Crash and Burnesto(Ernesto)

Okay, so as most of you know, Ernesto was a very wimpy storm. We are greatful that there wasn't any damage. However after all the time you spend putting up storm shutters and getting gas and standing in long lines for water, you wish that maybe there was a little"something". This is the back of our house with the storm shutters up. It was a very hot and humid day, and we spent most of it getting the shutters up.
This was the day of the storm. We decided to go to the beach and just take some pictures of Ernesto and all his glory. As you can see the beach was pretty windy but it was beautiful. It was funny to see people walking around and carrying on with everyday life, even though we were in the middle of a tropical storm turned tropical depression.
Another beach view. You can see the palm trees bending from the wind.
Here was our house the night before. Storm shutters up and parking cars in the garage.
We had storm shutters for all the windows but one, and that was our bedroom window. So we did they plywood thing. Adam got off at 1:00 because his office shut down to let everyone get ready for Ernesto. All things considered everything went fine. We were glad that we were prepared. We have a generator and food and flashlights and everything. It was nice to feel prepared. We may get lucky and not see one for the rest of hurricane season. We will see. I will tell you one thing though, I am so glad to be a member of the church. Our ward was so prepared. The Elders Quorum had a call down list to call everyone to make sure they were prepared, and it felt so nice to be a part of something so awesome. Everyone takes care of each other. Well, we hope our family in the North East will be okay. Ernesto is heading for you. Thank you for all of our friends and family who called to make sure we were okay...

Look Mamma Turtles!!

Since my daughters both love "Finding Nemo", they also love sea turtles. It maybe that the character "Crush" is so loveable, or that they are just fascinating creatures, either way they love them. We decided to take them to a Marine Life Center in Juno Beach. Here they take sick or damaged sea turtles and rehabilate them. It is actually quite a remarkable place. They also go and look on the beach when it is nesting season to make sure that the little baby sea turtles have the best chance possible of survival. Here are some below.
Both girls loved this place. Everything was "look mamma turtles" or "look mamma Nemo". They had an aquariam with Nemo and Dory in it. They loved the babies and the bigger ones.
It was hard to not want to let them jump into the big pool. They just wanted to go swimming with the sea turtles you know. Of course they are probably not as nice as "Crush". It was such a great day though. We bought the girls little stuffed turtles. They love them so much. They have to put diapers on them and everything. Actually it's the little swimmer diapers that the turtles have to wear. I mean come on, we all now you can't go swimming without the little swimmer diapers.
This was after a day at the beach. As you can see Aislynn is getting darker. Of course we lather them up all day long, but it looks like her skin is a darker shade of Ivory. Bailey of course is just plain dark. They were so cute taking their baths together. I love bath time!!
This is our next door neighbors little girl. Her name is Star. They actually adopted her, and then unfortunately she was taken away as the biological father decided he wanted her. So, they get to get her on weekends sometimes. It's a tough situation. It makes me ache for them. They are such wonderful people and Star is such a beautiful little girl. She came over for a couple of hours and played with my girls. Bailey loved her. I think she thought she was like a dog. She waited on her hand and foot, and made sure she had plenty of toys all the time. She was such a good baby.

If your happy and you know it

So, this is kind of a review of our last trip. As you can see here is some good ole Florida swamp. Doesn't it just look like a place where alligators would hide out?? It is actually very beautiful.
Aislynn and Bailey both have decided that they love to take every single one of their clothes out of the drawers and put them on wherever they will go. In this lovely ensemble, Aislynn has sweat pants on her ankles and dress bottoms on her head, and a corduroy dress. Bailey has on a lovely swim cover up.
This is Kyla. She is one of the girls best friends. We were having a presidency meeting over at our house for Primary and she decided to do finger paint art with her pudding. She is so talented. Needless to say she was very quiet and quite enjoyed herself. She is such a cutie!!
This is the boardwalk that goes around the park that we went to. It is beautiful and very peaceful. It is also very hot and swampy!!! We had lots of fun though.
Bailey just woke up from her nap in this picture. She always has a smile!! She has her messy hair her still half asleep face on. Our girls are so cute!!!

Family Fun!

Aww yes we have an alligator. Adam and I decided to take the girls to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Reserve. It's not that far away from our home and we thoroughly believe in going to the hottest,muggiest,sweatiest places during the hottest part of the summer. We believe in torture! So anyway you will be able to find lots of alligators here in their natural environment. Still a little to close for my comfort,but hey I have to admit they are very beautiful. Here is one, resting comfortable under a bridge. He didn't even move as we were taking pictures. He is obviously a pro by now. In fact one couple thought he was fake and put there just for photo purposes.



