Cousins!

My brother and his family have been in town for Thanksgiving and tonight we got all four of the cousins together. It is crazy when you have them all together, especially considering the oldest is three. Anyway, the two youngest kept playing in the stair rail, so we had to get a picture. It looks like they are in prison, planning a get away.
Then the two oldest had to get involved. Yes, one of them is unzipped. She insisted on being that way!

Seeing as they were in their pajamas we had to get a picture of them on the bed. Sara would not sit still at all. This is the best picture I could get of them all.
Afterward, Grandma had to paint the little girls fingernails. They went into her bathroom and picked out the color...blue. My girls love going and being with their cousins.

Oh Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving it has become a tradition in our house to put up the Christmas tree and the decorations. Sara is at the stage where she is into everything! I didn't dare put up my ceramic nativity set knowing that she would have it broken within twenty-four hours, so we have a Little People one instead. Anyway, Sara was into everything, so this is how we put the lights on the tree this year. Sara loves the backpack. Anna does too and is extremely jealous every time we put Sara in. I don't know how Rob's back feels, but I'm grateful that he put it up this year. I know he hates doing it, but he's such a good sport!
Here's Anna helping put on the decorations. After a while we noticed that she was hanging them on the lights and not the tree, so we had to redo everything that she did. We didn't tell her that, of course.Sara had to get into the action as well. While I was busy hanging all the ribbon she decided to help herself and get into the bulbs. She had a great time. I'll have to post a picture of the finished project tomorrow, after we get all the boxes put away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Anna was pretty excited to watch the Macy's Day Parade on TV. She thought it was so much fun to see Dora and the Smurfs as big balloons. I don't think that Rob or Sara caught a lot of the parade. Rob had stayed up the night before until 3:00 in the morning reading a book and he crashed hard. Thank goodness he took Sara with him.


Then it was off to the Hadfield's for a fabulous Thanksgiving feast. We tried to get the girls to nap along with Grandpa. As you can see, it didn't go very well! Afterward we went to the Cloward's for leftovers and for a killer game of Nertz. Overall it was a great day filled with lots of food, fun and family!

She's a tricky one!

Sara is becoming quite the tricky little girl. Tonight she attempted two new tricks and succeeded in both. First, noodles. I gave her some noodles for dinner and she ate them right up, slurping the whole way.

The second trick is the best. I was laying on the floor right in front of the lazy boy recliner. She came over, climbed on top of my stomach and then put her weight on top of my leg that was elevated and climbed on into the lazy boy. She scurried up and grabbed the remote control and started giggling. She thought she was awesome. All Rob and I could do was laugh. She's out of control!
On a sad note, Anna is sick. She was okay until she got up from her nap and then the throwing up started. She has been so good about trying to get to the sink on time, but we have done several loads of laundry already tonight. I hope that she feels better soon, but I have a feeling that it is going to be a long night! In fact, this is how she fell asleep tonight. Poor thing!

Ring Around the Rosies

We had my family come over tonight to watch the game (which we won't talk about because we are still in mourning) and we had a blast. It has been a long time since my whole family has been together...Even Zach, Erin and Liam were here all the way from Minnesota (they got here just in time for kickoff!). Sara immediately warmed up to Liam. The two of them had a great time together. Anna had her cousin, Jayde, to play with and the two of them were off to her kitchen making pizza and hot hot (hot chocolate). Everyone had a great time...Except for my dad who was pretty upset about the whole game.

Here are Liam and Sara playing together. Sara moved just as I snapped the picture.

Anna has been obsessed with ring around the rosies lately. She grabbed Erin and Liam and insisted that she play.

When Erin got tired, she grabbed Kassi.
Then Kassi got tired she grabbed Zach. I think she was more than a little disappointed when everyone went home and she had to go to bed. She wanted to play some more, so I told her we could tomorrow. Hope she forgets about that!Sara has learned how to wave. It's so cute. I had to take a picture of it! She's getting so big so fast!

Roller Skates

Kassi gave Anna her birthday present tonight. Roller Skates. Anna thinks that they are so cool. She had to put them on immediately. Luckily the skates came with knee and elbow pads. And, of course, they are princess, which makes them even better. She put everything on at once and immediately fell on her behind. She wasn't so sure she wanted to do them again until wonderful Aunt Kassi helped her see how much fun they are. Thanks Kassi...She loves them!

Family Get Away

When we rented the condo for girl's weekend, we had to rent it for the whole week. Our family was the only one is position to use it again. So on Sunday after church we packed up the girls and headed back up to Park City. Anna loved being able to sleep in a different place. She kept running from room to room, searching for something new. She was especially excited to see the swimming pool. Good thing it was heated because there was snow on the ground and on the roof. We had a great time, just getting away, even though we ended up having to come back home early for an unexpected work call for Rob. But on the way home we stopped in Heber and went to the train restaurant. Anna thought it was pretty cool!
This picture makes me laugh. We would just get Sara to sleep when Anna would run into the room and lean into Sara's crib saying "Sara...Are you awake?". She did this several times, waking Sara up each time. What a little monkey!

