Engaged!!

Here is a picture of the cute, engaged couple - Rachel and Braden. They are getting married on June 25th in the Salt Lake Temple. Aren't they just so cute?.

Potty Training, Braces and Painting

I think we are pretty much potty trained! Yeah!! It has been a rough week but thankfully I can now see that we are nearing the end! I hate potty training. I really hate potty training. I was not ready to start it with London but she kept asking to go potty so I didn't feel I had a choice. So, we started Monday and it was a very bad day. We had five accidents and no real successful trips to the potty. Tuesday was much better and Wednesday was great. She has an accident every now and then but it is just because she doesn't pull down her underwear fast enough and she ends up going right in front of the potty in her underwear. Oh well, at least I can see that she has figured it out and this week has not been in vain :). So, no more buying diapers or changing them (for two months until the baby gets here) and I can look at her cute little butt in underwear :). I am very grateful that this week is just about behind me. Hallelujah.

We had the three girls rooms painted this week and they look so great!!! It was fun to get them all put together once they were painted. This one above is London's room and we did it in a pale yellow. She is now in a big girl bed and is doing really well. Her bedskirt is on backorder so that is why you can see the lovely box spring hanging out. In this picture she put her favorite stuffed animals to bed in her bed. She is definitely a character.

This is the baby's room - Savvy's room. We moved the crib in here from London's room and put in all the new crib bedding. I am loving it. I spent last night putting together the bassinet, the swing, the bouncy chair and all those fun baby items. We are just about ready!

This is Livy's room. She really wanted to pick out her paint color but I told her that after the experience with her and Eric picking the Tinkerbell Green paint for her last room - they both had lost their privileges for picking paint. So, her room was painted a pinkish brown that I love. I think I will use it in more of the house when we get around to painting the rest of the house. It looks really good with her bedding and all her white furniture.

This last picture I took is of Olivia and her teeth that we are getting fixed. She got a retainer put in on Monday that is spreading her mouth because her mouth is too small for all her teeth. We have a key that fits into the retainer and you turn it every night to slowly expand her mouth. She is not liking it at all, but it is nice to be getting it done now instead of high school. Then in a couple of weeks she will be getting her braces on. She is really excited about them. Obviously she doesn't realize that they are going to hurt just as much as the retainer. For some reason though, she thinks they are so cool. Anyway, she is just getting so big. I can't believe I will have a child in braces. Weird.

On to other news, Rachel is officially engaged!!! Braden Brown proposed to her last weekend and they are getting married on June 25th. So exciting. We all really like Braden and I am excited for the wedding. I am NOT excited to be in pictures or in a fitted dress just a month after having a baby. But, what do you do? I don't seem to have a say in the matter. Rachel is sending me a picture of her and Braden to post so you can all see the cute couple :).

This morning we had another addition to our extended family. Jamie went into labor and Gavin Hyde was born!!! As Ava would say - the baby finally popped out! He weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz. and was 19 inches long. We are so excited and I have already told Ryan that he needs to have pictures of Gavin posted on their blog by the end of the day!!!

Silly Girls and The Ostrich Festival

So just about every other Saturday Eric gets up with the girls and lets me sleep and he takes them to Krispy Kreme. I'm not sure if it is for him or the girls :) - just kidding Eric. He takes them and they each get to hold a little box of donuts on their laps while they drive home. Once home they thoroughly enjoy themselves as you can see. London likes to just eat the tops off which results in quite a large mess and Livy has just always loved her donuts! Daddy is just so much more fun than mom :).

This is London's latest outfit of choice. She puts this on a couple of times a day. She has to have two different dress up shoes (one of each on), the mermaid costume because it is a blue princess outfit (blue is her favorite color), a pom pom, a magic wand, and a princess hat. She gets dressed herself and then comes up right in my face and says "Mommy, I a pincess." So cute. She is a princess :).

Today we went to the annual Chandler Ostrich Festival. We happened upon it last year and had a blast so we made sure to make it there this year and gave ourselves a little more time. The girls (Olivia, London and Olivia's friend Abby) all got wristbands so they could ride all the carnival rides - which they loved. Olivia especially was a fan of the swings that spin around - a daredevil side of Livy we haven't seen before. London even enjoyed the little rides - except for one of the spinning ones that made her sick. We ate gross carnival food such as pizza, hot dogs, ice cream, and frozen lemonade. And Eric had an ostrich burger. Ew! We saw the world's biggest pig and checked out the sea lion show (yes that is right, they have a sea lion show at an ostrich festival - makes perfect sense, right?). For the conclusion of our afternoon we went to the ostrich races. They have little jockeys ride them bareback and then they have a chariot race where the jockeys ride in little chariots attached to the ostriches. There is also a camel race, a zebra doing stunts, and emu and chicken chases with little kids. It was hilarious, except for one of the jockeys fell off her ostrich, got trampled and was taken off in an ambulance - that was a little scary and sad :(. But other than that, we all totally enjoyed it. It was a gorgeous day - maybe a little too hot (mid 70's) because we all got a little sunburned. Anyway, we had a fabulous day and we are all exhausted and looking forward to next year's Ostrich Festival!!

