Father-son activities (but with daughters)

Lately we've been doing a lot of boyish things like building cabins out of Lincoln Logs and racing Pinewood Derby cars. The girls think that anything they do with Daddy is great fun so until they start having an opinion and only want to do girly princess things, we'll take advantage.

Jared's mousetrap car that he worked all week on

Finally getting a chance to race it!

Recreating a picture from a Pinewood Derby when Jared was 8 years old. See the similarities?

Abbie loved his car and was so happy when it was finally her turn to race it down the track. She stayed busy for almost an hour just running up and down the track following it!

Leah was just happy to play with toys and eat donuts

The big winner (of the EQ Derby, not the Boy Scout one)!

Some of the other creative cars in the competition

Leah coming down after a sugar high. She ate way too many donut holes and had finally run out of energy after running in circles all around the gym. We found her rolling back and forth on the ground, almost like she was trying to calm herself down. It was pretty funny but kind of scary at the same time! We went home and put her to bed soon after...

Well, as of today it's back to princess dress-up, shopping with purses and strollers, dancing in tutus, and feeding and rocking dolls to sleep around here. Our fun in the boy world sure was short lived!

The sweetest thing...

I love watching Jared make cookies with the girls, he's so patient with them and lets them make a mess and they love being able to wear their aprons and help out. Jared even cleans up everything at the end and I get some yummy cookies out of it! What's not to love? Well, except for the extra pounds I gain...

Adding ingredients

I wanna see!

I'm helping!

Stir, stir, stir!

Thank you, Jared, for being a great father and always being willing to spend time with the girls and let me have a break. I love you!

Human couches, horsey rides, and bad hair days

Here's a quick overview of this last week and some of the things the girls have been up to. While Jared was taking a little nap on the floor, the girls thought he would make a good couch for watching some TV. They sat like this for quite a while!

More time outside enjoying the sun

Breaking out the grill for the first time this year

Leah loves doing horsey rides on Abbie's back...

But it gets a little tricky when Abbie expects one in return!

Had a bad hair day recently? Leah wasn't too happy about hers.

Jared called it her Wyoming hairstyle since he likes to make fun of my small town upbringing and the big hair we all had in the early 90's!

Well, there you have it, that's our exciting week!

Seeing green...

I first noticed this coming up yesterday...

And by today, it already looked like this!

I love Spring!

Just my luck...

Have you ever had this happen to your Ipod?

It's called the "White Screen of Death" and means your Ipod is pretty much worthless. It just happened to my little silver 4G Ipod nano (like the one below) that I loved that I've only had for a year. It was the perfect size for fitting in my pocket and I haven't had any problems with it until now.

I went through all the trouble shooting and advice I could find on Apple's website and then tried other suggestions I found online and still couldn't get it to work. So I called Apple and they couldn't help me over the phone unless I paid a big fee since I just passed the year mark on the warranty. So then I made an appointment to see one of their "geniuses" at the Apple Store and they didn't know anything and basically couldn't help me, their only advice was to pay a huge amount to have it repaired elsewhere or just buy a new one.

So, long story short, I ended up buying a new, sleek, black 8G Ipod nano like the one below:

It cost just a tad more than it would have cost to repair the other one and now I have way more memory and can do so much more stuff. I've been having fun putting more music on it and setting up some playlists for the kids and Jared and now I even have enough memory to watch movies on it or put the General Conference audio podcast on there so I'm excited about that. I guess there is a benefit of having things break, maybe I should "accidentally" drop my camera tomorrow...hmmmm

A taste of Spring...

We had one beautiful spring-like day last week where the temperature got up into the 60's so we went on a walk and played at the park. After getting home, I couldn't resist letting the girls play outside in the dirt some more since it's been months since they could be outside without their coats on. Here they are getting all dirty and enjoying the sun!

A day or two later it was raining and back in the 30's so here they are enjoying a tea party indoors.

We recently found out that Abbie has a moderate hearing loss and so we have been busy going to the audiologist to get her fitted with hearing aids. We finally got them last week and so far she is doing really well with wearing them. She seems to notice a difference with sounds already and is excited about her pretty pink and purple ear molds. So if you see her out and about, she'll be sporting these cool duds!

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Bits and Pieces...

Here are some random things we've been up to lately. Read on if you're interested or have nothing else to do!

Abbie got a Light Bright toy recently for accomplishing a potty training goal and hasn't put it down since. She loves it and so far I haven't had a problem with all the little lights all over the house, Yay!

Abbie loves brushing Leah's hair and helping me get it ready to do in the morning.

We braved the cold (in the 20's) on Saturday and spent a little while outside playing with chalk,

Digging in the dirt,

And carrying the dirt into the garden.

Enjoying a little lunch after playing outside. Leah has figured out how to climb in and out of the high chair by herself and decided to stop halfway on this day.

I got out the playdough today and after about half an hour it all ended up on the floor in little pieces with the girls just playing with the containers. I didn't have the energy or time to try to clean it up and get it all back in the right containers so it all went into the garbage! It was getting all dried out and mixed together anyway so I decided to scrap it all and start over with new, fresh stuff for next time. Now I just need to go buy some! I don't think I've actually had to buy any playdough in the past year or so, we keep getting it in party gift bags or for birthday and Christmas presents. That just seems crazy for a mother of two toddlers!

Our beautiful happy girls...