Birthday Party

We went to a birthday party for our friend Brady.

Happy birthday Brady!

(his mom Kylee is a student midwife and oh so close to becoming another CNM in the Phoenix area... sooo exciting!!)

The girls had a blast. It was basically a private small party with a few kids and that was WONDERFUL!

We tried to get a group picture... not so hot. Come on Ryann~! Brady is on the far right.

Pretty cute, but Cara was off to the side throwing a tantrum.

Ryann loving it!

Cara was so excited to be there.

Target for a Day

So I didn't actually spend all day long at Target, but it sure felt like it.

We were showing our house and had 2 hours to kill.

We spent it at Target. We had to get a few things, but the rest was just wasting time.

Which we did.

The girls got to play with more things than I would have ever let them play with on a normal day.

They also shared some popcorn.

And if you can image they also got into quite a lot of trouble. I did a lot of "counting to 3"

Anyone want to buy this little nugget?

Darling Diva

My little Cara Kay has 2 new freckles on her nose. She got a little pink last week with the sitter when they were swimming. Her first time getting that kind of sun... They are pretty cute!

Cara however is such a dramatic little girl lately. I blame it on the molars coming in, but if she bends her finger the wrong way she says, "OUCH! You hurt my finger!" Every touch leads to an "owie" or "you hurt me."

Quite the drama. I guess I feed into some of it though. I do tend to snuggle and hold and cuddle her a lot more than I did with Ryann at her age. Probably because when Ryann was 2 1/2 she had a newborn sister named Cara!

Today she asked for 3 braids in her hair for church.

Sounds good to me, especially since she held still.

She then wanted me to take a picture of her.

She always wears her sunglasses upside down... We haven't figured out why she does that yet, but I figure she won't do it forever, so take pictures now while we can.

A Chip Off the Old Block

So anyone who knows Rich is aware that he is slightly obsessed with Superman.

Did I say slightly?

As in if he doesn't wear a superman shirt his daughters think something is wrong...

Needless to say, Rich was pretty proud of his little Cara girl snuggling up to his Superman Toy.

Mall Fun

This is what you do when you are told you need to be out of your house for a few hours and it is 115 degrees outside.

We go to the mall and play in the playplace.

Read books at Barnes and Noble.

Go to Sees Candy for free samples.

Try on some crocs.

Look at the puppies in the window.

Waste Spend 1$ on a carousel ride.

2 hours of enjoyment while showing our house... $1 (plus gas)

Totally worth it... even more worth it if someone puts an offer on the house.

Say Cheese Cara Kay

My little Cara Kay is turning into such a sweet young lady.

One of my favorite things that she does is she bosses people around.

Like all the time.

I don't let her get away with it. I just laugh at her, but she still tries to do it.

She has also been asking me to do her hair every day. She usually wants it in a braid, or two or three, so we are working on teaching mommy how to do hair.

Ryann doesn't like to have me do her hair.

She actually tries to get me to wear my hair down every day and gets annoyed when I put it back in a ponytail day after day.

SnickleFritz

On Sunday we celebrated Uncle Phil's birthday.

"He is kind of like a pirate" is the way Ryann describes him. But she knows Uncle Lee is more like a pirate because he wears a pirate ring...

Anyway, when Phil walked into the house he says to Ryann, "Hi sweetie."

She immediately looks at him and says, "I'm SNICKLEFRITZ"

SnickleFritz is the nickname that Uncle Phil likes to call Ryann.

He is the only one who can call her that and she loves it.

We hope you had a good birthday bash Uncle Phil... this was the best picture we could get!

SnickleFritz in action!

Horse Shirt

Ryann and Cara got these cute shirts from Auntie Vickie and Grandma Mingo this weekend. Ryann wanted to wear her shirt immediately, but I made her wait.

After she put it on she wanted a picture of it.

After I took the picture she realized her arm, water bottle, and apple were in front of the horse.

