It's the Holiday's.

I don't know if you are like me but it feels like every December 1st I say to at least one person didn't this year just start?!

But honestly the hustle and bustle is in full swing. No matter where you are but I am thankful for all the sweet moments I have watched over the last week. People have been so ready to serve others around them and I think that is what makes Christmas well, Christmas.

As we had a long day with finding out our information was stolen and that our debit cards were going to be reissued, plus the typical day of fighting a two year old to eat the chicken nuggets she asked for five minutes before I was so ready to call it a night. But we had to run into the bank so Kelly could sign some papers to get everything on its way for new cards.

We were walking into the grocery store talking about something simple I was just relieved to not be packing Charli. (sorry but she is freaking heavy somedays) Kelly was holding her as he walked through the doors Charli waved at this lady who was leaving. Charli is the kid who yells Hi in almost every aisle or store until the person she is yelling at acknowledges her. Some people act like they can't hear her and others will play along with her. Its a hoot. But this sweet lady stopped and said to us. "I don't have grandkids so instead of being bitter about it I make grandkids with all the kids I see in town." Pointing to Charli she talked about how sweet it was for Charli to wave at her. The lady said "Wait, I have to give her something." as she started digging through her bag she then pulled out a dollar bill and handed it to Charli and said put this in your bank for when you go to college. It made me so happy that someone would reach out to a young family who could be seen as a loud nuisance & to just stop and say hello. We thanked her and Charli gave her a high five, knuckles and of course a kiss. It was sweet and although Charli won't remember it, I always will.

As I was saying how Charli likes to yell 'Hi' in every store we are in. I remembered a time this past summer where we ran into some Sister Missionaries on their 'P day'. I sat and asked them where they were from and what they thought about their mission. One sister was going home soon and the other wasn't far from going home either. They sat and played with Charli and she loved it. As they left the aisle with what they needed and headed down the next one Charli kept yelling "HIIII".. they would then wait for her to almost say it again and then they would yell 'Hi' back. It was calming for me to go down the aisle and have someone entertaining my kid as I shopped.

I'm grateful for those moments that may not have seemed like much to the one giving them but they will always be a fun moment to treasure. And no I won't spend that dollar but now since Charli heard about a piggy bank we probably should get one ;)

Charli's Two!

Earth to Maggie! Is anyone there? Man, I suck at blogging lately. Like the fact I didn't blog all summer. I'll try to catch up on all of that goodness soon. You know maybe before 2017 rolls on in.

But in better news Charli is TWO today! Wow where has time has gone.

Wow. I can't believe that we have a two year old now. She is such a busy girl but so much fun!

Charli has grown up so much. She enjoys doing so many things and is always happy for the majority until sadness kicks in then its rough. 

Some of the things Charli loves to do is:

Play in the sand, slide & swings, Go 'side' (outside), play with 'talk' (chalk), eat all the snacks & treats, she loves the movie Inside Out, Nemo & Mickey Mouse, Little Mermaid and Clifford. She is a chatterbox all hours of the day unless her thumb is in her mouth ( she loves her thumb) , she loves seeing animals especially puppies and kitties, she likes to give cuddles and say hi to strangers until they say hi back to her. She loves to shop with her mom and loves to play in the puppies food & water. She will give you kisses and then punch you (typical two year old).We're PJ obsessed all hours of the day. She loves to pull out all her clothes if she's left in her room. And she always loves to try out the snapchat filters especially the puppies! Coloring is a hit as much as we hid crayons & pens we always tend to find new drawings on the back door, furniture and her legs. 

Charli likes nursery a lot. She loves playing with the babies. In fact if she doesn't see them when she walks in she gets upset. She is one of the few girls in nursery so she doesn't have to worry much about sharing. We have daily dance parties and multiple showings of different movies especially BING BONG! In the last couple weeks she's been all about things "match" she knows what shoes go together and socks. Too bad her mom doesn't know that socks are suppose to match ;)

Words: 

tar tar (her name)

Nana & Papa

Stu stu (my parents dog)

Nala

tickey ouse (mickey mouse)

BING BONG

MAMA & DADA

Ali, Ashy, Jessie, Max, Corbin, Aria play (she is always rattling off her cousins names)

Telsey (kelsey)

PIZZA

Marci

Shell (Kishell)

kistal (Krystal)

NEMO 

Uh oh

NO NO NO

DONE

Shoes mama, socks mama

BUBBLES

bathtime

Santa

Wich (witch)

