Little Rays of Sunshine!

Haboob Chandler Az July 5th 2011

2011-07-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

This video shows it way better than my cell phone did, but this dust storm was awesome last night! We were driving in it too and it was so eery how it was quiet and dark even though the wind was blowing.....dont know how to explain that. I felt like we were in the movie Scorpion King lol

The KO Hip-Hop Cello-Beatbox Experience: Julie-O

2011-06-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Diary of A Wimpy Kid 2 Rodrick Rules- Rowley singing Tik Tok (Ke$ha)

2011-03-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

This has got to be the best video ever!! Ali we need to recreate this :)

Better Late than Never

2011-03-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

This years Valentines "LOVE" photo. It's so fun to see how much they've grown in the last year!

Adele, Stand by me (I found a boy), Heineken Music Hall

2011-02-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

This is why I love Adele! She is such an amazing singer....even live which no one really is anymore. Her new cd just came out and I love it!

2011-02-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

This is what we'll be doing today

Maya

2011-02-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

I was thinking last night while I was laying in bed, listening to Chris' heavy breathing and occasional snore, that one, I was annoyed at how fast he always can fall asleep. How that is possible on a nightly basis is just not fair, and two about our little girls sleeping in the other room. I got to thinking about Maya and that she will soon be 2 in April. I cannot believe my little blonde hair, blue eyed child is already that old. In a way it makes me sad. I will miss it when she's not our little "Chubba" and bouncing all over the house like she does with all that blonde hair in her face no matter how I try to pin it back.

She's quite the little character and for someone who cant communicate in full sentences yet she somehow still manages to be hilarious and makes us laugh all day. Turn your back for one second and she's into something she shouldn't be and I love her for it. She loves being an older sister now and smooches Leona whenever she can and even though she's younger than Jayda you'd never know it, b/c she pushes Jayda around all the time. We call her the little enforcer :)

She likes to take all of her blankets out of her bed everymorning...ALL OF THEM lol

She also likes to use everything on her body. This time it was dry erase marker but so far her favorite is to use glue sticks, when she can find them now that they are hidden, as chapstick. lol Which I think is pretty smart, they do look the same after all. And she also has used deodorant once or twice and rubbed it all over her face and body.

Brocks Homecoming

2011-02-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

My cousin Brock......Elder Stratton came home right before Christmas and we were glad to have him back. He looked great and so happy! Gotta love those missionaries

Ugly Sweater/Mustache Party

2011-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

I realize I haven't posted since Leona was blessed telling all that has gone on over the holidays and all so I thought I'd just mash a bunch into the next couple of posts. Before Christmas we had a Ugly Sweater/Mustach party at our house. It was a ton of fun and we played this game called Pit. It was...well....a SCREAMING match to say the least. I have to formally admit that if it hadn't been for Chris leaving out rules and then slowly revealing them as we went along we might have been demolished but his cheating helped us thrive and I'm completely okay with that :) Word to the wise never let Chris run the show in a game of a beginners.

Happy New Year

2011-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone! We made New Year Resolutions. We dont normally do that because it's usually something someone says like..."Hey what's your new years resolution?" Which you then state some overly ambitious thing but never do so this year we decided to actually try. Try being the key word :) Chris' was to work out more and just be a better husband and father. Why he thinks he needs to improve on that I'm not sure. He's fantastic. Mine is patience. Patience in all things and mostly with myself. Jaydas was to be more like tinkerbell. Mayas, well i'm going to help Maya with hers, she doesnt know it because she's 18 months but hers is going to be not to scratch her sisters face everyday lol. Leona is Leona a 4 month old sweet heart and we are so grateful to start our new year with all 3 of these beauties! So happy new years and good luck with all your New Years resolutions.

The life of Jayda

2010-12-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Jayda has grown up being around my sisters on a DAILY basis. I love this and wouldn't trade it for the world. They are more than Aunts to her and are more like her second mothers. They treat her that way too lol Maybe this is actually not a good thing for her now that I'm thinking about it. To have 3 extra mothers bossing you around? Oh well, for the most part its all fun and playing all day. She gets extra attention. Extra love. Extra snacks when I say no and she somehow sneaks it out of one of them......usually from Alexa! And she also gets in on all the "sister days" we have where we just mess around and sing and play our instruments.

A couple days ago, Brooklyn flew in from Utah so we could make a tape for my Grandaddy in Florida. We made him one before Brooklyns mission of us singing and playing him some songs, and he loved it so much he plays it for anyone who will listen lol so we decided it had been long enough and we should make him another one. Before I sent it off I wanted to share 2 of the songs from the tape that have Jayda in it b/c she is just so sweet and little and I'll always want to remember her voice as it is now. Sweet and little! It sounds a little wonky b/c we recorded it on 1. an old boom box I've had since I was like 14 and 2. it was recorded on a cassette tape! Who knew they still existed right? lol oh well you do with what ya got. Thanks to my dear sweet friend Sis. Whimpey for helping me burn it from that to a disc.....now I'm able to share it.

November and December Updates

2010-12-15T14:59:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in about 2 months which I feel bad about. We've had lots of family parties going on, we blessed our little Leona, had Jaydas 4th Birthday, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas is coming up, but boy do I love this time of year. I'm in that place that I get every year around this time......the place where you are sad the holidays are almost over, but still have enough time to enjoy it and be excited as well :) Just thought I'd share some pictures of what we've been up too lately and hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Leona in her blessing dress with my grandparents. She is named after my grandmas mother Leona Heap

Setting up for Jaydas Birthday Party

Thanksgiving weekend was at my moms this year. It was a lot of fun, and we celebrated my grandpas birthday as well. The family rented a box at the Suns Game and we all got to go to the game and have good food and hang out, we loved it and my Papa said it was the best birthday he's had lol

We also went shooting that Friday. Chris has a new gun that he got for his birthday and my dad bought a handgun on black friday so out we went. Maya didn't like the noise too much but Jayda thought it was awesome. She liked to "shoot" the gun as well.

5 Years!

2010-11-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

Happy 5 year Anniversary Christopher!! Chris and I were married 5 years ago today. Feels like longer lol As I sit right now, Chris is asleep in bed with some kind of stomach bug. The house is in shambles. The girls are lounging around eating dry cereal from their bowls, and Leona smells of soy milk. And as I think about these past 5 years, I really wouldn't have it any other way. Those 5 years have created this. This messy, funny, and usually pretty predictable home with our girls and eachother and I love it. So happy anniversary Chris hope the next 5 are as fun as the first 5 have been :) Muah!!

Utah Trip part 3

2010-10-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Friday was spent checking into our Hotel, taking some bridal shots of brooklyn, visiting EAST HIGH (home to high school musical), going to This is The Place Monument, and the Grooms dinner. Brooklyns picutres were fun because well lets just be honest I didn't really care about her haha I just wanted to head back to that beautiful building. Here are just a few of the ones we took:

Brooklyn being Brooklyn

This building is massive and made her look like a princess in her castle

Alexa and Bailey were troopers carrying everyones bags and holding up the back of Brooklyns dress haha they are used to it so whatever :)

This building is just amazing

Jayda loving all the foo foo and time with the girls

After we were done we decided to take Jayda up to see East High. The day before Brooklyn, my mom and I had gone to check it out and Brooklyn went inside with my camera posing as a student lol and I was so nervous she was going to get caught. My mom says I'm not good under pressure, and if put in a interrogating situation I'd cave haha so anyway Jayda LOVES High School Musical and had just started watching the movies a couple of weeks before the wedding so when we told her she was going to East High and then pulled up to the front she squealed and said...."IS TROY BOLTON GONNA BE THERE???" Oh hunny thats everyones question and dream i'm sure lol

Jayda pretending to be Gabriella from the movie walking down the halls lol

The gym where "Troy" plays basketball....Alexa had to touch every door handle to make sure she touched where Zac Efron did

Sitting at the lunch tables like they do in the movie

Brooklyn had to take this pic b/c if you've ever seen the movie it's the stairwell where "Troy" busts out his solo song with the lightening and rain lol

After all the hype of East High which was awesome we headed up to This is The Place Monument. I've always wanted to go and see it, and it was well worth it and really neat.

I think Grandpa was explaining something about the Train that had just pulled up at this point

Trying to blow the dandelions that were everywhere by the Monument

Utah Trip part 2

2010-10-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

Old buildings, cemeteries, and museums! What a day! It started bright and early at 8am when I got a text that Brooklyn and my mom were out front waiting for me. We drove into Salt Lake and started on South Temple street, which is lined with beautiful buildings, old homes and even a Masonic Temple.

Church of the Madeleine

Pictured in 1908

Presbyterian Church right next to the Church of the Madeleine

LDS Business College

Govenors Mansion....I think

Awesome Old Victorian Home

Masonic Temple

The Tree Lined streets I fell in love with!

Beautiful Home up in the Avenues where I vow to live someday :)

THE FEDERAL HEIGHTS WARD!!! lol oh man I guess this is only funny to my mom, Brooklyn and I but come on that's one big name on the building

After peeking into the FEDERAL HEIGHTS WARD building windows and trying not to pee our pants from quoting Antoine Dodson we headed up to the cemetery because I've never had a chance to get up there. There's a really cool pamphlet that has the Prophets who are buried up there marked so you can just follow the map and see their graves. I mostly wanted to see Pres. Hinckley since he was the prophet for most of my life and my most impressionable years :) And I wanted to see Pres. Hunters because I had a chance to meet him and shake his hand when he was the prophet. I also got a chance to see our families graves Jedediah M. Grant aka "Mormon Thunder" lol and Heber J. Grant. It was neat being able to see those.

President Kimballs grave but the sprinklers came on so we couldn't walk up to it

Black Cat in the Cemetery??? lol not a good sign

A quote on the back of some random grave that Brooklyn and I thought was funny

Putting Rocks on Pres. Hunters grave which is just like a symbol meaning someone has come to tend or visit the grave.

This was a really neat Headstone that I loved

Then we headed over by the UofU to check out the old interesting looking University ward building. It has a mural that I've never seen on another LDS church before.

City and County Building...my favorite building in Salt Lake City other than Temple Square. After searching this building and taking pictures here we decided we were def. coming back the next day..(Friday) to take pictures of Brooklyn in her wedding dress. It was just gorgeous.

This is the church where Pres. Hinckley grew up going to. Its the last or one of the last original ward buildings from when the Pioneers came to Salt Lake. It was at this building that Pres. Hinckley gained his testimony. I think theres a church video about it, but the story goes something like, there was a priesthood meeting and he didn't want to go and his dad made him go anyway and he was sitting in the back pew not really wanting to be there and the choir started singing "Praise to the Man" and it struck Pres. Hinckley and he gained his testimony that day. Something to that effect.

Cool street behind the Church of the Madeleine that you can see the Temple the farther up the hill you go.

At the top of one of the church buildings on temple square.

The Capital Building

Pres. Brigham Youngs grave

We went up to the top of this hill where you can see downtown, the Capital, the temple and the park below the capital. Somehow our photo-op turned into a 'who has the longest hair competition'....sorry Brooklyn you didn't stand a chance lol

The Pioneer Museum

My 3rd great grandpa Jedediah M Grant...(I posted his headstone above) pocketwatch in the Pioneer museum

At the end of the day...which I was not ready for it to end, we headed to Trolley Square to meet up with Chris and the girls, Connie, Brandon, and Gabe to eat at The Spaghetti Factory. Chris' favorite and a must have whenever we go to Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun, and so dang good!

Utah Trip part 1

2010-10-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

Last week we had the privilege of going on a trip to Utah. The privilege not being so much during the 11 hour drive part, but more in the family and friends and nice weather part. I have always loved Utah because it's kind of like Arizona but it's actually green. I've been feeling smothered in this deseret as of late. We've lived here since I was 12, so for awhile now, but I have dreamt of greener pastures if you will :) I know they always say "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" but hey in this case it is. Literally. Just cross that border and it starts to get more green the further up you drive, and in my case my heart thumped the further up we got.

I love Arizona. Our families are both here. Next door and over the hill to be exact. Chris' job, his schooling, all the comforts of home, but yet I still yearn for that next adventure, in a new city, with trees, changing seasons like when I lived in Missouri as a kid, and yet still have the mountains close by like we do here.

