Caleb, Karen, Alyssa & Megan

Soft Kitty

2012-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

Megan and Chloe have been getting along better, she use to run up and yell 'HI KITTY" right in her face, which not surprisingly Chloe did not like. Now Chloe will choose to sit with Megan sometimes and Megan loves to snuggle with her.
This song is from a show called 'Big Bang Theory' if you are not a fan of the show...you should be.

More snow!

2012-01-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

More snow days! It Alyssa hasn't got to school all week and I don't think she will go tomorrow, but we have had a lot of fun playing in the snow because we know it won't last long. Last night it rained and not all the snow is iced over so it is not as much fun and all the trees that were heavy with snow are breaking from being frozen. one hit our roof last night, but I don't think there was any damage.
I decided to take advantage of the snow and take some Christmas pictures in January, the time line won't matter in the scrapbook.

Three little stinkers all in a row.
Caleb went behind the tree and shook it so the snow fell down on the girls, I was hoping it would fall on their heads more.
We made a giant snowman in our yard, Caleb and I had to put the middle ball on a folding chair and lift it because it was so heavy.

Snow!!

2012-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

I really didn't think there would be any snow this year, just rain, but I was delighted when we woke up one morning to SNOW!! The girls were so excited and started to get ready to go out at 7:30, but I made them wait till 8:30, and even though there was barely an inch of snow they had a great time.
We went over to a friends house and went sledding on their 'hill' which was maybe 3 feet tall, but they didn't care.

I told the girls to smile nice and this is what I got, I guess I should be grateful they sat still at all.

Snow angles!

After playing with friends we went inside for a hot chocolate break and then it was back out into the snow. We built an awesome snowman which the girls decided was Mrs. Claus because she had eye brows.

Then we went to a slightly bigger hill for more sledding. I thought the hill would be all torn up because it is practically the only hill in the neighborhood but no one else had touched it. Caleb was on his way home from a weekend in Portland but he showed up for the last 5 minutes.

The next day Caleb took the girls sledding again in the morning and then they played in the front of our house for another hour and a half after lunch. I thought they would be sick of snow by now but Alyssa said "I can't wait to play in the snow tomorrow" when I was putting her to bed, unfortunately she is back to school tomorrow.

Alyssa 6th Birthday

2012-01-10T18:49:00.000-08:00

My little girl turned 6 this year (if you add her birth date together 1-11-12 (1+1+1+1+2=6) it equals 6, awesome). Someone at school told her about smiley eyes and so she wouldn't give me a normal smile. We just had a classic birthday at our house, I thought of a few games and thought that it would be enough...wrong! my games lasted an hour and then we had to fill the rest of the time trying to think of games, but the kids had fun and I don't think they noticed.
The first activity was crazy balloon frenzy, the kids just went cray playing with the balloons waiting for the guests to arrive.

After the initial chaos we decorated tails for 'pin the tail on the donkey'

Duck, duck, goose
Playing freeze tag outside
Megan froze in silly ways
Making necklaces
musical chairs with alyssa's favorite songs 'dancing queen' and 'mama mia' by abba
Of course there was cake
Alyssa wanted an ice cream cake with her name written on it and whatever my baby wants my baby gets! there is chocolate ice cream on the inside, yum

Hello Kitty is Alyssa's favorite character at the moment
Mom and dad got her a new bike because she has already out grown the one I bought her last year for her birthday! I'm glad that she had the smaller bike while she was learning to ride without training wheels, but it was time for an upgrade.
Megan was a stinker all week because she wanted it to be her birthday, she has six whole months to wait!

Note

2011-12-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

I posted tons of new pics, if you want to see some of Alyssa and Megan's dance class you have to click 'older posts' at the bottom of the page.

Teeth, grandparents, and Chloe

2011-12-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

Alyssa's top tooth was super wiggly all through Christmas but it didn't fall out until the day after, she has lost a total of 6 teeth, 4 are still missing and 2 have grown back in. Megan keeps wiggling her teeth and hoping the fall out soon.
It was great having my parents come for Christmas, the girls miss having family around (we would visit at least twice a week when we were in Utah).
Chloe loved the Christmas tree, she would hid inside of it, take the ornaments off and rolled them around the house, and she ruined the ribbon too many times to count, she was a little stinker.

Christmas

2011-12-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

My kids are not early risers so our morning started around 8, which was just fine with me!
The big gift for Alyssa was her Twinkle Toe shoes which light up really bright. We were in the car at night and I thought a cop was following us but it was just Alyssa's shoes. Megan got some light up shoes too.

Grandma Hamblin bough the girls really nice dolls and my Aunt Lisa made extra dresses for them to dress them up.

Thanks Aunt Becky!!

Megan got 4 Barbies and she was in Heaven

later that day Caleb's parents came up to join us for Christmas dinner it was really nice having so much family around for Christmas. Alyssa was my big helper, she helped me make rolls and set the table.

Sugar Cookies

2011-12-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

I don't think that we have ever made sugar cookies for Christmas before (because they make a huge mess), but it was fun to do it with grandma.
Megan was the official taster and it was deemed worthy.

Megan has had issues taking picture recently, I'm hoping it is a phase she grows out of quickly. This is the face she made when I told her to smile.
Caleb's contribution was watching his show with head phones
Carefully placing sprinkles

Here are the cookies for santa! Caleb is pointing to the one he made. I tried to make the plate cute but the spots didn't work so I threw it away but Alyssa rescued it from the garbage and said it was the santa plate and I couldn't throw it away.

Seattle Aquarium

2011-12-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

My parents were able to come up for Christmas and we took them to Seattle for the day. Our first stop was the Aquarium. There was a giant tank that had a scuba diver in it that waved to the kids and had a microphone to talk to the kids. When they asked if there was any questions Alyssa raised her had and said she like to eat salmon.
There was an area to dress up like a scuba diver and we told Megan to pretend she was swimming.

