april schmapril

...kg is now the elder's quorum president. that is a busy calling but i look forward to supporting him.
...the weekend of the 4th was general conference which we very much enjoyed. flower had a packet from primary that we worked on and actually helped us both pay better attention.
...4.8-i had two doctors appointments and then we delivered friendship bread, thanks to val, that flower helped me make. we went to visit amanda and kris. then we went to the church and got our temple recommends renewed.
...4.14-i had a follow up sleep study appointment to get my cpap machine.
...4.15-i had two doctors appointments. i was so happy with the results of the first. all my labs are the best they've been in a long time. looks like eating gluten free is working. i didn't make it to the second appointment because the truck stalled out on me. :(
...4.15-that evening we went to ward temple night. we got kylee to babysit. she is the daughter of a friend i used to work with and who now lives in our complex, although they are moving next month. she was our first teen sitter and i think it went well!
...4.16-kg took the girls swimming in the hot tub while i worked.
dang she's cute. this photo just makes me smile.

flower can now stand in the center without going under. she couldn't do that last summer.
...4.17-our oven went out. the lower element caught fire while i was making flower's birthday cake. thank heavens i finished the cake. it didn't have anything to do with us it just cracked and caught fire, burning the entire element and breaking it into a few pieces. nice.
...4.18-kg gave a really great talk in sacrament meeting and flower gave her first talk in primary. she did great! they both spoke on temples.
...4.19-i had two doctors appointments. i also went to lunch with kris, lindsay, hilary and tara. i also went to the dry cleaner and took flower to and from school during all that. whew.
...4.20-i had another doctor appointment.
...4.21-another doctor appointment. (are you catching on to the theme here?!)
...4.22-another doctor appointment.
...4.24-the girls spent the day with kg's family. they celebrated erina's birthday at a party that afternoon. they had so much fun. i helped with april's wedding shower that evening. it went really well.
...4.26-was the start of kg having a week off. he pampered and babied me the whole time. :)
...4.26-kg kicked off his break by taking to the girls bowling.flower had been saving her money for a bowling trip and was so excited to pay for herself.

then they went to josh's softball game. and river had fun climbing the fence. :)
when it was time to leave she through a big fit! flower has always been so obedient and when it was time to leave the park she was right there with us. other parents would often comment. i don't think river is going to be so easy on us. :)
they got subway and baskin robbins on their way home but had to bring it home to eat because she was still crying!
i opted to stay home because i had a lot i needed to do. i appreciated the quiet house!
...4.27-i did something very brave that i'm not ready to write about here yet. but i'm very excited. the girls spent the morning with kris. i was very grateful for her help and it made what i was dealing with so much easier knowing that the girls were having fun. i knew i didn't have to think twice about them. they had so much fun. flower painted her nails and river came home looking all over our apartment for kris' dog who-see(lucy). i'm sure they ate plenty of m&m's as well!
.......
i'm really looking forward to a new month!

flower is 5!

here are a few things that she's done or said in the last year.
...she has had a successful year in pre-school and has just one month left! she is so excited for kindergarten.
...she just received her blue belt in Lil' Dragons karate.
...she is learning to read, and gets better each day. i'm always surprised when we drive by a sign and she just blurts out the word!
...she has a huge obsession with princesses and dressing up like a princess. all she kept asking people for her birthday was high heels. she gratefully received 5 pair!
...she likes to try to make river laugh, even when river's not having it. but she really is the most successful at it. i love listening to them in their room giggling together!
...she absolutely loves playing on the computer and really enjoys playing farkle and yoville on her 'new' netbook.
...we are now going to be more strict in her having chores. doing her chores will now earn her computer time. her chores so far are cleaning her room, putting new trash bags in the containers after dad takes the trash out and dusting.
...her favorite food, which she requests EVERYDAY, is curly noodles, aka raman noodles. even though that's her favorite, she is still an awesome kid and will eat anything we put in front of her!
...her favorite candy right now seems to be kit kats and peanut butter cups.
...her favorite ice cream is daiquiri ice
...she is becoming more independent, but is still afraid to "be alone". she actually wasn't afraid until river came along and now they are always together and share a room so it's made her hate being alone. it can get annoying. :)
...at times she acts like she is a teenager, including all the fits and threats to withdraw love. one of my least favorite stages is telling her friends, us, or her sister "you're not my friend anymore!". but i'm sure every kid goes through it.
...a couple of cute things she said at the san diego zoo: she kept telling me to look at the piny poke. it took me a minute to figure out she was talking about a porcupine. this happened again when she wanted me to see the granolas. she was talking about the koalas.
...her favorite shows right now are 'max & ruby', 'ni hao, kai-lain', 'dragon tales', 'mickey mouse club', 'tom and jerry'(this one always produces the most laughs!), and she loves to watch any type of dancing or wedding dress show with me, like 'say yes to the dress'
...her favorite movies are all three Cinderella ones, alice in wonderland, the barbie movies, the swan princess movies and princess and the frog.
...she is deathly afraid of boogers. always has been so you'll never catch her picking her nose! it's hysterical!
...she is such an amazing big sister and a huge help with river.
...she's a big help in general. she's mostly willing to help with anything.
...she really likes to help me bake.
...she's very diligent in saying her prayers each night and also recites the first four articles of faith by memory.
...since she is now 5 she will get a bi-weekly allowance. we want to start teaching her regularly and more strictly about savings, tithing and fun money, which she got a new wallet to hold.
...we also emptied out all her money banks and kg took her to the bank. she opened up her own account for savings.
...we also taught her more in depth about tithing. she has always set aside her money for tithing in a special piggy bank but has never written out the slip. she had $14.50 in there! so she will give that to the bishop on sunday and we will start doing that monthly with her after she gets her allowances.
i'm excited for this and think it's a great age for her to have some accountability and get excited to spend her own money.
she's just a pretty cool kid and we are so happy she's a part of our family.

