Conference Stations

Every year I feel like conference is somewhat of a negative experience for our family. I always try to find something to keep the girls busy but it always seems to turn into a big disaster where the girls are in constant need our attention and Josh and I get nothing out of the talks. While attempting to prepare for conference this year, I came across an idea one lady had that I fell in love with. She had her kids help set up stations for conference and one of the stations was always taking notes with Mom and Dad. During conference the kids would work quietly and switch stations with each new talk. I decided to give it a try and feel like it was our biggest success in a long time. The girls each got to decide what they wanted to do for one station and I got it ready. Then Josh and I came up with the remaining stations. We also had two different sets of stations so that we could alternate activities between sessions. I loved it because each girl had to work on something on their own. It seemed to eliminate the competing, collaborating, and fighting for supplies that we normally have. We walked through the stations before each session so that the girls knew what they were doing without needing help. Then I helped whoever was at the note taking station while listening to conference. The girls liked it as much as I did. I think that means it was a success.

The Fire Station

Ashlyn got to go to the fire station for a preschool field trip and loved it...all but the hat. She wore it just long enough for this picture and then gave it to me. Emma tried it on too and was all smiles for all of about 10 seconds. I guess firefighter hats aren't any fun for girls. At least Ashlyn loved the fire station. Every time we've driven by it since the field trip, she has made sure that I know we are about to drive by her fire station.

Big Jobs

Josh has decided that we need to do a big cleaning job each Saturday as a family. It takes a few hours each time, but I am loving it. I've tried doing it with the girls in the past but it's just too much on my own. With Josh and I working together to divide and conquer and keep the girls involved, it has turned out to be a huge success. I feel like our home is cleaner than it has been since we moved in six years ago and the girls are learning to appreciate the time and effort it take to get things clean. I can't wait until we've done the entire house.

Ashlyn

What a rough birthday! Yesterday afternoon, Ashlyn wasn't acting like her normal self and we realized she had a fever. I was hoping it would go away quickly but was pretty sure it wouldn't and I was right. She ended up with fifths disease and felt miserable.

Thankfully there were moments of brightness. She got to open her presents in the morning and got all four Frozen Barbies, which was just what she wanted. It was a great way to start the day.

The rest of the day was quite busy. Grandma and Grandma Bohman had their mission farewell and Dad had meetings in the evening.We knew it would be like that so we asked her several days earlier if we could celebrate her birthday with extended family on Monday. She thought that was a great idea until tonight. She really wanted to have grandmas and grandpas over. Instead we frosted cupcakes which seemed to take her mind off of things.

I thought she was pretty lucky, though. She got to eat cake and ice cream two days in a row! Fancy cupcakes the first day and.............

Ariel the next. And even though we had to uninvite her cousins (to avoid spreading the virus), she got to spend time with her grandmas and grandpa which put a smile on her face.

Some Things We Love About Ashlyn:

Her face is so expressive. Her eyes smile before her mouth does and they get big when she has something exciting to say. She is such a good big sister. She is always helping Emmalyn do something and loves to share with her, especially her food. She is very very smart and likes to tell us what she has learned at school.  I can't believe how well she knows her letters, numbers and shapes and she still has another year of preschool before kindergarten. 

Kid Fun

We spent the evening tonight with our good friends Zach and Brandi and their kids doing kid stuff. It was an evening put on by SLCC's early childhood education department and the kids loved it. They spent time crafting, eating candy and then later got to sing and dance.

Best Friends

These two spend a lot of time together with Kali and Sadie in school all day and there's nothing better when they're playing like best friends. I sure hope they feel that way about each other. So cute!

The Title of Liberty

Josh did an FHE lesson on the Title of Liberty and The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The girls loved it, especially because they got to make their own flag and march it down the street. I loved it too because the spirit was very strong as we talked about the proclamation. Families can be together forever and I feel so blessed to know that I can have that blessing.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The girls woke up to a surprise from a Leprechaun. They had golden coin and golden cereal as well as green milk, mind game puzzles and green stemmed roses.

And since the girls have to wear uniforms to school, we had to be creative to get green on them. We painted their nails green and added some green strips of hair.

Ouch!

