Odds and ends

So recently Isabella has become very interested in heaven. Her beloved Grandpa Bob passed away last year and at the time we discussed with her that he has gone on to heaven and that we will see him again someday when we die. And in the weeks that followed his death she would often bring up the fact that Grandpa was now living in heaven but then we hadn't heard much from her about it until last month. One morning as I was taking her to preschool she said " Mom, I will miss my Barbies when I go to heaven." I told her that heaven was going to be so nice that she would forget all about her Barbies. She then followed up by stating "I hope I have a nice bedroom there." A few days later she told Peter that she really hopes there's lunch in heaven. I have to agree with her on that one. It is just so interesting to hear the things that she is concerned about and then compare them with my big concern about heaven which is whether or not I am even going to get in.

This afternoon Bella went over to a friends house to play so Ayva and I headed to the mall for a couple hours. I sort of need a new pair of jeans so we went into Nordstrom so I could try on EIGHT pairs. Can I just tell you how much I despise trying on jeans. No matter how good I am feeling about my body before I go into the dressing room I always come out feeling like I could stand to loose a few pounds. None of the eight pairs that I tried on fit good or looked good. I finally bought a pair from Ann Taylor but I will probably take them back. And how about cost? It seems like jeans have gotten so expensive. Let me ask you all this...on average how much do you spend on a pair of jeans? Do you prefer to spend a lot on one or two pairs of designer jeans that look really great on you or do you look for more affordable jeans that might not look as good but they are cheap? Ugh!

Here is a fun photo of Ayva that I took the other day. She really is growing up so fast. She is talking like a big girl, she has gotten picky about what she eats like a big girl and she is even dressing like a big girl. These little dress up high heels are her favorite shoes to run around the house in. Amazingly she really can run in them and go up and down the stairs in them. She is a crack up.

And my last little piece of randomness is some music suggestions. I bought these three albums from Amazon this week and think that they are all really good so I thought I would share them with you.


For the Kids is great because it is children's songs but they are sung by cool bands like Barenaked Ladies, Five for Fighting, Sarah McLachlan and Cake who sing the "Mahna Mahna" song. (our families favorite)

Corrine Bailey Rae's album is wonderful. I really like her voice and lyrics. My favorite song on the album is "Like a Star", it is very romantic.

Brother Iz's album is full of beautiful Hawaiian music. We put it on last night while we were getting dinner ready and listening to it made both Peter and I nostalgic for Hawaii. My favorite song on this album is "Somewhere over the Rainbow". I love the sound of the ukulele.

Well there you have it. Just a lot of bits and pieces from my brain. Enjoy.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Here they are in no particular order...

1. My husband and best friend, Peter. Don't tell him I said this because it will just go to his head but he is genuinely a great guy. He is very easy going and fun to be around once you get to know him. (Initially he can be a little shy) He is an amazing father and is always willing to come home and take over so that I can have a break even when he has had a long hard day at work as well. He has never raised his voice to me and is quick to forgive me when I raise mine at him. He is very kind, patient, smart and soooooo good looking. (great soccer legs!) We will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary this May and I have to say they have been the best 7 years of my life. Love ya hon!!2. I love to watch Isabella and Ayva learn new things. Last week Bella started a dance class and it was a thrill to go and watch her learn the see-saw rainbow kick and a plethora of other cute moves. She had such a fun time and so did I. Then Ayva has recently started to sing songs. Her favorites are Old MacDonald and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. I always sing songs to her while I change her diaper because it keeps her still and the other day she joined in while I was singing Popcorn Popping and even did the actions. It was so cute!

3. I love to spend $6 on a large bouquet of fresh flowers and have them last over a week. I bought these for myself on Valentine's Day and they still look beautiful. I have always loved having fresh flowers around but it is rare that they stay alive this long. Happy Valentines' Day to me!

4. A good eyebrow waxing. It pretty much speaks for itself.

5. A good run. For many years I have had a love/hate relationship with running. I have always wanted to be a runner but it definitely hasn't come easy for me. I started running on more of a regular basis about three and a half years ago and it wasn't until last summer that I had a really enjoyable run. It happened on the Burke-Gilman in Seattle. It was a beautiful day and Peter dropped me off at Matthews Beach. I ran along the Burke-Gilman to the Tracy Owen Station about 5 miles. The weather was perfect, warm with a slight breeze off the lake. I had my mp3 with me and listened to a little Josh Groban. My pace and my breathing remained smooth and rhythmic and my legs felt strong. It was a great feeling. It felt like a reward for all my past perseverance. Ever since that day I have felt like a runner.
**Side note** Speaking of running...I am trying to put a team together to run the Ragnar Relay in June. Teams are to have 12 members and so far I have 2 committed and 2 uncommitted. It is a 178 mile race with each member of the team running 3- 8 mile legs. Check out the web site for more info and then let me know if you are interested. http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php

