Earthquake or a Giant?

As we were eating Easter dinner, that Curtis had wonderfully prepared, we felt something. I asked Curtis, "Is that an earthquake?" As it continued to get stronger, we got under the table and door frames, as it was rattling the pictures and cabinets. Avery said in a slightly worried voice, "Is that a giant?" (By reason of deduction she had come up with the most practical reason why the ground would be shaking like that.) Mikaya calmed Avery down and told her that everything would be o.k.

*Later Mikaya claimed that she had "saved Avery" from the earthquake, because she had calmed her down.








Enjoying the treats and fun sticker books that G&G Sandi & Paul and G&G Minton gave the girls for Easter.



Avery built a Lego house during one of the Conference sessions.



Decorating Easter eggs!




Having Family Home Evening in a fort.



Taking a walk to a friend's house for brownies and ice cream.



Finding treasures on the way!



Avery read her first book, Ten Apples Up on Top, by Dr. Seuss, in February(2010)! Nice work Avery!

Decorating the tree and watching Elf.






Watching the ice skaters. The "ice" was a little more on the liquid side and when anyone fell they got soaked.



Watch out for Mikaya!



Turkey legs!



We had a blast at our good friends The Blattman's for Thanksgiving. We were glad Drew could join us again this year. Jessica had games for the kids to play. We also had time to play a few games and enjoy each other's company!

Disneyland

Disneyland pretty much is the happiest place on earth, even with slightly sick kids. We had some free tickets and an almost free hotel stay, so we took off to Disneyland, even though everyone wasn't feeling the best. Oh course, we had a blast anyway and loved every minute of it!





Curtis and I took Avery down Splash Mountain, while Coral watched Mikaya. Avery was very brave, but didn't want to go again!



Avery and Mikaya were lucky enough to meet their favorite princesses. Mikaya is smiling how she thinks Belle would smile because Belle is her favorite.



Avery's favorite princess, Cinderella. I think she's a little stunned about the whole thing!





Avery was ecstatic about going into Sleeping Beauty's castle.









Avery and Mikaya found some pretty cool places to hide in the hotel room. The wardrobe was even a slight bit "Narnia" like.

Curtis is teaching Avery how to read using Grandma and Grandpa Sandi and Paul's method!




My mom and dad came out to visit and we had so much fun! We went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Ranas. We went swimming and trick-or-treating on Halloween (amazingly it was warm enough for swimming, which is not always the case, even here) and mostly just enjoyed each other's company.







While talking to Grandpa Paul, Rachel, and Maddie on skype, Avery found out Maddie was going to be Rapunzel for Halloween. About two days later, we were at the store and the only costume she liked was a Rapunzel costume. I kept asking her, "Are you sure you don't want to be Tinker Bell like we planned"? She was persistent and said that she wanted to be Rapunzel like Madeleine. I was amazed to see how different two cute Rapunzel outfits could be. So, that is why they both ended up being Rapunzel for halloween!





Coral and some of her friends.

As I was making dinner, Mikaya decided to see what flour tastes like. It took her a matter of seconds to look like this. It's amazing how fast kids can make a mess!







We had so much fun beach camping with some friends in the ward. We weren't totally roughing it though, with bathrooms nearby and a big air mattress to sleep on. That's the way I like it, to be outdoors, enjoying nature, but still enjoying some comforts. The girls had fun playing at the beach. Avery is pretending to be Ariel sitting on the rocks, in the picture above. Curtis surfed every morning and entertained everyone with his guitar, around the campfire, each night.







After dinner Avery and Mikaya learned how to ride down the stairs in sleeping bags, at our good friends', the Blattmans, house. There wasn't much learning to it; I think it just comes naturally to kids!











Avery's first day of preschool! This is the exquisite outfit that she picked out to wear, fairy wings and all! Mikaya gets to go to preschool when it's at our house, which she thinks is pretty cool.






The dress Avery is wearing used to be Coral's!





Mikaya decided to put on roller skates the other day and she did pretty well with them; of course, she was on the carpet. That probably helped. Still, I was impressed!





Dress up time... Mikaya loves her baby! Why is it that kids love to undress their baby dolls? It amazes me that we have a whole box of baby doll clothes, but they always seem to take the clothes off the baby the minute I put them back on!






Avery's prayer went something like this the other day. "Thank you for the pospel (gospel). Please bless that we will never get sick ever again. (sounds pretty good to me!) Please bless the princesses that they will not die".....and so on. I love listening to little kids pray; it is hilarious!