Just Your Typical Saturday

Today is just a typical Saturday.

Wake up early, watch some TV, eat some apple jacks, run some errands with mom, pose for a new floor display at Old Navy, grocery shopping, eat a cookie, go to a birthday party, take a nap...

And that was all just this morning.

Tonight is Cara's small birthday party/BBQ

I will post more of my big 2 year old tomorrow.

T-W-O

Today was a pretty big day today.

Not quite sure how many times we sung happy birthday.

I am also not sure how many times I had to tell Ryann to give Cara back her presents.

Probably 32 times... no joke.

Cara told me this morning that she was "TWO!"

This afternoon she told me she was "DOS!"

I am thinking Miss Mary and Miss Anna had something to do with that :)

But this morning with her breakfast birthday donut she posed for some pictures for me:

I love it when she gives me this look above- it cracks me up every time.

Wearing her cute new outfit from Grandma.

Oh yes- don't forget that she is two.

Because she won't let you forget.

Hopefully this month will finish up her teething (until the two year molars, which will probably happen at age 3).

Remember when?? Check out part 1, part 2, and part 3

Guess who is gonna be 2?

Oh, have I already mentioned Cara's birthday is tomorrow?

Oh yeah, I guess I have.

Have a great night! Cara and Ryann won't stop talking because Cara is soooo excited to open presents tomorrow.

And have more cupcakes. I better get working on that.

Easter Dresses

We had the cutest little dresses for Easter- and we will be using them again for family pictures next week-

But hopefully next week we have better pictures than on Easter!!

We need to figure out how to convince Cara to open her eyes when she smiles for a picture.

Easter Egg Hunt

The girls have an Easter Egg hunt every year with Miss Mary and their daycare. We play at the park, eat some food, and then turn them loose for an egg hunt with more eggs than you can hold in a basket.

Cara was pretty good at finding the eggs. Granted, they were sitting out in plain site.

Ryann wouldn't look at me for a second- she was too intent on finding those eggs.

For awhile she would pick up an egg, shake it, and throw it back on the ground if there wasn't anything in it. Well, none of the eggs had treats- but you had to trade them in at the end of the hunt for treats.
Auntie Devyn was gracious enough to hold the extra eggs and baskets that Ryann couldn't hold anymore.Here is a picture of Cara and her crush, Logan. I guess she follows him around all day at daycare. She kept yelling "Logan, Logan, look at me!" He has twin sisters who are younger than him so I don't think Cara tagging along really bothers him at all. Logan is 5.

Here was the group of egg hunters. The 4 big girls in the back row aren't at daycare anymore- they are the graduates :) There are a couple kids I missed getting in the picture too.

Bubbles!

Wow, I am starting to post a lot of pictures. I guess I have been camera happy these past few days.

Don't you just love bubbles? I know the girls do. Thanks to the Grandma Mingo Easter baskets they each got to spend a lot of time outdoors playing with their bubble machines.

Ryann as always was too busy to let me take more than 1 picture.

And don't let the face below fool you... She knows exactly what she is about to do.

Yup- there it is, she is in bubble heaven.

Can you see the spots on the camera lens? She totally shot the bubble off and it popped just as I was taking the picture.

I need to mention how amazing the weather was this weekend.

To die for.

Well, not really.

But I loved it.

Easter Hike

Yesterday we were able to hike up South Mountain. This is a hike I do almost every morning, but Rich has never done the entire hike! We went with a big group of people from our church and it was fun to have Devyn and Uncle Rob come and join us

Ryann almost made it to the top, she found one of her friends to hike with. They were really cute together.

Cara would have made it to the top but I didn't go all the way up with her on my back because we were pretty slow.

Rich tried to get some good action shots to prove that we actually hiked.

Cara was pretty tired by the end of the hiking. She easily woke up as soon as we told her about the pancakes and bacon we were about to eat.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Birthday Aunt Barbara. We love you and your son has been so good to my family! Thanks for raising him right because we sure love having him close to us in Arizona.

We hope you have a great birthday and I am sure we will call you later tonight to sing to you.

