Eclipse

Yesterday we drove to southern Utah to see an annular eclipse. Bill took the pictures above, it took about an hour.

We watched with some friends and had a great view from their front yard! The kids watched from the truck bed and had a blast.

 

We used special solar eclipse viewing glasses and Bill used a filter on his camera, which is why the sky looks dark in his pictures. I was surprised to see that the sky didn’t actually get dark. In fact, if I hadn’t known there was an eclipse, I don’t think I would have even noticed anything had happened.

We also watched the eclipse through a pinhole viewer. The white dot in the center shows what is happening to the sun.

 

One other cool thing: the shadows. This is Brooke standing in front of the house, can you see the eclipse in her shadow (you might have to click on it to make the picture bigger).

 

And lots of eclipse shadows projected on the house.

 

All in all it was a fun trip, I’m glad we went even if it did mean 9 hours of driving in one day.

Scootering and a Story

So I thought I had a list of stories to blog about once I finally got around to updating my blog, and I can’t find it. But I did want to share this one:

 

I was laying down with Abby trying to get her to take a nap and Sandy was playing on the back porch and kept running in and telling me about her monster. Thinking she was pretending and wanting her to stop keeping Abby awake, I kept brushing her off and telling her to go outside and play.

Well, after awhile, she came in and stood by the bed and said, “See, mom, look at my monster.”

She showed me something like this (I did not stop to take an actual picture.)

source

 

I screamed, she dropped it on the floor, them immediately picked it back up and cradling it to her chest and stroking it, said, “It’s okay, mom, it’s a dead monster.”

Abby did not get a nap afterall, and I spent the afternoon very freaked out and disinfecting and washing everything. Ugh!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

When did my baby go from this:

 

to this?

 

The days sometimes seem long, but the years sure fly by!

 

We had a weeklong celebration of Abby’s birthday. Sunday, we skyped with Grandma Sherri and Grandpa Dave. They gave Abby a doll, Abby has wanted a doll like Sandy got last year (with hair!). Here are the girls sitting on the porch with their baby dolls.

 

Monday night worked best for us to celebrate because it was a busy week. We had a special Family Home Evening about Abby and looked at pictures from when she was born.

		Abby’s Birth VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Then, Grandma and Grandpa Buhler came over for cake.

 

 

 

Here’s a shot Tuesday morning of the girls on the porch with dolls, and Abby is in her birthday dress from Grandma and Grandpa Buhler:

(she’s in 3T clothes now!)

 

Wednesday morning (Abby’s official birthday) we had our traditional birthday pancakes.

I told Abby we could go somewhere special for lunch and she asked for “Chick-fil-A playplace.” Yes, she did say all that! So, we piled in the car to drive to the Chick-fil-A with a playplace which is a good 20 minutes from our house and she fell asleep before we got there. So, we went through the drive through and brought it home.

10 Things About Abby on her Birthday

10. When I ask her to do something, or not to do something, she will usually look at me and say so sweetly,  “Okay, mommy.” (That doesn’t mean she doesn’t sometimes go back to what she was doing as soon as my back is turned, though..)

9. She loves Dora and all things Dora!

8. She loves book and likes to read several at a time whether she’s being read to or just looking at books by herself.

7. She loves to sing. Every night we sing I am a child of God before we put the girls to bed. Abby has started singing with us recently.

6. She entertains herself very well. I am constantly amazed at how well and how long she will happily play by herself.

5. She is very independent… She loves to get things for herself  (like yogurt out of the fridge, thus, we now have a lock on our fridge and our pantry.)

4. She loves all things dairy: milk, yogurt, and cheese.

3. She has picked up so many things from her sister – she can count to ten, knows her colors, knows many of her letters. I didn’t actually try to teach her any of this stuff, but she just picked it up as I worked with Sandy.

2. She loves planes, helicopters, cars, and trucks. We live in the path of the life flight helicopter and she stops whatever she is doing – inside or outside – if she hears the helicopter to run and look for it.

1. She loves pink, give her a choice and she will almost always pick whatever is pink!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

April Blog Catch Up

I downloaded pictures from April and here are a few.

Sandy went to a birthday party and was asked to come dressed as a princess. She had a blast!

 

Random morning pictures. I can’t remember why Abby was sad.

 

Brushing teeth before bed:

 

We went to the Del Taco with a play place for the first time. Abby was too short to climb up into the play place and Sandy spent the entire night lifting Abby up from one landing to the next, then they’d go down the slide and do it again. What a nice big sister!

 

 

Easter Sunday, in beautiful matching dresses from Grandma and Grandpa Buhler.

 

Our anniversary also fell on Easter Sunday. We’ve been married 6 years and when I looked up the traditional gift for this anniversary, it was candy. So I found some of Bill’s favorite candies and tied them to balloons.

 

The Saturday before Easter we went to Grandpa Shupe’s house for an Easter Egg hunt.

 

The Easter Bunny also visited the girls Saturday morning, but apparently, I didn’t take a single picture of them with their Easter Baskets. Oh, well.

We also dyed Easter eggs.

And, here are a couple of shots from watching General Conference. Love staying home for church in our pajamas twice a year!