Sick.... again?!

So I got a little sick about 2 weeks ago, missed some hours at the hospital for my clinical and everything. Well a couple days ago I woke up again sick... but like 14 times as bad as last time! The even WORSE thing is that I can't miss anymore time at the hospital because the semester ends mext week. And finals are in a week, too, and I'm already behind in studying! Ugh...

Luckily today my parents and sister were thoughtful enough to take the kids to see "Tangled" (like I had promised them I would do today) and I got to stay home to rest.

Everybody cross your fingers and hope I'll feel better by class on Monday morning!

Gracie and Dixie

Our family dog, Dixie, is crazy. She and Gracie are actually a lot alike. They both have endless energy and will eat almost anything. They run around in circles, jump on the bed, and don't listen much unless offered a treat. Maybe that's why they get along so well!

Dixie and Gracie together crack me up!

My cute girls!

Andrea is such a trooper trying to take pictures of my girls! After about 20 minutes of posing and shooting... and some help from Photoshop, this is what we got! I think it was the only picture that Gracie wasn't making a crazy face and Ashley wasn't crying...

But I LOVE these girls!!!!!

Thanks Ange for your hard work!!

A Spooky Weekend

Ah Sunday morning-- the best time to get caught up on blogging, while the kids are "playing" (AKA fighting over toys) in their room! Last weekend was Halloween and Gracie's birthday. Luckily my friend's halloween party landed the previous week while the girls were with their dad so I got to go- but didn't bring my camera :( But rest assured there were some great costumes and we had a lot of fun!!

On Saturday, Gracie's brithday, we went Trick-Or-Treating. It took months for Ashley and Gracie to finally pin down what they wanted to be. It varied from Petter Pan and Tinkerbelle, to Barbies, or Princess Tiana and Charolette, to finally.... INSECTS! Ashley was a bee (which is what I dressed up as too!) and Gracie wanted to be a lady bug.

They were excited to wear make up and Gracie requested that she get lipstick to match her dress! And Andrea came over and crimped their hair all cute, and then they were ready to go!

Ashley insisted on posing like this for her pictures.....

And yes, those are Gracie's pink rainboot. It turns out that we really needed them that night! We were prepared with rainboots and umbrellas, but it sure didn't keep up dry!

After about 30 seconds outside, their hair and make up was gone!!

Gracie's birthday party we had on Sunday. We found an awesome Halloween/birthday

cake for her, which I loved! Gracie doesn't smile a lot in pictures, but she

was pretty excited about the cake, too!

She got to open presents and loved every minute of it!

One of Gracie's presents was a pillow pet- which she's been asking for for months!

Her and Erika snuggled with it....

It was a fun weekend and we were exhausted! This is how I found the girls asleep that night...


And now it seems that Gracie thinks she gets to wear make up all the time! AND she gets to put it on herself.... YIKES!! I guess I better keep my eye liner hidden from here on out!!

Gorgeous!!!

How much do we love Andrea?! The answer is .... A LOT. Because without

her we wouldn't get those awesome pictures!!! THANKS ANGE!!!

Ashley came up with this pose all by herself... shocking, huh?!

I love Ashley's serious faces.... I think she can pull it off!!

I love my girls!

Sometimes life is really hard. Sometimes I feel like I cant keep up and that I'm doing everything wrong. Sometimes I feel like I'm not measuring up like I want, and that I can't get important things that I want or need- even though I try so hard and want it so much.

But all of it can go away, even just for a second, when I hug and kiss my girls. I'm so blessed to have such fun, loving, and sweet kids! The other day I was exhausted and I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes for a minute while the girls watched Dora, and Ashley came up and put a blanket over me. She's so sweet and thoughtful! And no matter how wild Gracie gets, she'll always stop for a "squeeze" and a kiss. I love them so much!

CrAsH

Gracie is the kind of kid who never sleeps and has neverending energy. She's like a less-furry Energizer bunny. Her and Ashley have been having to get up at 6:30 every morning, and she rarely falls asleep before 9:30 each night. And I think it caught up with her today! One of her cute daycare teachers texted me this picture of her today. When she finally does crash... she crashes hard!

She Gonna be a Soccer Player!

Gracie had her first soccer practice today! She was excited to wear her shin guards! We walked up the the park where practice was and she kept saying, "Where's my coach?" "I want to find my coach." "Oh there's my coach." haha Made me laugh!

Gracie was a natural with the soccer ball! She wasn't afraid to just get after it! She was stealing the ball from the boys during their practice game and score on them. She played defense awesome- blocked some goals! I was impressed!

She did great wih dribbling down the field - kick the ball and run!

GO TIGERS!!!

She has 4 games over the next 5 Saturdays. We'll see how they go! Good luck, Gracie girl!

Labor Day at the Fish Farm

What a great holiday we had today!! My parents took the girls up the the fish farm in Kamas, where they used to take me and my siblings when we were younger! The girls were excited and I was happy that we knew for sure that we'd be catching some fish! haha

Ashley was the first to catch a fish- and it was a big one! She loved catching the fish, but when it came to standing within 3-4 feet of the fish- she ran away FAST!! For some reason the fish scared her!

Gracie was a little more brave with the fish. This bucket is where we kept the already-caught-fish flipping around.

Gracie's second fish was pretty big!

She wasn't too sure about standing so close to the big fish though!

And then the fish started flipping out while still on the hook and it kinda scared

her! You can see how she was surprised and tried to move away without falling into the pond!

There was this cute little swing that the girls got to play on while we got the fish all together before we left.

Gracie loved my hat... she also loves having pictures taken of herself.... haha Gracie got this little star ring at the fishing pond and she loved it- even though she kept losing it!

We were in the car a lot today and both of the girls got a good nap in :)

Back to real life tomorrow!! Wish us luck!