Stevens Family

Glad to be home!

2011-12-29T10:04:00.000-08:00

We got back yesterday from a trip to California to celebrate Christmas with my family. I didn't get the camera out much during the trip, but managed to get some pictures while Kara was giving us a violin 'concert'.

Some pictures (pictured below, Grandpa & Grandma, cousin Norah, Brooke, and Kara):

Brooke's Art

2011-12-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

I love Brooke to draw... she is so talented. She can sit down for less than two minutes and come up with something like this:

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

We had a great and relaxing Christmas this year. This was the earliest I've ever been finished shopping and wrapping presents! :)

Some pictures of our Christmas morning (which happened on Christmas Eve this year).

The girls waiting to start opening presents:

Brooke waiting to open a present:

Kara waiting to open a present:

Excited for what she got:

And so was she:

Amber was patiently waiting for her turn:

Amber's present from Brooke (it lasted 5 minutes):

Brooke's reaction to her favorite present:

Kara's reaction to her favorite present:

Stockings (which they got on Christmas morning, the real one):

They were still tired and thought the flash on the camera was a bit bright:

Amber trying to help unload the stocking (well, just inspecting every item that came out by sniffing it):

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday! :)

We had a family talk...

2011-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

We had the talk with the kids. Not that talk, but the Christmas talk. Now that Brooke is 9 and Kara is 11, we thought it was about time.

Brooke's reaction: almost no reaction. She just said she already knew that.

Kara's reaction: at first she laughed, then after the shock set in the tears flowed... so sad!

This means that we can open Christmas presents on Saturday and save stockings for Sunday... gives the kids one more day to enjoy their presents! :)

I will be trying this method this week!

2011-12-12T06:41:00.001-08:00

Found this method for cleaning microfiber couches off of pinterest and I am itching to try it! Hopefully it works as well as the pictures show....

http://chrisandrobinsnest.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-clean-microfiber-furniture.html?showComment=1323700783057#c8803005553443621255

Brooke's photography

2011-11-20T23:17:00.000-08:00

In the state of Utah there is a reflections contest every year in the school system. This year's theme was "Diversity Means..." and the kids all were asked to create something to go along with the theme. They could enter anything in one of several artistic categories: Music (writing/performing a song), Art (drawing/painting), Photography, Composition (short story, poem, essay), etc.

Brooke chose photography. I, like a proud mommy, thought she was super creative and deserved to win! Brooke chose to finish the theme by saying "Diversity means it's ok to be different". She carefully arranged m&m's on this plate and took several pictures.

This one was her favorite:

Once the picture was loaded into the computer, she had me help her crop out the plate and zoom in. She started clicking around in the software and saw that she could change the color and keep just a portion in the original color. She got so excited. It was fun to watch her work on this!

Here is a her final photograph: (pretty good, right?)

Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! We had a great one this year. Here are some pictures of Brooke's costume parade and a few pictures of the girls (and Amber) before we went Trick or Treating tonight!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Carving...

2011-10-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Trunk or Treat

2011-10-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of our ward's trunk or treat party last night... we had a great time! :)

Brooke's Birthday Party

2011-10-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Can I just say that these were a couple of the loudest 2 hours of my life? Who knew that all but one of the people Brooke invited would come to her party and that they would all be so much like her! Games included Twister, Charades, Karaoke, and making friendship bracelets. The kids ate pizza, chips, root beer floats, and cupcakes.... and a special shout out to Grandpa & Grandma Lopez who funded the party, but were smart enough to avoid the craziness and be out of the house while it was going on!

Staheli Farm & the Corn Maze

2011-10-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to update...

2011-10-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

This blog is in desperate need of updating, but I couldn't resist a quick post from tonight's trip to the corn maze/Staheli farm... Look how gorgeous my girls are! I have so much to be thankful for! :)

My Baby is 9!!!!

2011-10-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

How did that happen? I blinked and she turned 9! She is so sweet and loving (most of the time). She loves being in choir and playing with her friends. She is a friend to everyone and excels in school (even though she's a full year younger than most of the kids in her grade, she is still working well above grade level and is in the GATE program). Her teacher loves having her in class and really enjoys her sense of humor (we have heard that every year from her teachers). She is so funny and silly... we love her! We are so proud of our big 9 year old!

Chelsea's Wedding

2011-09-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

We went to SLC this weekend to enjoy the wedding of our oldest niece, Chelsea. We got to see a lot of family we haven't seen in awhile and Jeff got to go with his dad to a football game that we shall never mention again!

Here are some pictures from the wedding and reception (there are more pictures posted on my facebook page):

(from Left to Right): Gerald, Judi, Grandpa Edwards, Uncle Richard, Aunt Lynda:

Chelsea walking down the aisle with her dad, John:

Exchanging rings:

Presented as a couple:

Brooke & some of her cousins:

Chelsea and her mom, Christal:

Kara enjoying the vegetarian options at the reception:

Chelsea dancing with her dad:

The girls playing on the waterfall at the reception:

Chelsea and Christal on the dance floor:

Suzanne's baby shower

2011-09-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the baby shower for my friend Suzanne. I helped organize this event (WAY out of my comfort zone, but so glad she was able to have one!). Here are some pictures from the shower...

