Mike and I really wanted to follow the prophets advice to not over schedule our kids. We decided that we would let them choose one activity at a time. I was planning to put them into dance this summer, but then they decided they wanted to do swim lessons instead. So I was disappointed. I LOVE ballet and I've always wanted my girls to be, so I have decided to home teach them. :) It was very fun! This was the kick off day! I was taking more pictures than teaching but we all had a good time. So far, in the 3 weeks we have done it, we have learned and practiced: the feet positions, arm positions, plies, and exploring the shapes we can make with our bodies. Tsadakah came up with some silly animal shapes, like a camel that spits! haha it was really funny and made me laugh so hard. I got a video of it I will have to share.

 Eliannah was more interested in jumping like a frog. No surprise there. But she learned more than she let on. She was showing my dad things that she had learned and I was happy to see all that she had remembered. :)

Eliannah Turned 4!

 My Princess Eliannah turned 4 on Wednesday, April 18th. Ive been prepping everything for her BIG party so her actual Birthday was low key. We started with "Good Morning-its-your-Birthday-excitement!" Which was mostly egged on  by Tsadakah. She chose breakfast and then they went to play until I took them to the store. We stayed out shopping until MiKaylah had an accident on aisle 5 at Dollar Tree! eek!
She wants so badly to open her presents but I make her wait until Daddy comes home. She opens her present just seconds after Mike arrives home. We play her Pop Goes Froggeo and then order Pizza.

The Party was on Saturday. I have worked so hard for this party! It really has been on my mind for months! Because of her love for frogs we decided to do a Princess and the Frog Party. I chose the colors green apple and lavender. It was beautifully decorated and that was the least expensive part.

 Eliannah, just minutes before her guests arrived playing with a lantern.

 I made that crown. It was one of my favorite things that turned out well for the party.

 The first thing that I had the kids do was color pictures of Tiana on cardstock.

The second game/activity was kiss the frog. My very talented friend, Melissa Chalmers, painted this frog of Prince Navine. Gabby was so sweet to help the kids to the frog and so 100% of the lipstick kisses were planted right on his lips. :)

 Tsadakah and Eliannah playing Kiss the Frog.

 Then we played Leap Frog! I was so excited to catch Eliannah mid-jump on this one. She did awesome! She is a natural lil jumper! She must have springs for legs cause she was the best jumper of all the guests at the party, including her big sister.

 More of the Leap Frog lineup: Abby, Tsadakah, MiKaylah, Gabby. (Cambree in back)

 The best game and hit of the party was Twinkle, Twinkle, Wishing Star (Duck, Duck, Goose) I made a Foam Star with gold glitter on it to look like Angeline. I put velcrow on the back so when the girls selected who they wanted they just stuck it in her hair.  Clockwise: Ellie, Cambree, Tsadakah, Kensie, Abby, Eliannah, Madison.
Most of the girls ignored MiKaylah, but she sat there waiting the whole game anyway! Finally on the last round Tsadakah took pity on her and chose her. Because she had been watching she knew exactly what to do. Without any instruction or encouragement she shot up and ran! She is SO cute!

 After the games we went to do a craft. I had planned these darling little frogs and I thought that they would be easy for the kids to make...I was wrong! They all needed a lot of help so I ended up glueing each one. For this reason I didn't get to see Eliannah open her presents. My wonderful mom who had come to enjoy, support, and encourage, headed that one up.

 Yep, see here I am glueing away! But some of the parents told me later how cute they thought the frogs were, so that makes it all good.

 For food we had...ta da...beniets! Just like what Tiana was famous for making. We also ate Aligator French Bread Pizza (not pictured :( ) I went through a lot of trouble to re-fill Tabasco bottles with marenara sauce for the kids to put extra on their pizza. it didn't get used, but it was a cute idea, right?

