Spring soccer

 Molly got this awesome medal after her last soccer game this past weekend.

 She was sooo excited!

She did a great job. She has a great leg and can kick the ball hard and far if she wants. She does tend to get distracted while out on the field, and she tends to like to run in the back of the pack. But, if she wants to, she can kick goals! She is so funny. She isn't really aggressive and doesn't like the idea of taking the ball from other girls. But if she gets to do the kick off or throw in, then sometimes she'll score off of that.

We didn't choose to sign her up again. She has enjoyed it I think, but she isn't over the top excited about going. Plus, we still are a bit unsure of our future and where we will be (still hoping to MOVE one of these days) so that was another factor. But there's always another time to try! She is only 5 :) It's been fun for her to experience it though!

Her spring singing and dance recital is this Wednesday night and her teacher is not going to be teaching anymore :( sad day! But she would have had the summer off anyway. She has one more month of school. Her preschool teacher likes to do more of a year round schedule, so her last day is June 27th, which is her graduation lunch.

Yesterday morning she said a prayer and said, "....and I'm grateful for my medal for being the greatest soccer girl EVER!..."

Here's another funny story about Molly from this morning.

A man was smoking in the car in front of us. Molly was so disgusted with him. She yells out, "That guy is smoking! Smoking is so bad for you! People, listen to me. Smoking is bad for you! You should go talk to Jesus. If you don't know about Jesus, go to the temple. Or you can go to church. Those are your choices!"
I was dying laughing. Love this girl.

Mother's Day 2013

I hope all you moms had a great Mother's Day yesterday. I did! Justin watched the kids on Saturday for me to go to lunch with my sister and mom. After we did some shopping and had a fun time. Justin had the house all clean for me when I got back and some gorgeous bright pink roses.

Molly got me a cute gift from preschool. It's a shopping list to put on the fridge. Oh and I forgot the girls got me some yummy chocolate dipped strawberries! Delicious!

I helped the girls make cards for grandma. It was kind of last minute, but they were so excited and had so much fun making them.

Presenting their cards to grandma.

Me and my mom with the kiddos.

After we made cards for grandma, the girls decided that they needed cards for themselves. They were so proud of their cards.

My cute boy.

He's getting so big! Look at those teeth. He now has 8!

In a couple of weeks he will be 1. It went by way too fast.


Also, Happy 8th Anniversary to my sweetheart today :) I love you Justin! We are planning on dinner and some shopping tonight. Should be fun.

this and that

Is there anything more precious than a baby's bum up in the air while they're napping? I don't think so. Especially when there's a little bull dog on the bum :)

We had our friends over for Cinco de Mayo. I made cafe rio chicken, cafe rio salad dressing and for fun we had strawberry daiquiris (virgin of course; made in our ice cream maker). Everything was delicious. Seth and Coleen, we are going to miss you when you move! Thanks for all the fun and yummy things you brought too!

Recipes here and here. Justin even dipped the edges of our glasses in sugar. So fancy.

I sewed these 30 strips together. It took me several times of sitting down to do it, but now they're all done. Isn't it fun fabric?! I'll let you know later what I'm making...

If your kids don't play starfall.com on the computer, you should do it with them! My girls love playing it together and I think it's great too.

Artwork display

I have been wanting to make a little place for Molly (and Ali) to display her artwork somewhere and I finally got around to doing it. I had this piece of wood that was for another project that I obviously never used. Oh well! It's perfect for this.

While the project was simple, I was surprised that it took me as long as it did. But I guess that's how most things go. Anyway, I sanded the wood, and put a few coats of paint on it. I had everything on hand for this project, which was very convenient.

I hung it right under the girl's window. It seems a bit low to me, but it's perfect because it's right where they can reach it to hang up their pictures.

Molly has been talking about animals this month in preschool if you didn't figure that out yet ;)

To make the letters, I have these cardstock letters in this cute font that I trace around and then just cut out. No fancy machinery, although it would have been nice to have a silhouette or cricut! Then I modpodged them onto the board. I couldn't decide if I wanted to put a word/words on the board, but finally just went with "art". Pretty basic, huh? It works.