No this is not a blog post stating that we are moving to Utah or any other surrounding states, just venting a little I guess. Our trip to Utah was probably not good in aiding my 'lets pack up and try something new' mindset because the trip was....well....a blast and I did NOT want to leave. We drove all day Wednesday and got in just before 6 to Chris' sisters house, and not a moment to soon. That's a long drive isn't it? I think before we had even reached Flagstaff, Jayda had asked, "Are we in Utah yet?" 12 times. My niece and nephews were happy to see our kids, and our kids were desperately happy to see them and be out of the car. Connie had already made us a wonderful dinner that was ready when we arrived and so dang good too....thanks Con!! And then we let the kids run around awhile before bed. We got to sample Brandons new speaker system and projector screen which ROCKED!! Movies should always be watched in homes that way. I'm hooked! The feature presentation was "Transformers" the first one, which Connie had never watched. Chris is obsessed with Transformers and was our narrator in the beginning explaining to Connie the story line, yelling at us for talking, and then yelling at us again for laughing and making fun of his obsessiveness towards Optimus Prime throughout the movie.

Jayda had her first "sleep-over" and got to sleep in cousin Shaylees room. They giggled all night and stayed up later than I did I think. The next day....Thursday, was what I had looked forward to for 2 weeks. Everytime we go to Utah we are always up at Connie and Brandons and only go into Salt Lake usually to eat at the Spaghetti Factory or do little things right on temple square and never really venture out further than that, so we had gone up a day early just so I could have the entire day, Thursday, to spend with my mom doing all the sites and seeing all the old homes and buildings that I've always wanted to see. THE ENTIRE DAY!!! Can you imagine that? Neither could I lol in fact it wasn't enough for me, I could've used another day. I'm sure not everyone gets excited about seeing old homes and buildings, going to museums, and cemeteries like I do, but hey to each his own right? More about Thursday in my next post. I will however post some pics of Connie and Brandon and the kids from our mountain drive to take their family pics. They were so nice to let us stay for 2 nights before we headed in to Salt Lake for Brooklyns wedding. Thanks again you guys.

The Forgotten Man - Jon McNaughton

2010-10-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

I am not a Politically driven person, but I do care about the country that I raise my children in and that provides the opportunity for me to practice my religion and live the way I do. Something about this video struck me. Struck me in the way that you can't take your eyes from the screen and you feel that inner stirring. Maybe it is the facial features of past Presidents the painter portrayed. Maybe it's how some Presidents are clapping and in agreement. Maybe it's just because the painting is amazing and the painter is talented. Or maybe it's all of the above. I just know I loved the painting and video. I love this country and I love my Savior. If we could all be a little more like him, what an amazing place this would be to live again.

We No Speak Americano ft. Cleary & Harding

2010-09-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Leona Ray

2010-09-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

Leona Ray was born a week ago today. I went into the hospital just to get monitored for an hour to make sure everything was alright. The night before and all day Saturday I hadn't felt as much movement as I normally did so we went in just to be safe. After monitoring her heart and all of her movements for an hour there was 2 little blurp things on the monitor that the doctor didn't like so they sent me upstairs to get an ultrasound.

In the ultrasound the babies get a score. They are supposed to developmentally achieve certain things during the sonogram and based on those things they get a score. In most cases if the baby gets anywhere from a 6-10 they'll call it good and let you go home. Leona scored a 4 so my doctor decided it was just time for her to join us since I was already far enough along and contracting on my own anyway.

Long story short and to spare everyone the details it was a FANTASTIC delivery. It was quick and easy, and I'm extremely grateful. We are loving having her here. Maya is oblivious and doesn't really get it, but you can tell she's like, who is this new baby my parents are holding all the time. Jayda is a little jealous of the time spent with Leona now but is adjusting and loving being our little helper.

When Leona was born she weighed 5 pounds 9 oz and left the hospital at 5 pounds 6 oz, the next day at her doctors appointment she was 5 pounds 3 oz so from each day to day she lost 3 oz but now that she's home and feeding on more of a regular schedule she is doing great and gaining weight......i think :) I stare at her all day everyday so I can't really tell but her cheeks look chubbier to me so I'll take that as a good sign.

Little Leona Ray

Growing Up

2010-08-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you wanna grow up like this? Your quilt, a bowl of puppy chow, and cartoons?

Well I did too :) My mom used to give me a measuring cup with chocolate chips in it to keep my younger sister Brooklyn entertained in the mornings and thanks to her great thinking and those fond memories of chocolate in the morning I've now passed that onto to my girls.

"Hey Jayda can you take care of Maya while mommy gets ready?" lol heres some puppy chow

Works like a charm!

Love being these kids mom.

And thanks to my own mother, you ROCK!

My little Helper

2010-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

I always thought when I got pregnant for the first time that I'd want a boy first.

I always loved having an older brother. He was a great older brother, and anyone who knows my brother Colton could tell you why, he's just that. A great guy!

Anyway I got pregnant and that immediately all went out the window lol I wanted a girl so much I could barely stand it. Here we are going on girl number 3 and I'm still grateful. I love having all these girls. I hope they love eachother and have as much fun as my mom, my sisters and I all have when we're together.

Jayda has turned into not only a funny little character but she's such a good helper. I'm proud of her. I can only imagine when Leona shows up, how helpful she will be. Jayda get this, jayda can you get that???? lol my mom said the poor girl is going to call and say "Grandma I need a vacation!"

I make it a point to tell her how much she helps me, and how much I love her, but it also makes me so sad that she's getting so big. The other day she was helping me make dinner and I just stopped dead in my tracks when I saw her up on her stool washing her hands. She looked so old and it just hit me how fast time goes by. I always ask her if we can just move to neverland so she'll stay my little baby forever. She proceeds to roll her eyes and say duh mom I have to grow up so I can go to kindergarten. (Her lifes dream so far lol) Oh well till then when she leaves me for school I'll take her in and all the help that she brings.

Times are a Changing

2010-08-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Coming over to my house lately you'll find a tornado of projects strewn about. Must be that "nesting" stage they talk about. It's also really clear that this will be the third child because nothing is done.

With Jayda, her room was completely set up, clothes washed and put away ready for her arrival months in advance. The first child syndrome was true to the core.

With Maya I had her room all done, not as early as Jaydas was, but still it was done. The clothes which were all Jaydas hand-me-downs (typical of the second child) were put away probably a couple weeks before she arrived, thanks to the enlisting of Alexa and Bailey who graciously came over to help me sort through them and hang them up.

Now here it is on the brink of our third baby girl Leona and there is stuff EVERYWHERE :) I just have bags of clothes laying all over the bed in her room, untouched, glaring at me everytime I walk by. I finally talked Chris into putting the crib back together the other night just to get the pieces out of the way and to create some space, so check that off for something done at least.

The only thing done is Jayda and Mayas room. They will be sharing when Leona comes. It's a sensitive subject. Jayda didn't want to give her room up to her new sister that would be arriving. In her mind she should share a room with mom and dad (never gonna happen) or move in with Maya. After coaxing her for months and explaining that the blue room is bigger, reminding her that she loves the color blue, and that she will have so much fun sharing with maya she finally agreed it was a good idea. (I'm glad too b/c she was moving either way, better for her to think it was her idea lol) Chris is DREADING them sharing a room. In his mind he dreams up nights of no sleep with the girls giggling til 2 in the morning or keeping eachother up. We'll be up with a newborn anyway I tell him, he rolls his eyes and then starts stewing about it all over again.

Bless Chris for putting up with all of us girls. I bought an old ugly yellow and gold dresser from craigslist to put in the girls new room. It was AWESOME!! Not the color but the shape of it. The lines, the legs, I just loved every bit of it. We got it for like 35 bucks, then 2 weeks later found the EXACT same dresser and mirror (ours came with a mirror too) at 2 different antique shops for 400 bucks. Lets just say craigslist ROCKS! I of course did not want a gold and yellow dresser in their room so with Chris by my side......him doing 99% of the work...again BLESS HIM we proceeded to strip the paint off, not a fun task and I DO NOT recommend it to anyone, sand it down to the original wood and then I stained it a rich dark color and painted the handles a cool blue. I found a chair at good will for $1 as well and sanded it down and stained it to match and the result was awesome. My mom was like why dont you just buy a dad gum dresser (said in her southern accent) instead of doing all that work, or rather making chris do all that work, but there's something to be said for old antique quality furniture and I love knowing that we made it for our girls. Here was the result:

At first it looked a little something like this

I found another lady that redid the same one from craigslist as well and I LOVED it but chris couldn't handle the yellow lol so I went with the brown and blue handles

Heap Reunion 2010

2010-08-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Heap Reunion although VERY RAINY this year..........Chris says it's due to an "El Nino" year lol, was still a blast and I look forward to it every year and have my whole life. It was especially nice having a trailer to sleep in this year to stay warm and out of the rain.

I make a video for my family every year so I've been procrastinating posting some pictures on here but here are just a few

Don't ask lol Chris asked if I brought warm clothes to sleep in, I said no, he tossed me these and the rest is history lol attractive I know

Here you go Amber :) Steal away

My Girls

2010-08-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

These are my babies.

My beautiful girls.

I love them. I love their chubby faces, their sweet personalities, and most of the time I simply love them just for their smell.

The smell of Jaydas big girl perfume. Mayas baby lotion lathered body and powdered bottom. I love their laughs, how I see myself and Chris in them, and how they have changed our lives.

Leona is going to be born soon and I often lay around wondering what will she look like, this third girl of ours? With one brown eyed brown haired baby girl, and one blue eyed blonde little thing, what will she look like? What will her personality be like? Will she be hilariously funny and spunky like Jayda? Will she be instantly sweet from birth, and thoughtful and calculating like Maya? Will she be anything like her great great grandmother Leona who she will be named after? If so I will be eternally grateful, and if not I'm excited to see who she will become.

Until then I'll keep loving these two, just as much as I have since the day they were born. They make everyday so much fun.

St. Johns Pioneer Days!

2010-08-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

Every 24th of July we head to St. Johns Arizona to visit with all my family and friends for Pioneer Days. This year was no different and the weather was wonderful! I didn't take nearly the amount of pictures I should've but win some lose some. Luckily Alexa has taken to the photography bug as well and took some for me when I was busy wrangling the girls or dealing with the emotional drama that comes from having a 3 year old girl lol

The first night we got there Papa gave us each a task and we made homemade rootbeer. Jayda has never seen dry ice in action and thought it was AWESOME as she called it.

The picture above is from the rodeo, the story behind the muddy shoes is a forbidden subject in our home. Jaydas lip starts to quiver and then that emotional drama I talked about a minute ago sets in full force but for the sake of future memories I'll just say this....

There was a balloon race in the arena, Jayda and my nephew Mason were going to participate. I led Jayda to the arena set her free with the other hundreds of kids, turned to walk up the arena for a better shot of the action with my camera when all my mom and I hear is BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMING!! I recognize the screams as one of my children and turn around toward the grand stands to see Alexa my sister plunging down the steps faster than anything I'd seen her do lol

My immediate thought was that my other sister Bailey who was holding Maya had dropped her down the grand stand or something and Alexa was running to the horror at the bottom that I was imagining because of course my other child should've been in the arena chasing a half inflated balloon when it clicks the screams are coming from somewhere else. I looked further down to the muddy tracks below and see instantly a lady scooping Jayda up as Alexa was running up to the scene as well. Apparently as I turned to walk up the arena Jayda changed her mind, turned to find me, freaked out because I was gone, took off out the arena gate, saw tons of people, huge horses, and a tall fence she couldn't get out of, and the SCREAMS STARTED!!! and boy was it loud lol Bless her heart that child. My moms comment was well at least she's a screamer. Some kids things happen to them or they get snatched by someone and they dont make a noise, so I guess yes, that's a plus, we all know Jayda is a screamer.

Papa and Ammie bought the kids stuffed little dogs that barked and they just treated them like they were the real thing. Mason named his Scoochie and Jaydas was Sally. Papa built them each a dog house to go with it as well.

Storm a comin. It rained every afternoon. It was nice and kept the dust down.

