Preschool Spring Program

Katelyn had her spring program at preschool this week. It was adorable, and it's amazing how they get all of these kids to memorize and SING every song! They sang at least 15 songs! Katelyn has grown so much this past year and is a sweetheart with a sensitive heart. She is now reading and loves to do art. I signed her up for a little art class this summer and she is so excited. Here's one of the songs...

At the end they turned out all the lights and the kids were each holding a star that lit up under black lights. They sang "I'm proud to be an American", and it was wonderful. I got a little choked up watching all of these 4 year olds proudly sing this song.

Trampoline

We recently bought a trampoline, and the girls are practically living on it. I LOVE this thing! The girls are scared to death of the basement and won't go down to the playroom down there, so they never self entertain. Well, since we have gotten the trampoline the girls will go out there together and jump forever! And it's right outside the kitchen window so I can watch them and be productive. Now we just have to get the safety net up around it.

Here we are first thing in the morning. It was freezing, and I am looking lovely in my PJ's, but the girls insist on going out there as soon as they wake up.

Tulips

My parents and Marci came up for the weekend to celebrate Hayley's graduation from BYU and to see us. The weekend went by way too fast, but we had so much fun and crammed in a lot. Of course we did a lot of shopping, and on Saturday we headed to the Tulip Festival. It was AMAZING! So many gorgeous gardens full of tulips and other flowers, and this place is huge! There were also gorgeous waterfalls and ponds for the kids to feed the fish. Of course the girls just loved the wide open spaces to run around and play. We got my dad an electric cart so he could go everywhere and enjoy the day. It was so good to see him happy and to see him out in nature, where he loves to be. I think we are going to get passes this year to Thanksgiving Point because there is so much to do!

We spent some good, quality sister time. Love her!

Everything in it's place...

Sometimes I swear Taylor has a little OCD. She LOVES to line things up, organize them into groups, and then she messes it up and does it again. Sometimes she can sit for hours doing this, like this time with her hair clippies. She has been obsessed with jewelry and hair clippies lately and has to take a ziploc baggie of them where ever we go. If she forgets her clippies she has a total meltdown, and that's lots of fun:) I'm not a fan of this habit because we end up losing a TON of clippies or I find them all over the house. This morning she came into my room and started organizing her clippies. The carpet has diamonds in it, and every diamond had to have exactly one clippies right in the center of it. I took this picture before she finished, but it took her about an hour to feel complete. Then it took her an hour to put them away, ONE by ONE. I tried to help her by scooping them up and that about killed her! Let her do things in her way and in her time and she is fine.

New Blog to check out

My sister is an amazing esthetician, and knows so much about skin care and make up. She is so talented and has started a beauty blog. It has her portfolio plus lots of beauty tips that are helpful! And you can email her with any skin care, waxing, tanning or makeup questions you might have. Check it out here Beauty

And my good friend Melissa has also started a blog all about hair! Her and Marci are actually working together and specializing in brides to be. Check out their latest photo shoot. Melissa works miracles with hair and she did mine for my wedding:) Check out her blog here

Getting settled in

I am starting to feel unpacked and settled in to our new house. I am starting to hang pictures up on the wall, decorate and make this house feel like our home. Some walls will be bare for a while because I want to do it right and know that it will take time to save up for each piece that I really want. I am excited that one picture I have had my eye on for a while will be my Mothers Day gift!! I absolutely love this house and the girls do too. They just run circles around the house yelling, "I love my new house!" And I don't know who loves having a yard more, them or me! We feel great in this neighborhood and felt very welcomed at our new ward. It's just so neat to start our life together in this house and in this neighborhood. I feel like I have not only started a new chapter in my life, but a new book!

We also got a new bedroom set!

Bubble Bath

I still haven't tried out our jacuzzi bathtub, but the girls LOVE taking their bath in it every night! They love turning on the jets and watching the bubbles grow. Bath time now takes about a half an hour, and it's a battle to get them out. But it sure is fun to watch them play and laugh together in the bath.