6. Nature Valley Crunchy Cereal. This stuff is delicious!! I love their granola bars and this new cereal is even better. At the grocery store it was $4 something a box but at Target it was only $2.36 a box so I stocked up. (that is another thing I love, Target!) It is a little high in sugar but it is also high in fiber so give it a try.So there they are...six of my favorite things. Thanks to my friend Lauren for sharing some of her favorites things and inspiring me to do so as well.

Our week in review

This last week was packed full of good times here at the Colasurdo house. Valentine's Day was more like Christmas this year complete with gifts, lots of sweet treats and out-of-town guests coming to stay with us. The girls were totally spoiled thanks to their wonderful Aunt Abby in Seattle and their generous grandparents in Minnesota. Thank you to them for the fun Valentine Day goodies. And thank you to our good friends the Cramers for being our first house guests and staying with us while they were here for Adam's sisters wedding. It was a lot of fun to see them and meet there new little guy, Anders.

Then on Sunday night we had our good friends, the Nilssons, come over for dinner. They were in our ward back in Seattle but moved to Utah about 3 or so years ago. They were such a support to me when Bella was born and Peter was in Kuwait. Meredith was even in with me for the delivery and John sat patiently in the waiting room ready to lend a hand if needed. (Luckily it wasn't needed, that might have been awkward) Needless to say there is a special place in my heart for them and it is nice to be able to hang out with them again.

And to top off our great week we woke up to 4-5 inches of snow on the ground this morning so we went sledding. There is a fun little park down the road from us and it has a nice size hill for small kids to enjoy sledding on. Bella loves to get out and play in the snow. Ayva is a little harder to convince but once she starts having fun she forgets all about being cold.

We did have one little bummer incident today. As we were getting all of our sledding stuff together and getting the girls into the car we accidentally locked ourselves out of the house. We made a few attempts to brake in through the windows but they were all locked. Peter even tried using a credit card to brake in through the door that leads from the house to the garage but had no luck. So instead of calling a locksmith and paying what we assumed would be a lot of money we just took a heavy brick from the back yard and used it to smash the door handle to pieces. The cost to replace it was only $9 so we felt like it was necessary destruction. Good work Pete!

Updates on the girls

Isabella has really been enjoying preschool and is constantly amazing me with how smart she is. She has recently learned the days of the week and the months of the year. She especially likes May because that is when she will turn 4 and her mean parents will let her chew gum again. (She would always swallow it before so we told her no more until she was older and she got it into her head that 4 was older. Go figure!) I also caught her spelling the word brown today as she got herself dressed in her brown pants. My favorite thing about her preschool is that they have a song they sing that goes "we never hit or kick or push...our friends at Sunshine Square". I think they must have hypnotized the children and trained them to sing this song any time they hear someone say one of the key words, hit, kick or push because Bella will brake into song anytime she hears those words. It is hilarious!

She has also learned how to write her name a little bit better. Before she would just make a B and the two l's but now she has added in the vowels. We are still working on the Isa at the beginning. I think she is a bit resistant to writing out Isabella because I only call her that when she is in trouble.

Ayva is also doing well. Her vocabulary has quadrupled in the last couple of months and she has turned into a bit of a record player. She will pick up a new word and say it over and over again until I regret ever teaching it to her. She is such a sweetheart though. She will often ask for hugs and will put her hands on your cheeks and look you straight in the eye and ask "happy?" She had her 18 month check up last week and the doctor confirmed that she has metatarsis adductus which is a fancy name for pigeon toed. The doctors advice to me was to put Ayva's shoes on the wrong feet to help pull the toes out. I hate doing this. Not only does it look like I am an idiot but it makes it harder for Ayva to run around. But if it will work I will do it.

She is definitely all girl as you can see here. She wasn't happy getting her picture taken with her hair a mess and wearing nothing but a towel. Too cute!

Peter goes snowmobiling

I realized that our family blog has very little about Peter so I thought I would post some pictures of his latest adventure. Two weeks ago, he went snowmobiling up in Northern Utah with my brother, Forrest and his close friend Darren. It was a short trip, only two days, just long enough to have a great time and still get plenty sore from trying to control the snowmobile.

Looks like a lot of fun!!!