We can never get it together for a picture :) The parade was great though

This is just a picture for my sisters. It's a constant fight over the way I say Ketchup because to Alexa and Bailey I say it wrong by saying Catch-up is how I pronounce it but Brooklyn now home from her mission has sided with me. So we're 2 to 2 in the Ketchup battle lol we saw this shirt and died laughing

Ammie and Maya having a moment to chat about something lol Maya is so funny with her little pursed lips all the time but she just loved her Ammie

My cousin Taytum and I are due a week apart and it's so fun :) We've been texting back and forth the entire pregnancy about names, how we're feeling and about when we found out what we were having. She's having another boy and I'm having our 3rd girl. I love her to pieces and was glad to get a picture, I dont think I have 1 picture of me this entire pregnancy.

The best part of the entire parade is the FIRETRUCK!! It comes at the very end and just soaks everyone to say the least. This year Brooklyn was back so Mason had a partner and so did Jayda

Bowling as a summer past time

2010-08-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

Before the summer started I thought to myself, THIS summer is going to be great! I thought of all the things I could sign Jayda up for to do that would keep us busy and not ALWAYS but sometimes in the heat.

Swim lessons were on the top of my list.......didn't happen. Probably should have though because Jayda has become a screamer and terrified of the "big pool" as she calls it and will only dip her brown little body in the 3 ft. kiddie pool

The movie theater near our house has a summer movie program so we signed up for that instead. It turned out to be really fun. You get to see a movie every Wednesday for the entire summer. Jayda loved it! I think we'll be doing it next summer as well. It was only 7 dollars per person and you get a sheet of all the tickets for the summer so for 14 bucks we saw a movie every week. What a smokin deal!

Last we signed up for the "Brunswick Zone". Sounds cool huh? lol well at least to Jayda it did. Every week the bowling alley sends you an email with free bowling coupons. To kick off the summer they had a "Bowling Alapalooza" you could bring your kids....18 and under bowled free for 2 hours, free shoe rental, free pizza, ice cream, and a drink. That saturday came and Chris and I took our girls, plus my sisters Alexa and Bailey of course down to the bowling alley and we bowled away. It was histerical! Jayda was hooked! Chris and I even won a prize during one of the drawings....right after Chris had said, I NEVER win anything when it comes to drawings and prizes lol lol lol we made fun of him after.

Here are some pictures and video from one of our trips down to the bowling alley this summer for our free bowling :) We're pretty much pros now. You know 300 everytime :)

4th of July in Utah!!

2010-07-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

We spent the 4th of July in Utah this year. It was a last minute trip decided the night before and even though I VOWED to never make that 12 hour trip pregnant again, we went :) I was even excited to go.
About hour 8......not so much, but still the trip was great.
We had fun with family, Jayda got to see temple square which was exciting for her, I got to eat chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which was exciting for me :) as chocolate always is, and Chris got to blow a bunch of fireworks apart and we all know how this sentence ends.

Thanks Connie for letting us all crash at your place.

Jayda hamming it up because Chris and his dad were making her feel like she was some girl in a GAP ad :)

Maya blowing kisses to her passing fans

Maya mad because she didn't like the fireworks and all the loud popping noises

These little fireworks were called "Flowers" and Jayda loved em. Chris would lite them and jayda would chuck it in the street and they'd go crazy and zip all over. She probably threw about 20 of them and did great til the very last one she didn't throw it right away for some reason so Chris had to smack it out of her hand before it went off and it scared her a little bit other than that it was a safe night........for the most part lol

SWAGGER WAGON Official Toyota Music Video HD

2010-05-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

These have been my favorite commercials for months now and this video just sums up how AWESOME they are lol I was dying laughing

Our Hero

2010-05-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

My 3 year old.

She wears boots!

EVERYWHERE

for ANYTHING

and for ANY OCCASION!!

Her specially designed dish towel turned cape shows up quite often too. The cape is whatever new towel happens to be hanging in the kitchen that day but it's super powers never lessen b/c of the wardrobe change, if anything it only enhances them. It must also be said that she has more "hero strength" as she calls it when she's fancy free and not wearing any pants. It's more free, and allows for super kicks with her boots, and slashing "mean guys" with her bat/sword.

Everyone should have a 3 year old like this around. To fight off pesky fruit flies, and get rid of those "mean guys" who I have yet to figure out where they actually reside, but none the less I feel safer at night with this "HERO" around.

Our Graduate

2010-05-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Chris graduated a couple of weeks ago and I just didn't get around to posting about it but it was AWESOME!! He didn't want to walk, but me made him. He would have rather have had em just mail the diploma.....which they do anyway but his family and I told him the ceremony was for us too :) We were so proud of him and Jayda loved seeing him on the big screen. Her and Maya didn't however enjoy the fireworks as much. I think Jayda will be better prepared next time b/c she was not expecting those big BOOMS at all.

It was nice and cool in Chase field and they had concessions open like during a game which was nice. The kids were up and down the stairs the whole graduation. I also saw a random bus going in to the parking area that said "Denee Tours" and spelt just how I spell my name it was really weird and I had a strong urge to hop out and go take the tour :) Guess I'll have to google it and go sometime lol All in all it was a great day, and we were very happy for Chris. Now on to his Masters!

One Year old in all it's glory

2010-05-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Maya turned one at the end of April 3 and a half hours after my birthday to be exact. It wasn't a grand affair because she's 1. Who remembers anything when you're one. So in honor of keeping the older child happy who is already jealous that we just celebrated moms birthday and then the very next day it's Mayas, when she has to wait clear till November again for her birthday.....we did what Jayda wanted for Mayas birthday :)

So Organ Stop it was. http://www.organstoppizza.com/
This has been a bright spot in Jaydas life as of this past month we went 2 weekends in a row. It's exactly as it has been for years and years since the place opened and I just love it. The man who plays the organ is the same too. Holy multitasking!!! You should see this man play. If you come to the valley and want a fun dinner and a show night go there.

Maya loved it as well. She loves the music and just gets so distracted by all the instruments going on around her she will barely eat. It was a fun night followed by dessert at our house and a little "Just dance" on the Wii (HILARIOUS)

some pics from that night shot by Alexa :) Thanks I would have totally forgotten to even take any.

Not nearly as cool as Aunt Kathys cupcake mold Jayda says :)

First little taste

Our Third

2010-04-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

We told a lot of our family already but I thought I would post just in case anyone else didn't hear we're having our Third little Girl :) It was a big shocker that's for sure because as I said in my last post we all thought it was a boy. It took 2 days to sink in but now I'm kind of relieved. A girl is constant for me. A girl is safe. A girl is as they say "Sugar and Spice" and couldn't be more true in our household. Chris is a real man for putting up with all the estrogen in our lives and I'm sure he'll be blessed for it. If he had his way, he would request to be blessed by getting an elk or deer this year when he goes hunting but that's another obsession......errrr i mean story in and of itself.

We settled on a name yesterday. I wanted this name when we were having Maya just a year ago today, which is crazy to me. Yes she is 1 year old today, and I'm already half way done with this pregnancy what were we thinking :) Anyway we changed our minds and really thought we should name her Maya after Chris's Mayan roots so this time I was back on board with the original name I loved. After coaxing and persuading Chris to stop thinking in Spanish and get past what it means in Spanish we are going to name this sweet little baby after my Great Grandma Heap. So we'll soon have Jayda, Maya, and little Leona Ray! I can't wait to meet her and see if she's as sweet as Grandma Heap was.

My grandmother (my great grandmas daughter) was so thrilled when I called to tell her. She informed me that Grandma Heaps mothers name was also Leona which I think is fun. I was mostly thrilled because there are a million Heaps in our family and no one has snagged the name yet. I'll have to post a picture of my Great Grandma on here I was young when she died but I have one distinct memory of her, we picked cucumbers from her garden and she would cut them up and have a bowl of vinegar on the table in her kitchen and a bunch of salt and pepper out and I remember I didn't want to eat it because the vinegar smell was throwing me off. She coaxed me along and I tried it and fell in love. I remember eating like a whole bowl. That's probably where my love of Pickles and cucumbers started. Thank you Grandma Heap and happy to soon name our little girl after you :)

Update

2010-04-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't written on here in a month but have planned too and even taken pictures throughout the month to post on here but it just always is such a hastle to me to plug my camera into the computer and do the whole upload and blogging thing lol so I'll just update real fast on our little family.

Chris is finishing up his bachelors and will graduate May 1st and will go right into his Masters

I am chugging right along in this pregnancy and we find out what we're having on April 15th. Everyone is thinking it's a boy and hoping its a boy as well. I haven't been sick at all which is normal for me but naps are my friend :) which is FINE BY ME I also turn 26 in April and suddenly feel my 20's slipping by sorry leanne but when i hit that 30 mark i'm gonna feel old like you :)

Jayda is excited for the summer. She's so happy aunt Brooklyn comes home in June. She is excited for the 2 camping trips planned, a trip to the beach, and Pioneer Days in St. Johns where she is anxiously awaiting being sprayed by the fire truck during the parade again. That was her favorite part.....that and the million snow cones we ate.

Maya is turning 1 in April which is crazy that time has flown that fast. She stood for the first time yesterday and the fact that she was doing it alone registering across her face was priceless. Almost as priceless as Jaydas she was like ummmmm is she supposed to do that? lol I hope to have her walking in the next month. We'll see!

All in all we're doing great. Hope everyone else is too. Happy Easter and conference watching!

The Bahamas

2010-03-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

Chris and I took a trip to the Bahamas at the end of January. It was a fun trip. Chris's first cruise, and a nice getaway from school and work for Chris too. Now that the high from the trip is over I dont really feel like posting an explanation with all the pictures lol so just the simple photos will have to do :)

Grand Bahama Island

BLUE BLUE WATER

Checking out the riggings and the port

Nassau Bahamas

Walking around the town

Random Thai Restaurant lol

Eating at Senior Frogs. Hilarious to say the least. Drunk cruisers + good food and a nice view = funny dancing, crazy people, and funny memories

Great Stirrup Cay

Abortion SURVIVOR!!!

2010-02-23T09:24:00.000-08:00

This lady is amazing. What a calling for her to have to be able to share her message and teach those who hear it. As a mother I applaud her and hope she challenges the views of those who support what should've been her fate.

Mesa History Tour Part 2

2010-02-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

This is "Coffee Talk" or it used to be. I only knew it as a fun place to get hot chocolate in the winter and listen to musicians on the stage out front. It has an awesome spiral chimney too, but who knew it was as old as it is and on the list of one of the last historical homes in Mesa. I love it even more now.

Jayda and grandma singing on the stage.......LITERALLY lol it was funny. You can barely see Jayda but she's sportin her hand microphone too.

Mesa History Tour Part 1

2010-02-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

The obsession all started with this book

My brother and sister in law got it for Christmas. They live in Utah. I more than thumbed through it. I was ingulfed in EVERY picture and EVERY detail. I love history, I love all things old, and I loved seeing what the city looked like years ago compared to the today. I was completely mezmorized and wanted to move to the Salt Lake City of before.

I later found myself in our costco searching for the Now and Then books b/c thats where they found the Salt Lake City one and there it was. The Phoenix version.

I grabbed it without a second thought. Who needs sandwich meat? I'll just use the money for this wonderful book. So I went home and read it cover to cover. I saw places that i go now and love b/c of the old vintage walls and shops that are still there, places that I go now that I didn't realize were that old, and places I never even knew were around or existed. So I started making a list of the places I wanted to go see. I planned a day drive for the places in Mesa, then I'd move on to the other cities like Gilbert, Phoenix, Chandler and so on for other days in the future. As I was looking up online the hours for this museum that was on my list it had posted "Mesa annual history walk" All the things on the walk map were on MY list :) So I decided hmmmm pay and go with the city just to basically get the brochure and museum fee waved and wait a couple weeks to go? Or just go myself?

I of course couldn't wait so with my mom, sisters, and Jayda in tow we went on our own Mesa History Tour it was actually quite fun. My sisters complained a bit b/c they are always being dragged around on my random outtings and antics but for the most part I think they enjoyed it too. Here are the pictures:

We started at the Antique Wedding House. I've seen this building for years and knew it was used for wedding receptions now but never thought anything else about it. It was constructed by Mesa's first Mayor. It was passed down to his son and his wife and 9 children then became a halfway house after that for recovering addicts, and went into disrepair with transients coming and going. Worried for the historical home it was boarded up, in spite of this arsonists tried to burn it down and the scorch marks still are relevant today. It was bought and restored to it's originality and is used as the reception hall today.

Sitting in the front parlor

I don't know if people were smaller back in the day and shorter or what? But everything felt like alice in wonderland and I felt like a giant. I could've probably touched the ceiling when I reached up in some places and all the halls and stairs were so narrow.

Hallway looking toward the front door and parlor

We then went around the corner to the Historic Irving School which seems like it is used as a arts school now. You have to buzz and be let in but we got in anyway and the teachers were all having a meeting in the auditorium so we looked around without having to deal with anyone asking us questions and why we were there lol

They had all these seats made out of things that the art students had done so the girls made me take pictures of them

There was a display of all these different cameras the students had made out of clay that was my favorite.

To most people this would be weird but I couldn't stop staring at the floors which you could tell was the original wood flooring and thinking of all the students come and gone and the history there.

This really cool fireplace in the middle of an old classroom. Come on how cool is that? What school has a fireplace in it today? Not one. Plus it was a gorgeous fireplace.

Same room as the fireplace

I kept seeing this thin thin thin little doors all over and just had to look inside. I was thinking jeez is this the timeout door lol? but they are only like as wide as my hand so I unlocked and opened it and saw the original piping and was hiding behind.

The rest of the history tour to be posted tomorrow

Feel the Love

2010-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Another year gone by. Time to put out our LOVE pictures which is a tradition I plan to keep on going till my kids are old enough to complain and then I'll still make them :) But for now its still fun and Jayda loved sharing the letter duty with Maya this year. Next year will have baby number 3 holding a letter. I decided to post last years too to see if Jayda has really changed that much. Happy Valentines Day to everyone and hope February is wonderful for you all. Happy Birthday to my awesome dad too who tried to lie to Jayda about his age. Come on dad 51 isn't even old.

2009

2010

Deals to Meals

2010-02-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

I have been using this website for almost a year now and i absolutely love it. It helps me with meals and new recipes, shopping and saving a TON of money every month and mostly my time. So I thought I'd share it with all of you b/c as of today they have expanded to a bunch of new states. The website is

http://dealstomeals.com/index.cfm

And from there you can find their blog, website, and food storage website as well. I use and look at all three every week. I love it. You can also probably just click on their button on the side of my blog as well.

Rain and Snow

2010-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

Its raining here. A lot. And to take my mind off of the water stains that have seeped through the roof and are now an ugly spot over my bed to be exact, which will result in exasperated groans and worries from Chris about fixing it before it falls in over our head or drips like a torturing device one drop at a time, I decided to post.

To post about going to the snow, which ended up being fantastic, solely because of one phenomenal event shown here....

but before you watch let me preface the situation for you. Alexa is the gullible one in our family. To the extreme. We used to say "Alexa we'll count and see how fast you can go get (whatever the item was) when we were little just so she'd do things for us bless her heart, and guess what it still works lol. We'll still tell her we're going to count and when she runs off we obviously stop counting til she rounds the corner again which is when we start counting at a random number like..."whoa alexa you're fast" :) We absolutely love her, and love the trait which she carries. She makes life so fun.

Well we told her she needed a picture taken with her lovely snowman, while the rest of us knew I was going to tackle her while bailey and my mom filmed. The rest is history.

This was Jaydas first time playing in the snow and she LOVED it. She mostly loved grandpa being her sled dog but thats a whole other spoiled rotten tale in and of itself :)

Pure joy on that face

Jayda and my nephew Mason

Did I also mention that since it's raining we were having a dance party in my bathroom? I tell Jayda, "Look this is my new move!"

At which point she attempts to roll her eyes and says "You shouldn't do dat mom, it goes like this" which is when she showed me how I should've really been doing the dance move.

Just another day

2010-01-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

In our home you can more often than not, find us just lounging around and playing all day. Sometimes we go out for the day and stay out until the girls are falling asleep in the car. For the most part though I like to enjoy my girls doing what they like most and that means just being lazy and playing all day with nothing but silliness and loud LaVern Baker music blaring in the background becoming the playlist of our memories and life at home.

I never want my kids to think I was the bossy, too busy to play or be silly, non involved mother. Oh I can lay the hammer down, but I'd much rather be caught doing this.........

Followed by homemade snowcones which is always a must after a rousing jumping match on moms bed. I think Maya had more fun than we did. She would laugh hysterically everytime we'd land and it would bounce her over into the pillow.

New Years

2010-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

Since I'm horrible at posting I thought I'd just steal my sister in laws post since it was about my kid anyway :)

It's just not a New Year's Party until some pukes...
Thank you Maya, for filling that quota... and then some!

aaaaand, thank you Grammy for taking one for the team!

Yearly Pics

2009-12-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

We took our yearly family pictures last Sunday before Christmas and without our Sis. Grant who is still serving in the Philippines. Even though we had a crying baby....(somehow it's always one of my kids), other children who could care less, my dad who was worse than the kids about smiling for the camera and not talking or moving during every picture we somehow got some good ones. At least Brooklyn only has to miss one family picture. It'll be great to have her back next year. Christmas was great. We spent a lot of time back and forth between the family and it was so fun having Chris's sister in from Utah with her kids. We played hard, ate A LOT, and even got to sneak away for a late night movie with the adults. A lot to be thankful for this year. Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too.

2009-12-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

We love our new little man Tillman J Grant. I'm so excited for my brother and Jamie and he is doing so good. I'm more excited for Jamie because this was their last and she is so happy to never have to be sick from a pregnancy again. He is healthy and happy and was born on the 19th of November weighing 7lbs even. I can't wait to see who he looks like as he gets older but for sure he's far from our little Ashtons blonde hair blue eyes.

It's almost here!

2009-11-22T18:31:00.000-08:00

We are ready for Christmas already. This picture was taken last night. Our christmas tree is up and ready for when we get back from thanksgiving and our first viewing of Elf is gone and over. Only about 100 more times to watch it before Christmas is here :) I love this time of year.....but mostly I just love these girls and those cheeks on Maya!! Happy Holidays everyone

When swines flu....

2009-10-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well they have! We have been sick with the oink oink for a week now and are finally coming down from the mess. A big shout out to our boy Ty woot woot for seeing us and helping us get better.(did that sound cool? My niece informed me months ago that I'm old and not cool anymore when she shunned me at her elementary school for saying hi to her when she was with her friends and I've never been the same since lol)

Anyway, as I was editing pics from my shoot last weekend I though of how we wish we felt as beautiful and as warm as this little girl looks in this pic but give us a few days. This thing was a BEAST! No more nursery for Jayda till the toys have been bathed in bleach and the flu bug is gone. She goes to primary in 2 months anyway, you think they'd notice if she didn't go til then? No? ok me either. Her nursery leader ROCKS and I just love her to death. She is good for those kids. Shout out to you too Sister...You know who you are, woot woot!!! (I'm secretly hoping Emily will read this and think I'm cool again, if anything I should get points for mentioning her personally in this post. Nan if you read this pass it on.....basset hound!!)

I'm out

D

I think i'll try going by that to add bonus cool points

I have a brown fetish now

2009-10-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

Check out these big handsome brown eyes!!

I did a shoot for one of my best friends and this is why I fell in love with the color brown. I wanted to just crop every picture to just show their eyes, but then Heather would've screamed or been like what were you thinking but I just couldn't help myself. All I could do was stare at these brown eyes from these two handsome boys. They did really good while we snap, snap, snapped....but I do have to say it could've been because of T's cool monster truck he brought along :) He wanted it in every picture but mom wouldn't let him. Next time T, next time.

A 2 & a 5

2009-09-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

At this time currently in our family we are stuck on 2's and 5's. Its pretty cool actually and I dont know if or when this might happen again so my sister in law said I should post the funny little fact.

Maya: currently 5 months

Jayda: currently 2.5 years

Me: currently 25 years old

Chris: currently 25 years old

We are on a pattern here and it feels pretty good.......ok so it doesnt feel any different than it normally does :) but it feels good to say that it feels good. I knew you would all be so enlightened and happy I shared this bit of useless knowledge about our family with you today.

Happy weekend!

Jaydas weekend

2009-09-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

Heap Reunion

2009-09-10T18:54:00.001-07:00

I never posted about our Heap Reunion this year but it is something my family looks forward to ALL YEAR LONG. We love it. I made just a short clip of our trip incase kathy or my family in florida wanted to see. Pictures from the trip to follow if I can make myself sit down to upload them :) love you all. Just follow the link b/c I dont know how to load a video on here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccFdfAGwgQI

WHO CARES!!

2009-09-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for their comments. So I figured out how to do the no right click thing and even figured out how to stop people from clicking on the picture to make it bigger which in turn gives them the option AGAIN to save the picture and read dozens of online articles, Q & A forums, and peoples comments about how no matter what you do people who know how to use a computer can STILL get your images no matter what you do. So in short if you post pictures online they are there for whomever is wanting to view them.

UGH WHATEVER lol

People could hack into a private account of blogger anyway so that's not going to change anything either. So I say who gives???? I'm just gonna keep doing my thing and if some sicko wants to be sick then whatever. I don't like it but what ya gonna do. I like to blog, I like my family to see pictures of us, and like Will Ferrell says in elf..." I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!!!" lol I LOVE TO BLOG! (which isn't really apparent in my absence as of late, but i do i really do)

Thanks to everyone who gave me their emails I'll keep them just in case Chris is still hot on my heals to make it private otherwise we're staying right here :)

Help anyone??

2009-09-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ok so a few things, I know I said I was going private with my blog but I've been teetering ever since. I don't want to go private but I want my photos to be private so people can't click on them and save them or add the images to something else. I've noticed on some peoples blogs that when you try to click their pictures to enlarge them, that they wont. And some people even have it to where you can't right click and save them. HOW DO I DO THAT???? Anyone know? I'd rather change the settings instead of going private.

Alright folks let the comments roll in someone out there has to know this trick :)

Going Private!!

2009-08-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. My friend Heather scared me into going private with my blog so if you wish to view it then just leave me your email address I'll only be leaving it for about a week and then I'll close it to make it private. So again if you wish to view it then just leave your email address. Thanks so much :)

New Site Launch

2009-07-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a month since I last posted but I've been tirelessly working on my new photography website and it's been a painstakingly long process. I am so happy to say that it's finished. I'm sure there will be glitches here and there as there is to all things that are new but hopefully this will make it easier for those wanting to schedule shoots for their families and other things.

Family Fun happening in the next 2 weeks so I'll be on hiatus again but pictures to follow soon after.

Hope everyone is doing well.

To all my Heap Reunion family....can't wait to see you guys next week!!

If you wish to view my new site just click on the link on my sidebar.

Swimming Around

2009-06-25T08:05:00.001-07:00

There's a lot of swimming going on around here lately. Yesterday we lived at the pool. We went out to this pool yesterday with my sister in law and her kids and my friend and her son came along too. It was a lot of fun. The pool was so cool especially for a public pool. There was a lazy river, dive pools, splash pad, and the cool pool that had all the water spraying and a big bucket that dumped water like every 5 minutes. All the kids loved it. Jayda was a little freaked every time she'd get sprayed and she definitely did NOT wanna go down any of the water slides but luckily we forced her and she started to ease up towards the end. Is it mean when your child is screaming and holding on to the bar for dear life and you're prying her little fingers one by one till the last finger is holding and you give her one last shove and she shoots down the slide screaming??? LOL yeah that was us yesterday and yes I'm so that mom. My mom was that way with me and I'm fine so I guess it can't be that psychologically damaging. :) It was hard to keep Maya cool but we brought her and even dipped her in the pool for a second. Other than that she sat in her stroller where I attempted to keep her cool by squirting her with a squirt bottle like mini me from Austin Powers or a cat haha these ladies were laughing at
me but hey you do what you gotta do right? By the end of the whole thing she looked a little like don king from all the water and sunblock in her patch of hair. I forgot my camera but luckily Jamie came prepared.

Skullet

2009-06-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

Maya was two months old as of Tuesday. I cannot believe it. I decided today amongst all the cleaning and playing around that I should get a picture of her. It's like the more kids you have the less pictures there are of the younger ones. I know you're hearing me out there kids number 4 or 5 . I was the second child but the first girl so I have tons of pictures of me but I didn't want the stereotype/statistic of no pictures for my children so I'm trying to take as much as I can.

