Birthdays!!

I have been meaning to post these for awhile but we have had people come and visit and going to see family and so I keep forgetting. May is the month of birthdays at our house. Aspyn turned 2 a couple of weeks ago and she had a great birthday. Lots of fun presents and a fun birthday party, what more good a 2 year old want. Here are some pictures of the big day!The big 2 year old in her birthday outfit. I can't believe she is 2 already!!

Her birthday present right before she saw them.

She loves the baby accessories. It came with a stroller, a car carrier that turns into a high chair and swing, little bed carrier, and diaper bag with food and dishes. She LOVES it!!

New clothes of course, she tried to see if anything was exciting was underneath it all.

And play-dough, so much fun!!

Feeding her baby in the high chair.

Her birthday cake!

I also made cupcake cones, they were a hit and so easy to make.

Here she is while we were singing to her. Whenever she gets nervous she puts her hand in her mouth.

Finally getting the candles blown out. She got one out by herself but Daddy had to help with the other one.

Here she with her friend Clarie using the cool gift that Clarie gave to her.

My birthday is a few days after Aspyn and I turned the big 25! Josh got me a new camera that I wanted and I had a great birthday. Here is me blowing out the candles on my cheesecake (not a big fan cake).

A family shot (thanks to Cecilee)!

I think that Aspyn thought we were singing to her again and was a little confused when I blew out the candles, too funny.

Graduation (kind of) and an early birthday!!

Josh technically graduated this past weekend. He wasn't able to walk to get his master's because his thesis isn't quite finished and he didn't want to walk to get his bachelor's so we didn't go to any graduations. But I made him put on my old cap and gown and take pictures anyway!! I am so proud of him for all he has done, he has been working really hard the last few months and still is and it will all be worth it once he is done! (Just have to keep reminding ourselves that)

Here he is with Aspyn, she really wanted to be in the pictures.

A family shot done on self timer, which Aspyn thought was super cool!

Josh's parents decided to come up and celebrate "graduation" with us by taking us out to lunch. They also brought up Aspyn's birthday present which we decided to let her open while they were here. She was in heaven that the big present was for her. It's almost as tall as she is!!

Trying to figure out how to get the paper off of it.

It's a broom!! She got a cleaning set with broom and dust pan, a mop with two different heads, scrub bush with two different heads, a spray bottle, and gloves! She is in heaven, she loves to help me clean and it was always so hard because she wouldn't let me mop or let me help her mop, she had to do it by herself. So now she has her own stuff to help me clean.

Trying out the mop to see how it works. She was really shy in this picture but I can't tell you how much she has played with it all since Friday when she got it.

Trying out the gloves, you think they could have made kid size gloves to put in there but they are real gloves that fit me. But she loves them anyway.

Easter!!

Here are a couple of pictures from our Easter weekend. We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday night. On Sunday Aspyn woke up to an Easter basket but since we have 9:00 church and have to be there early she really didn't get much time to look at it so when she got home she had lots of fun (mostly eating the chocolate). Josh had hid some eggs around the living room and kitchen and she had fun finding those and putting them in her basket with the rest.With Daddy while dying eggs. She loved seeing the eggs coming out a different color then they went in. And she loves Deviled Eggs, a new favorite food.

Aspyn with her Easter Basket. She put it around her neck by herself, I think she thought it was a very pretty necklace.

A good shot of her in her Easter Dress. She loves to pose for pictures, as long as you only take one and then let her have the camera. She does have a very cute cheese face though.

Baby Animal Days!!

Last Saturday we went to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center here in Logan. They have it every spring and they let you hold and pet all the baby animals. They also give pony rides and have all sorts of activities. Aspyn is a big fan of animals and she LOVED being able to see, hold, and pet all of them. We took a lot of pictures and since they are all so cute I just decided to make it into a slide show. Enjoy!

Walking in Heels!!

I really don't own too many shoes with heels but yesterday I had worn some to a fireside I had to play at and when I got home I just took them off in the living room. Aspyn saw them and decided she really liked them. She put them on and walked around in them, not once did she fall and she was in the for at least 20 minutes. She is a natural in heels. I had to take a picture of it but in the process she was trying to walk to me to get the camera so I didn't get a very good shot of her but you get the idea.

And the Winner is ...

Okay, not that we really based our decision off the poll, but just in case you were wondering Princeton, New Jersey won 7-6. But on to the real decision, we had decided to move to . . . wait for it . . .

Princeton, New Jersey!!

Josh will be attending Princeton University where he will be working on getting his PhD in Civil Engineering (Hydrology for anyone that really cares). Schools starts on September 17th (our 5th anniversary, again for anyone that cares) so we will most likely be moving the last week in August. So, if anyone knows anyone in the Princeton area, we are looking for an apartment so send them our way please.

Spring Break!!

We had a great and extra long Spring Break. Most of it consisted of Josh looking at graduate schools (**See Previous Post**) but it was still really fun. It started out the Thursday before spring break officially started with Josh flying out to Illinois to check out University of Illinois. Aspyn and I went down to see my parents who just got home from their mission and spent our time with them. Josh got back from Illinois then flew out to Seattle the next day to check out University of Washington. He got back and rested a day then we all flew out to Philadelphia and spent a few days with my sister who lives in Delaware. Josh was able to drive up to New Jersey one of those days to check out Princeton. We had a lot of fun but I also forgot to take our camera. So, here are a few pictures that we took from our cell phones, hopefully they are not too bad (there are a lot of them too, sorry).

