Random February

 

Katelyn LOVES to wear shoes. Her shoes, her sisters shoes, daddy's shoes, but mostly My shoes. 

Katelyn is my little shadow and loves to be by me all the time. Especially when I am sitting in my favorite reading spot. She loves to climb up on the recliner across from me where I rest my feet. It is nice to have the company. She usually just quietly hangs out there as I rock the both of us.  

Claudia though the exhaust pipe on the car looked like a microphone and decided to sing into it. She got a little close and got into the car with her face COVERED in black nasty stuff. Good thing we were getting ready to leave and the exhaust pipe was cold. We had to have a big talk with her about that.

Charles had his Blue and Gold Dinner for Scouts in February and the theme was Space. This is his cake he made!

Katelyn is the Queen of messes. She Loves to dump stuff. Especially the games and snacks ALL OVER the Family Room! It's so frustrating. I vacuum that rug at twice a day on average.

Claudia loves all things out doors and is not afraid of bugs. While I was washing the car she found this worm and picked it right up! Yuck!!!

After we prayed and fasted with the ENTIRE state of California for rain we finally got some. And with that rain we got lots and lots of beautiful Rainbows!!!!

While Daddy was away in Texas for the weekend for Uncle Cris' birthday we decided to paint some canvas' for our walls. I got each kid a canvas and let them paint it how ever they wanted. They came out pretty cute! And the kids had lots of fun painting!!!!

Our laundry room has the nice deep since it it and it has become a LIFESAVER for me! It is a bit difficult to give the girls a bath in the tub with my big prego belly so I started bathing the younger ones in this sink. It is awesome!! No bending over for me! And the girls LOVE it too! So it is a Win-Win.

Valentine's Day

We started our Valentine's morning by doing Madison's hair in a heart shape. I'm not very good at doing hair.  Which is why I've always said God gave me curly hair because I am just NOT good at doing it. But since I have 3 almost 4 girls I decided I better start learning to do girls hair. Thank you PINTEREST and the Internet. Now my girls will occasionally have cute hair. 

 For Breakfast I made Chocolate Muffins and left them on the counter with this note!

And for dinner I made heart shaped Pizza with Heart Shaped Pepperoni and Ham. With Strawberry smoothies. The kids LOVED It!!! 

 Katelyn loved the whipped cream more than the smoothie.

 We invited John's mom to join us! We always loving having her with us. 

 These are the Valentine's I made for the older kids

 And for the little girls they got the same cups (They are just character cups from Walmart with Magnets glued on the side. The kids each got their own that goes on the fridge and is used for water. Then I don't have to wash so many every day.)

But there cups were filled with M&M's instead of colored pens and mechanical pencils. 

 And for John's mom we gave her a pink mini rose bush with a Note that said, "We'd Pick you to be our Grandma any day!"

And John brought me some flowers and a big heart balloon. 

It was a great day!!!! 

Awh Ha!!!!

I just had one of those "awh ha" moments and now realize why we as Latter-day Saints teach our children the primary songs so early. Claudia who is 3 1/2 LOVES LOVES LOVES the primary songs. She knows the entire first verse of I am a Child of God, which surprises me, because even my 6 year old doesn't know all the words. But I've been noticing lately as Claudia's been playing around the house she is often times singing a primary song as she plays. Most of the time she doesn't get all the words right. But she is still thinking about the song and learning the words. I LOVE that it is becoming automatic for her to recall the words and just sing them whenever she feels like it. What a blessing that will be for her in her life to have those words engraven on her mind and her heart. 

 ♥

Gilbert, Arizona Temple

We decided since the Gilbert, Arizona Temple was driving distance for us that we would take the opportunity to take the kids to the temple open house. John's mom joined us and we all had a great time!

We left on Friday afternoon and headed to our hotel. To our surprise our room had two bedrooms instead of just two beds. It was great! We put the kids to bed and then stayed up and played some games.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the temple. It was a beautiful day and the temple is Absolutely Gorgeous!!!! The kids really enjoyed seeing all the rooms and I could tell that Charles felt the spirit at times. When I was talking to him about the baptistery I got all choked up and could barely talk. The spirit was so strong there and being with John and the kids in the temple all together was the BEST thing ever!!!! I am so glad that we took the time to go see the House of the Lord. I hope the experience is one that the kids will always remember. 

Madison was having a rough time when we were trying to get a picture in front of the temple. This was the best one we got!

After going to the open house we headed back to our hotel and packed up and stopped for lunch at our favorite place,  Chick-fil-A so we could let the kids play for a while and then we headed home. 

One of my favorite parts about our road-trip, besides the temple was all the Sonic's that we got to stop and get Slushes!!! Yummy!!! The closest Sonic to us is about 30 minutes way.  But in Arizona they are like every 3-4 miles. It was great!!!

Photo Swap

My friend Laurel who also does photography and I decided to do a photography swap. We were each looking to have new family photos taken so we just traded. She did an AMAZING Job! And I am so HAPPY with how the photos came out! Too bad we'll need to update them in the summer time when this baby arrives!

Here are some of my FAVORITES!!!!