Our little fish...

This is what happens when Mckenzie gets a bath, Abby doesn't and I turn my back for one second...

Easter 2009

Dan and I have been together for 6 Easter's now and this is the FIRST time we have decorated eggs together (at least that I can remember). It was quiet an adventure decorating with two kids under the age of 2. Your eggs don't come out quite the way you want them too.

Abby decided she likes licking the dyed eggs...

...and making a mess with them too.

Mckenzie did a great job with her eggs and was actually pretty patient through the whole thing!

This is Easter Sunday. I must have deleted the cute picture of Abby instead of this picture. Oh well, she's cute just the same.

For Easter dinner, we went to my Aunt's house. The girls were the only kids there so Mckenzie had a blast on the Easter Egg Hunt!

Apparently, Abby thought the dog KC should get an Easter egg too.

This is my cousin Lauren and the girls playing with their bubbles. I am amazed at the bubble blowers now days. There used to only be the one holed wand. The girls now have ones that are way cooler!

Boston Temple

Bree and Lane (Jessica's sister and brother) visited for their spring break. We love having them visit! Bree had her 11th birthday while she was here and wanted to visit the temple on her birthday! Mckenzie absolutely loves going to the temple and throws a fit when we leave the temple. It was nice having my brother and sister go with us to the temple and it made my life a little easier as Mckenzie threw a fit. Here's some pictures of the temple.

Yankee Candle Company and Magic Wings

We went to Magic Wings and the Yankee Candle Company one Saturday while Lane and Bree were visiting. Magic Wings is a 8000 sq.feet butterfly conservatory that holds 4000 different butterflies. It was pretty amazing. The girls loved it! Abby loved trying to catch them and Mckenzie freaked out anytime one would come near her. We were amazed at how friendly the butterflies were... well at least to some of us (Dan didn't have a single one land on him).

MAGIC WINGS:

I don't know who this guy was, but the butterflies seemed to know him really well!

This is Mckenzie's pouty face. She refused to look at the camera. Little stinker!

Like I said, Abby loved trying to catch the butterflies.

YANKEE CANDLE COMPANY FLAGSHIP STORE:

Primary Songs

Mckenzie continues to love singing and music, especially primary songs. At any given moment she'll break out in song. Today we were singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and from her mouth we heard "Jesus wants me for a Sun BEET". Apparently, not a sugar beet, but a SUN BEET is what Jesus wants us to be. Oh, you gotta love the way a 2 year old pronounces things.

Consequences

About three weeks ago, Mckenzie lost her "animal" book she had checked out at the library. We looked and looked and looked some more and no luck. I told her that I would not take her to the library until we found it and explained the need to take care of things, especially when it is borrowed. After that, she was distraught. The worst was when I dropped off the other library books and we didn't go inside (go ahead, call me a mean mom, but I'm teaching my kid about responsibility). I felt so bad. The last thing I wanted to do was take away the LIBRARY! However, she looked hard for it! She even called my mom and told her that she couldn't go to the library because she lost her animal book. After that, she wanted to talk to everyone on the phone about her library book. Anyway, this went on for about 3 weeks (kind of like this story) and today while organizing the movies, I FOUND THE ANIMAL BOOK!! Mckenzie was THRILLED!!! I'm tending a friends twin girls during the days this week and Mckenzie kept going up to them and saying "look, my animal book!" So, if you call anytime in the next week, I'm sure Mckenzie will want to tell YOU all about how her animal book was found and she can go to the library again. This picture shows how excited she was to find it.

5 am Fire Alarm

*This is not a picture from what happened this morning.

That's right. 5 am we woke up to a fire alarm. Completely going against everything we learned growing up, we laid in bed for a couple minutes thinking it'd turn off. After a minute, Dan checked the hall to our apartment complex and the alarms were going off there, the emergency doors were closed and we decided to get out. We didn't get out very slowly (remember, 5 am) and no one else in the complex building was getting out any faster. We wrapped the kids up in blankets (we still have cold weather on the east coast) and went straight to the car to keep warm. It took awhile for the fire trucks to get here, but they did. Not sure what happened. We did smell smoke, but who knows. The most interesting part of it all was when we were walking back in, the fireman said, "I think this is the first time I've seen people at an apartment complex evacuate". That's scary and sad. So, Dan and I decided we need to put together a plan of action in case of a fire. Oh, I also woke up to pink eye, AGAIN!

Woman with kids??? WHAT!?!

We were watching the "Apprentice" Sunday night and someone said something that REALLY has been bothering me. The teams were assigned to create an ad for "ALL" detergent and were told that their focus group were 25-35 year old women. That's fine. Makes sense. Guys don't always wash their clothes...HAHA. The lady then said, we want to target the "WOMAN WITH KIDS". WHAT!?! Someone said something to the effect of "oh, you mean moms". The lady again said "woman with kids". I am sorry, call me conservative (please do), but HELLO? Woman with kids= MOTHER!!! Has it really come down to the term "mom, mother, mommy, mama" as politically incorrect? I am proud to be a MOTHER! I love my kids and I would not trade them for ANYTHING in the world! It is NOT demeaning to say that "I AM A MOTHER"! If someone EVER calls me "woman with kids", it will not be a pretty day for them! I believe a mother to be the most important job/calling/title in the world! The impact that a mother can have on a child is immense. I will never forget my time spent working with children/adolescents with behavioral problems (and SO much more) and finding a common thing lacking in all (but a couple) their families. The role of the mother was not there. Sure, the kids may have had a mother, but she wasn't BEING a mother. There is a BIG difference between being a "woman with kids" and a "mom". A "woman with kids" is someone who puts THEMSELVES first and their children second. A "mom" is someone who would do anything to help and show love to their children through thoughts, actions and words, even if it meant sacraficing her own desires at times. I LOVE my mom. I LOVE my grandmothers. I have been so blessed to be raised by a mom who is proud to be a mom, who is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure I know I am a Child of God, I am safe, I am loved and that I am of value.

Five Guys Burgers And Fries

One of the very few things that we enjoyed in Arizona was In-N-Out. When I was pregnant with Abby, I CRAVED burgers and In-N-Out had the best ones! Being out east, we haven't found anything that remotely compares, until now. Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened today 5 minutes from us! My friend told me it was really yummy, so we went for dinner and were thoroughly impressed! The burgers were excellent, but the coolest thing was that ALL the potatoes they use to make fries are from Idaho. AND, today (their opening day) they had potatoes from RIGBY, Idaho. Those of you who don't know, Dan is from the small town of Rigby. I wish you could have seen his face when he found out. He was so happy and proud! He loves Idaho. Doesn't want to live there, but he loves Idaho! Thanks to Heidi for telling us of this great restaraunt!
**Oh and some guy came up to us and complemented on how good our kids were being. That's the second time in less than a month than someone has made a conscious effort to tell us that."**
***Look closely and you'll see "Today's potatoes are from: Rigby Idaho"***

Look-a-like

For the past 3+ years I've been trying to help my mom organize her 1000's of photos. Each time I'd visit, I knew I'd be bringing home more pictures. At one time I had 4-5 full bins of pictures. I'm almost done, but I recently came across this picture and had to put it up. First of all, look at my mom's hair and eyeshadow! HAHA! Second of all, look at me! Who do I look like??? ABBY!!! HORRAY! I'm totally excited that I have a child that somewhat resembles me! Don't get me wrong, I love Mckenzie and I think she's beautiful. She's like a girl look-a-like to Dan and it always made me a little sad that I've only heard things like "oh, she looks nothing like you and everything like Dan". When Abby was born, everyone was saying the same thing, but as she gets older, she's looking more like her momma!