Adventures in CaraLand

Cara is so sweet to me. She loves me and hugs me and cuddles with me. She loves kisses, hugs, high fives, knuckles, and "finger" (imagine ET finger touching). She always say "MWAH" when she gives you a big kiss, and a lot of times she grabs your chin to pull your face to hers.

She loves "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" and knows about 10+ primary songs. We are constantly singing. However, she does NOT like "I am a child of God" or "I love to see the temple" because we usually sing these songs as we put them to bed. She knows the words, but she also knows when we sing them it means she has to go to bed. So, when she hears these songs she yells, "NO SONG! NO SONG!"

Did I mention she has 2 different volumes for her voice- loud and louder?

Cara loves to hide, pretend to be a puppy, run around the house neighing like a horse, and talk on the phone. She likes to pretend to be asleep and then a second or two later she yells, "WAKE UP!" in a little screech.

In this picture above I made Rich try to get a picture of us pretending to be asleep- but by the time the camera flashed she had already yelled, "Wake up!" She also had just finished talking to auntie Ashley on the phone.

Cara loves to talk on the phone. She and Ryann have to take turns and they always end up fighting.

Peek-a-boo. We love you!

ps- yesterday was the first day she was able to have 2 pigtail/braids in her hair!!

Brain Freeze

Ryann and I ate some ice cream last night after the play. She kept saying it was too cold. After a couple bites she got a brain freeze and I am thinking it was her first one ever. Weird yes, but not so much because we never eat ice cream in our house. Well, honestly, hardly ever never do we eat it. This ice cream in the fridge had freezer burn on it because it had been in there so long.

After explaining why her head hurt, Ryann decided to take it slow.

Here she is preparing for a big bite.

Then after she put it in her mouth she would say, "TOO COLD!" and start to spit it back out in the spoon. Then she would take that same bite again and again until it wasn't "too cold" anymore.

Maybe she was dragging out her bedtime by taking forever to eat it?

Or she is just being a little smarty pants and finding solutions to her problems.

Aladdin Junior

Ryann and I went on a double date with some friend to go see some of the best babysitter's in the world perform for their middle school. They were in Aladdin Junior.

Missy was Jasmine- and she was AMAZING! Her voice was perfect, the rolling of her eyes so convincing, and it was so much fun to watch her perform.

Her little brother Jason was in the second cast as Aladdin, so we didn't get to see him perform that part tonight- but we sure watched him as one of the members of the marketplace. He was great as well.

Ryann absolutely loved the Genie! He was hilarious and loud and full of energy.

Every time the lights went down she would start clapping and look at me and say, "Can we watch it again!?" She was so thrilled that a new scene woulds start every time she asked.

She had a lot of fun and they will continue to perform tomorrow and Thursday night if any of my local friends are interested in going. 6:30 at the middle school, $5 tickets.

Love our missionary!

We pray every night and morning for our missionary. Uncle Zach is doing so well and he is getting close to his 1 year mark! WOW.

For those of you who don't know, or forgot, Zach is serving in Texas, speaking Spanish.

I think I will try to find the L and the C before we print them out and send them to him.

Cinderella

Yesterday we tried to get the girls to help wash the cars. I think they have been watching too much Cinderella- because who makes their kids scrub the outdoor tile?

Lucky for them we went grocery shopping and they were able to ride the "Horsie ride!" This little 30 seconds of boring/awesomeness is enough to convince them to be good for an entire grocery shopping trip... with coupons! (which breaks down to a 1 1/2 -2 hour shopping trip)

Spanish Senorita

Mija is practicing her Spanish counting for Uncle Zach. I think she is trying to count the number of months he has left on his mission...

She hasn't quite made it that far, but she will be there soon!

Sunshine Day

This is why I live in Phoenix. More importantly why I live in the neighborhood and city that I do. Because we can go outside, in the front yard, spread out a blanket and read books until the sun goes down.

Cara started preschool and she was the "special helper" in class today- she got a sticker for it.

My baby will be 2 next month. How did that happen?

I am such a lucky mom to have such sweet little nuggets.

Mom... will you please scan that picture from my baby book of me at like 4 months with the blanket over my head? I want to show RyRy how sweet it was for her to put this blanket over her head.

I love the age where kids totally pretend they can read.

It is going to happen so fast... the growing up and reading part.

And let me tell you, I am loving every second of this crazy life.

Morning Routine

Every morning when I get home from hiking- I see two little nuggets watching TV as I get ready for work. It keeps them occupied, they eat their breakfast, I can change their clothes with little interruption, etc. Win-win-win! Right?!

