Girls night out

So the other night I needed to run to hobby lobby to pick something up and Aliza wanted to go "shopping" with mom. After we walked around hobby lobby we went over to JC Penney and as soon as we walked by the little girl clothes Aliza started going crazy! (Now for those of you who don't know Aliza loves to shop. From before she was 3 she would say she wanted to go shopping at Kohls.) She went right to the dresses asking to try them all on, then she moved to shorts, shirts, skirts, you get the idea. By the time we headed to the dressing room we had quite the stack of clothes to try on!

Once we were in the dressing room she was hilarious. She did not want to see herself in the mirror until the outfit was completely on. Then she would stand in front of the mirror and I would ask her what she thought and she would sway from side to side and then after a second declare "It looks cute". Then she would do a little spin or dance in the mirror, it was so funny she did it for every outfit! So anyway we did end up buying several summer outfits for her that night, her favorite were the pink tank top and the pink halter top dress - I hope this does not mean trouble in the future! The next day I took these pictures of her in the outfits (ignore the messy hair) notice her "pose" in each picture she again did this all on her own, she feels the need to pose for every picture and then she must approve the picture, or tell me " that one was bad, let's do it again". Oh my gosh she is so stinking cute!

Since I want to make this sort of like a family journal that I can keep I will share something Aliza said to me a couple of weeks ago that was so precious. I was doing her hair and she said to me "mom we lived with Heavenly Father before we lived on earth". I agreed with her and she continued, "then it was your turn to go to earth and I had to stay up there and I was sad, but Jesus stayed with me and took care of me until he told me it was my turn". I almost started crying right there. I could not believe what she had just said, this was not something we had ever talked about in family home evening or anything. Aliza has such a sweet spirit, and has said numerous things that make me think she has a very special relationship with Jesus Christ, and it will be interesting to see what life has in store for my sweet Aliza.

Lilly at 11 months

Wow, it's hard to believe but Lilly Kate is already 11 months old! It seems like just yesterday that she was born. So I thought I would post some pictures of her for those of you who don't get to see her very often. She can stand up as she is so proudly displaying in this picture.

She will walk behind a toy, or if you hold her hands but she has yet to take that first step on her own. As long as I am sitting by her she is a happy baby, but if I leave - it's all down hill from there. Hopefully she will grow out of that very soon! Ben and Aliza love her so much, they are always trying to make her laugh and get very excited with every new thing that she does.

She is usually a quiet baby, but has finally started making sounds. She says goo goo, gaga, mama, baba, and dada. Aliza is always in her face saying, "say goo goo gagga" and most of the time Lilly will do it. She is a sweet girl and I love her so much. I put her on the scale the other day and she weighed just under 20 pounds, she is still the smallest baby I have had. Actually she is pretty petite. Most of the babies that were born after her are already longer than her by a couple of inches. Stay tuned next month for pictures of her 1st birthday!

Just a little change

So after much thinking and debating with myself I decided it was time for a change! So a few days ago I went and had my hair cut and highlighted. I did not tell many people because I did not want anyone to talk me out of doing it (which has happened before - Jennifer). Anyway, I am really happy with the result, it takes much less time now and it is nice having some highlights again, I haven't done that since we moved to Texas! By the way it will be 3 years this week since we moved here, I can't believe how fast time goes. Sometimes I really want to move back to California, it can be lonely here and I really miss my family and seeing my kids grow up with their cousins. Oh well I know the Lord has us here for a reason, and Texas has been good to us so far! So here are the pictures of my new short hair, yeah!

Sundays

Oh sure they may look cute, but on Sunday's they turn into monsters! We don't have church until 1:30, I know some of you are saying that's great you get to sleep in. If you are saying that you probably don't have young kids! So the day begins at 7:15 with everyone waking up and the drama begins immediately. How many times do I really have to explain to my son that we don't play video games on Sunday? Or that going out and riding bikes is also not a Sunday activity. We make it thru the morning and start getting ready for church. Aliza comes out with her fancy dress and pink cowboy boots on announcing she is ready to go. Of course she is not at all happy when I send her back to her room for new shoes, and we won't even get started on getting her hair done! We leave for church at 1:00 - just about the time Lilly should be going down for her nap. Ah sacrament meeting starts, the kids have their Sunday bags and activities, they should be content right? WRONG! I am sure this comes as no to surprise to anyone with children, but I swear I think we are the loudest pew in the chapel! Inevitably I or Don spend sacrament meeting in the foyer. Finally primary rolls around and we can send them off to class, this used to be a time to enjoy our classes, but alas Lilly is at that age where all she does is wiggle so we spend the remainder of church in the foyer as well. Then it's time to head home, everyone is hungry so I usually have a crock pot dinner ready to go - of course the kids don't like what ever it is so of course the fighting continues. The one good thing about late church is by the time we eat dinner and have a quick family home evening it is time for bed yahoo! I really love my kids even if Sunday is our worst day, they always make me laugh and brighten my day!

Time out for women

This weekend I went with a few ladies from our ward to Time out for women. It was in Oklahoma City. I had never been before so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited if nothing else it was a break from home! Don was so happy to have the weekend alone with the kids :) Summer (my bff) drove up with me. On a side note summer almost ruined the entire weekend! She was in the hospital all day Tuesday and still felt horrible on Wed. Her husband even called me wed afternoon to say she wasn't going to make it. I was really bummed, however I had FAITH! and prayed for her miraculous recovery and it worked, she was able to make the trip and we were both really excited.

We had a great time. Some of my favorite presenters were Mercy River, Dean Hughes, Michael McLean, Kim Nelson, Hillary Weeks, and Jason Wright. I actually bought a book by Jason Wright called Wednesday's Letters (I had him autograph it as well). I hear the book is great and I am looking forward to reading it! Overall it was a super fun time and I hope to do it again next year.

New Blogger

So my friend Summer finally talked me into starting a blog. She told me that it was the cool and hip thing to do, and that I was so last year if I didn't start one. Well I can't let that happen now can I! Actually I think it will be pretty cool, it will be a type of journal and I can record everything that the family has been up to, and at the end of the year I can have it bound into a book. How cool is that. I was promised that it would be so easy to set up this blog - not true! Trying to format everything to the way I want it is a pain! It will have to be a work in progress.