Conference Weekend

I absolutely love watching general conference! For those of you who don't know what that is here is a link for you. Essentially it is a two day event the first weekend in April and October where church leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak. There are 5 sessions and each last two hours. Some people may think I'm crazy for loving this but I can't help it, I LOVE IT! I feel so uplifted and better about myself and who I am after listening to these talks. Its also an entire weekend that we as a family are home together, spending time together, and growing closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.
This year I wanted to have something special for the girls so that they could listen with us but still be entertained. Pinterest gave me the answer as usual, I found this idea and knew I had to do it. I didn't go out and buy a holder like she did, maybe for October I will. All I did was move our kitchen table into our living room (its not that big) and I laid out all the girls activities I had put together. Each activity or snack either had a picture of someone from the First Presidency, an Apostle, or a blank paper for one of the other speakers. Some of the activities I did I got from the links on that sight like the coloring pages and the apostle magnet pages. I also did brown bags for puppets, string and beads to make necklaces, and books. This idea was golden! It worked so well that we will be doing this every time we watch conference. The girls listened and made some comments about different talks and were for the most part quiet and happily did their activities or ate their snack. I was thrilled with how it turned out, also it wasn't very time consuming to put together. Printing stuff off took the longest and it wasn't like it was a hard thing to do. All together I think it took me an hour and a half/two hours to put everything together for two days and it was worth every minute.

 I also implemented "fun lunch" as my girls call it, I got the idea from this amazing gals blog. She is totally right, its such a simple thing to do that really doesn't take any extra time. Every time I use the toothpicks Savannah tells me how its such a great idea and whatever I've used the toothpicks with is usually the first things my girls eat.

 In between sessions Olivia and I made zucchini bread, she loved being my helper and getting to pour everything in since Savannah was playing some games on the computer. As a side note, don't you love Olivia's hair?! She refused to let me fix it this morning and said that a headband made it all better. She sure is the total opposite of her big sister and she sure does crack me up.

 

Overall it was a GREAT weekend! I'm sad its over actually and I'm already looking forward to October so we can do it all over again.

Spring Break 2014

Last week was Spring Break here in our area and I knew we had to do some fun stuff if we were going to make it threw the week in once piece. Monday was our stay home day to get everything done around the house that we could and Tuesday was our errand day. The real fun started Wednesday when we had a play-date with some good friends, Savannah's old preschool teacher to be exact and her two sweet kids. We had a blast and the girls didn't want to leave! On Thursday the weather was a bit colder so we headed over to the movies with our good friend Marianne and the girls got to see Frozen. To say they were excited was an understatement and all three girls did a great job.

 

The next day we went to the zoo which as always my girls loved and we managed to be there again when they were feeding the bear. Abby was decided the zoo was a perfect place for her to take a nap and after looking at all the animals the girls had fun running around like crazy people playing chase.

  Friday also happened to be Pie Day!!! I love pie day because I love pie and its the perfect opportunity to eat some. This year we invited our friends Fred and Marianne to join us in celebrating and it was a blast. Jacob even surprised me and made the apple pie for me because he didn't want to run errands for me.

 

His pie turned out great and we were all impressed with his made baking skills and he was pretty proud of himself too. After we were all full from pie we had a movie night with Savannah and Olivia and let them stay up way past their bed time. It was a blast, we blew up the air mattress, had blankets, popcorn, and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. It was a cute movie and the girls had a blast. Poor Olivia fell asleep within the first half hour but Savannah surprised us and made it threw the whole movie.

 

Overall spring break was a blast and we all had so much fun doing fun things and being together as a family.

Christmas 2013

I really enjoyed Christmas this year as did the rest of my little family. We carried on the tradition of a advent calender. I made this one last year and inside each envelope is a scripture about Christ and telling of his birth.

This year we also put up a Christmas tree in the girls bedroom, saying they loved it is an understatement. It was one of the main highlights of Christmas for them, they're going to be devastated when I take it down next week.

I had our tree up the day before Thanksgiving but it took me forever to finally decorate it. I decided to make a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree and I loved it.

We had some colder weather every once and awhile so the girls could occasionally wear some of their winter gear. I love this hat of Savannah's, I wish I had one.

