WE ARE BACK!!!!!

We're back. We had an amazing time on our vacation and I have about a zillion pictures to go through!!
The girls were well taken care of while we were gone and we can't thank our friends and family enough for the sacrifices they each made to take care of our kiddos. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
Check back soon as I hope to have our crusin' pictures up on blog!

BILLBOARD

We were out and about this afternoon and on the way home we were on the highway just driving along. I hear Evelyn singing in the back and she is happy and having a good time to herself. Then I hear her say "hey look!! Up there!! It's me mom, it's meeee!!"

Up ahead on the opposite side of the road there was a huge billboard. It was a black background with big, bold, writing that said "THE EXECUTIVE - GENTLEMEN'S CLUB". And in the corner of the billboard there was a picutre of an attractive, barely dressed woman with long blond hair - just like Evelyn's hair.

I said "that's not you Evelyn! That lady just has nice pretty blond hair like you huh!" She agreed and that was that.

Then I thought to myself ..."and I better not EVER see you on the top of a billboard like that - EVER!"

Oh, Evelyn!!!

14 days...and counting!

Just thought you should know.

Smokin' Flowers!

Why do you think people buy flowers? I buy flowers because they smell good (and they are pretty, but for this post, mainly because they smell good.) I expect flowers to smell like ... nothing but flowers! So excuse my "hot and bothered" remarks about my recent experience with a "florist".

On Thursday evening of this week I was hosting a baby shower for my good friend Mindy. I love her and I wanted her shower to be great and for her to feel special. I thought it would be a cute idea to have the soon-to-be-mother wear a corsage.
I wanted rose buds. Little baby rose buds. With baby's breath and blue ribbon since she is having a boy. I had it all imagined in my mind how it would look.

Task - find a florist.

Conveniently enough, there is a florist shop at the corner of my street before entering my neighborhood. I drive by it almost every day. I thought this was perfect! I'll just drive up there, pick up a beautiful corsage for the occasion and Voila! It would be done.

I drive up to the store. I walk inside and as soon as the door cracks open the tiniest bit I enhale and the entire place reeks of cigarette smoke. It was an awful smell. Burned my throat it was so bad. All I wanted to do was turn around and run from the store as fast as I could so the smell wouldn't have time to seap into my clothes and my hair - I hate that! But I couldn't run. The second I stepped inside and had that second to look around I notice how small the store was and the check-out counter was literally just a few steps in front of me with the two store owners standing right there staring at me ready to greet me.

"Hello" they said.
"hi" I said back.
"How can we help you" the man said.
"oh, um...I was interested in a corsage for a baby shower today."
"Great! We can help you with that. What do you want it to look like?"
...
I didn't want to be rude. I didn't want to hurt their feelings and leave because I was about to die from the intoxicating air. I am not rude like that, so I limit my breaths and endure the next 15 minutes of the corsage making process. EGH!

...15 minutes later...

"Here you go ma'm. That'll be $X.XX." the man said.
"Ok, here's my card." and as soon as the receipt was in my hand, I was out of there!

I get home and I set my package down - pleased with how cute it turned out. Then came the test. I thought surely since the flowers were kept behind a refrigerated, heavy glass door that the smoke smell would have no affect on them at all. But I had to know for sure!!
I opened the bag, pulled out the corsage and held it up to my face and inhaled through my nose. I about died! The stench was awful. The flowers were completely polluted by cigarette smoke that there wasn't even a trace of the smell of flowers!

REALLY!?

Who in their right mind would own a flower shop where the flowers are supposed to smell divine and fresh and like they are in a garden and then smoke in your shop!?!? I mean HONESTLY! What were they thinking!?

Oh yes I did - I got right back in my car and drove the 30 seconds back up the street, held my breath and walked back into the shop.
"Umm, I need to return these flowers" I said.
"Is there a problem?" asked the owner
"Yes, they smell like smoke and nothing like roses." I said
"Really?" the man said opening the bag to smell for himself
"yes, really. and it's pretty bad too. Your shop reeks of smoke and I was hoping that the flowers wouldn't after I got them home and away from the smell, but they smell awful and I can't use these." I said
...he smells the flowers himself and then says to me "I can fix that!"
...I had to control the sudden urge to laugh out loud in the man's face, and instead just said..."Noooo, I don't think you can. I'll just take the refund back on my card please." How in the world was he going to "FIX THAT"?!!

