The Birthday Girl

Saturday we celebrated Ayla Dell's third birthday!

We spent the weekend looking at pictures of her and telling her birth story (and then she would want to hear Tayvie's too).

I told her to go watch out the window for her guests to come, when I walked in the room this is what I saw:She was doing her yoga as she waited!!!

She cracks me up!

She was raising her hands up and slowly bringing them back down in prayer!

I love it!She was so excited to bake a cake all day... all week really!

We made a yummy oatmeal cake and decorated it with food coloring... as you can see from her blue mouth below.oooo... Ayla is fun! She is such a sweet little girl. I just love her with all of my heart...

Here are a few little things about Ayla on her third birthday:

• ummm... obviously her favorite color is BLUE. Why? "Because my eyes are blue!" She wants to wear blue every day. She has to sit on the blue chair.She wants the blue bowl and she doesn't understand why I would put something in a yellow bowl when her eyes are BLUE!


• She is crazy about games! She always wants to play a game. She likes Hi Ho Cherry-o, Candy Land, Animal Scramble, Trouble, & The Cat in the Hat Game. She wants to color all day long- she's a coloring fanatic and is getting very good at staying in the lines! And she loves puzzles and has always been an excellent little puzzler. And let's not forget books and stories!

• She still loves to help. Lately we've been making yummy homemade bread, she asks me several times a day if we can make some homemade bread.
• The present we gave her for her birthday was a jumprope. She had been telling me for weeks that she wanted "that summersault thingy that goes like this...(making circles with her hands) that I played with at my friends house." It took me a few weeks to figure out it was a jumprope, but when I figured it out I was relieved because a $2 jumprope was a more realistic birthday wish for her! (I was afraid she was talking about a little trampoline!) Just now she asked me "Where did you get my summersault rope? At Walmart?"
• She LOVES nursery. She loves her friends and talks about her "friends" all of the time! If she can't remember a friends name when asked she always answers with "Hailey" after her fun little cousin.

• Some of the phrases I hear many times a day are "not yet," "That's not a good idea! How about FIRST we________ and then we _______"


• She's still my little singer. She sings along with every song she hears on the radio, if she hasn't heard it before she asks "Mom, do you know this song? What is it?" Then each song is labled either her song or mommy's song. If it's her song I am usually not allowed to sing along. She also makes up songs, the other day I was doing the dishes and I broke a glass next thing I know she had run upstairs and was back with her guitar singing a song "mommy broke a glass, mommy broke a glass... I don't know why, I don't know why."

Ayla is such a good big sister. She loves to play with Tayvie they are the best of little friends for sure. She has such a fun imagination, I just love to watch her play. She is so smart and so aware of things-- of everything. We are so thankful for Ayla and her fun little personality and all the smiles she brings us!

Glad you had a happy day little girl!!!

Cleaning the Kitchen

I was cleaning the kitchen today, so I moved the table and chairs and that turned into loads of fun.

• The chairs turned in to a train for Ayla. A train that was going to Montana... excuse me, Hannah Montana, the zoo, and a movie.

• The table turned into a jungle gym for Tayvie. Peek-a-boo I see you!

• And the whole thing turned in to an impromtu photoshoot for mommy!

Awww, I love cleaning! :)

again??? really???

Jury duty summons #2!!!

It was mailed to me the very same week I was calling in for jury service... last week!!!

How unreal is that?

And then remember that Tony just had jury duty in November, and I was supposed to have it in December but they post poned it 'til January... So now TWICE in 3 weeks? Unreal. Just seems like a lot to me right now.

Sunday Morning Patty Cake

Tayvie is crazy about "Patty Cake" right now. She is so funny! If she hears you say the words she immediately starts clapping (unless I'm trying to show her off to some one). And Ayla is such a good big sister, she loves playing with Tayvie, she's always up for a round of "Patty Cake."

We went to a cabin over the weekend with the Young Women in our ward and Little Miss Tayve started walking!!! She has been standing on her own but hasn't dared to move her feet unless she's holding on to something, but at the cabin she was taking 5 and 6 good little steps! I can not believe she is going to be a year in only about a month!!! She's still my little baby! It's so unreal...

