Because Of Him

I love this new video by the Church ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's all true. Happy Easter!!!

California Here We Come

We are leaving today for a spring break trip to Southern Cal. We've had to divide and conquer again - 3 kids get to drive down with Grandma and Grandpa ~ they already left. Corey and I get to drive together in the same car which is a rare and special treat, fun for us. We'll leave soon (?) Hm, maybe not. Um, I should probably go pack. But I'm going to try to milk my "we're not leaving till the house is clean" card for as much as I can. I do know that the air conditioner works, so we should survive Death Valley. Although that has turned into one of our fondest "Do you remember when...?" memories. Good times. We're planning on a day at Disneyland with aunts, uncles, cousins and Gma/Gpa, and that will be fun. Excited for our little princesses to meet their favorite princesses. I don't think Lily will be shy this time, like she was in 2012 ~

And I think Sophi will love it. I know Abi will. Corey has a lot of work to do for a presentation in Brazil next month, so it's not a total vacation for him and he and I and the little girls are gonna skip out on California Adventure so he can work. I'm bringing along a bribe for the little girls who get stuck home with us party poopers. I'll try to post during the trip, or we'll record and report when we get back.

Guinea Pig "Recipes"

Tomorrow we're leaving town for spring break. But before we depart, Melodie's gotta make sure someone's gonna take care of her babies. Aka "the pigs". Aria came over to get the low-down on how to properly care for guinea pigs.

But she's already an expert. In fact, "Chef Aria" and "Chef Mel" authored their own cook book last summer! Did you know that they are published authors?

So, here's a funny little story: Last summer, Melodie and Aria were busy writing and gathering recipes for their book. They had some of their own secret dishes, like "Guinea Delight" and "Fruity Salad"

(Complete with illustrations!!)

And these attentive girls wanted to find even more delicious recipes for their pigs. And where do you go when you want to search for something? That's right, you go to the internet. Well, these little tender hearted and guinea pig loving girls had a rude awakening to the realities of life, cause do you know what you find when you google "Guinea Pig recipes"?? Well, it's not "Watermelon Surprise". (Ok, I'll wait here while you go google it...)

Isn't that sad? Poor guinea pigs. The graphic images pierced Mel and Aria's innocence, not to mentions the articles: "From Pets to Plates" and "How to Eat a Guinea Pig"!?!? Oh, this fallen world!! Mel and Aria make the guinea pigs think they are royalty and are living the high life. They attentively strive to cater to their little pet tastebuds, but the reality is, guinea pigs, that you are below humans on the food chain. Don't worry though, we don't eat you. Mel's here to make sure of that.

Life...

It's getting busy. I feel like I'm getting run over with a truck. Just a little bit. But it's good. It's also late, I'll try to get back here and blog something tonight as my sleeping interruptions take place at their scheduled hours of midnight (Lily), 1 a.m. (Natalie), and then someone else usually gives us an encore at three o'clock in the morning. Yes, I need to record, even little snippets, just so I can look back and remember what life is like right now. But first things first...

 Gotta go put this little face to bed. She's such a sweetie. (Mmm, chocolate pudding...)

Goodnight.

Studio C Season 4!!!

The long awaited day finally came. Yesterday, April 7th, was the day. The day we waited for with great anticipation, for we finally got to see one of the new Season Four Episodes of STUDIO C! My up and coming Junior High kids all liked this one.

Mel and Corey and I got a good laugh at the jab at Axe body spray (which Joseph and Ethan have a plentiful stash of.) Studio C is the fastest half hour in television. But the kids can spend their time memorizing the new sketches as they wait for next Monday to come. Every Monday night, don't miss it! (Here was another funny one from last night, "I Call Shotgun" ~ I know I didn't catch all of the jokes there, cause they were coming so fast, but what I understood was clever! When we go driving kids are always calling out "SLUGBUG WHAT COLOR?!?!" funny.