I left the shop and I chuckled to myself because I had to return flowers for smelling like smoke. Never thought I would have to do that before. You know that saying "Oh this is disgusting! Here...SMELL this!" Yeh, who's going to smell it after you just said how disgusting it is?!! Ha! Well, take my word for it and please don't visit the little flower shop on the corner by my house.

Why do I torture myself?

(so I know I don't have an oriental little girl, but this picture was the best! LOL!)

I try to be a good mom. I try to do fun things with them. Sure there are days where there is just nothing going on and we end up just playing around the house or in the garage. But then there are days like today...I wake up thinking "I have a few places to go, it would be fun to bring the girls and get them out of the house today." WRONG-OOOO!

The outing was a success -meaning I got everything I needed done.period.

Was it a fun outing? Was it smooth sailing? Was is like how I imagined it would be.......me, dressed up and accessorized for the day, the girls in cute outfits and hair pretties, my hair flowing in the breeze, bounding joyfully from store to store checking off my perfect boxes on my perfectly outlined "things to do" list.........EEERRRRRRR!!!! PUT THE BRAKES ON!!! Because it was SOOO not like that.

We started off at the mall, it's was time to clean the jewels, we were there no more than 3 minutes and the meltdowns began. Claire pooped and for some strange reason, the diaper bag was missing a key componant to a diaper change - the wipes! I felt frazzled and unprepared wondering how am I going to change a poopy without wipes and I am not driving 15 minutes home to get them! So I leave the jeweler and walk to the OPPOSITE end of the mall to find a family size restroom so that all of us and the double stroller will fit in. Evelyn needs to use the potty - great, help yourself - and I begin changing Claire with watery/soapy paper towels! Sorry Claire!

After the bathroom trip, we make the long haul back to the jewelry store only to pick up where we left off with our meltdowns. Thanks to my friend Meg who came along for our adventure today, the girls were somewhat entertained with cheerios and gold fish while we all waited patiently to finish things up at the very busy jewelry place! Then it was off to Michaels.

I am so excited to say that I am crafting with girlfriends tonight and I was super excited to pick out my stuff that I was going to make (I will post my craft a bit later when it's complete). So into Michaels we go and into the cart goes Claire. Well, she didn't like that very much and she fussed and fussed until I finally let her down -which was immediately regretted! She took off down an isle and darted to the front of the store- the child is a speed demon and she was out the automatic doors in a heart beat!!! I grabbed her and went back to Meg who was watching Evelyn while I chased Claire through and OUT the store.

Finally I am happy with what I have chosen for my craft and we are ready to check out and leave! Then it starts with Evelyn - a temper tantrom because she is not ready to leave and she wants to play hide-n-seek with Megan in the store! She gets put in timeout in the store on the floor - yes I picked an isle and we sat there until she was done. I just wanted to leave, but I was so close to just paying for the stuff that I didn't want to leave and then have to come back again!! GRRRR! So we fought it out in line and Meg took the girls outside while I finished paying.

Finally out of that store and there's one more stop to make - Target. My girls LOVE target so surely they will calm down in here. All I needed was diapers, so Meg said she had the girls and told me to just run and get the diapers. So I speed race to the BABY section and there's no diapers!! CURSES! Now, the reason I am confused and out of place is because this was a Target I have never been in and it's one of those Targets that has the diapers/wipes/bath section at the front of the store SEPARATE from the baby section - don't ask me why! So I take a deep breath after a LONG irritated sigh and I book it to the opposite side of the store desperately looking for diapers and praying that the child I just heard scream from the other end of the store is not mine!!

I find the diapers - now, where's Megan and the girls?! Ha ha!

Now I go looking for my friend and my daughters in a store I am unfamiliar with. EUREKA! I found them - it wasn't that hard - and then we go to check out.

We make it back to our cars and give our hugs and say our goodbyes to Meg (THANK YOU MEGAN IT REALLY WAS FUN!) and then we headed home.