Riding on the back of a whale

Megan and her Papa!

After the aquarium we went to the fish market where it was remarkably hard to find fish and chips (you wouldn't think so when you can actually see the ocean) and then we walked up to the Space Needle. On the walk we saw a sign that said Bell Street so of course we had to take a picture by the Bell Street sign in front of Bell Tower in Bell Town of Seattle.
Belltown Pizza was closed or we would have grabbed a slice.
The Space Needle looks big, but it is only because you are not allowed to build anything around it, the sky scrapers were a lot bigger.
Pretty Christmas tree

California trip

2011-12-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

We went down to the annual Bell Christmas Reunion in California and it was a great time. We first stopped in Medford, OR to visit Scott and Sarah and their kids. We went to the children's museum and also out to eat at Eddie's Burgers (it is a Bell favorite and we always go whenever we go to Medford).

This is Megan with her 'best boy Noah' (that's what she calls him) They are only two weeks apart and they play really well together. They were Dora and Diego all weekend long and they loved it.
The trampoline was a favorite spot for the kids, they spend almost all day outside and then got flashlights when it got dark and when back out again and because it was California it was great weather.

Randy and Paula's property is AMAZING! they have football goal posts, a motorcycle track, trampoline, tree house, and tons of running room. It was great to see the family, we didn't make it to the Christmas reunion last year because Caleb was gone.

Dance Mania

2011-12-28T21:34:00.001-08:00

This was Megan's first dance class and she loved it! She learned a few words ballet words and moves.
She could never get the curtsy right she would always cross her leg in the front instead of the back.

This is the 'frog' move and it is always accompanied by a 'rib-it'
Alyssa has taken dance before and often runs around on her toes, she is very dramatic when she dances
I think I might try a different sort of dance class next instead of ballet because of her awesome dance moves.

There is her face!! I realized halfway through my pictures that I forgot to put on her head band.

This was their teacher Olivia, it was her first time teaching, but she did a great job.
It was only a 5 week class so they didn't do a big recital but they did do a little dance at the end. The first video is of Alyssa's free dance time of the class, I love how she just rocks out herself while the rest of the class follows the teacher around.

Christmas Bells are Ringing!!!

2011-12-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Alyssa is turning into such a great girl! She loves school and playing with friends, she doesn't understand why some kids won't play with her because she thinks that everyone should be her friend. She has lost 4 teeth and has two more wiggly ones and she is a great sister to Megan, I love hearing them laughing playing together in their room. She has started to ask A LOT of questions, mostly she asks how stuff is made (like Barbies) and where stuff comes from (like apples). I try to answer her questions but sometimes it just leads to more questions so I end up saying I don't know just to make her stop.

Megan is a lot more like her mommy. She is more reserved and shy but once she does make friends she loves to play, she often asks me to go over and introduce her to kids at the park because she is too shy to start the conversation but she wants to play. With Alyssa at school I have got to spend more alone time with Megs and she has quite the imagination. We are often running from bad guys or she puts me in 'prison' because I'm the bad guy or we are ponies flying through the air.

We were getting ready for the ward Christmas party last night and the girls wanted to wear Santa hats and they looked too cute to pass up the photo opportunity.

The only way I can get good pictures of the girls is to mix in some funny face pictures so they don't get bored

Matching coats from Grandma Bell!

Halloween

2011-11-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that the girls would want to play with the pumpkin guts but unfortunately they would not touch it.

Alyssa was more brave than Megan but not by much.
Little blurry but you get the idea. Alyssa drew the face on her pumpkin and Caleb cut it up.

Fairy Princess!!

Bat Girl with matching pumpkin

We went trick or treating with the girls best friend Kandise and her brothers

BI-Zi farms pumpkin patch

2011-10-09T20:06:00.001-07:00

I looked for a Fall festival around Fort Lewis but the one that looked the best was down in Vancouver which is right next to Portland so we went down and Caleb's parents and sister went with us.
Megan would climb halfway up the hay pile but then would see a bug and quickly climb back down.

Even dad got into the fun!

On the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. You got one free pumpkin with your entrance fee so Caleb got the biggest he could find, it was 55 lbs!
It was the first time we ever went out to the pumpkin patch instead of just getting them at the store and it was a lot of fun, but some of them were moldy and disgusting on the side you couldn't see so you would reach down to turn it over and a hand full of moldy pumpkin guts.

Anna and her friend Hannah decided to go small with their pumpkins
lil' pumpkin
They put you to work at the farm and we had to clean our own pumpkins.
Giant pile of corn kernels.
Corn star!!!

In the maze. we broke off into groups to race through and Alyssa ran ahead to catch up with Anna but Anna was too far ahead and Alyssa got lost for a few minutes, It was a little scary but she was only lost for like 3 minutes. The maze was huge but all you had to do was follow the muddy path to get out because it was the most walked on. I would also like to point out that it is hot chocolate I am holding and not coffee.
Petting zoo

Also included in the price was a pumpkin launch.
Daddy had to help

We couldn't have asked for getter weather (it had rained the 4 previous days) or a better day, it was great.

Oregon Coast

2011-10-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

We were able to go to the coast with Caleb's brother Scott and his parents and we had a great time, the only problem was we had to leave a day early and we didn't want to. Caleb's parents bought a bus for the upcoming tax season and grandpa took the kids for a ride around the block, they thought it was great.
Our first stop was seaside Megan was scared by the waves so Caleb had to hold her, but Alyssa had no fear.

There were tons of seagulls while we were eating our lunch and all the other kids thought they were fun to chase, but Megan was screaming by my legs while I took this picture because she didn't want them to touch her.
It wouldn't be a trip to seaside without a trip on the carousel.
Our beach house was at cannon beach which is a few miles down the road. It was super windy and pretty cold and the sand kept stinging the kids legs, but that didn't stop them.
Cousin Julia running away from the waves.

