party essentials:

1. prep the food

2. make sure the food is good to the taste

3. party games, such as, pin the tail on the giraffe

4.pinata breaking swings

5. candles and the birthday song

6. party tricks, such as, touching your nose

with your extra long tongue

7. gracious gift opening

8. balloon launch

9. family picture

to my husband,

                                                                 you are here:

i am here:

six years ago we were here:

that was cool.

let's get together and do something fun.

happy anniversary to us.

love you.

birthday love

my baby girl is two today.

one favorite thing of mine that she does is

when she hasn't seen me for longer than a couple minutes

and then she finds me she always says,

"mom, i sought i yaost you!" (i.e. "mom, i thought i lost you!")

she's been potty trained since 19 months old

she loves babies and dogs but cries when others cry or dogs bark loudly

she has always been incredibly sensitive
can't imagine life with out our girl #2

happy birthday my sweet camille

these two

                                              are the best of friends.
                                                                
                                            they have similar interests,

(although camille is a bit more daring)

they both are hams and love to make each other laugh,

and they choose the other first to play with.

if you ask me, the best part about this sisterhood is the love.

jill watches out for camille and always wants to help her.

camille always wants to be by jill's side and frequently asks,

"where's jill?".

i hope it never changes.

Untitled from Alisha on Vimeo.



Untitled from Alisha on Vimeo.

Our roots say we're sisters, our hearts say we're friends.

easter

you know you love it.

i feel like easter is always made better when we get to

listen to general conference the same weekend.

speaking of conference; in light of the most recent holiday
(mother's day) see the following from conference on
easter morning:

LDS.org - Ensign Article - Mothers Teaching Children in the Home

beside the insipration gleened from the apostles we had

a lot of family time.

there was peterson time,

there was taylor time,

and there was cousin time.

eggs were colored

and searched for

it was a weekend of happiness.

Arizona Winters cont.

Urban Hiking from gardiner4 on Vimeo.


we hiked the famous camelback mountain in Jan with some friends.
would i do it again? yes
do i love my Arizona Winters? yes

(credit for video goes to the beautiful hayley)

Arizona Winters

since i've been working this winter i've been taking

advantage of the Arizona Winter on my days off.

jeff and i ran in a few local races.

pushing the girls isn't so easy to run distance

but the weather and euphoria of working-out makes it fun.

i even ran my first 10k non-stop.

the girls enjoyed the kiddo activities while there.
the petting zoo is always a favorite
and jill loves to get beautified.

i took the girls to the Phoenix Ballet.

they were inspired to mimic the statues

outside of the auditorium. 

we became famous with the neighborhood children

for the RED DRAGON.

Arizona Winters make me love it here.

holiday happenings (part 3)

as a child at home christmas was the cat's meow

as a young adult the meow had changed

no more excitment, just happiness to be surrounded by family

as a childless couple the meow changed again

for us, it was a time of prosperity that we had to gift eachother well

now, wtih kiddos around, the meow is back and better than ever 

the girls loved wearing a special dress and getting curls

jillian loved watching the grinch and still talks about him.

camille enjoying playing with the wooden nativity while we told the

story of baby jesus

mostly though, christmas 2009 was special because of two little

faces that we live for.

(not that you can see those faces in the following picture.)