Visitors and V Day!

Out of the blue my sister texted me and said that they wanted to come visit us over President's Day weekend. What an awesome surprise! Of course we were thrilled!

I am embarrassed that we didn't take more photos of when they were here. We mostly hung out at our house. We also went swimming, to the Orange Patch, and we watched their kids while they went to my dad's show. These pictures are of that time while we played at a nearby park. The kids played so nicely at this park! No fighting at all. It was great! The following day was Sunday (also Valentine's day) and we had heart pancakes, went to church, and made necklaces. We had their girls sleep over on Saturday. It was so fun! Although, quite short!

It made quite an impression on my girls. The other day for preschool Miriam had to write about who she admired most. She started to write Mommy because she teaches my things. But she was definitely considering Aunt Kayla or maybe James (her oldest daughter).

On a separate occasion, Eliza had to write her favorite vacation and she asked me if she could write about when Aunt Kayla came. Sure, honey. She *loved* making necklaces with her necklace making kit. (I did too! I am seriously considering getting some tools so I can make real jewelry!)

Haha! My girls still can fit in the same swing!

I loved catching this moment when John and Eliza were just off talking the two of them. It makes my heart melt.

My girls and I are lucky to have such a wonderful Valentine! He got us all presents...whew the work is cut out for him with four important girls in his life! I got a game and the older kids got a special treat. Holland got extra loves. Oh we just love you John! Thank you for being the best husband and father in the world! Even Holland thinks so!

Elizas First Date

Eliza's school has this fun activity in February of doing a father-daughter dance.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful father for my daughters. John was happy to take her to the dance.

They had a yummy catered pizza dinner, delicious treats (including a chocolate fountain and a cotton candy machine), and a gift bag for the girls. There was dancing, a photo booth, and games. I wish I could have gone too, but I am glad they had a chance to do a fun one-on-one activity. Eliza seemed to be the most excited about the two things of cotton candy she ate.

Purple daisies for the girl who is all about purple these days.

Eliza was thrilled to be with her best friend Ava. Apparently, she ignored John about 1/3 of the time to play with Ava. So it could be worse.

Miriam and I had a fun dinner at home and then watched Sofia the First, so pretty good. Always love Sofia.

Sweet smiles, learning to crawl, and blow outs

Those eyes!! That dimpled chin!! 

Oh my sweet baby! I wish I could capture every moment! She is just a delight to everyone around her, but most particularly her parents and sisters. Her sisters just dote on her. Miriam is really coming along with her reading and can be caught reading to Holland several times a day. It makes my heart happy!

She sure loves toys and standing more and more!

Holland was so close to crawling. She would push up to her knees and toes. The girls called it push up position. I call it a plank. :) Sweet baby! Occasionally she could propel herself forward by pushing up on her toes and then falling down. It looks like a lot of effort for a small amount of forward motion. Mostly she can just push herself backward and roll around. Which puts one in pickles like this (getting stuck in the bathroom). :)

One defining characteristic of Holland is that she likes to poo only every day or two and it always goes everywhere. I have had to take her home from a store in just a diaper on more than occasion. Clearly, I should be better about keeping extra clothes with me.

Look what we made, our family is playdoh sea creatures! Oh I just love my family. One of my goals this year is to make the most of every day. I hope I can carry that through the whole year. Life is too short to be stressed out all the time. I want to make happy memories and stop focusing on my inadequacies. I love this time of my life so much! Need proof? Check out this video of the most adorable children ever!

Fun with Grandma

Near the end of January, my mom flew down here to visit us. It was actually right after I flew up there to go to Jolene's funeral. So grateful for those convenient, cheap Allegiant flights! We always do things that are outside the usual while Grandma is visiting.

At dinner tonight Miriam asked me when Grandma is visiting us again. I told the kids that she is coming in a few weeks. They proceeded to tell each other something like this: Grandma always brings us so much food. Her tomatoes are the best. Yeah, she always gives us so much food. We should share our food with her, since she always gives us food. Yeah, we should.  

My mom is a particularly generous person especially with her hard work in her garden. My kids have learned that from an early age.

It was particularly chilly while my mom was visiting us in January. The highs were not really out of the 60s except that Saturday, which we took advantage of by hiking up the little foothill behind our house. It was so pretty to see the sunset up there, and the girls were good little hikers. When I look at the photo I am still surprised to see a family of FIVE! In the words of Eliza, "What the...?" (She says that all the time! Thanks public school!)

Our family of five!

That week was particularly fun for Eliza because she was star of the week at school. She certainly is our little star! She made a poster about herself and was able to bring something in as show-and-tell every day. What a fun thing for an almost-7 year old!

The poor man who Miriam almost took out!

Fun kid airplane!

One afternoon we drove over to Mesa and saw an Air Force Museum. It was surprisingly interesting and well-attended. There were a lot of senior citizens there on a random Wednesday. 

The kids loved it mainly because of the kid airplanes that they could drive around. Unfortunately that meant that they didn't really stay close to me. As a result I had to put an end to the fun when I saw Miriam 'flying' her airplane towards this old man with a walker. She yelled out to him, "Watch out, I'm coming!" Of course, I am across the hanger, and can only yell, "Miriam, STOP!!" Whew, she barely stopped in time! Thank goodness we didn't send that poor old man to the hospital with a broken hip.

We saw some interesting things though. Historical planes and helicopters. Bombers, luxury aircraft, and rescue planes. It is really amazing to think how much technology has changed in the last 100 years. One of the bombers (B-36?) had little guns all over for people to man. Top, bottom, front, back, nose, sides, etc.

She loves those toes!

Baby with army plane. :)

I made the mistake of trying to keep Holly asleep in her car seat while we walked around. All this resulted in was a very tired arm/back and a baby that was cranky to be left in her car seat for so long. Regardless, it was a fun outing.  

I thought the info about this plane was particularly interesting.

One other fun activity we did was have a tea party with the girls! Oh I love having little girls. We made shortbread cookies, cucumber sandwiches, and veggies and fruit. And lots and lots of tea (cider). It was so fun! I love my girls! I am so excited I had another one! They are so fun!

Sometimes I think it is so cool that my husband is so smart. He designs parts of airplane engines! At work one of the helicopters that has their engines was flown so the employees could see it. Wow, it is sure interesting to see this next to the historical planes and helicopters I saw at the museum. Each of the blades on the rotor is 30 feet long! Wowsers!