Parowan with the Carters 09

Last weekend we went up to Parowan (again!). We left late afternoon Wednesday, and came back Sunday.

**sorry, the pictures are HUGE, i'll have to fix that!**

Claire and the DOG. Yea, we took the dog. She did great!


Carlie takin a little nap on the way up.


The girls playin in the snow.


Carlie wearin her shades. Its bright outside!


Claire enjoying a little snack. Snow of course!


There wasnt nearly as much snow last weekend as there was when we were there last month.




Friday night we went down to St. George and had dinner with my friend Melissa and her family @ Pizza Factory. It was a lot of fun! Im glad we were able to meet up!

My parents and siblings all arived late Friday night.
We played outside all day Saturday! The weather was BEAUTIFUL!





We had to rebuild the slide from ealier this month, it wasnt as tall, but it was still fun. We even got my MOM to go down! I dont think I have pictures of it, but I have video!

Saturday afternoon while the twins took a nap, David, Linda, Keri, Aaron and I went snowboarding. I fell tons, but I didnt get the wind knocked out of me like last year!






(wow, this post is getting LONG!)

Sunday, Kim and Keri made another slide in the very back of the backyard.



here are the slides we made


We had a great weekend, and LOVED having my family up there!

We LOVE Primary!

Finally! My girls are starting to get the hang of Primary! Claire was assigned the opening prayer, and did GREAT! She wasnt afraid of the microphone (in fact, both the girls have been BEGGING to be able to talk in the mic.) and didnt cry at all! She didnt talk very loud, but she did it! Carlie got to give the Scripture today too! She was a little shy at first, but she did really good! I am SO proud of my girls!

AND, both girls went to class without Aaron! Claire cried for a tiny bit, but I talked her into going back to her class, and she did! (maybe because I bribed her?!) Both girls stayed in class without crying the entire time! YAY!



I am SO glad my girls arent afraid to speak in public. I remember when I was in primary I used to shake, and pretty much be in tears if I had to give a talk or scripture. I hope that they continue to have confidence, and continue to not be scared to give talks!

Grocery Smarts!

Don't forget! I'm having a Grocery Smarts class at my house tonight @
7! If you want to learn how to save money at the grocery store come on
over. The thing that I love about it is, I don't have to shop at
Walmart (I seriously hate that place) and I can still buy brand name
stuff (not generic) and still save money! If you need my address email
me at: hvalentine623@aol.com

Sent from my iPhone

Carlie

I just find this funny!

The twins havent mastered peeing in a public bathroom yet. I knew that we would probably have to make a stop between our house and Parowan, so I brought our portable potty chair! Right in Mesquite Carlie had to pee, so we just parked in an empty parking lot, and plopped her down. She didnt mind the cars driving by!

Be Quiet Mom! I'm talking to CINDERELLA!!

Who's idea was it to bring the DOG??

I Miss UN-INTERRUPTED Sleep!!

Since the girls have been potty trained, I haven't slept through the night!

3am: Claire wakes up and wants to sleep in our bed. Im too tired to tell her no, so she crawls in to bed.
3:30 - RIGHT as Im starting to fall BACK to sleep, Claire decides her bed would be more comfortable, and wants me to take her back to bed.
4 or 5ish - Carlie wakes up and has to go potty.
7:30-8ish - The girls are awake for the day. and IM STILL TIRED!

Gotta love having kids!

Scrapbookers Block Blog

I am going to start a Blog dedicated to Scrapbooking! I cant think of any cute layouts, and thought it would be fun to share ideas! If you want to be a part of it, let me know! Even if you dont Digital Scrap, I think you could still share your ideas!

Grocery Smarts!!

If you havent been to a GROCERY SMARTS CLASS yet, I am hosting one at my house Wedensday, Feb 3 @ 7pm !!

This week I went shopping at both Smiths and Alberstons. At Smiths I paid $19.80 and SAVED $21.20!!! At Albertsons I paid $30.52 and SAVED $79.81 !! I LOVE saving more than I spend! If you want to cut your grocery bill in half, YOU NEED TO COME!!

Email me if you need directions!
hvalentine623@aol.com

p.s. THE CLASS IS FREE!

I love Good Customer Service!

While we were in UT, I stopped at the Shade store in American Fork. I went in just for white cami's! They were out of my size, and offered to ship them to me... FOR FREE! I figured I wouldnt see them in the mail until later this week, BUT, when I went and got my mail this morning, there they were! That didnt take long at all! Sweet!

Road Trip!

Wednesday Aaron, Randy and I headed up to Provo to go to the BYU vs. UNLV game. I LOVE UNLV Basketball! I was more excited about this game, than Christmas! Randys friend Wilks was nice enough to let us stay at his house, even though he graduated from BYU, lol!





The FINAL score was UNLV 75 and BYU 70. I took the picture too soon, and I was way too excited to take another one.


Even though BYU totally lost, Wilks was a good sport.


My throat is way sore, but we had a ton of fun. Thanks Wilks and Jena for letting us stay with you guys! We had a blast!

GO REBELS!

Journaling

Sadly, Wall-E and Eva have gone back to Heaven. Eva died first, then Wall-E returned to his mate a few days later. It was fun while it lasted! I doubt I will buy fish ever again!

Both girls are doing great with the potty thing. We havent used diapers in over a week! Its funny to see how different the girls are ... Claire, goes potty by herself. She can even wipe herself. Most of the time I wont know she's even going potty until I hear the toilet flush. Carlie on the other hand, makes me do EVERYTHING! I have to undress her, sit her on the toilet, wipe and flush for her! Its kind of annoying! I think im going to start making her do it on her own. I know she is capable!

