Heart Celebrations

I made heart pancakes for our Valentine's Day lunch with Strawberries and whipped cream on top. It was just too much trouble (aka I'm lazy) to wake up early and make breakfast before church so we had cereal for breakfast and pancakes for lunch. Yummy to my tummy. Jonas enjoyed six.

Heart hairdos for the love holiday. I got Clara's idea from my cousin Britney, but it didn't turn out as cute as hers. Next year.

I got Nora's from Adopt a Do Hairstyles. Fun times.

We surprised Clara by showing up at school for her Valentine's day party. She loved it. It was so cute how all the kids wanted Nora to sit by them and they wanted to share their food and hold her hand when they went outside. Clara was a proud sister and Nora enjoyed all the attention.

Hard at work. We invited our friends over to make cards with us and I think it will become a fun little tradition. Next year I want to decorate sugar cookies as well.
It was hard for me to let the kids do whatever they wanted on the cards. Some of them turned out cute and some of them, not so much. Oh well, at least they had fun! We had a little card mishap and most people won't even get their cards until a few days after V-Day. Oops! By mishap I mean I procrastinated this project, thinking we would make the cards, address, stamp and send. Voila! No, it never happens like I plan. Ran into problems finding addresses, printing photos to go with the cards, wrong size of envelopes, two trips to Costco, one to Walmart and finally... done.
Clara and Jonas wanted to send their own notes to some of their friends and these are the people they chose and what they said:

Clara's messages:

To: Lucy, We love you. We hope you have a good day. We hope you miss us. We like you. You're a good cousin. Be nice to Everyone!

To: Lia, You're a nice girl. You're a good friend. I like you. Thanks for inviting us to your cabin. We have fun. Lots of Love.

To: Lily, I really like you. I miss you lots. I hope you remember me. I think you're nice. Have a good day. You know what? I like you!

To: Paige, I miss you Paige. You're a good part of the family. Thanks for being nice to me always. I like your name. You're a nice girl. You rock. I love you. Have love everyday!

Jonas' messages:

To: Abe, I like you. I got you this one because we're pen pals. Sorry for not writing back. Have a good day. You Rock!

To: Eli, I can't wait until I move back then I could play with you. You rock!

To: Cameron, Your my best friend! I miss you Cameron! I hope we're still friends!

To: Preston, You're cool. Wow your the best! I miss you Preston. You're nice. Don't get in trouble.

MyStyle

I asked Trey the other night what he thought "my style" was and this is what he came up with...

Bohemian, Retro, Eclectic, Vintage and Plain. Yep, plain. What? I asked him to elaborate because I don't really want to be a Plain Jane. He said because I'm not frilly or showy, I'm just down to earth and... plain. Good thing he likes plain girls. He really hates makeup and the times he compliments me the most are when I look very plain. T-shirt, jeans, hair in a ponytail, a dab of mascara. He likes to be able to see my freckles. While I'm glad he likes that I'm plain, I like to refer to it as "Simple". It makes me feel better.

Clara, on the other hand, is not so plain. She likes the bling, the bright, the bold, the glittery, etc... She would LOVE to wear makeup and sequined outfits everyday. I try to let her be herself, but we do have rules. She's not allowed to have makeup in the house. The other day I told her and Nora that they looked cute when we were eating breakfast before Church. She said, "Yea, good thing we are pretty enough to not need makeup." (Trey tells her pretty girls don't need makeup). I told her, "Yes, you are pretty, but no one needs makeup, they just like it." Clara looked at me with dreamy eyes and said, "I don't just like it, I love it! Someday I'm going to wear it every day!" Rock it girl.

Peace Week

Last week was "Peace Week" at the kids school. They sang about peace, played games of peace, made peace arts and crafts, tie-dyed shirts, and talked about how to be peaceful people. It was all very Up with Peopleish (or hippyish!). I liked it.

Jonas throwing up the peace sign next to the shirt he made.
Clara posing among the peace shirts wearing her peace necklace she made.
All the grades gathered together outside to sing a song of peace: "We come from many places, we speak a thousand ways. But we still can join together and help make brighter days! Everybody say Peace!"Each grade formed a different letter of P-E-A-C-E-! and the local news stations came to film and take pictures of it from the rooftop.

Disney on Ice

My friend found tickets to "Disney on Ice" for 7 bucks so we took our daughters on a date. Clara and Nora cashed in some of their reward dollars and were in Heaven watching the show. I let the girls wear their princess dresses and when I was taking their picture Clara kept tilting her head to the side. I asked her why and she said, "Mom, that's what princesses do! It makes them look prettier!" Oh, silly me.

I had so much fun with these little cuties. I love having daughters (don't love the tude that comes with it though) and I'm glad they have each other. It was all very magical until we were leaving and I got trampled, dropped Nora, she fell on her head and got an immediate gigantic goose egg. As Trey told his mom, "the size of a melon". Poor baby. She was very tough though. Oh, and my friends daughter threw up in my car on the way home and she was sitting in Atticus' car seat. And um, we found out why the tickets were so cheap. They were at the very, very, tip top of the stadium in the nose bleed section. When I looked down I felt slightly nauseous so we scanned the auditorium and found some empty seats closer to the bottom. Luckily, we were able to stay in them the whole time. Still magical though, even with all the mishaps.

I started laughing when we saw Princess Tatiana posing for pictures with her head tilted. The other princesses came out too (with tilted heads), but we couldn't get close enough to take pictures.

Little bit of this, little bit of that

Atticus high centered on the jogging stroller today. This boy is all over the place. Much more mobile, curious and mischievous than my other babies were.

Jonas and I went and volunteered for Disneyland's, "Give a day, Get a day" program tonight. We were supposed to paint over graffiti, but it was already done before our scheduled time slot. They said we could pick up trash instead but we could only find a total of about 10 pieces. I told the lady and she said for us to go home and she would give us credit for our free tickets. I was actually kind of bummed though because I wanted to teach Jonas about giving service. I suggested to him that we do a different act of service on our own and asked if he had any ideas. He thought it would be really great to make Valentine's cards for everyone we know. So there you have it, our great contribution to the world.

The weather has been beautiful and we've been playing at the park almost everyday this week after school. I love it!

There's a really long and twisty tube slide that the kids love to make a train and go down together. They especially love it when I go down with them to bring up the rear, but we always get stuck halfway down when I do and have to scoot the rest of the way. Atticus is a little dare devil and loves to go down by himself but I have to keep an eye on him because he tries to crawl in and go head first.

Valley of Fire

Trey told me that if he passed his test on Friday we could do whatever I wanted the rest of the weekend. Yipee, he passed! First stop- Costco, followed by In-N-Out Burger, a visit to the pet store, and Nielsen's Frozen Custard. On Saturday morning we played tennis and then packed a lunch and headed to Valley of Fire for a day hike. When we got home we had pizza for dinner and snuggled up to watch a movie. Sunday we went to church and then came home and everyone (aah yes, silence) had naps. Woke up, ate Sunday dinner and then played games. Lovely, just lovely!

Jonas showing his sisters some brotherly love by choking them.

Clara showing off her toothless grin. We were driving home the other day and she said, "Mom, I just pulled my tooth." Hmm, kids are so different. We have to pull Jonas' when it's either a)hanging by a thread or b) when he's asleep.

There were the coolest arches and holes in the rocks. Every time we would come upon a new one the kids would have to go check it out and then ask me to take a picture of them in it.

Amazing scenery! The desert can be so beautiful.

Best seat in the house!