Today was one of those days where you set out to do so much and you wake up in a cleaning mood so you just roll with it in case that mood doesn't come along until next month :) I just couldn't help myself though, it ended up being a pajama party all day filled with a TON of laughter and of course if you know us Grant girls lots of over active tear ducts along with those smiles. I just can't help it, Jayda makes me laugh. We tried to make a casting of Jaydas hand but she got grossed out and started yelling out..."It hurt me Mom it hurt me" (total lie but she knew I'd let her take her hand out of the cup) so we ended up doing Mayas instead. I'll have to take a picture of it b/c it was actually pretty cool. Once Jayda saw the finished product she wanted to try again. This is where my motherly teaching skills came in and I so nobly taught her the lesson of " Ya snooze, ya lose sista!!"

Anyway it was just a great day. One of those moments when you just look around and are happy you didn't do all the "important" things like laundry and dishes, cause heaven forbid you put them off for a day. I was happy to have shared my day with my girls doing nothing but laughing and eating otter pops! That should be a slogan for life I tell ya.

One Big Smile

2009-06-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

This picture is absolutely hilarious to me. I'm sure only other mothers can relate but there is just something about this childs personality that cracks me up, DAILY. From head to toe this picture makes me laugh. From her turned out feet, this being because she walks exactly like Chris and his dad. (It's a constant joke in the family) To her rolled up pants that are different sizes, (a constant struggle between Chris and I since he INSISTS on rolling them EVERY TIME the girl wears jeans) He claims I should've been born in the 40's and 50's because of my love of that era but secretly I think he channels his inner Fonz through rolling Jayda's jeans. There's the hands in the pockets thing, which is a total imitation of her father. She loves to walk with her hands in her pockets, sometimes at the expense of her own body as she tends to trip up and can't get them back out to catch herself fast enough. We then move up to the on the shoulder, off the shoulder action of her jacket. To tell you the truth I'm just surprised she didn't have her hood on since the girl LOVES to wear hats and hoods. Anything she can...(I think it's to keep the wispys out of her face b/c she can't stand when her curls are tickling her cheeks. Anyway back to the sleeves. This so nicely compliments her rolled up pants because if you look closely it balances perfectly out with the thick rolled pant on the side of the shoulder action and vice versa. And last we move up to her typical cheesy smile which warms me up in a heart beat and that crazy head of curls that is clearly out of control which only leaves the statement of, This was a good day!

I love this little Girl!

Blessing

2009-06-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we Chris blessed Maya at church. We had lots of family and friends there and it was great. My grandparents, bless their hearts even got up at 4 in the morning to drive down from St. Johns. It was a really short blessing but incredibly sweet. My father in law said there was such a sweet spirit in the circle and Maya was just wide eyed looking around at all the men in her life around her. I dont have any pictures of her.....I know, horrible mother right? I went to put the dress Jayda was blessed in on her but her chunky arms wouldn't fit in the sleeves so we luckily had a dress my visiting teacher had given me so she was blessed in that. I am so grateful for my two little girls. Maybe next time we'll be blessing a little boy lol

The past 4 weeks

2009-05-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

Life with 2 kids is so much fun. Yes you have less time for other things but so far it hasn't been too much of a big change. I love it! Maya is growing a lot faster than Jayda did and I think we'll have a chunker on our hands. :) She's sleeping a little longer during the night but we still have to get up once or twice to feed her. She's happy and healthy so the sleep for Chris and I can wait.....i guess! Jayda is hilarious. Does anyone else have a 2 and a half old right now? I thought my favorite stage was when she was about one or so but I think this age is my new favorite. We have the best conversations. Well I guess as good as it can get
with someone her size lol but still she cracks me up! And the best part is, she knows she's funny and that I'm laughing at her so she just keeps on going. Chris is doing great in school and only has til this time next year and he's done! Halleluja! But then it's on to get his Masters. Hey at least he's getting it all for free.

Now that it's summer I've been trying to be creative about activities for Jayda and I to do since it's hot outside and I can't take Maya out all day ever day since she's only a month. Her
favorites so far have been, playing with all the kids at the kid zone in the mall, she always asks to go to the "all" as she calls it. And she loves to go to the zoo and play at the water park spot, she really could care less about the animals lol, and going to the neighborhood pool down the street. She is truly my daughter and getting darker by the day. I was black as a child from swimming all the time and I have a feeling at the rate the summer is going so far Jayda will be too.

2 Weeks Already

2009-05-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

2 Whole Weeks! I can't believe it's only been 2 weeks since Maya was born. It already feels like a month. To us she's filling out and her cheeks are starting to plump up, to everyone else she's the tiniest little thing they've ever seen.....seriously thats almost word for word what people have said. I have to agree she is really small, and I'm not going to lie, one of my favorite things is to hold her little bum in my hands since it's so tiny but it still feels longer than 2 weeks.

It has been a great 2 weeks. Maya is an awesome sleeper, and eats a ton so I can only imagine how chunky she's going to get. I am in love with the fact that her eyes are blue. I know everyone says all babies are born with blue eyes and then they change but I don't remember Jayda having eyes that were all that blue and they certainly didn't stay long at all so I wanted to take a picture today while Maya was awake, Just in case they don't stick around for very long. (I'm hoping they do)

Maya Again :)

2009-04-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

We couldn't resist and had to put up a couple more pics of Maya. We're home from the hospital and doing just great. We fared our first night really good. She's a good sleeper and eater which makes for an easier night on Chris and I. After having to leave her in the hospital an extra day we are definitely glad to have her home. I feel for any parent out there who has to leave their child in the hospital while you are still having to go home. It was so dang hard. Anyway here are a few of her. She's so dang little and just sweet as can be. We are so blessed to have 2 sweet little girls.

Maya Ray

2009-04-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Our little Maya Ray arrived 4 hours after my birthday at 3:50 am! I started having contractions at Midnight on Sunday so I guess it started with my birthday and ended with it as well :) I had them all day and pretty close together. This was a whole new experience since I was induced with Jayda and never really had to feel more then about 30 min. of pain before I got my epidural. Anyway I had contractions all day long not a fun way to spend the day I was turning 25 but it was exciting to think the time was close. At about 7pm they kicked into high gear. We were at my parents and I just decided they were too close and strong to wait so Alexa and Bailey came home with us to stay with Jayda and off to the hospital we went. I was monitored for about an hour when we got there and then they said yes you're about a 6 so we're going to keep you. I was so relieved and only wanted drugs at that point. A couple hours later around 2 am I got the best thing ever....the EPIDURAL!!! And then at 3:50 am little Maya was born. She weighed 5lbs 13oz. and measured 20 in. long Her and Jayda were so similar it's not even funny. Here are their stats:

Jayda: Born 36 weeks 3 days
Maya: Born 36 weeks and basically 3 days b/c she was born 3 hours after that

Jayda: 5lbs 11oz
Maya: 5 lbs 13oz

Jayda: 19 and 1/2 inches long
Maya: 20 inches long

It was funny how similar they were and how much they look alike. I can't wait to see how they will get along as she grows up.

Before the epidural lol thanks for taking this MOM! I'm pretty sure I wanted to kill someone at this point.

My parents...mostly my mom was so into looking at the contractions on the monitor. They were a lot farther apart here but oh they didn't stay that way!

The two grandmas waiting for Maya to come

Now ALOT closer!

I was in labor and Grandpa was sleeping :) Love it.

My nurse April. She rocked! Totally a different experience when you have a awesome nurse who knows what she's doing.

Maya's first pictures

Jayda holding Maya for the first time.

Jayda loves her so much! She was a little possesive of her at the hospital. She wanted to feed her, hold her, and push her in the bassinet thing. Any time a nurse would come to check on her or take her down to the nursery for her Jaundice stuff to be under the lights Jayda would be mad and say, "No, that's my sister!" We had to really explain to her that she'd be okay and come back lol

Apparently this was Jayda's hotel room and not my resting place.

Jayda took this little photo notice the chopped off heads :)

She also took this

and this......I have no idea why she felt the need to use the camera but hey the shots could've been worse.

So happy she came out with hair.

She came back from the nursery with a bow on her head. Not sure I really liked it all that much but it was kinda cute!

Catch Up!

2009-04-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post forever now, but one thing after another and here I am :) I thought I'd post some pictures of Jayda since she seems to be getting bigger....(well lets be honest it's Jayda, so not really bigger but seeming older.) She is talking so much and says the funniest things everyday. Her favorite things lately are her swimming pool, and the slip and slide with Alah! She was starting to get a mullet so I braved through it and cut her hair myself. She was surprisingly good and pretty still too. That we will give credit to the ipod. I plopped on a video for her and she was locked. All in all everything has been great with our little family and we couldn't ask for more.

The hospital and baby pictures of Maya to come later today hopefully....

My Boy Blue!

2009-04-04T15:15:00.000-07:00

So this post is about my boy Blue! The story goes like this:

It was a nice Saturday last week and we had no plans. I had been wanting to go and check out our local Flee Market/Swap Meet whatever you wanna call it, so I convinced Chris to go. We get off the freeway and are about to turn on the little side road into the swap meet and there's a girl on the side of the road holding up a neon colored sign.

I will now from this point on, NEVER pay attention to neon poster signs...

The sign read, "Homeless please take my dog".

Me: "Hey! Isn't that the kind of dog you want hun?"

Chris: "Whoa, yeah that's EXACTLY the kind of dog I want, actually!"

Pregnant, CLEARLY in a giving kind of mood/hormones must be sucking brain cells b/c I would have never said this otherwise.....

Me: "Well why don't you go talk to the girl? We can take it home, I don't care."

Chris: "Are you serious????"

Tires screech, the car jumps 2 lanes over, next thing I know we're parked, he's out of the car, and Jayda and I are left wondering where the heck daddy went lol

So Chris goes and is talking to the girl. I'm at first wondering why the sign said homeless because the girl did not look homeless at all. (Come to find out they weren't really homeless just the economic times. Feed the dog or feed the kids) Then the longer Chris takes the more my mind starts grasping the fact that I just said he could take the dog home. Then I quickly went from pondering to PANIC!!! Where's the dog going to go? We weren't in a truck and it was clearly too huge to fit in my nice clean car. I had a quick slap in the face back to reality when I hear my Jayda saying..."Look at my dog mom!" "Mom just look at my dog!!!!"

I look up to see that the dog was more equivalent to a horse and therefore my vision must be effected by this pregnancy as well because he DID NOT look that big from the road! It's head was the same height as Jaydas. It was pulling Chris left and right and could've probably dragged him down the road had he not put a good grip on him right away.

So I get out of the car with Jayda just in time to hear the girl say, yeah he's kinda hyper since he's still young.......

STILL YOUNG??? I immediately asked, "So he's not done growing????" She at least clarified that no, he was full grown and that over the next 6 months he'd start to mature and calm down. I was about to die! I thought, what did I just do? I have a baby on the way in a matter of like a couple weeks and now a DOG! I hate dogs! Ok so I don't hate them, I'm just not a animal owner type person. I put on my brave face though because Chris looked so happy, and I said load Old Blue up.

All it took for me was the car ride home to decide, NO WAY IN HECK ARE WE KEEPING THIS DOG! I had to roll my window down on the freeway because the smell was about to make me gag. We pulled into our driveway and Chris stuck him in the back yard. I walked straight to the computer to post his not so little 4 legged butt on craigslist just praying that someone wanted a good hunting dog. I then so lovingly asked Chris to vacuum all the hair out of our car, and wipe the seats and windows where he had so lovingly drooled and stuck his mouth. (SICK!) And 2 hours later our nice dog loving friends came and got him to take home as one of their own. WHEW! I have to say though, for those 2 hours that we were dog owners it was such a bonding moment lol NOT.

Jayda still a week later talks about HER dog, Blue. I did feel bad for the sole fact that Chris really did like the dog. It was trained already and was starting to be trained to be a hunting dog which is what Chris wanted it for to begin with. If we would've had land around our house or even a bigger backyard we probably would've kept him but maybe in another life for Chris. As for now we will remain a no pet family. HAPPILY!

I am just sick I didn't take a picture because seriously it was such a random thing that we had a dog for even the 2 hours that we did, and because the dog was so huge I wish I would've taken a couple of pics, so instead I just got a couple online to show what kind of dog it was. The picture up top says blue but I didn't make that. The kind of dog is a Blue Tic Hound which I'm assuming is why the lady had named him Blue.

