Tuckered Out

Lila fell asleep in the stroller right after going through security.

Steve and Ellie watching the planes taxi and take-off.

Ellie and Lila watching a movie during our 3 hour layover.

There may have been some screaming, but we are home. I have to admit that Lila showed a lot of spunk while away. We heard a lot of sassy NOs from her, but when we got home and were getting ready for bed I asked if she was excited to be home and she immediately began nodding her head and said, "yeah."  Here's to more regular sleep.

Whew!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family in Idaho.  We fly out of Salt Lake City tomorrow morning and so we made plans to drive to SLC today and do Build-a-Bear with Uncle Jakey since that was his present to the girls and then we were going to go see the lights and displays on Temple Square.  It snowed all last night.  We left Idaho slightly after 11am and set out on what should have been a 2.5 hour drive.  We were going to take it easy as we knew the roads may get bad at the mountain passes.  Sure enough at Sweetzer the roads and visibility started to get bad.  We slowed down and were taking our time.  I kept thinking as soon as we get down out of this mountain, but really when does that happen.  Then just at Garland we started to fish tale we crossed both lanes of traffic and ended up in the median.  Thankfully we did not hit any other car or anything else and I don't even know if the girls really knew what was happening.  I called Jake and Nessa who were ahead and told them to get off at the next exit and wait for us--there was no need for them to come back around at that point.  I was just getting ready to make some phone calls to figure out what we should do when this nice man in a LARGE Ford truck pulled over and asked if he could help us.  He spent 20 minutes helping us get back on the road which I will be forever grateful for.  Needless to say we cancelled all of our plans and headed straight for the hotel.  Jake is still on the road heading for Orem, 8 hours later.  What a stressful drive and disappointing to have to cancel all of our fun plans.  I guess we may just have to reschedule for another time in Tucson where the snow is not such a factor. On the bright side we got to spend an hour in the hotel pool with our fishy girls who swam and went under water like it hasn't been three months since our last pool adventure. Homeward bound tomorrow where ironically the high will be 45 with chances of snow during the night.

2010's White Christmas

 I have to admit that I was not too excited to pack and travel for Christmas and as I expressed my feelings Ellie made sure to tell me how much she was looking forward to going to Mimi and Grandpa's house.  So we began cleaning and packing.  Ellie started putting toys in one of her roller bags in her room.  I explained to her that we only had so much room and she would not be able to take toys because we would also have to make sure we had room for the Christmas presents to come back with us.  She said, "Christmas is coming."  It was then that I realized she was so looking forward to going to see the family that she hadn't even realized Christmas was right around the corner.

The first present we opened when we arrived was from Great Grandpa and Grandma Merrell a 3-D puzzle that we spent Thursday, December 23rd putting together.

On the way out to Mimi's shop to get our hair trimmed we found a "rein"deer print.

On Christmas Eve we made cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday and read the Nativity story.

We then went into town for dinner and Grandpa treated the girls to dipped ice cream cones.

There was a Christmas light show at the local garden center that the girls loved. The lights were synchronized to some pretty fun music and the girls would dance and ooh and ahh at the lights.

Christmas morning pictures--warning picture overload, but the girls were so cute and so much fun.

Lila with the binoculars that came in Ellie's stocking with a subscription to the Backyard magazine.

Elmo legos she was so excited.

 There were so many cameras going Ellie was looking from side-to-side with this big grin.

Mimi and Grandpa got a new set of knifes from Jakey which I also found really useful while cooking there.

The girls were of course spoiled and they each got a new book bag full of fun books from Mimi and Grandpa.

Cute puppets from Mimi and Grandpa.

When Uncle Nate and Aunt Nessa showed up they brought delicious sugar cookies from Cutler's Bakery and Uncle Nate snuck Ellie a piece before lunch and told her not to show anyone.  This is how we found her eating her piece of cookie.

