Three going on Fourteen

Micali is growing up way to fast. She has been surprising us lately with a few things she has decided to do on her own. My favorite of which is listening to her say her own prayers.

She started last Wed. at lunch when I we had just sat down to eat. She said “Mom, let’s pray. I will say it all by myself.” She did it! Her prayer was very simple. She was thankful for the food and wanted Daddy to come home soon. Since then she has prayed by herself at some meals, before bed, and in her class at church.

Last week in church she was also suppose to say the scripture in her primary sharing time. It was John 14:15- If ye love Me, keep my commandments. I was trying to help her practice it.

Me: If ye love me

Micali: IF I love you

Me: Keep my commandments

Micali: Keep your mandments

It made me smile. Eventually she realized she was suppose to repeat exactly what I said. After a few times she had it memorized and went around the house saying it all the time. She was so excited when it was her turn to get up and say her scripture however, just like the prayer and the talk she was suppose to give, I ended up saying it while she stood at the pulpit with her hands over her face. I am sure one of these times soon she will surprise me and won’t even need my help when she is asked to do something in primary.

This morning she asked to take her own shower. She is totally afraid of me washing her hair when she takes a bath. On Sunday she showered with me and washed her hair in the shower with out any fuss. Today she did the same thing---all by herself. Totally surprised me. The only thing she needed me for was to turn the water on and then off when she was done.

She came out, got dressed and asked me to blow dry her hair. My little princess is growing up so fast. It is fun to see her gain self confidence and realize how much she can do with out mom and dad’s help.

Here she is this morning after getting her hair dried:

A summer buzz for Eli

I held out as long as possible in cutting Eli’s hair. I was enjoying his curly red locks of handsomeness. He was so CUTE. I think partly I was hoping he would stay my little baby boy with his longer hair. It hadn’t been cut since a few months before Abigail was born.

 

Now he is ready for our summer full of fun! He is also still as cute as ever. And as a side note he doesn’t really like getting his hair cut. Especially after it being so long between cuts.

Abigail is 3 months old!

We sure do love this girl. She is beginning to be a great sleeper. She goes to bed around 8 wakes up once to eat and sleeps again until 8. I am sure enjoying getting more sleep. She loves her snuggles from her sister and sometimes from her brother when he does it nicely.

 

 

Daddy and his Girl

I love watching daddy play with his little girl. There is definitely a special bond between them.

Mothers Day

Really every day is Mother’s Day around these parts. I am very blessed and well taken care of. We don’t get into the commercialized part of Mother’s Day too much. Like cheesy Hallmark cards and #1 Mom jewelry.

However, Luke did take over the kitchen duties yesterday and made THREE wonderful meals. It was nice to have a day off and I enjoyed watching Luke in the kitchen with his attention to detail. He even spent awhile on Saturday night studying up on how to grill the perfect steak. The steaks were awesome by the way!

Our New Van

Last week we got a new van. It is a 2005 Honda Odyssey. Our first minivan was a Toyota Sienna and we totally fell in love with it because of all the space and ease of loading kids in and out. Luke evidently made promises to LOTS of people that he would NEVER drive a minivan but now is the proud owner of his 2nd one.

This summer we are going on a long road trip. Starting in southern Utah, we will make our way to Myrtle Beach South Carolina, and up to Michigan and eventually back home. We hope to see lots of friends and family along the way. It is partly because of this trip that we decided to upgrade a little bit and get a van with A/C and a few more safety features like side curtain airbags.

We found this van that has all the “cool” features a minivan can have like, a DVD system, navigation system, back up camera, and most importantly stow-n-go seating. It has a little more than we were looking for but also a good price so we decided to go with it.

Here is a picture of our new ride and hopefully we will see many of you as we make our way on this 5000 mile journey!

Fever and a purple toe

Eli woke up from his nap with a fever of 102 yesterday. I ended up snuggling with him the rest of the afternoon while watching some “great” shows on netflix. We were entertained by an assortment of shows including SuperWhy, Caillou, and Blue’s Clues. Micali earlier

in the day had hurt her toe. She was riding her little car in the kitchen and the tray from the highchair fell right on her big toe. Because of that injury she was sure she couldn’t walk. I went between snuggling Eli and helping Micali with all of her needs and requests as she set up camp on the other couch.  Thankfully Abigail took a good nap and soon there after Luke was home to help for a little while before he went back to his night class.

Eli found a comfy place to sleep while I fixed some dinner!

Micali wanted her Grandma to be able to see her purple toe. She was so brave and even let me put a bandaid on it until it stopped bleeding.

A Birthday Celebration

Luke was fortunate to have his birthday on a weekend we were going to be with family. He got totally spoiled by his sister and sister-in-law. On Saturday night Beth made some amazing grilled chicken and also his favorite birthday cake. His mom’s homemade chocolate cake recipe.

I was busy with Abigail when these pictures were taken so it doesn’t look like we got any shots of him with his cake but we did get a video that I might be able to figure out how to add later.

On Sunday, his actually birthday, we went to church in the morning with Beth and then over to Kendra and Austin’s home for steaks. Again the food was fantastic. And then we made fruit pizza for another birthday cake.

Kendra took pictures with her camera but we haven’t figured out how to get them off her camera yet.

Thankfully we were able to celebrate his birthday and have a lot of fun in the early part of the day because, the 5 hour drive home after these festivities were less than exciting.

Abigail is NOT a good traveler and Micali and Elijah were extra grouchy from all the activity of the weekend. I am beginning to think we are CRAZY for planning a 5000 mile road-trip this summer!!

TREASURES

I love it when I plug the camera in the computer and find pictures I don’t even remember taking. Here are some treasures I think need to be shared with others: 

Abigail SMILES!!!

On Sunday during sacrament meeting, I finally got a smile from Abigail. I looked down at her and she got all excited and was grinning from ear to ear. It totally melted my heart. She had smiled occasionally before but not where she just looked right in my face and smiled because she saw her mommy. Luke got the same smile on Tuesday night when he was trying to get her to go to sleep. We are now even more in LOVE with this little girl.

These pictures are kind of a weird angle but the best I could do when I was trying to get her to smile and catch it on the camera at the same time.

LOTS of strawberries

We went up north this last weekend to get a new van (pictures later). We also found a great deal on strawberries at only a dollar a pound. Luke was so kind to go and get 40 lbs for us. Since Monday, I have been trying to use them. I froze about 30lbs of them for later use in smoothies and slushies. The other 10lbs I made into jam, milkshakes, and a fresh strawberry pie. We have also eaten our fill of plain sliced berries. YUM!! We just finished off the last of them for breakfast this morning. What a good find!