Family Pictures

I realized that it had been nearly a year since we last got family pictures taken. That is way too long in Eliza's little life and our old ones were horribly out of date. So, we contacted Lisa & Tyler, I made the skirts, and Lisa took these of us on Saturday.

I ended up hanging this one over our mantel!

I really thought about putting this one over the mantel, but it ended up on the kitchen magnet board because I liked our faces bigger on the picture that was further away.

I love this one that shows our garden this year. I put it downstairs in a family collage.

I was super glad to get ones of both Jason and I with the kids.

I put this adorable picture of the girls in each of their rooms!

Didn't Lisa do an amazing job?! I mean seriously, we had a 4 yr old, and a not quite 2 yr old and we got this many amazing shots. The pictures are beautiful; she was great with the kids; and she was totally reasonably priced. Yep, I'm afraid she's stuck photographing our family regularly! Thanks again, Lisa!

Swim Lessons

We started swimming lessons last week. The night before we went, I dreamed that we had to go swimming in the snow. It actually was cold the first day (63 degrees when we went swimming) but was warmer every other day.

Jason indulged me and came the first day of lessons. I was nervous about handling all three by myself - particularly in the cold. He was a lifesaver! And, he got what will probably be the only pictures of swimming this year, as I am in the water with Eliza.

Laura is doing great so far. She has a boy teacher who is - well, a boy and not so sympathetic to my timid girl. He is pushing her to learn quickly, and she is. She is swimming on her own, diving, and even doing the breaststroke!

Sara continues to be a little fish and adores swimming lessons. She is learning all her floats and kicking beautifully. That girl is fearless in the water.

Despite being the world's clingiest human the first day, Eliza is now doing amazing. Can I say that I'm shocked?! She will float on her belly (with my support) with her arms out, and kick her legs. Sometimes she will even move her arms as we go around the lazy river. I hold her way out from my body now and she is confident. We love the special time playing together. Every day, multiple times a day Eliza will say "Mommy, bass...big bass, mommy." Then she'll run for her shoes.

Swimming did not seem to be the best idea for me, the histamine bomb who happens to be allergic to chlorine. But, for Eliza's complete and utter joy, I'm sucking it up. The time with her is so fun and absolutely priceless!

Facelift

So, after 5 years and 672 posts, I decided it was time to give the blog a facelift. I think it reflects the fun of our family a little bit better. So, click out of "Reader", come take a look at the actual blog, and tell me what you think!

Sewing Skirts

I have had the most horrible time finding skirts for my girls. They are just too short/sheer/immodest for my taste. Oh, and I've had a rough time finding coordinating outfits for all 3 girls now that they are such a range of sizes. So, I decided I better start sewing.

I used this pattern, and with some help from a really good seamstress in my ward as well as extra help from Deb, and better tutorial advise from JK Made, I succeeded. Then I got fast - because I knew what I was doing and Jason surprised me with a serger! So I made a few more. It was also a great way to distract myself from the histamine induced stupor of pain I'm living in right now.

The girls will be wearing their coordinating skirts in our family pictures that we are having taken on Saturday. I made the two skirts pictured above from fabric that the girls picked on their own at Hobby Lobby. Don't these fabrics just reflect each of them?!

Friends!

Some of our best friends have just moved back to our valley. We have been having the greatest time with them!

The other day, we went bowling! All the kids loved it. Kids loving bowling makes it much more fun for the parents too!
We've also played at each other's houses and visited the horses (particularly the new baby horse) by our home.It is such a blessing to have one of my best friends married to a man that my husband would be friends with independent of our relationship. A bigger bonus is that my kids love their kids. Any time the door rings now, Eliza asks me if it is her friend "Lolly?"

Father's Day 2011

It takes a pretty special guy to be the father of 3 girls. Jason is the most amazing Daddy, ever! So, when Father's Day rolled around, we girls were excited to make the day extra special for him.

After sleeping in, the girls gave him presents (shoes, shirt, and flashlights) and homemade cards. They just couldn't wait for the spoiling to begin.

I think his favorite spoiling was all the amazing snuggles from the girls that he received all day long. As he said, "I have a rough life." Don't you just see it?!We invited his parents over to dinner to celebrate Father's Day with us. (We celebrated with my folks a few days previously b/c they were out of town on the exact day.) The girls noticed that I hadn't decorated for the occasion, so they requested I fix that problem. Bless the internet. I was able to have decorations in perfect Jason style (He has always ADORED Superman. Plus, I think he rather looks like Clark Kent.) up and ready in no time. The girls were awesome decorating helpers.Jason selected the menu for dinner and he picked a winner. We did salmon, krab salad, asparagus with hollandaise, bread and couscous (brought by Mom B) and ice cream for dessert. YUM-O!We loved being able to have a good excuse to get together. And, one more time, thank you so much for being such an amazing daddy to our girls, Jason!

