Valentine's Day 2013

This year, Hope needed to make a box for her Valentine party at school. I found several cute ideas on Pinterest and let her pick which one she liked best. Of course she chose the horse. It was daddy's idea to make it a unicorn though. Since it was mostly cutting and hot gluing pieces together, daddy and I assembled the box and Hope drew on it.

 

 

It is hard to see from the picture, but she drew all over it. She gave it a "Cutey Mark" (which is the mark that My Little Ponies have on their hip) and drew hearts and eyes...oh, and a butt crack. :)

 

I also got to help with the party and made sugar cookies and frosting for the kids to decorate cookies. Hope and Eden enjoyed playing with the dough scraps. Amazingly enough they didn't eat the dough.

 

 

Daddy brought home Valentine treat bags for the girls with a balloon and stuffed unicorns. They were quite excited.

 

 

 

But not as excited as daddy. Look at his face. He loves his girls!

 

*On a side note, last week Hope was the spotlight student and on Friday I got to read a story to her class. Since it was also "Dad's & Donuts Day", Ben took the morning off so he could be there for the story too. At one point in the morning I turned the corner to walk down the hall and Ben was headed my way with a big smile on his face. I asked what he was smiling about and he said, "Hope's the spotlight student. That's exciting!"*

 

 



Say What?

Eden has poked and squashed a piece of zucchini to smitherines, puts it back on her plate, picks up a piece of squash and says: Your turn.

When dad gets out of the car to go into the gas station Hope says: Please don't leave your family here all alone.

Noah: What do you call a job that makes nuts?
Hope: What?
Noah: A nut job.

Hope to her friend Mason: Look at this new dinosaur toy. It's from Rob. He's in my class. He looks pretty sometimes, just like you.

Hope: Where did all this stuff come from?
Dad: I don't know.
Dad starts dancing and shaking his shoulders from side to side.
Hope: Is that a clue?

 *Seahorse*

 *The First Vision* She came home with this one Sunday.

*Licked by a Horse*

Las Vegas With the Maxwells

This past weekend Ben's brother, Ian, celebrated his 21st birthday in Las Vegas and Jeff was generous enough to make sure we were there to celebrate with them. The girls have never met their aunts Amanda and Emily. They only met uncle Ian and Grandma Patty once, and they always love to see grandpa Jeff, so they were very excited.

We drove, which we were a little nervous about with Hope and Eden, but they did surprisingly well. There were no complaints from Hope and Eden only had one real outburst on the way there and one on the way back. We were thinking they might sleep for at least a couple of hours, but no one slept on the way there (besides mom cause I was sick and yes, okay, driving makes me sleepy) and Hope and Eden took only a short nap on the way back. Noah had some new books to read so he was fine...until when we arrived home and he learned that he had to get back in the car and drive another hour and half to Grantsville. He was pretty upset about that.

It was dark when we got there so Las Vegas was quite a sight as we drove up to it. The kids were amazed at all the lights and the cool buildings. Then we got to the strip and pulled up right behind a driving billboard with three fully clothes women who wanted nothing to do with anyone being advertised. Imagine the extreme opposite of what I described and then imagine my horror of having my 11 year old son in the back seat. The spiritual assault of the city was pretty smothering until I was talking with Ben about it that night and realized that I just can't let all the bad stuff get in the way of all the good and that it is better for our children to be exposed to this kind of thing with us (so we can talk with them about it), than being exposed on their own or with their friends. Amazingly, the only thing Hope had a comment about was a guy dressed up like a Transformer on the side of the street to which she said, "They have weird people here." Of all the drunken half-naked people surrounding us, she chose that to focus on. Thank goodness! Noah had more of a problem ignoring the "sin" part of the city, but hopefully when he looks back on it, he will mostly remember family and a lot of cool buildings.

The kids thought our hotel room was awesome cause it had hide-a-way beds and two rooms. They ran around till dad decided to be a party pooper and told them to stop. 

The next day, Eden found one of her favorite things about Vegas - the complimentary soap. She carried around till she unwrapped it and I took it away, then she was off to find another...which she did...several times.

When the girls met Amanda and Emily they both became really quiet and just stared with smiles on their faces. I could tell they thought their aunts were beautiful. Right away Hope seemed to want to make up for lost time and be around them as much as possible. She held Amanda's hand for quite a while, walking around the hotels and asking her LOTS of questions.

Aunt Emily and Amanda were both great sports about it, and it was nice to see the girls getting to know more of their family. Hope was very impressed with Grandma and Grandpa's hotel. It had beautiful gardens with ponds full of huge Koi and some flamingos!!! All day and the next morning Hope kept saying she wanted to go back to Grandpa's hotel.

*Grandma Patty, Grandpa Jeff, Noah, a flamingo, Hope, Eden and Daddy*

I know what you're thinking, "Wow, she actually posted a pic with her in it...and her eyes are closed." Well, if I were going to be picky I wouldn't have posted it cause of my ginormous rear, not the closed-eyes...but I need to just get over it. Besides those points this is a very cute picture of my beautiful little family. Eden was trying out some funky new camera faces that day, as you can see.

