Finally!

I say finally because Evelyns birthday is LAST of our families. I have done some serious blogging about her today, she started school, dance and had her birthday all in one week. Whew! It was busy, and very, very fun.


I kind of had my mind set that I would never make anything fancier than a two-layer round cake. I blame this on all of you. I thought I could hide all the fancy cakes everyone makes, and when my children do see them, somehow convince them that the plain ones I make are just as cool. So a week before her birthday when I asked her what color she wanted her cake to be (which had always brought excitement), she said she wanted a princess cake. I said, "So... pink?" No such luck. She wanted a princess cake. Thanks to YouTube, I figured it out and made a cake that's going to knock all your socks off. I mostly made it so I could blog about it. Just kidding, don't know why I'm making such a big deal about it.

Reveal:

Opening Presents. Earlier in the day she told me that she was going to have Gwen help her open presents and she did!

Rapunzel showed up...

After the party, we were saying goodbye to all the grandparents and our neighbor just happened to have his boat out. So Evelyn broke in her new fishing pole! Thanks again Grandpa Reed!

Until next year.

My Shy Dancer

Evelyn has been so excited to start dance class (almost as excited as me)! She was so excited at the dance open house! She shook it in front of that mirror! She loves her leotard and tights and dance shoes! She was excited to have her hair fixed in a bun like a ballerina! She was so excited to see what sweet moves she was going to learn from her teacher! She is so excited to have some friends she knows in her class!

That all changed when we walked into her room, full of her dance class mates. Cling! (To me, that is.) Well, she didn't dance, but she did observe and has been dancing at home with her sister, and me, of course. I can already sashay better than either of them.

This was before the clingy set in. All smiles here.
I taught her a thing or two, as you can see here.

Posing

Thanks to a little time spent with cousins, my kids have been posing themselves for pictures and asking me to take their picture! This is very un-like them. But just goes to show what good examples will do. (please nod seriously here)
I was just out weeding, and Evelyn told Gwen where to sit and said, 'mom, take our picture like this!' Trying a new pose.

Gotta love that stake as a prop!

Could you please smile like this when you hair is fixed and you're wearing your best dress? No?

First Day of School! First Day of School!

Evelyn started pre-school (pre-pre-school) last week and she did AWESOME! I couldn't believe it. She just took off her bag and ran off with her friends/classmates. I almost called her back for a hug and kiss, but realized that it she didn't need that and I could tough it out! It's been fun. I let Gwen wear her bag, too. She thought it was pretty cool walking to school with her big sister.

Fair 2011

This post is for Heather, who didn't get to check out all the carnies and W.T. at the fair this year.

No scone nuggets either.

A Day Out

A few Sundays ago we took a little jaunt into the wild. Found a nice cold stream, and hung out for the day. We had a lot of fun spending time together.
I am loving this first picture of Evelyn. She normally doesn't share her wild side when it can be permanently documented.
We spent some time throwing rocks into the water. The water was PAINFULLY cold. My feet hurt just thinking about it.

Gwen wanted to swing on this make-shift swing all by herself. Obviously, I wasn't having any of that. This picture keeps reminding me of the song from School of Rock, "You Know You're Not Hard Core!"

These double smiles pictures always make the blog. Even when that's all there is to write about.

Gwen fell asleep on the 4-wheeler ride, and Derek was nice enough to oblige her.

Do You Think Someone Has Cougar Fever?

Gems In The Garden

If you don't have strawberries in your garden, you should plant them.

That's all.

Summer Time in I.P.

I have this relationship with Summer Time. It's strange because EVERYONE loves summer time. I do too, don't get me wrong. But when your husband is a farmer, you just kind of like winter. That is, if you like spending time with him... which I do.
So here we are, it's summer time and my husband is a working like a wild man. Checking pivots, fixing pivots, hauling, spreading, spraying, fixing, unclogging, bleeding, driving tractoring (not a word, I know), you get the idea.
And then one day, one day he says to you, "I think we could go up to Island Park for two days next week. What do you think?" And the Napoleon Dynamite in you says, "HECK, YES!"
A, hem. Let me get a hold of myself. This may or may not be what happened at our house a few weeks ago. All leading up to the two measley pictures. Thanks for sticking with me on my ramblings. I can think of two people who would still be reading this (thanks Heather and Kristine).
Here is Gwen who is somewhat of a dare devil, she hopped in the water to swim with dad. They look so happy in this picture, I love it.

