fingers and toes

malia loves to get her fingernails and toenails painted.

she says, "mah pretty" (me pretty) 

 

 

  

i love her stubby little toes, seriously they are my favorite ever.

oh she is fun!

sleeping

why are kids so cute when they are asleep?

especially when it is at an unexpected time and place.

love. love. love.

strawberry jam.

we made strawberry jam this week.

we haven't done that for about three years, since before we moved to New York. like always i had great little helpers. the older 3 were doing homework but were in and out of the kitchen eating strawberries. love freezer jam, it's so fast and easy. and now we can have it on homemade wheat toast in the mornings.  my favorite.

horsey rides

so funny how her hair was in her face
and she rode on like she didn't even notice.
she is a lucky little girl to have brothers that love her so much!

wheat

sometimes i feel like mother hen.

trying trying trying to get the kids to do their chores

and help and be nice to each other.

sunday we needed wheat rolls to go with dinner.

but we had used all the wheat flour.

so it turned into a longer project than i was wanting.

but i secretly love it.

and malia loves a good project to get in the middle of.

who will help me grind the wheat?

who will help me mix the dough?

who will help me shape it into bread and rolls?

malia will!

love my sweet little helper.

and, as always, it was worth the effort!

today.

when boys have sisters they get to play house 

and read stories to their babies.

when girls have brothers they become super heroes

and help save the world.

 

laundry baskets become boats.

and cars.

today they are little.

i am loving today.

girls.

this is exactly malia.

arms full of babies and princesses

wherever she goes.

i wish i could have a million girls!

general conference

on Saturday, April 6, 2013

we had the wonderful opportunity to go to

the afternoon session of General Conference.

Dave had a big upcoming test so he really needed 

the day to study, so i drove the 3 older kids to Salt Lake.  

We had such a good drive.  I really enjoyed talking to them all the way.

They are such great kids!

The Conference Center is amazing! 

It is gigantic. And full of the Spirit.  Loved it so very much.

So awesome watching all the General Authority seats fill up.

Especially when the dear Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson walked in.

Everyone stood.

It was a wonderful session, my heart was overflowing.

I enjoyed it more than anything, I think it is one of the top experiences of my life.

Loved sitting by my kids and watching them take notes.

It filled me with resolve to live and become better.

So thankful for the true gospel of Jesus Christ!

After it was over Kyler wanted a picture by this waterfall window.

He accidentally left his scriptures here.  We had a little faith-promoting experience getting them back. They had already done a sweep of the building and his scriptures had not been turned into Lost & Found. They wouldn't let us back in the building because the Priesthood session was filling up.

So we prayed.  And a sweet sister missionary went in and walked straight to them.

She was teary-eyed when she came out and made Kyler promise her 

that now he would serve a mission.  He promised.

We walked on Temple Square for only a minute because Porter was ready to hit the road!  We ran into a few boys I used to know back in my college days.  While Porter was whining.  Each of them told my kids that they had a great mom.  How was that!  It was awesome!  They needed to hear it!  :)

 

 I love the Salt Lake Temple so much.

As we were leaving Salt Lake we made a spur of the moment decision to turn south instead or north and make a quick visit to Provo. I hadn't been there since I left BYU in December 1998 to marry Dave. Oh it was fun to see everything again!  And we counted 10 temples we passed since that morning: Rexburg, Idaho Falls, Brigham City, Bountiful, Salt Lake, Oquirrh Mountain, Draper, Jordan River, Mt. Timpanogos, and Provo.  So awesome!

Showed my kids the Y and promised we'd come back to hike it one day.
I told them about how their Dad and I had hiked it in our dating days.
And how I had participated in a service project to paint the Y with
a big group and my roommates to dump big buckets of white paint on it.
And we walked around the Provo Temple for a minute.

 

It was so fun for me to see familiar places I loved there 15 years ago!

**Mr. Timpanogos, I climbed that with my family when I was younger and with Dave last summer. **The view of the Provo Valley from the Provo Temple. My roommates and I would go to baptisms for the Dead at the Provo Temple.  Dave came too a couple times and baptized us, it was neat to be able to be in the temple with him while we were dating.  **The MTC, I told the kids how angels are surrounding it protecting the missionaries. I also went a few times with my roommates as a volunteer for the missionaries to give practice discussions to. And where I went twice with each of my brothers as they left on their missions.  **The Marriot Center where we gathered weekly for devotionals, and firesides, and where I heard President Hinckley speak when he was the Prophet.  **Brigham Young Academy, where my great-grandma was one of the first women to attend college over 100 years ago. **Liberty Square, Virgina #6, my funnest college year EVER!  Oh the fun we had and what great memories I have of that place!

I had to show my kids the apartment at Stonebridge where I was living in when Dave and I were long-distance dating and he used to come to visit and kiss me goodnight on that very porch.

After our little tour down memory lane, the kids picked to eat dinner at IHOP, their favorite.  They were so happy about that. But the best ending to this marvelous day was our stop at Krispy Kreme.

It brought back memories too of all the times I had been there with Dave and my roommates.  And I had forgotten how they melt in your mouth!  And we bumped into one of my best friends, Kelsey, that i hadn't seen in forever!  She stopped by on her way from St. George to Logan.  What are the odds we would be there at the same moment?!!

We had a later start home than planned, Kyler and Lexi zonked, but cute Porter sat in the front seat and tried his hardest to stay awake and talk to me for the whole drive.  He promised Grandpa he would help keep me awake!  He finally konked out midsentence about 10 minutes from home.  Cutest boy.

So grateful for our wonderful General Conference day.

cuteness.

pure and simple. 

cutest 2 year old in my whole world!

air robinson

my boys are pretty good at basketball.

love watching them slam dunk!

this one is my favorite.  look at that air!

Kyler showing his skills.

my favorite of air kyler.

malia wanted to try and kyler is such a good brother to help her. air malia!

our life via instagram

instagram.

gosh it is fun.

malia learned how to curl her tongue in Walmart.

one day, on every errand, malia had to bring her purse 

and this big purple ball. 

 lexi's 4th grade class learned how to make bread.

it was yummy! talk about making learning fun!

meet the new President of his 3rd grade class.

he had to be nominated, campaign, and write and deliver a speech.

he was so nervous the night before he couldn't sleep.

but he won! happy day.

kyler playing his new tenor sax.

that boy is a musical genius.

he can play anything. 

watching the bread dough whirl.

she even tasted it. nope, not cookie dough!

ahhh.  love these moments!

if only they could happen more often. 

my treasure from my 4 year old. 

brothers don't play quite the same as sisters. 

it started lightly snowing one night.

this one was in heaven. 

we woke up to several inches.

so glad i have 3 boys that like to shovel.

helped me out immensely while dave was in NY. 

our favorite thing to do after church.

after dinner we get out that kitchenaid! 

3 monkeys helping make cinnamon rolls.

lexi and i had a mom-daughter date to sugar's jr. miss.

so fun to remember those good ole high school days.

twenty years ago i was in jr. miss.  twenty!

1993.  yikes i feel old.

a night at the park. 4 kids in the slide.

kyler was at scouts, at the park, so technically he was with us too!

the joy of childhood in one picture.