Our Easter Weekend!

We had a wonderful and busy Easter weekend. There was lots going on...lots of visiters... and lots of pictures (of the few activities I captured on film). Anyways, it all started on Friday, with the traditional easter egg coloring. Abby was looking forward to this the most. I had bought a kit the week before and she wanted to color the eggs ever since. She was excited to start, and took the egg decorating very seriously. Then Uncle Jim, Emery and Halle (Mark's brother and two nieces) came to town! Sadly this is one of the activities that will be remembered only in memory. They arrived late Friday night so for us the party began early Saturday morning. Abby hung out at Mike and Rebecca's (Another one of Mark's brothers) house ALL day with her cousins. They died eggs (again), made cinnamon rolls, and went bowling. All while listening to as much of Conference as possible. Abby enjoyed playing with her cousins, and we cannot wait to see them again in June! Easter morning arrived and the girls enjoyed an easter egg hunt.... IN OUR FRONT ROOM, since there was about four inches of snow on the ground outside....(DON"T EVEN GET ME STARTED!!!) Anyways, the snow has since melted and we are just waiting on warmer temperatures now! The girls were excited about their baskets and especially the candy inside the eggs.

Hannah eyeing her basket!

Hannah can't quite figure out what to do with this thing.

Abby and her Easter basket full of garden tools. Hopefully we can put them to use sooner than later.

Hannah spotted these eggs before Abby did.

The Easter bunny had to be creative on hiding the eggs. He ran out of places very quickly in our small front room.

Hannah knows what's good for her! Too bad she won't actually eat it, or anything for that matter.

We then enjoyed the rest of conference and a fabulous Easter dinner with Mike and Rebecca and their friends, (Jim and the girls left that morning). Good times!!! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

April FREAKIN' Fool's

Mother Nature, You got me good!!!

Born to Climb!!!

So lately we have been trying to teach little miss Hannah to walk. (I thought for sure she would be walking by now!) 

But to no avail she just won't. 

However, she has mastered the skill of climbing. 

 Here are a few pictures of her and her lastest accomplishments.

Such a silly girl!

Spring has Sprung!!!

Well HAD sprung at least. Until today it was sunny and somewhat warm (*Note: 40 degrees = WARM). Today it's cold, cloudy, and SNOWING! I am really starting to get sick of this. Anyways, we took advantage of the beautiful weather last week and pulled out the wagon the girls got for Christmas (which is now full of snow on our front porch). We then walked to the park and played on the toys. It was a great break from the cold misery of an Idaho winter. The girls enjoyed the outing too!

The girls giggled the whole way to the park.

I LOVE Hannah's face on this one. Totally priceless!!!

Spring PLEASE come soon!!!

St Patrick's Day "FESTIVITIES"

Hope everyone had a wonderful St Patrick's Day. I want to thank my two sisters-in-law for teaching me how to truly celebrate the holidays and be "FESTIVE". I learned everything from you guys! (I miss you Liz! Thanks Becca!).

And FESTIVE we were! I took the girls to Mark's school at lunch. It was great to see the waves of green throughout the hallways. And YES we all dressed in green but I never got a picture! (Dang it!) That night we enjoyed a very GREEN meal. I had finally recieved my inspiration that morning, but we pulled it off. Here take a look.

The man himself, adding to the "festivities"

It all looks very unappetizing... but very "FESTIVE"!!!

Babies and Bear Cubs

Everyone is feeling a WHOLE lot better around these parts. We are DONE with antibiotics! We are DONE with breathing treatments! And we are DONE with RSV.... hopefully. Thank you all for you concern and prayers. We truly have wonderful friends and family!

For our first little outing since the girls got sick, we decided to go to Bear World. Last weekend they had the baby bears out so you could see them and even hold them. It was free admission too! (HA HA) The catch was that to actually hold the bear cubs you had to have your picture taken. And to get your picture taken you would have to pay 15 bucks a pop first. OUCH!!! Well in the heat of the moment we decided it was all for "the experience"... right! I mean how many of YOU have ever held a baby bear! :) Anyways here are some pictures of our latest outing.

Waiting in the car. We were car #3 out of like 100.

In front of Bear World.

AND DRUMROLL PLEASE!!!!

The infamous $15.00 photo. (It's not even that good of quality)

Oh well it's all for "the experience"

Hannah at the Hospital....again.

Tis the season, for those yucky germs and viruses.

Well they got us!. Last weekend I could tell Hannah was coming down with something. By tuesday, I had had enough of her coughing... and truth be told, I am sure she did too. So, first thing that morning, I took her to the urgent care. After testing all ten fingers and all ten toes for her oxygen levels (they couldn't believe the results) we were sent to the hospital for further testing. To make a VERY long story short ... she tested positive for RSV, we were admitted, stayed the night, and released by the next afternoon. No hospital stay is ever pleasant... and this one was NO exception. It was a very long and ridiculus stay for both Hannah and I.

This picture says it all...

In the middle of the night, the WONDERFUL Respitory Therapist suggest taping the oxygen to her pacifier (rather than following her around with a face mask). The best idea ever!

Meanwhile...

Back at home with Mark, Abby was coming down with a little something as well. So Mark then took her to the urgent care. She was diagnosed unofficially with RSV too!! (This just after I decided to clorox my whole house...you know, just in case!) So two trips to the Urgent Care, one night at the hospital, and who know how much $$$ later, We have...

This every six hours

and this every four!

We train 'em young!

It was a common evening activity growing up in Mark's family to watch Wheel-of-Fortune everynight. We have since established this activity into our family. It is a great after dinner/before bedtime activitiy.

Even Hannah joins in!

You know you live in Idaho when....

(particularly Rexburg) the only thing to do in March is have a pool party in your tub!!!

