Updates

Playing catch up with the blog again...Summer is seriously just whizzing by!  The girls love all the summer activities, and getting to play outside.  Here are the updates...
Mommy:  I am proud of myself for my diligence in getting up 3 mornings a week and going to my boot camp class.  I've made some great friends in my class, and I can see results, which is exciting.  I just don't have time or the motivation to make it to work out on my own, so working with a group and trainer has been fantastic for me.  I also try to participate in some kind of race on the weekends, when possible.
I am still working over the self pay billing at the Cache Valley Hospital.  I work with amazing people, and have met some great friends there as well.  I love the people, but don't love the work load or pay.  Hopefully I can find a way to better that situation, now that I have a mortgage to pay again... makes it hard on the pocket book.
I don't have much "me" time, because I pick the girls up from daycare after work and usually get home around 5:30.  Then feed the girls dinner, play with them some, throw them in the bath tub, brush their teeth, get them ready for bed, read stories, say prayers, and then try to get them to sleep.  This is easy with McKel... has always been difficult getting Avril to sleep.  It is usually close to 10:00 pm by the time I am able to leave her room, she makes me stay with her.  She also gets up a couple times during the night and cries if I am not by her side.  I don't know a solution to this problem.  It makes it so rough for me because I like to read or work on the blog before bed, but this cuts a lot in to my "me" time in the evenings.  I feel like I walk around half asleep too, since my mornings start at a quarter to 6:00 am.  Hopefully this will get better someday...
Although this phase of my life is very difficult, I am so lucky to have my sweet angel girls.  They are absolutely my greatest joy.  I am constantly in awe as I watch them grow and develop.  They are the good stuff, they bring smiles to everyone around.
Avril:  Okay, I'll just say it.  This little girl is a handful.  She requires a lot of love and attention.  The best word to describe Avril is sweetheart.  She is so tender-hearted and sensitive.  She gets upset easily if things don't go her way.  However, she is so loving and caring and affectionate.  She is very emotional.  She loves to be nurturing and is often busy caring for her dolls and stuffed animals.  Her vocabulary is astounding.  She is well beyond her years with her vocal skills.  She is a total sweet tooth.  She would be perfectly happy eating marshmallows three meals a day.  I often have to bribe her to get her to eat her regular food.  She is so creative, so adorable with her big brown eyes, has the cutest smile you've ever seen, is so intelligent, so sweet, and so amazing.  We love her soooo much!!
McKel:  This girl is little miss personality, to the max!  She seems to always have a smile or some kind of smirk on her face.  She is full of energy and the most coordinated 20 month old I have ever seen!  She can easily keep up with her 3 year old older sister.  She is always running around, skipping, jumping, or climbing.  She will often run with her head cocked to the side, or looking backwards, or something adorable like that.  Normal running is just too boring, she likes to add some personality to it.  She breaks out in to a smile so easily, its the greatest thing ever :)  She has a good set of pipes.  Avril is always covering her ears and saying, "McKel is being loud, its hurting my ears."  It is true, McKel can be quite loud!  Her vocabulary skills are a little slower than Avril's, but physically she is way ahead.  To me she looks like a little gymnast, she just has this short little cute body like a tank, running in to things, knocking them down, and continuing on her path of destruction.  She does say a lot of words, but you have to have been around her to understand what she is saying.  Its so cute the way she says her words.  She loves her big sister, and mimics Avril all the time.  She is extremely attached to her Papa- both Spencer and Bryan.  Generally she prefers them over anyone else.  McKel is just a happy go lucky girl, and an absolute joy to be around.  We love her immensely!!

I have no idea what gave McKel the idea that this is how you use this piece of equipment.  We were watching a movie and this is what McKel was doing most of the time, all while shouting out words I was unable to decipher.

Avril had big ideas of her own, for getting a good workout.  They were just too funny to watch!

Hahaha!!

Avril had a fever and had to stay home from school one day.  She spent the day with Nana and Auntie Arleen, and Papa Bryan, they took turns.  She said her bear was sick with a fever too, so she was so sweet to take care of him.

