Lake Powell...two months ago...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted so I'll start and add more later. To start off, Ryan decided to give botox a try. I warned him not to, but... (just kidding. I just had fun with photoshop and decided it was too funny not to share with everyone!)
We went to Lake Powell in June. We all had a lot of fun, especially the girls. Grandpa and grandma Keil took us. We stayed on their houseboat.
The girls even got turns driving the speed boat with grandpa.
Uncle Sean caught tons of lizards for Katie, since she was looking forward to finding lizards for months before our trip. This one she named Sparkles, and as you can see loved him a little too much...poor sparkles didn't last long. She at least let the others go before it was too late.
We were there for about 6 days, and had a lot of fun together.
We did lots of hiking and climbing. Ashley is so independant, she would just take off on her own, and did not want help!
Take a look at a few minutes of out trip.

We love the warm weather!

It's been so nice outside the last few weeks. We've got to do a lot of fun things. The girls have been waiting forever to play in the sprinklers, so on a day that was almost 90 degrees I gave in. They were so excited and played in them for over an hour with the neighbor boy.
Suprisingly Erica, who hates baths, loved playing in the sprinklers too.
Then Katie graducated from her first year of preschool 2 weeks ago. They did a program where they sang all of the songs they learned and a few other cute things. Katie's part in the program was being "The Leader" for the Tuesday/Thursday classes.
This is Katie with her teacher, Miss Tammy. She is a wonderful teacher and very positive with the kids. I felt bad for her because the gym wasn't set up how she had asked for it to, and all the families were so noisy in there, it was hard for her to keep the program running smoothly, although the kids did a good job. Katie, unfortunatley was tired by the end, so she wouldn't smile for us.
Then for Memorial day we went with my family down to Heber. It's a family tradition.
Erica loves being outside and had just as much fun as everyone else.
We saw all the hotpots, and the kids thought they were so cool. We told them stories about how my grandpa used to go swimming in them when he was younger.
Then we went to the graves, where a lot of the McMillan ancestors are buried. We told stories about them: my grandma, grandpa, uncle, great-grandpa, great-great grandpa, and great-great-great-grandpa! Ashley had fun spelling out all the ABC's on the grave stones, and both Katie and Ashley liked running around finding their favorite flowers. Afterwards we got some lunch and took it to the park where the kids played. It was a fun day, and nice to visit with all our relatives.

Then a few days later Jeramy and I took the girls down to Logan to visit Crystal, and we went to a zoo! (Although it was more a bird refuge...they still had other fun animals to look at like a bobcat and monkeys and turtles.) The girls loved it.
Unfortunatly, I didn't have my camera with me last weekend. On Saturday we went to Carl's Jr. with Grandma and Grandpa Keil and the kids played on the toys forever! Erica even climbed up to the top all by herself and was so excited she SCREAMED with joy every few seconds. Then we went and saw UP and the girls loved it...actually we did too!
The next day at Grandma and Grandpa Alveys, we went hiking up the trail in the back yard, looking for "Mr. Duck". Adam's duck had wandered off and was lost, so we went to try and save him! We finally had to turn back, although Katie was insistant that Mr. Duck needed us and he was just so lost and we had to find him! She continued to call for him and quack, even as we walked back to the house. Whew! It's been fun! We are so blessed to live by so many wonderful grandparents!

Another update

Here is a picture of my mother's day presents. I was so excited! The kids love them and it keeps them playing outside longer.
This year I have been working on the Relief Society's Pursuit of Excellence program. For one of my goals I decided to try to learn how to paint. I've always loved to draw, but haven't tried painting before. I've only done 3 paintings now so far, but here are 2 of them. The other one I gave to my mom for mother's day.

All the kids and Ryan have been sick, but Erica got it the worst. She has some sort of virus, and an ear infection, and bronchitis. Poor baby.
Then a few days ago Katie decided to give her dad a makeover, and he was very nice about it. He let her put on face glitter, lip gloss, lip stick, a barrette in his hair, and paint his finger and toe nails! She actually did a really good job!
Thursday I went with the Alvey's to the Draper temple where Chirstopher got his endowments out. It was a neat experiece. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that day.
Then this past weekend we did a date with my family. We all went on a hike to the first waterfall at Adam's Canyon and then across the Bonneville shoreline trail...for quite a ways. We had a picnic at the end where my parents had parked a vehicle to drive us all back. Then we went back to their house and played couple charades. It was a really fun night! Everyone was there with a date, except Kristina who had just got back from the hospital with 2 ovarian cysts and almost had to get her appendix removed.
On Saturday we took the girls to the park and had a picnic. I just thought this was a cute picture of Ashley.

The last two fun weeks

Two weeks ago we went to Thanksgiving Point with Grandma Alvey for the tulip festival. We saw A LOT of flowers and had a lot of fun. We also fed some coy fish, saw baby goslings, and waterfalls. We had a fun time.

