California!

During Spring Break we went to Southern California!  It was one of those trips that we've been thinking about doing for a couple of years but were waiting for the "right time."  I was nervous about going during Spring Break because I thought half the world would be there, but it was the only time that would really work for us.  And the crowds really weren't that bad...and the weather was absolutely perfect!  We went 4 years ago and had fun, but the girls were more "into it" this time, and Kasidee was tall enough to ride pretty much all of the rides.  I'm so glad we went - we made lots of happy memories!

 

We left Easter afternoon, after church and dinner at Mom's house and drove to St. George.  I think the St. George Temple is one of the prettiest temples.  On Monday we drove from St. George to Anaheim.

 

 

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland! 

 

                                      

 

(Giving singing lessons to Tinkerbell's friends....)

 

 

                                      

 

The highlight for Kasidee was being able to meet Minnie and see her house and Mickey's house - Kasidee just adores anything Minnie!

 

 

 

 

We met my Aunt Loreen for dinner at a cafe in Disneyland - she lives just a few miles away from Disneyland.

 

 

On Wednesday we met my aunt and cousin Kanevin for breakfast, then we spent the day at California Adventures.

 

 

(Sharing a Mickey Mouse-shaped pretzel)

 

 

On Wednesday night, Kasidee's tooth (which had been hanging by a thread) finally came out.  At about 4:30 in the middle of the night, she came over to my hotel bed and woke me up.  Thinking she had to go potty, I led her into the bathroom.  She spit into the sink and her tooth was there - it had fallen out while she was sleeping and she felt it floating around in her mouth.  It's amazing she didn't swallow it!  Anyway, she wanted to keep her first tooth and wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy explaining that - the Tooth Fairy let her keep her tooth and gave her 2 golden dollar coins too!  Lucky girl! 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we visited the Downtown Disney District (the pic below was at the Lego store)

 

Then we drove from Anaheim to San Diego.  In the late afternoon we went to La Jolla Beach, just minutes away from our hotel.

 

On Friday we spent the day at Sea World.  The girls loved seeing all kinds of animals.  I think they're favorite part was being able to touch and feed a dolphin - something I don't think they'll ever forget!

 

(Getting ready to get wet in the "Soak Zone.")

Saturday we drove from San Diego (we stopped at the San Diego Temple on our way out) to Las Vegas.  We made a quick stop at the M&M Store and then relaxed in our hotel room (which was actually in Henderson, NV - it was so nice to be away from The Strip!)

 

Sunday morning we took a dip in the hotel pool and visited the Las Vegas Temple before we began our 7-hour drive from Las Vegas to home!  It was a fun trip full of fun memories!

March

It's been awhile since I've posted.  But I want to keep up since blogging is one way I like to journal/scrapbook.  So here goes my little recap.

 

We hosted a "Murder Mystery" party in March with some of our friends from high school.  It was good to get together again!  This is the 3rd mystery party we've hosted - we think they're fun!  This one was based on a high school reunion from the '50's - don't you love the "costumes" everyone had?

 

 

The Saturday before Easter, Corbin and Nikki had an Easter Egg Hunt for the cousins.  So fun!

 

(Making candy trades...)

February in Review

 

February was a fun month, and I don't mind admitting that I have loved hibernating this winter!  It seems like we haven't had a lot of snow in a few years and this year made up for it.  I love it getting dark early and having snowy days where everyone is content to stay home!

We did venture out a bit, though.  We did our annual trip to Lava Hot Springs with Quentin's brother's family.  So fun!  The air was so cold that the hot water produced a lot of steam so pictures were a little foggy.  But we got a few good ones:

 

Quentin's grandma (our girls call her "Butterfly Grandma") celebrated her 98th birthday.  She told everyone she hopes she can make it to 100! 

(See the cute picture of Grandma behind her?  She looks the same she did 60 years ago!)

