Anatomy of Getting a Good Easter Picture

Convince the older one to sit in desired photo location.  Also try to convince her to take off random Mardi Gras beads.  OK fine, pick your battles.

Add younger one.  Explain that we're going to try to get a nice picutre of both of you.  Together.  Smiling.  Ignore confused look on faces.

Convince them to focus....at the same time.

...while at the same time convincing them this isn't so bad.  It's fun!  Smile!

Propose activity to make it fun...like, pinching or grabbing....

...or taunting and yelling...

OK for real.  Let's get serious.  Say cheese, children who can talk....

"PANTS!!!" the eldest screams.  Whatever....we've got both subjects looking at the camera.  Progress.

Not too shabby.  We'll take it!

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!  :)

-Emily :)

Escape to Warmth - Part 1

Last week we tagged along with Ash to St. George for a work meeting for a little mini-break away from the cold and rain that seems to be defining spring in northern Utah this year.

But yes, southern Utah is like a whole other world...sand, palm trees, red rocks....and most importantly...80 degree weather.  Hallelujah! 
Ash had a meeting all day Thursday, so I took the kids out to some little museums in town in the morning.  Kind of a bust, but we passed the time.  Helena really didn't enjoy the 'fake thunderstorm' (complete with darkness, lightning and thunder sounds) at the little natural history museum (or as my cousin called it when he was little, the 'dead animal museum').  We also checked out the Dinosaur Discovery Site, home of one of some of the biggest concentrations of dinosaur tracks ever discovered.  It was neat, but small, and a little over Helena's head.  Next, we picked up some pizza for lunch and then all took great naps in the hotel room since the night before was a bedtime disaster that occurred around 1am.

After nap, we loaded up the car and headed to Snow Canyon State Park.  Nice little area with lots of cool stuff to do and look at just right off the road.  We parked and did a little hiking on some petrified sand dunes.  Helena was convinced she was rock climbing.  It was really fun...

Petrified Sand Dune.  Utah geology is so cool.

Recovering from getting sand in her shoes. :)

Not so sure about this...

Snacking in the car before going to pick up Daddy from his meeting.

We capped off the day by eating at Outback Steakhouse and doing some hotel pool swimming.  More on our trip later... :)

-Emily :)

Curly Monster

We've been telling Harper he has "Uncle Alex hair" lately....so cute. :)

This is right after a bath, so it's extra curly.  Mostly he looks like a mad professor with a weird curly mohawk.

Harper will be 10 months old this weekend....holy cow!  New this week:  pointing, clapping, a love for broccoli and faster stair climbing.  Look out!

-Emily :)

First Ballet Recital

Helena had her first ballet recital last Thursday.  Talk about adorable.  I had tears in my eyes the entire time.  And I'm pretty sure Ash did too. We were so proud of her getting up there and dancing in front of all of those people.  We did have to bring bunny (who watched from my purse this time), and, as you'll see, immediately following the dance, Helena beelines to me to give me a hug in the audience.  So cute!

Here's the video...and my apologies for seeing a lot of her teacher's bum during this...ha!

Her teacher also got all the little girls roses.  So sweet!  They all did such a good job.

Very excited about her costume for the recital -- new crown and tutu!

Almost too excited to pose with mommy!

Afterwards we went out to dinner to celebrate.  We asked Helena what she wanted to eat....her answer...."French fries and eggs!!!"  So, off to IHOP we went.

-Emily :)

No Pics of Tulips Here

Maybe if I post all of the rest of our winter pictures, winter will actually turn into spring around here.  Some cute sledding ones from a few weeks ago & some skiing ones from today.

This makes me sing "fat girl on a little sled" in my head ala Tommy Boy....ha!

Ash made Helena carry her tube back up the hill all by herself.  I thought it was mean at first, but then she took an awesome nap and I was all, "Good idea!"

Having lots of fun!

To prove we do have a few friends...Jason & Audrey (fellow Utah Jayhawks!) skiing with us today in Park City.

A rare, decent pic of Ash & I. (Thanks Audrey!)

-Emily :)

Radio Silent Week

My apologies for the lack of posts lately (you know, to my all of 10 readers!)...we were without internet for over a week...but it's up now...thank goodness!  Ash & I think Harper pushed so many buttons on our modem that it was confused/no longer working. (Note to self, move modem to unreachable place).

In the midst of radio silence, Harper is now into EVERYTHING (trash cans, grown-up shoes, toilets, anything on a shelf he can reach, etc.) and can now scale an entire flight of stairs (with a spotter, of course).  Oh, and it's been snowing for three days straight.  Helena made up a song at bedtime tonight that went something like this:

"It's Spring, but it's snowing...it's been a long time, Winter...why won't Winter won't go away...come back Spring..."  She is very confused about the weather lately.  She thinks we've been lying to her about the seasons.  Ha!

Well, more to come in the coming days...I've got a big ski day to prepare for tomorrow-- probably the last one of the season.

-Emily :)