When all is right in the world.

I know I've been lamenting the fact that I've been so busy lately. But this Christmas Break stuff, with no schedule is pure bliss right now. I'm sleeping in a little, getting my house cleaned at my leasure, my kids are playing and taking hour long baths. It's amazing! And the one thing I miss most is not having time for art projects anymore, so we decided to bust out the paints again yesterday. We made snowmen after the book Snowmen at Night. I was actually enjoying the moment and was present with the girls, which is hard to come by these days. Miguel said he's glad I do that and I enjoy it so much, because it's not his thing. One day I'll get him to join us, but for now, I'm glad he entertained Max for us.

 And here is the final product!

Don't they look amazing?! I'm so happy with how they turned out.

My kids really are great artists!

It goes:

Julianne, Sophia

Mommy, Gabriela

 Onto other randomness, here's Sophia baking a bazillion cupcakes for the neighbors. I'm a little remorseful that they didn't go as far as I would have hoped, so if you are a neighbor,  and you're reading this, and you didn't get any....we are so sorry! I'll come up with a better plan next year so that I can get something to everyone I know. But we still love you! and they weren't anything special.

 Here is Julianne after her preschool Christmas party. She's just the cutest little elf and she adores that elf hat.  That's also the nice little gift she gave her Mommy and Papi! Have I said how much I love Patchwork Preschool. I've got a link on the side if you're interested.

 And lastely, Max has mastered the art of hand balancing. He's gearing up for the big talent show. (Wishing that picture wasn't so dark)

Really Funny (and sort of really embarassing!) Enjoy!

So on Saturday, my dear SIL, took my two older girls for the day and I had Max and Julianne with me. Earlier that morning, Sophia, Max, Julianne and I were laying in my bed, before I got up and at em', and Julianne kept rubbing my legs. It was making me crazy, and I asked her why she kept doing that. She said she was feeling my "pokies," by which she meant my unshaven legs. Don't gasp, I know you've all had your days! So, I told  her to quit. Later that day, like around 3:00, I asked her what she wanted to do since she had Mommy all to herself and she told me she wanted to color together. I happily obliged and we were enjoying ourselves. I like to pick her brain and talk to her when we are alone and we were having a great little conversation, when she announces, "Mommy, I'm coloring her skin like yours." I happened to look over and saw this:

I said, "What? I don't have polka dot skin!"

She said, "NO, it's her pokies!!! Likes yours."

AWESOME!!!

Sorry Abby Cadabby, you're a preschool fairy with hairy legs!

Needless to say, I shaved my legs the next time I hopped in the shower. And I made sure she saw them!

Naked?!

You would never know she was paying attention during sacrament meeting, but apparently she is. She was busy coloring when the speaker today was reading a scripture from Matthew  25 that talks about the parable of the sheep and the goats. He was reading verse 36 that says "Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." Julianne's head pops up,  she grins, and says really loud:

"Naked?!"

And laughs.

Like why on earth are they talking about naked in church.

The families in the pews in front of us and behind us got a good laugh at least.

Preschool

After a failed attempt to get a Joy School group together, I finally decided to put the girls in preschool, which I'm really happy about now. It would have been impossible to do with the baby and way more stress than I want to add to my life right now. The girls alternate days and we go in the afternoon which is different for us. They were super excited about it, especially Julianne. Now she is in the big girl club and goes to school just like her big sisters. I'm happy for her. They each got their father's blessings before they started as well.

Here is Sophia on her first day.

 Her teacher Mrs. Cami (she calls her Sister Henrie because she also leads the music in our primary)

 Sophia is like her mother in the sense that she has a little trepidation over meeting new people. But she warmed up and met a couple of new friends on the first day.

 I can't believe how fast she's growing up!

 And here is our little Miss. Julianne. The big 3 year old!

 Max came along, while we did the first day scavenger hunt together.

 And here she is with her teacher Mrs. Rebecca!

It's going to be a great year!

Preschoolers

Mondays are usually my stay at home and clean the house day. Somehow the house blows apart over the weekend. I think it may have something to do with that "day of rest" we have over the weekend. Anyways, my preschoolers are left to find their own entertainment while I change sheets, wash clothes, and so on. Well this morning I started in my room and I know nothing that attracts small children that a newly made bed. I've been running them out of my room all morning trying to keep it neat in there, but to no avail. A few minutes ago I heard them in there again making all sorts of racket and yelling and when I went in, this is what I found.  When I asked them what they were doing, they said,

"We're watching the BYU game and we are cheering for the black team (I'm hoping they mean navy blue)," all the while giving fist pumps in the air. "Move mom!!! you're in the way, we can't see!"

I think the baseball caps are a nice touch. And I certainly know what they've been exposed too in the last couple of weeks. GO BYU!!!

Oh, and what you can't see are the baby dolls they've got hidden behind those big white pillows. I love their imaginations when they use them.

Bless Her Heart

Julianne is 3 today!!!

But she's sick.

We celebrated her birthday yesterday with the family. We had everyone over for lunch and I made a cake for her, but she was just not feeling well. I felt so bad, because we had all been planning on going swimming for her birthday and she was so excited. All the kids were excited. But as the little party progressed she seemed to feel worse and worse. She would cry everytime she coughed, but that little champ smiled so good for every picture I made her take.

She managed to get through the cake and presents part o.k. (By the way, the cake was a disaster to make. Like I dropped the cake pan and busted it into pieces and I didn't have time to let it cool before trying to frost it, so it was just crumbling apart, but despite all of the frustration, it ended up looking o.k. Can't hit a home run everytime I guess.) Once we loaded everyone up to go to the pool, Julianne was crying in the back seat, and she just looked miserable. I decided that it just wasn't a good idea to take her, so we turned around and came home where I took her screaming into the house, while Miguel took the other kids swimming with the extended family.
Again, I felt so bad for her, and she screamed the entire time they were gone. She hates to be sick and doesn't cope well. She needed a nap so, so bad, but for the life of her couldn't settle herself down. She would go five minutes, drift off to sleep, cough, and start screaming hysterically again. After two hours of trying to get her to sleep, laying with her, rocking her, I gave up and took her downstairs with me to watch the BYU basketball game. All of a sudden she forgot she was miserable and completely changed her tune. She was singing the fight song, and pointing out players. Apparently all she needed was a distraction from her misery. She layed with me the rest of the game and took it easy and had an early bedtime, but who knew sports would sooth her soul.

We are going to take her swimming as soon as she's better.

We sure love the BABY BEAR and her sweet smile that warms the heart.

What you will remember

Often times I don't write down the crazy things my kids do that make them unique. I usually don't run grap the camera to capture those things either, because those moments are so fast and fleeting that I usually miss them if I try to capture it, but today as we sat around the table as a family attempting to eat lunch together, this is what I saw across the table. This is Julianne, and this is her infamous table manners. For some reason she has no attention span at the table and almost always lays down in her chair with her feet up in the air. I just looked over at Miguel and said, "this is what I will remember about her. I wish I could just capture it. " and he looked at me and for once in his life encouraged me to grap the camera. She had no idea that I even took these, as she was too busy locking and unlocking the extra leaf in the table. But I got it and it's those crazy little things that make my kids special to me.