M&M's

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sydney got her Aerial!

2011-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Sydney has been practicing so hard for the past two months. Every night she practices in our backyard--after dinner and homework is finished. Finally on Friday night, in acro class, she was able to do her aerial twice. The next day, I had her go to a gymnastics coach so he could help her with the correct form. Mark took this video after she had already practiced for almost a half hour with the coach so she was pretty tired. We are so excited for her!!! She did a few aerials in our living room today, which kind of scares me. I'm still a little nervous about how she flings herself up in the air.

Hawaii

2011-09-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Mark and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Hawaii this year! It was the best place I have been so far! We stayed in Waikiki on Oahu. Waikiki beach was about a block away from the hotel.

Of course since we are Poulsen's we had to stop at Costco to load up on supplies like beach towels and giant cream puffs and Doritos (for Mark). I fell in love with the gelato in the sugar waffle cones for only $1.50. Seriously they were so yummy. We stopped back a few times during the week just so we could have a gelato cone. I am so sad that none of the Costco's in AZ seem to carry the gelato on the food court menu.

This was Kailua beach. It was amazing to see beaches that look picture postcard perfect. Our favorite beach was Lanikai which was actually about 1/2 mile from Kailua. The sand (at Lanikai beach) was white, super soft and the beach was that perfect turquoise blue. It was gorgeous.

Mark and I went to see Pearl Harbor one of the days. While we were there, we also visited the U.S.S. Arizona (battleship) and toured a submarine. The submarine was so tight that it made the battleship seem large and roomy--even though it wasn't in the least bit.

We did a little surfing on Waikiki beach along with hundreds of other tourists.

One of our favorite places we visited was the Polynesian Cultural Center on the other side of the island. We tried the fresh poi and it really wasn't too bad! We both loved the buffet in the evening and the night show "Ha Breath of Life".

Other fun things we did while we were there was tons of snorkeling...no pictures because we were always in the water. Seriously, we snorkeled almost every day and at almost all the beaches we went to. One afternoon we hiked to Manoa Falls which was kind of inland a bit--in a jungle. I can't forget my favorite place we ate at was Haleiwa Joe's Seafood Grill. The other wonderful thing about Oahu was the weather. It was nice to breathe fresh air and walk around outside without the heat from Phoenix. I definitely think we will have to take the kids back during the summer.

Sydney Baptism 2011

2011-05-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Tooth Fairy!

2011-02-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

As usual I am catching up on things I wanted to post on my blog. Here is the story about these two tiny teeth pictured below. When Sydney started Kindergarten...a few years ago...many of her friends started to lose a tooth or two. She waited so patiently for one of her own teeth to fall out and was very excited for the expected visit of the tooth fairy. However, Kindergarten passed by and none of her teeth fell out. I was sure that at least one would fall out during her first grade year. Again, first grade came and went and she still had not lost any teeth. She was very sad about all the stories she heard from friends at school and cousins who were losing teeth and having a visit from the busy tooth fairy. I hauled her to the dentist at the beginning of last year to figure out what was going on and the dentist assured me that she would probably lose a tooth last summer. Summer came and went, again no teeth fell out...not even a tiny loose tooth appeared. Imagine my surprise one September day when I peered in Sydney's mouth and there was not one but two tiny permanent teeth poking through, behind her baby teeth. I was horrified. My daughter is not a shark and doesn't need double sets of teeth. I took Sydney back to the dentist and he again reassured me that her baby teeth would loosen up in no time and fall out. By Christmas, the two permanent teeth had come completely in (behind her baby teeth) and although we worked on loosening up her baby teeth and she worked on wiggling them, they refused to budge. So during Christmas break the dentist pulled out both of Sydney's teeth. I guess she doesn't have any cute teeth gap pictures because her permanent teeth moved forward into the space within a few days! This was a picture of her tiny baby teeth the dentist pulled. She is half way through second grade and has finally officially had her first tooth fairy visit!
I felt kind of bad that Sydney had to wait so long for the tooth fairy to come. She practically does not believe in the fairy any more. Plus it was a bit dramatic having to get her teeth pulled instead of just losing them like other kids. So...the tooth fairy wrote her a special letter...

slipped into a special envelope...and paid quite nicely (I think)...for the tiny baby teeth left behind!

This was a puzzle my family started around New Years when they came to visit. I finished it a few days later. All 2000 pieces we carefully fitted together. I love puzzles so if you come to stay at our house...there are plenty of puzzles to do--in the drawers of the guest room night stand!

I picked Sophie up from preschool one day and was horrified to find a screw in the sidewall of my tire. We made it safely to Discount tire. The guy informed me that I couldn't drive anywhere on the tire and that the replacement tire wouldn't be in until the next day. So I called Mark from work to come get me. He rearranged his schedule, came all the way to the tire store to pick me up...and then the guy told him that actually they could put the spare tire on so I could have driven home. Yup, I was slightly annoyed.

Nutcracker 2010

2011-01-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

In December, Sydney participated in 6 Christmas shows for dance plus an additional performance of the Nutcracker a few days before Christmas. Sydney had a blast and I was exhausted after the unglamourous job of the behind the scenes mama! I am very good at make-up and hair...specifically sleek buns after all those shows. Oh, and I can do hot rollers in her hair in less than 10 minutes. The Nutcracker was a pretty cool experience for Sydney. She was a Snowflake (and performed during the Snow Fairies' scene) in the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker in Phoenix. We arrived at the huge theater downtown several hours before the performance and went in the stage entrance. The security guards waved us on by and down the stairs we went to do hair and costumes, pictures and rehearsal.
Most of the dancers spoke only Russian but a few spoke a little bit of English, at least enough to communicate about the ballet performance. During the dress rehearsal, a few of the moms snuck in to the front row seats to watch. It was pretty cool to see all the dancers up close, especially since our seats were pretty far up in the balcony. Here's Sydney right before the show was about to start. I left her backstage and went to find my seat. I was so nervous for her once I realized how huge the audience was. There is this part in the middle of the Snow Fairies' scene where the Snowflakes went to the front of the stage (close to the audience) and I didn't want Sydney to get stage fright.

Although, this isn't a picture of Sydney's specific group, this is just the one part where the snowflakes are out on the edge of the stage. I couldn't have taken pictures even if I wanted to because our seats were too far up. It was a beautiful performance and Sydney did a great job. There was no need for me to worry.

At the curtain call, Herr Drosselmeyer lead Sydney (she was holding onto the rest of the Snowflakes) out on stage. She thought that was pretty cool. Sophie loved the whole ballet from start to finish. I can't even begin to count the number of times we have listend to the Nutcracker soundtrack since October. Ha, we are still listening to it at least once a week, although I hope the CD goes into hiding soon. There is only so much Nutcracker I can tolerate. Sydney loves to dance and especially loves ballet. I have to admit it was so amazing to see my little girl on the big stage with all the beautiful ballerinas!

Before I wish everyone a Merry Christmas...

2010-12-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind...but I wanted to post the girls in their cute Halloween costumes. We had lots of fun trick-or-treating with cousins in the nice warm weather. Sophie was a witch (Sydney's old costume).
Sydney wanted to be Princess Leia...mostly because I dressed up as Princess Leia a few years ago for a Halloween party. We watched Star Wars with her so she would have a basic idea of how cool Princess Leia is. The funniest thing we discovered was that both of our girls love playing with the laser gun. (hmmm...I'm thinking we need to acquire more of these types of toys) They will run around the house chasing each other and taking turns with who has the gun and shooting at each other.

Girls Soccer

2010-10-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

I signed both girls up for soccer this year, despite the fact that they are both dancing already, I'm in school, and there are way too many things scheduled on our calendar. Both Sydney and Sophie are having fun playing though. Sydney has gotten so much better from previous years. She is really fast and has suprisingly good footwork (maybe somehow from footwork in dance?), even though I really haven't had time to teach her many basic soccer moves. She is good at turning the ball around and has excellent field sense! Her coach commented on how even though she is little, she usually wins the ball when she goes up against the bigger girls! (I'm so proud of her!)
Miss Sophie has also decided she likes soccer. She plays for about a half hour after a short practice. Her team is coed since she is still little, and she is often the only girl willing to play during the game part. It is still pretty hot out, and we are hoping that next weeks games are much cooler.

Here they are on Saturday morning, before we rush off to their games.

Sophie's Nosie Rosie

2010-09-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to forget a few things that have happened with Sophie that really made/makes us laugh. She is so funny sometimes. A few weeks ago Sophie stuck two perler beads up one of her nostrils. I'm not sure why, but I suppose most kids do stuff like this at some point or another. It took me awhile to figure it out because she kept saying, "Mama, my nosie rosie". That's what we call noses around here. I gave her a tissue but she still seemed quite concerned. Finally I went to fetch the booger picker, sucker thing and was a little horrified to see a tiny perler bead up in her nose. I was able to extract one of them with a toothpick, but after inspecting her nostril with a flashlight, we realized there was still another one way up in her nasal passageway. So off to the urgent care we went to fish out the last little bead. I think we had only been home a few hours and I caught her putting a lite-brite into her nostril. Thankfully, though, we have had no more stuff in the nose incidents!

The other funny, cute thing she says or rather asks almost every night (when we are saying prayers with her) is "Daddy, are you going to have a sleepover with Mama?" Sometimes we let Sophie and Sydney have sleepovers with each other and they love getting to sleep in each other's rooms and sometimes Sophie will just sleep in Sydney's bed with her. So I guess Sophie has observed that Mark and I apparently have "sleepovers" and she is always asking us if we are having one that night! Ha, we still laugh every time she asks us this.

Beach 2010

2010-08-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

Summer was a little too short for me. Since I had my class all of the month of June, I didn't really get to start having fun with the girls until July...and then everything went by so fast. We went to Tempe Beach park for fireworks on the 4th of July. We had the best spot. We were on the north side of the lake directly across from the paid venue part. These were definitely the best fireworks I have seen in AZ! At the end of July, we took a quick trip to visit my Grandparents and play at the beach. It was heavenly. The temperature was in the 70's during the day and even cooler at night. We slept with our windows open and wore jackets and shivered! We brought the girls bikes so they could ride all over around my Grandparents house, and Sydney had so much fun exploring. This year we decided to spend some time hunting for tide pools so a few of the beaches we went to were new to all of us. This is from one of our favorite spots in Carlsbad. Sydney and Sophie had so much fun jumping in the waves. We borrowed a boogie board from my Grandpa and Grandma and played on that too. The day we were at the beach in Carlsbad, the waves were pretty rough but we all had fun playing in the water. Oh, and of course we went to Harbor Fish Cafe to stuff ourselves with fish and chips!
As I mentioned earlier, our specific mission was to find some tide pools for Sydney. She loves all things ocean and beach! We drove down to Cabrillo State Park and hiked down to some smaller tide pools. Then we went back up to the top to see the light house and look out over the San Diego harbor. It was beautiful, dotted with hundred of sailboats. The other beach we went to (when the tide was out) was Swami's beach. It is mostly a surfer beach, I think. We had to hike down a million stairs to get to it and then we walked through some shallow water to these rocks that had some pretty good tide pools.

Sydney turned seven this summer and I took a few pictures (quickly because it was sticky hot that week)! I know I am always posting pictures of Sydney and Sophie :)

She just filled out this sheet about herself at school...so I'll share some of her 7 year old thoughts about herself! Her favorite color is blue. Something that makes her very happy is dancing. Her favorite candy bar is chocolate. (I guess that means anything with chocolate in it) Her favorite subjects in school are math, science, and reading! (We're hoping she continues with this attitude!) If she could live anywhere in the world it would be California. If she could be an animal for a day, she would be a cat. Her favorite show is Phineas and Ferb. She still wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up. (hmmm, wonder when she'll grow out of that stage :) Her favorite book is Ivy and Bean. Her favorite junk food is ice-cream. And the cutest one...the sentence was I like...and Sydney wrote my little sister. Ahhhh, so cute!

Don't you think she is growing up way too fast!

June Fun

2010-07-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

The month of June was full of lots of fun activities! One of my friends does short summer sessions of preschool and Sophie attended a few sessions. She was so excited to get a backpack and go to "my preschool". Her backpack is pretty much as big as she is!

Sydney finished off her year of dance with two shows at the Chandler Center for the Arts. She did acro and ballet this past year. Her shows were exciting, exhausting, and a fun way to end this past year of dance. We love her new dance school, Tempe Dance Academy.

My parents got me a table saw for my birthday (don't worry, that is exactly what I wanted) and I built this book shelf/night stand using some plans from Knock-offWood. Then I finished and distressed it. It turned out great, so I modified the design a bit and made a similar one for Sydney to use as a nightstand and much needed bookshelf (for her growing piles of books). I had so much fun making these and I have a long list of "projects" I am wanting to do! I'm sure I'll post pictures as I finish things (in my bit of spare time before school starts).

This was the nightstand I built for Sydney's room.

May Madness

2010-05-28T13:04:00.001-07:00

The month of May is usually crazy for many reasons...school is almost done, anniversaries, and birthdays! Sydney had her school music program that Sophie and I were able to attend. It was cute and I tried to video tape it while feeding Sophie fish and helping Sophie sit quietly. The video didn't turn out that great...thanks to a kid sitting next to me that kept rocking our bench. Oh well.
Then we had our anniversary...but Mark had class and I was probably busy with something so we didn't celebrate this year. Next came my 30th birthday. It didn't take me too long to figure out that my sister-in-law Melissa decorated our front lawn the night before. We were all excited by the fun signs and confetti all over the front porch in the morning. Sydney apparently loved all the signs because she collected them out of the lawn that evening and has them stored in her desk. Maybe she is hoping to use them when her friends turn 30???

Again, we have been so busy so we were unable to celebrate my 30th birthday. But I did love the fun decorations!

Next comes the end of school...no pictures of that...but it is always a bit crazy with end of the year things like teachers luncheons (I volunteered to bring food for both days), yearbook signing parties and just general last minute things to figure out during teacher appreciation week! Last but not least, Sophie turned three.

I decided that she needed to have a celebration, no matter how busy we were. We had a small party for her during the day with some of her cousins. It was Princess and the Frog themed. Mark blew up 20 green balloons and 20 purple balloons while I baked home-made chocolate cupcakes the night before and wrapped presents.

While all this madness has been going on, I managed to refinish a desk I bought off Craigslist a few months ago. I sanded down the entire desk, painted several coats of white paint, distressed the edges and put several coats of polycrylic on. I also found some new hardware that was perfect for it and a cute hot pink chair from IKEA. It goes perfectly with her PB surfer girl bedding. I love that she can put aways all her crafts and "things" that she wants to save. The rule is...if it doesn't fit inside her desk than she either has to get rid of something or decide whether she really wants to keep it-whatever it is! You would not believe the amount of stuff one small girl can accumulate.

I hope she loves it. I know I do...and it was a fraction of the price I would have paid to buy a real wood desk from a furniture store. I spent many hours working on this project.

So that's a few high lights of our month. I am going to take a blogger, FB, and a general break from all my normal duties to focus on a month long anatomy class (the first half of anatomy) I am taking in June. It is accelerated, but I had anatomy years ago at BYU so hopefully some of my previous knowledge will come back quickly. Science courses at ASU are only valid for 7 years so I have to redo this course...I can't believe it has been more than 7 years since I took anatomy. Anyway, I will be immersed in cell biology, bone structure, muscles, the nervous system, and the integumentary system for the month of June. Sounds fun :)

Graduation

2010-05-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

Mark graduated last weekend from ASU with his MBA! We are so proud of him and all the hard work he put in to achieve this goal. I can't believe this chapter of our lives has finally come to an end. It is a little weird to have him come home after work and actually help out with little things like dishes, dinner, or playing with the girls.

His graduation was held at Wells Fargo Arena and was attended by about 4,000 people. Mark's parents came down from St. George and most of his siblings as well as a few nieces and nephews came to watch him graduate. My Grandparents also drove over from California to attend. A bagpipe band preceded the graduates playing the traditional commencement music. It was pretty cool because there were so many people and it was in the arena. Sophie keeps asking if we can go to graduation and see the "drums". I guess she really liked this first part. The rest of graduation she spent watching Princess and the Frog on Mark's Ipod and climbing all over everyone. Overall she was very well behaved though.

Then the band lined up at the front while the professors and faculty of the W.P. Carey school of business filed in and took their places.

Then came all the graduates. His commencement ceremony was just Masters graduates of the W.P. Carey school of business, with the bulk of the graduates getting MBA's.

Here's Mark walking across the stage. His name and picture were also on the big screens above (just like at basketball games)! We all cheered for him.

After graduation was over, we had a party for him at our house with the remaining family members. My grandparents had to return to California immediately following the ceremony--so we missed them. I decorated our great room and kitchen area in the ASU colors and we had a fun party with lots of yummy food to celebrate.

Don't worry...even though he is an official graduate from ASU we still are BYU fans at heart. We will always bleed blue!

Changing up our Blog

2010-05-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging for awhile...so I thought maybe my blog needed a change to recapture my interest! Plus working on my blog is a much needed distraction from my long, long, long "To-Do List".

