Another one from Lily

Last night Lily said something about Sleeping Beauty.  So, I said, "Are you my Sleeping Beauty?"  She answered, "No, I'm just an awake beauty."

Love that girl.

The other day these three were snuggling while I was reading to them. I'm so lucky to be their mom. 

Things Lily Says

Lily keeps me laughing all day long with the things she says. I just want to record a few before I forget them. 

•She calls Haley "Sisty" (short for sister)

•She calls socks "slippery shoes"

•At one of Britton's football games, she climbed to the top row of the bleachers and yelled, "I'm at the top of the highest mountain!"

•Whenever we tell her to do something she doesn't want to do, like go to bed, she says "but, I'm a nice baby"

•We were playing 20 questions a couple months ago in the car.  After quite a few rounds, she got the hang of it and wanted a turn. So, she picked an animal and we proceeded to ask questions. We were guessing every animal we thought a 2 year old would know and she just said "no" to all of them.  Finally, she was getting impatient with us and she blurted out, "Is it a howler monkey?  YES!"  We all got a good laugh. I don't think any of us would have ever guessed howler monkey. 

•One day we were looking for her shoes and we couldn't find them anywhere, she ran in and said, "they're probably in the gooey geyser!"  (Too much Dora)

•Haley wasn't doing what Lily wanted her to so Lily came to me and said "Haley is making bad choices". 

•She loves to sing and make up songs and goes around singing all day long. She hears a lot of Taylor Swift, thanks to Haley, and she sometimes mixes up the lyrics of songs. I love it. The other day she was singing at the top of her lungs, "trouble, trouble, trouble, we're never getting back together!"

•She uses "seeing scopes" and "noculars" to look at birds in our backyard. 

•She does "nastics" routines and dances everyday for us. 

I wish I could just record her all day long. Two year olds are the greatest thing ever!

Conversation at the park

Lily: Look, Mom, there's an airplane!  They fly high with the birds. 

Me:  Do you want to fly in an airplane? 

Lily:  No, I want to fly in a condor.

Sewing

I finally got my sewing machine out today for the first time since moving to Texas.  Haley really wanted to do a project with me so we made some shirts for one of her dolls. It was really fun and now I have a million ideas of projects I want to do. Britton even sewed with me for a while after Haley was done. He helped me with my scrap quilt. They are both pretty good at sewing. 

Halloween

Lately I'm Grateful For...

*Warm days at the park

*Finding Lily's drawings on the whiteboard

*A little girl who likes to dress herself

*A football team that prays after every game

*Being able to spend all day teaching my kids

*Girls that read together

*A free pool table from friends delivered just in time for Jason's birthday

*Road trips

*Finally getting some rain

Randomness

*Today Lily has been playing with Haley's walkie talkies.  She keeps calling them "walkie turkeys" and it makes me smile.  Pretty much everything she does makes me smile. 

*I never think about getting movies at the library, but today I was in a movie mood and decided to look.  Surprisingly, they had 4 different kids ones that we've been wanting to see.  Score!  And for free!  I love libraries.

*Our neighbors across the street and best friends here moved on Sunday.  I am sad. 

*The missionaries came over yesterday, on their P-day, to play football with Britton at the park.  It made his day!  Jason and Haley ended up playing too and Lily and I were the cheerleaders.  Haley is super fast and scored two touchdowns breaking away from everyone.  At one point she said to me, "I didn't know football could be so fun".   Britton has his first football practice on Saturday.  He practically sleeps with all his gear he is so excited. 

*Jason is in Carlsbad, New Mexico for the next few days for work.  It's the first time he's had to be gone overnight since we moved down here when we didn't go with him.  I'm so glad that we get to see him pretty much everyday now. 

*A plumber came this morning to fix our kitchen sink.  It has been draining super slowly and has been near impossible to do the dishes.  I am so glad it works now. 

*Last Friday we went to a BBQ/pool party at some friend's house.  The kids didn't leave the pool all night.  Not even to eat.  It was so much fun and made me wish even more that we had a pool.  In their front yard, they had astro turf instead of grass.  That's one funny thing about this part of Texas--nobody has a green lawn unless it is fake.  :)

*I really miss the mountains and our cabin right now. 

*This morning when Haley woke up, Lily said to her, "Good morning beautiful Haley sister!"  She sure does love her big sister.

Legoland!

Tuesday and Wednesday of spring break we went to Legoland. It was really fun seeing all the cool things built out of Legos. Britton even got to go to a Lego robotics class with his cousin Hyrum. I think my kids were the perfect ages to enjoy it.

Sea world

We went to Sea World on both Monday and Friday. We had a blast both days. I love all the shows and animals and also all the rides. The penguins were my favorite. I think I could watch them all day long.

