Christmas..

We had a great Christmas this year. It was a little different than some others because we didn't get together with any extended family. It was kind of sad, but we are so lucky to have such close, good friends here in McCall. We were able to get together with them and really feel the spirit of christmas and make some good memories together. Some of our friends had a nice dinner on Christmas Eve, amd then we came home and read the Christmas story with the girls. Christmas day was really relaxing we did nothing but sit around and enjoy all the new things that we got, played games and had a really nice Christmas dinner, just the 4 of us. We felt so blessed this Christmas season and we thank you all for blessing our family with your love and friendships.Here is Kamden and her friends Preslee, Kimberly, and Jessica at the christmas eve dinner. My friend told me to grab my camera which I actually had, because these girls were having the best time. They were laughing and just talking away. It was really cute.My girls on Christmas morning in their christmas jammies, don't mind the brownish tint on the teeth and the brown drool coming out of the mouth. They had already found some christmas chocolate in the stockings and helped themselves!The girls in their beautiful Christmas dresses ready for church. Thanks Grammy! They got lots of compliments on the dresses!

School Christmas Party

Kamden had her school christmas party today. It was a good time. They started by having all the dads come and make gingerbread houses with the kids. Kamden thought that was really neat that her dad got to come to her school. Then they had a little lunch, while at the lunch Kamden spilled her juice and had a complete melt down. She was very embarrassed so it took a lot to calm her down. While I was calming Kamden down Aspen thought she would join in and spill her juice on purpose since Kamden did. Then I had 2 spills to clean up. (wow that was fun) Santa then came, which neither of my girls would sit on his lap. Yes Kamden was the only one in her class that didn't sit on his lap. Hopefully someday that will change. Kamden and her daddy with their masterpiece. She had so much fun.Aspen really liked the outcome as well. I had to keep a close eye on her at the party because she was going around to everyones different gingerbread houses and taking candy off. She loves to join Kamden at her school parties.Kamdens music teacher sang Christmas songs with them. Kamden was still in her mood that she just was not ready to be happy yet. Aspen loved it though, she was shaking bells and dancing in the middle of the circle.Here is the best picture. This captures my Kamden. This is her face of I am shy and I don't want to do what everyone is telling me to do. They had a gift exchange and she just opened her gift. So I thought for sure every kid would get over their bad mood. NOPE not my Kamden. She can be stubborn. Once we got home that face was totally gone. She was smiling and couldn't stop talking about her party and how much fun she had. So I guess it was all a front because since the spilled juice she sure fooled me that she was having a good time. All in all, fun memories at the school christmas party.

Gotta Love Winter in McCall...

I have been really bad about posting lately. I thought I would back track a little and post this picture. This was from our first bad snow storm a few weeks ago when we got dumped on. Pretty crazy how much snow we can get in one night.
This is a true story at our house. Gotta love static. My girls like to play the game of who can get the best head of static by rolling on the ground. I guess this is what you do when you are trapped inside your house during a snow storm!

Where Did Aspen Go?

Aspen loves to hide! I think she has a lot of the same personality that Brock had when he was little. His mom has told me some horror stories of when he would hide from her and she couldn't find him, but mostly in public or outside. Most kids finally give you hints about where they are but not Brock or Aspen. They stay in one place until you find them. The other day Kamden was at Preschool so it was just Aspen and I at home. I was busy doing things and then thought I should go see what Aspen is doing, I couldn't find her any where. Then I looked in my bathroom and I saw two feet and some eyes looking at me from inside my cabinet. I had to grab my camera. She was just hanging out, setting up all my nail polishes. She looked at me and said "where go" meaning where did Aspen go? She loves to play that game and she thinks she is pretty clever when I can't find her. I have been pretty lucky so far that she has only done that to me in my own home, I hope she doesn't get like her dad and hide in public places or outside in the yard!!

OWIE...

We took the girls a couple of weekends ago to go see the Bee Movie. They gave us some balloons and some tattoos for the girls. Kamden just insisted that tattoos hurt when you put them on.( We had a talk about real tattoos and how they work not to long ago) We tried to convince her that they didn't hurt and they wash off, they are just for fun. So we said "look we will put one on Aspen and she will think it is neat, watch Kamden" Well she didn't seem to mind and then she looked down at her arm and said OWIE and then the tears started to come. I was starting to feel like I was a mean mom for making my daughter have a fake tattoo. Needless to say Kamden was not convinced that they didn't hurt, so Brock put one on his arm to match Aspen. Aspen thought that was pretty cool and every 5 minutes she would lift her shirt and show us her arm and then come over and lift his shirt to see his matching one. I finally had to scub her tattoo off her arm because she still thought it was an Owie. She would bring me bandaids to put on her tattoo. I don't think we will be doing any more tattoos for awhile at our house. What was supposed to be fun turned to a dramatic experience. I guess that is what happens when you have two daughters. :)

We Love Daddy!!

