A Mermaid Birthday

The later end of September brought a double birthday for Banana Girl and Alex.  This year was a "friend party" year and Banana Girl chose to have mermaids as her theme.  I had a lot of fun preparing the food and Mermaid tale towels for the girls and we had a great time partying at the pool.  Unfortunately, Alex had a class for his work and ended up missing the whole party.  I made him his favorite meals that day and had a little family party for him that night.

2012 Sept Birthday Party - slideshow maker

Here are the results of Banana Girl's Annual Birthday Interview:

Age: 4

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite Toy:  Merlia Doll, Big Ariel Doll, Mermaids, Cinderella doll

Favorite Movie:  Tangled, Beauty & Beast, & Brave

Favorite Song: "Slippin Through My Fingers", "Honey, Honey" (both by Abba), & "I Like to Look for Rainbows" (Primary Song Book)

Favorite TV Show: My Little Pony

Favorite Clothes: Black, sparkly dress

Favorite food to eat: Zucchini Bread (w/chocolate chips), Ramen Noodles, and Mac & Cheese

Do you collect anything: No

Best Friends: Lacy, Julie, Lexie, Mazzy, and Hannah

What do you love about yourself?  My special things, toys.  I'm a good friend.  Good colorer.

What do you love about each person in our family? Daddy: always does what I want to do.  He loves me sooo much.  Mommy: She likes to sing with me.  She loves to take me places and loves my favorite color.  Princess M: She loves to play with me.  She teaches me to read and do ballet.  Little Mouse: She plays pink-a-boo, she laughs when I'm silly.

Why do you want to go to school?  I want to learn stuff about school.

Who is your teacher?  Princess M

Favorite thing to do with Mom:  Mommy & Daughter Dates

Favorite thing to do with Dad:  Daddy & Daughter Dates

If you had a day alone with Mom and Dad, what would you do?  Play princesses & princes

What is something funny that Mom/Dad say?  "I wish that you were a little Boo Boo."

Best thing you have learned this year:  to be like a princess.

What makes you most proud?  Giving people presents

What makes you happy? Playing with friends & swimming

What makes you laugh or smile?  I don't know

What makes you sad?  Mommy or Daddy doesn't let me go in the car with them.

Where would you like to go on vacation this year?  a park or McDonalds

What are some of your wishes for this year?  Wish for no time-outs.  Wish that it was Christmas.

What is your testimony of Jesus Christ?  He loves me.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  an adult & a mommy

Is there anything that you've never told me that you want to tell me now? no

Is there anything that you've never asked em that you want to ask me now?  no.

Grandma's Birthday Party

Early September saw a return to school for Princess M.   Here's my big first grader on her first day:

Immediately after starting school, we took her out for a week to leave on a another trip/reunion up at the Heber Valley Camp for Grandma Kidman's birthday weekend.  We did remember the camera this time and took a TON of pictures.  Here's a slide show of all the pictures from the birthday retreat:

Grandma's Birthday Retreat - how to create a free slideshow

We stayed a few extra days and were able to attend my nephew's eagle scout court of honor.  Congratulations again J man!!!  You rock!

On our way out the door to start our long drive back home, Grandma taught my girls to do a proper cartwheel.

We Love You Grandma!!!  Happy Birthday!

We stopped halfway home for the night in Vegas at my Aunt and Uncle's home.  They have such a lovely home there and are always so willing to let us stop and rest up before driving the rest of the way home.  Plus the girls were so excited to be able to swim in their backyard pool.

As it so happens, after taking these pictures I set the camera in my lap while I read by the side of the pool.  Well, Little Mouse started throwing towels into the pool and as I jumped up to save the towels from the water, the camera slipped right into the water instead.  Thank goodness we were able to salvage the pictures from the camera; but the camera itself was ruined.  You can guess what we got this year on Black Friday.  Until then, we pretty much just took pictures on our cell phones.

Anyhow, ruined camera aside, it was a very nice trip and we were all very sad to have to come back to normal life again.

August Catchup

Well it took longer than we expected, due to a loan company that just really wanted to pull our teeth out (they delayed our closing by 3 weeks), but we finally closed and were able to move into our new home.  Alex left the very next day on a week long work trip, so I pretty much got to unpack by myself.  But since that task mostly falls on me anyway, I didn't mind.  It was pretty slow going though with him gone and with a reunion with his side of the family in California though.  

(By the way, that reunion was a total blast and unfortunately I don't have a single picture.  We completely forgot to take a camera with us and haven't gotten around to forcing everyone to send us copies of their photos.)

Here's our last photo in our old home:

Once everything was packed up the girls would play hide and seek in the empty cupboards.  Way cute!

Mom and Dad decided on the spur of the moment to come out and help me with the unpacking at the end of the month.  We had them for a week.  Our girls had a blast having them all to themselves.  And they helped out a ton with unpacking, mounting things on the walls, weeding our old yard (oh, did I mention we were also frantically trying to get our old home ready for renting, with a huge repair/maintenance list as well as our new guest house renovated and ready for our friends to move into?) moving a ton of stuff and trips to the dump, etc.  Oh, and their last day here, while I had to go to work, they painted my front room!  Not just your everyday paint job, either.  They did a beautiful job faux texture painting the room in a soft warm brown, tuscan style.  You can kind of see it here.  But you all will just have to come visit and see it for yourselves.  I still love it every time I sit in there and just look around.  Thank you, Mom & Dad!!!

Now if I could just find the time to paint the rest of the house...

Just an Update

Just for any who might be curious why I haven't been writing lately.  We've been just a little busy with inspections and contracts and negotiations, and such.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we are moving once again.  We're up to 4 times now in 2 years.  Yes, I'm really getting tired of this.

But this time, we're actually moving to a home that we are buying, that will actually be big enough for all our stuff and growing children.  It's still not as much space as we had in Colorado Springs, but it is twice as big as what we are living in now (which is bigger than anywhere we've been since leaving the Springs 2 years ago.)

I'm almost giddy thinking about having a bedroom that is JUST a bedroom (not a storage room on full of boxes along one wall.)  And I might actually be able to have a separate craft room as well.  Funny how when all my crafting supplies are in the toy room closet, the kids think they are toys to play with.  And there's a storage room right off the kitchen as well.  I could actually start storing food again.  Maybe we could actually get a full year supply.  Not to mention the kitchen itself that has more than 2 feet of counter space.

Oh, and there's a hot tub in the backyard.  Mmmmmmmm.

Yes, I'm very excited.  I wish I could start moving now.  But the big day is July 3, a week and a half from now.  So this year on the 4th, we'll be celebrating our independence from tiny cramped living quarters!  Hopefully we'll be able to stay put this time for a long, long, time.

(For those of you who might care, we confirmed today that we will definitely be crossing the elusive ward boundary into 4th ward.)

Oh, and one more thing... I probably won't be writing again for a while as the whole craziness of packing and moving sets in.  Wish us luck!

Striking Similarities

The girls were playing Rapunzel the other day and tying blankets together to be their long hair.  But when Banana Girl walked in the room, all I could think of was this other girl from "One Man Band":

We tried our darnedest to get Banana Girl to scowl and hold out her hand for a photo, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face:

Too bad that Pixar girl has no name, it would be a perfect new blog name for Banana Girl (especially since Banana Girl no longer likes bananas very much.)

School's Over!

Princess M finished Kindergarten at the top of her class.  It's been so fun watching her learn how to read and write and do math and discover the world around her.  We're so proud of you Princess M!!!!

Summertime!

There are bonuses to having a grandma, who's house is in an HOA.  

 She gave us a copy of her pool key, so we can go whenever we want.  

We're loving it!