Birthdays, babies, and beautiful days!

Since my last post was 3 days shy of a year ago, a lot has happened! I'll do a little catch up but if I get too wrapped up in how far behind I am I'll throw in the towel and not do it at all. (Productive right?)


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Birthday!

This past Sunday, these two sillies' turned 4!

Can you believe that? I'm amazed at how time flies.

 When I asked them about cakes, I got a wide range of suggestions here are a few:

butterfly, mountain w/ a skeleton on it, flower, flower garden w/ mud, 

bumble bee, mud pit, or "just a bump".

Evelyn decided on a butterfly.

 Adia decided on a bumble bee but then changed her mind when she saw the pan I was using to bake them in.

 I'm sad I didn't get any photos of the actual party we had for them, but they loved it. It was lots of fun shared with friends and lots of cousins. I am so grateful for the relationship I have with my sisters and the relationships I see forming between our children, I makes me so completely happy.

The next day, Monday, I got to take my very first batch of birthday cupcakes to my kids' class. I was so excited, though my sisters warned me the kids would only eat the frosting, I'm proud to say they ate them, cupcake and all, and even asked for seconds.

Eve in her birthday crown at school.

Some stuff about my Eve bug: She loves to sing and often makes up songs about whatever is occupying her thoughts at the moment. She is very artistic, she loves to draw, paint, and color, and would spend the entire day coloring in a coloring book if I didn't make her take a break to play with her sisters. She is great at pretend, her cookies and cupcakes are delicious!

 Adia with her cupcake and frosting face.

About my Adi lady: She has just about perfected her cartwheel, and loves to show it off, she loves to play with her sisters and often asks me how her baby sister Amelia is feeling. 

She is always willing to help me clean up or fold clothes.

 It's crazy to think my ladies are 4 years old! When did this happen?

Happy Birthday Evelyn and Adia!

Preschool

Today was the day!

We met Evelyn and Adia's teacher last week, Miss Korbi and they've been asking to go to school ever since. I've been so excited for them to go too, I could tell they needed something, something I couldn't seem to give them. They were itching to learn more and my simple answers to all their questions just weren't cutting it anymore.

 Of course I had my worries leading up to this day. For almost a year now I've been fretting and researching possible school choices. Will it have the "extras" I feel my kids will love? Will they be lost in the crowd of a million and one kids? Will it become more of a daycare than a preschool? Luckily, I had a sister in the area who had done this dance like 8 years ago, and all I've ever heard about this particular school has been sparkling positive, and by some miracle they had space for my amazing two. Sigh of relief!

So excited! Today they gathered in their classroom and I watched (teary eyed) as they lined up and marched to Art workshop; one of the many they'll get to experience, like Music, Cooking, Science, and History/ Foreign Language. Of course those are the extras I was talking about that are spread throughout the week. They'll also have the basics; Handwriting, Phonics, and Math.

It blows me away how suddenly this day has arrived it really does feel like yesterday we were just here(Two Beautiful Girls) and now my two beautiful girls are off to preschool.

Some Random Antics

Lily decided to bonk her head on the ground for fun. I love these kids. :)

Neil

Making T-Shirts With Dad

Angelica was out having fun her sisters for a few days, and so I had the kids for the day. I thought it'd be fun to do a craft with the kids, and I'd been wanting to try out printable, iron-on t-shirt transfers for a while.

We first started out planning to use some clip art images found on the net, but the kids suggested drawing, and I thought that was a great idea! It would be really cool to see your own artwork on a shirt!

We used an app called Paper for our iPad. Adia drew a picture, then we gave it to Evelyn. Evelyn did such a fun, colorful picture that Adia wanted it on her t-shirt too! It's lovely too!

I also made a shirt, a flag from a video game I like, and it was fun to use. All in all, we had fun and spent less than $25 for materials.
















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3 kids + 5 rolls of toilet paper=

Yes, 5 whole rolls of toilet paper.














I was able to salvage 4 of the 5 rolls, the fifth was very thoroughly shredded. And yes, all 3 of the children remained unharmed, but were quite upset when I wouldn't take a picture of them with their handy work.
- Angelica

Little and the Pinwheel

A prize we won at Lamb Days, the pinwheel is a big hit with Lily.

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Neil here with pics!

I'm always taking fun pictures, here's a few:

The last one is our buddy (and cousin) Wyatt doing a hulk, while Eve plays the part of the princess. :) Adi just wanted to be in the picture, as she always does. :)

Everyday everyday

Not a super exciting post but I felt like updating. So it's our everyday everyday post.
One day Charity's kids spent the day with us while she went to Youth Conference.
Logan, Jaycee, Adia, Sydnie, Evelyn, and Brynn all lined up to watch The Lion King.