 The cakes. The first one is Tiana Frog as Eliannah describes it, and the second is her dress. One thing that I have learned from this party is that I am just an ametuer! I look at stuff on Pinterest and elsehere and I think, I can do that! But then I try and it turns out way mediocre. *sigh. The frog turned out ok, but the dress...if you can even call it that...Whew...was nothing near what I was imagining. However, it tasted amazing! I tried a new recipe for the frosting and it was divine! It was fluffy and light. Yum!

 MiKaylah eating her beniet. We worried that nobody would eat them but there was one little girl who ate three! Yay, that makes this hostess feel so great!

 Right before the Happy Birthday Song. Eliannah, Brooklyn, Bryson.

 Singing.

 Every time my dad comes to visit and we serve a desert we load him up and then send him home with all the left overs because I don't eat sugar and Mike's a salty snacks person. So it was really funny cause he was begging Mike to go easy on him and just give him a little bit. This what he gave him. lol see how much my dad is laughing?

The party favors basket. I made a Tiana crown for each guest and filled their bags with every froggy nic-nac I could find...even the sticky ones on a string that sticks to the walls.

 My friend, Alyssa and her baby Soliel. Just thought this was sweet.

 I really loved the effect that these streamers had! I scrunched them and twisted them to make it feel like you were in the Bayou. Paper lanterns are my new favorite decoration!. I also made the colorful jars to be like Mama Odie's house. You cant see it but I also folded 20 origami lilies.

 A beautiful numb-o-gram of her age.

 Her name banner

 The front entrance to the party. I made 2 felt froggies to have clinging to the strings of the balloons, just  like in the movie.

At the end I had each girl stand in front of the poster for a picture, kind of like a home made photo booth. Like I said, a lot of it was me trying to be a pro and falling short. lol

My Eliannah is so much energy. She has to volumes, barely a whisper OR full blast, there is nothing between. She is either Really upset or really happy. She is content to play by herself a lot of the time and she is a bit feisty.

I love how passionate she is. The other day I was at the store trying to use the "If you don't come I'm leaving without you" trick on MiKaylah. Eliannah starts screaming at the top of her lungs (so everyone in the store is looking at us) and runs between me and the door. She starts pushing me backwards while balling "Don't  leave her! You can't leave her!" It makes me want to cry for joy when I think about how much she loves both of her sisters!

I love to hear her sing. She is good at it and picks up the lyrics of songs quickly. I will often hear her say "this is the firework song" or "Its the fire-rain song." Throughout the day she is sometimes singing made up songs that don't have anything to do with anything, but her lil voice is so sweet!

I also love her imagination. She can turn anything into exactly what she wants it to be. A domino block is a pizza, a tooth brush is  a princess, or a sock is a mermaid fin for her barbie. The best thing about her imagination is that if she wants something that you have told her no about you can tell her to pretend that something else is whatever she wants and then she is happy as a can be. I have solved many a problems with that one. :)

I completely LOVE my little Princess Eliannah! XOXOXO & Happy Birthday!

Debbie & Cesar Visit

April 11th, I had a Tooele Friends Playdate. It was so fun to see so many women again who I haven't seen in so long! These women have been there for me for 3 1/2  years. I have grown to love them so much. My roomate from college move to Tooele a few months ago and she was able to come too. I was happy to introduce her to all these wonderful women. There was: Alyssa (roomate), Cori, Denelle, Joanna, and Brooke ( Who had just had a baby a week before! Amazing!)

I love each of them for their talents and their uniqueness. Each relationship is personally special. Kindred spirits who are self sacreficing and can make me laugh.

That night I put my kids to bed as usual. I actually got to bed earlier (10:30, I have trouble sleeping when Mike isnt around) So MiKaylah wakes up at midnight. I go to her room and...the light is ON! I am like 90% sure that I turned her light off when I put her to bed. I was SO scared and creeped out! I got her back to sleep and then I checked on my girls. I looked in their closets and play rooms. I went back to bed but I couldn't shake the fear! I woke up every half hour with the heart stopping shiver down your back. I would get up and check all the doors and locks again. Then I would check the windows. My girls wind chime was driving me nutso. There was even a  time that I tried to sleep with Tsadakah in her bed. It wasn't until the sun was shining outside my window that I was able to sleep soundly. Needless to say i was really tired the next day.

