Beauty and the beast

not really.  I would never call any of my children a beast, but here it is anyway!

Table from Pop

We went to visit Pop and while we were there we asked if we could borrow his little table for the girls for a while so they had a place to color and play.  They have loved it!  Here they are coloring on the chalkboards that they got for their Birthday!

Ana with colored board. Emily with wood board.

Sip n Doodle

For my friends Bachelorette party we went to a place called Sip n Doodle where you go have drinks, and snacks and paint.
After we went to Palios pizza and had some very tasty dinner!

We had a great time.

This is the picture I chose to paint

Here is my painting

Life has gotten me behind

I have been so wrapped up in life that I have not taken the time to update.  I have lots of pictures, and stories and I have been trying to enjoy each of them to the fullest!  I promise updates soon, I have just been reorganizing my priorities since the older these kiddos get the more constant attention they are asking for.  I love it, but it has put a halt to any other activities I enjoyed!  I also have had been dealing with a pretty nasty flare of my autoimmune disorder, so I have been fighting that as well! 
plus I had to wipe my computer and put it back to its factory defaults so all my pictures are on a different drive now!  Which you wouldn't think makes a difference, but it does!  :)
I use this blog as the history of my children, and use it to mark their milestones so believe me; I am going to get it updated!

2nd Birthday Party

It had been a while since we had had an occasion to get our friends together.  So for the girls Birthday we invited a bunch of friends over!
The girls had a great time, and so did we!

Here are some pictures of the Event!  Emily has the pink bows and Ana the yellow.

Before the guests arrived

The dresses were made by Ben's Mom.  They are so cute!

Decorations!  The girls tried to help us blow up balloons, but they just couldn't do it!  Ben's sister Rosemary helped though! and ended up doing much of the decorating!

The girls and Morgan all playing on the stairs!

The cake!  (and no...I didn't make it.  Costco did!)  I love Costco cakes!

Ben giving his mom some frosting off the knife!! 

Emily...Can I open it now???  This was the gift from Rosemary, and she had put flower petals in the bow.  The girls really thought that was cool!

Lets eat Cake!  They wanted to use forks...Their idea.  Ana

Emily

mmmm this is tasty!

What do you mean this is all I get? 

Emily licking the plate clean

Ana.. "well if this is all I get I am going to make sure I get it all!"

Opening gifts!

What a cool dude!  Or as Emily likes to say.  "dude!"

Mom and Emily

Da and Ana

PUZZLES!

Blocks made by Pop, and coloring books from the girls.

A Pool from the Heffners and all our toys put in it!

toys

Morgan playing with the tea set that Aunt Rosemary got them!

WOW look at all that loot!  We are lucky girls!

Poppi and Da

Playing with the toys

I just loved that they put all the toys in the pool and then got in!

4th of July

Ben took the day off! Yeah!
I was working on making wine glass charms for my friends upcoming bridal shower, so that took longer than I hoped (I am not very good at that sort of thing, so it always takes me a bit longer!)

Once I was done with those, we wanted to make a cool drink and hang outside for a little while. 

It was blistering hot outside, but the girls love to be outdoors.  First we got my Kindle and put on a cartoon, but that didn't last.  So we stripped the girls down and put them in their swim diapers and turned on the sprinklers.   It was not quite as fun as I was hoping! 

Ana was terrified of the sprinklers and Emily only went in when forced.

Ben's Mom stayed the whole week of the girls birthday so we got to spend the fourth with her.   Ben's sister Rosemary came up as well and we had a really good day with the two of them.

We ended the night with Granny reading a bedtime story!

You can take the boy out of the office, but he always is connected!

IKEA treck

The girls and Ann have never been to IKEA, so we all loaded up and headed out!
We stopped first in the cafeteria and got the girls a meal so they wouldnt be grumpy in the store...turns out that kids meals were free that day!  Love surprises like that!
Then we headed into the huge abyss that is known as IKEA.  We had an awesome time.
The girls were entertained by the arrows projected on the floor and we made it a fun game.
Then we stopped off in the kids area for them to play for a bit.  They loved the toddler beds!
Emily is in the green shirt Ana in the pink!  These were Birthday outfits Grandma and Grandpa Ricks gave them!

Emily got up on the bed and under the covers all on her own. lol

This is the first time the girls have ever held hands.  It was so cute I about couldn't stand it!