Grandpa helping Megan build a sandcastle by bringing water for the moat.

This is Anna and her friend Maddy racing the waves.
Megan and Noah had a great time playing together they played Dora and Diego and Jake and Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It wasn't until I left that I realized I didn't get a picture of them together.
Megan and Miles playing in the sand

We buried Alyssa in the sand and turned her into a mermaid, but my sister in law took the pictures and hasn't sent it to me yet. (hint, hint Sarah)
I tried to rotate this picture but I failed.

two wheels!!

2011-09-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

Alyssa's friends can all ride without training wheels so they told Alyssa she should try. So I practiced with her twice and Caleb did it once and then she wanted to try on her own. She picked it up really quick and even though she is slow to start and kinda all over the place she is getting really good

I forgot to post this picture on Alyssa's first day of school, she saw me making the kindergarten sign and made one of her own.

First day of Kindergarten

2011-09-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

Alyssa has been so excited about going to school, she goes to the pm kindergarten and the school is only a few blocks away so we are planning on walking a lot of the time. Apparently there is a bus that takes her before school, but I can't figure out where or when it picks her up, maybe we will eventually figure it out.
Here is my attempt at staging the picture, unfortunately we don't have a printer so I had to write the sign by hand, there are better signs out there but this was the best I could do.
She is growing up so quick.

Although we didn't ride her bike to school today because Caleb wanted to come and he didn't have enough time during lunch, she will ride her bike most days.

It was a little unorganized at the school. they had the kids meet in the auditorium and then go with their teachers, I'm not really sure why.
Here she is surrounded by boys already.

Of course Megan was there and got quite upset until I took her picture too.

I've been feeling crafty lately and my usual cross stitch hasn't fulfilled my need so I've been branching out. Here is the pencil vase I made with some subway art that I found online.

Fleet Week

2011-08-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

We tried to go to Fleet Week and watch the boat races and the air show, but it said online to park at the airport and then there would be a shuttle to take us there. However, when we got to the airport no one knew what we were talking about so we decided to just go to the pier and go on a tour of a naval ship. This is the girls favorite game to play, they take turns looking at the camera to make sure that I don't get a good picture.

The boat tour was pretty neat...unfortunately it took over two hours waiting in line to get on the boat. Caleb was upset that we didn't get to see the air show, so we waited so at least he got to see something.
lots of stairs, they were very steep.

I thought it was neat that it was in Bell Harbor on Bell Street.
These are the controllers that shoot the big guns on the side of the ship, it is like a giant video game.

new things

2011-07-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Somthing old-Here is our house in Washington, it has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, a laundry room and a dishwasher, I don't know how I lived without this stuff before. (I couldn't figure out how to stop underlining)Something new-this is Caleb's new baby, but I have to admit I'm enjoying it as well.

Something borrowed-(okay not borrowed, but she is from the humane society so someone else had her first) introducing the newest member of our family, Chloe the cat!!! Alyssa just follows her every where and is very sad when the cat doesn't want to play.
Something blue-We have been saving our money to buy a new car and I convinced Caleb that we should get a van! I love it! It is so nice to have the extra space and extra storage. Caleb says that he is embarrassed to drive it but he took it to the store by himself the other day.
PS-There are so many new posts if you want to see Megan's birthday pictures then click older posts at the bottom of the page.

Swim lessons

2011-07-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

I was happy to find swim lessons for Alyssa so soon after moving, I was afraid they would all be filled up by the time I registered. Megan's class was all filled up but it was the parent child class and I would have had to swim too, so I wasn't too disappointed. They had this neat bar and platform that the kids stood on so their teacher could be in the deeper water and help them one at a time. If they let go of the bar twice they had to sit on the side for a minute, Alyssa had to sit on the side the first lesson, she was near tears sitting there, it was sad. But the next time we went she said she won't let go of the bar again, so she learned.
They practiced stroking while the teacher helped the other kids. 1

Scottish Festival

2011-07-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

We went down to visit Caleb's parents the weekend that Harry Potter came out (so that we could have a babysitter) just for a friendly visit. It was also the Scottish festival so we went to that too. Caleb's cousin Anthony was part of the Highland games and it was neat to catch up with him and fun to see someone we know compete.
They had a kid highland games section. The first event was balancing an egg on a spoon.
Then she tossed a rock

Caber toss
I don't remember what they called this one, but they were filled with water and she had to run with them. Then a sheep toss, you can kinda see the sheep just leaving her hands.
She did AMAZING at the highland games, they wouldn't have given her a medal if she didn't, right?
Then she cried for candy, and we had to send her to the stocks.
Grandma was naught too.
Then they picked Alyssa to go into the sheep pen and try to corral the sheep, they timed how long it took the kids and then timed how long it took the dog, to get the sheep in the pen. The dog won.

Megan was there too, but she was with anna most of the time

4th of July

2011-07-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

We bought red, white and blue shirts for Caleb and the girls but for some reason I put them behind our railing so you can't see their shirts, oh well, live and learn. We had a nice fourth of July we went to the fair that they had at the base and then went to the splash pad at the park, but since I'm awesome I didn't bring my camera.
Later that night we went and watched the fire works. Caleb wanted to go up close and personal to the fire works but Megan fell asleep at like 7 so we decided to go a little later and let her sleep for a bit. We haven't watched fire works together in like 3 years so the girls really enjoyed themselves.
The next day we went to the lake and played at the beach, it was one of the rare sunny warm days in Washington, I think it got up to 85 or so :)

Of course in true Alyssa style she found a fried right away.