Flexibility

2010-04-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sydney has worked so hard in acro this year. She can almost do a kick-over and is working on front limbers. She can go down all the way into side splits on her "good side". I wish I was still flexible like her :)

Here are some other shots of her head stands we took a few months ago.

Visit to Santa

2009-12-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to visit Santa at the mall. It was nice because there was no wait and it wasn't very cold out so we didn't freeze while we were there. Sydney assured me he was the real deal because his beard was real. He was a very nice Santa. Sophie went right up to chat...and when he asked Sydney what she would like for Christmas...she very politely asked for a kitty. Thank goodness Santa has a speech ready about his "live animals policy". Oh well, nice try on her part.

Today I snuck into Sophie's room to make sure she was on her way to falling asleep for a much needed nap. She had on one purple dress-up glove and just one fancy dress-up shoe and she was holding her wand. I suppose these are very important items for falling asleep.

Ragnar Relay Las Vegas 2009

2009-11-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

Just over a month ago, I completed my first Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas. It was an experience I will never forget. Words cannot express how much fun, that's right FUN I had running in this race. This may be a bit of a long post, because I want to write down lots of the details. I began this adventure with the usual impulsive me agreeing to be on my friend Robyn's Ragnar team that she was putting together. This was back in July and I started training to run more than the usual 2-3 miles I sometimes attempt at the gym :) Before I knew it the day had arrived to leave to drive to Las Vegas (by myself)...NO KIDS or Mark (he generously took time off work to stay home with the girls and adjusted his schedule so I could go do this). I was a little nervous and excited about being gone for a whole weekend without the kids...unfortunately, I have never left my kids since they were born so that is over six years that I have always had the girls or at least one of them around. I made it up to Vegas in record time, I am truly amazed how pleasant road trips are without children :) Then I stopped to pick up my friend Aubrey and we headed to Mesquite to stay the night. It was much closer to the start. We had been asleep for about 45 minutes when the rest of our van arrived and knocked on our door. Being economical as we all are, we squished our team into one hotel room...and unfortanetly all the guys had to sleep on the floor. The next morning we all got up bright and early and headed to the Clark County Fairgrounds (about a half hour south of Mesquite) where the official start of the race was. First our team checked in and decorated the car. Our team name was the Leap Frogs and we ended up using my Santa Fe as one of our "vans".

I think it is pretty amazing that we managed to fit no less than 7 people, all our gear, sleeping bags, two huge cases of water from Costco, and all our food including a big cooler into this car! Yeah, it was a little squished but that just made it all the more fun...although, most of the time there were only six of us actually in the car (since someone was out running their leg of the race). I love my Santa Fe! Here's Van 1 (that was my van) and our half of the team before the race started. On my team...me, Robyn, Aubrey, Anne, Michael, Joe, and Brian! We had the best group :)

This was the start of the race. There were so many people dressed up in fun costumes milling around and some of the vans were seriously tripped out. It was super fun to feel the excitment in the air.

Aubrey started the race for our team so she wasn't in this picture. We still look pretty fresh because none of us had actually run anything yet.

Our first legs of the race routed us through the Valley of the Fire State Park. My first leg was mostly up this huge hill. It was not too bad and I was so glad it was my first leg. Mostly it was just a little on the hot side because there was no shade whatsoever, and well, it was all uphill!

After our van finished up our first legs, we drove to Lake Mead to hang out at the Marina most of the day. We tried to sleep but it was a little difficult since the day started to warm up and there was lots going on. As night approached we started to get a little goofy...all the more fun and ended up playing some hilarious games of 20 questions. All I can say is no sleep, running, and people you are completely comfortable with equals lots of laughing!

So after these first few pictures, my camera must have disappeared deep into my bag. I wish I had cool pictures from the rest of the race...so you'll just have to picture it. We started our second legs of the race about 8:30ish at night and we were so excited to get going again by that point. I felt bad that the other van's legs were pretty tough and it had been a hot day. At night we ran with a reflective vest, a little red blinking tail light and a head lamp. Besides the whole running at night experience, many of the vans had appropriatetly tripped out their decor with Christmas lights so they were all lit up during the night. I loved all the cheering and screamming and music from my own van as well as others. It was fun to stop and cheer your teammates every few miles and yell and scream as we drove past them. This is something we did from the very beginning of the race, but of course as the night wore on, we just got sillier, and then finnally a bit sleepy and oh so tired. I loved running into the "chute" on my night leg because it was just fun to see everyone there and hear all the noise. After our team finished up our night legs (this is a non-stop race so the next van continues running), we drove to the next big exchange point and rolled out sleeping bags to sleep in the grass in some park. It was FREEZING, at least it was for me. I am a Phoenix girl and I don't do outside weather under 70 degrees very well. However, we did manage to catch three hours of sleep before Aubrey started our half of the team off on the last of our legs...all at around 4:30 in the morning. Yup, cold, tired, a smidge cranky, hungry, did I mention cold, me and everyone else squished back in the van to finish off our last legs. The last leg ended up being the most difficult for me because I had the worst tummy ache (that's what I get for being cooped up in a vehicle for several days and not eating food I normally eat) and I was super tired. However, I managed to run the entire thing, even though it was a little slower than I would have liked. After our last runner had finished we ate at McDonalds of all places...you would not believe the junk food that was consumed despite being runners :) Then we had to drive all the way back to the Clark County Fairgrounds to pick up one of the cars from some of my teammates and then we drove to the Red Rock Casino/Hotel for the big finish. Here is most of us at the finish line including the other team members that were in Van 2. Ok, I'm a little biased on this one, but seriously I think I had the best van! We had way too much fun and I laughed so much with all of you! I think the people I was with is what made this race so incredible.

So if staying up all night running and running and running wasn't enough...Robyn and Joe and I decided to go to the BYU/UNLV football game that night, and none of us even took a nap. Ha, we were SO TIRED so I think we look beautiful in these pictures considering we had been up for over 35+ hours and only three hours of sleep in the field. It was a fun game though as BYU fans always come out to support the team! There were so many BYU fans...in fact there probably were more BYU fans than UNLV fans.

We had sweet seats!

I will look back on this memory for a long time! It was one of the best things I have ever participated in and I can't wait for the opportunity to do one of these again. I am thankful for the safety and protection our team had during this race. It was a happy experience for me...but I was sad that one runner was killed during this race by a drunk driver. And so I couldn't end this post without remembering this runner and his team and those teams that were involved in this horrible tragedy.

Happy Halloween 2009!

2009-11-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

This year my girls decided to be Disney fairies for Halloween. Sophie already loved Tinkerbell so we dressed her up as that. Sydney's favorite Disney fairy is Rosetta (a garden fairy).

Of course we tried to get Sophie to look at the camera but no such luck. She was "flitting" around all over the front lawn...probably because she was so excited to go "trick-or-treating".

Sydney's fairy slippers had pretty red flowers sewn onto them and a matching flower clip for her hair.

This year we rounded up most of the cousins to trick-or-treat with us. Our neighborhood really got into the spirit of Halloween and there were some fun spooky houses to visit.

Sydney's Birthday Party

2009-09-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Sydney turned 6 in July! She hasn't had a "birthday party" for a few years so I agreed that this year she could have one, and she decided on a Disney Fairies theme. Now unfortunately, her birthday happened to fall about two weeks before we were moving and so several times I tried to bribe her with something else so that I could just cancel the party thing. However, she insisted and I felt bad that our move was going to get in the way of her 6th birthday, so I let her have one anyway. Actually, it didn't end up being too much work and the party itself was lots of fun! The girls all got to plant mini-gardens. Seeds, dirt, a little water, and their own planters, they LOVED this! Then they decorated wands with lots of glitter and rhinestones.
I bought a Costco cake and then put a few fairies on top to make it a bit more Disney fairyish.

I also threw down a blanket in the living room so they could all eat pizza and Capri Suns while they watched Tinkerbell!

And last but not least, I made each girl a "tinkerbell" tutu. It was so cute to see all the girls running around (including Sophie) in their tutus and waving their wands.

Sydney had fun with her friends and enjoyed all the presents this year!

Moving On

2009-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

In May of 2006, Mark and I received the keys to our first home. I remember having so many mixed emotions about moving to Tolleson. Sydney was so little and we were thrilled to have a house for her finally. We celebrated her third birthday the first summer we were there. Mark made the big decision shortly after we moved in to return to school and pursue and MBA degree. We added cute little Sophie to our family in May of 2007. We worked so hard on this house to make it beautiful and make it our home. I have so many happy memories of our Tolleson house and it still a little difficult for me to write this all down.

However, I would not want to forget those little things that made this house so special.

(ok, this is as far as I got the first time I started writing this and then it was just making me cry so I put this post away for a few weeks...and now I'm going to attempt to tackle it again)

I was originally going to write down some of the happy memories in this house...but I think in the interest of trying to finish this post I will skip over the details. In general, we had many happy Christmas's, birthdays, lots of dancing, lots of good food, and a lot of laughter and love in our Tolleson place. I'd like to think that the new owners will walk in and feel the laughter in the walls!

We finally made the decision earlier this year that it was time for us to leave and move on with our lives. On a side note...long before we ever had started discussing the possibility of moving, I had a strong impression one evening that "our time here was finished". I remember I was driving on 99th Ave. (with the girls) and those exact words came into my mind. I thought it was kind of weird, probably because it was right around the time I had just finished doing the paint and chair rail in Sydney's room. In fact I think I thought that it was a ridiculous thought because we were probably going to end up staying in this house for many, many more years than we had ever intended. Later when we made the decision to leave, and I was scared, I thought back to this impression I had months earlier and I knew we were making the right decision.

It was understandably a very stressful summer. Not even a trip to the beach in May could take some of the edge off things. In fact, while we were at the beach, we had several offers come in and reality sank in that we were really going to be leaving. Looking back on everything that happened I realize that we have been blessed and ended up exactly where we were supposed to be. Moving is always a bit crazy. This is our 6th move and 11th ward we have been in. So I think we are pretty good at the whole moving and adjusting to change thing!

Even though we were sad to leave behind all the memories in our old home....we LOVE our new place. We LOVE our new house, we LOVE our new area, we LOVE Sydney's new school, and we LOVE our new ward! I can't believe how happy the changes have made us. The first few weeks I kept thinking that maybe something was going to happen and it was all going to disappear. But I know we have been blessed and guided to the next place (hopefully last place) we are supposed to live. It has been so nice to have family close by and have a great ward that also happens to be many of our neighbors. I am loving that (even though I always thought I wouldn't like living so close to everyone). However, it is nice to go outside in the front yard, or over to the pool (yup, we ended up with 2 community pools and one is right around the corner from our house) and see people from our ward and they have all been so nice and friendly. So I guess I could have titled this post "Moving On" or "Falling in Love". I have fallen in love with Gilbert and our new place!

I realize there are still no pictures of the new place. I will definitely have to post some of those up, as well as first day of school, and about a million other things that have been going on :)

PFG Pictures for Grandmas

2009-07-15T08:58:00.001-07:00

This post is mostly for me and of course all the Grandmas that my kids have :) I just love cute pictures of my kids. Sophie loves all her babies and I caught this on camera one morning. She's giving her baby a hug and kiss!
I don't want to forget how many times we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to Sophie either. She is mostly past this stage but for about a month, we read this book at least 5 times a day to her. After each page with the fruit she would say "hungreeee"...I love books and mostly buy hardcover books for the kids. Unfortunately, Sophie loved this book a little too much and broke the binding. Oh well, hopefully she will spend lots of time with other books.

These last two pictures are of Sophie the first day I pulled her hair back into tiny pigtails. And when I went to take her picture, she actually stopped to give the camera half a smile. That is progress for her.

I couldn't pick which picture I liked best! So both of them made the final cut.

So PFG!

San Diego

2009-07-08T08:39:00.001-07:00

We went to our favorite city at the end of May. It was a little cold and it rained part of the time but we still had fun. We love San Diego and of course the beaches. We took the girls to Sea World for two days. This year if you buy a ticket to Sea World, you can upgrade to the season pass for free. (So I guess you can basically buy a season pass for the price of a ticket.) Anyway, one day after we headed back to the car, we found a sea gull perched on top of our car.
Even though it was a bit chilly, we still went to Del Mar, Carlsbad, and Encinitas beaches. If the weather would have been nicer I'm sure we would have hit a few others. Sydney had fun collecting more shells and hunting for sand dollars of course.

We usually end up walking about a 1/4 mile down the beach with the kids. Since the weather wasn't perfect, there wasn't very many people around which was kind of nice.

2009 Dance Production

2009-06-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

We spent most of last week working on the final days of Sydney's dance production. This years show was "New York, New York". Sydney participated in two shows this year, one on Friday night and another on Saturday afternoon. She also had dress rehearsals all day on Thursday. We are so proud of her accomplishments and hard work this year. She has practiced so hard for both her dance and acro parts of the production. I took all of the pictures on dress rehearsal day because the show days were so CRAZY. We had very strict time schedules we had to adhere to on those days plus we were not allowed to take any pictures during actual shows. I got out my old hot rollers (from high-school) to do Sydney's hair. She was so good...she had to have her hair done for three days in a row! I told her it is hard work to be a princess :)

Pretty hair...half up, half down.
She also had to wear make-up for three days in a row. I think I deserve an award just for putting eye-liner on a 6 year old. She didn't love that part so much. But she had fun getting ready for the rest of it.

Her first dance in the first show was "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend". This was her tap number and it was super cute. I took pictures during dress rehearsals but I wasn't close enough to the stage so they didn't turn out. For the night of the show...I took my turn being a "room mom"...which consisted of watching 10 six year-olds in the dressing rooms and backstage. The show was 2 1/2 hours long and the girls were checked in an hour before the performance so I was very tired by the end of the night. However, it was so fun to be in the wings on stage (behind one of the curtains) and watch Sydney dance up close.

Her next performance was "The Boy from New York City". This was her acro dance. I am amazed at how much she has progressed this year in acro. She is very close to doing full splits (both ways) and can do all sorts of other flexible things. Here's a picture of her warming up with a "sugar bowl". She can touch all the way to her eye-brow now but I didn't want her to ruin her hair for the pictures.

There are only a few girls that can do headstands unassisted at this point and hold them for at least a minute. Sydney has worked so hard on these and she was front and center during part of her acro performance.

Here she is doing another part...the "sugar bowls".

After her Saturday performance, we brought her roses and took her for a milkshake at JITB! We are so proud of her hard work. She didn't even get nervous performing for all those people and being up on stage under the bright lights.

I couldn't end this without a big thank you to her wonderful dance school...Take Five Dance...and her amazing teacher Ms. Pam and Courtney (she helps out with some of the classes). Sydney has been at Take Five since she was three (although we took one year off when Sophie was born). This year, she did dance and acro for two hours every Monday night so we have spent lots of time at Take Five. We will miss this wonderful school and all the staff and all our dance friends. I am already worrying about finding another school and teachers as great as this school.

Sophie's Two!

2009-06-09T11:51:00.001-07:00

I'm a little behind with posting. Sophie turned two at the end of May. We celebrated her birthday with a little party at our house with just our family. She didn't seem to mind. We had lots of balloons which was probably one of her favorite things and then I made angel food cake. My kids have never been big cake fans but they love angel food cake. (with strawberries and whipped cream!)

At her two year check-up, she weighed in at 22 lbs. and is in the 75th percentile for height. She loves when we read the Very Hungry Caterpillar and playing with her baby dolls. She also loves blocks and legos. Her latest favorite movie is Tinkerbell. Her favorite CD is ABBA (I have listened to this CD for at least 3-4 months straight) and asks for ABBA whenever we are in the car. I love ABBA too, BUT it would be nice to listen to a variety of music once in awhile :) Sophie's favorite foods are berries, Corn Pops, pinto beans (she eats these by the can...no joke), and cheese. She loves to play with Sydney and trys to copy everything she does. This includes trying to pretend swim like Sydney at the pool...which causes me much anxiety since it involves her going underwater way too much. I usually have to pull her out after awhile so she doesn't swallow the whole pool.

When Sophie gets mad about something she screams "BAH!" really loud and mostly we just try not to laugh (which usually makes her even madder). She is still very reserved and is not as friendly unless you are around her all the time. She doesn't smile very much except when Sydney is around...Sydney can get her giggling. Sophie loves to repeat the names of all her cousins...I personally love how she says Ruby. "Wooby" Sophie is talking lots now and knows so many phrases. Last but not least, she is very stubborn and would rather make all decisions in this family :) Maybe it's a 2 thing...maybe it's just her!

Kindergarten Graduation

2009-06-06T19:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe Sydney is done with Kindergarten. It went by so fast. She has grown up so much this year. This is her first day of school picture...
And here's Sydney on the last day of school getting ready to participate in their little graduation ceremony! (Sohpie squished herself onto Sydney's chair because she always wants to do whatever Sydney is doing.)

I'm a little sad that Kindergarten is all done. She had such a great year at her school. She also had a wonderful teacher. We will always be grateful for the opportunity Sydney had to attend this school!

Here's Sydney shaking Mr. Wray's (her teacher) hand and receiving her diploma! After graduation, we took a few more pictures and then we were ALL DONE! No more driving to and from school for a whole two months :)

Summer is here!

