My Happy Place

SO we just got back from a two week vacation to Maryland to visit my family and we LOVED every minute of it! We didn't tell the girls about our trip till the Sunday before and they we're so surprised and excited it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

One of the first things we did was take a family picture which was the only thing I requested we do mostly because the last time we'd taken one was the summer after Jacob and I got married. I can't wait to see how they turned out and to have a new picture of my family to hang up. Something else we did a few different times was to go and visit my grandma McCombs as a side note, Savannah actually had a blast being there, we took this picture right before we left and she was not happy to be leaving.

Something else we wanted to do was have Abby walk on grass, she was pretty hesitant and once we let go of her....

This happened, poor girl. The rest of the trip she refused to touch the grass and if I put her out on a blanket she'd stay on it the entire time. It was actually pretty nice to have her stay in one place since she rarely ever does that.

The girls loved getting to run around my parents yard and I loved laying in the grass, living in Arizona has really made me appreciate grass and I miss it on a daily basis.

The day Jacob left we took the girls bowling for the first time, my mom and youngest brother Mark also came with us and we had a blast. The girls slowly got the hang of bowling, it took Savannah a bit to understand that she needed to roll the ball instead of attempting to throw it down the lane and poor Olivia's ball would almost stop when it hit the pins because it was going so slow.

We also had fun just hanging out at my parents and letting the girls play and have some down time but in all honesty this was one of our busiest trips yet.

On our second Saturday in Maryland my mom had to work so my oldest younger brother Jordan took us to his apartment and the girls loved it, especially since he has a cat that they could try to play with. We also went to the local farmers market right behind his house and had so much fun spending time with him.

After the farmers market the girls and I spent the rest of the day outside waiting for my mom to get home. The girls had a blast playing with sidewalk chalk and having a Popsicle picnic.

Another day my mom and I took the girls to the Children's Museum at the National Harbor and it was really fun. The girls loved getting to dress up as firemen and they got to put on kimonos. They built things with giant blocks, made paper flowers, had car races, played store, and pizza parlor. Afterwards we walked around the outlets to try and miss rush hour traffic and to wear out the girls a little more for the drive back to my parents.

The day before we left my mom had a special surprise for the girls, she took them to get manicures and I got to have a pedicure. Savannah has been asking to get her nails done forever it feels like and she was beyond thrilled.

Olivia cracked me up because she almost refused to make eye contact with the guy doing her nails and wouldn't even crack a smile for him but then she'd peek at my mom or me and give us the biggest excited smile.

Both the girls loved getting to pick their own nail colors, Savannah of course chose pink and Olivia went with a dark purple. They even got a flower painted on a nail on each hand and we're so excited about it.

Afterwards we made our last trip up to visit my grandma and the girls ran around her backyard and Savannah found the best climbing tree. She was so excited because she LOVES climbing trees and doesn't get to very often.

We were lucky to have my mom fly home with us to help me on the plane and she got to meet up with one of her sisters who flew into Phoenix so they could have a mini vacation together up in Sedona.

Jacob came and picked us up at the airport and Savannah and Olivia ran to him as soon as they saw him which is one of my favorite things they do. Now we're getting back into the swing of things and we've started our summer of fun which I'll post about later.

Insta Love

Time is flying by so here is a quick recap of all the fun things we've been up to this past month.

 Seeing lizards is how you know spring has started here in Arizona.

 This little girl turned 8 months

 The big girls and I did a mile fun run with some friends of ours.

 Happy Easter!!!

 Love this little girl of mine!

 I always have to document when these two are being sweet to each other.

 Crazy hair day at school, we chalk dyed the girls hair.

 Then this girl turned 9 months! Where is the time going?!

 Little Miss got hit in the eye with the toy stroller.

This big girl had her preschool graduation, I totally got teary eyed.

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.

7 Months

 My three girls each at 7 months, time sure does fly.

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.

Insta Love

 We got to spend lots of fun time outside since we had the most beautiful weather this winter.

 Since Abby can now crawl she finds all kinds of fun things to play with like our door stopper.

 Savannah told me one day that she wanted Abby to be in our family for a very very very long time.

 The girls love taking baths together.

 Abby exploring her toys.

 Savannah got upset because I didn't want her to paint her hands.

 More exploring.

 Savannah decided to build China because Mulan lives there.

 Olivia being goofy with my sunglasses.

Little miss the day after her first tooth came in, her second should be coming in any day now too.

Surprise

At the end of the month we had a visit from my parents! I love when my mom and dad come to visit we always have a great time and are busy doing lots of fun things. This time since my dad came with my mom we made day trip to the Grand Canyon and another day we went down to Phoenix. It was the second time the girls and I have been (Jacob and Abby stayed home) and we had another fun time. Savannah and Olivia loved looking out at the Canyon at all the lookout spots and it was my dad's first time going. He couldn't get over how big it really is, pictures just don't do it justice.

For our day in Phoenix we went to a fun play place called Jambo and the girls rode all kinds of rides over and over again and got to play a few rounds of mini-golf. After that we headed to Phoenix's Children's hospital for Olivia's neurology appointment (she has one every 6 months) and then we went shopping at the outlets in Anthem. It was so fun and the girls got so many adorable new clothes for this summer. For the rest of the week we just did day to day activities of taking and picking up the girls from school, going out to eat, we celebrated my mom's birthday, played lots of games and watching lots of shows. The girls loved hanging out with my parents and my parents loved spending time with the girls. It looks like we'll even be going out to visit them this summer which I am so excited about!!!
Another fun surprise was that the day after my parents left Jacob's parents came to visit for the weekend. Since they're leaving in April for their 12 month mission in Russia they decided to do a road trip and visit all their kids and grand-kids who don't live in Idaho. The girls were so excited to have another set of grandparents visit and they were so excited to see the girls. They couldn't believe how much they had all changed since they last saw them in October especially Abigail.