Bad Blogger...

Or just a busy one! We've moved to Utah one month ago and it has been crazy! This is a picture of the cute little house in an area called Sugarhouse that we are temporarily staying in until we can find one to buy...

A lot has happened since we've moved too! We moved into our place on a Tuesday- November 24. My 24th birthday was the next day. Just a small celebration, afterall, we didn't have any friends yet to invite over anyways. I actually forgot it was my birthday until people called to wish me a happy one. Dan took me out for Mexican and got me a cheesecake- he knows how to keep me happy.

Right after Thanksgiving, my sister's family and my parents came for a quick visit- yup, we'd been living in our place for less than a week, but somehow we managed to kind of organize things enough for guests. Jenna and Lucy loved getting to see their cousins Mikayla, Tyler and Audrey. They stayed in our playroom, which has a slide. They. were. excited.

And of course, you can't see Grandma and Grandpa without going to Wendy's for some chicken nuggets and a frosty.

We also went to Temple Square with my parents to see the lights. It is really an amazing sight. If you've never gone- GO.

All this time, Lucy is just getting cuter and cuter. She loves people and loves to smile and laugh, just like this...

And Jenna keeps learning more and more! I am always so amazed at what she says or does. Jenna loves to sing and dance and is really great at it.

Here she is dancing to "Popcorn Popping"

One of her favorite songs is "I see the Moon." She's kind of singing it here, but believe me, she can do it even better than this-

If you don't know the words-

I see the moon, the moon sees me, down through the leaves of the old oak tree. Please let the moon that shines on me, shine on the ones I love. Over the mountains over the sea, that's where my true love's waiting for me. Please let the moon that shines on me, shine on the ones I love.




There is so much more to share, so keep looking for more posts. They're coming, I promise!

Vote for Jenna

Okay, okay, I know that I totally owe a big, fat, huge post with tons of pictures and videos of my darling children. I will once I get back home to all my pictures, I promise. But right now I am asking for your help. Dan entered us in a contest to win a season pass to Hogle Zoo- which we now only live a couple of miles away from. We really want to win and there are a couple other pictures with lots of votes, so click on the link to the left and go register and vote for Jenna! You can vote once every day. Do it! PLEASE!

So....

We're moving to Utah- like ASAP. Dan got a job and starts the 16th of this month. More details to come. We are really excited though! It is kind of bittersweet too. We love Reno!

Halloween and Haircuts

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! This year, Jenna was three different things- an elephant for the ward trunk-or-treat, a lion the day before Halloween, and she got both costumes dirty so she ended up going trick or treating as a ballerina. Oh well. At least we only spent $5 on all the costumes combined... The last post has a picture of Jenna as the elephant, here are the other two-

I don't know why she likes to have the bucket on her head so much.

Our little lion.

Pretty ballerina!

Grandpa Orrell and Jenna

This is of Jenna trick-or-treating. It's hard to hear her say "Trick or treat", but she was so cute!



Uncle Brian, Jenna and Heidi

Lastly, I gave Jenna a haircut on Sunday. It was really scraggly in the back. Here are a couple of her feeding her baby and showing off her new haircut.

And I just needed to put a picture of cute little Lucy in this post!

Something that Jenna really likes to do is sing and lead music. It is hilarious!

Yes, she's wearing my sweater in this one.




And apparently, this is how she practices in the morning...

Chili Cook-off and Crazy Kids

Hello! It's been a little while, so we thought we would update the world to what's new... not too much. I suppose that's why we haven't put anything up here for a while. It's a good thing we have such cute girls, or we would never post anything on here!

So, we both have rewards programs on our credit cards. To make it worthwhile, we use our credit cards a lot and pay it off every week (otherwise, it isn't worthwhile at all, because you accumulate debt!). So our points have just been adding up, and Dan finally used his for something... a bike trailer. I told him he could use it while the weather was still good, but come Christmas, it's going under the tree with a bow on it. That's how we're getting Christmas presents this year, while money is tight. Anyways, Jenna loves the trailer- she calls it her "bike-car".

Jenna trying out her new "bike car"

Jenna really loves her animals. She talks to them all the time. In fact she even thinks they get her up in the morning...

And Jenna's latest trick.

We had our ward Chili Cook-off/Trunk-or-Treat last weekend. Jenna was an elephant and Lucy was a giraffe. I just love my little animals!

Our ward activities director had made a really cool golden "bowl of chili" for the first place chili winner. She asked Dan to make a little base for it, so that it looked like a real trophy. It was so cool! You know you wish you had it displayed in your house...

What is this picture of random stuff? Well let me tell you... Jenna sleeps in her big girl bed all the time now. This means she has full access to her room. The other day before she went down for her nap (yes, she was still in her p.j.s), I was sitting in the office with her and she tried to put a pencil down the top of her footie pajamas and said "pocket". So I fished the pencil out. Well Dan put her down for her nap. After her nap, I went to get her because she was crying and she normally doesn't cry when she wakes up- she just plays. Well, I came in and asked her what was wrong and she said "owies" and touched her leg. All of this is what I found inside her pajamas. This also means that she fell asleep with at least all those pens and crayons in there, because she had to get them from the office since there aren't any in her room. Is my daughter going to be a kleptomaniac, putting things in her "pocket"?

Jenna and cousin Ellie playing at Grandma's house. They are so cute!

baby.abram.

So, I took some pictures of a super cute baby and forgot to post it over here.  But go see his picture.  CUTE!

http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

the campbells.