Nick, Sue, Mia, and Lucy came to visit!

2011-09-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends from high school stopped by with her cute family on their way through town. We got to visit for quite a while and enjoyed root beer floats and strawberry shortcake! :) Can't wait to see them again!

Nick (the dad), Sue (the mom), Mia (the cute baby), and Lucy (the cute doggy)

Brooke & Lucy:

Kara & Lucy:

unshaven

2011-09-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

Part of having a break from school meant having a break from shaving too it seems... this is how Jeff looked when I left for school on Friday and when I came back he had shaven the 2 weeks worth of growth off... the girls wanted him to grow a waxed mustache. Glad that idea died out!

Brooke's first day of 4th grade!

2011-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Someone needs to freeze time! I can't handle the girls getting this old! Brooke started 4th grade today... she was excited for school to start back up, but it's a little strange to not have the girls at the same school anymore. Since Kara is taking the bus, we put Brooke on the bus to her school too! Hopefully this will save us time and gas this year!

Brooke before school:

Brooke walking to the bus stop:

Brooke waiting for the bus to come (and Amber thinking she's going too!)

Brooke getting on the bus!

Kara's first day of 6th grade!

2011-08-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of 6th grade for Kara! She is getting so old and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it! She started intermediate school and has to switch classes for each class. Needless to say, she's been very nervous about this day for the past week or so.

Here are some pictures from the morning:

Pretty girl!

Walking to the bus stop

Kara was panicking yesterday about the bus making her late. After about a half hour I finally convinced her that the bus would never make her late. She wanted us to watch her wait for the bus from our driveway, so I snapped this picture of her waiting. After the bus was over 10 minutes late, we finally decided to drive her. Good thing too, because as we were pulling into the school we saw her bus leaving! As you probably imagined I made some calls to the transportation department at the district and to the school letting them know that the bus skipped this stop this morning! Hopefully that never happens again!!!!

Kara running to get to school after we dropped her off in the "drop off zone".

County Fair!

2011-08-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

The fair came to town! And we went to the fair! Although this fair was different than my expectations, we had a TON of fun! :) The best part of the fair was the admission was FREE!!! The girls loved looking at the animals and the exhibits. Kara & I have a ton of things we want to make and enter in to the fair's home arts competition next year! The biggest hit of all at the fair was the free stilt walking they offered... the girls now want to get stilts!

Some pictures!

Jeff & the girls had fun posing in the silly backdrops:

The stilts:

The animals (the horses, the goats & sheep were VERY exciting to the girls. The girls now want both a sheep and a goat so they can make goat milk, and yarn out of the sheep wool... and all animals seem to LOVE Brooke - the goat kept following us around and stuck it's head out at her and licked her hand, and the mule came right up to us for Brooke's attention too):

Fun before school starts

2011-08-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

Kara & Brooke participated in the summer reading program at our local library this summer. The last two prizes they earned were free passes to do bumper boats and miniature golfing at a local family fun center. When we first got the passes, Brooke kept talking about how she got a "free minute" of miniature golf... so cute!

Here are some pictures of the girls are getting in some fun before the heat set in for the day! (and I think we only had a few meltdowns during miniature golf, which was much better than expected - although Brooke yelling about Kara being a cheater for five minutes and swinging her club around wasn't much fun.)

USC trip

2011-08-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

While we were in Caliofrnia last week, we made a trip to the campus of University of Southern California (USC) where Jeff is currently attending school working on a Master of Arts in Teaching degree. We had a great time and got to see a lot of neat things!

Since our camera was in the shop during this trip (and we forgot to borrow Grandma's), we used our phones to take pictures so I apologize in advance if some of these pictures are a little blurry.

A view of the building that houses the school of Education (tall one on the right):

Jeff in front of that building (three times):

In the building:

A view of the water fountain sculpture on one side of campus (and you can see the Shrine auditorium in the background):

We visited two of the libraries on campus... one of them is famous and has been used in several movies including for a scene with Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate.

Outside of the two libraries:

Inside the libraries (and you can see Jeff pointing to some books in the education section of one of the libraries):

This is the famous room (the first one is blurry):

A cool giant globe in the library:

Walking through the old books in the archives:

The old card catalogs:

Now we leave the libraries and continue around campus... here are some pictures of us standing near statues.

First, with Traveler the horse:

Next with Tommy Trojan:

There was a room called the "family room" right near all of the eateries on campus. This room was one of Kara's favorites since it had lots of reading nooks and secluded areas to lounge in. This is a picture of the fireplace and the giant stone carving above it:

We had a great day! We can't wait to go back and visit again for Jeff's graduation next May!

the birthday that never ends...

2011-08-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

Kara's birthday lasted the entire month of July... while in California, we celebrated again at Chuck E. Cheese's. Here are some pics from that night:

In the car on the way:

Brooke's favorite part - the spycams:

The whole gang, eating:

Jeff copying the smile of the creepy artwork on the wall:

Aunt Ali & Norah:

Brooke:

Grandpa:

All of this wore Norah right out:

Visiting with our baby cousin

2011-08-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

The girls enjoyed spending so much time with family this past week including their baby cousin, Norah, Aunts Kari, Katie, Alisa, Uncle Alex, Grandma and Grandpa!