an open letter to someone very kind...

we received a package in the mail last week addressed to flower and river. there was no card and no return address. the box contained two of the most darling dresses! thank you so much to who sent them. you are truly kind.
i wanted to get photos of the girls wearing the dresses so after church on sunday we drove to the train depot. river was asleep before we left the church parking lot. poor thing. so we sat in the parking lot of the train depot for a bit and let her nap.
it was such a beautiful day and we had a good time just walking around and enjoying ourselves for more than an hour.

don't you just love the dresses? the style and color are so perfect! lots of people complimented them at church and wanted to know where i got them!
the music of an ice cream truck caught their attention.

they are such good sisters and adore each other!








thank you again! we love them!
when we were getting back into the truck flower said she had to go potty. i had her go next to the truck. as hard as we tried to get the stream to cooperate, it didn't happen and we both got her pee all over our feet and sandals. we were both laughing so hard. poor girl sprays everywhere no matter how she sits. oh well, at least it provides some laughs.

daddy's shorts + leg warmers

river spent a good deal of time putting on kg's shorts and was quite pleased with herself.
she did this the other day with a pair of pants of mine too. silly girl.
when i got to work on tuesday there was a gift on the counter for flower, from lynnette. i brought it home that night and flower was thrilled to find colorful leg warmers and really cute hair clips.
they were fluffy butterfly clips. there was also a flower one but river ran off with it before i could get a photo.
she's never had leg warmers before and thought they were pretty cool.
lynnette was kind enough to also include a pair for river.
how cute are those chubby legs?!
thanks lynnette! the girls love them!

4.19.2010::flower's birthday week part 5

monday we went out to dinner with kris, matt and judas(their brazilian student). we missed jer who was out of town.
we decided to try out a new restaurant. it was good but not our favorite and i doubt we'll go back.

kris gave her this awesome princess pack filled with girly things.
she also brought river some ponies.
she really is the best. i'm so lucky to have her as my very best friend.
we love mexican food and especially chips and salsa. flower is a die hard. it doesn't matter how hot the salsa is to her, she won't quit eating it. even if it's causing tears like this:
did you see that tear running down her face and resting on her chin? she cracks me up!
after dinner we went to baskin robbins for flower's free birthday ice cream.
we all love daiquiri ice in this family. yum!
kg also got a scoop of rainbow sherbet that he shared with river.


but she kept going back to the daiquiri ice though! i love flower's face. :)
when we got home flower immediately put on all the princess loot from kris. she struts her stuff quite well.
so perfect for her!
shortly after this photo i was overcome with pain. i couldn't handle it. i couldn't breath, sit, stand, lay or move. it was awful. we ended up calling Kylee and Jamie to rush over and KG took me to the ER. kidney stones were the culprit. i have never had them before and holy crap is that painful. yikes. i hope i never have them again.
so that was the end of flower's birthday week! i will do a separate post about her too. she pretty much rocks.

4.18.2010::flower's birthday week part 4

sunday was the actual day of her birthday! happy birthday flower. wow, you are 5 years old. i can hardly believe it!
she requested a chocolate cake so i got busy in the kitchen and delivered. i also know she loves strawberries so that was my addition. i made a chocolate bunt cake, then i filled the center and lined the edges with fresh strawberries, and dusted it with powder sugar. she then requested i drizzle it with chocolate. yes ma'am! :) i drizzled it with gourmet melting pot dark chocolate.
i'm pretty proud of it because i think it's pretty. :)
she wanted tacos for her birthday so we went to taco time. yum.
soft taco for this chika.
then we went to my brothers to celebrate with the family. we also celebrated roger and royal's birthday.
river of course went right for the trampoline.

flower was first up for opening gifts.
i want to note she was given cards with money from both sets of great grandparents on kg's side. they are so kind to remember her. she also got money from buffalo grandparents! thanks guys.
this tinker bell lantern is pretty sweet from the madison's.
and she loves umbrella's, especially when they have a princess on them. thanks johnson's.
she was thrilled to get her high heeled shoes from bsu grandparents. and four pair!
look how cute they are.
lorelai liked them too.
thank you thank you everyone!
then she blew out her candles. based on the response, the cake was a big hit. wish i could have had some. :)
ahhh, lauren leaning against grandpa while she soaks in the sun.
as i'm sure you've noticed, this face just doesn't get old.
when we got home we gave flower her present from us. a cute little laptop. a guy that works with kg gave it to him for free when his laptop broke. it's a little 10". flower loved it so we gave it to her and she was thrilled to have her own computer!
now she can join us on the bed with her laptop. we let her stay up for an extra hour to play farkle that night. she was so happy.
pretty lucky girl. and there's even more to come!