I am really into watching Samantha Who on Netflix. I know that it is silly but I just LOVE her friend Andrea! Maybe its embarrassing to admit it that I am so in love with watching the show but I just want to see Samantha get together with Todd...and watch Andrea to mimic her. lol

On Saturday the 14th Debbie and Cesar visited with their girls, Bobbie, Sarah, and Brooklynn. Debbie is Mike's sister. We had such a good time. We ate delicious food and Debbie and Cesar helped Mike build the deck. I played with the girls (So FUN!) Sarah loves to cook and wants to go to culinary school. She will start the early program for high schoolers next year. So...I got out all of my cookbooks and we found her like 10 that we copied for her to keep. Then we watch the best episodes of Cake Boss (Sadye and I watch it together) which were, Bridezilla, Baby story, and the dinosaur one.

Then we got out my Mary Kay samples and played with makeup because Brooklynn wants to be a Cosmetologist. I also got out my hair styling books and taught her how to french braid.

Bobbie likes photography and she is really good at it too. I was going to have her take our much needed family picture, but the best plans of mice and men...

Tsadakah and Eliannah went to a Birthday Party for the boy across the street. They had so much fun! They just loved being there together. He got a car and he took them each for a ride. He still does whenever we are out there. They are fantastic neighbors and I look forward to getting to know them better all the time. :)

Their visit was SO enjoyable. They plan to come back again  in two weeks and we are looking forward to it!

Easter

The week before Easter got quite confusing. lol I would go shopping for it but still be completely thinking about my plans for Eliannah's bday. I would see some Easter candy and think, "now how can I make related to a frog theme?" As you can tell I was completely mentally absorbed in prepping for her to turn 4!

We went to Mike's sister, Stefanie's house for the Easter celebrations. On Saturday we did traditional Easter Egg hunts. The younger kids went first. There were some coin eggs and some fun lil prizes, but they weren't hard to find.

Here is Eliannah. I found these darling hats at Dollar Tree. I loved them, and my girls loved them. They look so cute in them!

Tsadakah searching for an egg.

All three of my sweeties!

Mike giving MiKaylah five for having found one all by herself. :)

Tsadakah heading in after finding her max number of eggs.

Inside looking through her loot!

MiKaylah had no problem figuring out what to do next. Open and eat!

Eliannah giving MiKaylah a little sugar! Go ahead and say it, "Ahhh"

MiKaylah telling Ellie to buzz off! hee hee

Tsadakah's silly face.

I think that Tsadakah is so beautiful! All my girls are! I get so much joy out of taking their pictures.

Later that evening we went to sushi. Ate SO much. I was quite adventurous. Love the ones with avocado! Then we went to Stefanie's daughters dance recital. It was a beautiful and entertaining production. They geared to towards kids really well so even my youngest two were engaged in it for almost the whole thing. In the beginning Eliannah was being so cute and funny! She clapped and cheered louder than anyone. And when they were prepping for the next number she yelled as loud as she could, "More, I want to see more!"

Our lil' nieces did so well. Makes me wanna be young again!

 Late that night we let the kids open their baskets all together with cousins.

The "Easter Bunny" brought sunglasses! New thing that will be happening every year from now on. I like to try to think of fun things that are not in the candy category or the toy category.

Tsadakah's tooth was SO loose. I kept begging her to let me pull it. I was sure it would come out any day!

On Easter Sunday we went to church and then relaxed, hung out, dyed eggs (in PLASTIC BAGS!!) and made a grand lunch.

For dinner we met up with Stefanie's husband, Jonathan's family. They have a cool tradition where they eat fish and honeycomb symbolic because that is what He ate with the disciples after He was resurrected. They also served lamb, which I was so excited about!