Really? Did I just take my kids to THREE stores all in a row? I was exhausted the girls were exhausted and as I was finally sitting in the car ready to pull out, I look down to my right and guess what I see? The wipes case...right there on the floor in the car. Not that having the wipes would have made this outing any easier, but I just had to laugh as I remembered Claire's soapy, naked little bum getting cleaned and patted down with stiff paper towels. LOL!

The good news - we all survived and now I remember why I wait until the husband gets home to run my errands - without 2 kids in tow!

Before I forget...

I had a marvelous Mother's day, but before I go into ANY detail about how MY day was, I first want to tell my mom how wonderful she is. The woman is amazing - really. I don't have the privelage of living near my mom so I miss her. I miss her a lot. Some days are easier than others, but on the days that just seem to never go right - I wish she were near. She has this way of calming things down and helping me to see things in a different light. If I call her frustrated about something (the kids, the hubs, the house, friends, church...LIFE) she always helps me to see a different perspective and when I do, I realize -most always - that I over reacted, got offended, was prideful, or was just plain wrong. When I see things that way, I am able to change my attitude and then I feel so much better about the thing I called her about. It's like magic.
I always get off the phone and think, "I would have NEVER thought of that or to do that or to react like that..." She is an amazing woman. She is Christlike. She is humble. She is funny. She is beautiful. She is MY mom. I love you mom. I love you for being the strong woman that you are. I love you for raising me the way you did and for putting up with me and my stubborn antics. I am a grown up married woman now and I think (for the most part) that I turned out ok and it's because of you and your loving example. Thank you for teaching me and loving me. I love you and I always will.

Phew - now excuse me while I get my box of tissues!! :)

Being a mom truely is the greatest calling on earth. I love being a mom. I love my girls. I love the way they love me too. I get smothered in kisses every day and my favorite is when out of the blue my Evelyn will say "Mom, you're the best!". I love walking in their rooms at night and seeing their peacefull faces and listening to their deep breaths - well, except for Claire because the second you open her door she'll sit right up and say "hi"...the child never sleeps. But I still go in and I still pick her up and get those snuggly late night loves.
I love my homemade cards from the girls - with daddy's help of course! And I love how excited they are to spoil me and to do things for me. Evelyn helped daddy make my favorite breakfast- french toast, sausage and eggs. MMMMM! I could eat that every day! I am a breakfast food girl - especially when it involves syrup! Evelyn also helped pick out the most beautiful boquet of red roses to give to me and everytime I look at them I think of her and picture her wondering in the store with dad and picking out the best flowers for her mom. So cute.
The love of my life treats me like a queen and every day is Mother's Day for me when he's around. I am one lucky girl to have such a loving, devoting husband. He cares for me and shows me his love for me every day and I just want him to know I love him. Thank you my sweet family for making my day special.

A child's prayer

Isn't it every mother's dream to see all her hard work in raising her children to do the right thing and to know that it's finally all paying off and working?? I know that Evelyn is only three years old, but I am beginning to see little glimpses of that dream come true. Among many things like being consistant with having Family Home Evening, sitting together around the dinner table, sharing with each other...one of our goals as parents is to teach our children to pray.
Evelyn is praying on her own and in the beginning, a prayer was something like this:
"...bless my bed, bless the books on the table, bless the floor, bless the window, bless mommy and daddy and Claire..."
Evelyn's prayers would mainly consist of the things she saw around her room and they would each be blessed when she would look around the room while she prayed. ADORABLE!
But as adorable as that was, we wanted her to really THINK about what was truely important and to include those things in her prayers - like praying for the missionaries, for opportunities to serve others, to bless our prophet Thomas S Monson, and to pray for our family and friends in need.
On Friday, my good friend Heather and I were hanging out and she asked a favor of me to keep her father in law in our family prayers. He has bone cancer and is declining in his health. I told Gordon about this opportunity to pray as a family for him and since we were working with Evelyn on HOW to really pray, we took that as a teaching opportunity. We told her about a man who was very sick and needed her help to pray for him. We told her his name and that we needed to include him in our daily prayers from now on and to ask Heavenly Father to help him to feel better. This weekend, she did a wonderful job improving her prayers to include him asking for him to be blessed and to feel better.
His name is Patrick Syryllo and on our drive home from church, Evelyn chimes in from the back seat and asks "how is Patrick Syryllo? He's going to be not sick anymore cause we prayed for him. It's a good idea to pray for him to feel better." I thought back to the last time we even mentioned his name. He is not a family member of ours and Evelyn has never met him. Our last family prayer that included his name was Sunday morning at breakfast. We then enjoyed the morning for a few hours before heading off to church. With it being Mother's Day and a Sunday and all of the many responsibilities and distractions that come with Sundays, that morning family prayer was long forgotten in my mind. And by the end of the day I wasn't expecting any sweet reminders from my three year old about him. But there it was, the tiny glimpse of a dream come true. That she was listening to our teaching moment. That she was sincerely praying for someone. That her faith was growing in the power of prayer.
I have not heard from my friend Heather about how Patrick Syryllo is doing, but my faith has been increased and my prayers have been increased for him - all because of the example of my Evelyn. This was an eye opener for me and Gordon to see that our children - while wild and crazy sometimes - really are listening to us and it made us proud of her and ourselves as parents.