February Summary

Livy and her favorite Senior Company Dancer Mariah.

Livy and Olivia with the Hip Hop Choreographer/Teacher

Livy with the head of the Hollywood Experience Dance Convention. (He also teaches at the Studio we go to)

Livy and Olivia

Livy, Olivia and Dream

All the girls from Mini Company - Olivia, Lily, Dream, Isabella,

Livy, Sofia, Makayla, Jenna and Lexi

Working on her technique in the conventions' ballet class.

Lunch in a conference room at the hotel where the convention was at.

So, I have been a horrible blogger lately. I just have not been in the mood. Anyway here is an update of our February. . . . The last two weekends Olivia has had dance competitions which have kept us very busy. We are really excited for this next weekend with nothing to do :). The first competition was a convention which is where they go to classes all day taught by famous choreographers/dancers and then at night is the competition part. So, they are VERY worn out by the end of the day. She had a really good time and they did great in the competition. This last weekend was just a competition - no classes - and they did three numbers which all got great awards. One of their numbers - Cool Rider - received first place overall for their division. Yeah!!! It is a lot of fun to watch all the dancing and Livy really has a great time. So, that is what all the above pictures are from. I didn't get any pics of her in her competition outfits because I was too busy changing her between dances. She will be doing these dances at recital so there will be plenty of pics then!

Other than dance - Livy's latest thing is that she is getting braces. Tomorrow she and I are going to get them on! She has had spacers for the last week to get ready for them. She is really excited and I think her enthusiasm will last until the day after she gets them on and feels the pain. Poor thing. Better now than in high school though :).

London is crazy as usual and is talking like crazy so there is always something funny that comes out of her mouth everyday. Lately she has been calling Eric - dad and Eric. It seems to just depend on her mood. If she is calling him Eric and you say - okay let's go get dad she then tells you that no she wants Eric. Eric has decided that dad is his usual name and Eric is his stage name (like Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana). So, it just depends which one London wants at the moment. She is nuts. She is also really into animals. She has a webkinz Hippo and a Lion (she calls it Lucky Lion) that she carries everywhere and also HAS to sleep with. She is also really into singing and she makes me sing songs with her all day. We have to sing popcorn on the apricot tree, wheels on the bus, twinkle twinkle little star, the Dora the Explorer theme song and the Diego theme song. Let's just say I am really getting tired of those songs. I can't believe how big she is getting and I am realizing I need to start potty training her. Not something I am looking forward to.

As for me I had a fabulous Valentine's Day. Eric spoiled me with lots of wonderful gifts and took me to Houston's for dinner. I still can't stop thinking about that meal - it was SO good. He is so good to me. Always taking care of me and telling me to rest, which is what I seem to do a lot of these days as my stomach has gotten HUGE. I think in the last week my stomach has doubled in size. I really like having the baby inside and being able to sleep when I want but I think I would rather not be pregnant anymore and have the baby. I just want to get back to myself - although I don't know that that ever happens once you have children. The other thing that has been going on is I started going to church again. I finally have felt better and have been going back. After about two weeks back the first counselor in our bishopric called and gave me a calling in the primary and asked Eric and I to speak in sacrament meeting the next week. What kind of welcome back is that? I think I am still sick :).

Also this month my parents came in town for a little visit which we always love. London and Livy LOVE their Mimi and Papa. We didn't do much - just enjoyed one anothers company, ate lots of good food and one night we even got a babysitter and went to a movie!! I can't tell you the last time I went to the theatres. We saw Taken which I highly recommend. Okay, so I have babbled on long enough but that is what happens when you don't blog for a month. And, knowing myself lately it will probably be another month before I blog again - so see you then. By the way we finally decided on a name (I think) - Savannah Belle and Savvy for short. It does sound a little southern but we really like it. :)

SUPERHERO OLIVIA

So Olivia danced at the Suns game tonight. They do it every year and this year the song was done with a superhero/villain theme. The two main dancers are the older girls that are in the pictures in the superhero outfits that match the little girls outfits. Then some of the older girls were villains but Eric didn't get pictures of them :). London and I went to dinner with Olivia and Eric before and then we dropped them off at the game. It is a really cute hip hop dance that they will be performing at competitions coming up so I am excited to see it all put together since I didn't get to go tonight. I love watching Olivia dance. She loves it and you can tell she loves it. Also, I think I enjoy it because I cannot dance - and that is putting it nicely. They look so cute in their superhero outfits! After they performed they all had tickets together and watched the first half of the game. It was a late game so they decided to bail at half time. Olivia had a fabulous night and this is the beginning of a lot of dance competition filled weekends - so here we go!