These are Megan's castles that she made all by herself. It is kinda hard to see in the picture but all there are about 7 little mounds with a rock on each and she called them castles.

Megan had more fun in the sand than in the water and Alyssa had more fun in the water than the sand.

Here is Caleb's sandcastle, I'm soo proud!

Pump It Up

2011-07-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

I took the girls to a bouncy house place and the girls had a great time. They had these air guns that shot little balls at each other. It looked like so much fun I even got in there and gave it a try.

They had an air hole blowing a ball for the kids to hit and Alyssa hit every single one on the first try.
Megan swung the bat up and down instead of back and forth.
Megan was scared of the slides at first but we started small and eventually worked our way up to the big slides and by the end she was a pro.

We had a great time and will definitely be going back soon.

At the hotel

2011-07-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

We had to wait almost three weeks in the hotel before our house was ready for us. We really wanted to live on post so we decided to wait instead of moving in off post faster, now that we are all moved in it was totally worth it. Luckily the army paid for most of the time in the hotel and Caleb's parents put up with us for a couple days as well. The girls occupied themselves by going to the pool almost everyday

We had to wait almost t

Zoo

2011-07-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

While we were staying in the hotel we tried to go out and do some outings with the kids so they wouldn't go to crazy. I was a little nervous to go to the zoo because I was afraid it would rain the whole time but it turned out to be a great day.
Alyssa was brave enough to hold the bird all by herself. But Megan would only let daddy hold her while she watched from a distance
The bird got too close for comfort.
For some reason they found these bamboo dividers very amusing. They played in the for almost 15 minutes.
Peek-a-boo
The cutest monkeys at the zoo!

They had a dinosaur at the zoo exhibit with robot dinosaurs but cost extra to go through and the girls were too scared anyway, we could see some of them from over the fence, but for some reason I didn't take a picture.

Seattle

2011-07-25T19:46:00.000-07:00

Caleb's parents were nice enough to take the girls for the weekend so Caleb and I could go house hunting and sight seeing with out distractions. It was nice to be back together after so long apart. We went to Seattle one day and took an underground tour of the city. It was really neat and surprisingly had a lot to do with the toilet.
There was a lot of history involved and there were pictures and our tour guide told great stories about the early days of Seattle. It was originally built at sea level but every time the tide came in it would push salt water and anything else in the sewage system back up the pipes, not pleasant. So instead of destroying and rebuilding, they just filled in the streets and buildings with rubble and turned the second story into the first story.
Old water pipe made out of wood.
Next we went to the fish market. There was was tons of stuff there and even though we didn't buy anything it was nice to walk around and look at what I wanted to look at and not be looking at the ground making sure the kids were okay the whole time.

Our final stop was the Space Needle, compared to the other sky scrapers in the area it really isn't that high, but it is a city land mark so we decided that it would be

Megans Birthday

2011-07-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Megan's third birthday right before we left for Washington. My mother was very sneaky and bought a pinata without telling me and the kids loved it.
it was just the girls and their cousins so all the kids got a lot of candy.

We were leaving the next morning so my parents got pictures with the girls.

I forgot to take a picture of the cake by itself but it was just the same butterfly cake I made for Alyssa's 4th birthday, but this time I bought a cake icing knife and it was tons easier.
Everybody helping to open presents

Sugar heaven!

St. George trip

2011-06-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

We went down to St. George with Caleb's brother and his family and we had a great time. We actually didn't do to much but it was a lot of fun to just hang out at the condon and enjoy each other before we have to leave for Washington. Here are Sophie, Megan, Olivia and Alyssa playing in the trunk

We went swimming almost everyday. Alyssa was tall enough to get around th shallow end of the pool so we only had to worry about Megan.

We spent an afternoon in Zions and it was great. We didn't get too far because of the kids but it was fun to just walk around and view the scenery.
Cute girls???
We did an easy little hike, the girls walked about 3/4 of the way and had fun exploring.
Unfortunatly with Caleb back I sometimes get caught in front of the camera.

Our hike lead us to a little waterfall

The family is back together again. Yeah!!
Alyssa and Caleb are on the bridge.
What is better than an ice cream after a long hike?

Preschool

2011-05-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Back in September when I thought we weren't going to be in Utah for very long, I decided to sign Alyssa up for preschool anyway and I'm really glad that I did because we ended up staying the whole school year. She is my little social butterfly and loves being around other kids and hopefully she got a leg up for school next year.

I know most people take pictures of the first day of school, but I was lazy and so these are pictures from the last day of school.

Dr. Seuss's birthday
Pirate day (Alyssa is the top left with the blue eye patch)

I don't really like how her school picture turned out, but I guess I can't have perfect pictures all the time.

Tulip Festival

2011-05-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

My mom and I took the girls to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point last week and it was great! It was perfect weather and the and not too crowded and the girls behaved themselves for the most part. Although Megan never felt like giving me a true smile.

Monkey see, monkey do. For some reason Alyssa decided that this was how I want her to look in all of my pictures and of course she taught Megan. I'm always telling her to relax her shoulders for pictures

There was grassy hills and tons of kids so of course everyone was rolling down the hills.
Megan couldn't do it quite right, she always rolled along the hills instead of down but she had fun and didn't care.

My girls are two hairy little monsters, I tried to pull their hair back but the just scream and put up such a stink it isn't worth it. I'm also growing out Alyssa's bangs so the problem is going to get worse before it gets better.

There was also a pond with giant gold fish to feed.

We ended our tour at the waterfalls where there was a outdoor theater and the girls ran around with kids and danced to the music for over an hour. My little social butterfly Alyssa met friends from church and some of the kids that we help at the cross walk. She also tried cotton candy for the first time.

Easter

2011-04-30T16:59:00.001-07:00

This is the first year that I bought Easter dresses for the girls, they have been made or given to me by other people, but I was on my own this year.