This month, cousin Brian got home from his LDS mission that he served in Mexico City, Mexico.  At first when I saw him, I didn't make a big deal, because I thought he was his brother Sam, who I'd just seen recently.  He has grown up so much!  We attended his Homecoming at their ward.

McKel was so tired, she slept through the whole thing...

Spencer and Brian- Parkinson brothers.

This part is kind of embarrassing, but I guess I should include it.  Brittney asked me to help her learn some hip hop dance.  Since I'm pretty broke, I give her dance lessons in exchange for babysitting.  I am quite out of practice since I haven't really danced since high school.  Britt found some awesome choreography by a girl on YouTube named Emily Sasson.  I watched her dance and tried to figure out the moves.  We used the dance room at our gym to practice sometimes, and Brittney took a video of me doing the dance...
Bass Down Low.. the Cataracts.  Next we are going to learn a Chris Brown dance :)  I'm still working on that one...

I snapped this pic of Avril and I just before bed time.  We are reading stories.  I treasure these moments I get to spend with my little angels.  I just look at that girl and my heart melts...

Just Some Cuteness...

We are still trying to get all settled in to our home.  It is a very long process when you are a single mom with two small children.  These metal shelves have been sitting in my driveway, waiting to be moved downstairs in to the basement.  It just cracks me up, the creative things the girls come up with.  Papa Bryan brought the girls over, and I was in the kitchen cleaning.  He came in and said, "quick, you gotta see this!"  Luckily I had my phone to capture a shot of this.  The girls were both laying on the metal shelves, pretending to be asleep.  Haha, if only I'd known they would want to sleep on metal shelves I wouldn't have invested in those nice crib beds they have :)  It was just hilarious!

I got a video of it too:

love it!!


Nana and Papa recently bought some new appliances for their kitchen.  New appliances means really cool gigantic boxes, which means hours of excitement for the girls!!  Here are some pics of the girls playing with their new "toys."

Just the perfect size for McKel :)

Is that an Avril I see, peeping out?

Here is a video clip I took of the girls playing before bed.  They love their books!! :)
So cute!

24th of July

Utah is awesome because we get a holiday that no other state does.  That's right, Pioneer Day.  Just in case you didn't get your fill of fireworks on the 4th of July, they give you a whole nother dose of it just 20 days later.  I am all about getting another day off of work!  So thank you pioneers, you rock. 

I believe this pic was actually taken at the 4th of July breakfast for Nana and Papa's neighborhood, but I'm adding it to this post since I already finished the 4th of July post and I don't feel like moving the pics.  I caught some adorable shots of McKel sitting with her Auntie Arleen, wouldn't you agree?  She looks so pensive here...

She is watching all the kids playing on the playground and thinking, I don't dare mess up my cute patriotic outfit!

"This white top would get soiled in all that dirtiness!"

We were at Nana and Papa's house and Avril was sooo excited when she saw this little figurine of Nana's decorations.  She ran over to it, put her arm around it, and shouted, "Take a picture, take a picture!  Cheeeese!!"  Then she wanted to come look on my phone and check out herself in the pic with her statue friend.   She is hilarious!!

What a cute pic of Avril and her little oriental friend :)

The 24th of July brought on the festivities, including a fun parade!!  Nana and Papa took the girls to watch the delightful event, while mommy tried to get caught up on some much needed house cleaning.  Here are the pics:

Avril watched with excitement, ready to jump and retrieve any candy tossed her direction.

McKel, auntie, cousin Brit, and Avril :)

I think its nap time...

More candy please!!

Swinging at the park never gets old...

Bike RAW

RAW- Ride Around the Wellsvilles, is what that stands for...This was my third Century bike ride of the summer... well...ever, actually.  This one my dad joined me, which I was glad for, because this was a much smaller race so there really weren't many bikers around all along the way, like I was used to.  The course was absolutely gorgeous, it went through the canyon, to a bird refuge, through Brigham, and back around the Wellsville mountains.  There were a lot of vertical feet, which made it a lot more difficult than the other centuries I'd done.  It was physically one of the most difficult things I've done.  I got some awesome tan lines as well :)

Cache Valley Hospital was a sponsor of the race, and the Deli department provided yummy food for all the riders at the first rest stop.  It was so good to see familiar, friendly faces who were there to help me feed my face :)

My dad and I at the first rest stop

Just after the race.  Exhausted.