The girls look forward to their daddy coming home from work each night. They run to him at full speed and yell DADDY!! It is really cute. Sometimes I am jealous, I wish I would get that treatment. Instead I am the one that gets to break up fights all day. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change being home with them for the world. Aspen gets really jealous if Kamden is sitting on our laps getting more attention than her at that moment. Being the rough child she is she just slams Kamden down and climbs on our laps sittng on top of Kamden. It is kind of funny, but I do feel bad for Kamden. We are working on the being nice part and telling her she needs to ask for her turn. Hopefully it will sink in her head soon!!(She really can be sweet, I don't want you all to think my child is completely WWF inside and out)Here is an example of Aspen moving her way in.(Kamden was on Brocks lap first) We were just lucky that this was one time that Kamden found it funny!!

Thanksgiving Weekend!!

We had a wonderful time with Brocks family in Rupert for Thanksgiving. We were able to stay from Wednesday night until Sunday. Between his families busy schedule and ours, we don't usually get to spend that many days together. The girls had lots of fun with their cousins and also had lots of fun on all of the neat things their grandpa has created at their recreational place. After we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with relatives,we(the girls) talked the boys into watching the kids all day Friday so we could go shopping. Arriann and I had to twist Rexannes arm to go but we finally talked her into it. We weren't the crazy shoppers that started early in the morning, we valued our sleep more than the deals. We went later in the day but still got a lot of our shopping for Christmas finished. Which is a nice feeling and we had a really nice time together without the children. So I guess I should give a big THANK YOU TO THE HUSBANDS! All the boys went dirt bike riding all day saturday, so everyone got to have fun! Saturday night we went out to a house about an hour way from Rupert that decorates their entire house and yard with christmas lights. They just let everyone walk around and look for free. There are not that many people out there that are that selfless anymore. This family has been doing this for years and they were still so excited to see everyone enjoying their hard work. My favorite part was the live camel they had for you to feed. It was awesome. Aspen loved the camel, she was not scared at all. Kamden on the other hand was not to sure. It was a great weekend with family. Lots of memories were made. :) Cousins: from left to right, Aspen, Deagon, Kamden and Dodge.After dinner on Thursday all the guys went out to play a golf game and frisbee golf on a course that Brocks dad has made. Aspen just wanted to get all of the balls, so Brock took some time and taught her to hit the ball with the golf club.Aspen and Brock on the big slide. This slide is usually a water slide and in the summer it shoots you into the river. It is really a good time. We were just going on it dry. Before I took this picture I had already gone down it 10 times with Aspen. She thought it was so fun.I had to post this picture of Skye because he thought he looked pretty good!! I had to take a couple pictures to make sure I got the right angle of him. :)Deagon and Kamden had a sleepover with Grammy. When I walked in I saw Deagon trying to wake Kamden up by tapping her head gently and whispering in her ear. As you can see, she is not a morning person!!Here is the huge camel, Aspen was fearless, she loved that it ate carrots right out of her hand. The camel is nibbling my hair, kind of weird feeling. Here is the rest of the camels body. This thing was huge!! Here is some of our group in front of the lights. The kids really enjoyed it.Here is the whole group of us. From the back left: Skye(Brocks brother), Grammy with Dodge(nephew), Wade (married brocks sister), Arriann(sister),Me and Aspen, Brock with Deagon(nephew), Grandpa with Kamden. We took a bunch of family pictures and in my opinion this was my favorite of everyone.

Cinderella...

I took the girls to go see the play Cinderella at our local highschool. Kamden was so excited, she talked about going for 2 days straight. There is a play company that travels around from school to school helping kids put on plays. They do it all in a week, try outs are on a monday then you have 3 days to practice and then the play has 2 showings on a Saturday. All of the money they raise goes to our PTA. They are sponsered by local businesses, that is how the play company earns their money. I thought it is a pretty neat idea and it is a big hit. About a Hundred kids try out and only some of them make it. Kamden invited a friend and they really enjoyed it a lot. They didn't move the entire time. Aspen and I were in the back almost the whole time, so I on the other hand didn't get to hear as much as I would of liked to. The girls at the Cinderella Play. They had a great time, even Aspen, she just had trouble sitting still. I guess that is to be expected for a 20 month old. :) (In the picture left to right, Aspen, Kamden and their friend Preslee)Here is the girl who played Cinderella. We waited a good 20 minutes after the show so that they could get their picture with Cinderella. Yes, I know Aspen has her shirt up. If you know her very well you would know this is very common. I just hope she grows out of it or we are going to be in a lot of trouble. :)Here are 2 cute girls cracking up in the back of my car. They thought squeezing each others cheeks was pretty funny.

