No, Not Snow....

....just a crazy storm with a lot of hail.

...The Day She's Been Waiting For....

Yesterday was the day Carolyn has been awaiting for big time since Christmas. I hope it was everything she dreamed it would be. She did say this about her birthday yesterday: "This is my best birthday ever. Not when I turned 3, not when I turned 2, not when I turned 1, not when I turned baby…when I turned 4!"...So, I think the day was a success!

One out of the many things we just love about our Carolyn:

Dad- She is an amazing sister to Angela!
Mom - She is a social butterfly! She loves to talk to everyone and is a great friend!
Carolyn - I am a good sister.
Angela - dance
I think we all had a blast on her big day! Carolyn was in charge; she got to pick out all the activities we did for the day. Her first big request that was that we call her "birthday girl" all day - she didn't want to go by "Carolyn" or anything else. For her birthday, we ate chocolate (she had certain foods picked out for the day for months....chocolate cereal, a special treat she picked out at our Produce store, Princess Spaghettios, and McDonald's for dinner....yes, a day of junk food...but birthdays come just once a year, right?). We opened presents (and played with them), did puzzles, went for a long bike ride, went to the Dollar Store to pick out a gift from Great Grandma and Grandpa, went to the library and picked out (and watched) a Barbie Princess Movie, planted flowers that Carolyn picked out, painted toenails, made necklaces, talked on the phone, and ended the day with McDonald's and then cake and ice cream. I think both girls had a fun day (I certainly did)! Carolyn now can't wait until she turns 5!! Another long year of waiting for her :)

The sandbox we made last month was the gift from Andrew and I to the girls for their birthdays, but both of them were pretty spoiled by friends and family. One gift Carolyn's aunt gave her was a Cinderella Barbie....Carolyn and I made a Barbie Dream House for Cinderella to live in.

Carolyn with her chocolate....




Carolyn has had her cake picked out for months. She told me exactly what colors she wanted and where all the colors should be on the cake. She said that her birthday cake turned out even prettier than she thought it would be so eventhough it's nothing fancy, she made me feel good.


Aren't Daddy's the best? Andrew wished he could have hung out with us all day, but it was great when he was able to meet up with us for the fun. Carolyn flying around in her butterfly costume....can you tell butterflies are one of her favorites?

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!!!!!!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!!

Angela Turns TWO!

Our sweet big girl had a birthday Sunday!! Obviously, there are no words to explain the great blessing that our little angel is in our lives...we sure love her to pieces! Andrew started a fun family tradition that randomly during meals together, we pick one person in our little family to focus on. We go around the table and talk about things we love about that person. Well, of course, on Angela's big day, we talked about her. We all picked one thing out of the many that we loved about her. Here's what we said:

Dad - Angela loves and is so excited about life! She also is great at making decisions (I know, he cheated and said two things). She knows what she wants (a great characteristic - I wish I were more decisive!)
Mom- Angela is so sweet. I love her hugs, kisses, and snuggles she gives me all the time. I love how she is always sweet and taking care of everyone (Carolyn was sick last week and Angela kept going up and giving her hugs).
Carolyn - Angela plays with me.
Angela was sure spoiled with gifts by her extended family....





This great tricycle can turn into a rocker (perfect for her now because she can't reach the wheels) and also has a handle to push the little sweety around (Carolyn and Angela just LOVE pushing each other around :)


Angela just loved her "choo-choo cake" that Carolyn helped me make. Here Carolyn is showing off her cake she made for her sis:

On Sunday, some of Andrew's family came over to party!
Blowing out the candles...look at that concentration!

Diggin' in!

I wanted to take a picture of Angela with her new little baby doll on the stairs....

....But, Angela started thinking that she was leaving out all her other babies and not including them in the pictures...so she kept bringing more and more babies to the stairs to be in the pictures...


And here she is...after she had brought all these to the stairs, she felt satisfied that she wasn't leaving any of her babies out of the photo-shoot. After I would take the pictures, she would make sure that I would hold up my digital camera and show her and all her babies the picture I had just taken. She's always taking care of those babies of hers :)
Happy Birthday, Angela!!!! I am soooooo excited for this new year with you!

My Little Helper, Sassy Angela, and Mothers Day

Carolyn is an amazing helper around here...she loves helping out with everything and doing her chores around the house (how long will that last???). Although many times, it does slow down the cleaning process to have a little helper around - lots of times she amazes me of how much she is really helping around the house. For instance, her three favorite jobs around the house are probably cleaning the outside of the fridge, watering the plants/grass/flowers, and vacuuming under the kitchen table - all three of those things are actually a great help so it's awesome having such a good helper around. Another thing she is so WONDERFUL at is taking care of babies!! When we get the lucky opportunity to have a baby come over to our house, Carolyn is awesome! I lay the baby on the floor on a blanket and Carolyn sings her him/her. So sweet :) Here Carolyn is with Baby Heidi...do you see how big the baby is smiling along with Carolyn? Not that I am at all announcing anything here, but I think she is going to be a life-saver when baby #3 comes! One way that Carolyn takes after her dad is easily getting bloody noses. She's gotten two in the past 3 months...one from when she was dancing and got so into the song, she spun around, landed on the floor...and the bloody nose came (we laughed about it later :)...the second one was from when Carolyn and Angela were wrestling and Angela went in a little too hard. Anyways, Andrew (being the amazing dad that he is) has gotten Carolyn excited about the fact that she gets bloody noses. Daddy took this picture of Carolyn after her latest bloody nose...she was quite excited to get this picture taken and she insisted that I post it on the blog. I love this girl.

....And here are a couple of random pictures of our little Angela. She loves wearing her sunglasses and, although she is always wearing them, I think I laugh every time I see her with them on. She is one adorable kid.

Mothers Day was so amazing this past Sunday. I feel so blessed that I can be a mom. It is all I really wanted to be when I grew up so I don't think a day goes by that I don't thank my Heavenly Father for sending me my two little angels. I also love Mothers Day because I can reflect on my mom and the many amazing examples of womenhood I have in my life. Andrew and the girlies spoiled me on Sunday. They served me a delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner....I thought it was extra sweet and special that they took my desire to eat healthy in consideration - Andrew served me delicious whole-wheat pancakes made from scratch for breakfast and the best chicken salad ever for dinner. I think I'm pretty darn lucky. They also gave me some very thoughtful and sweet gifts along with the sweetest cards. Daddy helped Carolyn to make me a "Mom Book" where Carolyn wrote somethings she loved about me...it made me so happy. Andrew said he helped her spell the words, but she wrote/thought of it all on her own. What a great gift. Here are pictures from the book:

So....to sum up what Carolyn wrote that she loves about me....Kisses, snacks, plays outside, snuggles, and shows. :)