 

(Grandma and her 4 kids - Dennis, Dale, Susan and Richard)

 

On President's Day we took the girls to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  Santa had given our family free passes, so it was a good excuse to go!

 

(Makenna and Kasidee playing baby doctors)

 

The fifth graders got to do a "wax museum" and each student was a President of the United States, or their wives.  Kiera got Andrew Johnson's wife.  I think she had fun doing the presentation.

 

On Valentine's morning when I went to take my shower this is what I found on the bathroom mirror - tons of Post-It notes from my Quentin!

 

I thought this picture was sweet - Kasidee was showing her great-grandma (Nana) a game.  I love their sweet faces!

 

 

I think my girls are always cute, but the other morning I had to snap their picture before they went to school:

 

More Funnies

• Kasidee was saying the family prayer during one of our latest big snowstorms.  She said, ""Please help no one to fall on the roads with their cars."
• Kasidee calls nachos "Cheetos."
• The girls love having "Original Bugles" as a treat at Granny's house.  But Makenna pronounces them "Oh-rig-i-nul Blurg-lers."  Yum.

Funnies

• Kasidee told me she forgot Kiera's middle name.  I reminded her that it's Dawn - and that her great-grandpa was named Donald, her granny is named LaDawn, I am Kellie Dawn, and Kiera is Kiera Dawn.  Kasidee looked surprised and said, "What?  Granny's middle name is Granny Dawn?"
• I was tickling Kasidee's legs and inched up closer to her knee when she started to giggle and squirm.  After tickling both of her knees for a little while, she said, "One knee is funnier than the other."
• We've been looking at getting a dog someday - don't hold your breath because we've been talking about it for years.  Anyway, as we looked at some pictures of Bichon Frise's online Makenna tried to read the name of the dog (Bichon.)  She said, "I like the bitchin' one."  Then she said matter-of-factly, "I don't want to get a married one because then she'll have babies and we'd have to give them away." 
• Kasidee and I were looking at some pictures in her scrapbook.  She pointed to one and said, "Oh, that's when I graduationed from preschool!"
• One of the girls' favorite treats is pizza.  One day they asked if we could buy a pizza for dinner and I was a little hesitant.  Kiera said, "It's only five dollars."  And Kasidee piped up and said, "Oh, I've got that much dollars!"  (Wouldn't you love to just say something like that at a dinner party or something?  "Oh honey, order whatever you'd like - I've got that much dollars!")

This Year So Far...

Part of Quentin's mom's Christmas gift to the grandkids was a trip to Build A Bear after the holidays.  They each had a dollar amount to spend and they each got a bear and an outfit.  It was a fun idea and not only did they each get a great gift that they picked out, but a fun and memorable experience with Grandma as well!

 

 

In January we get LOTS of birds that fly around our neighborhood - they're just thick in the air!  I love that they like to hang out in our trees and have some berries from our flowering pear trees.

 

 

After a few years of hardly any snow, we've been hit hard this year.  On January 11 we got lots of snow - we measured 11 1/2 inches in under 12 hours!  Added to the snow that was already on the ground, we had 28 inches of snow!  Schools were closed and Quentin stayed home from work.  So fun!

 

 

Kiera's awesome class does lots of skits as they learn about history.  Kiera was able to play the part of Elizabeth Harrison during the Boston Tea Party play.

 

A few weeks after we got all that snow, we got freezing rain (which we never get in Utah!)  It was weird - and horrible watching the kids come out of school at the end of the day and slip all over each other!  This first picture is what our backyard and our neighbor's backyard looked like when their car lights were shining on the icy snow.

 

The ice measured about 1/4 inch.

 

This is a picture of snowflakes on my garbage can - so pretty!

