A Moment in Time

I wish sometimes I could freeze a day in time and re-open it whenever I'd like. I would love to go back and relive some of our best day and remember exactly what my girls were like and different ages. They grow and change so much so quickly! So here's my snippet of time right now...

Hazel:
I cannot believe Hazel is almost done with Kindergarten. "There's only 23 days left mom" she could tell me should I ask her. She becomes more independent and opinionated every day. In some areas I'm so glad to see her mind so set. Her testimony is strong and she eagerly shares the gospel. She even gave a Book of Mormon to one of her friends at school! In other areas I wish she'd slow down the independence a bit - like in the kitchen. On Easter she burned her chin trying to smell a pan of freshly baked rolls and then cut herself with a knife while trying to slice bread the very next day!

Burnt chin and a cut finger!

Hazel still LOVES reading. She started listening to the Junie B. Jones books at school and is now hooked on them. We've read the first 15 books in the series since February! In school they're doing an ABC count down to the end of the year. She's been so excited about each day. Here she is with her "bubble gum pants" and "bubble gum hair" on bubble gum day.

Hazel and Kiara have recently become better friends. Kiara likes to play with Hazel and will sometimes choose her over Michael or I to cuddle up next to. Hazel was also very proud of herself for helping me walk Kiara the other day.

Of course, as the oldest Hazel continues to be the ring leader of crazy shenanigans around our house. Like showing Eliza that an umbrella make a better bucket than a shield in the pouring rain. But she also had moments where she is genuinely helpful. Today she saw a stack of diapers sitting in Lenora's room that I'd set out to take downstairs. Without being asked she picked them all up and put them away in their place downstairs!

Eliza:
Sweet Eliza has done a lot of growing recently. She's growing taller and bigger! But she's also really coming out of her shell. She used to be very timid around other kids and would mostly just watch them. Since I've been working at the YMCA she's been learning to play more and more without Hazel around. She has a best friend named Grace and they are so cute together. Eliza is still completely obsessed with the color yellow. Right now, she is loving all the "yellow flowers" (aka dandelions) she keeps seeing. I always have a few dandelion bouquets hanging around the house and I love it!

Eliza also says the funniest things sometimes. Just now she told me, "I made up a song about not sleeping on the ceiling. Because it's dangerous. You will fall and bonk your head." Eliza loves being in Primary. She's in the only girl in a class full of rowdy boys. Her teacher's say she's also so good and answers their questions. She is always able to tell us what she learned that day. She also sang the whole time when the kids sang for Easter. I'm so proud of how well she is learning the gospel!

One day I found Eliza "studying her scriptures"

Last week Eliza found a dime and two pennies that she carried around most of the week. Friday morning I was busy taking care of a sick Lenora and helping Hazel get ready for school when I looked over to see Eliza with the most sad expression on her face. "I swallowed my dime!" she told me. She was super distraught over swallowing it. But after a while she was telling me, "It's okay. A dime is the smallest one!"

Just eating our snack mom!

Lenora:
My little baby is growing up! Lenora is now 15 months old, 22 pounds, and 30 inches tall. For months and months we thought she would start walking any day. She could stand, and take a few steps, but she just didn't want to walk! She loved pushing this bike around the house like a walker. Finally, just last week she started actually walking around.

Just walking with a puzzle piece in my mouth!

Lenora is such a silly girl. She LOVES to wrestle with her big sisters. She loves making silly faces at people and will laugh out loud at herself. Other other day she found my goggles and wore them for over 5 minutes with a cute smirk on her face.

Lenora loves reading books just like her big sisters. "Old McDonald had a Farm" is her favorite and she always says "baa" when we get to the sheep page. She's starting to say more and more words and pick up more signs. The other day Hazel said grandma for some reason and all the sudden Lenora perked up. She signed "Gram" then looked over to where we always keep the laptop and pointed and pointed. Then she signed, "please". She wanted to Skype with my mom! I love that she can communicate such complex ideas with us already! 

Lenora still loves to eat. String cheese is one of her favorites and she literally eats a string cheese for snack every morning. Lenora also loves to do anything her big sisters are doing. She puts headbands in her hair, slings purses over her arms, and generally follows their every move. I love to see how much they adore her. Hazel always gets Lenora out of her crib every morning and usually will read her a few books before they come downstairs. Eliza is always helping her get in to mischief  reach things and watching out for her.

We're so blessed to have these sweet girls! I wish I could freeze time 

Easter 2015

Easter was perfect! General Conference and a small egg hunt on Saturday. Enjoying Conference and an amazing meal with friends on Sunday. Most of all, rejoicing in the knowledge that we'll be a family forever because of the sacrifice and resurrection of our Savior. 

