family vacation, part 4

 We stopped at the science center in Boise before making the long trek back home.  Heidi was fascinated and thrilled with all of it. It was hard to get her to look at everything because she would get so pre-occupied with something.

 Heidi thought every single thing was the coolest thing she had ever seen.

 Heidi wasn't the only one fascinated by everything....Jeff had fun figuring everything out too.  I sure hope my girls get his smarts and love of science.

 Although it was way past nap time for Savanna, she kept her eyes open the whole time!  She was a little trooper and had fun playing with what she could, and watching her sister play with the things she couldn't.

 Although Heidi says she is going to be a doctor, Jeff still holds out hope she, too, will be a chemical engineer.  

My little weather girl.

We sure had fun playing together on our fun vacation!

We all survived the long drive home and the next day when we loaded back up to go to grocery shopping Heidi said, "I just want to go home.  I'm just a homebody."  Where does she get this?

It's true, she really is a homebody, but she sure had fun on our little trip!

family vacation, part 3

Can you see my two little prairie dogs?

 On Friday morning we headed to the Boise Zoo.  It was really fun and they had a lot of animals.  Sometimes I feel like the Hogle Zoo has a couple of animals and a lot of empty cages.  The Boise Zoo did not disappoint and it was cheaper than the Hogle Zoo so that was also great news.

It was a little chilly when we first got there but it warmed up.  The cold bothered Heidi at first but didn't bother Savanna at all.

Savanna was absolutely hilarious and at the perfect age for this zoo trip.  The second she would spot an animal she would go completely nuts pointing, squealing, and trying to jump out of our arms.  Everyone that saw her couldn't help but laugh at her excitement.  It was so cute and we really wished we had brought our video camera.

 Heidi and Savanna both seemed to like the warthogs and monkeys.  Heidi loved the zebras.  Savanna could not get enough of the fox and squirrel.

We had such a great time together at the zoo and hope to take the girls to the Boise Zoo again sometime.

family vacation, part 2

 After we finished feeding the ducks and geese, we headed to the bowling alley.  The girls had so much fun!  Heidi really wanted a picture of her and her sister in their new outfits from great grandma Heidi, but someone just would not cooperate...too much to look at and explore!

 Heidi loved every part of the bowling experience starting with the shoes.  They were about 2 sizes too big and she couldn't have cared less.  She loved when they fell off because it meant she could put them back on.

 Savanna was in love with the ball retrieval thing.  Heidi would run over there every time a ball would come and say, "Watch your fingers, Savanna!"  Such a good big sister.  Savanna also loved crawling over the slippery floor.

 Before we discovered the ramp you can roll the ball down, Heidi's ball would move SO SLOW!!  It was hilarious.  We didn't even know if it would make it all the way to the pins.  It was like watching the game in slow motion.  It took all of her strength just to lift the ball to the lane so she didn't have much strength left to get the ball moving.  She was clapping and cheering for all of us.

 The floor was so slippery on Savanna's feet with her little socks and while holding the ball thing, she would always end up sliding underneath.  She would have a death grip on the top and would get a panicked look on her face.  It was funny and no matter how many times it happened, she just kept climbing up.

This was the smallest ball and it was quite a load for this little one to haul, but she never complained.  Heidi did not want to go back to the hotel when we were finished and could have bowled three hours more.  On the way to the hotel she was telling us all the ways she was going to re-create bowling at home.  We have set up the jenga blocks and rolled the foose balls quite a few times since coming home!  It was a fun night for our little family!  We can't wait to take the girls bowling again soon.

vacation time, part 1

Jeff took a week off from work (finally!) so we took a much needed vacation.  We went up to Oregon to visit my grandma.   She moved to Oregon a few years ago and we haven't been able to get up to see her.  She is 88 years old--doesn't she look amazing?  It was so nice to see her again.  Heidi met her when she was 10 months old, but of course has no memory of that visit.  The night before we left she could hardly sleep because she was so excited to go see great grandma Heidi.  Great grandma Heidi loved these two little girls and of course they loved her and gave her lots and lots of loves.

 On our way home we stayed the night in Boise and had such a great time together.  We checked into the hotel and gave the girls naps and then headed out to see what we could do.  The zoo was closing in an hour but we found this little river that had TONS of ducks and geese.  We had bread in our car so we fed them and boy oh boy did the girls think this was the best activity ever.

Savanna was hysterical.  She was just shrieking and squealing and trying to grab them the whole time.  Jeff would give her a piece of bread and of course it went straight in her mouth.  Heidi was a little more skittish, of course, but she was had a blast. She liked the ducks a lot more than the geese since they were less aggressive and much smaller.  It was so funny because when she ran out of bread they were still following her all over the place.  She couldn't lose them.  

The weather was a little chilly, but still beautiful the entire time.  All of the trees were in full blown fall and it was absolutely gorgeous.  Funny story about the hotel....Heidi was so excited about the shampoo, conditioner, and lotion bottles and couldn't believe her luck at being able to take them home.  The first night I was explaining to her what the conditioner was for when I was washing her hair.  The next day she kept saying, "Now, where did that air conditioner go?  I need that air conditioner so my hair doesn't have snarls."  She is still carrying her "air conditioner" around.

