WE WON!!!

Thanks to everyone who logged on and voted for our pic! We received over 150 votes!! I appreciate everyone who helped, especially my mom and sis-in-law, Erica. They took over and made sure to get their peeps to vote!! THANKS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
****Our photographer is doing a special, if you sign up for pics by this Friday, you get half off the session fee and then 15% OFF any canvas prints! She has other specials as well. She is truly talented and can make anyone look amazing!! Check it out: http://www.photosbypicme.com/blog/

Isabelle, Isabelley, Izza , Iz.......

This girl has rocked my world. There is nothing you can do or say to change her course of action, if she wants to do it will be done, if not then there is no way!! Can't be fooled or manipulated!! She is always happy, singing her made up songs, twirling, dancing, but her favorite thing is to make us laugh. She told me she loves to be funny.

If you come to my house anytime of the day, chances are you will see her in these pajamas.They are her "beautiful pajamas" when she puts them on she turns into a beautiful princess. There is no getting them off, unless they get dirty, then we have to wash her "beautiful pajamas"!

Today we had scrambled eggs, her favorite! She says, " Thanks mom, I love scrambled eggs, they are my favorite in the world." After I hand her her plate: " My scrambled eggs are too hot, it breaks my heart". While eating with everyone, " I have to go poop on the toilet, I be right back" moments later... "I am dooooone" I go to help her out and she asks," what is that smell?" my response, "well... Iz , its your poop." Iz, "EWW that smells gross!!" of course she had to run out to announce she smelled poop and its gross.!!! .....what do you do?

She asks several times a day: Shall I go brush my teeth? my reply: sure Iz. with that I get a big "THANKS MOM," while she runs to the bathroom to get started.
Today almost nap time, she was begging to watch a show instead. After asking me why she couldn't several times, I pulled the famous, "Because I am the mom and I am in charge". A few minutes later while eating her sandwich she said, " I will be the mom!" "Really?" I say. She proceeds, "You have to listen to me crazy little girl" and taps my nose like I am a child. "OK" I say, she then tells me "you have to go take a nap, while I watch a show!"

Tonight, I put her to bed and start to tell a made up bedtime story about two princesses, Abigail and Isabelle. They had many beautiful horses, dogs, and cats. (their favorite animals, so I thought). Isabelle pops up with clasped hands and asks "and cows?"..... me: what? ....... uummm of course, cows??
But my favorite of the day (yes all of this in one fantastic day). While climbing on the back of the couch she noticed the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple being built out our back window. With all the excitement in the world she screams, " Mom, the Temple!! I want to go, can we go? That's Jesus' house, I want to see Jesus again!!!! He is this taller, taller, tall!" (standing on the arm of the couch with her arms stretched up as high as they can go!)

If you want to know what pure joy is, just watch her! While playing with playdoh and making a huge mess (which makes Abbie crazy) Abbie asks, " What's wrong with you Iz?" Isabelle's reply, "nothing Abbie I am not sad, I am happy see", with a big cheesy grin on her face! Abbie grinning, "I know Iz, you are always happy!"

Abigail, Abbie, Abster, Abs......

The many sides of her:

Above: sweet girl on her way to school, she has begged to play the violin since was 3 years old wants to be a ballerina and a soccer player.

Then the philosopher, she talks to me about what is reality, "would if we are all just dreaming and this isn't really happening?" then questions like,"did people live here before us, like did they exist before we were here ... on earth?" I told her yes of course there is a lot of history and started naming people who have come and gone. She brought up Mary (Jesus' mom) and many others who have come and gone, then she was satisfied... onto to thinking of more things.

Below: change of clothes, hair, and some play make-up(Thanks to a friend from her bday party!)

I don't know what to think of her, she goes from 6 to 16 in a flash... She really wanted a hair dying kit for Christmas (pink, purple, green etc). I thought these little clips would be a little more uhhh... fun and less permanent. She also wants to get bangs cut like her aunt Alex, the bangs that cover one eye!! I said no way, so now she is trying to manipulate her hair into "bangs" that cover just a part of one eye!!

Her latest idea... "wouldn't it be great if I was magic, then I could just say poof and my room would be clean" etc. Yesterday it was: "if I was magic, I would make myself an adult.." I talked her out of that one as quick as I could. She settled for staying 11 or 12 for the rest of her life! How is she already so grown up and why does she want to grow faster??

If I was magic, I would keep her 6 forever!! I love her to pieces!!

Bumbo Bumbo Bumbo......

Well I finally jumped on the bumbo train and I have to admit, I LOVE THEM!! The twins love to be able to sit up and watch Ab and Iz play. Its like having an extra set of arms, something we all wish we had!

Isabelle loves to hold her baby sisters, its so fun to see her take so much interest in them. She plays with them all the time. The twins are at the "wiggle the arms and kick the legs" stage, so Iz gets bumped and bonked by them all the time. Yes, she is close enough to get hit by their short little arms and legs. The problem is she thinks its intentional and of course its pretty traumatic for her. She is too much!!

Vote for Iz!!

A photo contest done by our awesome photographer.... Isabelle made it into the top ten!! You can help her win by clicking on this link and leaving a comment on her blog for Izza's pic, she is pic #9 Please vote for her!!!
http://www.photosbypicme.com/blog/
just scroll down and vote!!
THANKS!!

My Girls....

****Olivia ****** Emily ****

I took about 30 pics of these two together, this is the best one. Poor Emily looks like she is about to cry (don't worry she didn't, she just has the cutest pouty face!) This was the only pic without blurry arms or faces from wiggling. They love to look around and squeak and squeal which I LOVE, but it doesn't make for a good pic! They are growing up so fast!!

