Pretty darn cute

Ok, confession time, the Christmas cards ended up being a printing nightmare, and then I was still somehow 20 short (still trying to figure that one out) so keep checking your mailbox!

I was so sad we didn't get a good family photo to send out, though.

So I packed the girls up--after I sent out cards--and finally got some cute shots of them together.

2 out of the 4 of us isn't bad??

(Especially when they're the two cute ones)

These two are so cute together...

It hurts to have hair!

My babies have hair, lots of it. The funniest part is that Evie pulls and screams, which makes her clench, pull, and then scream harder. A vicious cycle! It's terribly funny to watch and yet you feel so bad! Here is our kiddo in action:

We've been filling our time with:

Killer Jenga games-

this was our favorite (courtesy of the Hills)

Bounce, bounce, and more bounce houses with cousins and friends!



Yes, this is how we caught Kya sleeping. So did she fall out or is she just that angelic and fell asleep while praying??


First time ice-skating! She did great!
Her motto:
"When the going gets tough,
Kya gets DANG tough!"

Not complete without princess tea parties!

Today was a GREAT day! I was genuinely, truly, absolutely excited when I saw the temperature was back up to 19 degrees!! WAHOOOOO!!! We've landed in the coldest winter in 18 years. At least we're out of the single digits!

Here is our girls' band.

ROCK ON!

But more realistically, here is what's really been filling up every last second of my time

What is one tenth of

one hundredth of

one thousandth?

or

Are there unique solutions for VC firms to survive in a "2 and 20" world?

.

Will Dubai actually peel off assets or how will they survive?

.

Did you know that the most "wildly popular class" right now at Stanford Business School is "Work & Family" - teaching techniques for two incredibly bright people to juggle success, careers, family, etc.

For example: highly educated women who leave the labor force for two yrs earn an average of 18% less than if they had continued working.

.

Meanwhile top companies have hired Shawn Achor (teaches "Positive Psychology" at Harvard) aka "Dr. Happy" to help moost morale because employees were so emotionally drained. (Sound familiar with any of you or your companies right now???)

Stat:

Teams whose managers had positive attitudes had less turnover, fewer sick days, and higher productivity. -Michelle Conlin

.

agh! I could go on and on (my old Cali book club babes will just roll their eyes and laugh at my "geekiness") - but someone in the next room is crying for attention.

G'night!

ps - zhu zhu pets are in stock at shopko.com right now

Once and a while...

...I'm touched by a message that crosses my path.

Today, these two crossed my path and I enjoyed thinking about it so I'm passing it along.

(you'll have to pause the side music)

.

This first video reminds me of Devin's presentations. If we could grab every teen/tween and tell them how wonderful they are, we could change lives.

With the world screaming so loud in their ears,

if only they could hear this message enough to stand tall amidst it all.

.

If He who made them loves them so fully,

then how is it the world can say they're not good enough?

I liked this last one. You have to at least watch the first half and see how it makes you want to jump up and help serve become more like Christ.

Isn't it amazing how music can be so powerful?

LOOOVE it!!

Happy Friday!!

I Heart...

Are you IN?!

I came across this challenge and I loved the idea! So for the month of November (currently on day 4) we are doing random acts of kindness where she challenges you to follow through on thoughts and seek out ways to give and then record it. Not limited to financial ways, but any ways - she says to think of your talents.

.
We have been on the receiving end of SO MUCH kindness and generosity over the last 6 months that I can't possibly describe how much I've been touched. We felt like it was time to start paying it back.

.

.

Here are others' talents:

Do you know someone hit with a tragedy?

Click Here to learn more about Ryan's Lions

I love the idea of Ryan's Lions and passing compassion forward.

The idea is to continue passing the lion on, once you feel strong enough, to those who need the comfort, love, or empathy through their trials or tragedies. When words are hard...

I heart my Toms Shoes! (My sister ROCKS)

(except mine have a cool orange triangle)

I love people that blog their talents!!

Sites like http://www.shesaved.com/ (coupon tips - I actually bought a new Wii for $125 using her tips)

or I loved OhBrooke's blogging tips on changing your blog's fonts around!

I heart creative and crafty people! I wish I had time to list all the ideas I love!

What do you heart?

(We are doing a "Favorite Things" party next month and I love hearing about everyone's favorite tips or personal items!)

So seriously, what do you love???

Happy Halloween!

Looove Halloween around here!

Hal spent the week in DC and flew back just in time to celebrate with us.

This is pink butterfly "Idaho-cold" style!

Her face makeup was so cute; too bad it didn't show up.
I loved making Evie's little ladybug costume!
This is the first time I've attempted "making" one - wahooo!!
(I can do no-sew!)
Ah, random: it made me think of an announcement printed in church today:
"Attention Sewers!" - I had to read it a few times to realize it meant sew-ers. I kept thinking about the water lines they just shut off this week!
~~Insert slap on forehead~~
Hal and Kya went to a wild street for trick-or-treating with some friends while I stayed with the angry ladybug. This is pretty much what we looked like for two hours handing out candy...

She's steam ROLLING!

How can you not love this little face?

