There is nothing better than Grandparents

Yesterday was Kirk's parents  34th wedding anniversary and they figured Vegas would be a pretty great place to celebrate. We had so much fun with them. They were only here for 24 hours but we managed to fit in a lot of fun. They brought these cute little jewelry boxes for the girls to paint. The girls immediately sat down and painted them, and kept painting them until the jewelry boxes were completely painted, Kirsten even stayed up until 9:00 just painting away. I snapped a couple pictures of Kirk and Tom painting with the girls, it was too cute! The girls adored having their grandparents here they tickled, teased, read books, and even got Tom to dance with them. Last night we went to dinner at Cheesecake factory. It was as yummy as ever and we didn't have to wait in life, which is a miracle in and of itself. We went for a drive around red rock, it was so beautiful we really need to go up there more often. We had a fantastic time with them and hope they come visit again soon!

The girls couldn't leave Karen's side and ended up taking a nap on her!

Our crafty painters

My girls love doing crafts. They love  drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, play dough, etc. But they LOVE painting. They would paint all day every day if they could. The other day we found snakes at Michaels for a dollar each, the perfect evening craft. They LOVED it! Kirsten painted her entire snake 4 different times before she was satisfied. Love my creative, snake loving girls!

 

 

The Girl Who Loves Rocks (and not just diamonds)

Dear Uncles Riley and Garrett
I love rocks, just like you. Apparently geology is inherited. Everywhere I go I like to collect rocks. My mom loves finding my hidden rocks all over the house. Yesterday I found a particularly interesting rock that I wanted to bring home. I asked my parents and they told me to take it back. So I went and found another one and came back with two. They gave in and let me bring home one, they figured better one than three! Please teach me everything you know. And Uncle Riley I expect you to be a geology professor at BYU by the time  I get there.
Love,
Audrey

Band Aids, a mother's best friend

 

Remember Audrey's obession with band aids? Sometimes it works my favor!

Dancing Queens

If you miss my girls this is the video for you! They had been upstairs for a little bit while I cleaned up the kitchen then came downstairs wearing these beautiful dresses. Kirsten proudly pointed to Audrey and said "I help you", dancing was the natural for them to start doing. They are being silly and dancing like crazy. Kirsten was making her own music and was proud of her singing. Love those girls.

**Notice Audrey's backpack. She refuses to let us touch it so we weren't really sure what was in there but figured it was toys. Until at the doctors office yesterday when she put her sticker inside and we caught a glimpse of her treasures which includes measuring spoons from the kitchen and a cup. Later at Dairy Queen we couldn't figure out where her free sample of ice cream went. You guessed it, in the back pack. There was also toys, a book, grapes, an apple, spoons, and every toy she and Kirsten generally fight over. Audrey just might end up being on hoarders someday....

The cast is off, let life resume to normal (please!)

On our way to get the cast off, so happy!

 The doctor took it off. Audrey is officially healed! They took more x-rays and it was amazing to see how much the bone has already grown back. When we get the pictures I will share. The body is so amazing!
After they cut her cast off she jumped off the table ran over to Kirsten and said "look Kirsten, all better!" It was the cutest little moment. Kirsten of course was very impressed. Audrey then walked to x-ray like she had a monkeys tail for an arm. She had no idea what to do with it and held it straight out very awkwardly, it was pretty funny. She kept asking the doctor for a pink cast after they took her blue one off. I'm not sure she really remembers life before her cast. Also I wouldn't exactly by heartbroken if she wanted to get all her bone breaking out of her system since we have now met our deductible for the year. Break one arm get one free kind of thing. But then again she might hold off until January 3. 

In this picture she is thinking "what am I supposed to do with my arm?"

We celebrated by taking the girls to get ice cream afterwards. As soon as we were home I happily threw them both in the bath with celebration bubbles and bathtub crayons. They played for an hour while I got laundry done, win win win! Everyone is happy! Although I find it ironic that the day she got her cast off was the day we officially started receiving medical bills in the mail, now the real fun begins! (I feel like I need to say we love Audrey a lot and don't mind the medical bills, cause you know we are pretty dang fond of her. And for the record I would happily meet another deductible December 30 of 2012 for her if I had to :) )

 

Our week in review



This past week has been really fun at our house. Kirk worked from home a couple days and we were lucky to enjoy a lot of family time since Kirsten only had school 3 days this week. Here are 7 of the highlites:

1. Kirsten came up to me dressed like this saying "I look like Chelsey" I guess Chelsey is styling in mismatched heels theses days!

