I know, I know....

Despite our best intentions, apparently eight months have passed since we posted anything new. For the life of me I can't figure out why we haven't posted, other than one minute it's January, the next, it's August. So...in attempt to redeem ourselves, here are some pics from the past few months:

In April, our branch was made a ward and to our astonishment Eric was called to be the new bishop.

In May, Hannah and Lucy danced in the ballet "Eloise." Hannah was a waitress, and Lucy played Madeline. (don't ask, we are still trying to figure out why Madeline shows up in a ballet about Eloise).

The cousins came from Florida to visit for Hannah's baptism. Hannah is badly out numbered in this bunch!

In June, Hannah turned eight and was baptized.

The girls rode in a children's fourth of July bike parade this year. Hannah thought it would be a good idea to make a balloon Uncle Sam to ride on her handle bars. We also learned that duct tape doesn't come off a bike very easily. (Lucy still complains about the sticky spots on her handle bars).


Back to school on August 17th. Hannah started 3rd grade, and Lucy started pre-K twice a week. They are both in uniforms this year, which I both love and hate depending on what day you ask.

Last week we took Hannah in for a long overdue appointment to check her eyes, and to no one's surprise, she needed glasses. She picked these out completely on her own. We think she looks adorable! Lucy is very jealous and now wants glasses of her own. We'll have to wait and see if she won the genetic lottery and got mom's bad eyes.

Christmas Slideshow

This is our attempt at a Christmas letter this year. Enjoy...

A Wedding, a Birthday, and a Blizzard

Hannah and I traveled to Rexburg, Idaho over the weekend to attend Kenny and Shari's wedding, which coincidentally also took place on Kenny's birthday. They took very few pictures outside because of the FRIGID temperatures, but here is one at lunch:

Getting to Rexburg proved to be quite the challenge when a huge winter storm made travel almost impossible, but it did give Hannah the highly overrated chance to see snow at Christmastime. Here she is mid-air jumping into a snow drift in the 1 degree weather.

Here we are together, that's me wearing my ten-year-old winter jacket from college. Yep, haven't worn it in maybe 6 years or so, but still fits!

Hannah also decided that we would have to make a snowman while here in the snow. Since mom grew up in Florida, I know very little about how to build a snowman. This was our final result:

It is about 6 inches tall...not exactly the size Hannah had in mind. She envisioned a huge snowman that she could decorate with a carrot nose, etc... so this was our compromise:

We decorated a snowman who is taking a rest in the snow (Best I could do with my limited snow savvy).Before we left for home, we visited temple square to see the lights. the 20-30 degree weather actually felt okay after Idaho. Flying home was challenging and we almost got stuck in Denver, but in the end we got home sans luggage and at a different airport, but home nonetheless.

Halloween week

This week we spent out doing the necessary Halloween traditions that everyone else probably did, too. Our goal this week was to get as much mileage out of the kids Halloween costumes as we possibly could (since we spent a small fortune on them at Disneyworld, see post below). We took Hannah and Lucy to the Outlets for free trick or treating, costume storytime at the library, trunk or treat at church, dance class, and finally trick or treating. After trick or treating Friday, the girls asked if they could wear the costumes again for Halloween next year. Sounds good to me. Some highlights from the week:

Lucy racing Guocci on the 'Haytona Speedway' at the Pumpkin Patch. (The girls all argued over who would ride which of the identical tricycles).

Hannah and Lucy on the hayride back to the pumpkin patch.

Lucy 'picking out' a pumpkin. My favorite part of this clip is when she actually kicks the pumpkin before going on to another.

Hannah with our carved pumpkins. Hannah designed the pumpkin on the left She drew it out first on paper, and we were worried it wouldn't work on the pumpkin. We made the one on the right into a Domo pumpkin (sadly recognizable to those of us who spend too much time in Target).
We had spooky pancakes for Dinner on Halloween, since we like to really overdo it on the sugar!
The princesses getting ready to trick-or-treat. It was a bit chilly Friday night (50's), but the girls both refused to wear anything over the dresses to keep warm.

Our Disney trip, i.e. terrorizing our kids on waterslides

We took the kids to Disney world over the past weekend. Hannah's school is semi-year round, so she gets a two-week break every Fall. We decided that it would be a good time to go to Disney, since #1. the weather in Florida is more tolerable in October, and #2. the parks are less crowded in the Fall. We got the good weather, but missed out on the second point, I think crowds are just a given at Disney world.

We took the kids to two parks, Typhoon Lagoon Waterpark and the Magic Kingdom. We did Typhoon Lagoon on our first day. We made the mistake of starting out the day on a moderately-sized water slide. Hannah was really into it, so I asked the lifeguard at the bottom what she thought about Lucy trying out the slide. She said no problem, just have one of us at the bottom to catch her. So Eric took her to the top, where she was happily seen sliding down sitting upright. Next time I saw her at the bottom, she was laying down, coming feet first and screaming. I know, we definitely don't win the parent-of-the-year award on this one, but we really thought she would enjoy it! That pretty much did in the rest of the day for Lucy. Every time she would hear a wave from the wave pool, she would scream and run.

Day two was definitely more successful. We learned our lesson on day one and decided to stay away from rides that might send Lucy shrieking through the park.

While visiting Disney world last year, our girls became acquainted with a new attraction that all little girls eventually discover: the Bippity Boppity Boutique. This is basically a mini-salon designed to empty your wallet and also make your kids look like princesses. We told the girls last year that we would do it next year, in our minds delaying the inevitable rather than making any promises. As fate would have it, the kids talked about it almost daily for the whole year, and we quickly realized we would have to make good on our promise. So this year, we paid the outrageous fees, and the girls were made over into princesses with the following results:

They loved being princesses for about an hour and a half, then asked to go back to wearing their shorts and tee shirts. Then Lucy fell asleep and was out for the rest of the night.

Lucy's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Lucy's 3rd Birthday last weekend. In June, she started telling us she wanted a ''cow cake'' that was red on the inside for her party. We decided to forgo the red inside (we thought that would be a little creepy), but I did manage to put to together a cake that at least looked somewhat like a cow. At least she was pleased with it. We ended up having a farm themed party in the backyard--based on the cow cake, of course.

One of the more popular features at the party was this top-of-the-line play barn we made out of an empty appliance box. It held up fairly well considering it was put together with a bunch of duct tape. The three year olds didn't seem to mind our shabby construction skills (they were too busy throwing popcorn at imaginary chickens).