I'M BaaaaaaaaaaaCK!!

Okay so I have been way out of the blogging world for so long. I hate that I don't have a computer. I think I have a love hate relationship with the modern technology world. Anyway, just thought I would try to make up the last 2 months in a very long post. Hope you all stay long for the ride.

In January we went to visit Texas. It was great to be able to see Hailey compete in one of her gymnastic meets. I wish I had my camera with me that night. She did great. Her floor routine ROCKS! One day I took the girls over to the pond to feed the ducks. It was fun. Charlotte wanted to run and jump in. Savannah thought the goose was a swan.

Feeding the ducks

Running to the ducks

This face cracks me up. I am so glad I caught it.

When we saw this sign Savannah insisted that I took a picture of it.
On our way home we stopped for lunch at Dairy Queen. Charlotte had never had an ice cream cone before. She was so funny. She would lick it and love it but then because it was cold she tried to wipe it off her tongue. It was pretty funny.


Valentines Day
When we got home we had some great friends plan a Valentines Day party. But it was a "Flash Back Prom". Since we never got to go to a prom with our sweetheart they recreated it. They had pictures when we first came in, punch, dancing and little bit of rock band in the garage. It was lots of fun. Some dresses were awesome! I was regretting wearing one of mine from high school. I should have worn my older sisters. It would have been more fun.
All the Girls

All the boys

Ragnar Relay
So back in November Chad agreed to be in the Ragnar Relay Race. It is a race with 12 people going from Wickenburg to Mesa. Most of the team was from our ward so it was cool to really have them get to know each other at more of a personal level. (three guys all sleep in the bed in a 5-wheel will do that ;) ) Chad was more of a weekend warrior in his training, and getting down to the wire of the actual race he was thinking, hum maybe I shouldn't have said I would do this. They also changed the race route a bit and added an additional 24 miles. So the race now ran from Prescott to Mesa. Chad was runner #12. For the race there was always someone running, day and night. They started at 11am on Friday the 27th of February. Chad's first leg of the race was at around 9pm in the middle of nowhere. He thought it was kind of cool running all alone but kind of creepy too. He could hear the coyotes and there was no moon out. His Ipod's battery died so he borrowed a teammates and he later said it was really creepy listening to 'thriller' when it is so dark. His second leg was running just up the road from our house. Savannah was excited to see daddy and cheer him on. This was his longest leg. The last 2 miles were killer he said. Our elders quorum president Allan was awesome to be there for Chad while he was running. He got him some gatorade and water and was there every 500-1000 ft to cheer him on and give him water. (I was a slacker and had to bolt home to get the camera since I forgot it). Jill was good at helping run him in to the end. Since Chad was runner #12 he was the one to cross the finish line on Saturday night. He was great to be there at the end of the race and see him come running in with all this safety lights on. Total he ran a little over 19 miles. My dad was with me at the end of the race and we brought him back to sit in the hot tub to soak all his muscles. I think he was glad it was over and VERY glad he did it. He is planning to do it again next year. I would love to run too but my body will not let me. I am so proud of him for doing it. Running in a race that is 202 miles, wow ... I can't even begin to imagine the sense of accomplishment. I love you babe!!

The Dramatic final 100 ft

Super Man Finishing the Race
The Super R.A.C.E.R.S

Van #2

Disney #2

My mom goes on an art tour every Spring to California with Dixie College and one of the days she goes to Disneyland. She really wanted us to come out to see her while she was there. Chad had to work so I took the girls over by myself and went to Disney. So the first weekend of March we were off. We left on Friday around 10a and when we got there, we checked in then i took the girls over to California Adventure to see the parade. Charlotte loved the characters and bubbles. She was waving to everyone. Savannah wanted to eat at Ariels Grotto. I didn't realize you had to have a reservation but they were able to squeeze us in and even sitting inside and not on the patio. We were definitely paying for the princesses that is for sure. The food wasn't that bad though. Savannah loved that fact that each princess came to our table. Charlotte was just wanting to go to bed. She was almost falling asleep at the table. We went back to hit the sack and so we could head to the Magic Kingdom in the morning. Yes, I know i am crazy to take my daughters to Disneyland by myself on a Saturday. We did see a few new characters like princesses at Ariel's Grotto, Mr & Mrs Incredible, Frozone, Sully, Handy Manny, Woody, so that was good. It wasn't too bad and we didn't go on too many rides but had fun. We met up with mom around 4pm. I had my pedometer on me and at the end of the day we walked 10.5 miles. Savannah did almost all of it too. I gave her a piggyback at the end of the night and she totally crashed. I have to say my arms were sore in the morning. It was a fun trip BUT I have to say I will always be bringing Chad with me in the future. We survived but it was very exhausting.

Charlotte was terrified of Mr. Incredible.

Frozone kept getting right in Charlottes face while she was in the stroller and she was doing everything she could to get away from him even though she was strapped in the stroller.

