GRANDPA!!!!!

We live in NC, Grandpa lives in CO...too far for frequent visits.  BUT--thankfully, grandpa is responsible for the East Coast with his job and is required to travel to Charlotte every now and then.  Tonight was one of those nights.  We met up with my dad tonight at our traditional spot - the Outback Steakhouse - YUM!  The girls got their hairs curled and all dolled up and they were soooo excited to meet up with Grandpa!  Evelyn made him a card and was so proud to give it to him.  We enjoyed a short but sweet visit with grandpa and got as many HUGS and KISSES in as we could until next time.  We love you GRANDPA!!!!  ---Grandma, we really missed you, next time...squish in grandpa's suitcase and come with him!!! 

Super duper cute kids...but I'm a little biased!

Fast or Slow

When Evleyn woke up this morning, she came in our bathroom to find me getting ready for church and I told her as soon as I was done I would help her to get ready....she then said...
"is it a FAST or SLOW Sunday today?"
I cracked up laughing.  She started laughing too - but she didn't know what was so funny and then I told her to ask her daddy the same question.

Oh to be young again!  She's so cute!

For my non-Mormon friends, in our church we have special Sunday once a month where all of the members are asked to fast for two meals.  We contribute the money we would have spent on those to meals to the families that are in need of food or other things. It is one of my favorite Sundays each month and I am excited to teach Evelyn when she's old enough about the true meaning of Fast Sundays!!

Dinner happiness!

Our family dinner times have really become quite hillarious!  The girls are getting older and the older they get, the more they interact with us and joke and laugh and it's hard to get through dinner without someone spitting their food across the table because something was just that funny!!  I'm talkin' table manners - out the window!  Sometimes I wish they would just stay this age - funny, silly and stinkin' adorable!!!  This one of Claire doing her fake-pouting just cracks me up!

Almost 28 weeks!!!

"IS THAT ALL?" I keep asking myself that very question because it feels like I have been pregnant F.O.R.E.V.E.R!!!  Almost in the third trimester and I feel sooo close...yet sooo far away!  Here's a belly picture to enjoy my roundness! 

SCORE!

Gordon scored some free tickets to the Carolina game last Friday - so he took off work and came and picked me up for our hot date in the afternoon!  It was so much fun!  It was my very first live Carolina game.  They played Miami and practically the whole game I thought for sure we were going to lose.  Then somewhere in the last 5 minutes of the game, Carolina found their groove and we won by a basket!  I was on my feet screaming the whole time!!  It was great!  I recorded the winning shot for Carolina, but for some reason blogger is giving me trouble so I can't upload it right now - GRRR!  Probably better that way anyway because all you can hear is me screaming and laughing!!  LOL!
Anyways - we had a great time and even though we were in the nose-bleed section with our seats (I mean the top of the top seats...like there was a wall behind us becasue you couldn't go any higher!) we still had a great time and I don't think our seats took away from the excitement of the game in anyway! 

Too bad Carolina lost to DUKE for the ACC tourni...but now onto MARCH MADNESS!!!!!! 

Our Girls

We took these pictures a few Sundays ago and I just remembered to post them!!  We love our girls!!!! 

Hello, my name is Evelyn.

Yesterday was a very special day! Yes, it was my birthday but what made it super special was that Evelyn got up and bore her testimony for the first time in church!!  Our meeting begins at 9am and we get there early enough to have the chapel by ourselves for about 15 minutes.  In that time for the past few weeks, we have let Evelyn go up to the pulpit on the stand and she 'practices' bearing her testimony at the microphone.  For the last few weeks, she's been getting pretty good at saying appropriate things that make up her sweet little testimony all by herself.
We want our kids to do this on their own - meaning, we don't want to whisper in their ears what to say - we want their testimony to be their own from the very beginning.  So we practice together on Family Nights or on the days we get the chapel to ourselves and hope that one day our kids will get up on their own to say their own testimony without any help.
Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting (it happens once a month) and we asked her if she thought she was ready to go up and bear her testimony.  She looked at the stand and said yes, but it wasn't her turn (because there was already a person up there).  So when that person finished, she folded her little arms and walked very reverently up to the front of the chapel, all the way up the stairs and across the stand to the pulpit.  She stood up on the little step to give her a boost up to the microphone and then my beautiful little blondy faced the entire congregation!!  I was so nervous for her!!!!  She took a long moment (almost too long) to stare out at everyone and then she finally made eye contact with me and I mouthed to her to 'go ahead and start!' Finally, she spoke up and said "Hello, my name is Evelyn and I have a testimony..."  LONG PAUSE...followed by more LONG PAUSES....!!  So then I started to get a little nervous that she had stage fright and wasn't going to finish.  So I am mouthing to her what to say and she leans over and whispers down to me (mind you I am sitting in the middle of the chapel, not the front row) and she says 'can you help me?'
So of course I am going up there to help her finish.  So I go to the front and stand off to the side and tell her talk about the Book of Mormon - she says "I know the Book of Momon is true"  ...looks at mom for more help...I tell her to say she loves her family...."I love my family"...looks at mom for more help.... I tell her to end her testimony and come sit down...she ended it all by herself and then walked off the stand, grabbed my hands and we walked back to our bench.  I was so proud of her!!  I know she needed a little extra help from mom, but I was so proud of her that she had the desire to get up there and for the first time she bore her testimony in church!  My little Sunbeam!!!!!  We love her sweet spirit and her love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at such a young age!  We must be doing something right!!!!!!!!!!! 

Best birthday ever!!!