(Sorry I did not get pics of everyone!)

Fun at the beach

2011-08-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

We spent an afternoon at the beach... it was like pulling teeth to get Kara out of there, she's ready to buy a house on the beach right now! The water was nice, and other than a spray-sunscreen mishap that felt like mace to the eyes, we all had a really good time! :)

So happy to be at the beach:

Brooke trying to catch seagulls:

Looking for shells:

Testing the water:

Looking for the best wave to bodysurf on:

Brookie in her sandpit:

Amber's trip to California

2011-08-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week in California, and this time Amber got to come with us!

Here she is in the car... she was a pretty good traveler.

She made a new friend - little cousin Norah:

She was a good puppy and didn't take anything that wasn't given to her. She didn't disturb anything in the house, and generally left people alone (except Jeff) while they were eating. Grandma made her a little perch to lay on near the window (which turned into her favorite spot by the time we left). Here she is having fun exploring Grandpa & Grandma's back yard:

Staples!!!

2011-07-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Staples is having a back to school sale this week with a few items as low as $0.01! I paid less than $8 and got the following:

2 packs of erasers, 2 bottles of glue, 8 glue sticks, 2 pkgs of 8 pens, 2 pkgs 5 mechanical pencils, 1 pkg of 5 sharpie markers, 2 pkgs of stickies tabs (I LOVE these for studying and marking in my textbooks), 2 clear plastic folders, 2 reams of white paper, and 2 pkgs of 50 pgs of photo paper! Total would have been $58.77... I saved appx $51! There were other items on sale, but I stuck to only things that I use and would buy for school even if they weren't on sale.

A picture of my items:

and in a sad note, my camera is broken. :( hopefully it's a simple issue and will be fixed when we go to California in a couple of weeks!

Kara is 11!

2011-07-08T14:32:00.001-07:00

And she is having a great birthday!

She started the day by playing video games, then out to lunch of her choice. A little shopping and running errands, then back home and she's playing a new wii game.

Later it's either bowling or antigravity (trampoline arena) - she hasn't decided yet.

4th of July - part 3: the fireworks (at home)

2011-07-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Living in Utah gives us the opportunity for many days of fireworks (the law lets us light fireworks for 3 days prior to July 4th and 3 days after). We bought a large multi-pack from the store which gave us plenty for two nights worth of fireworks (plenty for us to enjoy).

Here are some pictures of both nights combined:

Playing with the pop-its:

Sparkler fun (waiting for it to be dark enough for fireworks):

This year we let the girls each take turns lighting the fireworks under Jeff's supervision. Here are pictures of the first time each of them lit a firework:

Enjoying the show:

Some of our fireworks (I won't bore you with all of the pictures of them):

4th of July - part 2: the food

2011-07-05T14:50:00.000-07:00

Aren't you jealous of what we ate? Jeff's BBQ pork ribs are heavenly! :)

4th of July - part 1: the fun

2011-07-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July we went to see a production of the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn outdoor amphitheater. They did a wonderful job! The sets were great, and the actors were good too! There were some cheesy musical numbers, but what stage production doesn't have those? I loved how the show incorporated water right on stage by flooding the stage with it at parts, making it rain, and projecting images onto a curtain of water to make it look like they were under water... really cool effects!

After the show Tuacahn put on a breathtaking fireworks show. My jaw literally fell open. The fireworks were so close and done so well and I've never seen anything like it! Maybe that will be a new tradition for us!

Here are some pictures of us before the show (no pictures during the show, and I purely enjoyed the fireworks and did not snap any photos).

Kara's birthday present!

2011-06-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Even though Kara's birthday is a little over a week away, we gave her an early birthday present. She has been begging for a desk (supposedly so she can have a place to do her homework and keep herself busy, time will tell if that is true, so far she has enjoyed it quite a bit!). We remade a desk for her (she got to help in the transformation and in picking out the color) and moved it into her room last night... this is a very happy girl who's about to turn 11!

For pictures and a post of the transformation visit my crafty blog...

Amber is a baby!

2011-06-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

We have a crazy dog who loves to be held! Well, by Jeff at least.

She begs and scratches to be picked up:

Once she's up she is very happy:

She then gives face-kisses to show how happy this makes her (which Jeff is trying to avoid in these next pictures):

Big smile and fast-waggling tail tell us how much she loves her daddy!

These girls love their curly hair!

2011-06-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

New Blog!

2011-06-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

I have launched a new blog for postings of my crafty endeavors (and for those of the kids too). You can find it here. *click on the word 'here' and it will take you there - I've also created a link on the side of this page for future use.

I called it our2girls by aubrey because 1. our2girls was taken, and 2. I made a ton of labels/tags (41 to be exact) for clothes in my sewing class this week with the same logo! (post with pictures of those on the other blog)

Salmon Dinner!

2011-06-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Guess who loved this salmon dinner? The girls couldn't get enough of it!

TV

2011-06-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

This summer we've been spending a lot of down time at home. One of our favorite ways to relax is in front of the TV (whose isn't?). We had been looking for something entertaining, yet kid friendly.

Jeff has told me for years about a show he watched when he was younger called The Waltons. I finally tried it a couple of weeks ago, and now I love it! The best part is that it is being shown on Hallmark and Inspire channels, so we have plenty of opportunities every day to see it. The girls love it too.

