Traditional start to our year. Tubing at Soldier Hollow. We forgot Ash's hat, but her hat was a good subtitute for the two times she wanted to go down. After that she was down. I don't think she liked the spray in her face.
Lia was a champ this year, even able to load and unload all by herself.
just enjoying the Midway snow.
It was nice to warm up in the lodge afterward, with some of grandma's yummy treats.
I think Quincy slept the whole time - nice and toasty in her snowsuit. I might have to remember to bundle her up more often if I need a good nap out of her!
Another beautiful Midway day.
We decided to make our trip home more of a vacation, so our first stop was Zion National Park. Ashlyn HAD to take her backpack.
Daddy carrying all three girls. It made me pretty nervous because it was so icy everywhere.
Ashlyn now has an icile fetish. She almost had a nervous break down when she couldn't carry enough and then when we didn't want to carry them any more and had to find new 'homes' for them (leave them behind). Once she was ok with the idea though she was very tender about finding good homes for them.
FROM JER'S
Next it was sunny Sand Diego and a stop at the Mormon battalion. The weather was amazing and we had so much fun trying out everything there.
Gold panning.
Found some!
I wish they worked like this at home!
Guess who took their time panning?
What a sport.
A little time on the beach near Laura's favorite hotel
Legoland! I have been wanting to go there since we moved to Bakersfield...finally it worked out and our kids are old enough to enjoy it.
It was so fun watching them enjoy the rides together. Well, some of the rides they didn't enjoy as much as others....they aren't quite into the tummy tickle rides yet!
One of our first rides was a dragon rollercoaster. Ellia didn't like it so much, but Ashlyn rode it two or three times and really liked it!
I was going to bypass the scenic stuff, but once we got down in it (past the stars wars stuff which I know nothing about) it was actually my favorite part and Jeremy had to pull us away.
They even had a depiction of New Orleans! It was so fun to look at and realize we'd see the real thing in less than a month.
Mardi Gras parades and all.
New York City was also pretty cool.
We've been to this exact place in Central Park! It's actually where we almost lost the camera.
Here's what the girls really enjoyed...and we had to pull them away from that.
The wait for these cars was kindof lone, but worth it. They move all by themselves. Not on a track or anything, so it was a blast watching the girls try to learn to drive them.
In the aquarium we finally got them to try touching a few things.
Bye Legoland! Hopefully we'll visit you in Florida soon!
So glad to be home.
...and the goodbye's are just beginning. This is the awesome workout group the stake puts on. FREE, Monday through Thursday mornings all year long. Kids play in the gym and there is a different instructor each morning. LOVE IT.
Ashlyn playing with her friend Hailey while we work out.
Finding a home for our hamster Buggie.
SO TIRED.
Giada's birthday party at creation craze studio. The girls got to pait a ceramic of their choice. Both girls chose a unicorn. Ashlyn had to do it twice since her first one broke. Then she was disappointed we couldn't take it home right away. We explained to her that it had to bake in an oven first. Later that week when Kellie delivered the finished product, Ashlyn took hers to the oven and tried to put it in!
Ashlyn is beginning to help herself to things. She cleaned out the fridge for me one morning while I was showering so she could get the makings for Choloate Milk.
For this fiasco she climed to the top shelf of the pantry for sprinkles.
Ellia on White Out (snow day) at TK. They had a cotton ball snow ball fight!
add pic from fb?
They must know they aren't supposed to have an entire bag of suckers if they are hiding under the table with them right?
We have been telling Ashlyn she can start gymnastics as soon as she is fully potty trained, so we gave her a little taste of what it would be like at a field trip. She bounced and laughed the ENTIRE time. I think this girl is ready for full time gym!
Goodbye my dearest book club. I felt kinda cheesy having everyone gather in for a picture, but of course now I am so glad I did. This was my favorite meeting, partly because of the attendance, and because everyone read the book AND there was so much to talk about and very spiritual. We read the book Helen and Randy Hall wrote about their plane crash, Divine Intervention.