Hello & Bye

Todd

Shop Shop Shop

Puppy mom (with the actions of the filter on snapchat) 

show me the money

JUICE

NACK'S MOM (snacks)

dad's cheap

messy

eeesa (lisa)

lex 

SHOW Mom 

DANCE

fries

Rice beans

shawim suit (swimsuit)

cheeks, nose, eyes, hair, knees, toes, ears

mean mom

moon, stars, sun

PLANE

BOON (balloon obsessed)

HAPPY

Fishes

JEEP RIDE

Nails (she wants me to do her nails all the time)

Ray Ray Ride (Razor)

Songs:

She loves dancing to Can't Stop this Feeling by Justin Timberlake (my kinda girl)

She loves the itsy bitsy spider

hiko chiko chickery chan (its a song Kelly's Grandma use to sing to him)

Head shoulders knees & toes

Taylor Swift & Adele always is a dance party especially in the car

She doesn't like being in timeout or getting told she's gotta go to bed. She doesn't like when we go for rides in the car instead of the ray ray. She pretty much eats everything we give her. Charli has noticed that mom needs her juice and will always point out when I have my juice (mommies juice) aka dr.pepper. Jumping is hilarious to watch with her, she can do a summersault and loves the downward dog pose. Charli has always been a great napper and sleeper it takes some convincing somedays. Charli has a thing about taking things out and then putting them away which as long as she puts them back its been okay. For example my mom has colored pencils for her adult coloring books and charli will take out each one and have you hold them and then one by one she puts them back in. She also has a thing for certain toys at all the grandparents houses. At my parents she loves the giant minnie mouse from when I was a kid my parents got it for me in Disneyland when I was like 6 years old all I wanted to do was shop when we went. At Kelly's parents she loves this tiny pig, blocks and reading books with grandma. At Grandma Smiths she loves the blocks and puppies. At my grandparents she loves getting out the millions and millions of balls they have.

We have been blessed with the most perfect girl and as much as she wears me out somedays I can't imagine life without her. 

Now for her party. We had it this last Saturday on the 12th. It was a fun time with cousins, family and our friends. We are so blessed to have such great supporters and people who love little Charli as much as we do.

I made the decorations for her party after having the Ice Cream theme in my head for a couple months. So after finding the perfect metal pots that looked like cones. I made the giant milkshake's and ice cream cone garland. The Birthday banner came from the dollar bins at Target. 

So happy with how it turned out!

And because I'm not great with anything when it comes to baking I had my go to people make all the cupcakes (sam's club) seriously they have the best cupcakes and for a great price too. I also had a local grocery bakery make her cake. It turned out amazing! They nailed it! Although we didn't end up cutting her cake that night maybe we will tonight! 

Everyone dove on in to the Ice Cream Bar & Cupcakes and so did Charli. She loved it!

We then opened up all the gifts she was spoiled WAY TOO MUCH! Between Minnie Mouse, Babies, Drawing pads, Books, Clothes, Shoes, Puppies, Shopping Carts & her parents got her a BING BONG! As you can tell she was in love with it. Some of the cousins wanted to play with it and she didn't let that happen. She loved unwrapping and throwing all the toys everywhere. Its safe to say she knows what gifts are now. 

I had a couple gifts I didn't wrap yet and earlier that day while Kelly was watching her he didn't have the gate closed to the basement and she found them and of course started to play with them. Stinker. I told Kelly why is she playing with this. He replied " I asked her where she got it" ... I was like really a two year old isn't going to tell you. Men right? 

Charli has a really cool cousin who gave her a Jeep. I was debating about getting her something like this and my sister in law was like here take ours. Charli is obsessed with it. She can't push the gas but she loves to just sit in it. It makes my heart happy. As a mom there are toys that I always wanted as a kid and never got. This was one of them.. I had been talking to Kelly about these for a while and looking for used ones and he was like she doesn't need a car. I finally told him it wasn't for her as much as it was for me! Cause you know I can totally fit in it! 

We would like to thank all of our friends & family who came and partied with us. It was a great night and Charli enjoyed her cousins and friends! Can't believe she is TWO!! 

If I had a wish to make it would be that the terrible two's wouldn't happen but its not my birthday. 

But HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLI! We LOVE YOU! 

Stake Girls Camp 2016- Heroes of the Heart

Girls Camp. Ah. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that I knew I would be going this summer but I can tell you that it was the best time. I absolutely was spoiled to be able to have this calling as Camp Director. Even if it was with a 2 Week notice to get everything ready for camp. 

