Look what Daddy brought home! ENTER: ROBOCOP

Awhile ago we had to find our Marley-dog a new home...It broke my heart giving her away, but I couldn't bear the thought of another winter of her sitting outside in the cold and she was just too big for us to be an inside dog :(  Ever since she had been gone and since Jack had run away too, the girls kept begging for a new pet.  I am a sucker for those little girlies and finally we decided that a mini schnauzer might be the way to go.  We ended up finding someone in Vernal who was giving away a puppy they had just bought and Coby went and picked him up and surprised the girls.  Mae was feeling a little emotional (story of our life) and I kept telling her that maybe she would feel better when Daddy got home and she was NOT liking that I kept saying that...but guess what--she DID!  They were beyond thrilled to have this little guy.  The previous family had named him "Hank," but we decided that we wanted to give him a name that our family chose.  We had a lot of contenders, but the winner was (drum roll please).................................ROBOCOP!  What?!!  If you hadn't guessed that was Coby's suggestion and still to this day I have no idea how he got the girls, especially Mae to get onboard with that, but that is his name.  We have shortened it for the most part and usually just call him Robo, but it is slightly embarrassing when someone asks what his name is--ha, ha!

As you can tell from the pix, we are all just a tad smitten with this little guy, including Daddy....

Rub-a-dub-dub...

three girls in the tub!

Mae's turn...

Mae escaped the last bug, but this time she wasn't so lucky...She said a manicure would make her feel better, but the poor little girl couldn't even sit up to do it so we had to improvise.  Poor sick girl.

This little ham

 Emme came in wearing the hat the hospital brought her in wearing right after we had her--it looks more like a weird little yamaca now.  It made me a little sad thinking how fast she has grown up unto such a big girl with a TON of personality.

I keep trying everyday to get Emme to take a nap and usually it is a vain attempt.  It is super hard to be 2 when your mom desperately wants you to take a nap and you desperately, fingers under the door, do NOT want to.  I am losing this battle...

One day hurrying to get out the door, I told Em to go get her shoes and socks on...this is what she came up with:  One sock on with the heel at the top of her foot, mismatching shoes, socks and sandals (???) and not to mention previously discussed sandal on the wrong foot.  Took a few more extra minutes to get out the door, but gotta love the laughs this little girl brings into our lives.

Taste of Spring

We had a few days in February that were absolutely DIVINE, with a capital D, positively spring-like and believe you me, we took full advantage of it.  Verna's winters are hard on this warm-blooded girl and that little bit of Vitamin D made the rest of the winter seem do-able. 

 We had lunch outside--just look how happy those girls look in the sun...

and we went to the park (notice Lu's shirt-that's right sleeveless) where this happened:  monkey bars all by herself.  SLOW DOWN LU!

We also got the Barbie car running and went driving all over the neighborhood, happy as clams...Who says this is only a two-seater?

Winter wasn't quite over yet, but this little vacay from the negatives was just the refresher I needed.

Field Trip to the Police Station

I got to go with Lu on a field trip to the Police Station.  They took us on a tour around the building and showed us dispatch where all the 9-1-1 calls come in and also showed us the K-9 dogs and all the kids got a huge kick out of it.  It is so nice to be able to have some special one-on-one time with the girls sometime.

                                       Thanks Lu for letting your mom tag along with you today.

Ice Skating date with Daddy!

Mae's school had an ice skating night for the family and lucky daddy got to go with these two cuties since Emme wasn't quite old enough.  This was the first time they had ever been and while I'm sure daddy had his hands full helping them,  but he said they did really good and all had such a good time!

They all came home raving about how fun the skating was and that they had gotten cookies and hot                                                             chocolate.  They all look pretty happy to me :)

Lu needed to make a Valentine's box for her preschool class and after looking and looking on Pinterest for the perfect one, she finally settled on this one and we set to work making it.  She did really good helping me (she LOVES helping me do things like that), and, 

I'd say she looks pretty pleased with the end result :)  

 We had to save the box for a good three weeks before I could finally convince her that it was time to let the dog go.  Happy Valentine's Day cutie :)

I was finally able to convince Lu to let me give her a haircut!  Love this cute little girl!