Oh well!! The girls had fun!

To continue the update of our little family.... We begin with the oldest. Mark celebrated his 29th...yes 29th birthday in January. We had a fun party in behalf of him and his OLD age! (Luv ya babe!) Abby helped decorate his cake and picked out some balloons for his party. She even helped blow out the candles. I just hope it was as much fun for him as it was for her. We look forward to next year and the big 30!!!

With the change of the new year, the time we attend church changed also...to 1:00!!! Yuck! The first few weeks were really hard for Abby. She takes a long afternoon nap right then, and to miss her nap means big trouble. She was having a particularly hard time one week after church. She was hungry and tired and very emotional. I gave her a few gold fish crackers to hold her over until dinner was ready. After a little while I noticed the house was significantly quieter (at least on her part) and I found this....

She was completely sacked out on the kitchen table amongst her goldfish crackers. She was exhausted. I couldn't resist taking a picture! The amazing part of it was that she slept through this...

Hannah (can you tell that she's the one who got to sleep through church!) playing in her favorite drawer...you know the one with all the measuring cups and spoons. She likes to drop them onto the floor, and bang them against things, just to see how loud she can be. Apparently it wasn't loud enough to keep Abby from completely passing out.

Despite the long and dreary winter (I have been feeling it more than ever this year!) We have enjoyed some sunny winter days here, as there are only a few of them. Abby got a snow shovel for Christmas and puts it to good use on these days. It had snowed one day while Mark was at school, so Abby took it upon herself to clear the sidewalks. It was a good break from being stuck in the house, and she enjoyed playing in the snow.

Abby: one hard worker!

Hannah was a good sport through it all too!

Finally, for family home evening a couple of weeks ago, Abby really wanted to go bowling. So we did. We loaded up the car and went... just the four of us. Abby had so much fun watching us, and was excited when it was finally her turn. It was great to see how serious she took the game. She would line up the ramp perfectly and then watch the ball roll down until it hit the pins. We had a great time.

Abby waiting for her turn!

Finally her turn. (We were amazed at how strong she was!)

Lining up the ramp up just so...

and STRIKE!!!

Hey Everyone!!! Yes... we are still here and very much alive. Time has just slipped us by. But I have FINALLY found some time to update. So without further ado... here is the rest of the story...(at least bits and pieces of it).

Summer...

We had a wonderful rest of the summer, (I am ashamed I haven't posted since last summer!) We played a whole lot, and worked only a little (at least me and the girls did.) Here are a few things we did.

Our next door neighbor has access to a fun blow up water slide. Abby loved splashing (not so much sliding...maybe next year) in the water with Abrahm.

Grandpa and Grandma Bates had brought this turtle pool with them when the visited. It quickly became one of Abby's favorite things to play with.

With lots of outdoor play... comes lots of outdoor injuries!

And here is proof that Hannah existed this summer!

Oh yeah! And Abby's first haircut occured this summer too!

How do YOU think it went?

Just a random summer night after getting cleaned up after a hard day of summer play! (I may be a little biased...but I believe I have the cutest little family ever!!!!)

Fall... Seriously my favorite time of year. It is so beautiful here. Sunny warm (not hot!!!) days, Crisp mornings, beautiful fall colors. We had quite the eventful fall. Mark finished up his Master's in Education Administration. Abby turned 2 (wait, what!?!), the holidays begin!!! What more could a mom want! Lots of canning. Lots of cooking. Lots of fun.

First things first... Abby's birthday party. We had a monkey themed party complete with monkey invitations and monkey cupcakes. I think the cupcakes were a complete success...If I do say so myself! She had a wonderful birthday with lots of presents. (*Note: The 49'ers hoodie was completely Mark's idea and my family despises it. Go Denver Broncos!!!)

Cousin Embree helping Abby open her presents. Abby waiting patiently for Uncle Mike to finish putting together her new stroller for her new baby doll.

The infamous 49'ers hoodie! I think Abby was in on the fun! The monkey cake Abby wanted nothing to do with. Believe it or not, but she was more interested in her stroller and baby to even take on bite of her cake! Next: The beautiful fall colors I was telling you about. The girls loved playing in the leaves. Abby...what a goofball!

Sweet little Hannah!

Canning with kids...oh talk about fun..

This was the byproduct....

of this!

And then it was Halloween... ...and a little of Hannah! Just because she is so dang cute!!!

Winter...

Phew!!! And just like that we are almost caught up. At least we are in the same season right!?!Well winter there's just not much I like about winter right now... looking back at all my summer pictures has not helped either. But a lot happened this winter that is blog worthy so here we go.

You may have noticed in some of the pictures of Hannah that sadly her eyes were crossed... a little something she inherited from her mother. Anyways during the month of December we decided to fix them. It took somewhat of a major surgery to do it, but as of right now they are looking great.

This was right after Hannah had gotten out surgery. She had to be on oxygen (the blue tube) for a while and had to wear arm braces (to keep her hands out of her eyes) for a week. We thought that she would hate those, because she was just learning how to crawl, but they didn't stop her.

We had just gotten home from the hospital. She was exhausted and pretty miserable! But such a trooper!

A couple days after... her eyes were a little swollen, but hey, we got a smile.

And then it was Christmas. We had a great Christmas. We spent it both here in Idaho and in California. Because Hannah did so well in her surgery the doctor cleared us to spend a week in the beautiful state of California. Abby had so much fun opening presents, and riding in her new wagon (Santa Claus had brought if for the girls.) And we were grateful for the time we got to spend with family.

Clearly Abby was not ready for Christmas morning.

Hannah admiring her new bath toys!

Just a cute picture. Mark got those ear muffs for Christmas

Well folks, we're there...at least up to the same year, that is. Stay tuned for more updates. Thanks to all for bearing with us.