The girls brought home some awesome holiday crafts this year too. Savannah made this adorable card one day. When she realized one of the eyes was missing she said it was a Pirate Santa.

This ornament Olivia made was by far my favorite! I mean come on its hilarious and totally fantastic!

At church the Sunday before Christmas the primary put of a nativity during sharing time and Savannah's class were the angles, she just thought it was great.

Christmas Eve was such a great day! Jacob ended up having it off and we spent the day relaxing and baking, and just spending time together. Abby had so tummy time.

The girls and I made sugar cookies for Santa like we do every year.

Jacob got Abby down for a nap and followed her example by taking one himself.

I made homemade marshmallows using this recipe and I was really happy with how they turned out. We were suppose to put them in our homemade hot chocolate that I made which did not turn out the way I expected.

That night before the girls went to bed Jacob read the girls The Night Before Christmas which is something we do every Christmas as well. Jacob's dad would read this to his kids on Christmas Eve as well.

The girls were beyond thrilled and excited when they woke up Christmas morning and they loved all their gifts. Savannah is sporting her new shirt, skirt, fairy wings,and guns she got for Christmas.

The big present the girls got this year was a Barbie house from my parents, they've been playing with it everyday since they got it which is awesome.

Later that afternoon we had some good friends of ours come over for Christmas dinner where we ate tons of food. I actually ate all day long from all the snacks we had laying around like artichoke dip, cheese and crackers and these amazing little smokies, and muddy buddies to the amazing dinner I made. Yes I'm bragging about the dinner I made. This year we had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, corn, brussels sprouts, stuffing, this jello salad, Jacob's killer beans, and this amazing cranberry orange relish from Trader Joes. For dessert we had rolo cookies, the sugar cookies we had made earlier, and homemade apple pie. I know tons of food people and it was all amazing! By the end of the night I was exhausted from all the baking and all the fun we'd had. It ended up being a great Christmas spent with some of my most favorite people.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

I love this time of year! I feel like since the girls are in school we've been a bit too busy to do all the fun Christmas things I'd like but we still find time for some of them. Abby has been keeping us busy and wearing herself out too since she started rolling over about a month ago. She's almost mastered rolling back onto her back from her stomach too. Its crazy that she's already 4 1/2 months, time is going by way too fast.  Back to Christmas fun though, A good friend of ours went with me and the girls to see the annual gingerbread house display they have in Prescott. It was so fun and the girls had a blast, after looking at everything we then got to decorate gingerbread cookies. Now I'm actually not a fan of gingerbread but these were AMAZING!!! The girls had so much fun decorating and about halfway into it Santa came. The look on Savannah's face was priceless, her jaw literally dropped and she was speechless. When she could finally talk again it was almost in a whisper and she informed me that Santa was there and she really wanted to talk to him.

Abby was fantastic and slept pretty much the whole time. I was smart and brought the stroller so I could just put her car seat in it and push her and Olivia around.

A few days later we woke up to this beautiful sight, this is my kind of snow people. It was just enough to make the view from the front of our house look beautiful and by the afternoon it had all pretty much melted. I loved it, the girls were of course a bit disappointed that it hadn't snowed a bit more.

Trinity Night

So Jacob's family has a tradition called Trinity Night. I don't think they did it on a regular basis but every once and awhile they'd watch and old western movie while eating chicken and beans on their tin plates with their wooden spoons. They'd also get root beer in a bottle and just have a fun time together eating and watching a movie. We've had Trinity Night once or twice with Savannah but never with Olivia and we decided Sunday night would be the perfect time to introduce her to this fun family tradition. I made chicken in the crock pot and we had some of Jacob's dad's killer beans left over from a pot luck at school. Savannah was so excited about the root beer and the girls loved that we watched Rango for our western movie. It really was a super fun time and I really do want to carry this tradition on into our little family. Also what really set the tone was when Olivia asked me to tuck her napkin in her shirt, it was adorable.