Dress up and rock stars...ahhh, the life of girls :)

Mae and her friend Riley singing me songs they wrote.

All that playing eventually took its toll on us and poor Em and Lu got knock down S-I-C-K!  

While I hate when my girls are sick, I secretly kind of love it because when else would I get such sweet snuggles from my girlies???

Girls nights!

Daddy got a new job in January working for VTV (Vernal TV) and one of the things they do is broadcast local events, such as sports and such, leaving us with some girls nights only every once in awhile.  Sometimes this includes karaoke...

other times its pedicures...

and better yet, sometimes we go out for ice cream...

and then sometimes just silly girls watching girly movies.

I kinda like these three cuties :)

CHRISTMAS DAY!

Christmas Day started out with a BANG! We started at our house bright and early opening the presents Santa brought us.  Nana and Papa came over and we got to open stockings from them too.  I took a zillion pictures and sometime from then until now, I lost those ones too.  It breaks my heart that I don't have any documentation of that morning, but we were there and did have a wonderful Christmas morning.  The few that I do have I borrowed from some Nana had taken.

Mae had originally wanted an American Girl Doll, and boy was it a DILEMMA when she realized they did not make one with dark blonde hair and green eyes.  We were looking ALL OVER trying to find one that would look exactly like her when we came across My Salon Dolls, 18in dolls with real hair from hair extensions that you can really wash, style, anything you can do with real hair.  And what do you know--they made one with just the eye/hair color combination that we needed!  She was SUPER excited when she opened up her present and Ava even had glasses just like her!

Lu decided that she wanted a Nintendo DS from Santa and he went above and beyond and not only did she get that, but it eve had a Rainbow Dash sticker on it--her favorite My Little Pony.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that. 

Emme had been all over the place on what she wanted and really never made a decision on what she really wanted, so Santa surprised her with a cooking set (because she LOVES to play cooking) with a Minnie Mouse apron.  

After opening the presents from Santa, we headed over to Nana and Papa's again for breakfast with the cousins and spent the day eating, snacking and visiting with our family.  

Emme also got a Coraline doll- which just happens to be one of her VERY FAVORITE movies!  She is just a little thrilled with her.

Kenna also got a Salon Doll from Santa this year too and her and Mae seem pretty excited about there little mini me's.

Minus the exception of a few hundred lost pictures :( the holiday season was VERY special for us this year.  I am so grateful for the wonderful memories we made this year together with our family.

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve morning we started out with our normal tradition of Santa pancakes that the girls really get a kick out of before we headed over to Nana and Papa's for a BUSY day of Christmas eve-ing :)

When we first got there we all drew names and hit up Walmart.  We all had a $5 limit to buy that person a little present and it was SUPER fun for all of us.  The girls thought it was pretty cool picking out the presents.  After we bought our stuff, we all met back at Nana and Papa's to wrap them and then we got to open them! So much fun!

I had borrowed some Nativity costumes from a friend and later on, we put those to good use with the six little cuties we just happened to have on hand.  Mae got to play Mae, Zai was Joseph, Kenna the angel, Ave, Lu and Em were the wisemen.  We read through the Nativity story and had the kids act it out.

We sang a few songs with Grandpa George and his guitar and then as if that wasn't enough, we had a bunch of presents and prizes and BINGO!

It was the perfect Christmas Eve and everyone had a wonderful time celebrating with the family!

Lucy's Christmas Preschool Program

Lucy had her Christmas preschool program and it was so cute to see her up on the stage literally singing her heart out :)  I was so proud of her and took a zillion pictures and sometime in between that and actually posting them, I lost them all :(  It made me sick that I lost all those pix, but I was able to pawn one that Nana and Papa had of them up on the stage.  They were all dressed up like cute little Christmas bulbs and sang so good!

After the program, guess who made another appearance???  The girls and him were getting real tight at this point and he was no stranger to Lu.  He even brought a cute little elf to help him.

No overload of pix this time, but believe me when I tell you, it was a FUN night to watch cute little Miss Lu and her friends!