When I think about all that my Savior has done for me I feel humbled because It is never ending. Everyday I make mistakes the leave me on my knees again repenting. I need Him not only every day, not only every hours, but every minute, every second! I know that His love is infinite. And I know what infinite means, all powerful, all consuming, everlasting, and unbreakable!

May His love be always in your heart.

General Conference

We recently got this little table for the girls to sit on at meal times. It is SO darling! I love it because I can help them with all of their food needs much easier than when they were on the big table. It also cleans up easier.

 We also got a new back door. It is BEAUTIFUL!  It is a sliding glass door which I have liked after all because I don't have to take up living space on either side of the door for swing space. It is more efficient and did I mention that it is beautiful! Mike installed it all by himself! He is great! We chose a thick molding to trim it up which I am so in love with I don't want to put up drapes because I feel it will cover or distract from the gorgeousness!

On Wednesday, March 28th, Mike was off work and said he wanted to go to Pizza Hut's all-you-can-eat buffet. We love going there! It was very good as usual.

Thursday I was so very sick! I haven't been that sick for a long time. Tsadakah was sick too and MiKaylah had it but not as bad. I thought for sure that it was food poisoning. Friday we were all feeling better so we stuck to our plan to go to my parent's on Saturday nihgt. Unfortunately Eliannah's manifested itself just hours after we got there. :( Not food poisoning after all)

When we first got to their house we dyed Easter eggs with my mom and sister, Leah, while the men were at conference. I also enjoyed painting my nails with my nieces. They are real fun to talk to now. They enjoy dance like I do and I live vicariously through them. *sigh! Ahh to be young again. Olivia is doing Ballroom and wanted desperately to do a Cabaret. Anna is in Ballet and learning point. Jealousy on both accounts, Ballroom because I miss it, and Point because I always wanted to.

For General Conference we went stayed at my parents house for  Sunday breakfast. And since it was April Fools day, my dad couldn't resist playing a prank. He put a worm on his plate and freaked out and made a scene about it. It was funny, but it didn't fool us for very long. But my niece and nephew both lost their appetites.

I really love all the speakers in Conference and as I listen to them again online it seems like me favorite always seems to be the one that I am listening to at the moment. I just feel so inspired! Saturday morning session I loved the talk by Packer an then the Primary President who followed right after. Its like they were meant just for me to help me right off the bat with what I felt I was struggling with and praying for help in. The messages about making family a priority and time spent with kids.

And then Saturday afternoon session the talk that I remember most was Elder Richard G. Scott's (Who I really always feel like he had me personally in mind when he wrote his talk) talk about being able to still have a personal relationship with ancestors from beyond the veil. It got me to thinking, what if you could choose an ancestor to be your spiritual mentor or guardian angel? Who would you choose? Who from your family do you greatly admire? I would really love to be mentored from Mary Fielding Smith. She is my Family History Hero. Mostly because I admire the way she treated her children and raised them without yelling. I also would choose Helen B. Adeline. I have read her book so many times I feel like I do know her, though I never remember meeting her. She was, in my opinion, the perfect wife.

Because I love all the talks and I think everyone else could say the same, I like to ask people if they notices a common theme through out the conference. Interestingly enough you can get so many answers and I think its because we are all hearing what we need most to hear by the power of the Holy Spirit. The theme I continued to notice was Grace and Mercy. We believe in both the grace of God and in good works, but sometimes, I think that we get so caught up in the works that we forget how sweet the Mercy is too. (We need "gentle" reminders now and then).  I absolutely loved Elder Holland's talk! Him saying that it makes God happy to give Mercy to His children was such a beautiful concept to me.

Although I don't know the speakers name I really liked the one who said that if you are walking by a person drowning you wouldn't ask if they need help and just wait for them to answer, you would jump on in and save them. So true for Visiting Teaching. Women don't usually tell you what they need, you have to perceive it and go and do it.  Also loved Perry's talk and Uchtdorf's.

I may not be Super Mom, but I super LOVE my kids.

Tsadakah believes that she has created a new word, Malicious. Her definition is a synonym for delicious. Haha