Spring break 2013

For spring break this year, we went to San Diego.
On Easter, we went to the San Diego temple and then in the evening we went to the Mormon battalion museum.

Our house in midland

Here is a picture of the house we are buying.

Crazy life!

So much has happened since I last posted.
We have decided to move to midland, Texas so that Jason won't have to travel for work anymore. It's a big move, but we're excited to be able to all be together as a family.
We decided to come with him on his business trip so that we could look for a house. So, we pulled the kids out of school and I am home schooling for the rest of the year. We are here now, living in a hotel and having a great adventure. We found a house the second day we were here and they accepted our offer so we will be able to close before we leave. Everything is happening so fast. Things are good and we feel very blessed.

My life right now

Missing: my husband
Thinking about: moving
Worrying about: our broken furnace
Excited about: our upcoming vacation
Listening to: George Winston
Daydreaming about: homeschooling
Praying about: reverence, peace, direction
Laughing at: my silly kids
In awe of: how blessed I am

Sunday Parties

The last two Sundays we have had parties with the Anderson's. It has been so much fun.
We had a Super Bowl/Isaac's birthday party. We had so much yummy food and we all ate way too much. It was so fun just hanging out and watching the game and all the commercials. We had a blast.
Then last Sunday we had another party to watch the Grammys. I texted them a few hours before and told them we should dress like grannies to watch the Grammys. I must say it was one of my better ideas. It was so fun acting like grannies and adding granny commentary about all the singers. Hilarious. I think I had a little too much fun with that one.

Weekend trips

Last weekend, we went down to St. George for our niece,Lydia's, baptism. It was such a fun, quick trip. We got to spend lots of time just hanging out with family. Our kids are so happy just playing with cousins. They are so lucky to have so many so close. I didn't have any cousins closeby when I was little, so my kids are very blessed.

He's growing up too fast!

Britton got his Webelos badge last night at our Blue and Gold Banquet. I can't believe he is almost done with Cub Scouts. It seems like just yesterday that he started. Time just keeps speeding up.
I am sure proud of him and the great person he is.

Build-a-bears

Haley got $50 worth of gift cards to build-a-bear for Christmas. It's so much fun to go with her. Last night we were at the mall for some other things so she decided to get some new bears.
Now she's up to 7 bears.
Meet Cotton Candy and l'il C.C.

This girl

I cannot even begin to describe how much we love Lily around here. She is pure joy.
She is at such a fun age. She just had a language burst and is saying so many things and starting to string words together. It's so much fun to see what things she will say and how creative and funny she is. I just love how her little mind works.
She is also my little helper all day long. She follows me around and tries to do whatever I am doing. She likes to help me clean. She loves to sing songs and read books. One of her favorite things to do is steal my phone and look at all the pictures and videos on there. She is so happy just seeing herself and interacting with the videos of herself. It's adorable.
My other kids have told me numerous times that it's okay with them if she is my favorite child because she's their favorite. It's so cute how much in love with her they are. It's hard not to be completely smitten by her, though. We're so blessed to have her in our family.

My man

Saturday evening as we were heading back from our cabin, it was raining. The snow packed roads were becoming slushy and the conditions were pretty treacherous.
With a fully packed Suburban, every seat taken, we said a prayer, and started down. After only a few minutes of driving, we saw an SUV stuck on the side of the road. I knew instantly that we would be stopping to see what we could do. The driver looked very relieved as Jason jumped out of the Suburban and said, "I have a tow rope, let's see if I can pull you out."
The road we were on was a dirt road covered in several feet of snow, slush, and ice. There is no cell reception and it was getting dark and still raining. The driver of the SUV couldn't make it up the hill, so he was trying to back down when he slid off the road. He was alone with his 2 year old daughter.
We tried, unsuccessfully, many times from many different angles to pull his vehicle out. We were there for over an hour when it was clear there wasn't a way to get him out that night. But, our tow rope was too tight and our car wouldn't budge to loosen it up, so we couldn't get it off. I was in the car with the kids and they were all restless, impatient, and hungry. Honestly, I was feeling a bit that way too. Jason jumped in to try backing up, yet again, and the kids started complaining. "When are we leaving?" "I'm hungry!" "What's going on?" " I need to get home, I have things to do!"
Jason just calmly looked at them and said, "We help people."
After quite a while longer, two severed tow ropes, and extra helpers from down the road, the man and daughter were taken to safety of a nearby home to call for a ride until a tow truck could get to their car.
We arrived home safely about three hours later than we anticipated. But, I hope the lesson will remain with my kids forever. "We help people". I know it will remain with me.

Cabin weekend getaway

We took the Anderson's up to our cabin for a little weekend getaway. It was so much fun. We played games, ate lots of yummy food, went sledding/snowboarding/snowmobiling, and stayed up way too late. We all had a blast.