She did it!

Rylee got some money for her birthday and Easter from various grandparents and with that money she wanted to do something she would always have. We pierced her ears! She did so awsome, she didn't even think it hurt! She picked out cute little pink flowers and they look so cute on her. Afterwards, she bought some puppy earings that she'll be able to wear in a few months. You can't see them very well in the pictures but they are adorable!

Flower Power!

My good friends Britta and Becki just started a business called Whippy Cake and they make the most adorable things! These are just a few. The flower in Gracie's mouth is actually a binky! Anyway, they have a website which I will post on my favorites soon so look for it!

Just Some Cute Pictures!

Me and my baby. I love snuggle time!
This is one of my favorite, favorite things about babies. I wait for this exact picture of that toe making it all the way into the mouth. Love it!
I love this picture of Justin with all the kids. I love my family!
And, of course, I love sleeping babies. They look so perfect!

Easter Sunday

So, here is the traditional egg decorating event. The kids love this part of Easter. They got safari stickers to put all over them once they were finished and put the eggs in little animal paper egg holders.

The finished product!
Instead of the traditional ham dinner for Easter, we had a Jerusalem Dinner ( the kids call it Jesus dinner to make it easier). We ate what Jesus might have eaten when he was on the earth. We had lentil soup, flat bread with hummus, a variety of dried fruit, and grape juice. We ate on pillows around the coffee table by candlelight and turned off all the lights. The kids got a big kick out of it and Justin and I think that this will definitly be a tradition we will keep!

HAPPY EASTER!

Easter Saturday

We decided to do something different this year for Easter. Instead of celebrating the holiday for just one day, we did it throughout the week! I wanted our kids to understand the real reason why we celebrate Easter is Christ's ressurection but I wanted to make it fun just like the commercial side to Easter is fun. So, each night that we could we did something different to help our kids learn the Easter story. Sometimes it was just reading scriptures or telling a story, and a few times we would play a game centered around the scriptural Easter story. I do believe we were successful, mostly. But on saturday, we started the day with Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had hid in the house. Once the kids found those and devoured a good portion of ther candy, off to Sprouts we went (a grocery store for those readers who are not from Arizona). The kids got to participate in an Egg Hunt and meet the Easter Bunny himself (he does have ears, they just fell over on his head. I wanted to fix it so bad)!

After the Egg Hunt we went to the park and played on the playground for a bit. Right next to the playground is the Chicago Cubs winter practice field and luckily for us, they were practicing! I think this was just one of their minor leagues, but still, very cool! Even cooler than that is one of the players tossed a ball to the kids when he got close enough to the fence to notice them. Rylee's sporting it in the picture below!

















That was our Saturday Easter. Sunday Easter pictures to follow.

Beehive Update

Okay, so Justin looked all over the internet on what to do about those bees. We didn't want to kill them all since I guess there's a big bee shortage in a lot of states so we thought maybe we could find a beekeeper to come get them or get them to go away ourselves. Justin read somewhere that bees hate moth balls so he went to Home Depot and got a ton. And by a ton, I mean a TON! He put them just underneath the beehive friday night. Saturday afternoon a friend came by our house to pick up something and I showed him the bees. They were all still there working away. Not ten minutes later, Justin called to me and said they were all gone! Wish I had been outside to see that! How cool would that video have been to watch the whole sworm fly away! Guess they found another home somewhere else and this is what was left behind. To put it in prospective, the biggest one is about the size of my hand and that ball of bees was nearly twice the size of my head! There were maybe over a thousand plus bess out there! Anyway, I house now smells like mothboths, but at least we're all safe!

OH MY GOSH!!!!

So, this afternoon, after our fun haircuts, I took the kids outside for a short walk. As we were coming up towards our house I saw. . . THIS! That's right! Hundreds and hundreds of BEES! I don't know when they had built this, but it's right above our front window! HOLY COW! We were just out there this morning playing with sidewalk chalk and I never saw a single bee. Now we're infested! Ever see the movie Killer Bees. Yeah! That's exactly what I was thinking! Aaaaaaaaaa!!!

New Haircuts!

I decided to try a new hairstyle, and thanks to my good friend Becki, I love it! It's very simple and quick, easy fix and still long enough to wear curly and pull back into a pony. Since I was getting my hair cut, Rylee decided she wanted hers like mommy's. You'll notice the lack of spirals in her hair. Becki flat-ironed it and gave her the same haircut as mine. Isn't it adorable! Now we're trying to train her bangs to swoop to the side, hence the barrette in her hair. What a cute pair! Thanks a ton, Becki! You did awsome!

Gracie Rolls Over!