Ashley, of course, wanted to go wherever she wanted. Most of the time she was way ahead of us. When we got to the big hill at the end, Katie started rolling down...but Ashley took off running down it. When she got to the bottom and I called for her to come back, she started down the next hill and was out of sight. By the time I got down it, running after her, I saw the back of her way down a trail, just going around a bend. She isn't scared of getting lost unfortunately.

Katie's 4th Birthday was this past Saterday (May 9th). She wanted a Princess Birthday with her friends, so to get ready she helped decorate her own pinata. She LOVES art.

And Ashley loves to pretend her fingers are spiders...

So on Friday (the 8th) Katie was really excited for her birthday party. She was up at 6:30 (no earlier than usual) but got ready really quickly and then at 7:30 asked where her friends were. The party didn't start until 10. She started crying saying that no one was coming and they were just having parties at their houses but needed to come to hers. I got her calmed down, but she remained moody until the first friend showed up. Then she was VERY happy.

Everyone came dressed in their best princess (or prince) outfit. We played princess freeze dance, kiss the frog prince, "Don't Eat the Princess!" (like Don't Eat Pete), and hit the pinata Katie had decorated. Phew! Luckily Grandma Alvey, Jeramy, and Rachael Hansen were there to help.

They also decorated their own cupcakes. Her friends that came were: Ashley (sister, of course), Payton, Lily, Abby, Hayden, Kimberly (Hayden's little sister), and Brayke. After that we opened presents and the kids went downstairs and played with all the toys. It was a lot of work, but exactly what Katie had wanted. She had a fun party.
The next day was her real birthday, and she woke up very sick. She slept almost all day, occasionally sitting up and asking, "Is it my birthday? ...I'm just so sick!" Daddy tried to help by getting her Tic Tacs, Gatorade, and renting the new Barbie Thumbelina movie. Then Grandpa Keil came over to see her and gave her some fun learning games, and everyone else some chicken. Even though she did not feel well, Katie still played her games a few times, before falling back asleep.
That night Ryan gave me my mother's day presents early (Ben and Jerry's and lots of Lindt's chocolate) while we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. (Oh, my other mother's day's gift I got last week...5 big Little Tikes climbing toys for the back yard! I found them for really cheap, so Ryan went and picked them up and put them together for us in the pouring rain! He loves me!)

Sunday was Mother's Day and we went to my mom's house. We celebrated Mother's Day, and Katie and Crystal's birthday. It was a lot of fun. Katie (who was feeling a little better) got new paints from her aunts and uncles, and a big princess art kit from Grandma and Grandpa McMillan. She opened it right away and is still using it...
(She is wearing one of the cute outfits Grandma Alvey gave her for her birthday!)

And Crystal and Travis gave her a cute bug catcher with gummy worms in it. She was really excited to try and catch potato bugs, and she shared the gummies with her sisters.

Fun Easter Week

We had a fun Easter week...

We started by going to an Easter egg hunt with Grandma Alvey.


Erica was excited too.


Then on Easter morning they had to search for their baskets. Katie found her's first, then found Ashley's for her.


Katie is pretty smart though. When we told her about the Easter bunny bringing the baskets, she laughed and said, "That's so silly! Bunny's can't come in houses. They have to stay outside!"


We went to Grandma and Grandpa McMillan's later where we had another Easter Egg Hunt! It was so much fun, and we got way too much candy.


Yesterday we went to the park for a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa Keil.


We all had fun.


And there's more to come. Especially once I figure out how to post videos.

Found my Camera!

I lost my camera for a while, but I finally found it! So, here is my long, updated post...

We made snickerdoodles yesterday.
The girls loved rolling them in sugar!

Ashley had a bloody nose a few days ago. Yes, I know it's gross, but she was just so cute! She was so excited to take a bath, that she forgot her nose was bleeding.
Our family loves Family Home Evening. The girls always get excited when it's Monday.

Our basement flooded a while ago...and this is nothing. This was only the first day it happened. Our whole basement is now pretty much pulled apart. I guess we just aren't supposed to move!

Grandma Alvey gave Katie an Easter dress. She LOVED it! She twirled around holding it, saying, "Oh, it's so lovely! It's my beautiful...Come True dress!" She can't wait to wear it next Sunday.

I attempted to straighten Katie's hair...I guess it's just supposed to stay curly.

The girls love to pretend. Katie is Princess Aurora and Ashely is going back in forth between the cat and the bad witch.

Erica LOVES being outside...even if it's freezing. Walks are her favorite especially if she sees "dog"!

Getting there!

Yeah! It's looking a little more like a Blog now! My girls are getting so big. Erica turns one next month, Ashley is 2 1/2, and Katie turns 4 in May. They are so much fun. Katie and Ashley are best friends and love to play together. Erica is crawling everywhere and wants to keep up with her sisters. They love to be crazy, but are also VERY emotional...they're little girls!