March 30, 2014

 We had to say goodbye to Puna and Papa Monday morning.  The kids handled it very well.  After a week of grandparent visits I was worried how the kids would handle just being with mom again.  Thankfully they were happy to get back to our routine and we had a wonderfully normal week.

Lily drew this picture of our family with chalk on the driveway.  I thought it was a picture of Papa, Lily, Puna, and Annie.  After I asked Lily to tell me more about the picture she explained that it is (from left to right) Daddy, Mommy, Puna, and Lily. I love the big brown eyes and beautiful curls she gave Puna.

I decided we needed a project on Monday to help us get into Spring.  The girls planted some seeds.  Annie had basil and Lily had cilantro.  They can't wait to see the seeds sprout.  Every day they want to water and look at their seeds.  Just this Sunday morning we are seeing some tiny green sprouts.

Lily wanted to be the gymnastics photographer again this week.  I love the running shot on the left.  Annie's teacher set up a big obstacle course for the kids.  Annie had a great time.

Ahhh!  Sunshine and temps above 50 degrees meant lots of outside playing time.  The grass is even starting to turn green.  It felt so good to get outside and play.

Our sweet little bumblebee in another dance performance.  There was a last minute cancellation in a program at the local high school.  Lily's dance class was called in to fill the spot just the day before the performance.  The girls did a great job.  Lily had fun performing and getting to watch the high school dance team perform too.

Tommy can't live without this mesh teether.  I've been filling it with frozen fruits all week to give him something cold to chew and help his top teeth break through.

I think the kids are so cute first thing in the morning with their tired eyes and messy hair.  This picture is from Friday.  It was so great to spend my birthday with these cuties!  Ten years ago I thought we might never be blessed with children of our own creation.  And now we have these little ones.  Turning 35 isn't so bad when I have these faces to love every day.

On my birthday, Jeremy and I went out to dinner and then watched "The Savior of the World" at BYU-Idaho.  We were so impressed with the performance, but we had a couple of loud talkers sitting behind us.  Finally during Act II, Jeremy and I had had enough.  We turned around at exactly the same time and told them to pipe down.  After the show everyone around us thanked us for saying something.  I felt bad having to say something, but they were truly ruining the reverence of the show for everyone around them.

I always love the last week of March because it is filled with memories of when Jeremy and I started dating.  The night of the show we walked around a little and reminisced.  The past 15 years have gone by so quickly.  I feel so blessed with how my life has turned out and I am thankful for all my family and friends.  

My favorite gifts were: new running shoes from Jeremy, an immersion blender from the Halls, three free babysitting coupons from Brady so Jeremy and I can go to the temple, and curtains for my two kitchen windows from the Wanners.  The pictures don't do the curtains justice.  They are very cute in person and help coordinate my kitchen and living room so well.  I was totally spoiled!

Just when we had started to hope Spring had arrived, we were hit with a blizzard!  Sunday morning we woke up to four inches of snow.  Then another two inches fell before we left for church at 10:00.  The girls were excited.  Tommy.......not so much!  If you look closely you can see him crying in the background of all the pictures. He was mostly mad that I set him down in the cold to help the girls make a snowman.  Usually our snow is powdery and dry which makes it nearly impossible to build a snowman.  This snow was heavy and wet and packed easily. I didn't want to miss out on the chance to help make a snowman.  Once he was built, I took Tommy inside.  Lily and Annie played for a long time.  When they came in, they were soaked through and very cold.  Dry clothes and hot cocoa warmed them up right away.

I couldn't end this week's post with Tommy crying.  So here's one I snapped after church today.  He looked so dapper in his sweater vest from Puna.  Daddy is not a fan of the pink shirt.  But I think it looks great.  It is size 12-18 months and fits him perfectly.  He was so interested in his slice of cucumber that I couldn't get him to look at the camera. I love our handsome little boy!

Tommy's 1st Birthday!

Our little Bubba has turned one!  We celebrated a few days early last Sunday (March 23) with Puna, Papa, and Uncle Brady.  We made him a chocolate cake with sprinkles - Lily's suggestion - she's a sucker for glitter and sprinkles.  And he opened his presents from the Wanners.

 Tommy liked opening his presents.  He probably enjoyed the boxes more than the presents themselves.  All the ribbon and wrapping paper was fun to play with too.

He loved hearing the Happy Birthday song.  He smiled all the way through it.  He seemed more interested in the candle than the cake.  We had to help him blow out his candle.  He just kept reaching for it and trying to touch the flame.  He was excited to eat the cake, but after his hands got covered with sticky frosting, he just wanted to be clean again.  He partied hard.

On his actual birthday - March 27th, Puna called to sing Happy Birthday again.  Tommy cried through the whole song because Mommy wouldn't let him hold the phone.  Later that day we called Grammy and Grampy via Skype so they could watch Tommy open his present from them.  Tommy had fun hearing Grammy sing Happy Birthday.  He loved the cars.  He kept saying "ooh" as we pulled each car out of the box. Lily and Annie like to make them go and Tommy will chase after them.

Can you tell we like to stretch out celebrations as long as possible?  The day after Tommy's birthday his present from Mommy and Daddy arrived in the mail.  He got two new books and a set of bristle blocks.  The blocks were such a hit with the kids, they all played with them for almost two hours.

Happy birthday to our darling boy.  You have such a special spirit and we are blessed to have you in our family.  We love you Tommy.

March 23, 2014

What a fun week!  Grammy and Grampy came to visit for a couple of days.  Then we finished the week with a visit from Puna and Papa.  We were on grandparent overload - in a good way.  The kids miss everyone already.  And all the visits helped brighten our spirits and get us moving again after being so sick.

We decided to stay home from church Sunday and catch up on rest - plus hopefully avoid sharing our tummy bug with our church friends.  The sickness came on so suddenly last weekend, we just weren't sure if we were still contagious or if we were truly done being sick yet.  It was a very restful day.

Monday arrived all too soon.  The good news - it was St. Patricks's Day and Grammy and Grampy came for a short visit.  The girls asked me to paint their nails green and help them choose all green outfits to wear that day.  I even painted my nails green for the day.  But I was so bothered by it I had to take it off after dinner that night.

Monday morning the kids woke up to find some treasures that the leprechauns had left for them.  They even got to have some ginger ale and Sour Cream and Onion potato chips for breakfast which catapulted me to rockstar status for the day in the kids eyes.

Annie was excited about the seeds and mini green house she got. 

Wednesday was kindergarten registration for Lily.  Here she is in front of the door of the school, with a sucker in her mouth, trying to look tough.  I was choked up the whole time as I sat there and filled out all the paperwork.  Lily was super nervous during her readiness evaluation.  But of course she knew everything and is totally prepared for school.  We have entered a lottery to try and earn her a spot in a Spanish language immersion program.  If she gets accepted, half of her school day will be in English and the other half will be in Spanish until she completes sixth grade.  Ideally by the time she finishes ninth grade she will be able to take and pass all the required tests to earn a college minor in Spanish and be a completely fluent speaker.  It takes a lot of dedication and at home work on the part of the parents but we feel like this is an amazing program to be a part of.  It will be a big adventure for the whole family.

We were sad to see Grammy and Grampy go.  See how broken up Tommy is?  Grampy helped Daddy install a gas line to our laundry room so we can install a gas clothes dryer soon.  Lily loved having Grammy snuggle in her bunk bed with her every night and both the girls liked snuggles in Grammy's bed in the morning.  Unfortunately we shared our tummy bug with Grampy.  He was sick shortly after visiting us.  Sorry Grampy!

After Grammy and Grampy left, it was life as usual for a few days.  Lily is still working hard in her dance class.  They have started a new hip hop style routine that is really cute.  During Lily's class, Annie had some tummy troubles.  She didn't make it to the bathroom at the dance school in time and we had a poopy mess to deal with.  It was REALLY bad.  I had to throw away the panties and pants she was wearing and clean the bathroom at the school.  After everything was cleaned up, I wrapped Annie in her jacket and took her out to the car with Tommy.  A few minutes later the same thing happened again.  A teenager from my ward offered to hold Tommy while I cleaned Annie up a second time.  Now we had no clothes and no coat.  I had to wrap naked Annie in her blanket and pray for Lily's class to end soon before I ran out of options.  Once class was over we went straight home and got Annie all settled.  She was better after that.  Of course all the mess would happen in the 45 minute window we were away from home that day!

Poor sick little one.  Thankfully after this episode, we were completely done with tummy troubles the rest of the week.  I finally got caught up on laundry and did some shopping and housecleaning before Puna and Papa arrived Friday night.

On Friday night Lily went on a date with Puna and Papa to see "Savior of the World" at BYU-Idaho.  Brady sang in the choir for the program.  Lily was super excited to go.  She took a little purse filled with peanut M&M's to entertain herself.  She fell asleep after Act I and slept for the remainder of the show.  Papa said during the quiet moments the people around them could hear Lily snoring.  While Lily was on her date, Mommy and Daddy took Tommy and Annie to a wedding reception for Natalie Webster - Jeremy's boss's daughter.  It was a beautiful reception.  Annie loved the chocolate fondue fountains.

Saturday we made a trip up to Heise Hot Springs.  It felt so good to swim in a perfectly warm pool with chilly Spring air around us.  Tommy took a little while to warm up to the idea of swimming, but ended up loving it.  Lily was super brave and jumped in over and over again.  We are so glad we signed her up for swimming lessons last year and we can't wait to do them again.  Tommy also liked being set up on the edge, then he would launch himself into the pool after we'd count to three.  Sometimes he wouldn't wait for Daddy to get to "three" and Tommy would just throw himself toward Daddy's arms.  Annie was perfectly content to stay with Papa or Mommy and stick to the shallow end where she could easily touch the bottom.

It was a lovely afternoon.  The only thing missing was Uncle Brady - who had to take a test and couldn't make it up in time to go with us.

The highlight of the day (who am I kidding - the week!) for Annie was a new pair of pink boots from Puna and Papa.  She insisted on wearing them to the pool with her Princess Anna dress.  She also danced around the house all the rest of the day saying "I just love my new pink boots!".  Silly little sweetie!

Sunday we had stake conference.  Our stake presidency was released and a new presidency was called.  It was a wonderful meeting.  It got a little long for the kids.  But they behaved very well.  Jeremy was asked to be an usher before the meeting.  When the kids saw him standing by the door, they just had to join him.  First Tommy wanted to be with Daddy and play with the usher badge Jeremy was wearing.  Then the girls wanted to "help" Daddy.  Puna snapped a quick picture of the three of them on her phone.

They even got to wear a badge like Daddy's.  Oh how we love our little ones!  Thanks again Grammy and Grampy and Puna and Papa for coming to visit.  It made the week fly by and it made the kids very happy.