Licorice Face

The other day I was out running a couple of errands while the girls were napping and Chris was working on the computer.  When I came home, I found Ellie in red licorice bliss.  Right after she woke up, she probably signed to her Daddy that she was hungry and he grabbed what was closest... a bag of Red Vines in his desk drawer.  Ellie definitely loved her first taste of licorice, which is apparent in the couple of snapshots I got of her.....

 

I got smart and finally put her in her highchair before she got red all over my kitchen.

Bubbly Bathtub Photos

We had some fun taking picture of the girls on Friday (well, Chris took the pictures, I watched over the girls and manned the bubble machine).

I have been wanting to put up some pictures on our very white bathroom walls for some time now and told Chris that maybe he could take some bath pictures of the girls so I could mount them on some wood to pretty up our bathroom.  He decided to do it for me for my Mother's Day gift and I am so excited how they turned out!  It was a fun little project.  Chris made some wooden boxes, we painted them black and then Mod Podged the prints on.  Here are a few pictures from our photo shoot. The first three are the ones that we printed for our bathroom.

 

 

 

This is how our prints look up on the wall!  So good, right?

Mother's Day

I love my little family!  I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year.....Chris got up with the girls in the morning so I could stay in bed, french toast with strawberries for breakfast (in which Kylie proudly helped with), church (complete with the Primary singing), a wonderful dinner, talking with and skyping parents/grandparents, and an evening walk.  Can't get better than that right?  Well, here are two pictures of the girls and I that Chris sneaked in right after we got home from church.

And if you are wondering about Ellie's boo-boo on her forehead....Saturday night we had my siblings over for a BBQ.  While we were all talking outside, Ellie was busy staying upside down (similar to the starting position for a somersault, which I think she has seen Kylie do many times).  I noticed her and started to chuckle, which invited her gaze and a proud smile, but maybe also a loss of concentration on her new skill.  She then lost her balance and tumbled forehead first onto the cement.  Ouch. 

A Sandy Adventure

Usually Chelsa is the one who is good about posting things about our family, but we are pretty much finished with another project and it feels good to be done so I thought I'd do the post...

And the girls seem to love it:  Their new sandbox.

Our new favorite commercial

So every time we see this commercial, we bust up.  After a few weeks of being on the air, we don't stop skipping through the commercials on DVR to watch it, but we still laugh when we catch a glimpse of our new favorite commercial.

It's Not Crazy, It's Sports.

Kylie learns to ride!

We picked up a used princess bike for $5 and so far, it has been the best purchase of the year.  Kylie was so excited to get a bike and to learn to ride.  After we got it, she would ask every morning, "Daddy teach me to ride my bike today?"  It was longest two weeks of her life! (Chris was busy with finals and we waited for a sunshiny day.)  Kylie learned quickly and it was an instant new love of hers.  She now rides her bike whenever possible.

For the grandparents who are far away, here is a video of Kylie's very first try on her bike....ending with a short clip of when she is pro....a mere couple days later.

I almost cried watching Kylie ride all by herself for the first time.  She is getting so grown up!  I may be silly, but this seems like such a big milestone!  (Yes, I know she has the training wheels on.)  Anyway, it is fun to go on walks now with Ellie in the stroller and Kylie riding her bike.  It is going to be a fun summer!

Hooray for Easter!

 

Kylie was really excited for Easter this year.  But I think I was even more excited (or should I say egg-cited?)  And it proved to be a wonderful one, just as we both had anticipated.  We had 12 people around our dinner table Sunday (including the two little girls).  It was fun to have mine and Chris's siblings over plus their significant others.  Per tradition, we had an Easter egg hunt in our little yard before dinner.  It was a toss up for who was more psyched for the candy....Kylie or Chandra.  He he.  Dinner was great and so were our desserts.  Chris also gave a little lesson to conclude our wonderful day.  Here are some pictures of the girls.  I regret now that I didn't get a group shot! 

 

Ellie's first Easter egg hunt!

 

 

Kylie eating her first find.  

 

It was a little melted.

 

So, these are the first dresses that I have made the girls!  I am actually super proud of them.  I have been wanting to try to make a dress for a while now, so I was glad we didn't have any Easter dresses for this year. :)  I thought they turned out really well for my first real clothing sewing project.  There were a few stumbles along the way, but for the most part, I enjoyed it, especially since there was no pattern (I hate patterns).  I used this tutorial as my guide.  The girls wore white cardigans to church, which was cute too, but it was quite warm during our hunt!  Kylie and Ellie sure looked adorable.  Don't ya think?

Brooke and Mike's Wedding

Well Mom, here are some pictures.....finally!

Brooke and Mike were married in the Las Vegas Temple February 11th.  It was a beautiful day and we loved being a part of it!  We are so excited for them.  Here are some pictures of the special event

 

 

  

 

Congrats (again) Brooke and Mike!  We love you lots!

Who You Are - Hilary Weeks

Tonight we had a stake Relief Society dinner and presentation by Hilary Weeks.  I was of course excited to go just for a little time with other women and to hear Hilary sing.  But I did not expect that I would leave so uplifted.  It was something that I desperately needed.  (Thank you Chris for re-arranging your night so I could go!)  Hilary spoke mostly on the power of our thoughts and how identifying our positive thoughts and increasing the number of positive thoughts we have on a daily basis can change us.  Lately, I have felt burdened by the amount of seemingly meaningless tasks that I spend my day doing...dishes, cooking, cleaning, laundry, picking up toys....  I wish I could spend all day teaching and playing with my children and working on projects to beautify our home and our lives.  But often, at the end of the day, I feel that I didn't accomplish much.  Since chores seem to be an inevitable part of motherhood, I have been trying to  find some kind of joy in those tasks I do for my family. 

Anyway, tonight's message was renewing.  It strengthened me.  So, I thought that I would share the last song that she sang for us, "Who You Are".  I thought she had written it for me.  (This is a new song, so she doesn't have a video for it yet.  The video below is just one I found on YouTube.  You don't have to watch it, but definitely listen to it.  Though some of the pictures I could relate to!  I contemplated making my own slide show with pictures, but then I thought, "With what spare time?"  Maybe I will in the future.)

“I know you wonder if you’ll ever have a day where the kids stay calm, the laundry’s done and the dishes are put away.  And sometimes you feel like your days are spent and gone and the question running through your mind is, “What have I gotten done?”

And when you finally have a moment to slow down at the end of your day, I know that Father would say,

‘Believe in what you’re doing.  Believe in who you are.  And hold tight to the truth that you’re a daughter of God.  Believe in who you’re becoming.  Believe in who you are.’ 

It may seem simple all the little things you do, but the lives you touch matter so much.  And there’s no one else like you.   And Father needs you to stand tall and faithful.  To be all you can be.  Oh, if you could see what he sees, you’d believe in what you are doing. And you’d believe in who you are.  So hold tight to the truth that you are a daughter of God.  Believe in who you’re becoming, believe in who you are. 

When it’s hard to believe in yourself and you feel that you are beginning to doubt, remember, He believes in what you’re doing. And He believes in who you are.  So don’t lose sight of the truth that you’re a daughter of God.  That He believes in who you’re becoming.  He believes in who you are.”

Spring Skiing

Skiing with Chris was one of the best days of the year so far!  We headed up to Brighton yesterday with my sisters to get a few hours of skiing in.  This was the second time Chris went skiing with me this season...yes he loves me a lot!  But it also took a lot of convincing. :)  It was so fun to spend some alone time together....  and Chris admitted that he even enjoyed it (the skiing that is...he always enjoys spending alone time with me!)  For spring skiing, it was pretty nice if you kept to the groomed stuff, but by the time we were leaving at 2pm, it was getting pretty slushy.  All in al,l it was a wonderful day.

 

My proof that Chris indeed went skiing.

 

The typical lift ride picture!  I enjoyed the amount of uninterrupted talk time we got. :)

The girls had a fun day as well.  Nicole and Josh watched them in the morning and the Casey in the afternoon.  When we got home, Kylie went on and on about all the fun things they did.  As I was getting things ready to go yesterday, the girls were playing in their room.  They had been quiet for a little while, so I went to check on them, half expecting all the clothes out of the dressers again, but this is what I saw....

 

  

It was so cute to see them both sitting quietly, reading their own books.  Lately, Ellie has started to take a real interest to books.  She likes to pull them off the shelf and then bring one to me to read to her as she sits on my lap.  The only problem now is the whole sharing my lap and taking turns picking the books.  Ellie of course doesn't have the attention span for a whole book and Kylie needs me to read each page.  We are still working on figuring this all out. :)