Girls Weekend

This last weekend I went with my mother-in-law and sisters-in law to Park City where we had rented a condo. It was a lot of fun. We did a lot of shopping...A lot of shopping! But I can happily say that I am done with Christmas shopping. Now all I have to do is wrap. Anyway, back to the weekend. We didn't cook, clean or deal with kids for more than 24 hours. It was awesome. We happily enjoyed the outdoor hot tub, which was a lot of fun with snow on the ground. We froze getting in and out, but the middle part was very enjoyable. Here are some great pictures that I got from the weekend. I'm already waiting for next year. Thanks everyone for a crazy, fun weekend. You're the best!

Here is my sister-in-law showing off this fabulous hat that we found. Even though she looks like she is cold, it was actually a wonderful weekend as far as weather was concerned. We found these awesome glasses at one store. Unfortunately, no one wanted to splurge and spend the $15 bucks to buy them.
I was tired. I wore the wrong shoes to do this, so we had to go and buy me some decent shoes so I could continue the shopping spree the next day.
When we went to dinner, my mother-in-law forgot her glasses and the lighting was so bad that my sister-in-law had to read her the menu. I don't think she heard much of it, though, from all of the laughing that was coming from her and the rest of the table.

This was a regular sight on our trip...The shoe store. We went to a lot of shoe stores looking for a specific pair of boots. We finally found them.

Jason, Ellie and Grace

The 13th of November will always be a bittersweet day to me. I want to share a little bit of this story, mostly for journaling purposes, but also for those who don't know our story.
In July of 2003 Rob and I discovered that we were going to be parents...to triplets. I don't think I have ever seen Rob turn so white so fast. He made the nurse count three times just to make sure she wasn't counting one twice. Eventually we got over the shock as our excitement took over. We had a picture perfect pregnancy until week 21, when we went in for the ultrasound to see how they were doing. We discovered that the first baby was a boy. He was healthy and right on track. The second baby was a girl, also healthy and growing as she should. Then we came upon baby number three. I knew something was wrong with the ultrasound tech went quiet and kept looking in the same area. She then called the specialist in, where he also looked for about five minutes before saying anything. It was then that we learned this third baby was not going to make it. It was so small and not growing the way that it should, in fact it was three weeks behind the other two. They told us that the baby had a chromosome error and that it would not survive. It would either die in the womb or shortly after birth. They were not able to tell what this baby was, but in my heart I knew that it was a little girl. I also had hope that the doctors were wrong, that they baby was just small and would catch up. After all, they all had very strong heartbeats. Two days later I went into labour. Jason was born first, weighing in at 13 ozs. Ellie followed at 11 ozs. Then our little Grace came. She weighed only 3.5 ozs. They were all born alive, but they were just too tiny to stay. Our beloved babies became our guardian angels an hour after they were born.
My sweet babies turned five today. As I watch Anna and Sara grow I often wonder what they would be doing at this time. I wonder if the girls would be involved in dance and if Jason would be doing all the sports. I imagine him following his dad around, playing with tools. I also wonder what they would look like. Anna and Sara both look like Rob, with their big blue eyes and blond hair. I wonder if they would be the ones to look like me, with the brown hair and brown eyes. I wonder what their little personalities would be like. I miss them. I can't wait to see them and hold them in my arms again. I love you my sweet babies. Until we meet again. The balloons we put on their grave. I think that there are 18 total.
Anna showing off the balloons. She was so excited to give them to her older brother and sisters.
Grandpa came with us to help manage the kids. He does such a great job with the girls and they love being with him.

Picture Tag

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your pictures

2. Upload the fourth picture from the fourth file

3. Post

4. Tag four friends



This picture was taken on Sept 5, 2006. When we moved to the Bahamas we did not get visas. We were only allowed in the country for 90 days and then we had to leave. So we decided to take a vacation (I know...A little ironic that we leave the Bahamas to take a vacation) and visit my friend, Sheralyn, in Virginia. We had a fabulous time. We went to a couple of Smithsonians, one of which was the Air and Space Museum. Rob was in heaven. Trying to get him out of there was like pulling teeth. This picture is of Anna and Rob touching a piece of Mars. Aren't they so cute! And look how happy Rob is. I think that vacation was the most relaxed that I saw him for that whole year that he was working in the Bahamas.
I really don't know who to tag, since most of my friends have done this already. So if you haven't done this, I tag you!

10 Months

I can't believe that my baby is 10 months today. Time has gone by so fast! She is getting so big. She refuses to eat baby food and doesn't like to take a bottle. Her newest thing that she likes to do is eat the leaves off of our plants. Rob had to take his Hawaiian plants to work because she was destroying them. In fact, today while my visiting teachers were here she had to show off and pulled about five leaves off of one house plant and shoved them in her mouth. She is such a funny kid and I love her laugh. I can't imagine my life without her. Love you Sara!

