Late Easter Pictures

I love dressing my girls the same and they think it's fun to be "twins." These beautiful dresses were from a friend whose girls grew out of them. I am always so grateful for the clothes from friends and one day, I plan on passing on clothes too. It is such a blessing.

And I love these dresses! You can't see the sparkles on the dresses, but they are there.

I love my girls' eyes. So fun to have a blue-eyed and brown-eyed. 

Both girls are tall for their age and in the ninetieth percentile for their height. Someone told me the other day that they thought Sami was six. My response was that I am so glad she's not! Time flies as it is, and I don't want them getting older any faster than absolutely necessary.  

But they are growing up. As made plain to me by the fact that they have started the poo poo jokes and comments and then both laughing so hard. I was hoping to skip that but I guess not. Sami will say, "Janie poo poo" and they they both start laughing. Then I hear Janie say, "lunch poo poo," more laughter. I am continually telling them that we only talk about poo poo in the bathroom. It's not working. Oh well.

This Week

Last night was Sami's first ever tumbling recital. She has been practicing and practicing for this, at home and at tumbling practice.

Janie wanted to wear a matching ribbon to practice. She is so excited to start tumbling this summer.

Of course, in my usual style, I took 100 pictures, of just the warm up. Good thing I have my new computer to store all these pictures on. I love this picture of her in warm up. She calls it "the bridge."

And this is her at the end of the her performance, with her tumbling teacher. We were such proud parents! She did SO good. We loved every second of it. (And I put in the video so you can too ☺). Sami had been looking forward to this night, because she got to tumble, but mostly because Aunt Brandi and Sydnee (cousin), Aunt Tami, and Grandma would be there. And we were having cookies afterward. The family showed up right before her performance and she was so worried they wouldn't make it. But they did. And so did Dad, who was on long call. He got out of the hospital on time but had to work at home afterwards, but it was worth it. So worth it.

And I must say that we love her tumbling teacher. She is in our ward, and is the YW president. So I know her well, and love her. She is so nice to Sami. Sami calls her "my Brenda."

And there are only 3 kids in Sami's class this year. We all go to church together and are all good friends. It has been a really fun year.

And I turned 33 this week. Jonathan was on long call (again) for my birthday so the night before, he bought me some flowers and came home and arranged them for me. He took each flower and piece of greenery and cut it and placed it in the vase. Complete with the fabric that came with the flowers. He said he missed his calling-he should have done floral design. He's so cute. And funny.

I had a good birthday. I felt loved by family and friends. And that was the best part. I am so blessed. 

Easter Weekend

We are still coming out of our sugar comas from this past Easter weekend.  We did lots and lots of fun stuff this week, and we enjoyed it all! I just love having kids. 

We did all our fun stuff on Friday and Saturday, which was nice because Jonathan could be there and so that Sunday was focused on Church.

The Easter egg hunt in our back yard.

 Then we dyed eggs.

For the first time ever, the Easter bunny hid the girls' baskets and they got to find them. They thought that was so fun. And there baskets were pretty great, if I do say so myself. :) Good thing that Easter bunny likes yard sales. 

Then we went to Grandma Trish's house for another egg hunt, dyed more eggs, ate more candy, had a wonderful meal, and had more fun!

 Jonathan's brother, Jeremy, his wife, Sarah, and their kids Elizabeth and Andrew. It is so great that the cousins are so close in age. They love being together.

And Aunt Tami came too. 

What a great weekend. And after church on Sunday, Grandma Trish and Aunt Tami came over to have a little Easter dinner with us. Jonathan was at work but it was fun with just "us girls." During dinner, Janie said, "Jesus died, but he came alive. It's call resurrection." That was a happy, proud moment for me! We had been trying to teach the girls all week that Easter really wasn't about the Easter bunny, it was about Jesus. It didn't seem like they got it. But between home and church, they did! I am so grateful for our Savior. He is risen, and that means everything.

Good Times

This past weekend was General Conference. I loved it. I cried at least once during every session. I was just so touched by so many of the talks. And I realized that I really need to print off those cute conference packets for the kids. In between begging for Cinderella movies, climbing all over me, and wandering around bored or fighting, I am surprised that I heard enough to cry at any of the talks. :)

The other awesome thing that happened this weekend is that Jonathan built me a new computer! And I am just giddy about it! Our old computer was maxed out on hard drive spaces, was super noisy and slow. I could only have one program up at a time and right when I was in the middle of something in photoshop, it would just turn off. Aggravating, to say the least. 

So Jonathan said he was going to build my dream computer. It has been his hobby for months now, looking up parts, ordering parts here and there. And he put it together this weekend and I couldn't be happier. It has tons of hard drive space and is super duper quick. I can run photoshop, itunes, and the internet, all at the same time! That Jonathan, he's a keeper. 

And the week of Easter is always fun and busy. Today the girls went on a field trip with Sami's preschool to Peter Piper's Pizza. They got a tour of the kitchen, put their own topping on a pizza, play the games, and meet the Easter Bunny.

Here are some pictures I took this past weekend. 

They Say the Best Things

I keep a small notebook in my kitchen drawer. When the girls say something that cracks me up, I try to write it down in that notebook. Most of the time, I forget to write it down. But I love it when I remember. I was just looking through that notebook and started laughing. So I thought I would share, realizing that this may not be as funny to you. And I am okay with that. I love these memories.

Nov. 17th, 2011. I was reading a children's Bible Stories book to Sami, and at the end, she said "and Jesus can come and play with me, please?" I tried to explain that he wanted to come and play, but couldn't. She kept saying, "but I want him to, please?"

Aug. 2011, There were some maxi pads on my bathroom floor, and Sami came in and pointed to them and told Jonathan, "those are Mommy's diapers."

Jan. 25, 2012. Sami was taking a bath. She started calling me. I went in and she was standing up in the bathtub. When she saw me she said, in a totally serious voice, "My name is Sami and I need to go pee pee"

Feb. 22, 2012 We were all on a walk and Sami said to Jonathan, "Daddy, you are my favorite boy." 

May 2011, I told Janie to pray for Daddy during a blessing on the food and she said, "Please help Daddy so he be a good boy."

Oct. 2011. Janie was in the bathroom with me and she said, "Mommy has a big bottom." Then she laughed and said, "Janie has a little bottom and Mommy has a big bottom."

March 11, 2012, Janie had told me a few times that I "was the best mom she had ever seen." One day, after I broke up a fight between her and Sami, she told me that again and added that I was her best friend. :)

I love being a mom to these two sweet little girls! 

The Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We were *lucky* to have Daddy home with us this week. It was so fun. The funnest part was today when McRiley (our friendly, family leprechaun) came and left the girls some treasure. But they had to follow the clues to get it. (Thank you, Crafting Chicks. They did all the work. I just printed and cut out. It doesn't get better than that!)

They were running around, looking for clues, it was a lot of fun. I saved everything for next year to do over again. :)

McRiley left the treasure outside. The bag of treats says "You are my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." Aaahh. So cute. And so true.

Of course, we can't have that much sugar. :) Especially since we had made green cookies the day before. So the girls got to pick out six skittles to eat right then. I love that they thought they were so *lucky* to get six whole skittles. :) 

And this afternoon, we played Lucky Bingo (thank you again, Crafting Chicks).  We all took turns calling out the cards, and it was so cute to hear the girls call out the cards and try to describe them. It was serious business. And we used Lucky Charms to mark our cards. Sadly, there isn't nearly as many marshmallows as cereal. 

I am so lucky, *BLESSED,* to have amazing people in my life. And I count Jonathan, Sami, and Janie as my biggest pots of gold. And luckily, we have had a great week. I am sad the week is over. It's going to be a long time before he gets more vacation, but I am grateful for this week. And I am thankful he did all the things on my "honey-do" list! Yay!

We're Back

My poor Sami was sick all last week. The poor thing missed her field trip to the fire station with her preschool, but what can you do?

Right after Sami started feeling better, Janie and I got sick. It was Sunday and I knew we wouldn't make it to church with all us hacking and coughing and our running noses. So I decided to get caught up on some photo editing. I turned on my computer but the screen kept going out. So I restarted the computer a few times, until it wouldn't come back on. When I had tried everything I could think of and the computer still wouldn't turn on, I started freaking out. I thought I had lost my hard drive with all my pictures. (We have a back up hard drive but I haven't backed it up in over 6 months. So I wouldn't have lost everything, but enough to still make me cry :) ) And Jonathan was on a 30 hour shift, so he couldn't help me.

But being the smart man that he is, he came home, "diagnosed" the problem as our power source being broken, just ordered us another one and it arrived today and wah-lah! Here I am. Love it! And we are all feeling so good. The good thing about being sick is appreciating being healthy. The only one who came out unscathed is Jonathan. I think he has an iron immune system because he has been exposed to everything.

I have decided that I would rather have my computer than my tv but being without a computer (not really, I still had Jonathan's laptop) was good because it makes me want to cut down my computer time. It's amazing how much time my computer sucks away. So I am going to do better at leaving the computer alone.

But I am glad I have it. :)

(Oh, and I put in this picture of Janie because I think she is so cute in her little hat. But when I pull out the camera, this is the face she gives me. Funny girl.)