Crazy Crawl

I just witnessed McKenna "crawl" for the first time. I thought it was funny and just too cute not to share. Sorry about the poor video quality. But hey, what do you expect from a cell phone!

Alllison is 3!!!

So I know it's a little late, but our big girl turned 3 last month. Side note - before we had McKenna we used to always call Allison 'baby.' But in preparation for having a new baby we told her that she wasn't a baby anymore, she was going to be a big sister and she was a big girl. So now if we slip and call her baby, she corrects us and says, "I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl!" Anyhoo - Because TJ and I were out of town on our cruise, Grandma Cindy took Allison to go see Disney on Ice. She had a blast with Grandma and her "best friend" Anondi. Then when we got back from our vacation we had some cake and ice cream and let her open her presents.

Spitting, I mean blowing out the candles

Wow! Somebody call the fire department

Gee thanks, I love it.

My very own camera! Now I can stop playing with Mommy and Daddy's all the time.

The new Tinkerbell movie, woo hoo!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL. WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Cruising

Wow! I can't believe it's already been a month since we went on our cruise to Mexico. We had a blast! The weather was 85-90 degrees the days we were in Mexico. We made stops in Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Unfortunately TJ and I weren't very good about taking our camera out with us so we will have to get some pictures from his 2 cousins that went with us.

Here's TJ shouting AY! AY! AY! while in a tequila shop

The tequila shop was up at the top of the mountains where we did our zip lining tour in Puerto Vallarta. We took a scary bus ride up some winding dirt roads to the top of the mountain and the rode on zip lines several hundred feet above the trees and streams below. The bus ride really was the scariest part because when we passed another car going down the mountain, you could literally put your hand out the window and touch the other car. We also went around bends in the road that left us just a few inches from the edge of the cliff. I was a little nervous for the zip lining, but after the first mini run which they nicknamed "the baby" we had a blast.

In Cabo we went on a sea kayaking tour that was just plain miserable. We got there late and missed all of the instruction so we got a 5 second quickie lesson on how to paddle (seriously, it was really on ly 5 seconds as the tour guide was getting in his kayak to lead the rest of the group) TJ and I got the last available kayak which happened to be a 3 person kayak so it was bigger than anyone else's. That made it a whole lot harder to steer and rather than going in a straight line, we zigzagged from point a to point b. We didn't even get half way to our destination when TJ decided he'd had enough (apparently I was splashing him in the face - oops!) So we ended up getting a tow by the safety boat. TJ and the other 2 guys went snorkling off the island we had kayaked to and then it was time to paddle back. Needless to say, the return trip was not any better.

Overall though, our trip was a ton of fun. In Mazatlan we went in to town and hit a couple of huge flea markets. We both got some fake Oakley sunglasses for $5 a pair. We ate a ton of great food on the ship and did a lot of lounging around. Definitely a fun trip and I would recommend a cruise to anyone looking for a good vacation.

Messy

Two kids later and it still amazes me how messy they can get. I was the one that fed her and I'm still not quite sure how she managed to get this bad!

Oregon Trip

After months of anticipation, TJ and I finally got to go on our trip to the Oregon coast, and more importantly to the Boise State football game against the University of Oregon. We had a ton of fun relaxing and playing on the coast with our friends Nic and Elaine, and we were able to see of the most exciting games the Broncos have played in a while. Here are a few pictures of our trip

TJ pushing an anchor

Writing messages in the sand

How many men does it take to put together a kite? More than these 2 because they couldn't figure it out until after I READ THE DIRECTIONS!

Sea spray as the tide came back in

Me and TJ from our fabulous end zone seats at the game

The real deal

So after our incident with the eaten earrings TJ and I decided maybe it was time for Allison to get some real earrings. We had thought about doing it before but we weren't sure how she would do with them. We were worried that she might pull on them and play with them too much. But after she got the sticker earrings and did so well with them, we decided she could handle them. We figured as long as we were going to get hers done, we should get McKenna's done as well.

That must have been yummy...

In nursery on Sunday they had an un-birthday party with cupcakes, party games and presents. All of the girls got a bunch of sticker earrings with matching rings. Allison was so excited about the earrings, she has worn a different pair every day. Yesterday we were driving in the car and Allison was eating some smarties. Apparently one of her earrings must have fallen off and landed in her lap because all of a sudden she just started bawling and screaming, "I ate my earring mommy! I ate my earring!"
The funny part about it was that she wasn't upset that she mistook her earring for a smarty and was now digesting it, but she was just devastated that her earring was gone and she couldn't wear it anymore.

Go orange, go big blue!

Allison finally figured out how to work the pedals on her little red trike so we decided we would go get a "big girl" bike. We took her to the store and TJ pulled down three bikes for her to choose from. The first was a pink Disney Princess bike. The second was a purple bike with stars on it. The third one was more for him than for Allison because neither of us thought she would pick it. After trying them all on for size and taking them for a short spin down the toy aisle, she decided on the bike you see here. We were both rather surprised and asked her again just to make sure. She is definitely a girl after her daddy's heart because she assured us that she wanted the Bronco bike.

Swimming party

Recently we were at my parents' house just hanging out when Allison and her cousin Alexander decided to go out and play in the back yard. They were running around while my dad supervised when Alexander decided he wanted to get in the pool. So he jumped in fully clothed. Lindsey, who was a little annoyed but also slightly amused, went out and stripped him down to his diaper and told him to go play. Allison apparently thought that was a good idea because the next thing I knew, I was looking out the window to see her stripping her own clothes off down to her little purple panties.

At last...

After finally realizing that I was the last person in town that did not have a blog, I decided I had better get with it and create one of my own. It wasn't too terribly difficult but anyone that knows me knows that I am NOT a crafty creative type of person. So doing this is a big step for me and you should all be proud. I will do my best to try and update semi-regularly so you can keep up with what is happening at the Howard house. As you can see I have my two beautiful girls up top to welcome you to our blog. Allison is 2 and a half and McKenna is 3 months old. We have decided that they are going to be twins when they get a little bit older because whenever we look at old baby pictures of Alli it is like we are looking right into the face of little McKenna. The only difference is that Allison has always been on the skinny side and McKenna has rolls all over her body. They have been dubbed our "Chunky Monkey" and "Skinny Minnie."

Ice cream truck

Last week TJ was home with the girls on his day off and he heard the ice cream truck. He scrounged around and found some change and got an ice cream for himself and one for Allison. As you can see, Alli really enjoyed hers. She had a little trail of blue down her arm that wouldn't come off for 2 days. Since then, she has been gathering up her own spare change (mostly pennies) and putting them in a little baggie for the next time the ice cream truck comes.