2009-05-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

It's hot here now! My air conditioning is running frequently and we keep all the windows and doors shut now. But I still love summer. I love going to the pool and eating watermellon and peaches and going to the beach! Don't slip-n-slides just remind you of being a kid. I was too tired to haul my kids to the gym to go swimming one night, so I just bought them a little slip-n-slide from Target and they had so much fun on this all evening.
Another year must have gone by because...I am once again being summoned for jury duty. We have lived in Phoenix for five years now and for some reason, I get one of these in the mail every year. Note: Mark has never received even one summons. One year I almost had to go in, I called the day before and they said my group had to go but I was supposed to call again the morning of in case things got switched...and it ended up being cancelled. I wonder how long my luck will hold out :)

I can't believe Sophie is almost two...I love that she can still fit in a two gallon milk box (from Costco)! I was making lunch for her and turned around and there she was, sitting in this box.

I am looking forward to Mark being around more this summer. He takes his last final tonight and then he will have summer break!!!! I could not add enough exclamation points to express my joy :) He does have one elective class he has to take but it will only be two Fridays and Saturdays in June...so not too big a deal. I am so proud of how hard Mark works in school and of course in his normal job to provide for our little family. I don't know how he does it. Thankfully, this school year flew by. (sorry I am always posting little reminders about this, but I really do count the days for when this whole thing will be done...you can't blame me, huh :)

Easter Dresses

2009-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Since my last post was so long...here's a nice short post! I suppose these are a bit late, but here are the obligatory Easter dress pictures. This photo session lasted only a few minutes. Sophie and Sydney were much more interested in hunting for the neighbors kitty than taking pictures. Can't say I blame them.

This year I found their cute stuff at this store, Naartjie. Apparently, a naartjie is a small citrus fruit from Africa (at least that is what it said on the bag), and also the name of a kids boutique store. Anyway, I thought they had super cute clothes and it will definitely go on my list of favorite stores for my little girls!

My Favorite Things

2009-04-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

I've seen a few posts like this on friends blogs and they are so fun...so I decided to copy and do my own...My own personal favorite things that make my life so much easier! Plus Mark is in marketing this semester and I admit I find it a teeny bit interesting how marketing affects my life. My first thing is my favorite brand of jeans. I love these jeans. I own several pairs and as long as they continue to sell them, I have no reason to ever try anything else. (I am not a huge fan of shopping for jeans, obviously). So my favorite jeans are Silver Suki jeans. They don't gap in the back like other jeans do and they always fit perfectly in all the right places. Oh and they are a bit stretchy (in case you are eating at Cheesecake Factory or somewhere like that :)!

I love Tide liquid laundry detergent. I especially love the concentrated kind because then you don't have to store huge heavy containers of this stuff. Proctor and Gamble has been around a long time and they have perfected Tide to the point that I believe there are very few stains that could resist this stuff. Plus I love the way my laundry smells after going through the wash.

I am always cooking and trying out new techniques or kitchen tools! These are so useful (in my opinion)! Silicone spatulas with wooden handles can be used to cook or stir just about anything...and here's what I love about them. I can just leave them in the pot or pan on the oven I am using and they won't melt everywhere and the handles don't get hot! Plus they are also good for replacing just the plain old rubber spatulas you need to scrape the bowl. And they are definitely dishwasher safe (as in no more melted spatulas at the bottom of the dishwasher)!
I love cold cereal. Honestly, if I got stuck eating the same thing everyday for the rest of my life...I would probably be ok with cereal. And mostly the only kind of cereal I like is stuff that doesn't have much sugar in it (yes please, roll your eyes). I honestly think I was like this since I was a kid. I remember eating lots of wheaties and cheerios, and once in awhile honey-nut cheerios. My favorite cereal is Wheaties, with or without milk! I love them. I only wish they sold them in bulk at Costco or at least that they would go on sale once in awhile at one of the big grocery chains. Never mind, sometimes I just buy them as a treat for myself!

I generally find reasons to buy bags of these. I love Dove chocolates. My favorite are the milk chocolate with carmel filling...but to be fair to all the other Dove chocolate varieties, I have never had a Dove chocolate square I didn't like.

When I was about half-way through my pregnancy with Sophie, I discovered one day that every time I wore my contacts, my eyes would get very red and sting. In fact when I tried to put in a brand new pair of contacts, my eyes would hurt and sting so bad that I immedietly had to take them out. I went to the eye doctor and he informed me that I definitely could not wear contacts the rest of my pregnancy and perhaps never again. I was devastated. So I endured many months of glasses...and after Sophie was born I tried again to wear a brand new pair of my old contacts. They again hurt my eyes. So I went back to the eye doctor. He told me that there wasn't a whole lot he could do and that I would have to consider lasik eye surgery or just wear glasses. So then I went to a different eye doctor and he examined my eyes and introduced me to Focus Dailies. I am so grateful for these contacts. They are the best and will work for many more years until I decide to do lasik! Thank goodness, these are around otherwise I don't know how I would get by.

You can laugh at this one...but I am really attached to this calculator, a TI-86. You would be suprised by how much I use it for random stuff. I love math problems and figuring out stuff like that on this calculator. Of course this is a little dated but I learned how to use this calculator long ago in my calculus classes and it has been my best friend ever since. I love all the programs you can put on it (like the quadratic equation and the basic y=mx+b, and all the other equations I love...although, I suppose, I really have no use for them on a daily basis). Anyway, I have never found any reason to upgrade. Unfortunately, right now my calculator and I are on an extended break because I have allowed Mark to borrow it for school (that's how much I love him). However, I check on it once in awhile to make sure it is treated well! I am stuck using just a basic scientific calculator for now. So I have to go without graphing parabolas and hyperbolas!
I know you can't really go out and buy this at a store, but I have to admit one thing I love is fresh cut green grass...even if it sometimes makes me a bit sneezy. I love mowing the lawn and then opening all the windows to let the smell of fresh cut grass drift in. Then if I shut my eyes I can almost picture a beautiful soccer field just ready to run on and kick a ball accross. Here in Phoenix, my grass sometimes requires a lot of work though, so I guess it is a good thing I only have about 1000 square feet of it. During the summer, I deal with Bermuda grass (which is actually a type of weed from Africa). This is the only kind of grass that will stay green and alive during our hot summers. It is also persistent in growing itself underneath the curbing and sprouting up anywhere it can take root. This means that I am constantly pulling it up in the areas it is not supposed to be growing. During the winter I overseed with Rye grass and it takes awhile to come in green and thick. But once it gets growing, I have to mow it usually every 4-5 days! Good thing I like to mow lawn.

I suppose I could keep on going...but this is one of the longest posts I think I have ever done. I have been thinking of things I could add to it over the last several weeks. And really when I read back through it, I don't think this is a very interesting post, but since I already put it all together I'm going to throw it out there.

Blogging...Facebook...Twitter

2009-04-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was born in 1980! I know...I can't believe I'm posting my real age (although Sydney firmly believes I'm only 25, which sounds like a pretty good age to stay for a long time). However, I suppose most everyone knows me so they already know how old I am anyway. When I was in high school, emailing started to catch on. I think most people used it mostly for business. I vaguely remember our family having a juno account and sometimes we would send emails to people from it. Mostly I think I used the internet to download lots of music from Napster! Remember those days :) So skip ahead a few years to 2009. Everyone blogs, facebooks, and now twitters or tweets or whatever it's called.

I love my blog and that works great for me. It doesn't demand my attention everyday but I can still share some of the moments of my life while still maintaining my privacy. I recently signed up for a facebook account and I am trying to figure that whole thing out. Right now, I don't know if I'm really that into it. I guess I just don't know if I really want to/care about posting the minimal things I do. You know the little details of our lives that just pass by so quickly! The advantage to Facebook is that you can reconnect with lots of old friends easier. But other than checking out their pages maybe once in awhile to see what happened to them or where they ended up...I don't know if I would neccessarily spend any more time reconnecting.

And then there is Twitter. I am hearing all about this daily it seems on radio stations or the TV and just among friends. What, yet another networking site to have to keep up with??? I guess this shows my age. I love to be able to stay in touch better with my friends/family, BUT I am a little old school. I didn't grow up sharing all sorts of random details with my friends. So I guess I am just happy with the way things are! Although, perhaps I will change my mind in the future. I would love to hear what are your favorites (Blogs, Facebook, or Twitter) if you want to share :)

Sophie's "pretty"

2009-03-25T14:06:00.001-07:00

I recently found this cute dress-up tutu at Babies'R'Us in a size that ran small enough to fit around Sophie's tiny waste! Even though Sophie is more inclined to play with cars and blocks and other toys similar to that...she does love to copy Sydney and play dress-up! Sophie calls this skirt her "pretty". And she loves to just slip it on and pretty much toddle around in it all day long. She also trys to put on the fancy dress-up shoes (you know the ones with the heels) but unfortunately I didn't take a picture of that.

I found her the other day...sitting in her baby doll bassinet thing. I can't help but laugh at her. She is always squishing herself into stuff like this. Never mind it is for her babies that are about a fraction of her size. I guess this is similar to when I go in her room and catch her attempting to slide down the ramp on her Little People Garage.

Rock Climbing

2009-03-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

I took Sydney to go try rock climbing at the gym last Saturday. I didn't really know what to expect because she is still pretty small...but she LOVED it. We were there over an hour. Apparently she is not afraid of heights or scaling walls that are almost vertical. She had so much fun and attempted to climb several different walls. (I only got to do 3 walls and she pretty much took up the rest of our time.)
The walls we climbed had the automatic belay ropes but since Sydney doesn't weigh enough, they attached another rope to her so we could pull her down from the ceiling. She was so cute. She would just squeal with delight all the way down.

She was intent on going all the way to the top so she could ring the bells.

I guess we have found something else fun for her to do. Since we went, she has asked to go every time we go to the gym.

Kiki's and Loved Animals

2009-02-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

I needed to take some pictures of the girls with their kiki's (blankets) and well loved stuffed animals. I think it is so funny what they decide is their kiki and animal. When Sophie was born, I tried to get her to love this adorable blanket I recieved but instead, Sophie latched onto this hot pink number that was a hand-me-down of Sydney's. This duck was also Sydney's before Sophie came along...but clearly, ownership has changed hands. And not to forget the ever present bink in her mouth. We are always running around our house looking for kiki and Duck and bink...
I found this old picture of Sydney (probably when she was about Sophie's age...maybe a little younger) with her kiki and of course her bink. Thank goodness her bink is long gone. Cow was around then too, but apparently not pictured in this picture. Actually she didn't receive Cow until we moved to Phoenix...and they were inseperable for many years.

Here's Sydney with her kiki and Cow (and no bink). Actually she doesn't really sleep with either of them on a regular basis. Once in awhile I'll find them in her room, but usually she leaves them in Sophie's room now and just doesn't seem to need them anymore. Over the last few years there have been several other stuffed animals that Sydney phased through...such as Monkey (that was almost lost in St. George), Winnie the Pooh, Puppy, Sheepy (she made the name up...not me), two Pet Shop animals (I believe they were named Sparkle and Buttercup) and most recently yet another puppy (this one she named Peter, seriously we have no idea where she comes up with these) that her Grandma sent her for Valentine's. She still loves all her stuffed creatures and usually finds at least one of them to hide in her bed.

And that's all folks. Peace out!

Yikes!

2009-02-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

Doesn't that spider just creep you out! Unfortunately since Mark is never around...I am the adult that has to kill all the creepy, crawly insects that are constantly coming inside. It is definitely one way to get my heart rate into the threshold zone. The other slightly embarrassing thing...I am always shrieking or screaming while I am trying to smoosh a spider or catch a cricket. The other night I went out the front door to go switch something on the irrigation timer and the above spider raced as fast as it could towards the door, which resulted in me screamming and trying to stomp on it before it could run inside! Of course it took me several trys before I could get it (those things move fast) and I'm sure all the neighbors just love to hear that I am yet again battling with another creepy crawly. Of course Sydney was at the window screaming as well (sympathy screams). Sophie just screams because she thinks its a wonderful noisy game! Then a few nights ago, no less than 3 giant hopping crickets (all at separate times) made their entrance from behind the computer so I had to catch those amid lots of screams from us. At least they were inside our house. As if it can't get any more dramatic...out of the corner of my eye, I noticed what I thought was a small black snake, so I let out another loud shriek about that. Until I realized that actually it was part of Mark's shoelace that broke off his shoes when I accidentally vacummed the shoelace up. Silly me! On a side note, my old vacume didn't suck up much of anything, but our new vacume is pretty powerful and the shoelace broke off almost before I realized it had caught in the vacume. And I was vacuming over by the door in the first place because of the large amount of sand Sydney manages to pilfer from the playground at school each day inside each shoe. And last but not least, a bee flew in the patio door the other day (Sophie of course left the door open) and it took quite awhile to kill that and of course LOTS of screaming and running from said bee!

The Giant Saw

2009-02-06T17:40:00.001-08:00

This is on my dining room table in my living room. It is my brother-in-law, Dave's saw, that he let me borrow (and I owe him a huge thank-you...I'm not sure Mark really wants me to buy one of these yet) so I could put up a chair rail in Sydney's room. Seriously, it is the biggest saw I have ever seen but it is pretty cool. It can of course make miter cuts and bevel cuts. And don't worry, it is very safe...as in there is no chance that either of my kids will get hurt with this being out. Actually, Sophie is very uninterested in it (I only wish she felt the same about the pantry and the entertainment center).
Since Sydney loves the beach and all stuff beachy so much, we are going to do her room in sort of a surfer girl theme. But in keeping with my sense of neutral colors that will go with anything, I did the walls in two tones of a warm chocolate with the lightest shade on top. Then we will hopefully find a white bed and cute Hawaiian print or surfer girl bedding...I know Pottery Barn always has some fun stuff in their summer line. I also have some fun ideas for window treatments that will bring in some fun colors. And of course we will have to display some sea shells! It is still a work in progress so maybe in a few months I will post some updates as we add more to this room.

I installed the chair rail after I had painted and it ended up being so easy. I even did a rounded corner and it turned out perfect! Although, I couldn't have done any of this without the fabulous saw!

The only snags in this whole project (if they could even be considered snags) was tripping the breaker when I first plugged in the saw. Apparently, this saw requires about 120v...and I'm sure it is no where near what the vacume usually sucks out of the wall! So after figuring out how to break out of my garage (it was on the same circuit) and eventually figuring out how to reset the circuit...everything went pretty smooth. I think this may be one of the first times I didn't start a project and have something I hadn't planned for (structurally or whatever) pop up!

Cute girls!

2009-02-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have to write this down so I won't forget how cute some of these things are...

Today while I was making dinner, Sydney was sitting on her pillow in the middle of the kitchen with the baseball bat. She was "rowing" and she explained she was on her boat in the middle of the ocean. Don't worry, I didn't drown. Apparently I can walk on the water.

Last night Sydney was playing out in the backyard and found another seashell. I don't know where they are coming from but if anyone could find one, Sydney would. She was so excited. She still loves sea shells. She plays with them quite regularly (just like some kids play with dolls). After she said her prayers last night, she said, "Mama, I just loooooove singing and dancing and sea shells!" I couldn't help but smile. That is so her. Consequently she slept with her shell last night. The first thing she wanted to show Mark this morning was her sea shell. (He usually gets home after the kids are already asleep so they usually come climb in our bed in the morning to hang out.)

Whenever we pull into the garage Sophie shouts out, "Kitty, where are you?" The neighbors have a cat a few houses down and sometimes it will come over to see Sophie. Obviously she loves that. It is so cute. Also the other day, when we were outside, Sophie picked a flower from one of the bushes and said "flou". I love all the little words she says.

When we go to pick Sydney up at school, sometimes we will park and walk up to get Sydney and her two friends Maddy and Ewa (pronounced Eva). There is this guy that is always waiting to pick up his granddaughter. For some reason Sophie always runs over to give him a hug. Never mind that she rarely gives hugs to anyone in her own family. But she always gives this guy a hug and then will sit down right next to him. He is Hispanic so he always comments about how blonde her hair is and how blue her eyes are. I think he is quite charmed that she is always excited to see him. Now, if we stay in the car and go through the pick-up line, Sophie always shouts out "Maddy", "Ewa", and "Sydney"...over and over. She is always so excited to see them. Of course I am too...ha, I get to listen to four very loud, chattering girls all the way home! They are fun though.

Resolutions for 2009!

2009-01-30T12:22:00.000-08:00

Yikes! January is almost over and my poor blog has been very neglected for this month. I have debated whether to post up any of my resolutions and I decided that since I didn't even bother to write them down...perhaps I may actually remember them better if I at least put a few of them down where I can see them. So here are a few ideas that have been floating in and out of my head this past month:

1. Give my blog a face-lift. This includes finding a beach or Hawaiian themed background, posting a family picture on the Header and maybe adding some fun stuff to the side bars. Oh and perhaps blogging a bit more (maybe 3x a month)!

2. Taking family pictures. The last family picture we had taken was when I was pregnant with Sophie...and she is almost 2...so I suppose these are long overdue.

3. Have FHE more often. I have plenty of excuses for why this is not a regular occurance at our house...but aren't you glad to know that I am far from perfect!