What you don't see...

I blog stalk (guilty)! And I found this on a friend of a friend's blog and it impacted me so I thought I would pass it forward and share.

What you don’t see, By Tiffany Gee Lewis.

What you don’t see, when we all march into church on Sunday morning, is the chaos of the morning that happened just 10 minutes earlier. What you don’t see, when you look at my four little boys in their suits, is that the 7-year-old is wearing Dad’s socks because we couldn’t find his. And they go all the way up to his knees. What you don’t see, when I pull out the lovely quiet book I made a few years back, is that below it, in my church bag, are five baggies of smashed raisins because I haven’t cleaned out the bag for months. When you enter my house, with its shining entryway, you don’t see the three loads of laundry dumped on my bed. Or the dirty pots I stashed in the oven. And you will never see the interior of my minivan, not until I find the time to vacuum it out. When you admire the hand-sewn pajamas I made for all the kids, we don’t talk about the three nights I got no sleep to make those. If you look on my blog, you will see pictures of homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. You won’t see my confession to popping in a frozen pizza THREE times last week for dinner. Or the night we ate Cheerios for dinner, dry, because we were out of milk. There is a zoom on my camera for a reason. There is a delete button for a reason. I don’t think we’re all playing a part. We naturally want to put our best selves forward, so that is what other people see. They don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes. I like to think that good parenting is like a duck on the water. What you see is the gentle, almost effortless gliding, not the furious paddling that happens underneath. I keep a mental list of about ten people I want to stalk by camera, from morning to night, to see how they do it all. Are they up at 4 a.m.? Can they survive on three hours of sleep? Do they have a housekeeper? Because I drop balls just as fast as I can grab them. My intentions are of pure gold, but they come out as tinkling brass, at best. I started a blog last fall. I dragged my feet into it for many reasons. One of the main reasons I hesitated was I didn’t want to be another contributor to the cyberspace guiltosphere out there. Especially where mothers are concerned, do we need one more reason to feel guilty? Because from the looks of things, other families are happier, their houses are cleaner, their marriages are better, their clothes are more stylish and their craftiness is even more crafty. Their lives are perfectly lovely, while my kids are running around screaming in their diapers. My worst fears were confirmed last week when I got an e-mail from a friend who asked, “How do you do it all? Your column, your blog, all the things you do with your children? You’re amazing!” I looked around at my house, at the six bins of winter clothes waiting to be transported to the garage, at the sewing projects stacked against the wall, at the state of the toothpaste crusted to the sink … I let things go, a lot of things. A spanking-clean house is not a high priority for me. I’m a big believer in mud and its importance in a child’s life. The time I take to write is time away from scrubbing that bathroom sink. I would rather read with my kids than shop at the mall, so I am certainly not up-to-date on the latest styles. I’ve been listening to the same music for 20 years because I can’t seem to keep up with the latest music scene. And I require a lot of sleep. We all have priorities. For some, it is keeping a spotless house, and they are good at it. For others, it is writing, or exercising, or serving others. And yes, there are some who seem to do it all, the Benjamin Franklins of the world. I tell myself I don’t have to be them. And also, Benjamin Franklin was not much of a family man. Even he let things go. What we don’t see, when we look at each other on Sunday, or on blogs, or in our shiny kitchens, is that we all have different talents and unique situations. I tell my kids all the time: Life is not a race. The only person you are competing against is yourself. What we forget to see, when admiring others, is our own personal finish line.

