Forth of July Vacation!

For the 4th this year, our fam went to charleston, SC. We had sooo much fun. The girls were really good and loved the beach so that made it even more fun! Here's some pics of the highlights, (more pics on flickr, if you are craving more)

Please take a moment to look at this picture, as you can only imagine how difficult it was to get us all in a picture with decent looks on our faces. (tom had to set the camera up, making this picture extra memorable)


kiki does not get left out of anything Halle is doing, she has to be involved in everything.

getting pictures of kiera is a lot easier then getting pictures of Halle, shes such a ham.
These pictures are all from the children' s museum, it was the coolest children's museum i've ever been to! it made it harder to come back home where the funnest thing to do in our city is go to the mcdonalds playland.

this area of the museum like a huge castle, secret passage ways, kitchen dress up area, beds, it was so cool, it was all kid sized so me and tom both took a turn whacking our heads on the low ceilings.

me and kiks, yup, we're adorable!

wiped out after a day on the beach! we turned kiks car seat around early so she could enjoy the dvd player and looking out the window, it made for a much easier trip.

Isn't this museum cool? this was a huge boat that the kids could play on, it even had a bed and kitchen inside. ok, so i was more excited about this museum then the kids, i still can't get over it!
kiks walking around in this wizard out fit was halarious!

Once again, me humilating/torturing my kids for a good laugh and a good picture.
look at this castle! y'all probably have nice children's museums where you live, our children' s museum here is basically a playroom, as big as my living room, so this was amazing to me.

there was a sign that said, "6 items at a time". a little girl came and told me halle was getting too many items, I said, "well, she can't count, so she can get as many as she wants"
this store looked so real, it was halle's favorite part of the day!

it was pretty realistic, even the freezer aisle was blowing cold air.

the humidity plus salt water made the sand impossible to get off our bodies, so i took a few pics of the girls as soon as we got to the beach and never was able to take the camera back out for fear of ruining it. but they loved the beach, sand and waves, kiks was as usual fearless crawling right into the waves, halle wouldn't go near it with out holding our hands. just to get kiera to be still , we had to dig her a big hole and fill with water like her own personal beach side bath tub.

yummm....sand

does a tiera go with this outfit?

She's Walking!

MOV05001
Originally uploaded by Our Little One

Little kiki is walking. she is walking more then crawling starting today, it was about 50/50. she has been practicing so hard, just pacing the floor and practicing her turns. she still falls a lot, but can stand back up without pulling herself up. I am glad to get her hands off the ground, its more tempting for them to put every little thing in there mouth when they're on the ground all day. now i have to convince her to wear shoes, i put on those soft sole shoes today for about 5 minutes, she was so angry and let me know it.
she needs to get steady on her feet and i'm sure her and halle will be running around pretty soon!

speakin' southern

I forgot to write something funny that happened at that redneck festival....we were sitting on a wagon ride, halle was chatting with a little boy around her age. He had a VERY thick southern accent. He pointed to a duck pond and said, (please try to say this line with your very best southern impression, think jeff foxworthy) "look at dem bi-bay ducks" (translation: look at them baby ducks). Halle turned to me and said, "mommy, look at those bi-bay ducks" (i think she thought he taught her a new kind of duck). My stomach turned and my thoughts of homeschooling the kids were reinforced. then he said, "look at dem guess" (translation: look at them geese). This time Halle looked at him and said, "those aren't guess, those are geese". I was proud of her for standing up for correct English.

Celebrating Southern Style!!

Living in the south is sometimes like living in a movie for me, a redneck, halarious movie. We went to the rock ranch to celebrate the Forth of July this year. It reminded me a lot of the redneck olympics that we went to in dublin, ga a few years except this was for kids. Here are some pictures of the events: (more pics on flickr if this isn't enough for you)




why is it the good girls always go for the bad boys!!

kiera loves to tip over backwards in chairs. aren't we cute?

Georgia Gators, Watch out Halle!
Kiks going for a ride! she played on this for almost an hour!

kiks riding the bull!

down the slide!

redneck style ball pit: a pit full of dry corn kernals.

both the girls had a blast swimning in this.

Redneck bumper cars. Halle couldn't steer very well, in her car, and didn't want to wait in line, so tom would ask a boy if she could ride with them, of course they didn't care and halle loved the ride (and yes, even at a young age, boys are better drivers then girls, these boys were like 2-3 years old and were tearing this course up!)

