We love Competition!

 Springfest here we come!!!  The girls love competitions!!  They love to show off all their hard work and dazzle the judges.  At least at this competition we got to see both of them compete!  It made for a long day, with snacks stashed, and changes of clothes.  But it was fun to see them both of their doin their thing.  Lexi team took a 1st with their Rockstar dance.  Shelby's team took an overall and she got 1st on all her solo's.  Shelby got to bring home this trophy for a week to celebrate her team's success!  I love watching my girls dance!!

Pop's Party...

 The annual Pop's Party!!!  This little girl was so excited to go with her daddy!!  They had been practicing songs and made special invitations.  So it broke her heart when her daddy told her he wasn't going to be able to come.  He was headed out of town that week and wasn't going to be back.  The tears started flowing.  I felt so bad for her so her and I decided to keep bugging her dad so he would at least try.  We still didn't know that day if he was going to make it.   But someone must have known how much she wanted her daddy there.  Bob got to the airport early and asked to get on an earlier flight.  The attendant at the desk said there wasn't one, but then a few minutes later realized there was.  So he took Bob out on the tarmac, under the plane, and they opened the door for him to get on.  He made it with roses in hand!!!
I ended up going with her...being the only Mom in the whole audience there.  Bob was about 30 minutes late but luckily they were running way late too so he didn't miss much.  The whole time we were waiting Makena had this sad little mouth and eyes and she just kept looking at the door.  Finally, when he came in her face lit up with this huge smile and had a sparkle in her eye!!!  What a special date for her and her daddy! 

 She got to sing her heart out to her daddy, have dinner, get their picture taken, make projects, and play the rest of the night.  What a special memory they get to share.

Volleyball

I am totally excited that maybe, just maybe....my girl will follow in my footsteps. There was talk for awhile about cheerleading or drill team, but I think she just might turn out to be a sports girl after all!! YAY! I am not biased or anything. Can you tell? She decided to do rec. volleyball this year and she had a blast! She had a couple of friends on her team which made it even more fun! They were pretty dang good too! They usually won all their games too. They practiced every Monday and had games every Wednesday for about a month. At the very end they had a tournament and ended up taking 3rd. It was so fun to watch her....and even harder just to sit there and watch. I wanted to go out and play with her. It brought back a bunch of great memories. I hope she decides to play sports in high school, cuz I have no idea what to do with cheerleaders.

Here is her team.. Kennedy, Paige, Kendall, Shelby and Aspen! (there are two girls I don't know). Kendall's sister Kylie was their coach!!

Serve, pass, ready!!!

Here are my crazy girls waiting patiently for volleyball to be over. They didn't think is was as much fun as Shelby and I did!!

Christ Centered Easter

This year I tried to have an Christ Centered Easter!! Just like Christmas I wanted the kids to really know why we celebrate Easter. So every night we opened a numbered egg and inside them were a scriptures and an item that goes with scripture. One night is was a piece of soap, another it was a piece of a thorn bush, and yet another was a sacrament cup. We opened one every night for 12 days. It was lots of fun and kept us dedicated to reading at least for a week.
We also had a few activities...one was the last supper which the girls loved. We spread out a blanket on the living room floor and we ate chicken, salad, strawberries, and scones. The girls said..."Can we do this more often?" and we made resurrection cookies and rolls. I think the girls had fun and they learned more about our Savior too. Even I learned some things I didn't know as we studied. We had a great week.

EB came....yay!!!

EB came!!! We love the Easter Bunny!! What a fun morning....baskets, Easter eggs, chocolate, excited girls and a ton of giggling!!! Priceless!

I got a dollar....I got a dollar....I got a dollar....ya, ya, ya, ya!!

Hunting outside on the deck!

Lexi left a note for EB...and this is what he wrote back....Thanks for the snack! I was hungry! I had fun tonight! Santa, my friend keeps track of all kids who have been bad or good. But the Easter Bunny goes to everyone. I am the fun guy! Have a great Easter! EB!

Coloring Eggs!!

The hunt begins.....

Every year they have a community Easter egg hunt for the kids. It is FREE...which is the only plus about it. I really hate going to it...but the kids love it. How can I let them down? Anyway, everyone and their dog and cat show up for this thing and all the parents are so competitive. Especially in the smaller age groups. The parents will run out there and literally pick up the eggs for their kiddos. It used to bother me, but now I say.....whatever. The girls had fun and all got an Easter basket.

Makena and her friend Elli getting ready to race!!

After that hunt we went to another one that was much more relaxed and fun!!! The girls got tons of candy and they each got prize!

Karli was so much fun!!! She loved gathering all the eggs!

Our new Additions...

