Two twos in tutus

Harper turned two recently and had an adorable tutu party! If you haven't been able to go to one of Julie's parties you are really missing out. She has an incredible party throwing talent. Always adorable, always in budget, and always presented in a clean atmosphere. They are so much fun and always have the best food. 

Anyway, Harper's party was no exception and because it was tutu themed everyone was wearing tutus. Naturally we tried all night to get the two girls in one picture with their tutus, but trying to catch one two year old for a picture is impossible let a lone two! Here are my attempts. 

We were able to catch them, and if dad held them we could get them together...

otherwise the pictures all looked like these :)

I mean ADORABLE but you know. These two are actually my favorite.

Not only did Harper turn two, but I feel like Holden and I crossed a huge milestone. For the first time ever he invited me to sit by him at dinner!! I felt like a queen. I know I probably shouldn't be so excited but I was. And as always it was a treat.
Holden and I were talking about Lagoon (his favorite place in the world) and I told him that I would go with him if he bought me a ticket. He didn't like this idea and asked why I couldn't just buy my own. I told him I had no money and so he needed to buy it:

H: "You don't even have 45 dollars?!"
C: "I don't even have 45 dollars."
H: "Well why don't you just pay with a credit card then. That lets you buy anything. "
C: "Thanks for the tip Holden."

It was hilarious but what's new with Holden right?

Jerry

For FHE on the 24th we rented a puppy with Andrea and Jed. I'm not normally a fan of little dogs but I could have taken this dog home. His name was Jerry and he was adorable. Kelsey loved him too, but after a while she got jealous of the attention he was getting and started throwing balls at him. She is in for a rude awakening when siblings start showing up!

Everyone was pretty excited for Jerry. We were all crawling around pretty much the whole time. Kelsey literally went every where the puppy went, hence stuck in the chair.

We thought she was trying to play fetch, but I don't think so. She loved Jerry and kept trying to hold him, and would chase him and yell "gottcha," but after a while she just was straight up jealous.

He was so little he could just walk under the chair like this!

These next three are all blurry but he chased her around trying to get her cookie. She thought it was the funniest thing in the whole world.

Kayla Mary

On Wednesday February 19th, I got a text from my dad informing me that Christine had picked up the boys and Scott was on his way to the hospital. AKA it was baby time for the Nelson family!!
The Nelson's don't like to find out the sex of their babies and so we all waited in anticipation but secretly all knowing that it was a boy. Well, we were wrong!! ITS A GIRL!! Kayla Mary was born Thursday February 20th and I think the whole family is still trying to get used to the Nelson's having a girl.

While Scott and Karolyn were in the hospital I got to hang out with the boys for a few days. I hae no cool stories like last time, but it was still a good time. Everyone was very well behaved and super helpful. Kelsey and Trey entertained each other the whole time, Skyler was at school of the day, and Carson is so easy going that he would just play by himself. I'm not saying it was quiet, but it wasn't too bad.

It was kinda fun even to get a taste of big family life.
There was a lot of tv, a lot of quesadillas, a lot of music, and a lot of tv. Sorry Scott and Karolyn. Babysitters got a do what a babysitters got a do.

We did do some fun activities though including, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, vacuuming the car... JK
We went to Target where Kesley screamed the whole time and Carson helped me pick out a present for Kayla, We went to the hospital to visit their new sister, (which was a new thing for me: getting 4 littler kids through a parking lot and into a building)

and we went to Arctic Circle for lunch and to play for an hour.

Despite the loud van and getting the keys stuck in the ignition, things went pretty well. I'm just happy that I live close enough to help. I always feel so useless when family and friends live too far to help.

The only funny thing that I can remember was Skyler saying that now that he finally had a sister he didn't want her any more. He didn't know if he "was ready to always protect her and be her knight and shining armor." I don't know about you, but I think this little girl is going to be VERY protected by three older brothers.

I DID IT AND IM GOING TO BRAG!!!!

