April

 Carli loved this hike and has been a great hiker lately.

 This was before the last time I cut her hair.

 Our little ballerina.

 The adoring crowd...

 Yep, that's my child...

 Look at those pigtails!

March 2012

Yeah, it's been awhile, the pictures will have to explain themselves...

A "Teeny Tea Party" with Carli, D. and J.

The last weekend in March we went to a cabin with our good friends. I sure wish I had some pictures from it. It was eventful, as Carli fell out of the "Crow's Nest" (the highest loft in the A-frame cabin) and spent the rest of the day throwing up. It was fun to reunite and spend a day in a national park.

A couple more...

* Carli: "Mom, how old will you be on your next birthday?"

Mom: "28."

C: "If I was 28 I'd be dead!"

*Carli: "I want a whole bunch of sisters. We could put a sister in the middle (of the back seat in our car) between me and Janie."

Mom: "Do you want a baby sister?"

C: "No, not a baby. We just need to grow big girls."

Carli-isms

* We went to visit Logan at school and his friends in his cohort are always so friendly with Carli and Janie. E., who sits next to Logan, offered Janie a snack and while Janie was acting a little shy Carli came running in dramatically yelling, "No! Janie don't take it, it's a trick!"

* After a lesson in Primary by a member of the bishopric the kids were asked, "So, what did you think of what he said?" Apparently Carli raised her hand and in a sugary voice said, "Brother B. is sooo handsome!"

* In her Primary class the teachers were giving examples like, "What should you do if your mom wants you to clean your room but you want to play with your friends?" And, "What if your dad wants you to help in the yard but you want to play with your sister?" Trust Carli to complicate the whole thing by asking, "What do you do if your mom wants you to help with the dishes but your dad wants you to help in the yard?"

* Tonight we were talking about Shadrac, Meshac and Abendigo at dinner and I mentioned that I couldn't remember why they were thrown in the fire. All-knowing Carli: "Maybe they were trash. Or maybe they needed to be recycled." Logan blames her indoctrination on the "greenies" at PBS.

* Every once in awhile Carli and I work on learning how to read. One day she was particularly wiggly and not compliant. I told her it was hard to be her teacher when she was doing that. Her response, "I don't want you to be my teacher. I want you to be my mom."

I wish I could remember all the great things she says. She cracks me up/stumps me multiple times a day. I've given up on keeping up with her, but it's sure fun to try!

December and January

Here are some pictures from the rest of December and a few from January. As usual I didn't take any pictures at Christmas because Logan would say I partake of the "public good problem" and rely on others to take pictures and send them to me. It works... when I actually follow through with getting them. Anyway, enjoy!

Here are our annual sugar cookie-making festivities. Always a favorite!

On the way to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas we stopped at Arches National Park. It is beautiful and we had fun going on a few hikes on the way to and from.

It wasn't exactly hiking weather, but we bundled up and it was still fun, plus there were certainly no crowds!
You can tell it was a bit warmer on the way back, plus we went on a much more rigorous hike. You get a few comments when you are carrying two kids on your backs.

Logan is the one in the middle of the arch.

Carli and I often do "lessons" (preschool activities) while Janie is napping in the afternoon. She loves, looks forward to, and begs me to do them each day. This particular day was about weather/snow. Here are her little play dough snowmen.
This little girl surprises me all the time with what she knows. One day I walked in to see she had written her name all by herself. I suspected she could, but if I ask her to do it she says it's too hard. I am so proud of her! (Never mind that she was writing all over my playgroup schedule.)

We are pretty much doing the same old, same old. January has consisted of getting used to a little heavier semester for Logan and finding ways to entertain children in the winter - a never-ending battle. Logan is looking forward to his trips this semester and is working on getting an internship in place for the summer. The girls and I are keeping busy playing with friends, planning activities and doing lessons. We feel very lucky to be doing what we're doing!

November and December

Here is November and a little of December.

I didn't get pictures of Logan's birthday, unfortunately. His brother, Ben, was in town for a few days around his birthday, and he was generous enough to take us to Tucano's for dinner. It was a fun night and delicious food.

Sometime in November I added chocolate chips to their pancakes, and the girls couldn't be happier (or messier).

We got to celebrate Carli's birthday with our extended family again this year. She is so lucky that her birthday is so near/on a holiday. She was a little disappointed because we didn't have birthday cake, just lots of pie. I can't believe how big she is getting! And what a sweet, smart, vivacious girl. We couldn't ask for more fun little people in our house.

The girls in their jammies, reading with Grammie. They really had a good time together. We stayed in a beautiful place, had good food, had hot dogs and s'mores around the fire, visited lots of family, and received generous amounts of gifts for Carli's birthday and for Christmas. All in all, it was perfect.
I was asked to head up the Christmas party committee in our ward this year. It turned out pretty well, I think. We had more people come then we expected, which is both good and bad. There was breakfast, Santa, entertainment and a pinata (we had a foreign theme) and I think everyone enjoyed it. These two have no fear of Santa, and Carli went to him a few times. She was worried after the fact because she hadn't told him the right thing she wanted for Christmas. Now she's changed her mind a few times. Good luck figuring that out, Santa...
We were excited to decorate this year and love the feeling our little home has with the Spirit of Christmas. We are so blessed with wonderful gifts this year and every year.
Plenty of other things go on that aren't photographically documented, but this is a pretty good summary. You may notice a couple of things about the pictures: Logan is in very few, and Carli is always wearing an eye-patch.

