Newest addition

My little brother AJ and his wife JoAnna welcomed their baby girl into the world on May 22nd. We helped watch their son Jared while they were at the hospital and the kids had a blast. It's fun to see Jared and Sophie hang out together. They are definitely the right speed for each other! Neither kid slept much since they played musical beds for quite a while before finally crashing, but they had plenty of energy the next day to play.



Jared had a LONG day with no nap (I did try) but he was still excited to meet his new baby sister and see his mom and dad again. Aren't they cute?


Abby got to hold Ember in the hospital - one of the priveleges of being a big girl :) We're excited to have Ember in our family! She'll be a fun cousin for Alice to have since they are only 3 1/2 months apart.

Faith

I have lots of things to post (Abby's pre-school graduation, the Princess Festival, my new niece . . .) , but I'll just do a short post for now. About a week and a half ago I decided I should work on my Personal Progress stuff in Young Women's since I am in the presidency. I haven't been very good about getting my girls to work on their goals, so I thought if I was working on it I'd be better at helping them. I started at the beginning - so I'm on Faith #1. I read some scriptures, some Conference talks, and now I'm supposed to pray morning and night for two weeks - then, of course, record it in my journal. It's all about increasing your faith.

Some amazing things have been accomplished through faith. So, I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me to increase my faith. Well, it looks like he decided to help me out by throwing a trial at me. I suppose I did ask for it! Tom came home on Friday and told me he had lost his job. The company is having serious financial issues and they decided to let three of the guys go in his department. I know that everything will turn out fine.

I am SO grateful to have a good job that is so flexible with me. They said I could go back to full time and start getting benefits again next week. As far as I can tell, they are also going to allow me to continue to work from home. Things will work out great, and I'm hoping Tom will get a wonderful job which enables me to eventually quit my job and focus more on the kids. We'll see. I suppose I've learned my lesson now, though. Be careful what you ask for because you really might get it!

Catching up

Things are going pretty well around here. Abby is looking forward to the end of school so she can play with Sophie more. I think it's funny because she is only gone for 4 hours/week for pre-school. I think kindergarten will be a bit of a shock for her. She's totally ready and will love it, but she has no idea what she's in for. I don't think I know what I'm in for either. Getting her dressed and fed before school took some doing for me for pre-school. 5 days a week might kill me!

Sophie is pretty adorable, which helps to offset how incredibly sneaky she tends to be. Since I last blogged, she went through a coloring on the walls with crayon stage. Ack! She also has gone through a short take off the poopy diaper phase. Not my favorite of her activities. She has let the dog out the front door the last couple of days. At least he usually comes when I call him. She also apparently went through a taking pictures on mommy's camera phase.

Luckily, Sophie has also gone through a sometimes taking naps again phase. At least there is one phase I like.

Alice is growing like a little weed. She has the funnest chubby cheeks and some cute little rolls on her legs. She started laughing sometimes. It's fun to hear her little laugh. She's definitely ticklish. She sleeps so well I can hardly believe it. She usually sleeps for about 11 hours each night without waking up. She also takes a few good long naps throughout the day. I'm glad that it is getting warmer because I love to dress her in cute little springtime/summer dresses.

We planted our garden the other day. I wish the tomatoes would just instantly grow. I hate that I have to wait for 2 months or more to get some delicious fresh tomatoes. We planted some "Mr. Stripey" tomatoes. Abby laughs about those every time we water. I hope they produce really well because the pictures of them looks pretty fun. We planted 6 tomatoes, 1 zucchini, 1 pepper, green onions, and I have some carrots and lettuce seeds I need to plant still. We also planted some grass seeds in the front yard. I love watching the grass seeds sprout and come in! It's like a short patchy green beard right now.

I have a small backlog of pictures I thought would be fun to post, so here you go.


Alice has taken to sucking her thumb on occasion and I think it is pretty cute - and it sure seems to help her fall asleep on her own better. I'm not too worried about long term implications yet. Sophie sucked her thumb earlier than this and she suddenly gave it up around when she turned two. Alice will probably be different, but I'll just hope she follows her big sister for the time being.


I caught one of Alice's smiles on camera finally. She doesn't smile all the time so it really makes me feel good when she gives me one of her gummy smiles! (This one seems to be particularly juicy.)


Our tulips showed up again this year. I really love how they just show up and I don't have to do anything to make them beautiful.


I took a bunch of pictures of Alice and Abby wanted in on the action. At least she is looking the right direction here!

We're excited to get apples on our apple tree - if the number of blossoms tells correctly, I think we'll get lots this year! Abby is SO excited to have apples - I keep telling her it's gonna be a while before they are ready to eat.


Well, that is probably sufficient to catch up on what I haven't posted. Hopefully I keep up on things so I don't need to bore any possible readers with another catch up session.

Sister Friends

I love seeing my girls getting along and playing with each other. They tend to fight a good amount and Abby doesn't seem to understand that Sophie is only two. There are rare moments, though, when things go just right and they seem like the best of friends.

Alice's Blessing

Alice was blessed on this last Sunday! She did so wonderful and was quiet the entire time. She looked so cute in her blessing dress and I don't think she spit up on it once! Lots of family came and we (along with another baby's family) filled up the chapel nearly to capacity. Nearly to capacity means the 2nd overflow wasn't *quite* all the way full. All the men filed up to the front of the chapel and barely fit into a circle around our little Alice. Her daddy gave her a wonderful blessing and now she's officially on the roll at church.

I really appreciated getting to sit and listen to the testimonies being born on Sunday. Abby and Sophie didn't really want to have much to do with their parents once they saw their fun grandparents and cousins. I even got to hand Alice off to her Grandma - so I was childless for a few peaceful minutes!

We're lucky to have three beautiful and healthy daughters in our family and I am SO grateful to be sealed to them for eternity. I love my family and I'm glad that we can be together forever.


I attempted to take some pictures of the girls together. The attempt didn't last long, so the pictures didn't turn out that well. I also need someone to remind me to NOT take pictures in front of the window. They turned out pretty badly. I'm also hoping my mom has a good picture of Tom and I with Alice on their camera. We'll see!

(I got this picture from my mom and thought I'd add it to my post.)

Spring Snow

I thought for sure it was springtime, but I don't think anybody told the weather that. I don't know how many inches of snow we got, but it sure looks like a lot! It will probably all melt today, so that helps me stay out of the doldrums. (Can I get a "woot woot" for The Phantom Tollbooth?)

Here are some pictures I took. At least the snow makes things look beautiful!

The poor lilac bush! It's pretty much folded in half because of all the leaves.

Baby acne makes me sad

I know every mother thinks their baby is the most adorable of all the babies. I'm no exception. I certainly think my little roly poly Alice is pretty darned cute. But she started getting baby acne all over her head this last week. It seemed a little less red today, so maybe it's clearing up. It just makes me sad when her perfectly smooth and soft skin is spotty and bumpy and angry looking. My other kids had it, so I know it won't last too long - but I want it to go away now! Sorry to whine.



We went on a "field trip" to BYU today. I, of course, forgot my camera. Hopefully I can get some pics from other sources and write a real entry on that.