Bedtime Treats

Every night the girls ask for a treat before bed... makes sense, a sugar high before trying to get them to sleep ;)  This night in particular was too cute to miss a photo opp.  Avril's leftover birthday cupcakes made an appearance all over McKel's face... Avril opted for the less messy, but equally sugarful, Twix ice cream bar, one of her favorites.  See below for cuteness:

Why is everybody looking at me?

All done!  Did I get any on my face?

Avril seemed to catch a dose of camera shyness...

Avril's 5th Birthday Party!

I can't believe I have a daughter who is turning 5 years old.  She starts kindegarten this year.  I already know that will be an emotional day for me.  Avril loves to please others, and is very easy to please herself.  All she asked for for her birthday were 2 dresses, and cupcakes, and a party at Nana and Papa's house.  She wanted to have curly hair like she did for the wedding, and wear a yellow dress.  Easy enough!  All wishes I can grant :)
Here is a video of Avril before the party- she was so excited about the cupcakes that she couldn't wait to frost them.  It was simply adorable :)
Avril frosting cupcakes in her curl formers :)

Avril is super excited to blow out her 5 birthday candles!

Excellent job extinguishing candle fires, Avril!

 And a video of Avril's candle blowing:

Avril loves to work on art crafts so I bought these little unicorn crafts for us to work on.  Here is Avril's finished product.  She did an amazing job!!

Uncle JJ with his sweet niece, the birthday girl, eating a delicious meal made by Nana for everyone.

This breaks my heart.  McKel was sick on her birthday in December, and just so happened to get sick again for her sister's birthday party.  Turns out she had strep throat.  She was just not herself, as you can see... feverish and lethargic, not in the mood to do anything but lay there.

Avril with her bestest friend, Sierra, such a happy girl!

Present opening time!  What could be more fun??

This is what poor sweet McKel did during the gift opening...

Avril with Grandma Joyce.  She made sure to give hugs and pose with each gift-giver.  She is just the biggest sweetheart girl ever.

Hugs for Uncle JJ!

Avril with her cute new baby

Just what she wanted!  A new dress...with sparkles even!

Glass slippers for princess dressing up, from nana and papa!

Big hugs for papa

This is one happy happy girl

Hugs for nana

Another shot of McKel resting

A booster seat!!  No more car seat :)  Thanks Nana and Papa!!

Another dress!  Thanks Mommy and Mike :)

Thank you Avril, for being the sweetest, most loving, creative, amazing daughter.  We are so proud of you and are excited for what adventures you will have as a 5 year old!  You are truly a princess girl and we love you forever, as much as the sky (and more)!

The Zoo with the Glenn Triplets!

What an adventure! My Aunt Trish who lives in Salt Lake with 3 triplet boys, called and invited us to the Hogle Zoo.  Her step daughter Olivia, came as well, with a couple of her friends, which turned out to be a huge blessing having them there because I don't know how else we could've remained sane chasing all those kiddos around the zoo.
I loved having the giant wagon there, it came in handy for toting the girls around.  They were fascinated by the animals and loved riding on the carousel.  It was so nice to get out and be with family at the zoo!  Thanks for a fun day, Trish & fam :)

It was pretty freezing out.  Avril left her jacket at home so I let her wear mine, which meant I was frrreezing!  Worth it for my sweetie to not freeze...

Trish and... Parker?  I'm so bad at telling the boys apart, sorry!

Just monkeying around... check out that tail!

The girls were captivated

A magnificent peacock struts his stuff

That's one giant gorilla!

so much to see!

Good thing we brought lots of snacks!

Cutie McKel

George gets a shoulder ride from mommy

Play break to climb on the giant polar bear

Fearless McKel

Avril was kind enough to give mommy her jacket back in exchange for a shoulder ride...

Those giraffes are tall!

And excited Avril rides the carousel

Too much fun :)

A very excited George

Weeee!!  :)

The carousel never gets old for kids, they wanted to go again and again and again...

What a helpful brother, pushing Edison :)

Not easy for me to get a shot with all the kiddos in it...

:)



Trish with cutie Edison

One last carousel ride before we head out...

We had such a great time at the zoo!  Thanks again for thinking to invite us, Trish!  It was great to see the animals... and the zoo animals too!  hehe ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This was our very fist Valentine's Day together. Its wonderful actually having a Valentine to be with. After a long day of work, I came home to lovely gifts and a night out with my sweetie to see the Utah Symphony. It was sweet of my man to plan something special for us. After a looong day of work, I about fell asleep though. I'm lucky to have such a great husband who loves me :)

For my sweetie pie... :) mwa!

Reminds me of our beach wedding day <3

Valentine's Day gifts from my sweetheart husband

Jump Around Again

More fun at the jump around!  This time I actually made it in some photos, since Mike was able to come too!  They are all kind of blurry due to all the jumping fun :)

Action shot of McKel :)

:)

Always a good time for the girls when there are things to climb and jump on.  I'm all jumped out.  Time to bounce!  Peace out.