Three Years Ago Today

April 23, 2005

Three years ago today, our little Gracie joined us. Happy Birthday, Gracie Girl! Look how much you've changed!


April 23, 2006.

We celebrated your birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Mills' house in Las Vegas. We were on our way to Disneyland with Nona and Grandpa Tilley, so you got to have both sets of Grandparents there for your birthday. Best of all, you turned 1-year-old just in time to ride the cars at Disneyland.

April 23, 2007.

You loved your balloons, your blocks from Nona and Grandpa, and the bubble machine and ball you bought with your money from Great Grandma Burnett and Grandma and Grandpa Mills. Oh yeah, and you LOVED your chocolate cream cake Daddy bought you!

April 23, 2008.

Another birthday today. You are growing so fast. I can't believe your vocabulary and reasoning. You did a cute birthday dance on the counter for me this morning. Maybe I'll post the video.

You definitely know what you like. Your sisters and I tried to get you to buy some cute girl pajamas and clothes, but you only wanted nothing to do with pink, princesses, or frills. We were able to compromise on a few items--mostly because your sisters convinced you that they were "boy" clothes. As for the toys, no cheerleader outfits or tiaras...you got excited about the bats, baseballs, basketballs, and soccer balls.

(Annalese and McKyla Tried to interest Gracie in the pink princess pajamas on the right. They both absolutely loved them. Gracie firmly said, "No, not that one. This one!")
(Gracie climbing to get the "right" ball. She asked me to get a baseball from the basket. I wanted her to have something softer and thought I could appease her with a soft mini football. She said, "No, Mom! That's a football, not a baseball!" I grabbed a girly looking baseball, "No, Mom. The Spongebob one." Nice, thank her Dad for the interest in Spongebob Squarepants.)
(Of course, she loved the BLUE soccer ball, too)
(Here she is, SO HAPPY with her birthday gifts--thank you Grandma and Grandpa Mills and Great Grandma Burnett. This is one of the outfits she picked. Annalese told her the shirt was a boy shirt and the shorts are brown, so she liked them. Well, Eldon's on his way home with the cake, ice cream, and presents. )

McKyla Gets "Bangs"

I decided it's probably time I stop cutting my girls' hair and just take them to a salon. I cut McKyla's hair this week. I wanted to give her some bangs and cut her hair for summer (if it ever makes it's way to Idaho). I think it ended up cute, but it took an hour and forty minutes! I'm too picky with short cuts. Thank goodness she was so sweet and patient. Here are a few pics; she had a lot of fun posing for me.

Gracie's almost three-years-old; can you believe it?!? Her birthday is on Wednesday. Nona and Grandpa Tilley came down for the weekend. So nice to have a good visit with them. The girls were sooooo excited! Nona made this Barbie cake for Gracie and she loved it.

Other updates: We are very excited! We currently have 12 nieces and nephews, but it looks like we may have 16 by the end of 2008-ish. My sister-in-law Mindy is pregnant due in September, my sister Shae called to tell us she and Kevin are expecting in December, and my sister-in-law, Brenda, called and said she and Mourad just made it to the next step in their efforts to adopt a baby girl from Tunisia. If all goes well, they may also be able to adopt an older child from an orphanage while they are there. We are so excited for them; they are so good with kids and have been great foster parents. Fun to see our family growing.

Well, that's it for now. It's been a long week. I have a lot on my mind. Maybe I'll write about it later. Good night!

French Toast Mornings

This was a French Toast Morning! I love those mornings...when I don't have to wake up, hurry to get myself and the kids ready and rush off to meet contractors or run errands all day. I love making french toast and pancakes with my little helpers. It's one of the little things that's a big thing: there's no hurry, they can help. Who cares if they get egg shells in the mix; we're in no hurry and we get to eat them together.



Gracie and McKyla were so happy they got to crack the eggs.


Now, to celebrate the little victories in the world of construction...

BEFORE Remember this pic of the ice mountain in our cold storage room in the new house? Well...

It's gone, BABY!!! This pic makes it look like Eldon deserves all the glory, but really I cleared out 3/4ths of it while he was at work.

AFTER

This is a boring pic to most of you, but it is just beautiful to me! No more ice, no more water! (Let's hope!)

We were so tired and so dirty when we got home from working out at the house last night. Gracie fell asleep on the couch after her bath. I ended up doing the same thing. After cleaning out 2 inches of dirt from the bathtub, I crashed around 8:30 p.m. Felt so good!

