March 30

What Happen This Week.......

I had the opportunity to decorate for Teacher Appreciation Week. It was so much fun and a lot of work.  I had the opportunity to work with Wendy Francom. She is so fun to work with and very talented.  Here are a few Pictures of what we did.....

 

 

 

 

FRONT ENTRANCE: We also hung paper vines down the hall.

I have also finished our 31 Day Series of Feeding the Family for our Potlucks on the Porch Blog.  It was a ton of work and I am grateful March is almost over!!!

I had a few mishaps this week as I fell at Ream's on some spilled milk and our chair broke and fell when I went to sit on it and hurt my back.

I went on a couple of bikes rides with Justin which was a lot of fun! 

Austin is trying to get up on his knees to start to crawl.  He will also sit up for a couple of seconds.  I think he is looking forward to eating because he tries to grab the food out of our hands when we are eating it.  He has also found his tongue.  He sticks just a little bit out.  It is super cute!!!  He has been sleeping a little bit longer which is so great for this Momma!!

March 23

It's a fun a crazy week.  I put the girls in volleyball, dance, craft club and book club in March.  They also have Activities Days and just your regular homework so I have realized we are doing too much.  I also am helping with Teacher Appreciation Week and Relief Society Meeting so the calendar is pretty full. :-/.  It has bee a good reminder about finding balance.  Just a couple of months ago, I was feeling like all we did was sit at home and I felt like we needed to get out more so hopefully in the future I can learn about balance.


Austin is growing more and more each day.  It's hard to believe he will be six months next week.  One night this week he woke up and I got up to rock him.  It was one of those moments I treasured.  As I held him I was overcome with love for this little guy!!  I love his big smiles, his laughs, his eyes.  Last Sunday, Taylie got him laughing so hard.  Here is the video.



Photo Credit

TaylieJo has been sick this week.  She has still been learning to be potty trained.  I need to be better and that is the only reason why it is taking so long.  A little funny thing about Taylie.....  When I am watching the weather and she sees the Big H on the screen she says, "Mom that's the letter H.  It says H(the sound of H).  It's pretty cute!!

Aubrie had the opportunity to participate in a dance clinic with the High School Drill team.  It was for 5 days and then they had a performance.  She was so happy.  Aubrie was totally in her joy.  She loves music and dancing.  I hope to be able to find a dance class that she can go to on a regular bases.  Here is her video of her performance.






Allie has been learning a lot about volleyball.  She has had so much fun with her team.  She has also had fun with her craft club with Mrs. Giles at the school.  She is learning about balancing her schedule too.  She told me this week that she felt like she was doing too much.  I was very grateful that she was able to see this and hope that she can learn this valuable lesson at her age.  I think it is important to stay active and be involved in things but not so much that

Have a great Week!








 

March 9

The week in Review....

Austin is growing so fast.   He is already 5 months old although I haven't taken his picture yet but I will try and do that today.  He has learned to roll over both ways and started doing that around 4 months.  He loves to be held by Allie which I am very grateful for. He smiles a ton and has been jabbering quite a bit.  He is also a really fussy baby in the evening and has a hard time being left a lone.  It's like he has separation anxiety.  But I love my little man and am so grateful for his big smiles!

TaylieJo has been learning to use the toilet.  She is doing well.  She is learning her ABC's and the sounds they makes.  She says D for ddd Dad and T ttt for TaylieJo.

She is a hoot and always says the funniest things.  She also loves to sing.  She knows the song Let it Go from Frozen and the song Roar by Katie Parry. 

She would rather be wearing a dress or naked.  She gets dressed every morning to take the girls to school and the moment she walks through the door she starts taking her clothes off.

Aubrie came home from school with her reading chart from her teacher with a note stating "Aubrie has passed the reading levels for the 2nd grade take home books."  We were super excited to see what a great reader she was.  She is beyond excited that I finally agreed to let her sign up for a dance clinic.  It is only a week and then they have a performance.  It is with the high school girls dance team.  I hope she has a great time.  She has also been learning about affirmations and helping herself feel better when negative thoughts come in her head.  This was her first sign.

