another video of Cosette walking

I realized we don't have much video on Cosette when she is walking.

Cosette walking

Ally & Cosette playing

Ben, Trent, and Ally's birthdays

Ally's train cake.

I love that you can see her hands in the picture. She is trying really hard to wait to dig in.

She was super excited.
We didn't even have to remind her what to do, after we got done singing, she jumped up and blew out her candles.
When I ask her to say cheese for a picture, this is what I get.

Grandma Julie & Ally

Ally was so excited about presents. She was trying so hard to sit still and be patient.

Ally, Trent, & Grandma Julie
Tahnee got Ally 250 pennies for her birthday. She loves to feed her piggy bank and was more than excited to do so last night when we got home.

Ally & Trent
Cosette, Trent, Ally, & Grandma

Travis & Trent
Tahnee, Ben, Tara, & Travis

Ally in review

Ally, the day she was born (June 13, 2006)

One year later

I didn't realize until I was looking back at her pictures, that she really looks like a baby. It's amazing how fast they grow.
This was her final 2nd birthday (she ended up having 3 days all separated, that she got gifts and cake). How lucky is she!!
My mom made her a train cake. Ally LOVED it.

Way late

We got home from vacation on Ally's birthday, so we didn't do anything big for her. We went out to eat at Applebees and she got a free dessert and LOVED it. We don't normally get dessert when we go out to eat (unless it is Dairy Queen, Coldstone, or Ritters), so this was a big treat for her. We celebrated her birthday with Matt's family, this past weekend. She got lots of fun presents, but was not in a great mood because I had to wake her up from her nap. We are celebrating Ally's birthday with my family this weekend. Hopefully she'll be in a better mood. If not, oh well, that's what happens when you are 2.

I will post pictures later to compare her growth.

So much fun

When we got home from vacation Ally got sick with diarrhea for 3 days and a week later, Cosette got the same thing, it lasted 6 days for her. Yesterday Ally had a fever all day. She was up quite a bit during the night crying and just uncomfortable. She seems fine one minute, then the next she wants to be held and cry on my shoulder. The doctor said theirs a bug going around and I think/know we've had it in our house.
I've been wanting to go swimming, but every time the weather is warm enough, the girls are either sleeping or sick. Oh well, maybe next week things will work out better.

Ally's dance show debut

Ally's dance show

Ally's dance show

Ally's dance show

Wedding reception #3 for Kim and Phil

Nap time

Ally fell asleep reading a book, with her face in it.

Ally thought she'd climb in the crib and play with Cosette.
Ally was trying so hard to make her laugh, but all she wanted was for mommy to hold her.
Aahhhhh

Growing girls

The girls had their well baby check up on Saturday. Cosette has grown 3 inches and gained 3 lbs in the last 3 months. So she is 29 1/2 in tall and weighs 21.12 lbs. Ally has gained 1 lb and grew 1 inch in the last 6 months. So Ally is now 35 inches tall and weighs 28 1/2 lbs. Cosette is catching up to Ally fast. Ally has thinned out a lot, so much so she has been wearing some of the clothes she wore at 1 month. Cosette is gradually taking more and more steps and is trying so hard to keep up with Ally. Ally is doing very well with potty training. Last week Ally had diarrhea for 3 days, so that kind of halted potty training. She is really good at telling us when she has to go.
I will try and include some pictures and videos from our weekend. We went to Kim and Phils reception and had a great time. Ally showed us her crazy dance moves.

Lunch Bunch

The girls and I went to lunch bunch on Tuesday and then again today. It was so much fun for Ally. All the kids get a free sack lunch and sometimes different restaurants donate kids meals (Tuesday was Chick Fil A). They also get a free book and get to do some sort of craft. I signed the girls and I up for summer reading with the library. I made the reading goal for the girls 50 books. I think they both easily look through that many in 2 days. So all I will have to do is sit with them and actually read to them (I do read to them, but most of the time they prefer to look through the books themselves). I on the other hand am going to have a hard time with this. For the last year I started reading the Book of Mormon and finished it and as soon as I finished it I started the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Now I am like 3/4 the way through the Old Testmant. I try soo hard to make sure I read everyday. Somehow I am going to have to work other books into my day. Hopefully this works. Even if it doesn't the girls and I each got a free meal at Chick Fil A, just for signing up.

Does anyone else out there have trouble getting their child(ren) to eat a pb&j? I have to work so hard to get Ally to eat almost 1/4 of a sandwich. While on vacation she ate 1/2 a sandwich and I was so excited. A lot of the kids at church eat a whole sandwich with no fuss. I think Ally might just have a tiny stomach or something, because she doesn't seem to eat much anyway. Oh well maybe someday I won't have trouble getting her to eat food.