I painted 5 clothespins pink (per Ali's request) and then modpodged some scrapbook paper on top that I had on hand. Then I hot glued them onto the board after measuring and penciling in where I wanted them.

Now they can color pictures on their little table and then hang up their masterpieces!

Ta da! All done. Time to move on to some other projects.

P.S. I had my sewing machine tuned up this past week from the sweetest, cutest old man (I think he is probably 80!) that has a sewing machine repair business. My bobbin was having a few issues and I have no idea if the machine has ever been tuned up before. (Oops) Anyway, he said there was a TON of dust around where the bobbin sits. No wonder! Happy Mother's Day to me, from me :)

Jackson at 11 months

Jackson will be 1 in just under a month now. It's hard to believe. he has hit some fun milestones this past month.

This was the first time he went on a swing! I'm sure it would have been earlier, but my parent's swing set is gone so we tried it at the neighbor's house a few weeks ago. He clearly loved it! (We should have a new swing set in 3 weeks! Yay!)

Boys and their balls! He LOVES balls. He loves to chase them and whack them with his hands or with a bat or anything else that he can use. It's amazing how long he can entertain himself this way! Oh and he finally started to crawl. A few days after he turned 10 mos. old officially.

He is pulling himself up to everything! We put the legs back on this activity table and he pulls on up and loves to play.

He loves to read books. He was given this book as a baby and it has lift the flap pages. He loves it!

He loves to throw things. He loves the game of him throwing it and you picking it up :)

He loves any kind of baton/wand, etc.

He finally says, "Mama"! This is very exciting for me. He's said "Dada" forever, and in the past couple of weeks has figured it out.

He is recently a cuddler. He will lay his head on your shoulder for a few seconds at a time. Sometimes longer if you're lucky.

He loves his daddy. He gets sooo excited when he comes home after work. He throws a fit if Justin can't hold him right away.

He loves to play on/in the dishwasher.

He loves dogs.

He loves being outside.

He loves the tub. He loves to splash.

He has gotten his top 4 teeth this month. The 4th just broke through last night I think.

He loves to pinch. I have bruises and scrapes on my arms/neck from him. We are trying to teach him soft!

He still loves to say uh oh and hear himself talk and/or sing.

He can wave hello.

Tulip Festival

On Friday night we had the chance to go to Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival. We had never been before and were in for a treat. 

They handed out these cute tulip bingo sheets for kids to do/look at. The girls had a fun time looking for each color of tulip on their pages.

 Of course, it was beautiful! The little creek runs through and there are a couple of bridges.

 We went with Justin's parents, his brother Brad who just graduated from BYU (which is why they came down for the weekend) and his brother Scott and his wife Brooke.

 Here we all are.

 I am in love with all of the spring trees that are in bloom right now. The pinks and whites--so pretty.

 Our cute little bopper.

 And Molly mushu.

 Last but not least, Jackson!

I'm so glad we ended up going. There are 4 miles to go through and we didn't make it very far at all since we had dinner reservations, but we got to enjoy it for an hour. If you haven't been, you should go! I think it's going through this weekend.

Job hunting

We are still actively looking for a job for Justin right now. When I say we, I really mean him. But you know what I mean. Anyway, I'm just throwing it out there that if you want us to come and live by you, now is the time! ;) If you know of any attorney friends or family near you, you can get us their contact info and we can explore any possibilities there might be. He is most interested in civil litigation, but he is open for other areas of law as well. That was my mini sales pitch, ha.

Justin's cousin called him a couple days ago with a lead where he lives, in Houston, TX.

We could live here! (This is Houston) Maybe. But you never know. It is most likely that he will find a job here because he has passed the bar here and you have to pass it in each state to practice, but he has applied for jobs in a few other states as well. The University of Utah law school generally networks with places out in the west, but as you know, it's usually more about who you know. Justin has been applying to jobs and meeting/networking with attorneys, but so far nothing has materialized.

(P.S. He currently has a job, but they may not be able to keep him too much longer. Unfortunately he is the low man on the totem pole and the easiest to let go of. But we will keep you posted.)

P.P.S. Can we all agree that finding a job is usually the hardest job? Sheesh.