Random quotes

Ben has a new job in Loa Utah, and eventually he will be carpooling with three other guys to Loa, which is 150 miles away, once a week and staying over night, but for three weeks so far he has had to drive. I don't mind not having a vehicle, since I try not to rely on a vehicle anyways. In any case I was biking around with my girls yesterday, going to the track, the bank, grocery store, you know the usual stuff. Anyway Autumn was sitting behind me in the trailer. At one point she comments:

"Mommy you have a big bum. You need a new bike seat that is bigger to fit your bum. My bikeseat is perfect for my bum."

And there you have it from a 3.5 year old.


Tonight when I was getting her ready for bed she was really deliberating what t-shirt to wear to bed, her 2006 women's NCAA championship t-shirt (that she got from her baba russ) or her ernie and bert shirt. Finally she said:

"I'll wear the ernie and bert shirt, but I wish I could wear both but I can't, I don't have two heads."

Autumn keeps things lively. The girls are really starting to interact and play together. it is so great to have two kids, I love it.

Autumn and her Aunt Laura goofing around with the digital camera

Pictures and update

Autumn and Prairie in their new dresses. Autumn has been wearing hers all week saying that she is Cinderella. She is very into the Disney princesses

The weather had been cold the week before Prairie's birthday, and since it has warmed back up, it almost seems warm enough to clean out the kiddie pool and get that set up in the backyard. We have been spending a lot of time in the backyard. We are furiously trying to get the backyard ready for gardening. The yard is very overgrown, and because of a large cement wall in the backyard, there is very little space that gets a lot of sun. My friend and I decided to take out a rose garden, so yesterday I was working like crazy to get rose bushes out, because it is the only place in the backyard that really gets full sun, so if you love roses so sorry, but we will have fresh vegetables this summer and I am sooo excited. I was hacking away at these rose bushes with a pick axe. My entire upper torso was sore this morning when I woke up and I couldn't figure it out at first, because I was thinking that running wouldn't do that to me. Anyway I need to take some pictures. I really wish I would have done some before and after pictures because the backyard was really overgrown. It is really fun to work with my friend because she has all kinds of plans on how we could improve the yard, plant flowers ect. Working on the yard gets me excited about having our own home someday.

The girls have loved being in the back yard. We have set up the small tent, and Autumn and her friends have had so much fun playing in it. Prairie is pretty pleasant as ever. Ben was having her go down the slide on the swingset yesterday and she couldn't get enough of it. I love the weather we are having right now, and am enjoying being outside sooo much. It is so great to have fenced backyard, with a covered porch, with a table and chairs, so it is convient to eat meals in the backyard and all around hang out. This yard is so great to invite people over. I really love where I live. Also because I am in the basement, our apartment stays way cooler than the upstairs, yay!

So that is what has been going on. I haven't been taking my camera to the backyard, so I don't have a lot of pictures.

Prairie in our high chair, and Autumn in a borrowed high chair (for when my nephew was here for Prairie's birthday party) - Autumn naked how she likes to be at home

Autumn still needs a nap. On sundays she doesn't get a nap because of when church is. When we got home she took all the cushions off the couches and had them lined up on the floor for a pool, that's why her swimsuit was on. Then she was getting grumpy and snuggly, and she fell asleep in her Aunt Jennie's lap, which never happens. She fell asleep at 6:40 and was asleep for the night.

Prairie's Party

The birthday girl had a little congestion :)

Prairie enjoying her pizza

We had homemade bar-be-que chicken pizza, and a pepparoni-broccoli-pineapple pizza. We had my sister, Jennie, and then Ben's two sisters and his sister's husband and son, and we were luckily enough to have Poopa in town for Prairie's birthday. It was finally nice weather, so after dinner, we did cake and ice cream in the backyard and the kids could play on the swingset. It was a really nice evening.

Prairie "opening" her gifts, they were just all dumped into that bag

Prairie using her new helmet, and riding in the big kid seat, enjoying the seat, not so sure about wearing a helmet

Aunt Jennie took Prairie for a short ride also

Prairie with her one candle, Autumn blew it out for her

Prairie got to sit in the grass and dig into her cake and ice cream, she really enjoyed it

Aunt Laura let Prairie wipe all of her dirty hands all over the pants

The down sides of black frosting - black lips, teeth and tongue

our goth little 3-year-old

Happy Birthday Prairie!

Prairie's birthday cake, chocolate cake, with white chocolate frosting, yum!

Today is Prairie's first birthday. Autumn has been really excited, and admitedly so have I. I know she probably won't care about her couple of gifts that much, but it is still fun to do something special for her.