Cara's First Haircut

For posterity sake- Here are the pictures from Cara's first haircut. Right in time for her second birthday.

I imagine that most kids have a haircut before their first birthday- oh well- at least she is cute.

Here she is sporting the mullet style. Auntie Devyn is in the background getting ready to do the honors. (Devyn flew in this weekend for a surprise to me!!) Auntie Devyn will now and forever always be the one to cut my babies hair for the first time.

A snippet of her loose curl locks.

Cara was quite patient and sat very still on my lap.

Here is a photo finish of her hair later in the day. A cute little, non mullet, bob.

Happy Friday

Have a great day! I know we will!

Auntie Devyn surprised us last night and came for a quick visit!

We are so excited to have this little nugget get her FIRST haircut!

We have a fun filled, jam packed Easter Weekend.

Take some time to remember why we celebrate Easter.

I am thankful for my Savior and that he has made it possible for us to receive forgiveness, to share our burdens, bless us, and live with our families eternally some day.

No One Likes a Frowny Face

Unless it is a frowny face on RyRy!

Here is her first attempt at a "sad face"

She did much better the second try- mom just needs to work on the photography skills.

Twister

Ryann has this new awesome dance.

Sorry for the videos 2 days in a row!

Can you tell the difference between the blogger upload and the youtube upload? I am not sure which one I like better.

Energizer Bunny

Energizer Bunny- she just keeps going... in her little high heel princess shoes and dress.

Count Down Begins

I am counting down the days until this little baby girl turns 2. That officially means I don't have a baby!

Wow. I can't believe it has been 2 years.

(pause for big sigh)

She is my little sassy nugget. She talks back, but still will do what I say. She gets put into time-out about 2-3 times a week.

She loves to count and tonight she was counting the freckles and moles on my arm. She only got up to 6 on each arm... and for those who know me, I have about 30 on each arm.

Sophie The Giraffe...

...Is not just for little babies.

Cara Kay still hasn't gotten her incisors. You know, those 4 pointy vampire/fang teeth. She will be 2 in like a week. Still hasn't gotten them in.

Does that mean they never will come in? I doubt it, I just think they are slow. Hopefully they will break through soon- because I am sure Sophie the Giraffe is not too happy about being chewed to pieces.

I am not happy about her chewing on her crib either- but that is a post for another day.

Rock Stew

Ryann is making some rock/weed/soap/flower stew.

These girls love it when mommy picks them up from daycare because it is always an outside day. We get home and wash cars and pull weeds and clean up... oh wait, that is what I do. The girls make messes.

I honestly didn't expect Ryann to dump everything out while I was trying to get a good picture of her.

Cara on the other hand was back scrubbing the tile. This time she had a lot more fun because there were A LOT more bubbles. Who doesn't like more bubbles?

We headed straight for the bath after this. I mean, they were already soaking wet, why not finish it off and wash their hair too?

3-D Life

Cara thought wearing these 3-D glasses was awesome.

I think her little belly is awesome.

Look at that healthy gut.

She totally is the princess in the house.

Oh My Love

I wanted to share a few words about some sweet friends of mine.

This past Saturday I was invited to the sealing of this fun couple and their baby girl.

It was tender and wonderful and happy and perfect.

Not to mention how stinkin' cute they are.

Congrats Alex and Brittini and baby Ellie!

May you enjoy your Forever and Ever After.

You probably didn't even notice the matching Toms shoes...

Thats right- even baby Ellie had matching Toms

Writing Lines

Ryann was bad at daycare yesterday. She kicked one of her friends. Yup. Kicked him.

Now I know what you are all thinking:

Mom: I don't believe it, my daughter never kicked anyone, how could my granddaughter... oh wait, maybe Brittani did kick when she was a little girl.

Erin: Oh my little nugget. I bet it was a cute kick. I am sure that boy deserved it.

Devyn: Go RYRY! You kick that little boy if he is mean to you.

Ashley: What? Well at least she didn't kick her teacher.

Vicki: Oh RyRy...

Grandma Mingo: (Just laughing)

Aunt Judy: Hopefully she grows out of that before she reaches my class.