She was devastated and made me take another picture. She had to put everything down and then focus really hard to keep her hands at her side. She also made Cara put her hands down at her side too. (Cara wouldn't give up her apple though!)

Now you can see the cute shirt- but it is another awkward family photo.

Love me my girls!

Kitchen Golf

Not much better than having your daddy teach you how to golf in Grandma Mingo's kitchen.

Organizing

Rich has spent not only a lot of time inside the house cleaning, but a lot of time in the garage packing and boxing and organizing. Our garage has so much storage that we want the future home buyers :) to be able to see it all.

The girls were totally enlisted to help clean. Their feet were pretty disgusting when they came inside. They went immediately to the bathtub.

Learning Our Letters

Sorry for the lack of posts. I don't think things could get much busier than the past couple weeks. Well, maybe... but I sure don't want to find out.

Here are the girls today. Obviously you can tell that clothes are optional on Saturdays.

They were having some fun at www.starfall.com

Why are we busy? Let me see... here is the short list...

Listing our house on the market

Packing half of our house to make our house presentable

Switching to a new full time sitter/nanny for the girls

Trying to keep a house clean every day for showing the house

Steam cleaning and deep cleaning the house on our own

Work meetings

Hiking the mountain every morning

Rich working on getting a promotion... oh so close...

Laborlooks is booming

Teaching a young women's group

And I quit FARMVILLE! That really should have given me more time, but as you can see I found things to quickly replace it.

Oh- yes, and where are we moving? Not sure. We are planning on the same area, but hopefully a bigger place for less money. Can it be done? In this economy... YES!

***fingers crossed***

Happy 33 Years

My mom and dad celebrated their 33rd anniversary today.

It makes me smile.

I love to think of the legacy they have and are continuing to create.

They have taught us to work hard.

They have taught us to love and serve those around us.

They are always there for us and for each other.

This is taken from my Mom's Facebook page:

Erin Wagner: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY YOU LOVEBIRDS! 33 years?! Ridiculous! Love you both soooooooooo much!! I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for: Ashley Stabile, Cory Wagner, Brittani 'Wagner' Hamilton, Devyn Pickett & last but certainly not least...Elder Zachary Wagner. I don't know what I would do without any one of you ♥

Then my mom replied:

Cathy Wagner XOXO. We love you Erin. Thank you. What an incredible 33 years it has been. You children have and do bring us so much joy. We are so proud of each of you. Grandma used to always say my feelings of this day-- do you remember?-- well... My cup runneth over!! Enjoy today! I hope each of you (and Ron, Katie, Rich, Jason, Pete, and Elder Romero(ha-JK)) are celebrating with us!!

Oh Cara

Oh Cara... she is now going potty all by herself and sometimes her pants don't quite make it back on. She also does this funny little "bummy dance" as she calls it.

Maybe next time I will get it on video. It is awesome.

What attitude.

Self Portrait

Ryann is getting better and better at taking pictures. How come she takes an adorable picture of herself but will never smile for me??

Here is proof that she is taking her own pictures now!

I did think this was pretty cute too. I did take this picture of her, but I had to post the picture because it is hilarious.

New Backpacks

Grandma- these are just wonderful! There is a really cute line from the movie, Despicable Me, where the cute little girl notices a big fuzzy unicorn. She stares at it and says, "It is so FUZZY! I'm GONNA DIE!!!!"

Basically my girls use the "I'M GONNA DIE!" anytime they love something. Which was the reaction they gave today when they opened their package from Grandma.

Ryann refused to give me a good picture- go figure.

Cara is teething, so she refused to give me a good picture too. What a grump.

And here is a cute little video of the lunch that Ryann packed for herself. She climbed up into the cabinets and everything.

Love her!

Whats for Breakfast?

Cara wanted everyone to see what she was having for breakfast... Yes, it is pancakes.

