Happiness is . . .

. . . riding the school bus at the Kindergarten Open House . . . that is, until we found out the bus wasn't going anywhere, then Amelia got very sad, very quickly.  Don't worry, Amelia, school will be starting before we know it and then you'll get to ride the bus for real.

 . . . making silly faces while your sister is in her dance class.

 . . . and now it's Sophia's turn.

 . . . running through the sprinkler when it finally got warm enough.  But who needs to run through it when you can just stand and try to drink the water?

. . . chocolate waffle cookies with ice cream, homemade hot fudge sauce, and chocolate dipped strawberries on Mother's Day.  A great ending to a great day (even if I did have to talk in Sacrament Mtg).

So Many Good Things

So many good things have happened in the last month, I can't believe I'm just now blogging about it.  We started April with Easter . . . and our traditional Easter egg hunt in our back yard in between the Saturday sessions of General Conference.  Sophia definitely had the hang of it this year  . . . 

and it was a race to see who could find the eggs the fastest.  Amazingly they each found the same amount of eggs!

Me:  "Amelia, show me your basket" . . . and I get this weird pose.

Ken: "Sophia, show me your basket" . . . and he gets the basket.

 The happy egg-finders at the end of the hunt.

At the end of the day on Saturday, I asked Amelia what her favorite part of the day was.  She told me her favorite part was General Conference.  That was definitely my favorite part too.  So many good talks and good music . . . but maybe Amelia liked all the good snacks I had set out.  My philosophy is if their mouths are full of food, they tend to be quieter ;)

After General Conference was over on Sunday, we colored Easter Eggs.  I'm not a huge fan of hard-boiled eggs and I know my girls (and me) like to color eggs, so I did my mom's trick and we used raw eggs.  The girls did great and we (myself included) only cracked 4 eggs . . . out of 2 dozen, I thought that was pretty good.  And since we eat scrambled eggs almost every day, the girls had fun choosing which egg to choose each morning for breakfast for the next few weeks.

Ken wanted to take pictures of the girls for his mom, and Amelia insisted on standing on a bunch of pillows for one of her pictures.  (I have no idea why.)

 I should have kept some of the "outtakes" but there were so many, I decided to just go with one of the good ones . . . one, as Ken says, shows their personality a bit.

Oh my, it's that time of year!   On Monday we went to Evergreen Forest to register Amelia for Kindergarten.  She was so excited . . . and Sophia was excited for her too.  Sophia is going to miss Amelia a lot while she's in school, but I'm hoping I can get Sophia into a preschool of some sort to help soften the blow.

And last, but not certainly least, Amelia finally decided that she was ready to use the potty!  She did it the day before Ken's birthday and he says that was the best present he could have gotten.  There has a been a whole lot of fasting and prayers for that girl.  Miracles still happen!  Even Sophia told Amelia that she was proud of her!  I can hardly believe I got 2 potty-trained girls within a month.  Simply amazing!

Divide and Conquer

Ken and I had the idea that if we separated Sophia from Amelia, we might just have success potty-training Sophia . . . since we haven't had success with Amelia . . . yet.  So this weekend, I took Amelia with me to Portland and Ken stayed home with Sophia.  I used the weekend to visit with friends, spend lots of one-on-one time with Amelia, and stay with some of my absolute favorite people in the world - the Bullocks.  Here is Amelia with my friend's son at a very fun park in Wilsonville.

And no visit to Portland is complete without a visit to the temple, even if it is to just walk around the outside and enjoy the fountains and beautiful flowers.

 (sorry for the un-rotated picture)

Amelia and I often have a hard time dealing with each other, so I took it as a compliment when Amelia told me this weekend that I was her "best friend . . . even if we had a rough morning".  Conquered that weekend for sure!

And as for Ken, the "divide and conquer" worked on his end too.  He successfully potty-trained Sophia, who was very excited to tell me that she "used the potty" when I got home on Sunday.  Yeah Sophia! . . . and of course, Ken!

Amelia is getting closer to success as well; she's just slowly, bit by bit, working it out in her head . . . but she'll get there!

Dance Class Recap

The girls had their final dance class for this session.  Sophia had so much fun.  Here she is doing a curtsey after her last class.

And here is the proud girl holding her certificate of achievement.  She looks so grown up!

I was proud of Amelia for trying a tap class AND for sticking with it the whole session.  Here she is proving that the tongue thing is not just something Sophia does ;)

And her curtsey at the end.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her with her certificate because the camera died right at the end of class.

Happy Birthday Amelia!

My dear sweet baby turned 5 years old this week.  Here are a few of my favorite "faces of Amelia":

"Where are we going in this thing?  And why are you guys laughing at me?"

 "What?  This is smiling!"

 And sometimes it seems like I have a 2-headed monster living with us ;)

Amelia celebrated her birthday by having a party with friends, donuts, and painting a flower pots (I honestly don't know what I was thinking planning a painting craft for 8 little girls, but they turned out cute . . . and I survived thanks to a wonderful neighbor/ friend.)

And despite my lack of enthusiasm for buying "character" toys/clothes/etc, Amelia got an Elsa doll and was so excited. 

In Primary last Sunday, Amelia answered a few questions about herself, so that the kids could get to know her better.  A few of her answers made me laugh:

• "What superpower would you like to have?"  Amelia said she's like to have the superpower that got her dressed and ready for the day.  Apparently she hates getting ready for the day as much as I hate getting her ready for the day.
• Least favorite food: chicken - true statement - she hates it when I cook chicken for dinner . . . unless of course, it's "on the bone" and then she's more likely to eat it.
• She said she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up . . . that might explain the messes and all the questions she asks.
• And finally - her favorite thing about herself - that she is a good whistler.  Another very true statement.  Amelia whistles all the time and everywhere.  I am frequently asked by random strangers in stores if that is Amelia whistling because it sounds like an adult.

Happy Birthday to my caring, thoughtful, silly, strong-willed girl.  We love you!

Organized Chaos

• I'm not sure why my life has felt so chaotic lately, but it has felt a bit like this: everyone running around trying to do what they're supposed to do, but not quite getting it.

• Amelia's favorite part of today (and probably the week) was picking up garbage - something I never let her do, and today I not only let her do it, I encouraged it.  It was a ward service project and the girls raced/fought over each piece of garbage they found.  I love that they love to clean up.
• After a 2-week break, dance classes started back up this morning.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't get enough of pictures of Sophia with her tongue sticking out - she always does it when she's in great thought/concentration . . . and today she even did it during "warm-ups".

• I probably shouldn't giggle at kids learning to dance, but today, I just couldn't help myself.  First it was Sophia's class with kids not able to follow the leader (see above video) and then it was Amelia's class with kids concentrating so hard that they lost track of who they were following.

Randomness

• It was warm and sunny this week, so we went to the park a few times.  I discovered that Amelia has no fear of heights or maybe it's that invincible feeling that she's not going to fall.  Either way, my toes were curled just watching her climb up, up, up.  Once I was sure she was confident in her repeated efforts of climbing up, I had to stop watching . . . but then wondered how quickly I could get down from where I was if she fell . . . and whether or not I would have to do something uncomfortable to get to her.  After anxiety filled moments (on my part), I suggested we go play on something else ;)
• My Dad's recovery is going good; thank you for the prayers that have been said on his behalf.  He has a positive attitude and is his normal cheery, joking self on the phone as he heads into rehab/therapy for the next few weeks.
• The other day when it was Sophia's turn to choose the movie for "quiet time", she wanted to watch "Blue Planet" - a movie she had watched in part with Daddy a few weeks ago.  She was intrigued and fascinated watching all the fish, dolphins, and whales.  Amelia liked it too until the Killer Whales attacked and killed a baby Grey Whale.  She cried . . . and I did too.  I've never liked watching nature films - they're too "violent" for me.
• Dance class didn't go so well for Sophia this week.  She mostly just wanted to dance on the sidelines.  But judging by this picture Ken took, Sophia wasn't the only little dancer that wasn't "into it" ;)

•  Amelia still loves her tap class . . . and thank goodness for thrift stores where I found a pair of tap shoes Amelia's size, to replace the original ones I had bought that were too big.

• Seattle and any city surrounding us, has been caught up in Seahawks fever for the last few weeks (okay, the last year).  I have never been a big NFL fan - not against it - just not a fan.  I feel a bit guilty not jumping on the "band wagon" to cheer for the "Hawks", and feel like I'm the only one in the whole city not watching the Super Bowl today.  Although I can tell when the Seahawks score, based on the fireworks I hear, and then I must admit that I check the internet for a score . . . just to keep in the know, you know.