Here come a bazillion pictures

Watching a plane fly over them

playing in the jump house from Great Uncle Stephen

Elise's 1st snow

Hmmm, so this is how Elise wakes up...

Elise's 1st hair cut (we're real professional here)

Enjoying the children's museum and a bubble with Daddy

One of Elise's favorite activities- building with blocks

We decided to finally become grown ups and get a bed frame and stop sleeping on the floor. We went from this:

to this: (nice, huh?)

Elise writing in her journal

Jeremy's 32nd birthday

My TWO princesses

The finished quilt- the loud colors totally fit its recipient

Tour of the fire station across the street

One of Elise's MANY faces

Lovin' Red Rock

A new little Gwin monkey

Elise's 1st trip to the strip (Isis' 3rd?) for the fountains of course

Grandpa and Uncle Timothy loved the children's museum as much as the girls

Simple pleasures - sunlight through crystals make dancing rainbows that are really fun to try to catch. :)

Fun playgroup outing to Great Harvest

(My Isis is too cute)

Peek-a-boo is another fun game at our house

someone really loves it :)

One trip to Utah meant a visit with some of our best friends the Giani family
Isis and Little Sal having a blast

Still Isis but the grown ups had just as much fun at Jump Around Utah

The occasion for the trip was to see Ruben, a friend of Jeremy's from Chile.

He also got to see one of his old mission companions

best buddies

Another of Elise's hobbies is tackling Isis

Feeding the ducks and geese at Sunset Park

A totally awesome dad in action

1st pigtails (barely)

Dying Easter eggs

Elise was mad when it was time to stop dying eggs. How mad? See for yourself...

Have I mentioned she throws wonderfully loud dramatic tantrums?

she's a pro

Isis is accoustumed to this problem

Easter sweethearts

sharing Easter goodies

The excitement of your 1st Easter egg hunt

dance! (she loves it!)

crazy play time in the backyard

Elise's 1st time painting

I can paint my fingers too?!

I love that this girl gets excited about everything

Isis the Pirate with her treasure and map

Here's a look at my creative and smart little girl.

Using the baby wrap, she made a hammock for her dolls.

Then an indoor swing for herself! :)

Today we went to the grand opening of the new library by our house. Hooray! We are so excited for it!

That's it! Did you survive to the end of this post? You must be my family... or one of my best friends. :) All this work sure motivated me not to fall behind again!!

A message from your neighborhood radiation safety professional

With all that is going on in Japan, just a couple of thoughts:
1. People in the US, stop freaking out... and for heaven's sake, stop hoarding potassium iodide pills.
2. Let's pretend that all the reactors blew up and a radioactive cloud goes into the air...

• the cloud will follow the wind currents
• there will be settling of materials (things with mass will fall because of gravity) so this means a lot of it will be deposited in the ocean.
• Rain could make the radioactive particles deposit on the ground or sea
• by virtue of being airborne it will disperse and the concentration will decrease (kind of like LA's smog floating west and by the time it reaches Las Vegas, the smog concentration is low)
• It is good that they are on the coast and there is a lot of ocean

3. Environmentalists: what is more damaging? Oil refinery, natural gas, coal, and chemical plant sludge, fires, and spills into the environment or some radiation? I'm sorry, I would go with the sludge.
4. Don't believe most of what you hear in the media.

• I nearly died when the CNN weatherperson explained how a nuclear reactor worked.
• You are not a nuclear expert if you don't have a degree in nuclear engineering, health physics, or some sort of radiological science.
• Most media will try to make you fear and give misinformation or blatantly wrong info or interpret info in a horrible way.
• Here's some good websites: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students.html and http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/ and http://www.energy.gov/ and http://www.hps.org/

There's just so much to say and so little time. Generally, we as Americans are stupid when it comes to science... especially when you mention "radiation." This is why I love my job! But, the reactors in Japan are having real difficulty (you would to if you just got hit with a 9.0 and a tsunami destroyed your equipment). Hope for the best and pray for those 150 or so nuke plant workers. Those guys are heroes.

Gwin Family New Year's Party

I really like taking pictures of my kids with Christmas lights. (I just like taking their picture...) This time they were coming down but still pretty. :)

At around 7:00pm we set the clock ahead and had a little New Year's party.

A kiss at "midnight"

She looks really happy in both, right?

Isis is in shock that's it's midnight because that means we have to leave the ball. :)

(Naturally, the only concept she has about midnight)

We pulled 3 poppers

And blew some streamers. We are a lively bunch. :)

HAPPY 2011 EVERYONE!!!

Christmas Day

The best part of Christmas morning is watching my kiddos.

Elise was excited about her very own baby (which she signed after holding it).

And she gave the cabbage patch a genuine hug that was hear melting.

Elise LOVES cell phones. Hello Elise, it's Santa.

Isis' favorite present by far. She almost freaked out when she opened it.

Loving Jessie

Merry Christmas morning!

Jessie had to have a partner. Luckily Grandma (Isis' favorite partner) also has Woody at her house. Man, can Grandma get any more awesome?!

I love Christmas!

Christmas with Family

We spent Christmas in Tucson with my family and had a great time. (I am too lazy to add captions so just pictures...)

(What's a Willis gatherine without going shooting?)