April

Our cousin Camille had a fun Anna & Elsa birthday party. All the little girls were in heaven!

For spring break/conference weekend we went to Midway. Haley and her kids came for a sleepover. We had fun geocaching, hot tubbing, watching Big Hero 6 and eating at Dairy Keen. 

Then Dave came and joined us for the weekend. We love conference, even with all the antsy little ones! 

Here's a Sunday morning photo shoot. Hannah is wearing the dress Ann Tyler made for Allison as a toddler. 

Allison is wearing her ALL time favorite, "boat dress" that our neighbor Amy Segul gave us. She begs to wear it daily. 

Becca is wearing a dress from Carters. But she's got a pretty cute smile, eh? 

Another Sunday Morning, Dave took the girls downtown to visit the temple. They loved going on an outing with their Dad. 

A mission companion of Dave's asked if his friends could stay at our home while coming to a conference here in SLC for a company called 4Life. We hosted 2 sisters, but had a variety of Panama friends coming and going at all hours of the night for the week. We took the sisters on a tour of the conference center. We hosted a big dinner on their last night in Utah with everyone and they kept us entertained singing "Pa- a- n-a-m-a, PANAMA!" chants. The girls loved it.  

Dave and I had a rainy date night downtown to go out to eat at a fancy restuarant and see "Meet the Mormons" at the Legacy Theater. The temple square flowers were out of this world. 

EASTER!! Here are the Shields Cousins at the annual egg hunt. Marc and Natalie drove down from Seattle so everyone could meet baby Rosie. 

The Easter Bunny came and brought new outfits, a bubble blower, and candy! Here are the girls chasing bubbles on a beautiful spring day.

Some cell phone snapshots include: 

Taking Grandpa Shields to lunch for his birthday. 

Hannah playing babies and moving into a big girl bed.  

Allison being the queen of big breakfasts at 10 am. 

Sara's Senior Recital (those were her flowers!) 

Mom, Becca and Allison going to the movies to see the new Cinderella. 

Smore's parties, movie parties, and art parties, galore! 

March

Finally a snowstorm!! We had a mellow winter, the girls were eager to work and  play in the snow. We camped out at home for the day. Becca and I built a fort, we drank hot chocolate, repacked our 72 hour kits, and recharged our emergency preparedness stuff! 

Allison turned 4! She wanted this doll from Target for months and was so happy to open it up. We celebrated with Grandma/Grandpa's and went with our little family to Classic Skating.

  Lucky Charms breakfast with Daddy and an ice cream party with our neighbor Max were some of the week's festivities. This is the Elsa nightgown she's loving right now.

EVERY morning, Hannah requests "EGGS AND TOAAAAAST" from her crib right when she wakes up. I had to take a picture to document this phase.

 Dave and I had a fun date night at the Huntsman Center watching a few of his old time favorite Pro-Tennis players. He was stoked to see Andre Agassi play in real life. 

 Cake decorating! 

 Allison and Elizabeth are only 1 week apart, so they like to celebrate together every year. 

We had the Bauman Family Easter Dinner at Blake & Dianne's home in Draper.  Here are all the cousins before the big egg hunt!

 Hannah just playing around. 

Cute girls in their navy stripes. Becca coordinated everyone to match one day, so we had a little photo shoot before we headed out the door! 

 The  girls all wore their white wedding dresses for Easter Sunday. 

Cell phone highlights: Neighborhood gold hunts, playing house and dress ups, a quick girls getaway with my USU friends, slushies after school, park dates and the girls first official lemonade stand!

Allison loves to load up the sleds with baby dolls and go for walks up and down the street. The girls love to hide under this umbrella tree in the yard, they call it the "blossom club". Sara played at Abravanel Hall and also had her Senior Recital this month.

February

Family bowling night. 

Hannah's 2nd Birthday. Her favorites were her new quilt, her minnie mouse and a backpack full of cookies and bubbles.

She loved wearing the birthday crown and being queen for a day. 

 We took a family trip to St. George with all the Bauman Cousins. We played at the sand dunes, rode tandem bikes, and went to the temple. 

 We went swimming, had a Grandma/Grandpa Tennis camp, and ate dinner at In N' Out. 

The kids especially loved the Children's Museum. 

Cute cousins at the pool.....

We wrapped up the trip with a beautiful sunset, Hannah sleeping through church, and then we headed back home to reality.

 Grandma Shields took us to a jazz concert at BYU for Valentines day.  Sara and Christian babysat our girls and they had fun watching a movie and playing at their house.  

 Dave's Mom turned 60 and we threw a surprise party for her. We had a fun night, (adults only!) celebrating a wonderful woman.

Cell phone snapshots include playdates, flying kites, reading books, our monthly art wall, and grocery shopping in the favorite, "car cart." 

Happy Hannah sporting a furry vest. 

Becca wrote this funny note after a fight she and Allison had. We're still laughing over her matter of factness. She also won a reading competition at school and she chose a clip on reading light for her prize. Here is Allison with her Monkey school friends. We learned the letter O and made Octopus stuffed animals. 

January

A new year! Dad surprised us with an evening trip to Scheels, the kids were already bathed and ready for bed, but we went anyway and had a blast! 

Dave and I went on a vacation together! We planned a layover in Seattle, so we could stop in and visit Marc & Natalie and meet their new baby Rosie. They treated us like royalty and even sent us away with some delicious cronuts! 

Then we were off to Kauai! We went on a helicopter tour around the island. 

 Hiked down to Wailua falls and swam in the freezing cold water. 

 Spent the evenings watching the sun set while relaxing on the beach at our hotel.  

We did a lot of snorkeling, boogie boarding, eating (Shocker!) sleeping and reading. 

Some highlights were going to a Dinner/Dancing Luau  and hiking the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali coast. We made it all the way to  Hanakapi'ai Falls, (but not without blisters or sore legs!) But we swam in the falls once we got there, and it made it all worth it! 

We went to church, drove Waimea canyon, visited as many beaches as we could and had a fantastic trip. We're grateful to our parents who watched our little ones so we could get away! 

 After we got home, we spent the rest of January having playgroups, working, going to b-ball games, making smoothies with our new blender, quilting, bubble baths and lots of reading. We hosted a dinner party with all of Dave's new team at work, and everyone even got a turn with the stomach flu. :) 

December

The girls had a little Christmas Ballet Recital. 

 We visited the Live Nativity at the Bonneville Glen. Perfect weather, beautiful Nativity, followed up by sugar cookie decorating and hot cocoa with cousins at our house. 

 Becca's 2nd Piano Recital. She played Jingle Bells and The Nativity Song while her sisters and I played some percussion. After the recital we went to This is the Place to see the ChristKindleMarket. 

8 year Anniversary! We went downtown on our date so I could check out Dave's new office. He started a new job the same week as Thanksgiving. We had fun strolling around the city (kidless) and ate dinner at Michalangelos. 

 First Presidency Devotional and Gingerbread Decorating at Grandma Shields' House. 

 Our December zoo trip was very memorable. Grandma Bauman came with us and ran into an old friend who worked at the zoo. She hooked us up with the inside scoop! We got to see the Lions, Elephants and seals feed with their trainers and NO other crowds of people.  

 10th Annual Ugly Sweater Party! Great Grandma Shields was the host this year. Such a funny tradition. 

 Bauman Family Christmas Party. We loved watching a slideshow of photos from the good ole' days while the party was going on. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Bauman made us this gingerbread house! The house is reuseable, so we can't wait to decorate it for ourselves next year! 

 The girls had fun at the Bauman Polar Express and the Shields Christmas sleepover. Hannah has developed a HUGE fascination with dress ups. Shoes, accessories and princess dresses are a daily occurence. 

 Santa made a visit to the ward party. Hannah and her friend Lucy were NOT happy about it. 

 We also saw Santa at our neighborhood gas station. They weren't too sure about this one, but he gave them all a sucker, so it worked out to their advantage! 

Surprise Dinner with the Shields Fam.

Sledding! We went once with Dad and another time with cousins. Even Hannah loved flying down the hill. 

We had the Nichols and Shields Family Christmas parties on the same night. At first we were bummed, (we hate to miss out on the fun!) but it worked out perfect. The Nichols party was at 5:30 and when we arrived at 5:33, almost everyone was there. We ate, chatted, had a magic show, had dessert and took off around 7:15. We got to Provo just before 8 and the Shields Clan was just finishing up dinner. We still got to play basketball, and do the gift exchange. 

Happy little Christmas girl, Hannah.  

 Christmas Sunday. Yay for the self timer. Dave sang and played with the choir. I sang, Jesu Bambino in a trio in sacrament meeting. We practiced the song one night at our house for about 45 minutes one evening. Dave and I were shocked to discover that Becca sat down at the piano and plunked out the whole melody of the song by ear. She REALLY loves music. It's fun to watch her take off. 

 We went to the Mo Tab Christmas concert with the Sesame Street Muppets and brought Becca too. She loved it! We had a fantastic Gift of the Heart Evening with the Bauman Family and all the cousins exchanged gifts. 

On Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity, sang songs,  and left out treats for Santa and his reindeer. Allison was SO adorable during the LUKE 2 story. She insisted on being Mary, and was decked out in her princess high heels. She even thought up the idea of using the rocking bear so she could have something to ride. For being 3 years old, she is FULL of creative ideas. 

 Christmas morning was SO magical this year. It snowed all night and we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow. The girls were so thrilled with all of it. After opening up presents and a big breakfast Dave took them all outside and they built a snowman. Their favorite gifts were Becca's Easy Bake Oven, Allison's strider bike and the pink walkie talkie's. Hannah was so giddy just to be a part of all the fun. After all the present wrapping chaos, Hannah disappeared for a while. The bottom right photo was where we found her. Just perched in the baby crib, reading. 

On Christmas day, all the grandparents came by to exchange presents with us. Later that evening we went up to the Bauman's and had dinner and played spoons. The road was SO slippery and snowy we barely made it up the hill! 

Uncle Derek was fresh home from Thailand and had some cool treasures and photos to share. We swam at Fairmont, visited Jump around Utah, and had fun singing songs and acting out plays with cousins. We loved all the christmas cards, baking and (of course!)  art projects galore. Sad to see this happy season come to an end, but it's time to move on! 2015-- here we come!!