LDS Harvard Girl

2009-03-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

I just thought this girl did a pretty good job answering these questions especially for only being 20 years old. It just reminded me of my little sister who is serving her mission now and how she's going to come across A LOT of questions like these....some that will be way more off based than these :)

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

Schnepps Farm or Michael Jacksons Neverland???

2009-03-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we took Jayda out to Schnepps Farm. We had heard that it was really fun and that Jayda would love it. We pumped Jayda up by promises of animals and a train ride so when we arrived she was ready to go. We get out of the car and start walking towards the entrance and it was eerily quiet. We thought we'd have to pay at the entrance but no one was there. Chris and I looked at each other and kinda laughed, like..OK? whatever. We continue in and walk down this sidewalk and there is like this random, old, frenchy music playing and NO ONE in sight still. Again we were like Ummm ok?? So we follow it around and it brings us to the little restaurant. When we got to the door two of the workers were standing there just staring at us so Chris says to the guy, "Ummm hi are you guys open?". The worker replied "Yes" and just stared for a second longer and walked off. So we turn to the lady thinking she was going to help us, or ask us to pay or SOMETHING.....anything at this point lol. She of course just stared and walked off. Chris and I turned to each other and said, "WEIRRRRRD!!" and laughed. I wanted to eat first so we had to ask again, "Well can we be seated, do we need to pay for the train ride now, what do we need to do???" We finally are seated which was funny again that they made us wait for a table because there was seriously no one else around. There was one other family already almost done eating but the rest of the place was just empty tables, yet the guy said, "Let me find you a place to sit."

The look on Jayda's face was priceless. I think even she could feel the awkwardness.

Hence the emptiness......

Again no one around!

Well we get our food and lets just say it wasn't worth mentioning so we quickly headed over to hop on the train. This was probably the best part of the trip and the only thing worth while going out there to do again. Jayda loved it.

We were waiting for the Engineer to start our ride. I have no clue what she was saying to me but by the look on our faces it must have been something funny.

She was pretty happy to be wearing her little red wrist band too.

This is just part of the farm where you can pay to go and pick your own produce and you just pay by the pound I think.

This train was so cool. Jayda's little friend Jonas would've loved it, but she enjoyed it enough for the both of them.

Ok so after all the initial emptiness and shock of the workers, the weird music, and the feeling like we were in a ghost town or bad horror movie we decided that the mood had shifted to Michael Jacksons Neverland Ranch. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? K so I guess at Michael Jacksons house he has all these rides like you'd see at Disneyland or a carnival but since he's gone bankrupt the pictures you see now days of that property look run down with weeds and creepy from all the abandoned rides everywhere. That's EXACTLY what this place looked like. It was kinda sad, but mostly just weird and freaky lol.

NO CLUE what this thing was.

Again no clue.......but there was like some kind of rug and skeleton hand coming out of it.

I took this picture b/c the train was cool made out of wood, but weird again b/c there was no one around to play on it.

We hopped off the train and decided to take Jayda for a walk down to the petting zoo. Once again notice in the picture Chris and Jayda are walking and no one in sight!

This rooster was trying to get Jayda and I so Chris took my camera back and was swatting at it to back up but the dang thing was mean, it didn't back down for a second.

This is the BIGGEST cow I've ever seen. No joke. It was bigger than the full size horse next to it. And Chris's head was only about 6 in. above it's back. My Grandma Jones would've loved him.

Look at the cow again on the left. It was seriously so big.

Just showing how big it was but please don't focus on the big scary pregnant girl.

Almost to the 3!

This carousel was from 1921. I couldn't believe it still ran. There was even one original pig seat that was still on it. Granted it didn't go very fast at all, we had to spread out to evenly distribute the weight for it to go, and it creaked like it was about to die but none the less it was pretty cool and Jayda loved riding "HER" horse.

As we were leaving the lady said come back at Harvest and Festival times!!! I was like, yeah right lady lol but I guess those really are the best times to go. We came home and one of our friends said, "Oh you can't go there for fun unless it's during the Peach Festival or Christmas time, otherwise it's boring" LOL sure would've helped before we had gone out there, but Jayda still had fun and that was all Chris and I cared about. Plus we had our own nice little laugh about it all while we were there so chalk that up for one more memory in the family books.

Random Friday

2009-03-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

My sisters and I had our random outting for the week. We went downtown and somehow ended up at Mangos for lunch with our favorite, Gretchen! It was so gooood! I hadn't been there in months. We trekked across the street to Sweet Cakes for some cookies and that was that.

About 2 and a half hours later we somehow ended back downtown for a photo shoot of my little sisters, niece, and Jayda. It was fun. Never again will I shoot at that time of day :) But it was still fun.

These are just some of my favorites the rest are on my photo blog. Gotta love our random day of the week. I love having my twin little sisters around. It's so fun when we just get to hang out and everyday is a "Girls Day" for us.

From Lehi to Queen Creek

2009-03-12T16:19:00.001-07:00

It's taken me almost the entire week to get around to posting this and the new weekend is upon us so I thought I'd better post before I forgot, AGAIN! Well the weekend before we went to Lehi, saw the horses, hit up the Orange Patch and had a fun time. This weekend we decided to head south and go to Queen Creek. There's this Olive Mill that I've been wanting to stop at for months now so we finally went. Yeah who knew that Arizona had an Olive Mill, let alone one thats mentioned on the travel channel. For any of you who haven't been out there I recommend it.

When you drive up there's a sign that says something like See, Eat, and Repeat. Not the exact verbage but something like that. You can take a tour of the Olive Mill and they show you how they grow all there olives, and pick, and process them, and then how it's made into the olive oil and stuff. When you first walk in the door the walls are lined with different olives you can taste. Some are even stuffed with feta or other things. I loved the feta one. Yes I know I'm not supposed to have feta cheese when I'm pregnant but I figured One Olive was fine :) They also have a section where they have tons of wines which we obviously could care less about. A section where they sold bath stuff like soaps and things. Then there's the Olive Oil room. It was like a shrine to olive oil. Shelves and shelves of the stuff. They all had lables next to the different types saying what they could be used for. Dipping, dressings, cooking, each one had a different purpose or specialty. I even saw a mexican lime flavored olive oil. Who would've thought? There is a yummy restaurant/cafe that's really good too. They had sandwiches, pasta salads, breads, salads and my favorite was the gelato. I think it was chocolate caramel that I decided on although I know Chris was secretly hoping I'd pick the butter pecan for him to eat on.

It was such a nice day. Jayda and I scouted out the perfect spot outside under a shaded picnic table. A man was playing Italian sounding music on an accordion and when he wasn't playing there was music playing over the speakers. I loved it.

Chris and I normally try something different so we can each have a taste but for some reason, this time we both ended up with the same thing. It was a yummy sandwich on a panini and the best tomato, cucumber, feta, onion and olive salad on the side.

Jayda on the other hand had a lunchable. I know, great mom huh? But hey it's what she wanted and fine by me.

Jayda was sportin her new shoes grandpa gave her. She LOVED them.

Her monies as she calls it that grandpa filled her pockets with.

Jayda is a serious artist. She first tastes her water......

Then she tests out the feel of it.......

Then she paints with the same water...........I guess like the Olive Mill her slogan would be Taste, Test, Repeat.

She quickly made friends and climbed trees and played tag with these 2 other little girls. It was nice that they just have all the tables on a huge lawn area. We ate, she played.

I tried to steal a smooch, that's the face I got!

It was another fun weekend. I love checking out new places and can't wait to see where we end up this coming weekend.

Nice weather and nice company

2009-03-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

We had a fun weekend here. Saturday Chris and I took Jayda down to Lehi to see all the horses in peoples yards and there's this dream house that my aunt Kathy,Becky, and I all want with a wrap around porch and in the dream house peoples yard they have 4 miniature horses....seriously they are the size of a lamb or something. Anyway, Jayda has been obsessed ever since my Aunt Becky let her ride their pony Buck up at our Heap Reunion so we took her down there to see some and she just stood up at the fence (b/c luckily they were really close and all up at the fence with her) and she kept saying, "I jus want to ride dem moooom" "I jus need to" lol then one neighed and she got all excited saying...."MOM MOM he talking to me!!!" She just ate it up. We've now come to the conclusion when we move from this house we are def. moving to Lehi or somewhere that we can have enough room to have a horse for her or at least some kind of animal for her to take care of. ONLY OUTSIDE THOUGH lol I'm still against all that like my mom was growing up :) We also took her down to where the original Orange Patch store is to look at these bees that they have in the store and get some of the yummy ice cream but we ended up settling for a watermelon ring pop for Jayda and these yummy chocolates that normally I only get when we go to the temple. They were so yummy!

We then left there to go to my Moms Primary activity. "You are a Star" is what the theme was. They taught them that Heavenly Father has given them all talents and they should try and find what they are. My Dad built this HUGE metal star that had lights all around it and that was the backdrop for the stage, and all the different classes got up to do their act for the talent show. My Mom started crying when this little girl got up to sing a solo "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" lol the high part, "Some...WHERE....." was so cute in her little voice.

Yesterday we also got our new Bishopric. Bishop Hoopes is now our bishop :) He'll be great and Mark my father in law is the 1st counselor and our same 2nd counselor bro. batchelor stayed. And we get our new stake presidency next Sunday at stake conference so it'll be interesting. Everyones just hoping that Bishop Herbst (our bishop that just got released) gets called to something in the stake presidency b/c we all still want to be able to hear him teach. He's such an amazing teacher.

Oh and also my dad left for China on Saturday. Yes CHINA!! He's so funny. I love him. I wish I would've had a recording of him practicing his Chinese phrases for if he got lost. "where is blah blah hotel?" lol that was the funniest sounding one. He'll be back on Friday. We're hoping his presentation goes good over there and that his deal follows through.

Other than that we're just enjoying this wonderful weather we've been having and hope everyone else has been too.

Mr. Green Thumb

2009-02-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

Well it's that time of year again. Chris planted our garden this weekend and boy did it take longer than he had planned. Last year we had some really good cilantro and carrots and other things too but the way our back fence is situated, it ended up shading the tomato plants too much and they died off. So this time around Chris not only wanted to account for that but also to expand our garden so he could allow for more things that he wanted to plant.

He had to shovel out all the rocks, make the ground level, go get the seeds and plants, lay down all the mulch and manure, make the rows, then plant all the goods, and get a good watering in....all while a little 2 and a half year old was nipping at his heels trying to be a part of the process :) I wish I would've taken a picture but Jayda was dirty from head to toe. She even had dirt under her little nails and all on her face, but she sure loves to help her daddy out in the yard.

This time around we have planted Corn, purple and green onions, lettuce, cilantro, yellow and green bell peppers, cucumbers and Armenian cucumbers (which are just really long extra big ones b/c Chris is going to have his grandma show him how to pickle them) tomatoes, and 1 strawberry plant for me :) Chris says we have to wait a bit longer and then he will also plant beets (which I WILL NOT be eating) and potatoes. Mostly I just wanted the strawberry plant and the essentials for things I like to make, and of course the cilantro, tomatoes, and green onions for salsa :)

I didn't take pictures but once everything starts to come in I'll have to keep updating.

19 days of fun!

2009-02-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

Ok so remember a couple posts back how I said the circus was in town well lucky for me....AGAIN Leanne posted about all our events that transpired over the past 19 days so I luckily didn't have to write it all out. Thanks again Nan :)

Connie came and was here for 19 fun filled days! We played and played and ate fruit loops, Toffee-ettes and cheesepuffs. Random, I know. Now you see why I haven't been blogging! I did however, set up a blog for Connie "my traveling circus". So, I guess I got some bloggin done, just not my own! We fought and fought for her to just stay until spring break, but she said something about needing to get back to her life. Blah, Blah, Blah! After staying somewhere for 19 days, do you really have a life elsewhere?? I decided she's just a winter vistor. She needs to just buy a freakin house here and get it over with already! Emily is having to take too many 'personal days' from school. She's been absent for 7 of the 18 days in February. It's only kindergarten, right?Here are some of the highlights:-Ty's baby blessing (it was really sweet, even though he kinda looks like a mad little china-man in this pic)

-Ray Family Celebration (our quarterly family get-together)

-Malts (of course)

-Valentine party (Tanner seemed a little confused as to why there were clothes left at the door by an anonymous 'valentine'.

