It's been 7 months...could be worse!

Since its been so long I figured I'd just throw in a few random pictures...We had family pictures taken this fall when my mom came out. Getting two kids to actually look at the camera is quite the task. But we had fun!

The girls LOVE their daddy!! It is so fun to hear them scream and run as fast as they can when he gets home. Anytime we get with him between school and studying is cherished.

 Lila cruises on her bike. Our driveway is a little slanted so she gets going as fast as she can then picks her feet up and just rolls until she stops or runs into something. She loves it! Anytime we go out to get in the car she runs in the garage to get her bike and hops on it so fast. She is quite the character!

 We were able to visit a lot of fun places in the area. They have a big farm which really helped Sophie not miss seeing cows while we are here in Ohio. That is seriously one of her highlights when we go to UT.

 Sophie turned 3!! She had a fun birthday party with her friends. They went swimming, played, opened presents and ate cake.

 Lila turned 1. She was quite mesmerized by her candle but dove into her cake and loved every bite.

 We got the chance to go to UT for a month while Chris had a break from school. It is so good to be with FAMILY!!

 Sophie and her cousins Kate and Briar playing dress up

We also went home for Christmas after Chris took his Boards test for Dental School. (he passed!!!) It was a stressful time and it made life even more enjoyable once it was over.

The nice thing about my parents being on a mission is we have a whole house to ourselves as well as our own car. It helps make our long stays possible since we aren't imposing on anyone. We had a lot of Christmas parties and played a lot of games. 

We are enjoying life in Ohio with our amazing friends who are basically family. We love our ward and look forward to working with the youth. Chris just got called as the YM President and I have been the YW 2nd Counselor for about 6 months, so its about to be very busy for both of us. Sophie and Lila are growing fast and enjoy playing with each other. Sophie asks all the time when we can go back to UT...she misses her cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Sophie loves being a sunbeam and asks about every other day if it is Sunday yet. We have a lot of fun together. My new years resolution is to be better at blogging so check back soon! lol

May??

Here it is the middle of June and I haven't blogged since April. I wish I could remember all that we have been up to...it's a good thing I took a few pictures!! Check out this mop on Lila's head. It is so much fun except after she eats and puts her messy hands all over in her hair. We keep joking about buying a shower cap for her while she eats but one of these days we really might! 

 This was during our trip to the zoo. The zoo here is FREE on Monday's!!

 Ever since Chris has been home more Sophie has been a total Daddy's Girl. I love it and I know he does too.

 We went out to Lake Erie to have a bbq with the Owens Family and to play in the sand.

 I absolutely LOVE watching these two play together.

 Here is Sophie's first fish!! It was the perfect size for her.

 And here I am going to have to brag a little bit...I caught this fish on my third cast. It was 28" long and 7 lbs. I was so excited I didn't even know what to do. I have never even caught a fish half that size.

 Here it is again so you can get the full effect...

 Lila has so much energy and personality. She is such a funny little girl!

 Sophie and some of her friends playing at the beach.

 I had to add this face. I told Sophie to smile big and this is the look I got!

I hope you enjoy the photos! We are counting down the days until we fly out to UTAH. I can't believe it is almost here. Lila is walking now. On the 15th we will celebrate Sophie's 3rd Birthday! Other than that we are just busy getting a few things done around the house before we leave and spending a lot of time playing!!

April

Date Night!!! These are cherished times for us when we get the chance to go out together. We went to see the Hunger Games. Of which we both enjoyed!
Easter was a lot of fun this year. We hid our baskets the night before so we could find them first thing in the morning before we headed to our ward's Easter egg hunt. Then Chris had to go to the school so I dropped him off and headed to the CADA (Case Alliance Dental Association) Easter egg hunt. Sophie loved it.
Chris' mom is an amazing knitter. She made these cardigans for the girls for Easter.Check out the detail. The picture doesn't give it justice of course...Ha ha I have NO idea what Sophie was doing in the picture but I had to share it!Lila does this face almost all day long and sniffs. She had her 9 month checkup last week. Weight: 19 lbs. 13 oz. Height: 29 3/4 inches and I can't remember her head size. She is at the top of the charts in everything still. Gotta love it!
That about wraps it up...we just got back from special sacrament meeting in the Kirtland Temple. It was a neat experience. It was the first time I had been inside!

