Summer photo session of the girls

After guiltily browsing through a friends collection of photos she'd had taken of her daughters . . I dragged the girls off to an impromptu photography session. Little did I know, they are now pros at posing for the camera and I was so relieved to not have to be dependent on photoshopping to get a good picture of them together. They had such a great time playing 'princess' with a captive audience there were actually tears when we had to leave. Life is so hard. Anyway . . here's a few results .. I was quite pleased and I'm very smitten with my little punkins that are growing up so fast!

First boat ride!

We finally had an opportunity to take the girls out boating . . they loved it and Keira even surprised me by jumping at the chance to get on the tube behind the boat . . I was even more surprised when she had a great time once the boat started pulling them. Gregg did a little surfing and wakeboarding as well . . a good time was had by all!

A QUICK SUMMER CATCH UP . . .

The girls waited forever for their 'flower girl' debut . . also known as Aunt Amber's wedding

The princesses at the royal ball



Kissin' cousins

Keira and Tyler at the zoo

Countryfest Carnival

Silly Keira

Father's Day

Jackson Hole




Gymnastics graduation

Memorial day in Wisconsin

We recently returned from a trip to Wisconsin to visit the Stephany side of our family. Gregg's longtime friend, Todd, was getting married and chose a weekend of fantastic weather to do so. I have since decided that I would like to spend Memorial day in Wisconsin every year. It was beautiful and we had a great time. As the girls get older, they are much easier to travel with . . which makes the trip much more enjoyable all around for me!



We got to spend some time with all of the family and the girls had a wonderful time playing with all of their cousins. We had a picnic lunch at the zoo with Lynda and Jill on Jill's birthday, very fun . . and the girls LOVED the bonfires and marshmellows in grandma and grandpa's backyard.

The girls especially liked storytime provided every night at bedtime by Cole and Hailey.


Our final day there was spent at Jill and Mark's house . . we had a joint birthday party . . a few days late for Jill/ a few days early for Maddie, which was perfect as far as Maddie was concerned. Grandma and Grandpa Stephany gave her a brand new pink baseball glove . . in addition to a very beautiful Cinderella princess dress and tiara.

Then the boys . . and Carissa . . headed off to a Brewer's baseball game, which was as much fun as Gregg had dreamed it would be. It was his first time to this stadium and he put a lot of verbal efforts into making sure this was part of his trip home. Thanks to the family for making it happen for him!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Yesterday was Maddie's 4th birthday and she'll be the first to tell you, it was a good day. When she woke up, she asked me . . "Is it really my birthday today?" (It was nice to be able to truthfully answer 'yes', finally, after a year of being questioned along these same lines.) The follow up question, truly states how wonderful the world is as it revolves around you at the age of 4 . . "Is everybody at my party upstairs waiting to sing to me?" This is mostly funny because it was about 6:15 in the morning when she asked. We went over to a 'Paddling Festival' at our lake where the girls enjoyed trying out all the kayaks and playing in the sand on the beach, but most importantly . . to a 4 year old . . we found 'the facepainters' that dad had told Maddie would be there. It was a first for Maddie and she thought it was fantastic. She promptly requested a rainbow on one cheek and a ladybug on the other. Keira braved the 'strangers' long enough to collect a rainbow on one cheek . . and upon seeing Maddie's face, she was convinced that she also had her other cheek painted with a ladybug. She had a crying tantrum shortly after which washed her rainbow off with tears . . but we didn't tell her that and she proudly showed off her nonexistant facepaint to anybody that admired Maddie's the rest of the day. After the festival, we told the girls they needed to take a 'rest' before the party started . . to which Maddie promptly inforomed us that she had WAY too much power to take a rest and she would not be closing her eyes. She was right about that and this is pretty much how her 'nap' went if you want to listen to her singing/ chant on the monitor.
Finally . . it was time for the party. Maddie is our party girl . . and a party that is all about her is pretty much the best thing in the whole world. The first guests to arrive were our neighbors in the purple house . . Lisa and Jonah . . who the girls adore and constantly pester. Maddie has a perfect view of their driveway from her chair at the bar and is always on the 'lookout' for them and they are constantly being summoned by the tiny voice coming through the window. They are very sweet and kind to the girls and this occasion was no exception. Lisa had wisely, bought 2 presents for Maddie . . one in the form of a gift bag for Keira, much to my relief . . who wants to ruin such a great day with a cat fight?!? It was Maddie's dream come true and swift punch in the stomach to dad as he watched his 4 year old don her first wedding dress.

After frolicking in their new party attire, the girls set up camp waiting for the next guests . . grandma and grandpa ("the Harris ones", is how Maddie clarifies now that she understands the multiple grandparent situation) and Aunt Amber and Brooke. They also showed up with way too many gifts . . also accomodating Keira . . and the girls bounced all over them with glee and happiness.

We all sat down . . in a very pink and fairy infested atmosphere and enjoyed a dinner of 'long noodles'/spaghetti . . which is still MJ's favorite dish, 2 years running now. Then we pulled out the very purple and pink Tinkerbell birthday cake and Maddie enjoyed every minute of the crowd gathered around her singing 'Happy Birthday' and even before she blew out the candles, she looked up and thanked everybody for singing . . I have to say, as her mom, it was very sweet and cute. She did manage to blow out all 4 of those candles, after being prompted to yell 'Fire in the Hole' by her Aunt Brooke.
Unfortunately for Maddie . . all good things come to an end, on the bright side, her cousins are on their way here from Washington and we'll be having another birthday party for 'the kids' in a few days . . life is good. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great day!

