Best view

I love this view!

That little baby sitting up playing with toys is just so dang cute!

And her sister sitting on the couch has been so funny and so much fun lately!

And yesterday there was lots of sun shining through those windows (and tomorrow there should be too!)

And to top it off those are some clean rooms--wahoo!

Urgent

"Mom!  Mom!  Come quick!  Hurry!  Hurry!  Right now!"

"She's posing!"

Talents

"the dance is over
the applause subsided
but the joy and feeling will stay with you forever"


I've spent my life trying to find a talent.  Being an extremely fast and prolific reader is just not a very cool talent.  Especially when you are a very nerdy 3rd grader who just wants to read at recess (and suck her thumb).  Especially when you are a still nerdy 9th grader and would rather stay home and read a book than spend time with friends.  Especially when you are a 35 year old mom and would rather curl up with a book instead of go do something with your very social and active and outwardly talented children.

But it really doesn't matter what our talents are (and it's not necessary to hide how many books and pages read therefore not winning the top award in 5th grade out of embarrassment because you probably read 3 times the amount the winner read).  We all have different talents and abilities--whether it's sports or dance or music or cooking or playing Candyland or sewing or listening or art or cleaning or writing or computering or serving or gardening or jump roping or photography or digging with a backhoe or reading--and what's most important is getting that joy and feeling that will stay with you forever in knowing you've done a good job, you've been creative, you've stretched yourself, you've found satisfaction, you've pushed yourself and achieved even more that you thought possible.

And that's what I love about my girls!  They love to learn!  They love to try new things! They love to work and work and work to get better!  And they know that they've been blessed and must therefore make the most of every opportunity.  And they encourage me to be better and try harder and do new things!  Guess I'd better go read a new book!

And my girls' talents?  Obviously they got them from their dad.  Here he is in Indianapolis at the National Hoop Shoot.  Um, did they get their style talents from him also?

Oh, what do you do . . .

. . . on President's Day?

We had a memory day.

Two of my goals for the year are to finish decorating our house (I think after two years I'm finally feeling a few creative juices flowing again after getting burned out) and to use what we have instead of storing it.  So, . . .

We're making a trophy room.  A memory room.  A pull-things-out-of-boxes-and-decorate-our-exercise-room-that's-had-lots-of-things-piled-in-it room.

The problem:  Ben has way too many trophies.

The solution:  We'll just pick a few favorites of his and a few favorites of each girl and a few favorites of mine (oh ya, wait, I only have three trophies total and one is now broken, so no worries there!).

Shelves are hung, but I'm tired, so it'll take another day to finish up, but I am very excited about how it's looking.  I think it may turn out for real just like it did in my mind which is very unusual.  Yea!

Ben thinks he is cool.  He can still button it up!

Charity had to try on the gorgeous Prom crown.

I remember Ben organizing his trophy boxes when Sarah was little, but that would have been at least 10 years ago and they were disgusting.  But some things had been in there much longer than that.  Check out the date on the newspaper!  Luckily he's going to let me get new boxes and repack them--hopefully this time without dead bugs, spiders, and dust.

And then once we had Ben's out and organized by sport (Hoop shoot, basketball, football, baseball, racquetball), the girls needed to bring theirs to add in.  Good grief!

We have a fun memory with the trophies.  The girls always thought Ben's National Hoop Shoot trophy (#2 in the nation baby) was so huge and amazing.  It's the one front and center with the flag on it.  Then two years ago they went to a Pocatello competition with their solos and Allie won the overall top award for the Novice/Beginner category and Sarah won the overall top award for the Intermediate/Advanced category and their trophies were disgustingly huge and as tall as Allie.  They came home and compared it to Ben's and laughed.  It dwarfed his!  But, his is still pretty darn cool considering it's a national event.  That's still a dream for the girls . . . but they'll keep dreaming and working!

Walmart List

I love my Walmart shopping lists the last two weeks.  Another good look at what's important at our house lately!

• $Money$
• Bras
• Sugar containers
• Frames
• Trampoline

And I thought that my regular trips were expensive!

Hair!

Mollie has hair!

Well, kind of . . . thanks to Allie's hair piece!

 We sure love this baby!

Ten Reasons I Love Steph

I decided to hack the blog today and post a Valentine message for my Valentine.

Ten Reasons I Love Steph:

1. She agreed to marry me.

2. She lives a worthy life.

3. She listens to me very well.

4. She likes computers and electronics.

5. She likes to save money. (Well, sort of.)

6. She has really cute babies that have grown up into amazing girls.

7. She teaches and exemplifies important gospel and life principles to our kids.

8. She reads the Ensign cover to cover each month.

9. She has patience with my 242.3 obsessions with detail.

10. I can tell that she loves me even though there aren't very many reasons to do so.

Happy Valentines Day, Steph!

Oh, one more:

11. She is attractive.