New Post

Ha ha! Thought you lost me didn't you!! Well, here I am FINALLY making a new post - well sort of!

Just thought I'd say HOWDY and to let you know we are still alive and going strong!

Life is good.

Life is busy.

PS
Don't hate that I am going on a cruise in less than 30 days!!! BAAAHAHAHAHA!

Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday we went to the Sherwood's for Easter Brunch and an Easter Egg Hunt. It was so much fun! They have the perfect back yard for playing and hiding eggs! Evelyn made lots of new friends and Claire was just happy to be outside! We forgot our camera - grrrrr - but thanks to Nicolle, she took some great shots of Evelyn on the hunt! THANK YOU SHERWOOD'S!!!!

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER!

We had a great Easter with our little family! We took some pictures of the girls in their matching Easter dresses! They are so adorable and we just love our little girls!!

My 30th

"After 30, a body has a mind of its own."

- Bette Midler

It's true...I am an old woman now! I turned 30 yesterday and let me just tell you, if my thirties are as good as my day was yesterday...then I will be happy to stay 30 the rest of my life!! I L.O.V.E. my husband and he had my day full of surprise after surprise!

I was spoiled with sleeping in the morning of my birthday. He got the girls up and ready for the day and they made cards and then came in and climbed in bed with me to wake me up. Evelyn was adorable...she was just as excited about my birthday as I was. She brought me her adorable homemade card with morning kisses and hugs!! Then we all had a yummy breakfast together as a family. I love breakfast foods!!

After breakfast, I was sent upstairs to primp myself and get ready for a fun family day - so I thought! The door bell rang and it was Rachel- Gordon's sister - she had come to watch the girls for us while Gordon took me out for my birthday. At first I was bummed because I realized I wasn't going to be spending the day with the girls...-love my girls -...but that feeling quickly went away because I then realized I was spending the entire day with just my hubby - the love of my life! I couldn't wait to find out what he had planned!

Gordon is not normally a good secret keeper - in fact, I always ruin his surprizes because I can worm it out of him so easily! Not so much this time...he had my day planned and I had no idea!

We started off heading to lunch. All he gave me was three numbers - 403. What is that? 403 was the address to the restaurant that he was taking me to. We have never been there, but have heard wonderful things about it. He took me to Ganache at 403 N.Elm in downtown GSO. It was so yummy! We were too stuffed for dessert, but we are SO going back because the desserts they had there looked delish!! We went for their brunch menu, but we both ended up getting the Ganache Burger- mmm my mouth is watering all over again! It was so good! I love me a good burger!!

After Ganache, he gave me another number, 232. Yes, it was another address - 232 S. Elm St. is the location to Triad Stage. He was taking me to a play - live theater! I was so excited! He had tickets for the play Around The World In 80 Days -a comic adventure by Mark Brown adapted from the novel by Jules Verne. It was so good. It was very funny and very entertaining! It was so much better than the typical - matinee movie in the afternoon! I thoroughly enjoyed the play and we're considering getting season passes because there are so many good productions coming in 2011! SO FUN!

After the 2 1/2 hour play we headed back home. Driving down the street to the house, Gordon said to me "I need you to do me a favor." "OK" I said. "I need you to close your eyes." (Tee hee - I totally guessed it! He's throwing me a surprise birthday party and he doesn't want me to see all of the cars parked out front!!! - that's what I thought at least... )

So I close my eyes and we're driving into the neighborhood and down our street - my eyes are still closed - and I can feel the car pulling into the drive way and then he says to me "I'm just kidding you can open your eyes!" I open them and look at him like "WHAT?!" (so now I am thinking, there is no surprise party?!! BUMMER! - that's what I thought at least...)

So I get out of the car and I walk up to the door and walk on in...I see streamers hanging everywhere and it looks like I am walking into a party...but where is everyone?? (so I am thinking that people are going to jump out from all the corners and shout SURPRISE any second now...) Well, that didn't happen...Evelyn comes running up to me and says "HAPPY BIRHTDAY MOMMY!" and I scoop her up and say thanks and then Rachel pops out and says "HEY! Happy Birthday! Me and Evelyn decorated for your birthday!" (so now I am thinking - ok ok there really is no surprise birthday party after all - just Rachel and Evelyn being super cute for me - that's what I thought at least...)