4. Eat fish at least 1-2 times every two weeks. I love fish but I never buy it because no one else really likes it. But I have decided that perhaps Sydney may start liking it after seeing or smelling it regularly. (It has taken her 5 years to eat chicken...and even now she still eats chicken very sparingly.) Plus Sophie had fish once for a Costco sample and loved it, so who knows, maybe the fish gene will be on her palate.

5. Remodel my bathroom. I know this sounds like a pretty big project, but I am beginning to feel a bit more confident about it the more research I do. I plan on tearing out the fiberglass shower and doing the shower part all tiled, plus I want to extend the shower and change out the fixtures and possibly move them to the adjacent wall! Hmmm...we'll see what happens when I start in on this one. I already asked Mark how he would feel about our whole family sharing the girls tiny bathroom for several months.

6. Work on the yard. Always a work in progress. I still have this picture in my head of a beautiful yard I want...but mine actually looks far from that picture, especially after the hot summers. I love Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine and I pore over the beautiful homes and yards trying to figure out how I could economically replicate the ideas on our own little place!

7. Spend more time with Mark, ie. maybe going on dates once in awhile! This one is tough since he is never here so I guess I'll have to get creative about this. I probably should start driving into Phoenix once in awhile and going to lunch with him or something.

8. Losing weight! Maybe you thought this one wouldn't show up on my list...but after the wonderful, yummy holidays...it is in the back of my mind. Actually I have my favorite pair of board shorts from college (I know, they are so old, but still super cute) that I want to be able to wear to the pool this summer. Partly because I have never been able to find any since then that I love as much as these shorts and partly because I love being at that weight. I'm pretty sure I could get this one accomplished if carmel popcorn had not been invented or Taco Bell closed at 8:00 pm!

9. Paying down our mortgage. Yup, I really don't want to live in this house for too many more years and because of the housing downturn, we would like to just pay down our mortgage enough to just rent out this place.

10. Last but not least, clean out and organize the garage. Garages in AZ are tiny. They consider anything that you can squeeze 2 cars into (even if you can't get out of those cars once they are in the garage) a 2 car garage. Also, since homes here are smaller and don't have basements, they severely lack neccesary storage. We actually only park one of our cars in the garage but the other side is full of stuff. Actually most of the stuff we need or use...otherwise (a few of you who know me well enough will understand this) I would have thrown it out or donated it long ago! So it just needs more shelving, LOTS more shelving...plus I am so tired of the stepping over boxes and bags, and all the lawn equipment and tools to find stuff when I need it.

So there you go. I am actually suprised that I was able to spit out 10 things to work on. I have enjoyed reading other peoples resolutions because its always fun to see what things others are trying to get done. Although, I admit that just making resolutions does not neccesarily translate to getting them done!

Sydney and her bike.

2009-01-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

I took some pictures of Sydney riding her bike last Sunday! She can ride the entire length of our street (and probably further, if we would let her). Of course, with the recent events in our neighborhood, she can only ride if Mark is with her and so we usually confine bike riding to our street. It is so cool to watch her ride! I still can't believe she can do it.
Here's Mark running along behind her....hmmm....a great way to get Mark to exercise!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I have to confess that this year I kind of ran out of motivation to finish all the Christmas preparations and traditions we normally do. I think right around the second week of December, I just sort of started to procrastinate...and then all of the sudden it was already Christmas...and I hadn't really finished everything. So I guess this was my slacker Christmas, and I apologize for not posting a family picture with an update or sending out as many Christmas cards to family and friends (like usual) or even finishing the Christmas shopping and baking. There's always next year!

We did start out 2009 with some exciting changes. We decided to move Sophie into a toddler bed yesterday and she loved it. She spent almost all of the day climbing in and out of her new bed and she did manage to sleep in it all night (with only minimal drama at bedtime). She is getting big so fast.

Sydney also had a major accomplishment. She finally started riding her bike by herself. She can only go several feet on her own...but she is getting better each day. We are so proud of her. Also in our defense...we really should have been better with teaching her, BUT who wants to practice any sort of bike skills in the summer here??? And then with Mark being in school and being gone just about every night and weekend, well we just didn't really get around to practicing consistently.

Mark finished his first tri-mester of school and is half-way through the second. Actually ASU is on winter break right now but he was able to get the last slot in an elective course he wanted so he heads back to school next week (including all day Saturdays). However, we were grateful for this small Christmas miracle because the class was full when it was Mark's turn to register. He kept checking back though every few days and right before Christmas one slot opened up. Hopefully, this year flys by. I am very excited for school to be done, history, finished, (oh and paid for as well :)...Mark will graduate when Sydney is finishing up 1st grade in 2010!

I don't really have any very exciting or important news about myself. Perhaps I will post a few New Year's resolutions. I am still serving as the enrichment counselor in Relief Society and I suppose between that and the girls and my long, long, to-do list...I stay pretty busy! Remember, most of the time Mark is really never around so it's just me and the girls. We have lots of fun though!

Have a Happy New Year!

Gingerbread houses

2008-12-13T14:32:00.001-08:00

Sydney had been bugging me for weeks about making a gingerbread house together. Finally I said we would do it and to sweeten the deal, I let her invite a few friends over to make one as well. I figured if I was already buying candy for one house and cutting out gingerbread pieces...I mind as well make a few extra houses. Of course you can see from the pictures, the houses were very small tract homes. Nothing fancy about these gingerbread houses. They didn't even have two car garages! Although, I think they turned out well, since I had never made gingerbread before until this particular time. I found a good recipe online and it worked out well.
Each girl had a TON of candy and frosting to complete their house. I had royal icing in a decorator bag to pipe wherever or however I was directed! I decided to let them just do exactly what they wanted to their house (and eat as much candy in the process as well). I think they had a blast. We had gumdrops, tiny pink, yellow, and green mints, holiday M&M's, skittles, peppermints, candy canes, cinnamon hots, white chocolate chips, and a few other candies that I don't really know how to describe. I also made small gingerbread people for each house with the leftover scraps and then I made my ginger cookie recipe (so the girls could snack on ginger cookies while making their houses, instead of trying to eat the house).

Here are a few pictures of their creations. Honestly, even though it was a bit of work the night before...I might have to start this tradition because I really did have fun designing the houses, cutting out the pieces and icing them together. Plus it was worth the look on Sydney's face when she came home from school and saw all the houses ready to decorate! Sydney loves doing creative activities and this one was fun because she was able to do it all by herself.

Waiting in line....

2008-12-10T12:08:00.001-08:00

...for SNOW! Last Saturday night, we attended a community event that Sydney was performing in. One of the main attractions was the snow. There were three areas fenced off with snow for the kids to play in. Mark and I waited with the girls for almost 30 minutes so they could play in the snow. What's even funnier is Sydney wanted to get back in line after her turn and wait all over again. I couldn't help posting a picture of the line to play in the snow (for those people where snow is abundant and no one would even dream of waiting in line to play in it...much less look at it). Notice there is some guy in the line in shorts and a t-shirt. Typical Arizonans! I still can't get over the fact that I waited in a long line to play in some snow...

Finally it was our turn for the snow. I completely forgot to bring mittens for Sydney (or buy some since we don't have any). She had fun anyway. She observed that snow is indeed cold.
Sophie also liked slipping and sliding around. I was so afraid the girls were going to be all wet, right before Sydney's show. I had to keep picking Sophie up off the snow because she wanted to sit in it.

Here's Sydney with her hat and scarf before we went over to the stage where she was meeting her group for their dance.

All the little girls had to line up and stay together. She did such a good job on her performance. I guess it's a good thing that she loves dancing so much, because she has yet another show to perform in this weekend. Sorry I didn't get any good pictures of her on stage. It was really dark and since this was an outdoor event, the lighting was not the best...therefore the pictures on our camera didn't come out very well.

So just a little bit more about Sydney and dancing. We have noticed that she loves to dance. For example, one Monday night we had just come home from her weekly 2 hours at the studio (where she has dance and acro). You would think after that much dancing she would be ready for a break. But not this little ballerina. She insisted that I put the Nutcracker music on and then proceeded to dance around the livingroom for the next hour. She frequently puts on her ballet slippers to dance...whenever there is music on. We have also noticed that she has a difficult time just "walking" when we are out. She is always dancing and hopping and skipping around (although, that is probably just a 5 year old thing). Also, if she hears a song she likes while we are out, she always tells me to bring that song in the house so she can dance to it. And so because I can tell that she loves to dance so much, I endure going to dance week after week and allowing her to participate in any opportunity to dance!

Overheard.

2008-12-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

Sydney said her prayers tonight and had some specific instructions...she blessed Santa to bring her a cupcake maker.

Sometimes I get hungry!

2008-11-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

Start with hot pinto beans from the crock pot...

Add some cilantro-lime rice...

Top with a generous portion of slow-cooked sweet pork...

Don't forget lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and avacado...

Last, but definitely not least, drench with tomatillo dressing!

Love! Love! Love!

For recipes click here to my recipe blog. Or if you live near a Cafe Rio or Costa Vida...you could just get one of these by parting with a small amount of dinero!

Halloween Parties.

2008-10-27T12:47:00.001-07:00

We have had a blast so far dressing up for Halloween parties! Mark and I went to the annual Halloween party our friends host. It was an 80's murder mystery so we had specific people we were supposed to be. I was Vanity Shuetz (a celebrity photographer) and Mark was George McFly (a karate expert and nintendo game champion). I had to dig deep in the bathroom cupboards to find some hairspray to try and do big hair!
Here's Mark with a signature Karate Kid pose. He looked pretty sweet...with a headband that had either Japanese or Chinese symbols on it and some dark eyeliner (that I put on him of course) and a nintendo shirt. We printed off some nintendo logos and pictures a few hours before the party and I glued them to this shirt with tacky glue! I also helped him pin his pants and roll them at the bottom, in proper 80's style. We had a blast and enjoyed all the great food and company!

Then Saturday night we took the girls to the ward Halloween party. Here's Sydney with her friend Maddy (a.k.a. Batgirl)!

I was so excited for their costumes this year! I actually bought them back in July when we were up in Provo at the bookstore. It was so much fun to dress them up and do their hair...and watch them bounce all over the house! I still need to dress them up and at least attempt to do proper pictures because these will probably always be my favorite Halloween costumes. Neither of them were interested in smiling or staying put for even a few seconds because they wanted to get back to the party...so these are the best pictures for now!

Actually this one turned out pretty cute! They were both pretty tired and came to sit in the trunk to see what candy they got!

Here's one last picture (I know, totally out of order) of the Halloween party Mark and I went to. Don't we all look pretty cool! If you want to see all the cool details (because my friend really put a lot of heart and soul into this party) you can click here to Summer's blog. Everything, right down to the invites was amazing. And the food was soooo good! I think we both came home absolutely stuffed.

Advice???

2008-10-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

I have been debating whether or not to get a flu shot or not. Personally, I HATE shots...even though, obviously after two kids I can handle it! Also I am sort of the opinion that maybe less is better in terms of medicine. But lately I seem to get sick every 2-3 months with colds or whatever and it takes me forever to get rid of them. It is so frustrating. Currently I am going on 2 weeks with the current cold, although it isn't as bad as when I first caught it.

So I would love some comments or thoughts about flu shots and if they are even worth it!

Halloween's of the Past!

2008-10-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Wishing I was there...

2008-09-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

Cupcakes!

2008-09-07T18:05:00.001-07:00

I recently bought a mini cupcake pan and have had soooooo much fun cutting down different recipes for cupcakes. I like to make between 8-12 mini cupcakes and frostings. Just perfect for me and the girls. One night when Sydney probably should have been going to bed, I let her stay up and make coconut cream cheese cupcakes!
They didn't last too long. Plus since they are so little, you can have more (at least that's my philosophy)! I have also made some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream...those never got a photo op. because we ate them too fast!
One day after school (but before dance, which is why Sydney is in her leotard) I peeked in Sydney's room and she informed me she was "playing school". She was reading to all the stuffed animals--Go Dog Go. But I heard her in there earlier counting with them and practicing phonograms!
This probably should have gone with the last post, under Sophie's obsessions. This is the funniest thing and I really wish I knew what was going on in her head... She likes to weigh the soaps. Everytime she can sneak into the bathroom or if I'm in there getting ready, she comes in to weigh all the little boxes of soap. Here she is getting them out of the drawer.
Then she carefully walks over to the scale and places them one by one, on top. I think it is the funniest thing. Then I'll put them away and she will get them all back out again and put them back on the scale. Hey whatever entertains her!

Sophie's Obsessions.

2008-09-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Sophie LOVES necklaces (and bracelets)! No matter how many times a day I take them off her...for naps or mealtimes, she always puts her necklaces back on the second she is free. They are all over the house. She likes to wear them out and I really don't care anymore at this point! Afterall she is a girl.
See, first thing in the morning after I get her out of her crib...she finds her necklaces and then goes off to play.
I thought this was so cute. Sydney went to a friends birthday party, a Very Hungry Caterpillar party and they made butterfly wings and headbands. She likes to wear these all over the house!

The Closet

2008-08-31T20:10:00.001-07:00

I love home-improvement projects. They keep me busy (or at least give me a distraction from regular "chores") and they challenge my brain just a bit! I have learned that most projects I tackle are more about problem solving. Sometimes there are studs where you want them to be but most often they are not in the right places so you have to figure out how to implement a design and provide the max amount of safety possible! And I have to admit, I kind of like doing this...plus I love the results! So the project I decided to work on was remodeling Sydney's closet. It was just one of those standard reach in closets with the shelf and clothes bar that went all the way across, and according to my observations a huge waste of precious space. Her closet is only about 5 feet by 2 feet so I didn't have too much to work with. The first day I ripped out the existing system.
Then I repaired the drywall and sanded down everything and then painted the whole closet white so you couldn't tell that anything else had previously been there. That was the easy part.
Then I bought some Closetmaid shelving and a whole bunch of parts and started working! I ended up installing adjustable shelving on one side of the closet, a shelf on the very top that went all the way across the entire closet, and two clothes bars on the other side.

For the clothes bars I made sure they would fit standard measurement for adult clothes and also the top clothes bar extends farther over than the bottom clothes bar to accommodate long hanging items.
Here's the finished project with all of Sydney's clothes and toys! I can't believe how much stuff we were able to fit in her closet.
The best part is all the toys and art supplies have a place and don't have to be out in the room anywhere.
And then I can just shut the closet doors and everything is nice and clean! One of the main reasons I did this is because we decided to separate Sydney and Sophie...mainly because neither of them were sleeping very well together. Don't get me wrong, the LOVED sharing a room and I think they were very sad for a few days, but since I have separated them, they are both sleeping through the night and even sleeping in again. So it was worth the work.
Sorry I had to brag just a bit about the closet because I was excited I figured it all out. I have a long list of other "projects" I am hoping to tackle in the next couple of years. And just to note, even with tons of planning and measuring and re-measuring, I still ended up going to Lowe's 3-4 times to complete this...so it was not without problems!

ASU

2008-08-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Our lives have changed dramatically this month with Mark beginning the evening MBA program at ASU. So far he has been in school for about two weeks and we are starting to adjust to this new gruelling lifestyle! A typical week seems to be Mark leaving for work in the morning and returning home between 9:00 and 10:00 pm depending on whether he has class or not. Weekends don't seem to be too much better. This semester he decided to take one of the electives which is on Saturdays all day long. Even though he is not around much and is usually pretty tired when he is home, we are still doing ok. I realized that by the time he graduates from ASU, Sydney will be done with first grade and Sophie will be three years old! Wow...I'm sure it will go by pretty fast. Sometimes I think that situations like this actually help me to be a better parent because I have to step it up a notch. I am more patient and try harder to do lots of fun things with both girls and still make life as normal as possible even though Mark can't participate. I also try to stay busy and focused and remember all the blessings we have and the future we can look forward to, once these chapters in our life are complete.

Of course, just because Mark is now officially a Sun Devil...it doesn't mean we haven't forgotten where we came from! Don't worry, we still bleed blue and are true Cougar fans! Is everyone excited for college football season to begin? This time of year always brings back lots of fun memories from BYU. Go Cougars!

A little bit about the smallest member of the house!

2008-08-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Her middle name should have been Trouble! She spends her days dreaming up new ways to get into things she shouldn't. The funny thing is...she knows perfectly well that she isn't supposed to do half the stuff she does. I always hear her saying "No, no, no, no..." Then she will flash me a little smirk and proceed to get into stuff anyway.
I spend lots of time with Sophie (obviously) and just about everyday, someone comments on the fact that she has blond curly hair and I have straight brown hair. She also has blue eyes to add to the intrigue! I guess this is her way of declaring she is determined to do things her own way. You can barely tell in this next picture that she is holding one of those little rubber stoppers that goes on the door stops. This is one of her daily routines. She pulls them off when I'm not looking, chews on them for a bit, and then hides them. Usually I will find them throughout the day, but currently we still have one stopper MIA.
Sophie can climb up on the couches now and is thrilled to utilize this new talent. I also wanted to post this picture because you can kind of see her cute little curls.
Most nights we try and read lots of books to Sydney and sometimes to Sophie. Usually Sophie doesn't want to sit still to even listen to the first page of her baby books. She would prefer to read the books to herself. Note that Mark is sitting on the floor because I would not let him sit on the couch due to the fact that we had gone swimming earlier in the evening and I didn't want dried chlorine on the sofas.
It's still too hot to even think of going outside so we are often trying to think of new games for the girls. This Saturday afternoon activity was a winner! They had so much fun playing in the sink with random kitchen equipment and lots of soap and water.
Some other fun things about Sophie:
She can say,
Mama
Dada
Nana (Sydney)
No, no, no, no (No)
Ba (ball)
Bubba (bubbles)
Meow (kitty)
Ni..Ni (night, night)
Wa, wa (water)
More (food)
Bah (bath)

Her favorite book is "Ten Little Ladybugs" (which we just happen to have two copies of!)
Her favorite foods are probably cheese cubes, ice-cream, and peaches
She LOVES Baby Einstein
Her favorite song is "Itsy, bitsy, spider" and she can do the motions with the song
She likes to scream (and I think she sounds just like a Roman candle going off...kind of that really loud, piercing, screech or scream), often when we are in public places or places she needs to be quiet...like church or a library
Sophie loves playing with Sydney, it really doesn't matter what, just as long as she is near Sydney and participating somehow!