This is tom doing this bungee flip thing, he had a blast!

This is the average age of the other "kids" doing the bungee flip thing. tom was the only adult, i think he was the only person over 8 years old that did it!
we did this till we were sick, i think that was about 1 1/2 times.

yup, thats halle stuck in the hay. i guess she inherited her driving skills from me.
so, we saw "cow train rides" on the web site and were hoping that we would get to ride actual cows. i guess this turned out to make more sense.

ok, so if your getting tired of my "aren't my kids adorable" posts, then skip this next sentence.....halle looked so cute at this festival that 2 different newspaper photographers asked to take her picture, this was one of the times where they took her pic. aren't my kids adorable?!
kiks got to ride the pony too, it took a while for her to smile about it.

this was huge bouncy thing. it was so fun, i'd never seen anything like it!


Pioneer women! you can rent these covered wagons, they have 4 bunk beds in them, and your family can spend the night. definetly not for the garrett gals, but i thought it was a cool idea.

Girly Girl

ok, so there's girly girls and then one step above that is Halle. She is all girl. I really don't understand how her girliness surpasses mine, i don't know where she learned it. She loves makeup. as we walked by a SAlly's beauty supply store, her eyes lit up like she was looking at a candy store. I told her the store was closed and she nearly had a panic attack as she choked out the words, "but, i think my lipstick from this morning has rubbed off". i tried to assure her that i could still see it. She loves to put on lipstick and when she's done she says, "now i need something to make it shine" (meaning I need lipgloss on top). When we are getting ready to leave the house, she is quickly accessorizing herself, something anyone who knows me, knows I never do! she grabs a matching purse, bracelet, necklace, her princess cell phone, ect. she even tells me, " i have to go upstairs and get a different bracelet", me: whats wrong with the one you have? Halle, "this one doesn't match my dress". I think sometimes she's actually embarrassed for me that I don't know things like that. She loves to match her shoes to her dress and likes to help me pick out Kiera's outfit to match her dress. A few times she tried to talk me into putting kiera in a dress during the week, I had to explain to her that kiera doesn't like dresses because she can't crawl in them as quickly. Halle seemed horrified until i explained that kiera would like them when she got older. Halle hasn't asked me yet to get her ears peirced, although she has asked me to wear earings, something I never do. the other day she told me, "mommy, when me and kiera are big like a mama, we are going to get our ears peirced". Last week I got a pedicure (my second pedicure ever, last one 5 years ago). I came home and explained to Halle what a pedicure was (washing feet/painting toes). Halle stared at me in awe, like I was describing heaven to her. I really felt like she would have enjoyed and appreciated the pedicure more then i did. Immediately, she begged me to paint her nails and of course, kiera's nails, which we did. At least a few times a day she asks me and tom, "don't I look pretty?" Tom loves halle's girly side, he's always up for a tea party, my little ponies, or a game of pretty pretty princess (and of course, he'll wear the jewelry). One time he let halle stick princess stickers all over his shirt before they went to the store, and since we live in a fairly small town, someone who saw them at the store, saw me with Halle the next day and told me that Halle had a pretty cool dad. I had to agree!
We love watching Halle get all glamoured up and walk around this house like she's a superstar!

Bribes, Bribes, Bribes

We are making progress on potty training, slow progress, but i'm satisfied that at least we are moving forward. Halle has not had an accident for weeks now. I am usually the one to suggest that she go sit on the potty , but she tells me that she has to go (or that she started to go and stopped it) about half the time. We have gotten no where with number two, she always go as soon as I put on her diaper for naptime. I am fine with that for now, at least she waits for the diaper, right? But I have thrown out a ton of bribes to encourage her to try to use the potty. I gave her a bite of a snickers bar and told her she could have the rest if she went. I told her we could go visit Lynn if she went. I told her she could hold new baby Lucy if she went. Finally tonight i told her she could have whatever she wanted if she went. so what would you want? Halle, "Make up and a horse". I said ok to the makeup and she just keep saying "and a horse". figures, this would backfire and she would come up with something I can't get her.

Halle and the Sun

Halle: "mommy, the sun is up"
Me: "the sun is saying, 'good morning'"
Halle: "mom, the sun doesn't talk"


Halle: "We forgot to put on sunblock"
Me: "we don't need sunblock right now because the sun is about to hide his face"
Halle: "mom, the sun doesn't have a face"

Tan lines!

