Memories Worth Remembering

I wish I could cement these precious memories into my kid's minds.

I absolutly LOVE when my dad takes one of my kids down into his workroom, and paints one on one with them.

 

They feel like someone special and important!

 

 My dad has done paintings with R before, but this was P's first one!

Bob had to show him how to hold the brush.

 This was his "painting face"

 P actually liked cleaning out the brushes almost as much as he did painting.

Silly kid!

 

 Proud moment!

 P's true self!

 "The Firetruck"

Thanks again 'Bob' for taking the time for each of my kids!

Bikes

 Since the weather was getting warmer, I decided to take the kids to a park. It has paths that they can ride their bikes around without worrying about cars!

 

 

 

At some points R would get off to help P.

What a sweet sister!

 R blowing kisses...

 ...

 ...and laughing because she thinks she is hilarious!

 P was never too far behind!

 My kids and their bikes. P was riding R's old bike, but after this day I decided I couldn't deal with it anymore. It kept falling apart.

So I bought him a BOY's bike!

 

These two really LOVE riding their bikes!!!!

Just a side note, the first two days of getting his new bike P crashed each day.

Thats what you get when you go from a crappy slow bike to a new fast bike!

I'm Old... 32

 As you can guess by all the candles in the picture below, I am getting old! I had a WONDERFUL surprise birthday party. Jared had called a bunch of close friends, and we got together 3 days before my actual birthday. It really was a surprise, way to go, BABE!

 

My "helper" just in case I couldn't blow them ALL out by myself!

 

 The surprise group!

The Demings, the Fillmores, us, the Underwoods, Jimmy and Nate (their wives couldn't make it).

 Really,  P is more like a shadow.

Attached to me all the time! Good thing he is cute!

 Then those that could, stayed to play a few games!

It was a great night, and a great way to celebrate my birthday. Jared must have been inspired because on my actually birthday, I only left the couch once to go to the doctor. I was REALLY sick! Thanks again, Jared! Love you!

School Jr. Choir!

R decided that she really wanted to join a club at school called the Jr. Choir. They have a school choir, but this was just for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders.  With a small joining fee, R was in. She would go to school extra early on Thursdays and practice. The practices were held for almost 2 months. Then came the performance.

 

She was so excited the morning of the big concert.

 You would NEVER guess that she was so happy to be up there. She was SOOO serious! She kept her hands down, eyes on her teacher, and didn't move. She looked sad!

 The songs were cute, and she even got to hold a sign up during one song!

 Wait.... check that out....a half of a smile!

 Then eyes right back down to the teacher! :)

 FINALLY a semi smile!

 At the end. She really was happy, and we were so proud of her!

We asked her why she looked so sad while she was up there, and then everything made sense. She said that she had to go to the bathroom the WHOLE time! That made us laugh so hard! What an awesome kid we have!!!

Valentines Day

Jared surprised me with a getaway night for Valentines Day. I LOVE getting away, but this proved that it doesn't have to be extravagant! We dropped the kids off to Grandma Diane's for the night, and headed to Orem, yes Orem!!! It didn't matter where we went, we were away. Away from the kids, away from the laundry that needed to get done, and away from life.

 

We got to the hotel, but decided to check out a restaurant in the parking lot of the hotel. With it being Valentines (A.K.A. longest wait at any restaurant) I thought I would put our name on the wait list. It was a BRILLIANT idea. It was over an hour wait. So after putting our names down, we went and checked into the hotel. We came into our suite, and found these little surprises:

 

 

 It was so nice!

 This is how relaxing our "wait" was for our table for dinner! We just lounged around and watched the Olympics!

We headed back to the restaurant and had to wait maybe 5 minutes! It was the best idea EVER! After dinner we decided to head to the pool.

While we were at dinner Jared noticed a text from Jimmy asking if we were doing anything tonight, because his wife was at work. We text him back saying we were at a hotel in Orem, and heading to the pool after dinner, and invited him to join since he lives in Orem. It was fun to have Jimmy and his gorgeous baby Whitney join us for about an hour. 

Good times and good friends! 

It was a VERY quick, but much needed get away. 

Thanks Jare for setting this up and surprising me!

Sewing 101

 For Christmas, Reagan got her own Book of Mormon with her name embossed on it. She didn't have anything to carry it in, so I came up with the brilliant idea of making one. Only catch is that she would be doing most of the work.

 

My little lady did more than 75% of the work. She pinned the patterns on the material, and helped cut them out.  She helped pin the pieces together and then sewed them together. I even took time to teach her how to thread a sewing machine.

 

I could have finished the project in less than half the time it took her, but she couldn't be more proud.  I couldn't be more proud of her either.

 

 

The finished product. Again, I'm not a seamstress, but we were able to pull this off!

 She wanted a little pocket on the side to hold pens and pencils, so I just made one up.

I love "mom and me" time!

Next sewing project: Sock Monkey!