I wanted a pic with Small World in the backgroud with Grandma but Charlotte hadn't warmed up to Grandma yet. And she decided to throw one of her notorious fits.

On Small World with Grandma. Charlotte had to be a big girl and sit on the seat and not my lap.

St. Patricks Day
So one of my creative friends had a brilliant idea to get the kids together to celebrate St. Patty's Day!! We let the kids color pics and had lunch. The big hit was the little pill sponge thingys. Remember those things. It looked like a little pill and you put it in warm water and it was dissolve and become an animal or something? Anyway, the kids were all in awe of those. So thanks M.E. for a great time and fantastic idea.

Do we Look Irish?

Savannah and her friends at their St. Patty's Day lunch.

Just a few fun pics from the past couple of months

You have to wonder what she is thinking with that look.

New Fisher Price sponsered play area at the zoo.

Tea Party with Grandma Theresa

Boy did that take me a whole lot longer than I thought it would. Hopefully it was 2 hours well spent and you all enjoyed all the pictures. Sorry about that though, I just figure pics help to tell what is going on better than I can.

Disneyland Character Pics

Disneyland

So we arrived to Disneyland last week. Savannah was so excited. She kept asking every 30 minutes if we were in California yet. We got a rocky start, since I forgot the bottle warmer (I can't seem to get Charlotte off the bottle for milk, and she insisted on it being warm). So as we were stuck in traffic and Charlotte had been screaming for the last 45 minutes we pulled off to Walmart in Buckeye. Can I say that I wanted to just hang out in Walmart for a while because it was quiet. We finally got the bottle warm and then right as we were completely away from Buckeye and nothing for about 40 miles Savannah says she has to go potty. Mind you we asked if she had to go while we stopped. So luckily she was able to hold it for the 40 miles to the rest stop. Then we were finally on the road. We pulled into Anaheim at around 11p our time. Savannah was so excited. She woke up early and wanted to go. The park did not open until 10am but she wanted to leave at 8am. Oh and she kept getting mad at me for calling it the 'park' since 'it was Disneyland and not a park mom.' She was so excited when we actually got up to see the gates. As Chad was getting our tickets I had to take a picture of their expressions. Even Charlotte seemed excited.

Enjoying a sucker while Savannah and I are on the tea cups

Outside of Minnie's House

Savannah's #1 goal was to see the Princesses and all the characters. Since we had a 3 day hopper pass we thought to try to see as many as we could. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Preeti we bought the wide picture mats so that they can sign on the mat then we can put a picture in of them at Disneyland. All the characters (or those that were with them) thought it was a great idea. Too bad I don't have a mat business to market it to them. By the time we got in and hunted for a belt for me (I forgot mine and my pants were falling down) after no luck we made our way to the Jungle Cruise. Charlotte slept through the ride as well as Priates which was the next one. Chad took Savannah on Splash Mtn. We didn't tell her about the big waterfall just that there were cute animals in there and they sang Zip-a-Dee-Do-Da. She was fine until the big hill. Chad said she latched on tight. But afterwards she said she didn't like it because she got wet. We brought some of her princess dresses with us, so I put the tank top on and spandex shorts on her then her dress. We laid her pants out on the stroller to dry. They were dry when it started to get dark, and cold so it worked out perfectly.

Thought this picture would be appropriate for Chad.

On the next day we did a lot of character autographs. Charlotte was not too fond of them. Goofy tried to shake her hand but she quickly pulled it away. By the time we got to Mickey she was fast asleep. Mickey posed for pics with her, and had his finger to his mouth in the 'sshhh' motion. It was cute. Mickey was also apparently thirsty. We brought in a few sodas, and we had a Dr. Pepper on the stroller. He reached out with his hands and rubbed his tummy. When I asked, 'Does Mickey want a Dr. Pepper?" He shook his head yes. Savannah thought that was pretty funny.

Later that night I took Savannah on Big Thunder Mtn. I told her we did not go down big hills but had to go up so that we could go fast. Half way through she told me she wanted to get off and did not like it. We watched the show Fantasmic and the girls were so into it. When Mickey took his sword to the dragon Charlotte instantly started clapping. It was so cute.
Charlotte in her ears. She actually kept them on!Plus she had to add the crown too!
Our last day we had a few unexpected visitors with us, 4 neices/nephew from St. George come with us. It took us away from our little family a bit since they were older and wanted to go on the bigger rides that either Savannah couldn't go on or didn't want to. We took them over to California Adventure and they girls had a lot of fun on the Monsters Inc ride. We also really enjoyed the Toy Story Mania ride. All in all it was a wonderful trip. We actually upgraded our tickets to season passes. All we have to do is go one more day and it is paid for. So anyone want to go with us??

Eggs = Baby?????

Okay so this little story has a little preface to it.

