Happy Birthday Leah and more...

I know it's cliche, but I can't believe my Leah is one! I swear I just had her! She is a sweet, easy-going baby, that always makes me smile! Her best "buddy" is Allie who she follows around all day, except at nap time and dinner time when she finds me! When Allie sleeps she scoots down the hall to Allie's door and sticks her little fingers under- until Allie laughs and comes to play! She too loves the bath and bath time is usually around a half hour, only because I want them out. 

       

For her birthday...

We had all been sick with colds and mine had even turned to Bronchitis, so the party planning had to all be done that day including the gifts from family since they had sent money and gift cards for me to get her a present! That night we had Leah's fav. food and cupcakes with family. She loved opening her present and especially loved the new toy she got. We even let her stay up for awhile since she was having so much fun playing with it!

Leah

Special skills: her unique scoot, high fives, repeating letter sounds

Says: mama dada hi 

Development: starting to pull up on things.  She has 5 1/2 teeth and curly hair growing in. 

Favorite food: spaghetti and go-gurt

 past time: pulling things out of any bag, baths,  and being with mom or Allie, reading books

 toy: my phone , balls, and baby's, books, and play kitchen

Ask me if I care?

Ask me If I care that my three and one yr. old are splashing water all over the kitchen and themselves! No! Look how happy they are! Just prior they had both been whining and driving me crazy! Water is a blessing!

 

Allie is pretty famous in the ward for her singing and dancing skills! We had a family baptism where she enthusiastically sang "I am a Child of God" and everyone commented afterwards!

Tonight we are singing at the Clark house here in town for some volunteer work. Allie has done so well at the practices and sings so cute! I hope she develops a true talent for it!

She just got a haircut- which i have mixed feelings about since I love long hair! It doesn't get tangled now and it is growing on me! Pictures to follow! Allie has been helping a lot lately and even gets upset if I end up doing something that she was trying to help with! I love that girl!

Pictures: A friend in the ward wanted to practice her sweet photography skills on Leah, and so I got to have some adorable pictures taken.

A few favorite things...

 

For journaling purposes, (since this is usually the only journaling I actually get done) I thought I should write what some of our current favorites are! We all love playing RockBand and are currently touring the world. We have even allowed some guest appearances from other family and friends. (Picture below is of Allie singing with her "microphone" and her cousin Cameron playing the guitar.) Even leah claps in excitement and rocks back and forth dancing. Everyone is impressed with Zach's lack of Shame!

Yes, my Leah is so special! She even "crawls" or should I say scoots special! I don't know if it is just by choice, her creativity, lazy, the fact that she is a"genius", or just because we have wood floors, but whatever the reason she chooses to scoot and is pretty fast! Especially when there is something small dropped onto the floor like money, food, keys, or any of allie's princess toys! She loves scooting back to play in Allie's room the most, probably because that is the only room that is pretty much guaranteed to have something "fun" on the floor.(video shown below)

Bubbles! I know every kid loves bubbles, mine are no exception. Allie has dumped many bottles of various body cleansing products into the tub in hopes of creating a never ending supply of  bubbles. Unfortunately Leah is a perfect target for bubble decor.

Allie loves painting, coloring, school, and anything creative. She is even  creative with her room style. She adds various colors to the doors, dresser, bed, wall, toys, etc. Yes... still. I probably could have supplied an entire school with the amount of markers, crayons, etc. I have thrown away.

The way we know Allie truly loves something... she sneaks it when we aren't looking (even if we don't care), and runs back to her room to hide it under her bed or pillow until night, so  she can then sleep with it. These are usually Leah's things, cards and valentines that were sent to her in the mail, food, or make-up.

Allie is obsessed with birthdays and parties! She loves Birthday cake and when she learns it was a friends birthday she tells them a hundred times "happy birthday" and asks about birthday cake. Recently she has had the opportunity to go to many princess birthday parties which are her fav.!

Zach has been really busy starting the business and so unfortunately Allie and Leah have picked up on a few things. 

Leah loves her sister and doing anything with her, especially laughing together! They both have a great laugh, unlike me!

Leah loves smiling with her new goofy teeth and saying "hi"anytime anyone enters the room!

Zach and I love laughing at all the silly things our girls do. One of our favorite things;  the crazy legs Leah gets when she is excited! (video below)

We love Leah's new teeth. They look ridiculous! The picture tells all!

Our new Sat. date night! There are pro's to having another adult practically living at your house! (Jason you know we love you - I'm just teasing) Saturday's we have been putting the kids to bed and then going out for "us" time! I love it and definately need it! Eventhough sometimes we come home only an hour later because there aren't many things to do in this small town that don't take planning, it is great to just dress up and go out with my love!

