little miss speedsters

I have been eying various vintage-style {metal frame} kids cars online for months, the ones I was finding cost hundreds so I was in the process of crushing that little dream when these little beauties came along:

On a fabulous sale for $49! I did such a good job selling Brad on how we needed one that he thought we should get TWO! Which is a lot more fun for the girls, and I'm such a crazy nostalgic type of person that I imagine 25 years from now my daughters will be thanking me because they each have one for their children to ride. I'm weird like that, maybe because I was the youngest child of 6 and my mom didn't keep that many of my things, I swear my pictures skip from a couple of newborn pictures to when I was one. I've certainly over-compensated my loss with J&L...

Sometimes I start to think it's been about a month (or maybe sometimes only a week) since I've taken some pictures of the girls with the real camera and just thinking about it makes me tired. It's fun picking out outfits and backgrounds and silly themes to play with, but it takes work and the girls are a couple of wild cards who may or may not cooperate. Yet, literally every single time I decide to do it there isn't one regret and it turns into such a fun, memorable experience for the 3 of us! Every. Single. Time.  We laugh and have fun and crazy stuff happens sometimes- but it makes memories and I end up with a bunch of cute pictures that remind me of that very day, what stage the girls were in and what they were doing making that little "shoot" special and fun.

While the girls napped I assembled their new cars, I'm a mechanic of infantile locomotives! Then I fed the girls, got them dressed, and introduced them to their new best friends.

They both ran up to them and wanted to sit on them. And at first they just sat there, stunned. So I wheeled them around to teach them about the whole wheel thing- and they loved that!

They worked on moving themselves.

They gave up and pushed the things.

They honked the horns.

They'd have some car troubles, but the handy little things kicked that tire and hopped back on.

Then they'd get back on and try again. For some reason I like this blurry pic, I guess it gives the illusion of motion, which is all the girls are these days- the twin tornado going from room to room causing {adorable} trouble:

Once we'd had our fun I took them into the other room and gave them some graham crackers and June went running back into the room. She found her necklace, put it on, found lyla's headband, and climbed onto her car. When Lyla chased in after her she handed Lyla her headband to put back on. "The show must go on!" She literally said that, it was a miracle.

June liked it.

Lyla liked it.

The end!

"happy" mother's day

I sort of feel like this was my first mother's day, last year I was still crazy adjusting to motherhood and I don't really remember it at all. I think we celebrated with Brad's family at my parent's place in Midway. I didn't honestly have that high of expectations for it this year, but I also didn't expect it to be a horrible weekend.

I'm pretty sure Brad doesn't even read my blog, so I can speak freely, but I won't...to preserve our familyhood. I'll just share *most* of the story, because it's therapeutic for me. And maybe I'll discover there are other moms out there like me who perhaps didn't enjoy the breakfast in bed, pampered sort of weekend that one conjures up images of.
It all began with Lyla having the runs on Friday which lead to a nasty diaper rash that still hasn't gone away. She only let me sleep a couple hours at a time on Friday night and reminded me of those first 6 months of sleepless nights. What a special mommy memory, thank you Lyla. :)
We're doing yard work exchange in all of my familys' yards and this Saturday was my parents turn, so we spent the better part of Saturday building decks, weeding, and I mostly tended to sad little Lyla. The girls napped in the car and I stayed with them while Brad got a pedicure, don't judge him. I told him to do it because his feet were horrible, much worse off than my chipped paint.
So we get home once I grab a few gorceries and I'm about to start preparing my lesson (Oh, did I not mention I had to teach relief society on mother's day too?) And Brad informs me we need to leave for a mother's day surprise. That's nice, but I have a lot to get done, he said it was just grabbing dinner and that scared me because Lyla has been the clingiest, saddest little think ever since the diaper rash. Well, turns out it wasn't just dinner- we drove all the way to provo with 2 screaming babies who had already spent most of their day in their car seats. And they were going to drive for another hour to a wedding reception while we grabbed dinner. Then we had to drive home with them, stop at gas stations to change dirty diapers etc...needless to say it was not so relaxing or fun, though filled with good intentions.
I don't want to depress you, so enjoy this lovely quote before I continue:

We got home late and I commenced preparing hundreds of mini cupcakes to give to the ladies in the ward for mother's day. And also prepare my lesson, after organizing my thoughts my computer shuts down deleting everything I'd just done. No sweat, plan B, those hand outs I didn't ever get around to printing will save the day! At 11:30 PM I rush to Wal-mart only to discover that the photo center closes at 9. (be aware people) There's a lot of weird people at wal-mart around midnight on a Saturday, but I must have looked like the weirdest one of all in my pajamas with tears welling up in my eyes at the photo center.
On Sunday morning I prepared my lesson while Brad watched the girls, then I walked into the kitchen to find June and Lyla eating and smashing my mini cupcakes I'd stayed up all night preparing. Good thing Brad wasn't in the room or pans would have been flying. I swear I'm always at my meanest on Sunday mornings that I have to teach, but knowing it was mother's day really gave me that extra edge knowing I ought to be enjoying some me time, be pampered, have a relaxing moment. That was a fleeting dream so I called my mom to come to the rescue and frost cupcakes and talk for a few minutes during my lesson.
As soon as church was over we drove up to bountiful, quickly ate with my family, and had to leave early to drive to Provo and see Brad's family. Basically, mother's day weekend consisted of a lot of stress, crying babies, and driving. I wanted to pull my hair out and cry, why was I being punished this weekend for being a mom?!
So, after all that where does this go? I will tell you, I think mother's day is a nice holiday that all mom's truly deserve, that forces those around them to show their appreciation and give them a break for at least one day. But it's really just one day, it doesn't change your life & at least I am a mom and I have June & Lyla, I'm very blessed and lucky. My own mom is amazing- like has babies in Samoa, raises 5 kids under 6 and still decides to have me amazing. She is always there for me and loves me and wants whats best for me. I'm so lucky to have her as a mom and really do pray that I can be a mom like that for Lyla & June. 

I hope everyone had a better mother's day than mine, if you didn't we can wallow in our own sorrow together, if you did I'm happy for you and at least my standard of mother's day is so low that it has no where to go but up.
All that really matters is that I am a mom, a very lucky mom, to these two beautiful girls:

Happy Mother's Day!

an annual pass

Since our house has pretty much turned into a zoo since we had babies, it made sense to be able to take them to the real zoo when we need to get out of the house.  Plus, if all your children are 2 and under an annual pass is cheapy!
here are the girls, for photo purposes, getting a view of their cousins instead of the elephants:

It's nice having a few go-to spots for a quick getaway when the girls {&me} are going crazy at home. City creek and the zoo are among my favorites, I should probably stick with the zoo more often to avoid unnecessary shopping temptations.
The girls really just love being outside- here's some outside pictures that are a result of someone using their camera in manual mode and has no clue what they're doing:

{way overexposed...help me?}

 

Speaking of shopping...we're doing some "fun" homeowner shopping lately- you know: plumbing issues, termite treatments, picking out new sprinklers, building a patio, picking out trees to cut down, dreaming about new windows and plans for a great room and eventually a master bedroom! I'm not being sarcastic about it being fun-- even cute dresses for the girls don't compare to having a liveable, comfortable home to spend our days in. 
Here are the girls before church, checking out the new grass they weren't allowed to walk on yet:

I'm just happy we're starting to do some of the "big stuff" and it's even kind of fun to prioritize what we'll do this year and day dream about the things we might do someday.
Anyways, whether or not you have a picture perfect house, it's nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this time of year. It'll be nice to easily do that in our own yard once it's done, then on those days we don't really leave our house at least we're not stuck inside it!
& More pictures from the zoo, for your viewing pleasure:
I always loved getting a drink from the lion fountain, so I had to do it with the girls...but there were birds all over it when we got there and it just seemed dirty and gross, so I only let them touch the water this time. We'll build up their immunity to drink it later, lol.

With all the cousins:

 I haven't taken them on the carousel yet, maybe I'll wait till Brad can come with us.

 One of those rare moments that I hop in a picture, I should probably do that more often.

happy as clams outside!

 Although June has developed a strange fear of walking outside, as soon as she steps outside of a door she starts crawling.

 My favorite babies:

 I love Lyla's little school girl look in this dress.

 They found all the little bits and pieces of trash and presented them to me.

 They enjoy trying to climb things that are bigger than them.

 oh yeah, there's animals at the zoo too...