Mattress jumping

Kylie and Ellie had a really hard time staying inside during the month of April.  The weather was super nice for a week and then it got cold again and even snowed a few times.  We had the mattress out for a night in our living room, but we kept it there for four days because the girls had so much fun using it as a trampoline and occasionally putting all of their stuffed animals to bed.  They seriously jumped for a couple of hours each day.

Sunny Arizona

I took a last minute road trip to Arizona last week.  I really wanted to attend my mission president's funeral, as well as visit Grandpa and Grandma Jensen.  I am really glad that it all worked out.  It was very special to attend President LeBaron's funeral, catch up with so many sisters who served on Temple Square with me and to spend some time with Gma and Gpa.  Oh, and it was fantastic to feel the sunshine!  Kylie and Ellie loved being able to go outside and play (and swim!)

Picking fruit!  Arizona has the best oranges and grapefruit....mmmmmm

Of course we got a golf cart ride with Grandpa....we just had to remember to take the keys or else Ellie would have driven away.  

Making Valentine's Day cookies with Gma J

Eating lunch on the patio with Gpa

Kylie took this picture...she wanted to make sure Mommy Bear was included in our scrapbook.

Kylie took this picture too....she said, "Daddy hasn't seen this kind of palm tree before, so I need to take a picture of it".

We went swimming everyday we were there!  (Kylie would have spent hours in the pool if we had let her and she was super sad that we couldn't go swimming right when we arrived in Mesa since it was night time.)

The girls loved swimming with Gma and Gpa!  This was the first time that Ellie had worn the bubble/floaty and she did great.  She was able to get around the pool and even liked just floating on her back.  

Ellie and Mommy going on a ride with Gpa

Gpa in his convertible.

On the ride home (granted that it was 2 hours past Ellie's naptime, but this was only 15 minutes after we had gotten in the car)

What a fun four days!

Kylie is 4!

Kylie had a great birthday weekend (back a month ago).  The night before her actual birthday, we had family over for dinner and birthday celebrations.  As always, it was a blast.  Here are some pictures to prove it...

We had a Hawaiian theme....Hawaiian haystacks for dinner with smoothie drinks (complete with little umbrellas) and a Lilikoi cake, which was delicious!  And Kylie wanted to decorate her own cake :)

Kylie, Channing, and Cody eating dinner on a beach towel

Playing monkey toss

Josh and Nicole made this wall hanging for Kylie.  (Yes that is Lori hiding in the background)

Kylie showing off her sunglasses from Devin and Lori.  

Singing happy birthday.  (Can you tell who sang the loudest? Hehe)

Our lovable, birthday girl!

On Kylie's birthday, we went to BYU's women's gymnastics meet.  Kylie of course loved watching the routines, but also danced and did her "tricks" up and down the aisles.  Later that night Kylie chose to have a "picnic" in our living room while watching a movie as a family.  She sure had a fantastic day!

Kylie dancing at the gymnastic meet.  And then when we got home, she was leaping and twirling all around and even doing somersaults off the couch.  

Happy birthday Kylie!  We sure do love you!

Christmas Eve 2012

Bunker's big dinner is on Christmas Eve.  I always look forward to the potato soup in bread bowls eaten by candle light.  Then we usually have some sort of sharing of talents.  And a group reading/singing of the Nativity.  This year's Christmas Eve was one to remember!

The girls always get matching pajama bottoms!

 Our little family sang Silent Night.  Kylie even learned how to sign it....which she wanted to do on "stage" ->

Chris also sang "I Was Not His Father, He Was Mine" from the Forgotten Carols.

Casey and Ben did a fun rendition of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and Brooke sang us her arrangement of "Joy to the World".

Kylie rockin' it

Our finished puppet show theater we made for the girls for Christmas!  Didn't it turn out amazing?  Chris always does great work!  I made the curtains and helped paint, but Chris put the real hours into this.

We did the nativity story using our puppet show theater.  Originally, Chris and I were going to do the show, but both Kylie and Ellie really wanted to take part.  They refused to be part of the audience!  We let them help and they stole the show.... and for the audience, it was quite funny to watch.  I guess we got a glimpse into the future....the girls will definitely use their gift.

Ellie was excited to be baby Jesus.

Ellie learned how to climb out of her crib while we were at Grandma's.  Christmas Eve, the girls were already in bed and us adults were hanging out in the living room.  We then hear someone in the kitchen.  It was Ellie.  She had escaped her crib and pushed a chair to the counter.  Apparently, she wanted some more yummy soup before going to sleep.  Funny, funny girl.

