my cutie church girl

It seems like just yesterday I saw this cutie dress on my niece....I don't know why kids have to grow up so fast! But here is Kate in her new dress that she was just in love with today. She especially loved the spin action she gets with it!

This girl loves to color. Today, like other days, we had to drag her away from the nursery coloring table to go home.
(she has since finished it and hung it on the fridge herself!)

a break from my regularly scheduled life...

If you've seen my sidebar, I've started selling Easter basket liners on my etsy shop. I have sold a few and it has started to take over my life...I'm not complaining....I just don't have much time for anything else. Like cleaning my house. Or blogging. I did, however, take the Sabbath to rest and to have fun with my family. Here are some pictures from our afternoon at the park.

Lazy Mama Sunday afternoon

Yesterday I came home from our freezing Primary room at church to a freezing house (because it was only 60 degrees outside) and I could barely stand to eat lunch before I cuddled on the couch with a huge blanket. Of course, this led to me falling asleep and the next thing I know, Kate wakes me up with a project her and Daddy had made:


She wouldn't let me get a picture of her actually wearing it, but its a bag to wear over her head. I don't know if its because Ryan didn't like the hairdo we did today or what! But she thought it was quite hilarious. Its funny to me to see the things Daddy and Kate do together when Mommy is napping!

Christmastime catch-up

Here are a few of the things we've been doing recently:

Looking cute for church

both were feeling photogenic so I had to take advantage!

Kate smoothering Sawyer, of course

Hogging the spotlight

Hopefully you haven't noticed, but in all the pictures of Sawyer (even professional ones) he's shoeless. As a warm climate dweller, I didn't feel the need for him to have shoes. Mom finally got these to go with his wedding tux and, I must say, they are adoreable!


We also finally decorated the Christmas tree

Kate was a really good helper

We were glad Grammy had a lot of plastic ornaments!

(Kate dropped quite a few!)

Sitting and staring at the beauty of it

(Ignore the piles of wedding stuff in the background)

We spent some time at the park, enjoying our long lost Daddy

Crazy Hair

Sawyer playing Peek-a-boo with Daddy's nose

Sawyer LOVES to swing!

We also saw Santa again. I had been telling Kate we would go when Daddy was here and she was so excited to show him. Again, we kept talking all day about how we were going to be so happy and she was so excited and Santa wasn't scary....

Our family waiting in line to see Santa. Sawyer couldn't take his eyes off the falling "snow" and other Christmas decorations

The "snow" that came out of the mailbox where you send your Christmas wishes...it scared Kate

The naughty and nice meter....whenever I ask Kate, she says she's naughty.

Then it was time to sit on his lap. She walked right up to him and took a seat!

playing hard to get with Santa

And its a smile! We've come a long way from this!  8 Santa encounters did the trick!! She finally did it!

She was a little excited

So was Sawyer

And lastly, the reason for all the hustle and bustle...besides Christmas!

Dani came into town tonight and we were so excited to show her all the things we've been working on! Only 6 more days!

sunday afternoon cookies

I've always loved making cookies on Sunday afternoons....and I also love eating cookies basically anytime, so its quickly becoming one of our favorite traditions! Kate LOVES to help anytime I'm in the kitchen. She really is a good little helper. When she was at Grammie's house she learned to put the silverware away while we are unloading the dishwasher. She really knows where everything goes and she does a really good job! Anyways, back to the cookies...I asked Kate if she wanted to lick the beater and so here she is giving it a try:

She quickly decided that wasn't the best method and spent the rest of her time like this:

Ryan finally was like "Kristen...are you going to let her eat all that dough?" Like mother, like daughter!

life

here is a collection of random pictures and short stories all smushed in one post:

sad to say, so long to the olympics! its always so sad to see them end, but I have to admit I'll enjoy going to bed at 10 again. I was afraid that I might have missed my favorite sport of them all....but they were on yesterday!! I like them all, but I definately have a favorite!!

rhythmic gymnastics!!

Kate loved it too.

she went and got her ribbon to dance along with them

here are some sunday afternoon pictures

me and my babies

daddy taught kate how to make a funny face

Sawyer looking sharp

Kate enjoying an after dinner fudgesicle

and today we painted Kate's fingers and toes. as she was eating her popsicle I said "those are some NICE hot pink fingernails!" and she gave me her quizzical look that is SO cute and I need to get a picture of and she said "no, kinda warm"

here she is showing off her *warm* pink fingernails!!

and this photo collage I call "attack of the big sister"

poor kid. its hard to be loved so much!!

Temple Photo Shoot

This Sunday Ryan and I decided to take a trip to the temple to see the grounds and take a family picture. We have heard it was beautiful so we packed a picnic dinner and drove the 45 minutes...and it was worth it! It was so beautiful! We brought the tripod so we could get the whole family in so I was running back and forth in the hot, humid air! ick! but here is our family picture

and here it is cropped in so you can actually see us!

and, as you can tell from the title of this post, I played photographer for a little bit too! Does anyone else find photo editing frustrating/addicting and rewarding? I have lots to learn, but here are a few

I am so excited for Sawyer to start sitting so its a little easier to take pictures of him. Here are my cuties holding hands by a fountain on the side of the temple. It had a pretty walkway under some nice big trees.

Afterwards we went to the park down the street and had a picnic. Here is Kate very distracted by the swings.

And here is Kate and Daddy waiting for a turn on the swings...it was one busy park!!

After a while it started raining, but we were about done anyways so we just packed up and headed home! What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon! As Kate and I were walking around the temple, singing "I love to See the Temple" I felt the peace that being at the temple brings and I get goosebumps when she sings "....I'm going there someday!" with me. What a blessing the temple is in my life and I'm so excited we have one only 45 minute away and I hope we'll be making a trip to go inside...someday!