A personal victory

I ran my longest distance this morning. It felt great! The weather felt wonderful and the desert mountain scenery was beautiful.

Celia Welia

Lily is very creative. Today she became Celia from Monsters Inc. with the help of construction paper, a pencil, a white crayon, and clear tape. She has a set of drawers full of craft supplies that she gets into whenever her creative juices are flowing. Which is often. I almost always have little scraps of paper all over my dining room floor because her art form of choice lately has been to draw and color a character and then cut it out. She is so good at cutting!

Good morning, good morning...

...you slept the whole night through!

My mom used to sing that little variation of Singing in the Rain's good morning song. Now I sing it to my kids...even when they don't sleep the whole night through.

This morning I'm singing it to myself because I need to be up and doing. I didn't sleep the whole night through last night. And I certainly didn't sleep long enough. It's official that I must be going to bed earlier. :) So that's my plan tonight: be in bed earlier.

Have a happy day!

The park that dad found

This park day was in December. It's the park that dad found. Cowgirl Jesse and Carter had a great time. We love the sunshine and blue skies.

I love how Lily chooses to dress herself. I get such a kick out of seeing what she puts together and which outfits she chooses for which events. Lily loves wearing dresses. It's a bummer to her to have to change into shorts or pants to play at the park. Sometimes we compromise and she can wear shorts under the dress, as long as it's not a fancy one that we don't want ruined.

Yes, I love to kiss his cheeks. Carter is so good-natured and pleasant. I love this little guy.

Royalty

Look at that beautiful face. I love this girl.

Park day

When I look back on this winter, I'm going to remember going to the park. We've had lots of park days. When Aaron was off work for Christmas we ran or rode bikes to the park many times. I often take the kids to the park by myself. I especially love having Aaron join us because for some reason, when he's there I play like a kid too.

These photos were taken at the Layla park. We have several parks near by, all with personalized names of their own: the birthday park, the park that Dad found, the ladybug park, etc.

I love family!

Adam (Aaron's brother) and Amy and their kids came to visit this month. Have I ever mentioned that I love having family visit? I would love it even more if some family lived near us. There is something about family members...you're already attached so there's an immediate bond. Lily and Carter had so much fun with their cousins.

We played at the zoo and then barbecued giant hot dogs at our house.

Brittney was sweet with Lily. She took care of her but also had fun playing with her. Lily of course thinks Brittney is so cool and fun.

We look well together, don't we?

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009! We had a fun party to ring in the new year. We played the lucky penny game. We find hidden pennies around the house and then talk about the cool things from the year past and the year to come. Lily found most of them!

Bummer this picture didn't turn out, but it shows the fun we had stomping on bubble wrap. That activity is so much stinking fun! It makes a great noise and the kids can't get enough of it.

Yummy rootbeer floats topped off the party.