Hurst Family

Family Night

2012-02-09T20:19:00.002-07:00

This week we were lucky enough to have Josh and his family for family night. The kids were so excited to have someone over for dinner and then to have them stay for family night. We are so lucky to have such fun cousins. Hailey and Libbie made up a song for the lesson, we talked about love. Then we made heart shaped rice crispy treats, a good time was had by all.

Bike Ride

2012-02-09T20:16:00.001-07:00

Once again the weather we have been having is crazy. It's been so nice. Aida got a scooter for her birthday and has been dying to really try it out. The other day we met up with two of Hailey's friends Porter and Cameron and went for a little ride to the church. The kids had a great time riding in the parking lot. Aida did great on her new scooter!

Aida is 3

2012-02-01T07:38:00.003-07:00

It was Aida's birthday on Friday. She is now 3, we can hardly believe it. We had a great day on her birthday. We had a big party for Aida and Katie (who's birthday is one day before Aida's) on Saturday.

Aida had her 3 yr check up at the doctors on Saturday. The doctor said she looks great. She weighs 30 lbs. and is 37" tall. Just right!

We love you Aida!!!!!

SOLD!!!

2012-02-01T07:21:00.002-07:00

When we decided we were serious about moving we also decided that Heavenly Father is watching out for us and that if things are meant to be they will work out. When we found the house we are buying we both fell in love with it, but we knew it was going to take a miracle for things to work out smoothly. We were worried about having two houses, or possibly no houses (I'm not sure which is worse). Things are miraculously working out.

On Thursday afternoon we found out that our offer on the house in Midway was accepted, yeah! Then Thursday evening we received a counter offer on our house which we accepted on Friday morning. Our current closing date is Feb. 28th on both houses, but we are hoping to do it a little earlier so that we can get some work done while Matt has time off.

We are so excited, well I should say that Matt and I are so excited. Hailey is less than excited, she doesn't want a new house. Every once in a while she forgets that she's not excited and shows a little excitement about her new room, but she quickly remembers that she doesn't want a new room.

The first picture is the front of our new house.

The second is the view from the back yard, it's the back of Mt. Timpanogos.

The third is the back of our house, unfortunately the red barn is not ours, but it does add to the view.

We are moving (hopefully!)

2012-01-18T09:56:00.003-07:00

It's official, our house is up for sale. We have found another house we love and are hoping they will accept our offer. Until then we are madly packing up everything we don't need and cleaning constantly. Organizing is my new hobby.

Hopefully this link will work to take you to pictures of our house. We are hoping and praying it all works out.

http://www.obeo.com/702268

Frosting the snowman

2012-01-18T09:39:00.004-07:00

Hailey and Aida have been waiting for there to be enough snow to build a snowman. They got a snowman kit from one of their friends for Christmas and haven't had enough snow to build one since. It finally snowed, although not much, and they were out there first thing to get a snowman going. They enlisted Matt's help, he had to shovel the lawn to get enough snow to build a snowman not quite as tall as Aida. It turned out so cute, they were so proud of themselves.

Aida calls frosty the snowman Frosting the Snowman, so our snowman was named Frosting. The girls could see Frosting out their bedroom window and lovingly said good night and good morning until he melted. Now we are anxiously awaiting more snow so we can build another one.

Warm Weather

2012-01-03T10:56:00.003-07:00

We have had unseasonably warm weather (mixed with freezing cold) and no snow. So the girls have been aching to get outside. They had a lot of fun riding bikes, and Matt and I got some furniture refinished.

Christmas Morning

2011-12-29T09:56:00.002-07:00

Somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the girls once they were ready for church in the Christmas dresses. Here are the few pictures I did take. We had a great morning, Hailey didn't wake up until after 8 and she had to wake Aida up. The girls were really excited and loved all their presents. When Aida Saw the bed for her doll, she hopped right in it and surprisingly she fit sitting up. The first couple of nights both girls slept with the dolls and their beds in bed with them. They have been thoroughly entertained with all the fun new toys they have. Thanks to everyone!!!

Hailey can read

2011-12-29T09:43:00.002-07:00

Hailey has been able to read for quite a while, but for some reason she thought she couldn't. She'd get frustrated if she didn't immediately know a word. We've been working on it and something suddenly clicked for her. She is doing so great, we're so proud of her and she's pretty proud of herself. She is growing up so fast.

Sweet Aida

2011-12-29T09:38:00.002-07:00

I usually do posts about Aida and her mischievous endeavors, but she isn't always in trouble when she's quiet.

The other morning Aida disappeared, she was being so quiet I decided I better find her before there was a huge mess to clean up. But, this time instead of a huge mess she was laying in Hailey's bed with Hailey's pillow pet reading stories. She stayed there for at least half an hour reading books. She loves anything that is her sisters!

Polar Express

2011-12-29T09:33:00.002-07:00

Matt and I were in charge of the Ward Christmas party this year and since there was no way we could have kept track of our two wild girls while we were there cute Lani invited them to her ward party which was a polar express party. The girls were so excited, Lani dropped off fun jammies and slippers for them to wear to the party.

They had a such a great time, Aida was especially excited that she got to have a sleep over afterwards.

Thanks Lani for all that you do!!!

French Bread

2011-12-29T09:26:00.004-07:00

I've had a few people ask me for this recipe so here it is:

French Bread

2 1/2 C. Very warm water

2Tbsp. Yeast

3Tbsp. Sugar

2Tbsp. White Vinegar

-Add these ingredients together and let sit until bubbly.

1Tbsp. Salt

1/3 C. Oil

6 C. Flour (you can use 1/2 wheat & 1/2 White)

Knead for 2-5 minutes then put in the oven with a small pot of boiling water. The water will keep the dough moist. Watch the dough and punch it down when it gets to the top of the mixing bowl. do this every time it gets to the top of the bowl, as long as you have time to babysit it (2-5 times). Put the dough on a greased countertop and divide into 3 sections. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle a thin layer of cornmeal on the bottom of the sheet. Roll the dough balls into rectangle/long French bread shapes. slash tops of bread diagonally 3-5 times and cover with a beaten egg. Let rise 30 minutes (or until doubled). Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy...this is my favorite way to do french bread.

Rhodes rolls

2011-12-29T09:20:00.003-07:00

I heard about rhodesbread.com the other day and decided to check it out. I made my own dough, and used their suggestions, I think it may be one of my new favorite websites.

Family photo preview

2011-12-01T08:07:00.008-07:00

We had family pictures taken last week, here are a few, when I get the rest of them back I'll put our favorites up.

I am so grateful for my little family, I couldn't have been more blessed. I'm grateful for Matt, that he is genuinely such a good person always doing his best to make things good for his family.

I am grateful for Hailey, she is such a sweet loving girl. I remember when I was having a hard time getting pregnant before I had Aida, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the wonderful daughter I already had. I remember feeling so lucky and thinking that if we only got to have one child Hailey was the perfect one to have.

I am grateful for Aida, she is so full of energy and love. She's got the cutest personality, she has a way of making you smile even when she's in a load of trouble. I can't imagine our family without her, she was the perfect addition to our family. We are so lucky to have two healthy wonderful children!

