Daddy's Note

Today I had Audra send Daddy an e-mail at work. Here is what she wrote:

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I asked her what it said, and this is what she said it said (in her exact words): "I got a new toy and I'm doing well. Don't you miss me, daddy? I love you very much. I hope you will be a great time seeing me tomorrow. I know that you love me so much. I know that I wish I could play your game and I love you and I hope that you have a great time. OK? I love to see you Sunday and I'm not going to miss you more. I wish I can be a girl again at your game."

She actually went on and on for about another 10 minutes, but I stopped typing.

(The game she is talking about is Lego Star Wars- she and Daddy play that game and Audra LOVES it and asks to play it with him constantly. She always likes to be the girl)

A Day At The Beach

Well, it didn't get into the 90's, or even the 70's, but we still had a great time at the 

beach with some awesome friends!

I love beach pictures- especially the kiddos in contrast to the vast ocean. Here is Audra dipping 

her toes in the water. She insisted it wasn't cold, but it really was a cold day.

 That is a smile, folks!

 I told you it was cold!

Here's the best picture I could get of all four kiddos:

One of the great blessings of my life has been wonderful friends. I have always had amazing friends, and friends who I have had for decades who I am still close to. I am hoping our kids will get

married so we can be family as well! Time will tell...

The Check-Ups

Today was Audra's 4 year-old check up and Claire's 2-year-old check up.

Here are Audra's Stats:
Weight: 36 lb (54%)
Height: 42" (86%)

BMI: 18.8% (85% is considered overweight, so she is doing pretty well!)

Claire's Stats:
Weight: 24 lb (15%)
Height: 34" (42%)

The other day I asked Claire what her name was. She said, "Audra 2." I do not know where she got that from! We have NEVER called her that- I am a middle child, I don't want her having the same complexes I had!

As we were in the car driving to the doctors, Audra asked if she and Claire would have to get shots. I told her I thought Claire would have to get one, but that she wouldn't. So she said, "Claire, you are going to have to get a shot and you are going to cry." I told her not to tell Claire that she would cry and Audra said, "I promise, she will cry!"

The biggest surprise was that the doctor discovered that Claire has a double ear-infection, and a really bad one at that. She said she can't believe that Claire is even able to sleep with it. Well, I guess when you are always fussy, then when you are fussy for a reason nobody knows! (Actually, she hasn't been fussy at all the last few days- I would have never known there was anything wrong)

Claire is starting to tattle on Audra. The other day she went up to Ben and said, "Audra take stroller!" We know this is just the beginning of the sibling rivalries.

Speaking of rivalries, Audra always wants to wear Claire's clothes. It is rather frustrating- you all know Audra has plenty of her own clothes and she doesn't need Claire's clothes. But, she always wants what isn't hers. Sound familiar, anyone?

Let's see...most everything about the girls you already know from this blog- there isn't much else to say. I did want to document their stats, however. So, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of my two favorite girls:

Claire's Birthday

We have been contemplating for awhile what to do for Claire's Birthday, and this morning we finally decided to go to the Renaissance Festival. It was a great decision, even though the traffic was horrible. We really had a fantastic time.

 Here we are eating about the worst food in the world. Well, at least here is Claire sitting at the table where we ate the worst food in the world. You are (of course) not allowed to bring in your own food- which is totally fine, we realize they are in the market to make money. But, the food was quite horrible. In fact, Audra refused to eat hers, even when offered pop as a reward for eating it (just kidding, she would eat it, but ONLY if she got a sip of pop after every bite).

 The king and queens' parade

 Audra LOVED the king and queen (anybody surprised?)

 These next few pictures were in the kids play area which was great. This was a butterfly ride which was manually pushed by two ladies. Audra loved it.

 This was the best picture I could take of Ben and the girls. Audra kept turning around saying "NO!", Claire refused to look at all, and Ben just wanted me to stop trying.