Sara at 4 Years Old

Time for the yearly snapshot post on Sara! Oh, and we went to the doctor and here are her vital stats -

Weight: 41.8 lbs (90th percentile)

Height: 43 inches (97th percentile - can you believe she is finally on the charts for height?!)

Favorite Color: light purple and dark purple
Best Friend: Lily, Clara, Keira, Creed, Sophie
Favorite toy: Coloring, computer games, purses, pandas, baby Ariel doll
Favorite place to be: Disneyland and Cabin
Favorite movie: Cinderella, Beezus and Ramona
Favorite book: Big Wide Mouth Frog, Pinkalicious series
Favorite food: Salmon, bacon, rice, apples
Favorite treat: mint chocolate cookie ice cream, cupcakes
Favorite activity: play with Eliza, jump on tramp, play school with Laura and friends, do hairdos, ride scooter, take baths
Favorite TV show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

She really has turned into a new kid since her surgery. She is generally happy, easygoing and FUNNY! Sara loves to sing and dance all around the house. Her spontaneous hugs, kisses and "I love yous" make her one of the most endearing kids around. Oh, and she's obsessed with knock knock jokes.

Laura's Piano Recital: Spring 2011

Laura had her spring piano recital the same day as Sara's birthday party. She has now been taking piano a year and 4 months. Piano is still one of her favorite things. I never need to nag her to practice and therefore, she has progressed at an amazing rate. Oh, and have I mentioned that when she plays, she does it with feeling, pizzazz, movement, and usually singing?!

She played the songs:The Juggler, I've Got Music, and I'm Trying to be Like Jesus. She literally brought the house down when she played and sang I've Got Music. We received many compliments on her playing! Yep, we left with big heads and bigger grins.

She was fortunate to have lots of support at her concert: our little family, both sets of Grandparents, and even Creed.

Paint Party!

Sara's paint party went beautifully! We called it a family party (the children of friends you've known longer than you haven't known them count as family, right?!), had parents over and kept it pretty small.

The party began by creating aprons with these markers and these crayons. We stuck them in the dryer for 30 minutes when the kids were done with their creations to set the drawings. It was during this time that the kids made and "ate" their pita pizzas.

Once the kids were done eating, they donned their aprons and went outside to get messy. We began with sidewalk chalk and gave each kid a square on the downstairs porch to color.

Then we moved on to what the kids thought was the best part of the party. We painted the "longest painting in the world." We used fingers, foam stampers, brushes and lots of washable paint!

Despite all the paper, some could just not confine their creativity to paper. Have I mentioned that everything we bought was washable?! Thank heavens it was. These kids required some serious hosing off...fortunately it was a warm day.

Sara opened her presents next and loved everything she was given. Then we moved on to "painting" cupcakes. The cupcakes were initially frosted in only white and then we passed out sparkle gel frostings and lots of sprinkles.

The party was so great that Sara just collapsed when it was all done. Yep, she fell down on the couch and went to sleep in order to recover. Being 4 and hosting a paint party are seriously exhausting!

Paint Party Preparations

Sara has been asking for a "paint party" for her birthday for nearly a year. So, I was able to prepare early - and she helped me every step of the way. She helped me design her invitation and hand them out to her friends. I thought it would be fun for the kids to be able to color their own invitations to really get them in the mood for the theme of the party.

She helped me go shopping for all of the supplies for the party - which we naturally did weeks in advance in case we had to order anything online. (We didn't have to order thanks to Hobby Lobby.) The day before her party she helped me find, select, and apply all the stickers for the paint (goodie) buckets.
That's mostly where her help ended. The night before the party Jason helped me personalize the aprons for the kids. Thanks to the cricut (which made me individualized stencils) and crayola fabric markers, the process was pretty easy. I loved how they turned out!
The food preparations weren't too bad either. I thought it would be fun if the kids could create their own pita pizzas; and I thought the adults would enjoy them too. With a lot of help from Costco and the grocery store those were easy. We cooked the pizzas at 450 degrees for 5 minutes, if you want to try this at home.
Cutting the fruit was probably the worst part of all the prep. Sara requested watermelon (and that is mostly what she ate) so we had to oblige and Jason was a good sport to cut it all for her. As for drinks, we had a large selection of sodas, chocolate milk and Capri Suns. I also made sour cream chocolate cupcakes at the request of the birthday girl.
To see more about the paint party and another version click HERE and HERE.