goodbye 2011

2011 was a good year for us barkers!
we had lots of fun and lots of adventures.
the girls learned how to roll over, sit up, crawl, walk and talk (sort of)! it was an eventful year for them!
dallin and i had a lot of fun going on trips, hiking, moving (twice!), and just spending time together.

we love our girls and each other very much and hope that next year is as good as 2011 was!

happy new year!

going to the zoo

yesterday while i was at work, dallin, kira, grandma karen and grandpa dave took the twins to the zoo. as you can see, they had so much fun!

grandma with fiona, grandpa with sabrina:

sabrina (in the next 4):

fiona (in the next 4):

Christmas 2011

this year's Christmas was a lot of fun for us.  the girls weren't big enough to really understand what was going on, but they still had fun and so did we.

thanks to Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Dianne, we got a lifesize Christmas tree this year!  it was beautiful and big and we loved it! thank you!  

fiona (pink) and sabrina (blue) 

loved climbing onto the couch and pulling off all the ornaments they could get their hands onto.  

once, they even squirmed underneath the futon to get at the tree! 

those girls are too clever for their own good!

the girls also LOVED (and climbed on and squished and squeezed and snuggled with) the giant Christmas bear we borrowed from Auntie Kati, but as you can see, Dallin liked it quite a bit too!

we got a gingerbread house to decorate and had a lot of fun eating all the candy that was supposed to make it onto the house:

my house:

dallin's house:

but really, it was the same house, we just decorated different sides of it.  as you can see, dallin CLEARLY has more artistic ability than i do :)

and for some good measure, some funny pictures of the girls

fiona left, sabrina right:

stuffing their faces full of yummy bananas

(i don't know where they got that! neither dallin nor i like bananas...)

one of fiona's newest poses:

fiona left, sabrina right:
just having fun eating.
i love that they are always so happy and full of smiles!

christmas eve:

fiona borrowing cousing cannon's hat:

sabrina is awfully concentrated on getting the container open:
(doesn't she have beautiful eyes?!)

 

fiona = super sleepy (look at that lip!)

sabrina left, fiona right: enjoying their new camping chairs!

christmas day in their beautiful Christmas dresses (thanks again Grandma Dianne): santa came!

sabrina LOVING her new bunny

fiona enjoying her new sippy cup

fiona left, sabrina right:

sabrina left, fiona right:

sabrina left, fiona right:
(they posed themselves like this for the picture!)

we had a wonderful Christmas season and loved spending time with family and friends! we saw some wonderful things and made some wonderful memories and have some new traditions (Festival of Trees).  even though the girls didn't understand what Christmas was this year, I'm excited for how fun it will be next year! Merry Christmas everyone!

a day in the life of:

sabrina and fiona are very busy these days! they are hard at work growing big and strong, eating, wearing hats, climbing on everything, laughing, smiling, playing together and just being awesome!

they love to play with our cell phones, remotes, keys (basically anything that isn't a toy), binkies, stuffed animals, etc. and "sharing" them with each other (i.e. taking them from each other

sabrina:

fiona:

fiona strips, sabrina solid:

fiona climbing:

fiona pink, sabrina brown:

fiona purple, sabrina pink:

the great couch recover

back in september (on the day of the poop-scipade), Dallin and i went to buy fabric to recover our ailing couch.  this couch has been through a lot.  it first belonged to my sister Jen and then to my brother Ben. after several years of love, we received it.  it has been a wonderful couch but was in desperate need of a makeover.

we didn't get around to recovering it until november.
here is the before:

 

and here is the after:

my mom did most of the work. she is a total pro! i was not brave enough to do it on my own and she talked me through every step of the way and finished it off for me. i LOVE the new couch, it looks amazing if i do say so myself!

November 2011 & Thanksgiving

i'm slightly ashamed that i didn't take very many pictures in November. a lot of the month, we were packing everything up so that we could move to a different (smaller, 2-bedroom) apartment in our ward.

fiona left, sabrina right:

they love to wear these hats, are always putting them on themselves and each other

our Thanksgiving dinner: 

this year, our Thanksgiving was small. just Dallin and I, the girls and Jana & Mark.  

our first time cooking a turkey was both successful and delicious!

even sabrina (pink) and fiona (purple) enjoyed the turkey, beans, yams, stuffing, etc:

playing on some of the things we gave away in our move. 

they are so concentrated!

sabrina left, fiona right: