Emily the Artist

With my new adventure in teaching an afterschool art class, "Colorful Creators," Emily has had a spark in arts and crafts.  She loves to help me create examples for my students and be a part of the art class too.  Emily especially loves to paint and cut.  She is discovering new talents and I love watching it all unfold.  Today Emily painted a picture of her and Lily.  She even put "sparkling" crowns on their heads.  I love my young artist!

Colds, Coughs, and Bites

This week all three kids have been fighting a good cold.  Stuffy noses have made for some tired, achy kids.  Usually while I get ready in the morning, the kids like to play on my bed.  With heavy heads from colds today, they just wanted to rest.  I loved watching the two girls snuggle together for a few minutes.  Even with colds they made the most of each day.  In fact, last night Lily and Emily were teasing each other.  The next thing I know Emily is crying because Lily bit her nose.  Ouch!  Lily can be a biter sometimes.  We are working on having her express frustration otherwise.  Emily's nose had some teeth marks and a bit swollen for a day, but looks better today.  I am looking forward to everyone feeling 100% soon!

Bean Museum and BYU

We took a field trip today to the Bean Museum and the Wilkinson Center at BYU today.  The girls enjoyed seeing the many animals on display at the Bean Museum.  Emily said her favorite was the elephant and Lily's was the giraffe.  Logan just loved exploring a new place.  My favorite was seeing my little Cougars in a place I love - BYU.  We took a picture with the cougar statue to show Nelson in hopes he would join our team - true blue!  After the museum we had a picnic lunch in the Wilk with some BYU Creamery Ice Cream - yummy!

Emily the Smart Cookie

In just a short 6 months, my Emily is going to enter the fun of school days.  I can hardly believe it.  There is no doubt this little girl is going to love school.  Everyday we try to do a little school time together, learning about numbers, letters, and patterns.  Emily is smart!  She recognizes her letters and their sounds A to P and numbers 1 to 10.  I am always impressed by her connects to things we are learning.  Emily is great a making relationships like there is an "o" in Logan's name and an "f" in Jeff's name.  She has a terrific memory, often telling us where to go and things we have done before.  I am so lucky to have this smart cookie as my daughter!

A Downtown Adventure

It was beautiful February sunshine weather for an outing today.  We picked up Nana and headed downtown to the Church History Museum.  It has recently been redone with some amazing exhibits to explore.  I wish I could have spent the day there learning, but the kids were eager to check out the children's area.  They had fun coloring, building with blocks, reading books, and playing in the play area. 

After some time there we walked through Temple Square.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  I loved showing Emily the temple Nelson and I was married in.  She gazed at the temple with delight.  Later that day, she said, "Mommy we saw the temple you were married in today.  We even saw the door with circles that you had a picture by.  But I wasn't there yet because I was in heaven."  This sweet girl has such an amazing spirit and testimony in that little body of hers.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch near Macey's and then headed to the Disney Store.  The girls loved seeing all the toys there and wanted to take everything home.  Our adventure was just for seeing though.  We are saving our money to take them to Disneyland someday soon!  I loved watching them play and explore today with their Nana.  We love that we can spend some special time with her.

Sisters Forever

As these girls grow, their special sister relationship does too!  They have such a deep love for each other.  There are moments they fight, but for the most part they get along.  Emily and Lily love to read, pretend, dance, sing, and seek adventure together.  These two can sometimes be mischievous.  The other day I found them in my closet taking my shirts of my hangers and laughing in delight.  They are quick and making messes and not much for helping clean up, but I love them still.  I love listening to them talk to each other at bedtime reminiscing about the days adventures and dreaming of plans tomorrow.  I know with time these conversations like mine with my sister, will be endearing, silly, imaginative, and even sacred.  Sisters truly make the best of friends.

Logan 10 Months

As the days go by, this little baby of mine keeps growing up into a little boy.  Logan is 10 months old and learning so many new tricks each day.  It is fun to watch his personality blossom.  He is a delight to our home.

• Loves to play peek-a-boo with his hands on top of his head, hands over his eyes, or with a towel.
• Looks forward to outings and being outside.  He squeals with delight every time we open the garage or front door.
• Enjoys toys that move, make sounds, and spin like cars, trucks, and trains.
• He also likes to put things in and out of boxes or open and shut drawers
• Scoots backwards on his tummy, but prefers to try and walk while holding your hands
• Logan loves to babble, but says some words too: Mama, Daddy, uh (uh-oh), hi, and bye
• Waves hi and bye
• Loves to play with his sisters and is eager to run with them.
• Sings during the hymns at church and while I blow dry my hair
• Not much for baby oatmeal, but loves baby fruit, sweet potatoes, yogurt, bread, and pasta
• Mama's boy for sure, but loves to play with daddy
  

Logan the Reader

Books and reading are a favorite past-time at our house.  Logan lately has joined in the fun with exploring books.  He loves to turn the pages of books over and over.  Like Emily and Lily, Logan also pretends to read the story with his cute babble.  I love reading with my kids because there is always an adventure in a book.

Lullaby Lily

Lily loves to play and keep up with Emily, even if it means missing naptime.  As hard as she tries to go without a nap, Lily can never quite make it.  There are days she fights to stay awake only to surrender to a snoozer.  Lately she has fallen asleep on the couch, kitchen chair, and the car.  As much as Lily would like to stay awake, she needs a little rest to stay happy. The best part of Lily taking a nap is seeing her giggle in delight when she wakes up (most of the time) to see Logan and Emily waiting to play.  I love this sweet snuggler of mine!

Hooded Towels

When I unpacked our things I found some towels I had been planning to make into hooded towels before we moved from St. George.  It has been on my to do list for the past few months, but I finally made it happen today.  The kids loved wearing "their capes."  It is sure hard to get a picture of all three of these littles smiling and looking at me, but we keep trying!