And that is a little bit about our little Sophie Grace

Kindergarten

2008-08-20T08:58:00.001-07:00

Sydney has started Kindergarten! She LOVES Kindergarten...in fact, last weekend she was so sad that Kindergarten is not in session on Saturdays and Sundays! She has already been in school for almost two weeks now. Although we miss her, we are so glad she has the opportunity to attend such a great school! Here's Sydney on "Meet the Teacher" day.
Here she is on the first day of school...notice she is standing under a tree! Yup, one of our trees in actually big enough now to stand under it (in the shade).
We were almost late to school the first day because the traffic on Mondays is horrible (and we have to take the freeway during rush hour). We made it just in time for her to find her best friend Maddy and then the teachers blew the whistle for all the kids to line up. I didn't really get to take many pictures of her but this is Sydney in line with her class. That's her teacher.
Like I said before, Sydney LOVES Kindergarten. She is learning to write and read and lots of other cool things. She works so hard on her homework each night to make sure she learns all the new concepts. We are so proud of her. She already had to recite her first poem and she was able to do it perfectly!

Guess who turned 5!

2008-08-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sydney celebrated her fifth birthday last month! We had several small celebrations for her...on her actual birthday she opened presents...but because she was sick that week, we took her to her one of her favorite places to eat later on that month! It was nice to just have a small "family" birthday, considering Sydney and I were sick for several weeks right around her birthday. I think she had fun though. Here she is with a "singing" birthday card that her and Sophie LOVE! Sydney actually still has another "singing" birthday card she received on her 4th birthday last year.
Sydney loves the Wii! She plays it with Mark almost every night. I have a sneaky suspicion that Mark was just as excited about this birthday present as Sydney was.

I made Sydney pose for a few pictures of her at age five! Even though we went out in the morning, it was already really hot and sticky.

Bear Lake.

2008-07-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

As promised...here is the second half of our vacation! After spending about a week in Utah, Mark flew up to join me and we all drove to his family cabin up in Bear Lake. It was gorgeous up there...fresh cool air, a turquoise colored lake, lots of space for the kids to run around, and way too much good food to eat! We went out on the boat every day to take the kids tubing and grown-ups water skiing! The water was pretty cold, but once you got in, it wasn't that bad! Here are some shots of Mark out skiing!

One morning we took some of the kids to this cave and hiked up and down LOTS of stairs to get down inside of it! It was pretty cool (or cold I should say...that cave stayed at a constant 40 degrees).
The kids loved playing down on the beach and collecting sea shells. Although the shells they were collecting were from these itty-bitty snails or something similar that would live in a freshwater lake.

On the Fourth, we headed to Paris, ID which is just one of those little towns for a parade! The kids loved it. They threw out so much candy. The parade went down one side of the street and back up the other...so the girls went with Grandma to stand on the other side of the street in the beginning so they could get even more candy!
We did lots of sparklers and set off some fireworks and then watched an amazing fireworks display that one of the neighbor cabins apparently puts on every year!
There are so many other things I wish I had taken pictures of! Actually, I was way too busy relaxing and having fun to haul the camera everywhere! One of the highlights of Bear Lake was going to Le Beau's for raspberry milkshakes and hamburgers and fries! I really can't believe I didn't get at least one picture of this...since someone went out at least once a day to go get a shake or fries from there. Le Beau's is a place like no other! Another fun part of the cabin was the hammock. The kids spent so much time playing in the hammock and I'll admit I thought the hammock was pretty cool. My last picture is a shot from the beach. That spec in the distance is the boat out towing the kids on the tube! Look at that water!
It was kind of sad to come home. Good bye, Bear Lake...we'll come again another summer to visit!

A little under the weather...

2008-07-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Monday and it is now early afternoon...and I am still alive...well barely! Last week went pretty much like normal. I was trying to get back into the swing of things after being gone for two weeks. Then Friday came along. Friday morning the relief society president called to ask if I could take over the funeral she was doing on Saturday morning at the church. (FYI, I am the second counselor in the presidency, and the first counselor was out of town.) She apparently had some awful flu virus and was in no shape to leave her house. I immediately agreed and anyway, I was already supposed to be helping out with it...so what's a little bit more work. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning and then planned on running all over that afternoon to buy the food for approximately 90 people that were going to be attending. Plus I had to prepare a meal for the same family for 7 people and have it to their house by 5:00. I know, it sounds like a lot but I usually have lots of energy and my kids are great most of the time so I knew I could handle it.

Unfortunately, right after I dropped off the babysitter, I started to feel slightly sick to my tummy. I thought maybe my blood sugar was just low and I needed to eat so I rushed home to make us all lunch before we went back out. I tried to eat the best I could but I just seemed to be feeling worse. I laid down on the couch for about 20 minutes and then exercised all my will power available to get going. Afterall, I did have quite a bit to get done before 5:00. First stop...Costco...to price out the hams. The smells alone were pretty difficult for me to endure (if you know what I mean). I just focused on breathing in and out and leaning mostly on the cart while I pushed the girls. Then we hurried out of Costco to head to Albertson's to price their hams. I barely made it through Albertson's and decided to head back to Costco. Of course on the way back to Costco I called Mark for emergency back-up help. I explained that I felt really sick and all the stuff I had to do...and I had no idea how I was going to be able to function. Well, needless to say, once back inside Costco...I had to turn right around and go back to the car and just go home. I was way too sick to be up and needed to be close to my own bathroom immediately.

I won't go into all the gory sick details...but then the fun began. Mark made it home and turned into a superhero! He cut up all this fruit I had purchased the day before and then headed back to Costco with Sydney to buy a ready made meal of sorts (since I had not been able to make what I had anticipated) and drop it off at the family's home. Then he came back home to take care of the kids and get them dinner. Now this is the odd part. For some reason...I started to feel just a little bit better...at least well enough that I felt like maybe I could attempt going back to Costco to get the food needed for the funeral in the morning. So Mark and I and the kids set back out to attack the grocery list. Somehow, I made it through all this and was mostly just exhausted by the end. I was also supposed to play for this funeral so I started to try and find someone to fill in for me...but couldn't get a hold of anyone on Friday night.

Friday night, I pretty much kept Mark up the whole night being sick and all. Then at 7:00 am I dragged into the shower only to get sick right afterwards. The reality was I couldn't really leave the house. Again I frantically called someone to play the piano for me. Finally, a sister in our ward was able to rearrange her schedule so she could do it. And all that food and prep work that needed to be done...well you guessed it...Mark left with Sydney to take care of everything. See he must have been channeling super hero powers that day! He was there from about 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 with two other women working on getting everything ready and then cleaning up afterward. I don't know what I would have done without him. Certainly I was in no shape to go anywhere. I guess Mark is sort of unofficially part of the compassionate service committee! But Mark didn't stop there. He came home, very tired I might add and took care of the kids and cleaned up the house. (Did I mention, I had Sophie at home with me...she pretty much ran all over and made messes and got into thing all day long!) Sunday, Mark continued to be Mr. Mom all day because I was still very sick. I hate flu bugs like that. I always want them to hurry and be over with.

Sunday night I was finally able to start drinking a tiny bit of Powerade and it has helped out marginally. I am still alive today...although pretty weak. I lost 4-5 pounds over the course of 2 days so I am just trying to slowly get my strength back. I am so lucky to have a husband like Mark to step in and help out last minute, even when it is sort of relief society work! I also appreciate those sisters in our ward who helped out with the music and the funeral for me so I could stay home from church and skip out on the funeral. And hopefully no one else in our family gets this stuff. It is absolutely awful!

First half of Vacation!

2008-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

We just returned home from a whirlwind vacation in Utah and Bear Lake...believe me it is tough to come back to reality and the Phoenix heat. I drove up to Provo/SLC area almost two weeks ago with the girls for some exciting adventures and then towards the end of the first week, Mark flew in to join us before we headed to Bear Lake for a week at his family cabin! I decided to do two posts of all our fun since there were so many pictures I needed to explain.

When I arrived in Provo, I stayed with one of my best friends and old roommates from college, Nancy! It was so much fun to hang out with her...and drag her all over Provo for the typical tourist sites that visitors always want to see. One of our favorite places was Bridal Veil Falls. Sydney LOVED it up there and insisted we go back the day Mark came down to Provo with us. (So we went twice!) It was so nice and cool up at the falls, and of course the water was freezing...something we are not used to. Some people put ice in their pools (in Phoenix) as the summer progresses just to cool the water down a bit!
See, it was so cold, I had to wrap Sophie up in her "kiki" because she was freezing! But we enjoyed every second of the cool breeze and weather up in the canyon.

While we were in Provo, we went to BYU campus a few times (once with Nancy and once with Mark) to walk around and see all the changes. I loved the new alumni building and enjoyed the familiar "chirping" of the cross-walk alert! It wouldn't be a visit to BYU without stopping at the Creamery. We managed to go no less than 3 times (and I got a scoop of Earnestly Chocolate ice-cream, every single visit). Sydney has decided she would love to go to BYU someday...just so she can eat at the Creamery. Hey whatever works! Here's a picture of our future Cougars! They have lots of blue blood...Mark and I obviously both graduated from there and both my parents graduated from the Y, as well as Mark's Dad! (Mark's mom went to that red school...but we don't like to mention that too much!)
So I did mention that while I was in Provo, I stayed with Nancy! We just talked, and talked, and talked some more. (Can't blame us...we haven't seen each other for at least a year...and then it was only for a few hours.) It was super fun to crash at her house and also see her tummy...which is full of two babies! Congratulations Nancy! Then Nancy and I went to visit another good friend, Catherine and her cute little girl Ellie. I know this isn't the greatest picture of us, but I thought is was pretty good, considering all the kids seriously needed naps and didn't care who their moms' friends were!

After Provo, I headed up to another best friend and roommates house in West Jordan, Robyn! She has two adorable kids and it was so fun to finally meet them, even though I felt like I knew them so well from all her blogs! We also had a mini-reuion of sorts with another friend from freshmen year, Gretchen, and of course Nancy came! So here is the four of us. It was so fun for all our kids to play together. Sydney was instantly friends with Gretchen's little girl Ava, and then after Ava had to go home, Sydney played with Parker (Robyn's little boy) for the entire stay. We even went to church with Robyn and Joe...and Sydney and Parker sat by each other the entire time. I can't believe how much we have all matured, well sort of! We had lots of fun laughing about some of the silly freshmen memories we have and of course playing the "what happened to so and so" game. I only wish I could live closer to all my old friends! They are so much fun to hang out with! And are kids play great together!
After church on Sunday, before we headed up north to the cabin, we stopped at Temple Square to show the girls around. The visitors center was pretty cool and they have added a lot of new displays downstairs in one of the main visitor centers.

We had a wonderful week in Utah, before heading up to the cabin. There was so much to do and so many people to see...with so little time. I only wished we could have stayed a few days longer! Stay tuned for the rest of our adventures. A huge thank you to Nancy and Robyn for letting us stay at their homes. I guess you guys will have to come to Phoenix sometime...just not in the summer!

Blogs instead of studying!

2008-06-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have to admit...reading blogs in the middle of the day while Sophie is napping and Sydney is playing is MUCH more entertaining and easy on my brain than studying (I should probably clarify...I am studying for the GMAT...sorry, I am always forgetting the little details)! Also my laziness with posting new updates to our blog is persisting...even though I love reading everyone elses updates. However, without pictures, I think I will post up a few random thoughts:

1. Sophie started walking about a week or two ago. She can take about 10-12 steps but only if she feels like it. She still crawls around sometimes. I have lots of cute video to post to show off her new skill, however, the fire-wire port is not working and so I will have to wait until we figure out what we are going to do about it!

2. One day I woke up with the absolute urge to watch Saturday's Warrior! (Please take a few moments to laugh about this one) So after a very long exhausting Friday evening dealing with the traffic of Phoenix, I managed to secure the millenium edition of Saturday's Warrior on DVD. Sydney LOVES this movie and unfortunately our whole family has Saturday's Warrior songs running through our brains. I thought I better have Sydney watch this movie and love it before she was too old and decided it was way, way too cheezy.

3. Sydney has turned into a little fish (or rather a little mermaid as she prefers). We go swimming just about everyday and sometimes twice a day. Also because I usually fit in a workout at the gym during my day...I have no need to bother with showering! I think it is a bit overated! Just kidding, I usually take a shower before I crawl into bed.

4. I took Mark to a Diamondbacks game for Father's Day last Friday. Thank goodness the tickets were really cheap from Craigslist because the entire nine innings we sat through, no one scored a single run. Then we had to hurry home because we had a babysitter, instead of staying to see how long the game would continue. Mark told me that one particular baseball game went 21 innings until 2:30 am (which I was not really in the mood to endure). But as our luck would have it, the Diamondbacks finally hit a home run just after we left...and we missed the excitement. Oh well, we had great seats and it was fun to enjoy the whole baseball atmosphere.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

2008-06-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

A year has gone by so fast! Sohpie was just 6 1/2 lbs. when she was born. She was cute as a button!
Sydney and Sophie are the best of friends. They love to play by each other and laugh together.

We just had a very small birthday for Sophie. I made from scratch cupcakes and pink frosting. Then we all sang to Sophie and she tried to touch the tiny flame!

Then we let her dive in to eat her cupcake all by herself. Frosting first....
Next...try and get some cake stuff in her mouth.
Smile at the huge mess she made on herself and high chair! Well isn't that what birthday's are for?
Sophie is almost walking. She'll stand and take a step or two so hopefully soon. We'll keep you posted when the exciting event takes place.

Back from my Blogging Break!

2008-05-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything up...not because I don't have anything to write about! I guess I needed a break from constantly trying to keep up with all the exciting events going on. A few weeks ago I stumbled across this store at the mall, "Pumpkin Patch" that sells the cutest clothing. They carry itty-bitty sizes all the way up into the regular girls sizes, thus allowing Moms like me to indulge that crazy passion to "match" their kids! I always said I wasn't going to be like that, but this store is different. The stuff is so cute it is hard not to give in.
Sophie is learning how to give kisses! Right now she just opens up her mouth and plants one on your cheek. It is super cute and we love them, even though they are a bit slobbery. She is so sweet. She kisses all her stuffed animals and especially Sydney's pretend puppy.
I didn't really have lots of time to try and get that perfect shot so this is the best we could do...before church.
Mark got out the video camera to video them...but that always brings on the reaction to go right up to the camera to see what is going on.

5 Magical Days!

2008-04-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Disneyland

Last week we spent FIVE whole days at Disneyland and California Adventure with Sydney and Sophie! It was a magical vacation and I think we had all sprouted mouse ears by the time it was over. It was sort of weird to wake up on Monday morning this week and realize we had to get back to the real world. Sydney and Sophie had the best time. We also had fun visiting some friends from BYU and their kids! It was a much needed break from the whole theme park thing. We appreciated all the family, including my Grandpa and Grandma and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins, that let us stay with them for parts of our vacation and for helping watch the kids! We had a wonderful vacation and made some lasting memories!

Now if you really care about what we did...you can keep reading...if not, I completely understand...because I guess this is sort of a vacation post!

The thing I love about Disneyland is...it isn't just another theme park. I felt like we were passing on a legacy to Sydney by taking her on all the old classic rides and remembering how much fun we (that's Mark and me) had when we were kids! My Dad used to go to Disneyland when he was little, and I went to Disneyland plenty of times growing up, so it was perfect to continue the tradition and take Sydney and Sophie there. Of course we had to do all the classic rides like the Peter Pan ride, Dumbo ride, the Haunted House, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and Star Tours...to name a few! Sydney's most favorite ride of all was the Matterhorn which we went on at least 7-8 times. She loves roller coasters! The other thing we loved doing was taking the kids to all the really cool shows and parades! Sophie's favorite was probably the Playhouse Disney show. She was so excited about the bubbles and leaves that fell from the ceiling of the theater! It was over the top...in typical Disney style. Sophie did pretty good for being dragged to a very noisy place...mostly all day long. However, I don't think I would ever take any kids younger than 4 on a trip like this again. My Aunt came into the park with us on Thursday morning and took Sydney and Sophie to Fantasyland so Mark and I could go on the few rides that Sydney could not go on! This was lots of fun...although, we went on most everything by ourselves and took advantage of the single rider passes! Those are the best.