Notice anything funny about this boat?? If you said"there is no driver" you are correct. While we were enjoying the alligators, some guy decided that he could unload his boat and drive his car back up to the parking lot without it going anywhere. WRONG!! The boat floated out to river, and of course he wasn't going to go swim to it in alligator invested water. So Adam ended up getting into a canoe and boating him out there!!!
More wildlife!!! Please Mr. Birdie don't get eaten by Mr. Alligator
Cheese!!!
Here we are on the boardwalk that goes all around the park. It was so hot!! We had to bring a towel as we were getting drenched by the sweat!! The girls had nice rosie cheeks. The boardwalk is actually on top of the swamp. Hence the reason the girls are in the strollers. I thought it wise. I didn't want them to become alligator food. We did have a good time though. Aislynn is looking at the wildlife paper. She is such an avid reader!!!

You are so silly!

In my previous blogs I have mentioned how much fun we have at our house during the day. Usually it is just us girls as daddy has to work. We play dress ups, and monsters, we love to play tea party and mommy loves to let them both play beauty parlor on her. They have made some of the most marvelous hair do's on me. Here is Bailey showing off her beautiful dress up hat. She will often remind me to get the camera"Picture mama".
Here we are getting ready for some fun in the sun!!! Daddy is slathering on the sunscreen. Bailey already had her turn so she is ready to go!!! Aislynn is getting the whole body treatment. We have worked this whole routine into an art!
Both girls love to put things on. Whether it be socks, pants, goggles. This is the first way Aislynn decided to put on the goggles. Nevermind the fact that it is digging into her eye. She loves it. SO I told her how to put them on correctly, and they didn't come off for almost an hour. I love this age. Who ever thought that a thirty year old would love dress ups!!
They love to pretend they are in jail and then scream for me "Mama we are stuck, help mama" and then when I come in they laugh and think it is so funny. Somehow this scares me for when they get older. What other pranks will they pull on me together? Their little minds are so smart, and they help eachother so much. What will the future hold for me and their little tricks? I love it though.
Here is Aislynn with her goggles and umbrella and some vicks chest medicine. She is prepared! Do not let it be said that we did not teach her about emergency preparedness! I love my girls.. How exciting my life is everyday because of them.

Puppy Love

Okay, so we are taking care of our Bishop's dog while they are out of town. We have taken care of Maya(the dog)before and we loved it. She is the sweetest thing ever. Plus they have a wonderful pool in their backyard that we can swim in. Well very sad but Shauna(the bishop's wife) her father passed away last week, and they asked us if we could watch and take care of Maya again. We gladly said yes because as you can see from this picture, Bailey loves Maya. I am not just talking love, I am talking complete infactuation with her. She will not leave her alone. She has to lay on her, kiss her, pet her, tickle her you name it, she does it. Maya being the very sweet and loving dog that she is, puts up with her. Our bishop has four kids so she is more than used to having children around. Needless to say Bailey would rather sit with Maya than do anything else, including swimming. She cries when we have to leave and screams"Maya, oh no Maya I love you". It takes quite the fiasco to get her to come out the door with me. She will ask about Maya all day long. Aislynn likes Maya too, but not to the extent of Bailey. Bailey truely has found "puppy love".
This is Maya. She is a Pit Bull. The sweetest dog you will ever meet. She loves children. She is very gentle and kind.
Do you see the look on Maya's face? This is Bailey's position. So after awhile Maya will gently get up and move to another position, and guess what happens??
Bailey follows. Doesn't matter where Maya goes, Bailey is running after. Maya doesn't mind. Here she is lying on the cool tile to escape the heat. Bailey is rubbing her tell saying"good Maya"
Maya is trying to walk and Bailey is trying to lay on her. We try and tell her that she needs to leave Maya alone for awhile, let her eat. Oh no, Bailey has to put her head in the food bowl and lick the water just like Maya.. Bailey loves animals, loves them. We of course had dogs when we lived in Utah, but she was still too young to really enjoy them. Now she just loves them. She loves when we go to the zoo. She loves having bugs crawl on her and to pick them up off the floor. She is very gentle with them. We need to get a dog!!!

The things toddlers do!

Holy Mess!!! I have realized now, having two toddlers that food time is nothing but one big art project at our house. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches get torn apart and the good stuff gets licked out and the bread tossed aside. Same thing with cereal. All of the cereal gets picked out one by one and the milk get slurped up. Yogurt becomes finger paints to put all over face,hair,walls you name it. As a mother you can either become very irritated, or just realize that this is all part of the learning, and sometimes find joy and laugh a little at the creativeness of these little minds.... This is Aislynn singing "If you chance to meet a frown" she is doing the actions while smearing yogurt all over..
more singing, and more singing. If you look really closely you can see yogurt droplets all over the table...
We try and take the girls out on little outings on the weekends when Adam isn't working. There are so many parks and fun places to go, if you can stand the heat and humidity. This boardwalk goes for quite a while and of course has water on both sides. The girls love it, and it's fenced in, so I don't have to worry about my girls becoming gator food..Ha ha
Taking a little break after running down the boardwalk...
Yeah, Bailey runs everywhere. She rarely walks. Aislynn walks everywhere, she rarely runs. So I end up being torn in two directions. Bailey will try and push Aislynn to get her to walk faster, but Aislynn clearly beats to her own drum. I love it. They are both so different. They love eachother though so much!!