Here are the Durbano's with their new addition Izabella--she is adorable!  A little peanut who hardly makes a peep.  She could have easily slipped into our luggage, but I know we couldn't make it too far before the beaming new parents noticed she was missing.

Princess shoes from Uncle Nate and Aunt Nessa.  These were another favorite as we heard the click clack of those shoes across the wood floors.

Jake had this friend at work who needed some extra cash for Christmas and was trying to sell this slot machine so Jake bought it from him.  The girls loved the coins, buttons, flashing lights, and music.  Let me tell you how quickly they both learned to put 3 coins in pull the lever and push the buttons--scary!

Finally Sunday morning, December 26th it snowed and we ventured outside to build a snowman.

When we were saying our goodbyes, 

Grandpa said, "Thanks for coming to see us.  Come again."  

I said, "You can come see us."  

Grandpa, "Yeah, we'll do that."  

Ellie, "After Mimi finishes my Christmas blanket so you can bring it."  

She has her priorities straight and knows how to work the system.  :)

To Uncle Jakey

After school the other day Ellie took off her shoes and said, "My socks stink so bad that they smell like Jakey."

Then tonight as we were getting ready for bed I found Ellie making Lila smell her feet.

Jakey likes to tease Ellie and call her "Smelly Ellie" to which she laughs and says, "No just Ellie."
He also makes her smell his feet.

Peace, Love, and Joy

This year has been a peaceful year for which I am grateful.  Our girls continue to grow:  Ellie started preschool this year and has a wonderful teacher.  She can spell most of her colors and is on the verge of reading.  Ellie also decided she wanted to learn to count to 100 so we have been working on that and she can now count to 100 and almost write all the way to 100.  She is really blossoming into a wonderful young girl.  Lila adds a little pizazz to our lives.  She is also a wonderful girl, but likes to push boundaries a little bit more.  She has been communicating really well with sign language and then recently her talking vocabulary has just exploded.  She loves to say Purple, Yellow, and calls for Ellie every time we pick her up from preschool.  Lila also has learned to say No with some attitude which I find very frustrating.  Hopefully it is just a phase.  My favorite thing is to catch her singing to herself while she plays or dances it is so cute.  Steve continues to work towards that Phd which I am also finally at peace with--the Lord is taking really good care of us so I figure there is a reason we are still here doing what we are doing.  He is a wonderful husband and father which also brings great peace, love, and joy to our lives.  Everyday when Steve walks in the door after work the girls yell Da-da and run to him for their tickles and hugs--it is really special.  Steve and I cannot believe how much of our time is consumed by our two children.  He doesn't find as much time for his car projects as he used to and we both look forward to our precious time together after the girls have gone to bed.  We continue to enjoy the daily sometimes routine adventures of life and know that through our Savior we can feel peace, love, and joy.  Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Steve, Britney, Ellie, & Lila

Gingerbread 2.0

The gingerbread house that I bought on clearance at the beginning of the year was such a hit that when I was at Trader Joe's and found an "Authentic German Hexen Haus" for the cheapest I had ever seen a gingerbread kit I couldn't help myself.  Ellie noticed the box right after school yesterday and has been asking ever since when we get to make it. So this morning after breakfast while we were all still in our pajamas we made a "Hexen Haus".

Daddy the engineer helping us with initial construction.

Lila has to sample everything.  Ellie decided she wanted to try the gingerbread because Lila liked it so much, but Ellie quickly decided gingerbread was not her favorite.

She started out putting the sprinkles on one at a time until Daddy developed a method of dumping the sprinkles and then pressing the tree into them.

Lila's special touches: 

notice the bite at the apex and the half eaten gummy coming out of the window.

The final product!

The Letter "I"

This week Ellie is doing the letter "I" at school so I couldn't help but take them out for "i"ce cream on our way home today.

 

 They of course started eating them in the car on the way home and Lila's was already dripping everywhere so we barely made it in the door and they sat on the floor to finish eating them.  How cute!  Hopefully these are the things they remember not the time Mommy lost her patience.  :)