Celebrating My 4 Year Old

We celebrated with a Birthday Brunch Sleeping Beauty Party. Looking back there was a lot I didn't get pictures of. I had a fun table all set up with princesses and pink for the cousins to eat at together. Isabelle got a few things, a bird book, a Dora lunch box, a couple outfits. Her big gift was furniture for the doll house she got for Christmas. Now she is all set.

I sure love this angel girl that fills my day with happiness and warmth. She loves life, LOVES IT!!! She is just happy to be alive and to enjoy all that comes her way. She can be sweet and sassy, funny and sad, carefree and very concerned. Her laugh is contagious. She can get VERY excited over anything. Presents, bugs, trips into town, watching a movie, worms, playing with friends. She will often say when she sees projects I am working on or something I'm putting together, "Mom, that is sooooo beautiful." She melts my heart.

She loves talking on the phone, hugging Jakob, following her mom around all day, swinging on our rope swing, taking her shirt off when she gets hot (like the boys), pestering, I mean loving her baby brother, eating "white" icecream, and having sleepovers in Mom and Dad's bed. I love hearing her sing. Love it. Just the other day she was singing "In the leafy treetops." She sang, "In the leafy treetops the flowers are naughty."

I just love my sweet girl and couldn't possibly imagine my life without her. She hit 4 with such enthusiam, asking the day before when she was going to have her next birthday (her 5th birthday.) Hold off my sweet girl. Enjoy this next year. You will only be 4 once and when it is gone it is gone. Savor your days of play, your days of exploration of the wonders around you. Savor your childhood and all that comes with it. I love you my girl and am so proud of the little girl you are and the glimpses of the beautiful future I see that awaits you. Happy Birthday.

What do you want me to do?

So, the other day Jakob wanted me to take a picture of the lego set he bought with his birthday money from Grampy and Grammy Huish. He set it all up and had me take the pictures. Then he asked me to take pictures of each of the legos individually. What?? Where did he get that from?? I mean it isn't like he sees anyone taking random pictures of different objects in the house from ever angle possible and posting these pictures on her blog??

So, whats a crazy picture taking, blog posting mom to do. Oh, of course she takes the pictures, from every angle, and then decides to do a blog post on it.

He positioned them all and was very detailed in the art of how they would stand and what they would be doing. He wanted to see the pictures on the camera to make sure I got it they way he wanted it.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday money. It was fun to go to the lego store and let him choose something. He took his time to look and in the end found just what he was looking for.

Sidenote, Jakob is begging to watch the new Star Wars movies. He has watched the old ones and we have really enjoyed watching those together. I'm pretty sure I'm going to preview the new ones. The third one I know he will not be watching anytime soon, I haven't seen it yet, but from what I have heard it is too dark and scary, but the first two I have to rewatch to decide. Any advice??

Baptism Book

I have a neice and a nephew who have turned 8 in June and have been/will be baptized this year. The book below is one I made for my nephew. I kept is simple and basic. I used lots of white and one basic color. For my niece I followed the same basic pattern, it just had more frills (ribbons, a few more decorative elements.) These were fun to do and I'm hoping it will make it easy for them to record this amazing day in their lives.

A Trip To The Lake

Can you believe Steve grew up by this lake?? Wow!! We snuck away from wedding events to spend a short hour at the Hagg Lake. It was so fun to spend some time by the water with family.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Yum, yum, yum!! I cannot tell you how fabulous oregon strawberries are this year! Okay, they are amazing every year, but I have really enjoyed them this year. The last two summers we haven't been able to get any. Too busy having babies and moving. Well, this year I said enough is enough and made time to stop and get some berries. Even though this last week was Katie's Wedding, I still spent a morning with the kids picking up a flat of strawberries, and we were not disappointed. They were so yummy!! If you never have tried freezer jam you have to try it. It couldn't be easier. No cooking, no canning, nothing difficult involved. The only issue is the amount of sugar you have to add, WOW, its so crazy how much is needed. I buy a package of pectin and follow the recipe included in the box. I did find some great recipes for jam sweetened with honey and juice, but there is cooking involved. It doesn't look difficult and I will be trying it the next time I make some jam. For now we will be enjoying the fruits of our labor.

A Fairytale Wedding

Katie wanted a Fairytale Wedding and that is what she got. It was so beautiful. Beautiful day, beautiful bride, beautiful groom, beautiful temple sealing, so many things to be celebrating.

Her dress was amazing. So perfect for Katie. All the little girls were loving her "princess" dress!

Aren't these two adorable, if I do say so myself, and I do.

Grammy Huish made her dress. It was so amazing and perfect for my little girl. She also made my dress, but did I get any pictures of it, no I was too busy chasing kids to pass my camera to someone else. The only reason I got it out for these shots was to entertain my kids that were getting a bit restless.

11 of the 19 Moon Grandchildren. Cousins are so fun, loud, crazy, wild.....you get the picture.

Here is one of me. Having fun in the car, waiting, taking pictures of myself. I should have tried to set the timer and get a full length picture of myself with my dress, but I still don't know how to set the timer (pathetic, I know.) Maybe someday I will learn. Sigh.

Anyway, just wanted to share what kept us so busy this last week. A truly amazing day celebrated a truly amazing couple. Congratulations Katie and Drew!

(I just proof read my post and realized I say amazing quite a bit. You'll just have to deal with it, I'm too tired to rewrite. )

Reporting Week 8

So this last week was my last week. It was a CRAZY week and far from perfect. I did not get all my exercise in and I had an extra treat. Anyway, I've made it, lost some weight, feel like I have accomplished something and am glad I'm done for awhile. I have some ideas for a few things I want to incorporate into my life when it comes to eating and exercise. I go back and forth between thinking I have to be really strict with myself and feeling like I don't want to put too many restrictions on myself. I feel like this next little bit will find me trying to be good without the restrictions. My hope is I will make the good choice without feeling deprived of what else is out there. It hasn't worked great for me in the past, so we will see how it works for me now. Maybe I'll share again. This is NOT my favorite thing to talk about on this blog, but thanks for letting me use this outlet to keep me on track. I was far from perfect, but there were many times that I wanted to cheat and didn't or didn't want to get up to exercise and did because I knew that I would have to report it here. So, here is to a bright future with lots of fruits, vegetables, and exercise.