We're in Utah-land...

I get a kick out of these photos of Lucy and Katie. Lucy always leans in to Katie for a cute cozy picture and since Katie copies everything that Lucy does, she leans the same direction as Lucy.

So it turns out... the Russell family is still alive. Amazing. My excuse for not blogging recently (okay like 4 months)was packing and moving... and unpacking, but we've been in Provo for almost 2 months now. Crazy. We found a cute house to rent in the tree streets, just east of BYU campus. Kenric took 2 classes in the spring, did two online prerequisite courses, and now is going to get busy networking and looking for interships for next summer... that along with going to seven peaks with me and the girls, hiking, camping in the backyard with Lucy, and possibly hotel-camping (which most people don't think exist) down in southern utah. Lucy just finished her first week of her BYU preschool and is excited for the next 6 weeks of fun (they even have a pet bunny and tarantula in her classroom). Katie is a total waterbaby and cannot get enough of the pools at 7 peaks (the waterpark here). Fun times abound.

in

Lucy's First Ballet Performance

Lucy Ballerina

Here is my little darling ballerina before her very first Ballet recital. She went to about 5 ballet classes (she got started late) and the show was Tuesday, February 17. There was no flash photography allowed at the performance, so here she is before we left.
She was very excited to get to wear makeup. She looked like a doll.
With just a few swipes of mascara, you can see her ridiculously long eyelashes. Talk about envy!

Lucy's Digital Camera

Go Princess!!

Lucy got a sweet Kids Digital Camera for Christmas. As you can see it is a Disney Princess camera, so you have the option of inserting princess stuff in your pictures. It is lots of fun!
Isn't it so fun?
I love this one of mike holding Lucy's baby doll with the princesses.
Lucy took this one of Grandpa Price on Christmas morning. She is still working on holding the camera still... she just gets so excited to see it right after she takes it!

Back to Mainland USA...

Yes, it's true, we are no longer Hawaii residents. So if you were going to come visit us in Hawaii... sorry, you lost your chance. Some of you fellow bloggers may already know our story, so I'll fill the rest of you in. Kenric (and of course me too) decided to go back to school.... again. After building a business from the ground up, and having two years of chronic stress (not that school wont do that too), Kenric decided he wanted to get an MBA and figure out what he wants to be when he grows up. So the abridged version is that he got accepted to 3 MBA programs, and we decided (with a little help from upstairs) that Cafe Rio and Super Target... I mean BYU would be the best option right now. So here is a picture of the girls last November in all the commotion. We sold all of our stuff AGAIN on craigslist (okay we also shipped 50 boxes of clothes, toys, books and random things that I stil cant figure out why). We did sell our furniture and other stuff. So we are living at my parents for a bit (living the "Hawaii Dream" drained our pocketbooks) and Kenric is working at Bob's office during tax season. Me and the girls are hanging out doing our usual thing which now includes several Target trips a week. Lucy misses her old preschool but is now at a new one that she goes to twice a week. She is also in ballet and already has lots of new friends.

Kenric & Lucy go Camping

Kenric took Lucy camping for the second time this past weekend. A few dads in the ward took their kids (minus the babies) over to a campsite in Kaneohe. Kenric said that Lucy did great. She was in bed asleep by 9pm and slept like a log all night (even through the pouring rain). Aren't they soooooo cute in the first pic? The bottom two pics are of Lucy and her good friends Hunter & Mackenzie. No complaints from me. What an awesome Dad! Love ya Kenric!
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Happy Halloween!

Yeah for Halloween! I know, it's boring that I did not dress up. I was actually getting ready to dress up in Kenric's Laderhosen to be a little German girl, when life took a little turn for the worse. I was getting ready to put the girls in their costumes to go trick or treating and then to a Halloween Party. I had the curling iron plugged in (it was pretty far back on the counter) so I could put a few ringlets in Lucy's ponytail. When I was out of the bathroom and about to get dressed, Lucy reached for something on the counter, not knowing that the curling iron was hot. You can probably guess what happend: she burned her forearm. She immediately pulled her arm away, and thought she had gotten stung by something (I guess) so she grabbed the wound and it pulled off the hot skin. It makes my stomach drop every time I tell the story. So needless to say, our night got postponed a bit by me running to Longs and Mc Donalds (I thought a shake might help). The rest of the evening was great. The last two pics are of Lucy in her Halloween parade at preschool.

When Lucy Goes To School...

When Lucy goes to school, life might just be a little easier for baby Katie... Katie got something a little less boring for breakfast on this occasion when she found Lucy's waffle that she didn't finish before preschool. Nice break from oatmeal and yogurt. I found Katie on top of Lucy's desk playing DJ, putting in a new CD. Maybe her taste in music differs from Lucy's.

Here is Katie Just chillin' in Lucy's chair with nobody to push her out or tell her not to eat the book.
...and she gets her pick of the dress up stuff. Katie loves it when Lucy comes home from school, but she does get a nice little break for a few hours while Lucy is away. Don't worry Lucy, Katie still loves you.

Call Me Cutie-Pie

Okay, so many of you might know that I'm not talented in the hair styling department... at least when it comes to long hair. That is because I only have had long hair once in my whole life, and I think the pregnancy hormones tricked me into cutting it last year. Bummer. So I'm trying to grow my own out, but somehow the stylists in hawaii don't know what a trim is! Anyhow, I can't do a messy bun, french braids or pretty much anything but a ponytail. I was proud of myself when I put some cute spiral curls in Lucy's hair before preschool today. As she was walking out the door with Kenric, I said "bye Princess Lucy, I love you." She replied "I love you. But mom, don't call me Princess Lucy. Call me Cutie Pie." Done.

Laie Trip

So what do you do when you bug-bomb your house and have to be gone the entire day? Drive up to the Super exciting Laie. Okay, it is exciting that there is a Temple and BYU-H... but that is it. Literally. Well, there is a Mc Donalds (yes we went there to). Here are some pictures of us girls outside the visitors center while Kenric was in the temple. Katie really wanted to get in the fountain. Fun times.

An abrupt ending...

We had a lovely time at Lanakai Beach (it's beautiful) until we had to leave all of the sudden. It was bound to happen. Lucy got stung by a jellyfish. I know, boring. We were all in the water and I saw the little sucker, so I recruited Kenric to get it out of the water with a stick. Katie, Lucy and I were rushing out of the water, but a wave brought it over to us. It attached itself to Lucy's knee, so she had to pull it off, resulting in a finger sting as well. You can imagine the hysteria, so we packed up and left. A few Barbie bandaids and a slurpee later, and she was fine. What a bummer.

Katie Turned ONE!

Yesterday, August 31st, Katie turned one. We had a few presents for her to open... and you can see she had a little help from her big sister. Thanks for the fun gifts G & G Sharp, G & G Russell, Jamie & Andy, Jennifer & Michelle. Lucy... I mean Katie :) loves them!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Well, she did it... Katie made it to ONE! Good job Katie!

What a Ham

Lucy is quite the Ham as you can see. We'll see what her preschool teacher has to say when she flashes her one of these looks. Hollywood here we come-- or not.

Lucky Charms

Well we all know that it's easy for kids of all ages to pick out the "good" part of lucky charms cereal. Katie is no exception to this rule. She eats all the marshmallows at lightning speed and then licks off her fingers. As you can see from the cereal on her high chair tray, she can pick out the marshmallows without a problem. She did, however, miss the one that was stuck to her face. I just thought it was too cute not to take a pick.