Family Goals

For Family Home Evening this past Monday we made our Family Goals for 2010. The girls caught on right away to the concept and really put thought into what they thought our goals should be. Everyone added one to the list. This is what we came up with: Work on getting into Heaven. (contributed by Kayla) Be nice to each other. (contributed by Melissa) Family scripture study every day. (contributed by Mommy) Use soft voices, not loud voices. (contributed by Daddy) Have chocolate or gum every day. (contributed by Melissa AND Kayla) That is a good one! We have printed and posted them for everyone to see... the girls are so proud!

Learning with Chocolate

This week we are using the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See" to review colors with Kayla and reinforce bar graphs with Melissa. We have made books, colored and today used M&M's to sort and count. They had SO much fun!! They even saved some M&M's to use again tomorrow. Yummy!

Silly Girls

The girls were SO funny today! They are handling my bed rest very well... and have been handling it with humor. Here are 3 of the funniest things they said today. While Kayla and Melissa were playing "store" with the cash register Kayla told Melissa the price of her purchase and Melissa said, "What?? But I need that money for my Copay!" Oh dear! I think the girls have gone with me on too many trips to the doctor. Later in the day Melissa was eating peanuts (which Kayla hates!!) and tried to sit by me. Kayla felt she was getting to close to her and said, "Melissa! Go away! I don't like the smell of you." What??? Melissa and I laughed and laughed! Tonight we were playing Wii bowling (which Melissa is really good at) and it was Ray's turn to play. Melissa was standing by him on the arm of the sofa and grabbed his arm just as he was "throwing his ball." She almost went flying off the sofa and Ray said, "Melissa, don't do that, I could have tossed you right into the television!" Melissa quickly came back with, "Well, then I would REALLY be in the game!" She thought that would be "cool." These kids are too funny! They keep me going and I am so thankful for them!

glasses

Melissa's new favorite accessory: My glasses from Halloween! They don't have the glass in them and she LOVES to wear them. Silly goose.

Bye-bye nursery!

This past Sunday was Kayla's last day in Nursery. *wiping tears* Next week she moves up to Sunbeams! She has had two of the BEST teachers. Thanks ladies for your love and service!

More Adventures at Bedtime...

This is how we found Melissa last night when we headed up to bed... She was almost off of the top bunk! Scary! That kid has to learn to sleep properly.

Kayla's Band

Kayla LOVES the guitar she received for Christmas. My 3 babies had a blast forming a band. This is the result. (ignore the mess in the background... it WAS after opening the presents!)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am in LOVE...

... with my new washer and dryer!! Several months ago our washer started filling with 2 SMALL streams of water and it literally took 3 hours to do one load of laundry. We could carry pots of water to help it fill if we were in a hurry to have clean laundry, but it was really difficult and messy to do with my two VERY HELPFUL little girls. The temperature knob fell off years ago when we moved into this house and the water was stuck on warm. The dryer door would not stay closed and it usually took 2 cycles to dry the clothes. Both of them were 16 years old and we decided to replace them instead of fix them. So, on our anniversary Ray and I went to Home Depot and purchased our new washer and dryer! Yippee! They are fast, quiet AND pretty! Now the bathroom door in the laundry room opens all the way... which is good because my belly is growing fast!

These are the old ones:

This is the new washer and dryer:

I am in love.

Christmas+Children=Magic

Christmas was MAGICAL this year!! We really enjoyed our girls and their excitement. Grandma and Grandpa spent the night with us and joined us in Christmas morning fun. We have been blessed.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Breakfast with Friends

Our family was invited to a Christmas Eve breakfast at the home of some of our friends from church. I have been having some contractions and was unable to attend, but Ray took the girls and they had SO much fun! Apparently, it was quite the affair and "they even had chocolate chip pancakes!!!" excitedly told to me by Melissa. This is a picture from the breakfast. Ray was having too much fun to take any other pictures. Thanks, Audrey and Kirk!

Mrs. Claus

Mrs. Claus was a hit this year! Every Christmas Adam's Eve Mrs. Claus (being the protective wife that she is) takes Santa's sleigh out for a test flight and flies over all of the houses dropping new pj's down the chimneys for all of the children. This year the girls could hardly hold in their excitement! They hurried down the stairs and ran right to the fireplace. Kayla squealed and Melissa skipped around the room. I LOVE Christmastime. It is magical. We are so blessed to have our beautiful babies in our lives. Merry Christmas!

Christmas with Grandma and Poppa

We really enjoyed our time with Grandma and Poppa last weekend. They came up to spend time with us for Christmas and we LOVED having them here. The girls were very excited to give Grandma and Poppa their Web cam so that we can Skype them "anytime we want!" Grandma spent HOURS making the girls some modest clothes for their Barbies and they were in heaven! They were beautiful. Thanks Grandma! (and Poppa) We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

More Snow Fun!

Here are some more pictures from our fun in the snow. The girls had a blast outside with Daddy, Grandma and Poppa and Mommy had fun watching from the window! The snow is still here and we are ready for some more!

