Children's Museum

We went to the Children's Museum yesterday. Eliza has had a free coupon ever since she did the reading program last summer. We waited to go until a few days before it expired...but at least we made it, right? She had so much fun! She drove the bus...

...and the truck...

...and lived out her dream of being a princess in her own castle. She played with just about everything but I couldn't get the girl to stay still long enough to get a decent picture! You can see the seriousness on her face as she performs on the castle's stage. She kept singing, "I'm the princess of them all!"

Anniversary weekend...

Darran and I celebrated 6 years of marriage this past weekend! We went up to Cocolalla with the girls and Grandpa and Grandma to enjoy a little more winter. This is Eliza trying not to smile as Darran takes her picture. She helped me make the cookies so she was pretty proud each time she ate one.
Who doesn't enjoy a lazy Saturday morning? Especially when you can spend it reading books with Grandpa and Grandma in bed!

Darran and Grandpa built Eliza a snowman. She gave them encouragement as she watched from inside the house through the window. She had been outside but the wind was making it quite frigid. (Notice the snowman is wearing a BYU beanie...yes, everyone loves Jimmer.)

Our winter wonderland.

Cute girls...

Our cute girls...both growing up too fast!

Silly girls...

This picture cracks us up for a couple of reasons. 1...Eliza's outfit - we did not start the day with that shirt and skirt. Mom gets tired of changing Eliza back into clothes that match and so this particular day I gave in. We weren't going out in public anyway. 2...Eliza is wearing her tutu UNDER her skirt. That explains the extra large back end. And 3...she was doing my hair which apparently requires her to stand on a step stool and drench my head with water. She is always sure to constantly tell me to stay still...can't imagine where she picked that up!
Grandpa and Grandma Hague brought sunglasses back for the girls from the Bahamas. These are Talia's stylin' pair...thanks Aunt Elayna for decorating them! And thanks Aunt Julie for decorating Eliza's...she's impossible to get a decent picture of! We're ready for the sun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Eliza decorated our window with hearts.
We had our traditional family Valentine dinner...complete with candy all over the table. (I was surprised by Eliza's self control!) Then we went over to Nana and Papa's house for Family Home Evening with "the cousins" (as Eliza puts it). What a great way to spend Valentine's Day! We love our family so much!

5 months old!

Talia turned 5 months old on Sunday...and boy do we just love this girl! There are two things quite unique about our Tal Bal... The first is her hair...it's gotten a lot of attention. And you can see why in this picture! While this is an especially wild day VERY RARELY is her hair ever laying flat. (In fact, when it does she almost doesn't look like Talia.) The funny thing is that even though her hair may be getting longer it still doesn't want to lay down. I think she wears it well!
The second is her finger sucking...she will take a pacifier for awhile but as soon as it comes out this is her routine. Find the pointer and middle fingers of her left hand, stick them in her mouth and begin to suck, then the right hand starts from the back of the head and brushes forward until it lands over her left hand. (This motion of course adds to her amazing hairstyle!) And then this is the position you end with. We think it's pretty funny because it almost looks as if she is hiding the fact that she is sucking on those two fingers. How do they learn to be sneaky at such a young age?

While I don't quite have a picture of it yet we discovered that she has two teeth coming in! They are the two on the bottom, right in the middle! Talia is a joy to our family. Eliza can't get enough of her and neither can we. We love you Tal!

Daddy and his girls...

Daddy loves his girls...and they love him!

Sled rides!

Darran, Eliza, Grandma, Grandpa, and Elayna riding the train sled...a very appropriate name for sledding at Cocolalla!

All the "adults" riding the train sled. This is our Disney World version...Darran set up the camera and we go whizzing by...pretty funny.

Winter Wonderland...

Our sledding adventures deserve their own post! We had an amazing amount of snow at Cocolalla and a perfect sledding hill to go with it!
Darran and Elayna dominated the hill.

Our snowy house...looks a little different in the summer!

The snow is always beautiful...especially when you can stay inside or just go have fun in it!

Me and Elayna!

Standing on the frozen lake!

Mom and Dad.

And of course the trek back up! Too much fun in the snow!

Ring in the New Year!

We spent New Year weekend at Cocolalla this year and got our fair share of snow!

The night that we drove there it rained the entire way. When we woke up the next morning we had a fresh blanket of snow. In fact, it continued through the day and dumped at least a foot of snow all around us!

Eliza was pretty excited about it...she even did some sledding herself.

Talia spent most of her time inside...sleeping (with a princess).

And playing with princesses...unknown to big sister!

Eliza and Darran having fun in the snow!

"The train" of sleds was big or small depending on how many of us were outside. But either way we have an awesome sledding hill...right outside the door!

Aunt Audrey helped provide some of the entertainment over the weekend by introducing us to Elefun! Eliza loved it...and for some reason felt the butterfly net made a perfect princess hat.

Well, we say goodbye to another year...it was a wonderful one! And again we look back on all the blessings we receive and reflect on how full our hearts are. Welcome 2011! Happy New Year!

Eliza at 2 years...

Before I start posts for the new year I had to include the photos we had taken of the girls in November.

The following pictures are the many faces of Eliza...

...not sure if this qualifies as silly or shy

...cheesy...but cute

...you're joking me right? This is the face that I see too often...

...and "I've had enough."

Even though it sometimes feels like this 2 year old is going on 16 we sure do love her to pieces!

Talia at 8 weeks...

These are the pictures of our sweet little Talia.

And our two sweet girls together...