return of the hunt

at the starting line:

on the move:

with their spoils:

documentary of the week

have you seen inside job?

you need to.

disobedience

it's true: my two squeeze-them-till-they-pop, too-adorable-for-words, little lovely princesses are *occasionally* (sarcastic smirk) disobedient.

while both are probably equally negligent of the rules around here, summer and afton exhibit very different personal approaches to disobedience.

afton is outright rebellious. she is perfectly conscious of the expected behavior, blatantly disregards it, and then dares you (dares you) to do something about it. summer, on the other hand, is just so off in her own world (twirling around on those tippy-tip-toes) that she's not even thinking about the expected behavior (though she does know what it is). she's not trying to be disobedient, but she's not trying to be obedient either.

anyway, one of the points of contention between the girls and i lately has been our two doll-size strollers. summer and afton cannot for the life of them keep their little bums out of those strollers. and as a result of their continued noncompliance with my reasonable request to stay out of them (so that they neither break the toys nor hurt themselves), they have recently lost the privilege of playing with one of their strollers and were reduced to using the other stroller (shown above) without the lining -- which i thought might finally diminish the risk of misbehavior.

looks like they showed me.

on the easter tree

eggstatic

i see you

sleep tight

often lauded for his technical prowess, bryan rarely gets the praise he deserves for his more artistic and/or parenting endeavors:

yes, he designed and executed summer's sleep chart all by himself. we had been talking about the need for one (as summer has recently come into some trouble sleeping -- her fears of the dark and maned wolves often driving her into our room two and three times a night), but i just hadn't gotten around to it.  i came home today from my early morning temple excursion to find this little number all posted and ready to go with summer eagerly ready to work toward the promise of a tinkerbell movie after ten good night's rest.

full marks all around.

from general conference

(summer posing sunday morning with the beautiful spring tulips bryan brought home for his girls)

a few our our favorite talks from the April 2011 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints include: President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Elder Neil L. Andersen, Bishop H. David Burton, Sister Jean A. Stevens, President Henry B. Eyring, and Elder Lynn G. Robbins

watch, read or listen here.

revealed

kudos to those of our readers who figured out that my "sandwiches" yesterday were actually cake and frosting april foolery. (which the kids didn't quite "get" but still thought were very tasty).

after last year's fried ice cream debacle, i decided to play it safe and make a quick and easy treat that, by golly, looks a whole heckofalot like a real grilled cheese sandwich (um, isn't that right, jenny?)

grilled cheese, please!

class of 2001

on monday, bryan and i purchased plane tickets to attend my

ten year high school reunion this may:

we'll be heading to vienna (home of my alma mater), prague (darringtons, ho!), 

and, just for kicks, howzabout any other european city we might feel like?

('cause we're travelling all cool and childless like that.)

that's right, the wheelers just totally upped their *awesome* ante.

little miss ballet bun

tangled

so i've recently been reviewing my blog and thinking, "yeah, this blog is great, but you know what it needs? more pictures of me."

anyway, not really, but i have been getting a lot of questions about my hair, so i thought i would just publicly come out and confirm the rumours:

yes, i'm growing it out.

about ten years ago i chopped it all off, and it's time to see if i look as bad with long hair (and by "long" i mean "below my ears") as i remember.

and so begins the many (many) months of awkward hairstyles in between.

i hope you all enjoy them as much as i do.

celebrate spring

so the wheelers decided to try a little different approach this year to some of our Easter traditions. the easter bunny (whom summer incidentally believes is made out of chocolate -- she keeps asking, "now can we eat the easter bunny?"), having previously visited our home on the saturday before Easter sunday, has been relegated to a separate holiday all together, and we've instituted a small celebration of the first day of spring, to take place on the first saturday after the vernal equinox. anyway, it's sort of a new idea for us, and we'll keep you posted on whether or not mr. bunny's relocation becomes permanent.

so, first off, the night before, each family member draws another family member's name and writes four compliments and two acts of service for the person they drew, then tucks the slips of paper inside a half dozen plastic eggs. we put all the eggs in a bowl (each one marked with a special sticker to identify its recipient) on the table for the easter bunny to hide.  the next morning, the girls hunt for their eggs and see what good things are inside.

this year, summer and afton drew one another, as did mom and dad:

then, it's time to see what seasonal goodies that delicious, chocolaty bunny has left for my girlies (bright colors! butterflies! fairies!):

and finally, it's out to the yard to play, cultivate the earth, and begin preparations for the season of growth ahead:

  

(hmmm....looks like somebody has already been experiencing a season of growth.)

happy spring!

gold rush

so after our delicious breakfast, 

the girls got going on their rainbow photo treasure hunt.

here is the first clue:

which led them to my (super awesome and aren't you jealous) yellow shoes,

on which was secured a second rainbow-color-clue, and so on and so forth:

until they found the "pot of gold."

which they promptly and securely sequestered in their little banks.



all up, the girls had great fun (and with minimal prep effort on my part, which is always a plus), and summer was stellar at following the clues; however, i think the metaphorical nature of the treasure hunt was a little lost on her. she's still looking around for that pesky *real* pot of gold at the end of the *real* rainbow (like the one in the picture!), but hey, aren't we all?

shamrock shirts

st. paddy's tee creation for my little lady lucks:

tutorial found here.



taste the rainbow

happy st. pat's!



what goes around

today, afton is the exact age (twenty months and five days) that summer was when our family officially became the fantastic four (i.e., i should have totally had another baby by now).

boy, does thinking about that make mommy exhausted (the happy kind, though).

true colors

is it just me, or is summer seriously channeling 

some cyndi lauper with this ensemble?

pi are squared

happy pi day!

ps - summer spontaneously (and much to our surprise!) began counting in spanish as she assembled the pies. and actually, that is not something she learned from ms. explorer, as one might guess. we have a "learn and groove music table" that the girls like to keep tuned to spanish. no matter how many times i change it over to english, it just ends up back in espanol. 

bright lights

remember this guy?

well, he has recently found new purpose as bryan's travelling companion, 

bringing picture messages to the girls from their dad:

hi hat

chocolate banana cupcakes with chocolate covered peanut butter frosting.

recipe here. (note: the melted chocolate should have 2-3 Tbl. of oil, not tsp.)

naked:

dipped:

inside:

don't hate us because we're beautiful.

lucky U

pour mes neveux:

tag found here. 

bless this mess

i'm going to take this as evidence that the girls haven't really caught my meaning 

when i say, "put the toy you are playing with away before getting out another one." 

lovelies

in case you had any doubt

that these were the cutest girls ever.