Lego Girl Castle

Princesses are on the rise. The older kids have moved on this past year and no longer wish for Legos for Christmas. Instead they are liking gifts of money and accessories. The little girls like Legos though, and especially cause of all the Friends and especially Disney Legos that are just so fun! So we're beginning to acquire girly legos and we have enough that Hyrum was able to help his little sisters make a Princess Castle.

It's fun to see how they mix up the boys legos with their own girly ideas. The rooftop spires to Hogwarts castle became part of one of their castle creations. And here below Lily shows us the Lord of the Rings ring kept high in the castle with a lego heart, this is where the special treasures are kept.

It's fun to see the same memories begin to be created for these little girls. They have been busy for over a week. And then like to take picture of their legos and of themselves. 

Here's a 4 year old selfie for you. Did you know that Selfie was the Oxford 2013 word of the year?

"You know when I was a kid I couldn't even find a camera to take 'selfie' with." Generation Gap. These kids are growing up in a different world, that's for sure. 

Fun Big Brother

After the Museum last week, Joseph helped carry Natalie (as she pulled his hair) during the end of our campus outing to BYU. He carried her up on his shoulders, and she loved it -

She was doing that really adorable baby belly laugh that makes everyone who hears it laugh ~ So Joseph was bounding along and we all smiled ear to ear and walked backwards so we could see Natalie as we listened to her sweet laughter.

It was too cute.

This morning we had a little more big brother fun, this time with Joseph and the elementary kids. They've been wanting Melodie to walk them to the bus stop every morning, but she was still asleep today, but Joseph was up. Joseph offered his services, Abi said "YEAH YEAH YEAH!" Wesley groaned "No!... Not Joseph!" We all were puzzled by Wesley's protest. Joseph tried to sell himself... "Wes! Remember when I was in 6th grade and you'd be slow walking to the bus stop, so to get  you to go faster I'd pretend to be the monkey from Temple Run and you'd be the explorer guy? Huh!?" Wesley remembered and had a change of heart "Oh yeah!" Abi said "YEAH!! CHASE US!" Then Joseph realized he was still in his pjs and that he also didn't want to go outside into the cold morning. So he tried to get out of it, but Abi wouldn't have it and commanded him, "JOSEPH! WALK US TO THE BUS!" Joseph replied "In my pajamas?!?!" Abi's response made us all laugh and won her a walk to the bus stop. With a "no duh!" tone in her voice, she said "YEAH! That's what Mom's do!" You got me Abi, it's true. But not only do I walk to the bus stop in my pajamas, I pretty much live in my pajamas all day (pajamas = tshirt and yoga pants). I'm guilty. I have been trying to take it up a notch the past two weeks. I'm following my friend Nicole's idea. We call it our "Wonder Woman Transformation" and it involves trying to get dressed and put on make up after the motherly work day is done and before the hubby gets home. But when the kids see me in a skirt, I have to answer to each one as they discover my outfit and they each ask me "Why are you dressed up?" and "Are you guys going on a date tonight?" No, we're not going on a date. I'm just trying to take a little of the blah out of living and spruce it up a bit.

Frozen Springtime

It's spring in Utah, which means... snow? Yup, that is Utah weather. Melodie and Joseph are out of school for spring break this week, and so with the little bit of snow that fell, Melodie decided to build a snowman.

And as you can, this creative girl can't just make your average snowman. She made Olaf.

It was cute seeing her work out there, with her slip on shoes and no socks, sitting on her coat.

She was inspired by Frozen which never saw, despite my children's pleadings, until it came out on dvd. We even let them watch it on a school night so that they could stop feeling like outcasts at school. Olaf is our favorite, he's a pretty funny snowman.

I like the stick hair, Melodie, nice touch.

The kids loved the music from Frozen, like everyone else in the world. This week, Lily came to my room when I was taking a bath, and I heard a little knock and then her little voice sang "Do you want to build a snowman?" and she kept singing and I smiled, then when the moment came, I yelled on cue "GO AWAY ANA!" and she said "Ok, bye..." and actually left! Wow! That was the highlight of my day! Usually when I'm in the bathroom and would like some alone time, everyone thinks it's my open for consultation time and I'm having conversations with them through the door that fall in the "non-urgent" category and are filed under "this could totally wait until you're done, but...". So thank you, Frozen! I think you made my life easier, and my children might learn that when someone asks/tells you to leave or wait for a more appropriate time, you can sweetly hearken unto their request and say "ok, bye!" Hooray!