Then there's the big sis. Ayla is such a little person! She is so smart, I feel like there is nothing she can't do. And talk about unreal- she is going to be THREE on Saturday! Every morning she asks me what day today is, and what we're going to do. She likes to have a plan- just like her mom! (She's standing here telling me to write that, she also wants me to clarify that she will be 3 "on my birfday") Awww, I don't know when she got so big either!

Cassi is Home!!!

One of our many tramatic events last week was that our dog Cassi ran away.

We have to coax Cassi to come out of the backyard, so it was very odd that she left on her own, but not so surprising just because last week if it could go wrong it did- really it did!

So she had been missing since Saturday and we thought she was gone forever, we thought she had gone away to die- but we got her back today! Yeay! We were so happy to see her again!

In other good news I got my jury summons last week but after calling in day after day I did not have to report!

feeewwwf!

That was a relief for me too!

Things are starting to look up-- knock on wood!!! :)

These are my little princesses today.

A Little Story

Seven years ago yesterday Tony asked me to marry him. I remember it was a fun day. It was the day that cheeeese-cones were invented (Bugles & Easy Cheese). We left around 8 am and drove to Manti, we walked into the trees behind the Manti Temple, it was so beautiful and peaceful. The ground was covered with snow and when we looked up just a few feet away there were three deer. It was perfect. But that's not where he proposed. We left there and stopped at every temple along the way from Manti to Bountiful. Then we ate a late dinner at The Olive Garden, and when I finally said, "I'm tired, let's go home," he suggested one more stop. We stopped at Murray park and walked just a few feet down the path along the creek, it was 11:30 at night and extremely dark and cold, and that's when he asked me to marry him. I don't remember exactly what he said, but I know it was very sweet and very perfect, I do remember my response was "Of course!!!"
We took this picture last night of us, a lot has happened in the last seven years, most significantly these two little girls, alllllllll because of this little story.

No Theme, Just Stuff

Isn't that a sad little messy face?

We've had that awful cold this whole week but I think we're finally starting to get better! Hopefully!

See here's a happy little messy face!!!

Tayvie doesn't look too happy here but she was giggling. These two together have so much fun! They love each other so much! I just love to watch them play together!

umm... the Yoga still kills me! How cute is this???
The other day she was jumping off the stairs (she can jump FOUR by the way) and she said "Mom is this Yoga?" I told her no but she insisted it was. She still loves Yoga, does it all of the time, talks about it all of the time. So funny!
I'm thinking of starting a mommy & me Yoga class maybe in the spring. maybe.

Guess Who's Having The Best Week Ever!

It's me.

...and yeah, I am being sarcastic. It's the kind of week where you just have to laugh cause everything is going wrong-wrong-wrong-wrong. Or so it seems, maybe everything is going right, everything works out in the end so it will probably work out better when it's all said and done, let's hope for that!

Tony called yesterday morning and told me he was coming home, he lost his job. We have been so happy at Semitool, that company has definately taken care of us, but it is time for a change and I'm sure it will be a good one. I will definatley miss the trips to Kalispell though! So we are looking for a new job! Tony has his degree in Electronic Engineering, he's been working as an Electronic Technician or a Field Engineer. We thought we would put this out there incase anyone has any little leads, we would greatly appreciate them! We're kind of excited right now to start something new and maybe a little more permanent. We're not scared yet cause we know we're going to be okay whatever happens.

The Cole Family Goes To Temple Square

December 23rd we went to Temple Square with my family. It was really fun! The girls loved the lights, Tayvie was grawling at them- which means she liked them. Then we saw this:

How fun is that! I know it is not that rare to see a proposal at temple square but I thought this was really cute! So I waited until the moment was over then caught up to them and got their e-mail address so I could send them these pictures. I wish that someone had been spying on Tony and I when we got engaged so we could have actual pictures of it!

Then we went to our traditional Denny's dinner: