It's all about Holdyn

Okay, so here are a few fun things about Holdyn. She's been working really hard to stop sucking her thumb. We helped her pick out something she could earn when she didn't suck her thumb for a few weeks. She picked this pink tool set. We are proud to say that she earned it!We'd been trying to help her stop by just reminding her that if she wanted to earn her toolset, she couldn't suck her thumb. Well it was working, but not fast enough. So Ben told her that her thumb would look like his if she didn't stop sucking it. This did the trick! She was so terrified of her thumb looking like her daddy's! She stopped right then and there and hasn't had one suck since.....that we know of. She calls her dad's thumb 'tricky' and did not want her thumb to be 'tricky.' So that was the end of the thumb sucking! Here is a picture of Ben's 'tricky' thumb. (Long story short, he was born with two thumbs on this hand.)
In other news, Holdyn made this AWESOME egg head at preschool a couple weeks ago. The grass we planted has grown wild! It is awesome! She waters it everyday and I think we may need to cut it soon. Perfect time for Easter :)

One last story on out Holdyn. She's been coloring/painting pictures for santa and putting them in our fireplace for him. I don't know why she started it, but she wants Santa to remember her and that she is a good girl.... she even left him a capri sun drink the other night! Santa is getting tired of stopping in our house :)

Pads, pool, and jam

So this is about as random as you can get, but they were to fun to pass up. When Kimber is quiet something is going on..... here is what I found her in a few days ago. You can see that she even put the hair band back on the doorknobs that is meant to keep HER out of the cupboard.

"STICKERS" or so she thinks!

It has been super warm on and off and it is getting impossible to keep the girls out of the water! Holdyn begs all day long to go swimming. I finally pulled the pool out of the closet and let them have at it. I thought they'd get cold, but they were playing in the water for about 3 hours!! Bring on summer!

And last but not least, we made some Strawberry freezer jam.....super easy and super delicious! Too bad this is two batches and it only made 7 jars!

The bike riding duo

I get to play the organ this Sunday for church, so I've been sneaking up there every chance we get to practice. To keep the girls entertained we threw in their bikes so they could cruise around the huge parking lot. They LOVED IT!

A fun SUNNY day!

We had a GREAT day today! The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed every minute! We got up bright and early and headed across town for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundations Great Strides walk. It is an annual walk to raise money for finding the cure for CF. There was a HUGE crowd of people there! It was fun to be involved with!

A family from church, the Campbell's, have a daughter living with CF and one who passed away from the disease last year. They had a team that they welcomed us to join, called Steps4Sisters.

Here we are warming up for the walk :)

This is just as the walk was starting, look at all the walkers behind us... there were quite a few in front of us too.

Holdyn followed Patrick around and he is now one of her besties :)

We enjoyed the Subway sandwiches and ice cream after the walk!

We then had to go find the playground for the girls to play on for a bit....but they both started getting pink faces and hairlines so we decided it was best to head home.

After we got home both girls were begging to play in the water! They wanted to put on their swimming suits soooo bad! So we made the best of it and sunscreened up again, and tackled washing the dirty truck. The girls are super helpful and loved playing in the bubbles!

Up the Kern River Gorge for another picnic!

We had a great day yesterday! We drove up to some places where we want to camp when it warms up and had a picnic by the Kern River. Holdyn ran around and gathered pinecones with Grandma and had a ball!

Kimber and Grandpa supervised :)

Ben even pulled out his fly rod and did some fishing. He is in the picture above...out in the middle of the river.

As long as there is dirt to play in our girls are happy! It was pretty cold and both of the girls ended up sniffling and coughing all night. But, it was well worth it. We had a great drive and saw some beautiful country with Grandma and Grandpa!

Hart Park with Grandma and Grandpa!

We made a trip to Hart Park to feed the ducks and play on one of the playgrounds. Holdyn LOVES to feed the ducks! It is hard to pull her away when it is time to go!

We also fed a few of the peacocks! There sure are a lot of them running lose in the park!

The girls LOVED the swing and I LOVED that Grandma and Grandpa were the ones pushing them :)

These girls LOVE their Grandma and Grandpa Baker!

This last picture is in Baker,CA on our way home from Grandma's funeral.... Holdyn LOVED the aliens and wanted her picture taken with them in the car.

Grandma Carr's funeral

Ben's Grandma Carr passed away last week. We were fortunate to get a few days off and drive to Arizona for the funeral. The whole time we were there was freezing cold! We woke up to snow almost every morning. Thanks to Josh and Tiff and their girls for letting us stay with them and make their house a disaster!!! We had a great time with you guys

It snowed like crazy during the graveside ceremony.

We also snuck away for a bit to take our girls for a drive in the hills. Holdyn loves being in the outdoors... especially when there is snow!

Our little cowgirls

We had a night where we were bored and got out the camera. The girls love to take pictures and have their picture taken.

Oh and this last one is a random picture of Holdyn and I making home made noodles.... one of her favorites!