Silly Lily

Happy Birthday to my sweet, hilarious, spunky, lovable little girl!

We love Lily to pieces and can't imagine what life would be like without her. I can't believe how time has flown by SO fast!

Today, her requests are to go to the toy store and look around (she's hoping we'll get her the Rapunzel dress...) and we are going to McDonald's for dinner! And then we will party hard tomorrow night!

Elder Townsend #5

Missions are bittersweet. No, I take that back. Having a missionary leave is bittersweet. Today, we sent Josh to the MTC where he will be for a while. Procedures have changed at the MTC so the majority of the family said goodbye at the house. All of the Townsend brothers and Brittany, Denise, and Darrell all piled in the Tahoe and went to Provo to drop him off. Josh will be serving in the Mexico, Mexico City Mission, so he will be learning Spanish while in the MTC.

This week has been a SUPER busy week for us. We've had something big everyday. So honestly, it didn't really hit me that Josh was leaving until last night when he was being set apart as a missionary.

Josh is an amazing man! I've known him since he was 13. It's incredible how fast people grow and change. I'm so excited for Josh to serve Heavenly Father and to have experiences that will build him up. It's definitely difficult to say goodbye to someone you love and won't see for two years, but I know that Josh is supposed to go. He's doing exactly what the Lord wants for him. Who wouldn't be proud of someone who's doing that?? I can't type too much more about him because I am starting to get teary eyed just looking at these pictures. But, I will say that Mexico is SOO lucky to be getting Elder Townsend for two years.

Good Luck Joshy!

We love you and are Very proud of this decision you have made!

New Tie

I was so excited for William to wear his super cool new tie to church yesterday! Why? Because I made it! Can you believe that? I've been wanting to make a tie for the longest time. I actually found a pattern and started to make one. However, I got stuck and waited until my mom got out here to help me with a part I didn't know how to do. No worries, now I'm a pro at it! I'm so happy with the way it turned out and William is happy that I actually made him something with my cool new sewing machine (his words exactly).

In the mean time, we have a little girl in our house who is pretty excited about an upcoming birthday.

Birthday Week begins for Lily!

Her tongue looks ginormous.

Megamind

I think this is a sign that we've watched Megamind too many times.

So glad I caught this gem.

Lily's Birthday: Banner

I'm making a banner for Lily's birthday just like the Lost Princess in Tangled. I don't know who is loving this Tangled theme more, me or Lily. Actually, I'm pretty positive that I'm loving it more. This is just the beginning stages of the banner, but I LOVE it! It's been so much fun putting this together. I'm grateful that I have a sewing machine now.

Which reminds me, I don't think I gave a proper announcement that I now have a sewing machine!

It was a Christmas gift from Matthew and his parents. It was a complete surprise and I've loved having it. I'll have sewing projects that I've done posted soon.

Lily's birthday and party are next week!!

Nothing to Show for It

My parents, my sister Jamie, and my niece Katie all came to Utah and stayed last week. I don't have ONE picture from the whole week! So, I decided to put up a picture of my kids.

Yep, that's them.

We were really excited to have grandma and grandpa come and stay with us. They LOVED having Aunt Jamie and Katie come. And of course, William was excited to play Mario Brothers with Katie.

We did a lot while the fam was here. We introduced Jamie and Katie to Cafe Rio. We went to the mall a couple of times and went to Provo to see Hannah and where she lives. We also went to see Tangled at the dollar theater.

It was a great week that flew by too fast. We're excited to see them again soon!

Lily's Hopeful Birthday Peek

Lily has decided to have a Tangled Birthday Party. Haven't seen the movie? Click here to see a sneak peek to what I hope we will be able to pull off - not so many though!

Matthew Jr.

Today is Josh's last day at his job at Kneader's Bakery. To celebrate this, a lot of the Townsend crew went there for dinner last night to partake of the awesome discount. (Thank you Joshua.) Afterwards, me and the kids went over to the Townsend's house because we haven't visited over there in a while. I went through a stack of pictures and found this adorable one.

These are Denise's parents, Matthew, and his brother Jacob. I thought that this picture was amazingly sweet because Matthew's grandfather died when he was younger. Matthew is sitting in his grandfather's lap. The more that I looked at this photo, however, I realized something.

I mean, I've always known that Matthew and Lily looked quite a bit alike, but I always thought she looked JUST LIKE his sister Becky. Nope, Lily is an exact replica of Matthew when he was younger. Go ahead and look again at the resemblance... I can't stop!

Once There Was A Snowman

A couple of days ago it did this:

So, we did this!:

It was SO much fun to go outside with the kids and build a snowman. I can't tell you how much I needed something like this yesterday. We may need to do something like this more often! It was hilarious to see the kids color the snowman with colored water. At first, we thought we were doing a pretty great job, but then... it just turned out to be one funny looking man of snow.

Dream On

I never thought the Murano could be any cooler than it already was.

I was very wrong. I'm totally drooling over this beauty.

And... Shocking for this to be coming out of my mouth, but the new Quest is pretty awesome too.

Bare or Bear?

Something that you should know about Lily is that she is STUBBORN.

That girl doesn't want to do anything unless it was her idea. The only way that I can get her to do anything is to give her an ultimatum.

Yeah, most of the ultimatums aren't really anything that would happen. Example: Lily, you can either get your clothes on and come with us, or you can not get your clothes on and people will see you in your underwear.

But, it works.

A little bit ago, we had an ultimatum experience.

I needed to leave and Lily didn't want to get her shoes and socks on.

Me: Lily, you can either get your shoes and socks on and come with us and have nice warm feet, OR you can NOT get your shoes and socks on and walk out in the cold in your bare feet.

Lily looked at her bare feet confused, then up at me like I was the DUMBEST person she has ever seen.

Lily: Um, mom.... I don't have bear feet.

Lily (pointing at her feet): Mom, these are not bear feet.


I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. We have tried and tried to explain the difference to this little girl, but she just can't process it yet. William, on the other hand, thinks it's hilarious to say "Bear Bottom".

What have I created?