It's the little things in life...

 Balancing babies

 Throwing rocks

 Playing in the pots

Bed heads

We are looking forward to this weekend of listening to our leaders at General Conference. I happened to run across a timely scripture a few days ago:

"O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love, for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever." (Jacob 3:2)

It really is a spiritual feast!

Bright and Shiny

This was one of those days that everything was beautiful. Literally, the sun was bright from dawn to dusk, but figuratively everything felt sunny too.

(I have to concede that most days are not like this... like the day I made 3 batches of cupcakes and none of them turned out, and I almost burned the house down... or the day we all had headaches and earaches and whined a lot, me included.)

It started with a morning jog. I haven't gone running since last fall but I've had the itch now that it's lighter and warmer in the morning. It was amazing. It's hard to describe why I love it so much... the liberation of being outside, of being alone with my thoughts, the joy of seeing the sun come up over the mountains, and the rush of energy and vitality I get from pushing myself.  The birds were singing and all felt well in the world.

I also find that I am more open to spiritual impressions and promptings when I am in nature. Sometimes I even pray when I run. That sounds silly, but Alma tells us to pray always, doesn't he? I was thinking of how I wanted to be more like God, and the line from a hymn came to my mind: "To be like thee, I lift mine eyes From earth below toward heav'n above, That I may learn from vaulted skies, How I my worthiness can prove." To be able to lift my eyes to the skies at that moment was inspiring.

Back at home, it was my day to teach Ella's mommy preschool. We learned about U for Universe, sang astronaut songs, and learned about constellations.

After lunch and naps we went outside to weed the garden. I asked Maddie to grab the camera and she took a self-portrait capturing her shiny blue eyes.

Tyler enjoyed bare-foot weather for the fist time. I love those chubby baby feet!

I am already feeling so happy to have grass instead of mud for the kids to play on!

Maddie found shapes in the clouds, reminding me of when I was young and carefree too.

I'm so glad there are days like this to look back on when everything feels gray. I hope another one comes again soon!

Spring for St. George

Ella has been begging (demanding is more like it) daily to go to St. George. About five minutes into the car ride she asked, "Are we there yet?" At long last her wish was granted.

First things first, they had to take a dip in the warm pool.

We ventured out and explored the Snow Canyon sand dunes.  I'm sure we will explore them many more times in the future as it's only a ten minute drive from the house.

(Can you see how she's demanding?)

This pic was from my sisters phone but I had to include it! Tyler loved the sand and it took all my concentration to keep it outta his mouth!

It's always an adventure having the whole family together. Cole came later, and we took a great big family picture to be printed on a canvas for the new house.

Luckily, the leprechaun found us even though we weren't home!

We forgot Maddie's leprechaun trap, but we put the kids shoes in front of the door to trip him. It worked, and he even left the kids some treats!

He was a naughty little leprechaun and made lots of messes. He must have had some fun swinging from the chandelier on those hula hoops.

Girls will be girls... when we're together we love doing toes.

 Even the oldest granddaughter and youngest granddaughter.

 

 Grandma and Ty posed in their church duds.

Noelle snapped a shot of him all dressed up. If you look closely you can see his 3 snaggle teeth!

We ended the trip with Dana's mint chocolate brownie oreo ganache whipped cream concoction. Dreamy.

Sillies

Just some silly pictures of our day to day... for my memory's sake.

We love going on walks and riding bikes when it's tolerably warm.

Ty wore a tie for the first time last Sunday! He looked so handsome.

We had a family picnic on the balcony one warm Sunday afternoon.

My girls have wanted their beds like this all week. Even though it makes a mess, I have loved how it occupies them for hours and gets their imaginations going.

I had some silly little helpers in the laundry room. What is so fun about sitting in a basket?

Arts & Crafts

We have been doing a lot of projects around here lately.

About 6 months ago I saw this hutch on the side of the road as I drove Ella to preschool. I had been on the lookout for hutches on KSL because our kitchen has a nook in the dining room that was just crying, "Put a hutch here!" $150 later, the old musty grandma hutch was mine.

It's been sitting in the garage since, but last weekend Mike and I decided it was time to tackle the project. We went on a date to Home Depot and bought the primer and paint to match our trim.

We spent about 12 hours one Saturday painting, plus a few more nights for finish work. I have to say Mike did at least half of the work, and I'm so thankful!

The finished product! It's transfigured, is it not?! We absolutely love it!

The bottom is the perfect storage space for all the girls' art supplies.

I'm so glad to finally have a space for all that messy stuff, right at their level.

And here it is fully loaded, in all it's glory. I didn't realize how much glassware I really had until I tried to display it all. The top shelf has china plates I inherited when my Grandma Jensen died when I was 18. The middle shelf is a beautiful set my mom gave me for my birthday last year, which she scored at a consignment shop. The bottom holds the crystal punch bowl, mugs, and pitchers from our wedding, with other odds and ends. I feel like an official house wife now that I have a china hutch!

The girls have been working hard too. Ella made this spider for the letter S.
 

Maddie made a leprechaun trap at school and checks it every morning for evidence!

Both girls have made rainbows at school, which we hung up as our St. Patrick's decor. Maddie also wanted to show her bunny and shirt are rainbow.

Even her hair is rainbow to match. Wow, we're just bursting with color here!

That's all for this installment of show and tell.

Happy Birthday Maddie!

 

March 10th arrived again (there was worry it might not), and with it Maddie's 5th birthday! The Tinkerbell theme was chosen almost as soon as the last birthday party was over a year ago.

But first, we started the day at Build-A-Bear! As I've mentioned before, Maddie has been obsessed with dressing bears lately, so I thought it was time for the real deal. The funny thing was she chose a bunny, and Ella chose a chick! Go figure.  

Cousin Daxton got the only official bear.

Auntie Em happened to be in town and met us at the store. We just got the happy news that she is going to be a mommy!!! We are so excited for her and Ren in AZ land.

The building experience is pretty cool. Maddie pushed the pedal to stuff her bunny, and both her and Ella got musical buttons and hearts to go inside.

Then the new buddies (and Tyler buddy) got an air bath.

Then came the naming and birth certificates. We now have official documentation for the newest members of the family, Butterfly Bunny Andrews, and Bow Chicky Andrews.

Grandma pitched in and let the girls pick outfits. Maddie was all about the real clothes, and Ella loved the Tangled dress-up. (Ella has felt very overshadowed with all this attention on Maddie, and is already planning her Tangled 4th birthday party... for December).
 

The boys looked sharp in their stripes at the food court.

My girls looked like official little shoppers with Grandma and Em. They were pretty enthralled since we make it to the mall about once a year!

In the afternoon we invited three of Maddie's best friends (and one of Ella's) over for a Tinkerbell tea party. 

The Tinkerbell cake was a bit of a flop but we made it work. 

All they cared about were the cupcakes anyway!

All the little girls dressed in their finery, singing to the birthday girl.

We kept it simple and the only game we played was Tinkerbelle Says (like Simon Says). They thought it was pretty funny and just started getting creative when their moms came back.

The celebration continued with dinner and presents with Grandma and Auntie Dana, then more singing and cake! This girl got royally spoiled. Thankfully she was very gracious and let Ella help her unwrap every present.

Good thing it was warm enough today to try on her new butterfly clothes and Crocs! Can't believe my first born is already 5. She is a beautiful girl inside and out and we are so proud of her.