On Tuesday evening...we met up with our friends Jamie and Christian from BYU. They were super nice to invite us over for dinner at their house and just let us relax! Sydney and Sophie had tons of fun playing with their kids and just running/crawling all over. It is always fun to catch up with old friends and of course we wished they lived closer. In my perfect world, all my old friends from college would live in my neighborhood so we could all spend time together and let our kids play together! Wouldn't that be nice!

We managed to stop at Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts (they don't have any stores open by us anymore) and fit in a quick stop at the beach in Carlsbad and lunch at our very favorite fish'n'chips place...Harbor Fish Cafe!

All in all...it really was a magical time and we are looking forward to coming back in a few years!

Sophie Pictures April 2008

2008-04-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Sophie

Here is our cute little Sophie...almost 11 months old! I thought she did a pretty good job being agreeable for pictures considering it was in the 90's yesterday!

Sydney Pictures April 2008

2008-04-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sydney

Here are the updated pictures of Sydney. I loved her Easter dress. Sydney was very patient while I snapped LOTS of pictures so we could find some cute expressions. Actually, Sydney really gets into the whole photo shoot thing. She comes up with her own poses and all that!

All things growing in our yard!

2008-04-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

All things growing in our yard!

Here are some pictures of our yard...both in front and back. It is a work in progress. I am starting to love our yard. It will be so nice someday when there is lots of shade and privacy created by our trees. Also the trees are very important to create micro-climates so other plants can grow (protected from at least a few hours of hot AZ sun!). I tried to explain each picture in the captions (for those of you who are curious!)...about a month ago, we dug a HUGE hole in the back yard to plant a 24 " box Brazillian Pepper tree. That was just the begining! Since then, we have added several trees (not counting the trees we have put in since we moved here).

Better late than never.

2008-04-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

I am fully aware that Easter was several weekends ago but I decided I would post a few cute pictures from our Easter.
Easter morning was fun. Both girls were excited about their baskets and it didn't take long for the green grass to spread itself all over the house. Good thing I only bought one bag each for the girls (I anticipated the grass would end up everywhere).
Sophie actually thinks its kind of silly to wear her ears. We will put them on her and take her to look in a mirror and she smiles and giggles at herself!
I still need to take cute pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses, because they were not cooperating after church on Easter. We also did an egg hunt in our yard and Sydney had fun gathering all the eggs. Actually she spent the rest of Easter going out searching for eggs she might have missed! It was so funny when she would come running in with an egg that had been extra hidden! Not to forget the true meaning of Easter...Mark is in young mens so he took the youth and Sydney to the Easter pageant at the Mesa temple. Sydney loved it and afterwards she asked Mark if they could hurry and go talk to Jesus. Later when we were talking about the resurrection with her and how Jesus was resurrected and that was why we celebrated Easter... she says to us... "but I just saw Jesus at the temple the other day". Apparently she didn't quite figure out that the Jesus at the temple was just an actor. It was kind of cute.

Sisters.

2008-03-23T16:23:00.001-07:00

Hannah Montana!

2008-03-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

The other day I was coming home from somewhere and a song came on the radio that I kind of liked....ok that's not news...but when I got home and did a search for the song, I was a bit horrified that it was off the Hannah Montana 2 soundtrack! I guess there is no hope for me to ever grow up. Oh well, I downloaded it and of course Sydney and I had to jam out.

Candy Factory.

2008-03-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

Our adventures this week in no particular order include visiting Cerreta's Candy Factory for a preschool field trip, going to the zoo, and a way fun girls night out with some of my friends! First the Candy Factory. Although you really couldn't see much of what was going on up close, it smelled soooo good inside. I think their main products are different kinds of chocolates and caramels. It was a bit of a stressful morning to make it to the factory on time. First I had to watch my friends little girl (abt. 16 mo.) and take her along on our field trip along with Sophie. Even though I tried to get as much stuff ready the night before it was still pretty hectic. Right before we were supposed to leave Sydney managed to throw up all over the carpet in the hallway...on her way to the tub...and in the tub. Yuck! She wasn't sick, just bouncing off the walls after her breakfast because she was so excited. So I had to clean the carpets, clean out the tub, give Sydney a shower, calm down my friends toddler, and try and keep Sophie from getting into everything! Kids!
Thank goodness once we arrived, my friends little girl fell asleep in our stroller and I strapped Sophie onto myself in one of those baby carrier things. Sydney was very excited to make her own chocolate pizza and I was appreciative of all the chocolate and mint samples the factory tour guide gave everyone, including the adults!
Here she is pouring on the white chocolate all over her "pizza". Too much is not a concept when it comes to chocolate!
Then several days later we went to the Phoenix zoo with my friend Carly and her daughter Addison. Even though Addison is several years younger than Sydney they still had lots of fun. Sydney said her favorite part was petting the sting rays (which I didn't get a picture of because Sydney was pretty much ready to dive into the big pool with the sting rays, except I was holding her back).
This is mostly just to remind myself that I still have friends and once in awhile I get to do something fun that does not involve kids! We used my friend Summer (front left) as an excuse to get together and had an impromptu baby shower for her fifth baby! Congratulations Summer! Anyway, it was fun to get together with some of my friends and just talk. We were almost the last people left at this place because time flys of course when a bunch of women are talking!

M&M's

2008-02-29T11:49:00.001-08:00

Too much free time...well maybe! This is our most recent family portrait. I thought is would be fun to post up some fun things about members of the Poulsen family that everyone probably doesn't know about us!

Mark is the oldest and tallest. He is 6'5". He is super normal. Maybe that's because the rest of us have plenty of things to keep his life mixed up! He has mountains of patience when each of his girls are demanding his exclusive attention...all at once. He loves the smell of new shoes. When he got his new running shoes he put them by the side of our bed and mostly just smelled them for a few weeks rather then using them.

I (Maylene) am the second oldest but I am only 5'4". I probably could write an entire book on all the funny things about me! However, I will only include a few that come to mind. I love to eat cereal and sandwiches and if I lived by myself, this is probably all that would be in my fridge or pantry. I like to sleep with lots of pillows and I like to sleep in the middle of the bed. I also LOVE mowing the lawn. At night when Mark is trying to fall asleep, I am often pondering and discussing whatever problems or ideas are floating around in my head. Most of the topics are about science or some abstract theory. I love the Laws of Thermodynamics but I'm not so sure Mark is elated to be talking about them at 10:30 pm...especially when he has to go to work the next day.

Sydney is 3'4" tall and will be 5 years old in July! She wants to be an "ice-cream scoop person" when she grows up and also she wants to ring doorbells. Nothing we say can convince her otherwise. Oh well, maybe she can combine her two passions and sell ice-cream door to door. Sydney spends hours cutting out ponys from her My Little Pony coloring book and coloring them for us. They are all over my house. Every once in awhile we have to decide which ponys to keep and which ones to donate to the recycle bin. Sydney likes to collect stuff. No matter how hard I try to keep her shelves clean they are always covered with sea shells, rocks, leaves, rose petals, unsharpened pencils, bracelets and necklaces, small toys, stickers, trophies, and a large number of other miscellaneous items. She still sleeps with her beloved cow and her "kiki" (her favorite blanket). The world would come to an end if we lost either of these important items. Sydney said she would like to move to South America where all the rides are. After further inquiry into this odd request we figured out she meant Mall of America.

Sophie is nine months old now and weighs in at about 15 lbs. She spends her days getting into things. Her favorite thing to do is pull off the ends of the door stops and put them in her mouth and then tweak the door stop (it makes a great sound). (I am currently working on a plan to permanently adhere those rubber stops to the springs) After she is done with the door stops, she makes sure to stop by the fridge to pull all the magnetic letters off and throw them all over the kitchen. Then it's on to Sydney's craft table to see if there are any delicious crayons to sample. Sophie doesn't like to drink formula or eat baby food...she would rather eat cheerios, bits of cheese, baby fishies, and bananas. She also has a "kiki" she loves and gives big kisses to whenever she sees it! She is good at shrieking to get attention.

Hard work

2008-02-27T12:29:00.001-08:00

A few days ago Sophie and I went to pick out some rock to put on the sides of the house. I had only been home for about a half hour when a huge dump truck left 6 tons of rock on our driveway...blocking it completely. Don't worry, I had parked the car on the street just in case. Sydney was elated when she got home from preschool to find more rocks than all her collections combined! She spent the rest of the day climbing up and and sliding down and hauling small amounts in her sand pail, thus neccesitating several baths that day.
As you can see from the picture, the left side of the house has the air conditioner and there is only a small space to squeeze by with the rock. Not only did the wheelbarrow not fit, but I was the only person small enough to squeeze by with a shovel full of rock. So, good thing I am super strong! I ended up hauling most of the rock from the pile on the driveway....all around back, around the curbing...and dumping it in a pile by the air condintioner. Then I had to shovel it one scoop at a time down the side. It sounds like a lot of work and it was! However, it actually went lots faster than I originally anticipated. I'm sure the neighbors are all fascinated with all the projects I am always undertaking.
I thought I deserved a little spotlight for all the hard work I did. I made Mark take a few pictures of me filling up the wheelbarrow so you can all observe my huge muscles!
Part of our incentive to hurry and clear out the rock pile was due to the fact that we couldn't park the cars in the garage or on the driveway. Just as a side note...our garage is the typical two car AZ garage that really only fits one car and all our stuff. So the Neon just gets parked on the street (of course we always put the CLUB on so it won't get stolen).
Ok...so I didn't do all of it by myself. Mark helped haul several tons of rock after work and actually he did most of the other side of the house. I just had to help rake it even. I'm sure he would have done more if he could have squeezed by the air conditioner but it was just easier for me. Oh well, it has definitely made us appreciate the fact that neither one of us will ever have to do this for a living. Believe me...it is HARD WORK. My muscles are pretty sore.

I am relieved that we were able to complete this project before it starts getting hot. Actually today it has already reached 80 degrees so we are well on our way to sweltering heat.

Cara...

2008-02-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

I was so excited when one of my best friends from college decided to come visit us! Cara was one of my roommates at BYU when I lived at Liberty Square! Since BYU, I obviously moved to Phoenix and Cara has been living in Boston for several years. We usually just chat on Sundays and I'll admit I have been trying to convince her to come visit for a few years now! Sydney hasn't really seen Cara since she was a tiny baby so I was excited when Sydney decided that Cara was her new best friend. She loves Cara! Probably because Cara read her lots of books, took her on bike rides, and played games with her! She was very sad when we dropped Cara off at the airport.
Jilynn and I decided to take Cara to one of our favorite Mexican places for lunch but when we pulled in the parking lot, we discovered that they are closed Sundays and Mondays...so we took her to the next best thing! It's this place called Costa Vida which is pretty much the very same as Cafe Rio in Provo.
We asked Sydney to take some pictures of us...and this one turned out alright. We had to scrunch down of course and she had to stand on a chair. Sydney is so funny when she takes pictures. She'll tell people how to pose and when to smile and whether or not she likes our smiles, etc. You can't help but laugh at this little girl bossing us around.
I'll admit I was a little sad when Cara had to leave. It was so much fun hanging out with her, and she was a super big help with the girls. Sometimes it is so nice to have an extra adult around to either entertain Sydney or help with Sophie! I did my very best to convince Cara to move closer!

Girls!

2008-02-15T09:01:00.001-08:00

Last Friday Sydney had two of her friends over for a playdate. I knew they were going to have a blast because once I had picked all of them up they were all shouting "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF" and then giggling...then they would do it all over again. Sophie was definitely entertained.

We went to this new park kind of by our house and it turned out to be lots of fun. It had this slide with little rollers on it and then this other climbing structure next to the park with climbing ropes and lots of interesting pieces of equipment to play on.

Even though it may seem like all we do around here is kid stuff, sometimes the adults living here have some fun too! Friday night we got together with some of our friends, had a BBQ, sent all the kids upstairs to play, and then we played Rock Band! What can I say...we love that game! Then Saturday morning, Mark and I made a big decision. We decided to get a family pass to LIFETIME Fitness. It has been getting more difficult to find time to work out and juggle all the places we have to be at; so this is a way to get workouts in and spend time together as a family (that doesn't involve wondering aimlessly around Costco). So far we LOVE this gym! And even better the girls love it too. They have two huge swimming pools with waterslides and the water mushrooms and a zero depth entry, perfect for the kids! It is kind of nice to be able to go workout anytime I want without waiting around for a time when Mark is going to be home.

Congratulations to Jim and Melissa on the arrival of Joshua! We are so excited to have a new boy cousin to hang out with all the girls around here!

Sophie + Bone

2008-02-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I noticed Sophie was crawling around with a bone in her mouth. The bone is Sydney's for her puppy that grows. Anyway, it was so funny. It's almost like she replaced her bink. Then today she found the bone again and popped it in her mouth. She is so silly! (and this usually stays in her mouth for at least 30 minutes at a time)...
So for a quick update, Sophie has been crawling everywhere since the middle of January. She is very curious and quiet and if I leave the room for even a minute she goes off by herself and finds something to get into. Then when I go to find her I have to look all over the house. She is good at hiding in closets, bathrooms, behind furniture, in the laundry room, and really just about anywhere she can escape to. And unlike Sydney who giggles when we play hide-and-seek, Sophie is quiet, so it is much more difficult to locate her. Maybe she needs a LoJack in her diaper or something!

Quick weekend getaway!

2008-01-30T14:26:00.001-08:00

I thought I would start out with the beautiful beach picture because of course who doesn't want to get away to relax at the beach...even if for only an hour or two. We decided to go visit my Grandpa and Grandma in Fallbrook a few weekends ago. It was a quick drive to their house and surprisingly a bit warmer than AZ! We saw lots of places where the wildfires had come through town and how random the fire had been. When we first arrived, we went and saw an old friend of mine from BYU, Kimber and her twin boys. It was lots of fun catching up (or at least starting on the catching up part, because girls can talk for hours when they haven't seen each other in awhile). Then we drove back to Fallbrook so Sydney could run around outside and play. Her favorite part is picking oranges and lemons and grapefruits off Grandpa's trees. On Saturday morning, Mark went out and picked lots of ripe oranges and made fresh OJ to go with Grandpa's traditional hot cakes, bacon and eggs breakfast! Yummy...and of course he made Sydney a hot cake in the shape of an S. Then after breakfast we headed over to the beach to let Sydney collect about a million seashells.
When we first got there, a seal was lurking under the pier and we had fun watching it play.
Sydney and I thought the seal was cute and wanted to take it home for a pet! I know it is really common for seals and sea lions to swim onto the beach...but we were all so excited to see a wild seal up close. The only wildlife that roam around Phoenix are pigeons, an occasional lizard and LOTS of crickets.
Saturday night most of my aunts and uncles and some of my cousins came down for dinner. It was lots of fun to see them and Sydney had fun chasing my cousin Conner all over the house! Then next day we went to church with my Grandparents and then drove back to Phoenix. We had a great trip! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for letting us come stay!

I should probably leave things at that but these past two weeks (since California) have been interesting. It all started Monday night...Sophie got sick with an awful cold/flu. She spent the rest of the week fussing and NOT SLEEPING, of course, because she was not feeling well. In fact she didn't go to bed until about 5:45 am in the morning. Then she would sleep until about 8:00 (I crashed as well) and then things would begin all over again. Later in the week we discovered that she had cut two teeth so not only was she sick but she was also crabby about that. Sydney came down with flu on Friday morning and then Mark got it by about Friday night. And of course that meant that they were also up most of the night. It is now Wednesday and Sophie and Mark are starting to feel better. I am hoping Sydney will be done with this by tomorrow! And guess who didn't get sick at all...yup...me! I hope it is due to the large quantities of raspberries, blackberries, and vegetables I have been eating, probably not, but I would like to think so. I have been thinking that once everyone is well, I may skip out of town by myself to some remote island and lay under a tiki hut and sleep in the nice warm sun! Sounds like a vacation to me. Did I mention I have several days worth of sleep I still need to catch up on!

Sophie Laughing

2008-01-13T15:30:00.000-08:00

Sophie is always laughing at Sydney. Although this is over a month old...I still wanted to share Sophie's contagious laugh!

Grass!

2008-01-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

We have been in our house for almost two years and FINALLY we have some grass in the backyard. It has definitely been a process. When we first moved in Mark noticed some guys doing some patio work for one of the neighbors and contracted them to extend our patio (according to my design...of course!). So that was the first step. Then pretty much nothing happened until last July when I decided to just have someone install our sprinkler system, drip, and curbing.
This is right after they put in the curbing so the cement isn't even dry yet. That's why it looks so dark.
Then at the beginning of December we (including Mark's Dad, myself, Mark, and his brother Jim) laid the sod. It was very labor intensive but it looks great now. Plus we saved lots of money by installing the sod ourselves.
I just took this picture the other night and it has really grown together nicely. Actually the part right up by the patio and house is still a little lighter and hasn't completely rooted due to the fact that it has not received any sun for about a month. But now that the days are getting longer it is getting more sun so I'm sure it will be just as beautiful as the back half of the lawn soon. In fact, we are going to have to mow it pretty soon because the back part is getting pretty long and thick.
I have huge plans to put in trees and lots of plants and shrubs around the outside of the curbing. I think this is the fun part. It is so nice to have something green to look at everyday. Once I get all the plants in I'll have to post an update. Also we have been working on the front yard and it is coming along quite nicely! Ok...I guess this is sort of a boring post but I just love having some grass and I am excited about the transformation in our backyard!

