happily ever after

Monday, June 6, 2016

Our Favorite Books

We have been working on a list for a couple years and after 800 books we found 40 we don't like, 240 we read once, 470 we enjoyed, and 50 we loved and here is our list:

The Day the Crayons Quit, By Drew Daywalt

· On My Way to Bed, By Sarah Maizes

· Good Thing You're Not an Octopus, By Julie Markes

· Falling For Rapunzel, By Leah Wilcox

· The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Hungry Bear, by Don Wood

· Lily the Unicorn, by Dallas Clayton

· Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, by Bob Shea

· Barry the Fish with Fingers, by Sue Hendra

· One, by Kathryn Otoshi

· Hooray for Fish, by Lucy Cousins

· How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?, by Chris Butterworth

· Ugly Pumpkin, by Dave Horowitz

· Pigs to the Rescue, by John Himmelman

· A Plump and Perky Turkey, by Teresa Bateman

· Spoon, by Amy Krouse-Rosenthanal

· Sam and the Firefly, by P.D. Eastman

· Iggy Peck the Architect, by Andrea Beaty

· Julia's House for Lost Creatures, by Ben Hatke

· Someday, by Mcghee

· Hide and Seek, by Taro Gomi

· The Sleepy Little Alphabet, by Sierra

· Because I'm Your Dad, by Ahmet Zappa

· Dinosaurumpus, by Tony Mitton

· The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires

· The Monstore, by Tara Lazar

· Once Upon a Cloud, by Claire Keane

· Orion and the Dark, by Emma Yarlett

· Little Miss, Big Sis, by Amy Krouse-Rosenthanl

· Hug, by Ben Mantle

· Alphabet Rescue, by Audrey Wood

· How do Dinosaurs Stay Safe, by Jane Yolen

· Piggies, by Don Wood

· Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers, by Lisa Campbell Ernst

· Everyone Loves Bacon, by Kelly Dipucchio

· Could A Penguin Ride a Bike?, by Aleksei, Bitskoff

· The Invisible Boy, by Judy Ludwig

· Octopus Alone, by Divya, Srinivasan

· You are Special, by Max Lucado

· No Matter What, by Debi Gliori

· How is Happy?, by Little Thinkers

· This is a Moose, by Richard T Morris

· The Busy Body Book, by Lizzy Rockwell

· Quick As A Cricket, by Don Wood and Audrey Wood

· Matisse's Garden, by Samantha Friedman

· Rosie Revere Engineer, by Andrea Beaty

· Waking Beauty, by Leah Wilcox

· I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klaaen

· The Snatchabook, by Helen Docherty

· Colors VS Shapes, by Mike Boldt

ABCs VS 123s, by Mike Boldt

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

First splash pad of the season

this little guy was running through the fountains and laughing!

This little captain was awesome in helping her brother and enjoying the warm sun!

look at those happy cheeks and feet!

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Finley's First Birthday

Finley turned 1 year old. We were very excited to see what he would do with his cake and he kept pretty clean, but he definitely wanted to eat that cake.

I made these delicious s'more cupcakes!!

He started peeling off the chocolate pieces and that made his WHOLE mouth dark brown.

We gave him a helmet and wooden puzzle.

Molly picked out a shark water puppet.

A very talented friend made this for me and Finley. Highlight his stats and likes.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

I started participating in lent a couple years ago as a personal challenge to better myself and be more in tune with the Easter spirit. We spend a lot of time prepping for Christmas but Easter comes lingering in after too many holidays. I love Easter and want to give it all that it deserves. I may not be a practicing Catholic but I believe in everything that lent stands for.
So this year I am giving up doubting myself (my husband helped me pick one which tells you that I really need to work on it) and instead of giving up something physical I am going to engage myself more in homeschooling M and F because I feel like I have been slacking.
Meanwhile I am going to remember my Savior and humble myself in preparation for the sacred holiday.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Day in the life

I tried to take a picture for every hour of the day. I realized two things: we spend a lot of time playing the same toys over and over and I need to work on my photography skills.

8:30 breakfast time- even the unicorns get breakfast in this house

9:30 play time

10:30 brother wakes up and needs some love

11:30 on a beautiful day is perfect for the park

12:30 while mommy makes smoothies for lunch the kids wrestle. loud lunch = loud kiddos

1:30 both kids needed quiet alone time and mommy got to search on Pinterest

2:30 check on M and we had My Little Pony races

3:30 planning our chocolate Valentine treats

4:30 bath time

5:30 family dinner and successful potato soup recipe

6:30 stories

7:30 family prayer and prep for bed

8:30 hanging with the hubs and the whole world

Day full of fun- going to work on my photography skills and do it again

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Happy 2016

2015 brought many awesome opportunities and chances for growth, laughter, and love. We welcome Finley to our family in March and he has added pure delight minus a few hours of sleep to our household. We got to go camping, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Circus, the beach many times, the zoo, Yosemite, the fair, backpacking, a Wipeout Run, Apple Hill for apples, The Santa Train, and a Hero 5K Run. Our extended families changed so much this year which was amazing. We had two siblings graduate from High School and one graduate from college, one brother joined the army, one brother and sister-in-law announced they are having a baby girl in January, and one sister moved away to college. I was super proud and dare I say efficient when I completed our family photo book on December 31st at midnight!! Here it is: (shameless of me to post to the blog but I love it!)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

The only things lacking from the last year which I plan on rectifying this year is visits to the temple, reading with Molly (Finley is the best at keeping it on the right page), date nights and probably more but those are what I remember. This time last year I was 7 months pregnant and I think my only resolution was to survive having two kids. Turns out that two kids is truly a blessing and so much fun. Molly is a great big sister and Finley is a sweetheart.

This year I plan to

use my bread maker more -everyone needs more carbs in their life right;)
attend the temple more
send snail mail
read all conference talks (stolen from AN- Thanks for the idea)
Family Home Evening every week
read more books- I cannot in good conscience but a number on it because more is enough of a number if you know what I mean
epic birthday party!!
sincere visiting teaching
Complete my 52 lists project- thanks T for the gift

I love the idea of having one word for the year and this year is INTENTION. I want this year to have meaning and purpose and not just run of the mill. I don't have many goals and I want my list to grow, but I want everything this year to have aim, motive, design, and impulsion.

Good luck to everyone who chose to make goals this year!

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