4th of July 2012

So this 4th of July really was perfect!Jacob had to work in the morning so he got home a bit late. This changed some of our plans around but in the end the day was wonderful. Originally we were going to enjoy the annual parade with Jacob's cousin and his family but because Jacob ended up getting home so late we couldn't. They were sitting at the beginning of the paraded route so we needed to find a place at the end. We ended up sitting with Jacob's good friend Clayton and his family and our spot was awesome! We ended up on a side road that really no one was on. We could sit in the shade and our girls got TONS of candy!! Savannah and Olivia waved at almost every person to go by us and would shout out a chorus of "hello" and "happy 4th of July!".  Everyone in the parade would just smile at the girls and say how cute they are and would throw handfuls of candy at them.

I love the parade in Middleton because its just so fun, there are tons of horses, firetrucks, and of course tractors. There are usually people spraying you with water but luckily we didn't get wet. After the parade we headed over to a nearby park and walked around the car show and looked at some of the booths that were set up. Once we got home Olivia went down for a nap which is always a special treat and Savannah helped me get dinner ready.

We ended up with bacon-wrapped teriyaki chicken skewers and oven steak fries courtesy of Our Best Bites, a caesar salad, and lots of fruit.

To finish up our night we headed over to one of the elementary schools where they shoot off fireworks in town. It was a blast!!! The whole night Savannah kept asking if it was time to go. As soon as it started to get a little dark she announced very enthusiastically that it was dark now so it was time to go. Oh and that Jacob and I needed to put on our pajamas too so we could go watch the fireworks. Both the girls loved every minute of it and were so good. Olivia would run around our chairs but stay close to us while Savannah just sat on Jacob's lap and waited patiently for the show to begin. Middleton did a great job and Savannah is still talking about seeing the fireworks and asking if we're going again tonight. The funny thing is, is that once the show was over we asked Savannah what she thought and she told us she was a bit scared and it was a little too loud for her but all day today she's been telling me how awesome it was. Silly girl.

I really am so grateful to be born in this country and to have the freedoms that I do. I am grateful for those who fight for my freedoms and keep me and my family safe. What a wonderful country we live in, I truly am proud to be an American.

Summer Vacation 2012

This post is long so be prepared and it has tons of pictures. You have now be warned and I will start.

Well we just got back from a wonderful 2 and a half weeks in Maryland, is sounds like we were there so long but it flew by as usual mostly because we did something pretty much every day we were there. Our adventure starts on the afternoon of June 6th, we didn't leave till about 3:00 which is a really late start when your flying back East. Our flight to Denver went well, Olivia even fell asleep for a bit which was a surprise and was very nice. The girls were pretty well behaved in my opinion and Jacob made this flight with us which was even nicer to have someone to help me. Things go interesting when we got to Denver, we had a 3 hour layover which is really long to have with 2 kids but Jacob was with us. I was really prepared and had a list of places we could eat and where they were in the airport so we could ride the train to different terminals and just walk around to take up time. When we got off the airplane our stroller hadn't been unloaded yet, I started to get a bit nervous because we were one of the last people off the plane. As the crew searched to find our stroller the captain was very nice and let Savannah sit in the cock-pit and look around, she thought this was fantastic! The captain was incredibly nice and thoughtful and checked up on us many more times before his next flight left. I was really impressed with how concerned he was for us. To make a long story short we never got our stroller in Denver. When they took it off the plane they ripped the tags off the stroller and it was sent to baggage claim and it took them 3 hours to get it back to our gate. Needless to say I was beyond pissed off and frustrated because we had to stay by our gate the entire time because we kept getting updated and had hopes that we would have our stroller. Finally I made Jacob take Savannah  to get us dinner before our flight left because we were all hungry and that did not help me have patience. Our flight from Denver to Baltimore was good, Olivia fell asleep the entire flight and Savannah happily watched movies on the iPad. All was going well till we started making our final decent into Baltimore, I notice Olivia was HOT! Like she had a fever, she woke up and was not happy, then she grabbed her blanket and held it to her mouth where she then threw up all over it and me. We got cleaned up before we landed and I kept hoping that Olivia wasn't sick even though I knew she was.We landed in Baltimore at 1am and got all our stuff. It was a long day but I was so happy to be home with my family. When we woke up it was confirmed that Olivia was sick, every time she'd drink anything she'd throw up and she had a temperature around 102. We had planned to stay at my parents that day to recover from our flights and I was glad we did. That night we got crabs for dinner, the girls didn't want any and all poor Olivia ate was popsicles because she could usually keep them down.

