The other day Chris decided he had to capture Jake during his meal. With banana on his head and not a care in the world. Of course, once the girls caught on, everyone had to do a silly pose. Here are my kids in all their silliness and glory!
We have been home for the past several weekends and so we have decided to go out and about here in town. This last weekend it was so nice that we headed to the zoo. Chris had never been to our local zoo, so we were so happy to take dad!
This was Ella's first trip to the zoo (at an age she would know anything). she loved seeing all the animals that she has been learning about. She was excited to practice her animal noises and see them in real life. She really like the monkeys and the giraffes. Hannah you can tell is older. She didn't spend as much time with each animal, but there is still some "kid" in her. She loved feeding the giraffe and kept asking to do it again. They both liked to look at the Stingrays, but either one of them were willing to touch the water or the rays.
It was fun to go as a family and to spend a great spring day "animal exploring". 
Of course we had to stand in line to see the rest of the princesses. This time, we got to see two princesses we have never met... Pocahontas and Ariel. That was a treat too. here are the pictures with the princesses.
Ella is so funny. She is the pickiest eater I know, but when she does eat, she loves to take her dirty little hands and run them through her hair. Every time her hands are dirty with peanut butter, yogurt, or mashed potatoes she sleeks her hair into a nice little spike in the front. As a "non-mom" it is hilarious but as a mom (which I am) it is so messy and a little bit gross. Chris loves it.. .me not so much (especially right after her bath). But at least she is eating, right?
Here are some photos of the Saturday's activities. As a child we always (or I think we always) decorated easter cookies. So, of course now that Hannah is old enough, we too made and decorated sugar cookies. Hannah was pretty good at it, beside dumping a pile of sprinkles in the middle of each cookie she made.
So question for all of you out there. I am in search for the best sugar cookie recipe. Anyone have a recipe they think is the best! I would love to try it.
Then later that evening we colored easter eggs. Hannah still loves to dip the egg in more than 2 colors, so we created some fun and interesting colors.
Ella had her first birthday on Sunday. I can't believe she is already one year old. We had a little birthday party with Aunt Jill and Uncle Ty and our neighbors. Ella loved when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and loved the presents she received after they were unwrapped. It was a great party for her until we made her eat her cupcake... then the party took a terrible turn.
We put the cupcake in front of her face and she put her hands in it and seconds later she started to get very upset. She definitely didn't like the feel of the frosting. Then dad stuck the frosting in her mouth and it was all over. She broke down into the most terribly sad cry. The whole "cupcake ceremony" lasted about 3 mins and 2 1/2 mins of it was in tears. (See the progression below).
But all returned to happiness when she was clean again and on the floor playing with her toys and friends and family. It has been a great first year with our little Ella.
We are off again to the wonderful place called Disneyland. We bought annual passes, so we thought we would head down for the weekend and see the Halloween decorations. I'll be back at the beginning of the week (hopefully with more fun pictures). We hope to get on Nemo's Submarine Adventure and see the princesses this time around, but you never know, it might be even more crowded then it was a month ago. But here's hoping.
PS - For those that are interested in my Young Women lesson. I won't be posting one this week (since I am not teaching it), but will have another one next Sunday. 
Since the school year is upon us and Chris has to go back to teaching early morning seminary, we thought we would get away for the day last weekend and go do something fun, before it all starts up again. So, we headed to Yosemite and went hiking/walking with the girls. It was a nice day in the mountains and a nice little drive to get there.
Ella loved being outside and looking at all the trees and Hannah loved picking up rocks all along the way. She kept picking them up until both hands were full and she carried them the entire 1.6 miles. Every time she lost one, she would replace it with another. She loved running down the path and actually asked to get her picture taken several times.
It is nice to have such beauty so close by.
I threw a shower the other night for a friend of mine. I don't have pictures of her, but after 2 weeks she looks great, almost couldn't tell she had a baby. Oh, to have such luck. I think the party turned out pretty darn cute. Here are some pictures of the details of the event. And I want to thank everyone that helped out... Thanks so much!
After 3 years, Hannah finally had her first haircut or should I say trim. And luckily it was a success. I thought for sure she would cry through the whole thing (she is at the stage), but she did great. I think it was because she got to sit in a little red car and they put in a Winnie the Pooh movie (her favorite). She was very cooperative and her hair looks so much better. It isn't in her face anymore and because we took off some weight, it is even more curly than before. 
