neck deep in princesses

princesses...minnie just can't get enough of them.

recently nana gave her a princess crown and a cinderella dress.  

she was adorned in this apparel for three straight days. 

on one of those days, she got in trouble.  

christian gave her a time out.  she got off of the time out chair

and defiantly declared, "princesses don't have time outs!"

turns out, at our house, princesses do have time outs. 

it isn't enough for her to be a princess by herself, 

minnie wants hope in on all this princess action. 

its hope's modus operandi to comply with her big sister's ideas.

so...hope is a princess too. 

while my back was turned, minnie shared her crown with hop. 

i love her "am i really doing this?" expression.

minnie was insistent that hope wear her princess aurora dress.

for those of you who aren't well versed on your princesses, 

aurora is sleeping beauty, the princess who wears pink. 

as i was trying to get a picture of them, i would say, "hope!" 

to try and get her attention.  every time i would call out to hope, 

minnie would insist, "she is aurora, not hope!" 

 

the north logan library had a frozen party.  

anna and elsa told their story and sang.

there was a game where the kids stuck their hand

in a bucket of ice water to grab a toy.

most importantly, they had a meet-and-greet with elsa and anna. 

minnie was beside herself.  she ran up to anna and hugged her

without any hesitation.  i picked her up to go and she yelled out, 

"anna!" and waved goodbye to her with everything she had. 

 

i'm not sure where this love of princesses originated from, 

but i figure we'll just work to temper it with 

toys like goldie blox, legos, etc. 

i figure there isn't any harm in minnie liking princesses, 

as long as she has exposure to other things as well. 

and, as long as she learns that princesses do get time outs when 

they misbehave, princesses will be involved in helping with chores

and princesses can do hard things. 

happy birthday hopey sister!

it's been a year since our lives were 

forever changed by the addition 

our sweet little hopey sister.

we celebrated with burgers, chips, cake and ice cream.

most importantly, we celebrated with family and friends.  

nana and papa were kind enough to let us celebrate in their backyard. 

pure joy!

classic happy hopey picture.  

she started clapping and laughing after 

we sang happy birthday to her.

i think she was satisfied with her accomplishment. 

i know i was impressed by her abilities. 

more than once, she dipped her face down 

into the cake to get a bite. 

i realize that the pictures below are all fairly similar.

however, i really wanted the progression of these shots. 

as you can see, the cake wasn't the only thing hope was after.

uncle lance's hat was doomed from the beginning.

hope has made great strides this year.  she is sitting up all by herself, she loves for us to sing to her (favorites include popcorn popping, and fishy fishy) , she claps at the end of songs and any time she is really happy, she is eating solids like a champ, she says ba, ba, ba and da, da, da, she rolls as a form a mobility, she gets on all fours and rocks back and forth, she brightens any room with her smile and brightens our lives with our presence.  we couldn't imagine life without hope. 

independence day

the fireworks in logan are always on the 3rd of july.  

we love this because the 3rd is hope's birthday.  

last year at this time, hope and christian were in the NICU, 

i was in recovery from labor and delivery, 

and minnie was with my parents at the dixon's 4th of july 

party waiting for her sister to be born.  

(although, i don't think she really knew she was waiting for that.)

this year, we were all at the dixon's celebrating hope and our country.

it was so much fun.

we ate hot dogs and treats.

minnie ran around the house with ladybug ears on.

hope was just being a little party animal. 

on the 4th, we went to the parade in hyrum.  

minnie loved waving at all the floats, getting candy and making a mess with otter pops.

hope and papa just had fun making faces at each other. 

i am grateful we live in this beautiful nation. 

i'm grateful for the sacrifices made so that we are free. 

i am grateful for hope of a bright future.

bathing beauties

the inventor of the rashguard will always have a special place in my heart. 

pure genius.

lovin' the camera

minnie was loving the camera.

i guess if i looked this natural in pictures,

i'd love the camera too.

girls camp

i took hope up to girls camp for a day.  

as you can probably tell, she loved it.

frozen night on the ice

trying to keep minnie entertained as we waited in line to meet elsa and anna. 

the frozen fractals were a good distraction.

 

  

minnie was so excited.  she ran right up to them. 

i didn't get a picture of it, but because elsa and anna knelt down to get to minnie's level, 

she thought she ought to kneel down too.  it was really cute.  

 

i was trying to get a picture of minnie in her skating gear.  

she was trying to humor me, but as you can tell, she wasn't really feeling it. 

 then, she started feeling it. 

and, here we are, skating the night away. 

chick-fil-a hosted a frozen night on the ice at the eccles ice arena.  we decided it would be fun to take minnie, since she can't get enough of the movie or the princesses from it.  she was in heaven.  she got to meet elsa and anna.  they took a portrait for her to take home.  we ate dinner and belle served us.  there was a lemonade fountain.  last of all we skated.  i thought that minnie wouldn't be to excited about the skating part.  turns out, i was wrong.  she loved it.  and, i loved that she loved it.  she is at such a great age - inquiring, learning, full of emotion, rallying for independence.  every day is an adventure with her.  the adventure was amplified with our little frozen date. 

milestones

hope decided to start sitting up all by herself at nine months.  

needless to say, we were all very excited for this milestone. 

the writing on the wall

and so it begins.  luckily, minnie decided to use chalk, which was easy to remove. 

another trip to park city

we took another trip to park city.  i wasn't as camera happy this go round.

it was really fun again though.  the girls loved swimming with cousins and papa.

minnie had a great time on the merry-go-round.  we went to sarah and ete's for dinner.  

a delightful time was had by all.  

smarty pants

 hope decided it was time to be studious.  pretty darn cute, if i do say so myself.

summertime in the neighborhood

 

 eliza, randy and terry's grandaughter, and 

minnie eating "dippy eggs" and doing cheers. 

she loves riding her balance bike.  

i am not going to lie, i love that she loves bikes.  

stopping to observe nature. 

dressing up

minnie wanted hope to have a hat. 

then she wanted to dress up like mary. 

and then a ballerina, of course.

easter

i've decided something important.  easter is my new favorite holiday.

i love the time of year that it comes - everything is green and fresh

and it is either sunny and nice out, or rainy with a feeling of the earth 

being cleansed.  expectations are low.  there are fun and interesting 

things to do outside.  most importantly, i love the meaning and symbolism

that comes with easter.  the idea of new life through the resurrection of our 

Savior has become more meaningful to me this past year.  when i think of hope

and how she is here on earth with physical and mental challenges, then i think of 

the beauty of being cleansed through the atonement and made perfect through

the enabling power of it, i feel peace.  when i think of her little body being made 

perfect when she is resurrected, matching her perfect little spirit, i feel joy.  

"the easter bunny goes hippity hop, hippity hop."

 

coloring easter eggs started out just fine...

 

but in the end we ended up with hands and floor that were more colorful than the eggs were. 

minnie was pretty excited about the basket the easter bunny left for she and hope. 

my parents came over for breakfast.  we ate cinnamon pull aparts and fresh fruit - a tradition from my family.  i loved easter and christmas breakfast as a kid.  then we had an easter egg hunt with symbols of easter in the eggs (a piece of bread, a rock, a piece of string, an "olive" leaf and an empty rock).  we read the easter story with the girls and bore our testimonies of the resurrection.  then we watched an easter video from lds.org.  it was a really special morning.  did i mention that easter is my new favorite holiday?  well, it is. 

baby animal days

we ended up going to the american west heritage center to see the baby animals.  

minnie loved seeing them all.  she also loved just running around.