 Here's the best family picture. Sometimes, you just have to laugh and move on:

 This is my second favorite picture of the day:

 We caved and bought Audra a headpiece. Sometimes, I really think we spoil our children, but then how could we resist something that we knew would make her so happy?

 After we came home (completely exhausted) we had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner, cake, and presents. They were generous and brought the DQ ice-cream, our favorite!

 Here we are singing to Claire

 She couldn't blow out the candles by herself, but luckily Audra was very willing to help out:

 Sisterly love right before opening presents:

 And, my absolute favorite picture of the day:

Do you notice what Claire has on her face? A SMILE!!! I finally got it!!!!! I don't care that Audra's face is completely squashed, I was finally able to capture a smile! Priceless!!!

What else was priceless, that I wasn't able to get a good picture of, was Claire and Audra playing with one of Claire's Birthday gifts. Ben and I got Claire a Dora Castle (OK, it was a hand me down from a friend, but then we bought her some dolls to go with it- that was the gift from Audra). These girls played with it for over an hour, until it was time for bed, then went to bed crying because they wanted to keep playing. In fact, Audra kept opening her bedroom door because she had to keep peeking at the castle, so we had to take it downstairs.

It was so cute watching them play. Claire was practically hyperventilating as she moved the dolls from one room to another. There was a horse and carriage that they each took turns taking around the house. It was so cute- they have never been more excited for anything in their short lives!!! It was a great day, capped off with a great Birthday party!!!

Happy Birthday, Claire!!!

The Princess and the Mermaid

The other day I scored an awesome bag of dress-up clothes. We have a Bargain Blast, which is basically a Craigslist for our area, and somebody posted a free bag of dress-up clothes that they had sitting on their porch. This was at 7:30 AM. I immediately e-mailed back and said I wanted them. After 10 minutes, I hadn't heard back so I called and left a message. After 10 minutes I hadn't heard back, so I decided to drive over to this lady's house. The clothes were still there, but nobody answered the door, so I took the clothes and called and left another message, something to the effect of "I know I am now bordering on stalking, but I came over and took the clothes and if you already promised them to somebody else, I will bag them up and bring them right back."

About 2 hours later she called and said, "I actually had promised them to somebody else, but you are incredibly passionate about these clothes, so please keep them." (I did call this other person who she had promised them to and offered to split the bag, but she never called me back)

These clothes are AWESOME!!! They all have zippers, not just Velcro, and they are very well made. There are all the princess dresses, a bunny and butterfly costume, lots of other Halloween costumes, and there was even a doll and a My Little Pony thrown in. Audra has been in dress-up heaven (have I mentioned how much she likes clothes and dress-up?), and Claire is even getting in on the fun. What a great blessing these clothes are!!!! Sometimes it pays to be just a little crazy!

Proud To Be An American!

Happy Belated 4th of July everyone!!!

We celebrated the day by heading to our city center where they were putting on several events. It was incredibly HOT, but other than that we had a fantastic time.

Here we are on the hayride:

 The barrel train:

 Audra got to ride a donkey:

 Barrel train take 2 (we were surprised that Claire would actually stay seated, so we took advantage. There were bouncy houses as well, but both times we put Claire in she started screaming and had to immediately be taken out, so that was a waste of 2 bucks- oh, well):

 

 And what would the 4th of July be without a Mediterranean dinner? Yes, we should have had a BBQ, but we got lazy. Being lazy might be even more American than a BBQ, right?

 Unfortunately, we didn't stay for the fireworks. I wanted to give it a shot and see how the girls did, but Ben didn't want to risk the tired tantrums. We haven't seen a fireworks show since 2006, so maybe next year will be our year.

Remember My Rants?

Remember when I complained about not being able to do crafts for Relief Society activities? Well, last Saturday we did this:

Isn't that awesome? It's a 12 x12 inch plaque and cost about $18 to make. You could choose from several different temples (this is the Denver Temple). It was a huge hit as well- a lot of people signed up to do them, so we were all really happy with that!