 

Funnies

• Makenna was asking which day we did something, and I told her I thought it was on the 21st.  She looked at me for a moment before she said, "Don't you mean the twenty-oneth?"
• My brother- and sister-in-law were so kind to watch our girls while Quentin and I went to a movie.  After we picked the girls up and were on the way home, I said, "Oh, I sure missed you girls today!"  Kasidee piped up and said, "Did you miss my cuteness?"
• Makenna had almost lost her voice a few weeks ago but never had a fever or a sore throat.  She asked if she should go to church.  I told her I thought she would be fine going.  She said, "I would hate to contage anyone...."
• Kasidee walked into the bathroom as I was getting ready for bed one night.  She saw me taking out my contacts and asked me if having "itonks" hurt.
• You know the song "Soak up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow?  I heard Kasidee singing it one day...at the top of her lungs she sang, "I wanna syrup the sun!"

End of Year Catchup

I haven't been blogging as often as I would like.  It seems like most of my friends aren't blogging anymore - maybe it's already outdated and Facebook is the preferred way of social networking.  But I do love blogging and the idea that I can have a journal with pictures all in one place.  Anyway I want to do a quick catchup from where I left off.  And then hopefully I can be more consistent next year!

For Thanksgiving this year, Quentin did french braids in the girls' hair:

People may wonder what a vegetarian's Thanksgiving plate may look like - I think it looks pretty and yummy!

The girls have been begging to go to Get Air - they had a lot of fun!

Quentin's work had a family Christmas party - games, make ornaments, eat cookies, and we got to hang out at his desk for awhile.

This is on a big wall at Quentin's work - so proud of him!

We went to see Santa at Secret Haven (Rock Loft) this year:

It was Kasidee's turn this year to put the star on the tree:

Kasidee's kindergarten class made gingerbread houses:

We took Front Runner from Downtown Salt Lake all the way to Provo and back.  It was was free and it was crowded, but it was a fun experience for the girls!

On Quentin's birthday, we picked him up from work, took him out to dinner, and rode the trolley to Temple Square.  We looked at the lights there, looked at Deseret Book's Christmas window, browsed at City Creek Center, and checked out the candy windows at Macy's.

We saw the cute little houses at the Ogden Village:

Our traditional "Twas the Night Before Christmas" story on Christmas Eve at Mom's house:

Christmas morning, waiting to go downstairs:

 

Funnies

I haven't blogged for quite awhile but I've been saving up some funnies that my girls have said:

• Kasidee wanted to play with one of her friends from preschool that she hadn't seen for 2 years.  I wasn't really in the mood to make arrangements for that that day, so I asked her if she could pick a different friend to play with.  She asked why she couldn't play with her old friend.  I said, "Well, you only have an hour to play and you haven't played with her for 2 years.  Wouldn't it be awkard to call her up and say, 'Hey....'"  Before I could finish, Makenna piped up to finish my sentence and for some reason said, "Got any grapes?"
• Makenna has been really into cleaning lately.  She makes her bed right after she wakes up and likes to go from room to room straightening up.  One day she said, "Daddy told me that there are people who feel like they always have to clean and it can be a problem."  Kiera said, "Uh, yeah - people like maids and they have to otherwise they'll get fired."
• About a month ago I got a call from one of my preschooler's moms letting me know that her child had lice.  Aughh!  Thank goodness we weren't affected, but for the week after we got the news we checked the girls' hair.  Makenna said, "Oh, I kind of wish I had lice - that could be our pet!"
• Kasidee is such a good sharer and is not satisfied until everyone has something and everything is equal.  One night Quentin finished off the soda that we had bought as a treat.  I jokingly said, "Oh, I guess I didn't need any  more!"  Quentin apologized and we didn't think about it anymore.  About 30 minutes later Kasidee came in to me and asked if I was okay.  I said, "Of course...why?"  She started to cry and said she had bonked her head.  I held her as she cried quietly.  Then she said, "Actually, I'm not crying because I bonked my head.  I'm just sad Daddy took the rest of the pop and you didn't get any more."  Oh, my heart melted!  Something that was not even an issue made Kasidee so upset because she was worried I felt bad!  Quentin overheard and quickly went to the store and got another bottle.  She was so happy and all was well in her sweet little world!