We all like Grandpa Walton the best, but I think for comedy reasons we all like to see Corabeth Godsey and the Baldwin Sisters too (especially when they talk about their Recipe). We like JimBob for his honesty and the father, John Sr, for how nice he is.

Wish we could see more of the earlier episodes, but it's fun to get such a variety of early and late episodes to see how everyone turns out. :)

Do any of you like watching the Waltons too?

Quick Sewing Project

2011-06-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

My sewing class this summer is combined advanced with beginner levels. While I am self-guided and project oriented, the beginners are completing bookwork and sewing simple projects. They learned how to make these "Funky Pillowcases" which are completely finished on the inside. I made one for each of the girls out of scrap fabric I had leftover in the closet... The girls picked their own fabrics (not what I would have chosen, but at least they are happy).

Can you tell which one belongs to Kara and which one is Brooke's?

Summer Fun

2011-06-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

The girls have been entertaining themselves with drawing pictures and building with Legos (even having alien blasting fun with Lego guns they've built with their daddy).

Brooke loves to draw crazy cartoonish things. This is Steve. He's dumb and can't spell. She, on the other hand, can spell. She says that his shirt says "I made my own shirt" but in Steve-language has backwards letters and misspellings. Crazy girl!

Kara's lego pyramid (no supports on the inside - I have never gotten Legos to do this, mine always collapses... this took Kara all day to build):

Uninvited Guest

2011-06-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

This giant monster, her hatching eggsack, and her hundreds of babies visited our bathroom a couple of weeks ago, but is still giving Jeff and me nightmares! Thankfully we caught it when we did otherwise I'm not sure if we'd ever be rid of them!

Last day of school!!!

2011-05-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of 5th grade for Kara and the last day of 3rd grade for Brooke. So sad!!! I can't believe they are getting so old!

Kara had a great year with a really good teacher. Kara's teacher made way for Kara to grow, learn, and develop a lot of friendships. It was very nice to have that kind of support at school.

Brooke had two teachers this year (one was a student teacher who spent the entire year with them). Both teachers were really good, however Brooke's student teacher was awesome! She wrote Brooke a letter telling her how talented and smart she is. Brooke was really excited to get that kind of personal attention.

Here are some pictures of the girls with their teachers on the last day of school this year:

Pool Day

2011-05-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

At Kara & Brooke's school, the kids get to have a pool day at the end of the year. Brooke's pool day was yesterday (sadly, since I did not go there are no pictures). Today was Kara's pool day. Brooke's grade did the same things, so these posts will count for both.

First we started the morning with a long 1.5 mile trek to the pool (we walked since the budget for buses had already been spent, and I googled the distance just because it felt super long in the heat and I wanted to make sure I wasn't being a baby if it was less than a mile).

Next, the kids had fun swimming, jumping off the diving board, and going down the water slide. Kara also likes to get in on the baby slide because she thinks the frog slide is really funny.

Kara with her friends at the pool:

This is how Kara felt after we got back to school... I don't blame her, I felt the same way! :)

Gotta love free passes!

2011-05-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Near our house is a new trampoline arena filled with trampolines and bounce houses. Kara's friend had free passes and decided to share them, so off we went for a grand adventure. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Water parties

2011-05-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

The celebrations are never-ending for 5th graders at the end of the year. This year they had two water parties. A father of one of the 5th graders is a fire fighter with the city and brought his truck in to spray the kids down. Another day they had a water party with water balloons, slip-n-slide, and water squirters.

Here are some pictures of the fun Kara had:

5th grade dance!

2011-05-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

The end of 5th grade means the end of elementary school. To celebrate, the 5th graders got to have a "Timeline" dance celebrating dances from decades past (the Waltz, the Bop, handjive, macarena, cha-cha slide, etc.). The kids had been practicing for weeks, and on Monday they finally got to dress up from the different decades represented (the Civil War era through current decade) and show us their moves! They also got to pose next to a cool car (the purpose of this, I do not know), eat snacks, and drink root beer floats.

Kara & her dance partner were the favorites of the 5th grade teachers because of their perfect Waltzing! :)

Here are some pictures from the dance:

Hike to Petroglyphs

2011-05-13T22:15:00.001-07:00

We love living in St George! We are so close to many areas to explore. One area we were told about and went exploring a few weeks ago was to see petroglyphs. Here are some pictures from the day:

Final Choir Concert for the year

2011-05-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the girls had their final choir concert for the year (yes, I have been slow at getting some of this uploaded, but I'm still in my post-semester-finals-laziness-stupor so I apologize for the tardiness of these pictures and the lack of posts).

Here are some pictures:

Kara was not excited to have a concert at 7:45am. Can you tell?:

My poor baby:

But in the end, she stood up and performed and did a great job!:

Brooke's 3rd Grade Multiplication Award

2011-05-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

This week Brooke received an award for memorizing all of her multiplication facts.

Below are some pictures from the awards assembly and Brooke with her student teacher, Mrs. Erickson:

Kara's Final 5th Grade Orchestra Concert

2011-05-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

This week Kara had her final Orchestra Concert for the year... she did a great job!

