my little dancer

Ellery has been taking dance from one of my cute beehives all school year long.  Miss Rachel, as Elle calls her, is such a sweet, fun teacher.  Elle loves it and I really love it because it is within walking distance and costs us $10 a month.

At the end of the "season" Rachel holds a dance recital and this was a BIG deal for Ellery!  She was so excited for it.  It was held at the church and they got to dance on a real stage.

I don't want to brag too much, but this little girl has talent.  Every mother there could have thought the same thing about her own kid, but I'm pretty sure she was the best of her bunch.  She knew each step and didn't have to look to anyone else to know what to do.  She was confidant and her face just beamed as she danced.  Her two dances were to Strawberry Shortcake and Call Me Maybe.

A fun little tidbit is that at Zumba we dance to call me maybe and every time it would come on, Ellery and all her friends would immediately stop playing and run up to the stage to do their dance.  It was cute.

Grandma, Granddad, Grammy and Poppy were all able to be there for her recital.  Grammy even brought her roses.  It was the cutest little concert with the cutest little girls.  We love miss Rachel's dance class and I know another little girl who can't wait to join in on the fun.  Laysie Lou.

my heart today

I am truly a blessed woman.  

I love taking care of these three.

I am often exhausted and have nothing left when each day is through, 

but I'm happy to be able to do this.

With motherhood can come a lot of guilt.

Oh, the guilt.

We talked about this  in relief society today.

I realized that some of President Hinckley's most famous words 

are simple, beautiful and absolutely applicable in regards to motherhood.

Try a little harder to be a little better

and

It will all work out

Words that this mother is now trying to live by.

Try a little harder- but don't beat yourself up if you can't try harder at everything.

Try a little harder, but realize you are already doing quite a lot.

Try a little harder to be a little better, but realize that there is one who can make up what you lack.

It will all work out.  

When you think something is the end of the world, it never is.

When you think you've failed, you didn't.

When you think something awful will never end, it does.

When fear threatens to paralyze you and make decision for you, don't let it.

Because it will all work out.

I love my children so much.  There really aren't words.

I hope that I can remember to live every day showing them this instead.

I try my very best to do so.

Happy Mother's Day.

thoughts on a sunday- just pictures

We got home from Maui and after reuniting with our sweet children for not even an hour, our baby looked like this.  Home, sweet home.  Layla, sweet Layla.  One of my favorite pics of her, maybe ever.

Mack is really interested in weapons.  Shooting dad's bb gun in the backyard was really fun for him.

Princess Peach- my peach tree.  She blossomed and is super cute.  Grow little tree, grow.

I think I already posted this picture...maybe all of them?  But here are my girls testing out the medical field.  I love, love, love when they play together.

I also really love when these two spend time together.  McKay read Ellery a bedtime story and I wanted to capture that sweet moment between them.  

Puddle jumping in a spring rain storm.  

maui part two

maui part one

We have been waiting for this trip for a really long time.  We always hoped to do something big for our ten year anniversary.  We dreamt of being done with school and just living it up in paradise to celebrate our ten years together.  

It had to be a month after our actual anniversary, but we didn't mind- we were going to Maui!

My sweet dad offered to drive us to the airport.  Departure time 8:30 a.m.  This meant a 5:30 a.m. alarm clock.  Ugh.

We were unlucky enough to have a crazy flight plan to get to Maui.  First stop- layover in Minneapolis.  I don't even know.  Delta Sky Miles at their best.

   

It was a suuuuper long day of traveling, but I did come across these treasures in the airport on display at the Mattel store.  I had these!  Peaches 'n Cream and Barbie and the Rockers!  I didn't know my old barbies are now iconic.  Very exciting for me.

After a TWENTY ONE HOUR day- we finally got to our place in Maui and crashed.

And the next morning we got to wake up to this.  The view from our balcony.  It never got old to look at this view.

The next day was Sunday.  We wanted to get in the water SO bad.  First, because it was so beautiful.  But mostly because it was really hot.  We decided to go to the "Blow Hole" which is a hole in the mountain where the ocean's surf comes gushing out of- kind of like a geyser, but not at all like a geyser.

