Trying something new

Make a Smilebox postcard

End of summer begining of Winter

On Sept 30 we had 80 degree weather and were enjoying our time outside in the sprinkler

Whitney blowing bubbles and basking in the warm sun.

Danica posing for the camera and jumping over the sprinkler

Can you see how this ended up? Danica didn't was trying not to get her sunglasses wet as she jumped through the water and Whitney was running around the water. Neither one of them were paying attention to the other. Danica landed on Whitney, and then she picked her up hugged her and told her sorry all before I could put the camera down and take care of it myself. Whitney hugged her back and they went on playing. It reminds me that they really do love each other.
Well, if you read my blog yesterday you saw that this weather didn't last long. The next set of pictures was taken yesterday. What a difference.


Whitney brushing snow of the sprinkler. You can see our trailer didn't get brought in before the snow got it. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow? Scooping snow out of the trailer so the girls can get to school dry. Do you see what Whitney is wearing!!! I tried and tried to get her to put on pants, but no she wouldn't have it. And, with our mittens lost in storage somewhere and a skirt on the poor little girl didnt' last long out there. Maybe she'll figure it out for next time. Afterall last year we didnt' have snow.

Danica thouroughly enjoyed herself, although her hands did get cold eventually too, but hey when you're making snow angels and snowballs without gloves what do you expect.

The best part of playing in the snow - the HOT CHOCOLATE afterwards. The girls came in and we took off their wet stuff, wrapped them in blankets and gave them some nice hot chocolate. I really miss the snow.

Sunday afternoons

Sunday afternoons are a great time with family. These pics were taken Sept 28th. Whitney found a brush and since Daddy likes to sit on the floor she found it the perfect opportunity to practice doing hair. She has always enjoyed other people's hair and unlike her sister she likes having her's done.

Danica decided that after Whitney was done brushing it she would style it.

This is their finished product. Isn't he cute!!

It is this reason why I have not yet cut and donated my hair. They have started brushing mine and I'm teaching Danica how to braid it. I just don't think I could do that with short hair. Oh well, I guess that just means when I finally do decide to cut it there will be more to donate. right?

A birthday Party

Danica and Whitney's friend had a birthday party in September. They had a treasure hunt and all the little girls had a blast running around the park looking for clues. They found the treasure box and in it was a bag for each girl with fun princess stuff inside.

Their friend's grandma owns the "drive in" in town and they had their ice cream treats there, and even got to serve themselves ice cream.


They really had a great time.

It was waiting...

We have had all our winter things in storage while we've been here, and the weather has been very cooperative. We decided that since it is October and we are in Idaho we probably should get some things out of storage. So on Tuesday while I was in Idaho Falls for my doctors apt we went to our storage unit and got out our coats and hats. We couldn't find our gloves - I'm not sure why they were all in different boxes. I wouldn't have packed them that way, but somehow they ended up that way. Anywho - we brought them back and then --- It snowed. Aren't we blessed! The Lord saw fit to wait to send the snow until we had gotten what we needed. Can't say that this will happen everytime, but we are grateful.

I am planning on downloading pics today so hopefully I will get back to blogging soon.

LDS Conference Acticity Packet for kids

http://deseretbook.com/conf.pdf

Fun activity packets for kids during conference. Thanks to whoever makes these. I found it at www.mormontimes.com

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes

Well, Dave's job at the Park ended with September and for the last two days he has been working on a Potato Farm harvesting potatoes. Neither one of us realized what this meant. He is now gone all day (he sees the girls for 5 minutes if they wake up early). He comes home covered in dirt and exhausted. I have never seen him so tired and sore. We have new respect for those wonderful people who bring us these versatile veggies.

I miss my honey!! How did I do this when he was in school???

Yesterday when Danica realized he was going to the farm she burst out in tears and said, "Daddy I don't want you to go!!"

They both miss him so much and so do I.

School Pictures

We got school pictures back yesterday. They are copyright Hymas Images. Unfortunately I forgot it was picture day until we were walking to school and Danica asked "When is picture day". So I would have done her hair different had I remembered. She is cute anyway. Also, on the way home she was walking with her friend Emilee and she said, "this is a special shirt because my grandma gave it to me." She remembers things so well. What would that be like. Since Whitney's pictures were taken later that day I had time to get her ready. She really enjoyed having her picture taken and was so good.

Booster Seat research.

Well, in our quest to see if we really need to buy a van, I have been doing research on state laws and regulations on booster seats to see if we can legally drive Danica around without a booster. Well, I found that in Idaho the law says they have to be 6 years old (no weight or height regulations) In most other states we may end up the requirements are over 40 pounds and over 4'9". I don't know about you but if I remember correctly I didn't reach 4'9" until I was at least in 4th grade. Danica has about 10" more to go.

I also found that the Insurance institute for car safety just finished another booster seat study to determine if booster seats are doing their job. and they found that 10 of them did such a poor job at fitting kids they don't recommend them in the least - guess what - our booster is on that list. Yipee for us. I have pasted thier findings below so any of you that have kids in boosters can check your brand too.