While running through the house singing songs, Emma somehow stumbled and fell. It wasn't pretty. I was in the same room as her but didn't see her fall. She either hit the floor or a chair nearby and almost bit through her lip. It swelled up so large that it looked like a marble was in it and the skin just below her lip started to scab over. It was so sad. But as soon as she calmed down, she had Ashlyn and I laughing so hard we could barely stop. She started sucking on her lip and moving her mouth into some of the craziest contortions. I'm sure it was because it felt funny after swelling that much. It was hilarious! Had I thought of it, I would have caught it on video.

Talk Time

About a year and a half ago, I was having a very tough time as a mother. I felt like I was so busy doing the day to day things that I didn't have time for my girls.  There were many days when I realized I had gone the entire day without even making eye contact with my children. I didn't know what to do about it until I received the prompting to spend time talking with them one on one. I thought it was crazy at first but eventually worked out a way to do it. Now it's a tradition that both the girls and I look forward to. Once a week at the end of the night, all the girls get some quiet reading time while I take one girl into my bedroom at a time and talk with them for about ten minutes. We get comfy on my bed and they tell me whatever they want. Emma and I always read a book and sing several songs while she runs circles. We go through her ABC's and numbers and practice spelling her name out loud. And we always finish up with Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam while she jumps on my bed. Ashlyn likes to tell me what she learned at preschool and her favorite part of the day. I love that her face lights up as she talks with me. She also likes to have me read her a book and we practice her ABC's and numbers. I also make sure she knows her full name, her date of birth and how old she is. Then we finish up with Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam while jumping on the bed just like Emma. Sadie and I talk about whatever but she usually likes to focus on what she did at school or at dance. She's funny too because she loves to be goofy and is constantly moving while talking with me. She's either bending her body and head in crazy positions or she's rolling around or crawling deep under the covers. She always feels like her time ends too quickly, as do I. Kali also talks about whatever but often focuses on the books she reading or her friends. She's growing up so quickly and we already talk about boys and about girl problems. I can tell the time I spend with her makes her feel so good. I'm so grateful to have been given the prompting to do this because it has changed my relationship with my girls. I feel like they know they can talk with me about anything and that is so important to me.

Emmalyn

 

This cute little girl is now two. It was so fun to wake her up and tell her happy birthday. She was in such a good mood and everything she said was in her cute little happy voice. She loved opening her presents. Kali and Sadie got her the crib and Ashlyn got her some new fisher price princesses. She loved all of it (as did her sisters).

In the evening, we invited family over and had cake and ice cream. She had a sunflower cake with colorful flower cupcakes. She was really excited for her cake and patiently waited all day for it. Unfortunately, when Josh lit her candles, she was so excited to blow them out that she put her face too close and felt the heat. She immediately stuck her lower lip out and her face got so sad. You could tell she was trying very hard not to cry. Poor thing. Then Josh helped her blow the candles out and she seemed to relax a little.

A couple of days ago, we began explaining to her that she'd be turning two. But without fail, every time we asked her how old she was, she would say one...until today. She finally figured it out and just in the nick of time. That's the question she's answering in this picture. However, you can also tell from the picture that she still hasn't figured out how to hold up two fingers.

Some of the Things we Love about Emmalyn:

Emma loves to sing. She sings when she's bored, while reading books, when listening to music, before bed and even in the middle of the night. Unfortunately she doesn't always sing for other people. She quick to say thank you and loves to tell you that she loves you, especially at bedtime. She usually has to tell each person multiple times that she loves them before going to bed. She loves to pray even though she repeats the same thing over and over again (Heavenly Father, married in the temple, Christ, Amen.).

Region Inspirations

Since Kali and Sadie both won 1st place in their school Inspirations Program, their work moved on to the region level. Earlier this week we were given an invitation to attend the region awards ceremony and tonight we found out that Sadie's dance piece got an honorable mention and Kali's won 1st place. Sadie was bummed that hers didn't come with a medal and Kali was pretty excited that she won until she realized that hers was the only submission. She won by default. I'm curious to see how she does at the state level.

Mission Call

The end of last month, Mom and Dad submitted papers to serve a mission and their call arrived today. They have been called to the Wichita, Kansas mission and will be serving as military liaisons for the Fort Riley army base. They report to the MTC on April 14th. I'm so glad they decided to serve a mission and can't wait to hear their experiences.

Gymnastics Runner

Kali was invited to be a runner at the University of Utah's gymnastics meet against Oregon State. A runner sits down on the floor with the judges and when the scores are given, they put them up on the signs and rotate them around for everyone to see. It was such a cool experience for her to be so close to the gymnasts.