For some reason it is hard to get Megan to smile in pictures all the time.
Megan was quick but grandpa was quicker.

I tried to take a single picture of Alyssa but she ran away crying so I just got Megan.
Here is a project I did, they are just plastic eggs covered with none other than cross stitching thread, I really liked how they turned out.

Dance Recital!!

2011-04-06T12:16:00.001-07:00

After three months of practicing the day is finally here!! The first class that I tried to sign alyssa up for filled up within a few hours but the older class of 5-7 year olds had openings so I lied on the form and said her birthday was december 28 because she needed to be 5 by January 3 and she didn't turn 5 till january 11, but I'm really glad it worked out this way because she would have been the oldest in the younger class and the older class was a full hour so she got to dance more. Anyway, there will definatly be more dance classes to come but the first is always special.

If you want to see videos go to

http://gallery.me.com/williamjameshamblin/100043

And to see Megan dance go to

http://gallery.me.com/williamjameshamblin/100057

Practicing in front of our apartment

Of course Megan had to do it too!
Two super stars!!

She stood up there waving for the first few minutes until the music started and then it was all business from there.

She prefored two dances with a costume change inbetween, and she even let me do her hair which is a battle just to get it brushed.

Dance Class

2011-03-23T11:05:00.001-07:00

Alyssa has been in a dance class and has really enjoyed it. It has been twice a week since January so the girls have gotten to know each other really well and the moms have too. Here is Alyssa showing of her mad dancing skills. My Aunt Lisa knitted the entire dress and it is so cute.

Megan was rather sad that she couldn't dance the first few times, but I would read books with her and try to make it fun.
For some reason whenever I ask Alyssa to smile for the camera, this is the pose she does.
Silly girls

Toothless!!!

2011-03-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Alyssa has had a loose tooth for over a month now and it finally came out!! She was sooo excited and proudly showed everyone at church. You can even see a new tooth growing in, she kept the tooth in her heart box and the tooth fairy came for a visit.

I made this headband and I love how it turned out because I really don't like those giant bows but unfortunatly the girls won't wear them for more than 2 minutes, oh well, that is enough to take a picture.

Zoo trip

2011-03-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

I found out there was a free day at the zoo on Wednesday and since it was february I thought it wouldn't be too crowded, but I was wrong, There were tons of people but we had fun anyway. This is a classic Hogle zoo picture. Alyssa is the size of a female gorilla and megan is the size of an child, except for the arms.

They were yelling at the peacock to make his tail big, but he wouldn't listen.
This was the smallest gorilla so I told Megan that it was the baby and the lady next to me turns and says, "thats not the baby that's coco (or whatever its name was)." Seriously, I don't care what the monkeys name is and I don't care that it isn't a baby, and it doesn't make you cool to know the monkeys name it makes you crazy.
The train was closed because of the weather so we had to make due with a merry go round. (they are only called carousells if they have just horses, if they have lots of different animals they are merry go rounds-I thought that was interesting)

With all the different animals at the zoo, alyssa liked this cat best. Even after I told ther the snow lepord was the bad guy from kung foo panda
found out the giraffs have 25 lb hearts, the human heart doesn't even weigh one pound.

bowling

2011-02-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

We've been getting cabin fever just sitting around the house because of the cold weather so we decided to go bowling for Martin Luther King Day. The kids love it and unfortunatly I'm terrible at it so it is rather embarrasing for me, but anything for the kids right?

They have little tripods shaped like dragons, the kids can put the ball on the dragons head and push it down its back and off its tail, the ball doesn't go very fast but Alyssa got a stirke and a few spares.
jumping for joy!
I think the tiny bowling shoes are cute.

projects

2011-01-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling rather crafty lately and found this project online. It is called specimen art and it is just fancy stickers, but I really like it and it was fun to shop for the stickers.

I thought it would be fun to have a page for every holiday, so here is valentines day
I know christmas has come and gone but these were 80% off so it was worth the whole 60 cents.
Here is a notebook cover I made for Alyssa, she has decided that blue and white are her favorite colors she tells me "when I was a baby I liked pink, but now I'm a big girl and like blue and white."
There are pencil slots on one side and then a sticker pocket on the other side.

When i was taking pictures of my projects Alyssa wanted me to take a picture of her coloring page.
I realized that I made the dress she was wearing also, it is just a t-shirt with a skirt sewn on, but she likes it because it sparkles.

Alyss's birthday

2011-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

I got a sewing machine for christmas and I made aprons for the girls. They have velcro waist strap so I don't have to tie them a million times, which I thought was awsome.

alyssa has told everyone for months that she was getting a spongebob cake for her birthday. This was the best that I could do. I looked at the bakery at the grocery store but they cakes were just blue cakes with spongebob characters on top so I just bought the characters from the bakery and made my own. I think it turned out cute.
We had a family party at my grandma's house, which was a lot of fun, alyssa loved the attention.
Eventhough it is January and it is too cold to ride a bike, we bought one for her anyway. I was busy taking pictures so I asked my brother to bring in the bike for her, and now she tells everyone that her uncle Alex gave her a bike.
Here is Alyssa and her cousin Carter coloring together.
A birthday would not be complete without 5 spanks from grandpa.
Along with the birthday party at the grandparents house, we also did a sleepover with Alyssa's cousin Olivia, it was a lot of fun.

I let the girls stay in my bed so they could all sleep together and they stayed up until 2 in the morning just talking and laughing and playing.

What cute girls?

Christmas

2011-01-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a lot of fun, but we were sad that Caleb couldn't be there, so we did the best that we could with the situation and had a skype call with Caleb christmas morning (he had to wait up until midnight to get the time right). the girls could run over and show him their presents and he could watch them have a great time.

Zhu Zhu pets and candy...is there anything better?