And this is just a random pic I took with my phone after a church fireside one day.  The sun shining through the clouds was just spectacular so I had to capture the image.  Isn't that incredible?  Love seeing stuff like that...

Luau

A friend of mind has this awesome Luau every year. It is a fundraiser event to raise funds for a Fijian athlete with disabilities. They had these super fun slip n slides. Check out the videos:
Bouncey house = automatic good times for kids.  Avril was excited to go inside, but wasn't a fan of all the kids running around.  Below are some pics of everyone at our fun Luau!

Nana and Papa riding some waves...

They even had a hula dancer!!

Delicious food!!

Such a cutie pie!!  Her poor little face is healing up nicely...

Owies

For awhile there, we were the house of owies.  Avril always has an owie, just ask her... she'll be more than happy to tell you ALL about it, its one of her very favorite topics of conversation :)
Sunday night I watched my sweet little McKel take an atrocious spill!  I mean, when her face hit that concrete you could hear the loud smack, and watch the blood splatter on the cement driveway.  My heart literally skipped a beat.  I felt so helpless as I watched the pitter patter of her little feet running down the driveway only to encounter a large crack in the cement, resulting in her plummet and face plant moment.  Of course, she was crying and I went and comforted her.  But this resilient little girl just bounces right back to good spirits.  Within minutes, she was back on her feet and running all around again.  She amazes me.

This pic was taken the day after her spill, so her face is already healing up quite nicely, turning in to scabs.

As you can see, she is clearly tramatized :)

She has the most gregarious little personality.  Couldn't be any cuter!

The very next day, mommy decided it was her turn to get an owie.  I got off work and decided to go for a jog.  I only got a few blocks when a ferocious dog came at me and attacked me!  That is not a joke... well, okay he may not have been ferocious.  I discovered that the breed was a blue heeler.  It was a little grey thing, but it scared the bejeebies out of me!  He just got a couple good teeth marks in to my calf and drew a tiny bit of blood.  More it just bruised where he tugged at my skin. 

The pics don't do it justice.  I almost died! ;)

Good thing we are fast healers...even when attacked by a blue heeler... or tripping on your own little heal(er)...

4th of July

What a special treat, the girls got to stay up WAY past bed time to watch the fireworks!  So worth it though, to get to see them light up and make special memories with their loved ones.  We headed over to the parking lot at Lee's Marketplace, and let the girls participate in the pre-firework activities they had.  It was a gorgeous night out, and we had a blast.  :)

Brittney ran in to a couple of friends there, which made her happy.  You can see, she's just all lit up with excitement, just like a firework!  "Baby you're a firrrreeework, come on let your cooolors burst!"

McKel is celebrating the 4th in style!  She stole mommy's shades and pulls them off much better than I do!

Here is Avril gazing in to the sky!

The moon was so incredible that night.  You could see it slowly creep up over the mountain top.  In this shot its that bright circle below the firework.  Kind of takes your breath away.  What an amazingly beautiful universe we live in.  So glad we can appreciate seeing God's beautiful creations.

So there was this sweet little girl named Sierra, who instantly bonded with Avril.  Avril was a little small for climbing up the bouncey slidey thingy.  This girl befriended her and kept saying how soft and pretty Avril's hair is.  You can see in the pic she was enjoying playing with Avril's hair.  It was nice to have a little one put Avril under her wing, since mommy is a big people, and big people are not allowed on the bouncey slidey thingy :)

Avril patiently waiting her turn to go on the slide

A profile shot of my little sweetheart girl

She's so pretty :)

She looks so scared, with all the big kids around her!

Just added this photo cuz its so classic Avril.  She always makes this face :)

Papa loves spending time with his granddaughters.  Here they are, watching the fireworks.

And here is Auntie Arleen with adorable little McKel.  Haha, it is way past her bedtime and you can see she is a little unsure what to think of all the firework commotion.

So fun! Avril did not want the day to end, she was having a blast, as you can see.  What could be more fun than a bouncey slidey thingy?