Disney On Ice

I had been waiting anxiously for the last 2 months to take the girls to Disney on Ice . I couldn't tell them about it until the day before, because that's all they could think about until we got there. We had such a great time. I told the girls they could dress up like princesses if they wanted to. Taiya got super excited and went all out as you can see in the pictures. Brynne put on a dress and asked for some sparkly eye polish.

Here's Princess #1. She had all the princess essentials. A high barrel bun, a huge pink flower, pink tights, make-up, white tutu, princess shoes, pink coat, and even matching nail polish. It scared me a bit to see her so dolled up. My Dad's famous words would apply here: "Did you buy the baseball bat to go with it?"

The pink plastic dress-up shoes were not the best idea. I didn't have the heart to tell her no. So I had to piggy back her everywhere. Picture this, I carried both girls from the car into the building, Brynne in my arms and Taiya on my back. My arms were throbing by the time we made it in. But it was definetly worth it.

Here's Princess #2. She's in heaven with her very own bucket of Mickey popcorn. Don't ask me how much that cost. Too much!!! Brynne decided to wear her Chrsitmas dress from last year. She looked really cute with her sparkly make-up, curly ponytail and white princess shoes. Anyways, I wish I had more pictures of Brynne but as you can see she turns her head in all of them.

These Disney friends were the welcoming act who got the show started. The girls were squealing when they skated out. They really put on a great show.

Lightining McQueen and friends did a fun little rally. They were followed by the Little Mermaid then the Lion King and it ended with Tinkerbell. There was a lot of great skating and musical songs.

Here's the girls and our friends we met up with just waiting for the show to start. Our seats were on the side almost at the top. But it didn't seem to matter, the show was easy to see. This wasn't Aaron's thing, so he took the opportunity to go snowmobile in the new powder we had just gotten. It was a perfect girls night out.

Halloween FUN!

Taiya wanted to be a ladybug for halloween. We feel in love with the ladybug costume on the front of the Pottery Barn magazine. I just couldn't justify the price. So I cut the picture out of the magazine and that became my inspiration and pattern for the ladybug costume. I took both the girls to JoAnn's with me to find all the stuff we would need. Brynne got so excited, that I bought enough to make her a costume too. I invested too many hours into making 2 sets of the tutus, wings, and headbands. By the time I finally finished I couldn't hardly wait for the girls to try them on. Well, Taiya wore hers everyday and totally loved it. To this day Brynne still hasn't put her whole costume on. For some reason she wasn't digging the ladybug costume. I didn't feel like forcing her into her costume this year. So I let her wear what she wanted. I just figure this will make a great story to remember. I really had a great time making them. I surprised myself that I could actually do it. It was fun to see them come together even without a pattern.

My Princess ladybug!

I found these red glitter ruby shoes at Target. They went perfect with the red glitter headband, I thought they finished off the costume perfectly.

All of us at the Trunk or Treat enjoying some hot cocoa.

We found this little pioneer dress in a friends dress up bucket. Brynne totally loves this dress. This is what she wore instead of the ladybug costume. Cracked me up!

By the time we made it down to Grandma's trunk of treat she decided to put on her tutu and shoes, better then nothing. She really couldn't make up her mind. I would post more pictures of Brynne, but in all of them she has her head turned away. She wasn't in the mood for taking pictures.

Princess Ladybug Taiya and Her Grandma "Grape" at the Trunk or Treat! Grandma had us over for a yummy dinner before we all headed down to the church to load up on too much candy. It was a fun little halloween. We were glad it didn't rain.

Pillowcase Dresses

I just wanted to do a little show and tell. I ventured out of my comfort zone and picked up a pattern for making these dresses. These dresses are made from my Great Great Grandma's pillowcases. She did a fabulous job hand embroidering them 50 plus years ago, so I wanted to find a way to showcase them. With my pattern I made the bodice and added it to the pillowcase. All and all I was pleased with the way they turned out. I loved taking the girls to church in their homemade dresses. Can I just say girls are so much fun!!! Thank you Great Great Grandma!!!

Brynne - 2 1/2 years

Taiya - 4 years

A Favorite Summer Memory

Before summer gets to far away, I thought I better share some pics. of our fun little outing. It's become a Stafford tradition to hike up to Green Water Lakes each summer. It's a gradual 2 mile hike so we think it's perfect for the kiddos. The girls were so excited to hike with their cousins. This is Taiya and her cousin Brayden. I love catching unknown pics.

Taiya chillin' on a huge fallen tree. Where she ate her yummy tinfoil dinner. Aaron and I stayed with Brynne who started out walking, but she eventually ended up like this. We weren't too suprised. The only problem with giving Brynne a shoulder ride is she had stepped in dog poop twice so things were a little smelly.

THere are few of these cool bridges. It's such a scenic hike that follows the river.

Brynne feeding Papa Doritos. I love that her mouth is open while giving him a bite.

Brynne taking her sweet time. We had plenty of time to take lots of pictures.

Our little hiker did really well. She was so proud of herself, check out her little hiking boots. I didn't get many hiking pics. of Taiya, she left us in the dust, so she could keep up with her cousins.

Taiya's Sweet Quad Skills

Taiya started riding her Yamaha Raptor 80 Quad by herself one month after her 4th birthday. So her summer has been filled with laps around the property. It's pretty impressive she's actually quite good. I love when she gets all her riding gear on, I can't believe she's getting so BIG.

We let her take Brynne for a short ride, their little helmets kept bouncing off one another. Kind of cute!!!

Here she is riding with her cousins Brayden and Landon. Last year Aaron built a little riding track in our backyard, it gets lost of use when the cousins are in town. I love this picture!

I wish I had a picture of Taiya riding with her puppy backpack. She'll zip her teddy inside and take him on a ride. She likes to go on rides with her Papa around the property. Whenever he gets home from work, she's begging him to go with her.

Our Hawaii Getaway

For our seventh Anniversary, Aaron and I went to the Big Island of Hawaii for six days. The best part is, Aaron had been planning this trip for months. I found out a week before we left. I was pretty impressed he picked the coolest resort ever, bought tickets, and even lined up his sister Steph and husband Chris to take the girls for us. (you guys are the best THANKS so MUCH!!!)


We spent the first 3 night here at the Hilton. I have never seen such a cool resort. It spands a mile wide. So they had a tram, riverboat or walking museum you would take to get from one end of the resort to the other.They had everything we needed right there, snorkeling, dolphins, mini golf, water front restaurants, hottubs, pools ect. It was so relaxing and felt like a dream.

This was the view from our back deck.
I loved the amazing blue clear water of the ocean. On the Big lsland there is a ton of lava rock everywhere. It looks so cool when the waves splash over it.
We were out exploring one day and this is what we passed on the side of the road. We're not so sure what you would call him, but we refer to him as the LavaRAM.
We spent the rest of our trip on the other side of the island in Pahoa. Yea!!! We got to spend a couple days at Kyra's (my bestfriend from high school) with her husband Josh and their sweet babies. It was so fun to finally see their beautiful home they built. They spoiled us with some amazing BarBQ. Kyra and I spent way too long looking back at old pictures and having plenty to laugh about. I love picking up right where we left off.


Everything was so green and tropical on this side of the island. I thought Washington was green. Ha!

Josh and Kyra were our tourguides for a couple days. They showed us some of their favortie beaches. On our way there we got to do a little jeepin in the jungle. We also saw some beautiful waterfalls, great lava cliffs, and huge waves. The last night we were there we hiked to the valcanoe. From a distance we could see where the lava meets the ocean. I was suprised how much red glowing steam comes up.

Here I got my first view of surfers. I loved watching the waves come in.

I thought the tide-pools were so cool. They fill up depending on the tide. We swam in these for awhile, the water was really quite warm.

It was a dream come true. I loved spending some getaway time with my honey. Aaron, thanks for the amazing trip. Your the best, Happy Anniversary!!! Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. Now it's back to real life.

Sorry I'm Way Behind!

We were in Bear Lake visiting my mom and fam. for over a week. So it feels like I still haven't caught up. So sorry about the blog. Here's a quick update.

These are the 5 girl cousins that got to play at Grandma's. They were so cute to watch. They were always up to something. For as little as they've seen each other, they got along great.

We had to buy them matching dresses. From the Left: Ellie is my brother Grant's daughter, then Taiya and Brynne, then Evelyn and Brielle are my brother Brandon's girls.

Bath time!! Can you believe they actually fit?

Grandma Sheryl bought the girls a fun bouncy house. It fits perfectly in our living room. Especially since we don't have any furniture in there. Thanks MOM!

Taiya has been way obsessed with frogs lately. That's what she's holding. It's kind of hard to tell. One Saturday she caught 7 and then put all of them in that little mason canning jar. Poor little froggies. She hauled them everywhere she went.

Our babysitter Melanie was so nice to let my girlies ride her horse. They really liked it. Maybe a little too much. Taiya thinks she needs one. I'm not sure I know how to take care of a horse, I'm sure they're more work then a dirtbike. Thanks Mels, we had a great time.