Butterfly Freedom

Yesterday we decided our butterflies were reaching maturity (meaning they were probably going to die soon), so we headed down to the pond to set them free. Erica was very excited.


She even touched one. I was very proud of her.


Sadie wasn't sure what to think.


I even touched them. I was very proud of me.

It wasn't until the walk home that Erica realized we weren't going to see them anymore. She cried and cried, then she insisted I take a picture of her crying...so here is Erica missing her butterflies.

Valentine Traditions

When Troy was growing up, his dad would always blow up a bunch of balloons for the kids to find in the morning. He wanted to continue this tradition and I thought it was a good idea (except the part where we blow up the balloons). So, after purchasing an air compressor, we ended up with this...


All pink, of course. The static from the dry Arizona air made for some crazy hair.


Troy has never purchased flowers for me...at my request. I always prefer chocolate. So, this was my Valentine treat this year. I was VERY happy!


Side note: As a Christmas present, I sent Troy to Seattle a few weekends ago to snowboard with his brother. Unfortunately, he hurt his knee and only got to snowboard half a day. While he was gone, Erica finally let me do her hair for church. I had to get a picture so he would believe me. It only lasted about a half hour.

Sadie Walking

The Girls Update

Erica helped me with my Christmas present.


Erica has a love-hate relationship with Sadie. She either wants to do everything with her (drink milk, crawl, etc.) OR we hear, "Stop looking at me!" "Your too loud!" "That's mine!"

Sadie on the other hand has an ambivalent relationship with Erica. True to Sadie's easy going personality, I can almost see her mind saying, "Whatever."



The newest poster girl for Shelf Reliance Products. Not really, but at least it got her to eat peas one night.


Trying to get Sadie to watch movies. She's just not all that interested (another thing different than her sister). I know I should wait until she's two according to some experts (or all of them), but why deprive her of the joys of Elmo and Barney. I've really missed those characters this past year. (:


We heard about the Butterfly Garden from a friend and thought it might be nice to give the girls at least one non-princess present. It has been awesome to watch, even for us. It's amazing how they all crawled to the top and formed cocoons within hours of each other.


Then, about a week later, they pop out as butterflies. Erica is explaining their life cycle to them as set forth in the notable, "Very Hungry Caterpiller" textbook.

Some things we've had to get used to with Sadie that we didn't encounter with Erica:

1. EVERYTHING goes in the mouth, especially those with more gag-like qualities such as little pebbles, leaves, fake grass and her personal favorite - feathers. Those are hard to get out.

2. She opens cupboards and pulls things out. This is much better than crying at my legs. I love that she makes a mess.

3. She doesn't feel a need to be close to me all the time. She crawls away from me to go exploring. It's great for now.

4. She doesn't do much communicating. We are just starting to get some sounds and movements that could possibly be considered words or signs, but only to the listening parent, I'm sure. At least she is happy most of the time.

5. Only two teeth barely peaking through on the bottom. I think Erica had a bunch of teeth by now.

6. She sleeps great in her car seat.

Post-Christmas Activities

My main Christmas present from Troy was a "Day Off". What's that you say? Well, it goes something like this:
1. Go see a movie.
2. Go out to dinner.
3. Check into a really nice Hilton hotel for the night.
4. Go play some tennis on their fancy courts.

5. Go swim in the hot tub.
6. Go get some ice cream AND a smoothie.
7. Stay up until 3am doing girl talk.

8. Sleep in as long as I want. No monitors. No middle of the night feedings (yes, we still do that sometimes, unfortunately. Thus, the need for a "Day Off".)

9. Go get bagels.
10. Go play more tennis.
11. Go get a massage.
12. Go give my husband a big kiss.

For New Year's Day, we drove to my brother's house in Phoenix. He has 2 boys the same age as our 2 girls. The older kids play GREAT!!!


We left our kiddos the next day and took off for a wonderful snowboard vacation at Sunrise Park, Arizona. There was lots of fresh snow and we had a blast. By day 3, my body could barely make it down the mountain. I was so sore and had no endurance.


Here is a video of my snowboardin' skillz. You can check out Troy's view in the next post as he cruises down doubleblack diamonds, through the trees, at breakneck speed. Think I'm there yet?

A ginormously, huge, amazing thank you to my mom and dad for driving the girls back to Tucson and watching them for four days. We never could have done it without them. The girls had a fantastic time and so did we. Hope my parents weren't too worn out by the end of it.

Troy Snowboarding