My sweet Grandma Corkill

For those of you who don't know my grandma is terminally ill with cancer. The real reason for my trip down to California was to spend one last weekend or girls night out with the girls in the family, including my Grandma Corkill. We were all planning on going to see Wicked together, but when that Saturday arrived, Grandma felt too weak and sick to go. We were really sad she couldn't make it, but I did get to see her the following Monday. We went over to my garndma's house and spent the afternoon with her. My grandma is an amazing and remarkably strong woman. She was born into very difficult circumstances, but worked hard as a child to support her family and continued to work hard throughout the rest of her life to provide a wonderful life for all her children and grandchildren. I have learned so much by watching her and from the amazing stories I have heard about when she was younger.

My grandma took me on a trip to Europe when I graduated from high school and it will forever be one of my favorite memories of all time. We were roommates for two weeks and went everywhere together - we laughed, played, shopped, and did pretty much everything possible together. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I had so much fun with her! We have been so incredibly blessed to have this amazing woman in our lives and I am so grateful I got to see her one last time. I love you from the bottom of my heart Grandma and will be eternally grateful for all the things you selflessly did in my behalf. Thank you for being so wonderful and for loving me the way you do - I will love you forever!!!!

I have the fireman blood in me too

We thought this was funny - everything in the station is made wheelchair accessible and all the signs have brail on them. How many blind wheelchair bound firemen are out there? I don't know of any.

For those of you who don't know, my dad and my brother are both firefighters for LA city. While we were in California we stopped by my dad's new fire station so my dad could show us around and my sister and I decided to take a whirl down the new fire pole. My mom was freaking out, trying to tell me to be careful because I had 2 kids at home. We've been doing this since we were little kids but for whatever reason, Mom decided to pick that day to get all panicky. She was fine when we were younger, but now that we're adults she gets all nervous - silly mom! Anyway, here is a picture of me sliding down the pole.

Wicked

All of us outside the theater (me, my dad, my sister Sarah, my Grandma Lillenberg, Mrs. Saggiani, Marisa Saggiani - my soon to be sister in law, and my mom).
Sarah and I outside Wicked.

Sarah and I by Billy Joel's star in Hollywood. Okay, so I'm not a dye hard Billy Joel fan or anything but I had to take a picture by a star to show where I was and Billy Joel happened to be the lucky star.
My Grandma and I outside the Pantages Theater.

While I was in California my family and I saw the Broadway play Wicked. It was so fun! The play was so adorable and just an all around good, clever show! The music was so incredible and the actors/ actresses were just as amazing! Whenever I see a Broadway play I always leave thinking, "Why can't I sing like that?" Their voices were soooo good! Now I can't wait to take Derek to go see it when it comes to Portland in March.

My California Trip

Last weekend I had my trip to California - ALL BY MYSELF!!! It was amazing! Everything I did was so simple and relaxing because I didn't have any kids with me. I love my girls do death and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, but I have to admit that traveling is not my favorite thing to do with them. The airplane ride was so relaxing and easy and when I got in a car, all I had to bring was myself and my purse - incredible! I wasn't packing around diapers or wipes, no sippy cups or snacks, no books or toys to keep kids entertained with. All I had to worry about was little old me. I highly recommend any mother to do a get away by yourself if at all possible. I can't even say how wonderful it was. I have to admit though that part of the reason it was so great was because my girls were having the time of their life at Nanna and Boppa's house with Daddy while I was gone. Thank you so much to everyone who made this trip so smooth and fun for us all!!

Me and my brother Josh.

My mom, sister Sarah, and me at the Grove (this ritzy outdoor shopping mall in Hollywood).
My dad, mom, soon to be sister in law Marisa, Josh (he is holding the cardboard cutout of my little brother Chris that we used in my sister's wedding last year because Chris was on his mission), brother in law Ryan, Sarah, and me.

It was so fun getting to see everyone! I had such a great trip and absolutely loved being able to hang out with my family and relax for a weekend. What a lucky girl I am to have such an amazing family who I love so much! Thanks guys for a great weekend!!!

I did it!!!

I finally did it! I took the plunge and chopped off my hair. I was a little nervous about doing it, but I have to admit that it has been really nice not having to take care of so much hair - and plus it feels so much cooler! So here is how it went...

I started out with this...

Then took off a little of this... (a 14 inch pony tail plus another 3 inches or so and then massive amounts of razoring)

And ended up with this... (yes I know I look really funky and weird in this picture)

Crazy! I still can't believe I did it! I'm not quite sure how to do my hair yet which is a problem, but hopefully that will come with time. I guess we'll all see!

Derek's pretending to be a radiologist

I gave you all the update a few weeks ago that Derek is finally in his fourth year and life is good! Most of you already know that Derek wants to go into radiology and right now he is taking a radiology elective. Derek comes home every day all excited because he is reading and dictating CT scans and occasionally other doctors mistake him for a real radiologist. It has been a nice change from the usual abuse he recieves as a lowly med student. In March we find out where we will end up for residency - the fun continues on...