Booster seat evaluations
Not Recommended
Safety Angel Ride Ryte backless
Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit
Graco CarGo Zephyr
Evenflo Big Kid Confidence
Cosco/Dorel Traveler
Compass B505
Compass B510
Evenflo Generations
Dorel/Safety 1st (Eddie Bauer) Prospect
Cosco Highback Booster
Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega
Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch
Safety 1st/Dorel Intera

Best Bets
Graco TurboBooster backless with clip
Fisher-Price Safe Voyage backless with clip
Combi Kobuk backless with clip
Fisher-Price Safe Voyage
Britax Parkway
LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear
Safeguard Go backless with clip
Volvo booster cushion
Recaro Young Style
Britax Monarch

Good Bets
Graco TurboBooster
Safety Angel Ride Ryte
Recaro Young Sport
Combi Kobuk
Safety 1st/Dorel Apex 65

The study also said that you need to check the way the shoulder/lap belt fits your child when they are in their booster. It should go over the bony parts of their body to prevent internal injury if they are in a crash. (ie. collar bone, hip bones)

Hope this helped anyone who was interested. After more reading and looking I have figured out that seatbelts don't fit me right either (course I think I have always known that since they cut into my neck all the time, even with the adjustable ones in our car) So I guess none of us are really safe.

Our little singer

How pleased we are with our little Danica. Our ward had their Primary Program today and Danica was asked to sing a solo part for one of the songs. Unfortunately I don't have any kind of simple recording device that we could get an audio recording of it, but she did fantastic. She didn't look nervous at all. She just got up there and when it was her turn she sang the perfect volume and clearly so everyone could understand. She is so amazing. I had a hard enough time getting up and singing with a group when I was in high school. I dont' think I am brave enough even now to sing a solo.
What an amazing little girl we have been blessed with. I learn so much from her everyday. Her spirit is so much more developed at this little age than I feel mine is now. She has a great work for her in the future I can just tell.

The Lord teaches us in many ways

Well, Dave's job officially ends on Tuesday. We still don't have another job (at least not until the end of November, and that's our fallback plan) So, as we have been contemplating what we are going to do and both of us have been praying all we've been getting is that it's going to be okay.

Which is good to know, but both Dave and I are planners - we like to have a plan to know what we need to do, and the not knowing makes it hard to plan. So, as I was praying yesterday I was a bit uneased that none of the the things I was praying for felt right. So I changed what I was asking and discovered that I am not supposed to know. That right now I just need to trust and not know. Do you know how hard that is for me!!!

But I am doing my best. We are going to stay here in Arco until who knows, and trust that everything will be okay. We will just keep doing what we are doing and wait as patiently as possible and try to listen to the Spirit. Hopefully this is one of the last things that we are supposed to learn from all this moving around.
Thanks to all of you for your support and prayers . We love you.

Human Pin Cushion

I can't wait until this baby makes it's debut. For someone who used to have a severe fear of needles I think this baby is trying to cure that.
For some reason with this pregnancy all my veins went into hiding. (well, they've never been very willing to show themselves to a needle) Hopefully I'm done being a pin cushion until this baby comes out. All in all I have been poked 14 times in the last three months.
Yikes - I'm not sure where this lovely trait comes from but I hope my children don't get it.

Yellowstone final part

We hiked to this beautiful lake that seem a bit out of place in Yellowstone, but then Yellowstone is so big it's probaly just part I've never been to before.

The girls enjoyed taking a break and throwing rocks into the lake. On the way up we missed one of the switchbacks and ended up going straight up the mountain. What a trooper Dave is as once again he ended up carrying both girls. And of course I couldn't miss this great photo op by the river.


We drove around the park looking for wildlife after our hike and we were lucky enough to see this grizzly bear eating a bison. I know it's hard to see but just take my word for it.

We also saw several coyotes, a family of bison and two black bears. Unfortunately the other pictures didn't turn out well because it was dusk. Oh well. Dave was glad to see all the wildlife, but he still wants to see a wolf.

More camping fun



The Mammoth Hot Springs used to be very colorful, but now they are mostly dried up but the formations they made are still fun to look at. What do you see?

And again - Dave carrying both girls. What a great daddy. I promise our girls did do alot of hiking themselves too.

After such a great vacation we decided the girls should have something to remember it by (besides just pictures). Whitney picked out a grizzly bear and Danica picked out a wolf. They played with them almost the whole way home.

Whitney named hers cuddley bear and Danica named hers Giselle.
Danica took hers to school today for show and tell so it must have been a great trip for her.
I have some fun quotes from them that I will post later.

Yellowstone part 2

We spent the next day hiking around geyser basins and this is what Whitney and Danica thought of it. They also decided that they both had to ride on daddy. So Danica leaned back and picked up Whitney. What funny kids.

Family pic in front of Old Faithful as it is dying down. The girls loved this one and when it was going off they were smiling and clapping for it. It was great.

Whitney got cold so she decided to crawl up inside my sweatshirt while I was still in it. What a great way to roast marshmallows.

Yellowstone day 1

The middle of August we took a trip to Yellowstone with our frinds Corey and Sarah. It was pretty neat for me since I had gone there in 1989 right after the big fire and now 20 years later.
It was Dave's first time coming to the park. As we drove through the pay booth this was the look on his face. Almost better than his excitement for Christmas.

This is a picture of the 20 year growth. Naturally reseeded from the fire. Sorry it's hard to see. But you can see the trees that were burned and then the new ones growing at the bottom.

As we were making our way out to our campsite we saw what we thought was a bear. We pulled over and I got out to take the picture. Well, it wasn't a bear, just a bison.

We didnt' do a lot the first day we were there because of naps and other such things, but we had a good time at our camp taking walks in the meadow and things like that. More to come later.