Cute girls

Latest Hobby

I have mentioned a few times that I have a new love for baking... Baking TREATS that is ;) I have come so far in my quest to make yummy delicious baked goods. Lets just say just a few years ago I couldn't even bake a chocolate chip cookie that tasted good. I also failed at many other treats. They were usually okay, but not great. I wanted to make cakes and cookies and treats that were REALLY good. I think I am really getting there. I have read lots and lots of cook books and detailed ways of how you should bake, what type of ingredients to use, and so on. It has been so fun. My sister in law Britta has real talent for baking and she has taught me a lot too. Today at the library I found a new cookbook that I think is a gem. It is: The sweeter side of Amy's Bread. I love it! I have yet to try a recipe, but I have looked at them, and they look like good recipes. That is yet another talent I am being blessed with. With all the recipes and knowledge I have now, I can generally look at a recipe and know if it is a good one. I am not a professional of any sort, but I really am developing a talent for this baking stuff! Another favorite book I got at the library was Juniors Cheesecakes. I tried to make a cheese cake before this book, and it was nasty. Now the few cheesecakes I have made are REALLY good. I don't meant to brag... it's the book that taught me the tricks. So, if you are ever interested in making a cheesecake and don't know how, just check out that book. It is great.

I have had another quest of making great home made bread. Not nasty stuff that is heavy and dense. No, I want to make really good bread. The kind you pay lots of money for at a bakery. The kind you can't buy in the store, only really good bakery shops. I want to make good french breads with crusty tops and baguettes that are to die for. I have tried a little, but I have not succeeded in this pursuit yet. I think I need to invest in the right tools first. I don't have a Kithenaid or bosch, and it would be fabulous to have the kind of oven that is good for making bread. Yeah, maybe when we are rich... ;) Although I have read a lot of books about it and scoured the internet, it still intimidates me. I know I will get there some day, it's just a little more intimidating then the pasty/treat making. Don't get me wrong, I can make yeast breads and bread sticks and what not, I just want to make it better. I don't want to eat the average home cooked stuff, I have a quest for the best!
Oh, and Ma, since you are always asking for gift ideas,and I never have an answer for you, I would love to own those books some day... hint hint!

How I make my pictures larger

I have been asked now by a few fellow blog readers how I get my pictures bigger. I have never spent the time to explain it though, so I thought I would do a quick blog about it. I do not know if my techniques are wise, so do it at your own risk. For all I know I'm changing code that shouldn't be messed with...

Step 1: After you have uploaded your pictures to blogger, look at the 2 tabs on the upper right hand part of your screen (this is all when you are making a blog) there is a tab named "Edit Html" and a tab named "compose". Click on "Edit Html"

Step 2:

a onblur= "try {parent deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} cat ch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBkOeMSTJspfHo468N1Q9fia5wQHpLmmjGRK_GMTNnUHBXR_nBgpc79TvLGXS-8ieaq3wn-ScERWT7IkokSLPZPdy1KIKCnBtXvIWBqGect7NL6EeigepBHVi45EEwg7-shCa2Q/s1600/claire+tree. jpg">width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blog spot.com/-3gRIdEf6 W8w/TfPVI7ihwOI/AAAAAAAADBA/uSGxiO5gjVY/s400/claire%2Btree.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617067509659320546" border="0" />

This is what you will see for each photo uploaded to blogger- a bunch of code. For each photo you need to find the 2 parts I highlighted in red. The first part "width and height" of the photo, I highlight it and delete all of it. The second part where it says "s400" I change the 4 to an 8. So, it reads "/s800/"

Step 3:
Go back to composing your blog. Your picture should be 2 times bigger. I don't know why or how, but that it how I do it!

Curls

A commonly asked question we get is: "Are those curls natural?" Our answer is, yes, yes, they are indeed natural. I hardly ever curl Olivias hair. If you ever see curls it is almost always natural. I took this picture of her hair the other day- it is at its most "natural" state... no product, no combing or styling, just the way it dries out of the tub if I don't touch it. We could probably make it curlier with the right products and scrunching, and we can easily make it straight with a little combing or blow drying. If you ask me, that is PERFECT hair! I just hope the curls can hold up when it gets longer. It seems when its longer the natural weight of her hair pulls the curls out. I think with the right hair cut we can keep the hair light enough to still curl though ;)
On a side note Liv is so funny. She loves to make us laugh. She now regularly calls me "mommasita". She thinks its hilarious.