We always bring the rain with us to Island Park, but that's okay. A few sweatshirts later and we good.

I deeply love at least two days this summer.

The Beach

I realized the other day that we don't have to fly to California to go to the beach. We have Rigby Lake! The cleanest water in all of Idaho!
The girls have been wanting to build sandcastles and so off we went to spend a day in the sun while Derek is hard at work! I haven't been to Rigby Lake for about 10 years and it was much improved. I was pleasantly surprised. We had a blast and we mostly played in the sand the entire time. For the rest of the time, I sat under my wonderful, big, new, umbrella and read my book.

Fun fun!

Best Holiday Ever

I think this has been and will always be my title for the 4th of July. WE LOVE THE 4TH OF JULY!!! The food and weather are the BEST!
We loved the parade, the girls really enjoyed it. They would have enjoyed it more if they'd gotten more candy! We were at the end of the route and everyone had run dry on candy. Oh well, still fun. Here we are with cousins and family:
Here are the girls at the fireworks, enjoying themselves on the flatbeds.

The blue-mouthed-two-year-old-girls!

Watching the fireworks:

Gwen was covering her ears the whole time.

So much fun, can't wait until next year.

My Baby!

Gwen is TWO!! She is such a sweetie and she enjoyed her birthday very much! We did what she wanted on her big day, and dad got to spend the day with us. (Which was my favorite part.)
In the morning she had her door decorated and BOTH girls loved it.
We went to the zoo, and then to the park for a picnic. Here they are with cousin Levi, playing at the old park on Rollandet.

Blowing out her two candles.

Opening presents.

The best part: eating the cake!

And we try to get a family picture on birthdays, so here is it. It's a beauty, I know.

Farmin'

I am so happy that my husband is a farmer and that we have all sorts of fun things to explore. Here are my happy girls ready to go on a ride around the farm.

I do have the same matching outfit.

My Green Thumb

Alright, so I don't really have a green thumb but I'm working on it. I really enjoy gardening and flowers etc. I have found so much joy in watching my flowers bloom and picking fruits and veggies out of my garden. Here are a few of my favorites from earlier this summer.

Some of my favorite flowers that remind me of when I was little:
Gerber daisies are so pretty!

I love this clematis vine. It is huge now and I love every blossom.

And Evelyns bird house out on the pine tree. So cute.

I'm working on the green thumb. When everything I plant actually GROWS :).

Princess Party Girl

Evelyn is at a Princess Birthday Party today and after I got her all ready I just couldn't resist taking a picture of her. This little princess got mascara, eye shadow, lip stick, and the works. And she's a thrifty little princess who doesn't care that her favorite princess dress is torn and has holes in it. (I thought it was cute that she chose this one.)
Here she is, all ready for her party. She was very excited.

Gwen was excited that she got to help by holding the present. As a side note, I thought this picture is hilarious:

Only Child

Well, little sister is an only child for a while. Big sister is in Utah with cousins, and you'd think Gwen would miss her. She does ask for her first thing when I get her up from bed, 'Where sister at?' But she does like ruling the roost without objection. She also likes free reign in sister room. She does however, miss poking her sister and grabbing things from her. You see, Gwen loves to get a reaction from her sister.

Who? This sweet thing? All smiles for me today? Saying cheese herself without me even shouting something silly and then trying to get her to look at me while there is still a smile on her face?
No, not her. She looks too innocent for anything like that.

Cress Creek

Sometimes it's hard being a farmers wife, because said farmer is hot and tired and wants to be INSIDE when he gets home or doesn't have to work (Sunday). Well, after watching some of his home videos on Sunday, I was determined to go out and go on a hike. NBA playoffs or not. (Well, not really. Thank you T-Vo.)
I remember going to Cress Creek quite a few times with my family growing up and it was very pleasant and an easy hike for the little ones.
There is a few areas to poke around in the water. I thought I was brave enough to catch a water skipper and show the girls how to do it. Once it got close I decided they can teach themselves.
Another pretty area with dad.

Gwen is a sly fox, I just love her making this face.

On the way down, everything looked so beautiful. Who knew Ririe could look so good?

She figured out this walking stick thing out on her own. It was cute.