DSC04693, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

Halle's tan lines are soo funny. It looks like she is wearing a white bikini when she is naked. We have been going to the pool every day except sundays and mondays its closed. The girls love it! Kiera does not like to go to other people's pools because when i try to hold her she wiggles to try and free herself from me. Somehow she believes she can swim. Our pool is so much fun because it has a really large walk in area that gradually gets deeper and deeper. Kiera can crawl around in the shallow part and cruise the edge of the pool. The pool also has a really big slide. We take turns taking the girls on our laps. they love it and kiera smiles and giggles the whole way down.

MOV04637

MOV04637
Originally uploaded by Our Little One

Happy Father's Day, Tom!! We Luv U!

I love my girls!!

I love my sister!

DSC04678, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

silly sisters!!

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DSC04662, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

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DSC04668, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

Pause the music!

make sure you pause the music to fully enjoy the videos!
player is to the left hand side, click on the top, the pause button!

Halle's silly singing

MOV04630
Originally uploaded by Our Little One

I have a hard time capturing Halle at her ridiculous moments because she usually hates when i get out the camera. This is a rare video that captures just how goofy Halle really is. (luckily the camera was already on the couch so the moment was spontaneous) We were singing some songs together and Halle thought it would be hilarious to use this weird voice and make this weird face while she sang. She was totally cracking herself up. Tom was also laughing sooo hard that Halle is staring at him during the whole video because she loves when she makes us laugh. Halle is always trying to crack us up and usually does a good job at it.

there is another song on my flickr page thats just as silly.

trying to get kiki to walk to me instead of the camera, impossible!

trying to get kiki to walk to me instead of the camera, impossible!
Originally uploaded by Our Little One

Mother of three

Mother of three, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

halle loves the face of this doll. as if two of the same doll wasn't enough, she found another one at the goodwill, she walked around the store hugging her saying "mommy, i love her sooo much, i really, really love her" (using really multiple times to show emphasis is halle's newest expression)
when i told her i would buy her ( i usually tell her we have enough dolls at home) her face looked like it was christmas morning! who would thought spending a buck could make a child so happy!

"mama, help me!"

"mama, help me!", originally uploaded by Our Little One.

sometimes kiki loves halle to tackle her, this time she looks to me to save her!

kiki's goofy smile

DSC04625, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

kiki has one tooth on top that has been in for over a week, its about half way through, the other one isn't even close to breaking out yet, so she will have this goofy, one tooth smile for awhile!

Livin' in the South

Living in the south is a new experience for me. well, living anywhere outside of UT and AZ is different for me. Our town isn't that small , but it has a small town feel to it sometimes. there is two things about it worth mentioning, one, it has the most churches per capita in the US, there are churches everywhere! Most everyone has a church they go to, I like that the town is religious and conservative. the second is that last year, Oprah did a feature on small towns, begining here, the "heart of GA" and filmed her favorite things episode here!
Raising kids in the south:
kids use "yes, ma'm or yes, sir" towards adults. I am not teaching Halle to do this, hopefully I stick with my plan to homeschool or she is going to come across as rude to her teachers. today in the car I asked Halle to climb out of her seat, she said, "yes,ma'm". i said, where did you learn that. she said from peggy. I thought it was funny. whenever we are around peggy and ruthie, halle uses the term "teetee" instead of "peepee" (that's what all the mom's here, including peggy, call it, except me, of course). She will use the term for awhile after we are away from them, too, its funny!

Icky sticky!

We have gotten better lately at having Family Home Evening with the girls. (Family Home Evening-sitting down as a family on Monday evenings to learn stories of Jesus, values, Bible stories, or play a game, sing songs and pray, ect.) It makes me happy when Halle asks about Family Home Evening, since her attention span is so short, I sometimes wonder how much she actually takes in. Thanks to Lynn, we have fun flannel board peices that get her involved in learning stories!
I have decided that one of the best ways to teach Halle is in random moments when she is listening more then talking (rare moments). Yestarday on a walk, I was pointing to different things, trees, flowers, butterflies, and telling her that Heavenly Father made all of these things, and they are so beautiful, and we are so thankful that He made them for us. Upon returning home, we see a giant cockroach in our driveway that Tom destroys with our broom handle. Me and Halle were pretty disgusted and when we came in the house Halle said, "mom, Heavenly FAther didn't make that bug." me: why not? Her: "it's too icky sticky!" I thought it was funny, but i told her He still made it. I'm excited about teaching her the gospel. She is so cute when she is praying or singing church songs. I have so much I can't wait to tell her!

