Her Favorite Letter

Every week in preschool, Carrie's class focuses on a different letter. Last week was B, this week was C. Take a look at her in-class worksheet and tell me if you can see which is her favorite letter? ;)

The B worksheet she just scribbled all over and didn't trace the letters. The C worksheet is nicely colored and each C is traced perfectly. She LOVES the letter C, because it's "just for her". If you look closely, you can even see that she wrote the rest of her name above the big C she traced in the middle of the page. I love to see the new things she is learning in preschool! And I love practicing with her at home!

Once we got all ready this morning, I made a comment on how cute we all were, so of course Carrie said, "I'll go get the camera!"

Don't you love how even when she's this close, Carrie still wants to hold Brigee's hand?

I know these next three pictures look almost identical, but there are little differences in the faces she's making, and I love them all so much I couldn't decide which one(s) to cut out! So you get them all!! Plus, her hair is in a perfect little wave today. It's too cute!

Mommy's Little Helpers

First a little update on my sewing room disaster. It's still a disaster... I'm very slowly starting to get it all organized so I can put it back. It's amazing how much stuff can fit in that one tiny bedroom! And this doesn't include the queen sized bed and the 6'x2' sewing table! It's really making my home feel stressful. :(

 Luckily, I have some amazing super-helpers. Carrie's newest job around the house is to unload the silverware while I do the rest of the dishwasher. (And uggh, do you see all the junk on the counters? It's driving me nuts, but I feel like I can't ever catch up!)

She's still working on separating big forks from little forks, but most of the time she gets it right :)

She's very happy to help and she's very proud of herself (don't mind her orphan ponytail)

Sometimes it's a long job though and you just have to take a break to play the drums with some spoons on an upside down bowl ;)

Brigette's super-helper job tonight was holding my grocery list while we shopped. Thanks sweetie :)

And though I don't have a picture, Justin is a super-helper too, as usual. He does his own job every day and then comes home and helps me do mine. What a great catch!

Naps Make Everything Better

We played at the park with friends this morning for a very long time. Carrie had a blast climbing slides with Jake.

 So proud they made it to the top!

Carrie decided she wanted to try sliding down the ramp/stairs. I'm pretty sure it was not very comfortable ;)

She was playing happily the whole time we were there, but when it was time to go... All heck broke loose. Carrie did NOT want to leave. And she showed me by throwing a fit and running from me when I tried to go get her off the playground... I had even given her a 5 minute and 1 minute warnings that we would be leaving... It didn't matter. These kinds of things are becoming more frequent and are driving me nuts! I don't know how to get her to listen... The woe of every parent right?...

By the time we finally got to the van and she was still whining and fighting me, I quickly decided today would be a nap day. NO choice... And look at the amazing result of both girls taking a long afternoon nap: HAPPINESS!!

Luckily, these cute faces remind me that they're still so little and I can be more patient as I try to teach and help them grow and learn. :)

It's Workout Season!

My mom is in town helping Marissa with her new baby and we're enjoying having her around. On Sunday night, Carrie slept over at Marissa's house with my mom in the guest room. It was a fun little adventure. :)

Then Tuesday we went chicken crazy and made several freezer meals for each of us. It makes me hungry just remembering all the yummy, healthy recipes :)

Lately I've been starting to do my Jillian Michaels' workout DVD again. All I can say is WHEW!! It's hard stuff! What's hit me the most so far is how sore my abs are. I sneeze, and I groan in pain... It's that awesome. Hopefully I keep it up, so I can slim it down!

And speaking of working out, Justin started doing college basketball scrimmages last weekend! Let basketball reffing season begin! I sometimes feel like a single parent in the winter since he's so busy with games, but I have to remind myself it's worth it. It's something Justin loves to do and especially as he continues to move up, he loves it more, and he's making more money (always a plus)! I'm pretty sure it's still a goal of his to get to Division One someday.