I entered a 'Biggest Loser' competition. I gained 12 lbs last year!! I was looking at a form from Brianhead from when we went snowboarding last year, and it asked for my weight. I was 12 lbs LIGHTER in February last year! How did THAT happen?! Anyway, so Tuesday was the 1st weigh-in ... I did really good on my diet for the first 3 days, and after that, I went back to eating crap! Needless to say, I didnt lose a single pound! SO this week, I am trying a tad bit harder!

Monday I started running. I am thinking I want to run a 1/2 Marathon or even a full Marathon ... depending on how I feel! I am using Jeff Galloway's marathon training method. (www.jeffgalloway.com/training/marathon.html ) Monday I didnt run as much as I should have, but Im going to start slow! Wednesday I did much better. Most of the time I ran for 3 minutes then walked for 1 minute, for 30 minutes. I felt great after my run! It was much easier than Mondays run. I am looking forward to running today, and then I have a 3 mile run on Saturday! I never thought I would look forward to running! Anyone want to join me?!

Sisters.

The girls have been playing together so nicely!

My sister got the girls the Care Bear movie, and the twins have been singing along with it, every time they watch it. They even found microphones to sing with! Its so funny to watch. I tried to get video, but they stopped singing before I could tape it.


Last week, we went to Build a Bear, then went to Dicks to look at snow stuff, while Aaron and I were looking at stuff, the girls plopped down on the ground and played with their new animals they made!

This might be my last potty update!

CLAIRE and CARLIE pooped on the potty today!

NO MORE DIAPERS! yippee!!

We are now proud owners of FISH!

While trying to get Claire to pee on the potty, I had to bribe her with just about EVERYTHING I could think of! The one thing that worked was telling her that when she pee'd she could get a fish! That day, she pee'd! So, we now how 2 goldfish. The orange one, is Carlie's fish. She named it Walle. The white fish (who looks like its dead, but its not) is Claires and she named it Feva (Eva). The girls love the watch the fish swim around! Lets hope the last longer than a week!

Claire FINALLY pee'd in the potty!! YAY!

I told both the girls after we got home from Parowan, that we werent going to be buying diapers anymore. (we have one pack left) Saturday, I made Claire wear panties all day. (Carlie does just fine with pee'ing. she still doesnt poop though) Claire had a few accidents, and I finally gave up and put a diaper on her. Sunday was church, and the girls got to wear diapers. Today, Claire was in panties again. This morning she told us she needed to go pee, but we didnt get her there fast enough, so she accidently peed in her panties. After her nap she kept doing the potty dance, and I made her go sit on the big potty. (We have 2 little portable potty chairs, then a toilet seat cover that goes on the big toilet.) She would NOT pee! Then this evening she wanted to sit on her portable potty, and after a good 5 minutes, she peed! I am so excited for her!

Jesus Wants Me For A SUNBEAM!

I cant believe my litte girlies are old enough to be Sunbeams!




They didnt do too great though. Carlie was ok, she had a hard time sitting with her class (Im the CTR 5 teacher, and I sit right behind them) So Carlie wanted to come sit with me. Claire wanted NOTHING to do with her class. Once singing time started, Carlie was fine, and she went to her class with no problems. Claire didnt go to her class, she just cried and cried. Hopefully next week is better!

One More Video

I didnt post any pictures or video of Aaron, so here are a few of his runs down the slide...





after that, he tried one more time ...


He's just not as graceful as he used to be!

More Sledding Videos

Heres Claire going down the first slide we made.


Heres Carlie


Carlie going down the big slide. Excuse the crying in the background, it was Claire, throwing a fit!


Carlie going down the slide. We forgot to put her gloves back on, and she touched the snow as she was going down... she didnt like that too much!


Claire. She got a little bit (ok maybe a lot) of snow all over her, she wasnt too thrilled!


Me and Claire going down the slide. Look how far we went!


We ended up going PAST the garden, and way past the tree way out there! Seriously, it was so much fun!

Sledding VIdeos.

Here are some videos from sledding! (I stole these from Stacey. Mine are still uploading, so I'll post more later!)

This is me. We figured out if we laid down we would go faster.


This is the how much work it was to get up to the top. Warning! My friend Stacey accidently swore, so if you have sensitive ears, turn it down! :)


Heres me again, after we added the jumps.


And this time you can see me catch a little air!

Happy New Year!

For New Years this year, we invited some friends to go to Parowan with us! There was TONS of snow on the ground. The guys built a small slide for the kids to sled down.




After a few rides down the little slide, the guys decided the adults needed a slide too. It started out small, but kept getting bigger!



The guys used doors to form the snow, they poured water on the snow to pack it, so it was firm enough to hold us on it.



We used a ladder to climb up. It was taller than ME!



The twins even had fun going down the slide!





The guys again decided to build it just a little bit taller and wider!


Then we got really daring, and added a jump!


We spent almost all day outside, and had SO MUCH FUN! The twins loved playing in the snow, and even liked riding the slide!

Lunch

Top: Kara, Courtney, Charity.
Bottom: Katrina, Me, Amanda, Teisha.

Tuesday I met up with some old friends from High School! I havent seen most of these girls since THEY graduated. We laughed so much! It was great hearing about everyones lives, and what they've been up to. I hope we are able to do this more often!