It is hard to get a family picture

Apparently Brett was having issues along with the girls.

Our traditional kids photo on the stairs before opening presents.



More Christmas to come......

Thanksgiving with my parents

This trip turned out to be the trip from HELL (sorry for the profanity but there is no other word but that one to describe it). We have traveled to my parents before many times during Thanksgiving and Christmas and have NEVER had traffic like we did this trip. It took us 9 hours to get there when it normally takes us 6.5 or 7 hours at most.

We had a great time with my parents. The girls loved having the huge house to themselves and being able to do what they wanted. Most of my parents things are packed since they will be moving soon so the house was EMPTY which made it easy for the girls to roam and play. We got there Wednesday night late and talked to my parents to let the girls run around since they had been in the car forever. Then when we woke up I made pumpkin pies (yummy!) and we ate lunch/dinner at my sister Dori's that lives next door to my parents.

They have 2 little dogs and the girls loved them. That is all they are getting since Brett and I do not like dogs :)

We ate with Dori's family and some of her friends and my parents. I thought I got a picture of all of us at the table but apparently not.



While at my parents both of the girls allergies were TERRIBLE. Brett got a terrible sore throat which turned into laryngitis and then once we got home we both got Bronchitis. Apparently Utah in the winter does not agree with us.

We did have fun and the girls loved being with my parents. This is what everyone did:

Gwen & Grandma Helen (aka my mom) did crafts. They made Grandma (aka Bretts mom) a birthday card since we would be driving home on her birthday.



The card in progress. Gwen loved the glue and glitter and that my Mom had her wear an apron. She just loves all that crafty stuff.



Then Grandma Helen found playdoh that she had made and some toys and Gwen was in heaven.



Penelope pushed her stroller around since there was a ton of open space in the house. She had a ball. Can you tell from this picture how awful her face looks? It is all red and broken out from her terrible allergies. Poor thing.



Papa Helen played, wait sorry, worked on his computer. He is addicted.



Watched movies on the ipad.



Played cards. My family is huge on playing cards and always has been.



Braved the snow. It was one of the coldest winters Cedar had seen -10 degrees one day.



Gwen loved the snow and took every opportunity to play and jump around in it.



Then on our trip home we had the scariest thing ever happen to us. We left my parents house at 5:30am so we would miss the traffic. Once we hit this place in Cedar City on your way to St. George called the "Black Ridge" it is one of the worst places with the most accidents in Utah. Well it turned into one scary time for us. We were going slow since it was snowing and the roads were not the best and we got on some ice and totally lost control of the car and did 2 360's which made us go into the embankment between the road and the mountain. We felt like we were going to flip over but then we hit the mountain and it stopped us from flipping (well that and we were blessed). Brett then got the car in reverse and drive really fast to try to get us out of the embankment. One awesome good Samaritan pulled over and helped us push the car out and jumped on the side rail to help give the wheels some traction so we could make it out of there. We did as you can see from the picture below. We are on the side of the rode were we stopped to look at the car and found out we had a ruined tire and had a dent in the bumper.





What made it even worse was that we had to wait 3 hours for the tow truck/AAA to come and help us. We did have a little bit of excitement when no one was passing us for almost 45 minutes and we knew there had been an accident before us so no one, now, could get to us. After another hour, making it 3 hours we had waited, a fire truck and an ambulance pulled over to check on us. Gwen liked talking to the fireman. They just wanted to make sure we were warm and had help coming but they were not allowed to help us with the tire or anything. Which did suck since we had been waiting forever but oh well. Finally the AAA people came and fixed the car for us so we could be on the way. Well now it was way late and we had not even got to St. George yet! Traffic was horrible, oh course, and finally in Jean, Nevada we were done and got a room for the night. We rested and let the girls run around for a couple of hours and ate but then decided to just leave and get on the rode since Brett had to be in court first thing in the morning.

So all in all we left my parents house at 5:30am and didn't get home until midnight. Worst trip ever. We may never go to Utah again. Snow is the devil.

Craziness

There is alot of craziness going on over here but that is for another day. The girls are enjoying the Christmas decorations and getting really excited for Santa. Gwen keeps vacuuming and telling me that she has to vacuum so Santa can come. Oh how I love that girl.

I promise I will get back into blogging here soon. I have been blogging like a maniac on my sewing blog, have you checked it out lately?

Sisters

The girls have started something new that just makes me so happy. Most of the time Gwen is wrestling with Penelope or doing something to her typical older sister I guess. I got them to sit and share Gwen's chair for about 20 minutes to watch a movie.

Then they did it again this weekend when Brett made popcorn. They shared the bowl of popcorn and watched a movie.



Penelope is so intent on the movie and popcorn it was cracking me up.



I was also able to get Penelope's hair in pigtails this weekend. YAY. Everytime I looked at her it reminded me of Gwen. I had Gwen wear pigtails FOREVER.

First Steps

A week before she turned one Penelope took her first couple of steps when I was hanging out with Kami. Poor Brett didn't get to see it (he was there for Gwen's first ones). After I then ran and got the video camera and waited forever for her to do it again. That is why I get so excited on the video, I had been trying all day and finally she did it for the camera. Also her dress is hanging on by only one strap because she ripped the other one off when she was crawling and I was at my in laws and didn't have anything else for her to wear.

Happy Birthday Penelope.

Today Penelope turns 1. She is the happiest baby. She is always smiling. She loves to give you loves. The best is when she lays her head on your shoulder.

We had a family party yesterday and I made her a Foofa cake from Ya Gabba Gabba since she loves that show.

She didn't really eat a whole lot her of cake. She mainly liked to put it in her hands and mush it all together.



I made her the same Princess Birthday Hat that I made Gwen for her 2nd birthday. I made Penelope's in the colors of Foofa. She is also wearing the shirt that I made her for the family pictures.



The hat is better in person I can't get a great photo of it with the lighting that is today. Maybe later I can try again, but Penelope sure had fun and loved it.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENELOPE. We love you tons.

I just got back from Penelope's 1 year check up and wanted to come back and post her stats so that I will have them written down.

Length : 30 1/2"

Weight: 21 lbs 12 oz.

Don't Worry Be Happy.

 It has been so crazy around here. I am still dealing with some postpartum and seriously can it just end?!?!?! To help I have decided I need to have a moto and stick with it. Don't Worry Be Happy. This has helped me to:

• calm my voice when I am speaking to Gwen & Brett. Mainly Gwen since she is the 3 year old
• be nice not angry
• be happy not depressed
• smile
• realize that the house will never be as clean as I need it to be 
• be the fun happy person I used to be
• enjoy the little things again
• little steps do help, but it is a process
• don't worry be happy

To help this I got rid of my old camera and got a new camera . One that has HD video so that I will get back to using my nice camera because taking pictures is one of my passions and I just love the video and camera combo! It is so nice to have that back.

Going and doing the things that are fun and that I love are great too. The pumpkin patch always makes me happy. You always get great pictures there. Of course I had to take tons so prepare yourself.



Sisters forever. It will be fun and interesting to see how they develop their relationship together over the years. All of my sisters are WAY older than I am and I never had one close in age, luckily Devon and I were always really close.



Almost a year old in just a couple of weeks.


Almost every picture I took of Gwen is like this. She really was going full throttle with the tongue thing.





Just about every picture of Brett & I is like this. I stick out my arm as far as I can and pray for a good one. YAY for finally having one without braces.



Gwen has totally grown lately. She is soooo tall and can go on every ride at Disneyland now with the exception of Indiana since that is 46". Big Thunder is her favorite.



To end I will share this funny outtake of the girls. Once Brett & I saw it we laughed.