Patterson's with the girls.

Saturday morning was beautiful -- cold, but sunny!  We bundled up and headed to Mckinalys' soccer game...only to find it was cancelled because the field was too sloshy. 

Since we were already half was there, we decided to head to Patterson's for donuts, apple fritters and to play on the swings there.  We didn't realizes until that day that Patterson's is connected to Orchard Hills park.  We spent the next 2 hours exploring, finding bridges, slogging through puddles, and just hanging out together.   

Probably the coolest discovery was when Mckinlay noticed this puddle shaped like Woody.

 

We made sure to keep checking for dry undies 

 and this mama just enjoyed being with her not-so-little girlies.

See what I mean about not-so-little!?

 Seesh!  Where does the time go?

By the time we were ready to head back , Mckinlay was pretty done wearing her hat and sweatshirt (this girl doesn't like to dress warm).  She wanted me to carry her stuff.  I told her it was her choice if she didn't want to wear them, but she had to hold her own things.  A few mins later, the girls were lagging behind and I heard Mckinlay trying to convince Eliza to hold her stuff "because it is really awesome..."

Apparently, she couldn't convince her to hold both.  Just the hat.

How refined is you palate?

A couple weeks ago Ty and I hosted a party.  A "How refined is your palate?"  party.  We came up with idea last year and decided to host another one.  It was lots of fun.

Here's basically how it worked:

We divided the night into 3 courses (appetizers, main course and desserts).  Each couple brought a name brand and generic item that fell into that category -- for example Kraft Mac and Cheese and Value Time Mac & Cheese.  The table were divided into option A and option B and we each had two plates of food to keep the options straight.  Everyone kept track of their guesses on a score sheet, so we could determine who had the most and least refined palate.

 We had so much food!  By the time dessert rolled around we were pretty stuffed -- but of course, managed.  This year we even had filet mignon!  Whole Foods organic, grass fed vs. Giant Eagle.  Oh la la!

 This year Kathy won most refined (only getting 2 out of 18 wrong!)

  

and Matt lost won least refined (getting more than 2 out of 18 wrong...).

I like this picture because it's pretty defining of Ty and I as a couple.  I'm holding up (and also have a mouthful of) filet and Ty's got the root beer.  Yup.  That about sums us up.

It was a really fun night.  Thanks to everyone who came!

Bye-bye diapers!

Hello big girl!

I spent last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday potty training Liza.  

Day one and two, were almost entirely spent in the hallway (so as not to be too far from the bathroom), sitting on a towel, coloring, watching movies, eating, having accidents, drinking, doing stickers, art projects and drinking some more.  

Day three it clicked!  We ventured out of the hallway and haven't had an accident since!  We're even been to a soccer game, church and today we spent the morning running errands.  I'm pretty proud of her -- it's so rewarding to feel like my camping outside the bathroom paid off!  Fingers crossed she decides to keep it up -- you know, after the novelty wears off.

Liza LOVED all the attention -- but Mckinlay -- not so much.  It's been a pretty hard week for her.  This picture is pretty much an explanation of the week:

 Poor thing just had to get some attention too.  She has earned herself a special mommy-daughter-date this week. 

I also like the above picture because it reminds me of this one {third picture down}.

My favorite thing about Potty Trained Eliza is when you ask her "are your undies still dry?"  She checks, then gives you a big cheese with a double thumbs up.  She came up with the whole thumbs up business on her own and I think it's pretty adorable.  What's not adorable though, is when yesterday after asking the Bishop a question, I gave him a double thumbs up.  And then did it again.

Not so cute coming from a 29-year old.  

Argh.

P.S. On our first venture out of the house, I may or may not have had her ride in the car without pants on in cause she had an accident...I'll not mention the fact that is was freezing cold.  That would just make me seem like a rotten mother.

"We are a family..."

Whenever we are together as a family, doing something fun, Mckinlay stops and with wide eyes sings: "We are a family (pause) & we love each other!"  It's turned into our little family thing and I think it's pretty adorable -- because you know what, we DO love each other!
{Pardon the cheese.}

Sarah B. took our family pictures a few weeks ago.  Talk about love.  I think she did such a great job of capturing our family just being our family.  

Wanna see?

Wanna see more?  

Click here.

P.S. Can you believe how much the girls have grow up from last year?