A Few Favorite Things

Ella LOVES to cook. Sometimes, if I'm in a hurry, I have to sneak around the kitchen quietly, so she won't know I starting something. Here she is making Christmas sugar cookies. She is getting excited to make heart ones for Valentine's Day.
Here she is with a mouth so full of dough she couldn't even deny it.
I love this girl.
Another of Ella's favorite things is date night with Dad. Here they are off to the planetarium downtown. She got all pretty and was just beaming.
Ruby's two favorite things are phones and sunglasses. Once she sees either it's all over. She will climb any height, move any obstacle to get to them. We now keep the cell phones on top of the fridge and I've just kind of given up on my sunglasses.

Catch-up...

Ella turned 3 and had a cute costume party with 3 of her best girls friend.
Happy Thanksgiving! Ruby made a little pilgrim hat with Grandma Cardon.
Of course, Ella wanted to be the native american--she was still on a roll from Halloween.
Snow, snow, snow. The girls have loved going out to play with Daddy in the snow. Yesterday, we got about 18 inches. A little too much for my taste.
My cutie snow bunny.

A Little Behind--

I lived through the Primary program once again. So I thought I'd get back to life and put some pics up. Here we are at our ward trunk or treat party. Ruby had gotten an early start on the chocolate. This party was a good lesson. We let the girls eat candy and they were up until 10 p.m.--wild. Now they don't eat candy after 6 p.m.
Here is Ella eatting at her birthday party. She's finally 3 -- she thought this day would never come. For a few weeks after, she'd wake-up and ask me, "Mommy, am I still 3?"
'This is a hold-up.' Oh, the endless war of 'I want want she has'. And believe me this battle goes both ways. I think Ella is hiding some candy behind her back (notice Ruby is holding a full bag of candy in her hand).
Happy Halloween, partner!
Trick or Treeeeeat!

Pumpkin Patch at Engh Gardens

Tom had work off on Monday, so we went over to walk around Engh Garden Center. They had lots of pumpkins, a hay bale maze, and lots of decorations. The girls had fun walking around. Note: Ruby is wearing the jeans that Ella wore last Halloween...
They each picked out their favorite pumkins for this picture. I think this might be the first picture ever where they are both sitting together, smiling and looking at the camera. There is hope for the Christmas pic...
They had this neat iron work Cinderella pumpkin carriage that the kids could go sit in. Ella thought it was the great. The maze was her favorite, though--I think Tom had it memorized by the time we left.

More Fall...

Ella got pretty spooked by a cackling witch stirring her brew (a life size mechanical decoration).
Daddy taking the girls for a ride on one of the wagons.
Walking along, singing a song--side by side. Time to go home. 'Come on Ru-beh'
Now that it is fall, we are spending as much time outside before the weather changes. Here's Ruby eatting her snack on the front steps, waiting for Ella to get home from a playdate.
My little giggle box. Here is Ella playing in the leaves. Ruby will have nothing to do with the leaves. She cries and won't go near them.

More Pictures!

Ruby is One!

ruby Joy

Here is my beautiful angel baby. She is already one--it went too fast. She loves to be outside and doing everything Ella does. Including climbing all the way to the top of the slide. She is fearless and makes my heart stop a million times a day. She is the happiest, sweetest girl in the world. I wouldn't trade her for all the Nutella-covered Toblerone in the world.

Ella is excited to start joy school (a kinda of girlfriends-homeschool-preschool, where all the moms take a week...). She is incredibly smart and will strike up an intelligent, although random, conversation with anyone and everyone.

My Beauties.

Oahu & The Polynesian Cultural Center

The Turtle Bay Resort, located up on the north shore of Oahu was so nice. It was the perfect place to stay.
Perfect
At the PCC, Tom was so jealous that the employees didn't have to wear shirts and got to have tattoos. Here I am getting a little 'culture'--ever the wild child.
Here we are at the big nightly Luau. Here are the men ( because men do the majority of the cooking in Hawaii...) pulling out the pig that had been cooking in the ground all day for us. Yummy!

The Hikes of Hikes on Hawaii

Here is the trail head of the Kalalua trail that takes you up and along the Na Pali coast (west side of Kauai, which can only be reached on foot or by boat). It was amazing. We hiked down to a beach and then inland about 2 miles to a gorgeous waterfall (our favorite).
Here is a picture of Tom. Behind him you can see Ke'e beach is where the trail starts. After the hike we found water (because we ran out about half way) and then went snorkeling there.
This is the beach we hiked down to...
Here's a picture of the Na Pali coast.
And here is me with my favorite thing in Hawaii: MASUMOTO'S. Pure joy in the form of a snow cone with super fine ice, ice-cream at the bottom, and sweetened condensed milk on top. It was indescribably amazing. We were on Oahu for 2 days and we went twice (I made Tom stop on the way to the airport). We'd have to wait at least 1/2 each time because the line was out the door. I bought the t-shirt.

Mahalo

We had a lot of fun kyaking up the Wialua River and then hiking to the Hidden Falls. The water was pretty cold but it felt good after the hike.
Bliss in Paradise.
This is Tunnels Beach, which ended up being our favorite place to snorkel in Kauai. We saw turtels, seals, and tons of fish. It also had that eerie point where the reef just drops off and the ocean fads to black.
This was my favorite part about vacation. The day after our crazy 8 mile hike, I just sat on the beach and read. Lazy. This was at Poipu Beach.
One night we went for a walk on a long bike path that ran along the beach.

More Tulips

We went to see the tulips with Robert, Michelle, Reed, Amanda, and James. Ella had her own personal tour guide in Amanda, who chauffeured her around.
Here's we are by the water fountain in the secret garden.
The kids had fun splashing around--it turned out to be quite a warm day.
Giddy-up, Daddy. After quite a lot of walking, the girls took turns getting a ride from Dad.

Yipee!