FRAME BOW HOLDER

This is probably no surprise but I have a million little girls bows, flowers, and clips that are a big mess in my cupboard right now. Tonight I decided to try something new and I think it turned out pretty cute. One downside to this frame in my case is, I'm going to either need to make 10 more of these frames or make one that is HUGE to fit all my bows! I will admit I have a problem and I buy way too many bows but they are just so dang cute!

I thought I would share this idea with everyone so that you can make your own. All I did was get a frame and take the glass and backing out. Then I used some ribbon and hot glued it to the back of the frame. It was so easy and I think it turned out pretty cute.

SLEEP TALKING

For the past few weeks I haven't been able to fall asleep very well at night. Some nights I find myself lying there for an hour or two before I can drift off. The other night I was lying there thinking of all the things that we need to do before we move into our new house. (this consumes most of my thoughts) I start to here Nikell moving around and kicking around in her crib, following that I start to here her talk but I can't tell what she is saying. Luckily I still have the monitor in my room so I hurried and turned it on to see what she was doing. At first I just here mumbling and breathing and then I here her start to talk very, very slowly..."one, two, three, four, five, sick, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ready o'not (or not) he-yi-come (here I come)" It made me laugh!

SO MUCH FUN

We have been loving this weather we have been having. It is so nice to take the kids to the park and just let them run and run and tire themselves out. We have been going to the park quite a bit lately and I wanted to post a few pictures of one park day last week. Misty and I went to a park nearby with the kids. We met some new friends there and it was so fun for all the kids to play and run around together. We even skipped rocks down by the creek. We love warm day's and we love the park!

Nikell is so much fun! I love her personality and think her little laugh is so cute. I am starting to notice more and more that she is so content and happy to just hang out on her own. I was watching her at the park and she seems to go somewhere by herself and just play and explore all alone. I wonder if it is her age or if she is going to be like her mommy. We shall see.

HAIR

I know I don't update my hair blog as often as I would like but I just updated it if anyone wants to check it out. www.rockinhair.blogspot.com

LEARNING TO WRITE

These last couple of months we have been working with Brooklyn on her letters. She is doing really well and is always asking if she can learn her letters. Today was a good day because its the first time she actually wrote her name by herself. She was so proud that she did it so pretty much the whole rest of the day thats all she wanted to do. I am happy that she is so enthusiastic about learning, hopefully it sticks with her!

HER HAT

I got a lot of people wondering where I got the hat Nikell is wearing in the picture below. This is the website if you want to check out her stuff. www.giannabyjerilyn.com

SERVICE PROJECT

Today we went over to an elementary school here in town with our ward (church group), to help spruce it up a bit. The turn out was great and there were also a lot of people from the community there as well. Toby went over at about 8 a.m and I got the girls ready and went over a little later. I brought along my camera just to snap a few pictures of the girls. The bishop saw that I had my camera and asked me to take some pictures of everyone hard at work. I was glad that I brought my camera along because the principle of the school also asked me to take some pictures for her too. It's nice that I always have my camera handy for times like these when there isn't another camera around.
I was very impressed with how many people came out to help and I am really glad that we have people so willing to give of their time to help out the community!

I have a lot of pictures that I want to look through and edit but I am going to have to do it when I have more time. I couldn't resist posting this picture of Nikell though because I just love her and think her little red nose is so cute!

HER EYES

Today Kara invited me to go have a picnic at the park and it was a beautiful day so we were really excited to go and enjoy being outside for a few hours. The kids had such a fun time and it was so nice for me to just be able to relax on a blanket and have a little girl time with some friends. The park we went to had a big sand pit and I don't know what it is about sand but whenever my kids can play in the sand, whether it be at the beach or at the park they are little angels. I think we were at the park for like 3 hours and not once was there a melt down or tantrum. (well except for when Nikell pushed Livvy off of the curb) I love day's like today and am so glad we went!

I brought my camera along and took a few shots of the cute kids and just had to post this one. I will probably add the others later but I was dying over this little girl, Tesses EYES!!! She is such a beautiful baby and if she were mine I would probably take pictures of her all day long everyday!!!

Here are a few more.





My girls seriously zone out when they are playing in the sand!

CHANGE IS COMING

For a year now Toby and I have been looking for homes. We haven't been in a huge hurry we have just really wanted to be sure we found exactly what we both wanted and that we were making the right decision. Although we have enjoyed our home very much we both have felt a longing to feel more at home here in California. We do not feel like the city we live in now is somewhere that we want to be for years down the road. Before we bought our home that we live in now we really wanted to buy a home in a city nearby. We have heard so many great things about it and in visiting there we have felt a real sense of community and togetherness, something we both long for. However, the houses were much too expensive at that time and it just wasn't possible for us. Now, we feel like would be the best time to move to this City before our girls really start school and become attached to a place where we don't want to be for a long period of time. We know now that California really will be our home for many years to come and Toby and I both want to be able to plant our roots here and be able to really feel like this is our home. So after looking at what feels like a million homes we have found one that feels just right. We still have a few things to sign and do before we can call it ours but we really are so excited about it and hope we get lots of visitors our way!!

PROUD OF MYSELF

At this moment I have a smile from ear to ear! Let me tell you why.... For the last couple of months I have been messing around with Photoshop. For those of you who have it, you know, it is not the easiest thing to figure out. It takes time to really explore and figure out even the littlest things. I still have such a long way to go to get everything about photoshop but just for today I am so proud of myself for what I have figured out. So, the reason for all the happy, smiling, excitement is that my blog header and blog background was designed by me. I know it might sound lame that I am so freaking excited about it but I don't even care. I don't catch on to things easy and it takes me a long time to understand how things work so that is why I am so happy right now. I have to give most of the credit to my great friend Corianne who has answered so many questions for me and is always more then happy to help me out. Please check out her work, she is so talented and I am so lucky that I am able to learn from her!HERE!

I also wanted to say that the paper and other things I used are from Cottagearts.net they have such cute stuff!

As you can see if you look close things are definitely not perfect and I made need some more help but for now I am very very happy!!!

CHALLENGE #2

So, Nikell is on to the second challenge on this Old Navy contest. If you aren't sick of voting then please continue to vote! Be sure to check out Nikell's new look, HERE!

LITTLE BALLERINAS

After dance yesterday we took the girls to a beautiful almond orchard and took their pictures in the trees. I love these little girls so much and am so glad we were able to capture their cute little personalities. Misty and I have been trying to learn more and more about photography and have loved discovering new things about photography together. It was so fun to take these pictures, it was also a lot of work!! Each one of these darling girls has a very fun and VERY energetic personality. I wont lie I was worried about getting any good shots at all. I've been having so much fun working on these pictures and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!

BALLET

Yesterday in Brooklyns ballet class we were able to watch them dance and see how much they have learned. I love watching little girls dance it really is one of the cutest things ever. Brooklyn loves ballet so much, every time Monday roll around I can't tell her she has ballet that day until right before, if I do she gets too excited and can't fall asleep for her nap. No nap means one very feisty girl!
Nikell loves it when we get to watch Brooklyn dance the only problem is if I let her down long enough she try's to go and open the door to the class so that she can go dance with them all. One day, a few weeks ago, another parent opened the door to let a dancer in and sure enough I look down and see Nikell bolting for the door. When I finally caught up to her she was already standing on a plastic star ready to dance. I love my dancing girls!