My parents got the girls matching guitars so they can have a rock band.
Should I be concerned that this was one of megans favorite gifts?

More Stockings

2010-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have finally finished Megan's stocking, just in time for christmas. There were tons of little things that went wrong with this project (ex-the beads melted when I ironed it and the red thread bleed into the snow) but live and learn.

three down, one to go!

Family pictures

2010-12-13T17:40:00.000-08:00

While caleb was here to visit it was the obvious time to take family pictures! We waited until the end of his visit to take the pictures and the temperature droped from the 60's to the 20's over night and it was freezing when we took the pictures, but we got a few cute ones anyway.

getting the sillies out.

Dance Party!!

2010-12-13T17:37:00.000-08:00

snow day

2010-12-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

There was suppose to be a big storm and then nothing happened and then a few days later without warning there was a huge snow storm. The kids were soo excited they just ran around and rolled in the snow, I was too lazy to take them sledding, but I will next time it snows. As usual there are a lot of pictures, it won't hurt my feelings if you don't look at them all.

my wreath with some artistically placed snow.

Caleb's visit

2010-12-02T15:43:00.000-08:00

Caleb got to come for a two week visit and it was great!! He spent a lot of time with the kids and I got some free time. And we also got to go off on our own a few times, one of which was to see the new Harry Potter movie! It was a much needed visit and we can't wait until he comes again. After he left I realized I didn't take too many pictures with him in them, but we did take some family pictures that I will post soon. On one of the days we went to the children's museum in Salt Lake and they gave a two for one military discount (finally a plus side for army life). It was a lot less stressful going to the museum with two adults instead of me with two kids.

We also spent quite a bit of time with Calebs brothers and their families. We went to a place called 'jump on it' and it was just a big room with trampolins, what could be better?

Disney on Ice

2010-11-13T11:08:00.000-08:00

Disney on Ice was amazing. The girls loved it because they could recognize all of the characters and I liked it because the costumes and the skating was awsome.

There was a photo booth that charged $20 for pictures with the characters, so we just sat the kids infront of a poster for free. Yes, that is a garbage can next to Alyssa.
We went to a 7:30 showing and I was worried that Megan would be a grump for most of the show, but she was very excited. She clapped along and pointed out all the characters that she recognized, her favorites were the little mermaid and tinker bell and of course the pirates from Peter Pan (she loves pirates because she was one for Halloween).
Then she got mad at me for taking too many pictures.
My parents came too!
Mickey and the gang.
Little Mermaid
Lilo and stitch
Here is peter pan chasing his shadow, I thought it was clever.
There was also the lion king that I didn't get a picture of.

Fall fun

2010-11-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

I finally remembered to bring my camera to take pictures of the kids in the leaves, and I picked the prefect day because all the leaves were raked into piles and they were cleaning them up.

Alyssa loved throwing the leaves on megan, megan was not as happy about it.

Halloween

2010-10-31T18:53:00.001-07:00

Cutest ghost and pirate ever!!

Pumpkin carving

2010-10-31T18:46:00.000-07:00

One of these days I will remember that the pictures download the opposite of what I think they should. Anyway, the pictures start with the end product and go backwards.

I gave Alyssa some markers to decorate her pumpkin and she decided to color the whole thing. It ended up looking like a tribal mask. Megan was too scared to color the face of the pumpkin so she colored the back.

Corn Bellies

2010-10-20T13:53:00.001-07:00

While my brother Ken and his family was visiting we went to Corn Bellies up at Thanksgiving Point.

Alyssa climbing to the top of a giant hay stack with slides.
There was a cow train
A giant pillow for the kids to jump on. Megan had a hard time keeping her balance.

There was a little store that they kids could pretend to sell pumpkins and corn
There was a kiddie corn maze.
A giant tub that was full of corn kernels. Alyssa stayed in there forever, she made snow angels and a little bed to sleep in.

Here is Will and Tyler my brothers kids.
Their favorite spot was the pumpkin princess playland. They had dress up costumes for the kids and they could dance on the stage and dance to music.
A carriage with horses to sit on.
A castle to explore.
There was also a pig race, it was not as exciting as I had hoped.

Trafalga

2010-10-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

My mom got free tickets from BYU to go to Trafalga and we had a great day. There were so many things to do, rides, games, laser tag, and a climbing wall. We didn't even do everything that day, but we got bounce back tickets for the next week when my brother was in town.

It was great having my parents there because then I didn't have to go on the rides with the girls and get all wet.

Clair

2010-10-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Alyssa's good friend Clair and her mom came to provo for a mission reunion and we got together at the park to let the girls play.

Megan put on chapstick and was showing it off.

Marx the dog

2010-10-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

My aunt Laura went out of town for a week so she asked us to watch her dog Marx. He slept on the girls bed a few times which Alyssa loved and we had a great time playing with him. My grandma went out of town too and we stayed at her house to watch the dog.

There is a great climbing tree outside of my grandma's house and Alyssa climbed it almost everyday.

Megan use to scream whenever marx walked into the room because she was scared of him, but after just a day she loved to give up hugs and his treats.

jump for joy

2010-09-10T14:26:00.001-07:00

The girls were avoiding going to bed, so I took a few pics to make it less iritating for me.

Megan couldn't jump as high, it just looks like she is sitting on the bed, but if you look at her hair, it is airborn.

Cutie Pies

Car wash

2010-09-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to go to the park because it was too hot, but Alyssa was driving me crazy because she wanted to go somewhere, but the prospects of swimsuits made her happy so we decied to wash the car.

I don't know what type of soap to use to wash a car so I just used dish soap, it made a great lather which was all the kids cared about and it seemed to clean the car too.
I don't know why she sticks her leg out all the time.
Cheese

They played with the bucket more than helping clean the car, but they weren't much help when they were cleaning the car.

