My Pretty Girls

I love dressing my girls up in clothes that I wore when I was little.  The dress that Evelyn is wearing is one of those dresses. (My sister had a matching dress.)  My mom called them our "Anne of Green Gables" dresses because of the cute pinafore-thing on top.  I love the comments that I get from older ladies in my ward who remember the old styles.

Pretty Evelyn

Maggie 3 years ago in the same dress

Cute Maggie

Evelyn and her favorite kitty, Snowy

Temple Open House

We went this week to see the open house for the brand new temple in Provo.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  Everyone loved it.  Maggie especially loved the fancy chandeliers. Alan and I can't wait to go back!

I'm excited that, since Jared is now eight years old, he will be able to come to the temple dedication with Alan and me in March.

Jr. Jazz for Jared

This is a random, rare picture of Evelyn taking a nap (she hardly takes naps anymore.)  I thought it was funny because she has her backpack strapped on.  Ha ha.  We are in the process of trying to move her to a big-girl bed, but she is a bit resistant.  Oh, well.  I'm not in a hurry.

I signed Jared up for Jr. Jazz this year.  He has been having a ton of fun.  He definitely isn't as skilled as some of the other kids on his team, but he is great at guarding.  We are also trying to get him past the "hot potato" phase--he doesn't like to touch the ball much, and when it is passed to him, he wants to get rid of it as soon as possible.  Ha ha.  I definitely see a big improvement in him, though.  He just has one game left this season.

 It is hard to get action shots with my cruddy camera, so these are mostly shots of him just standing around.  Jared's jersey has a number 5 on it.

Ice Skating

A couple of weeks ago I took Maggie and Evelyn ice skating.  They had a "Talls and Smalls" morning at a local rink, so it was a really great deal.  Jared was sad that he had to go to school and miss it, but I'm sure we'll go back sometime when he can go.  It worked out perfectly with Maggie's PM Kindergarten schedule to take her.  

This was Maggie and Evelyn's first time ice skating, so it was a bit of an adventure.  Luckily the rink had these plastic "walkers" that the girls could use to help with balance.  Maggie got the hang of it quickly, but Evy still needed a lot of help.  

 The walker in action:

As you can see, the place was pretty empty for most of the time!

Maggie wanted to try skating without the walker, so I told her she had to hold on to the wall.  It was super cute to watch her.  

Billy Weekend in Seattle

Over the long weekend for Martin Luther King Day, I met up with four of my very best friends for a fun girls' weekend in Seattle.  Caroline, Ann-Marie, Ashley, and Kate were all my roommates at BYU for a long time.  We are all scattered across the US right now, but we made plans to meet up in Seattle, since Caroline was too pregnant to travel anywhere.

We stayed in a small VRBO and spent all weekend doing fun things.  On Saturday, we toured the Theo chocolate factory, ate lunch at a fun restaurant at Pike's Market, saw the Seattle troll, and went and saw a fancy play of My Fair Lady with a live orchestra.  It was FABULOUS.

We loved wearing our hair nets at the chocolate factory!

The tour was very interesting, and we got to try LOTS of yummy samples!

The view from the restaurant we ate at in Pike's Market--can't remember its name

Attempts at a selfie in front of Pike's Market

Walking in the rain

The Seattle troll under an overpass

Outside the Village Theater, where we saw My Fair Lady

 On Sunday, we had a low-key day.  We went to church with Caroline's family and ate a spaghetti dinner with them.   Everyone stayed up late playing games, but I actually went to bed super duper early feeling very sick.  I felt better the next morning.

On Monday we ate lunch at the Space Needle revolving restaurant and then toured the Chihuly Glass Museum.  It was so freaking awesome--definitely a highlight of the trip for me!  Then we stopped by the Bellevue Temple (closed because it was Monday, of course) and then had a low-key movie night at our VRBO.  

Space Needle

Views from the observation deck of the Space Needle

It was a clear morning, so we could see Mt. Ranier in the distance!

Kate and Ann-Marie taking pictures

Ashley and me (with my hood on--it was cold!)

Ah, yes!  Caroline was there, too!  I stole most of these pictures from her!

Eating at the Space Needle restaurant.  It rotates very slowly (45-minute rotation) so you can see all the views.  The food was very pricy, and it was hard for someone like me who doesn't like seafood to choose something, but the experience was super fun.