I'm really proud of her dedication to wanting to get up every morning at 6:20am for Orchestra. And I'm really glad that Jeff was so willing to take her, especially when I was either at clinicals at the hospital or sleeping in.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

2011-05-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Glad you were here to spend time with us over the weekend and that we got to celebrate together! :)

Love you!

So glad I get to be a mother

2011-05-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

And that these two sweet girls are mine forever! :)

Love you, girls!

Brandon Mull

2011-05-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

We went to an author's book signing tonight and met Brandon Mull (well, Jeff & I met Brandon Mull - Kara and Brooke met him at their school yesterday). He is the author of several books including the Fablehaven series. Kara was very excited to have both of the books she owns by this author be signed. Since she is not so gentle with her books, he was excited to see that she had "put some miles" on his book (his words).

A picture:

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Don't pictures make you feel like you were here with us?

Last night dying eggs:

The Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny:

Opening the bags of joy from Grandma (and Amber looking to see what else there is):

We are having a great day so far, hope you all have a wonderful Easter! :)

Spring School Pictures

2011-04-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Are a waste of money for the portrait company. They want to guilt me into buying them by not taking pre-orders and just printing out a large order of them. They want you to keep and pay for what you want and send back the rest. Most years this works on me and I keep at least one sheet of pictures or one picture. However, I outsmarted them this year. Usually I pick what the girls wear and how their hair is done. This year I was not home before school on the day of pictures, so the girls got to choose how to wear their hair and what clothes to wear. Now I feel no attachment to them. So I scanned them in and tomorrow they'll go back and I don't feel bad at all.

Here they are:

Can't wait for Easter

2011-03-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

We're just anticipating the next holiday...

And Happy Birthday to Amber! She's 3!!! Can't believe we've had her for 2 years. She's become a big part of our family and we love her. Enjoy the picture! :)

Playing at Dixie State College

2011-03-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Kara's basketball team this year did really well. As a result, their team was invited to play an exhibition game during halftime of a Dixie State women's basketball game. The girl's were thrilled. Here are some pictures from that game:

Some of Kara's team members (and Brooke) with Dixie's mascot:

Kara waiting for the game to start:

Finally out on the court:

Dr Seuss week

2011-03-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

If you read this blog last year, you'll remember my post about Dr. Seuss week. The girls have so much fun during this week of school. Each day they got to participate in a different activity honoring Dr. Seuss. Monday they could bring in their favorite Dr. Seuss book to read in class. Tuesday they wore those crazy tall Cat in the Hat style hats (or other crazy hats) along with crazy shoes and socks. Wednesday they could wear inside out or crazy clothes. Thursday was Whoville hair day (see the pictures below of Kara & Brooke with hair similar to Cindy Lou Who's hair was in the movie of How the Grinch Stole Christmas - one of Brooke's favorite movies). Friday was pj day where the kids got to wear pjs, bring in a pillow and a blanket, and a favorite book and have a read-a-thon in the hallway.

Here are some pictures of the crazy hair:

Recent Knitting Projects

2011-03-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have been knitting as much as I can lately (which isn't as much as I'd like with school and homework and everything else that's going on. But here are a couple of recent projects I've finished:

Here's a cute little sweater I made for my baby neice Kendree for her first birthday. I fell in love with this pattern.

Here are 13 of the hats I made in February for my AmeriCorps service scholarship. They average about 2 hours a piece (depending on if I make a mistake and have to fix it or not). By now I've memorized the pattern so it's been pretty quick work while we're watching tv/movies. These hats are going to the local hospital. Each baby born at this hospital is sent home with a knitted cap. I'm happy to have made a contribution and plan to make many more.

Wow! Time flies!

2011-03-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been TWO MONTHS since I've updated this! So much has been going on...

In January, Brooke had her tonsils out right after the new year (I'll do another post on this for pictures). Then I started my actual nursing classes. I have never studied harder in my life. I can't believe how much there is to know! But when I think about it, I'm glad there's so much to know because of how much nurses have to do. I'm just glad I've started finally after years of planning and waiting to start.

Also in January and February, Kara & Brooke were playing Jr. Jazz basketball and it was in full swing (there will be another post on this with pics, and at some point I'll have some videos uploaded to view for those out of town relatives who'd like to watch). Between school, practices, and games, the girls stayed super busy.

In February, I started a service scholarship with AmeriCorps (meaning I do the hours of service, then the government gives me scholarship money). 450 hours to do by next February. I'm hoping to get them all done by December so the money can be applied to my tuition in January. So far my service hours have included volunteering at the elementary school, knitting infant hats for the hospital (they send each baby home with a knitted cap!), and my nursing classes count too.

In March, Jeff found out he was accepted to graduate school at USC! He will start his program in May and be done next May. It's a 12 month program and he'll graduate with his Master's of Art in Teaching along with a teaching credential! We're very excited!

So, I guess more posts are to follow throughout the weekend catching up on a few things. Hopefully I don't go on a posting drought again for awhile! :)

It snowed in St George!

2011-01-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

And we got more this year than last year! What a great way to end Winter Break for the girls! Today was their last day off before returning to school tomorrow... and they loved starting their day playing in the snow. The girls were able to get in a snowball fight and a pretty decent sized snowman (especially compared to last year's model).