Watching Ruby Gloom with Dad. Neil says its only show he can stand to actually watch with the kids.


4th of July pancakes, as close to star shaped as I could get.


Eve being Eve. She got herself ready that day :) when she saw this photo she said "is that me shaking my booty?" but in Eve speak it sounded more like "booday"


These three love to snuggle up together and watch movies.


I seriously adore when they play like this together. It makes my heart smile.

I am one lucky momma!
- Angelica

Some Silly Girl Stuff

Here's a few photos and videos from my phone. We love these girls and have so much fun with them!

They love their baby sister. I was reading through some tough experiences of other parents trying to help their first child get used to not being the only kid in the family once a new sibling arrived, and I felt lucky to be able to say I hardly see anything like that with our girls. Phew.

This has been a new thing as of the past week: sneaking some late night cartoons on dad's iPad. It's cute, but I won't let them know that. ;)

Lily is eating big kid food now with the rest of us, and she's particularly good at blowing on her food.

Even though Angelica is much better at it, I still enjoy that my little girls humor me and my hair skills. :)

- Neil

Mother's Day Weekend

Saturday morning we headed down to Ephraim, where we spent most of the day with Felicia and Nate at the farm.

Eve was in hog heaven with all the dirt, animals, and freedom to roam a girl could ask for. We went skeet shooting there on the ranch, here she is holding a clay pigeon and sporting her orange ear plugs.


Kaylee and Kort handing out the ammo.


Adia had lots of fun telling us "good job" every time we hit one.


After shooting we went to watch Uncle Nate feed the horses, we got to stop and see the new colts that were so cute. When we got there the kids got a turn at sitting on one of the horses, Bucky I think was his name.


Like I said Evelyn was in heaven, she got nice and muddy and loved every second of chasing Nate's dog Spade.

It was so great to spend some time with Felicia and Nate, Kaylee and Kort. We had so much fun, we'll have to do it again soon.


The next day, Sunday, was Mother's Day. Neil got up and made blueberry muffins with the kids. Then we went to church, Eve and Adia did a great job singing in sacrament meeting with the rest of the primary kids.

Church starts at 11, which is also the time of Lily's first nap. So church is usually a little rough for us both. Soon after Sunday School started she became fussy so I took her into the Mother's Lounge and sat down to rock her. She didn't like that one bit and ended up rolling around on the floor while crying her little eyes out... This is the end result.


A 45 minute nap on the Mother's Room floor. I'll take it if it means a happy baby.


After church Neil promptly got to work putting together my Mother's Day gift. Evelyn and Adia were very helpful.


And here it is! I love it! Its so wonderful to be able to just sit outside and watch kids play.


- Angelica

Finger Paints

Finger painting is something I always wanted to do with my twins. I knew they would love it.
My only reservation with sharing this messy goodness with them is once they've discovered how enjoyable something is... they do it... all the time... with or without my help or supervision with whatever they can find.
Playing catch... with the tv
Coloring a picture... on the back of the couch
Putting on lotion... with shampoo, conditioner, dish soap, vapor rub, fudge sauce, BBQ sauce, body wash, peanut butter, jam, butter, etc.
Always starting with something fun somehow ending in disaster. Hopefully you get the idea of my hesitation.

I happened upon this glorious idea on Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it out!


It was a success! They thoroughly enjoyed drawing different things as I thoroughly enjoy watching.


2 colors of paint per ziploc freezer bag taped over a piece white paper then taped to the table. Next go round I plan to make the paint myself, a recipe I also found on Pinterest.


And don't worry this summer I plan to introduce them to the real magical messiness of finger painting.
- posted by Angelica from her iPod

Inner Peace

A while ago we started playing karate with the kids, just wrestling and whatnot. Well, I figured out quickly the kids had more energy than me, so I came up with a way to take a break and still have fun: inner peace. I always have fun playing with them and then making silly "young grasshopper" comments and saying "inner peace" and looking like I'm meditating, and the kids follow my actions. Very cute. :)

Here's a video of Eve demonstrating.

- Neil

Daddy daughter date

Neil and Eve went to Radio Shack to get some parts yesterday, and we decided to have a little daddy daughter date at Wendy's on the way back. :)



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Cardboard in Excess

We seem to have a lot of boxes around our house... like a ridiculous amount of boxes and cardboard.

At least once a week something Neil has ordered arrives on our doorstep... Okay maybe not that often but sometimes it is that often.

So I decided to make use of all this cardboard.

A castle for my ladies





Complete with working (at least for now) drawbridge.


It's a hit!

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