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It is a lose-lose-lose for the couch - carpet- coffee table.

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You win some- you lose some.

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And at least I get a chance to exercise and I make it to work everyday. ON TIME!

Precious

At church I teach the 6 year olds who will be turning 7 this year.

They know that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them. They know that their families love them and they know that I love them. At this age I think that is about all they need. If they know that there are people who love them, I think they will do well.

However, we are starting to talk about some real deep ideas (for a 6 year old!) about heaven, repentance, forgiveness, faith, and a lot more. We talk about sins and how to make wrong things right.

I love the look of concentration that one of my sweet little boys gets on his face when he is trying to figure something out. He has asked me a lot about how we will know if we get to go to heaven. Whenever he asks this I just look at him, this sweet innocent boy who has never sinned in his life and my heart just aches for this kind of child-like faith and innocence.

I usually tell him something along the lines of, "Max, do you always try to be a good boy? Do you know that Jesus loves you?".... "yes"... "then keep doing that and you will be able to go to heaven one day."

So on Sunday I gave the boys some free time to draw. Most little boys draw this kind of stuff:

But then I take a look at sweet little Max and I realize this kid has it together.

I have a lot to learn from him.

It is pretty awesome to look at these kids and realize all that they are learning. They pick up on things so fast and they really really want to be loved. I am so thankful that I have always had people in my life who have shown me love, and hopefully I can pay it forward.

Pictures with my Girls

Forget trying to get a picture of the family. I just tried to get pictures of me and my girls, one at a time!

Tough to do.

Here is Ryann with her pillow pet. She loves this guy. She really wants a mini pillow pet unicorn for Easter. She keeps telling me to ask the Easter Bunny. Did someone tell her Easter is like Christmas? Because I didn't think you get a wishlist for Easter like you do for Christmas.

This is her hair after taking it out of her "pony braids". She was loving it- despite what her face in the picture tells you.

And here is miss Cara Kay. She is saying "Cheese" and trying to take a pretend picture with her hands.

LOVE HER!

I also love that she wears dress up high heels as much as possible.

Where did she get that from???

The Snackster

There aren't many kitchen gadgets better than this little guy.

No joke. I got him for a wedding gift and he just keeps on going and making me the best sandwiches of all time.

Thank you for the grilled cheddar cheese/apple/ cream cheese/ tukey sandwich.

Seriously.

Delicious.

Now I have to go find my camera... I am using old picture to try and post something.

First my camera breaks.

And now a little munchkin took it and hid it.

I am going to search under some couch pillows and under beds.

Pony Hair

Ryann wanted me to do her hair like a my little pony. So I braided it all over. She then wanted to act like a pony and have me take pictures. I sure love her guts.

She also wanted to give everyone a kiss!

Our computer and camera are up and working, although a little slower- I don't think we lost anything from the hard drive crash. Not just the hard drive, but the death of the computer.

St Patrick's Day Post

I figure since I am part Irish I better do a quick little St Patrick's Day post... even if it is a day late.

Hey, guess what else? I have posted over 900 posts! Wow. That is seriously insane. I guess it shows that I love my extended family over 900 times because I post for you guys!

Back to this post... my camera is still missing so I had to snap these pictures with my phone.

How do we celebrate St Patrick's Day?

Green hats, green cookies, green M&Ms, Martinelli's, and spending a fun evening at the park with a bunch of friends from church.

Here is a close up of the cookies- the orange sprinkles are some of the gold dust that the leprechaun left behind... and the M&M's are because we know daddy only likes cookies with chocolate. Sugar cookies just don't do it for him.

I wish I would have taken picture of our green potluck at the park. We had green spaghetti, green donuts, green punch, asparagus, pesto sandwiches, green pudding, green jello, and our contribution was... chicken nuggets from McDonald's.

Hey! I am a working mom and my husband was watching a BYU basketball game. What else was I supposed to do??

It was so much fun to get out in this beautiful Arizona weather with a bunch of friends.

Cute New Shoes!!

I felt like I was whining in my post the other day...

I apologize. I hate it when I am negative.

Not to be negative again- but I can't find my camera.

Since I can't find my camera it was hard for me to take a picture of these cute new shoes when Ryann opened up a late birthday package!! Fortunately I took a picture with my phone. Thanks cousin Dean (and Katie and Cory!) for the sweet new "church shoes" that I wanted to get for Ryann. Seriously they couldn't have arrived with more perfect timing.

Ryann wanted to wear her dress soooo bad today, but I made her wear green instead. Hopefully I will snag a picture of her and Cara before the day is over.