And I am sure no one else is really reading the blog- :)

Anyway, as punishment Ryann wasn't allowed to watch any TV and she had to write her name over and over and over again. She started out doing pretty well.

Then she realized the bigger she wrote- the less times she had to write her name.

And then finally I told her she could help me make dinner if she wrote her name on each line and she finally finished writing her lines.

Stinker.

Easter Cookies

Since I put my co-workers through the Saturday March of Dimes walk I decided to bring them a little treat to keep them happy. I made some delicious sugar cookies from a recipe out of my church cookbook.

I used this recipe:

1 1/2 c butter

1 1/2 c sugar

4 eggs

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

5 1/2 c flour (i used a lot more!)

cream butter and sugar together. Beat eggs and vanilla. Add baking soda, nutmeg, and flour. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.

Blurry Day

I am not sure if my camera was just blurry or these girls grow up so fast that the camera can't capture it all clearly.

Do you ever feel like that? Like the days blur together and you can't tell one from the next?

These girls sure love taking walks with this beautiful Phoenix weather we have been having. (minus Saturday!)

I think tomorrow I will post some Easter Cookie Pictures. They are quite delicious and I would love to make you all jealous.

Singers

This week the girls had a birthday party at their daycare. Cara came home and she wouldn't stop singing "Happy Birthday"

She is also aware that her birthday is next.

I think Ryann is more excited for it than she is.

My Cara will be 2 in 19 days!

Here is a cute video of her singing happy birthday to me.

This last video is not so cute- because of the food they are eating while singing, but it is pretty funny to watch until the end.

March of Dimes

The one day of the year that the temperature falls below 50 degrees in Phoenix... Maybe I am exaggerating, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

This morning the girls, Rich and I got up, put on some rain/winter gear and loaded up the car.

My office in Phoenix was participating in a walk for the March of Dimes. This 5k walk is to help raise money to support premature babies. It was fun to see all the people.

Rich was not so excited. His hands froze. Not really- since it was only 46 degrees- we are just whimpy Phoenix blooded people now.

Ryann and Cara did find some time to have fun. They ran, walked, were carried, rode in the stroller, and jumped through the entire 5k.Here is a sweet picture of the group! (minus Rich, Ryann and Cara)

We had really cool t-shirts made, but it was too cold to show them off. This year our team was sponsored by the Physician we work with in the office. Next year I will be asking you for help... since I found out you can win really cool prizes if you raise a lot of money... I mean, because it is really important to raise money to help save the lives of millions of babies that are born prematurely each year.

Both. Obviously the latter being the more important reason why I will ask for your money, but the prizes are pretty sweet too :)

New Technology = NOT Home

Here is a picture of the 2 ducks who have made our front yard their new home. Why do I have anxiety over little things? We just got this new computer. No bells and whistles. Just the computer part. Not the monitor, or the fancy stuff, just the computer part. I still have my old keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.... but I am not happy with this change.

I want my old computer back. I really didn't want to spend the money (although we got a great bargain!!) and I don't like starting over. I feel like I have to spend days to rearrange everything in order to make it feel like "home."

I am actually protesting a little bit. This is sort of like what I have done with my cell phone. My new cell phone doesn't feel like "home" and I have had it for over a month now. I haven't switched any ring tones, I haven't changed the alarm from the original tone, and I haven't personalized it at all.

Why at the age of 27, does change to newer technology make me anxious? Have I really passed my technology prime? Is it really so hard for me to accept the change and realize that this new computer actually works, is faster, looks nicer, doesn't sound like it is about to take off, and 100 other things that should make me happy to use it?

Ahhh... I guess I will be happy as long as I can blog about with it, and about it.

Blogging Delay

"Seriously--- will she just get her computer fixed already?" I can hear all the voices of my readers shouting at the computer...

Working on it people. Working on it.

I have about 1000 pictures waiting to be uploaded on my camera.

Hopefully soon.

iPad 2

We have been playing around with Rich's new iPad 2 and as you can see everyone is having a good time trying it out.
Well, actually the girls haven't tried it yet- we just get some cute pictures of them. Rich is not ready for their little sticky fingers to get a hold of his new toy yet.