Jerry's Girls

reno/tahoe: day 2

tuesday, january 24th, 2012

lazy hotel morning.

drive up to lake tahoe...

stop at truckee, pioneer monument, donner lake, emerald bay.

arrive at cabin.

trukee, nv: a pretty cool western town

jer wanted to check out donner lake & it was beautiful...

then we drove around the west side of lake tahoe & couldn't help but stop at the beautiful emerald bay:

once at the cabin the girls got right to work opening their snow cafe:

and we put some snow on rees' high chair for her to play with, but she loved her orange wedges the best.

snow for sale by chacha:

reno/tahoe: day 1

 plane flight: 

LAX to RENO

checking in 

we're off to explore our future home :)

fri&sat.

friday:

talent show auditions.

night time tennis.

park playing.

saturday:

packing.

natural history museum.

taco truck.

mmm...tasting ice cream for the very first time.

guess who's seven?

our wynnie turned seven today...

i can't even sum up in words how much we love this lovely girl.

she is a jewel.

 let's start at the beginning:

• wynnie woke up before 6am this morning, she was so excited!
• birthday breakfast request: waffles
• wynn was super lucky & daddy was home on the morning of her birthday so she got to open all her gifts before school 

• mya & wynn gave wynn a mermaid lalaloopsy, it was a big hit.
• we dropped a couple slices of wynnie's favorite pizza off to her at lunch...

...and we found a special birthday surprise! look closely at the birthday girl's smile & you'll see another missing tooth.  her buddies convinced her to pull it out during recess & the school nurse gave her a cute tooth necklace to keep her tooth in.

• after school wynn took her sissys & 3 of her favorite buddies to color me mine

mya, wynn, paige, kelly, tyra & gabby

• after painting we stopped by baskin robbins for an ice cream cone.  since wynn got a clown cone on her birthday last year too, i now consider it her birthday tradition.

• and then wynnie opened her gifts from her friends

• and we gave the girls punch balloons to take home
• the car ride taking all the girls home was a super happy/noisey one :)

wynn's 7th birthday gifts:

• roller blades (she has wanted these for sooo long!  she was roller blading around our house before school & even brushed her teeth with them on)
• blocks & marble game 
• navy polka dotted dress (her b-day dress)
• shirt & sundress
• mermaid lalaloopsy (from her sissys)
• hand held light game (mamma & bampa)
• cute clothes (nana & papa)
• $10 (great-grandma nielson)
• and some fun gifts from her friends

after dinner we were doing homework & getting our jammies on when the missionaries stopped by to give wynnie a birthday present...they gave her a picture & one of my old missionary dolls!!  so funny, i had donated some of them to deseret industries & i guess they turned them over to the elders :)

so we invited the elders to join us for happy birthday singing & cake eating...

it was a good day.  a wonderful 7th birthday for our wynnie.  

she is loving, sweet, works so so hard & is tender hearted.  she's a perfectionist, wants to do well, is shy, & thoughtful.  

and inside her beautiful head she is always thinking & pondering.  she reminds me of joseph smith, she ponders what we teach her & wants to truly understand it.  a few weeks ago she specifically asked us how do we know that our church is the true church?  how can she know?  

what a beautiful question from our 7 year old, who in one year will have the choice to be baptized.  and she has always been that way.  she is close to heaven.

 we love you dearest wynnie, i wish i could re-live all of your 7 years over again.

weekend re-cap.

i still need to write about my big girls, but first, we'll do a little weekend stuff.

FRIDAY.

we stayed home friday night & it was lovely

SATURDAY.

jer had to work at CHLA and he said it was probably the worst 24 hr call ever.  he came home on sunday exhausted

the girls & i sang at a baptism & went to diggy's birthday party

lots of phone photos

there were free tickets to the BYU vs UC-Irvine men's volleyball game on saturday night, so a group of ward members went.  it was a long drive, but we had fun & BYU won

rees with lyndsey pohlman...rees cries when anyone other than her own family holds her now:

paige with her buddy, grey. couldn't get a picture in focus cause these 2 never stop moving!

SUNDAY.

jer officially started his 2 week vacation!  he slept almost the entire first day of his time off :)

MONDAY:

no school

in the morning jer played soccer with guys from the ward while the girls & i hung out in our jammies

we were going to go to the beach, but ran out of time.  so we headed to jump-n-jammin instead

around the corner from it i spotted a place called "paris baguette" and it looked like the real deal.  jer is always on the look out for french pastries and breads that taste just like the ones on his mission did. they are hard to find, but wow wee! we hit the jackpot today & found a place bursting with stuff tasting like they came straight from france.  we're going to have go to this place lots before we move to reno.