Thanksgiving Feast

Kamden had her Thanksgiving Party at her Preschool yesterday. She had such a good time. A lot of the times in the morning it is so hard to get her going but yesterday wasn't the case at all. This girl loves to party, also she knew I would be there to help. I came back early to help the teacher set up for their feast. I had Aspen with me ofcourse which seemed to make it a little more challenging. I was setting the table and fixing all of the kids plates when I look over and there is Aspen enjoying the food on a few different plates before the kids came into eat. I wish I would have gotten a picture but I was more worried about fixing the plates so the preschool kids wouldn't get upset that this little girl was stealing their food. When they all sat down to eat they did make room for Aspen at the end of the table. She thought that was pretty neat. I was also surprised that Kamden was so excited to show off Aspen to all of her friends. I just really enjoy watching my girls grow up and the things they experience with such excitement all of the time. Here is a picture of Kamden excited to go to her first preschool thanksgiving party! Kamden with her class enjoying their feast. I got busy helping that this was about the only picture I got at the party.

Sisters...

Here are a couple pictures of the girls that I thought were pretty cute. They have really been getting along well lately. When they play togther they often start laughing really hard, which is so fun to watch. Kamden is always the boss which is fine for now because Aspen thinks anything that Kamden does is so cool. I'm just not sure how long this will last.
In this last picture the girls were helping me make brownies and started making funny faces. They wanted their picture taken but Aspen was getting frustrated because Kamden was telling her she wasn't squeezing her cheeks the right way. So Brock stepped in to help Aspen properly squeeze for the picture!!

Friends....

So the other day when I got my hair cut my friend Shauna and I traded kids. I went first and then she went to get her hair done when I got back. It worked out pretty nicely. Kamden absolutely loves to have friends over, especially her good friend Preslee. They play so well together. I was in the other room with the baby and it had been awhile so I thought I should go check on the big kids. Well they were doing great. Actually they were playing church. Cooper the 6 yr old was baptizing them all and then they would come up in front and pretend to say prayers. After they sat down they all had a book, while looking at the book they were singing primary songs. I had to get a picture, it was too cute.
Here are the kids, Preslee, Cooper, Kamden and Aspen singing primary songs!Here is Aspen trying to be reverent to fit in with the big kids, but not really understanding why they are saying a pray in the middle of play time. :)I just love this picture. They are such good buddies. Preslee is getting ready to move in a month, Kamden is going to miss her lots!!

The New Me...

Well not really, but I got my hair cut, it is pretty much the same style I always get just a little bit shorter. I really like the length this time. I am going back to get a little brighter color done since I like it a little more drastic than it is. Well here it is, tell me what you think. I had to post this first picture because Kamden took it all by herself and was very proud of the outcome.

Chicken Curry Salad

So I have been meaning to post this recipe for a few weeks now. My sister Brinn should be given credit for it, I think she made up the recipe, but I knew she would never post it. It is really easy and yum. I am not a big curry person but I really liked this.

You boil your chicken breasts ( I used 2 large breasts), once they are done cooking you shred your chicken and then add mayo and sour cream ( I used more sour cream then mayo) as much as you like to moisten it. Then put cut up celery, carrots (optional), and then add craisins. Last you put in curry powder to taste.

Once it is all mixed up you put it on top of crackers ( I used multigrain wheat thins) and sprinkle cheese. Then bake at 350 for 5-10 min. (Brinn says that it is best with swiss cheese melted on top.)

My family ate this as a meal one night but when Brock and I were looking at it we thought it would make a great appetizer for christmas time. Here is a picture of them, not the greatest picture. They looked prettier and more appetizing in real life. I had to leave some without cheese because it looked nicer. :) You will have to let me know what you think, if any of you try the recipe.

I Love Stickers!!

Aunt Brinn was kind enough to send a little package to the girls. I thought it was funny how different my girls are. While they were opening the package of stickers, Kamden says "I think I will just place one sticker on my shirt and then use the rest for my sticker chart." Then there is Aspen and we look over and she already had all of the stickers on her shirt, so I had to get a picture.