There was also a big bird cage inside with parakeets in it that the kids thought were cute. One of them tilted it's head all the way over to one side and then back again several times looking at Hope. She thought this was adorable. Okay, me...I did, it was freaking precious and when I think about I still want to say, "awww."

In another hotel there was a big fish tank where we stopped to take some pictures.

Eden and Grandma Patty had a conversation about the statue in the water. During this trip we have learned that Eden does not care for statues. The fact that this one was sunken in a fish tank may or may not have helped. We'll see.

I posted this second shot because I LOVE Noah's pose.

In the next hotel we saw gondola's in a big indoor river. Eden loved the boats and kept saying she couldn't reach it.

There's little sunshine with her hair in her face. On the days she doesn't want to wear a barrette, her bangs fall in her face and are long enough now that she has started to chew on them.

Then we saw a beautiful Chinese garden.

It was wonderful to spend time with the Maxwells and get to know them better. We definitely need to do it more. Especially since the girls are saying how much they miss everyone already. Thanks to Grandpa Jeff for making sure we got out there and to Uncle Ian for letting us celebrate his birthday with him. We love you guys!

Illustrated by Hope

My little Hope has been drawing up a storm. It's a good thing we recycle cause we've killed a lot of trees in the name of art. On top of being a talented young artist, she also has a very impressive imagination. For example: probably a year and a half ago I found one of her socks on the floor and picked it up to put it away when I realized there was something in it. Stuffed all the way in the toe of the sock was an upside down teacup. Then I remembered that she had been crawling around on the floor all day with the sock on her hand pretending to be a horse. She had made herself a hoof!!! At THREE!!! Impressive. Very impressive. She still loves horses. Check it out.

 

 

Okay technically these are unicorns, but I believe they are in the horse family.

 

 

* I love that this unicorn's hair is in it's eye and it has a mouth full of grass, which matches it hair.*

 

 

 

This one may get framed. I love it. While she was drawing it, she looked up and said, "Mommy, how do you spell...." and made the cutest horse sound I've ever heard. I giggled and told her how to spell "Nay."

 

The rider in this one is wearing some awesome glasses and checking out that thing on the ceiling, as she is clearly riding a horse indoors since we can see the sunshine out the window.

 

I call the following the Star Series because she gave herself big "stars" just like her teacher puts on her homework.

 

 

I love how she drew the grass in these pictures. And hey, a cow! And below a giraffe. I admit, when she showed me the picture of the cow I was smitten. That is one cute cow. And it looks like the giraffe is eating from that tree. 

 

And that concludes the star series. At the same time she drew these pictures, Hope also drew this portrait of her T-Rex dinosaur, but for some reason did not give it a star.

 

 

Looks just like it. Only skinnier. She even drew the muscle lines for the hip.

 

These are samples from Hope's school work.

 

 

I laughed so hard when I saw this one. First you need to know the back story. EVERY night, I sit in Hope's room until she falls asleep. I always have and I foresee that I always will. Last night, I pictured her being 18 and wondered how in the world would she ever go off to college, go on a mission, or anything without demanding I sit in her room until she falls asleep. If she had it her way, I would sit there all night even after she falls asleep as you can see from her picture. She even drew her pillows the exact way that we have them situated on her bed. One up like a headboard and the other flat for her cute little head. So yeah, that is me sitting in the chair looking like a sleep deprived zombie. Spot on Hope!

 

Hope and Zoe. LOVE. Also, may get framed.

 

 

This one made me laugh too. I'm not sure what that thing is on the right (kind of looks like a puppet), but I LOVE that that reindeer is turning around to look at it.

 

Last, are pictures from a book that Hope wrote last week.

 

 

This says, "I see a giraffe"

 

 

"I see a tiger"

 

 

"I like my cat"

 

The cat is white and on the right. Look closely at the way it's sitting. She has great attention to detail.

I always look forward to seeing her finished project when she starts drawing. Most of the walls in our house do not have pictures on them, but I am going to start an art gallery in the hall for my talented little artists, Hope & Noah.

 

 

 



Say What?

Hope: It's weird on the planet today.

Hope: I've been feeling like snuggling with you all day.

Hope: Why do big people have big long hairs in their nose?

Eden keeps putting her little foot on Hope's reading book while she is trying to read and
Hope says: EDEN! You're going to get this all stinky with your STINKY foot!

Dad to Eden who has been throwing Zoe's bone across the family room: Don't throw that.
Eden: She likes it! *throws it again*
Dad: I don't care if she likes it. Don't throw it.
Eden hands on her hips: But she LIKES it!
Dad: Don't throw it. (I actually can't remember what he said here but this fits)
Eden: I DON'T CARE!
Dad: It isn't your job to care....
Eden: It's none of your business!
*Mom and dad burst into laughter*
Eden smiles and says: I just kidding.

Hope: Can I come?
Mom: No, because I can't watch you while I'm getting my hair cut.
Hope: I can watch myself.
Mom: You are too little to watch yourself.
Hope: No I'm not. See look at me watching myself.