How amazing the weather has been this year, here. Besides the frequent rain, I have no complaints about the weather here. I was so worried to live in the cold and cloudy darkness again, but this part of Idaho is beautiful and it has been one of the more mild winters. The rain really isn't that bad either since I have become used to it living back east.

Loving my calling- I've been in primary forever- so it was so awesome to get something new in RS and I am loving it!

I could go on- but these are just a few things! the end.

Christmas - just the four of us!

                                                      

This year we decided to stay home for Christmas after all the chaotic moving! That also left us the perfect opportunity to start our own traditions with the kids. The traditions began by our Christmas tree picking adventure! We got a 5$ permit and drove (like 15 min.) to the National Forrest and began looking for the perfect Christmas tree!

 

We had researchedwhich type we wanted and decided that we would get a 9 ft. tree since we live in a shelae? (couldn't find how to spell it! You know the cabin- like houses with a wall of windows and the wood beams all showing, etc!) Anyways- we set off and decided to make a picnic of the day. There was just a little snow in the mountains but it was very cold and I hadn't brought our snow stuff. Well we discovered that not only were we not going to get the perfect tree but we couldn't find ANY tree that was remotely close to the 9 ft. range, or if they were they weren't very full! So trees do not grow as pretty in the wild 

apparently! Allie started throwing fits, and we about gave up when Zach spotted a beauty! He ended up having to drag it through a little river but it was beautiful and so full! When we got it home we discovered that it was actually more like 12 feet and not as full as non- wild ones, but we liked it and it was a fun day!

Allie was so much fun this Christmas! She didn't care what present she received! We went to some town events and made all sorts of crafts and projects as well as visited santa! She kept telling everyone "Happy Christmas" as they would walk by! Even after a night of events - when Christmas morning came she had forgotten! It was easier to keep her distracted until daddy was ready, however. When she did come out she was seen with her classic Allie dramatic expressions which make all the work worthwhile! She loved her gifts and so did Leah! 

A few funny things...

Allie has always said some of the funniest things,  but a few things that have happened in the last few days are...

She was singing "I love to see the temple" She sang... " for the temple is a house of God. A place of love and BEAUTY... " she pauses and then says "Oh! Beauty mom!"(meaning sleeping beauty).

I said:  " Yes Allie, but not sleeping beauty. Beauty means pretty"

Allie: " Oh yeah, beauty means Preeety!"

Me: "Yes."

So for a few days she would always stop after beauty and say, "Pretty mom, pretty!"

Today she was singing the song once again and so I joined in and it went like this...

Both: "For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and "

Me: "Beauty."

Allie: "Wait! No mom! Jasmine! Jasmine!"

I was laughing so hard! She is so funny!

Then for Halloween I taught her the song " Mean old witch with a hat" . On sunday her nursery teacher told me that Allie taught the whole class a new Halloween song. We new exactly what it was. 

I'm a mean old witch with a hat.

I ride on my broom with my cat.

And my nose is pointed and my chin is too.

And you better watch out or I might scare you.

I'm a mean old witch with a hat... Boo! 

Then later that day she was singing it and the song went...

"I'm a mean old witch with a ... and my nose is pointed and my chin is three"

We stopped her and said, "Allie and my chin is too!" 

She said, "No mom I'm three!"

Crazy girl!

The vacuum incident

One picture can say it all- can't it?! Allie was cleaning her room until she came out like this! She was scared at first, but soon started laughing at herself. Being her mom can be so exciting! 

Hiking

A few weeks ago we went hiking in the forrest near our home. It was unlike any forrest I had ever been to, with different types of moss and toad stools. It was very wet and cool, and there were many water falls nearby. 

Leah was a trooper being carried of course, however half-way through Allie decided she didn't want to walk anymore! 

We stopped to see a beautiful waterfall and also visit the largest cedar tree! It is said to be over 3000 years old, and even with all of our arms around it, we didn't even reach half way around! It was an amazing site! It was a great day with the family!

Trick or Treat!

 

For Halloween we went to the ward Trunk or Treat and trick-or -treating on Halloween. Allie and her cousin Cameron had such a fun time together! Being family and only three days apart- they have a lot in common. We all went trick-or treating together except for the boys Skyler and Kaleb, who went out with friends! Allie was Sleeping Beauty and Cameron was Tinkerbell. Leah was a little ladybug!

All of the kids were so excited to wear their costumes. I gave them glow sticks and some fireworks that were left over. They ran up to every door and after quietly knocking cameron would say" Hi" or Happy Halloween and Allie would say," Trick or Treating"! Everyone loved them and with a full bag of candy, including some full size candy bars, they were the last ones in the small town to return home that night! Smiles on their faces! 

 No silly,  Sleeping Beauty didn't need a pumpkin!