It was here, at the blow hole, that I became horrified at my outfit.  Look at my earrings.  I realized that wearing a normal outfit in the middle of the day in Maui is not at all common, at least among the tourists, and definitely not comfortable.  Brian was kind of horrified at my denim shorts and I'm not really sure if it was the setting in which I wore them, or just them on their own...Anyway, I realized that I didn't bring enough of the right kind of clothes to wear while hiking around Maui.

So I took off the earrings and left on the shorts.

Okay, that's all about my clothes.  I think.

On the hike down we saw this cool heart cutout in one of the cliffs.

 See what I did there?

I also got all fancy with my new phone and took this panoramic shot.  

Brian really loved the blow hole.  He was just really into it.  In fact, we actually went twice.  The first time there was nothing happening at the blow hole except crabs crawling around it.  So we decided to go home, check the tides and come back when it was higher.  And it was a good decision because it was really awesome when it was actually blowing.

Pretty rainbow and my shorts again.

 It was hard to tear him away.

Now might be a good time to mention that we forgot to bring a camera.  This was okay, because I had just gotten a new phone with a decent enough camera, but it also means that there are many shots like this, and that also explains the quality of the pictures we did take.

A beautiful scene on the drive back to our hotel.

That night we walked along the beach with the best sunset views, and although it was pretty cloudy, the sunset was quite lovely.  

Oh look!  Another one of these.

The next day we got up bright and early- Hawaii time- and headed out on a sailboat to go snorkeling at Molikini (a small island off of Maui).

 

This was definitely one of the favorite things we did.  There are dozens of boats that go to Molikini every morning.  Huge boats that hold tons of people and have big load motors and chug on out to the island and let all their passengers snorkel in one big pile.

Brian was smart enough to book our trip on a sailboat.  In order to get to the island, we had to use the motor, but on the way back they put up the sails, fed us a delicious lunch (including guava juice which I quickly became obsessed with) and we got to just relax with only the sound of the ocean and the feel of the wind.  We found a spot to ourselves on the back of the boat and just sat there and soaked it all in.  Brian also saw a whale off in the distance.  Amazing.

The snorkeling was really fun and I'm glad we did this first.  I LOVED snorkeling.  Probably my favorite thing about Hawaii.  It's interesting because the ocean really scares me- always has.  It's so huge, powerful, unpredictable and unknown.  Plus, you can't see what's going on under there.  But put some fins on me and a snorkel mask and my feelings changed completely.  Yeah, it's still unpredictable and powerful, but it's no longer a secret once you can see it.  I loved just observing the underwater world and just taking a peek into what goes on under there.  

Another thing I loved was I was an awesome swimmer in the ocean!  I am not very strong in the water, but the way you float in the ocean due to all the salt- I felt like Michael Phelps.  Not really, but I felt pretty good.  

 That night we went to Front Street in Lahaina.  They have a million touristy, beachy shops and restaurants along both sides of the street, which is right along the ocean.  We ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse and paid probably double what we would have back home, but it was still good.  

We both really liked Lahiania.  They had this park in the middle of everything with a huge banyon tree.  It was pretty neat, but it also housed some pretty unique characters as well.

This picture is funny because I think I was about to take a picture of this hula girl statue, like you do in Hawaii, and Brian was in the middle of making fun of me for it when a nice lady walking by asked if we wanted her to take a picture for us.  I of course said yes, like you do, and this is the fine shot we got.    This is a fake smile from Brian.  

We ended the night with Hawaiian gelato (is that a thing) and it was really tasty.  

smartie

McKay had parent teacher conference earlier this month.  Brian was off early, so we were both able to go and sit down with Mrs. McKell and talk about our boy.

McKay is a good boy.  She only had one bad thing to say about him- that he fights with Kylee.  She's tried to get to the bottom of their falling out, but no one, not even McKay and Kylee, can explain it.  I wasn't surprised by this, but we've been talking more about it at home now.

But, that's not even worth mentioning, really, because everything else she said about McKay was great.
He's a good boy.  He's a sweet boy, and I think his teachers can easily see that.

