Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Carli Funny

For Kate's goody bags at her party we put in tiny bottles of nail polish. Carli is a bit obsessed with this. She loves to paint her nails, have her nails painted, and paint my nails. Her first attempt resulted in not only my fingernails being purple, but the entire top of my finger. lol!

Today she was trying again with pink (I washed the purple off yesterday) and I was trying to teach her to stay on the nail and not the skin. She did ok. Whenever she would get some on my skin she would stop and say, "Oh no! I got it on your kin (skin)!"

Then I said, "That's ok. You are doing really well for being 3!"

Her reply was, "I not fee (three). I fourteen!"

I couldn't stop laughing...

Sunday, March 29, 2009

8 weeks old

Where is the time going...




Thursday, March 26, 2009

More Randomness

Carli came out of my room a couple weeks ago and said, "Look, Mom, spots!" lol! We had been talking about freckles and she liked the "spots" on my arms, I guess, and wanted some, too. How funny is that!?
Megan loves spaghetti...
Another of this sweet, sweet baby! Brooke is such a doll.

Cute outfit given to Brooke by my friend, Jill. Pretty cute!
She wasn't so thrilled with the hat or getting her picture taken.Promptly fell asleep after it was over. :) Cute Carli hair.

Randomness

I've taken a lot of misc. pictures in the last few weeks and have not shared them so here they are:

Bath time a few weeks ago. She was so cute in the sink!
Carli loved to help, of course.
I actually planted a couple plants. Carli is helping to water them and they haven't died yet...
Kate and Carli went outside skating.

Loving big sister...Kate loves to hold and cuddle Brooke. She loved that Brooke fell asleep on her shoulder. A happy face from our most happy baby!
Daddy and little Brooke.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Kate

I took her to take her 9 year pictures today. She was adorable. Here's our fave: (more on the photo blog)

Friday, March 20, 2009

Crazy hair day

I caught this funny shot of Carli spinning on the swing at the park. That's some crazy hair!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Park

Yesterday we enjoyed the beautiful warm weather and headed to the park. The kids had fun for a while, but then the ice cream truck came and I wouldn't buy them ice cream and then they were grumpy so we headed home. It was a gorgeous day, though, and they did have fun in the beginning. I got a few shots that I like of them. I only got one shot of Kate, and honestly, if I don't want to look at her with chewed up goldfish sticking out of her mouth, I doubt that you do.



Brandon wanted to try out the camera. I love this shot he took of Brooke. She slept the afternoon away at the park.
Before the park, though, I found Carli like this...

Today we're just hanging out around the house, playing computer, watching TV, and blogging. A lazy spring break day...

Life

Well, what can I say? Life right now is fabulous, wonderful, stressful, rough, happy, tearful, painful, fun, messy, and going too fast! We're almost to the middle of spring break. It has been pretty good so far and I haven't had to break up too many arguments. I must say it is lovely to not have to worry about getting up on time, feeding Brooke, making lunches, getting kids out of bed, stuffing backpacks, finding shoes, and making sure everyone is dressed and ready for school so they can be on time!

That's all before 7:40 am. ;)

Then it's usually a day of hanging out with Carli and Brooke, maybe doing some shopping, laundry, dishes, puzzles, reading stories, changing diapers, feedings, e-mail checking, and trying to tidy something up. At 3 pm it gets crazy again and we go pick up the kids from school and depending on the day, heading to girl scouts, staying at the school to pick up from chimes practice, hurrying home to get snacks before piano. Homework must be done, folders signed, dinner prepared, getting ready for scouts or activity days, soccer practice, and whatever else we may have going on. What a life. :) It's my life, though, and while there are days that are difficult to get through, and kids that are hard to deal with sometimes, I know that I am blessed abundantly.

I have a husband who comes home from an awesome job and helps with dishes, gets kids to bed, helps with homework if I have to be gone, etc. I have 5 kids who I know love me because of their hugs and kisses and newborn smiles. Life is not easy with 5 kids and a house to run, but life could be no more perfect than it is now when it comes to the important things.

My dad has been talking about abundance on our family website and I would like to share some quotes he posted by President Monson from the last general conference.

"I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and non-existent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now..."

"We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us..."

"Said one well-known author: 'Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend . . . when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.'”

I have a beautiful family. Everyone is healthy. I have the gospel in my life. I have a fun and challenging calling which I truly enjoy. I have friends who support me and help me in every way I need. I have a nice home and plenty of room and plenty of food to feed my family. I am developing talents that I am so excited about.

Ben has a great job. He provides for us everything we could possibly need. He honors his priesthood and fulfills his callings at church.

Brandon is doing well in school. He is great at playing computer and video games and has an amazing mind. He has challenges and is dealing with them as well as he can.

Kate is beautiful. She is happy and friendly, talented, and smart. She has a creative mind and tries to get out of everything she can, but she keeps us on our toes. :) She's a doll when she wants to be. Her musical talents touch my heart.

Megan is sweet and sensitive, fiery and fun. She loves school and loves to play outside. She's my snuggler and hugger. She loves to give hugs and kisses.

Carli is 3. 'Nuff said. ;) lol! Really, she's such a fun daughter. It has been good to spend so much time with her. She is very good at putting puzzles together and loves to help me in the kitchen. She wants to show me everything she thinks is wonderful. She has the sweetest little voice (when she's using her nice voice) and I love to hear her talk and sing.

Brooke...is Brooke. She is the most wonderful and sweetest baby ever. She smiles at us and gives us so much love from her little 6 week old soul. We all just adore her and are so blessed to have such a beautiful sweet spirit in our home. She is definitely our little piece of heaven and we love her dearly.

I alluded to a few little challenges with the kids, but I am trying to be positive and see the good in everything. I want to be a more positive person and see the beauty and humor in more situations I would normally get upset about. I want to see the abundance in my life.

I am not an eloquent speaker or writer, but I hope I have gotten my point across.

Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

We were so blessed to have my parents come stay for a few days after Brooke was born. We blessed her that weekend and had lots of fun with the grandparents. It was also Valentine's weekend so we did lots of fun things.

Grandma was nice enough to make Valentine cookies with the kids. They all loved it and had a blast rolling and cutting out the cookies.


Grandpa had fun showing the kids some new computer games and some fun pictures he has on his computer.

We got a babysitter on Valentine's and took Brooke with us to Edelweiss and had fabulous and very authentic German food. Ben spent 2 years in Germany on his mission and was very impressed with the food here. We all loved it! Brooke slept through the entire evening--what a nice girl. :)

Thanks for coming to visit us! We loved having you here!!!

Amelia Earhart

The 3rd grade classes at Kate's school put on a Living Statues Museum. Each student chose a person to depict and then studied that person's life. Then they dressed up as that person and they presented their speeches for the school and parents in their "museum." Kate chose Amelia Earhart. She was so excited about it. It was neat that the museum day was during my Mom and Dad's visit a few weeks ago so they were able to come and see her perform her speech. It was really cute. Each kid had a red dot on the back of their hand and when you wanted to hear their speech you went up to them and pushed the button on their hand and they would talk. Funny. Kate did a great job. Finding a costume wasn't so easy so we made do with what we had. She's more of a modern Amelia than the one from the past. :) Great job, Kate!!!