Kelsey goes to a Birthday Party

Kelsey's friend Niah turned four this last week and Kelsey went to her birthday party. It was a Barbie princess party so she was to go dressed up like her favorite Barbie. Being that she only has one, thanks to Sister Sessions who gave it to her for Christmas, she dressed up like her Ballerina Barbie. Kelsey picked out her tights. She had so much fun at the party. Thanks Natalie for hosting it and making it so much fun for the kids!! Apparently they played pin the crown on the Barbie, colored a page, watched a movie and of course opened presents.

PS. I AM STILL GOING PRIVATE, I just trying to allow enough time for people to look at it to get the message.

Frigid Temps!

While we were gone to Philadelphia it was freezing!! In fact the day after we got home, Burlington hit at record low at -21 degrees F. That was without the wind chill. Blake had decided our car needed washed to get all the salt off. He took to the car wash because our faucet was frozen. When we got to the car wash he opted for the cheaper (didn't I say cheaper is not always better, read previous post) wash and sprayed the soap and water on himself. As he was spraying the soap on, it completely froze! So then he preceeded to power wash off all the soap that had frozen to our car. Ha Ha, he did get the salt off though. Next time, he admits, he will use the drive through.

We also had some sprite cans in the mud room that had exploded because it got so cold. See how one of the cans is split in the middle. The other one was on the verge of exploding. Now were're up to the single digits, yes!!

Philadelphia Trip

WARNING!! THIS IS A LONG POST!

Last week we went to Philadelphia for Blake to complete the second part to his Step II board licensing exam. We had a good time, but it wasn't without some mishaps. Our trip there went very well, the girls were great, the roads were good and we got out early. I had hoped to get to Philadelphia before dark so we could tour some of the national landmarks. Luckily we got to Philadelphia before dark and we succeeded in finding the building where Blake was to take his test, but unfortunately I was driving and we never made it to see any landmarks. Some may not realize that I am directionally challenged!! When dating Blake, I once got lost in Provo--yeah, he still won't let that one down. Fortunately we invested in a GPS about 3 years ago, and that did help a little bit, but it isn't fool proof. Okay, so maybe it helped A LOT, but it still isn't enough to treat my handicap though.

We eventually made it to our hotel, after having to switch with Blake in driving. I was so excited because I had found this awesome deal online, way cheaper than anywhere else, it was much to my chagrin though when we arrived at the hotel. The place was a dump! Also, I thought the room was already paid for when I made the reservation online, nope, the reservation online didn't include the taxes and what I was actually charged was a reservation fee. So in the end I paid just as much for this dumpy hotel as I would have a much nicer one. Lesson learned!! Sometimes it's not worth it to go cheap. Well, at least dirt cheap.

The good thing about the hotel is that it had a microwave, so I was able to cook the frozen lasagna I had brought for my family to eat. The bad things were that the mini fridge it came with was covered in black mold, the bathroom had toilet paper stuffed down the facet that had browned and dried up, and the sink wouldn't drain. To make things worse, that night Blake got really sick and went to bed as soon as we walked in the room. Luckily he was well enough the next morning to take his test. I didn't sleep the whole night. I was worried about bed bugs and other little critters that were living in this room. The next morning we packed everything up and left. Before we had planned for me just to take him to his test and then return to the hotel and check out at noon. But I wasn't going to stay in that room any longer. I dropped Blake off at about 7:15 A.M, then I was left with two little girls still in their jammies in the middle of Philadelphia by myself. Wha-hoo!!

I found this while I was lost, pretty cool huh?

To make this post a little shorter, I drove around for an hour looking for the Indepedence Visitor Center where I was hoping to park and maybe see some sights with my girls. I found it, but didn't realize how expensive parking was until I had gotten to the bottom of the garage and couldn't back up. I parked for 30 minutes. Giving us enough time to get the girls dressed, their hair done and got me spiffied up a little bit and left paying $8.00!! I gave up the Independence Visitor Center and I left for the Please Touch Children's Museum. Luckily I found this without any glitches!! The museum was wonderful!! I am so glad we went. We were there for 5 hours until Blake called for us to come and pick him up. The girls were in heaven and they had the cutest things for them to do. Here are some pictures.

