March 2024

March started out with a lovely activity with my sisters. We made purses from some of my mom's iconic dresses from the 80s. We didn't want to just donate them--they wouldn't mean anything to anyone at DI. Kayla came up with the best idea of how to preserve them. The dress fabric was just glued onto the forms. They turned out so cool. Now I just need somewhere to go to take it. 

Miriam has gotten creative with her after school snacks. There are toaster oven tortillas, and eggs with a cool design. She is so creative, that girl. Another day is was quesadillas but rolled up and fried in oil. Shocker, it's more yummy that way. 

I had my own little baking adventure. I tried to bake bread in my silicone baking pans. They are smaller though, and it was a bit of a disaster. The bread dough rose too much for the pans. The pans fell btween the racks, and the bread managed to burn. Yikes! 

One day John and I went to the temple. We decided to do something to make it more fun to go to the temple. (Maybe we shouldn't need to do this?) We went to get cheesecake afterwards. It was delicious and so fun to just quickly get some before heading home. The temple experience was wonderful too. I loved looking for how God views me in the words of the initiatory ordinance words. Just a week later we went to the new Orem temple to do baptisms with the girls. The girls are so tiny in the font. We had to get ice cream and hit Trader Joes on the way home. Our niece Marie babysat Darcy and Holland, and now they are pretty big Marie fans. 

One day it started snowing (that hasn't happened very often this winter. Darcy worked so hard to get herself all dressed to go play in the snow. I think she put on three hats, plus earmuffs. She also got on long socks, snowsuit, gloves, and boots. What a cutie! 

Another cute moment with Darcy was when she fell asleep on me in Sacrament Meeting. She had bonked her face, got a fat lip, and then cuddled in for comfort. After all of that she fell asleep. Later I asked her when did she take a nap on me. "When I got drowsy."  

A few other cute phrases from Darcy, "I love my Daddy and tha's why I love you too." "We kissed at the same time." (This is when we kiss on the lips.) "Dad is the sweetest word." "Dads can eat up to 4 bags a day." (Corn chip bags.) 

"We play games every day even though sometimes I don't want to." 

"Well, 'ellow is my favorite color of water." (Yellow)

"Well, we should have known what we do." 

Darcy often asks me to cuddle with her in the middle of the morning. It is super sweet, but it is practically asking me to take a nap. There is no way this 37 year old isn't going to doze off cuddling that sweet 3 year old in the middle of the morning in her warm bed. 

One conversation at church: Kylee asked Darcy, "Do you know what this is?" Darcy replied, "An underwater creature." Kylee clarifies, "It is actually called a walrus." Darcy follows with, "I already knew that." 

Darcy told me one day, "Daddy would think you're pretty if you wear lipstick...and a crown, and makeup, and a dress." 

One day when it was snowing, Darcy asked me, "Do we need to get out the kitty glitter?" She was talking about the kitty litter that we use on our driveway to add traction when it is icy. 

One fun thing in March was when Eliza and Miriam had a combined choir concert. They were so cute together up on stage. They did their festival songs. 

One Friday after a particularly academically heavy week, I checked Eliza out early from school, and we went to get kolaches. We each got two flavors (Italian, Ranchero, Sausage and Gravy, Jalapeno). We also got Darcy a raspberry cream. We pulled out the china, and had tea with cream and sugar. After our yummy brunch, we settled in for a late morning nap. It was such a perfect morning. That evening Holland and I went on a Mommy/Daughter date and ended up clothes shopping at Ross. She had me try on a couple of fancy evening gowns that didn't quite work for me. Holland took her task of picking out a couple of new items very seriously, and it was a real effort to narrow down her selections. Eventually she ended up choosing a couple of cute shirts. 

Gorgeous amaryllis bloom. 

I love making bows.

Spotted some deer at MCO rehearsal. 

Fried roll-up quesadillas

Combined choir concert

So fancy, especially the swim cap. 

Checking out Ellie from school early one Friday was so fun. She is such a good student, or I wouldn't have done it. 

We had the best musical number in church. It is awesome to have a folk music professor in the ward. I have never heard an accordion in Sacrament Meeting before, but it just blew everyone away.  

I had a fun bookclub meeting in March with the women in our neighborhood. It was fun to get together and chat. I like how it makes me feel apart of the community. 

I also got together with some women from our Arizona ward who have all moved to Utah. We met at a darling diner in Bountiful, and the time just flew while we were chatting. It was awesome how natural it was to be together and catch up. Darcy and Brielle did so well while all of the mamas were just talking and talking. 

Something Darcy has been doing a lot lately is to wrap the towel around herself after a bath and say she is a beautiful lady. Her perceptions are so funny. 

Like this one: she told me one day "I don't talk very much because you think it is annoying." Both of those things aren't true!!