Weekend Road Trip

Brett had Memorial day off work, so we thought we would take a quick trip to St.George for the weekend! It ended up being rather memorable and expensive... We stopped off at Zions to do a hike. It was a beautiful day. We forgot to bring Claire a hat and the sun was out, so with such little amounts of hair we thought we had to buy her a hat. It was $25 at the gift shop! Oh boy... but we would rather that then a really burnt head. Turns out the hike we went on was all in shade... brother! If she didn't get the hat so filthy maybe we would have returned it ;)
Turns out this trip was accident prone. It started with Claire getting hit by a tree branch while riding on Bretts shoulders. Her eye was swollen by the evening ;( Poor girl!
Incident #2 happened to me. We were hiking and all of a sudden a huge gust of wind came up. A big piece of bark (about the size of my hand) ripped off a tree and smacked me on the side of my head barely missing my eye! It was so random. I started crying mostly from being a hormonal pregnant lady. I didn't want to cry. I was so embarrassed! Now I have a bruise on the side of my head.. at least I'm not blind ;)
Incident #3 happened later that night... We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and were getting ready to go get dinner. Liv opened the door in her flip flops and ended up cutting the top of her toe open. The door had the whole door jam metal stuff on it, so it sliced right through her big toe. It went straight through the toe nail and was bleeding like crazy. Brett ran off to ask where the ER was and we were off to get her sewed up. About 2 hours later (and still no dinner(it was about (9:30pm) Olivia was all bandaged up. She didn't need stitches after all. Phew! She has half her toe nail gone now and a huge chunk of skin missing, but I think it will heal up fine in a few weeks time.
On Sunday the weather turned cold. We were limited on our activities as it was Sunday and it was chilly outside. We stopped by the temple, played games in our hotel room and tried to play at a park (the cold wind cut it short though). We also went to a random sacrament meeting.


Monday we went to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Claire is still apparently too wild to take to the movies. She could hardly sit for 5 minutes. We also stopped by the outlet stores. Then we headed home. All in all it was a fun get away and we were happy to be with Brett so much. Maybe our next family trip will be better ;)
On a side note I am 27 weeks along in the pictures.

Growing up

My little Livie is growing so fast. She graduated from pre-school today! Next year she will be going to Kindergarten! I was a little worried sending her, as she will be the youngest in her class (having an August birthday) but she really seems ready! She has excelled academically, and she makes friends in a matter of minutes any where we go. So, I think she will be fine! This is some of what she has learned this year:

*Identify and write the whole alphabet and their sounds
*Say the days of the weeks, months, and seasons
*memorize many nursery rhymes
*sound out basic words
*memorized about 25 sight words
Identify and write #'s 1-20
*count to 50
*basic addition and subtraction
*write full name
*know birthday, phone number, and home address

I know Liv will do great in school! She is so smart like her Daddy and really puts her all into learning. I'm so proud of her!

New Play Set

Brett has been so stressed lately. Work for him is crazy, although he has gotten to work with Jimmer Ferdette and Jackson Emery from the BYU basketball team on a website, which was really fun for him. In his "spare" time though he has been building the girls a play set (which has taken about 15 hours so far, and is still not done). He has also had to teach a missionary class at church and give a talk in sacrament. Poor poor man. He is such a hard worker. He has stayed up until 3 am many nights working for another side company, and he just gets NO sleep and stress is high! Here are some pictures of the process of building the play house..

first we had to move the sand out of the sand box (that is where the play house was going) the sand box was 20 ft x 20 ft. ridiculous! It was about 40 wheelbarrows of sand to move out

we had some of the kids from the ward help on a Saturday (they were earning money for trek)

here is the play set as of now... still have to get the slide together and put down fake turf. We are also going to do a small sand box in the corner

claire swinging... we've got to get a baby swing. She has already fallen off!

and lastly Claire just being silly with her 3D glasses

Easter Weekend

We had a fun Easter weekend. Even if it was freezing cold. Have I mentioned this spring has been a total bust in weather? We have only had a few days here and there of sunshine, and they were still pretty cold (mid 50's) The rest of the days have been over cast, rainy, snowy, or stormy. It is starting to get old. It is May now, so expect at least SOME warm days!!