Here are the latest additions to our family!! Very temporary additions I might add! Shelby has a kid in her class that has a farm and they brought eggs into class and labeled them all a number for each kid in the class. They got to watch them hatch and then the kids had a choice of having the chick afterward. After a lot of begging...she finally got her way. We went and picked them up and they were so cute. They lived in a cardboard box for a week or so but they were already trying to fly out of it. So they decided to build a chicken coop!

The girls and daddy building away!!

The finished product!

The chicks love their new house!
Mom loves they are not flying all over the garage.

The agreement I made with Shelby was that we would keep them until got big and ugly and then they were going back to the farm.

I hope they last longer than our beta fish that we had for a whole week! Who kills a beta fish? Apparently I do!!! My sister said that I killed it with my OCD!! I guess changing the water everyday is detrimental to the fish! Oh well!!! (So little fishies)!

The Humps!!!

I love this little girl...she is so much fun!! For about a week she had the hives...of and on. I was never able to pin point what caused them. Nothing in our environment had changed, she hadn't eaten a strange food, there was just nothing that was different. Other than the amount of stress she had been under. So I attributed the hives to stress that she had put on herself.
Ever since the big earthquake in Japan and the tsunami that followed, she has been a wreck. It didn't help when the school decided to do an earthquake drill right after this horrific event in Japan. If I can tell you a little bit about Makena.....she is extremely sensitive and very literal. So if they have an earthquake drill at school....well, that means we are going to have an earthquake. If you teach her about fire safety....then that means we are going to have a fire. Needless to say we have to be very careful how we approach topics.
So between the earthquake and all the talk of having a flood around her she has been a basket case. She won't let me out of her sight. She doesn't like to go to school because I am not there. Either myself or my hubby have to be with her at all times. Even in the house...if she can't see us she will stop whatever she is doing just to make sure she know where we are.
I think with all that going on her little head she was bringing on the hives herself. But she referred to them as the Humps!!! That brought a little humor to the situation we were going through. I hope she grows out of this so she won't have to be worried all the time.

Love the skin...you're in!

Why oh why, can I not love the skin that I am in!! i want to be able to love my muffin top, i want to be able to embrace my cellulite dimples, i want to eat what I want when I want it, and i want to be happy when I am in a swimming suit. Needless to say, I want my cake and eat it too...literally!
I have come to realize I do not have the patience for weight loss. I want to work out for a week and then lose 5 pounds, then continue on to the next week. I want it right now. I don't want to wait for months. If you try hard to work out and eat right, you should get rewarded for it. But apparently that is not how it works.
I just want to be happy with who I am and how I look regardless of what that is. I want to stop limiting myself to activities that my kids want to do because of my insecurities. One day maybe I will be there, but for now....still struggling.

Naked Toddler on the Loose!

So this is Karli's new thing!!! To disappear into a room very quietly....and strip down until the only thing she is wearing is panties!! She loves to be naked (which is kind-of scary), but on the other hand she doesn't want anyone to see her nakee!! Those two don't really go together!! It is not that hard to get her dressed for the day....1st option-nakee....2nd option-jamas. That is about it. So if you happen to come to my house or drive by and see a naked toddler on the loose. Don't be alarmed....yes, she is my child and yes I know about it! At least her hair is done right?

Her new favorite phrases are....."that bugga me", "let's rock it", "so long sucka", and "i love you the mostest"! She also has decided to hate lotion! If you put it on her she screams and hollers and says.."it is itchy". What kids come up with these days!

Me Undastand Mommy!

Hard lessons learned.....THIS!

and THIS.....

and THIS....(not so innocent, mischievous,xtremely busy little girl) do not go together! Can you see the crazy in her eyes?

The other day Karli went screaming to her room and just wouldn't stop. Bob and I both went in there to try and calm her down and to see what happened. All she said was..."me not tell you, you get mad at me" and cried some more. She wouldn't tell daddy or me. I was a little curious of what could have made her so upset. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this I said, "don't tell me, just show me". So we were in her room and she said.."nope", we walked into Shelby's room. and she said, "nope", we walked into the bathroom and SILENCE! Could the water all over the floor be a dead give away? She had gone to the bathroom by herself and decided to use the whole roll of toilet paper to wipe with. Then she flushed not once, not twice, but at least three times. Needless to say, I spent the next half hour wiping up all the water off the floor.

Then I told her that, I wasn't mad at her but next time not to use the whole roll of toilet paper.

And she said, "me undastand mommy"!! If she wasn't so cute!!

Braces off....Braces On!

What a week!! Shelby got her braces off...look at that dazzling smile! And Lexi got hers on...so exciting!

This is Shelby before her braces...(not a very good picture..it is off Bob's phone) And look how young she looks!