Halloween....

Well the night started off a little rough with Aspen. She was very excited to be tigger as you can see here, she wore the hood all day...Then she saw that Kamden was being snow white, a princess. So while I was getting Kamden ready she ran down stairs and decided she wanted to be a princess too.

She wasn't very happy with me when I got her dressed into tigger instead of doing her hair and makeup all pretty. While she is screaming the whole time, I am putting makeup on her thinking that will make her happier. So once the makeup was on I showed her and needless to say she still was not happy.

After trying to get her to stop rubbing black all over everthing in my house, I called my husband begging him to come home from work so that I could have a little help trick or treating. Brock is always so busy with work that he isn't usually around for halloween. This was the first halloween he has gone with us. I was so thankful for his help. Once we got going Aspen quickly got over her fit throwing and really enjoyed getting a lot of candy. We first went to our church to the trunk or treat and games. After we left there we went to a neighborhood in town that has a lot of homes really close together so that the girls didn't have to walk as far. I think everyone else had the same idea. ( in our neighborhood the houses are spread far apart) Aspen was a complete crack up. She would try to walk right into peoples houses to get the candy if they didn't get to the door fast enough. Then because she is little people thought to give her little candy. Well she is no fool. She threw it right back in the bowl and grabbed the big candy bars. We were laughing pretty hard. I have to say they both really enjoyed themselves and I did too once Brock, my lifesaver, got there to help me out.

Spooky Snacks

So I was assigned to bring some spooky snacks to Kamdens Halloween Party at Preschool. Being very uncreative my friend told me about the family fun website, so I got on with Kamden and let her pick what we brought. Here is the outcome.....
The first picture is a little blurry but they are cheese fingers. I substituted the green pepper fingernail for a candy corn. The next picture is supposed to be a witches broom stick. Kind of fun. I ended up missing the party because of the funeral for little Jessica but Kamden filled me in later that the broom sticks were a lot bigger hit with the kids. So now next time I know not to waste my whole day doing snacks and just go with the easier one!!

Chubby legs...

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Aspen today before we left for church. As you all know my two daughters have extremely two different builds. The only thing that has been difficult to hand down to Aspen has been shoes. Kamden has the skinniest feet in the world and Aspen has very chubby feet and legs. (which I love) Most boots do not fit Aspen but I finally found a pair of Kamdens old ones that I didn't have to shove and force her calves in to get them zipped. Although, these had a little bit of a heel so it was hilarious to watch her walk. There were a few people at church that thought it was pretty funny too.

Halloween Party...

So I went to a Halloween party with 2 of my friends on Saturday night. I do love to dress up but I am so lame when it comes to thinking of an idea of what to be. So my friend had an extra dress of her daughters and let me borrow it which was nice, since I can never justify buying halloween costumes for myself. Brock was supposed to come too but he has been working 17 hour days this week and was really tired. So it ended up being a fun girls night out and cheaper since I didn't have to get a babysitter.

The Halloween Party was for a great cause. We have friends that have a little girl who just passed away Thursday morning from a brain tumor she has had since January. The party has been planned for awhile which made it even more important for the community to support since she just passed a few days ago. It has been really neat to see a small community really come together for this family. Jessica was such a strong, sweet little girl who will be greatly missed but I know she is so much happier now not having to suffer anymore. There was a great turn out and they were able to raise lots of money for the family.

Here are some crazy pictures of me. Most people did not recognize me at first. The picture below Brock took as Dawna was helping me get ready. Kamden and Aspen thought it was great. Kamden said "Wow mommy you look beautiful, you look like you are ready for the ball." I couldn't help but laugh because I wasn't really going for the beautiful princess look.

Here is Me, Dawna, and Shauna. Their husbands were out of town so it worked out well just having it a girls night. For all of you that know me, my favorite thing is to dance and Dawna and Shauna share that same interest. We had a really good time.

Enjoying the Fall...

Living in McCall you never know what weather you will get when. October usually is a very back and forth month, between cold, freezing and nice fall weather. We have been lucky this year and have had more of the actual fall weather I love. When the weather is nice the girls and I like to think of everything and anything we can do outside to enjoy it while it lasts.
Here is a picture of the girls in our backyard by our stream. The stream is my favorite thing about our piece of land. We can hear the stream at night from our bedroom windows. It is the best.

Here is a picture with Danner our neighborhood dog. She goes from home to home and everyone loves her. I would take this dog anyday if her owners would let us. The girls have so much fun with her. We spend lots of our day playing outside with her.