A Swap is a Great Thing!

So I signed up to be part of a creativity swap my friend Nancy's cousin had on her blog. It was such a fun thing and I loved what I got. Her cousin actually had my name and she sent the cutest thing! These frames are 8 x 10 and they're adorable! I need to find a good place to display them.

Anyway, I really think that it was a fun thing and want to know if anyone else is up for a swap. Her thinking was we're all so creative and it's fun to share our talents. You can swap anything such as a CD mix, recipe, goodies, or something crafty like these cute frames. Let me know if you're interested and we'll get it going!

The hole that Doug dug

So we got a quote for our new yard that we want this summer and didn't realize how expensive everything actually was! There were a few things such as a stump and these big clothes line poles that we wanted taken out. They were going to chanrge us about $200 to get these things taken out and so Doug and I decided we could do it ourselves. Doug's point was that we're human just like them and so there should be no reason why we can't take them out. Anyway, he started on the stump and didn't realize just how big it actually was. We also started to dig around one of the clothes line poles and again, didn't quite realize the extent of our project. Doug finally got the pole loose and had to dig down the length of the shovel. We seriously have a 4 foot hole in our backyard now. It was amazing just how big that piece of concrete was on the bottom. I know the picture doesn't really do it justice but that chunck of concrete you can see is seriously about 3 feet tall and 18 inches across. Now the only problem is that the thing is so freaking huge and heavy that we can't get it out! Anyone looking to lift a giant pole and chunck of concrete out of a 4 foot hole?
Here's the thing just waiting to be removed. Here's the stump he's working on. Again, the picture doesn't do it justice. The whole is about 4 1/2 feet across. We'll have to include the shovel in another picture to give a more accurate idea.

Return of the dyed eggs

Happy Easter everyone!

We had a fun time dyeing eggs again last night. Doug had a fun time experimenting with Elemers glue this time (his is the one with the spots on it). Yesterday we also had a fun time at Grandma Ivins' Easter Party. They always do a fun hunt but Sophie didn't quite get it. She still had a fun time.

Last night as we were getting ready to dye eggs I told Sophia we had to get the house cleaned up before we could dye eggs. She then said, "Mom, I have an egg problem. I need to color eggs." Then as we were getting ready for bed we told her she needed to go to sleep because the Easter Bunny was going to come and bring her a basket with toys and candy. She then immediately burst into tears and said, "Not the Easter Bunny! No not him!" She kept asking for Grandpa Wilkins to comfort her and she absolutely would not set a foot in her room to go to sleep. We finally had to let her fall asleep in our bed because she was so afraid of the Easter Bunny. Before she fell asleep we read a little bit of the Easter story from the scriptures and talked about how Jesus was resurrected because he loves us. We then asked Sophia why she loves Jesus and she said, "because he loves me." Well said.

This morning she found her basket on the couch (I wanted to put it in her room for her to find in the morning but I was afraid she'd find it in the middle of the night and freak out that the Easter Bunny had been there so we decided the couch was a better idea) and gasped and said, "Ah! A surprise!" She then kept pulling everything out of her basket while saying, "look at what the Bunny Easter brought me!".

Here's a pic of a cake I made showing the Bunny Easter himself!


Finally, here's a few cute ones of my cute ones in their matchies!

They're done!

I started these pillows a little while ago and just got them finished. I thought they turned out pretty cute! They're definitely a lot better than what we had before!Here's a better video of the laughing Lilly. She thinks her daddy is pretty funny!



Here's a bonus picture Sophia took of her bunnies. Happy Easter!

Big Timin' in a Small Town

So we hit the good 'ol P-town streets today to checkout our latest claim to fame. This is what Main Street has looked like for the past few days and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Apparently they're filming this movie called "Hatching Pete". I guess it's going to be a Disney Channel Movie and it stars some kid from Hannah Montana or something. Anyway, who knew Payson was so exciting! The scene that they're filming here is of a parade. You weren't supposed to take pictures on the set so oops!

Yesterday I went on a quick jog in the morning and left Sophia in the bath in the care of her daddy. When I got home she looked like this. I just about died laughing! Here's a view from the top:What a funny daddy!

Eggs and the Zoo!

We had a fun time tonight decorating eggs! It was all fun and games until Sophia dumped the entire cup of yellow all over herself, the table, and the floor. We were just grateful she didn't choose to knock over the cup with blue dye in it! Here we are in the egg making process...

Here's the finished product. We sure had a fun time incorporating rubber bands into the dyeing process.

Here's a few shots from the zoo the other day. We had such a fun time with there with Drezden! Happy Birthday to Drezden today!

How do we compare?

The gorilla color has changed a little (and it looks like kids have gotten smaller and gorillas have gotten bigger) but I thought it would be fun to see how we looked in the same spot at the Hogle Zoo. I'm not sure if my hair or my shoes are the best part of this picture.

The other day Sophia put this hat on and said, "Hey! I look like a giger! (tiger)" She sure hit that one right on the nose!

Last but not least, here's one of the Easter shots that I just got back. I thought it turned out pretty good!

