Beautiful Girls

My girls look so cute each day for school.  Hard to believe I used to have to do their hair each day.  Now they do everything on their own, even get up to their own alarms. 

Updates

I just finished my 2009 blog book and sent it off to BLURB to get published.  I love having these everyday memories in a book.  As I was putting it together, the more everyday and silly the entry, the more I liked it.  I had forgotten so many of the silly things we did as a family during the year 2009.  It reminded me of how life is around here each day with the busy activities and jokes and smiles and laughing.  It all adds up to my kids’ childhood memories.  And they are growing up soooo fast!  Reminds me of the scripture, “Out of small things precedeth that which is great…”  Our family is not just the big events (when I usually take most of the videos and pictures) like Christmas and Weddings and Birthdays.  But it is also the making cookies, teasing, new jobs, fixing hair for school and dances, having friends over, reading books, and lots of other day to day stuff.  I am soooo thankful I started this blog to document it all – I thought it was a way to stay in touch with Tammy and family far away.  But in being able to print it, it has turned out to be a priceless journal for me.  Now on to 2010’s book….

Working for a Living!

Andrew will start soon at Jiffy Lube.  He walked down one day and talked to the manager and was hired that afternoon.  How convenient, right here in Liberty Lake.  Watch for him to be waving on the street corner when things get slow.  We’re excited for him.

Fun with Balloons

A little bit of warmth today and the girls got out the water balloons!  They were having fun bouncing on the tramp seeing how long they could make it without them breaking.  Balloons are very flexible and it was funny to see them bounce around like flubber!  They got splashed quite a few times, but it was great to play outside!

Then we all watched the Young Woman broadcast.  Me and my 3 young women… They were doing their nails, multitasking thru conference.  They are such good girls and growing up too fast.  On Sundays Megan and Melissa usually work on Personal Progress.  Katie is already done.  I am blessed to have such beautiful daughters who want to be good.  I enjoy them so much whether we’re cooking, shopping, doing hair or playing games together.  It is fun to have daughters!

Katie and Krista

Katie joined tennis with her friend Krista.  They keep each other going.  Katie is in great shape after almost a year of early morning weight training!  Krista came over for some tennis practice in the park and they went to the stake dance later Saturday night.  Katie has some great friends here.

Welcome Spring!

We’ve been watching for these guys for a few weeks now.  Every year we start searching about February in the bark mulch by the sidewalk for a glimpse of hope…first just a tip of green shows and then more and more until one day – a bloom!

Spring always comes, no matter how long and cold the Northwest winter.  Welcome Spring!

Next will be the beautiful red tulips!

Cruise Breakfast

Just goofing off this morning.  I used the egg slicer on this strawberry and arranged it around Megan’s hard boiled egg.  We called it a cruise breakfast.  Fun!

Umm Mom? I need cookies…

Katie - I need some cookies Mom, to take for snack to AP English.  It’s me and Stephanie’s turn… I want to take frosted cookies, like you made for Dallas and Wes.

Me – those are a lot of work Katie.  Can’t you take easier cookies?

Katie – Umm no, I want to take those.  They look cool. I need 35.

Me – Katie don’t you have a research paper to do and a ton of homework?

Katie – Um yea, I thought you could do a little bit to help me.

Me – What is Stephanie going to do to contribute?

Katie – Nothing.  She doesn’t cook too much.

So Mom made 35 beautiful “April Wright” inspired cookies on Sunday night.  Hope those high school English kids liked them… In her defense, Katie made the dough and baked them all.  I just flooded them with frosting and sprinkles.  Anything for you Kate!

Fun with cousins

These guys are always making movies or doing something fun between the Walker’s house and our house.  How nice to have a weekend away from school pressures and dress up and goof off!  We will miss living so close to cousins!

Young Men and Women Activities

Being called to the Young Women’s Presidency has been a lot of fun.  Each week we have activities and I get to be with my kids and their friends.  The youth are amazing with their creativity and energy!  I have gotten to know such great kids in this ward.  Really, some of them I have watched grow up over the years.

Grabbed a few photos of some activities lately.  We did a photo shoot one night in the Relief Society Room.  The girls did each others hair and makeup and then posed for photos.  They really liked it.  I am so used to doing photo shoots constantly with my kids that I forget that everyone is not obsessed with taking photos like me.

Then on the night of  St. Patrick’s we had a “So You Think You Can Dance” contest with all the young men and women.  I can’t believe how confident and fun these kids are.  They had no shyness about dancing around the gym.  Ethan Guinn did a wonderful Thriller, complete with green afro wig. Everyone was involved and worked together.  It was crazy, loud, silly and fun.

Fun Book Club Night

March was my month to host book club.  I picked a great fantasy novel called Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.  I don’t read fantasy very much.  (I’ve survived never reading Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.)  I just don’t get it – please give me real life and a happy ending.  But this is a good one and it fits into the category of “historical fantasy.”  Loved it.  Another treat about preparing for book club is researching the author.  Why don’t I do this with every book I read?  I gain so much more appreciation for the book by learning about who wrote it and why and with Google it only takes a few clicks to get tons of info. 

The book retells the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the 6 swans.  (And there is a little romance that involves apples) so in keeping with the themes of the book, I served apples and I had Mike cut a swan out of an apple.  Pretty good for a Marine.  Getting in touch with his former college work in catering.  Oh and I made some killer apple bread – I’ll save that for another post.  But it tastes like friendship bread without the 10 days of growing the starter!   Can I just say how much I love my book group.  Always having a book to read, looking forward to talking about it.  We have been meeting since 2002 and have read 85 books together!  Diane keeps our blog updated so if you ever need a great idea for a book to read check out what we’re reading here.