When we first arrived at the Huntsman Center to watch the meet, we ran into Swoop. Emma was terrified and didn't want to get anywhere near him.

The meet was a little long for the girls, but they got a few things for free from spinning a Ford advertisment wheel (scarves, bags, chapstick) that kept them entertained.

And when the meet was over, Kali got to go around to all the gymnasts and have them sign a poster for her. It was a pretty cool experience.

Tired

When we got home last night, it was bedtime. Ashlyn had fallen asleep in the car but I woke her up to go inside. A minute later, this is where I found her. She walked to the door, dropped and was out cold. I asked her about it this morning and she doesn't remember a thing. It was pretty funny.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school. I saw someone else do a donut in their daughter's hair not long ago and suggested it to Sadie. She loved the idea and was all smiles when she saw what it looked like. After school she couldn't stop talking about all the attention she got. She said some of the teachers even took pictures with her.

Kali requested blue hair with pink curly pipe cleaners. It also turned out very cute but I think she was a little disappointed that she didn't get as much attention.

The Clark Planetarium

At the beginning of the year, our family set a goal of visiting one educational place a month. This month we decided to go to the Clark Planetarium. I hadn't ever been there and was really surprised at how much there was to do for free.

They had some really interesting things to see and do. The girls had a blast.

They even got to walk on Mars.

Hair Cut

A couple of days ago, I found this stash of hair and knew right away what had happened. Ashlyn has been using the scissors a lot lately and a couple of times I found her acting a little fishy but didn't think much of it. She's typically pretty responsible with scissors, but this pile of hair says otherwise. I could tell from the different colors that this was hair from a lot of different Barbies and dolls. After finding about six of her sisters' dolls with damage, I stopped searching and gave her a punishment.

Then today I noticed this. Emma's hair has some lovely straight cuts making her hair very short on the front left side. I suddenly knew that some of the hair I found the previous day belonged to Emma. I remember thinking some of the hair was very soft and couldn't think of which of their Barbies had such nice hair. That's because it wasn't a Barbie's hair, it was Emma's.

Then it dawned on me that she probably cut her own hair too. I began questioning her and she immediately burst into tears and admitted to it. I began searching her hair and luckily couldn't find any serious damage. I think she cut hair to the length of her bangs so it blends nicely. I guess the silver lining is that I may end up with a hair stylist in the future.

Family Temple Visit

Kevin sent out an email about a week ago letting us know that they would be in town and wanted to know if anyone would be interested in doing a session at the Jordan River temple. He thought it would be a good idea since Mom and Dad are waiting for their mission call and we won't have an opportunity to do something like thing again for quite some time. Not everyone was able to go, but a good-sized group of us went. I'm so grateful to have a family that has stayed strong in the gospel. It's so neat to be in the temple with them. I can't imagine anything more like heaven than that.

Afterward we went out to eat at Leatherby's. It was a ton of fun. I don't remember going to restaurants with my family growing up or even as adults so it felt like a first.

Valentine's Day

We had such a wonderful Valentine's Day this year. As always, Josh and I left a special present on the doorstep for the girls...

...journals. And the girls were so excited. Josh recently did a family home evening lesson on journal writing and ever since then the girls have wanted their own. They were the perfect gift. Then Josh only worked half a day so that he and I could go out to eat at Red Robin (surprise, surprise). Afterward we went to see Frozen, finally. Our girls have been dying to tell us about the movie but we kept telling them that they had to wait until we watched it. It was such a cute movie and turned out to be a wonderful date.

Earlier in the week, we spent an evening as a family making hearts to "heart attack" grandmas and grandpas on Valentine's Day. The girls loved getting creative and made some really cute hearts.

But I think they loved surprising their grandparents with them on Valentine's Day even more. It turned out to be super fun!

And last but not least, the girls gave us a Valentine's Day gift, a beautiful performance of singing and dancing. They even provided us with a play/pause wand so that we could stop them anytime during the performance. It came in very handy for taking this picture. We love our girls.

Date Night

Josh has recently started taking the girls out on dates. Once a week he takes one of them out for an ice cream or frosty at the place of their choice. The girls love the one on one time with him!!! Tonight was Emma's first date, and she had a blast. According to Josh she was quite the little goof ball. She kept running back and forth on the bench to get bites of her ice cream, all the while squealing.