We had to explain that's our family tradition. Your 'valentine' knocks at the door and secretly leaves you a valentine pair of jammies and goodies.

His response: "My family Jewed us! All we got were random spankings!" That just may be my favorite valentine quote forever.)

-Nonstop outside playing in the gorgeous weather.

-Being able to share my TV friends with Connie in person and NOT over the phone.

-Village Family Home Evening with some special guests!

-Endless candy

-See's Toffee-ettes

-Watching Connie devour several boxes of Fruit Loops. What the heck, Con.

-Baby Ty

-Jack finally warming up to me on the 18th day of their stay.

ooh! i just wanna eat him up!

-Shaylee's sassyness (She's my hero.)

-Emily learning how to ride a bike in approxiametly 5 seconds. (It was like nursery all over again. She went off like nothing happened and I cried because she doesn't need me!)

-Connie replacing my 15 year old balloon pump that Jack broke in 15 seconds.

-Missing drywall from very strong 5 year olds.

-A broken lamp.

-A broken CD player.

-A broken basketball hoop.

-Connie telling Jack to stop touching and breaking things or daddy will start asking questions about all the paypal withdrawals.

-Shaylee informing that I should probably get up and charge my camera if I want to get Emily's bike riding on film. Sass.

-Connie cleaning my bathroom vanity with a toothbrush. Sniff, sniffle. I'll never forget it!

-Connie cleaning Emily's room after the hurricane of 5 year olds. (It won't get that clean until you come back, Con.)

-And me having a playmate EVERY SINGLE DAY! Pretty much the most awesome thing ever!

-But my all-time favorite highlight was this moment:When Chris asked Jayda if she would like a taste of malt, and Jayda replied by reaching into the little, pink purse being carried preciously on her arm, and pulled out an entire slice of pizza, "No, daddy, I gotta pizza!"

That was awesome. After that she decided it was easier to take bites if she walked the pizza slice around in a baby stroller instead of trying to take it in and out of the purse.

I just LOVE that little girl!

-All in all, a super super fun month. Can't wait to do it again in two weeks!!Just like Emily is saying below... Stangers, We heart you!

2009-02-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

2009-02-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

The circus is in town and boy has it been fun. We had 50 billion family parties this last weekend and it hasn't stopped since. My sister in law is here from Utah and I just love it because Jayda always has someone to play with and the visiting and food never stops. They blessed their newest addition my nephew in our ward on Sunday and it was great. Then we had our monthly family home evening which was fun. I think Grandpa-pa and Grandma-ma love it just as much as the little kids do. We had a water day already and it's only February, and we enjoyed the park today as well. I think Jayda has been on fruit snack overload and is absolutely going to be bored out of her mind when they go back to Utah.

I'm doing good so far in this pregnancy. I'll be 26 weeks tomorrow and it has definitely gone by a lot faster than it did with Jayda. We finally got all the baby stuff moved from Jayda's room into Mayas new room, and Jayda has been sleeping in her new big girl bed for the past 3 days. She surprisingly has done amazing. No fits, no trying to get up or escape her room, and no crying for her old bed/crib. I'm so proud of her. She did walk by Mayas room though the first morning and see all her old baby furniture in there and say..."Hey dats my bed!" I'll have to post some pictures of her enjoying her bed later.

We also had a little photo shoot of my nephew this morning for his birth/baby announcements. I don't know what those things are called lol Anyways it was pretty funny trying to situate him and to get pictures in between fussing fits, but luckily for us Grammie came to the rescue with her stealth like moves. She hid under the blankets and cradled him so he wouldn't roll all over, it was pretty funny. Our set up; 3 blankets, 1 fold up table, back yard block wall for shade....check and one Grammie for a prop holder. :) I didn't think they were going to turn out very good but they actually weren't that bad so now I'm excited for my little one to come along and take some of her.

2009-02-02T09:02:00.000-08:00

2009-01-29T07:07:00.000-08:00

Who knew soapy water would turn out to be such a genius combination? Jayda is obsessed. In nursery they give the kids bubbles for their birthdays and they also smell like fruity things, Jayda got grape. We went to the dollar store before Christmas and got her a bunch more, and now everyday she wants to go in the backyard and blow bubbles. It's weird being out there and smelling pineapple or blueberry in the air, but she seems to love it, so bless all the soapy watery bubbles in the world :)

A little Reminder

2009-01-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Another Brooklyn Post

2009-01-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

It looks like we'll be getting emails from Brooklyn on Mondays or Tuesdays so for all of you who wish to read them there's 2 new ones posted. We got a letter from her the other day and an email today. Her link is on the left

Sister Brooklyn Grant

2009-01-14T20:37:00.001-08:00

I posted about my sister leaving for her mission on her mission blog so if you wish to read it, or see the pictures, it's on the side bar under my friends as Sister Brooklyn Grant.

Baby Name

2009-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

Everyone keeps asking me what we're going to name our new little girl that's on her way. Let me just say it was a hard decision. I always want random maybe even sometimes on the weird side, kind of names because I don't want my kids to have really common names. I didn't growing up and I loved it. Chris is more on the keep it normal and simple side but has slowly started creeping my way :) This time around he wanted to name our child a Mayan name since that is what his heritage is and where his mothers side of the family has their roots. She's from the Yucatan in Mexico, which is down by all the ruins and cancun that sort of thing. A lot of the natives still speak Maya and Chris really wanted that to be a part of our family too. So we looked and looked online and his mother called down to her family members to ask if their were any Mayan names that were at least semi easy to pronounce for us Americanos and it was just getting all crazy with accent marks and symbols so we ended up calling it quits. Then we found out we were having a girl, and we thought why don't we just name her Maya. It would represent her Mayan culture and the word means 2 things that fit this new little baby to be...."Little girl adorned with flowers" and "May Queen" which is funny because she's due in May so we fell in love with it and have decided on that. So for everyone who has been asking she will be known as little Maya Ray!! Now after all of that, the nurse better be right lol and she better come out all female otherwise I don't know what we'd do for a boy name.

SNL Spoof

2009-01-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

This video is hilarious.....(and Leanne if you read this notice not only Justin Timberlake but the other guy from that funny movie that Tom likes so much)

single ladies...!?- SNL w/ Beyonce (feat. Justin Timberlake)

FHE Bandit

2009-01-08T09:04:00.001-08:00

I have a really sick baby girl right now. Poor thing has been burning up with a fever for the past 3 days now. Usually staying around 102-103.5 is her mark. We took her to the doctor yesterday......(bless you Jackie and Ty for dealing with us and Ty for checking out our little girl) and she has some strep stuff going on and an ear infection. How she has an ear infection I don't know. It's annoying when your child gets surgery a year ago and has tubes put in her ears so she won't get these pesky ear infections anymore and she still ends up getting one. Either way we got an antibiotic, a blue otter pop, and headed home at least a little comforted that the medicine was going to ease her pain soon.

I have been wanting to update my blog for days and days and days but have been so consumed with my little one and family things with Brooklyn leaving for her mission on Tuesday and all that I just haven't gotten around to it, so bless my lovely sister in laws heart for being such a diligent blogger because I have just decided to copy and paste her recent post about our family home evening on here to save me the trouble. Plus she put things exactly how I would've anyways......especially the choc. malt part. Only I would have to add that I felt sick the rest of the night for drinking mine so fast. Chris about had to roll me home down the sidewalk lol

Here is how the night went in Nans words:

(it's a little small, but the pic is from the top of the hill across the street from our houses. its a pic of all our houses.)

You'd think we would've already had this planned by now. But actually, living this close together, we see eachother almost everyday so we never really set aside time for a formal family home evening for the village.This year that's changing. We've set aside the 1st Monday of every month for Village Family Home Evening.We always have a great time and Family Home Evening was no different.First we had texas toast pizzas, and Grandma's assignment was dessert. She made snickerdoodles (hers are legendary) and chocolate cookies, mmm...

Then our Family Home Evening,

followed by some Monday Night Football

and 2nd dessert: chocolate malts. Heaven on earth, I'm tellin ya!

Dad is so nice and always helps with my dishes. But during the process I noticed him digging under my sink for something, I'm mean, he was really digging in there! I asked him was he was looking for and then he pulled out his treasure triumphantly... he has been hiding his OWN dish scrubber under my sink!

I can't decide what's more disturbing about that: -that I have never really cleaned my undersink cabinet?-that he helps with my dishes so much that he has stashed his own, preferred scrubber?-or is it that doing dishes meant, the chocolate malts were all gone?

I'm pretty sure it's the lack of chocolate malt.

And the winner is......

2008-12-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

So this is how the appointment went. We took off for the doctors office. Me chugging my 32oz. of water ON THE WAY (boy did I learn my lesson the hard way the first time) the anticipation of knowing the sex of this baby killing us! So we get in the room and the usual mashing on the belly while you try to tell yourself that your bladder isn't as full as the hoover dam, and wishing the lady would just check on all the important stuff like if your babies brain is the right size, and if the heart is beating, and if it has 2 kidneys later and just tell you if it's a boy or girl so you can run to the bathroom and catch up on all this other stuff after sort of thing. Well I guess the lady had to do her job, so of course I just found my inner chi and got through it and then she says why don't you go to the restroom since the baby doesn't want to really cooperate and move around and come back in here and we'll see if it'll open it's legs.

Oh I went running alright, and when I came back I just knew this baby was going to let me see or else I'd have a bone to pick when it arrived. Well the verdict came and it was a shocker, another girl. I looked at Chris and he was like one of those wax figures you see in those museums. He wasn't disappointed just shocked. EVERYONE and i mean everyone thought it was a boy, including us........everyone but alexa. (Thought I'd give you credit Alah) I'm so excited. I wanted another girl but just had come to terms with the fact that it felt like I was having a boy. Now I can pass down the clothes, and the nursery crib bedding and all that good stuff. Jayda is kinda dumbfounded too. We told her she was having a baby sister and she said, "No! baby broder" . We'll have to pick a name soon and start calling the baby that so she'll get the hang of it being a girl and a new family member in general.

A light at the end of the tunnel

2008-12-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

It's official. I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere in the potty training world. There IS a light at the end of the tunnel folks. Today was the first full day without any accidents and I was thrilled to say the least. For the past 2 weeks Jayda has been the closest thing I've ever had to having a cat. Cleaning up after the little wet panties and setting the timer to ask...."Jayda do you need to go potty??" was about to drive me nuts. My only hope is that she will be completely potty trained and not in diapers by the time this next one arrives, and it's looking pretty darn hopeful.

Speaking of, this new one will have a decisive gender as of Thursday. That's if he/she cooperates at our ultrasound. So check back for that update later this week family.

I love my 2 year old!

2008-12-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

If I've said it once, I'll say it again....

2008-12-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

PHOTOSHOP!!!! It never ceases to amaze me all the things you can do once you finally figure out photoshop which is a never ending process. This picture of my nephew Ashton was horrible. It was dark, way way too yellow and warm, and no matter what I did to try and save it, it still looked horrible. I loved it at the same time too though b/c of Ashtons face and his serious stare. It looks like he could be thinking a million things and then I tried some new actions out. I loved how this new vintage 70's action I have looked on it. It almost looks fake like a drawing or something. Anyway I'm probably the only one who'd get excited about something like this but there you go, it's the simple pleasures in life right?

Trip to see Santa

2008-12-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Chris and I got to meet up with some friends of ours last night for family night at Bass Pro Shops. It was a lot of fun for Jayda and Jonas b/c they are becoming such good friends. They are in nursery together and last week we went to Mike and Tiffanys for dinner so they've seen quite a lot of eachother lately. They had fun looking at all the animals, the fish and the huge fish tank, but most of all I think Jonas liked the trains at the Santas workshop part of the store. It was cool. They got a free picture with santa, then there were these little crossbows with nerf arrows they could shoot.....personally Tiffany had the best shot, and was the funniest to watch. Way to hit that deer in the spine girlfriend lol and then they had a little coloring station where the kids could color a picture and write a list to santa of what they wanted this year. We'll definitely have to go back next year. Here some pics from the night.

