Check Ups!

Tuesday, May 12, was check up day for Ashley and Nicole. I ended up at a meeting in Salt Lake this day so Dave took both girls to the doctor. Ashley needed her 4 year check up and Nicole needed her 18 month check up.

Both girls came out with a clean bill of health. Here's their stats:

Ashley
42 pounds - 90%
42" tall - 90%

Nicole
23 pounds 6 ounces - 30%
30 1/2" tall - 15%
46 1/2" Head Circumference - 40%

Nicole ended up with one shot and Dave said she didn't even cry. She will return again when she's two!

Ashley did an awesome job at the doctor and Dave said she wasn't scared to sit and chat with Dr. Huff. She was telling him about a scratch she had on her leg. She's my little social bug! She will return to the doctor when she's 5 and she'll get her kindergarted shots!!!

Hair Cuts

On Monday, May 11, I took Hannah and Ashley for hair cuts. It had been a really, really, really long time since they had had their hair cut. I almost want to say that they got their hair cut last August! It really was time.

Hannah opted for the short hair. She said she wanted it short so it was cooler in the summer and also because it would be easier for me to do in the mornings. Isn't she sweet to always be thinking of what is easier for me?

I chose to have Ashley's hair trimmed and evened up. I couldn't bring myself to cut her long hair. However, I am now wishing that I had cut it shorter. She has such a tender head and it's always a fight to comb her hair. Oh well! Hindsight is always 20/20. They go back for another "trim" the week before school starts and I think I will cut her's shorter for her first day of preschool!

By the time we got home from getting hair cuts, Ashley was exhausted. She fell asleep on the way home in the van so getting a picture of her "new do" was quite interesting.

What cute girls they are!!!

Don't forget Nicole! She didn't get in on the hair cuts but she sure wanted in on the picture taking!

Mother's Day 2009

Mother's Day for me actually started on Saturday prior to going to Hannah's TaVaci performance. After Dave and Hannah's rehearsal Saturday morning, they went shopping for some Mother's Day presents. While we were eating dinner Saturday night, the girls and Dave gave me a new digital camera! I got it early so I would be able to use it during the performance. What an upgrade for me it was! My old camera has a tiny tiny LCD screen on the back, which is difficult to take pictures with. The new camera is pretty much an LCD screen on the entire back. Whahoo! I love the camera.

Sunday morning brought Dave and the girls making me breakfast. It was YUMMY! German pancakes, bacon, and lots of other fixings. When I came to the table to eat, my plate was covered with more presents! There was a Snoopy card from the girls, a sweet card from Dave, a package of Twix candy bars, a package of KitKat candybars, and a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. All my favorites! Then I was surprised with a box of 10 fun games! The most important game, according to Hannah, was Chess. Hannah has been attending Chess Club on Monday afternoon's after school because her carpool ride is over the chess club. I think Hannah has really enjoyed learning how to play this game. I commented to Hannah once that I didn't know how to play and so she told Dave that she wanted to get me chess for Mother's Day so she could teach me how to play. I must say that we have played probably six times and I have only beaten her once!

After breakfast and presents, it was off to Emelia's (Nate and Kendal's new baby girl) baby blessing in Nibley. Church started at 11 a.m. and we were actually in the Chapel and seated by 10:40. Very impressive!

The blessing went well and then it was off to the Welker Ranch for lunch and hanging out with family! All three girls loved playing with cousins and being outside. It was a beautiful spring day, which we hadn't seen much of until this particular weekend. We left the Welker Ranch at 5:30 with three exhausted girls and I left with a sunburn! The food was yummy and the company was great!

All-in-all it was a fun Mother's Day. I love seeing how excited Hannah and Ashley get about celebrating these kinds of holidays!

PS....I forgot to mention that I also got two cards from Hannah that she made in school. One was in English and the other was in Spanish. Ashley and Nicole each made me a sweet colored flower at daycare. I love them all!

Spring TaVaci Performance

Wow! I can't believe how fast time flies when life becomes crazy! The last couple of weeks have been such a whirlwind and we're thankful to have survived and hopefully we've got our feet back on the ground.

A lot has been going on in our household so please bare with me as I start posting from the first event and work my way forward. This is going to turn into a few posts that will probably come a day at a time since I can't sit down to type until after 9 p.m.

On Saturday, May 9, Hannah had her Spring TaVaci concert. In order to prepare there was a long practice on Wednesday, a rehearsal Friday night, dress rehearsal Saturday morning and then the final performance Saturday night.

During the week I also spent an hour plus at the DI searching for the "perfect" orphan outfit. Hannah's age group did two songs from the movie Annie, thus the orphan outfit. I thought it was going to be so easy to run to the DI and purchase an oversized pair of overalls. Boy, was I ever wrong! Who knew that the day I chose to hit the DI would be the day I would be able to find a total of two, yes only two pair of overalls. I even searched the boys section and came up empty handed. There was one pair of levi overalls and one pair of kaki overalls. The levi ones were going to have to work even though they are a size 16 and Hannah is only a size 8! I was able to score a cute button up long sleeved shirt and an adorable orphan looking hat. Yes, I had to use my sewing ability, which is slim to none, to cut off 11 1/2 inches from the legs of the overalls and make the appropriate adjustments to make it work. Overall, I thought she was the cutest orphan on the stage. I may be a bit bias being her mom and all.

One of the highlights of the TaVaci performance was the Annie song "I Don't Need Anything but You" that Hannah got to perform with her Dad. It was probably the end of March when the TaVaci instructor contacted me to see if Dave would be willing to dance in an Annie song with Hannah. After a couple of days of having the message, I finally asked Dave if he was going to do it or not. He reluctanly agreed. Deep down I think he was hoping that Hannah would back out but she never did.

Anyway, after practice the first Wednesday in April, the instructor chatted with me after class saying that the girls and their dads would be practicing the following week and that Dave's part to the song was on Hannah's CD. Yea, the message she left didn't say anything about Dave singing with Hannah. It only mentioned "dancing" with Hannah. Oh you should have seen Dave's face when I came home and informed him that his part was on Hannah's CD and they needed to practice. I remember the words vividly....."I DON'T have to sing do I?!?!?!" Priceless is all that comes to mind. Dave and Hannah had probably four extra practices and then they also practiced the Friday and Saturday morning prior to the final performance. I give Dave credit. He's a trooper!

Thanks to Uncle Glade for coming and sitting with Nicole so I was able to video all of Hannah's songs and Dave was able to take still shots. It was hard enough keeping Ashley entertained for the entire performance. I can't imagine if we'd had Nicole too!

I do have to mention that as the performance started, Ashley glared into my eyes and said, "WHEN DO I GET TO DO TAVACI?" She was a bit upset that Hannah got to be on stage and she didn't. Oh Heaven help us next year when she is old enough!!!

I have to say that the song Hannah and Dave did was the highlight of the performance. It was so dang cute! They both did a great job and I was really proud of them. Dave's comment....."Why when you do something like this do you have to know so many in the audience?" Everyone that spoke to us was impressed that he would do this with Hannah. What a Dad won't do for his girls!

Here's our performers.....

Ashley needing a little camera time too.....

Here's some favorite pictures.......


and we can't forget Ashley needing a "little stage time"........


I am so tired and ready for bed so I'm not taking the time to try and download the video of Dave and Hannah. I will have to post this later.

Sherlock came to Visit

Hannah got to bring the classroom mascot home for an overnight sleepover. She was a little disappointed that she didn't get him for a whole weekend like some of the other kids in class but she enjoyed having him for a night anyway.

She was so excited that she needed to capture it on camera. Hannah took all of these pictures herself.

She's hoping he'll get to come home again. If not this year, hopefully when she's a 2nd grader! She gets the same teacher next year!

Hogle Zoo

On Friday, May 1, I surprised the girls by taking them to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City!



The girls knew there was going to be a surprise on Friday and this was good ammunition to keep them on task during the week. Traci had taken the day off for her Mom's graduation from USU and so I needed to take the day off as well to take care of Ashley and Nicole. I had talked to my mom about surprising the girls and taking them to the zoo and we did really good keeping the secret and not letting the "cat out of the bag".


Hannah really started struggling Wednesday night with wanting to know. I kept telling her that by Friday at 9 a.m. she'd know the surprise. Friday morning brought things as usual. I still had Hannah get ready for school and things seemed normal. She was concerned about what I was going to do with Ashley and Nicole seems Traci wasn't working. I kept telling her that I hadn't figured it out but then Friday morning she knew they were going to be with Grandma Peterson and she wasn't too thrilled that she was going to school and they were going to be with Grandma.

We loaded in the car and left Mendon on time to pick up the carpool kids and get everyone to school on time. As all of the kids were unloading from the van to head into school, I told Hannah that I needed her to stay in the van and come with me for a while. She was completely dumb founded. After the other kids were gone and we started pulling away I told her that she would not be going to school today that the surprise was spending the day at Hogle Zoo. She was totally caught off guard! I had pulled it off! We headed over to pick up Grandma and we were off for a fun day at the zoo!

We stopped in Ogden and had breakfast at a restaurant named Jeremiah's. It was super yummy! I would highly recommend it. The next stop was Hogle Zoo.

We arrived a little before noon and didn't leave until 3:30 p.m. The temperature was great! Not too sunny and not too hot. I'd have to say the temperature was the best I have ever experienced at the zoo. We did have a few drops of rain but that only lasted for maybe 3 minutes.

We rode the carousel, which Nicole wasn't too thrilled about...

attended the bird show, which I ended up leaving early for because Nicole wasn't too interested in "sitting still"

Thanks Ashley for catching this on camera!

We saw almost all of the animals, and topped the day off with the train ride.

What a fun day I had with my girls!


I know the pictures have a pink tint.......I think it's time to get a new camera!

Celebrating at the Fun Park

Even though Ashley's birthday was on April 27, we held off and had her very first birthday party two days later and we held the festivities at the Cache Valley Fun Park.

We invited the daycare kids that Ashley plays with every day, Nichole (her little friend that lives next door to Traci), Sam, (her cousin), Hannah, and Hannah's friend, Ann Marie, from school to come for pizza, playing, cake, and ice cream. The kids got to spend 45 minutes playing on the huge jungle gym that is inside the building after they ate pizza and had pop. After the "play time" we headed back to our designated room for cake, ice cream and presents. We were also joined by Daddy, Grandma Peterson, and Traci.

Ashley was very "expressive" while opening her presents. Here's a couple of things I remember her saying: "A flute! Thanks Sam! I have been waiting for a flute!" "A jump rope! I have been wanting one of these!" "Bubbles! I LOVE bubbles!"

Some of her gifts consisted of a bubble gun with a large bottle of bubbles, Polly Pockets, a jump rope, coloring book, flute, 100 balloons, a Bride Barbie, a purple Razor scooter, play dough, a watch, and a trampoline.

It turned out to be a really fun day. Man, do those 4 and 5 year olds have energy! I think Ashley enjoyed her first birthday party!

Maliek and Chase

Ashley and Sam

Hannah choosing the large slide on her stomach!

Ashley, Traci, and Garrett

Opening the flute!

Yummy cake!