My cute wife - the big 2-6.

Yesterday was Carrie's birthday and she is happy to say she has passed over the quarter century hump and is now 26 years old. She'll also tell you how much fun she had at Disneyland without our little rug-rat tagging along. She will also definitely tell you what a great husband she has for making the day so special.







But seriously, Carrie is the greatest wife and mother ever. She does so much for our little family and I want her to know how much Lillie and I love and appreciate her. Now here's some photos of Carrie through the years.

Halloween 09

This year our Halloween celebrating consisted solely of a trip to the ward trunk or treat. Lillie really enjoyed asking other people for candy as she is already a pro at asking her parents for it. That girl has got one sweet tooth, so yesterday was a trip to heaven for her. Bribing her with candy was the only way to get her to put and keep her costume on, so she consumed a lot of candy.
Being in dental school, I guess you probably gotta be dental related items once in your lifetime, so we went as a tooth, toothpaste and toothbrush, in case you couldn't tell. Some people couldn't.

 

 

Leap Frog Magic

When Lillie was about twelve months old, we wanted to get her a new toy, something that she could learn something from, and so we decided to get the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, in hopes that she would learn the ABC song. Well, that has been one of the best purchases I have ever made, twice. Lillie used to have a garbage obsession and threw away the main piece of the toy and some of the letters, but because it is so good, I spent another $20 to get it again. Lillie now recognizes almost all of the letters of the alphabet and can also tell you what sounds some of them make, plus she can almost sing the ABCs by herself. I think this is pretty remarkable considering I haven't helped her at all and she's 21 mos. I just thought I'd quiz her the other day and she got almost all of them right! She likes to play with it while I'm making dinner and we're waiting for Eric to come home and other random times throughout the day. Love, love, love it! Just thought I'd share. Maybe you could get lucky and find it on craigslist, but if not, it's worth the full purchase price.

Labor of Love...Most of the Time

So for the last month and a half or so, this is what I've been up to. I made my first quilt! It is a twin size for Lillie's big girl bed. I can't say it was the funnest thing I've ever done, but I enjoyed doing most of it and I've learned a lot. I picked Freshcut by Heather Bailey for my fabric because it's so cute and I'd already made a couple of skirts and a dress out of some of this fabric. Lillie loves the quilt so that's all that matters.

In fact, today, Lillie was trying to go "potty" on her little toilet and ran off without a diaper on and went and sat on the quilt. When I rushed over to get her off, she had already left a little puddle of pee. Sigh. It hadn't even been finished for a day. Eric just said that he was sure that wouldn't be the last stain, pee, food, dirt, crayon, etc. I'm sure he's right.

 

 

 

This last picture is a preview of my next project. It's one of the things I am going to do with the left over fabric. It's gonna be cute!

I Don't Want the Swine to Hit Mine

I am sick of waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to become available for my daughter. I feel like Father Time's scythe is hanging over our family. We are currently on our dr's waiting list but we're 30th. I don't know how long we can dodge the H1N1 bullet.

LA Observatory

I took Eric out for our date night to the observatory this past week. We were able to see Jupiter and the Moon through big telescopes, the moon was really cool. It is such a beautiful building, but it was too dark to take pictures. There was also a great view of Los Angeles from the back of the building! So it wasn't the most exciting date, but it was interesting and informative and something to check off our list as seen.







BTW, we have had blurry photos for the past couple months because all of our photos were taken with our cell phones. But we finally got our camera fixed and so the quality of pics should get a little better.

Disneyland Pals

This is our pumpkin for this year--jk it was at Disneyland, cool huh?





Eric was nice enough to take me to Disneyland again and let me stand in line for an hour for the haunted Space Mountain and went on the Haunted Mansion with me and stayed late that night for the Halloween fireworks. Which were all really cool, especially the fireworks.

Aquarium

This month we went to the Long Beach aquarium, when Eric had a day off. It was a lot fun, Lillie would run from one exhibit to the next, squealing in excitement at each new thing she saw. This aquarium was great because there were a lot of places where you could touch things like sharks, rays, etc., and had a lot of exhibits. That particular day was also Southeast Asia day, so there were dances and musical numbers all day and tables set up with awesome stuff from countries like Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, etc. Fun day!



Eric's pirate face. Ha ha.

