Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

Just a quick post to share some pictures of the girls in their 2011 Easter dresses and new shoes. This is Alyssa's first set of heels (1.5") and she's doing quite well with them.

One of our favorite books when the girls were young was Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, about a little bug who ate and ate and grew and grew until he became a beautiful butterfly. Oops--did I just give away the ending? Anyway, we've had our own very hungry caterpillar at the house this year--Alyssa. Take a look at this back-to-school photo of her with Anna, from just this past August. Now compare that to this photo, taken one week ago. Hmm. Maybe it's not so obvious, since Anna's wearing heels. Pardon me for one moment while I make the girls take another picture. She's grown at least two inches; maybe even three. In fact, she's grown so much she's taken over a bunch of Anna's clothes. Yes, our girls are growing up.

Last weekend, our oldest child became a teenager. The transition came without a lot of fanfare. There was, however, soup. Only the birthday girl could get a way with asking for soup when it's 100 degrees outside. There was cake, too. Lemon cake with lemon icing. Not quite the candle inferno her parents' birthdays cause, but she's getting there. And, of course, presents. Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you.

We survived summer vacation. Woo! Actually, Anna had a pretty good summer. Alyssa, on the other hand, contracted a serious case of boredom. She also had the munchies like crazy, and grew over an inch since April. Woah! The girls both had end-of-summer swim parties for church, but I was only able to make it to the primary activity. I purposefully did not wear my swimsuit so as to encourage Alyssa to have some fun on her own, which she did - kind of. Actually, she just sweet talked other adults into helping her swim around. But I guess that's okay. In honor of Back To School, we bought Anna an early birthday present - a desk for her to do her homework on. She was almost happy-tears excited. This morning we had a pretty easy time of things. I've been getting up at 6:15 all summer so I can get in some outside chores and do some writing before I buckle down at the day job. Since the girls are both at schools that start on the same, later schedule, that was plenty early for Anna and ...

Each year, my mother-in-law springs for new Easter dresses for the girls. When they were small, shopping for dresses was a lot of fun - pile them both in the car and hit a couple of shops at the mall. Now that they are older - especially Anna - the trip has become a bit more complicated. For one thing, Alyssa is still in girls sizes (just barely) while Anna is in misses, so they aren't in the same section of the store. One of them will always be bored, and bored is bad. Yesterday I decided to take them out separately. I made Alyssa go with me during my regular grocery run, and we tacked on the mall. She was very excited to see the Easter Bunny. Fortunately, she didn't want to sit on his lap - just walk by and wave. I found a dress for her at JCPenny, which was only our second stop. Whew! Anna is not one for doing much shopping. It didn't require a headlock or bribe to get her into the truck this time, but I was starting to worry. We also went to JCPenny, where she found a c...

A couple of weeks ago, the girls were out of school for spring break. We were originally hoping for a trip to Utah, but that fell through. In the end, it's probably just as well, as the girls had a different activity pretty much every evening. I decided to take a half day off of work and take them to Dallas on the one night they didn't have anything else planned. So we piled into the van and started driving east. First stop: the Lego Store. Alyssa has really been into building with Legos lately, and since we'd never been I decided it would be a fun trip. They have this wall full of random Lego bits, and you can fill these little plastic bins with whatever fits. We got a lot of wheels - Lego wheels are the best. They also have some bins where you can build your own mix and match Lego people. I was a little disappointed in the selection, but the girls had a great time, anyway. These dudes were maybe not as good of a value as the mix-n-match bins, though. We found a store wit...

We had a great week - lots going on. It's almost too busy sometimes. But it's a good kind of busy. Last Saturday, we went to a BYU-Hawaii Alumni reunion at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Plano. It took us 90 minutes to get there, but it's still a lot closer than Kaneohe. We had a good time and good food. The girls did okay with the food, although their favorite was the malasadas. Yeah, that sounds about right. This weekend was really, really busy. It started on Friday night, when Anna went to the Valentine's Masquerade dance at the middle school, which was rescheduled after the big snow a couple of weeks ago. She said only 10% of the attendees actually danced, and 90% of the kids practiced the fine art of wallflowering. Sounds about right for a bunch of 12- and 13-year olds. Saturday morning, Alyssa and I went to Ft Worth for the Cowtown 5k race. It was all of 29 degrees when we left - brr! We dressed up nice and warm, though. Compare that picture of Alyssa and I to this ...

Okay - so it's been ten days since the last roundup. They have been busy days, and I'm doing good to get this update posted at all. I traveled to Utah last week for work, and managed to have some fun while I was there. One of the things I did was go to the Devil's Food Cake book launch party for the lovely and talented Josi Kilpack. I talked my mom into going with me. You can read more details on my writer's blog . I'm giving away a copy of the book over there, so you'll want to check it out. While I was driving on dry streets in Utah, Kara and the girls enjoyed a record-setting, school-closing snow storm. They made cookies, too. Lots and lots and lots of cookies. I went to the UVU Culinary Arts School Valentines Dinner with my dad and Candy. The dinner was great. The next day, my nephew Nathan was baptized. I got a picture of most of the cousins. Plus one of me and Nathan. Then on the way home, I ran into my friend Ron at the airport. I had Monday off work, so...