Photo Shoot

My friend Kylie from Secondstar Photography took some really cute pictures of the girls this morning. She is going to do some touch ups on them, but I am too excited wait. Here are a few of my favourites.

The Grotto

I had a couple of friends tell me about a fun little hike for kids up Payson Canyon and I wanted to take the girls. Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, so we packed a lunch and went on a little Sunday afternoon drive and hike. We had a wonderful time and the girls loved it.

I told Maggie to 'smile', so she showed me the sign for smile.

'wook at dis wock'

The girls and I at the start of the trail.

I packed Chloe so Dave could do some geo-caching and chase Maggie.

Happy Hikers.

It was a beautiful day for a hike. Our Trail was covered in all different coloured leaves.

Maggie wanted to sit on every log and climb up every rock.

Self portrait of Chloe and I.

Like I said...climbing every rock.

My Cute little Hiker.

Playing drums on the log.

The trail...it was so pretty.

My attempt at a self portrait of the 3 of us, didn't work so well.

There were lots of fun bridges to cross. Maggie was a little nervous, but did pretty good.

Someone had flattened the top of this log to make a bench....Maggie was very impressed.

Me and the girlies.

We made it to the falls and grotto.

(I'm really not that much taller than Dave)

Playing in the Water. It was FREEZING, but Maggie and Chloe didn't mind at all.

Chloe especially loved all the rocks and dirt she could put in her mouth.

This girl LOVES water!

We had a great time. We will definitely be going there again.

Pictures

Here are some of my favourite recent pictures of the girls.

She falls asleep like this all the time....I think it's the cutest

Santa Coco

Watching Dora on 'Mommy's little computer' with cousin Sophie.

She let me braid her hair. It looked so cute.

Colouring with Daddy. Notice how Maggie has her sunglasses on her head just like Dave. She puts them up there all the time.

When things are too quiet at my house. Thank goodness for washable markers.

Our First E.R. Visit

Maggie swallowed an eye-screw and we survived our first official visit to the E.R.

We moved into a new apartment last month and 2 weeks ago I decided that it was time to get the place decorated. I have a tray with different nails and screws in it that I had sitting on the table. Of course Maggie wanted to 'help'. She got a little eye-screw and was pretending it was a key, going around to all the doors and 'unlocking' them. I figured this was fairly innocent and safe, so I let her play with it....little did I know.
As I was hanging a picture I looked over and saw Maggie put the 'key' in her mouth. Just as I said 'Maggie, spit that out', there was a little choke and it was gone....oh great. Since we had just moved recently we still had no phone set up and since I have a frugal husband we don't have a cell phone. I ran upstairs and asked the upstairs neighbor if I could use her phone. I called my Dr.'s office hoping that they would say 'ahhh, no big deal, it will pass,' but instead I got, 'take her to the E.R. NOW.'....oh great.
Of course it was a Thursday and Dave has the car in Salt Lake ALL day on Thursdays (we're talking 7am - 8pm). My head was spinning trying to figure out how to get to the hospital with no car and no car seats. My neighbor had to leave so she couldn't help, but asked if I could just take Maggie to Utah Valley Hospital. In my flustered state I forgot that we had moved only about 4 blocks from the hospital....yes, yes, I could walk over there....duh. I loaded up the girls in the stroller and off we went.
Everyone in the E.R. was so nice and helpful. They even gave my girls little dollies to have and entertain them. We were there for about 3 hours and both of the girls were so good. Chloe had been grumpy and miserable all morning with 6 teeth coming in all at once, but she was an absolute angel. I know I was being blessed and watched over.
They did an x-ray of Maggie's abdomen to make sure that the screw had made it into her stomach and hadn't gotten caught up anywhere on the way. Sure enough it was sitting at the bottom of her stomach right where they wanted it to be. They sent me home with instructions to come back in 2 days for another x-ray to make sure it had passed, but the next day I spotted a little gold in her diaper. I washed it up so she can keep her souvenir.

Hanging out in the waiting room.

I grabbed the DVD player on the way out the door...so glad I did.

Waiting for x-rays with her new dolly.

Such a good girl. She spent most of the time just sitting in the stroller.

Getting sleepy. It was a long afternoon.

Hospital bands and eye-screws....so much fun.

I didn't really know if Maggie understood much of what was going on, but the other day we were watching Bolt and at the end of the movie they have to take Bolt and Penny to the hospital. Maggie said 'has to go to the hospital....go see the fishies', (I had totally forgotten they they had an aquarium in the waiting room)...then she looked at me really sheepishly and said 'I swawoed da key'....I guess it did make an impression.

Life After Graduation

Here's just a quick little update of our life. Dave is working a few different jobs right now. He put his name in at a 'temp agency' and they got him a job working full time for a costume company. He is doing costumer service, answering phones and taking orders. It's their busy season, so they hire a bunch of extra help for the next couple of month. Not the most exciting job, and not using his degree at all, but it's paying the bills for the next little while.

The most exciting thing that he is doing right now is teaching a class at Salt Lake Community College. He is teaching a Human Biology course Tuesdays and Thursdays evenings. We are thrilled with this opportunity to get a foot in the door with the college. Teaching his 'own' class will be great on a resume, and he is using his degree. He is also going to be subbing a few times at the BYU Salt Lake Center, teaching General Biology (another foot in a door), and he got approved to work part-time at BYU with on of his Professors. He has been a busy boy and we miss him around here.

The girls and I just hang out at home most of the time. They are crazy, fun and smart little stinkers. They definitely keep me busy and for the most part I'm maintaining my sanity.

Chloe is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY...it's unreal how many things she can get into in one day. I thought that my house was fairly child proof, she is proving me wrong. She climbs and wriggles her way into places I would have never thought she could get to. Maggie seems to be getting a little easier these days, but maybe Chloe is just so hard right now that it makes Maggie seem better (just kidding). Maggie is growing up quickly, she blows me away with the things she says and what she remembers. Both the girls have fun little personalities....I kind of like 'em.

Here are a few recent pictures of the girls for your viewing pleasure.

Bath time is a favourite time in our house. The girls LOVE it and I love that they are easy to contain while they are in the tub.

She loves corn, she ate 2 1/2 cobs that day. Being from Taber, this makes me very proud :)

(I'm missing Cornfest this weekend...sniff, sniff)

PIGGIES

It's hard for me to get her to sit still for very long, so I was exciting to get her hair done.

It lasted a little while, until she decided to pull them out.

Maggie calls Oreos 'black cookies'...Chloe calls them 'delicious'! (I call them messy)

I just took this picture a minute ago, it's so funny.

Chloe has not been good at going to sleep on her own, I still have to rock her to sleep most of the time. She is finally starting to get better at it.

After I put her down I could hear her playing in her crib for a while, when things were quiet I peeked in to check on her....this is what I found.

I guess I can't put her down without something over her diaper anymore.

I'm just mostly proud of her for going to sleep on her own :)

We are all happy and healthy. We're hoping that Dave will be able to find something full-time and permanent, but we are headed in the right direction.