Christmas...New Years!

2008-01-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas season...Here are some of the highlights...Sydney went with some friends of ours to go see the abbreviated version of the Nutcracker Suite and ever since then she loves listening to the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy". We managed to do our advent calendar each night which is another family tradition. This year I decided to make home-made cinnamon rolls with yummy frosting for all our friends (I would have made them for family too, if they lived a little closer!). On Christmas Eve, we went to Mark's brother's house for a yummy dinner and some Christmas Eve classic traditions. My sister-in-law has this adorable puppet set of the nativity so Sydney and her cousins helped tell the Christmas story. Then we read some scriptures and sang Christmas carols.

Here is Sydney and Sophie in their matching pajamas! This is the first time I have bought them anything matching and it was so much fun to dress them up.
See how happy Mark looks Christmas Eve...well, our neighbors decided to have a party complete with loud mariachi music until 5:00 am Christmas morning...and Mark (and me) was not so cheerful on Christmas morning because of it. We did try calling the police on the party but around here, most of the police force is busy with more important things so we just had to endure to the end!
Sophie actually liked playing with the wrapping paper and bows more on Christmas morning...which I expected!
This was the second year we attended the Fiesta Bowl Parade. Mark got up early and went into downtown area Phoenix to save us the best seats! Then I stopped at Dominos on the way to the parade with the kids and bought pizza and cheese breadsticks for all of us. It was lots of fun...and we really did end up with the best seats. Mark got front row on the street and we happened to be close to the judges stand so all the bands played and all the performers did their stunts and tricks right when they passed us. Right when we sat down...Sydney immediately wanted some cotton candy. We let her have two bags! (I know...but she loved it and we don't really go to parades much so I guess it's ok once in awhile!)

The new year is here and we are all working hard on our New Year's Resolutions! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-18T18:06:00.000-08:00

This year I decided to just skip trying to go somewhere or have someone try and take a family picture. I think it was a wise choice. I thought it was difficult when we had one child to try and get her to smile and then get a shot we all looked ok in. With two kids...it is pretty much impossible. We took several sessions of pictures of the girls, in front of the tree and this is one that turned out ok (but we decided to do different outfits for the Christmas card picture). Of course Sophie is not smiling. But if she did...then Sydney made sure to make some awful face or turn her head or something!
Look who figured out how to get up on her knees and rock back and forth. Sophie is checking out a new Little People Nativity I bought online. The girls both love it because of course they can play with it and it isn't going to break.

I think she will probably be crawling in about a month or two. She can already sit up by herself.
So this is the Nativity I got for the girls. We had another one but parts of it kept breaking. I tried several times to fix it with wood glue, super glue, tacky glue, and Elmer's glue...but it didn't work. Because of the splinters we finally had to throw it out. Sydney was devastated so I found this manger scene and it even had the shepherds out in the pasture with another angel to tell them the good news. The star on the creche lights up and sings "Away in the Manger". Sydney has played with it daily and makes sure all the animals are fed and get enough rest and that they pay attention to the baby Jesus!

White Elephant Gifts...

2007-12-16T12:33:00.001-08:00

This weekend we attended a few Christmas parties and received several interesting "white elephant" gifts. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite games and always makes me laugh at some of the random things that get wrapped up! I am modeling this eye magnifying thing we recieved called MagEyes. What can I say...absolutely ridiculous...but I had a thought to possibly put them on while I was reading a few scriptures during the talk I had to give today at church. Can you imagine if the speaker in church just whipped out a pair of these and started reading their talk?
Then we recieved a few DVD's. I think some of these might be those DVD's one might find in the $1.00 bins at Walmart or something. The first DVD is "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", the second one is "Blooper Bananza 1960's" and the last one was "The Karate Kid" (which actually wasn't so bad). I guess the titles say it all! If anyone is dying to watch any of these DVD's we would be happy to let them borrow them.
The next gift we received was this giant porcelain cat that Sydney promptly named "Snowflake". As you can see from the pictures it looks more like some kind of fish or something from far away. If any of you think this might go with your decor...I would be happy to bring it over. Meanwhile...Snowflake is currently out in the dining area until I find an appropriate closet for him/her.
The last gift we managed to bring home was one of those giant universal remotes. Sydney was also thrilled by this because she can easily push all the buttons, plus it lights up. I guess we won't be losing this remote. At least this remote is nice and new and clean (because our other remote is probably crawling with micro organisms that I don't want to know about).
All in all...we had some good laughs over everything! It was sort of a crazy weekend trying to get everything done and get to our parties and prepare talks that we had to give today.

Thanksgiving...

2007-12-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went to St. George to visit Mark's parents. It was fun because his whole family was there. It was also pretty crazy with all the kids running around constantly and two babies to add to the hula-baloo! Sophie made sure she didn't sleep very well during the night and managed to wake up at least six times every night. (We were exhausted by the time we got home.) But it was also really pretty in St. George and we loved all the fall colors and the chilly temperatures. Like any Poulsen gathering, there was lots of yummy food and desserts! On Saturday, we all cheered on the Cougars (well except for Mark's Mom...she is a die-hard Utah fan!) and we were excited for their victory over Utah. Mark and I managed to escape one of the days up to beautiful Zion's Canyon to let Sydney run around in leaves and just explore like any normal kid loves to do. We had to bundle little Sophie up the best we could because it was a little colder than St. George.
Sophie had just her little face peeking out from her BYU hat! We didn't have room for a stroller on the trip up so we had to carry her everywhere...including the short hike we took Sydney on.
Sydney was excited to climb on all the rocks but we were just worried that she would slip and fall. I guess that is pretty typical of us!
We hiked to the lower Emerald Pool and waterfalls with the girls. Then we headed back over to the lodge so Sydney could play in all the leaves on the grassy area out front. She loved running through them and making all the crunching sounds!
At the end, we drove back towards the entrance and just pulled off to the side by the river so Sydney could just explore all the trees and leaves.

She ran down to the river to throw rocks and sticks in the water.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending time with the whole family. Sydney and Sophie both came home with colds (so that meant more sleepless nights!) and last week Sophie's cold turned into an ear infection (so we are still suffering without sleep). I think all I want for Christmas is some sleep, six hours in a row would be nice!

AZ Science Center

2007-11-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

One of my friends invited us to go with her and her kids to the AZ Science Center a few weeks ago. It was so much fun and Sydney loved hanging out with her friend Caleb (next to her in the picture). They both enjoyed playing with magnets, iron, different colors on a light box, trying out different instruments and watching the frequency of waves, learning about volcanoes, and all the other things we did!

This was one of their favorite exhibits. It was this giant airplane in some kind of wind tunnel thing. When they pressed the buttons on the joy-sticks it would create different wind currents and "fly" the plane. We had to "fly" the planes several times!

Caleb and Sydney are hard at work transferring rock from one side of the box to the other! Sydney loved the child sized shovels.
There was another exhibit about airplanes and a miniature plane we could go in and pretend to sit on the seats. Shauntel and I laughed because there was way too much leg room...maybe these were supposed to represent first class seating!
It was a fun day and Sydney loved all the interesting exhibits.

Sydney's First Haircut

2007-11-26T15:44:00.000-08:00

I took Sydney in a few weeks ago to get her very first hair cut (well really it was just a trim). I guess I just got tired of the daily battle with her tangles and curls. She loved having her hair washed in the little sink. Later when she was at home she asked if we could get a sink like that to wash her hair! She was very good while the lady cut her hair.

And the final result....
I still have so many posts to catch up on...so hopefully by the end of this week, everything will be mostly updated! I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We just got back from St. George where we spent Thanksgiving with all of Mark's family. I'll post more on that later!

Very Cool New Shoes!

2007-11-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

I love new running shoes!

After way too many miles logged on my old pair of running shoes and recurring knee pain every time I wore them...it was time to buy a new pair. I also discovered that the air pocket on one of my old shoes had been popped (which could have been causing my knee pain). Finding the perfect running shoe is never an easy task. First of all, the only stores in the entire valley that carry a large selection of Saucony running shoes are about 45 minutes away. I waited with great anticipation all last week to go get my new shoes. When I first tried these (they are Saucony Pro Grid Hurricane's) on in the store I started laughing at the difference between my old shoes (that I had worn there). Then last Saturday I took them out for their first run on the Tolleson high school track. I love these shoes! I have gone running several times in them so far...and I haven't had any knee pain and they provide the best stability for my ankles! Right now, my favorite place to go for a run is on the high school track, at night. Usually the lights are on and no one is even on the track so I get the whole thing to myself. There is a club soccer team that practices on the field (which is probably why the lights are on) but they never bother me. It is definitely something I look forward to.

F is for Farm!

2007-10-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

This past week has been filled with lots of activities and just a bit of stress (not like parents ever experience that)! First, Mark and I want to wish all our family and friends that live in Southern California the best, and that they are all safe and their homes are ok. Sometimes watching horrible disasters on the news makes you very grateful for all the blessings of a safe home and a place to live. We are so blessed to have our beautiful little girls and a home in Phoenix. Maybe it is not always "heaven on earth" but as long as we have each other...I guess nothing else matters too much. Our weekend started off with great anticipation for the rare night off and plans to stay home and do nothing.
Well...that didn't happen. Sydney and Sophie were playing in the living room when Sophie rolled onto her tummy. This is not a new occurrence and neither is Sydney helping Sophie roll back over once Sophie starts to squeak (because she is done being on her tummy). However, just as I was in the middle of making dinner, I heard a scream from Sophie. Sydney had flipped her over but somehow Sophie's arm was still pinned under her at a weird angle. I immedietly unpinned her arm and picked her up...but she was still crying and cried for awhile. After Mark got home we decided to take her to the pediatric urgent care because she was still crying and would not move her arm. The doctor was very nice there and looked at Sophie right as we arrived. She was also concerned that Sophie would not move her arm so she sent us into Phoenix to St. Joseph's hospital (which is known for excellent neurological care). They did all the x-rays and everything came back ok. Plus since it had now been several hours since the incident she was acting a bit better. She would at least move her fingers and smile! The doctors told us she would probably be ok...and she was. Saturday afternoon she started moving her arm like normal and grabbing for her toys. Thank goodness things are back to normal.
On Thursday last week, Sydney's pre-school class took a field trip to a farm. Here she is with one of her best friend's, Maddy.
Sydney is grinding lots of corn to feed to the chickens. She also tried to feed this duck that was wandering around. Sydney kept chasing the poor duck (and trying to feed him corn too) all over until I finally could catch her and make her stop.
She loved all the animals and was not afraid to pet or feed any of them.
All the other kids were scared to try and feed this burro or donkey (I don't know which it is) but Sydney stepped right up and let it eat out of her hand. Then the other kids decided that it was ok to try to feed the burro/donkey as well.

This little pig kept sliding underneath the fence and running around. Sydney was delighted and tried to catch it. Then it ran back in the pen and hid underneath the trough that the goats were eating out of. Sydney ran right into the pen, pushed the goats out of the way and was trying to crawl underneath the trough to get the pig out. I went to stop her from getting THAT dirty and instead she is just trying to pull the poor pig out. The pig was kind of cute so I don't blame her for wanting to hold it... And if anyone was wondering, Sophie slept calmly in her stroller the entire time, which is a good thing since I spent lots of time chasing Sydney all over.
We got the girls all dressed up in their costumes to go to the ward "trunk-or-treat" activity. Sydney was excited to be a witch.
We dressed Sophie up like a little black kitty--to match with Sydney of course. So Sydney and her "kitty" went to their party!

Where has October gone?

2007-10-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

I can't believe October is here and almost done with! Now that it is cooling off some, we have been trying to plant trees and other plants in our yard. We are also getting ready to put in sod, in a few weeks. In between all that yard work we have been busy with soccer practice, swimming lessons, and the usual activities that always pop-up on the calander. The other day, one of our friends invited us to go to the zoo with them. I gave in and purchased a season pass to Sydney's "new favorite place to go"! I figured it was about time we started zoo trips again. When we first moved to Phoenix I had a pass and I went to the zoo to walk around almost every week. However, it has been over three years since I have been there and I noticed several changes. They have made so many improvements amd I was pleasantly suprised. We started off our zoo adventure with a picnic inside the park, by a giant tree house (that's not featured in my picture). I don't know if Sydney was more excited about the picnic or the zoo. She LOVES picnics!
Doesn't Sophie look elated to spend an entire afternoon dozing in her stroller underneath her hat...and occasionally watching with some mild interest all the kids running around.

Here is Sydney with her friend Katie and another little girl Skyla who came along too for the fun. We all tried to get some cute pictures of them but they would not stay still or look at the camera that day. Sydney and Katie are also on the same soccer team!
Of course one of their favorite places to stop by was the farm where we could pet all the goats.
So as a reminder, one of my favorite holidays is only a few weeks away....Sophie cooperated and gave the camera a cute smile. I just had to try on Sydney's old pooh bear costume, from when she was a baby. Actually Sophie is going to be a black kitty this year...because Sydney is going to be a witch! I'm sure I will take about a million pictures of them in a few weeks.
Happy Halloween everyone!
I have been feeling a bit busy lately as I'm sure most everyone is experiencing. I still love to squeeze in just a bit of blogging (even though I really should be working on some other stuff right now)! I have started another blog site 4 Tablespoons which is just a blog of my favorite recipes and food! Most of you probably already know how much I love spending time in the kitchen making yummy food. So if you're interested you can check out what's cooking at our house! I love cooking blogs and websites and so this is just my point of view (I guess) on what I like to eat! Maybe some of you will find something yummy to try out for the holidays!

Sleeping through the night...

2007-10-07T17:02:00.001-07:00

Well once about three weeks ago....Sophie slept through the night! She did it for three nights in a row. However, I think those particular three nights she must have communicated to Sydney that she would not be available to wake us up, so it would be Sydney's job to be sure and get up several times to remind us that monsters and dragons do sneak into the house after hours. Unfortunately there has been no repeat performances of sleeping through the night. Instead Sophie wakes up anywhere from 3-4 (sometimes even more) times a night. And then there is the occasional night or two when Sydney comes in to wake us up...because of the above mentioned monsters and dragons. We are so behind on our sleep!
Sydney likes Sophie to just hang out with her while she is playing...and of course Sophie loves to just watch. Sophie is just waiting for the day when she can start crawling and following Sydney all over the house. They are two little peas in a pod! One day I put Sophie down for a nap and went to crash myself. Sydney decided to sneak into Sophie's room and climb in the crib with a stack of books. She woke Sophie up and then read books to her. I'm sure Sophie was excited for the attention. At least that lasted for about a half hour (so I could try and nap)!

Well on Friday, someone from admissions at ASU called and left a message for Mark letting him know he was accepted into the MBA program for next fall. We are so proud of him for the hard work he has done to prepare for this next big step. He will be attending ASU's evening MBA program and continue to work full-time for U-Haul. He starts school in August and Sydney will start Kindergarten as well. We are still waiting to hear back that she has been accepted to the school we want her to attend. This means that we have about 10 months left to enjoy our time together before it gets pretty busy around here.

Seashells in the Backyard?

2007-10-02T14:25:00.001-07:00

Sydney loves seashells. She is always talking about how she needs to go to a beach to find some. Once we were over at a friends house and she saw a vase full of seashells (probably from a craft store). She was so excited and just wanted to play with the seashells instead of with all the toys or her little friend. I just laughed. Consequently, she found this seashell in our backyard yesterday while I was digging a hole for one of our new trees. I was a little surprised. If anyone could find a seashell in Arizona...it would probably be Sydney. Mark and I were discussing how a seashell could possible have ended up in our backyard.

1. A neighbor threw it over the wall.

2. One of the construction workers dropped it while working on the house or sprinkler system.

3. Possibly, this part of Arizona was actually prime beach front property millions of years ago.

However it ended up in our dirt...she is thrilled. She carried it around all day yesterday and told just about everyone all about her seashell. One of her friends came over after pre-school to play today and I wasn't surprised when Sydney ran to her room to get her seashell to show off! I'm not sure her friend was equally impressed or interested but Sydney didn't seem to care. She loves her seashell!

Unfortunately, it was not a very large seashell! I guess it is perfect for her to carry around.

Robyn's Baptism.

2007-09-23T19:09:00.001-07:00

Robyn was baptized on Saturday! Congratulations Robyn. Before she was confirmed, all the cousins and Robyn sang "I am a Child of God"...or at least stood up there and smiled!

Here is Robyn in her pretty dress and the girls!
Silly girls...they had so much fun socializing afterwards.
I couldn't decide which picture was cuter...so I posted them both.
While waiting for Robyn to finish talking with other family members the girls decided to dance.
This is Tori's cutest smile!
The girls with Justin...although he would only stand by them for just about one picture and he was off!
They also played "Ring around the Rosies".
"We all fall down"!
And then get back up and play it again!