We did manage to get the girls to at least touch the crabs once which was pretty funny to watch. That night I slept with Olivia to make sure all went well that night and by the morning her temperature was down to 99. We decided to go to DC like we had planned because it was going to be one of the coolest days while Jacob was with us. Olivia got to ride in her stroller and we had plenty of water and sunscreen. Savannah really like going to DC, she LOVES riding the metro and asks when she can ride it even where we're at home. Usually when we go to DC we go to museums but this time we decided to see monuments which meant a lot of walking. We started at the Washington Monument which is still closed from the earthquake they had a while back. Then we went to the WWII memorial which was beautiful.

(Each star on this wall represents 100 lives lost during WWII, this is only about half of the display.)

Then we headed over to the Vietnam Memorial which is always amazing in its simplistic design, its one of the quietest places I think because its so moving. We then took the girls to the Lincoln Memorial and walked all around. Savannah wanted to sit on the steps so bad so Jacob sat with her, its a long drop and we were nervous she'd lean to far over and fall off. We then saw the White House and took one of many water breaks. We also let the girls walk around a bit and not be in their stroller which I know they loved. We headed back on the Metro so my mom could pick us up and on our way home we stopped at the Washington DC Temple.

Savannah loved going so much at Christmas that we really wanted to go back. The girls were pretty much done with our outing so this was a very short visit but still a fun one.

By the next day Olivia was back to her happy self and we were off to Adventure Park USA. Its a prefect little amusement park for kids. The girls loved riding on the airplanes and they had a tea cup ride and merry-go-round. They road around on everything multiple times!

Savannah was big enough to ride the water boats with Jacob and my brother Mark went with them too. They all go soaked and had a blast. We also road go-carts, played mini-golf, and played on the bounce houses.

Before Jacob left we also went to church on Kent Island which is an area that Jacob served in when he went on his mission. We had a wonderful time and then went to the home of the sweetest couple that Jacob had known while serving and still keeps in touch with. We headed back to my parents and literally as soon as I put the car in park in the driveway Savannah started throwing up in her car seat. She too was hit with the flu bug and we stayed home all day Monday. By Tuesday she was feeling MUCH better and we had a fun last day with Jacob, he was leaving Wednesday and his flight was at 6:15am.  On Thursday my brother Jordan joined us and we headed to the petting zoo near my parents house. The girl LOVED it! They had fun play areas and lots of animals. Savannah loved the pigs and Olivia had fun petting every animal she could. Savannah as usual was a bit more timid but she still really enjoyed herself. The highlight for Savannah was she got to ride a horse, she impressed me with how well she did. I mean she won't even pet the goats or sheep but she climbed right on the back of that horse and rode with confidence. I almost cried because I was so proud and she was beaming and talked about that horse for quite some time.

On Father's Day we went to church and then headed over to Sandy Spring State Park which is right next to the Bay Bridge. This was the girls first experience going to a beach. It was a HUGE success and Savannah asked to go back multiple times. Savannah once again surprised me with how brave she was, she'd go out into the water till it was to her chest and then run back to shore. Olivia would walk in to her caves and then be done. She enjoyed playing in the sand with my dad. Both girls had a really good time and I'm so excited that we got to go, taking them to the beach was the only thing I really wanted to do with them this trip.

Now the silly girl I am I really didn't take any more pictures of our trip and we still have a week left to cover. The rest of our time was filled with going to the pool, the new Nature Center near my parents house, shopping sprees thanks to my parents, visiting my grandma, going out to eat, and playing Rock Band. We had such a great time and as always were sad to leave. The girls once again did a fantastic job on the plane ride home, they both even fell asleep on our second flight out of Denver. I always love going to Maryland, I'm always happy when I'm there and love feeling like I've come home.

So now we're home and back to our busy lives which seem to be overwhelming me at the moment. Savannah has had 3 health issues since we've been back which has only been a week and I have two sister in laws moving this weekend. And a bit of info for any of you who have actually read this entire blog post but we're also preparing to move the beginning of August. Jacob's parents are coming home from their mission in Zimbabwe and we are currently looking for where we'll be living. Oh and did I mention we're looking for a place to live in Arizona? Cause we are.