I don't how it happened, but the other day I had a crazy impulsive feeling to go through my craft drawer and either throw away old unfinished crafts, or actually finish them. Now before I continue, its important to know that I had quit on crafting and especially sewing. I was sick of the tears, sick of the frustration, sick of wasting money, sick of things turning out only to look crazy homemade, and mostly sick of the disappointment in myself. Sounds extreme, but so true.
Back to the present. I had every intention to throw away most of the crafts, but I had another spark in me to actually pull out my machine and try to finish one. Well one lead to another, which lead to another, which lead to finishing ALL my unfinished crafts.
And so this post is totally to brag about something that I am terribly proud of!! I did it!!! I finally finished projects, and sewed, and tried to decorate cookies like I said I always would, and my goodness do something during nap time that wasn't watching TV!!! Yes I am boasting, yes, I am bragging, yes I could still never sell anything but WHO CARES!!!, and yes I feel SOOOOOOO good and am going to shamelessly tell you all about it!!!!

Valentine cookies that I decorated. I have had the cut outs forever and never used them because "I don't have time." Well I finally made time, bought cute frosting, bought sprinkles, and did it! 

A baby blanket that I finally made. I bought these scraps like 3 years ago and always just say I'll do it someday. Well I did it! Now I just need a baby boy to give it too, but I did it!!

Ethan bought me this wood W like 3 Christmass ago and it just sat in my drawer for like 2 years. When we moved to Provo I even pulled it out of the drawer and put it in the front room as decoration  to "motivate" me to work on it. I'm proud to say I finally sanded it, painted it, and decorated it. Now its not wasting space but making our home look cute!

I bought this tulle like 3 summers ago planning to make a tutu for Kelsey even before she was born.  Now that she's almost two, I finished it. It doesn't really fit and separates in the back when she wears it but who cares! She can put it on and it looks like  a tutu! That's a huge step for my sewing skills.

Last but not least, I finally finished the quiet book. These pages have been staring at me for 4 months, which doesn't seem like a long time, but I tackled them, sewed, them, and thanks to my friend Katie, I even bound them. They are pages no longer but a book that can be used!!! (I did a quiet book swap so I had help with the pages)

I will never make one again (especially by myself) but I DID IT!!!!

 I even finished a book, made dinner more than once, worked on my scrapbook, worked on my picture book, threw away old junky craft supplies, and wore my sub par yet functional maxi skirt that I made a year ago but was so embarrassed of if that I never took it out of the drawer this week!! I DID IT!!!!

Okay off the me box. Thanks for letting me spout. It just feels so good to know I did something to work my brain.  I'm not even sorry for bragging. I am sorry if you read this and now are like, "Oh my gosh! Stop bragging," Because if that is the case then CLEARLY I TITLED THIS POST WRONG!

In other news:
I just NEVER get tired of her reading. It is so cute! And now she does it at her mini table and it just made it even cuter.

And here is our latest way to keep our self entertained.

Videos killed the radio star

For the past couple of post I have tired to add videos with the post, but Blogger won't let me. It finally is letting me again and so I just needed to throw some of these up here for safe keeping. Enjoy!

February

 Nothing too exciting lately, but life has been good to us and we got some cute pictures to show for it. We have done everything we can to take advantage of the warm weather the past few days. We have gone to the park a few times but mainly have just gone on a lot of walks. It has been fantastic. 

 

When Ethan has a lunch break, sometimes he has time to meet us at the gym and play. It is a great break for everyone. Nice for us to see Ethan and get out of the house and nice for Ethan to see us and get out of class. Our most recent trip was rather exciting. I met Ethan at the RB directly from a run so I didn't have any diapers with me. Kelsey was running around playing and then all of a sudden had the biggest blowout I have seen in years (not to be totally disgusting) We had nothing. I ran home as fast as I could, literally ran home, grabbed a diaper and we were able to help her pretty quickly. I have never been more grateful that we live close than that day.

 

 Even though its warming up, it still is not spring/summer AND we do not have access to live animals, so what do we do? We go to Petsmart and it rocks! Kelsey loves the fishies the best but gets excited for everything.

 This is Kelseys "AWE" face. She does it when she sees a baby or anything that she thinks is cute. I must make this face a lot because she does it without fail every time she thinks something is cute.

 

and this is Kelsey pretending to nap, complete with a fake snore. I have yet to catch it on film, but I am trying. I will get it. I have to!

 

 We were watching our wedding video and could not believe how much Kelsey looks like Ethan. Like seriously. Is there ANY Cami in there!! I mean, Ethan is really cute and so it doesn't bug me but come on. Even the teeth match (hello braces!)

 Ethan was sweet and said that we have the same eyes in this picture. I kinda see it, but she is definitely her daddy's girl.