Amazing weekend!

Alivia had just woken up from her nap.  She is so cuddly after she wakes up.  It's funny, but her hair is so crazy in all of these pictures.  I must have taken them after a nap because I do her hair religiously every morning but she has learned to yank it out. 

Alivia has her own box of toys.  She loves to dump them out then climb into the box and play. 

For Christmas, we got Brooklyn the game Guess Who.  She calls it "Guess the Who".  She LOVES to play games.  She comes by that honestly. :)  Our daily ritual is to play Candyland then Guess the Who.  Brooklyn usually beats me at both games. 

I love the sheer joy on her face in this pic.

Kenzie just loves and adores Alivia.  Any chance she can get she wants to feed her. 

I knew I was going to have a crazy day that particular day and wanted to make sure she got her veggies in for the day so I fed her green beans for breakfast.  She LOVES green beans.

Life.  That's what this post is all about.  I find that days are filled to the max around here...especially the last couple of ones.  I had an amazing opportunity to go to hear Sis. Julie Beck, the General Relief Society President for the LDS church, on Saturday.  It was amazing.  There were 15000 women present for the first 2 hour block then she had a special training for all of the Relief Society presidencies, bishops and Stake Presidencies for our region for another 2 hours.  The special training had probably 3000 people present.  It was an open discussion for the training.  Amazing!  I learned a ton and am rejuvenated to continue on as president.  I feel so overwhelmed sometimes and wish I could do more in the ward and she reminded me that there needs to be balance in everything.  I immediately went home on Saturday and visited some of the women in our ward that I had been thinking about a lot and tried some of the techniques she talked about and I saw them at church on Sunday!!!  That was great!  When I went on visits today it went really well too.  I love my calling and the many opportunities that present themselves daily and the amazing women I get to come into contact with.  I sure do love the women of our ward.  They inspire me to be better.  As usual, my sweet little girls just roll with the punches and adapt so well when I have to hop in the car to help someone, or drop off a meal.  Brooklyn has gotten used to asking who gets our food this time when she sees me put food in the back of the van. Don't get me wrong...I am truly not trying to brag but just feel grateful for opportunities in my life right now.   

Kid Cam

Poor Alivia was so sick this day.  You can just see it in her eyes.

Kenzie took this picture because that is her Dora Baby asleep in the living room.

The girls took over my camera one afternoon.  You can probably tell which pictures Brooklyn took and which ones Mackenzie took.  Too fun. 

"My babies aren't crying anymore."

Dora, Alaska Baby, princess dress and striped blankie (The famous 4) were lost...again.  But let me reassure you...they are home again. We went to Boise 3 weeks ago then raced home and the following day had to go to St. George.  It was a whirlwind.  Kenzie kept saying that she missed her "stuff" during the whole trip in St. George (see above for full titles) and I honestly thought that they were in the basement in a basket.  We let the kids play downstairs while we packed for St. George.  When we got back from St. George we looked EVERYWHERE.  I really am not that unorganized so the places to look were limited.  I was baffled.  I then thought we left them in Boise and when my Mom said that she hadn't seen them anywhere I knew that they weren't in Boise.  (Side note:  My Mom is AMAZING when it comes to organization.  She has a spot for REALLY everything.  Her house is always immaculate.  I went to an organization class last week and was excited to share what I learned.  Well, I started telling my mom and realized that she had already done ALL of the techniques I learned.  Really.  She is amazing.)  Ok, back to the story.  So a couple of days later my Mom called and said that she wanted to talk to Kenzie.  She told Kenzie that she found her "stuff"!  Kenzie was SOOOO happy.  My mom found them stuffed in with the Barbies and Kenzie must have stuffed them there when she was asked to quickly put them away before we left.  If my Mom wouldn't have needed something out of there who knows when it would have surfaced.  Kenzie was so relieved.  (So was I...honestly, I cannot be held responsible for her "special stuff".  I have lost far too many to be held responsible.)  So, my mom put it in a package and sent it off.  The only problem was that it was over a holiday so Kenzie had to wait and wait.  As the days passed she kept telling me that she could hear her babies crying in the box and she had many meltdowns because she wanted to hold and snuggle with her striped blankie (that's what she likes to call it).  She called Boise Grayma everyday to see where it was and both my Mom and I were hoping and praying that it would arrive on time and in one piece.  Our mail doesn't come until 3 or 4 in the afternoon so we got the package...ohhh the long awaited for and anticipated package...right before swimming lessons on Tues.  Kenzie was giddy as I tried to open the package.  Mom taped it like she didn't want even water to leak out of it.  (Thanks Mom :)).  When Kenzie got them she smelled each of them then gave all of them kisses then told me that her babies weren't crying anymore.  We were on our way to swimming lessons and Kenzie asked if her "fab 4" could watch her swim and that she promised she wouldn't lose them.  I told her that they were tired after all the traveling and needed to sleep in the car and that they would be there when swimming lessons were over.  She has not let them leave her sight ever since...neither have I.

Swimming Lessons!

The past month the girls have been taking swimming lessons.  They are getting to be little fish!  Brooklyn and Kenzie can now jump off the side all by themselves, float on their front and back for just a few seconds and go under the water all the way!  Brooklyn is starting to swim all by herself.  She can go a couple of feet then doesn't know what to do.  They actually graduated from Pike and have moved onto Eel starting on Tuesday.  I figured I would keep them in swimming lessons until they got good at it!  I am so proud of them.  They are so darn cute in the water.  During the whole lesson they look up and give us thumbs up after they did something.  I love to see their confidence in the water grow. 

Leo's

 

For the past month the girls have been earning a fun activity.  Each day when I see them do something kind, or a chore, or anything positive I reward them with putting a piece of candy into a cup.  At the end of the day they count up their candy and have the choice to put one piece of candy into a big cup for a bigger prize.  As soon as they get 10 pieces of candy in the big cup then they get the big prize that they had been working for.  They have been to Blast off and also earned a movie night with popcorn on the hide-a-bed (in the family room).  This time they wanted to go to Leo's.  So...they earned it and here are the fun pictures.  I am so proud of them.  They really are great kids.  I find that there are things now that they just do around the house and don't expect candy as their reward...they just do it.  I am truly blessed.  Their next big reward is they want to have an Easter egg hunt Before Easter.  Brooklyn came up with that one and Kenzie added that we get to have one outside and one inside.  Done and done.  Looks like we will be having an Easter egg hunt in 8 days.  :)    

Charlotte's kids and mine

This is my good friend, Charlotte.  

 

 

Bachelorette Brooke---Happy Birthday!

The final rose

And it goes to ....JUSTIN!!! 

Brooke turns 30 today!  Happy Birthday Brookey!  It is so much fun living in the same town as Brooke.  She has such a fun personality.  For her birthday this year we had her over for dinner on Sunday and we had a rose ceremony.  One of her favorite shows is The Bachelor.  So....I recreated a rose ceremony for her.  I tried to mimic how the host does it and, as you can see, I tried to make a TV for the cake.  The four "bachelors" are Angry birds (Brooke's fav phone game), a cat (another LOVE of Brooke's), Jeff (her hubby), and Taylor from Eclipse (Let's just say he is another fav).  What was funny is Brooke totally changed the game and picked Justin!  He LOVED it!   Fun times.  Happy Birthday Brooke!  We love you!