Rub-a-dub-dub three toddlers in a tub!!

Well, can you see that we just have too much fun over at our house!!! This is Aislynn's and Bailey's very best friend Kyla. Cori and Pete(Kyla's parents) are great friends of ours, and they watched our kiddos while we went to the movies, and then we watched cutie Kyla for them. After a fun time outside in the dirt it was bath time. Way too much fun for these girls. Of course more water ended up on the floor than in the tub, but hey that is what happens every bath time. They are all such dolls!!!
Kyla and Bailey are the tan ones on the end, and then we have the oreo filling which would be Aislynn, my little white girl!!! There was room to spread out, but it is more fun to sit really close together and wash each others backs and hair!!!!
Sweet Kyla!!!
Aislynn was done, and so Bailey and Kyla played together. The whole toy box was of course in the bath tub.....
Too much fun. My pants were completely soaked after this, but that is the way it always is. Bailey and Aislynn still ask for Kyla every time we get into the tub!! Too much fun for these little cuties!!!


We are doing very well. Most of you know that Adam had his eye surgery two weeks ago. He is healing very nicely and his doctor is very impressed with his sight. He still has to take it easy, but it is getting better. He also got a raise at work, which is nice. They are finally taking notice at what an incredible worker he is. I am loving my calling. It keeps me on my toes, but the children in our ward are so incredible. I love who I work with as well. We got our first hurricane of the season. Don't worry it didn't directly hit us. We got lots of good rain and wind and thunderstorms though. It was nice... We love all of you and miss you greatly......

Where did the water go?

Okay, so we have all seen that commercial where the little toddler goes to the beach with his parents, and as soon as he gets into the water, the water disappears and you see him waddling off with a diaper that looks exactly like THIS!!! So, I ask the question, "Where did the water go?"
The girls got these two big tubs full of blocks for Christmas. They love to play with the blocks but they love to put them on their heads and play bumper cars too. Oh, it is a fun game to bonk heads with these on, and nobody gets hurt. I am just waiting for the day when the tubs get too small and I have to pry them off of their heads!!!
Bailey looked just like a duck. She has a little more behind than Aislynn so instead of sagging it just kind of pooched out and made her look like a duck, she even had the waddle!!!!
Such a supermodel pose. Pouty lips and all!!!
It's so fun to watch Aislynn float up because her diaper is so big!! She thought it was hilarious. We did too. Oh, it is so much fun with these girls. I wish you all could spend a day with us!!

Belated Birthday!!

Okay, so I know Aislynn's birthday was on the fifth. Yes, these pictures are long overdue. I promise we are all still living, and I have lots of pictures to display. So forgive me!!! Here is Aislynn deciding whether or not she likes her cake!! She decided "no, it's yucky mama". What child doesn't like cake??
We had a fishy party. It's so hot here we decided to have a "little pool party". Here are just some of the gifts. We gave out little party favors. The kids had a great time
We invited all of her little friends to come and have a party!! I bought two little toddler pools, filled those up and turned on the sprinklers. This would be Aislynn and Bailey playing.
Bailey obviously enjoyed the cake, finger licking good!!!
Aislynn's friends and sissy!! All in all everything was wonderful. Happy Birthday my sweet little tooty!!! I cannot believe you are two years old!!! We love you and cannot imagine life without you. What a wonderful two years it has been. You have changed our lives immensely.


There will be more pictures I promise. Life has been crazy with my new calling. It is great though and I love it. The girls are getting so big. They are both sick right now. Cori(who is the Primary President) has a little girl about the same age as Bailey. She is such a great friend and we do a lot together. We decided to take the girls to a place close by called "Play Mobile". It's this huge toy store that has a huge castle with different rooms and the kids can play with all the toys and just run around and have a great time. Another plus is that it is air conditioned. Well of course there are millions of kids that play with those toys, not a place to go if you are a germafobe!!! Kyla(Cori's little girl) came down with a double ear infection and my girls both got colds. I did too. So we are trying to get better. Adam is busy with work and church callings!. We are doing very well though. We love and miss our family and friends. I will post more pictures I promise. I still have Easter pictures and more birthday pictures. Oh well better late than never right??