Story Tellers Festival

2010-09-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Me, my mom, and the girls went to the story tellers festival. The girls didn't like to hear the stories very much, they are just too young to sit still and listen. But there were puppet shows every hour and they enjoyed those.

Alyssa got chosen to go up on stage to help the juggler. She was the sun and he juggled nine red balls around her.
trying out the puppets.

Dino museum

2010-08-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

So, since I'm awsome, these are backwards, this is my mom and girls leaving the museum. We found out that it was $2 tuesday for August at Thanksgiving point so we had to go.
sigh. My mom was making silly faces to make them smile, but they made silly faces back.

Alyssa was smiling until she looked up and realized what was looming overhead and got scared.

My little archeologists

Duck pond

2010-08-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

there is a duck pond just down the street from my parents house and alyssa would go see the ducks everyday if I would let her. Megan was afraid of the ducks so she stayed on the bench.

The pics got a little unorganized, here are some pretty flowers by the duck pond. Megan isn't mad, that is her smelling face.

There are three baby ducks that Alyssa focuses most of her bread on.

too sexy for my diaper!

hogle zoo

2010-08-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

My mom took us to the zoo and we had a great time. Megan was scared of a lot of the animals, but my mom was more than happy to cuddle with her to keep her safe.

if you have ever been to the hogle zoo, you will know that this picture is a must.

my monkeys.

Grandma Hamblins

2010-08-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

My parents just got back from a year in Isreal and their house was being rented so their stuff was in storage. So we got to spend some time with each of the great-grandparents while my mom was gettin her house ready. I am a slacker and didn't take any pics of grandpa peay, but the girls loved helping grandma sally water the plants.

peay reunion

2010-08-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Every year my mom's family gets together for a reunion. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but it was a lot of fun. There were two cats who wandered into the yard and Alyssa spent every spare moment with them.
Pwease Daddy can I have a kitty!!

I've never been on the Heber Creeper before and it was really fun. It was just a slow ride up the canyon, but being on a train was great, they even had a train robber come on the train that really scared Alyssa.

My uncle took pictures of us driving by

Me, the girls, my mom, and my aunt Dian.

The loud horn scared Megan, she covered her face everytime.

Looking at the scenery

Farm

2010-08-07T15:38:00.001-07:00

My mom and I took the girls to the Thanksgiving Point farm and had a great time. It is nice to be back with my family in Utah, but it is bittersweet because I miss my other family in Portland.
Feeding seed to the chickens.

Megan was too afraid to sit on top of the fake animals.

But brave enough to ride the real horse. I walked around with her a few times, to make sure she didn't fall off, but then let her go by herself.

Wagon ride!!

Camping

2010-08-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

We had a great time camping with Caleb's family near Redding, CA. It was so much fun to see everyone and just hangout. Our camp was right next to a river and the girls practically lived in their bathing suits because they were in and out all day.

After Redding we continued our adventure to Utah. Where we are staying for about two months before making the big move to Korea!!

Oaks Park

2010-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Oaks park with Alyssa's friend Claire from church and had a great time. In the morning they have a preschool time so there weren't as many people.
Claire has been a great friend and we will miss her when we leave.

Claire's mom Karen took Megan on the slide.

How do you get to your doctors office??

2010-07-22T10:53:00.001-07:00

Our doctor office is up at the Doernbecker Childrens Hospital so we get a great view of portland when we go to the doctor. On a clear day you can see Mt. Saint Helens.
Here is the tram that we ride, Alyssa calls it the elevator doctor.

Beach...yet again

2010-07-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

So the last time we went to the beach, it was really cloudy and rainy so I decided to go again so we could have some fun in the sun...stupid portland! It was cloudy again, but not too cold so we had fun.
Sand angel

Alyssa loved to get burried, I think I did it like 5 times. Megan got burried to her a few times but by the time I got the camera she had crawled out.

Megan was too scared to go in the water so I only got pictures in the sand.

library

2010-07-10T15:17:00.001-07:00

I was at the library the other day and Megan was wearing a purple shirt, purple skirt, and purple shoes with sun glasses (very stylish I know) and I lost sight of her for a few minutes and when I was looking for her someone asks, "Are you looking for a fat kid?" Seriously!? You couldn't say 'a girl in purple' or 'a girl with sun glasses' or even just 'little girl' no you had to say, a fat kid. Thank you stranger for your comment!

4th of July

2010-07-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

For the fourth we had a barbeque with my in laws on Saturday, but we weren't able to do fire works until Sunday, so we came back for more fun.
Megan wasn't scared of the sparklers at all, I thought she was going to light her hair on fire a few times.

Always dancing.

We did poppers and Megan carefully placed each popper on the ground before carefully popping it with her foot.

Megan loves her sunglasses, she wears them everywhere

Here is a picture of Alyssa two years ago wearing the same outfit.

Splash Pad

2010-07-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

The day before 4th of july was not very hot, but it was sunny and I decided to take the kids to a splash pad that I heard about. They had fun running around, but since it wasn't very warm they didn't play for very long, but there was also a really neat new park to explore so we were there for a long time.

Beach...Again!

2010-06-24T09:57:00.001-07:00

Over Memorial Weekend (I know I'm behind on my posts, but that's what happens when when you don't have internet at home) a lot of Caleb's family got together at a beach house for the weekend. It was great to see everyone, but Caleb missed it by two days so it was sad he couldn't come.
We had a fire on the beach at sunset. These rock featers are famous because they were in the movie Goonies.

Megan didn't like the water too much, probably because it was freezing, but she had fun playing in the sand and chasing the kite, and eventhough she didn't swim she had to wear the swim suit like Alyssa.

Here is Alyssa covering a rock with mud, very exciting. She did eventually cover the whole thing.