Ann-Marie and me

Since it was Ann-Marie's birthday, our server brought us a free ice cream sundae with dry ice all over the place.  It was quite a presentation!

 All of the next pictures are from the Chihuly Glass Museum. It was really quite stunning.  I would love to go back sometime and show Alan.

This is called the Persian ceiling exhibit.  I think I want a room like this in my house.

Another view of the Persian ceiling

This was a big "garden"--it reminded me of something out of Alice in Wonderland

Chandeliers

Space Needle as viewed from the glass museum

We got to watch someone blow glass

Saying goodbye at the airport Tuesday morning--so sad!

I can't wait to plan our next Billy trip in a few years!  I LOVE these girls with all my heart.

5. Out of the Mouths of Babes

• With characteristic honesty--if not tact and diplomacy--Maggie informed me (Alan) that my "nose was growing very long." Thanks, Maggie.
• My parents' cat, Binx (you know Binx?) tends to be rather grumpy most of the time. Well, all of the time. Evy and I saw her one day, and I said something about "that grumpy Binx." Later that day, Evelyn said, "I want to go see that grumpy Binx named Binx. Binx will not bite my finger. She will do kisses to me."
• Evelyn was complaining about the snack I was giving her one day. She told me several times that "I want something else." I got fed up with that and told her that she wasn't allowed to tell me that she wanted something else. Without missing a beat, she said, "I want something different." Clever girl.
• Maggie asked Jenny why animals didn't read scriptures and stories and brush their teeth before bed. On another animal-related note, Maggie asked why we couldn't buy cat milk at the store along with the cow's milk that we are accustomed to here in America. I don't know whether she wanted to have cat milk or whether she thought it would be nice to buy cat milk to feed to baby cats. 
• When Santa came to our ward Christmas party, Jared leaned over to explain to Maggie that it wasn't the real Santa. His reason for saying this is that we had seen the real Santa while we were on our vacation to Mexico. We had seen a man at the resort with bright red swim shorts; a Hawaiian shirt; an awesome long, white beard; and the most spectacular rosy cheeks. I'm actually pretty sure it was the real Santa.
• The kids have learned that Jenny and I are quite literally a captive audience when we're driving in the van, and they pepper us with questions just as fast as they can get them out. One day Maggie, who sits in the back seat and is very hard to hear/understand, asked rather randomly, "Daddy, when all the people died, were all the pirates still alive?" Mind you, I didn't actually understand the question the first time. I just heard "muffle muffle muffle muffle muffle PIRATES." Jenny and I said something about Pirates of the Caribbean in a desperate attempt to respond. When we finally did hear the full question, we were too puzzled to even ask any clarifying questions, so we just said, "No, they weren't." I still don't know what she meant. Were there pirates on the earth before other humans? Will pirates still be alive when the rest of us have succumbed to the inevitable zombie/pirate apocalypse? Both are very good questions. I really don't know.
• When sweet Evy gets her feelings hurt by something, she'll often come to Jared in tears and request "the magic song." It's just "On Top of Spaghetti" (you know the one, I'm sure.) He puts his arm around her and brings his face close to hers and softly sings those touching, soothing lyrics we all know and love from our childhood. It immediately cheers her up. But don't make the mistake of singing it when she's not sad: we've learned that she gets offended.
• Maggie asked one morning, "Mommy, when bees drop off honey at our house, do they do a ding on the doorbell?" I guess it's sort of like the milk man but for honey. I can get behind it. This is the same girl who mistook a hamburger bun for a plain bagel and wanted Jenny to put cream cheese on it. Somehow it wasn't quite as yummy. I guess there's a reason the Einstein brothers went into the bagel business rather than the hamburger bun business. 
• This happened today, and it's the best: Jared got a gummy worm in primary today and somehow had the self control to not eat it. Evidently, he had grown attached to this particular gummy worm to the point that he actually named it: it was christened Little Timmy. However, ten minutes after we got home from church he confessed to Jenny that he had bitten Timmy's head off and then had eaten the rest of him. A few minutes later, he came back upstairs with genuine tears and told Jenny that he missed Little Timmy and was sorry that he ate him.  He continued to have legitimate remorse for this for the next ten minutes or so and sadly said, "Little Timmy might have been the only pet I'll ever have!"  Jenny told him she would buy him some more gummy worms for his birthday.