Utah!

Everyone! I dragged Shay to Utah and he actually had a good time! We all did. It was so fun to visit family and spend time together in the outdoors. We first stayed with my friend Carrie. Carmen had a blast with Garret and Amanda (her kids) riding tractors and horses and jumping on the trampoline. Well, we sorta had fun riding a horse. Let's be honest, it was a little scary. I know that was my first and last time. But it was also fun and a great memory.

Petra on the trampoline with Amanda (Carrie' little girl):



Carmen taking a ride with Garret (Carrie's little boy) on his tractor.



Petra with pigtails. She didn't like me pulling her hair to get them into pigtails. We probably won't do this again for a while:


Shay at breakfast with a bunch of kids. For those of you that don't know, Shay absolutely hates going out to eat with kids as they may get rowdy. So, it was funny to see him with so many kids at a restaurant.



At Wheeler Farm looking at animals:







Amanda holding Petra:



Carrie and Jera 2.0:



The Girls:



Carrie and Jera's kids all together:



Sunday we had dinner with my cousin Jessica and her family. Here are some pictures of the cute kids:





We took the kids to Lagoon on Monday with my Aunt Teri and her girls and my cousin Josh. I should have got a group shot of us all together...but alas, i was too busy taking pictures of Carmen on rides. She had a blast. It was so much fun. Hot, but fun. (I forgot how hot Utah can get in the summer)







Some cute photos of Petra with Teri and her kids:







Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Logan to visit my Aunt Laurie and her family. Again, we had a blast. We went to Willow Park and had a picnic and enjoyed each other's company while Carmen had fun running around, introducing herself to new kids and playing with cousin Andrew. It was a blast.









I'm in love with the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone. So, I took a bunch of pics of Petra in the grass. Here are a few:





And here are some "artsy" shots of some wildlife in the zoo:





Again, Utah was super fun. We wished we could have seen more people and done more. Hopefully, we'll catch more the next time we visit.

livin'

ahhh, life is hectic! sorry for the lag on blogging. i've just been trying to enjoy my girls. i just love them. both are so spunky and awesome.

we enrolled carmen in dance and she just loves it. and it's very fun to watch her. she's very into watching movies. her favorite right now is the nightmare before christmas. she knows all the songs. it's very cute to watch her sing along as she watches. carmen is a great storyteller. she currently has five kids; charmen, twinkle, sparkle, jerkle and urkle. and she plays with peter pan and ponyo everyday. i've recently taken her to a few of my friends houses who also have kids about the same age and she's starting to get into playing with them. it's very cute to see her interact with kids her same age. man, i'm loving this stage and am going to be sad to see her mini self grow up. i keep saying, "how come you keep growing? will you stop?" and then the other day she said to me, "mom, i'll stop growing. i think i'll stay free forever." thank you, carmen. i appreciate that. oh, i love you.

petra is just so freaking cute. i can hardly stand it. she's into playing with carmen and has recently gotten into music. she rocks out to it. it's funny to see her little head bop to the beat. she's not crawling yet, but almost. and she has three teeth. petra hates it when i'm not holding her. she hates it when i put her to bed. she clenches her chubby little fists and grunts in anger. it's sad and cute at the same time. ah! love her.

Here is a video of the two of them playing:



here is a video of carmen at her dance class.

Happy Mother's Day!

What better day to take photos of the reasons that make motherhood so great than today. So, Janna came over and insisted that i get ready and take pictures with the girls. I'm glad she did. Carmen was a little difficult today, but we managed to squeak out some pretty awesome photos. Even if they aren't perfect, I love them because they just capture how Carmen and Petra are at this age. We have this cute park by our house that has some pumpkin stage coaches, so that is where most of these photos are taken. Our backyard is another, which isn't all that pretty right now because it is filled with weeds. But, I thought it would look kinda cool to take pictures of the girls in there. So, a few are taken there.

Here are some outtakes of the little miss displaying some of her drama!

She did not want to sit still or go where we wanted her to:



Not really wanting to take pictures:



But Petra thought it was funny:



Some great shots of Miss Carmen:





Doing what she does best, directing:



Some great shots of Miss Petra:



She makes this funny face where she sucks in her top lip. It's quite cute:



In the backyard with the weeds, thinking I'm crazy for putting her there:



Beautiful face:



"Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters...."









And finally, me with my girls:













We ended the day with some good ole fashioned swinging. It was a good day.
Happy mother's day to all the wonderful examples of motherhood out there. I love you. And thank you Janna, for doing this for me. Love you tons.

time flies

I have been severely lagging on my updates. Life is just flying by. I can not believe how big my girls are getting. Petra is now 6 months. She weighs almost 17 lbs. She started saying "dada". She loves to give hugs and kisses and they are the absolute best. She giggles at everything. Oooh, I just love that munchkin. She also grabs everything. I was feeding her one day and she decided she was done. I turned around for a second and she had grabbed her little cup of food and gotten it all over her cute little face.





Carmen is getting to be such a drama queen. I swear she's 3 going on 16. Oh my goodness, the past few days especially have been filled with attitude and crying. As well as some funny comments. For instance, I was feeding Petra today and Petra was being a little fidgety and kicking her legs about. She accidentally kicked Carmen and Carmen said, "Mom, she kicked me!!!" I said, "Oh Carmen, she didn't mean to." Carmen: "Mom, look at my leg, it's totally red."
Awesome. But, she is my little miss and so fun too.



Here are some Easter pics. We had a lot of fun. Carmen loved dying eggs and hunting for them.








Easter was also Shay's birthday. Carmen and I made him a butter cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Carmen picked out the sprinkles and then decided she didn't like them. I guess they do look better than they taste.

My favorites

I was going through pictures and found one that i meant to post a while ago, but forgot.



I just love this picture and i think it will always be one of my favorites. Shay is such a good daddy and this picture just captures such a sweet moment of spending time with his girls. It's the best, and i think what life's all about.

Here are a few recent pictures I took this weekend:



not the best picture, but i kind of love some of the imperfect ones i take. it just shows the real facials and moments the girls have at this age. i just love it.



classic carmen



beautiful petra 5 months

Oh, one more thing, I think we almost have Carmen potty trained! Hallelujah!

girls, girls, girls

sorry i have been a bad blogger. 2 kids takes a lot of time. but, life has been so much fun with the two of them. Carmen is about to turn three and so I tried to take some pictures of her to commemorate it, but she wasn't very cooperative. i was lucky enough to get her in a dress and snap a few pictures. i love them though because they show just how saucy this little girl is right now.

Carmen also tells a lot of stories. In fact I think she gets great pleasure from going on and on about things that may or may not have happened about things she may or may not have seen. I love it. She's also a fantastic big sister. She is constantly entertaining and playing with Petra. She is so cute with her. I can tell they are going to be such great friends.

Petra is growing like a WEED. I want her to stop. I love her little baby self. She giggles a lot. She has found her toes. She started scooting. She puts everything in her mouth. She loves to give baby kisses. And she too started growling just like Carmen used to do. Must be some weird family trait. We went to her 4 month well check a couple weeks ago and she was 15 lbs 1 oz and was 24 1/4" long. She's growing way too fast.