We have been having a picture taking drought lately, but I feel like I need to post something new mostly because I'm tired of seeing the Thomas Inflatable pictures. So here are the only pictures I've taken in the past two weeks (besides soccer pictures). There was a baby/kids consignment sale close to our house this past weekend, so we went to check it out. I picked up quite a few things for the girls, but I also found a baby backpack/stroller in fairly good condition for only 3 bucks. Hopefully it isn't a big suprise that we aren't done with our family yet, so I'll say now that I bought it. This isn't, on the other hand, any kind of announcement from us. Alyssa was very interested in the new "baby toy." After we got home, she quickly ran and got two babies ("A baby brother and a baby sister," in her words. She wants twins, just like Dora). She put the babies in and pushed it around the house.

After awhile, I told her that it was also a backpack. I showed her how to put it on and she insisted on wearing it like that for awhile, even though the thing is almost as big as her.
After taking this picture and a short video clip of her taking the babies for a walk, she took it off and hasn't even looked at it since. I think she realized that it wasn't as fun to wear around the house as she thought it would be.

Our new Addition

Danny brought a special prize home from work this week for the girls. A friend of his let us borrow it for a little while.

Out of convenience, we set it up in our living room. After inflating it, we realized that it is a lot bigger than we remembered it. Fortunately it blows up and deflates really quick.

Ashley stayed in it long enough to get two pictures and a short video and hasn't wanted much to do with it since. Occasionally she will go in one door and run straight for the other, but for some reason she does not want to jump. Alyssa on the other hand loves playing in it.

She calls it the Thomas Trampoline. I think her favorite thing to do is stand or sit inside it while it inflates or deflates.

We are glad to be able to try this out. Now we know it probably wouldn't be worth our money to buy it. But Alyssa is enjoying it until we return it.

Some Noteworthy Conversations

We have had a couple of cute conversations lately with Alyssa that we wanted to get down in writting.

Conversation #1:

Alyssa: Where did Ashley come from?

Danny: From her crib, she's taking a nap.

Alyssa: No, I mean where did we get her, because I want another baby.

Later that day...

Alyssa: Mommy, where did Ashley come from?

Laura: From Heavenly Father.

Alyssa: Can Heavenly Father give us another baby?

Laura: Yes.

Alyssa: When?

Laura: Maybe you should ask Him for another baby. Do you know how we ask Heavenly Father for things?

Alyssa: Yes. When we pray.

She wanted to say the next family prayer and asked for a baby.

Conversation #2:

This took place while Alyssa and I were reading scriptures together. We were reading about Captain Moroni and the many wars at the end of Alma.

Alyssa: Did they die? (referring to some of the warriors)

Laura: Yes.

Alyssa: When we die, we get to go live with Heavenly Father.

Laura: That's right.

Alyssa: That will be so exciting.

Laura: (Laughing to myself and thinking, I guess you could look at it that way).

Alyssa: Oooh! Does he have lots of toys?

Laura: (LOL) Maybe.

Here is a picture that I took of her this week at the childrens museum.

She is, by the way, very baby hungry lately and is constantly pointing out babies to us and asking for a little brother. We'll see when that happens.

Easter Festivities

On Friday we went to an Easter Play group at the church. They made these bunnies.

Then the kids went on an easter egg hunt. (As you can see, it was hard to find the eggs.)

The girls enjoyed their candy and a snack.

On Saturday we dyed easter eggs.

Here is Alyssa with the finished eggs.

On Easter morning the girls were excited to wake up and see all the prizes that the easter bunny left for them.

They hunted for easter eggs that were left all over the house. We had to convince Alyssa to leave some for Ashley since Ashley insisted on opening up every egg and tasting the candy before moving on to another egg.

Here is Alyssa with one of the two baskets that she filled up with eggs.

We enjoyed a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and eggs as we discussed the reason we celebrate Easter. We loved listening to General Conference. Alyssa even sat with us off and on for three of the sessions. For dinner, I roasted a whole chicken for the first time ever. Overall it was a very nice Easter weekend.

