I am back!

     I haven't blogged since October I was told.  I started my blog to keep my family and friends up to date on our lives.  So far I think I have sucked at doing that.  I am sorry!  So now that I have a a little more time on my hands I will try to catch up a little bit.
     First of all we bought a house!  We moved to a house in Taylorsville.  We left our little apartment in Orem, and upgraded.  It is so nice to not have neighbors upstairs that play their music too loud, or neighbors downstairs with their barking dog.  The girls have a backyard to play in.  It is so nice to say..."Girls go play outside while mommy makes dinner".  
     The unpacking part is hard for me.  I don't know where to put anything.  We now have 2 more bathrooms, another bedroom, and a living room.  The other bathrooms were easy , same with the bedroom.  The living room is full of boxes still.  Don't even get me started on the wall hangings.  I just can't figure out what to do with it all.  Maybe I will have a wall hanging party to get ideas and input on where to put things.       As soon as I get everything unpacked I will post pictures.        
     

The Happy Couple

Lydia is seriously the cutest sometimes. She has a lot of stuffed animals. Some are her favorites, and they change from time to time. Lady is her favorite right now. She has been her favorite for a while now. In fact Lady the dog isn't really even Lydia's she stole it from her sister, Ally. Ally didn't really mind so we got her a different stuffed animal from the Disney Store! Our favorite place.

Yesterday Lydia told me that Lady and Clifford are getting married Saturday! She was very excited about this. She came up with this idea all on her own. A lot of the day Friday she was dressing Lady and putting jewelry on her. She wanted her to look beautiful for her wedding day.

The first picture is of the happy couple. Lydia married them this afternoon, and there was a big stuffed animal party following. The picture below is of everyone who is in attendance. My sister, Stacey was also there. She was taking the picture. All of Lydia's stuffed animals and pony's are in the picture. She had such a fun time with this. She really does have quite an imagination!

Lydia's Birthday.

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY LYDIA!!!!

I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks. A lot of things have been going on. The biggest was Lydia’s Birthday last Friday!! She turned 5. I can’t believe I have a 5 year old. She had a few requests for her birthday. She wanted a rainbow cake, to eat dinner at “Old McDonalds”, and to go to The Disney Store. We did it all and had a fun day.

I had the idea to color on the windows with Crayola Window Markers. Steve did all the windows, mirrors, and even the fish tank. We also hung streamers outside her door. As soon as she woke up she was thrilled to see the streamers, and then her name and the number 5 all over the apartment. It was decorated just for her.

The Disney Store was so great! They sang to her, gave her a crown and a pin. She loved it!

Here are some pictures:

Here is my sister, Stacey, decorating her cake.

This is the fish tank colored with the window markers.

Opening presents!

Eating her rainbow cake with her Disney Store crown on.

More writing on the mirror!

Let me tell you about this rainbow cake. I swear it took Steve and me 45 minutes to make it. That is without the baking time. We had a white cake and separated it into 6 bowls and used food coloring to make them the rainbow colors. We carefully spread the batter into the cake pan making sure not to mix them with any other color. It was a process, but it sure made a beautiful and yummy birthday cake. Lydia was so happy with it. It sure made it worth all that work!

Ally is a funny kid.

Just recently Ally has started shaking her head "NO". Now she does it with anything we ask her. "Are you tired?" She shakes her head no. "Can I have a hug?" No. It has turned into the funniest thing. I just wanted to document it.

Chores

I don't think that chores and particularly fun for anyone. I have set up a pretty good system to get all the chores done in our home every week. I won't get into it now. If anyone wants to here it I will tell you later. I also made a chore chart for my girls so they can learn that chores are something that should be done everyday so that you aren't overwhelmed with all the chores at once. It seems that everyday it is a battle with Lydia to clean her room. She is happy to do all the things on her chore chart, but cleaning her room is her challenge. The other day she sat in her room for two hours NOT cleaning. Today she cried in her room "I don't want to clean my room!". I have to bribe her with ice cream. I am sure all kids do this, but I just can't take it anymore. When I ask Lydia to clean her room I just want her to say "Yes, Mom!', and then do it in a reasonable amount of time. I know I have really unacceptable expectations, but maybe it could happen just once.

To a Healthier Me

Tonight for the first time in about 10 years I started running. Well really walking most of the way. I am sure I will be sore tomorrow. I have really been trying to eat better and exercise every day. The past two weeks I really haven't because of the two out of town trips we took. Going out of town is not the best for eating right and exercising. We mostly ate out and drove everywhere. Now that we are back into the swing of things again I have started back with my plan. I want on going running or walking every night, and eating better of course. So help keep me on track. I have to look good for my cousins wedding in November. I am a bridesmaid and I have a killer red dress!

Lydia's First Day of Preschool

Lydia had her first day of Preschool yesterday. Her first day of preschool last year I took a few pictures, but I didn't do anything special that we could remember it by. So this year I decided to make a list of her favorites.
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Food: Meatballs and Noodles
Favorite Toy: Stuffed Animal Lady (From Lady and the Tramp)
Favorite Song: Animal by Neon Trees
Favorite Treat: Chocolate Candy
Favorite TV Show: Super Why
Favorite Movie: The Princess and the Frog
Favorite Activity: Coloring
Favorite Book: Llama Llama Books

I want to start doing this every year for school to see how much she changes.