Count Down to Christmas- Favorite Holiday Movies

Ok, I know Thanksgiving isn't even over yet but I am sooo excited about Christmas this year. Maybe its because Presley is starting to understand who Santa is, or maybe its because I get to go home Dec 4th and start the Holidays early. But we have already started watching Christmas movies with the girls and I am loving it! I want to know what everyones favorite Christmas movies are. I want to make sure I'm not missing on any of the classics out there. Most of you that know us, know that we are BIG movie fans but it may surprise you that we are constantly finding movies we haven't seen. So please list them all:)

ps-- ABC family is starting their count-down to 25 days of Christmas. They have great shows every night http://community.abcfamily.go.com/25-days-christmas/schedule

My top 5
Elf
Christmas Vacation
(all old school claymation-- ie Rudolph, Year without Santa Clause etc.)
Christmas with the Kranks
Mickeys Christmas Carol

Presley and Layla's dance off

Another crazy Sat night at the clouds house. I crack up every time I watch this because Layla gets so excited she jumps her chair into the wall. Thank goodness she has a tray around it. And of course P is always cute being crazy, happy P.














I forgot to tell everyone that Presley got to help make Halloween cookies for the first time:) Well at least she tried to, she pretty much grabbed the fork I had out and would sneak little bites of the dough (takes after her dad!)

Trunk or Treat (my favorite time of year)

Our ward had our Halloween Trunk-or-Treat tonight. My friend and I decorated my trunk for the activity. The girls had a blast, well Presley (aka Tinkerbell) loved it. Layla (aka pink/purple bug) just hung out and tried to eat her hat. I decided to hand make their outfits (with a little help from Tiff sending me wings and booties for P) because we are limited on only walmart costumes here in Hilo and fabric is only 2$ a yard.--- Let me just say if I don't see a sewing machine for another 5 years it would be fine with me. It was more work then I bargained for, plus I didn't have patterns so I made it all up. (I had to re-fix everything a dozen times--hahah). The things you do for your kids!

Tinkerbell /happy little bug/family with our trunk/Our friends in HI

30 Something

Today I hit my dreaded milestone of "30". I survived and actually feel good about it. I decided to look at the small lines taking up residency under my eyes and welcome them as a reminder of all the wonderful years I have lived and how lucky I am to have a beautiful family who loves me. I woke up to phone calls from family members and ate lunch with 2 of my best girl-friends here in Hawaii (Ben watched the girls so I could have a real lunch break:) Then in the evening Ben took me to Maui Tacos where we split 1/2 price Taco Tuesday and came home and had a big spread of cakes and ice cream. It was great.

ps-- my sister posted a really cute B-day blog for me. Check it out (thanks Tiff, you made my day) http://tbuhman.blogspot.com/

P and I taking a ride before we ate tacos

Can Ben pick great B-day treats or what (I love him and his sweet tooth very much:)

New pics of girls

I wanted to show everyone how much the girls are growing (esp for those of you who don't live around us). Layla is really growing like a weed, she is quite possibly the biggest and strongest 4 month old ever. She can already sit up on her own. Presley is P-training and doing such a great job, I pick 3 times a day and put her on her potty and 70% of the time she actually goes--YAY P-lady:)

Our fast get-away to Honolulu

Ben and I can't decide if we want to finish up his last year of Pharm rotations in Honolulu or stay here in Hilo. So we decided Sat morning to catch the next flight out and check out the island of Oahu and the area we could be living in. We seriously booked a flt, room and rental car, packed 1 bag 2 babies and 2 car seats within 1 hour and left for the airport. We had a blast and LOVED Oahu. We got to see so many sites, the poor girls got dragged everywhere and got so tired but we only had 2 days and 1 night to fit it all in.

Dole Plantation

Layla at Laie Temple















Presley and Dad on Boat ride to USS Arizona (Pearl Harbor)















Mom and Girls at the beach in Waikiki














Big Gun at Pearl Harbor
















Temple in Laie (around the corner from BYU Hawaii)
















More Ships at Pearl Harbor

Presley Turns 2

My little baby is growing up. Today is her 2nd birthday. I can't tell you how much I love this little girl, I have thought all day long about all the memories I've shared with her, from the moment the Dr. placed her in my arms to the day she took her first steps. She is so precious to me, and I am so thankful that I get to spend my life with her.

Presley had a great little party with some of our friends and a few of hers. She loves all of her gifts "Thank you everyone for being so thoughtful!" She was so excited about her new toys that she didn't go to bed until way after 9 and she screamed until I let her sleep with some of them.

Slide show- Enjoy:)

Video- Blowing out candles

My cute Girls

Sunday we drove to Volcano state park and ate a picnic lunch. The girls looked so cute in these photos I couldn't resist posting them.

Sun-fun weekend

The school library was closed this weekend so Ben decided we should drive to the other side of the island to test out his new "toy" (his metal detector). He found a whole $ dollar $ in change--hahah:) But we had fun anyways. P loved playing feed the birds and Layla just chilled in her chest pack.

Back to Hawaii

We are back! Its been a really LONG time since I posted so I am updating on both of the girls.

Presley ( now 23 months) learned how to crawl in and out of a crib over the summer so we had to get her a toddler bed ASAP. This took a few nights of super nanny-ing it over and over & OVER. But after a week she is sleeping through the night, not getting up wandering around the house @ 3am and loving her nap time.





























Layla (now 3 months) has become a chubby baby who literally rolls over every time I put her on her belly. She is so sweet and calm all of the time.

Presley Update

P has been having a blast all summer! She is at a good age to start site seeing. We went to the KC Zoo, T-rex exhibit, planetarium, Chuck-E cheese, water park, playing at the dock on grandpas lake property-- you name it. She is becoming a good big sister (this took a while-- I think she thought Layla was a play doll for a while-hahah).. Plus she is really talking now. I cant count how many words she knows and she greets us every morning with a "hey mom, what you doing?" so cute..

Layla Update

Ok, I know its been a while. We are at my parents house in the mainland for the summer (Ben is interning in KC) and their Internet is a little in the dark ages!--haha:) But here goes--- this is a short update on what we have been doing (I don't have a photo editor on the comp--so you have to deal with red eye;0)

Both Presley and Layla are doing well and growing like weeds. Esp Layla-- I think she is even bigger then P was at her age (if that's possible:)... Enjoy--

Layla-2 weeks old

4 Weeks

6 weeks

8 Weeks

Introducing Layla May Cloud

Sorry it has taken me sooo long to post new pics of our new addition. I guess its the lack of sleep:) She was born May 22nd @ 6:40 pm. 7lbs, 2oz, 19in long. She is already growing like a weed and weighs over 8lbs now. Its funny how each of your children take on a different personality. Presley is the obnoxious one and Layla is so quiet and easy going. Thank goodness!!!:) Here are a few pics from birth to now of our pretty little girl. Enjoy.

Presleys last week as baby and only child

So this is it! Our new baby is coming tomorrow and poor Presley just spent her last week as the only child and our baby:( But she at least got to be spoiled from Grandma Nelson (who flew into HI on Tuesday night). We have been spending the last 2 days visiting local sites while Ben is on Hospital rotations. Presley has been having a ball with grandma and seems to have taken up with her quite a bit (thank goodness, because she is going to spend all day alone with her tomorrow:)! Oh- and did I mention I am soooo excited its my last day to be pregnant!!!!!!

(at the airport)

(At the Zoo - its a really small-- free zoo, but P loves it)

(At the Lava Tree State Park. )

Presley an artist in the making

I don't have much to blog about right now other then the normal (I need to have this baby now, I am miserable, can't sleep, uncomfortable--hahah:) So I thought I would take pictures of P coloring because who knows when I will update this after the baby comes. Presley needs another post before we have a new baby to blog about.

As you can tell Presley loves to color. She finally doesn't try to bite into the crayons. But I have to tape the paper down otherwise she colors on the table. (why do kids always do exactly what you don't want them to??) hahah. Kids-- Gotta love em. PS-- if you look closely she mainly colors with her left hand-- she may turn out like her daddy and be a lefty.

My new stroller-- I LOVE it

Ben and I have had our share of stroller problems. Partly because we bought a crappy stroller that was in our budget when P was born and it fell apart. Then I just used a small umbrella stroller for P after that (needless to say it worked better for her then the old one).. But we decided we needed a double stroller, mostly because my favorite thing to do is walk at the park every day. So Ben researched and found a double tandem stroller he loved and we found a good deal on Amazon for it-- with free shipping to Hawaii!!. The good thing about it is that is pops in any other infant car seat/carrier. So we could recycle our old one, but they didn't match and I didn't like the way they looked together. But thank goodness for E-bay!! 15$, free shipping and 3 days later we got in a perfectly matching car seat cover that looks great. (I had been searching online FOREVER to find a car seat cover to match-- they were all 50+$, then Ben said, check E-bay-- duhhh!!! )) Anyways, check out all the cool ways I can change up my new stroller. Can't wait to use it:) (My favorite thing about this stroller is that the seats lay all the way back if the kids fall asleep--so great).

They can face each other















They can face forward















With the new car-seat cover (the old one was navy blue checkered-gag!)