Toddler Dreaming

We are re-arranging the rooms again. I think we probably rearrange stuff more than the average household. It's usually done in an attempt to breathe new life of cleanliness into the bedrooms, and it succeeds in doing so for a few weeks and then I surrender to life again. It's a viscous cycle. We started moving the beds and didn't finish, so these little girls got to share their sleeping space. Looks like they all made it onto the bed, we'll see if they all make it through the night without making each other mad with feet in faces or legs across necks.

Campus with Kids

We had fun walking around the BYU Campus after our walk through of the Sacred Gifts Exhibit. In the Museum they had the Love Sign that played a small part in our courtship. The kids were excited to see something they recognized - "Mom! That's like the picture in your room!!" Yup! That's where the inspiration came from.

We meandered over to the Wilkinson Center for some treats at the Cougar Eat. The kids picked up some of the free magazines in the newstands. Here Ethan is learning what it takes to be a Real Woman.

Abi and Lily liked the Bridal magazines. Ok, enough fooling around, let's get some ice cream...

Yes, we'll have 9 single scoops and one child cone. Sophia got the child cone. It still looked too big for her to handle, I was worried she'd push it off onto the floor, but she refused to accept any advice or help from me...

I was positive she'd knock it over as she licked, but she made it through without a spill or any subsequent tears, just a brief yell directed at me as I intervened one time and grabbed it to lick the sides about half way through. She reprimanded and then forgave me.

After ice cream, Corey wanted to take the kids bowling cause bowling and games are part of our annual "we're visiting BYU" tradition. It was fun.

Sophi really liked the pink ball. Unfortunately it weighed 14 pounds and she couldn't carry it.

Everyone was always willing to help her. She got a couple strikes!

 She even got a strike on Corey's lane with no bumper poles blocking the gutter. Good job Sophi!

Family outings are fun. And I love capturing shots that show the kind and loving father Corey is to his little girls.

Sacred Gifts Exhibit

On Saturday we had a little family outing and went down to Provo for the Sacred Gifts Exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. So cool. It was a collection of paintings of Jesus Christ by Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann, and Frans Schwartz. Taking pictures was not allowed, but you can see my favorite part of the exhibit through the entrance way there - the painting Agony in the Garden by Frans Schwartz.

Beautiful. I especially loved the small etchings of that same picture. Made me think and realize once again that before people do or make something big and amazing, there is a lot of planning, practicing, and working through it that happens before hand. I think that is a true principle.

I want to go again without the children (no offense, kids) so we can take more time looking at the paintings and read everything they had displayed by the paintings. The kids were pretty good, but were anxious to get going to something more exciting, like ice cream or bowling. Kids, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! They didn't get it. Oh well.

The exhibit goes through May 10th and is free, don't miss it!

Learning to Ride a Bike

When we were playing soccer the other night, after we made the rule "no sticks", Abi kinda lost interest and started begging me to go teach her to ride a bike. I said we would tomorrow. Tomorrow came, and it was raining. So I tried to push it back another day, but Abi wouldn't have it. Ok then, out in the rain we go.

I was happy that there was a way for her to practice that didn't involve me getting wet. I demonstrated one time the practicing procedure: balance on the bike and coast on it down the little driveway and onto the grass. Practice that until you can do it without having to touch your feet onto the ground. Once you got that down, we'll talk about how to pedal. Got it? Ready?

Go.

Pretty good Abi! 

Good job. Now do it again.

I got to stay dry in the garage and Abi got to practice riding her bike.

Actually it is Wesley's bike. He didn't want to share, but did. Thanks Wes. I appreciate your sacrifice.

As a reward I gave him some of the seaweed I snacked on as we watched Abi get wet riding in the rain.

Aren't I such a nice mother!

(It's nice to have something to snack on that the kids don't want a bite of!)