Blah

So I sit here in front of my old computer and I am thinking how sad I am that the hard drive on my FAST computer just bit the dust. Like big time. wah wah wah

Then I check out a sweet friend's blog and she talks about some reality checks.

Reality check Brittani!

You have 2 beautiful daughters, a loving husband, 2 jobs that you LOVE, you are healthy, have an amazing family and friends, and a firm faith and purpose in this life.

So I will stop complaining about all the things I want to replace= 2 car windows, the car brakes, the computer, the AC unit, the broken camera, the running shoes, hiking shoes, church shoes for Ryann, and on and on and on. Why do we always want so much more than we need? Why is it so hard to stay focused on the truly important things?

Mommy's Shoes

It looks like Cara isn't the only one who likes to wear mommy's shoes.

Bike Riding

We are starting to realize a 4 year old should be able to ride a bike with training wheels. Like be able to pedal and go in the right direction at the same time.

Since yesterday was such a beautiful day we had Ryann put on all of her riding gear (well, she requested the knee pads-- that quickly fell down and became ankle pads) and we brought her out to the street.

She was very intent and very serious. She did pretty good too. Thankfully she didn't need to make any quick turns.

Whenever she would stop or get stuck when riding Cara would come along and try to push her forward- we were watching closely, but we thought it was pretty funny.

Happy Sunday!

Giants Spring Training

We were able to go to 2 spring training games this past week with my parents. Ryann went to the first one with us. She did great and she passed out asleep around the beginning of the 8th inning. Couldn't ask for much more from her.

This is the picture we took when we told her that Uncle Cory wasn't going to be at the game (the biggest Giants fan ever!)

Then we told her it would be okay because she could eat all the noodles, cotton candy, and kettle corn she wanted.

And here is proof that my wonderful parents actually came to visit!

:)

Just kidding... I love you guys!

Who is coming next to visit us during Spring Training?

The guest bedroom is open for business!

We Miss You

Having my parents here was amazing. It was crazy and hectic and relaxing and productive and wonderful.

We got our sprinkler system fixed.

I was able to spruce up my wardrobe a little bit for spring/summer.

I talked about a lot of patient scenarios (so fun to work in the same profession as my dad!)

I hiked a lot.

We stayed up late and woke up early.

My girls were in heaven.

We watched the Giants win 2 spring training games.

We ate some delicious food.

Did I mention my girls were in heaven?

I got a full nights sleep when Ryann went into my parents bed and cuddled with them instead of asking me for a drink of water in the middle of the night... like she usually does.

Cara sure loves her Papa. Ryann is constantly reminding her that his name is "PACA" instead of Papa, but either way I think he is happy.

One thing I did not do was take enough pictures!!

Concentration

Look at this concentration... she is getting so good at coloring in the lines!

I thought coloring in the lines was like years away... yikes... She is getting to be such a big girl.

computer crash and parents in town

my parents are in town and my computer crashed the other day... sorry no posts. there will be a catch up day soon

Weekend Project

This was a "stay at home work hard to fix up the house" kind of a weekend.

We spent hours organizing toys into boxes so we can neatly arrange them in the girl's closet.

We also went through all their clothes to find what ones do and don't fit anymore.

We have a huge pile of stuff to send off to goodwill and another to send to daycare for the kids to play with.

We also put the girl's dresser into their closet because we obviously don't need it for a changing table anymore, and in doing so we were able to put their play kitchen back into their room.

It is almost done.

Ready for Grandma and Grandpa to come visit tomorrow!!

I'm Walking

Whenever I hear Cara say, "I'M WALKING" I know she has found some of my high heels and is walking around in them. She loves to do this!

She fell backwards during this walk and just thought she was so hilarious. She pulled out her blanket and pretended to sleep.

The crazy thing is that I rarely wear any shoes with heels. I guess she is just my little princess.

Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy hats and gloves.

Pink for Cara and Purple for Ryann. It was perfect and it matched their tutu's perfectly.

Playing together nicely is the best part of it all!

Just Dance Birthday Party

Happy First birthday Miss Sophie.

I love your mom and your wonderful family. I just wish you lived closer to me!! I remember the day you were born. Your mom was amazing and strong and powerful and your dad was cracking jokes the whole time. Sounds a little familiar. Maybe that is why my husband and your dad get along so well.

What do you do for a 1st birthday party?? Besides eat cake??

Well, play Just Dance 2 of course!

Ryann was loving Just Dance more than anyone else there!

(sorry about the spots on the pictures... not sure if it was lights or water spots or a dirty lens or what.)