Worst....Blow out....Ever. I threw away the onsie, and missed most the workout trying to clean it up that morning, in the mothers lounge.
Maggie's birthday Princess and Prince Party. Ashlyn went as Tangled.
Enjoying the beautiful weather and learning some baseball. Ashlyn was the best shagger ever! She was almost too quick to run and get the balls as she would nearly get hit by the next one.
What you get when you have two older sisters.
Another morning snack for Ashlyn. All the makings for chocolate milk in my bedroom. At least she used a towel to protect for spills ;)
Getting stronger.
Good morning mom!
Playing with bestest friend Maggie.
On Ellia's last share day we took her newly stuffed Build A Bear dog, Hearts, and let all her TK friends put a heart in it.
Goodbye to Neighborhood place preschool, I stocked up on file folder games to make.
If anyone ever asks me, "have you carved an egg?" I can answer, "Yes." I've been wanting to visit Brother Olmstead and see all his crafty work, so Steph and I went one morning. He let us try it out. He uses a Dentist Drill, which, after you get over the sound and smell, the work is actually quite relaxing and enjoyable.
Ellia's 100th day of school. The younger grades wore silly hats, sang fun songs while parading through the older classes and then counted to 100 together.
When I got there it was recess time and I just wanted to watch Ellia to see what she does. She was riding a trike and when she noticed me she tried not to smile, and turned her head away. I loved it, I think I would have done the same thing at her age. A little embarassed and excited at the same time.
Saying our goodbye's. We had a little goodbye party for the girls at Chuck E Cheese. I let the girls get a build a bear and we left it open and got a bunch of hearts. All their friends got to kiss a heart and put it in their bear so the girls could remember them.
Brayden and Sadie
Lizzie
Liberty
Ashlyn with her new dog B.T.
Brooklyn
Boston
Danny, also pronounced Daaaaneeeee!
Vincent
Livia
Emily (with the stairs)
Katelyn
Andy
Maggie
Giada
Chase and Kaitlyn
Get Austin and Hailey
Ashlyn's dance teacher.
Ashlyn was not intersted in taking pictures but when her teacher brough the dog in, we managed some!
Another bucket list thing for me was a baby play date. All these precious girls were born within two months of each other.
Quincy was getting a little pushy.
All the new mamas. Tawna, Sarah, Julie, Aubrey, me and Whitney.
Goodbye's at TK
Cuba
Riley
Shaylie
Julie
Quincy's first smiles.
Since she is smiling now and I needed a 3 year old picture of Ash I had their pictures done at Sears. Little did I know it would be the last time I'd go to a portrait studio as a few months later they, along with wal-mart, k-mart and many others, closed all their studios across the country.
I wasn't planning to get any of Ellia individually, but while I was bribing Ashlyn to be good they snapped some of her and I couldn't resist this one.
Ashlyn sees me clipping the keys to my waistband all the time, and this was her accessory today.
Jeremy and I also had some going away things of our own. Jacque opened her house for a farewell party for us one Sunday afternoon and we were honored to see how many people turned out. What amazing people we have come to know in Bakersfield and how supportive they have been of us in our adventures. We'll miss them all. Then we had a more personal dinner out with a few of our closest friends which was also really fun.
I saw Ashlyn drawing this and I asked her where she learned to draw that...
this is what she showed me.
It's official. Our house is sold and we are headed out. A few before and current house pictures.
We had the girls play at friends while the movers packed everything up, I thought they might be shell shocked and upset seeing the empty house, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They ran around in all the empty space and played puppies!
Here's Quincy enjoying the empty space. It reminds me of a time 5 years ago.... (when Ellia lay on the floor while we looked at the house.)
For the last few weeks we have been running around using up our Bakersfield coupons and gift cards, well on our last night in town we had just one left...Tepanyaki. The girls had a hard time waiting but they ejoyed the show and liked trying out the chopsticks...and ate more than I expected for that matter.
The fire scared Ashlyn a little.
She got very creative with chopsticks.
That night we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield.
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