We made it up to the stake camp and were ready to enjoy the next few days. 

Nothing better than adorable beehives enjoying smore's

Then you find the laurels... 

Our ward had Nephi as our character and Faith was our value. 

We spent an activity a couple weeks before to design the flag we made for our camp. 

We also made our "Ships" for a game we would be playing with the stake.

The girls in my ward are so creative and could paint anything. One ship had a big mermaid painted on the side. They each had their handprint on a box. It was awesome.

As camp leaders we were asked to decorate our campsite. Well with two weeks notice I kind of freaked about how to do this in enough time. Mainly the fact that 5 other wards would be having decorations. We had to have something. 

I made some easy quotes that went with faith and then stuck them on to a stir stick after laminating them. I also made a pennant banner that the girls secretly helped with. I had them write their testimonies on one pennant and then tied them up at camp for the girls to spend some time enjoying each others testimonies. 

As for the flowers that were on the canopy shade tent were so easy to make. I got some white paper sacks and used some hot glue to make them. They were perfect and held up great. 

I do have to admit I was frustrated that once I got up there that NOT ONE OTHER CAMPSITE WAS DECORATED! But you can sure bet that the White Rail Ward was. :) 

Superhero Training (Certification)

The stake spent some time with the girls finishing up some certifying  even though we still didn't get everything covered for our ward. No one attended the dates for certification before camp so we didn't really get much done on that end nor did we have camp manuals for everyone.

Once we were done with certification they had a value chalk toss.. It was mess but the girls loved it once we convinced them it would come out of their clothes and hair. I really loved watching this girls get each other dirty it was hilarious. But then to watch them freak out after their skin was dyed a little pink or blue. We had some smurfs at camp thats for sure. :)

Our ward has a joke about being the "White Whale Ward" even though it really is Rail not Whale. But Sometimes it sure sounds like you're saying whale. So I also took it upon me to name the tents and assign the girls to which tent. They were all named after whales. (Beluga, Orca, Hammerhead, etc.)  

So then Barnabee was born. The girls loved carrying him around to different activities. The last time I went to girls camp with my ward I had a frog ball that everyone loved then so I knew I had to do that again. I also taught the girls a whole bunch of camp songs so we had our own ward song too for this year that of course had to do with Whales.

Barnabee got attacked by a different ward. It happened in the middle of the day. (not the best time to prank... obviously not professionals. aka. beehives) But one of the beehives came and grabbed me to tell me that something had happened to him. They said he was covered in shaving cream and maxi pads.. She then said some of the other girls don't know what the maxi pads are.. hahaha I had to laugh & take a picture of it for sure.

One of the beehives then washed barnabee up and we kept a better eye on him the rest of the week. That was until he got whale-napped and was held hostage in the middle of the day. One of our leaders that were coming up for a couple hours saw him get taken and told me where he was at so we went back and stole him from that tent. ...once again don't break during the day. 

Did I mention how cool our bishopric is? They are amazing we got to do superhero masks (facial masks). It was great to see Sister & Brother Furner do the masks on each other. 

So I am one of those leaders that make our girls eat last because I was a little fed up with how people just would jump in instead of just waiting to go up and let all of our guests eat so we waited a few minutes and enjoyed our rolls before they actually got to eat dinner. 

After dinner we had the Iron Rod activity. It was great to be able to see the girls try and choose the right path. I had to be the devil and sometimes an angel. I absolutely couldn't bring myself to say things to get them to take the wrong path it was so hard. Luckily when it was my ward I was able to be an angel. It was amazing to see how these girls listened to my voice and didn't listen to those who were trying to lead them off the path. So spiritual and I hope they will remember that when they aren't just holding on to a rope going in and around trees.

Ward time! 

We have the best men in our ward who came out and hung out with us. They built fires, helped with meals and just were great & fun with the girls! They helped with some funny pranks & did some fun stories with the girls. Our girls loved snipe hunting and our Bishop joined in on the fun. The girls couldn't believe that he would do that with them! They absolutely love that they can joke around be normal kids around all of us so called "adults".

Our girls were great to pack up and clean up camp. That we stopped and got them each a treat at Maverick on our way home. They were so worn out from staying up so late the last couple of nights thats what girls camp is for right! 

I now have 9 months until next years camp. Can't wait to spend a few days with these amazing girls!