Ella has grown up so much these last few weeks. She now does more than just lay on her back. She loves to roll on her side, grab her feet and hold her hands. She laughed for the first time this week and is very aware of her surroundings. She is much like her father, if something is going on around her, she will not sleep. Things have to be quite and uninteresting for her to want to sleep. She doesn't want to miss out on the fun. She is starting to hold her head up and keep it up, which means she soon won't be a newborn anymore. Luckily, she still has a lot of growing yet to do.
My daughters are the luckiest girls to have such wonderful grandmas like they do. This trip has been so great for me, my daughters and my mom. My mom has been the so wonderful. She plays with Hannah constantly teaching her and playing with her and holds Ella as much as she can (although Ella isn't the most cuddly baby). Grandma is always on and ready to do what she can to create those quality moments with her granddaughters.
So, far she has taken Hannah to the library to pick out books, run errands, play with toys at Target, go out to lunch at McDonalds, back to the library for reading hour and to make Hannah's favorite "big bad wolf" out of a paper plate, out for walks, playing with puzzles and of course playing outside. It was been a blast for Hannah, I am sure Ella is loving it inside that little brain of hers and wonderful for me to see it all happen.
I love grandmas! 
Like I mentioned earlier. We went to Jessica "Blackwell" Larson's son birthday party last week. It was a blast. He turned 1 years old and boy is this little guy cute. The kids had a great time, but of course Hannah had to try and take over the party. Charlton was ready to blow out his candle and Hannah chimed in... I want to blow. Jess being the nice mom she is, let Hannah help blow out the candle. Next, Charlton got a beautiful wood rocking motorcycle from his grandpa (It was great, because his grandpa has a Harley, so now they both have matching hogs!) It was the hit of the party. Hannah of course again, jumped right on the thing as soon as she had a chance and rode and rocked and rode until she was kicked off, so others could have a chance. So, as you can tell Hannah loved the party... thanks Charlton for sharing your special day!
Here is a collage of all the photos from the big birthday party. If you click on the image, it will appear bigger and you can see each picture better. Enjoy!
I thought this would be fun to see how Hannah was grown up through the years - month by month. It is interesting to see the slight changes and also the big changes all in one spot. I should do years 2 to 3, but this took long enough. I might add on later. Click on the image to make it bigger.
Last of the Easter festivity pictures. Here is Hannah decorating eggs for the first time. She loved it as she put eggs in every color of dye she could find. It was a success for all involved.
Hannah has been in her big girl room now for over a month and she loves it. So, I thought I would post the final product! It was fun to get this room ready for her and I hope to have captured her personality (just a bit). It is a fun and bright room - just like our girl!
We loaded up the family and drove to Indian Wells, Ca (right near Palm Springs). It was a great weekend visiting Chris' aunt and uncle. Although it was a 6 hour drive, it wasn't bad at all (which I contribute to our wonderful, luxurious new minivan!). We had so much fun going to the local street market faire on Saturday morning and then swimming in the pool all afternoon. The weather was beautiful and the weekend was nice and relaxing.
While at the fair, we found this fun umbrella which Hannah loved trying to hold up. It was twice her size, but so fun to spin and play with. All the ladies at the fair just stopped and laughed at Hannah and how cute she was, so here are some pictures to prove it :-)
Today was so nice, we went to the zoo. We met up with Serenity and Landon and boy did they have fun. The two girls just ran and ran all over the zoo. At times, they were too busy to stop to look at the animals. But they did enjoy the monkeys (of course), the elephants and the flamingos (as the pictures show). We bought our annual pass, so we will be going a lot more often (or at least until it gets into the 100's)
Our house is one sick place to be right now. Hannah has been sick for days and now Ella is sick too. It started with Hannah throwing up all night on Wednesday and recuperating with bouts of "the illness" every day (when she eats too much or drinks too much) and now poor little Ella has a very stuffy nose and can hardly breathe. It is so hard to see your children sick - especially so young and for so long. Hopefully it will be over soon. But until then I had to capture Hannah's first real illness, so here you go!
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