Good Job Olivia!

Christmas '05 - Olivia was 4. Amy's parents gave Olivia a bike. I thought teaching her to ride a bike without training wheels would be cake. We spent hours and hours wobbling through church parking lots and up and down streets and falling over - apparently Olivia has her mom's coordination. Olivia was embarrased she couldn't ride with her friends and I was dissapointed with my dad skills. The last thing I wanted was some high school boyfriend teaching my daughter how to ride. Well, as of this weekend, she can ride. No thanks to me - she just picked it up out of the blue. To celebrate, Amy took Olivia out this afternoon and bought her a blue Electra beach cruiser with a kick stand (that was a very important feature). Olivia feels soooo good about herself. Good Job Olivia!

A Few Busy Weekends

We have had some busy weekends in January but I have not felt like blogging so I will try to sum up the month in one quick post. One weekend we went on a Friday night to see Lion King on Broadway. We went with Eric's parents, me, Eric, Olivia and Eric's sister Brittany. Lion King was fabulous!!! Olivia loved it and I'm so glad Eric's parents got tickets for us. We need to see more Broadways! So, Eric's sister Brittany lives in Dallas but came in town to spend a week visiting and brought her daughter Lexi along :). Lexi and London are only a couple of months apart but they are not sure they like each other. We had fun spending time with Brittany but Lexi and London were not wanting to share toys or get too close to one another. It was a lot of screaming and it was a little funny :). So, on Saturday of that weekend Eric and I took Livy, London and Livy's friend Morgan to the zoo. It was in the mid 70's and it was an absolutely gorgeous day! I think just about every animal was out and walking around - it was one of the best days I've had at a zoo. We went to Port of Subs just before we got to the zoo and had some lunch then while we were at the zoo we snacked on kettle korn and sno-cones. We all ended up with colored lips and mouths after the sno-cones and we enjoyed every bite. While at the zoo we also went to the sting ray bay which the girls loved.

So, the next weekend we got the Snell & Wilmer suite and went to High School Musical on Ice. We took a few of Livy's friends and their parents and afterwards we went out for pizza. The girls had a great time and it wasn't a bad show. Watching the girls sing to all the songs and watching London trying to copy everything the older girls did was far more entertaining for me than the show. After that show we had to rush off to a dance practice for Livy because she is getting ready to perform at a Suns game which will be really fun. We then went up to Eric's parents to spend time again with Brittany before she left and we had a very interesting experience. Eric's parents patio has a view of a few other patios. While we were out on the patio feeding the girls mac and cheese we noticed three men out on their patio swimming and hanging out - completely NUDE! What the ? It was very interesting and more than I ever want to see again. Gross. So we have had a lot of fun things going on lately but I am looking forward to a weekend with nothing to do - except watch the Superbowl!!! We are so excited the Arizona Cardinals are going to the Superbowl. Eric and Livy went out and bought shirts to wear for the Cardinals. They are so funny.

The picture of London in her red and black Sunday outfit was taken by Livy on a Sunday morning while Eric and I were trying to get ready. She just looks mischievous doesn't she? She is. Livy and London are two partners in crime and they are pretty dang funny. London has been doing and saying the funniest things lately. Today I layed back down for a little while after I got Livy off to school and got London settled with a snack and toys and watching Go Diego Go. London has a little kitchen she got for her birthday and she LOVES it! Also, there was a big box of Dr. Pepper cans sitting in the kitchen that I had not put in the fridge yet. (yes people, Dr. Pepper is tasting fabulous again - we are back thank heavens!!!) So I got up from my nap and London had opened the box of Dr. Peppers and had stock piled her kitchen. She had put as many cans as she could fit in her kitchen sink, counter and shelves. It was hilarious. She calls any soda pepper and asks for "a pepper" all the time. Before I went to nap she had asked for a pepper and I had said no but maybe later. I guess she wanted to make sure she had some in case I didn't give her any.

Okay, I think I have gone on long enough - hopefully I will get back into blogging so that it's not another three weeks in between blogs. By the way I think we have decided on Savannah for the name. What do you think? We would call her Savvy (because I shorten everything). Any ideas for a middle name?