Thanks to my mom Audrey is the cutest pioneer.

2.The girls and I got our hair cut by a girl in our ward. It was Audrey's first hair cut. Her hair on top is coming in straight as a board but her hair on bottom is curly curly curly. Her bottom curly hair was really long, past her shoulder blades when it was straightened. So to minimize the mullet look she had her first hair cut. She was so good and held perfectly still the entire time. It turned out really cute. The top is still straight and the bottom curly so I've blowed dried it straight a few times and think she looks darling. Kirsten had her first hair cut by someone other than myself. She just had a trim to even out her hair from the times I cut it. And I got mine shaped and some layers put in from the haircut Kirk gave me. We left there with basiclaly the same haircut for all 3 of us.

 

 

 

3. Kirsten started her dance classes again this week. She LOVES it. I got a cute video but I'm no able to upload it, bummer. She's the cutest little ballerina I've ever seen!

4. This was Audrey's last week of her cast. YAY! I've been counting down the days like I did when Kirk came home from his mission for her cast to come off. It cannot come soon enough! Audrey has been having some bath envy seeing Kirsten in the bath. So she did the next best thing and stocked Kirsten's bath with toys and more toys and more toys. Our playroom was in our master bathroom. It was pretty funny.

5. On 11/11/11 at 11:11 we released balloons with wishes on them. It was so much fun to do! The girls loved it. When we asked Kirsten what her wish was she simply replied "happy!" (so cute!). Audrey didn't really understand the wish concept so we wished for her "no more broken bones". I wished to get out of debt and Kirk wished for a son, go figure :) Audrey let her balloon go early and was pretty devestated by it. Kirsten refused to let her balloon go so it came home with us, much to Audrey's jealousy.

6. Saturday we went to the Las Vegas air show put on by Nellis Airforce base. It was so much fun! Our girls are big time suckers for airplanes so we knew this would be perfect. Plus it was 100% free, who can say no to that! The airplanes were huge, loud, and very impressive. The girls weren't a fan of how loud some of the jets were. I loved it, it was a like an adreline rush standing on the sidelines. We toured a couple of different planes, one of which Kirsten got to try on a oxygen mask. She was silent during it all then as we walked away said quitely "that was fun" to which Audrey responded "Audrey no want it". They are so fun!  It was the perfect family activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Audrey snuck my makeup bag out of my room. There was a brand new tube of masscera in there much to her delight. I don't know if you can tell but her eye lashes are seriously caked!

I love this picture of my three favorite people. I am insanely blessed!

Plus here is a cute video of Audrey's favorite thing to do in Kirk and my closet, make cookies of course!

Looking like Daddy

And just now while I was blogging Kirsten runs in proudly wearing Kirk's shirt. I say to her "you look like Daddy" to which she exclaims "No I Kirsten!" Don't be fooled people it's not actually Kirk :) Then I asked her to "look like Daddy" so I could take a picture and this is what she gave me:

Spitting image isn't it? ha ha

Audrey's Tea Party

 

 

 

The hardest part about Audrey having a broken arm is not being able to take baths. This girl could live in the water but hasn't been able to because of her cast. So while Kirsten took a bath today Audrey and some of her pals had a nice little "coco" party. This girl loves to play kitchen and kept going over to the play faucet to get more "coco." She was darling. Until Kirsten streaked in from the bath (hence the "paint" in the picture) and took matters into her hands. Five minutes later there was real water and a big mess from my master tub to the play room. At least they helped clean up :)

What's in a name?

 

 

Me to Kirsten: "Your name is Kirsten Howcroft"
Kirsten to me: "No, Kirsten Princess"

Not kidding this conversation happens at least once a day. I am enjoying every day that she thinks her name is Kirsten Princess, she has the rest of her life to be Kirsten Howcroft.