Popsicles

Cosette loves popsicles. This was the first time I let her hold it. She was so excited.

Yum!

Rag curls

I got this brilliant idea while on vacation that I would try to curl the girls hair for Kim and Phils receptions. My mom curled my hair with rags a few times growing up and is seemed to hold the curl longer than sponge curlers or hot curlers.

As you can see, Ally's hair doesn't hold a curl. I even tried using a curling iron this morning when I noticed it didn't curl in the rags.
Cosette's hair on the other hand CURLED. Her hair was full of tight little curls.

Our trip home-2 days to get there and 3 to get home.

I absolutely love these things. I could watch them all day. I love that more people are getting them. When I was younger my favorite thing to look for were the oil diggers (whatever they are called). Now I love to watch for the windmills and the oil diggers. We passed a few semis carrying HUGE parts for windmills. These things are massive.

We passed a few places that had at least a hundred of these spread out on their land.
I love the beauty of the west, but still love the green of Indiana. Nothing can compare to the green.
Mommy being silly with the camera.
I HAD to take a picture of the girls sleeping. I turned around and saw that they were sleeping the same way. Funny thing is Matt sleeps the same way.

Side note: I know Cosette is not a year old yet, but she is just too big to be sitting the other way and I felt bad making her face backwards for a 24 + hour drive. I know, bad mommy. She is going back to facing backwards now that we are home and only need to make short drives.

Day 5 & 6- Logan, Utah

Phil & Kim Call

June 10, 2008

Oh yeah, it was starting to rain, thus the umbrella.

They had planned on having a breakfast/lunch for all the family after the temple, at a park with a zoo. But it rained, so it got moved to a church. That night they had a reception at Phils grandparents house. The night before the wedding all the family got together for dinner at the grandparents house. We had a great time getting to know Phils family better. Ally had a blast playing with Stewart (Phils nephew that is a little older than Ally). Cosette was having fun playing with the other nephew and neice (Hannah is 2 months younger than Cosette and Robert is 1 month younger than Cosette), until she got in trouble for chewing on Roberts hand (and boy do I mean chewing, that poor little boy had all kinds Cosette teeth marks all over his hand). From them on she had at least 2 of my eyes on her at all times, when she was playing with the other babies.

They got married in the Logan Temple. Matt and I had never been to the temple there. It was so beautiful.
After the temple, I went out to get the girls and they were sleeping. I debated whether or not to wake them up. Sometimes if I wake Ally up, she is super happy and other times she is a monster. Unfortunately, this time she was a big mean monster. She was so grumpy, thus the pacifier. Aunt Kate made the dresses for the girls. I thought they turned out super cute. I was even able to french braid Ally's hair.
Cosette on the other hand was happy, as usual.

Day 3 & 4 -Salt Lake City

We had the opportunity to attend Music and the Spoken Word in the Conference Center. It was such a neat experience. A friend of ours watched the girls for us, so we could go. I am so glad we had this opportunity. If you've never been, you totally need to go. It's awesome.

This is in the childrens section of the church museum. I thought we'd just walk around the museum, until everyone got done watching the movie. The lady that greeted me at the door told me about the childrens section and I was super excited. The girls stayed and played with the dolls for at least 45 minutes, before even looking at the other parts of the childrens room.

Sweet Cosette.
She had so much fun playing with the dolls and watching all the older girls play with the dolls.
Okay, so I think this picture is from Day 2, when she fell asleep in the stroller for our Temple Square tour.

Matt's parents, sister and her husband (they weren't married yet), Phil went and saw the movie about Joseph Smith. I didn't think the girls would sit well for the movie and I was very tired, so we took a walk around temple square and the church office building. Ally loved the fountains.
I thought this picture was great, with her sunglasses on and the temple in the background.
Love this one too.

Day 2- In Salt Lake City

The pictures are out of order, hopefully you don't mind too much.

We ended our day eating at the Mayan in Sandy. They have cliff divers doing a show every 1/2 hour. It was really neat to see. I thought the food was pretty good too. We really had a great time. Cosette fell asleep during dinner, so she slept on Matt's lap while he ate. Ally got tired half way through our dinner, so she ended up falling asleep on my lap.
We took a tour of the conference center. This is our guide that Ally is holding hands with. Sometimes it scares me, just how friendly she is with everyone.
The girls were relatively good for the tour. Ally was a little bored/tired, so she started to get cranky at the end.
Mommy and Ally on the roof of the conference center.
Mommy and Ally in the conference center.

In the visitors center on temple square.
We also took a tour of temple square and Ally slept through all but the last 3 minutes of it.
This is Jason Erickson, he and Matt were companions in the MTC. We went and ate at Cafe Rio with him. It was SOO good.