Kya made a funny when she saw her in the red sweater:

"Oh, mom, now we can call her Little Red Whiting Hood!"

2 months old

So I was showing Hal how cute her little tummy time is getting and then she started going NUTS!! I couldn't believe it -
So I'm sorry about the lighting - but this is hilarious! You have to watch.
I swear, the hair must make her tippy...

Trick or TREATS!

Here are a few super easy Halloween recipes that I love!
Some are really fast so it's great to do with kids!

These first ones are from my cousin, Amy - how cute are these?

The Perfect Pumpkin Roll

This recipe was posted on My Kitchen Cafe.
Cake:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2/3 cup mashed pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 X 10-inch jelly roll pan.
Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan and leave an inch overhang on each of the short ends of the pan.
Lightly grease the wax paper and sides of the jelly roll pan.

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, eggs and pumpkin in a large bowl.
Once mixed, pour mixture over the waxed paper. Sprinkle the walnuts, if using, on top of the mixture. Bake for 14-15 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan and center is done.

Lay a large dishtowel on the counter top (it is best to use a dishtowel without any texture - a tea towel or similar towel works best). Spread a thick dusting of powdered sugar all over the towel. When the cake comes out of the oven, turn the pan upside down on the powdered sugar-laden towel so the wax paper is on the top. Gently peel off the wax paper, being careful not to tear the roll. Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pumpkin cake up with the towel to cool. While the roll is cooling, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until it is light and creamy. Once the roll is cool, unroll and with an offset spatula, carefully spread filling in an even layer over the cake. Roll it up without the towel and place in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap or wax paper) for about an hour before serving.


Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins!
Found this recipe HERE at Bake350!
We'll be making these tomorrow!!



Bucket o' Goodies!!


I love those little 50 cent buckets at Target and this year I just did rub-on stickers. Filled them with treats and we started attempting these easy chocolate stick guys.

Ya, I know they look a little weird, but it was really fun.

SOOOOO fun to do with kids!

Hardly any mess!

Takes 5 minutes!

WIN- WIN!

Just buy those melting chocolates (usually at Michael's or even WalMart) and just melt them, stick them in a frosting bag or ziplock bag (cut the corner) and draw out your shapes! They harden pretty quickly or you can stick them on a cookie sheet in your fridge.

3 Reasons You Know You Are Loved

How you know that you are loved.
(By Hal a guest poster)

1st - You get to "borrow" from the budget, the cash you earned and saved, craiglisting stuff from the house. Money that was set aside for "something else", to get an early B-day gift (2 months early) for a tablesaw.

2nd - You get to shirk all fatherly duties for a day of high impact flyfishing. That included motorcycling for miles on backwoods logger trails, bushwacking .5 miles down a steep ridge to get to the river, and coming home right on time 3 hours late.

The Foot Trail: once on the River

The Hole: Kings Chair - Named by Jon my brother in law, as a place where kings would fish based on the size and yeild of the catch. The chair is to the front and right of Jon.

Hal's River Monster! (sort of)
3rd - On the same day sitting down to a romantic night with Jess to watch the pre-recorded BYU v. SDSU game.
I had a good weekend.

I love you Jess

It's Fall!!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving (posted below) we were so grateful everyone is feeling better (thank you for all the kind posts and emails) so we attempted family pictures. "Attempted." But a few turned out cute:

I could not get any to turn out well of Kya - so here she is with her eyes shut...but looking adorable.

This is the only shot that was decent of all of us. Kya walks up and says,

"Oh Mom, I look so cute in this one! Wo- Evie, you look terrible."

Gotta love her brutal honesty.

Classic moment: Hal really struggled figuring out the timer right as Evie spit-up all down me at the same moment Kya jumped up screaming "Poop!" after she realized she sat on a wet lawn that had just been aerated.

It was funny, although it probably fails to even compete with some of your family photo sessions (especially you guys with a handful of chitlens)!

This gets trickier the more you have!!

And we only have two!

Happy Thanksgiving, eh!

Celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving over the weekend with some friends here (reminder: I will have to post the BEST recipe I've ever had for yams).

I realized I don't even know why they celebrate their Thanksgiving (do any of you??)

This is a picture of Canadian troops celebrating Thanksgiving in a bombed out cathedral in Cambrai, France - Oct 1918.

So if you're ever in the mood for random historical facts, they celebrate it for several different reasons (yes, I actually checked it out HERE on Wiki)
We decided we'd all deck out in our Canadian gear. The Robertson's were awesome - we had such a great time!! But we always love hanging out with them.
Hal decided he didn't want to wear his sweatshirt so I made him wear the hat. Gotta love it. (And yes, we totally stood in front of the fireplace for a cheesy family photo)

It's happened, my WORST nightmare

"I quit. Can I just quit? I'm DONE!"

I just wanted to see how that felt to say it outloud. I do feel better.

I have been a craaaazy woman about washing hands since Evie was born. We sterilize everything daily. I scrub Kya every time she walks in the door from school, church, whatever. So you can imagine the slow-motioned "NOOoooooo" as I found out Kya caught the H1N1.