So some days when I'm struggling I have to remind myself to count my blessings, I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for sending these wonderful blessings to our family!

Elder Hurst is home

2011-12-01T07:52:00.004-07:00

Matt's youngest brother Eric returned home from his mission yesterday morning. We were so excited to see him again. Hailey brought him a treat and a picture to welcome him home.

Aida is still being a little shy with him, but I'm sure she will warm up soon if he is as fun as her other uncles. On the way home Aida was wishing we brought all her uncles home with us.

The girls were glad to have cousins to play with while we waited. Grace was especially fun and just as wild as they were.

We're glad to have Eric home!

Flour

2011-12-01T07:50:00.003-07:00

Aida was my little helper in making sugar cookies for the ward party (don't worry she actually just played with the flour after we were done.) This girl can make a mess faster than anyone I know!

Christmas is coming!

2011-11-22T07:45:00.004-07:00

For more check out my design blog!

Aida Elaine

2011-11-22T07:05:00.003-07:00

Look at this face, you can't help but LOVE it! Aida is growing up, she has always had a great little personality, but now she is oozing with personality. She is funny and she knows it. She's mischievous and full of energy! Lucky for Aida she's got that cute sweet face, you can't be mad for long even if she did get into the chocolate (which at age 2 she already knows she loves).

Sometimes she struggles to stay in bed at night, we put her to bed at 8:30 and it is not at all uncommon for her to still be awake at 10:30 or even 11:00. Last night Matt told her that he would lay in bed with her as long as she didn't get out of bed (thinking that she was exhausted and if she would just lay still for 5 minutes she'd be out) she stayed for quite a while, but when she thought Matt was asleep she snuk out of bed to get a toy. He had to leave and she cried like it was the end of her world. She finally made her way into our room with the saddest little blue eyes and a quivering voice she said "I want my daddy in my bed". It was so hard to resist, Matt had to turn away a couple of times so he could resist. This sweet little girl is the one who is going to give us a run for our money. WE LOVE HER!!! And we are so grateful to have her and her wonderful....sweet....much less mischievous sister!!!

Christmas is around the corner

2011-11-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Create a digital invite

Hailey's Halloween Program

2011-11-08T07:47:00.003-07:00

I've tried several times to get the videos I took at Hailey's program to upload, but there's always an error so I've settled for a picture. Just know that they sang some really fun songs and Hailey was thrilled to be there.

This is Hailey in one of her pairs of glasses, I think she looks so cute! I'm glad we took Merijane's advice and got two pairs. Two days after she got her glasses we lost one of them, it took several days to find. She is still getting used to wearing them all the time, I guess it takes time.

My Design Blog

2011-10-23T20:42:00.003-06:00

I've been refinishing things and turning someone elses trash into my treasures for at least 10 years, I finally got the courage to try to make something of it.

I've decided to refinish furniture and sell it, and as soon as I decided things started working out. I couldn't do it without out Matt, a lot of times things are "trash" to someone for a reason, Matt is a great handyman. We'll see what comes of it, but I am pretty excited, I love seeing what something can turn into.

I've started a blog if you would like to look at the things I'm doing. There is a link on the sidebar. It's Simplyyoufurniture.blogspot.com

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-23T20:34:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Matt's sister Heidi we had enough pumpkins for everyone to carve their own. Hailey has been wanting to carve pumpkins and Saturday was the night for it. They turned out pretty spooky!

Hailey is getting glasses

2011-10-23T20:23:00.003-06:00

Ever since Libbie got glasses last year Hailey has wanted them. After she knew Libbie had them she was sure she couldn't see as well as she used to, I told her she was being silly. Turns out she does need glasses. She went to the eye doctor on Thursday and he said she definatley needs them...it was her best day! Who knew a kid could be excited, she wanted to get them immediately. We went shopping that night and then again Friday morning, I had no idea it would be so hard to find some to fit her cute tiny head. They were all so wide, some were quite funny.

After a lot of debating we finally chose some. These were some of our options, we'll post pictures of the ones she got when they come hopefully on Friday.

Who knew a 5 year old could be so excited to get glasses.

Primary program

2011-10-20T08:16:00.004-06:00

Sunday was Hailey's primary program. She did a great job, she's been working on memorizing her part for a couple of weeks. We made a little note with some pictures to help her if she go nervous and she did a great job.

Grammy, Opi and Lani came to hear.

As a little side note on Monday night Hailey was giving her talk for the lesson and Aida finished the sentence. Who knew she was paying so much attention.

Witches night out

2011-10-20T07:42:00.008-06:00

Last week for our adventure with Gigi we decided to go to Gardner Village to see the witches. Because we wanted to take Hailey with we didn't go until after Ballet. Papa came too, we were "lucky" enough to be there for witches night out (something we didn't plan). It was wild and crazy, but fun. We loved seeing all the fun witch costumes. It was a beautiful day.

Hailey was Tiana (the frog princess) and Aida was Tinkerbell. Aida was quite thrilled to be in her costume, so I was quite surprised when she took it right off in the middle of the doll store. Luckily she's 2 and running around in a onesie and tights wasn't a problem for her.

We loved the doll store, when I was little I used to call Gigi the Queen of the Doll Clothes, it was the perfect store to visit with Gigi and two doll loving little girls. Aida was quite impressed with all the tiny adorable doll shoes, she has been wanting her doll to have shoes, but we can't find any that fit and this was no exception these were too tiny.

Lani came at the end just in time to get the girls faces painted. We had a great time!

Up the canyon

2011-10-15T07:44:00.003-06:00

We went up Millcreek canyon probably for the last time this year. It was so pretty! The leaves are changing into my favorite fall colors and there was still a little bit of snow. We had a lot of fun. Aida did not hold still (except during a brief TIME-OUT), she wanted to be on her own little adventure. The picture of Gram with all the girls was pretty typical of the night.

The first snow

2011-10-15T07:34:00.004-06:00

We have had a beautiful fall, the weather has been so nice. Then all of the sudden it got cold and snowed! The girls were thrilled and immediately got out their snow clothes and begged to go outside. The snowflakes were huge and wet! Hailey was sorely disappointed that she couldn't make a snow angel, but running around in the freezing cold was almost as fun.

I a Big Girl

2011-10-15T07:25:00.003-06:00

Aida has recently started talking like crazy. She took a long time to start talking, but now that she does she talks quite clearly and all the time. She now likes to inform everyone that she is a BIG GIRL. Hailey thinks it's funny to call her a baby, it's not funny, and they get into little arguments all the time about being a baby. It goes both ways Aida calls Hailey a baby and she doesn't think it's funny either. It's funny how a 5 year old can get upset when a 2 year old calls her a baby. Oh well, it is fun now that Aida can express herself she seems so much bigger now.

We were reading stories the other day while Hailey was at school and Aida got her little friends all lined up to hear the story too.

Adventures with Gigi

2011-10-15T07:10:00.003-06:00

Aida and I decided that we need to get out and have our own adventures while Hailey is at school. For our first adventure we went to The Quilted Bear. It was a lot of fun, Aida loved seeing all the Halloween things, but the witches were our favorites. Gigi and Aida modeled some of the witch hats they had there.

After we went to Arctic Circle for lunch, Aida was in heaven she's never been there without Hailey and I think she quite enjoyed being the center of attention. The light up squishy spider that came in her Square Pumpkin was a fun bonus. Thanks Gigi for a fun afternoon.

A month of Service

2011-09-25T15:22:00.002-06:00

This month our ward is doing a month of service. We have had a lot of fun as a family coming up with different things we can do to serve. The first Monday of the month we had a family night on service. Aida said she wanted to make cookies for Hailey for her service. So one day after we dropped Hailey off at school Aida got to help make cookies before her nap. She is great at pouring things in and she likes to mix on HIGH. Aida is also a great taste tester.

Hailey was so excited when she came home from school and there was a plate of cookies that spelled out her name. For her service Hailey played with someone new during recess.

It has been fun to talk to the girls about the different things we can do to serve each other.

Bike Riding

2011-09-25T15:13:00.005-06:00

Aida has learned to love riding her bike. She is finally big enough to make it go fast and she loves it. Every time we open the garage she goes straight for her bike to see if she can get a ride in before we have to go.

Hailey is getting so close to being able to ride her bike without training wheels. Truly with a little more dedication from her parents she could probably have it down in a day or two.

On a side note: Now that Hailey is growing her hair like Rapunzel and it is getting quite long we have had to get a little creative with the hair-dos. She quite likes having fancy hair and lucky for her I like to do it. If only Aida would sit still long enough to have a her hair done. Lucky she has a cute hair cut that seriously looks perfect when she rolls out of bed in the morning.

My spare time

2011-09-25T15:00:00.003-06:00

I spent the summer sewing like crazy and doing a little decorating, but none of it was for me. I've finally recovered from Super Saturday and everything else and decided to do some things for our house.

This summer we bought this chest of drawers from our neighbor, it is old enough that it can probably be considered an antique, but it was in pretty sorry condition. Matt did a little fixing and some painting and I finished it up with distressing and antiquing. I am so happy with how it turned out, one of the best $15 I've spent.

This menu board has been on my list for a while and I finally took the time to do it. I have loved having a cute way to keep my meals organized.

Ballet

2011-09-25T14:45:00.004-06:00

Hailey has been begging for years to take Ballet. We tried to find a fun class for her last year, but couldn't find anything that we liked that fit our budget. We tried again this year and found the perfect fit. She started the beginning of September and has loved every minute of it.

School Days

2011-09-25T14:37:00.002-06:00

Hailey is loving school. Aida is wishing she was in school. The first week she cried everyday when we dropped Hailey off, she wanted to stay with Hailey. Some days she brings a bag with her so that she's ready just in case she gets to go to school too. One Friday Hailey had to bring a rock for show and tell. You may not know it, but Hailey and Aida have quite a rock collection. Matt frequently brings home interesting rocks from the different places he visits and gives them to the girls. So when Hailey chose her rock Aida had to choose one too, she brought it with to drop Hailey off. When we went to visit Gigi she had to bring her rock in for show and tell with Gigi, she made sure that Gigi saw it.

Aida is finally to the point where she isn't sad when we drop Hailey off, but she sure is glad to see her when she gets home. They have become great little friends and play so well together.

Moms

2011-09-02T08:37:00.002-06:00

Hailey has been taking all sorts of random pictures the last few days. I spent half an hour deleting them from my camera this morning.

I found this one among all the weird pictures of toys and what's under my bed. I love this picture.

I am so lucky to have a mom who is my best friend. She is wonderful! She as taught me among other things how to love and how to serve.

I'm so grateful she is my mom!

First day of Kindergarden

2011-09-02T08:19:00.006-06:00

I can't believe that Hailey is in Kindergarden. She is growing up so fast. She is definately ready, ever since we went to register last spring she has been talking about going back.

Even though she has been so excited I thought she might get nervous when it actually came down to it. She was so excited that I don't think she even had time to be nervous. She walked right in when Mrs. Butters came to get the kids.

She came home from her first day of school with just as much enthusiasm and she started with.

Aida on the other hand has not been super excited for Hailey to go to school. she cried the first couple of days when we dropped Hailey off. The last couple she kept talking about Hailey, wanting her to be with us doing what we were doing. Over the summer Hailey and Aida spent so much time playing together, they really became good little friends.

Zuckertutte

2011-09-02T08:09:00.003-06:00

Grandma Jeri has the funnest tradition she does for the kids when they go to Kindergarden, it is a German tradition and it is called Zuckertutte. Sunday night she brought Hailey this HUGE cone filled with fun things to help her with school. Hailey was thrilled, she loved opening all the little presents.

She immediately tried on every pair of socks, luckily for us she refrained from trying on all the underwear even though she wanted to.

We ended the night with a fathers blessing. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in our home. I am grateful to Matt for all he does.

Bear Lake

2011-09-02T07:56:00.004-06:00

We went on a fantastic vacation with my whole family to Bear Lake last month, unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures at the lake. I did take a few at the cabin, they were all on the last day. It was a fun relaxing vacation and yet we were all exhausted when we got home.

Thanks Dad and Mom for planning the whole thing and providing the cabin, it is a tradition we all look forward to.

Wedding cakes

2011-07-22T08:57:00.004-06:00

This is the cake that started it all. When I did Tatia's cake I thought it would be my first and last, but it started something and I've done 5 now. I've learned a few tricks.

This is Cierra's cake.

Cierra got married a couple of weeks ago and I made the cake for her. I'm nervous everytime I do one that it might not turn out quite right. The night before when I had to roll the fondant 4 times becuase it happened to be the most humid day in Utah I was a little worried that it just wasn't going to work. Eventually it did work though, and everything turned out great. Her colors were so bright and fun.

This is a cake for someone who was at Tatia's reception and loved hers.

Up the canyon

2011-07-22T08:52:00.002-06:00

When I was a kid I remember going up the canyon for dinner with my cousins. So when some of my cousins were in town for Cierra's wedding we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We all had a great time.

The Cabin

2011-07-22T08:42:00.002-06:00

We had a lot of fun up at the cabin on the 4th. Aida's favorite thing was of course the door, she loves to go in and out.

Thanks to uncle Paul the kids had a lot of fun with his bottle rocket.

Hailey's actual Birthday

2011-07-22T07:56:00.006-06:00

We had really fun day on Hailey's birthday.

We went to a movie in 3D, the girls enjoyed the glasses.

We ended the day by going up the canyon, it was so pretty and even a little bit cool.

Swimming Lessons

2011-07-07T07:51:00.001-06:00

Hailey started swimming lessons this week and is loving them! She has been begging to take them for a long time and was definatley ready. She is doing great. She was a little nervous when she had to jump off the diving board the first time and needed a little nudge to help her off the board, but she was brave!

Looking so big

2011-07-07T07:39:00.004-06:00

The girls looked so cute in their 4th of July dresses for church on sunday I had to take pictures. They are looking so big to me.

Hailey's 5th Birthday Party

2011-07-07T07:11:00.005-06:00

Hailey had her first Birthday party with friends, and I'm not sure she'll ever settle for just a family party again. What could be more fun than 12 5 year old kids running around?

She really wanted a princess party, but she also wanted to invite boys so....we decided to go for a wonderland party. It was a lot of fun.

We had a "Mad Hatters Hat Shoppe" where the kids made silly hats out of grocery bags.

Opi made an amazing pinjata. Hailey wanted a unicorn, I would have told her tough luck, Opi was so sweet and made the perfect unicorn. The pinjata was definately the hit of the party. Everyone had fun swinging a croquet mallet at it.

Here's Hailey in the hat she made opening some of

the fun presents she got.

Hailey saw these candles at the store and knew they were meant for her...she said "Mom, that candle is a 5 and I'm turning 5 can we buy it?" it was the dollar store so I said yes and she was thrilled. They made a nice topper to the mad hatter's hat cake.

A little side note. Aida loves to be a little helper, or I could also say destroyer. As soon as I walked away from the fondant (luckily I had already cut out what I needed) Aida pulled a chair over to the counter and started rolling out what was left, and of course did a little taste test. I don't remember Hailey being quite so adventureous, Aida can get to anything!

Mischief

2011-06-07T09:00:00.003-06:00

Aida has become mischievieous, and I'm pretty sure she knows it. The other day I was on the phone (that seems to be what I'm doing when most bad things happen) when I realized she had been quiet for a while. I went to check on her and found her in my room with the brand new tube of toothpaste crinkled up and almost empty. (this is not the first time) It was on my carpet and so nicely displayed on this box. Hailey thought she might be doing ART. Possibly, but I guess I need to find her a new ART medium, because toothpaste is hard to clean up. My carpet has never been the same.

Pre-school graduation

2011-06-07T08:27:00.004-06:00

Hailey graduated from Pre-school on Friday. She has absolutely loved pre-school and I am amazed at all the things she has learned. She is really growing up. At the graduation ceremony Miss leslie said that Hailey is friendly, a leader, likes to organize the girls at recess and come up with fun things for them to do, and she is creative.

Hailey can't wait for Kindergarden. On Saturday she woke up and asked me if she had school today. I reminded her that it is Summer and she just finished school. She said she meant the big kid school, she's ready for kindergarden. She was dissappointed to find out that she will have to wait until Fall to start kindergarden.

Baking Cookies

2011-06-07T08:09:00.004-06:00

We made sugar cookie bouquets for Hailey's pre-school teacher the other day. Hailey was thrilled when Libbie happened to call to see if we could play so she got to make one for her teacher too.

The girls had so much fun, they were great cookie makers!

Hailey's Spring Program.

2011-05-19T09:16:00.002-06:00

Hailey has been so excited for her program for a long time. She loves to sing and has been singing all her songs loud and clear at home. She really does know every word to every song, but there were so many people to watch at the program that she missed a few. She did a great job!

The last picture is actually a video if you click on it, Hailey and her two friends Wes and Cam were great little dancers.

Mother's Day

2011-05-14T07:26:00.003-06:00

I tried really hard to get a cute picture of the girls together on Mother's Day, but they didn't want to do what I wanted them to do so this is how the pictures turned out. Hailey insisted on wearing princess shoes, so of course Aida had to take her shoes off too. She is definately in the phase where she wants to be just like Hailey.

For Mother's Day they gave me a pedicure and dinner with some of my friends, we went last night and it was sooo good. Now my toes are looking ready for summer.

The Aquarium

2011-05-09T15:01:00.004-06:00

Hailey had a school fieldtrip to the Acquarium, and she was lucky enough to have her whole little family attend. We had a lot of fun. The highlight for Hailey was being brave enough to touch the stingray. The penguins were pretty cool too.

Easter

2011-05-09T14:54:00.002-06:00

We had a great Easter. There was a measles scare in our neighborhood, so we stayed home and enjoyed time together. The girls got a

great letter from the Easter Bunny the night before and they were excited for Easter morning. The egg hunt was fun and the Easter Bunny left some great little presents. Hailey's favorite was her kite. She spent most of the day in our backyard flying it practicing her kite moves for a kite show. (side note: it was also Matt's favorite on Monday I found him outside in the middle of a storm flying Aida's princess kite with a huge grin on his face. He was thoroughly enjoying himself!)

That night we had a lesson on what Easter is really about. I was happy to know that Hailey does know a lot of the story. When I asked where Jesus died she said "On Calvary's only hill", THANKS to the primary music! What an inspired song.

Spring is here...we think.

2011-05-09T14:35:00.005-06:00

We can't decide if spring is here or not. The tulips definately say that spring is here, but they have recently been covered by snow and it has rained all day today. We have decided that we need to spend as much time outside as we can when it is nice! Hailey and Aida both love the flowers, luckily they are just as happy to pick dandelions as they are to pick tulips.

Here comes the bride

2011-04-21T10:08:00.003-06:00

On Saturday we got to go see my cousin Cierra try on her dress. Hailey was excited to go, and she was not dissappointed! Cierra was beautiful and the store was full of princess dresses and beautiful jewelry, a little girls dream. Aida enjoyed the store too, she's a little more mischieveous though....running and hiding. I'm sure the people there were glad to see us go.

Cookies with Lani

2011-04-21T10:00:00.002-06:00

We dropped Hailey off at school and visited Gigi & Papa to do a final measure for Jeff's cabinets. While we were there Lani called and said she stayed home from work so we headed over there to say hi.

She is so sweet with the girls, they absolutely adore her! While we were there she let Aida help her make cookies. Aida successfully got flour everywhere and made a huge mess, but the cookies were fantastic!

Aida is a girl after my own heart, she couldn't help herself she had to have some dough.

THANKS LANI!

Happy Un-Birthday to you!

2011-04-21T09:54:00.003-06:00

Hailey celebrated her Un-Birthday at school this month. She had a lot of fun filling out the poster they sent home from school. It was fun to hear what her favorite things are currently. In case you can't read them here they are:

Favorite Color: Purple (notice the purple frosting, she insisted!)

Favorite Food: Macaroni & Cheese

Favorite Animal: Giraffe

Favorite Place: Circus (she drew the cutest clown ever all by herself)

Favorite thing to do: Ride a horse (she has been asking me when she can ride Scout again)

Wants to be a princess at Disneyland when she grows up

Her one wish would be for Rapunzel to come to our house (she is currently growing her hair long because she wants it to be like Rapunzels)

Hailey is growing up so fast. She says and does the cutest things, I love being her Mom.

Pizza & the Park

2011-04-05T16:15:00.003-06:00

The weather here has been CRAZY, one day it's beautiful and the next day we get 10" of snow so you just never know what you are going to get. We have learned that you have to take every chance you can to play outside. Last Thursday was such a nice day that we decided to go to the park for pizza and play time. The girls had so much fun.

Aida finally seemed like she was loving the swing, but if you look closely at the second picture she was only seconds away from being terrified.

Kindergarden here I come!

2011-04-05T16:13:00.002-06:00

Hailey is going to Kindergarden next year, we can hardly believe she is soooo big! We went to kindergarden orientation a couple of weeks ago. Hailey was already excited about the big school, but now she can hardly wait. She will be going with 4 other cute little kindergardeners in our ward and could not be more excited.

Six Sticks

2011-04-05T16:08:00.002-06:00

Hailey was given a homework assinment to make something out of six popscicle sticks. She tried a lot of different things, but none of them seemed quite "special" enough. Until....she figured out how to make Rapunzel. She made this adorable little doll all by herself, she even figured out how to do the head and hair without help. I'm proud of her creative little mind. She was the only one in her class who remembered to do it, way to go Hailey.

These pictures were taken on Pajama Day, so Hailey is sporting her new spring Jammies and the fanciest slippers I've ever seen.

Arctic Circle

2011-03-24T16:23:00.002-06:00

The other night for family night treat we went to Arctic and Got Ice Cream cones and played on the playground. The girls loved it. Aida is finally big

enough to really love playgrounds and Hailey makes a new friend every time. The favorite part of the night was doing trains down the slide. Aida thought it was especially fun!

Cousins

2011-03-24T16:20:00.001-06:00

Hailey is always begging to play with her cousins and she finally had a chance to spend the morn

ing with Libbie and Katie. The girls had so much fun, they missed Molly who was on an adventure in Arizona. They are so funny when they get together!

Organizing shoes

2011-03-24T15:45:00.003-06:00

Aida's new thing is organizing shoes. Sometimes she puts them in pairs, sometimes she makes great patterns like this one. The other night when Aida was supposed to be in bed she must have gotten the closet organizing bug (I know I often lay there and think of things I could be organizing). When I went to put her back in bed this is how I found her....all dressed up in jewelry and with Hailey's shoes in this lovely half circle pattern. I quite often find her with a bed full of shoes, I guess a girl is never too young to love shoes!

Can't we just make this?

2011-03-24T15:24:00.003-06:00

Isn't it great that kids have such confidence in their parents? Hailey knows that Matt can fix anything and she is pretty sure that she and I can make anything she wants.

Hailey just came in, after looking for markers in my sewing room, with a pattern for a little summer dress....

Hailey: Hey Mom, what's this for?
Me: It's a pattern for a dress.
Hailey: Oh, do you want to make it today?
Me: I don't think we have any fabric.
Hailey: Yes we do, there's some in the pattern. Oh, I guess it's just a pattern. Oh, what's this....what's that.
Me: I don't think we can make it today.
Hailey: Well, what color should we make it? I saw that you have some fabric in there.
Me: We are not making it today.
Hailey: All you have to do is sew it. I'll just go get the fabric. (then she came in with a bag full of ribbon, I don't think that's going to work)
Me: That's ribbon Hailey
Hailey: Yeah, it's just for the arms mom. I'll go get the fabric.

We may just have to make a dress today. Last time this happened I was in the middle of a project when Hailey decided she really wanted a new apron. She picked out all the fabric and ribbon. She was so excited, so we made an apron. I really don't think I have the right fabric though.

Anyway, I thought someone else might enjoy our little conversation.

Jump on the Potty Train

2011-02-23T14:03:00.004-07:00

Aida has wanted to be on the "Potty Train" for a long time. She had two little problems:
1-She didn't communicate very well
2-One time when we tried it she had 5 accidents before 12:00

But she is starting to talk quite a bit more and she wakes up dry so we decided to give it another try.

She went in the toilet first thing. What a good start...it didn't last. Shortly after she had 2 accidents and then one more. But that's only 3 by 12:00 so we are going to keep trying!~

She really likes to do it all by herself.

I wish they made the trainer underwear a little smaller. Notice they are a little saggy, but Aida doesn't mind. They must feel about a thousand times better than a diaper!

Hailey, of course, wants to be part of the whole thing and has tried really hard to help Aida.

Oh, the sweet rewards...M&M's.

Things are going relatively well, hopefully we'll get it all figured out soon. Until then I'll be doing a lot of laundry!

Sledding on Presidents Day

2011-02-22T08:30:00.005-07:00

Matt had the day off yesterday and thought it would be fun to go sledding up at Mountain Dell. It could not have been a more perfect day for sledding. the sun was shining and it was almost warm. We got there at 10 before all the big wild kids were awake (they all came right as we were leaving) . It was perfect, we had so much fun! After we had lunch with Matt's parents, the girls enjoyed some time with Grandpa.

Matt got going pretty fast on our knee board (you read that right. We don't have any snow gear so we brought our boat geat. It worked just as well).

Hailey loved it! Aida was not a fan of snow in her face so she only went down a few times and enjoyed hanging out in the snow the rest of the time.

These girls love their Daddy!

Valentines Day

2011-02-22T08:27:00.002-07:00

We had a great Valentines Day. Hailey got to go to two parties, one at school and one at Grammy and Opi's. Both were very fun. Of course she had to have hearts in her hair, she wanted 5 but we were only able to get 4 in her hair.

Thanks to Mom and Dad Matt and I had a very nice date. It was a good day.

Bike Riding

2011-02-14T07:46:00.002-07:00

Saturday was a beautiful day. It felt like spring is on the way. The girls are finally feeling a lot better. They spent a couple of hours playing in the back yard. Matt fixed his bike and both of the girls were enthralled that he could ride a bike. They wanted to ride it with him. Hailey got her bike out so she could ride with him, she's getting better but she doesn't like to go fast.

Aida's new Look out post

2011-02-13T15:41:00.003-07:00

I've had two sick kids all week. Aida was a little less sick than Hailey so she had some free time on her hands while I spent most of the week holding Hailey. One those free moments resulted in this....

She heard a load noise outside and wanted to see what it was. No problem...she just climbed on Hailey's bed and balanced on the post like a pro! She was able to see our neighbor sawing logs in the back yard, aparantly a lot more interesting that watching cartoons.

Aida's 2nd Birthday

2011-02-03T07:54:00.005-07:00

Aida had such a fun Birthday. Hailey thought we should do something special for breakfast so we had heart pancakes on Lani's heart plates.

Aida really enjoyed tasting the chocolate frosting for her cupcakes. She snatched a couple of cupcakes from the counter (I didn't think she could reach) before nap time.

Aida & Hailey are so lucky to have so many great grandparents and grandparents around. We had a full house at the party and it was so much fun. Everyone was so thoughtful, Aida was thrilled with all her presents (as was Hailey!) She has enjoyed having new things to play with and some fun new clothes.

THANKS EVERYONE!

Big Girl Bed

2011-02-02T15:54:00.009-07:00

Aida is in a big girl bed now which means we had to do some re-arranging which led to re-doing their room. It all started with the quilts Lani and I made over the coarse of 2010, we had so much fun getting together every month to work on them. This was my first pieced quilt and it sure was a lot of work, but totally worth it. Thankfully I only had to do one of them.

That led to making "PollyAnna" Raggedy Ann dolls for the girls for Christmas. They have loved them so much they've even put chapstick on their cute little faces, you can still see the remains.

I thought I could stop there, but no such luck. Curtains, jewelry boxes, dust ruffles, pillows, an old window to help a new reader, and a runner for the dresser and now I am done

The girls love it and I can't help but stop and stand in the doorway when I walk by.

The Dinosaur Museum

2011-02-02T07:56:00.003-07:00

Hailey went to the Dinosaur Museum with her class a couple of weeks ago, it was so much fun. She has been learning about dinosaurs in school. it was great to see that she remembered a lot about them. Her favorite part is the dark room with the stars, she loves to run through it.

2011-01-10T14:52:00.003-07:00

Free slideshow made with Smilebox

Matt Made a yummy chocolate cake for desert last night. Aida loved it so much she said yum the whole time she was eating and she had to have several helpings.

Today I was folding laundry and it was suspisciously quiet, I went to find Aida and she had pulled a chair over to the counter and was devouring what was left of the cake. I guess she likes chocolate!

Carousel

2011-01-06T14:34:00.003-07:00

Today we went to get Aida's two year old pictures taken. She is getting so big, I can't wait to get the pictures, they turned out great! I promised the girls a ride on the Carousel if they were good, and they were PERFECT!

Lani came with us to help with the pictures, she took this picture of us on the carousel. Both of the girls loved it. My girls are so blessed to have so many wonderful Great Aunts/Uncles and Great Grandparents who they know and love!

Christmas Morning

2010-12-29T08:35:00.003-07:00

This year the kids slept in until 8:30, actually Aida still had to wake Hailey up, but as soon as they were up they were ready to get going on Christmas!

It was so much fun, I love getting ready for Christmas, and I love watching everyone open the gifts just as much. The girls did not dissappoint.

Hailey can drive

2010-12-26T18:51:00.006-07:00

Hailey and Aida got a car for Christmas from Grammy and Opi. They LOVE it!

Aida can even drive with a little help from Hailey on the pedal. It won't be long before she can do it herself.

While we were out driving on Christmas Eve morning we saw Santa fly by on a hot air balloon, we thought he might stop by, he touched down about a block from us. We later found out that he was in a run-away balloon without a pilot. The girls enjoyed watching the balloon.

Primary Program

2010-12-15T06:59:00.004-07:00

It's hard to believe how busy life has been lately. Christmas is my favorite time of year. First I get to decorate, which gets me in the spirit pretty early. Then I get to start on the presents....I love making gifts for Christmas, this year it has gotten a little out of control. I haven't had time to do much of anything but work on Christmas, but it has been fun. Just a little excuse for not blogging much. For some reason the pictures aren't working well, oh well, no time to fix them.

Hailey had her primary program on Sunday. She's been singing all of the songs everywhere we go, but I wasn't sure if she would do it in front of everyone. She did a great job, she sand loud and clear. I love the songs they sing and the messages they teach. what a great blessing it is to have all those songs memorized, she sings them all the time. I'm so grateful for primary!

Aida is growing up

2010-11-20T07:49:00.001-07:00

This was the only picture I could find that I haven't already put on here, but doesn't she look like a big girl?

I still think of Aida as a baby, she doesn't talk much and for some reason that one little thing has made her seem so little to us.

She turned into a "big girl" and we didn't even know it. On Thursday after being in her crib for her nap for maybe fifteen minutes she came walking down the hall so proud of herself....she had escaped the crib. When I told Matt he was sure that she couldn't get out of the crib by herself, but Hailey was with me the whole time, so then he thought I had probably forgotten to put her in her crib. (really?)

Bed time came and this time Hailey was in the room too. Aida made her escape again, only not quite as successfully. This time she did get a little hurt. Hailey said that Aida just leaned over the top of the crib grabbed onto the bars from the outside and flipped over. A little dangerous! at 8:00 at night Matt took down the crib and we started a long night of putting Aida back on the mattress (not fun). I wasn't quite ready for her to be a big girl in a big girl bed, she was so great at taking naps in her crib.

Yesterday morning we switched the beds out and now the girls have matching big girl beds. Aida actually took a great nap in her bed, I only had to put her back in once. Last night didn't go quite as well, but it was better than the night before. She was asleep by 9:30 a whole hour and 15 minutes earlier than the night before.

I just had to share that my baby is growing up.

Texas

2010-11-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Matt had a class to take in Texas, lucky for Aida and I we got to go a long and have a little vacation. We had so much fun staying at the Thiot's house, they are the perfect host and hostess!

It was Aida's first time flying and she did quite well. She was pretty impressed with the planes and everything that goes on at the airport. She didn't even mind take-off (my least favorite part)

We did lots of fun things while Matt was in class. He did well in his class and only has one left to go.

Hailey had a ton of fun while we were gone with Grammy, Opi, Gigi, Papa and Lani. thanks to all of them for making Hailey's vacation great!

Aida enjoyed having both of her parents to herself for a while. Her new favorite thing is to hold both of our hands and run and swing. She did miss Hailey and was excited to see her when she picked us up at the airport in Salt Lake.

Black Cat, Witch or Spider?

2010-11-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

Last year Hailey was three different things for Halloween, a little crazy but fun. This year she was a cat to start, but by the time we had the ward party she wanted to be something different. Luckily we have a great friend who loves Halloween and has made some wonderful costumes. We went over to her house and thanks to Shannon Hailey was thrilled to be a spider the rest of her Halloween events.

I've been meaning to take pictures of our flowers this year, they were starting to die by this picture, but I had to share. Hailey planted those marigolds from seeds! They filled our mound and made it look great. I think I'm going to have her do all my planting.

Jazz Game

2010-11-03T07:43:00.000-06:00

Matt just uploaded a bunch of pictures so I thought I'd catch up on posts.

A few weeks ago Hailey got to go to one of the pre-season Jazz games with Matt. She had so much fun, although she kept asking why the cheer leaders were just staying on the sidelines and not playing with the boys. She has this thing for girls...she always wants me to find girl songs on the radio, she is thrilled if a girl is our cashier and disappointed if it's a boy.

She had a great date with her Daddy!

Happy Anniversary

2010-11-03T07:27:00.001-06:00

Matt and I just celebrated our 6th anniversary. This morning I went to look at some pictures Matt just uploaded and these ones popped up. I had fun looking through them and reminiscing. What a great day it was and so many people helped make things just right.

I feel so blessed to have found Matt, he is absolutely wonderful to me and our kids!

Witch-a-palooza

2010-10-08T13:46:00.000-06:00

Matt was out of town this week on family night, so we invited Grammy and Opi to have family night with us at Gardner Village. They have the whole village decked out with the most incredible witches. We try to go every year, this year they had some new things, we loved it. The girls wore their Halloween costumes and they fit right in with the witches. We had a great time even though it was a little cold and threatened to rain most of the time.

Engh Gardens

2010-10-06T09:45:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we went to a fun little garden shop down the street from us that does a great Halloween display for the kids. It was so much fun. We picked Gigi up , the girls loved having their great grandma along for the adventure.
They have a really great pirate boat that the girls had a great time driving. They even dared touch some of the Creepy Skeletons.

Priesthood Session

2010-10-04T11:59:00.000-06:00

Most years I get together with some of my very favorite women in the world during the priesthood session of conference. We all have a good time. This time We made Aprons from dishtowels. Gram and Lani did all the shopping, all we had to do was choose which dishtowel we wanted. We had a lot of fun making them, actually Mom and Lani did most of the work..I started feeling sick and laid on the floor most of the time. I think they turned out great, they are actually much cuter in person. My girls were very cooperative through the whole thing, I guess they are used to projects. Hailey played on the sesame street website and did a little practicing with her letters. Aida ran
around and had a great time with the dogs. She did want to be a little helper on my lap part of the time as well.
We had a great time, thanks to Lani for Dinner and hosting and Gram for the Aprons.
I'm so grateful to have such wonderful women in my life!

A couple more pictures

2010-09-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

I thought I put these in with the others, here they are.

Hailey is free as a bird, it was hard to get her to sit still.

Family Pictures

2010-09-29T13:05:00.001-06:00

My cute friend Stephanie agreed to take Hailey's 4 year old pictures, I figured if we were already going to the trouble of getting ready for pictures we might as well take family pictures too. Stephanie was nice enough to agree. We went to the International Peace Gardens, unfortunately my kids were anything but peaceful. I wasn't sure we would have any good pictures, because for some reason they were not thrilled to be there. But, Stephanie did a great job and captured some great moments. I love the sweet pictures of Hailey, the one of her peaking around the corner is so perfectly Hailey. I think my favorite one, though, is the one of Aida and Matt. Matt is such a fun dad and I think this picture captures something I see all the time at home, I'm glad to have it documented. I can't leave out the shoe pictures, there's something about girls and shoes. We love them! We have the best shoe fairy at our house!

Girls Retreat

2010-09-29T11:02:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I went on a little Girls retreat to St. George with my mom, Merijane & Emily. We had so much fun. It was nice to just hang out together and do whatever we wanted, I love all those girls! I am very blessed to have such great Sisters in Law, I wish Jamie could have been there too. As much as I adore my girls it was nice to have a little break, time to do some of the things I rarely take time for at home. We went to the St. George temple, I love going to the temple, something I need to do more often! I loved women's conference, it got me excited for General Conference this weekend.

The reason I was able to go on this much need retreat is that Matt very nicely agreed to take care of the girls for the weekend. He is such a great dad! They had a lot of fun with him and those who helped (OPI, LANI & GIGI). The first night Matt had the girls Aida was in bed and asleep by 7:00 (a rarity) Hailey on the other hand was still awake at 10:00 when I called and she said she was not even tired and was not going to go to sleep anytime soon. Oh well, that's what vacation is for.

I'm so grateful to Matt for taking such great care of the girls, and making it easy for me to go!

Oktoberfest take two

2010-09-19T08:04:00.000-06:00

We decided to try Oktoberfest again since we got there after it was closed last time. We went with my parents, Grandma Cline and her friend. We had a lot of fun. While we were waiting for everyone to get there the girls had a good time playing in the little mining area they have at snowbird, Hailey really wanted to find some jewels in that sand, so she searched really hard, but we didn't find any. Aida did find her bracelet which fell in the water, maybe that could count.
After unsuccessfully mining for jewels we went down to the food tent for a Brat and some German entertainment. We enjoyed fun music and games, Aida quite liked all Matt's German food.
Outside the tent there was a balloon artist, he made the most amazing balloons. Hailey got the tallest princess hat I've ever seen and Aida got a sweet little flower (which she proceeded to pop one section at a time on the way home before falling asleep).
We had a great time. Thanks for inviting us OPI~!

Oktoberfest

2010-09-15T07:36:00.000-06:00

Matt took a little vacation from work last week, actually it ended up being a great 10 days. We had a lot of fun. We all enjoyed having him home, but the girls especially loved it. We did a lot of fun family things which we usually don't have time for. We're so glad he was able to take the time off.

Matt and I have gone to Oktoberfest up at Snowbird almost every year since we met. It's a fun little German festival. This year we tried to go with some of Matt's mission friends, but unfortunately they close early during the week. The girls still had a fun time, it was a little chilly up there, but since it was Hailey's third time in the mountains that day she was prepared. We started by camping, then canning peaches in Park City and finished off the day with pizza at Snowbird. Aida's favorite thing was pushing the stroller wildly around since the place was practically vacant.

Hailey's 1st day at the Big Kid Pre-School

2010-09-14T14:48:00.001-06:00

Hailey has been so excited to be in the big kid class at school. She started last week and has absolutely LOVED it! These are some pictures from the first day of school. The bag she is holding is one of the ones I made for all the cute kids at Cornerstone Academy Pre-school.

There are 5 adorable kids from our neighborhood in her class which makes for one big crazy and fun carpool.

I can't believe how much Hailey is growing up. she is turning into such a fun big kid. She definitely knows what she wants and is very determined to find a way to get it. She is so smart, being back in school has been great for her. She comes home everyday so excited about what she has learned. We're thankful that she has such great teachers.

The last picture is of Aida, she was waving goodbye just before I took the picture. She has also been enjoying having Hailey back in school. She gets alone time with Mom, and even some with Dad on Fridays. She's always thrilled when Hailey comes home.

Grape Vines

2010-09-14T07:29:00.000-06:00

One side of our backyard is lined with grapevine. I love the grapevine, it's so pretty in the summer and I've dried the vines every year to put on my Christmas tree. The funny thing is we've lived here for 5 years and last year was the first year we discovered the right time to eat the grapes. So this year I decided to do something with the grapes instead of wasting them.
Hailey loves to pick the grapes! She always has, she used to eat them even when they were sour (now she knows only to pick the dark ones.)
For family night last night we had a good time picking all the grapes that were ripe. Then we pulled the stems off and got them ready for grape juice. Unfortunately it was 8:30 before we knew it and we didn't even have all the stems off. (there must be a better way to do that) So we'll be finishing up today, I'm excited to see how the juice turns out.
We also discovered that we have two different vines out there, the other one has green grapes. I think we may try to make raisins, we'll see how domestic I'm feeling.

Canning Peaches

2010-09-06T15:39:00.000-06:00

I have to start by saying that I didn't grow up doing much canning, I really didn't know much about it. I have learned to really appreciate it, the food is so much better!

My mother-in-law is the queen of canning. She is amazing, not only does she grow all the veggis she also cans a lot of them. Today we canned peaches, unfortunately we don't have a peach tree so we had to buy the peaches, they are deliscious! Jeri was nice enough to let me can them with her at her house. It's always nice to have someone who really knows what they are doing. We had a lot of fun.

One other thing I have to say is that Hailey is growing up! She was a wonderful helper, I really mean it. She pealed a good portion of the peaches and loved helping put them in. She is so sweet every peach she pealed was the most beautiful color or the biggest or the smallest peach she had ever seen. She really was a joy to have as a little helper!