Hundred things poster- one hundred paper airplanes.  He is really into paper airplanes right now and this was all his idea.  We worked hard to make all those tiny paper airplanes, and they we hot glued them all together.  It was pretty awesome.

His teacher evaluation.  He's doing awesome!

Some artwork- maybe a future self portrait?

I love this little buddy.  He's a joy in my life.

thoughts on an easter sunday

Just a few thoughts about Easter that I want to record tonight...

We had a really great lesson in Sunday School today about Easter.  I was surprised at how touched I was by the Spirit because I was not feeling particularly "in tune" this morning.  It was a nice surprise.  The teacher shared her feelings on the resurrection taking on new, deeper meaning when someone close to you dies.  This made me think of death and resurrection and how closely tied those two things are.  

My mind went right to Ellery and how someone close to her died- Sparkles.  I know, it's just a guinea pig and I know that Elle really didn't care too much for Sparkles when she was alive, but there was grief when she passed, and that grief still comes up from time to time.  

I sat there in Sunday School and just marveled at how comforting the knowledge of a resurrection is.  I don't know if Sparkles will be resurrected or not, but Ellery is certain that she will- we talk about it all the time- and that knowledge has helped her to over come the innocent grief that came with loosing a pet.  It made me think of how one day Ellery will loose someone close to her, and how this- Sparkles and her faith in her resurrection- is just a building block of  that faith she will some day use in a much more real, deeper way.  

I realized how grateful I am to have this knowledge to share and teach to my children- to ease their pain and sorrow a little bit when they are faced with death.  They will have this knowledge to keep and hold on to and use.  

Hmm, I didn't intend to focus so much on death here- just kind of happened.  I was lucky enough to have that spirit carry over to young women's where we watched a video and discussed repentance.  I wasn't teaching today, so I just sat and as I watched the video of Christ going through his final days, I imagined what I would want to share with the girls had I been teaching.  The thing that came to mind was watching that video- seeing what the Savior went through and how he suffered and imagining the pain and agony he was in- with the thought, "He did this for me".  I watched it that way and every scene I came upon was personal to me.  I wanted my beehives to know that no matter what they experience in this life- heartache, sin, loneliness, pain, regret, sorrow- He has been there.  He is right there with them.  And His grace can cover all of that pain and hurt and regret.

After church as I was teaching my kids with our little plastic eggs with symbols of the resurrection in them, I thought about when I gained a testimony of the Resurrection, the Atonement, and just what Easter means in general.  I didn't have an answer.  Like so many things, I think it just built up over time, through the experiences in my life and what I've learned.  It's interesting to not be able to pinpoint something that is so important.  It's interesting that something that happened gradually can become something so strong.

We asked the kids if they wanted to share their testimonies after I finished with the lesson.  Ellery went first.  Then McKay.  Then Ellery again.  And Layla.  And finally, Ellery.  Yeah, she kept asking to do it again, which was very sweet.  I loved hearing the inflection's that they've heard and are trying to imitate.  I hope we can teach them.  I hope we can be good examples to them and that they can share our testimonies while they are developing their own.  And I hope so much that gradually, over time and through their experiences, they will come out with something strong and good and sturdy.  That is my hope this Easter.

and always...

Happy Easter Sunday.

thoughts on a sunday

• McKay used to love playing with animals, but Ellery never played with them as much.  I had forgotten about them for Layla, but added them to our upstairs toy basket when I rotated it this week.  She set them up like this and played with them for a long time. . . in her undies of course. I think she's a fan.  

• When Layla wakes up she has a one track mind: Eat breakfast.  It's her top priority, and it's almost always oatmeal.  She usually wakes up first, so her and I will go down and I will fix her a bowl of oatmeal.  Most mornings she asks for seconds, so I'll make her another bowl.  Awhile later, when McKay and Ellery are having their breakfast, she'll usually ask for whatever they're having.  She eats like three meals at breakfast.

