Do As I'm Doing

Mary loves to read books and Rachel is enjoying them for longer and longer amounts of time. Mary is a really great big sister and takes good care of her. At Church Mary and Rachel like to hold hands while Mary walks Rachel to nursery and drops her off. Murray and I get a lot of comments from people who think it is so cute to watch their routine.

I thought it was really sweet this morning when I found Mary reading to Rachel in bed.

Daddy Daughter Date

Mary really loves to see musicals and plays. So when Murray takes her on daddy daughter dates they usually go and see one together. For Mary's 4th birthday Grandma and Grandpa gave her tickets to go see "Go Dog Go" at the Children's Theater. They had a great time together and Mary liked the show. Mary even picked out her favorite shirt for Murray to wear and he wore it for her!

Tinkerbell

Mary asked me "Mom may I take some cotton balls from your bathroom?". Some how she knew what jar I kept them in when I myself didn't. I said sure and asked what for. Mary told me it was a surprise. She brought me this picture she made of tinkerbell. Turns out she needed the cotton balls for her shoes!

Mary has been making so many great crafts and writing sweet notes to me that say things like "Mom I (heart) u". Which she figured out how to write by herself. I bought a flat box that fits under her bed and have been putting special creations in it but I am also taking pictures of her with them and pitching the paper. I just can't store it all. Mary told me when she was opening her cards during her birthday "Mom don't throw this away!" I told her I don't throw away cards and we have another box for those too. I get in trouble for throwing too much away though.

Basketball

Murray was called to be the athletic director in our ward which means he coaches young mens basketball, which means we are at the stake center watching Murray coach basketball on Saturday mornings. Murray sometimes needs to referee the games before or after the game he coaches. The girls love going to the church to watch basketball. They do a nice job of watching the game and cheering for daddy and his team!

Murray was just given another calling and will be serving as a ward clerk too. This means I need to stop chit chatting after church and hop to it to pick up the girls, clean up in primary and get us home for lunch because Murrray will be counting tithing. I remembe when he was a ward clerk at BYU and I would wait at the church and then ride with him to the bank to make a deposit. It is very different now.

Strawberry Cake

Mary helped me make this delicious strawberry cake! We worked on it while Rachel was taking her nap. We had fun making it together and a great time eating it for family night! Mary told me "I have never mashed strawberries before."

Madison's Strawberry Cake

1 french vanilla cake mix
1 basket mashed strawberries
1/2 packet of dry vanilla pudding mix

Mix above ingredients and bake in 2 round pans. After it cools we put fresh strawberries between the layers. Frost with cream cheese frosting and decorate with strawberries.

Valentine's Day

I left out some little presents and Valentine's for the girls to find in the morning. They each got a pair of heart sunglasses. They like to wear them in the car and keep them by their car seats. They each got a candy too. Mary got a dry erase activity pad about telling time. She has been into reading the clock lately and has really picked up on it. Rachel got some silly bands because she has been collecting rubber bands off of our newspaper and calling them silly bands. She is very happy to have some real ones! Murray and I wrote in a Valentine for each of them too. Mary woke up and when she went and saw the table she came in and told Murray "I saw the table out there and it is totally awesome!".

Murray and the girls made me this sign and chain. The links have reasons they love me. Murray was white, Mary was purple and Rachie was red. I LOVED it!

Pink heart pancakes for breakfast.

The girls were so good about celebrating the love on Valentine's Day and shared their candy with one another.

Murray and I switched babysitting with the Hamilton's for Valentine's. So we dropped them off to play and we came home and ate a heart shaped pizza and watched House together. It was totally simple and totally wonderful!

It's A Girl!!!

I went in for my 20 week ultrasound and was able to find out the gender of our baby. Murray went to the ultrasounds for Mary and Rachel but wasn't able to go to the one for this baby. My sister in law Allie told me about asking them not to tell me but to write it down and put it in an envelope so we could open it together. This was a true test of patience for me! They wrote it down and we took it over to the Baker's that night and opened it there. Mary actually opened the envelope and we found out we are having a girl! We are really happy and excited to meet our new little daughter and are trying to think of names. Please send any suggestions our way! I loved seeing our little baby in her ultrasound, she was just beautiful! It was amazing to see her little profile, hands, feet and toes. I think it is such a miracle! I have been feeling her kick around a lot and Murray has been able to feel her too. She especially wakes up right when I sit down to read before bed. I think she is going to have no problem keeping up with her busy sisters!

Saturday Fun

Some Saturdays are busy with things we need to get done and then some Saturdays come around that are just fun! This Saturday was a very fun one! We took the girls to Joanne's for a free Valentine craft. They each made a little box and were handed a ton of little hearts and a bottle of glue. They love glue! I have found things glued to my couch, my refrigerator and the walls. We have had several discussions about glue and it's appropriate uses. They haven't seen a bottle of glue in awhile and were very happy to have at it! Then we went to a birthday party for our friend Ryann and the girlies had a great time! There were games, lots of friends and lots of sugar! Then we got to go to the Baker's house (my girls favorite place to visit) and see Grandma Baker (who they beg to see in California) who was visiting. The girls could seriously not have wished for a better day! They slept beautifully that night! It was a really fun Saturday! I hope more of those come around!

Imagine That Valentine Party

There was no shortage of Valentine celebrations this year. One of the parties Mary went to was for her Imagine That Class. I didn't get a picture of the treat she handed out but I had fun making them and Mary wrote all 12 of her friends names and her own name on each one. She just sat down and copied those names! I hot glued tootsie pops to red hearts and added little green leaves so they looked like flowers. Mary came home with this cute panda bear that held her classes Valentines.

Love Is In The Air

February 1st we started wearing lots of pink to celebrate Valentine's Day. It wasn't too hard to find some pink with two little girls. I took some pictures because I thought they were pretty cute in their matching dresses. I like matching them on the days we leave the house because it is easier to keep track of them. It will be a sad day when I don't get to dress them anymore!

Rachel's kissy face.