Amber wasn't quite sure what to do with all that white, cold stuff in her backyard, so she did what any puppy from California would do... she ran laps through it, ate it, and then came in and shook it off and kept a watchful eye on it from inside the house.

Here are some pictures....

Snowball fight!:

Happy kids!:

Crazy dog exploring this new stuff in her yard:

Running laps through the cold:

More snowball fighting:

Snowman building:

Happy kids with the finished product:

The finished snowman:

We met baby Norah!

2011-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

Last week the three girls in our family made our way over the river (the Virgin River) and through the woods (San Bernardino National Forest) to Grandmother's (and Grandfather's) house for Christmas celebration part 2!

And while we were there, we got to see Tangled, play games, go to the park, and meet our newest baby cousin Norah! None of us could leave her alone and when Aunt Kari wasn't holding her, or her mommy wasn't feeding her, we got to hold her! :)

Here are some pictures of Kara & Brooke with Norah:

Catching up on Christmas

2011-01-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! Relaxing and full of fun! :)

Our tree with the presents underneath on Christmas morning before the girls got to them:

The stockings full of stuff from Santa:

Milk & Cookies remnants from what the girls left out for Santa:

The girls with some of their presents:

Amber with her new blanket & new chew toy:

Our Christmas dinner (eaten at 10:30am!):

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Kara's first basketball game

2010-12-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

Kara is playing basketball this year (and Brooke is too, but she doesn't start until January).

Kara's team had their first game today... Here are some photos!

Kara is excellent at defense and even though she is a full head shorter and a year younger than some of these players (her group is 5th & 6th graders), she wasn't afraid to go after the ball. She even dove for it and sacrificed her knees then held onto the ball and got dragged and elbowed down the court. But she never let go and made her coach (and her parents) proud!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

While at the mall wandering around and waiting for the choir performance to start (see previous post), the girls made a mandatory stop at Claire's. We saw these little santa hat clips and I knew we had everything we'd need to make them. So last night I did, and today both kids are enjoying their new clips! :)

Keeping us busy

2010-12-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

Our kids' activities have filled the December calendar... just one of the many activities this year: school choir. These are a couple of shots taken at the mall performance last night.

'tis the season

2010-12-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

Because Brooke's school can apparantly still get away with singing holiday songs, they had a 3rd grade program in which Brooke played an elf (one of many) who did not like the new elf (and they thought she was an 'elf impersonator' named Elfis). Cute!

Christmastime in St George

2010-12-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite Christmas traditions... going to watch Mr. Kreuger's Christmas at the temple visitor center and seeing the nativity and Christmas lights.

A couple of pictures:

Shutterfly's 50 Free Christmas Cards Promotion

2010-12-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is a shout-out for Shutterfly's awesome 2010 holiday collection!

Shutterfly was holding a promotion for bloggers to take advantage of getting 50 free Christmas Cards... and I barely made the deadline!

Shutterfly has sooo many awesome designs to choose from, I'm not sure which one we're going to go with yet.

One of my frontrunners for cards is this design which gives us room to share 5 photos (which would be nice because I can never pick just one). The full list of Christmas cards is here.

Some of my favorite baby announcements from friends have been done through Shutterfly. All of their cute baby announcement designs can be found here.

My third favorite (and this was not in any particular order) item Shutterfly offers are these awesome calendars, which my sister-in-law is always kind enough to organize for a gift for Grandma!

In the future, I'm thinking of ordering a picture for our home in one of these home decor areas. I love the frameless designs and I think I'm going to start planning which pictures to use and where to put one! :) But I can't decide if we'll use a gallery style print on canvas, the mounted wall art, or maybe even some fun wall decals for the girls' rooms! Shutterfly gives too many good options to even pick!

Possible new blog/site

2010-11-28T22:23:00.000-08:00

Tell me what you think... Jeff has been asking me to try and sell some of my homemade crafts for awhile now, but I have looked into etsy and don't really want to deal with that yet unless I knew I could make this work. I was thinking of starting on a smaller scale and starting another blog to showcase and take orders for some of my handywork.

Any thoughts, comments?

Also, any suggestions on pricing for items? Should I base them off of what I can find on etsy?

Thanksgiving Poem

2010-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

Kara's class had a poetry contest in class yesterday... Kara won 1st place! Jeff & I were very impressed by this poem and had to share (and I didn't notice until the second time through it that the first letter of each line spells out 'Thanksgiving').

Turkey talk starts Thanksgiving day
Happy children run and play
Always fun on Thanksgiving day
Never greedy on that special day
Kicking off the football players begin to play
Shouting dads fill the house
Grumpy moms cook all day
In every turkey there is a wishbone
Very full children break the wishbone
In every wishbone is a wish
Never does this wish fail
Giving is always good on Thanksgiving day

Hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Family Pictures

2010-11-17T14:52:00.000-08:00

Jeff's work gave us a family photo session and some free prints! We had fun taking these in and around downtown St George! Enjoy! :)

Look what's coming!

2010-11-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

I can't believe our baby is old enough for this...

And yes, I made the dress!

Trick or Treating

2010-10-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

With Halloween on a Sunday this year, our neighborhood (most of it anyway) participated in Trick or Treating on Sunday. Here are a couple pictures of the kids (and Amber) going Trick or Treating.