We had 3 egg hunts. One in our back yard on Easter, and 2 on Saturday. We had a neighborhood hunt at the park and had a 2nd one with Emily & Francisco's family.

Olivia and Nathaniel (Emily's nephew on Francisco's side)

Claire showing off her treats. She was so excited to open her eggs up!

And the girls walking to church with Dad. I made them little yellow matching dresses. I didn't get any good pictures though. I'll get better pics later I guess. Livs dress turned out kind of bad since it was the first (trial and error) but Claires dress turned out cute with a lot fewer mistakes ;) Sadly that can be said about the parenting with the 2 also... ;)

Perspective

This is Claire wearing the same swim suit as below ;) My mom sent it to me- it makes Livs attempts even funnier!

Are we ready for another?

We found out today we are having another...

GIRL!

Although I wanted a boy sooner then later, I'm not too terribly disappointed. I just figure a boy would do better if he didn't have 3 or 4 older sisters ;) But, it is what it is, and we are still excited. I am happy for my girls. It would be so much fun to have lots of sisters to stay up late and talk with and have girl parties. They will be lucky to have each other!

Here is Livie- who came running out front the other day in her sisters OLD swimm suit. This is a size 12 month suit! Oh my... did I mention it was only 50 degrees? She wanted me to spray her with the hose... I think not!

And here is Claire. She has been doing speech therapy for about 3 months now and is improving a LOT. She is really really trying hard to talk. Her words are mumbled and hard to understand, but we are doing sign language with her also and it is helping lots. She loves it! Now you may be wondering why there is duct tape on her diaper. She has a new LOVE of being nude. She pulls off that diaper every opportunity she gets. As soon as its off, she runs. She hates the duct tape... although she is starting to figure out how to get that off too! Oh boy... guess we'll have to potty train again weather she is ready or not! We can't have pee all over the house!

Visitors

This is Claire and Calvin last night. Calvin is a cousin. We've actually had 2 of Bretts brothers and their families over in Utah to visit the past week. It's been fun. It was funny to see Cal and Claire in matching polk-a-dot pj's. Calvins parents say these are his favorites (even though they are girl pj's that once belonged to his sister ;))

Here is another picture of me. I am trying hard to actually take pictures this time. I'm not doing so well. It is hard when the photographer of the family is ME and I won't lie... 4 year olds just can't take a great photo. At least most of me is in the photo ;) I'm thinking about asking someone to take maternity pictures this time around. I don't know though, I always feel like I don't look right when I'm pregnant. We find out next Tuesday (the 19th)what we are having. ;)

Super Hero

Almost every day the girls are dressed in SOME thing other then every day clothes. Today it was swimm suits, yesterday it was princess outfits, and pictured here a few days back it was super hero attire. They ran and ran around the house. Olivia tried jumping off the furniture a few times. But my favorite part was Claire running around with her mask on saying "MARCO! MARCO!" She thought it was a blind fold and she was playing 'Marco Polo'!

Sweet Girls

The other day Olivia was watching TV on my bed. We actually don't have a TV out in our living room anymore. We just have the projector for movies and big sports games down stairs and then we have a small TV in the master bedroom. I never planned on having a TV in our room, and to be honest was against it at first... Anyway, it has actually worked out great though! We hardly ever watch TV anymore! Brett and I do not watch TV before going to bed, so for us it works. The TV is out of the way and we only watch when we really want to.
So- back to the story! Claire came in and snuggled right up against Liv. It was so sweet! Then later Claire had her arm wrapped around Liv and was scratching Livs back as she fell asleep! It was just so sweet!

Sunday Best

The girls wanted to dress alike this last Sunday. It was so cute when I went to take their picture Claire had to copy Olivia exactly. She would look at Liv, copy, look at herself to check, look back at Liv, and so on. She wanted to get it just right! She even put on a big smile like Livie a minute later, but Liv was off running before I could catch them both smiling...

Sunshine and Pigtails

The last few days have been BEAUTIFUL outside. It is just what we needed after such a long long winter.