NOT FUNNY.

at

ALL!

(I was so shocked all I could do was just take a picture)

I didn't find out until too late that the high school on our street had an outbreak of like 160 kids two weeks ago. Once I found out, I kept the girls home from church, etc.

This is how I found my poor girl tonight.

I heard this sweet little voice in the backseat of the car on the way home from the Dr:

(in almost a whisper)

"I can't believe I have H1N1. That is so terrible."

I've tried really hard not to make her feel like a walking toxin but I've been so worried about Evie catching it. I've had to separate the girls entirely (ok, have ANY of you tried doing that with a 5 yr old for more than an hour???)

I'm sanitizing EVERYTHING four times a day (from stairs, bathrooms, handles, light switches, to even my dishwasher handle and every cupboard - I'm GOING INSANE!)

It's like I can see the germs crawling everywhere and I have 12 sanitizers scattered around the house (which was 5 BEFORE I found out) that I make everyone use every 10 minutes. Probably more like every 7 minutes.

I'M EXHAUSTED!

.

The worst part was cancelling our big weekend in Utah for Evie's blessing

and Kya was heartbroken.

.

So...

we dressed up in random halloween costumes for fun,

watched the BYU football game in BYU clothes for fun,

decorated pumpkins during conference,

(here is the start of Hal's with Ev's little foot)

After we each take about 2 baths/showers a day and I've had the laundry going non-stop,
Hal says,

.
"I think I'm getting a sore throat."

.

NOOOooooooo
.

again, in slow motion.
.

I'm tired.
I don't even want to think about tomorrow.
(Am I allowed to complain???)

Just for Hal

Hal can't believe I haven't posted pics or videos of the concert yet so this is for Hal. He became a true fan after Mraz busted out half the songs on a classical guitar and THEN he played this song (He was lovin' it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJzflx8AXD4

We had such a great time! Hal's sister was kind enough to brave the girls--THANK YOU!

Too much fun taking pictures

Mraz

I'm getting jazzed for the Mraz concert this weekend so today's music is dedicated to Hal who spontaneously bought us tickets!

(He knows that it makes me smile - especially when I'd listen to the music WAY back when we lived in San Diego)

Did you need a sMiLe today?

This is our awesome post-bath hair. We are always laughing when we look at her (excuse me, laughing with her)

Here is Ev at 5 weeks.

"MyKya"

Our buddy Zeke used to call Kya "MyKya" and I love it - it's stuck!

Fun days riding bikes and walking to school with our friend. The weather has been fantastic.

It's been nastalgic in this fun little kindergarten world and going to school and riding the bus home.

It's a good little 5 yr old life.

Hal's co-workers are fantastic. They all threw us a baby shower and I'm not sure if Kya or Evie came home with more presents. He has loved his time with HP and is so glad he made this decision. Meanwhile, I've loved seeing him at home for dinner for the first time in our entire marriage!!

(with the exception of his PhD)

Decided not to post these photos--not brave enough (besides, who really reads this blog anyway??)
Kya figured out how to take photos on my iPhone and I found pictures of EVERYTHING going on in our house:
Her bed
play room
decorations
...
...
...
and yes...
a VERY candid shot of mom nursing.
I tried to grab the phone when I realized and Kya ran off and waved it saying,
"Mom, there's NOOOOO nipple in the shot!"
Great.
That's MyKya.

Daniel Boone or bust

We had a GREAT labor day weekend when Hal booked us a cabin here in the mountains. The "Boone" cabin, to be precise. It was really fun and quaint and next to several hot springs and the outdoor theater where we took the kids to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (they loved it). I somehow only came home with 3 shots! But I loved this one of Hal and Evie.

This is Kya begging us to buy the cabin. She got the entire upstairs loft and bathroom to herself and apparently that is the coolest thing ever. Then Mike, Laura and McKay all came up to join us. It really was a perfect get-away when we can't quite get away yet!
Hal and Kya have been into making really fun "dinner surprises" lately. It's been awesome. Here is one of their decorations. I loved it -- I think the idea stemmed when Hal walked in the door one day and I was nursing in one hand and playing Hungry Hippos in the other but unfortunately, right at that moment, Kya's hippo jammed and she lost it. So I was trying to console, nurse, and un-jam a hippo one-handed while the beads went flying. I can only imagine what a pathetic scene we must have been!!

Meanwhile Evie is growing and changing so fast. She's almost outgrown her newborn diapers and I'm determined to make them last as long as possible. I have been enjoying her so much that I can't bear her growing up so fast!!

She is amazingly alert although when she nods off, she'll give me a handful of smiles. Then she'll sometimes start giggling and when it turns into a laugh, she startles herself and wakes up (arms shooting out and everything). It's the most precious sound!

We get stopped at the stores all the time with comments about her hair. The other day, Hal came home shocked saying EVERY corner her turned, ladies were stopping him. Gotta love that hair.

The nurses in the hospital had all named her "Roxy" and posted her front and center of the nursery window. They were so funny with her! They would pull her cart around for all the newborns to look at. So the hair must really make a statement!

It's already coming in quite blond so I only have a little more time with my little brunette!