My Girls

I love this picture I took of the girls before church on Sunday. It was the Primary Program (where the kids in Sunday School give a presentation), so I wanted them to look cute. They both did a great job saying their parts into the microphone. Paige was supposed to say "Even though I am little, I can help strengthen my family," and then her class all said ways they help their families. She has been practicing that line for at least a month, but when she got in front of the microphone, she only said, "I can help strengthen my family." Luckily, she didn't realize that she forgot to do the beginning part, or she probably would have cried. Ashley said a line from a song and did a great job. We were so proud of our big girls!

I took a picture of Mike here, too, but it's kind of sloped and he almost fell over...

I tried a new fancy 'do on Ash this morning. I got the instructions on the heart hair here. I went a little overboard with the ribbon, but I wanted it to stay in all day.

She liked it! The other moms were pretty impressed, too :)

Birthday Party

On Saturday, we went to Ashley's friends' birthday party. The kids ate pizza, were entertained by a clown, and played in a really fun soft play area.

Ashley's crown

Michael waving and saying hiPaige riding around

You can see Mike's new teeth in this one! All four top teeth are coming in at once!

Ranch Night

James' Uncle Loren was in town this weekend and we went out to a ranch for dinner. It was very entertaining and the food was great! The girls and their cousins had fun dancing with real Indians, breaking out of jail, riding a train through a mine shaft, watching a blacksmith shoe a horse, and listening to a cowboy band. What fun!

Even Michael enjoyed the band--he was banging his tin cup on the table and bopping around to the music!

Wild Weekend

This weekend, my sister-in-law, Lauren, had a friend come and visit from England. They took a 15 hour road trip and left her kids with me. We had fun--there was an incident that involved an entire tube of toothpaste and a whole lot of baby wipes and another time I found the just barely 3 year old inside the pantry (with the door shut) eating handfuls of chocolate chips, but besides that, everyone was well-behaved. I had plans of doing crafts and baking fun things and being a super cool aunt, but that plan went out the window when the watercolor painting got out of hand :) We went to McDonalds (where I got food poisioning, I think-yuck! I won't be back there for a long time!) and played at the park for 3 hours instead. I wish this picture had a date and time stamp on it--it was at 8:30 AM on the fourth day. That's right--everyone is clean, dressed, and even has their hair done. (I'm pretty sure no one brushed their teeth all weekend, though--don't tell Lauren!)

The Beginning of September

We've had an ordinary week here. We're finally getting used to having to be out the door by 8:45 EVERY morning and have even made it early to walk to school with the neighborhood moms and kids a few days. I'm not looking forward to having Ashley gone 7-8 hours a day next year, so I've been looking into some alternatives to that. It's been cold and rainy a few days, so we've been entertaining ourselves inside.

Here's what we've done:
Go up and down the stairs as many ways as we can--even Michael made it up 9 steps on his own!
Love on our little brother- (when Paige loves something, she wants to squish it or sit on it--Michael, James' parent's dog, my parent's cat)
Grow new teeth--the top ones are going to break through any minute!

Watch TV--Michael's been pulling himself up on everything and has started to wave! He also enjoyed watching football with Papa this way on Saturday.

And just have fun!

Make Your Own Pizza Night

Tonight was "make your own pizza night" at our house. The best night at the cafeteria during my college years was definitely make your own pizza night because they set out pizza crusts, sauce, and all kinds of toppings and then they'd bake them for us--delicious! My sister, Elizabeth, got me these great mini-pizza pans for my birthday, so I can carry on the tradition at our house. It was a hit! Paige kept saying she needed a tiny pinch more of cheese and then eating it instead of putting it on her pizza, and Ashley declared that tomorrow is "make your own macaroni night."


She's actually shouting "make your own pizza night!" at the camera.

Picture Day

Today was picture day at school. Here is what the girls looked like before they went into the windy 43 degree morning. Hopefully, their teachers smoothed out their hair before the picture, and hopefully, the picture people were more sucessful at coaxing out normal looking smiles than I was this morning!


Michael didn't have pictures today, but here's how he looked before church on Sunday.