It was cloudy and rainy pretty much the whole time we were there, but it didn't stop our fun. I didn't think Alyssa would want to swim because it was so cold, but she ended up getting in with her clothes on (blue shirt) as well as her cousin Julia (yellow shirt). Anna and her friend Rio were smart enough to wear their bathing suits.

Me and megan stayed dry on the beach.

Beach Day!

2010-05-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

We realized the girls have never been to the beach and since the beach is only an hour away, we decided to do another trip to the beach. Caleb's mom and sister Anna came too and we had a great time. The water is very cold and the beaches are very rocky (which I found out because I didn't wear shoes) but they had fun anyway.

I love the big rock featers of Oregons coast.

We half burried Anna in the sand.

Alyssa finally got cold and grouchy.

After the beach we went to Seaside (a near by town) we walked around in the little shops and did the merry go round.

Bumper cars, Alyssa was just barely tall enough to go by herself, Megan was rather upset she couldn't go to.

Then there was a very exciting game of air hockey (I think it took over ten minutes).

Megans Birthday

2010-05-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Megan loves Blues Clues so I decided to try and make her cake like blue, and eventhough I could point out like ten things wrong with the cake Megan liked it and knew who it was so that is all that matters.
Alyssa was our entertainment and she did some wicked awsome breakdancing moves.

It took several tries to blow out the candles.

Alyssa hovered in the background wantind Megan to open her presents faster.

Megan loves little toys and Caleb's parents bought her some littlest pet shops and she was excited.

My parents got her a three wheeled scooter and Alyssa thinks it is hers and she rides it through the house and want to take it to the store whenever we go.

Megan likes the scooter too.

Coast

2010-05-21T15:13:00.001-07:00

Caleb's parents watched the kids so that we could go to the coast together, it was very relaxing and great to be together again. We just watched movies, went in the shops, and walked on the beach. The Oregon Coast is great because it has these amaizing rock featurs to add to the scenery.

We found a bunny in the parking lot by the beach, I thought it was out of place.

Caleb lost a lot of weight at boot camp.

Here is the sunset form out hotel room.

Swimming

2010-05-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Daddy's home!! Alyssa told everyone that her daddy was going to take her swimming when he got home so that is just what he did. They were very excited to see him, Alyssa definatly remembered him, but Megan was excited because Alyssa was excited.

Megan loved going down the big red slide, I thought she would be too scared because it is big for her.

Children's museum

2010-05-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

The first friday of every month is free at the Childrens museum and we go pretty much every month. Since I'm usually by myself I don't take many pictures but I took some last time I was there.

Megans' favorite room is the water room but Alyssa doesn't like it was much so we dont' stay as long because Alyssa complains louder than Megan.

Sugar and Spice...

2010-04-29T16:29:00.001-07:00

I hung up a sheet and tried to take some 'professional pictures' as usual, the kids were hard to picture together, and surprisingly Megan was better this time than Alyssa. It is usually the other way around.

Car trouble

2010-04-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

So since Caleb has been gone the car has gone into the shop three times. Getting the car fixed has been Caleb's only job (I long ago stopped asking him to fix lightbulbs and such) and he wasn't here to do it. The first time was when I got a flat tire an hour from home on the freeway I knew how to change a tire (eventhough it had been a long time) and gave it a shot. I got the car jacked up which took like 20 minutes and was starting to put the tire on and the jack sank in the mud and the car fell over. That is when I was about to call for help, but someone had called the ODOT people and a guy came with a fancy jack and fixed the car. Then I took the car in for a tune up and it took three days and a lot of money. Then the AC just died again after the spark plugs have been replaced twice so there is something else wrong so the car is back in the shop. My inlaws have been great helping to get the car to and from the shop, but I just hate car trouble and it is Caleb's one job and he isn't here to do it (I'm sure he would if he was here). Oh well, just wanted to vent for a minute.

Orders

2010-04-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well we got our orders and it looks like we are going to be stationed in Dague, Korea!! I think we will be there for two years, but we don't have the official word. I was pretty worried at first but I think that I am just stressing about the little things instead of just thinking about the big picture. So it is still sort of scarry, but it will be a great adventure as well. Caleb comes back for a week or so the end of May and then he has to go for a month before he can request for his family to come so it looks like we will be seperated for another few months.

Easter

2010-04-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

So I was a slacker and didn't take any pictures on Easter because I didn't do much and it was raining, but then our ward had its easter party the week after conference and my friend gave me these cute matching dresses for the girls and I got in the picture mood so we took some pictures in the in-laws backyard after the party and did a little egg hunt.
Enjoying the eggs. They were being stinkers and wouldn't look at the camera at the same time.

Even Anna joined in the fun (she hid the eggs).

Pondering lifes mystery

This picture shows off the dresses, but isn't that great of the girls.

I got Megan to smile in this picture by saying "say Candy!"

I think they enjoyed themselves, but you wouldn't know it by the pictures.

The hunt

Videos

2010-03-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

my parents have been asking for videos, so here are a few.

Here is one of the endless dancing preformances that the girls do.

I rented a new barbie movie for alyssa and it was based off the three muskateers and she has been rolling around and practicing her fighting so she can be one too. Sometimes she uses the fly swatter as a sword to practice with.

messy art!

2010-03-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

It started out as a painting project with paint brushes and trying to stay clean, but not for long. Alyssa very carefully painted her hand blue, then washed it and painted it red. Megan just rubbed her hands in the paint, but had great fun doing it and stayed fairly clean.

They were curled up on the couch watching a show and I thought it was cute.

Swim class

2010-03-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

I signed Alyssa up for a swim class and she loves it. they teach her how to put her face in the water and how to kick and simple things, but she loves to play in the water and hopefully she learns a little.

Megan and I walk around while alyssa is swimming and there is a really big fan that she loves to stand if front of.