Here's what Sophia's been "squitin'" lately

So let me explain the title of this post first. Sophia always says this when she doesn't know what word to say. For example she'll always come up to us and say, "What are you squitin'?" She also says "I'm squitin' him" as she squishes her stuffed monkey. We're really not quite sure what it means or where it came from but it's fun to see her imagination at work. I actually think it may have come from Blue's Clues (a.k.a. Clues Clues). Steve or Joe or whatever his name is now always says "let's skidoo" when they're going to do something and I still can't figure out what that word means. I think that's she's making up her own words for things because that's what these wonderful "educational" programs are teaching her. Anyway, here's a little bit of what she's been up to.


Last Friday she went with her friend Will to Chuck E. Cheese. Will has been looking forward to it for weeks since his mom promised him he could go with Sophia once she finished the Bar exam. She took it a few weeks ago so last week (Hooray for Erin!) so they were finally able to go. From the minute we walked in the door to the minute we walked out of the door she was completely glued to my leg and would freak out the minute I tried to put her on a ride. I did finally get her on one and she immediately jumped off the second it started to move. We also saw the great Chuck E. himself and that totally caused her to freak as well. As soon as she saw him she started screaming and said, "No! Not that guy!" Needless to say, I think we'll give it a few more years before we try that place again. Thanks anyway Erin! I at least had a fabulous time. Will also had a tremendous time! He would come and get a token, go and ride a ride, come back for a token and go ride another ride. He continued this process the whole time we were there. I was truly impressed at his independence. Here he is enjoying one of the rides.

Here's Will and Sophia just before we left. I really did try and get one of them on a ride together but she seriously would not have it! She wouldn't even get out of the stroller to take a picture!

After that we decided to take a walk up the canyon since it was such a beautiful day. The girls thouroughly enjoyed the sun and I enjoyed the exercise

After that we decided to head to the animal museum (Bean Life Science Museum). It's pretty much Sophia's favorite place in the entire world because the animals don't move! She really loves it and would go there everyday if I'd let her.

All in all it was such a fun day and I was so glad I was able to do so many fun things with my girls! We're looking forward to a fun week this week and we hope it won't rain so that we can go to the zoo (her second favorite place) with Drezden (Happy Birthday on Saturday)! I also want to give a late birthday shout out to Jane and Maddie who both celebrated birthday's yesterday! It looked like they both had fabulous days! The cake was adorable by the way Lauren!


Finally, here's on of the laughing girl. She has let out much bigger guffaws but I can never get them on video! It's at the very beginning so don't cough or you'll miss it. This is the best we could do. I still think it's pretty cute.

Return of the umbrella lady

So for those of you who grew up in south Provo you may recognize this lady (although she's without her umbrella). I know for sure Lissa knows who I'm talking about. For those of you who didn't grow up in south Provo there is this lady that would walk around constantly in a big white coat with big sunglasses and an umbrella over her shoulder. No matter how hot or cold it was outside she always had all three of those items and we called her the "umbrella lady". Anyway, I was getting ready to go run a few errands yesterday and of course Sophia had to come with me so I told her to get a jacket, socks, and shoes and she came out dressed like this. I'm still trying to decide if the glasses, the blue socks with yellow chicks all over them, or the unmatched white (at least they're both white) shoes are my favorite. What do you think?
Here's the princess trying to hide from the paparazzi as we were getting ready to leave. Way to keep yourself hidden Sophs. I really like the disguise.

In other news, Lilly can laugh! It's about the cutest thing ever and it makes everything so much more fun! I'll try to catch it on video sometime.

Let them Eat Soap

We had a pretty good weekend. On Friday Lilly and I head down to the Wales house with Kimber and Heather (and their babies) for a girls weekend getaway. It was a lot of fun and was nice to get away for a minute. Lilly did great and let me have a great night's sleep. I was pretty convinced that her and I were going to move down there for the next little while and that she was going to sleep in her car seat for the rest of her life. We could not believe how much snow there was at Wales still! We couldn't get in the driveway and were grateful for the path Michael and Jenna had carved out a few weeks ago. When we got home we went to the park to fly Sophia's glider plane that she got in her kids meal at Taco Time. She loved it and we had a good time.

We had a nice relaxing day yesterday. Lilly especially had a good time lounging in her swing.
Last night we had our friends the Chipman's from the old Provo Peak 1st ward over for dinner and games. We had a great time and it was so good to seem them again. While we were playing games Sophia and their little girl Emma were playing and eating treats. They had gotten into some Easter decorations and were enjoying themselves. A few years ago my sister-in-law Katie gave everyone a set of Easter eggs that tell the Easter story. It has scriptures and a symbol that goes with each one in each egg. Anyway, they had emptied all of them and were having a good time playing with the objects. Sophia all of the sudden started coughing and then threw up everywhere. We thought she had just eaten too much candy or something because she immediately was acting so we cleaned her up and they went back to playing. A few minutes later Emma came up to Doug and handed him the item shown below and said, "will you take this away?". It's the symbol that goes along the scripture where Pilate washes his hands of the matter. Apparently even though soap looks like candy it doesn't taste like candy (and it induces vomiting). We found the piece she had consumed later so we were glad she didn't swallow it.