China here I come!!!

So my father-in-law surprised us this past Christmas and offered to take any adult back to China with them in May that wanted to go! Uh...yeah! We got the itinerary yesterday - it includes the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, the Temple of Heaven and other places in Beijing. I have to admit I'm a little scared - the only time I've been out of the country was to Canada! Is that a country? ;) We'll be gone from May 16th to the 25th - don't know if we can be gone that long with 3 children at home. Bless my family's hearts. They'll have them for at least a week! My sister Laura, and friend Crystal, have already asked for an empty suitcase so I can fill it with North Face I think? coats and such. Apparently you can get that stuff at 90 percent off.

15 days and counting until I'm in CHICAGO!!!

I am so excited that I get to visit my little sister in Chicago next month! She's lived there 1 1/2 years and I've never been able to visit - Hallie's been attached to the boob, actually still is but that's another story, and I didn't want to go with any children. So as a birthday present to me, my mom bought us tickets!!! 5 whole complete days free from responsibility! No cleaning (although I suppose I'll have to make my bed), no dinners to make, no "mom! can you wipe me!"'s. Freedom. Of course I realize that once I get there they're all I'll talk about!

Little Girls and Snow!!!

My girls have the cutest little friends that live around the corner. They're in the military and their time was up last month unless their father got into some type of medical program that would let them live here at least 2 more years. I was so happy when Emily told me that he got in and they're staying!!! Here's a few pictures of the girls and their friends when we had the big snow storm a couple weeks back.

Cookies and friends!

I like to create fun memories for my kids. It usually involves a lot of work mainly clean-up, but I'm happy to do it. I invited some friends and their kids over last month for a Christmas sugar cookie docorating day. The kids had a blast and I was sweeping up green sugar sprinkles for the next week!

Beautiful picture of Crystal :) and emma's B-day!!!

Well Emma turned 5 only about a month ago...oh well. We had just a family party this year with a you guessed it, fairy theme. The girls dressed up as fairies and we played pictionary with a fairy theme and then watched Tinkerbell. SUCH a darling movie! Earlier in the day Emma got to choose what we did and since Dave got the day off we went to see Madagascar 2 as a family. We don't do that often - in fact when asked what Emma wanted to do on her birthday her only request was a movie with the family and then McDonalds. Shows how much we do either of those things! It was a great day though and I actually got through it without too many tears...

Ahhh, and a beautiful pic of my friend that I promised her...

Public apology to Crystal

I hereby apologize for the oh so attractive picture of my friend (hopefully!) Crystal at my Halloween party. It was Halloween! You're supposed to look silly!!! Love ya my friend!

More ghostly pics!

Those darn missing Halloween pics!!!

Here are those stinkin' Halloween pics that I never posted!!!

I forgot to put in the Halloween pictures!

Sorry, really stinking here with the blogging thing. The two pictures of Emma and Claire with chocolate mustaches are from when we made Frankenstein's monster pops. We were goofing off...obviously. I'll put in the Halloween pictures in a bit - I hear Hallie upstairs crying!

Wow I'm behind...here's a late Halloween update!!!

We had such a fun Halloween this year! The girls decided to be Disney princesses. I really wanted them to be something more baby but my mom bought Snow White for Claire (very appropriate - she looked just like her!) and there was no going back. So then Hallie became Tinker Bell and Emma was Cinderella. I had a Halloween party with friends from the ward so that entire week was spent cleaning. Good grief what a pain in the booty it was but it turned out really nice! I think everyone had a good time (except poor Dave who ate something at lunch that made his stomach upset the whole night!)
Emma had her Harvest Party at Preschool and then I took all the girls to Dave's office for trick-or-treating. Laura came down with Crystal and bless their hearts took the girls to the Trunk-or Treat at church and then back to help me set up the playroom for the kids. The party was fun although the only adults that dressed up were me, mom, Laura and Crystal. What a bunch of party poopers adults can be!!! :)