This was a place where they could build their own place and launch it off to fly it.Kelsey doing the balance beam, look at that future gymnast!They had a great water area with all sorts of fun activities
This was part of the space area

Kelsey dressing up like Alice in Wonderland
They had a mini shopping store, Kelsey is checking out here and a little boy is her cashier. He is asking for money here and Kelsey is giving to him. I was cracking up this part. My girls were in heaven!!
Mylee shopping. I couldn't stop laughing!! She was in HEAVEN!! She looks so big!

Kelsey and Mylee cruising

Mylee giving us her cheeser!

Our way home was pretty seemless too, except when we were about an hour away from home and Blake wanted a break from driving and pulled over so I could take the wheel. Just as he pulled off to the side of the road we started SINKING!! The side was the road was plowed up with snow, but underneath was a little ditch. Well, we got stuck and it was so cold outside that the roads were completely frozen and our tires wouldn't grip the road so we could get out of there. This was at about 12 in the morning by the way. Blake worked the 4-wheel-drive for about 15 minutes and we were eventually able to get out. What a relief!!!

Now we are done with our travels and are looking forward to staying put! Just a few days prior to our trip to Philadelphia, we were in Betheleham, PA for an interview. So in about a week's time we traveled about 1400 miles, totaling about 27-28 driving in the car with two little girls. They were champs though!

Going Private

After getting hits from many different countries where I don't know anybody among many other places I don't know people, I am going private. Please leave a comment and leave me the email address you would like me to send you an invite.

Please note however that if you do not have a gmail account, you will only be able to access the blog for 30 days using another email account. I know it is really annoying! However, it is really easy to sign up and I have been really pleased with gmail and it's features. You can sign up for free and only use it to sign into blogs if you like. I personally have two email accounts, one for personal and one to receive adds and other stuff. You know like those things you sign up for on the internet that require an email address. That is where I put in my other email address.

To sign up for gmail just go to www.gmail.com and just follow the instructions. Sorry to make looking at my blog more of a pain.

Kelsey's First Day of Primary

Kelsey is now officially a Sunbeam. I can't believe I have a child old enough to go to Primary. Since it was a special day, we of course did her hair extra-special. She was thrilled by that. And without a doubt, she believes she is a real princess. I of course, know that she is.

Mylee Likes Caramel!

The other day, I went upstairs to get some chores done, leaving Mylee in Blake's care. The only problem was that I assumed Blake would take care of her after noticing I had left. Well you can see what happened. Blake fell asleep and Mylee went to town! We bought these little containers of caramel to dip apples in for snacks and Kelsey had some for lunch, but apparently had left it too close to the table's edge. She got it EVERYWHERE. It could have been worse though. Blake said she came into the livingroom and woke him up saying, "ma ma, ma ma" (that's what she says when she is trying to tell you something). He opened his eyes and quickly jolted out of his chair and took her straight upstairs to the bathtub. Mylee thought it was great of course.

Since we are talking about Mylee, I wanted to jot a few more things down about her. I laugh my head off at her every day!! She's hilarious! EVERY TIME she hears some music she moves her little body to the beat and gets a beaming smile on her face. I'll have to get a video of it on here for you to see. She's also become quite good at saying thank you. She still loves peek-a-boo, but LOVES playing tickle the most. Usually she'll chase either Kelsey or Blake around and say, "Ticka ticka ticka". You have to hear it though, it's this high-pitched all-run-together sound. So cute! Mylee also loves taking care of the many babies (dolls) we have around the house. She'll find one and say, "baby, baby" then pat it on its back and say, "Shhh." Then she'll usually laugh, throw the doll and find something else to do.

Yesterday for dinner I made manicotti which is a huge hit at our house. My girls gobble it up, well usually! Mylee just was not interested. She wouldn't even taste it, very frustrating. But when I wouldn't offer it to her she would ask for it again, "ma ma, ma ma...." So then I would try again to feed her, but again she refused. Then I figured it out. She wanted to feed herself. I gave her the fork and put some food on her tray and she ate the whole thing!! When I gave her the fork she gave me a little giggle and got very excited. It's so fun to see more and more of her personality coming out.