Life is really good and she is amazing!!! 

 

 

 

Allie got to sign up for volleyball through the Springville Recreation department.  She is so excited because her team consists of the girls from her school class.  Her best friend Aubree is also on the team.  She is pretty good at serving and enjoys hitting the ball.  She has been taking pictures of the sunset and always reminding about how great life is.  She watches the kids for me so I can go running 3x a week.  She is so helpful with the kids.  I really don't know what I would do without her.  She continues to impress me with all she knows and does.  She is so concerned about being positive and helping others to see the good in life. 

I love her and thinks she is AWESOME!!!

 

It has been a hard week for us as we got rejected from graduate school.  I am sure that we will understand things in the future but it is a hard thing to get over.  Justin seems to have his plan together and is working on improving his application and interviewing skills.  He is currently working for the American Red Cross and it keeps him very busy as his shifts change each week.
He also teaches Gospel Doctrine at church.

I am currently running with Jessica Weight and I am so grateful for a running partner.  Yesterday I ran with Allie from the Catch Basin home it is 3.71 miles.  It was so amazing and felt incredible.  Today my whole body hurts but it was well worth it.  I am still blogging with Nancy at Potlucks on the Porch.  I am grateful to be a mom and for the lessons I am learning now in my life.

 

 

2014 Goals

I love when making New Year's Resolutions that sometimes they don't start until March.  Our family has a goal to write in their journal for 10 minutes every Sunday so I figured that since my resolution was to blog more that I could kill two birds with one stone.  So I have been trying to take pictures each week so I can write about what is going on.  Will see how it goes.

 

 

In January, Allie made bread sticks and cinnamon sticks to go along with pizza

 for our family dinner. 

 

She has also been noticing the sunset and reminding us of the love Heavenly Father has for us.

 

Little Miss TaylieJo was such a big help.  I had a runny nose and I was feeding Austin and I asked if she could bring me a piece of toilet paper.  She brought me one square.  It was so helpful so I asked her to bring me a little bit more.  A few minutes later, she brings me more toilet paper.  In fact the whole roll of toilet paper. (I had just put a new roll on)

Ready to Run

In January we set some goals as a family. One of our goals were to run a 5K in the Spring. We started out by running at the track and on the treadmill. We started very slow and worked our way up to 3 miles.

Not sure if Allie is really excited or scared to death.

Allie was amazing. Justin and Aubrie were going to be partners and Allie and I were going to be partners. Allie took off when they said go and I did my best to try to keep up with her but I never could. Allie finished in 28 minutes. When she got to the end she turned around and came back to run to the finish line with her mom. After we got the camera and a drink of water, we went back to see where Aubrie and Justin were. Allie saw them coming up the street and decided to run to them and run it in with Aubrie. I love that about Allie. She is always loving and supporting others. She truly cares about others and wants them to succeed.

I was very proud of Aubrie. This was not an easy goal for her. She really thought this goal would be a lot easier or she wouldn't have made it I am sure. I don't think she really like any part of it but I was proud of her for accomplishing her goal. When we finished it I asked her what she thought, her comment was "I hated it". Aubrie I hope one day you learn to enjoy it because I have a feeling that your dad is not going to let you stop!

Run for the Bathroom 5K race in Springville Utah. The money raised for the race goes to a school group in Kenya to build a bathroom for their school. You can see more information at runforthebathroom.org.

General Conference

It is one of my favorite weekends. General Conference. The girls built their tent like in the scriptures when King Benjamin people built tents and listen to their prophets. It is a story the girls have learned since they were little.

They have become creative and made hammocks this year to sleep in. Taylie even took her nap in the tent.

It was great. I decided this year to just make little baskets for the girls to try and help us to be a little more quiet. Last year we did the different activity or treat for each member of the twelve and it was kind of loud and hard for us to concentrate.

