Oh the wonderful things you can do...

...when you've got an active imagination and a large drawer or empty plastic box. :)

An oldie but a goodie

This summer while we were in Utah Eva was learning how to sleep in a toddler bed-she had been in her crib since then. There were a few nights she fell out of the bed that were quite traumatizing for her, but she did learn how to stay in the bed eventually. However during the learning process one night I found her like this:


She was completely asleep, she hadn't cried or anything, she was just peacefully sleeping while halfway standing on the floor! Of course it was way too good of a picture to pass up. I've been wanting to share this picture for a while but for some reason never got around to it.

Also this week my dad was here in AZ for work so we got to go to breakfast with him yesterday. Mallina had me laughing because she kept referring to him as "grandfather" she sounded so formal. Like when she is pretending to be Cinderella and calls me "mother" The girls love Grandpa Paul...here is another picture from this summer. Eva was throwing a fit right before bedtime so he took her outside for a little walk and Mallina joined them. I found them hanging out on the porch a little while later. He is the best grandpa!



And one last thing my niece Madison turned in her mission papers and she got her call yesterday! She is going to Washington DC/Nauvoo tours French speaking! I am so so so excited for her. What a great opportunity to share the gospel, learn a language and see some amazing places. She is the first person in our family to go on a mission (including my siblings) so we are all REALLY excited to have a missionary! Congrats Maddie!

Feeding the ducks with Daddy

Ieli was home last week and he made sure the girls had fun while he was home. He took them to the park to feed the ducks twice. I stayed home the first time but tagged along the second day. I only had the camera on my phone to take pictures with, but this is what I got. It was fun playing with the light as the sun was setting-it's amazing how the light can really change a photograph just by changing the angle at which it is hitting your subject.

Playing with silhouettes, none of these came out great, but they are kinda fun.

Mallina had her fishing pole...it later broke. :(

This is a typical Eva stance with her head cocked to the side.

You can really see how much hair Mallina has now in these pictures. She was such a baldy for so long, I had hair envy whenever I saw a baby with hair. Now I get compliments on her hair all the time. Whew!

As we were walking to the car Ieli was fighting with Eva (she didn't want to leave and was screaming at him) so Mallina and I were ahead of them. She decided to climb a tree and I thought it was neat so I took some pictures. Shortly after I took this picture she slid down the tree and scraped one knee, one shin and even her side. She was very traumatized and Ieli got after her for it. He made sure to tell her that monkeys climb trees, not little girls. I felt really bad that I had let her do it after he lectured her. (hehe)


And I just have to point out that yes, these pictures were taken just last week, the second week in JANUARY. We were in shorts-the weather has been AMAZING here. But I shouldn't gloat too much, I am most likely going to be living in the north pole next winter :(

I love being a girl!

What is better than spending your days in dresses and tutu's? Mallina and Eva definitely enjoy being girls. Eva a little more so than Mallina. Every day she brings me a dress, tutu or skirt for her to wear so she can be a princess. Then she finds some of my heels ("slippers" according to Mallina and her Cinderella obsession.) as well as any other accessories she can find. I have assembled some pictures that have been taken on my phone (its is usually much more accessible than my big old camera) for your enjoyment. I can't wait to have a boy someday who wants to run around in a superman cape all day...I just hope he can fend off his big sisters who I am sure will want to put him in a dress :)

I think they thought the stroller was "carriage"-like.

This isn't a great picture, but you can see that she even had on little white lace gloves :)

You can see that she has her clothes on under her dress.

Mallina wanted in on the picture taking. She still had bed head. Oh, who am I kidding, her hair generally looks like that, it is so out of control.

I love that Mallina has a skull shirt on under her "dress" That is her "pirate" shirt.

Everywhere I Turn, Beautiful Ladies....

Everywhere I look, Beautiful Girls! That's one of my favorite Island style songs :) So here are some pictures that were held captive on my battery-less camera for the past month. They should have been up here long before Christmas, but here they are, better late than never, right? Here are a few of my favorites, and there are slide shows to follow. Enjoy the most beautiful girls alive. (no offence...hahaha!)

We're back!!

We made it back from the arctic and are happily back home in snow bird land. I understand those snow birds a little better now. I haven't spent much time in the cold for a LONG time. I have been in Hawaii during the winter for the past 5 years and now I remember why! We had a white Christmas which really was beautiful, but I experienced driving in the snow and ice for the first time and about had a panic attack each time. On our way home a huge storm hit Utah and I was so relieved when we finally hit St. George where there was no more snow! We divided our trip home into two days and spent the night in Vegas. We hung out at the Flamingo Hotel in the morning before we headed out...here are some pictures from my phone. The good news is that I found my battery charger for my camera so I can get those pictures finally! Woohoo!

The Flamingos!

Eva would not look at the camera.

Yes, Eva had her mouth on the rail (barf!)

Her Face after I told her it was nasty dirty.

The Flamingo Fountain. Eva was so not in a picture mood.

Excuse me, and Eva's evil look on her face.


The pool was so pretty! Those statues were awesome.

Ieli saw this stair case and thought there would be something great up there. Nope, just the roof. So weird. We climbed those stupid stairs for nothing.