This Little Girl of Mine

Today is Lily's Birthday! We have done many fun things today and many more things to come and I'll have pictures up on another day. I wanted to share pictures of Lily every year on her birthday (which are posted above) and pictures of her that I took today in our apartment complex (which are below). I can't believe how big she has gotten and how much she has changed. But, I'll talk more about that in another post. Because today is her day. My Lily Ava. One of my best friends. I look forward to seeing her everyday when I wake up. She's such a joy to have and I'm so happy that Heavenly Father knew better than me and gave me such a soul to watch over.

Happy Birthday Lily.
You are much loved.

PS. The picture on the left is where I reminded her that it was her birthday. She's been SO excited.

My New Pillow

I heart my new throw pillow!
I also heart Target... because they have awesome pillows.

Annual Easter/Temple Pictures

Yesterday, I got the kids dressed and we headed out to the Jordan River Temple to take our Easter pictures like last year (which you can see here). Of course, there are only a few that I actually like or could do something with, but I think that these turned out nicely. All three of us had a lot of fun walking around the temple. When we reached the car, Lily asked if we could go to the square temple aka the Oquirrh Mt. Temple. Since it's not even 10 minutes away from the Jordan River Temple and it's my kid's favorite, I took them. William and Lily were done taking pictures, so I shot some pictures of the building.
We're very excited for Easter to come and William and Lily were excited to wear their new clothes. Especially William who now has 4 ties, just like he's almost 4. Of course, Lily was excited simply because she got to wear a pretty dress.

Singing Songs

I've always encouraged my kids to sing. I remember always being so embarrassed as a kid to sing out loud, hence the sitting in the bathroom for hours on end singing at the top of my lungs. I didn't think anyone could hear me. If only bathroom walls were sound proof.

Well, with William starting Primary this past January, he's learning lots of new songs that I remember learning and we sing them together a lot. So much that even Lily has picked them up and sing with us. After William's first or second Sunday in Primary, he told me he had a new favorite Primary song. "Hello." So, I decided, belatedly, that I would record him singing this song. Will didn't want to sing it by himself - which, really, without direction, it would have only been the same line over and over and over again until he decided to stop - and I was happy to sing with him. The end to his video is nothing but typical of him.

We looked at Will's video when we finished recording and Lily decided she wanted to sing a song and record it. She chose "Jingle Bells." Leave it to Lily to take charge and belt it out and get as close to the camera as possible. Although, this way SHE didn't have the direction, so you would have been serenaded by Jingle Bells until the Second Coming if I hadn't cut her off. The end to her video is nothing but typical of her.

Enjoy the music.

Like Fame

Last week when we took the kids to Temple Square, William and I were walking back to the car hand in hand while Lily was on Matthew's shoulders. Will's really been into his birthday and different themes for the occasion. So while we were walking, he was telling me the different kinds of birthday parties he wants throughout his life. He went through the list almost without taking a breath. Golf. Wall-E. Thomas. Tom and Jerry. Dinosaur. And then, he just started saying things that he saw and said he wanted that kind of birthday. Temple. Window. Grass. Tree. Car. You get the picture. Finally, after his long list, he tells me, "I'm going to have lots of birthdays." To which I replied, "Yes you are. You will have a birthday every year until you die." He walked in silence for a second and then said, "But, mom, I'm not going to die." "What is he, Fame?" I thought. I chuckled a little at my cleverness and then, got serious and had a VERY short conversation with my invinsible son about death. Which, let's be honest, sounds a little morbid, but what can you do? It's unavoidable.

Santa's Hat

Lily is one of the funniest, one of the most spunkiest, yet shy girls you will ever meet. So, when we have a conversation like the one I'm about to share with you, you would think that I wouldn't be so surprised, right?
Wrong.
I couldn't help but laugh so hard and quote her for the rest of the day!!

Let me set it up for you. Lily has this hat that went with a Christmas dress we got from Carrie. As Lily loves hats, we held onto this one hat even though we've given the too small dress away. It's in her dress-up box and she pulls it out from time to time to wear it. Yesterday was such an occasion. She came out of her room wearing the hat.

Lily: Mom, look at my hat!

Me: Oh, Lily, it looks wonderful!

Lily: I know. It looks like Santa's hat.

Me: It sure does, huh?

Lily: Yep. And he's like (In a deeper voice, imitating Santa) "Hey, it's my hat!"

I could NOT help but laugh!! She made the face again that she used while saying that so I could take her picture.
That girl... she's a funny one.

You Could Always Go Downtown

The weather was so nice here yesterday, that Matthew and I decided to take the kids downtown to temple square. We saw the temple, of course - which William has now said that one of his birthdays will have a temple theme - and we saw the Christus and then we went across the walk way to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the Family History Center, the Joseph Smith statue, and to look out over the temple. I think that was William and Lily's favorite part. Here are some pictures from our adventure downtown. I was SO excited to see little flowers starting to bloom over by the Conference Center!

Maybe Too Much Time

I am helping with a baby shower for one of my many sisters in law and I decided I wanted to display a picture of what their future/soon to be here little baby girl is going to look like. Welp, it was so hilarious, I couldn't help but see what my future children will look like, whenever that happens! I think it's funny that all of them have the same face, but they're doing different things, like wearing a pirate hat (Halloween?), wearing a bunny suit (crazy Easter?), or listening to earphones with hands that are bigger than his face. Yep, sorry next child, evidently, this is what you're going to look like.
Pictures courtesy of: Makemebabies.com

The Other Woman

For a while now, Matthew and his brother, Josh, have been playing ping pong on my kitchen table. Did I like that? no. Did I think it was a little stupid? YES. But, I let it happen because, honestly, it didn't matter too much.
Yesterday, Josh purchased a real life ping pong table. After about four hours of putting this table together, Matthew calls me at 10 last night to see if he could bring the kids home, help put them to bed, and go back to play ping pong.
After doing these things, he didn't get home until almost midnight.
Well, what a relief that they will no longer be playing on my kitchen table. No more hearing the guys argue back and forth at who's winning or who's point that was. Did it hit the net? Did it miss the table? No more worrying if the neighbors are annoyed with the clink clink, clank clank of the little purple ball that they play with. No more being annoyed by it myself.
Now, I have found myself wondering if this will become a love affair between my talented-at-ping-pong husband and this ping pong table. Of course, since I have brought this up to Matthew, he has denied that this will happen and is boycotting going over to his parents house to visit the table. Tonight, anyway.
Typical.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Have a Slice, Candace

Humble Pie: Have a Slice, Candace.


So, backtracking to my meltdown about two posts ago.... I'm okay.

Sometimes it is so hard to not look past what you're going through. At least, that's how I am when the burden feels too heavy. But, Heavenly Father never fails to dish me out a nice slice of humble pie every time I get like that. I'm grateful he does. It's not spiteful, just a reminder that He sees the bigger picture. Although things don't always go as I want them to, He knows what's best for me. As long as I'm doing my part, I need to have faith that He will take care of me.