Prairie's baby with its pajamas on

She is getting her first doll, and I made the doll a pair of pajamas that matches a blanket that Prairie almost always uses that her Grandma Ciccotelli made for her. The baby is also going to have a matching blanket. She is getting a bike helmet so she can ride in the trailer without her carseat. I am excited and apprehensive about the girls riding in the trailer together, worried that the fighting might start :)

Anyways I have been busy getting ready for a little family get together for her birthday, but wanted to show the one year difference.

Prairie's picture taken at the hospital

Ben's hand on Prairie at the hospital, 10 hours after she was born

Prairie - current

Sugar and Spice and everything nice .... or maybe not so nice

Let's just say 8 lbs of sugar in Autumn's bedroom. It was a "bath" for Autumn and her friends' feet.

NY Grandparents

Last week the Ciccotelli Grandparents were in town for my step-brother's graduation, and his baby's blessing. Also it was pointed out to me that I made a mistake with Ty Ciccotelli's birthday, he was actually born on March 9th, sorry to Ty, Jason and Christy for that mistake.

Autumn really enjoyed having her grandparents staying at our apartment, and also her uncle Christ, which she hasn't spent much time with before. She was really sad when they had to leave on Sunday, she said she wanted to go the airport with them, and go to New York. I don't think she realized that Chris went with them, because when she woke up the next day, she asked where Chris was when she saw the couch empty.

We had a lot of fun having a bunch of bar-be-ques, and also going ice skating as a family. Grandpa Ciccotelli remembered how much work it is to skate with a 3-year old, and also how hard the mountain elevation can be on your lungs.

Ben started a new job on Monday in Loa, Utah, which is a little over 2.5 hours away from our house. He goes once a week and stays over night. He is working with drug-addicted teens, and he is doing counseling with them. It is a wilderness treatment center, so the kids learn how to rough it. Ben had additional training, and left early Monday morning before I got up, and was suppose to be back last night (wednesday), but the transmission on our car fried a few miles outside of Loa, so he was stuck there another night. One of the field staff that is working there is going to salt lake city tonight, so ben is going to hop a ride with him. So I have been with the girls by myself since monday morning, and my upstairs neighbors were out of town, and Autumn usually plays with their little girl every day, so we were a little lonely this week. they got back yesterday evening, and we have already been to their house a couple of times.

The weather has been so nice, almost warm enough that it feels like summer, so yesterday I packed up all the winter clothes and put all of the summer clothes in the girls' drawers. Well we wake up this morning and it is wet and soggy, and cold. There is snow on the mountain and we have had sleet, hail and some freezing rain. So much for being on top of the clothes for the seasons.


Autumn is still quite the organizer. She usually all of my exercise DVD's as beds for these animals.


Autumn was running around saying she was the baby catcher. I have no idea where she got the idea for this, but she was using the tongs to "catch" babies, don't ask me where the babies were, or what the babies were that she was catching. She was having a lot of fun, like she always does. She is so imaginative in her play.



We started some very preliminary potty training with Prairie. I was really excited because the first two times we set her on the potty she went, so that is exciting, plus she just looks so cute, and old sitting on the potty.

Hanging out at one of the bar-be-que's from the weekend with the Ciccotelli grandparents.

Autumn all grown up riding her bike to the park (with training wheels of course).

Prairie enjoying playing with the toothbrush while we walk and Autumn rides to the park

Prairie playing

So Prairie amazed me. She played for an hour with poker chips and play dishes. I couldn't believe that she had the attention span to play with the same thing for that long, I have never seen that. She would fill up the cups with poker chips, and then shake them until all of the poker chips had flown out, and then she would begin refilling the cups. I thought I would come and play with her and have some quality mommy-daughter time, but she could care less that I wanted to play with here, she was having so much fun and was so enertained without me.

Prairie with the cups and poker chips

Autumn and Prairie in their matching outfits that I made in New York in March, that Autumn has refused to wear since I finished hers. Since she was willing to wear it yesterday I tried to get a lot of pictures of them wearing their outfits.

Autumn and Prairie in our double stroller going for a walk

These are the dresses I was going to make for Easter. I was creative with my scaps and was able to make dresses for Autumn's baby, Atticus, and the baby that Prairie is getting for her birthday on Monday. Autumn has been really funny about this baby, because she will tell me to whisper if I am talking about the clothes I am making for it or whatver, because it is for Prairie's birthday and it is a secret and we don't want Prairie to know. Autumn is such a blast to have around.