Family Pictures

 My neighbor and I have been trying to find a day that would work to take our family pictures forever!  It finally happened!  The weather was nice and we were both home so we headed to Fort Bridger.

 Although you wouldn't know it, my two little sweeties were not in the best of spirits.

To get the best light we had to go during dinner time and it was also slightly chilly and Savanna is working on her top teeth.  I am thrilled with what we got and I am SO glad we got some outside shots!

 I love this one of my pretty little Heidi girl.  

 I thought Savanna would be the easy one to get since she loves to be outside.  Getting good pictures of little ones is so hard and I sure wish we had a video of all us doing everything but standing on our heads to get this normally happy little thing to crack a smile.

 I love this little girl.  She really was so patient.

 I wanted to get some more of me with each of the girls and Jeff with each of the girls and possibly another family shot for Christmas cards.  I knew the lighting would be horrible, but we went back to the Fort to try to get a few simple shots.  Clearly these are not "put on your wall" pictures, but I am glad my friend came to help get a few more shots.

 This picture is so typical of the professional pictures and our little photoshoot...if one child looks, the other one inevitably is not looking or pulling a ridiculous face.  

 Jeff was really not happy with me that I wanted to go get a few more pictures.  He was constantly reminding me how bad the lighting was.  Yes, I did know.  But let's be honest, it is very, very difficult to find a time to get any pictures...especially with winter rapidly approaching.

 Yet again, one child is looking, the other is not.

 Heidi really just wanted to throw rocks and sticks in the river.  We were really cramping her style by making her stop to take a few pictures.

Have I ever mentioned how much Jeff adores having little girls?  He tells me all the time how glad he is that we have two little girls.

My absolute favorite, favorite, favorite picture.  Heidi was obsessed with finding little sticks to throw in the river.  She found a huge one and couldn't wait to see what it would do and had to walk right in front of the camera to show her dad.  You should have seen her tiny little body trying to hail that thing around.  Oh and don't forget Savanna's tongue sticking out (her new and favorite trick). And of course I am laughing hysterically.  This picture definitely shows what our very non-professional photoshoot was like.

11 months

 Savanna is 11 months old today!  That means that in one short month I will have a one-year-old.  Crazy!!  We cannot imagine life without our blue eyed little girl.  She definitely brings all of us a lot of smiles and laughs.

*Savanna is super social.  She has yet to meet someone she doesn't like.  She can be tired and cranky and then someone will come over and all of sudden she is all smiles and giggles.
*Absolutely loves giggling and talking to other babies and kids.
*Constantly clasps her little hands.  So, so precious.
*Gets a huge grin and starts clapping when you say, "Yay!"

 *Has perfected the crawl but usually only crawls half way across the room and then sits up and scoots.
*Walking along all the furniture, all the time, all day long.
*Loves to be in tunnels. For example, she is constantly trying to crawl through out legs and loves to be under the table.
*Fussiest time is any time she sees anyone eating.  She has to have a taste and can't stand to be left out!

*Quite independent.  She would rather play on her own, but she likes to have people in the room with her.
*Sporting 2 bottom teeth and she likes to hear them click on things, especially the dishwasher.
*She gets so excited when she sees her daddy, but generally prefers to be held by mom.
*Whenever she sees daddy she starts kicking her legs and pulling at her shirt.  We think she is trying to show him what she's wearing?

*Still pointing at everything and it has yet to get old.
*Starting to understand a lot more of what we are saying.
*When we go get her from her crib she is SO excited.  She starts giggling and throwing her head clear back.
*Loves to look at you by tipping her head back.
*Still loves to play with her toes
*Babbles a lot but I am not convinced she knows what she is saying.  Mostly says, "mamamam, dada, and bababa".

*Starts laughing and pointing when she sees animals.
*Laughs like crazy when she looks at a stuffed animal's face.
*Loves to tease all of us by pulling at our nose or hair.  She just can't get enough of that game.
*Likes to do a deep growl--it is so funny.
*Gives big, huge kisses and laughs while she is doing it.

We love watching our big 11 month old learn and grow!

Thank you, Savanna, for being such a happy, fun little girl.

We are oh so very lucky you are in our family!

fall pictures

 My neighbor is a photographer.  We love her for so many reasons.

We especially love how much she loves our girls.

Yesterday she called to see if she could use the girls in a fall ad she was doing.

 She came over and picked out what she wanted the girls to wear.

Heidi loved pulling everything out of her closet to show her all her clothes.

"Isn't this a cute dress, Juneau?  My grandma gave it to me for my birthday."
"Do you like this outfit, Juneau?"  

She is pretty obsessed with fashion.

 When the girls woke up from naps I got them dressed and we went over for some pictures.

In less than 30 minutes we were done.  Heidi wasn't.  All night long we heard, "My heart is hurting because I want Juneau to take more pictures of us."  

 I love all of them for different reasons and these get me excited for our family pictures.

Come on weather, please cooperate!

 Heidi was so helpful.  She made sure to keep Savanna steady and if Savanna got fussy she would say, "It's okay sweetie pie.  Heidi's right here."  She would try to tickle her to make her smile.  She kept giving her kisses.  

Guess what, Heidi?  I love you and Savanna so much it makes my heart hurt...in a good way.

I am so grateful to have these pictures to remind me of this wonderful stage we are in.