Here she is after! What a beautiful smile! And did she just age overnight! She looks so much older now. She is so confident and she is always smiling now. I am so glad we did this early..now she is ready to bring on middle school next year. I can't believe it! She is a lot nervous..so this will be one less thing she will have to nervous about!

We weren't planning on getting Lexi started so early, but she is so tiny and she has her mother's huge teeth and she has no place to put them. In fact, she is missing one of her teeth altogether because it is below and has nowhere to go. The ortho told us if we waited this girl would be having oral surgery in a couple of years. Surgery.....braces.....tough decision! Can you guess what we decided. She was so excited to get them on, until the day after. Then she was already asking when she was going to be getting them off. She is going to have them on a lot longer than Shelby so we have a long road ahead. But I think she looks like a doll, and I can't wait to see her beautiful teeth at the end.

Smile big Lexi!!! You are darling!

I love you most!

Since we have been watching Tangled 24/7 since we got it the girls have now started a new thing.
I say to Kena......i love you, she says....i love you more, I say....i love you most!! It is so cute!
Karli's version is .....i love you mostest, mostest. These are the moments I love!

Back off my Man!!

Just a reminder....the couple above are going to be married in about 16 years! We had already set up an arranged marriage...but were very happy when we found out we didn't need to. Makena liked him and he liked her! Wow, that was easy! Now if they just continued that on through High School and after that would be great. Not so easy! We came upon a bump in the road already...that bump is Makena's little friend Makenna. (See below)

She has stated that she is now in love with him and she is going to marry him! Well, Makena was upset by that and decided to talk to her about it.

..Makena.....You can't like him he is my man.

...Makenna....Yes, I can. I am going to marry him.

...Makena......No, you can't.

...Makenna....I kissed him on the lips at recess. (she is using the jealousy card...btw the kissing didn't happen)

....Makena......Back off my man.

....Makenna....No

....Makena.......Yes, he is my man.

....Makenna.....Okay..then we can both like him.

The love triangle of my 5 year old!!! Like any boy....he is eating it up!

Bring on Conference...we are ready!

I think I might have solved the conference dilemma!!! At least for the first session. So every time conference is on I try to figure out how to get the kids involved and keep them quiet. Yea...i can always put a movie on for them in the other room, but they wouldn't get anything out of conference. But it is also very important that mom and dad do! I have always printed off conference packets for the girls to do while watching. Well, this year I added a little extra incentive.....a conference snack pack!! I filled up these baskets with popcorn, juice, candy, crackers, suckers, etc....And the only time they could eat any of it was when they were watching conference. It worked great..that is until the power went off. We had a power outage during the last hour of the morning session of conference and had to listen to the rest on the radio. That kind-of put a damper on the activities when you can't color what the Prophets tie looks like.
The power was on for the afternoon session and the girls did great with their packets. They had fun and the extra bonus was I didn't feed them all day. They were too full of snacks!!

I got these suckers from the dollar store!! They are hilarious!

Karli didn't quite last through all the coloring so she just made a fort with all her animals under the table.

Let's go Fly a Kite.....

After the Saturday afternoon session we all went outside with our dollar store kites and got flying!!! The girls had so much fun. All four were flying there kites at the same time and tried hard not to get the strings tangled. The wind was off and on but we were able to get in some good fly time. Karli loved flying it but got bored of it really fast!!! What a great day to spend the afternoon.

April Fools.....

Doesn't this look like a beautiful spring bouquet of flowers? Look again! Lexi thinks the dirt is delicious!!!

I am really not a jokester so April fools is usually just a normal day for me! Well, this year I made an attempt to break the mold! There were a million things I wanted to do but after I decided it was too late. I wanted to make them a fun April fools dinner....but my girls are so picky anyway...I thought that would make things worse. Besides all the dinners I found were mostly made out of candy....I wouldn't want to give any ideas to my little garbage gut (Karli)!! So we had a pretty normal day with the occasional..."Mom you have a spider on your head, April fools". Shelby did saran wrap the toilet so dad could make a mess for mom to clean! Yay for me!

Luckily she told him before anything happened. And I made each of the girls a bouquet of flowers for dessert. Dirt in a pot....with worms & slugs......and beautiful flowers! I gave each of them a flower and told them how much I love them. Then I took my own bouquet and took a big bite out of the dirt. They all looked at me in disbelief....especially Karli. Needless to say they all loved their treat! The worm and all!

The only one the was not so thrilled with the idea was Karli. She would not touch the stuff. Not one single bite. All she said was "that's yucky" or "that's digusting". She decided she would rather just play in it and plant and re-plant the flowers. Boy do they smell good!

They even found a butterfly in one of the bouquets. Happy April Fools! Until next year...the jokester is is ready and raring to go!