President Benson said: “Mothers, you are your children’s best teacher. … Teach your children the gospel in your own home, at your own fireside. This is the most effective teaching that your children will ever receive. This is the Lord’s way of teaching. The Church cannot teach like you can. The school cannot. The day-care center cannot. But you can, and the Lord will sustain you. Your children will remember your teachings forever, and when they are old, they will not depart from them. They will call you blessed—their truly angel mother”

"We cannot and we must not allow the school, community, television, or even Church organizations to establish our children’s values. The Lord has placed this duty with mothers and fathers. It is one from which we cannot escape and one that cannot be delegated. Others may help, but parents remain accountable. Therefore, we must guard the sanctity of our homes because that is where children develop their values, attitudes, and habits for everyday living."(Elder M. Russell Ballard)

"It is mother’s influence during the crucial formative years that forms a child’s basic character.

Home is the place where a child learns faith, feels love, and thereby learns from mother’s loving example to choose righteousness.

How vital are mother’s influence and teaching in the home—and how apparent when neglected!" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

Mmmmm...licious!

-Halle told me the other day that lunch was mmmmm...licious.
-On a walk she said, "that cloud looks like a butterfly and that one looks like a suitcase"
-halle's "favorite toy": she loves to play with these little care-bear figures and a little house. she makes them have little conversations (whats your favorite show, what do you like to do?).
-her imagination has really taken off in the past couple months. she loves to "tend" (pretend) all kinds of things are going on. at the pool she has a few things she likes, "let's tend that i'm areil and you are ursuala" and then she starts telling me she wants legs and holding invisible treasures and using the toys as fish. another funny one is pretending we are in mermaidia and we are mermaid barbies (its a movie, we have the book) she goes to the vents at the bottom of the pool and says this is the bogs of the hinterland (the place where prince nalu is being held captive) and yells "prince nalu are you down there". it makes playing with halle a lot of fun, but i'm sure people at the pool think we are crazy!
-we have been going to the pool everyday. for the past week i decided to just keep swimming and skip Halle's naps. the pool tires her out by the end of the day and she has been in bed asleep no later then 6:30pm! I lost my mid-day break, but have loved having the evenings off and no more getting up after i put her to sleep, some days she is so wasted that she's asleep before i even leave the room.
-we have a new nephew, born this week! Julianna and Cory (tom's brother) had baby Christopher! we can't wait to meet him along with our new neice born a couple months ago , kady and taco's new addition, Gaby!

Product Reviews:
-kc masterpeice fajita marinade *****
we have been using it as a sauce for our fajitas, it is soooo yummy, we eat fajitas once a week now!! i'm sure it would be good as a marinade as well. (note: its sweet, the May family should not buy)
-swiffer sweep and vac **
I have finally fufilled my dream of having a swiffer and i'm a little disappointed. the swiffer is fast and easy to use. but it does not get everything off the floor, the vacuum is weak. i'm back to old fashioned sweeping and on my hands and knees to mop with rags!
-bowls with attached straws *
i thought these bowls were great, Halle loved them, and she didn't have to pick up her bowl to drink the milk out. so i finally decided to try it my self. mid-bowl, i was excited to take my first drink, i ended up slurping into my mouth a brown mucus plug! it has taken me weeks to even talk about it with out feeling like i might throw up! be warned, these straws do get fully cleaned out in the dishwasher and who knows whats growing inside!

Kiera is 10 months old!