I'm so lucky to have a great mother-in-law who is willing to share her talents with me.

Grandma Jeri's Garden

2010-09-02T07:28:00.000-06:00

Matt's mom has the most amazing garden, it's HUGE and everything in it seems to grow so well. She spends a lot of time there weeding, watering, planting and picking. Unfortunately for us it's all the way up in Charleston (by Heber) so we don't make it out there often to help. I wish we could go more often, the girls absolutely love it.

Here are a few pictures from last time we went. The first pictures are of Aida learning to walk in her rain boots, she was a little wobbly and stepped out of them a few times in the mud, but she didn't seem to mind.

Both girls love love loved playing in the mud! Aida unfortunately enjoys eating mud, YUCK! They were both completely covered by the time we were ready to go home, I guess that's one way to judge how much fun they had.

We are grateful to Matt's mom for putting all the time she does on the garden. We have enjoyed the fresh veggis.

Family

2010-08-31T21:34:00.000-06:00

I've always felt blessed to have such a thoughtful family.

My mom is always doing things for me, the other day she stopped on her way to school (I don't really live on the way to school) to thread the serger I had borrowed from her to make the bags for Hailey's pre-school. She frequently goes out of her way to do things to make my life easier. I'm so lucky to have her! And I'm so lucky to have her family too...

I was having trouble getting the embroidery machine to work so I could embroider the kids names on all 50 book bags. My great aunt Darlene volunteered to help me get it done on her amazing machine. She spent a lot of time helping me, I didn't even have to ask. I'm so grateful to her, she turned something that was stressful to me into something fun. (I'll put a picture of Hailey's bag on later)

Today both of my kids are sick. Both of them woke up from their naps soooooo sad. They needed to be held and wouldn't stop crying. After half an hour of trying to hold both of them and not succeeding in getting either of them to calm down I called Lani (practically in tears myself) and asked her if she could come help me. She came right over with dinner in her hands and a smile on her face. It didn't take long for my girls to turn from crying to happy. She took Hailey to the store to get a balloon and popsicles, that put a smile on Hailey's face that hasn't gone away yet. I'm so grateful for Lani, she is always so thoughtful! We all love and appreciate her.

Believe it or not all of these things happened in the past week. I am so grateful for all those people who do things to make my life easier. I hope that I can be as thoughtful as these three wonderful women are and help make someones life a little easier.

Elegant Nightgown

2010-08-12T08:16:00.000-06:00

I still don't have a camera that is working, so I don't blog often. Luckily Mom always has her camera with her and sends me pictures, since these aren't on her blog I thought I'd put them on mine.

Mom made Nightgowns for the big girls last week. They love them! I almost can't get Hailey to take hers off, she has gotten it out of the dirty clothes several times so she could wear it to bed. I had no idea she could love a nightgown so much. Since the big girls loved them so much mom decided to make them for the little girls. I wasn't sure they would care, but if you see the look on Aida's face you can tell that she is thrilled to have an elegant nightgown just like her sister.

Thanks for being so thoughtful mom!

Deep Breaths

2010-07-26T17:19:00.000-06:00

I want to take a minute to say that I am grateful for deep breaths.

I was on the phone today and unlike most this was an important phone call so I was trying to pay attention to the person on the other end and not paying much attention to my mischievous children. I noticed that they had a box of cheerios out and Hailey had a plastic bowl for each of them, they were sharing nicely so even though they were starting to make a small mess, on the floor I just mopped this morning, I let them continue. The mess was getting bigger and bigger by the time I got off the phone every inch of my Kitchen, living room and hall were covered in cheerios and those two adorable girls were running while pushing a stroller and crushing the cheerios to powder, I must add that they were having the time of their lives. I was tempted to yell, but thankfully I took a deep breath instead and told Hailey that she was so lucky I was finally going to let her use the broom. We turned on primary music and started sweeping as Aida tried as hard as she could to undo our hard work. I took Aida in a different room and when I came back Hailey was Sweeping and singing Follow the Prophet. It was so sweet to listen to.

This is not how things always turn out at our house so don't get the idea that I'm always calm and thoughtful, in fact Hailey had timeout this morning and screamed through the majority of it, but I'm grateful that this time I took a minute to breath before I talked. Otherwise I would have missed out on that sweet moment.

I'm also grateful for primary and the sweet songs they teach our children, Hailey loves those songs and sings them all the time.

2010-07-16T07:50:00.000-06:00

A couple months ago Hailey was so lucky to have a sleepover with Jojo and Jamie, she was so excited to get to ride Scout, but would you believe it....it snowed, so she just got to say hi to scout and put a blanket on him. She had so much fun that she wanted to do it all again except this time she wanted to ride Scout. Jordan and Jamie are moving on Sunday...WE ARE GOING TO MISS THEM!!!! Since there wasn't time for a sleepover They made time to take all the girls to ride Scout. They are the best Uncle and Aunt, all the girls adore them! Hailey and Aida were so excited to see Scout, but he is awfly big and a little scary up close. Aida wanted him so badly until she was right next to him, then she wanted nothing to do with him. I guess he's more fun from a distance. Hailey was a little nervous at first, but quickly warmed up to Scout and was ready to ride. First she rode with Jamie, then she rode all by herself. Unfortunately I didn't get the greatest pictures, but she had a huge smile on her face most of the time!

Thanks to Jamie & Jordan for taking the time to give the girls a wonderful experience! We love you so much and will miss you both!

2nd Princess Party

2010-07-05T16:37:00.000-06:00

Hailey had so much fun at her first Princess party that she told us on the drive home from Bear Lake that she was going to have 100 Birthdays! Lucky for her she got to have 2, not quite 100 but more than 1. Sunday night we celebrated her birthday with the family. She got so many fun things that we had to push a little to move on the next present each time. THANKS EVERYONE!!! She has had so much fun playing with all her presents and she's all decked out from head to toe in sparkly princess-like atire today.

Princess Party at the Lake

2010-07-05T16:30:00.001-06:00

While we were at the cabin Hailey had a princess party. We had so much fun getting ready for the party, Hailey loved finding all the princess things and activities to do. One of her friends had just had the most amazing Fancy Nancy birthday party a couple of weeks before so she let us use some of her fancy things (luckily we drove the truck!) The mountains were the perfect backdrop. Hailey had a great time and got some fun presents. Then we headed to the lake for the day.

Bear Lake

2010-07-05T16:19:00.000-06:00

We went to Bear Lake with the Cline side of our family...it was so much fun. Everyone had a great time at the beach. The girls loved the sand and water!~ We took the boat out for the first time in a couple of years, Matt did all sorts of great tricks on the Skiis and Knee board. I did the knee board and had fun, but wasn't brave enough to go outside the wake. On the second day we took the girls out for a slow drive around the lake....Aida loved it (mostly she loved driving!) Hailey thought it was fun, but after a while she asked when we could go back and play on the beach.

It was such a fun trip, Thanks Mom & Dad!