house it started to POUR. We decided to stop at McDonald's to get the kids some lunch and (hopefully) wait out the rain. The kids played and ate and the rain mostly stopped. I got Abby's cupcakes out of the van and we sang, ate cake, and opened presents in McDonald's outdoor seating area. It was nice and quiet outside and the kids had a blast! After cake and present we loaded up the vehicles and headed to the AWHC.

Because it was October, The American West Heritage Center had their Farmtastic Fall activities going on. Unfortunately, there weren't any volunteers available that early in the afternoon so many of the activities weren't available. Fortunately, because of the rain and lack of volunteers we had the entire farm to ourselves.

The kids played with the goats, climbed on a pirate ship made of hay, jumped into a big pile of hay, went through a maze of hay (we were all covered in hay by the end), ran on the grass, jumped over puddles and had an all-around good time!

The girls were exhausted by the time we left but it was a wonderful day. Happy Birthday little Abbers!

Abby and her new parasaurolophus

Dinosaur cupcakes

Blowing out candles

Abby and Mom

Captain Abby on her haunted pirate ship.
She loved her new superhero cape that Aunt Rachel made for her!

Zoey jumping into the hay

Dad jumping into the hay

The party girls: Leah, Zoey, Sela, and Abby

I loved this! I glanced up and saw the girls showing their bellies.
How curious and carefree they are!!

Glimpse of our Days

Let me just say that if you're one of those people who actually put interesting text on your blog, I totally admire you. By the time I get photos on there I feel like I've got nothin' left to say.

The first two of these photos were taken by Lenny, I believe with his cell phone (correct me if I'm wrong). I came home from work and saw some pink frosting smeared on the counter and a couple of half eaten cupcakes and empty wrappers left on the plate. Leah informed me that Abby ate the cupcakes and then Lenny showed me this picture. There is no doubt in my mind who is the culprit.

My beautiful Leah

Abby was in playing her computer games and when Lenny came into the bedroom to check on her THIS is what he found. If you know Abby, you know how uncharacteristic it is of her to stop for anything, especially sleep. That's why this picture cracks me up so much. She was using headphones (her latest thing) so she planned ahead enough to take off the headphones, swivel the chair, and lay her head down on the desk. This picture STILL makes me laugh!

Okay, so that's what we've been up to for the past month. How about you?!?

Easter 2010

After Sela's birthday party, we loaded up the van and hauled everybody to Mapleton to stay at Grandma's for the night. Lenny had to work so it was just the girls and me along with Brian and Rachel's family. It was good though. Saturday afternoon we had a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was cold and windy but they seemed to enjoy it anyway.

Lined up and ready for the hunt

Sela went down just steps from the starting line

Abby's quickly filling basket

Leah, trying to find more eggs. Notice she picked her OWN outfit. A couple different shades of pink. Striped stretchy pants. A frilly skirt... Pink is pink, I suppose.

Grandpa helping Abby get eggs out of a tree

Abby's basket

Abby found a golden egg and went to Grandma to exchange it for a prize: MORE Pokemon!

Sela with a mouthful of orange Tootsie Roll

Cousin Sela's Birthday

Sela is THREE! I know, this doesn't have much to do with MY kids and such but I'm trying to update the blog for my missionary brother and figured he might care what his niece is up to. Sela had a China-themed birthday party. It was awesome! They played "pin the party hat on the panda", made paper lanterns, practiced proper chopstick use, and animated a parade dragon. My sister-in-law plans awesome parties!

Sela is THREE.

Pin the Party Hat on the Panda

Uncle Brian and Baby Graham

Candles...

Cupcakes...

My daughter's freakishly long tongue (and cupcake)...

Sela's new super-swank sunglasses

THE Parade Dragon
(Notice Abby in the BACK. She always has to be doing her own thing!)

This was one of my favorite parts of the day. Brian and Rachel were sitting on the couch, doing their own thing and Sela was playing next to me on the floor. I took something out to the garbage (about 8 feet from where I was sitting) and when I got back in the house THIS was what Sela looked like. She was covered in little pieces of styrofoam. I just busted up and tried to get Rachel's attention. Rachel took one look at Sela and SHE started laughing. Sela, however, did NOT think it was funny. She was almost panicky because those little white bits were stuck and were not coming off! Rachel told her to try jumping to get them off which was even funnier. When asked what happened, Sela demonstrated that she had taken a piece of styrofoam from one of her presents and scratched it. I was just amazed that it happened in a matter of SECONDS. Anyhow. It was a fun day.

Arches 2010

Grandma is nifty! Or a word that RHYMES with it.... or BOTH! Whatever the case may be, we celebrated Grandma Edie's birthday with a family trip to Moab. We had a blast! We missed Aunt Kelli and I don't really have any pictures of Aunt Rachel (or at least not ones she'd be okay with me posting on a public blog) but other than that, things were just about perfect! Lenny and Matt had to leave Saturday morning but the rest of us stayed an extra night and got in a little extra play time. We packed kids through the fiery furnace, strolled Main Street, rolled around in the sand, had a long jump competition, and swam in the pool. Good times.

And I need to make an apology to Elder Uncle Phill. I promised him I would update the blog about a month ago so he could see pics from the trip and I hadn't done it yet. So here it finally is!

P.S. I give up on trying to adjust the order of photos on Blogger. It's kicking my butt and I'd rather be watching Ugly Betty. So mentally put them in an order that works for you...

Hardware Ranch

Monday for Family Home Evening we went to Hardware Ranch. It's an elk reserve/preserve/refuge, of sorts, located in/by Hyrum, Utah (South and East of Logan). We got there and got the girls all bundled up and then took a "sleigh" ride through the unnaturally large elk herd. It was fun. And cold. The girls enjoyed it. Leah didn't want to wear her gloves because she wanted to have her camera out and be taking pictures so her little fingers got VERY cold. We did our best with her. Abby passed the time talking about and pretending to be various pokemon and then decided that she wanted nothing more than to lick my tongue. Yeah. I know. It's gross. But it kept her happy and I was pretty good at avoiding her crazy long tongue. So here are pictures from our outing. Pretty self-explanatory. Hardware Ranch. Elk. Cold. Kids. Long tongues.

The End.