(P.S. Notice Gracie's purple toe nails and finger nails. McKyla wore purple to preschool Monday, so I decided to paint her nails purple. Gracie wanted hers done, too. It's so weird to see her looking a little girly. Lately she cries about anything girly or "pretty". Also notice, the jammies she picked almost match!)

Why not live in Idaho?

This pic of our backyard was taken around 8:20 a.m. Thursday, April 10th. Gracie went to the back door and said. "Uh-oh. My slide is covered in SNOW! Mom, we better get the sled out!"


This pic was take at 11:50 a.m. the same day. And that pretty much sums up the weather in Idaho. Soooo tempted to pack up and move back to Arizona or Southern Utah!
Today was actually a really nice day. We had a picnic outside together. Gracie even got a little too much sun--had to remember to put the sunblock on her. We all enjoyed being outdoors for a change. Needless to say it will probably snow tomorrow. Sorry, can you tell it's been a long winter for me?

The fireplace is FINALLY done!!! (Almost). I believe we started this project last Febuary (2007) when we decided to finish the basement. We finally had to pay someone to do the rock because we just haven't gotten to it with all the pressing items on the new house. Just need a little trim and paint and this project's done! Just in time to stick a "For Sale" sign in the front yard. Oh well, sometimes that's the way it goes. Just got to roll with the punches.
Moving forward with stucco and drywall on the new house!

I really love the view from this house! I keep telling myself, "Shyla, don't you fall in love with that house!" Got to remember it's an investment. Part of me wishes it would just sell before we ever even move in to it, so we can just stay in the house we are in now.

Well, I think that's all I'm going to post this week. Hava a good week, all!

This Week In the News

Just a few pics and notes from the past week or so.

Annalese has been begging, and is VERY excited to be doing her own hair with the flat iron. She was so excited she also styled my and McKyla's hair. Now we just need to get Daddy to let her experiment on him!
Kind of a downer of a week as far as the new house goes. Not much has happened. Just waiting for this so we can do that, and that so we can do this.
Here's the girls climbing the ice mountain in our cold storage room. As you can see, it's definately cold. This is the last of the ice to get out of the house. It's going to be a booger to get out.

Here's our little helpers. (Yes, those are the "Christmas jammies" Gracie can't live without. I don't have the heart to hide them from her.) The girls are trying to help us dry up some water by spreading "pixie dust". :) Besideds being cute, they're very cheap labor and innovative, too.


That's Gracie in my coat next to Annalese. The bare mid-drift in those Christmas jammies finally convinced her to let us put something warmer on her. She looks like a magician.

One of my precious "Mommy Moments." I was a little stressed out and Gracie had a good talk with me. She was like, " 'Mere, Mom. You just need to get comfty, Mom. Here under the blankets like this." She made me smile, and I was very "comfty" listening to her. Good reminder that I need to take the time for more moments like this.

Spring Break

Didn't feel like much of a spring break with the snow; but all-in-all I think we had a pretty good week. It felt so good to get some things done that needed to be taken care of, and we still found some time to have some fun!

Coloring Easter eggs at the Turville's. :) Fun times!

"Just Like a Tattoo." I probably shouldn't encourage tattoos, but the girls were so excited about them; I thought it was cute. They got these at Primo's for being so good about cleaning all day and shopping for food storage on their first day of spring break. Amazing how a few tattoos can get them over that kind of disappointment.
Gracie likes to flex with her Mini-Mouse on. She wanted to wear this shirt just so she could show everybody.
Girl's Night. Wednesday afternoon, me and the girls went to see Horton Hears a Who. We loved it. Afterwards we went shopping--just the girls. Lesey got that hair piece, blue nail polish, and the princess headbands. We are so girly here, people.
McKyla got some new clothes to add to her wardrobe. She had to put them on because we also bought a new web cam so they can talk to their cousins online. They were so excited, they got all dressed up.

Gracie got cute new spring dresses, but she has no desire to even try them on. She just loves her "Elmo jammies" her "Letter shirt" and her "Hawkeyes". She wants to wear them ALL the time. Every once in a while I convince her to let me wash them. :) This is Gracie in her Hawkeye sweater and hat playing at the school. We took a bike ride with some of the neighbor kids.

We also got to go swimming with Annette and her kids at their clubhouse. Always good to hang out with them. The girls love to go swimming with their "Nette." And, just to keep this blog "REAL", I have a confession. I just barely took my Christmas tree down last Wednesday. Yes, that's how behind I am! See why we couldn't go anywhere for Spring break. Can't wait until we are done building our new house or at least have this one sold!