Ryann is just like Uncle Jason. She loves peanut butter on her pancakes. Cara on the other hand is a fan of plain old syrup.

Games Anyone?

This is what happens when you are cleaning out your game closet.

You start to realize how crazy your husband is for collecting sooo many games.

I think there is like 4 different Risk games.

Friday Night

This is what we did with our Friday night tonight!

Thank you McDonalds for a playplace and .89 cent ice cream cones.

Ryann couldn't stick around long enough for the pictures, so Cara reaped the rewards.

She was a happy girl.

Thanks Mom!

Feeling the Breeze

The cute little nuggets like to roll down their window with all of this new found cool weather in Phoenix.

haha

oh wait, it is still 105+ degrees outside!

Both girls thought it was important to make sure their stuffed animals got some of the breeze.

Stickers

Most of the stickers we have end up on beds or the fish tank. Thankfully the stickers come off nice and easy when they are on the fish tank. Even better when grandma sends princess stickers that are reusable, because that means "all the fish get to see them and like them." (Ryann)

Thanks Grandma!!

First Day of School

It was the first day of school in our neighborhood. When I told Ryann all the "kids" were back she sprinted out the front door to start waving to all the kids and their parents walking to school.

She had 2 ponies she tried to show to everyone.

Thankfully it wasn't her first day of school, or Cara's first day... because it would have sort of gone like this...

Cara wore a swimsuit coverup. Didn't have any shoes on (luckily we found them in the car) but she did have lotion partially smeared all over her legs and feet.

Ryann made us late with me chasing her down the sidewalk, but her smile was off the charts. I am really liking the double chin she is trying to make. She also has a cute Minnie Mouse shirt on. Thankfully she has 1 more year until the "real" first day of school.

Snapshots

Here are 2 snapshots of our day today.

1. Duct tape on the aquarium.

Remember THIS post? We are hoping to avoid that with Cara and the duct tape

2. Rich taking a nap after an afternoon birthday party.

Ryann covered him up with the blanket and he didn't even move.

Now I am off to bed.

Goodnight!

Baking Away

My little munchkins helped me make brownies tonight! Daddy was so excited that he took a picture of us.

It was a little blurry so we tried again.

Little bit better, but not as cute as the first- Ryann has so much personality.

Typical Car Ride

I know Auntie Erin is busy, but this video is basically for her. She sometimes misses out on these nuggets and the silly crazy things they do. I promise you will laugh at different things at least 10 times during this video.

It is a little long. And bumpy. Sorry.

Stay tuned for 1:54 seconds... but then again at 2:06 seconds is VERY important!

Ryann apparently is trying to convince mommy to step up her game.

I So Bigger and Bigger and Bigger

"I So Bigger and Bigger and Bigger!"

This is a common phrase hear by Ryann when she is trying to do something a little more grown up.

This morning she said, "smell my mouth mom."

Yeah, uh ok. I guess I am the only person in the world who would do this by the look Rich gave me when I smelled her mouth. (you would have thought it was her butt)

Then I said, "well, smells like you need to brush your teeth."

So she ran to get her toothbrush and brushed her teeth.

Despite the half closed eyes, Ryann is sitting here doing her "homework" she was really upset when we had to stop after 4 pages so she could take a bath and get ready for bed.

Married

Lately Ryann has been very curious about getting married. We finally convinced her that you can only marry one person. And that person can't be your cousin Ethan.

(Technically there isn't any blood relation... but still)

So tonight she was debating if she should marry Prince Eric,

Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates (what you don't watch Disney channel and you have no idea what this is? GASP!),

or if she should marry Xavier from preschool.

I do believe Xavier has black hair, but I am not sure if he has boots or a red bandanna.

I am noticing a trend here... and I am only posting to compare some day, in like 30 years, when Ryann decides to get married... will he had black hair? like the ocean? ride on ships? rescue people from the sea?

It makes me a little nervous she is already talking about getting married.