Indoor Fun

Since it has turned cold, the girls have struggled with having to stay inside most of the time.  Yes, we did play in the snow after our big storm here, but now it is just wet and chilly outside.  Ellie doesn't understand this and often is seen (and heard) banging on the door, wanting to go out.  Well, here is one of the girls' newest indoor activities.....

A Tangled Halloween

Kylie was counting down to Halloween this year (well starting with "5 more sleeps").  I haven't seen her this excited in a while.  One day we even played "trick-or-treating" because she wanted to go so badly.....the girls would knock on their play room door and I would answer and give them some play food once they said the magic Halloween words.  It was fun (at least for the first half an hour).  Even though Ellie didn't really understand all the fuss about the upcoming holiday, she was excited too.  She loved it when she would spot pumpkins on someone's porches while were out on a walk or would see the Halloween decor in the grocery store.  She would raise one fist up in the air and yell, "Weeeeeeen!"  Grandma Bunker took both the girls to the pumpkin patch earlier in October and they loved that they got to pick out pumpkins.  We haven't had time to carve them (yet....Kylie still wants to do it), but Kylie had fun decorating one of hers with crayon drawings and stickers.

Kylie chose to be Rapunzel this year.  Though her hair wasn't long and magical, it did have flowers in it.  Ellie was Pascal and could do a pretty good chameleon tongue to accompany her costume (which I made!  I was actually quite proud of how decent it turned out.  I just used one of her sweatshirts and pants as a pattern.  It was my first time ever sewing sleeves, which was a little difficult.).  The first time Ellie realized she had a tail, she gave it a big hug.  Chris was Flynn Ryder.  I wanted him to be the King (since I was the Queen), but Kylie insisted that he had to be Flynn, I mean Eugene.  So Chandra was the King and Casey was Mother Gothel (it's the hair!).  

 

 

 

 

Always....two fingers in the mouth and the other hand playing with her bellybutton.  Had to make sure she had a two piece costume!

Trick-or-treating was of course fun, especially since we didn't stay out too long.  The girls were plenty pleased with the candy they got.  We just picked a few houses in our neighborhood, mostly those belonging to our ward friends.  In retrospect, maybe we should have gone to more houses so that I would still have some candy to snitch!  

Cabin Time (August)

We made our annual trip to Grandma Rowe's cabin in Island Park, ID back in August and good times were had by all.  We definitely had a full cabin with all of us Bunkers there and it was fun to be all together.  Kylie and Ellie both loved being outside, taking walks along the river and going on a canoe ride.  Saturday we all went into to West Yellowstone to walk around/shop, eat the best pizza ever and get some yummy ice cream.  Sunday, Chris took our little family on a drive to the headwaters of the buffalo river.  We saw a couple of moose on our drive and quite a few more around the cabin that weekend.  Monday we went into Yellowstone and this year Firehole was open for swimming.  This was my first time sliding down the natural water-slides there, which, even though it was a bit cold, was so fun!  Even Kylie did it.  I wish we had taken some pictures.  We also did the usual jump off the tressel, in which Kylie wanted to do too.....see pictures below!

 

Their canoe sprung a leak!  

Grandma and Kylie were sitting in water at this point and had to join our canoe.

 

Before everyone else was brave enough to get into the chilly water, Kylie had jumped in several times!

  

Cold?  Yes, but she continued to jump.

Ellie wanted to jump too of course!

When we told Kylie we were going to the cabin, she immediately asked if she could jump off the bridge this time.  I was surprised that she remembered that from last summer!  But I wasn't surprised that she wanted to jump.  She was so excited.  I went up on the tressel with her and dropped her to Chris. 

 

Since there are rocks straight down from the tressel, I had to swing Kylie out a bit.  Unfortunately this caused Kylie to twist a little and to land on her thigh (as seen in the above picture).  The slap was painful and produced an immediate welt.  Even though our little girl cried, she was very proud...and still wanted to continue jumping into the water from the dock.  As I wrote this post, I asked Kylie if she will jump again.  She said, "when I am a little older, like this tall, but not as big as you."  I think she will do it again.

 

Kylie really didn't want to leave the river, so Chris filled a tub up for her to take an old-fashioned bath.  And the water was much warmer than the river! 

 

We all enjoyed sitting around the fire pit at night.  We let Kylie stay up late one evening so that she could do sparklers (we never did them on July 4th!) and so she could experience her first s'more!  Mmmmm!

 

As always, we loved being up at the cabin and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the area.