Then a few more steps into the house and SURPRISE!!! There was everyone - all my girlfriends - lined up shouting "surprise!" and "happy birthday!" I was floored. I really was stumped - first I thought there was a party and then I didn't...then I thought there was a party again, and then I didn't and then there really WAS a party!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

I am the luckiest girl to have such a wonderful husband to plan such a wonderful day and then to have such wonderful, loving friends to throw such a fun party for me! I loved every minute of it - even the embarassing minutes thanks to Gordon!! HA HA!

But my day didn't end there - after a wonderful party - some of my friends had planned to take me out to dinner - my choice!! Of course if you know me, there hasn't been very many birthdays not celebrated at MIMI'S CAFE!!!!

So that's where we went! I love Mimi's Cafe! I could eat their Buttermilk Spice muffins every day...EVERY DAY!!! mmmmm!! So we spent some fun times at Mimi's and we laughed and we ate until our guts hurt and we laughed some more.

Ahhhhh, what a wonderful day! I came home with my face hurting from all of the smiles I had that day! I loved every minute of it and I just want to thank EVERYONE for my birthday phone calls, cards, presents, hugs, visits and love on my BIG 30 DAY!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Where's Evelyn?

With Gordon's calling in the YM's presidency, he decided that a good way to get to know the boys better would be to host a monthly planning meeting. It would be at our house so it's a very casual setting for the boys to just hang out and get to know each other. It's also a great time for them to work on scouts and plan their activities - AKA play videos games!! Well, we just had them over for the second time and the boys had a blast! I made chocolate chip cookies and the boys devoured them!! Gordon had a nice spiritual devotional with them and talked about planning activities and then the boys got to play! They were having so much on the Wii and there was one person in-particular that was having a ball with these guys...can you find her?? She's the little one in pink - right in the middle of these big boys!! It doesn't matter who the company - she just wants to be right there in the center of attention!!

For Jill

This post is for JILL - thank you and we love you!!!!!! xoxoxoxo

How long has it been?

It has been over a month since I last blogged!! For shame! We have been swamped and it's been busy, busy, busy! I put a few posts up, but I am still SO behind!! I still need to blog about Evelyn's THRID birthday!! And Claire had her first 'un-official' Sunday in nursery and she loved it and did fantastic!! I can't believe how fast my little girls are growing and to make me feel even older - I am turning 30 on Saturday!!! WOOT WOOT!!!! Fun times!! Well, enjoy the few posts now and check back later because there's so much more to come!!!

Mary Poppins

Evelyn LOVES Mary Popplins. "Loves" is actually an under-statement! The child is mesmerized by the movie! It was the very first movie we showed her when she was a baby and it's still a winner!! Evelyn's Aunt Mindy had an ornament growing up of the character Mary Poppins and for Evelyn's birthday this year, Aunt Mindy passed it on to her as a gift. As you can see Evelyn was ecstatic!!

THANK YOU AUNT MINDY FOR THE WONDERFUL GIFT - IT WILL BE TREASURED!!!

Sisters

Evelyn giving Claire zurburts...or whatever you call 'em!

Both girls sitting with books and reading outloud. ... Claire had her own little language! It was adorable!!!!!

These little girls are the best of friends! I find them doing all sorts of stuff together! The other day, I was upstairs finishing getting dressed for the day and I come downstairs to peace and quiet...where are my girls? Then I hear a little giggle and another little giggle and another little giggle and I follow the sounds down the hall to the powder room - I open the door and find both girls playing in the bathroom with their toys. They made a little play room out of the bathroom - at least it was clean!! HA HA! Claire loves her big sister and just wants to be right there next to her all of the time!!

LATASIA

LATAAA...WHAT?

Latasia is a jewelry company that I just joined! I LOVE IT!! It's a direct sales company so that means I do in-home parties - like Pampered Chef or Scentsy Candles...I just sale jewelry! We have some cute stuff and I am very excited to be doing this!! But it's also my own business - which is very cool, I think!!!