My Angels making snow angels:

Making a tiny snowman with Daddy-O: Cleaning the snow off of Grandma and Poppa's car:

More fun:

Snow Angels

When we left the Ward Activity last night we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of snow that had fallen. After we made our 45 minute ride home (it usually takes 20) the girls jumped out of the car, ran to the front yard and made snow angels. In their dresses and tights. In the freezing snow. My kids are so cool.

The Temple

We were blessed to be able to go to the Temple with Uncle Glenn, Aunt Melissa and Addison on Thursday. Everything was SO beautiful! We froze our tushies off, but really, really enjoyed it. What a blessing to know that we have the Lord's Gospel and His church. I love to see the Temple!

Ballet!

We were able to watch the girls during ballet this past Wednesday! MaryJo took the curtains down so we sat outside and watched the girls "do their thing" in their classes. They were SO cute!

Decorating the Gingerbread House!

Several days ago we decorated our gingerbread house! It was so fun! The girls took decorating VERY seriously. They were very determined to make their sides of the house "perfect" and LOVED it! I think it turned out really well. :)

Silly Girl

My little Melissa does NOT like to sleep in her bed. She tries everything she can think of to stay out of her bed. These pictures are from the last two times we found her in random places.

Kneeling at the rocking chair... I don't know if she fell asleep praying or fell out of the chair!

Grandma and Poppa were going to sleep on the air mattress in their room... when they switched rooms, Melissa took advantage of the new "hideout" the mattress made when it was on it's side.

Decorating Grandma and Poppa's Tree

The kids has so much fun decorating Grandma and Poppa's Christmas tree. The girls actually decorated it twice!! It fell over sometime during the night after it was set up... I think it was because there were so many ornaments on the front, bottom branches!! These are some of the pictures from their fun.

My favorite ornament:

Kayla and Evan Kayla getting some help from Uncle Jeremy

Melissa decorating the tree

Kayla and Evan.. He is really concentrating!

The Christmas Tree Hunt

Ray and the girls were able to go with the family to find Grandma and Poppa's Christmas tree this year. They had SOO much fun! Here is a little video of their trip.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Niece and Nephews

One of the best parts about being "home" for Thanksgiving was all of the niece and nephew time I had!!! I have the cutest nephews and niece! I am so thankful I was able to spend time with them.

Baby on the way...

Ray and I found out a couple of weeks ago that I am pregnant again! We feel very blessed and are working out the details that go along with our lives suddenly coming to a stand-still. I have a really hard time "keeping the babies in there" until the end of the pregnancies and am very grateful for all of the wonderful, inspired doctors that work with me to have healthy babies. We told the girls about the baby so that they would be more understanding as to why mommy has to lay down so much. They just know the baby is a boy... they have been praying for a brother for an entire year. Yesterday Kayla asked me, "How is the doctor going to get the baby out of there?" I tried to brush her off and say I didn't know, but Melissa reminded me that I had delivered TWO babies already and I simply must remember SOMETHING about it. So, I sucked it up and told them that the doctor takes the baby out of my tummy. Kayla asked me if he "cracked my tummy like an egg," to which I quickly said no. Melissa told Kayla the doctor must use HUGE scissors and just cut the baby out. I assured her that he didn't do that and started to tell them what happens during a cesarean. I told them about the incision that is made and both of them froze and became very worried that I might be in pain. I told them about the spinal block and how it makes mommy not able to feel anything... or move... or pee by myself... they thought that part was awesome! They think it is pretty cool that I get sewed back up and want to take a picture of my scar. (gross!) --------- They are also very worried every time I have to have an insulin shot, they think I am going to mess up and poke the baby!! I hope I don't have to start doing the shots in my leg... that does hurt! They are SO excited to meet their new baby. I have been blessed.

Fun with Family

We went to Grandma and Papa's house for Thanksgiving this year and LOVED our time with everyone. It was very laid back and relaxing. My mom and dad invited all of our family that lives in the area to come over for Thanksgiving Lunch and we ended up with 24 people. It was wonderful! We were everywhere... at tables, on the sofa, on the floor, outside... everywhere! We ate on paper plates, drank from plastic cups, ate really yummy food provided by different members of the family and enjoyed the loud laughter and memory sharing...very relaxing. It was perfect. ______________________________________________ I am so pleased with the effort and dedication that my family put into getting together to take family pictures. Glenn had to work the day and night of our picture day, so we all piled into our cars, drove 2 hours to his and Melissa's home and were there for the 3 hour block that he had off from work. We went to Portrait Innovations, crammed into their studio and had a blast having our pictures taken. This will be one of my most cherished memories of our time together as a family. Everyone had to make sacrifices to get there, but once we were together, we were blessed. I have the most amazing family and I am so thankful the Lord has blessed me with each of them. These are SOME of the pictures we had taken. Thanks everyone! I love you!

_____________________________

My siblings

My beautiful girls The Grandbabies My Family The Whole Gang