Claire let me put her hair in pigtails! I know it won't last long- she pulls EVERY thing out of her hair, but it sure is cute for a few minutes!!
Here is my belly at 15 weeks and 3 days.Yes, a reflection in the window is as good as it is getting right now ;) I thought it would grow bigger faster this time. No, it is still on the slow track. Anyway- I am very surprised with this baby. I can feel it kick a LOT! When ever I hold the girls against by belly I usually always feel it kicking and I always get freaked out and jump. It scares me every time. It just doesn't seem like I should be feeling that yet. I am scared for when this baby gets bigger... it may be a kicker!! Oh and I suppose I will answer the question every one asks "Do you want a boy this time?" Yes, we would like a boy this time, but I will be fine if it is a girl. We love girls and I wouldn't mind having more.

Winter in the house

It just won't stop snowing. Not that I expected it to stop in March... or even April. We have been in the house SO much and can not wait to get out and go to the park, etc. We've been playing, cleaning, growing a baby, and trying to potty train. The training officially stopped today. Only 2 days in. She had a LOT of accicdents with absolutely no successes. Well, one time the poop made it in, mostly. But... I didn't see enough progress to continue right now. So, maybe in another month we'll have another trial. I do think she learned a lot, she's just not quite there yet.

Claire has been walking on her tippy toes a LOT lately. It's cute.

Olivia loves to play dentist ever since they saw the dentist a few weeks back. Claire doesn't even mind! They are funny!

The girls still love to get their nails painted... Olivia is very into pretty designs on her nails and loves to show them off! I have fun doing it, so it is a win win!

(Claire looking at her pretty nails)

The other day I was putting up a shelf and coat rack in the laundry room (yes, I am very handy!) The girls took the opportunity to get out a snack on their own. It made me laugh.

Claire wants to go!

This is little bear bear this morning. She wants so badly to potty train. She rips her clothes off frequently and goes to sit on her potty all by herself. Sadly she doesn't ever get anything out, but she loves it! I am really contemplating letting her try for 3 days. But if she doesn't get it fast... then its OVER! After what we went through with this girl...

Yes, Olivia, you were a PAIN to potty train! Thanks for letting me learn all the mistakes the hard way though!

2nd trimester=best trimester

this picture is how I feel... my body is a memory.. and its getting blurrier as I get larger!
My thin figure is quickly turning chubby. Although- there is nothing to show in a picture. It always begins with chub everywhere! I wish it were only the belly... oh-well. I'm not worried about it ;) My morning sickness is nearly gone. Although there are still many things I could complain about, I won't because I'm in the 2nd trimester now. This is the BEST time in pregnancy. I get to find out the sex of the baby, there are minimal body aches, I can still sleep pretty well (besides the multiple bathroom trips..) and I will start to LOOK pregnant soon enough! YAY!

and here is a random picture of Claire for my mom. So she has something to look at! I will try to be better at pictures... the winter time and gloomy dark days don't make me want to take pictures!

A sad day

The story starts with my friend Rocio. I worked with her at a salon a few years back. We get together from time to time to catch up and do hair trades. She has 3 little girls- so it is also fun for our girls to play together. Anyway- a few months back I cut her hair into a pixie (really short). Rocio is gorgeous, so with her new hair cut it makes everyone want a pixie cut!
A few weeks ago Olivia had a church project that involved cutting. I got out her special scissors and let her cut. Well, I had to use the restroom. I left the room for about 3 minutes and heard giggling coming from the kitchen. I walked out into the kitchen to find Olivia with scissors to her head and Claire laughing hysterically at her. I was in shock.
I walked over to Liv and started crying. Then I was sobbing and too scared to take a close look at what she had done. Olivia kept saying "it's okay mom, I will eat lots of food and it will grow back!" Finally I said "Olivia, WHY would you cut your hair!?" She replied "I wanted to be beautiful like Rocio!"
So, in the end I fixed her hair and I was so happy that she didn't butcher it too bad. She lost about 3 inches from the front. It really isn't too bad considering what it could have been ;) And yes, she is happy with it. She thinks it is beautiful.

a few days before the incident..


the damage Olivia did before I fixed it



The after pictures..

Happy 50th Birthday

It is my mothers birthday today! We can hardly believe she is 50. She looks no older then 29! Really though, she is so beautiful both inside and out. We hear it all the time when she comes to visit "that's your MOM!? She's too young to be a Grandma!"
We love her so much. She is the most sensitive person to your needs and is always there with a listening ear. She is forgiving and has endless love for us. She is everything you could want and need in a mother and Grandmother. Thank you Ma, we love you ;)