Gracie continues to grow faster than we want her to. Here is a video clip of her learning to roll onto her tummy from her back. She really likes to hold on to her feet so sometimes she doesn't quite make it before her little legs push her back onto her back. I tried taping her so many times but never got one so I put the camera away, and of course, she finally makes it all the way over once I walked into the kitchen to put my camera away! Rrrrrrr. So, I got the camera back out and got a pretty good one of her. She's growing so fast! We've considered just stop feeding her, maybe that will make her stop growing! (he he, jk).

Just Some Cute Pictures!

He Really Is My Prince!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday and I want her to know how much I love and appreciate all that she has done and continues to do for me and my family. You truly have become one of my best friends and I cherish the relationship we share. You are such an amazing person and an example to me in many ways of the kind of person I want to be. Hope your birthday is wonderful and know that we are thinking of you. Happy Birthday!

Check out my Slide Show!

Gracie's First Solid Food!

Gracie experienced her first bowl of rice cereal last night and I was surprised at how quickly she caught on to how to eat with a spoon! She loved it and is sleeping through the night again! Guess those big babies just need more food!

I made these picture frames for my mom and my mother-in-law for their birthdays and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Thanks to my friend Britta for the idea!

Day at the Phoenix Zoo

The weather has been so perfect lately so we decided to go to the Zoo last week. The first thing we did when we got there was visit the Sting Ray Bay. We have a membership so it's cheap to get in and the kids have missed them since they haven't been there all winter. I got the best picture of this big one raising his wing (or whatever it's called) out of the water to touch the kids. You should have heard thier sqeal of excitement!


This tractor was at the petting zoo and since all the animals were put away once we finally made our way over there we just played on the tractors instead.







Of course, Gracie spent most of her time enjoying the view of the animals from her stroller. She's getting so big so fast that she hardly fits in it when she lays down anymore :( too fast!

Sweet Couple

I have to tell about an experience I had today at Costco. (I know, all good things happen at Costco!).

After I dropped Rylee off at preschool today I took Cole and Gracie to go get Justin for lunch. We usually just go to the Costco down the street from his work and eat samples and sometimes a hotdog afterwards. After we were done dabbling in all the tasty samples, I decided I was still hungry and got a hotdog.

As we were sitting at one of the umbrellaed picnic tables (which, by the way, makes no sense to me since it's indoors), Cole and I split a hotdog and Justin was holding Gracie. An older couple approached us to, of course, ask how old the baby was and say how beautiful she is. The woman then noticed Cole next to me and said hello to him and told him what a good boy he was. The woman preceded to tell Justin and I that she was a school teacher for 31 years and loving your kids is what will make them excel in school and she could tell that we did. That made me feel good. Anyway, she said her husband and her were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. Her husband is 90 years old and she will soon be 86. They certainly looked wonderful for thier age and I never would have guessed they were as old as they are. The man told us they've made it so long because he's married to a wonderful woman, and she agreed :)

They soon said goodbye and walked away. As they were leaving, it left me with what can only be described as a satisfied feeling. I am incredibly blessed to have a husband who loves me and our kids so much and to know that that couple will one day be ourselves, be it in this life or the next. I am grateful to know that Heavenly Father has such a plan that makes it possible for me to be with my family forever and has given us a gospel to teach us how to make it back to Him together. Showing our love for one another is the beginning.

Anyway, this couple made me reflect on all my many blessings and I am grateful to them for that. So, if you happen to be reading this and you fit the discription given earlier and were shopping at the phoenix 44th street costco around 1:30pm today. . . THANK YOU.

Update . . .

Okay, so to continue to be held accountable for my weightloss goals here is an update.

I've lost 8 lbs! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it means I'm back in my pre-pregnancy jeans! Yeah! I still have about 10 lbs to go in order to reach my goal by July (when we go to California and spend all week in swimsuits on the house boat). I have found it to be particularly hard this time since I'm nursing and not allowed to diet. So, it's the old fashioned way of eating healthy and excercising.

The gym I go to has these circuit training classes on thursday and saturday and while they have totally kicked my but, I've really enjoyed them and already feel a lot better all around and more healthy.

Justin has been doing much better than me. I don't know how much weight he has lost but he gets up early every other day to do a home workout and then jogs at night on the other days. Way to go, babe! We are so fit!

So, that's the update. Hopefully I can continue to lose but now it's seriously slowing down so hopefully I make it!

Thanks Katie!

Thank you to Katie who directed me to where I can learn how to design my own backgrounds. I had a lot of fun with it and I'm excited to try new things later!

Does anyone else know how I can get little decals on the sides of my background to make it a little more interesting? The directions I got didn't include that part.