It really helped and I found that it worked out better for us. We also had a picture of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency that had coins on each person picture. When that person spoke the girls got the coin on their picture. Each new session the girls had to put the coins back on the pictures of those who didn't speak or they would lose their coin at the end of conference. Allie got them all and Aubrie only missed one it was a lot of fun and helped them listen for who was speaking and help them remember who each general authority was.

We started making cinnamon rolls and Taylie wanted to help. Unfortunately this was the only picture that was taken. We got a little busy and after the rolls were out of the oven we went to go see some of our friends who had just moved back into our neighborhood.

One drawer higher.....

Have you ever heard of the Mr. Mom song by Lonestar. Here are the words to the chorus......

Well
Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer
Crayons go up one drawer higher
Rewind Barney for the sixteenth time
Breakfast, six naps at nine
There's bubble gum in the baby's hair
Sweet potatoes in my lazy chair
Been crazy all day long and it's only Monday
Mr.Mom

My sweet little TaylieJo has found our lid drawer and has learned to open it and pull all the lids out. This picture only shows two lids but it is almost a daily occurance when you walk around the counter to find the drawer empty and all the lids on the ground. Everytime I see the lids I sing "Lids go up one drawer higher." I love you and will gladly pick up the lids as you learn and explore and someday you can put all the lids away in the dishwasher for me like your sisters.

Allie's Half Birthday

One day Allie will probably, ok will call, her uncle and asked for some counseling on why her little sister got everything and how she never got anything. Allie's half birthday was on Sunday so all she got was a half birthday cake. I don't remember what was going on that weekend but she didn't even get her money til the next day. I hope one day she can look back and know how much I love her and that I appreciate her more then she will ever know.

Since I made sticks for Aubrie's favorite show, Allie said one of her favorite shows is called Austin and Aly from the Disney channel so we made them for her cake too.

Allie blowing out her candles. Her wish........ ???????
n

Take me out to the ball game!

For Christmas we bought the PASS OF ALL PASSES. We can get into all of the UVU games free with our pass. We decided to take the girls to the baseball game. Justin's sport medicine teacher also helps the team by taping the players with injuries. Justin was able to go before the game and watch the teacher and help fill up water bottles for the team. He thought that was really awesome! He would love to work with a sports team when he gets done with school.

The girls were super excited when Allie caught a frisbee.

We sat right above the teams dugout and one of the players threw up two baseballs for the girls! They were so excited. The next game we went to the girls got a ball with some of the teams signature they thought that was really cool!

Happy Half Birthday!

HOORAY!!!! She is Six and Half!! Not my little girl anymore!!

The girls had free passes to rollerskate and had been begging us to take them so we decided to take them for Aubrie's half birthday.



Allie and Aubrie were very disapointed at how hard it is to learn to roller skate. It brought back so many memories of my childhood (although I did not skate) and it made Justin go home and price rollerblades on the internet. (that's all we need another sport for him)hehe.

For Aubrie's cake we made a Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake. That is her new thing that she loves. She seems to always have a favorite character, book or movie that she is into. She was so excited about her cake!

We also give the girls $5.00 so they can buy something they want. Yes, I know we are cheap. Anyway we put her money in balloons so she could pop them to get her money.

Aubrie blowing out her candles!

St Patricks Day

It's that sneaky holiday again where the Leprechan brings us treats and plays silly tricks on us during the day.

The girls put out their pots the night before and woke up to the silly Leprechan trapping them in their bedroom.

He filled their pot with gold and things that were green. Aubrie decided to color her hand green so that no one could pinch her throughout the day. Just wait til she gets out of the shower! hehehe.

Allie with her pot!

The Leprechan left the girls some Lucky Charms with green milk for breakfast.

We decided to go to the library on St. Patricks day so I had the girls make a lunch and we would go on a picnic when we got home.
We made us shamrock sandwiches, orange doritos, clementine, orange jello and oreos.

It was rainy and cloudy so we set up our picnic in the livingroom when we got home but when we opened our lunches we had a big surprise waiting for us. He made our lunch green. We had green chips,green jello, mint oreos and our clementine turn into a green apple.

We also made rainbows with paint and rainbows with fruit.

We also played Don't Eat Pete!