Stranded

On Tuesday morning I threw the girls into the car and was about to race off to go workout when all of a sudden the car wouldn't start. I thought maybe it was just out of gas, but then it still didn't start even after I put a little gas in. Here we are on Friday and our car is still sitting in the garage. Hopefully soon we'll figure out what's wrong with it and we will be on our merry way, but until then, WE'RE STRANDED!!! I have to admit that you don't appreciate having a car until it's gone. The first day at home felt a little weird because I knew we couldn't go anywhere even if we wanted to, but since then I've used the time to be productive. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have any interruptions - well at least not running errands interruptions. The girls are still alive and well so they are still meeting their quota of interruptions every minute! Here is what we've been up to since we fell off the face of the earth:

We made bread and the girls loved kneeding the dough and getting to make their very own loaf. Most of the dough ended up in their mouths instead of the pan, but that just made for an easy lunch!

Another day I cleaned out and organized the garage food storage and the kitchen pantry. I don't know why but our pantry is always in chaos - I can never keep it organized!
I even organized the linen closet. I should have taken a before picture because it was really embarrassing. It was to the point where you would just open up the closet to throw something in and then close the door before everything came falling down on you.

I finally (now that the season is almost half over) planted our little garden - and when I say little, I mean little. Our garden consists of 6 plants! It's better than nothing right? Ella was all excited to help me, but when it came down to it, she was very disturbed that her hands were getting dirty. She's a little bit of a neat-nick (Derek's genes coming through).

Here they are - all 6 plants!
Our little girly girl Ashley loves worms! Even from the time she was a little bean Ashley has been fascinated by wriggling worms. Here is a picture of her pet worm she found while gardening. It was a good squirmy worm that she held onto for about a half hour until it finally stopped moving and Ashley pronounced it dead. She then quickly threw her pet (which she had named Saphira only minutes before) on the ground and stepped on it. So much for loyalty!
Sahpira only moments before her final death!

While we were gardening I put down some snail bait and was explaining to the girls that they weren't allowed to touch it or play with it because it was poison. Ashley went on to explain, "Yeah Ella, don't eat that because it's poison and not even true love's first kiss can bring you back to life!" Gotta love the princess fairytale comments from Ash - I hear them all day long and love it!

I'm a painter...kind of

Okay, so I know you all could paint these with your toes while your eyes were closed, but for me this was a big feat! I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination and can barely eek out stick figures, so actually painting something on canvas was a big accomplishment for me. I was trying to think of a cheap way to decorate the playroom (who wants to spend tons of money on a playroom when there are much more important areas of your home that could use attention - i.e. my bedroom!) when I ran into these canvases onsale at craft warehouse. I decided I would try to paint some simple design to use in the playroom and it actually worked! I know they're not anything spectacular, but I was still happy I had something cheap and fun to put on that vacant wall. Plus, like my girls would even be able to tell the difference between something that actually took skill verses something I made! And they even got to help me make them!

Parenting Skills

So Derek and I have been working with the girls on not pouting when they don't get their way. We've let this bad habit develop when we say no to something Ashley will go sit down on the stairs and do a sad, my life is so hard, pouty face. Ella unfortunately has quickly caught on to this so Derek and I decided we needed to nip it in the bud before it became too deeply rooted. Anyway, the funny thing is now that we've had a few talks with Ashley about the reasons we don't pout and how we need to behave, she has taken it upon herself to teach Ella when she starts to pout. Ashley is putting my and Derek's parenting skills to shame! On Sunday Ella was told she couldn't do something so she went on over to the stairs to do her usual pouting session and Ashley walked over there and started talking to her. This is what we heard from the other room - "Ella, hey, hey, the way you are acting right now it not okay. You are being very difficult and it is not okay to pout when you don't get your way. Do you think people will want to be around you if you are pouting all the time? Next time I want you to say 'Okay Mommy' instead of pouting, okay? Now you need to go over and tell Mommy and Daddy sorry and then I want to see your happy face." Ella hopped right up and ran over to us with a big smile and said, "Sorry!" And then ran off happily to play. Derek and I were shocked! If either one of us would have tried to go over and talk to Ella it would have ended in a time out or more pouting or something like that, but Ashley totally fixed the whole situation. Now Derek and I are trying to keep an eye out for when Ashley parents Ella so we can get some good pointers!

A little fun with my missy moo goo

A few days ago the sun popped out for a few minutes as Ashley was eating some yogurt at the kitchen table. There was actual sunshine on her face (something that has been rare around here lately) so I had to take a few quick shots. I love that goobery silly face!