Well, Logan is staying very busy with school, and is, as always, very successful. He's my husband, so I can brag a bit. He has one more final tomorrow and is doing great. He has a couple of "easily publishable" papers (according to his professors), which he will find out about soon. He has some great opportunities coming up next semester to do research with a professor in Virginia, attend a conference with a group in Florida, present a paper with a group before the State board of something for public health (sorry, can't remember the name) and TA a class as well. He has made several contacts and is just generally good at what he is doing. I have no doubt that he will be incredibly successful, whether we choose to take a job after his Masters or go on to get a PhD. And not only that, but I have always been amazed at his ability to balance his life with work, church, recreation and above all, his family. He gets up early, works like crazy, plays racquetball and tennis with buddies on his lunch hour, works hard until dinnertime when he spends quality time with his girls, fulfills his calling in the Elder's Quorum presidency, makes sure I can do my time-consuming calling in the Relief Society presidency, and still makes me feel like he doesn't think about anything but me all day long. Yeah, he's incredible, and he's mine! (As a side note, he recently took a psychological assessment and the professional giving him his results told him, "You got the lowest score I've ever seen, which means you are the least stressed person I've met. In other words, you have a real knack for handling stressful situations." To which, Logan replied, "I have a lot of advantages" and explained what he meant. She was impressed at Logan's humility, but made it clear that Logan is in control of the choices that made those advantages happen. Yep, everyone thinks he's cool!)

About Carli's eye, we went to the ophthalmologist right after we moved here, and had a not-so-great experience. I won't go into details, suffice it to say that I felt somewhat belittled by the doctor who didn't know me, my child, my experience, our past, or our past efforts. All I can say is that an ophthalmologist who tells a mother "It's just a patch", has neither children, nor a clue. Anyway, he "suggested" (with the words "no arguments") that Carli speed up her progress by wearing the patch full time. Yes, that means we put it on when she gets up in the morning and take it off when she goes to bed at night. After having had 3 pediatric ophthalmologists (2 of which we really liked) before him and not-a-one had asked this of us, I was very put off. I have discussed this with him, and his opinion seems to be (I say "seems" because he clearly prefers to communicate only with experts of his own stature - all who seem to adore him) the quicker the improved eyesight, the better. I would have argued this, because I feel that he focuses solely on the eye and not the patient, but I have watched Carli's strength in many areas in her life. And, because she is fully capable of completing this difficult task, I agree with him that the longer her eye is stronger, the better. (I don't, however, believe every kid is up for full-time patching.) Her eye has made great improvement over the past couple of months, and when we return to the doctor in January he is hoping to schedule surgery. I can only hope that it will be the last one and that it will mean we don't have to patch full time ever again. (I also hope that they never find that the practice of patching is as useless as bleeding someone with leaches and that I am just torturing my child for a good portion of her formative years.) She is such a good girl, and even though she hates the patch and is getting old enough to notice that it is not normal, she keeps it on without complaint for the most part. She is another great blessing in my life.

Well, you're more than caught up on at least a few parts of our lives. I hope the holidays are wonderful and you remember how blessed we all are.

Janie video

Watch Janie's new words here

Oh, how I love this age!

September and October

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months:

Carli really wanted Belle to feel the cool, fresh air in the mountains.

My favorite people!

Awww!

We live in a beautiful place!

Our costumes for our ward party (Logan had a study group during it). Yes, another theme. Tooth fairy, sweet tooth, and little girl with a missing tooth. (Janie's costume got better by Halloween the next week.)

My traditional peanut butter fingers.

Unfortunately, I did not win the trunk decorating contest, but I thought this was fun anyway.

My sweet girls!

Over the past few months I have been sewing stockings for my cousin-in-law's Etsy shop. Janie thought it was great to play in the scraps.

This is what every morning looks like in our house. These girls love books more than almost anything (except, of course, each other!).

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating. This shows off Logan and Carli's jack-o-lantern masterpiece.

One cold, Sunday afternoon Carli was full of energy. Logan's solution for the outlet was an obstacle course and a maze (using the cardboard from my empty bolts of fabric and our storage of paper towels). Carli loved it! What a good dad she has!

I will get caught up on November and December another time. We are certainly staying busy and are having a great time, but definitely looking forward to Christmas.

Recent Carli-isms

* Telling Mom how dad's are the ones who go to work: "Your only work is the dishes."

* Trying to leave with some visitors and she was hesitant to come back inside:

Mom: "Bye Carli, I'm going to shut the door now."

Carli: "No!! But, I'm part of your family!"

* After her chain fell off on her bike: "Maybe Grandpa will move here soon to fix it."

There are billions more, but she's not easy to keep up with as it is, let alone remember the great things she says.