A couple weeks ago, Savannah was watching Diego and they were saving some penguin eggs. Well they went to save the eggs when the penguin hatched out. She then asked me how the penguin got in the egg. Since I want to be up front and honest with her in all of her questions I thought about it for a minute. I told her the momma penguin laid the egg. She asked how the egg got in there. I thought it might be a good lesson on life a bit. I told her that all girls are born with lots of eggs inside them. Birds kind of make them inside them. She asked, "So do I have eggs?" I told her yes. All girls are born with eggs, but people eggs are very, very tiny and don't have shells on them. Then she asked how we get the baby inside. I told her that when she is married a daddy will give something to mommy to make the baby. She seemed happy with that and hasn't brought it up since.

Until ..... dun, dun, dun ... tonight.

The girls and I were wrestling on the floor. Savannah kept jumping on me, then Charlotte tried to climb on top of Savannah. We were all having a great time. Then I pretended to lay on Savannah, and Chad hopped off the couch and grabbed all of us. Savannah was on the bottom, (Chad and I were holding our weight up so we did not have our weight on the girls). We were all laughing and then Savannah says, "Hurry get off before an egg falls out!" Chad and I started to laugh uncontrollablly. It was so funny, I thought I would share.

Seven Years of Luck

On the 27th Chad and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. When I think of everything that has happened in the last seven years, it sure feels like a long longer. We got a babysitter and were off to dinner. We actually went to the same place as last year, Firebirds, but this year we had to pay. Last year it was the Aflac end of year party so Chad's boss paid for our Anniversary dinner which was nice. We had a very enjoyable dinner and Chad gave me my anniversary gift. Chad had given me a pair of diamond earrings the day we got engaged. Later I found out they were 'regifted'. :) He had given them to another girl then she gave them back to him when they broke up. I was okay with it for the most part. I had taken them out a while back to put pearls in and not had them in. Well Chad took them and traded them up for my own pair. I have no idea how big the first ones were, but he upgraded them to 1 carat princess cut studs. I was totally surprised. He said after all we had been through that I deserved to have my own pair. (Plus being after Christmas and end of year they gave him a killer deal). I LOVE them, of course. I gave him his card at dinner and also 8 pennies. 2001-2008 (2001 was only the year we got married though) and I little something to remember each of those years that we celebrated together. THe 7th anniversary is wool/copper as gifts. We try to stick with the tradition of things. After dinner it was a bit early still and we knew that Savannah would probably still be awake so we decided to go to Dave & Busters to play a few games so that the kids would be asleep when we got home. Hey if we are going to pay for a babysitter we want them to be in bed sleeping when we get home.

Anyway, when we got home Chad brought the babysitter home so I could get 'into' is gift. I also gave him a new laptop bag for his new computer. I think he really enjoyed it. I can't believe we made it to year seven. Wow. I am so grateful for Chad and all that he has done for me. He has helped my testimony in the gospel to grow, and we have had many tears of joy and also sorrow. I wouldn't change anything that has happened and am glad that we are forever for all eternity. Love you babe!

December Family Pictures

Christmas

So you will all have to wait a bit for pictures since I don't want to load them to Chad's laptop to bog it up with excess stuff.

Anyway, the girls were oh so nice to us and didn't get up until 9:30am! We were so excited. I went downstairs to grab our scriptures and the grape juice. We read from Luke 2 and drank our grape juice. We then had our family prayer before heading downstairs. After which Charlotte learned a new word "Amen."

The girls came down stairs and were so excited to see that Santa had come. Charlotte got some of the Play Hut tubes to climb through and the Fisher Price Barn (looks very familiar to when Savannah had it hummm). Savannah got a real tea set and a digital camera. They were so excited. The girls climbed through all the tubes throughout the day and Savannah took pictures of everything you can think of in the house.

We had a great Christmas morning. Later in the afternoon we took the girls to go see Bedtime Stories with a few other families in the ward and also Todd and Anna's family. It was a really cute show. I was so excited that Charlotte slept through most of it. Todd and family came over after to have dinner just hang out a bit.

It was a wonderful day and I'm glad we were able to help a few other families out of only a little bit this holiday season.

Family Pics

So a friend in the ward took these AWESOME pics of us mid December, but since my computer is still on the fritz I have yet to load them. It is almost 1 am and I am getting over the achy flu and I slept most of the day so I thought I would try to load them on. Since I have them all on a disk I don't have to actually load them on Chad's laptop.

We had these taken at the Sahuaro Ranch park. It was lots of fun. Charlotte was just getting over an ear infection and it was a bit windy and it was a cold wind. So we had to keep her happy. I think I am going to go broke ordering all the pictures because I love them all so much. Even though there were signs all over the place saying don't pick the roses, We had to. They were great at helping to keep the girls entertained and happy.

Here are a few of my favorites. I have lots of them ... :)

okay so it would not let me load them ... Arghhh. So I will put it at a slide show. But you can see some of them on her blog. http://www.sixofonefamily.blogspot.com/