Although as of late, he has a new dream. Becoming an immigration lawyer... We have a friend who does this and any time he posts something about his job, Justin feels even more like that's something he'd like to do. We've talked a little about it int he past, but never really did anything about it. This time, we're doing something. Justin is registered to take the LSAT in a couple months. I'm a little nervous, mostly because it's a big change and commitment, but I'm also excited because Justin is excited.

We'll have to wait and see what his LSAT scores look like and where he can get accepted to Law School, but it looks like we'll possibly be starting some new adventures around here in the near future!

Girls and Guys Night Out & Conference

Happy Conference weekend! As usual, during the Saturday Priesthood session, the girls in our family all go out together. This time, we got to go get Brigette's ears pierced too! I can't believe I had the self-restraint to wait until girls night! She was old enough to have gotten them done over 2 weeks ago!

Carrie enjoyed wandering Claire's playing with Halloween things

 All the girls just waiting while the tech got things ready

Happy happy girlie! She'll be crying in a minute, but it'll be over quick and she'll look DANG cute! (Though it's hard to imagine her looking any cuter than she does in this pic!)

Brigette's staring down the ear-piercing girl

Drawing the dots

DONE! And mommy had a bottle ready to go!

Her ears are so teeny! And now they're sparkly too! ;)

And one last picture of Carrie being goofy with Halloween hats

You saw the picture of me giving Brigette a bottle right afterward... She did NOT want it. So sadly, she cried longer than any baby we've ever taken to get their ears pierced. She kept going for several minutes until I found a lounge area in the middle of the mall where I could sit, cover-up, and nurse her. After a few minutes of snacking, she was all smiles. Cute little stinker ;)

We spent Conference Sunday playing with cousins. Here's Charlie and Brigette (10 weeks apart). 

Anytime we all gather, my parents house ends up looking like a parking lot! (And we're actually still missing a couple cars from this picture). Good thing they live at the end of a cul-de-sac so we all have room to park!

This afternoon I gave Brigette a little tummy time and basically for the first time, she didn't scream and bury her face in the ground! She actually held her head up for a minute! 

She's growing up so fast!

And as always, Conference was amazing! Especially the new announcement about missionaries! Girls can serve at age 19 and boys at age 18 (as long as they've graduated high school). That means my youngest brother Jake can leave about 6 months sooner than he thought! He's been waiting his whole life to go on his mission and he's so excited to get started! It's crazy to imagine that he could be leaving as soon as 8 months from now!!

Workin' for the Weekend

In anticipation of General Conference weekend, I've been trying to get my house clean! I'm so sick of the clutter and feeling so behind on "chores". Sometimes trying to be productive during the day proves difficult though. There are kids to feed, change, and entertain... And trying to get things done during a naptime just doesn't quite give me enough time to get momentum going.

So last night after both kids and hubby went to bed, I stayed up until 3am watching Reba and Cupcake Wars while folding laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and scrubbing the kitchen top to bottom, including hand-mopping the floors...

My to-do list is still long, but I'll keep pluggin' for the next few hours and hopefully cross off a lot!

(It looks like Brigette knows what I really want to do though) ;)

Random Girl Cuteness

One of Carrie's favorite snacks is grapes. Today, I found her sitting on the living room floor munching grapes on a blanket. She told me, "Mommy, I'm having a picnic!"

Next is our little Brigette. This is from last night when she was fresh out of the bathtub. With super fuzzy clean hair! I love post-bath babies!

RS General Broadcast

Last night was the Relief Society General Broadcast. I was able to go to the dinner beforehand, (which was delicious), enjoyed chatting with friends from the ward, and even made a few new friends.

The talks were all amazing and I took several pages of notes... And of course, now that I'm wanting to document a few of the things I wrote down, I can't find my notebook... Super annoying. Anyways, there was one thing that affected me enough, I remember it without my notes.

Sister Burton spoke about the Atonement. The quote that stuck out to me was, "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ". She told a pioneer story about a young mother losing her baby... And of course, I thought of Brigham... The point was though, that even the torture of losing a child can be healed by the Atonement. I learned this for myself a few months after Brigham died. My testimony in the Atonement's wondrous array of power came to me almost all at once. Before Brigham, I just believed... Now, I know. And the song, "I Stand all Amazed" is one of my new favorites.

It's amazing how so many things in a general meeting can seem to be meant just for me. I love it :)

Now, not to take away from the wonderful testimonial spirit I just created, but on a side note, today was an exciting day! We got a new niece! Charlie June was born this morning to Brandon and Marissa. We got to go visit them in the hospital and holy moly! Seeing Brigette and Charlie next to each other made Brigette look SO grown up! Though there's not much difference in their size, there's a ton of difference in their looks! Even with her chubby cheeks, Charlie seems so tiny just because of her newborn-ness. :) (Though I'm pretty sure her fingers are about an inch longer than Brigette's are!) ;)

How to Keep a Baby Occupied

Today Carrie went to play at her friend Grace's house straight from preschool. So once I had dropped them both off in the morning, I had until 3:30 completely Carrie-less... So I decided to work on a project; my sewing/guest room. Brigette is still pretty mellow and content to just sit in her bouncy chair, so I thought I'd give it a go. But I felt bad knowing I wasn't really going to be paying attention to her very much while I worked.

So I tried giving her a toy to play with. She doesn't really actually play with toys yet... She was not amused... I'm actually kind of in love with this picture. Her face looks so incredibly bored, it makes me almost laugh out loud. :)

So I pulled out "the hippo". At first she didn't know what to think...

Then she accidentally hit one of the dangly toys, and got a little thrill...

Then she looked at me and squealed in joy! It. Was. So. Cute!

With Brigette happily occupied, I went to work painting the sewing/guest room. 

In order to get to the walls, however, I had to move a majority of the "stuff" out. Which means my living room is a disaster zone right now! Organizing and decorating this room has been on my to-do list for far too long! The painting got done today, but the organizing will have to wait for another day. Hopefully, it will get done soon (especially since getting started has created such a mess!)

And a just-because pic. We call it the "baby eye mask"... She's totally asleep here. I guess it works when you want to take a nap in the bright of day!

Birthday Weekend

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite dads! Mine, and my kiddo's!

We had a super fun weekend, but boy was it bad for my "diet"! We had Taco Bell Thursday night and deep fried chicken strips at Target for lunch on Friday (where I bought some new tennis shoes to make me magically better at working out). Justin enjoyed a day off work playing golf with Brandon, whom he convinced to also take the day off. ;) Then Friday night Justin and I went out to Red Lobster to celebrate his birthday. And we stuffed ourselves; we always do at Red Lobster...

Then this morning we went to Denny's for our 2nd annual Mark & Justin Birthday Breakfast! Okay, I'm not sure if it will actually become an annual thing, but this was the second time we've done it and I'm a fan. I love breakfast :)

Carrie's shirt says, "Daddy's little sunshine". She loved sitting by the birthday boy!

 She also loved taking pictures ;)

Later, we went to San Tan Village, an awesome outdoor mall in Gilbert. I scored a couple new pairs of sandals from Payless, and the kids enjoyed the splash pad! 

And what better way to finish off the day than by visiting daddy's little boy? This was actually Brigette's first time at her brother's grave. 

Our three wonderful kids :)

This is one of my favorites. One, because Brigette is so dang beautiful, and two, because you can see Brigham's name. I think these two had a special connection in heaven. We often wonder if they would have looked alike... We like to think so. :)

Last, but not least, a smiling picture. Though I remember the smile being a lot bigger when I snapped the picture. ;) Good thing it's still cute!

I'm pretty sure she's thinking, "I'm so happy today is my daddy's 29th birthday!" We sure do love him around here!!