Six Years!

Yesterday we had a wonderful, relaxing day in celebration of our six year anniversary. My parents took the girls for us and we enjoyed: breakfast, a hike to the Y, the temple, a late lunch, shopping with my birthday gift cards, and then a relaxing movie at home. My parent agreed to take the girls on the condition that they got to sleep over and go to church with them (Sure!). So I also got to enjoy sleeping until 8:30 this morning and an uninterrupted block of church. It was a perfect weekend! 

I'm so blessed to be married to this man! He really is a great one! 

Potty Trained (Well Mostly)...

Eliza is mostly potty trained and has been for almost a month now! I'm so proud of her for learning at not quite two! It all started when Hazel was so excited about the Princess panties the Easter bunny brought her. Eliza of course wants to be exactly like Hazel and so she wanted panties too. Well we gave it a try and she just wasn't ready. A few weeks later she was begging for panties again so we tried again. This time she would just hold it and hold it forever. So we put it on hold again. Repeat this step one more time a few weeks later.

At that point we were done and just decided she's have to wait until the end of the summer or so. Until one day she woke up insisting that she wear panties. I told her she had to pee in the potty and if she did she could have them. Wouldn't you know it, she walked right in the bathroom and went! From there she's been pretty much trained!

She still struggles with number two (which is why I say mostly trained) and can't sleep for even a short amount of time without accidents. But still we're thrilled with our big girl. It's almost bitter sweet because now she really doesn't have any baby left in her. Way to go big girl Eliza! We're proud of you!

Backyard Camping

There was one summer when I was about 8 or 9 where I slept in the backyard with my sweet dog Layla almost every night. I have the best memories of backyard camping.

So for our first camping adventure of the summer we set up the tent in the backyard. The girls were so excited and LOVED it! Of course camping soon turned in to them playing princesses with the tent as their castle. That's pretty much the norm around here though.

What camping trip is complete without smores? I love how Hazel managed to get them all over her face.

Here they are right before bed. It took them FOREVER to fall asleep. It wasn't until I actually took Eliza inside and put her in her crib for a few minutes then brought her back out that they finally calmed down. But the fun memories were worth the less than great night of sleep.

One last thing - notice Hazel's cute haircut? She asked me to cut it so she wouldn't look like Rapunzel because that's NOT her favorite princess. I think it suits her and it must feel great for summer!

The Zoo with Cristy!

While we lived in Colorado our dear friend Cristy used to take Hazel to the zoo. They went probably 3 or 4 times in the months after Eliza was born. Not only was it a huge help to me but Hazel loved every minute of it. She still talks about how she wants to go to the zoo with Cristy.

Well last week that's exactly what we did. Cristy was in town babysitting her sweet grandson Porter for the week so we packed up the three kids and spent the morning at the zoo. It was Eliza's first time.

All three kiddos ready to go!

Hazel's favorite - the giraffes!

"Cheese!"

Eliza's favorite - the elephants!

It was such a great day! I didn't get any picture of us with Cristy though. Thanks Cristy for joining us at the zoo. For Hazel the zoo will never be the same without Cristy!

Amber and Michael's Wedding

In our family there are a lot of Michaels. I have two uncle Mikes, my cousin is married to a Michael and then there is mine Michael. Well my other cousin Amber married another Michael last month in the Oquirrah Mountain temple. Between my mom and her twin sister they have 4 daughters - 3 of the 4 are married to men named Michael! Welcome to the family Michael Saint-Laurent!

The sealing was beautiful. I always love attending living sealings and seeing the joy in the eyes of everyone in the room. It was also a very special day for our family because it was the first time all 5 of us were in the temple together since we were sealed.

Eliza was being such a sunggler that day and was loving having her picture taken...

She looks so big in this picture!

Hazel on the other hand was having too much fun socializing with all the family and didn't want to take the time for pictures.

The girls with "the aunties" minus Holly and Lindy

My cute parents!

My Greatest Blessings

Yesterday I'm spent Mother's Day home from church with a sick little Eliza. I barely got to sit down to eat dinner because she was so upset and walked to go on a walk. And yet there is nothing I would rather be doing. I love my girls and I feel so blessed to be a mom. Here's some of what the two cuties are up to theses days...

Eliza grows up so much every day. She's strong willed just like Hazel and it shows through in how she plays. Currently she is obsessed with the chicken leg and ice cream cone from the play food. Why those two? I have no idea. But she loves them and wants to carry them everywhere. If they drop or get misplaced she says things like "Drop it my i-ceeam!" or "My chick-ee my chick-ee!" She loves them!

One chicken for each hand!

Eliza and I have a fun game right now. She will say "no" then just smile at me. I say "yes" and she answer back with a longer, louder "no!". We go back and forth. Sometime she throws in a "noooooooooooooooo!" After a while we switch to nodding, then to sign, then back to talking. Haha I probably shouldn't encourage this behavior but it is so stinking sweet!

Rockin' it! (with the ice cream of course)

Tonight I caught Eliza standing on the decorative cut-out at the end of her crib, gripping with her toes and not holding on. To add to the stunt she signed "monkey" and said "oo-oo-ah-ah!" I told Michael we seriously need to start looking for a bunk bed so we can move her out of the crib. Climbing is not her only night craziness, she has taken to stripping off her pajamas and often her diaper. One night she had me in tears of laughter when I walked in to find she had taken off her pants and diaper then put on the tutu from her teddy bear. Such a cute little stinker!

Then there's Hazel. Lately everything in our house turns in to a game of mommy and baby. Often she will be the mommy. At first I was the grandma and Eliza the baby but I refused to play this way:) So now I'm the big sister. She walks around all day calling me "honey". She cooks us soup (water in a cup), kisses boo-boos and puts the baby to sleep (aka puts Eliza in a laundry basket and covers her with a blanket). When she mommy to me and Eliza she's playing mommy in some form - the monkey mommy, the mermaid mommy, mommy to Rafi, etc.

Modeling for grandpa. 

A few weeks ago her Sunbeams teacher came up to me after church to tell me about what she said during the lesson. They were learning about animals and how Heavenly Father made animals to help give us food. She was asking them things like "Where do eggs come from? Right chickens! And where does milk come from? Cows that's right. Does anyone know where hamburgers come from?" At this point Hazel blurted out "In-n-Out!" Of course she made her daddy so proud with that one!

My favorite Hazel sayings lately include: "Primary was awful today!" (she didn't get to sit next to her friend Thomas - such a sad day), "I'm going to learn to wear pants today. (Five minutes later) See I did it, I wore pants!"

"See I did it!"

I love these girls! What a wonderful gift it is to be a mother. It's hard and exhausting and tons of work. But it's such a wonderful gift!

Easter Weekend

I'm way behind on this one, but I had to include some pictures from Easter. We had a wonderful Easter weekend! Thanks to adoring grandparents (okay who are we kidding grandmas) the girls had new Easter outfits. Terri sent up a few outfits for each girl that we let them open Friday. They had fun modeling in picture for her.

Sweet Hazel

Eliza is signing "cute" in this picture. I love it!

 

Then they got a bit crazy...

Friday afternoon we dyed Easter eggs. The girls were so excited for this. 

Then on Saturday they got dressed in their new matching dresses for the city egg hunt. I can't tell you how thankful I am for all of the people who spoil my children with cute clothes. Seriously, they are lifesavers!

Hazel was so excited for church on Sunday and to wear her new Easter dress from my mom. She insisted that she needed curls. This is the second time I've done rag curls with her. They turn out adorable first thing in the morning but the poor girl got her daddy's hair and by noon the curls are all but gone. Oh well, she LOVES them anyways. 

Now for the home egg hunt stories... Since Mike has gone gluten-free I've been working hard to eliminate a lot of the processed food from all of our diets. In addition to the real eggs the girls dyed, the Easter bunny hid plastic eggs with trail mix and a few small candies (that they had picked up at the city egg hunt - yep I'm a good mom like that haha). I was so proud of myself for eliminating most of the candy from Easter without one word of compliant! But then the Easter bunny hid candy at my parent's house too. My master plan was ruined! Oh well.

During the egg hunt at my parent's house, Michael's brother TJ saw Eliza going for a lose Snickers bar (most of the candy was in eggs but some was just on the floor). He told her it was yucky and to bring it to Uncle TJ. Eliza obediently brought it to TJ. The hilarious part was after that every time she found another Snickers she picked it up saying "Yucky! Yucky!" and walked it over to him. TJ ended up with at least 11 mini Snickers thanks to her!

Here are the girls in their Easter dresses from Gram. Sadly this was the best picture I got of the two of them.

Hazel, Brenna, and Eliza

All of the festivities and new clothes were fun but certainly the highlight of the weekend was remembering the Resurrection of our Savior. This year I felt especially thankful as I pondered how my life would be if I didn't know the truth. Could you imagine not knowing that you would live again and see your children again someday? I am so thankful for the knowledge we have!

Squeeky clean

I love bath time for so many reasons - giving the girls my undivided attention without feeling like I need to be doing other things, winding down at the end of the day, the cute games they play, watching Eliza watch Hazel's every move and imitate her. Most of all, I love the sweet, silly mood the girls are always in after bath. These pictures pretty much sum up every night....