Squeak-a-peep!

2007-09-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sophie is always squeaking at us...so we call her a little squeak-a-peep. She has also started to giggle a little bit. It is so cute. She is much more interested in her toys now and likes to grab onto things. At dinner time we always put her in her new high chair so she can be a part of the family. She loves to add in her "two cents" while we are all talking. So this is just a bit of Sophie's dinner conversation.

Where does Jesus live?

2007-09-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last night, Sydney, Sophie and I decided to walk down to the park. Sydney climbed on her bike and was heading down the driveway when she spotted the moon up in the sky. I was putting Sophie in the stroller and Sydney was apparently starring up at the moon. All of the sudden she says, "Mom, does Jesus live on the Moon?" Hmmm....I supose that is a reasonable possibility for her to think up, since I'm sure most kids have pretty vague ideas where heavenly beings might reside. I admit I laughed and said I didn't think he lived there (why would anyone want to live on the Moon???). Then I ran in the house to get Mark so he could explain where Jesus lived and I could finish getting us all ready to go to the park!

Preschool.

2007-09-16T14:10:00.001-07:00

Here's Sydney on her first day of preschool. She started the day after Labor Day. I can't believe she is finally big enought to go to preschool. Sydney LOVES preschool and is usually ready to leave an hour before it is time to go. She loves having a backpack to bring home all the things she makes.

Each week they focus on a different letter of the alphabet. So last week was the letter A. They read lots of books about things having to do with A's and played games and of course made crafts and art projects. This was her apple tree she made. I wanted to take a picture of the airplane she made but after being played with all day for several days...the airplane was retired (to the trash). Oh well, I'll have to take pictures of stuff right when she gets home next time. I love it when she comes home and she will talk non-stop about everything she did. It is also nice to have one less child to haul around on errands.

Tagged!

2007-09-13T15:18:00.001-07:00

This is such a fun way to get to know our story a little bit better. Robyn "tagged" me so now I have to answer the questions about us! Then at the end I can tag other people to post a blog similar to this one.

1. Where did you meet your husband?

We were in the same ward and apartment building (Jamestown at Liberty Square) at BYU. We knew each other for a year before we really started hanging out all the time. Mark had a cool group of guys that me and a few friends used to go hang out with lots. We would go watch their Ultimate Frisbee games or "dunk ball" games. But mostly we spent time with all of "Saus" (that's what everyone called the Mark's friends) watching basketball and other sports and hanging out with them.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?

I have no idea??? Probably...something about how tall he was! (actually, I think the first time I ever met Mark, Robyn was there...and since he had just returned from Venezuela, Robyn and him were probably talking Spanish or talking about how he spoke Spanish! At least that's what I vaguely remember)

3. Where was your first date?

This one makes me laugh...because Mark and I honestly never really went on "dates"...at least none that I can really recall. We always just hung out with all of Saus. Well ok, sometimes, they would plan a big group date and we would go along on those. Actually I have plenty of memories of going to see "Testaments" at the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. in Salt Lake for Saus dates. I can't even begin to count how many times we went and saw "Testaments"...probably because the guys always thought this would impress the girl of the week they were currently dating!

4. Where was your first kiss?

Hmmm...we (as in all of Saus and most of our ward) had all gone up to Brock's cabin up one of the canyons in the Salt Lake area. Actually it was always gorgeous up there and I have so many memories of all the fun games we used to play up there and hiking to Doughnut Falls (I think that is what it was called). Anyway, the sun was setting and Mark and I were sitting on top of Weiss' car...and a side note, everyone was watching either from through the trees, or from the hammock, or up in the cabin!

5. Did you seem to have a long or short engagement?

I think it went by pretty fast. We were engaged for about three and a half months. I guess with school and work and wedding plans it went by fast. Plus it was my last semester of having the most fun with all my girls!

6. Where did you get engaged?

Mark proposed to me out on the soccer fields behind Brigham's Landing (the fields where I played lots of intramural soccer games and Mark played lots of Ultimate Frisbee and softball). This was really special to me because I have always loved soccer and it was really important to me.

7. Where were you married?

We were married in the San Diego Temple, May 4 2001. It was beautiful there and San Diego still remains one of my most favorite places to visit.

8. How was the reception?

We ended up having a reception in Redding, CA and also one in Forest Lake, MN. Both were fun and had lots of yummy food. It was fun to see lots of old friends and family.

9. Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for seven days! We stayed at a beautiful resort right on the beach. Some of the fun things we did were going on quads for a few hours through the jungle. We had stopped in this tiny village and these little kids had this burro that Mark climbed on so I could take his picture. Another day we took this boat to this island and hiked in to this waterfall and swimming hole. Mark and I climbed up the cliffs and jumped off. I cut my forehead really bad. Apparently, I was wearing my ring and when I hit the water, somehow my hand grazed the side of my face and cut open my forehead. Then when I got out I had blood streaming down my face. Everyone was all worried but of course I had no idea what had happened. Good thing someone had a baby wipe for me to clean off my face. (We were back in the middle of no where on this island) Then my most favorite thing we did was one evening we took another boat to this other island and had a really romantic dinner on the beach with tiki torches lit all around. Afterwards we saw this show at an outdoor theater. Ahhh...good memories! I can definitely say I am looking forward to the next time Mark and I can escape somewhere without kids!

Well that is how we met and now I have to tag someone else to post on their blog or website. I'm going to tag Catherine and Auralee and Heather (because I don't think they have done this yet on their blogs...well maybe Heather has, so Heather you don't have to if you already did this). I guess I don't know that many people that blog or have websites (and those that I do, have already done something like this!)

Minnesota.

2007-09-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last week Mark and I boarded an airplane to fly back to Minnesota for my sister's wedding. We survived the flight there and back and I think they should give some kind of refund to parents who must sit on planes for longer than two hours with kids. It was very stressful to keep the kids happy and QUIET. If you think it might be easy...try sitting at your kitchen table for over three hours with a few snacks, a DVD player, and maybe a few things to do. Make sure everyone is pretty quiet! You can get up once in awhile to go to the bathroom but otherwise, you just sit there and worry that the kids might start crying, etc...that is what it is like to fly with kids. The weather in Minnesota was perfect. It was about 75 degrees everyday and it cooled down at night. Sydney had so much fun playing outside. She told us she wanted to go back to Minnesota once we were home because it was cooler there...however, I reminded her that it entails a very long plane trip (which she decided against). While we were there we managed to fit in Mall of America and the indoor amusement park there. Sydney had so much fun on all the rides.

As you can see from this picture, Mark doesn't fit on the kiddie roller coaster. He had to squish his knees in and the bar didn't go down far enough to keep Sydney in (so she just slid all over during this ride). Then I decided to let Mark take the pictures and I went on rides with Sydney.
Here we are on the race cars. Actually this ride wasn't too bad! It whipped us around the curves and we were both laughing!
Congratulations Ben and Auralee! They were married in the St. Paul Temple, August 31st. This was also the day the Dave and Jilynn's baby girl was born and it was Mark's Mom's birthday! Ben and Auralee will be leaving soon to move to Columbus, Ohio so that Ben can complete a Masters in accounting at Ohio State. Good luck newlyweds in your new state!
Here is a cute picture of both of my Grandma's at the reception. I think they enjoyed chatting with each other at all the wedding events.
Sydney was getting a little bored during pictures at the temple...so she gathered all these sticks up and decided to make a pretend bonfire. Mark and Ben came over and pretended to roast pink and chocolate marshmellows with her. Of course she was delighted.
That night we decided to have a real bonfire and make s'mores. This was so much fun for all of us. We can't build bonfires anywhere in AZ so we all enjoyed this, plus who can resist yummy s'mores. We put one of Auralee's shirts on Sydney so the mosquitos wouldn't bite her...but it turned out that they just weren't that bad anyway.
Here is the sticky remains.
The next day we went to the "beach" on the lake by my parents house. Again this was another beautiful day and it felt so good to be outside breathing air that had lots of oxygen in it (as opposed to dust and smog). Everything is so green and beautiful there. Sydney had fun making sandcastles and hunting for rocks in the water...since there were no seashells on this beach!

Look at that view...who wouldn't want to live in a place like this!

These are the rocks Sydney wanted to take home, but I told her I would just take a picture of them instead...since I can't imagine how we would haul them home! We loved being in Minnesota and it was fun to see Auralee and Ben and get to know him. I can't deny that we loved the weather there and the lack of traffic and all the green grass and trees. When we landed in Phoenix, the pilot announced that it was a cool 104 degrees (at about 8:30 pm). We just laughed because of course that is cool for here!

Tiny Toes.

2007-08-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

I know I have posted lots of pictures this month but I just had to include these last few for the month of August. I took a picture of Sophie's little feet and then I was playing around with the Microsoft Paint program. I know it's pretty basic but it still allows you to overlay text with pictures and play around with the background, etc.

Sophie is almost supporting her own head now, so we put the swing up another notch from the reclining position. She loves to look around and watch what everyone is doing.
I was trying so hard to get her to smile but she was just fascinated by all the funny sounds Sydney and I were making instead (to get her to smile). She just kept staring at both of us (like we were kind of weird!). Oh well...she has cute cheeks.

Crayons.

2007-08-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

I don't even have to explain what is in this picture because she drew everything so well! Sydney LOVES to color. It would be a state of emergency around here to run out of coloring books, paper and crayons!
I looked at what she was doing and she said "Mom, I drew a tree!" Yes that is definitely a tree. It doesn't look very much like the trees I drew as a kid...but it looks like the trees Sydney sees all over the place here! I just had to laugh at her concept of a tree.

More Swimming.

2007-08-22T14:02:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday we decided to take Sydney swimming at a pool close by. There was a whole lot more than just a pool there! Sydney loved this place and it was only a few dollars to get in. She probably went down the blue slide in the picture about 50 times. This part of the pool area featured a zero depth entry pool with a playground structure and lots of water cannons and spraying fountains of water. Then there was a regular lap pool with a diving area behind this pool. And then just to the left of this pool was some big waterslides and a lazy river.

This is more of the pool area. There were two bigger slides for older kids and a lazy river that went around this part.
Here's Mark and Sydney on their tube on the lazy river. For some reason Sydney wanted to go with Mark on his tube instead of the littler white tubes they had for kids.

Just in case you were wondering what Sophie and I did...we just sat in the shade and melted. I sprayed her with my mister every few seconds and she didn't really seem to mind just being out in the heat. She loved watching all the kids playing. Next year it will be so much fun to all go swimming (hopefully I'll be able to find a swimsuit by then)!

Cotton and turtle gates...

2007-08-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

When we were in St. George, we went to see the St. George temple. While we were walking around the grounds, someone pointed out these huge planters filled with cotton plants. There are a few fields of cotton in Tolleson...but of course I have never really paid too much attention to them. I thought these plants were kind of cool though. You could practically pick a cotton ball out of each one of the "flowers" once they open up.Here is a close up of the cotton "flower" which is basically a good sized cotton ball sticking out. Maybe I should plant one of these in my backyard so that I can remove nail polish outside without having to go hunt down cotton balls!
Another funny thing we saw while driving around St. George were these short fences (only about 1 1/2 feet high) that bordered many of the roads. They are called turtle fences and they keep the turtles or tortoises off the road. There must be a lot of turtles residing in the area to warrant building these fences everywhere.
I just found this picture online of a desert turtle...when I got out to take a picture of the turtle fences I certainly looked around to see if I could find one...but they must have all been hiding from the hot sun. Oh well, I'm sure most desert turtles look pretty much the same.

Reunion!

2007-08-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we packed the kids into our car along with all our kid gear and drove up to St. George for my college reunion. We almost decided not to go because it was going to be such a short trip and a bit of a hassle with Sophie still not sleeping well at night. She did about as well as I expected and we were very tired when we made it home Sunday evening. However, it turned out to be so much fun to see all my old friends and I only wish I could have stayed longer than the day. This is the view from Bekah's cabin just outside of Zion's. Pretty amazing!

Not all of us could attend but this is a picture of most of us plus a few extra kids (Mark was taking the pictures)! I think we are all pretty cool girls still. We have grown up so much since all our escapades at Liberty Square. Everyone was so nice and friendly and has become the kind of person you would always want to hang out with all the time. I was really nervous to see everyone again because it really has been awhile for most of us. Turns out I worried for nothing though because it was just so easy to talk to everyone and it didn't seem to matter that so many years have passed and we are all spread out all over the U.S.A. pursuing our own paths. Ok...and we are all lots prettier too (not that we weren't in college, maybe because we are just that much better at our own unique styles)! Mark and I just drove up for the day on Saturday to see everyone. We mostly just hung out and chatted and took some pictures and ate lots of yummy food and then Tara pulled out some funny stuff from her scrapbook that we used to say and do. She also had saved these papers we had to fill out on what we would be doing in five years. Those were fun to read through.
In this little room off of the living room was a piano that Sydney spent some time playing on when she wasn't chasing Bekah around.
Here is Sydney and Bekah trying to hide! Sydney loved Bekah and kept shouting for her to come chase her. Bekah also took her down to the edge of the property to look at the creek and to see the dogs. Then when we were doing all the girl stuff from Tara's scrapbook, Bekah let Sydney video tape some people and then let her borrow her cell phone to take about a million pictures! I guess Bekah probably has more pictures on her phone of the cabin than she could ever imagine!
We were almost to the I-15 to drive back to St. George and I looked back to see Sydney fast asleep. I think Bekah wore her out (or maybe it was the other way around).

Next time there is a girl reunion I am definitely going to try and come for a bit longer!

Me Makeover!

2007-08-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

There never seems to be enough time or money to go and get my hair cut and colored. I am kind of impulsive as well, so when I do feel like doing something to my hair it is usually last minute and I always have difficulty finding a place to fit me in. However, there are a few occasions that warrant an update and makeover! This weekend I am going to a college reunion to see some old roommates and friends that I lived by at Liberty Square at BYU (before Mark and I got married). Liberty Square was the only place I ever had the opportunity to live off campus before getting married and I have to admit...I had the best times there! All of the girls were so much fun. How I miss those carefree days! Anyway, after being married for over six years and two kids later...I probably look a bit different. (Ha...maybe that's because I don't have hours to SLEEP, workout, do my hair, go shopping for cute clothes, and put make-up on in the morning.) After surveying the results of letting my hair grow out way too long, without any color for over two years, and hair that spends most days (ok everyday) in a ponytail, I decided I needed to go in for some professional help! So after a fortune spent...here are the results. Actually I really like my new cut. The stylist put lots of layers and cute BANGS, but they aren't that difficult to do. She also put some blond highlights and this cinnamon color in. Too bad I didn't take a before picture. I was so excited when I saw what she did. I guess it was worth it after all. Hopefully I look at least my age now or younger!

All about Sydney!

2007-08-05T14:56:00.001-07:00

So in case anyone was wondering about these pictures of Sydney and the other ones of Sophie in her pretty dress...I took them last week. I feel kind of bad that I still haven't taken Sophie to get any professional pictures done so last week I finally made an appointment to have them done. Then when the lady called me back...somehow she talked me into getting Sydney's done as well and doing some cute sister pictures. I tried so hard to figure out something cute for them to wear that would at least coordinate, but all the stores have moved onto their fall lines, and I just couldn't bring myself to buy long sleeve clothes just yet. (Actually, I was really hoping to find a few pairs of shorts to replace the ones Sydney has almost worn out...she usually wears shorts clear until December!) Anyway, then I got to thinking how much of a hassle it would be to haul two girls out in the heat and then try and get them to smile for pictures...and then I always feel like I have to buy the pictures because the photographer tries so hard...and I am super picky. On top of it all, I still didn't really have matching or coordinating outfits so on Thursday morning I found a big blanket and did an impromptu photo shoot with my digital camera. Surprisingly, I captured some pretty good shots (in my unprofessional opinion) and I decided at the last minute that these pictures are probably better or at least as good as any I would have gotten. So once again Sophie is without professional shots...hopefully she will still turn out! Seriously with Sydney we were always taking her to Kiddie Kandids to get pictures.

Obviously this is my blog so I can brag about anything I want...but I just think my kids are so cute! Sydney has the cutest smile when you manage to capture it on film. I know some people take pictures and store them in boxes...and I do that too...but I am always pulling out those old boxes or looking through folders on my computer, at all the old pictures of Sydney (and Sophie...although, those aren't very old)! I just love all the happy memories in them. Maybe I'll dig up some old ones of Mark and me when were just married and young and had time to get 10 hours of sleep a night! We look so young and we don't have any "tired lines"!
I think Sydney has a cute "model" face in this picture. She didn't smile too big but she just looks gorgeous. I wish I had pretty long ringlets like her.
Yesterday we took Sydney to a friends birthday/pool party. Keep in mind she has only had four weeks of swim lessons in the city of Phoenix program. But I have to admit it was the best $12.00 ($6.00 for a two week session...isn't that amazing) I could have invested in her extra-curriculars! She jumped in yesterday and suprised us by really starting to swim. She is like this little fish in the water. I don't think I could swim as well as her until I was about 8...so I was very impressed. She just loves going underwater and paddling around and floating on her tummy. I am so excited that she is really progressing in this area. It is very important to be able to swim in Phoenix!