8 is Great!

It finally happened - I have an 8 year old! I couldn't let this milestone pass without posting about it. Eight is a very special birthday for members of our church because 8 years old is considered the age of accountability -- when a person becomes old enough to really understand right and wrong and can choose to be baptized. My baptism day was a very special memory for me, and I've hoped Lily would have good memories of hers as well. Just having her Grandma and Grandpa from California who we love and miss so being around so much was a good starting point! Having the people you love around you is all you really need!

Lily drew what she wanted for her dress and I made it.

Lily wanted a pirate themed birthday so I thought a treasure chest birthday cake with "pieces of eight" would go nicely. We let her invite everyone she wanted to because surely they all wouldn't be able to make it on a summer afternoon, but everyone came! It was a quite a large group and Lily actually wants to go smaller next birthday because of it --- which it perfectly alright with me! We had a party at home with a bouncy house and treasure hunt and Mike made the pinata. We didn't really plan that much in the way of party games, but just let the kids make their own fun. It was so nice having all the family that could come attend, even though some of them live close everyone is so busy we don't get to see them enough!

I am so glad to be Lily's mom! She is one special, sweet little girl!

Beginning of Summer

Haven't posted in a while - life has been too crazy and I'm less crazy when I get more sleep :)

I barely made it past the point of no return tonight and I'm sure it would've been wiser to go to bed than blog because I still need to catch up on sleep after pulling an all nighter to sew Lily's baptism dress this week....but here I am - trying to add some good memories to the old blog! Life has been a bit stressful lately, but I am trying not to live in panic mode and focus on the positive. 

Mike and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary and his mom watched the girls for us the entire day and let them sleepover. It was awesome. (I totally intend to post photos, but not tonight.) It was a much needed break, and I really didn't realize how much stress the kids add to our lives until we picked them up again the next morning... Don't think this means I don't love you, Lily and Sierra reading this in the future... Someday when you have kids you will totally get me. It is just a big responsibility being a parent and you two just happen to be going through a particularly needy stage at the time and your mom and dad are stressed about making a living, and keeping you safe and happy in a crazy world - that's all! And that's a lot! But we're still super glad we have you and you bring a tremendous amount of joy into our lives and actually relieve stress at times when you are being funny or extra helpful. Especially helpful. I love helpful!!

I feel like a bad mom for not posting any of the cute/funny things my girls say and do lately and for forgetting many of them. I have a few written down to post later somewhere in my desk. But for now I just wanted to say how much I absolutely adore these two small humans!

Lily can be quite the fashionista. She assembled these two outfits to pretend to be door to door salesgirls and trick their Dad (with much giggling). So tricky! Sierra looked so grown up in that long skirt that is really Lily's and hiked up to her shoulders under that jacket! :D

Here is another fashion ensemble by our littlest model:

I love my girls so much. We had a blast getting out and enjoying the sunshine in our little kiddie pool. These faces say: "This is the life!"  I so need to take more time just enjoying time with my precious children.

  They are so fun and silly!

Lily had a big milestone week now that she is almost 8! -- She baked her first batch of cookies all by herself with only a little instruction to get her started. She cracked the eggs and got the hot pans out of the oven and everything. She made snickerdoodles which turned out so good and softer than mine, and the experimental chocolate chip one for her dad turned out so good she made a second half batch because the first just wasn't enough. I was so proud of her for seeing it through even after her neighbor friend came over and cleaning up after herself! And milestone 2 - she finally learned how to blow a bubblegum bubble!

I love this picture of them drawing Father's Day cards for Mike and their Grandpa's. 

 Lily's for her Dad

 Sierra's

It is so fun to see their skills develop in a concrete way like this :)

 Lily and her awesome dad on Father's day

Don't know if you remember how Sierra wanted to win the Golden Shoe award during the Fund Run at Lily's school? Well, maybe her 2 laps counted for something - because Lily's class won the shoe! I had to take a picture of Sierra with it when we visited Lily's class near the end of school. Lily was a parrot in a play she wrote with her classmates performing a scene from the book Matilda. 

 Don't think they make them cuter than this!

 Not exactly cooperating for my picture, but cute nonetheless!

We took the girls to the lake last week and it was so beautiful, though we kept getting clouds coming over. Hoping to get some more hot clear days soon this summer so we can get out and really enjoy it!

This sure is a beautiful world we live in! Hope you are having a wonderful summer!

Memorial Day Weekend and more

The school year is finally winding down and we are counting the days until summer and trying to finish up projects so when it hits we can focus on fun and relax - when we aren't working that is. We have been so busy this last week painting the house + everything else we have been going non stop til we are exhausted at the end of every night, but I have been feeling better & happier than I have in a long time, and am kinda not looking forward to being done. It's been fun working side by side with Mike, being outside, working with my hands, seeing our progress, working hard & pushing ourselves to do more. All good things for the soul!

We went to Lily's school to participate in their Fund Run yesterday so even though our bodies were exhausted from painting we ran around a track for half an hour to try to support Lily and try to help her class win the coveted "Golden Shoe." Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. It was fun to see Lily goofing around and running backwards along the track with a friend, calling out to other friends, mostly ignoring and running separately from the parentals :) Sierra was so cute with her marathon number strapped on her back racing as fast as she could yards up ahead of her mom and dad trying to win the prize. I didn't have the heart to tell her she couldn't win the golden shoe for herself, just for Lily's class - at least she was helping her sister :) She made it 2 laps and then went to play on the playground. After school we had a fun playdate picnic at the park with Lily's friend and her friend's little sister who is Sierra's age while Mike kept plugging away at painting. It was so cute to see Sierra make friend's with a little curly haired boy her size, and eagerly reach in the bag to grab handfuls of cheetos to feed his baby sister, dropping half of them on the ground in the transfer from little hand to little hand. It was so funny! So proud of those moments when they eagerly share!

I went with Lily's class on two field trips the last couple of weeks and got some pictures from that. We, or I should more accurately say - Mike's dad - had a garage sale at our house the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We sold some stuff too, but it was mostly his sale. We did sell an old car Mike bought from a neighbor so we'd have a spare, and we were glad to see it go and get our money back. It was a good idea to have a cheaply obtained emergency vehicle, but the car was just too ugly - and the battery kept draining, but the guy who bought it was excited to get it anyway. To each his own!

Still need to post pictures from Sierra's birthday and our Memorial Day picnic to Indian Painted Rocks, and of the improvements we've made to the house, but I'll wait to do that til we're done painting!

Here's from the Manito Park field trip:

 

 I was thrilled another girl in the class was actually asking me to take

their picture and Lily was going along with it - they actually posed!

 (This kind of cooperation is rare for my girls right now)

 Such a beautiful park with so many lovely gardens!

Mine is the crazy further up in the trail by the roses

 - not the one sticking close to the chaperone. 

Bunny ears are just so hilarious right now 

Having fun! 

Can you tell which one is mine? 

Group photo - got to see some turtles in the duck pond.

The garage sale,

and Mike's first day painting when he just couldn't wait to begin :)

Shouldn't be long now - we just have the deck, front stairs, and trim to finish...and the shed to match, Oh, and the fence...yup...shouldn't be too long...zzzz...   ;)