Rah! Rah! Go Cougars!

We had tickets to the football game yesterday. I was a little worried about the weather, seeing as it snowed a couple of days ago, but the weather was fabulous! It was perfect game day weather, temperature in the high 50's with the sun shining. It did get a little chilly towards the end, but all we needed were jackets. The game was a lot of fun, made even better when the cougars won!
We have bred a true blue cougar fan. Anna was so excited to watch the cougars play. We went to the tailgating party before hand and she picked up a lot of free stuff. She did great the whole game. It was the last home game of the season but we will definitely be back next year!

Sugar Cookies

Today we had cousin Alli come and play. I thought it would be fun to make sugar cookies. So we made the dough and let it refrigerate while they napped, or should I say pretend to nap. After we rolled it out and I let the girls use the cookie cutters. As they were cutting out the cookies I realized that I desperately need new cookie cutters. These were the only two that I could find that were not associated with Halloween. I'm sure all of you can recognize the heart, but any guesses as to what the other one is? I'll give you a second.....


It is a platypus. Yes...A platypus. Rob went to a trade show last year and came home with this cookie cutter. The girls had no idea what platypus was so I told them that they were sharks. We even decorated them with blue frosting!




Here is Sara enjoying a blue platypus cookie. She's a mess (yes, I do realize that the last couple of posts with Sara involve food. I promise she does take a break from eating!).

Made me laugh out loud!

I found this blog linked to another blog that I read. This post just made me laugh! Check it out!

It's Almost Like He's Part of the Family

"Of course I don't treat him any differently. Look, I even ordered him a graduation cake today!"




Natalie B., knowing they just spelled Stetson's name wrong takes all the fun out of it for me. Can we stick with my version? No one has to know. ;)

If you want to see some more great ones, check out the link on the side of my blog.

Husband Tagged

My friend, Julie, tagged me. Here we go...

1.What is your husband's full name? Robert Gregory

2.How long have you been married? 9 years

3.How long did you date? 3 weeks...Actually we didn't even go on our first date until after we were engaged!

4.How old is he? Almost 32

5.Who eats sweets? Depends on what it is...I eat more chocolate than he does.

6.Who said I Love you first? We pretty much admitted it at the same time.

7.Who is taller? Rob is by almost 6".

8.Who can sing best? Definitely Rob...I can't carry a tune!

9.Who is smarter? He's an engineer...definitely him

10.Who does laundry? Me...Rob thinks that there is an underwear fairy that magically washes and folds his clothes.

11.Who pays the bills? Me...But he's the one that makes the money that pays the bills.

12.Who sleeps on the right side? The kill side? That would be me.

13.Who mows the lawn? Him, but when I can tell he is stressing on trying to squeeze it in, I try to jump in and do it.

14.Who cooks dinner? Me, because I'm home around that time, but he is an awesome cook!

15.Who drives? He does, unless I am carsick, then I do.

16.Who's first to admit when they are wrong? He is so good at this. Me, not so much!

17.Who kissed who first? This is something we have argued about before. I say he kissed me and jumped in his car and drove away. He insists that I made him by giving him "the look" all evening!

18.Who asked who out first? I think he asked me out, but like I said earlier, our first date was after we were engaged.

19.Who wears the pants? We share them!


I tag whoever doesn't have a post for today!

Sunday Afternoon

So, as many of you know, we have the unfortunate time of 2:30 for church. Top that off with the change of time and you have a Sunday that you just want to forget. We tried to entertain the girls as much as possible before we went to church, and this is what we came up with;

Cutting Anna's friends hair. This is something that she got at Joy School. You plant grass seed in a cup and draw a picture on the front. We cut his hair at least once a week. She loves it!This picture is for my parents. Anna wore the dress that they gave her for her birthday. She looks pretty darn cute!

'The only way we were able to entertain Sara was with food. She had a couple of baths today due to her feeding herself. This picture is ravioli. She looked like an Umpa Lumpa with her face all orange.And here we introduced her to Oreos, not the everyday kind, but the Halloween kind, black and orange. What a mess...But she loved it!

Missing Mickey

Today I was cleaning the house and Anna was entertaining Sara. There was a lot of giggling and then silence, which is dangerous, so I decided to go and investigate. This is what I found....



Anna looked at me and said in a very serious tone, "I wanna go back to Mickey's house. I miss Mickey!". We only got back a week ago. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she probably wouldn't be seeing Mickey for at least another two years!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!! I love that the weather was nice enough to be able to see the costumes this year. Here are Anna and Sara getting ready to start the trick or treating. I put Sara in the ladybug costume this time as it is better suited for this type of weather.


Here they are with both of my grandmas. Aren't they so cute!
Then we met up with cousin Jayde. It was hard to get all three girls looking at the camera at the same time.
We also had an unexpected visitor come by tonight. One of the Elder's from when we lived in the Bahamas came to visit. It was a lot of fun to visit with him and a couple of our neighbors got a little shock when he answered the door. We might have some explaining to do!