Helmets, Hands-Free, and Have a Piece of Cake!

The girlies got bike helmets today. I'm pretty sure Becca couldn't do any damage "riding" her bike (she rides even slower than she walks) but I figure we ought to teach them about safety!

Eva was excited about her helmet until she put it on. Then she realized they aren't the most comfortable things. I hope she gets used to it!

I had to get a close up of Becca's unicorn head. She was so excited, she wore it all over the store before we bought it. She thinks it's awesome that she can knock on her head as hard as she wants, and it doesn't hurt! :)

Becca is really in to doing everything "with no hands" lately. Things like walking, standing up, going down the stairs, going potty...and sitting on my shoulders. Brian tried to get a picture without her making such a goofy face, but had no luck!

I tried to make a red velvet cake this week. It was destined for disaster from the moment I realized I only have 1 round cake pan. I already had my heart set on a double-decker cake with frosting in the middle, so I decided to try it with one round and one square pan...bad idea.

The square had to be cut down to a rectangle because of burning issues. When I tried to frost the sides of the rectangle that the burnt part had been cut off of, it just spread crumbs all over. So I did the only thing I could think of to save the cake...I crumble crumbs all over it to make it look like it was on purpose. It was a hot mess...but it did get rid of my red velvet craving!

After seeing my cake, Becca decided the noodles we had for dinner weren't so bad after all, and she had a second helping of noodles instead of cake.

Dr. Seuss Day

For Dr. Seuss's birthday, Rebecca was being babysat by a friend of mine. My friend has 2 little boys, and one of them always hopes Becca will wear her batman shirt. So when she found out who's house we were going to for the day, she made sure she got to wear her friend's favorite shirt! :)

While with her friends, she got to do some fun finger painting.

The kids also decided it was "wear your favorite super hero shirt" day.

They made cat's in hats. Becca was pretty proud that she drew "lots of faces!" I don't think she understood that it was supposed to be a cat's face.

Here is my happy girl with her creations! She had tons of fun!

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, I was supposed to help in Eva's classroom with their party. I decided to come a little early, and Rebecca and I surprised Eva by showing up to have lunch with her. We had cafeteria pizza, and jell-o with whipped cream on top. It felt like eating hospital food! But after lunch, we got to go to recess!

Eva and her friend kept trying to teach Becca how to play tag. Becca kept getting distracted by rocks on the ground. By the end of the recess, she had a whole handful of pebbles!

The class party was so much fun!

Becca gets so excited about "going to school with Eva." I love these girls!

We are Beautiful!

The other night it was Becca's turn to say the prayer. We have been encouraging her to use her own words in the prayers. Sometimes she is willing, other times we have to help her a lot. Well, this was a night when she used her own words, and she said, "We are thankful we are all beautiful!" It was not a reverent prayer after that, but we think Heavenly Father was probably sharing in the snickers!
These pictures of my beautiful girls reminded me of the prayer:

This is Rebecca right after I took the curlers out. We were all laughing at her goofy hair-do!


Eva had to get in on the photo action.


And here is Becca after I tamed some of the curls. Don't let that innocent face fool you, she IS a redhead, after all!

I finally finished the girls' Christmas quilts!

I finished Eva's first.

And I just finished Becca's today.


Grandma Helen quilted both blankets on her quilting machine. On the outside border, she did a design based off some of my artwork.
I enjoyed creating these quilts for my girls, but I think I am done with sewing quilts for a while: it is HARD work!

The Girls' Favorite Things

Eva has become quite the little reader lately! All of a sudden she just took off with it, and it was great! Until Brian and I realized we can no longer spell things to each other that we don't want her to know about. And we can whisper them, because she has exceptional hearing, so we are kinda outta luck. When Eva gets in the mood to read, she will spend hours with her books, and then tell us all about what she read. It's really cute how much she loves her books! Becca on the other hand...

not so much.

She's not into reading so much as she is into her DVD player. I'm thinking this isn't quite as healthy of a habit as Eva's reading. But at least she's got something to love! (Movie watching counts as a hobby, right?) Becca does love when Eva reads to her, but her attention span with it is short lived. Right now, one of Becca's favorite things is playing in the playhouse that Papa and Grandma gave her for Christmas. It sits on our porch, and Grandma bought her play dishes and food for it. The girls set up tea parties for our dog, Daisy. I'm sure Daisy loves it! This morning Eva told me they try to put things in the dishes that will smell like stuff Daisy likes. Like sticks, and leaves, and mud...as long as they don't use the stinkier things that dogs love, I'm fine with it!

Sheridan

So we moved from Spokane to Sheridan in June of 2011. Brian got a job at Sheridan Physical Therapy, which he LOVES!

One of the best parts of being in Sheridan, is that family can come visit more often! Here is a picture of Eva and her Grandma Papa in our trailer. The trailer we moved into is nicknamed "the Love Shack," and has had way too many of my relatives living in it at one point or another! Notice the wood paneling in the background? That was my favorite part, next to the yellow sinks, tubs, countertops, and refrigerator (before it was replaced with a normal white one). Needless to say, we were thankful the trailer was temporary!

In October, we bought and moved into our very first house! We love it! This is a corner of the living room (which hasn't looked this clean since this picture was taken). It's a 4 bedroom, 1 bathroom house from the 1920s. We LOVE it! Except when things have problems and we can't just call the landlord to fix it! So far, Brian has learned how to fix an oven, attempted to snake the basement drain, and I think there is a garage roof to be shingled in his future! My studious husband is becoming quite the handyman!