Desert Crabs

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Click on the picture to make it bigger!)

Wait, how did they get that picture of me?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

My mom keeps my house decorated for practially every holiday you could think of (THANKS MOM! :)) A few years ago she sent me some bunnies that look like real chocolate bunnies-they are so cute! We broke them out already this year-Mallina loves them, Eva was just introduced to them and wasn't too sure about them at first...
Eva says "Mama? Are you seeing this?"

"Mallina! Look at THAT one!"
Mallina says, "No Eva, these aren't for eating!"
Mallina loves the bunnies!

Tonight after the bath, I was trying to dry Eva's hair and it started fluffing out on me. This is what she looked like...



I started laughing when this image suddenly came into my head...



And just because Mallina looked so cute today, here is a picture of me trying to get her to smile at the camera...

My girls have the craziest hair. Mallina especially. She takes her bath at night and goes to sleep with her hair a little bit damp. When she wakes up in the morning she has this crazy woobie curl in the top of her hair. It cracks me up every morning. Eva, on the other hand has such curly hair that it can be kind of crazy throughout the entire day! Here are some pics of the girls with their funny hair.

This is what I heard for about a week when I told Mallina our good friends were coming to visit us from Hawaii. Karla is one of my best friends and I love her tons, and I have been missing her since we moved. They came to see The Rugby Sevens Tournament in San Diego, visit family in freezing cold Utah, and to check out things here in Arizona. I am doing my best to convince them that this is the place to live. We spent the weekend looking at model homes-it was so fun! Karla is like Mallina's second mom so they had really been missing each other!

Here we are at Denny's (sorry about your closed eyes in this shot Karla, it was too cute not to post!) Mallina and Inoke were talking on the pone:

I love that she has a hand motion going on in this one.


We put the girls in Karla and Inoke's rental car so we could go around on Friday without Ieli. I had Eva's seat in rear facing at first, but it just wasn't really working-Inoke is so tall that he was being squished by her seat! It was the first time for Eva to face forward! (She is backwards again in our car now, we are ERFer's here!)


Mallina with Karla's glasses on.

So, Karla, Inoke, we expect to see you SOON! We miss you already. :)

One of the best things about having girls is getting to buy clothes for them and dress them everyday. Shopping is very dangerous for me, but not quite as dangerous as for my mom. I have a closet FULL of gorgeous dresses that she has bought for Mallina over the past 2 1/2 years. This Christmas was the best (or probably the worst to hear it from my sissy Aly :)) We got FIVE different options! It is so fun to get ready for church and of course to hear all of the comments about how cute they are. Thanks Grandma Judy! Without you my kids just wouldn't be as cutely dressed as they are. Here are three of the dresses my girls got this Christmas from my mom:

Mallina with that darn paci:
After I ripped the paci out for a picture:


The plaid ones are DARLING!


And the pretty green ones! For some reason people keep asking me if I made them ...? What? (Sorry these pictures aren't the greatest.

Well, my little baby is not so little anymore. We had a great party at the park, it was a gorgeous day and we had so many people we love show up! Thanks for making it a great day :) Here are some pictures from the day:

Eva with her balloon, Ella with her cute smile in the back




Cousin Erin and Eva

Cousin Wyatt, Aunt Kristie, Eva and Cousin Ella

The family with the cake





Opening presents

It just blows my mind how fast the past year has gone. Tomorrow is Evangeline's first birthday. This is huge for me because I feel like Mallina grew up too fast so I want Eva to stay a baby forever.

I think that typically with your first child you can't wait to see them grow up-to watch them develop and learn new things. Everything is so exciting because it is your first time experiencing these kinds of things. Then number 2 comes along and you realize how fast time goes by and you want to cherish those newborn days, every little sound, the peace you feel holding your new sleeping baby, still not far from the veil. It doesn't bother you that they don't reach milestones as quickly as your first child because you aren't ready for it to go by so fast. This is exactly how things have been for me with Eva. She is just the sweetest thing and I truly treasure her as a part of our family.

We are having a party for her tomorrow at the train park (come on out and play with us!) and hopefully will be doing some island style BBQ. I just hope its not too cold! This is her invitation-it's been doctored up by Auntie Karla :) (My version is no where near as cute)
And for nostalgia's sake, here are some shots of her from the past year.