One more year down

Yeehaw!!! Derek has officially finished one more year of medical school! He started his fourth year yesterday and it feels so good to finally be in our last year of school! Of course he still has a lot more work to do after medical school is over, but it still feels good to be getting closer to that graduation date - go hubby go!

What should I do with my hair?

Okay, I've been considereing cutting my hair. I'm not sure still if I should, but I'm just getting so sick of how long it takes to wash and dry it. I'm not one of those lucky people (like my gorgeous sister) who can just let their hair air dry and have it look good. My hair turns all frizzy and crazy! Anyway, everytime I workout it's a big ordeal to wash all that hair and dry it - I'm just sick of it. I was thinking of cutting my hair pretty short, but I'm afraid I'll go into shock once it's done. I've had long hair most of my life except for a few times that I've cut it to my shoulders. I'm not sure if I should do it or not. Part of me thinks, just do it because hair grows back and it might look good, but another part of me is afraid of the melt down that might occur post cut. Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I was thinking of getting my hair cut like this picture, what do you think?

Preschool Graduation

Ella enjoying some of the graduation treats!

Ella and I with the graduate!
I thought these graduation snacks were just too cute! I don't think the kids really got it, but I thought it was great!

Ashley getting her diploma.

My sweet little Ash growing up...too fast!

Ashley had her preschool graduation last week. She was pretty excited about the whole thing. The kids all walked in to pomp and circumstance with their little caps on and then each came up front and got a diploma. After the "ceremony" they made these adorable photo albums with all the pictures the moms had taken during the school year - Ashley looks at it every day and tells me over and over again what is going on in each picture. After their craft they had an adorable snack with little diploma cakes and alphabet cookies. We have pictures of Ashley when she was 1 year old with a little cap and gown on when Derek graduated from BYU. She has seen a lot of those pictures so she had a good idea that when you graduate from school and wear a graduation cap, that it's a pretty big deal. It was a good day and Ashley felt very important. Now Ashley is dying for kindergarten to start. She already had her kindergarten orientation and is counting down the days until she gets to ride the school bus and go to her own class. Our little peanut is growing up!!!

Deep Conversations with Ashley

Over the last few weeks Ashley has been very interested in whether or not Heavenly Father brushes his teeth. One afternoon Ashley said, "Mommy, does Heavenly Father brush his teeth too?" I thought about it for a mintue and told her that I wasn't really sure, but that if I had to guess I wouldn't think so because he has a special body that doesn't get sick and I thought that covered cavities as well. She seemed satisfied with my answer and then about a week later I overheard her explaining to Ella, "Heavenly Father might brush his teeth, but probably not because he has that special body, you know, that can't get sick or anything. But we still have to brush our teeth." We have such deep conversations in our home!

Grapenuts

You'll never guess which cereal Ashley and Ella are loving these days...GRAPENUTS!!! What kid loves grapenuts?! I mean, I like them but I'm an adult and it seems to fit - but a 4 1/2 and a 1 1/2 year old? I can't complain because that's about as healthy as it gets when it comes to breakfast cereal. I guess they're just making up for the lack of nutrition in their diet during the rest of the day! Oh yeah, and they decided they like to snack on shredded wheat (the whole wheat kind) during the day and Ashley recently didn't eat any of the cupcakes we made because they were "bad for her body" - we threw away the whole batch! Where is this coming from? Derek and I haven't really been talking about anything health related lately - I'm sure this stint will end quickly so I need to enjoy it while it lasts!!!

"Mommy I Can't Wait to Get Married!"

I was out shopping with the girls in Fred Meyer and as we passed the jewlery department Ashley said, "Mommy I can't wait to get married!" I asked her why she was so excited to get married and she said, "Because I want to wear one of those rings!" The girl already has her eye on the kind of diamond ring she wants. I explained to her that when she gets married she won't live at home anymore, but will move into a different home with her husband. Ashley made a dissapointed face and didn't look too excited by the thought. I told her that I would be sad if she left already because I would miss her too much. She decided she'll stay for a little while longer.

The next day Ashley was asking Derek to tell her all about the hospital and what happened during his day. Derek told her about the things he did and then told her that some of the people in the hospital aren't very nice to him and sometimes even say mean things to him. A minute later dinner was ready and Derek said the prayer. After the prayer was over Ashley said, "Daddy you forgot to ask Heavenly Father to forgive those people who were mean to you in the hospital." I thought it was a pretty sweet thing to say and it definitely made Derek and I think twice about what she said.

A Couple Recent Pictures

As many of you know, my girls and I have been taken turns being sick since Christmas. Every time I get the urge to take more pictures I look at the dark circles under my girls eyes or the dead expression on their face and decide I had better wait until later. Yesterday I finally got to take a few pictures of them. Even though neither one of them were very happy about having to sit still long enough for me to snap a few shots, I managed to get a few keepers. Hopefully we'll stop getting sick and I can start taking pictures a little more frequently.