Hotwheels FHE

Every Monday evening we try and have Family Home Evening (FHE) where we teach our children simple gospel lessons and spend time as a family. Most weeks it's a very simple, short lesson squeezed in between dinner and bed time. But once in a while we try and do a bit more. A few weeks ago we had a great FHE with a Hotwheels theme. 

We started with a lesson about prophets and apostles. I had the girls drive their cars on a map. Some of the places they were able to drive to. Other were not on the map because their map didn't show those places. They needed a different map. We talked about how we have the scriptures as a great map that help us a lot. But we still need modern revelation because sometimes things changes (ie- new road/place are built). Prophets help keep our maps current and keep us heading back to Heavenly Father in our ever changing world. They really listened well! 

Then we had "dirt cups" for dessert and had a Hotwheels "elite eight" competition. Each of us (besides Lenora) picked two cars and we raced them on Michael's track. Both Hazel and Eliza's cars whooped on ours! Hazel ended up winning with her car Sparkle Perfect!

Most weeks FHE is hard and it doesn't seem like anyone learns much. But I'm so thankful for the weeks when it is meaningful and our kids remember what we talked about. Hotwheels night was a great FHE!

I Love you Through and Through by Hazel

 Hazel wrote her own version of the book I Love you Through and Through. She did this all by herself one morning. The only thing I helped her with was spelling through the first time. It was such a parenting pay off moment for us! Thank you Hazel! We love you too!

I love you through and through! Hazel, Mom & Dad

Mommy I love you through and through! I love the way you make food. 

Daddy I love the way you wrestle with me!

Mommy I love the way you read books to me!

Daddy I love the way you work hard for our family!

Mommy I love the way you play with me!

A Visit from Angel

Last Saturday we got a visit from my sweet Aunt Angel. She was working in Kansas City for two weeks and so she took her weekend to drive up to see us. It meant SO much to us that she went out of her way to come visit. We all loved having her here, and we packed a lot of fun in to her short visit.

Saturday when she arrived we headed off for lunch and a quick tour of Ames. We were then able to stop at Ledges State Park to check it out. Even though spring buds and new grass haven't started growing here yet it was still fun and very pretty. I'm sure it will be gorgeous this summer!

Once we got back to the house the girls convinced Angel to read to them. They love the Junie B. Jones books and Angel really enjoyed them too!

That night we made Easter sugar cookies. All the sisters in my mom's family have made them at every holiday since their sister Pat passed away. It's a tradition we love and it was fun to make them while Angel was here. 

On Sunday the girls got to wear the new dresses Angel was so sweet to get for them. They all looked adorable!

Lenora 14 months

Eliza 3 1/2

Hazel 5 1/2

It was a lovely visit! It's so nice when we can have family in town. Thank you Angel for coming! 

Wacky Wednesday

 It's no secret my girls love books. So when Hazel's class had a "Wacky Wednesday" day at school of course Eliza had to get in on the fun. We had "wacky" cereal for breakfast. You really can't tell in the pictures but they mixed a few kinds of cereal together.

Then both Hazel and Eliza donned their wacky clothes. They also convinced me to use purple hair dye on half of their hair. Such silly girls!

Hazel's outfit: backwards shirt, mismatched pants, two different shoes, one sock, and wacky hair.

 Eliza's outfit: mismatched clothes, one boot, one shoe, mismatched socks, and wacky hair.

I should mention I took Eliza to childwatch at the YMCA while I worked out and to the library for story time looking like this, haha! Luckily she was more than happy to tell people how it was Wacky Wednesday. I love making fun, silly memories with these girls. 

A Few more for February

Eliza's all purple outfit

We had a few more fun things going on in February. First, I won a grill! We had to sell our gas grill when we moved because we didn't have room on the truck so we were in the market for a new one. They had a little "home and garden show" over at the fairgrounds and there was a drawing for a free grill. I stopped by just to enter the drawing and ended up winning! I never win anything so it was so exciting!

February has also brought a few changes to our home. I started working in childwatch at the YMCA for fun. I go in two mornings a week right now. Eliza and Lenora get to come with me, we play, and I get a free membership! It's fun and a win, win in my book.

Our other big change was to our dinner menu. Michael finally went in and got allergy testing for his EoE. We learned he's allergic to beef, eggs, dairy, tomatoes, and carrots. Yeah it's kinda a lot! But he can eat wheat! So we've been adjusting our diets accordingly. To be honest it was hard at first. I know he still really misses beef. And brownies made with eggs (so far I haven't found a good egg free recipe). But I honestly prefer all of these allergies to eliminating wheat. We're finding some good substitutes for favorite dinners and on the plus side we're saving a lot not buying beef.

Lenora the Scooter

 Lenora is becoming a mover. She stands....

She crawls up and down stairs...

She climbs in and on things...

But when it comes to walking she'd just rather not. She thinks her one leg scoot is a much better option! 

As for riding bikes, she has her own way of doing that as well.

Could she be any cuter? I don't think so!