I love that the quad is pink and that Jayda is the one driving. Notice how she's such a cheese ball in all the photos and Jonas is doing his own thing.

Jonas was not happy with taking his picture with santa.

But when santa gave him a candy cane he warmed up

Looking at the cool rhino behind them in the african room

Playing catch up

2008-12-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy lately with my anniversary.....3 years, that's crazy, Thanksgiving, which coincidentally was Jayda's birthday this year too, our ward Christmas party stuff and trying to potty train my 2 year old again. I'm vowing to stick with it this time.....we'll see how that goes. So far today we've gone through 3 pairs of panties and the 3rd pair is still dry. Whew! Chris and I got to go up to Kohl's Ranch for our anniversary. My parents have a time share up there and are now going to be getting rid of it and I can see why. It is a pretty place tucked back in the pine trees. It's got fishing near by, horseback riding, hiking, and a restaurant there but it was just too quiet for us. Everyone there was older couples who just sat out reading all day lol not mine and Chris's thing. Sure I enjoy a good book but if I'm staying somewhere I'd rather be doing something. We went fishing and had fun together but it was nice to come home since it was so cold up in the mountains.

Please click on this picture to make it bigger. Chris's face of concentration kills me, b/c he tried and succeeded but still tried for a while to catch those huge 1 oz minnows lol Don't kill me if you're reading this deary

This was my fishing attire. I was freezing and just being a patient wife while my fisherman husband fished away for these minnows that he called fish lol I figured if I slip off the falls or slip off a rock at least my feet would stay dry with my zebra rain boots on. So I just sat there and re-painted my nails for an hour but I have to say the scenery sure was pretty.

Thanksgiving was fun. Jayda turned 2, which is hard to believe. Time sure flys on by. She was so excited with her new little toys that our families gave to her. All in all it was a good day. Thanks again Jackie for letting us all come to your house for food and really really fun conversation about eye prescriptions and TV sizes! :)

I don't think I ever posted about Halloween either so there are some pictures below. Jayda was Little Red Riding Hood. Her hood was pointy and looked more like the KKK than it did a sweet little red riding hood so we just took it off. Her dress was so dang cute though.

Chris's grandparents live next door for those of you who didn't know that, and although he may be 85....I think it is, he can still scare the grandkids with his funny masks. Poor guy thought we were coming over and sat outside for 30 min. waiting for us. By the time we walked over he was about ready to pass out from the head of his overcoat and mask. We love you Grandma-ma and Papa-pa!

Gramies little photoshoot concauction

Another scene that has recently entered our home is that of a very independent little girl, trying to do everything on her own. That would include helping daddy wash the car, I can't carry her or pick her up very much anymore or she says to me, "no mom, I walk!". She has tested the limits of coloring on things other than the paper in front of her which I thought was funny but had to pretend that it wasn't as funny as I really thought it was. I gave her a wet paper towel to clean it off all the different surfaces of which she had colored; her crib, her rocking chair, the wall, the door, her chest of drawers....which I still think is called chester drawers, everyone says it that way anyways, and herself. She thought that was way more fun than actually drawing on the walls. I think I doomed myself to endless walls of drawing masterpieces b/c since then she has colored on many a wall and door just to be able to clean it off herself. She'll come to me and say, "mommy, I wipe".

This is her coloring all over Chris's papers and ward lists.

Doesn't she look like a deer in headlights when she realized she'd been caught?

Family Pictures

2008-11-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY took our new family pictures yesterday before we lose one in January and add another in May. This time it was a lot of fun because we were outside and the kids kind of did whatever and we just put my camera on the tripod and went for it. I was amazed that we actually got some good shots with the camera manning itself but hey that's what you've gotta do sometimes. For all of our family and friends who wanna see them they are on my photography blog so just click on that. Here's one for all of you who don't lol :)

Real Girls like Pine

2008-11-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

Have you ever hopped in the car and taken a drive down to your local Home Depot just to stroll up and down the isles of wood? With all it's wonderful aromas of pine, cedar, .....and whatever other kinds of wood there are lol. Well neither have I, but I have been to Home Depot enough to know, thanks to my lumber loving husband that not much can be said for the wonders that happen when you take in all that wood.

My brother in law Ben bless his future wives heart has clearly stated on many accounts that his dream date would be to go through the drive through at McDonalds, take a blanket, and have a picnic right there in the middle of the lumber isle in Home Depot. I guess there's just something about that smell.

My mother and I, being the crafty divas that we are and completely knowing our way around home depot, took a trip down to the lumber palace. We needed to pick out the perfect size and perfect kind of wood for a Primary project my mother was concocting, which of course only took us two seconds because of again how crafty we are and again because of how much we totally know our way around that store. After much thought and pondering on Jaydas part she agreed we had found just the right kind so off to tell Grandpa we went, he being the one who would haul it away for us.

Thanks mom, for again showing me, 1. How you are such a diva when it comes to thinking up all these fun ideas for primary! 2. Explaining to me how all the measurements worked on the price tags, that only took us a second to figure out and 3. For teaching my child that yes it IS ok to love home depot and yes it IS ok to love pine!!!

Please also feel free to click on this picture below and see how cute Jaydas jellies are, they just crack me up.

(All content in this story may have been altered or exaggerated.)

Time Out for Women & Girls

2008-11-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

Time out for Women and Girls rocks! I had the opportunity to go with my mom and my sisters on Saturday and we had so much fun and laughed A LOT! On the Program were John Hilton III, Jenny Jordan Frogley, Laurel Christensen (So funny and such a perfect host), Abe Mills from Jericho Road who gave the best Noah/Follow the Prophet Rap, Cherie Call, and Hilary Weeks. It was an all day event from 9am-3pm but the day just flew by.

My mom was totally camera happy which is funny because that's what she usually makes fun of me for, but she kept saying come on girls this will look perfect on the blog. That was ONE of the phrases for the day. :) "Really?"

She made us pose with our bags which I KNOW Bailey loved even though they were acting like they were embarrased. They were the cutest tote bags and we lucked out b/c the host said they don't give them out to the time out for girls events usually but that day they decided to.

The host was telling a story about how her and her friends when they hang out together they have a rule that at any point in time someone can just demand a standing ovation and they get one from the rest of the group. She said its the best feeling b/c how many of us in our lives have actually gotten a standing ovation just for us. She called up a random girl from the crowd and her mom to come on stage and she told her that everyone of us in the room were her sisters and that we all loved her and that this was her moment and her standing ovation so everyone in the huge ballroom stood up and just clapped and hooted and hollered for this cute little 14 year old girl and there was not a dry eye there. The poor little girl started to cry immediately. I don't know if it was b/c she was in a huge ballroom full of strangers or the spirit hit her and the love that she felt (I think the second one) but I know we all sure cried with her it was awesome. You could tell she needed that and that Heavenly Father was definitely aware of her right then in that moment.

Us with Hilary Weeks who my mom and sisters have met like 8 times before up at General Conference.

Cherie Call. Her mom was Brooklyns old Math teacher which is funny. And let me just say her voice was so surprisingly low for someone who sings as high as she does. Alexa and I were getting a kick out of it all day.

Sorry for the hand on your shoulder Alexa lol it looks like were taking a prom picture. Guess you were my date!

Incase you were wondering why I'd post this picture it's b/c we were completely making fun of my mom b/c she wanted us to pose as if we were walking even though we really were so we stopped and over exaggerated our movements which ended up being really funny b/c it still just looks like we're walking..........I guess you had to be there lol

All in all one Jesus wants me for a sunbeam song later and the day was over. I hope that my mom, sisters and I get the opportunity to go again. It was a blast. If anyone is wondering where Brooklyn is in all these posts, it's kind of like where's waldo books you just have to find her. LOL She died her hair brown for her mission so she's a little tricky to spot. :) Love you B

Mesa Temple

2008-11-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

I just thought I'd post some pictures of the family at the Mesa Temple. Brooklyn got to go through last week and get her own endowment done and you could tell she just loved the experience. She told our stake president when he asked her what she was going to do from now until she leaves that she was going to visit as many temples as she could. He said he'd never heard that one before. I love Brooklyns attitude and her love for the temple that my mom has definitely passed on to me, and now her. She's on her way to Idaho as I write this with my mom to visit two more temples. Jealous much??? I so am!! :)

Bye Bye Lola!!

2008-11-01T19:08:00.001-07:00

As if Brooklyn hasn't gotten enough attention lately, I mean with getting her mission call and all she decided to go and total her car! Lola may you rest in peace :) Ok ok so maybe it wasn't Brooklyns fault at all, but these kinds of things happen on more than one occasion to Brooklyn and I'm beginning to see a pattern of random events in her life. So here's the story. Brooklyn is just driving down the freeway minding her own business, cruise control on, and I'm sure some kind of tunes going. A man wishes to merge. So Brooklyn decides to get over a lane and let the guy in. All of a sudden her car started shaking. She thought she maybe had a flat tire or something so when she went to tap the brakes for the cruise control to turn off her steering wheel had locked. Next thing she knew her car was spinning donuts down the freeway. She was on two wheels for a minute and just when she thought she was about to start flipping her Filipino angels must have come in to help b/c her car laid back down and she only.......only folks, lol took out about 7 posts in the median. She was a little shocked and shaken up but not a scratch on her. We were so glad she was ok. The twins are a little bitter they have no car to drive now when Brooklyn leaves on her mission but still, we're glad she survived this one unharmed.

Sister Grant

2008-10-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn opened her mission call a couple days ago and I've been meaning to post about it but better late than never. Brooklyn opened her call and will be serving in the Bacolod Philippines Mission and will be speaking Tagolog. She leaves 3 days after her birthday on January 14th. Lets just say everyone was shocked when she read the Philippines, and I think we are all still a little shocked. Her mission area is a couple different little islands and 2 bigger ones, so she'll be island hopping during her mission. Her missions main city of Bacolod means the city of smiles, which is so perfect for her. Brooklyn is going to be a better missionary than I ever thought about being and I'm so excited for her and proud of her. She is definitely going to be missed. I've shed a tear already.....(I blame it on the pregnancy hormones lol) and my mom has the days counted down, I think we're at 72 now. Anyway here are some pictures that I found real quick of what it'll look like and the map of where she's going.

I just hope Brooklyn gets crammed in a car like this lol

Boy or Girl??

2008-10-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

I love my new doctor and his office. We went in for a sonogram yesterday and the lady gave us a long strip of pictures and a disk with some of the video. She said everytime I get a sonogram, to bring the disk back in with me and she'll just keep adding to it. How cool is that? I love technology. Jayda was pretty confused the whole time but you could tell she kind of understood a little bit more after seeing the baby on the tv. The nurse was nice enough to give Jayda her own little picture of the baby as well and she just clung to it. She thought it was the coolest thing. She kept pointing to her belly and saying, "my baby". On one of the videos is of the baby kicking and its rear is facing us. I swear some baby parts are showing but then again I'm not even sure the sex is determined for another 3 weeks lol so whatever.

Alright check out those baby parts......if that's even what they are.

Here is a picture of it too

A Day for the Girls

2008-10-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've been so bad about blogging lately so this post was like a month ago but it's now just making it to the blog. Brinley and Jayda had a play date and it was so much fun having it be just the girls. We love Mason and Ashton but let's just say we didn't miss all the loudness, rough housing, biting, and pushing that comes along with boys. When Jamie pulled up to drop Brinley off she was all grins. The girls played great together. They never cried, or fought once. Grandma came by later with alexa and bailey and we took the girls to McDonalds for some lunch and their very own little kiddie cone of ice cream. The look on the girls faces was priceless, when they realized we were going to let them hold it on their own and that it was just theirs. Brinley downed hers like a champ. Jayda on the other hand....well lets just say my mom and i think she needs to go to not only head band rehab for the obsession she has right now with headbands but ice cream rehab as well lol. Poor thing just does not get the concept of how to lick the cone. I wish we would've gotten it on film. Here's some pictures from their fun at home.

Brinley started out like this all relaxed in her elmo lazy boy lol

Of course Jayda had to have a sit as well....probably just to claim her territory.

starting to lean a bit.....

Then Jayda got up and the weight shifted back

Brinley thought it was pretty dang funny though. Look at that face :)

I wonder what they were looking at?

They played in their fort

They even colored

Hugs were given

And they jammed out too!!