Tori's Baptism

My neice Tori made the decision to get baptized into the Church. She is almost 12 and lives with her Dad and step-mom who are in-active. We are all proud of her decision, and my family came out to Utah to be a part of it. It turned out really nice. My Dad baptized her, and my Mom talked to her about the Holy Ghost. The girls loved watching, right up at the font and now they ask if they can see the bathtub in all the churches :)

I made Tori a bracelet, and headband (that I forgot to picture), to remember her special day. The headband was actually a request from my Mom, in her talk. She had objects presented to Tori to help her remember attributes of the Holy Ghost. The headband will help her remember "to let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly".


I was supposed to bring cookies to share...I totally forgot. Nice. But everything turned out well and Tori was just glowing.

On the way home I had Dave run me to R.C. Willey so I could pick up some carpet samples for Nursery. The girls just LOVED them. Thank goodness 'cause they were driving us nuts...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I thought it would be fun this year to host a green party in honor of St. Patrick's day, so I sent out some invitations to my two sisters inUtah, and Aunt and Uncle.

Printed of some decorations...
And set it all up. We even had green packets to mix in our water bottles.
Theses pillow boxes were filled with treasures..yum


And I wanted to make these mint oreo pops as a favor. Then I remembered I had already made favors...but you can never have to many. :)

This table was set up right when you walk in the door.
There were some fun prizes...candy, tags, printables
And one framed printable..
Shamrock pins for the guys..
and headbands for the girls..too bad I put the camera away and didn't get any shots when I actually had guests :)
The food was very delicious, and very green. I only had the neon dye so the rolls and potatoes look more yellow...but they were green...
And I didn't take pictures of our bbq meat...since it wasn't green (I thought it best not to traumatize people with green meat...)
We played three games (all St. Patrick themed of course)

Word search, which Jenni won

Word scramble, which Carlee won

and Trivia, which had a three way tie between Cha, Dave and Corey. Since Cha already won, she was automatically excluded. So Corey and Dave rocked off for it. Dave won and gave the prize to me...but since I couldn't win (being the host and already owning duplicates of the prizes myself...) he gave it to Corey!

Then we voted on who had the best green outfit...as you can see 6 of the 7 voters picked me :) since I couldn't win we gave it to the only other voted...:) Eric.

It was a fun night and a fun chance to meet my sister Kelsey's roommate Tiffany. I'm glad you all could come...

Angels in my tummy

Aubree has been getting scared at night for a little while now. I sat her down one night and we had a little chat. I told her she could talk to Heavenly Father and he would listen, and answer. I explained that she wouldn't hear his voice like she heard mine, but she could feel him, inside her heart. I proceeded to tell her that she wasn't alone. That Heavenly Father sends angels into her room to watch and protect her. And that she could feel them in her heart as well. She seemed happy and I left her for the night.

A few days later Dave asked me why Aubree thinks she has angels in her tummy...we put it together, and she took our chat very LITERAL. She thinks that there and angels living inside her, it's quite humorous. She was eating dinner and spilled all down her front. She was very worried that the angels got dirty and they needed a bath.

It's comforting to know she listened, and that it helped. She got a different meaning out of it :) but it still comforts her at night. We'll just have to work out the details when she's older!

Choose the Right.

Aubree received this tiny, precious ring from her Grandma when she was born. It's been sitting in her dresser ever since. We accidentally came across it again the other day (some how it found itself in the kitchen sink??) And realized that it now fits. She LOVES it and feels so special to wear it. Now it just need to polish it up after sitting in water for hours...And how cute is it on her tiny chubby hand? Seriously.

Birthday's

We got back last night from Bear lake...and today we had family over for Birthday's. My brother-in-law Eric's birthday was the 12th and my sister Kelsey's was yesterday. So I had Kelsey pick out the dinner she wanted, and had Carlee bring a dessert that Eric loved. They couldn't come until later...but it was really fun. Our Aunt and Uncle also came up because they're more like siblings to us. Kelsey wanted souvlaki...but I didn't have enough marinating time...so we did italian kabobs, rice pilaf, home made pita bread..And Jenni and Corey brought a delicious Italian salad, that I forgot to get a shot of..

It was fun to get together with everyone...at some point Sophie was running around with underwear on her head. Fun times.

This is what I made Kels for her birthday...Eric's present is still on the way :)

Bear Lake Adventures

We were invited back up to our friends cabin in Bear Lake for Valentine's Day. And this year we had snow clothes for the kids, so they got out to play every day, and LOVED it. Sophie is more wussy, like me. But Aubs and Dave stayed out there as long as they could. I'm glad she has someone to take her....cause I just can't do it for long.


We ended up celebrating V-day on Saturday instead of Monday, so the kids could have some new toys and get out of our hair :) It worked really well....Here are their baskets...
And pretty beads inside the purses...
One thing I love about going up there is the huge California king we get to sleep on. It allows Aubree to sleep with us and still be comfortable.
How cute are sleeping kids?
Luckily this trip, none of our kids got sick. The Millers weren't as lucky...but it ended up being a fun weekend. I got A LOT done for my friends wedding...we got addicted to a new t.v. show (Parks and Recreation) and spent A LOT of down time...it's nice to get out in the Winter. And boy are we ready for Spring.

Another fun thing the kids love, is seeing the deer. This one got really close, and Sophie couldn't take her eyes of it. She kept calling her a bunny, and was distraught when she pranced away. The rest of the trip she would randomly walk up the door and say "bunny?" while looking around...

On the ride home we were in our jammies for a comfy trip...Aubree was making funny face at us for pretty much the whole three hours.
Here are some fun videos of the girls. This was their first experience to sledding, and they really, really, enjoyed themselves.

Report card

I had my very first parent / teacher conference. I was smiling the whole time. I'm such a nerd. But it was such a cute thing. She had a little packet of work from Aubree with a self portrait on the front. And a report card! I had no idea they did report cards for pre-school. Their grades are based on: Mastered, Progressing, Needs Improvement, and Not learned yet. I am happy to say she did a good job. The things she has mastered are:

Communicating well with the teacher

Expresses self well in front of class

Stays on task and tries to finish work

Enjoys school, is usually happy

Recognizes name

Handling crayons

Colors

Shapes

Most numbers

She is improving on:

Plays well with others

Participates

Obeys school rules

Listens and follows instructions

Prints name

Handles scissors and pencils

Knows left to right progression

Alphabet song (which is VERY different from the traditional song that she has mastered :)

Counting objects 1-20

Recognizing lowercase letters and sounds

She didn't get any "needs improvement" since she is showing good improvement in all areas that she hasn't mastered. In the teacher's comments she wrote:

"Your cooperation and support with Aubree is appreciated. I love her big smile and hugs."

Aubree did have a bad week a while ago which involved going to the "Principal's office". Apparently she was hitting and not learning from her mistake after sitting on the thinking chair. I told her teacher to do what she had to do, and we had a little chat. Hence the cooperation. Ever since, I chat with Aubree every morning before school. We talk about how important it is to be a sweet friend and good listener. To show respect to others and listen to the teacher. I am very happy to say she has really listened to me and we haven't had any problems since.