Strawberry Fields

We went to Underwood Farms out in Moorpark with Marci, my Mom, Aaron and Kim and all the kids. It was a gorgeous day again, and we had a great time. I love this place. The kids love going out and picking their own strawberries, and there are lots of little rides, animals and playgrounds to play on. My favorite picture of Taylor is when she was about 6 months and stuffing her face with a strawberry. I tried to recreate that picture, but never captured the moment. But we had such a great day and it was so fun to see Kara and Taylor spend so much time together (they are 3 months apart).

Santa Barbara

I know all of my blog posts for the past 2 weeks in CA are completely out of order, but at least I got them all in here! At the beginning of our trip we headed to Santa Barbara with Chad's sisters, Kristin and Courtney and his Mom. All of the girls (all 10 of them) enjoyed the beach. It was perfect weather and we soaked up as much sun as we could, since we knew it was a blizzard back home!

I love driving up north because it is the most gorgeous drive, you don't have to deal with traffic, and you get to stop at the fruit stand to get snacks on the way!

Magic Mountain

I drove down to CA for Spring Break with Chad's sisters, Kristin and Courtney and his Mom. It was quite the drive and thank goodness we split it in 2 days and stayed in St. George overnight. We drove in 2 suburbans, and had 4 women and 10 girls! Every time we would stop and pile out of the cars people would just stop and stare. And we always got comments like, "Girls just keep coming out of your car!" "There are no boys!" It was funny to watch people watch us. They were in town for 4 days and stayed at a hotel in Valencia. We went to the beach of course, Magic Mountain, the American Girl Doll Store, and the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Magic Mountain was a blast! I used to go all the time when I was growing up, but hadn't gone in over 10 years (the roller coasters make me sick). But I was impressed with the park, and the little kid area. The kids LOVED it! And it is so close to us! And A LOT less expensive than Disneyland! We will be getting season passes and heading back everytime we come home. You can get a pass for $60!

Taylor has a love for adventure! She wanted to go on all the big roller coasters and cried when I told her she wasn't big enough. I was surprised though how many rides she could go on. I took her on Log Jammer and Jet Stream! She LOVED them and loved getting all wet. Katelyn was also loving the rides. At Disneyland she is terrified of the roller coasters and we had to fight her to get on Splash Mountain, but she went on everything she could at Magic Mountain and couldn't get enough. It was a great day and the weather was perfect. And a day at Magic Mountain just isn't complete without a carmel apple!

Easter Sunday

Conference landed on Easter this year and it was great. I think General Conference should be on Easter Sunday every year. It made Easter extra special and made us focus on the Savior and real meaning of Easter more. The sessions were wonderful and I loved that many of the messages were focused on family. The responsibility of parenthood is daunting, but it is also wonderful to be reminded that it is a blessing and a gift to be a parent.

At 3, we celebrated with my family. We had a little egg hunt in the backyard and then had dinner together. it was pretty low key and wonderful to be together. I love my family and am glad I was able to spend more than 4 days with them this trip! We missed Kyle and Pam this year though.

The Easter Bunny was kind this year and didn't bring the girls a lot of candy, since they got so much on all of their hunts! They got a movie, bathing suit and flip flops in their baskets.

Saturday Easter Fun!

Saturday morning we did the annual Santa Clarita hunt. It was great fun and Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny were both there. Taylor lived in her little world and just danced to the music all by herself. That girl is a riot. Katelyn is just so grown up this year and is a great older sister. She is a huge help and makes sure everyone is taken care of. Both girls weren't shy when it came to collecting eggs. They both filled up their buckets so fast and then sat down to empty them out and eat the candy!

The girls have had fun joining in on Grandma's preschool fun! They made bunny faces with snowballs and loved eating them

Girls Night Out

I was SO excited for a much needed girls night out. And I was so excited when 8 of my closest girlfriends could make it! We met at the Wood Ranch (Yum!) and then had Golden Spoon frozen yogurt afterwards (double yum!) I love these girls so much and am grateful for the impact they have all had on my life. I am blessed to be surrounded and supported by such amazing women. I love you girls!

Zuma Beach

Weds was supposed to be the warmest day this week and I promised Katelyn we would go to the beach one more time (she would live there if she could). So we headed to Zuma with Marci and Julio's family and Rachel and her kids. It was a beautiful day without any wind. The kids of course were in heaven and could have played in the sand forever if we let them.