All four of them together!! It's so fun to have a house full of girls, we are up to our eyeballs in pink everything! We love hair bows, headbands, ribbons.... and of course, the older two love clothes and SHOES! I love my girls!! (Ben loves it too!!)

SnOw DaYs!

It has been so fun to have all of this snow!! We got home from Christmas vacation right after the nasty storm. We got to just enjoy the snow, the big girls got all suited up and went outside to play. Ben had some time off because of New Years, so he took them out to build a snow fort. I showed them how to find the "good" snow for eating.... It was so funny, it was Izza's first time eating snow and she couldn't get enough of it. She walked around with a handful of snow the rest of the day just taking little bites! Abbie loved finding the icy patches under the snow, perfect for ice skating! It is so fun to watch them play together, I am still amazed at how big they both are!!

SnOw DaYs! part 2

Ben and the big girls have had so much fun playing in the snow. He has been such a good sport about letting them hit him with snowballs and knocking him down in to the snow. It has been a lot of fun! I even got to sneak out for a little bit while the twins were sleeping. We gave Ben a good old fashion white wash... we buried Ben's face in the snow, the girls thought it was hilarious!

SnOw DaYs! part 3

Step one: Getting the girls to lay down whilst throwing snow over them.

Step two: Accidentally (i hope) hitting Iz square in the face.

Step three: Running to her rescue.

Step four: consoling... step five and six were in the previous post (part two) Allowing the girls to white wash and hit him with as many snowballs as Iz could muster.. I believe she threw several with very few hitting him hence me joining the party for the white washing!

Resolutions...

I love starting a new year! I am not sure why it takes that to get motivated again, maybe the realization of how fast time goes? One of my resolutions is it get organized.... SUPER organized. I decided to chose one room a month so that hopefully by the end of the year my house will no longer have anything we don't need or use and if there is something we do need or use we can find it!! I went out and bought a label maker and all the supplies to organize. I am trying to find a good book to help as well (any suggestions?).

I started with Abbie and Izza's room. So far, the closet is done; no more clothes they don't need or wear!! Yeah!! Now onto hanging pics and decorating!!

Our sweet Babies (11 weeks)

Emily: She is an angel perfect baby, so sweet and patient its amazing! Never fussy, always has a sweet smile for you, even if she just puked up her medicine. She has changed my life in so many ways, I am so grateful for her. She reminds me daily that everything is in the Lord's hands and I just need to turn to Him and trust in His plan for me and my family. She loves when we talk to her, she grins and squeaks back. She has doubled her birth weight today, weighing in at 8lbs 5ounces, and growing to 21 and one half inches!! Although we think that is a big accomplishment the doctors were hoping for more. They are threatening a nightly tube feeding to get her weight up. I am hoping to avoid that.... we are waiting until this Thursday to see how the cardiologist feels about it.

Olivia: Just as sweet as her sister, with a little more spunk and a little less patience (only when she is hungry)! It has been so fun to watch her personality come out. She loves to be talked to and played with, she responds with little squeaks and lots of grins. She loves playing with toys. Her favorite though, is talking with her sisters. Iz loves to put toys in front of her to watch her smile. Olivia has doubled her birth weight as well, weighing in at 11lbs even today. She is now 24inches in length! She is in the 50th percentile for weight and the 95th for height. She is so good to tag along to all of Emily's appointments, for moral support! :)

These twins have been amazing, it has been so much fun to have them in our home. They are such good babies!! Life is, as expected, super busy but so worth every second. Both are already sleeping through the night, from 10pm-6am!! Yeah, I get to sleep. They are just so pleasant and just love being together. I highly recommend having twins to everyone!! :)

Christmas in SG!

We got to celebrate Christmas with my whole family!!(minus one brother,Bryce) It was quite a crew with ten brothers and sisters, spouses, and kids! We had a Great time together. Mom was, as always, a great host with lots of yummy food!

The twins first Christmas, pretty uneventful for them, they slept through most of it!
Ab and Iz really got into the whole idea of it this year, it was so fun for me to watch and listen to them talk about Santa Claus and what he might bring them!

We sang Christmas carols around the tree, all the kids got to stand in front and lead the music! It was a great year with the kids being old enough to know most of the songs and really get the idea of Christmas! After the kids went to bed the adults stayed up and played Mafia for a couple of hours before lights out and waiting all night for Santa!! :)

Disneyland...

We spent a week in CA, going to Disneyland and hanging out at the beach. We went the week before Christmas... the park was empty!! We got to stay on rides for two or three times in a row without getting off because there were no lines! It was amazing!!
We had a blast taking Abbie and Iz to Disneyland... (Ben's mom flew out to watch the twins while we went, THANK YOU!!) Isabelle was totally star struck when she got to meet the all the princesses. Abbie was big enough this year to ride the big rides with Dad! It was so much fun!!
There are no pics with this post because..... I guess my camera deleted them?? If I find them I will post some... :(

Newport Beach

And Finally Newport Beach Vacation! It was so fun to get away just as a family. We have had a busy few months full of lots of fun visitors and adding two new members to the family. We got to hang out together and just enjoy each other.

Abbie and Iz LOVED the beach. It was in the 60s so we went with light jackets just to hang out, but we couldn't stop Abbie, she ended up in the water and loving it. She was mesmerized by the waves and somehow got the impression that she could control them, it was hilarious. Iz was in her own world for hours scooping dirt and dumping it in another place, she learned about the waves pretty quickly: She was bent over to scoop some mud when a large wave washed over her, it knocked her down into the water....poor thing will never go near the ocean again... at least for now! The twins were of course there with us in their car seats sound asleep, perfect babies!!