March

First of all...thank you everyone who updates your blog. I love seeing pictures and hearing what you have been up to...especially because it makes me procrastinate posting on mine. And I joined pinterest. That's all that I need to say about that. So sorry it has been so long! I finally got an external hard drive for all of our pictures and videos because my laptop is from the dinosaur age and doesn't hold very many so I had two different jump drives to store everything on, then they filled up and I haven't been able to upload anything else.

Anyways...we are counting down the days until Chris is done with school. Finals are next week!!!! Chris cleaned my teeth on Friday. It was fun to see all that he has learned this last year. The supervisor even told Chris he did an amazing job. :) So now my teeth are very clean.

Over the past month we had spring break...here are a few pics.


We have a HUGE tree in our backyard and decided it needed a rope swing. I wish I had a picture of the tree. One day....Sophie likes to stand on top of her house and swing off of it. I'm afraid that in a few more weeks she won't be able to go high enough. She's always telling me to push her higher.
We thought it would be fun for them both to swing at the same time. ha ha Sophie was pretty squished.

One of the perks about living in a big city (at least out here) there are a lot of fun places to go visit. We went to the Lake Erie Nature Center. They had all the different wild animals that are in the area. After a lot of convincing we finally got Sophie to pet the turtle. This is a tree that was hollowed out. It was obviously very old.Since things out here in Ohio are pretty flat we were very impressed with this 60 foot waterfall. The Brandywine Falls. They have so many beautiful parks here with bike trails so hopefully soon we'll decide on some bikes and be able to go riding!

Life has been crazy this last week. On top of some of my other obligations Sophie got croup Thursday night which equals NO SLEEP for at least 3 nights...Sunday night she only woke up once, unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it because Lila got a cold that night and was up who knows how many times so now it is Thursday and I think I will finally get a good nights sleep! :) And soooon (hopefully VERY soon) they will be over the neediness from being sick. It's a good thing these girls are worth it. It makes me realize how very blessed we are to have healthy kids. So thanks for listening to my rampage...I had to get that out there.

So every once in awhile I remember I have a camera and I should be taking pictures...which results in a lot that day then it gets put back on the shelf to be forgotten once again. Sophie came down Sunday morning after getting herself dressed and asked me to take a picture of her...funny but cute. She actually smiled REAL not her cheesy smile so I'm glad I caught it. She sure is growing these days.

Then of course she wanted to take one of us
(besides her finger over the flash she did pretty good)

And we couldn't forget Lila! Her hair was especially crazy this morning since we had to wake her up to get her dressed before we left.

It snowed 5 inches in one storm so we decided we'd better go sledding because who knows when we'll get more. It was last minute so we had an early dinner and headed to one of the few hills around. Sophie loved it. So did Chris and I.

Lila enjoyed a late nap all bundled up in her car seat, which of course she also enjoyed.

I quite enjoy coordinating outfits for these two!

Getting two kids to smile and look at the camera is much more difficult than one! Go figure!! I told Sophie to make sure she opened her eyes because she tends to squint...love it.

-Priceless expression-

Good news: things can only go up after this last week! Its getting warmer. Spring break is in a week. And we get to go to UT again in July!!!!

I hope they call me on a mission....

My wonderful parents just entered the MTC today. For those of you that don't know, they are going to the Dominican Republic. I am so excited for them and the experiences they are going to have. Lucky for my dad, he already knows Spanish and just needed some refreshing, but my mom has been working so hard and studying for hours everyday. She is learning quick and I love listening to her practice her Spanish. The people in the D.R. are going to love getting to know these two.

These two are definitely some of the most Christ-like people I know. They never stop serving others...always willing to give all that they have. Even though they already had 7 children, they willingly and with open arms took in 3 more. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for the many opportunities they have given me. I have been so blessed to be a part of such an amazing family. I miss my parents like crazy but am so happy for them. Being out here in Ohio sure helps you realize how important families are and I can't wait for the day we can be closer to all of our loved ones. Skype and phone calls are great and definitely worth it, but we long for the times of being WITH everyone.

Mom and Dad we love you!!!!!