Kiki (tom told me to change the spelling) is 10 months today! She has grown up sooo much this past month, i'm glad, kiki has not been an easy baby and i am ready for her to grow up alittle bit! Some things about our little keeks (halle and tom's new nickname for her):
-last week she got one upper tooth (bringing the count to 3). She was up nearly every hour at night and would scream so hard that she screamed herself hoarse! I didn't know she was cutting a tooth, so it wasnt' till it popped through that I finally gave her tylenol and she is back to sleeping in 3 hour blocks (will I ever get a baby that sleeps well at night???)
-the most often comment people say to me about kiki (besides, "she's got alot of hair") is commenting on how fast she can crawl, which makes halle start crawling and halle can hardly keep up with her!
-kiera can climb up the stairs, then sits at the top and then turns around and backs down them, she can also climb out of the pool and can back into the water. kiera is a climber, she can climb the rock wall at the playground, she can climb onto the top of the little tikes table in the kitchen, the ottoman, and up halle's stool and onto the counter (of course we didn't let her stay up there and now we have to keep the stool folded up). she can climb the toddler ladder at mcdonalds and go down the slide
-she loves the pool and has no fear!
-she can shake her head no if you do it to her. if you stick your tongue in and out she will do it back to you. and make that tongue in and out sound, lalala
-she loves to roll away when i'm changing her, make her body as stiff as a board when i'm buckling her into her carseat and scream and pull at her clothes for me to know that she enjoys her nakedness.
-she bounces to music, loves singing or looking at books. she can out eat halle most of the time. (tom was shocked the other day while looking for leftover pizza, i said there were no left overs. "we ate a large pizza!?!" halle had 2 slices (in the car while i was bringing the pizza home, kiera had an entire slice , i had 2 and tom had 3, yup, our family can officially eat a large pizza!
-kiera lays her head on your chest if you say hug, hug! she loves to hear herself scream. she has little fear, but will cry if she hears halle cry.
-she smiles at everyone who looks at her and loves attention from strangers. she lets most people hold her but buries her head into me if strange people try to hold her. she thinks halle is soo funny and loves her attention!
she can stand up alone without holding onto anything and can take a few steps if you reach your arms out to her (but falls into your arms, still pretty wobbly)
kiki goes up the stairs and looks back at you every few steps and smiles , if you say "i'm gunna get you" she screams and darts up a few more steps, then does it again

anyways, you probably got bored half way though this little 10mon tribute but i want to record some things about her each month since i'm not so great at keeping up on her babybook! We love our kiki so much!

Lucy Rose

We have a new neice! Lynn had her baby today and named her Lucy Rose. I told Halle that Lynn had a baby named Lucy. Halle's jaw dropped, "mom, I have a baby named Lucy, too!" She grabed her favorite baby and has called her Lucy all day!

Halle really had a great time with her Aunt Kelly at Disney world. In her honor, halle decided to name one of her barbies Kelly. This is a pretty rare occassion since all the blond, average looking barbies are just called Barbie. very few have been named and only the "unique" ones. Let's see , there's Carly, the black one, Tatiana, the one that blinks, yeah, you heard me right, we have a barbie that blinks and yes, it is creepy, Mulan, the asian, not one of Halle's most original names, and now, Kelly, the barbie with freckles.

another note about barbies; Halle has a few barbies that she plays with in the bath. We leave them in the bath since it takes so long for their hair to dry. After returning from our trip, I was giving the girls a bath and noticed one of the barbies looked as though she had black roots. "surely, i thought, barbie is way to classy to let her roots get black". I picked her up and her whole head was covered in mold!

Halle one liners:
Kiera was fussing for one of Halle's crackers. Halle said, "don't freak out kiera, I'll give you one"
Tom told Halle that he was a "superman prince" (whatever that means). Halle laughed and said, "your freaking out, dad"
Halle sitting next to the lap top, "mom, can you open up the laptop so i can check my email"

Gas is sooo expensive. I am left to evaluate if everything I do is worth the money in gas. I'm so cheap that some activities have gotten scratched. Storytime at the close library, a couple bucks, worth it. At the library further away, a few bucks, not worth it. a playdate is schedualed for thursday at the animal park 30 min away, hmmm...at least 10 bucks, probably won't go. peggy made me feel like a real cheapskate tonight, maybe I am. anyone else doing this or am i a cheapskate? Luckily our neighborhood pool opened this weekend, we'll probably be going everyday, and we'll walk!

itsy bitsy spider

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Originally uploaded by Our Little One

kiera loves the itsy bitsy spider! whenever we sing it she opens and closes her hands trying to do the spider and then raises her hands up when you say "up came the sun". its soooo cute! even just one line of the song gets her hands moving.
notice how loud the resturant is, i loved all the kid freindly resturants at disney world, pure chaos, halle always found some little girls to dance around the resturant with! kiera, who can now out eat halle, was content to pig out on some really good food!

Disney!

Disney World!!