I have already had my first couple of shows and had fun doing them! I have my own website that you all can visit and check out what I sell. If you like something in the catalog, you don't have to have a show to get it, you can email me what you want and I can place your order and send it directly to you! It's fabulous!

Check me out at www.mylatasia.com/jlindsay

It's Official!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're going on a cruise!!!!!!

Little Tid-Bits from Evelyn

The other day Evelyn came up to me and said "mom, I have a secret for you". Then she climbed up into my lap and in her whisper voice she said in my ear "Mom, I love you because I need chocolate milk!"

Evelyn loves her daddy and she really gets emotional when he has to leave for a meeting or work or even just to run to the store. It really didn't dawn on us how much it has been affecting her until the other day when she said this in her prayers..."Dear Heavenly Father, thankful for the day, thankful for daddy and that he came back to me, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

So it's been about a month since it was Christmas time. We took our decor down before New Years and we haven't really talked about Christmas for this whole last month...this morning Evelyn woke up and I went in to get her and I went into my usual morning conversation with her - "how did you sleep" "did you stay warm all night" "what did you dream about"...when she answered my question about what she dreamed about, she said "I dreamed about Santa and he's coming to my house to bring me presents!!!" She was very excited like it was Christmas all over again!!!

Claire is into EVERYTHING including all of "Evelyn's" toys. Evelyn doesn't like to share and I am not sure if she'll ever learn that concept, but the other day the girls were playing together and I hear Evelyn say to Claire "Claire, you can't play with this because you slobber and it's mine! Sit down and don't move. I will play with it for you!" What am I going to do with her!??

One of the books we read almost every night at bedtime is Harold and the Purple Crayon. The last couple of nights, Evelyn has asked that she read the book to us. We have read it to her so many times that she can tell the story exactly as it is back to us - just by looking at the pictures. The problem is her reading style - she doesn't read from front to back of book - she starts at the end and goes to the beginning!!! It's hilarious!! We have tried to get her to start at the beginning of the book, but she insists that the story starts at the last page!! Oh well, she is still telling us the story just not in the right order!!

When Evelyn gets in trouble - she knows it - but she is becoming more and more defiant with us and refusing to listen. She will scowl at us and her new thing with me is when I say "young lady, you better listen to me!!" She will reply with a scowl on her face "no, lady! You listen!!!"
Oh boy does she push my buttons sometimes!!!! She is turning 3 in a couple weeks but she has the attitude of a 16 year old!!! But we love her!!!!!!!!! She is our little pixie devil!!!!

Lindsay Family

I have a family here on earth.

They are so good to me.

I want to share my life with them

through all eternity.

Fam’lies can be together forever

through Heav’nly Father’s plan.

I always want to be with my own family,

And the Lord has shown me how I can.

The Lord has shown me how I can.

Christmas Loot!

The girls were S P O I L E D this year! We laughed about it that night after the day was done - we were in bed talking about how much we love the kids and how fun it was to see their faces on Christmas morning! It was pure joy!!! Gone are the days of spoiling each other - it's all about the kids now and it's the best present we as parents could have asked for - just to see the smile on their faces!! We had such a great Christmas and we are so thankful to be so blessed!

Christmas Morning

Here are our cute girls waiting to be let into the family room to see if Santa came!

Who is ready to see what Santa brought? ....

"WE ARE!!!!"

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so great! We made MAGIC REINDEER FOOD and we sprinkled it on our grass so that Santa and his reindeer would be able to find our house. We read from Luke II about Jesus being born and then daddy read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'. We put out our sugar cookies and milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. Evelyn was so excited it took us an hour to calm her down and finally get her to bed! She had the giggles and so much energy about it all that she just would not go to sleep! When we finally got her down we were listening outside her door and we heard her singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!! She was one excited little girl about Christmas!!!

Sugar Cookies

A whole entire post just for SUGAR COOKIES! This was a highlight during this Christmas season for Evelyn! She really got into the cookie decorating and became very focused and you could just see the creative juices flowing on her face! We had a ton of fun with Grandma and Grandpa making these cookies and it was even more fun to eat them! YUM!!

(and Claire...if you ever ask "Where was I mom?" - you were sleeping.)