Another funny church moment with Darcy. We were just walking into church and Darcy practically yelled to Sarah Reimschussel who normally sits in front of us. "Sarah, I have to tell you something! I put my Daddy in time out!" Sarah replied, "Oh what did he do?" Darcy gleefully exclaimed, "He fluffied in my face!" Sarah and her whole family laughed, and John denied everything. It was from a Bluey episode, and so funny she whipped that out at church. That is not even the word we use to describe passing gas. 

We hosted our annual Pi day celebration a couple of days late. It was delicious and fun. I am glad that we have easy ways to get together with family. 

We have been trying to do some serious adulting recently and figure how to do our money better. In retrospect, it is embarrassing that we haven't been taking advantage of CDs and other things with our money, but hopefully we can do better in the future. The girls wanted to make some money on their savings (and take advantage of the high interest rates right now) so we combined their money into a CD. I don't know that they will make all that much money, but it is better than depreciating in their bank accounts. 

This pink french toast went over so well with Darcy. She loved it!

Our poor nectarine tree has some borer damage. I wonder how long it will last. 

Giant sandcastle one day!

Easter decorations started going up. 

One weekend in March was a four day weekend because of the end of the school quarter. We celebrated by going to the dinosaur museum. It was a good time. I love to see Darcy and Holland play so well. I feel like seeing Miriam and Eliza get along well is a given, but I shouldn't take it for granted. I am so grateful that my girls have each other. 

I had to laugh at dinner that night when Darcy told John, "You are my father, prepare to die." You can tell she has older sisters!

Miriam did science academy this year. It has been on Thursday afternoons, and has featured learning how to build and underwater robot. She and her team have been working hard on this for months, and it was finally time for the competition at the Lehi pool. I was so proud of her. Their team got the award the best poster out of dozens, which is awesome!
I volunteered at Miriam's school for Reality Town, which was fun, but chaotic. This is something that just 8th graders do. While the 8th graders were doing that the 7th graders went on job shadows. Miriam went with John and showed real interest in what he was doing. She told me she wants to buy him a sparkly unicorn poster for his cubicle. After the job shadow, she and I finished a Hallmark movie and played Rummikub. Later John and I played pickleball. I love playing that with him. 

Marriott-Slaterville City honored my mom for their Arbor Day Celebration this year. I went up to hear the town council confirm that. It made me think about her a lot. My dad, Darcy, and I went to Carl's Jr. afterwards. He was so sweet with Darcy. She loved every part of her meal: milk, chicken, french fries, and ketchup. 

One day, I was trying to get Darcy to eat some roasted veggies. She refused, and I tried to remind her how she kept snacking on them from the container before the food was ready. She replied, "That was only because they tasted good." 

Another time Darcy told Eliza, "I want some, can I have three halves?" Eliza replied, "That's not how fractions work." Darcy came back with, "But that's how I work!" 

Also, one day she took a hard look at her name, and decided it was wanting, "There should be an 's' in my name. See, Dar-see!" 

She also gives me good advice, "I don't want you to ignore your husband, you need to take care of them!" (Them??) 

At bath time Holland was watering Darcy to be a flower (a game I play with them sometimes.) Darcy said so matter of factly, "You are not supposed to water a person's eye!" Earlier at dinner time Darcy didn't want to say the prayer, "I always say the prayer. I said it yesterday at breakfast." 

Darcy also told me that she wasn't sure that she wanted to go on a mission because she would miss Holland. It was so sweet. 

Another sweet moment was with Miriam. She can be such a deep feeler. I really appreciate how much she shows her love and trust by listening to me. I eel so lucky to be her mom. We talked about choosing thoughts, connection, and how similar we are. We decided that we are going to do a connection journal together because sometimes we have a hard time connecting because we are so similar. 

Eliza had her swim banquet. She is such a superstar for sticking with that despite all of the early mornings. 

Holland gave me the sweetest note that she made at school. "I love you so much. You are amazing. You are very pretty." Ahhh. 

How can dinosaurs even be real? They are so big!

She wants to be like her big sisters!

First signs of spring!

One benefit of having so many different professors in the ward is that there are some awesome resources to tap. A ballroom dance professor lives in the ward, so one mutual activity was learning how to ballroom dance and then having the BYU ballroom dance team perform. 

Best poster!

Octo-pi. 

MCO practice in a building that looks so much like ours.

Wearing Daddy's undies as a sash. :) 

Darcy fell asleep in her high chair at dinner. We were talking about politics and paying for births and we looked over and her head was tilted back with her eyes closed. Even after we tried to rouse her a little, she just bent over and kept dosing. 

My mom's stunning amaryllis bloomed again. It made me miss her. 

Funny comments from Darcy: "Why do yo have a mole on your chin? Is it because you ate big balloons?" "Doing fluffy in your face means sneezing in your face?" "I see snow drops." (About the hail.) 

It's Spring but also it is hailing. 

She put on as many layers of pink as she could (more than you can see).