Here are a couple of shots that Josh took at University of Washington

These next few are ones he took at Princeton (really cool, old buildings)

Here are some from Aspyn and my trip to Philadelphia

The Liberty Bell

Aspyn and I in front of the Liberty Bell

Aspyn in front of the Betsy Ross House

Independence Hall

The Signing Room

The table where the Declaration of Independence was signed

Where should we move??

We have decided to see where all of you think we should move. We have narrowed it down to two places: Princeton, New Jersey and Seattle, Washington. Both have their ups and downs and we are pretty sure where we think we are going but would like to see what everyone else thinks. There is a poll on the side and I will leave it open until Tuesday and then we will most likely be posting our decision soon after that.

First Haircut!! (Finally)

Aspyn finally got a haircut!! Not that she had much too cut off but the front was getting in her eyes and the back really needed to be evened out. So we finally did it. She wasn't too thrilled with the idea so we finally just put a towel down in the living room and put in her favorite movie (Winnie the Pooh). She was content after that to just sit and let me cut.


BEFORE

AFTER

FRONT SHOT

Proof!!

Here is our proof that Aspyn tries to say Obama. When I saw that he was going to be talking to Congress last week I knew it was my chance to get it on video because he would be on the TV long then just a few seconds. So here is what we got. (At the end she realized I had the camera and decided to say cheese for me, it's pretty cute)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We then made cookies and while we waited for them to bake this is how Aspyn watched the speech. Every time they would clap she would start clapping and cheering.

I think we may have a political junkie on our hands (that didn't come from me)!!

Free Giveaway!!

I never do anything like this but I would really want to win this one so I am posting about it. There is a photographer up here in Logan that is giving away three photo sessions along with a CD of all your pictures ready to print. I would love this for Aspyn for her 2 year pictures so I decided to do it. All you have to do is go to her blog (http://sweetshotsphoto.blogspot.com) and leave a comment and then post about it on your blog.

Aspyn at 21 Months!!

Time flies by when your having fun!! I can't believe that Aspyn will be two soon, it's crazy! She is getting so big and doing so many fun (and funny) things these days that I decided to write down some of the things that she loves to do.

• She loves to dance around the house. The other day I asked her if she wanted to take ballet and she started to dance. I didn't even think she knew what ballet meant.
• She loves to play with balls, any kind of ball. Daddy brought her a little baseball and bat home from Chicago a couple of weeks ago and she loves to try to hit the ball.
• She is starting to talk a lot more. She now says please (so nice) and her new word is cheeeese (she says it like you are going to take a picture of her). In fact she loves the camera so much that I can't ever take pictures of her because she starts to throw a fit if I don't give it to her (hence, why I don't blog often).
• She loves to read books and will actually sit and listen to a whole book. Her favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear and when I say "What do you see?" she will say, "I see a bear." and that is what every animal sees.
• She loves to watch her Winnie the Pooh movie and will walk around saying "Pooh, pooh, pooh". Very funny!
• She is starting to act like a two year old by throwing tantrums. The kind where she throws herself on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs. So much fun!
• She is a really big helper. Loves to help us cook, clean, and anything else that we are doing. When I clean the house I have to make sure that she has a rag and a water bottle so that she can follow me around. And she has to pull a chair over to the counter to help with anything we are doing there whether it's cooking or washing dishes.
• She actually knows who our President is. One day we were watching the news and she kept saying Mama over and over and I kept asking her what and when I looked at her she was pointing to the TV at Obama and that's when I realized she was saying his name, not mine. She does this every time she sees him on TV.
• She loves her stuffed animals and baby's. Duckie or one of her babies now comes with us every where. She also has to show them everything, the snow outside, the movie on TV or her pretty hair that I just got done doing.
• She is really into coloring. Every day right after she finishes breakfast she goes and gets her crayons and coloring books and off she goes. I have to convince her to stop so that I can get her dress.

Here are a few of pictures of her doing some of her favorite things.Here she is helping me make bread. If you look close you can see that she is saying cheese.

Aspyn coloring in her Winnie the Pooh book, two of her favorites in one activity.

And her she is dancing with her doll. Unfortantly I didn't get an action shot because she saw the camera and stopped.

Hardware Ranch

There is this place up here in Cache Valley that all the Elk winter at called Hardware Ranch and we finally made it up there (our 4th winter living here). We took Cecilee and Brandon when they came up in January. It was so much fun and Aspyn loved it!

Here is Aspyn at the Visitor Center. They had a bunch of stuffed animals that she thought were the coolest things ever!

Here we are waiting in line to get on a sleigh that takes you out into the middle of all the Elk.
This was on the sleigh, the horses names are Belle and Beauty, they are sisters. Aspyn had so much fun riding with the horses.

In the summer they grow all the feed for the Elk in this same field. There are so many of them and they just sit and stare at you as you move past them. It's so amazing to see them so close. Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy!!

I wish that we would have gone up all the other winters we were here but at least we made it once!!