Valentines day

Shae has claimed valentine's day as his holiday and each year he does such an amazing job surprising our girls with cute little gifts and treats. This year was no different!!!

I even got my box of chocolates! 

SNOW!!!!

Our girls have been waiting all winter for a good snowfall but it never came. Then last weekend their wishes came true. We received about a foot of snow over two days and you better believe they enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Harper enjoys sitting in the snow but the minute you stick her in a sled she's not a happy camper. We of course made her go anyway because we knew she would love it after a while:)

Marlee is our little snow angel. She will just lay there making snow angels until she's blue all over.

Yummy!!!

Our three little snow bunnies!

And a big smooch from daddy to finish our day of sledding. We are so glad it decided to snow!!

Christmas 2013

This year for Christmas we got to head down to Utah and spend it with my mom and dad, my sister and her daughter and my grandparents. It was so much fun!!! The girls were of course spoiled beyond repair.

Christmas Eve movie with papa was one of the highlights. My girls really wish we lived closer to them!

Then Christmas morning was filled with a massive amount of presents and pictures. Marlee had been asking for the game Pop the Pig and when she saw that Santa had remembered she was thrilled!

Harper was loving ripping the wrapping paper. She didn't really care what was inside though.

Harper loved Avery right from the start. Unfortunately, Avery didn't share the same amount of affection towards Harper. Luckily his toy was a great buffer between the two:)

We had a great time!! Hopefully next year we can be together again. Living so far away for everyone is definitely not a favorite of mine.

8 Years Old!!!

This little girl is no longer little; she is 8 years old!! I still can't wrap my head around this concept yet. She was just a baby and now she's getting her ears pierced and completely into fashion. Where did the time go? She told me a couple years ago that she wanted her ears pierced but I told her she had to wait until she was eight years old. Well the time arrived:(

She was so brave and so excited!!! I don't know if I was worried it was going to hurt for her or if I was just sad because she is older but I was so emotional while she was sitting there all brave and stoic. 

I try to make my kids' cake each year for their birthdays. Rhaegan wanted a purse cake so I did the best I could. She loved it so it was a success.

Friends and cousins came to celebrate with her making her day super special!!

Grandma Cupps sent a box with 8 presents in it because she was turning 8. Of course for any kids opening 8 presents is a dream come true. Among those eight presents was a pair of gloves and hat. Rhaegan was thrilled because all she has are mittens and mittens are apparently not cool anymore. She was hoping Santa would bring her some gloves for Christmas. Now he doesn't have to:) Happy Birthday, Rhaegan!!! We love you so much and can't believe how grown up you've become. We are so happy and proud to be your parents and hope you had a wonderful day!

Holiday Spirit

I love chocolate covered pretzels!! The mixture of salty and sweet flavors is irresistible. This year I thought it would be fun for Rhaegan and Marlee to make some of these yummy treats. They had a blast and I think they all turned out beautifully!

Rhaegan, my little perfectionist, was still decorating long after Marlee had finished and left the room. It was definitely a fun family activity for us. It might just have to become a new family tradition:)

Horses

My girls LOVE horses!! They will do just about anything I want them to do if it means they get to ride one. Luckily we have some great friends who have a couple of horses and they live about a half a mile away from our house. 

Harper was ready for her turn! She was so excited that she kept escaping into the ring while Marlee was having her turn. She would scream bloody murder when I would catch her and take her back out.

Marlee was so nice and let Harper ride with her. Of course Harper threw a fit about this as well. She is definitely an independent little thing. Shae would rather have Harper ride the horse that we have in the basement. He feels much more comfortable when she's on that one:) Thanks Shane for always letting us ride your horses!!

Amoxicillin

Harper was prescribed amoxicillin last week for an ear infection. In my family amoxicillin is like another member of the family. She was on her eighth day of the medicine when we noticed some small red spots all over her body. We kept an eye on them for a few hours in which time they grew a significant amount. Shae took her to the doctors and was told that is was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic and to stop taking it and give her Benadryl every 6 hours. This was Harper after the doctors and her first dose of Benadryl.

This was Harper 4 hours after that first dose. Of course you can't tell but she was miserably itching her whole body for the ENTIRE night!

The next morning this is what we found when we got her out of bed. Her eyes were almost completely swollen shut, her hands and feet were three times their normal size and she had purplish/reddish welts all over her body. We took her right into the ER because her amazing uncle Josh (an ER doctor himself) was super concerned that the swelling might attach her throat. 

The doctors in the ER were extremely concerned with the look of the rash and the amount of swelling to her hands and feets so the had some blood work drawn.

Luckily the blood work came back normal and she was diagnosed with a severe allergic reaction to penicillin. After some steroids, two Popsicles and a cute stuffed animal from her nurse we were on our way back home. She is still super swollen, which in was told would subside in a few days, but she is slowing returning to normal Harper.