Unicorn Poop

February has officially begun and winter depression is in full swing. Honestly, though, this year hasn't been as bad as previous years for me. Probably my hippy happy pills. But still, something about day after day of gray skies, bitterly cold weather, and being couped up inside a messy house full of screaming children can get to me. Call me crazy. So on the rare occasion that the sun manages to break its way through the warning hazard inversion, we bundle up and go for a walk.

Some of our funniest memories happen when we are on these walks. Like the story of the unicorn poop. Over New Years, the whole extended fam came over and we decided to take a family picture. We all headed over to the red barn in our neighborhood, dressed all nice for pictures, to find the ground at the barn covered in poop. For some reason Jocelyn has decided it was unicorn poop. Turns out, it wasn't poop at all though. As I looked closer during a few of our winter walks, I realized it was owl pellets. Watching one of Jocelyn's favorite kids shows, Zaboomafoo, made me remember a certain episode. So this is how it goes....the owl eats a mouse, digests the meat, and barfs up a gross lump of fur and bones. Pretty disgusting, but pretty cool.

Anyway, everytime we pass our red barn, Jocelyn tells me about the unicorn poop and how it would be really gross to eat it, and how it's much better to just eat brefast and lunch and dinner and treats. Here are a few pictures, not of the unicorn poop (would you have taken a picture?), but of our park and other cute things. Enjoy :)

Another Year Ends

Mouthful of chocolate.
Not really sure what she's supposed to be doing here...
This picture deserved to be posted, merely because of the demon cat in the background.
The girls opening a present together.
I just wanted to show everyone Rob's mad wrapping skills. He wrapped my present on one side, and left the edges open. Needless to say, I knew exactly what I was getting :)

Pictures of our living room after Santa came...

2009 definitely gave us a run for our money (or lack thereof). We went through two employers, a period of self employment/unemployment, had a baby, postpartum depression, sick kids and no health insurance. But boy have we learned a lot. There's nothing quite like trials to teach us to be humble, faithful, and trusting. Here we are, almost January, and things are looking extremely well for us now. Rob has a great job, we're all healthy, in love, we have a wonderful home, and plenty to eat.
The latest thing to celebrate would definitely be Rob's new job. We had been unemployed for about four months, and had enough money to make one more mortgage payment until we would be living in a cardboard box. Rob got this job and his first paycheck, just in time for Christmas on December 23rd. So yes, we were those crazy people at the mall on Christmas Eve picking up a few gifts for our girls. So although it has been scary at times throughout this past year, we have been extremely blessed and we hope that 2010 will bring more stability and less stress.

Cheese, Boogery Noses, and such...

This girl couldn't be more of a joy. Little Ava is always smiling, and although some people may think she doesn't like them, it's just because she is so shy and truly a sweet spirit....but not the ugly girl kind. She's really cute too.
Jocelyn is a mini-photographer these days. We have a lot of carpet and ceiling pictures, but I thought about making her a scrapbook anyway, to hold her artistic photographs in. I think she'd like that later on.


Ava eating cheese.

the goin' ons of what's goin' on

This post will probably be the most random of my posts as of yet. And that's sayin' something. It's been a while, though, so I thought I'd post a bunch of pictures and just update y'all on the various things that have filled our lives since the last time I posted. This first picture is of Ava being a humming bird.
Jocelyn may hate me for posting this later, but for now she's pretty proud of herself. She's officially potty trained on #1. We're still working on #2. But that only means I have to change usually one pull up a day from her. I'm so stinking proud of her. And when I say stinking, I do mean stinking. Because like I said...we're still working on #2.
Teeth! These pictures were taken a while ago, so she now has two more teeth than what show in this picture. And let me tell ya. Teething has not been kind on us. Whiny baby galore. The funny thing is, is that before getting the top front teeth, her fangs on both sides on the top have grown in. Vampire baby!

We have grass! And it only took a year and 1/2 for them to put it in. Now that the weather is cold, we can sit inside and watch the snow kill it until next spring. Thanks a lot HOA. You're awesome.
This picture is taken by my dear Jocelyn. Every time she has the camera in hand, we're always ducking our heads to try to include them in the picture. Needless to say, we have a lot of crotch pictures. Kinda hilarious, but I decided to post one of her better ones. So this is me and Ava enjoying one of the last warmish days out on the back deck.
Rob has decided to take up cooking. He's made us various things, usually involving some sort of potato, but in this case, he made some delicious burritos. Yum. He puts way more effort into his meals than I do mine, since I usually wait until 4:45 to even think about what to cook. In most cases, the meat is still in the freezer, so I pull out the bisquick and we have pancakes for dinner. Who doesn't love breakfast for every meal? Anyhow, Rob's cooking is quite delicious. If I do say so myself :)

Jocelyn reading the funnies with Dad. She likes Garfield. If you look really close, I think the newspaper she is holding is upside down. :)
Ava is trying so hard to crawl these days! Maybe it's her gargantuan (spelling?) thighs that prevent her from actually taking off, but she is ever so close. Ready or not, Mom. Ready or not. I suppose that will be all for now. I have a billion more pictures from halloween and going to a corn maze, but who's to say if those pictures will ever make their way to the blog. I promise nothing. :)

Halloween!

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We all dressed up this year (at my insistence!) and we all looked so freaking cool. Jocelyn was tinker bell, so naturally Rob dressed as Captain Hook to go along with her theme. And Ava was a spider, so I thought dressing up as a good ol' fashioned halloween witch would go along with her theme. We spent the evening taking Jocelyn around the neighborhood and visiting the grandparents. At some yummy chili and cornbread, and WAY too many sweets. A good time all around :)

Jocelyn's First Day of Preschool!!

We have a great neighbor who runs a small preschool with her son and a few other kids on the block, and she invited Jocelyn to join! It's very low-key, and if they're having more fun playing then the teacher doesn't force the lessons, but so far Jocelyn has loved it! They practiced the letter "J" for Jocelyn's first day. The teacher is very impressed with her, and though Jocelyn is the youngest in the class, she keeps up just fine with the other kids. The teacher said to me, "She's so smart! I was just amazed!.....but you probably already knew that." Yes. Yes I did. :) But at least now I know it's not a biased opinion!

St. George!

Last weekend we had a little three day vacation to St. George. It was SOOOOOOoooo nice! We were able to spend some time with the fam down there and it was really good to see everyone. We hiked around Snow Canyon a bit and found a baby tortoise! (which I will post a picture of later on). It was nice and hot, too, so we spent plenty of time by the pool at our hotel. The girls did great and we all had a lot of fun. We will definitely be doing this again....and hopefully sooner than later.