DSC04432, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

Our family took our first trip to Disney World last week. We were there from tuesday till monday night. The girls had a blast! Halle loved meeting the princesses and going on the rides. Her and keekee were so worn out everyday, Halle would ask to go back to the hotel so they could nap (3 hours everyday!) Halle loved the teacup ride and magic carpt ride the best. We also saw 3 live shows at Hollywood studio, little mermaid, mickey mouse, and beauty and the beast, which Halle was so thrilled about! Me and Tom took turns going on the rides Halle couldn't go on. Tom's mom and sister joined us for a few days we were there, and the girls loved spending time with them. We had dinner at Cinderella's Royal table (pictures from this night were taken on a different camera, but i can't wait to post them!) Halle got her picture taken with Cinderella and of course, wore her own Cinderella dress. We also had breakfast with the LIttle Eiensteins and Jojo the clown. On our last day we had Lunch at Epcot with Belle, Aurora, Alice, Mary poppins, ect. Halle was in Heaven meeting all her idols. She especially loved meeting all the other little girls her age that were just like her , little princesses. Kiera loved being outdoors with all the action around her (of course, she made us hold her for most of the day, it was hard for her to stay in the stroller very long). (we are looking forward to another trip someday without a crawling baby!) Everything was so fun for Halle, even the tram that took us from the gate to our parked car was like a ride for Halle and she would put her hands in the air and scream. Our last night was the only night Halle wasn't completly exhausted and so we stayed for the parade and fireworks. What a fun week! I loved spending time with family and watching my cute girls have the time of their lives!

Mother's Day Tornado

On Mother's Day a tornado passed through our town. We were blessed to have it's path miss our neighborhood. The storm woke me up alittle before 6am, just as it was passing a few miles from us. thankfully, very few died or were injured. Our electricty went out for at least a few days, i'm not sure the exact amount of days because we left for our trip monday night. we were not supposed to leave till tuesday, but since we had no hot water, we decided to head out early and spend the night in a hotel (on our way to Orlando). Even though this was a small scale disaster relative to the tornados that hit the midwest, I have a new outlook on being prepared. We will definetly being getting more food storage and water storage in case of future emergencies. It ended up being a memorable mother's day; church was cancelled, dinner was cold leftovers, and we had to put glow sticks in the girls rooms so they wouldn't be pitch black.

Tribute to my mom!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms I know!

Especially to my mom. She is the greatest mom and the best example I have to follow. Mom taught me a few things about motherhood worth mentioning. Kids are only little once, so enjoy them. Enjoy them at each stage. mom had fun with us, she really played with us and understood that that making us happy and helping us feel good about ourselves was what we would remember, never to place the less important things in life, like housework, ahead of that. We do remember that, mom, and you have been all of our best freinds since the time we were little to now! Your good for a laugh, your good for a cry, your great for advice (always unsolicitated, of course, but what we do without it?). One of your famous sayings that I remember everyday, "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" (i think your cooking apron said this). It sounds funny, but I remember it because its true. A mother is in charge of the entire families happiness. That's a big responsibility, mom, but you did it, you were always happy and fun and because of that so were we!! It's an example I try to follow in my family! So I could go on and on forever about my mom! shes amazing and all I ever do to show appreciation is tease her relentlessly :) there are things that i do with my girls , that i know you did with us, even though i can't remember being that small and there are things I can't wait to do with my girls that i remember you doing with us. cooking in the kitchen, making pizza, cookies, egg roll, planning parties for my classes, reading, coloring, barbies, hair cuts, salt dough villages, xmas ornaments, swiming, rollerskating, sleepover parties, pool parties, gardening (sort of) , taking care of pets, picnics, camp outs, grand canyon trips, temple trips, family home evening, ect. as a mom now, i realize the sacrifices moms make for their kids, how much kids take and take and drive you crazy sometimes, but you keep going, thanks, mom! The most important thing you taught us, mom, is that a family must be built on values, love, respect, principles, and faith. You taught us why we are here, that God has a plan for us, that we are children of God and have inherent worth because of that. You shared your testimony of Jesus Christ with us and helped us develop our own. You taught us the scripture stories. You taught us how to be happy, taught us that families are forever and the relationships among family members are to be valued above all else, you taught us how to follow Christ's example so that we could return to Him again someday. You left your children a path to follow that we will pass on to our children. Mom, thanks for everything, we love you!!

