One of the (very few) advantages of cold weather

Addition

It may be a little late notice but our family will be receiving an addition at the end of March. Janie got her wish and is going to have another sister. We're thinking about the name Anika (a-ni-ka, not ah-nee-ka) I am anticipating most people mispronouncing it, but a decision several months before the birth is less stressful than a few days after.

Pioneer Trek

We took our family on a pioneer trek. Although I was nervous about how the girls would handle things, everything went very smoothly. The girls were very well behaved and we had a good experience. It made me really appreciate the pioneers because I could start to imagine what it would be like to take a family on a journey like that

This is the girls riding in our handcart.

They even took naps while we were there!

Daddy Benjamin carrying a sleeping baby.

And all of us in our pioneer getup.

Some Summer Stuff

......

It always starts out this way, I'm all ambitious and plan to blog all the time. Hmmm. I guess I shouldn't expect myself to change right?

Well, a quick update on the past few months. Benjamin graduated!!! HOORAY!!!! One thing down, many more to go. This summer was supposed to be a break but so far nothing has stopped. I just figured that Ben needs to work 65-70 hours a week for the rest of the summer in order to survive next fall. Sigh. I keep hoping that someday I will have a husband that works for 40 hours a week, and that's all. Sigh.

Graduate school starts in August, Benjamin's getting a master's in Public Health. (hopefully that will be the end, he may have to get a PhD but we hope not) Benjamin will be going to Africa for school two summers from now and after that it's off to Africa. (In case you didn't already know that was the plan, yes I'm serious. The question Ben always gets when he tells people this is "Is your wife ok with that.")

We are planning on going to Bear Lake at least once this summer. I am very excited to bring the girls. Pretty sure that Leah will be content all day long at the beach, sand and water, how could she not be entertained. If I'm really ambitious I'll post some pictures.

Also, our ward is doing a family pioneer trek this year which I'm very excited about. I am in the middle of making pioneer clothes for myself and the girls, they don't exactly match but it will be fun. Again I'll try to post pictures when I'm finished.

That is all.

First Birthday

Well, it's taken me long enough but she turned one last month. Take notice of the shirt, I made the number one (thanks Erin for the idea). I also made chocolate ice cream bowls (not that she noticed, she was pretty intensely focused on her ice cream). Her newest thing is to cry and hang on my legs whenever I'm trying to get anything done, if I'm sitting, she's happy to play but the second I get up she's at my feet, begging to be carried. Hopefully it's a short phase.

a walker and a singer

On Sunday, she just decided to take off across the room

Singing her favorite song

Pinkalicious

My daughter has a new favorite book, it's called Pinkalicious, it's about a girl who loves pink, eats tons of pink cupcakes and turns pink. Thanks to aunt Heather who gave it to her for Christmas. (it does come in handy to be related to a librarian.) I decided for fun we would make pink cupcakes. The pink food coloring I have is very pink, very exciting.

Here are the girls as we were mixing things together.

(also fingerpainting, not such a hit)

Typically, Janie only wanted to look at the pictures on the camera, not smile for them.

While we were making them Janie asked if Daddy was going to tell her she had had enough. (Also part of the book) I told her we'd have to ask Dad later and see, he of course was obliging.

I only had a few paper liners so I decided I would just liberally grease the pan for all of them, since I was getting the pan dirty anyway. Mistake. They all stuck to the bottom of the pan. I tried to be careful and cut them out with a knife but they completely broke apart. Luckily, I have some plastic containers about that size, so I stuffed all the broken stuff inside and set the rest on top. Some of them turned out ok looking, I made pink sugar and dusted the top with it. A few were just crumbled cake with lumps of frosting mixed in.

Also part of the book, the girl puts on a pink fairy princess dress, Janie mentioned putting hers on and I thought about it but didn't do anything. Fortunately, (or not depending on how you look at things) she peed her pants in the middle of everything and had to change all of her clothes, so I put on her pink dress.

Did I mention that I don't actually even eat cupcakes anymore? So I only made six, (luckily because they sort of bombed) but it turned out to be pretty fun anyway, at least I feel like a good mom for being crafty and stuff, and including my kids.

Also, there's not much chance of Janie turning pink herself, because she only licked the frosting off the top. I admit to doing the same thing myself and leaving the cupcake part for my husband. (I know, I know, no cupcakes but frosting is okay?) Next time I guess we should skip the whole cupcake thing and go strait for the frosting.