Go see this cute family...

http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com/

The sweetest girls

We love our girls! It is so fun to see how they are beginning to interact with each other. Lucy just loves Jenna. She always has a big smile on her face when Jenna talks to her. Here are some new pictures of our fantastic kids...

One morning when Dan went to get Jenna, she had all of her animal/toys feet sticking out of the crib. When Dan opened the door, she hurried to put hers out too!

Jenna also loves to jump on her bed. It's pretty intense!

Monkey see, monkey do... Jenna feeds her bear, just like we feed Lucy!

Jenna decided it would be fun to give Lucy a ride in her bouncer...

Jenna was trying to get Lucy to say "whee!" She doesn't quite grasp the fact that Lucy doesn't talk yet! In the clip, Jenna calls her Luc("loose"), because that's what we call her a lot of the time. It's amazing how much kids pick up from what you do.

A little bear!

Jenna tripped on a piece of carpet in our garage that's used to wipe your feet when you come in. She hit her chin right on the concrete step. Ouch! She was a trooper though, and pointed to it every morning, "Owies!"

Jenna and Grandpa Orrell are pals. Here they are watching a movie together. I love how she puts her arm around him!

Lucy is getting so good at smiling and cooing at us. It's great getting to see her personality develop. She is 3 months old, as of the 6th of October.

Bucket head. This is Jenna's Trick-or-treat bucket, but she likes to eat popcorn out of it (that's what is on the couch next to her).

Jenna has started taking her naps in her big girl bed. She does a great job. Today she didn't even get out of it when I put her in, or wake up when I snuck in to take this picture!

Last week I took a little "photo shoot" of Lucy while she was sleeping. I posted it on my photo blog- http://karlasmithphotography.blogspot.com

Today's adventure...

So... we just moved the twin bed into Jenna's room this morning. She was totally excited. We played hard at the park and Jenna was pretty tired. We decided to give her big kid bed a go for naptime. Dan put her down in her bed, said "night night" and closed the door. 20 minutes later, Dan went to go check on her. Coming up the stairs, it sounded like she was asleep. Oh good. One small problem. We forgot about the locks on our doors (they were installed when I was a teenager for privacy)... Jenna locked herself in!! Dan came downstairs very calmly and said "Don't freak out, but Jenna locked the door to her room." After trying all the random keys in our house, we had to call a locksmith to come open the door for us. Thankfully, she was asleep and only woke up to the sound of the locksmith unlocking her door, so she wasn't scared at all. We are now going to Home Depot to buy regular no-lock doorknobs for all the doors with locks on them that need real keys (instead of the kind you just stick a little pin in). And that was our adventure for today. Something for all of you with toddlers to think about. It'll save you $50 in the end.

There's a lot...

We just love having fun with our girls! They are growing so fast, and it seems like they will be gone before we know it. I even teared up singing to Jenna last night, because I realized that my baby is a big sister! Soon school will come and I won't even know what to do with myself. My babies won't be babies! For now, I'll just enjoy them for this short time that I get to teach them and grow with them!

This blanket was made for Lucy, but Jenna just loves it. She was getting tired and wrapped herself in it...

...and the next moment, she was out like a light!

Dan and Jenna went and watched the Blue Angels during the Reno Air Races.

Jenna loved the planes as they flew right over their heads!

She even had her own binoculars!

Lucy is getting so big! She will be 3 months next week. It is all going by so fast. Lucy loves to spit up (A LOT) and is getting so good at smiling at everyone. Right now her eyes are blue and we love them. We'll see if they stay that color- Jenna's were blue for the first year, and then changed to a really cool blue, green, brown color.

SMILE!

We got this swing for free on Craigslist. Jenna was never much for a swing, but Lucy loves it.

Jenna is getting so big and smart. We love hearing her imitate us... in fact, right now she is giving me pretzels and saying "Here you go, honey."

Do as I'm Doing


Jenna can also count to ten (which she then thinks is immediately followed by clapping, since we always clap for her).

We had a little photo shoot in the driveway.

Sooo Busy!

I feel like time has just been flying by! I am thoroughly enjoying life right now with two sweet little girls and a wonderful husband. Here are some of our latest adventures:

These first couple of pictures are just Jenna being cute! She likes to wear the baby carrier and take her bear around!


Jenna loves to wear our shoes. She looks pretty silly in Daddy's!

Institute Luau

We had a great time at this year's opening social for the Institute. It was up at Lake Tahoe, so we got there early so we could play in the water first!




Lucy just hanging out! She weighs eight and a half pounds now!

Jenna made a new best friend, Hannah- she's 7. As you can see, Hannah is an excellent sharer. I hope Jenna is just as good!

According to Hannah, being 7 makes Hannah big enough to carry Jenna...




...and hold Jenna on her lap!




Jenna loved it all though!


Birthday Party

One of our friends had her first birthday last Saturday. We made some little gifts for her...


A set of blocks

A is for Aislee! Dan cut this letter out of wood and I decorated it.

The party was at the park. Jenna thought that was a great idea!

Jenna loves to go down the slide by herself. She would do it for hours if we let her!



This is Mercedes and Talia with Jenna, our friend Megan's girls. They are so cute! I like how none of them are quite sure if they are having a good time or not!



Lucy is getting so big! I feel bad, because I know we haven't taken as many pictures of her as we did of Jenna! We'll try to be better about that. We just love her sweet little spirit in our home!

Who me??!!