• We try to go to Storytime at the Lehi library with Gemma and Carson every Thursday.  My girls love it so much and whenever I go I wonder why I don't take more advantage of more library Storytimes.  Layla desperately wants to have some sort of school, so between this and nursery I think she's feeling pretty good about it.  The Lehi library does a great job.

• Nonnie had an infection in her leg and my mom was changing her dressing.  It's so obvious that I am the only non-nurse in my family, because I was cringing just sitting near by, knowing what was going on.  My mom said she needed some help and Ellery popped right by her side and declared herself the assistant.  She was right in the action and not affected by it at all.  Maybe we'll have another nurse in the family someday...

• You know how missionaries trade and barter for things?  I don't know if you know about that, but in the Auckland mission, it happened.  Brian somehow traded his way to an ENORMOUS pair of gray sweatpants.  I'm talking very large, Samoan football player's sweatpants.  He has kept them all these years, and somehow they became part of his race gear.  He brings them on races and wears them before it starts to keep warm.  This surprised and confused me because if I were running a race I think I'd like to pack light, and these things are pretty hefty.  Anyway, the other night I was folding laundry and was folding these pants- Brian had just run the Moab half.  We started talking about the sweats and McKay decided to try them on.  I was laughing so hard.  He was like a giant pair of pants with a head.  He wanted to wear them to bed, and we didn't think he would be able to fall asleep but when we checked on him later, he was fast asleep, nestled deep inside the pants.

• We had a pretty big anniversary to celebrate this week.  Brian and I have been married for ten years!  Since we're going to Hawaii in April to officially celebrate this milestone, we didn't really plan anything...except I accidentally planned a family outing to see Les Mis at Lone Peak High School.  So I pretended that I had planned it on purpose.  We did get to go to lunch earlier that day, which was nice.  We went to Chili's.  Brian and I used to go to Chili's all the time.  It's actually where we went on our first date.  I ordered a side of mashed potatoes and gravy and Brian thought I was strange.  Anyway, we haven't been to Chili's in probably six years, but I picked it for our ten year anniversary lunch date.  It wasn't that good, but then it was kinda good- I couldn't decide how I felt.  We probably won't be back anytime soon.

• Enough about Chili's, goodness.  Ten years is kind of a long time.  We were thinking about all that had happened in these ten years.  I kind of feel like we are not at all the same people who sat at Chili's on their first date and ate mashed potatoes.  No.  We've both changed a lot.  I'm glad I've gotten to spend these years with him and glad that we both still like each other.  And, I can't wait to go to Hawaii to officially celebrate!

• Ellery is counting down the days until we go because she can't wait to be babysat for a whole week by Grandma.  It can't come soon enough for her.

• Okay, back to the play.  We really enjoyed it.  We had an extra ticket, so Grandma came with us, which was even more fun.  Brian and I are fans of the musical, and love the music.  After we saw the movie in December, we've been listening to it more often at home.  I have often heard the kids stuck on a song as well, and sometimes they would ask what it was about.  I tried to explain- but it's a pretty complicated story to tell to children.  That's why when I heard Lone Peak was doing the play, I really wanted to take the opportunity to go and have my kids see it for themselves.  It was long- nearly three hours- and they did awesome.  We sat right in the front row, right behind the orchestra.  I know a lot of it went  over their heads, but I think they kind of get it now.

• Layla got to spend that night with the Allreds.  She loves it over there and loved getting all that attention to herself.  That whole day I kept prepping her about falling asleep in Alyssa's bed, hoping she would do it easily.  She didn't.  She stayed up until ten o'clock, where she then fell asleep in between Lisa and Trevor in their bed.  Stinker.

• Earlier this week, back when it was Spring time, I took the girls to the park.  They wanted to stay all day and loved the tire swing the most.  Ash and Elle tried the monkey bars, but couldn't do them.  They kept trying and practicing and working really hard.  It was cute to see their determination.  Ash eventually got all the way across, and Ellery almost made it to the end- she was close.  I'm sure that she'll be trying again the next time we go.  Layla wanted in on the monkey bars too.  She hung on for a surprisingly long time.  Long enough for me to get my phone out, turn the camera on and snap a few pictures. 

Happy Sunday!