Hike and Fire

Every year at the end of the summer, SoCal has to deal with major fires and this year wasn't any different. But this September, the big fire was in the mountains close to where we live and so the air was smoky and full of ash for weeks!




Last June we went on a little hike in the mountains above where we live. It was so beautiful, we didn't know there could be such natural beauty and greenery in L.A. A nice surprise. I have been so excited for it to cool down so that we could go hike it again. But now I am wondering if it still exists after the fire!

 

 

 

 

Bargain Princess

 

 

Lillie loves to dress up and I have been wanting to get her disney princess dresses but they are so expensive! I was at Goodwill the other day and picked up this beauty for $5. I had to give it a good wash and fix a tear, but it is good as new! Gotta love a bargain!

Western What?!

Ok I know I'm not the only poor college student who at one point worked for this company. Oh the good 'ole days. I was living in Rexburg. I think I worked for them for a total of 3 days at like $4.00/hr and I already had seniority. Lets just say I'm not surprised to find this article.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

So one major drawback of living in such a large city is dealing with crime. We live in a nice town but in the last two years of living here, there have been bikes stolen, cars broken into, cars stolen, and finally today, an apartment broken into (the next door down)... and that's just the stuff that's happened to our tiny apartment building. It happened in the middle of the day, all the surrounding apartments on the floor have someone who is home during the day, except for that one! The other worst part is that the door was locked but the robbers just popped the lock (our doors must be easy to get into) and carried out a TV and computer without being seen. Popped the lock?!? I'm sure our apartment is just as easy to "pop the locks" on. I don't think I'll be sleeping all that easy tonight.

Anything But Summer

I can't believe that I am saying this but I have longed for summer to end in SoCal like most people north of here, long for winter to end in February (I know I wouldn't being saying this if I wasn't too cheap to run the AC and I actually had AC in my car, but anyway). I am ready to pull out jeans, close toed shoes, jackets and sleep with a blanket and yesterday was the first time I felt like it might be possible someday. And it made me so happy! Bring it on, Autumn!

Lillie 19 Months

 

The Month in Review

So the next few blogs will be about the past month that we have been away from CA. We have been in 9 states! So that should warn you that there are going to be a lot of pictures. So you've been warned, proceed at your own risk.

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and a Baby Bear

 

So after a couple weeks in WA, Eric took his part 1 board exam for dental school and we headed off to Eric's family cabin for a little R&R. We got to see Eric's siblings for a couple days and the Farr's came up too. It was so fun! We visited Bear World, Yellowstone twice, water skiied and tubed, kayaked in the Snake River, and spent a lot of time playing games, the Wii, and hanging out in the hot tub watching for shooting stars. We had a hard time leaving! Thank you, Lyle and Mary!


Lillie loved swimming in the hot tub! Isn't she cute?!?

Yellowstone Nature Pictures

 

Lillie and Hallie

 

Lillie and Hallie had such a fun time together at Yellowstone and the cabin!

We Are A Happy Family

Here is a picture of my whole family! Eric made a special day trip up to Priest Lake specifically for this picture. Thanks hon, for sacrificing that studying time. This is a picture I stole from my sister's blog because I didn't take a single picture. We arrived on Monday and by that night, I was sick with a flu that I hope to never experience again. I had barely stopped barfing before Lillie started up in the middle of the night. I am just so glad that we were in a cabin and not camping in a tent. Still, it was a horrible night and I didn't feel completely well again until we got home on Friday. And I don't think Lillie had recovered either because she made me hold her the whole time. That was my least favorite trip to PL, which stinks because I hadn't been in 3 years and had been really looking forward to it... oh well. This post sounds every negative, but I will say that it was fun to be with my siblings and their families and to see extended family too. And of course it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet!

My Wonderful Nieces and Nephews

 

 

 

 

I can't even begin to explain how fun it was for Lillie and me to be back home, surrounded by family. Lillie had such a fun time playing with her cousins, it was really hard for me to take her away from them. But she still remembers everyone, when I quiz her with pictures. And says Macey all the time. I guess she just likes saying the name, since she wasn't all that sweet to Macey when we were there. I loved seeing how interested she was with Baby Maddie and we've got great stories to tell about Lil and Grady running away and eating dog food, etc, etc. We miss you all.