 

p & r

today i'll tell a few things about paige & rees, then tomorrow i can do the same for my big girls.  

REES:

• i said this already, but so many people stop me in the store.  today i counted while i was at target & there were seven different people that stopped me & said how adorable she is, (three of those were in a group together)  two of them were men.  i told jer, you know she's really cute cause guys don't usually stop you to say how cute your baby is :)  we sure do think she's adorable.
• yesterday she tried carrots.  she'd take a bite & then do these quick wiggles with her eyes closed, like she was tasting something sour.
• today i bought her some baby mum mum rice crackers, she gaged on them at first, but she likes them now & so do her big sissys :)

 

• she's consistantly rolling now & always rolls off her blanket until she gets stopped by something like the kitchen chairs...

• she loves chip bags, they make a great noise for her
• for some reason her big sisters all feel the need to be 2 inches from her face & talk (or make strange noices) REALLY loud.  i can't tell you how many times i've said, "please don't scream at rees."
• not the best sleeper, ever since we took our trip to utah for thanksgiving she hasn't slept well.  i feel tired most of the time.  
• she's starting to get stranger anxiety.  at church on sunday a woman behind us in sacrament was doing cute things to make rees smile, rees' lips turned downed & she wailed.  she did the same thing the other day to the check out lady at the dollar store.

PAIGE:

• today i took paige to story time at the library, she found two small books with stories about cats.  after walking out the library door she sat down on the bench & wanted to read them.  so we sat there and read them. :)  
• paige is so so loving & is wonderful to rees.  she still loves to lay beside her, give her toys, and constantly says, "you're so cute reesie!" (really loud of course :)
• for christmas i gave her the tablets that change your bath water into a color & bath tub crayons. she loves them, our tub has drawings all over it & looks a mess.  but our paypay is happy & still gives baths to all her favorite things.  
• she loves to line all her toys up, here they are ready for bed with her...

• and next to her is her other christmas gift, her my little pony pinky pie.  on the way home from preschool today i heard paige say in the back seat, "i love you pinky pie."  it sure did make my heart swell up.
• she's been eating like crazy, i think she's going to have a growth spurt.  and she's more tired than usual, today she took a nap...which means she's still awake now.  (she's next to me watching skiing with her daddy, jer's getting the girls pumped up for our ski trip :)
• she's been making her bed every morning without me even asking & she does such a great job.  
• she used to be pretty shy, but wow! not any more :)  she'll talk to anyone & loves to have playdates now.  i've been inviting buddies over for her to play.
• and she's been doing such an amazing job with her silky.  we kind of took 2 steps back over the holidays, but with the start of school & our routine, she's pretty much only has her silky when on a bed.  but the other day i did find her like this...

(that's paige inside her blue silky that her cousin, dillon, gave her.  it's dillon's old pajama pants, so paige fits nicely inside, she climbed down into one of the pany legs.) 

**bonus photo: jer reading to the girls tonight.  we checked out "earth to clunk" from the school library & we all LOVE it. we've read it several times.  

rees' first culinary adventure.

this morning, paige putting rees' bib on.

when: monday, january 10, 2012

rees has entered the world of food...

first up: rice cereal

she didn't really know what to do at first.

but she caught on quick!

mmmm...

it was a new adventure...

and so much fun to watch...

our satisfied customer...

to blog or not to blog?

i've loved my blogging break :)

this post is for my mommy, my #1 cheerleader to not give up on our blog.

rees is my grabby grabby girl now.  she's so curious and full of absolute joy for me. 

she got her first tooth yesterday.

she can't keep her hands away from the camera...

her number one feature that everybody comments on is her hair.  i get stopped in the store all the time, "oh, her hair is so cute!"  they say.  her sweet, duck fuzz hair sticks staright up & has come in super fast.

i am absolutely loving every moment with this little girl.  

in other news: paige is conspiring to turn rees into another silky addict...

photos from friday's wash day...around noon & we were all still in our pjs, yes!

Lights Out!

Here's a few facts...

-the girls & I were up most of Wednesday night cause the windstorm outside was so loud, all power was out...including street lamps & signals. It was eerie looking out & seeing nothing but pitch black

-our power has been off for 34 hours now & I'm starting to worry about all our food in the fridge & freezer

-in the middle of the night I had all the girls in my room & mya said, "I wish daddy was here" things just feel better when daddy's around

-we felt like pioneers the past couple nights using flashlights & candles

-yesterday we drove around taking pictures of all the huge trees that fell over in the storm & saw a couple cars smooshed under trees

-jer heard on the radio that 48 houses in Pasadena alone were deemed uninhabitable

-school was canceled for Thursday & Friday...instead of a snow day, the girlies are calling it a "wind day"

Hopefully tonight the lights will be back on.