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." (2nep 25:26)

(here's hoping that this tribute to you makes up for my impersonal mother's day gift card!)

halle stories

Halle is so excited that she can have conversations with random people we meet. She says hi to everyone we meet (other moms, grocery store checkout workers, ect). This is her usual pattern:
Hi, whats your name?
My name is Halle, this is Lori, and this is keekee bear.
you know when my birthday is? its in October, you know when mommy's birthday is, its in March, you know when daddy's birthday is? its in January. you know when keekees birthday is? Mom, when's keekee's birthday (me: august). its in august (for some reason it is taking longer to remember keekee's birthday).
most people think its cute and are really sweet to her.

Halle told tom the other day, "my name is Lori" and pointed to me and said, "thats Halle". then she was hysterical. she likes to mix things up a lot and thinks she is so funny. she'll point to me and tom and say the opposite "your daddy and your mommy". she has a variety of different things she's come up with and thinks she is so halarious!

Halle told me, "daddies go to work". just to joke around with her, i said, "mommy is going to start going to work" , she laughed and said, "no, mommies do not go to work, mommies stay home, and just go to play mah jong".

Halle said, "mommy , i need to go to the airport to go see grandma, she misses me"

Halle's friend pushed her and she said, "that wasn't very polite"

Halle said, "mommy, isn't keekeee cute?"

we painted halle's room and now she tells me everyday, "I think keekee wants her room painted too"

yestarday i was really sick and halle was in the bath and handed me a bowl of water, "i made you some dinner to help you feel better"

over heard halle on my phone (not really talking to anyone) "hi, melanie. what are you doing? are you playing with trevor and aidan?"

Reunited!

Ruthie and Halle missed each other while we were in UT. They were so happy to finally be reunied!

Ballerina Babies!

Halle insisted that Kiera wear one of her ballerina outfits while we were dancing. Kiera loves Halle's attention. We turn on music everyday and dance. we've also started watching ballet videos on youtube. i'm learning the moves to teach Halle, but shes more interested in her own style of ballet. kiera loves dancing too, when the music is on, she stands up and bounces.

Gross!

The girls love canned veggies. They can both eat handfuls and handfuls. I can't even stand the smell. you would never believe what a healthy eater Halle is by the thickness of her, but she really loves veggies! why is it that when my girls are dressed cute, i don't have any pictures, but kiera in a boys onsie and halle in her underware makes the blog page.

My Happy Girl!

i think i have the happiest little girl around! Halle is always so much fun to be around. She minds me and follows my directions. She loves to try to be my helper. We love to cook together and clean. She feels horrible if she thinks she has upset me. and will say, "mommy, don't be sad at me" when she does something wrong. even a disappointed look on my face will prompt her to say, "i'm sorry, mommy". What a good little girl I have! She makes it fun to be a mom !

j-lo

DSC04374, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

We (including halle), call this her J-lo outfit! she loves it because she knows shes cute in it (a few compliments when she wore it to storytime gave her a big head). She wanted to wear it when the missionaries came for dinner. halle absolutly loves the missionaries! they give her tons of attention at church and come for dinner frequently. this last time, she was non-stop putting on a show for them, "you want to see me dance, want to see me jump...." then she sang , "i hope they call me on a mission" for them, which she tried so hard to learn, all day she kept asking me to sing it again, so she could learn it. then she wanted to put on her ballerina outfit for them, so she unzipped this j-lo outfit and patted her chest and said, "missionaries, this is my naked body, don't be scared". we were all lauging out loud! why would she say that? i don't have any idea where she got that, but it was funny!

summer!

DSC04382, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

summer is here and we are loving it! halle loves kiera's company and will love when she can play with her more. Kiera is more curious then Halle, i can tell already, so it will be fun to see what they will get into in the coming years. the other day, kiera and halle were in the kitchen out of my view, when i came over to them, kiera had opened the cabinets and had pulled out my bowls and some appliances, halle was standing there excited/shocked (halle would never considering doing something like that). i came over and said, oh, wow, whats going on? and halle just giggled and said, "kiera's cooking, mom, kiera's cooking!"

MOV04203

MOV04203
Originally uploaded by Our Little One

halle loved singing this to both her grandmas!
"you sing me a song, you read me a book, you whisper you love me too. I wish every child in the whole wide world had a grandmother just like you!"

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