Washing Daddy's Truck

We had summer temperatures last week so Alyssa, Ashley and I washed the car. I put on the girls swimming suits so they wouldn't get their clothes all wet and soapy and they had so much fun playing in the bubbles. After washing the car, they wanted to play in the sprinkler too. Later that night after Danny got home Alyssa asked him if they could wash his truck too. He agreed and they had just as much fun washing his truck. Alyssa was still in her swimming suit, but Ashley ended up washing his truck in her clothes. She ended up with very wet and soapy clothes. Here are the pictures I took of them washing the truck.
I love Ashley's expression in this picture.

Alyssa always wanted to be the one to spray the cars off. Sometimes she wanted to spray her family too.

Washing the cars and putting on the girls swimming suits got me, and I'm sure them, excited for the summer. We have also been enjoying daily walks outside and the park.

Alyssa's First Soccer Season

Alyssa had her first soccer game on Saturday. She is in an all girls league and there are 5 or 6 other girls on her team. She is one of the youngest and smallest on her team. They play on a small field with three girls on each team at a time and no goalie. Here she is all dressed and ready to go to her game.
Here she is warming up before the game.

We get the worst parents of the year award for not putting a warmer shirt on under her uniform. We had no idea it was going to be so cold out there. Here she is shivering before the game.

Fortunately, we at least had a sweatshirt that we put on under her jersey shortly after this picture was taken. She was a little bit warmer then, but we were all glad to see the end of the game come so we could warm up. Hopefully none of the other games end up with weather like that.

Here is a short video of Alyssa in action.

As you can see, she is still figuring out how to play. She sometimes forgets what she is supposed to be doing but after yelling her name, she'll snap back into it. We have also noticed that she is not very aggressive in going after the ball, but that may just be because she is one of the younger girls. So far she is enjoying it.

One on One's

I've been meaning to write about this since January when we started doing it, but we never took pictures to post. So before we went out this month, I made sure that we took pictures.

A few months ago, we noticed that Ashley was getting really defensive of her toys whenever Alyssa would come near her, especially when either of us (the parents) were playing with her. We talked about it and came to the conclusion that it might be good to give the girls a chance to have one on one attention from us each month and time away from each other. So we decided that the third Saturday of each month would be a day for us to have a one on one date. We swap girls each month and it has been a lot of fun for all of us so far.

This month, Ashley went with Mommy...

and Alyssa went with Daddy.

Ashley got to go ride the carousel at one of the malls in the area. We don't usually go to this mall, so she enjoyed the play area as well. We ended the date at a Mexican Restaurant that didn't even compare to California mexican food. Ashley enjoyed dipping the chips in salsa and playing with her drink.
Alyssa went to a place called the City Museum. It's in a big warehouse and has all kinds of things to climb on and through. There was a 10 story spiral slide that they went down. Her favorite things were the little train she got to ride on and the ball pit. Alyssa got to enjoy a very late lunch at Jack in the Box.

I included this picture because I thought it was cute. Alyssa was jealous that Mommy was taking a picture with Ashley and not her so she wouldn't be happy until she got a picture with Mommy too. And that is one of the many reasons why we do the one on one's.

Ode to my 20's

I saw a friend of mine do this on her blog and I thought it was cute, so I am copying the idea. As I celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday, I thought back on the big events in my life over the last decade.

20 - Graduated from Ricks and started at BYU-Provo.

21 - Went on a mission to the Brazil, Campinas mission.

22 - Worked hard as a missionary and returned home just before the end of the year.

23 - Met my wonderful husband and got married.

24 - Followed my husband to Kansas City so that he could do an internship for the summer.

25 - Both of us Graduated from BYU, went on our first cruise, moved to Des Moines for his first job, and then had our first baby on Christmas day. This was a big year for us.

26 - Bought our first home and our first dog.

27 - Joined a book club and found a new love for books/reading.

28 - Had another little girl at the beginning of the year and moved to the St. Louis area at the end of the year.

29 - Sold our first home, thankfully, and started getting into the best shape I've ever been in.

My 20's were really great. The happiest moments of my life have happpened in the last decade of my life. I look forward to whatever the next ten years of my life will bring.

Here are some shots from my very low key birthday. Unfortunately, Danny and I were both sick and spent a good part of the day laying on the couch. We did get up to open presents...

and enjoy the ice cream cake that I requested. It was peanut butter cup, my favorite, and very good.

I appreciate all of the calls, gifts, cards, and facebook birthday wishes that I recieved. Thank you to everyone who remembered me on my birthday.