Happy Halloween! :)

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

This year's church Halloween party included a soup/chili dinner and then a costume parade by the kids. Afterwards we got to go outside and go Trunk or Treating from car to car in the parking lot... great way to get lots of candy quickly! :)

Some pictures of the kids during the costume parade:

Halloween Preview

2010-10-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Night 1 of 3 of wearing their costumes... one sweet (for a change this year) and one scary!

Kara as a rag doll & Brooke as a zombie:

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a fun kids activity at church on Saturday night, our pumpkin carving is done! :)

Kara & Brooke carving their pumpkins:

Brooke's spooky owl on a tree branch:

Kara's creepy cat coming out of a witch's boot:

Both of the pumpkins lit up tonight:

Brooke's Birthday Party

2010-10-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

This year for Brooke's birthday she invited some friends to the movie theater to see Toy Story 3. The girls had a blast! Can't believe she's grown up enough for this kind of party... but I'm glad I didn't have to do much... just supervise 5 giggly girls. Great success!

More Birthday

2010-10-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Even though it was late when we got home from Brooke's birthday dinner, we still had to make time to sing Happy Birthday... and Brooke's dessert of choice: Brownies! :)

Now just to wrestle with unruly 8 & 9 year olds for Brooke's party on Saturday then we're all done for another year!

Can you believe she's 8?!?!

2010-10-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

I'm having a hard time believing that my youngest baby is 8! How did this happen? She's so talented and funny and a joy (most of the time) to be around. We love her so much and we're glad she's a part of our family.

Love you, Brookie! :)

Yay Me!

2010-10-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

I got accepted into the nursing program at school! I start in January and I'll be done and ready to take my RN test April/May of 2012! :)

School Pictures - Scrapbook Versions

2010-10-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the school pictures again... this time in scrapbook form.

School Pictures

2010-10-02T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here are Kara & Brooke's 2010 school pictures. Family members: you all have a copy coming your way the next time I see you (mid-Oct. for CA family).

Family Visit

2010-09-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

I think I've mentioned this before, but living halfway between Salt Lake and Orange County has made our house a place for family to stop by, visit, and crash (either on their way through or as a destination). A couple of weeks ago, my brother and his family were on their way through to go visit the grandparents in California and we were able to visit with them for a couple of days (and meet our newest cousin/niece):

Brooke is very good with her younger cousins, and Easton is no exception. Here they are playing with Silly Putty:

Kara enjoyed holding Kendree. Kendree was so calm and happy the whole visit. It was wonderful! Kara didn't know that babies could go so long without crying!

Brooke and Easton watching some tv... this was either Spongebob or Hannah Montana or some similar show:

Brooke got to hold Kendree too:

Amber didn't want to be left out... she loves babies! Poor KaLee had to keep fending off her affection:

All the attention wore Kendree and Grandma right out:

We had a fun weekend and hope they'll come back soon! :)

Back to School!

2010-08-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day back to school for Kara & Brooke. Dropping them off this morning felt like we haven't even had a break. And I can't believe how excited they both were to go back! We must've either had a really fun summer and they were ready to go back or I bored them so much they had to get out.

Two happy kids together:

Our 3rd grader:

Our 5th grader:

This one's for Julie...

2010-08-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

And I'm ashamed to say it took me over a year to get this done for her... From a pile of her husband's t-shirts from his crew days at Yale to this fun quilt!

One more thing crossed off my to do list (and this was one of the oldest items on it still!).

More digital scrapbook

2010-07-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

This is getting really fun! The last post were from a template... this one was from scratch.

Digital scrapbooking

2010-07-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm playing with photoshop elements & digital scrapbooking layouts that I found online for FREE! :)

This is fun and I suspect will become addicting. Now I need an external hard-drive (or do I?) to store all this stuff on!

Same layout, subbed in Kara's photo for Brooke's photo:

Jeff's Birthday

2010-07-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

Living an hour and a half away from Las Vegas is nice! We didn't even have to get a dog sitter when we made an impromptu trip down there on Saturday to celebrate Jeff's birthday. We got there early (about 9:30am) and stayed until around 3pm (PDT).

Here we are on the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd outside the MGM (with a view of New York, New York behind us):

We walked through M&M world and then headed over to Coke world where we tried 16 beverages Coke distributes around the world... Most were pretty good (there were several fruity flavors the girls loved). The worst one was a clear drink called "Beverly" from Italy. Jeff said it tasted like cloves. It was terrible! In this picture Brooke is drinking the mint flavored drink called "Sunfill Mint" from India:

Planning ahead saved us lots of $... we took our own food and had a picnic at the Excalibur hotel... that was fun!

Walking through several hotels near the same intersection was fun (and HOT)... we saw the lions at MGM, walked through Excalibur, New York, New York, the Luxor. The girls took time to smile at one of the hotels in front of Spongebob:

Later we drove to the old part of Las Vegas and caught a free show at the Circus Circus... perfect timing on our part!

We had a great time in Las Vegas (and only spent money on the drink samples from around the world)... we can take a vacation (for a day) for cheap! :) Good times! And a great way to celebrate Jeff's birthday!

