My Girls!

We seriously haven't been up to much lately, but I had to hurry and post a couple of quick pictures of my beautiful girls.

Breje had New Beginnings last week and it was tons of fun! They're theme was "In the Mood for Values" and all the presidencies had to put on a fashion show choosing one value to model. Breje had faith and it was seriously tough. Most girls were going to just dress all in their value color, but who has all white in their closet? Not us! (We are messy people, folks!) We did our best with the color, but decided to incorporate the idea of faith as best we could. We used the example of faith as a seed and Breje just ran with the concept. Here's the final product... ... homemade flowers all over her pants and hat, and a necklace made of flowers and seed packets. Didn't it turn out great?! (especially since she had only been home from track practice for 1/2 hour by the time she had to leave again!)

Then there's Brielle. I have been marvelling at the speed with which that girl's hair grows, and decided to re-attempt leaving her hair down for church. I'm thinking it may never happen again, because she seriously looks 18! Help!

On Thursday, Brielle and I were able to go watch Kutter get celebrated in an assembly. He was rewarded for "impressive academic growth", being a "curious learner" and his "determination and great attitude". He was in heaven and seeing him so proud of himself made it totally worth dragging ourselves out of bed and to school by 8:30! (I know, that's not technically early, but we DO NOT like mornings at our house!)

Later on that afternoon, he totally took me by surprise while admiring our Amaryllis plant. This happens to be the one-and-only houseplant that I have not killed within it's first week in our home. It came in a box and I won it at bunco, so it definitely represents miracles to me. Apparently I'm not the only one. You see, weeks ago we all marvelled when that clunky bulb I pulled out of the box grew and grew and then blossomed into two huge pink and white flowers. They were seriously awesome. Then they died and I guess we all figured that was the end of my most successful plant ever. Well, Kutter noticed that it now seems to be thinking about producing several more flowers. When he asked about it, I told him that it is actually supposed to regrow new flowers when the old ones die.

He thought for a moment then, totally out of the blue said, "That's just like us. We start out small and get bigger and bigger. Then we die, but we get to live again with Heavenly Father.

Um, Okay.

Thank you, Primary!

More Ellie-isms!

Brielle's most recent bit of "attitude" has me wondering --- at what point do the cute little remarks stop being charming and just become warning signs for when her head is about to spin? For example...

.... "Mommy, I told you a hundred times!" --- that was seriously cracking me up this morning, when she was cussing me out for putting her pajamas away wrong. It's no longer morning, and I think I've forgotten how to laugh. Is this seriously what I sound like? .... "I'm not looking at you right now", took me by surprise and made me giggle --- now I"m just wondering what she could possibly be saving for when she actually hits puberty!

... "Fabulous!" Okay, that one is never gonna get old. Breje and I followed her around the house for two days trying to get this on camera, because there is no way to describe how cute it is. No luck, so you'll just have to trust me.

We recently spent the day having the kids try on all their summer hand-me-downs. I had absolutely no trouble getting Brielle to try on each item, and the pile of clothes that would fit next year just grew and grew (Hayley, you are seriously great!) It was still lying on the floor when Jody got home from work and Brielle marched him into the bedroom and said, "Daddy, I tried on all those clothes. It was AWESOME!" She had Jody totally cracking up the other night when they were snuggling in front of the tv and a Dairy Queen commercial came on. Out of the blue she says, "Oh Daddy, I really need a great big cheeseburger!" Then she thought about it for a minute and said, "and mommy does, too!" Thanks, kid. I do and I"ll try and remember that tomorrow the first time you say, "that's not my fault!"

Back to Work

After two weeks on our couch, recovering from his ACL replacement, Jody is finally back to work -- which is probably a good thing .... ...and sometimes, he really likes his job!