Visit from Sue Sue!

Our 'favorite friend' Sue Sue from Denver came to visit us for a couple of power packed days this past weekend. Maddie truly believes that she is her best friend in the whole wide world and with Keira one step behind the two of them at all times . . they partied all weekend. Our first stop was the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving point. It was truly beautiful! This was Susan's first trip to Utah and she was constantly in awe of the beautiful mountainous scenery.


At Susan's request, we got up early Sunday morning and headed to Temple Square so that she could listen to a live performance from the Tabernacle Choir. Kids under the age of 8 aren't allowed in to the performance, so we dropped Susan off and took the girls over to the visitors center. Maddie was adorably enthralled with the Christus statue and immediately walked over to have a 'talk' with Jesus. She thanked him for her family and then requested that we locate the 'real' Jesus because she was very frustrated that he was not responding to her conversation. After that, each missionary she encountered was intensely questioned as to where she could find the 'real' Jesus. She was adorable . . and very sincere and intent upon this goal.

We finished the weekend with a quick trip out to show Susan the Great Salt lake and we were almost swept away by a sudden burst of rain and wind . . I think I only have one friend who would consider that the perfect end to her weekend . . and fortunately, that's Susan. . . so while we were all left fairly exhausted, we had a very fun weekend! Thanks for the visit Susan!

Happy Easter!

Come on, I'm ready for spring already!

Where oh where is spring!? I'm going crazy with the tease act mother nature is putting on these days. Other than the ants in my pants in anticipation of warmer weather . . it's been a pretty good past month or so. Gregg and I were able to get away for a few days to celebrate a belated 5 year anniversary. Getting away from the kids is such a healthy and fun thing for a couple to do once in a while. Living closer to family has been such a great thing as they are all so willing to help us out and the girls love them all so much, it puts a mother's mind at ease to leave them with such happy faces. So . . we went to Vegas. Gregg managed to enroll in the Orthopedic convention there for the weekend so we were able to put it on his work tab . . that always makes for an even better vacation! Here's some of the happy proof that the weekend was a success.


Following that fun trip . . a few weeks later, I got to go on an all girl 'sisters' weekend to see my sister, Melanie, in Seattle . . talk about being spoiled. That's the most kid free time I've had in years! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to prove that it was fun . . but, it was! We enjoyed shopping and dining out and just lounging around . . I miss those days!
Paybacks came the following weekend as Gregg left us to go to a hockey tournament in the big metropolitan of Rock Springs, Wyoming! He seemed to enjoy his kid free weekend with a little bar hopping with the guys and an undefeated tournament record! Good job babe!
And while it sounds as if we both view our sweet little princesses as a curse . . don't be fooled . . we love the little darlings to death . . How could you not?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Could they be any goofier?

Party on!

Here I am with my (mostly) monthly posting . . I have to mention it in every blog because I'm so embarressed. Anyway .. we started out our holiday season with a trip to Wisconsin to see how our family was faring the cold weather there. We left the weather here at a balmy 45-50 degrees without any snow on the ground, but I believe we brought back a little bit of old man winter with us because it's been unbelievably cold and snowy ever since we returned! We did, despite the weather, have a wonderful time spending time with everybody!

The girls LOVED playing with their cousins and while Keira is still a little wary of Grandpa Stephany . . we figure that just makes her a wise kid and she'll come around to love him the way we all do.

We spent some time in Milwuakee at 'Cole and Hailey's house' and we also found time for a trip to the Public Museum where the girls loved the butterfly exhibit and are seen here metamorphis-ing in their crysallis'.
We then headed up north to Fond Du Lac for an early Christmas celebration. The girls managed to make themselves right at home at grandma and grandpa's house.

We finally made it back to Utah in between a couple of big snow storms and it was a rough trip, to say the least. The girls weren't fond of the added hour to the flight, but they didn't seem to mind and even giggled a little bit at the turbulence . . oh the beauty of a little innocence and ignorance!
We opened a few presents at home and then loaded up and drove to Grandma and Grandpa Harris' on Christmas Eve. The joy of parenting the night before Christmas officially began this year as Maddie summoned me to her room at 4 a.m. to let me know she was officially done sleeping and ready for the sun to be up . . translation, 'mom your done sleeping because I'm ready to play!' Oy! I managed to keep her relatively distracted and quiet until about 8 a.m. when I officially declared that the rest of the lazy sleepers were going to join our party!


New years was next on the agenda and we didn't manage to secure a babysitter so Maddie stepped up and informed me that we were going to have 'the biggest party ever' at our house on New years eve . . so I held her to that. It was a completely different party than I ever anticipated attending on this raucous holiday . . but a wild and crazy one never-the-less. I did help Maddie a little with the planning .. but I kept her pretty busy with the preparations and she informed me several times that she was just 'out of power' and needed to take a break from all this work. The party played out nicely starting at about 4 p.m. and going until the wee hour of 8 p.m. . . when 'the parents' were officially pooped and 'toddler-ed' out!




With all the celebrating that went on in the last month, you'd think we'd be partied out. . OK, some of us were . . but not Maddie. She's a partier to the end and she couldn't have been more excited to find out that mom's birthday was in the works . . OK, maybe a little more excited if it had been her birthday . . SO, we managed to fit in one more party, to keep our party girl happy, of course. Thankfully, Keira's birthday is on the horizon to give Maddie something to dwell on for the next few weeks!