Kara's Party

2010-07-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Some fun shots from Kara's birthday party today:

Karaoke (Jeff had to break the ice and go first):

Mad Libs during pizza time:

Singing Happy Birthday:

Dance Party! (and Breakdancing by Brajon & Dominick):

Kara had a lot of fun and we're glad it's done for another year! :)

Our 10 Year Old

2010-07-09T18:26:00.000-07:00

How has time flown by so quickly? Our little Kara turned 10! Can you believe it? I can't.

We've learned so much about her this year. I feel like we're closer than ever to her. She is smart, beautiful, funny, very talented, and she's becoming a good friend to me. We have a lot of interests in common and I love how quickly she picks up new skills and talents.

She has a love for making beautiful treasures and she loves to laugh and have fun. She loves crafts, cooking, shopping, jewelry (can you tell by the number of necklaces she's sporting?), reading, playing on the computer, and hanging out with Mom & Dad.

She loves her family - she's become much closer friends with Brooke this summer (which has been WONDERFUL). She loves her dog. I think she truly loves life.

I've recently been called in as her Primary teacher. I know how smart she is and how she soaks up knowledge. It's fun to watch her soak it all up in Sunday School class too. When we've learned stories we haven't talked about yet at home, I am amazed at how quickly she's able to retain the information and seems to be able to apply it to modern life too. I hope that it's helping her build a strong testimony.

I can't wait to watch her grow in every way again this next year. I hope this next year is a lot more fun for her and that our new understanding of her helps everything go really smoothly at school and with friends in the year to come.

We love her and cherish her and are thankful she's been given to us to be our daughter.

Some pictures of Kara on her birthday (and last one from her party) with her birthday crown:

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T21:38:00.001-07:00

We have had a wonderful 4th of July this year! This year the holiday has gone on since Saturday, the 3rd, and will continue through Monday, the 5th.

It was really strange this year being just our little family at home for the holiday. I have tests sandwiching this long weekend, so it made the most sense to stay home.

Saturday we BBQ'd and cooked burgers and steaks. We still have leftovers (yea!). We bought a cheap pack of fireworks and split them up... half for last night and half for tonight.

The girls had a great time with the sparklers - they danced and played "The Last Airbender" (as firebenders). Jeff did a great job lighting the fireworks... he only scared the girls once when he pretended he was going to jump through the middle of the fireworks.

We did get an unwanted surprise toward the beginning... the sprinklers decided to come on. I don't know if you noticed in the pictures, but our chairs and the fireworks were parked on the grass. We quickly got up and ran and got the fireworks to dry ground... then I braved the sprinklers and rescued the chairs. The hot night air felt a lot better once I was a little wet... felt great! :)

Here are some pictures of our fun night!

Brooke is still really funny (and quick-thinking)

2010-06-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

We went on a tour of a historical site today. When the tourguide was finished he asked us if we had any questions. Brooke raised her hand. She asked, "How do you build a catapult?" I don't think that's what he meant by asking if we had any questions.

After laughing, he did answer her question and told her how to build a catapult. Let's hope she doesn't build one in her room and break things with it.

Busy days!

2010-06-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. We have had some crazy and busy days lately. We've been trying to keep on the go by visiting the library, pool, and walking around stores (like the mall).

I've also been in the thick of summer classes - Anatomy, Anatomy Lab, Psychology, and a fitness center class. So far I've decided that it was crazy to take 9 units in a condensed 8-week block. Other than trying to keep everyone busy, I've been cramming and studying more than I ever have in my life. So far my grades are reflecting all the hard work I'm putting in and I hope that continues. Also, the fitness center course requires a minimum of 3.5-4 hrs a week in the gym. I have lost 15 lbs in the 3 weeks I've been going. Yea me! :)

School's Out for the Summer

2010-05-27T07:38:00.001-07:00

Today is Kara's last day of 4th grade and Brooke's last day of 2nd grade. I can't believe how old they are getting.

And, Jeff is officially done with his Bachelor's Degree! :) Now he just needs an awesome job to go with it!

So proud of Jeff and of the girls!

Kara's 4th Grade Program

2010-05-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

The program was cute... Kara did a good job and looked great (in my opinion).

Some pictures*:
*And a disclaimer: The skirt was sewn with a straight hem... however, this child chose to pull it up higher on one side than the other and wouldn't let me fix it.

Arrgghh

2010-05-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

And I'm not speaking pirate!

There's nothing like finding out from your child the night before a school program that she needs a costume.... and nothing you have will work!

Good thing I know how to sew and have a fabric stash. Pioneer costume for tomorrow done! Only took 1 hour!

Hiking with the family

2010-05-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's nice living in an area with a ton of ourtdoor enthusiasts. We have a series of trails right in the hills above our neighborhood. We hiked for about 1-1/2 hrs and covered probably 3-4 miles this morning. The kids were thrilled! Kara wanted to keep hiking all day. Brooke has been begging to go hiking since the day after we moved here.

Here are some pictures:

Hiking with the 4th Graders

2010-05-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Just got back from hiking with the 4th graders through Snow Canyon State Park. Really awesome! After lunch the kids played in the sand dunes.... the sand is much softer than at the beach (with a LOT less trash). Oh, and don't be fooled by the picture... we weren't on pavement until the last half mile...

Some pictures: