Easter Festivities

A week before Easter, our church did a fun Easter activity - food, beautiful musical numbers, and a quick/easy Easter egg hunt for the kids.  We all had fun - and happy that it wasn't the day before Easter like everything else.  Here is Sophia looking silly with her Easter egg bucket on her head.

And Amelia showing us how silly she can look with a huge piece of food in her mouth (sorry, I can't remember what she stuffed in her face) . . . and Ken's cute photo-bomb in the back.

The next week, on the day before Easter, we started our festivities early.  We had so much planned for that day, that the girls are dying Easter eggs in their pajamas right after breakfast.

As always, we dyed raw eggs and the girls did great - only 1 broken egg - out of 20 that they dyed, that's pretty awesome for a 4-yr old and 6-yr old.

Then it was off to choir practice so the girls could practice their song for church . . . then off to the last class of ballet for this session.  The girls are still loving it . . . and Sophia doesn't seem to mind that Amelia micro-manages her in the class ;)

After lunch, Ken took the girls with him to run a few errands while I hid Easter eggs in our backyard.  After Amelia told me last year that I made it too easy, I hid the eggs a bit better.  Amelia found all of hers on the first round, but Sophia had to go back out for a 2nd try to find her last egg.  I think I might have to be even more tricky next year.

But the most important part of our Easter festivities was on Sunday - Easter - when the choir sang the songs about Christ that we have been practicing for so long.  The girls did great on their song and the whole program was wonderful, with a very strong Spirit.  And then we ended our day opening the 12th egg of our Easter advent . . . which of course is empty . . . and writing how we can show our love to our Savior by writing it on a heart and putting it on our wall to remind us.

How grateful I am for Jesus Christ, and all that he has done for me!

Happy Birthday Amelia . . . 2 weeks late

In my defense, we didn't celebrate Amelia's birthday 2 weeks late - I'm just 2 weeks late blogging about it.  Every time I went to our blog, I kept thinking, "I feel like something is missing", but not once did it dawn on me that I had forgotten to blog about my own daughter's birthday!  Oye!  It's been crazy at our house lately.

I taught Joy School the week of Amelia's birthday, so it was a packed week of trying to get everything done on time.  And with much preparation, list making, and prayers, I was able to get every needful thing done - every day!  That in itself was a miracle.

We let the girls choose where we have dinner on their birthday, and Amelia was sure she wanted to do Burger King for her birthday . . . even though she's never eaten there.  But when it came down to it, we ended up at our standard Chinese buffet, where Amelia had French Fries and pizza, while Sophia stuffed herself full of crab legs (she's getting pretty good at cracking open the shells too).

The next day, we threw Amelia a birthday party, with 4 of her friends - 2 from school, 2 from church.  There were a lot of games, including Twister (probably the party favorite), lots of girly screaming, and much fun was had by all.

Deciding on the "cake" for the party was quite a process as well.  First Amelia wanted a cake or cupcakes, but since all she really likes is the frosting, I persuaded her to try something else.  Next she suggested a berry pie.  But then she found out that you can't frost a pie, so that was out.  And finally we hit on the perfect cake - an ice cream cake (with no cake in the middle) and lots of frosting.  Everyone liked that idea!

It's hard to believe my baby is 6-years old, but I love how she's growing up and becoming a beautiful girl - so capable of doing and becoming anything she puts her mind to.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, strong-willed, kind-hearted, ever loving Amelia Bedelia!

Ice Skating . . . Let it Go

Ever since the girls saw Frozen, so long ago, they have been asking to go ice skating.  I knew I couldn't manage 2 girls on my own, and I kept forgetting to put it on the calendar so that Ken could come with us.  Finally, my memory, Winter Break, and Ken's comp day coincided and we were able to go ice skating as a family at a local rink in Tacoma.  The girls were so excited.  They had been "practicing skating" around the house in their socks on our wood floors for days prior to us going.  Here they are, ready to step out onto the ice for the first time, in their skates with their skate "walkers".

Both girls did so great with the walkers.

Here's Amelia showing her quickness on ice.

 And here's quick Sophia.

Both girls have great balance, and neither one fell down much, and when they did, they quickly got back up, brushed themselves off, and kept on skating.  I was so proud of them.  That wasn't how I was anticipating the morning to go.

Pretty soon the girls got confident enough to skate without the walker, but still holding onto one of our hands.  I was I had captured a video of that, but an "action" photo will have to suffice.

Both girls preferred to use the walkers because then they could skate "really fast", but they still did really well just holding onto our hands.

After a few hours, our ankles were sore, we had eaten all of our snacks, and we were ready to call it a day, but we had had a great time and I have a feeling we'll be back sooner than later.

New Year . . . .

New Year, new resolutions, new car, new job . . . for someone who doesn't like change, this has been a crazy start to a new year.  But before I get into all that, I have to post these pictures of the girls playing Animal Twister with their cousins.  Jenny and Richelle were visiting Grandpa with their families while we were in UT, and one night, all 4 girls played together.  It was the night I was out with friends, so I missed it, but I was so grateful for the great memories that my girls were able to make with their cousins.

A few weeks before Christmas, my employer from my hotel days in Portland, called to offer me a stay-at-home job, with hours I could set myself.  I wasn't really planning on going back to work yet, but I had been thinking a lot about how I could find a job that would let me work around kid's school schedules, and when this job was offered to me, I figured it was an answer to a prayer I hadn't prayed yet, and was too good to pass up.  So, with the promise of a 2nd income, Ken happily spent my paycheck before I got it and we bought a 2015 GMC Acadia.  I test drove one before Christmas in Olympia, but we actually ended up buying one on our trip to UT.  Drove to UT in my Honda, drove home in this . . .

I wasn't sure how I was going to like driving a much larger vehicle, but so far, it's been good.  It did take a bit of getting used to, but now I love it and am glad we have it.  And the car payments are my incentive for getting out of bed every morning at 5am!  BTW - this is not an actual picture of our car (although it looks just like it); I was too lazy to go out to the garage to take a picture, download it, and then upload it to our blog ;) 

Because I can work from home whenever I want, I figured that some of my best, uninterrupted hours would be before anyone woke up.  So I work from about 5am - 7am, and then I try to fit in 1-2 more hours somewhere else in my day.  Working has been an adjustment, especially when my position is a new one, and my new boss is trying to figure out how to keep me busy.  But so far, it's going good.

I had another birthday.  It was a quiet affair.  Every year I think about having a small party, but that just hasn't happened in the last few years.   Ken cooked me gluten-free waffles for breakfast, the girls helped me clean, and I got a brand new pencil sharpener (at my request) - one that actually works!  You'll know I'm an office supply nerd when I tell you how much fun I had sharpening a large handful of pencils to test it out :)  That afternoon Ken took the girls to the Children's Museum while I enjoyed a few hours of scrapbooking in a quiet house, followed by dinner out with the family.  

And to wrap up this not-so-exciting, rambling blog post - New Year's resolutions.  Last year I resolved to read the Book of Mormon - and I did it!  It was so great, I'm going to do it again (although I'm not off to a very good start so far).  I resolve to spend less time on Facebook (so far so good) and to talk less & listen more. 

Here's to a great 2016!

Christmas and UT Vacation

I felt so unprepared for Christmas this year, but it turned out good and I think the girls were happy with what they got.  One of the best gifts we gave the girls was a mini-trampoline.  Ken and I are so tired of them jumping on the furniture, that we got them something legit to jump on.  Now if only we could harness that energy to power something in the house.

We were all excited to have Grandpa Ernie stop by for a short visit.

And then we hit the road for a trip to UT - to play in the snow, visit cousins/aunts/uncles/ Grandpa, and experience UT in the winter.  Neither of the girls have ever been there in the winter, and I thought it was about time to experience that fun.  So, our first activity was sledding with my friend, Carol.  I loved watching my girls sledding - screaming all the way down the hill, and at the bottom saying, "that was awesome, let's do it again!".

And of course, I couldn't let the girls have all the fun.

 What do you do when you're tired of hiking up the sledding hill?  You swing, of course!

A big thank you to my friend Carol for providing winter gear for Ken and I so that we could stay warm in the very cold weather.  I think the average high while we were in UT was 10F.  Burr!

My girls love Carol too - and it didn't hurt that she provided hot chocolate and brought them gifts ;)

The next adventure was checking out the lights at Temple Square.  We met Carol and her son (and a few of his friends) for dinner at the Lion House Pantry - yummy!  And then off to brave the very cold air while we enjoyed the lights at Temple Square.  I haven't been to see the lights for years, and enjoyed it as much as the girls did.

My girls said that all the lights were their favorite, but I think Amelia's real favorite was the snow.  I couldn't keep her out of it.

Since we were in Salt Lake, we stayed overnight at my brother Paul's house.  The girls LOVED playing with and being entertained by Paul, especially when he showed them some magic tricks.  If they ask you if you have "magic armpits", just smile and nod.  A super big THANK YOU to my brother and sister-in-law for watching our girls the next morning so that Ken and I could finish the paperwork for our new car!  Who knew we'd drive to UT in my Honda and drive home in a brand-new GMC Acadia?  Crazy!  Thank goodness I had all of the girl's winter gear with us, because they spent quite a lot of time playing in the snow with Uncle Paul - snow angels, building a snow castle, eating snow (but not the "yellow snow"), and putting snow in their hair.

That evening I went to dinner with Carol and another friend, Natalie, whom I haven't seen for 15 years - before either of us were married.  It was a great evening with friends.  Great friends are those that you can talk to as if it had just been yesterday that you were together.

And on Thursday, Ken & I went to the Logan temple, with Carol, and a niece and nephew who had recently returned from their missions.  My niece, Richelle, babysat the girls and everyone had a great time.

None of us stayed up to ring in the New Year, but it came anyway.  We had a great time in UT, but ran out of time and weren't able to do everything we had planned.  Guess we'll just have to come back next year!

In a Mid December

. . . it finally dawned on me that I hadn't posted since the first of November and it's now mid-December.  It was obviously a quiet and non-eventful month.  We had a quiet Thanksgiving - just the four of us.  Amelia kept waiting for the "holiday" to happen . . . apparently we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving enough to meet her expectations.  I am thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy daughters.

Ken was in charge of the turkey and this year he tried a recipe he had heard on NPR - a turkey porchetta - basically a seasoned turkey breast rolled up and baked.  It looked a lot like a giant caterpillar, but thankfully was much tastier.  I was thankful that Ken did half of the cooking.

I am thankful for a warm, dry house - it was unseasonably cold here in November.  It was dry the day after Thanksgiving and we did our annual "hunt for a Christmas tree" adventure.  The older the girls get, the harder it is for all 4 of us to agree on a Christmas tree.  I am thankful for a patient husband.

The Relief Society was in charge of our ward's Christmas party - "How the Grinch Found Jesus" and I was very happy when it was over.  We were supposed to come dressed as a Who.  Amelia told me, "I don't do silly", so I let each girl and Ken do their own costumes and Amelia ended up winning "best costume" for her age group - go figure!

Here is Amelia the next day proudly displaying her award wreath.  I am thankful for independent thinkers . . . most of the time.

Sophia standing next to our decorated Christmas tree.  I am thankful that we haven't broken any ornaments this year . . . yet.

We have much to be thankful for and are trying to get ready for Christmas.  Despite already mailing out Christmas cards, I am so unprepared for the holiday.  And yesterday, Amelia lost her 2nd front tooth . . . so now all she wants for Christmas is her 2 front teeth ;)

Happy Halloween

We finally got around to carving pumpkins on the afternoon of Halloween.  The girls are contributing more to the actual carving process, but Sophia still refused to touch the stuff inside.  She helped me carve hers though and modeled so perfectly with it afterwards.

Amelia didn't want her picture taken with her pumpkin.  So here are the 3 final products - Ken's, Amelia's and Sophia's.

I didn't have any brilliant ideas for costumes or motivation to make them this year, so after asking the girls what they wanted to be, we headed to the thrift stores to see what we could find.  Sophia wanted to be a princess - which was easy - and it turned out we found a Princess Sofia costume.  Perfect!  Amelia didn't know what she wanted to be - which actually made it easier than trying to find something specific.  She loved the bee costume we found and the thrift store had a packaged wing/antenna accessory to go with it.  Perfect!  And I was happy that they were happy and I didn't have to stress about making costumes.

After a day of torrential downpour rain, it actually stopped raining long enough for trick-or-treating.  We started out at the ward Trunk or Treat, then headed home to visit a few of our favorite neighbors.  We called it a night and warmed up with hot cocoa and a bath.