A-U-B-R-E-Y

Aubrey has reached her January goal of learning how to both spell and write her name! We are very proud of her hard work. She has earned an ice cream cone! She found some Valentines in her "High Five" Preschoolers magazine and wrote her name on the back of all sixteen of them to practice today!

Career Day at school

Alexis' class at school has been talking about different jobs that people have. Today they had the chance to dress for a career they think they'd like to do when they grow-up. Alexis most often talks about wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, but today choose to dress like a nurse. Coinsidentally, so did her friend. :)

This morning, I turned around while doing my hair to see one of my cute little "muffins" coloring. Sometimes they are too cute for words; just look at those tiny toes!

2010 - A year of laughter

I am usually a little more "goal crazy" at the beginning of a year and love to plan out things I want to do and how I'm going to get them done. I have been pretty happy with the way things have been going lately so figured, why re-invent the wheel if it's turning. I did however think of a theme to inspire me as I work toward making each day a little better than the last. I liked the lyrics from a song I heard stating, "All that I'm after is a lifetime of laughter." Whatever comes my way, I want to laugh each day.

"Laughter is the biological reaction of humans to moments or occasions of humor: an outward expression of amusement. Laughter is subcategorized into various groupings depending upon the extent and pitch of the laughter: giggles, clicks (which can be almost silent), chortles, chuckles, hoots, cackles, sniggers and guffaws are all types of laughter. Smiling is a mild silent form of laughing. Smiling is a virtue, a soul-expanding delight that shortens time. Every laugh you manage cuts short the miles and hours and days of drudgery." (internet source)

Whether it's a good day or bad, productive or not; whether the house is clean or dirty; whether I got out or stayed in; whether things went smoothly or not quite as planned...I want to find at least one moment each day to laugh.

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter - E.E. Cummings

A great day for another puddle hunt!

My girls LOVE to splash in puddles! Most the time, I find myself saying, "Don't splash!," "Don't get wet!," "Don't step in that puddle!," but every now and again, we find the perfect day for a puddle hunt! Winter here consists of one month (January) of rain and/or fog and then it's almost spring again! Yesterday was laundry day, the girls needed a bath and it has been raining for days, so the setting was perfect. The girls stepped into their boots, hoisted their umbrellas and we were off to scout out the perfect puddles. They had SO much fun! They laughed and giggled and danced in the rain. (One of those moments you wish you could bottle up in a jar to keep forever.) They were soaking wet by the time we were through and covered in mud; nothing a little (or a lot) of soap couldn't fix. I'm glad I let them get their feet wet. :)
And hey, while we were out, we discovered budding leaves on our neighbors tree...our first sign of Spring!
(If we had waited until today, they could have almost gone swimming in the puddles; it has been raining cats and dogs around here!)

My friend Lois

This morning I saw an ad for "Fully cooked Bacon" and it reminded me of my friend Lois.


A few years ago, I was called as a visiting teacher in my church to visit a lady by the name of Lois Slaugh. She lived at the Salvation Army apartments in Phoenix, AZ. I was, at first, unable to call and set up a time to visit her because she would never answer the phone for someone she didn't know. Coincedentally, I was assigned to visit another woman in her same building that was far less paranoid. I set up a time to visit with her and took my little girls over to say hello. (I did not have a VT partner in my ward there so I took my kids instead. I should also note that I never saw the first woman I visited in Lois' complex again, but I am surely grateful she let me in the building!) While I was already in the building, I thought I would at least knock on Lois' door and she if she was home. She skeptically let me in and from that moment on, we were friends. My little girls were entertaining to her and I loved listening to her go on about all that was wrong in the world while I tried to suggest a more optimistic view of things. The first day I met with Lois, she had a little porcelin figurine on her table that had broken. She mentioned how sad she was about it and that she couldn't see well enough to fix it. I offered to take it home with me and super-glue it for her, which I did and soon after that I was hemming pants for her, helping her to doctors appointments and taking trips to the pharmacy or the grocery store together (she loved buying the fully cooked bacon when it was on sale; she also loved ice cream with cherries in it). My husband gave her blessings and other relatives came to visit her with me on occasion. She was such a sweet lady with a very tough life and a bit of a bitter heart. She felt forsaken in so many ways, including by the church; I tried relentlessly to help her see that the church brought us together. It was surely a divine inspiration that led me to Lois, but I'm not sure if she ever saw it that way. I was simply her friend. Lois hadn't been to church in years when I met her and her health and attitude prevented her from returning. She was terribly sick. She had cancer in her eye and other places as well. She couldn't eat much of anything that didn't make her sick. She had to take the bus or walk anywhere she went, which in 110 degree plus heat in the summers there, is not pleasant. She got the biggest run around by doctors and insurances that you can possibly imagine. I had the impression that what was left of her family was not good to her and she'd felt much heartache by the family that had passed away before her. I smile as I think of her sweet voice and how she'd wait to pick up the phone until after she could hear me say my name on the answering machine. She also looked so cute in her brightly colored outfits that she'd ordered from her catalogs. She gave me everything the Salvation Army gave to her since she couldn't eat it. We always had to sneak it out the back because she just knew her "nosy neighbors" would gossip about it if they saw us carrying things out of the building. :) One time she gave me a whole turkey to cook that she'd been saving to prepare with her grand-daughter that kept saying she'd come visit and never did. She gave me her old white platter that I use as my "turkey platter" and I think of her every time I use it. She stiched a little flower shaped coaster, which she gave me and I hung on my Christmas tree this year. I will always be grateful for the friendship we shared for the past few years. It was incredibly difficult to tell Lois we were moving a couple summers back and so hard to leave her. She had few others in her life and even fewer (if anyone)close enough to help her. I got to visit her on a trip back to Phoenix once and we always spoke on her birthday and during the Holidays, sometimes a time or two in between. This past Thanksgiving, I was thrilled by Adam's idea to invite her to our feast while in Phoenix...but when I called, her number had been disconnected. The Salvation Army wouldn't tell me anything about her whereabouts due to privacy laws and it is very unlikely that she would have moved anywhere. She always said her health wasn't good enough to move nor did she have many places she could have gone. I drove to her apartment while we were there and all her "nosy neighbors" just sat and stared at me through the glass doors as I tugged on them wishing someone would come and talk to me. I sent her a Christmas card and it came back to me undeliverable. I think Lois Slaugh, born July 8th 1924 is finally at peace and able to rest from her ailments. I hope now she feels of the love her Savior has for her. I would have liked to have known when she left, but I am so thankful to have no regrets. I enjoyed every moment I spent with her, did all I could for her, and appreciated all she did for me. I think it would mean something to her to know that I will remember her.

To my dear friend Lois Slaugh, wherever you are, please know that I love you and am glad my life's path crossed with yours.

The night the tooth fairy didn't come

I wasn't going to admit this, but I thought it was "journal worthy" and since my blog has been serving as my journal for the past many months, I will confess it publicly or it might never get written down.



As you will see in the following post, Alexis lost two teeth last weekend. Saturday, the tooth fairy came as expected and all was well. Sunday night, after Alexis lost a second tooth, the tooth fairy fell asleep while waiting for Alexis to doze off. The tooth fairy awoke in a panic realizing she had neither collected the tooth nor deposited a prize. The tooth fairy rushed quietly up the stairs hoping to sneak in before the girls awoke but just as her hand reached for the doorknob, her heart sank to her feet as she heard the saddened voice of Alexis declaring to her sister that "the tooth fairy didn't come!" I felt like the worst mother, I mean tooth fairy, in the entire world! I really can't describe how upset I felt to hear the sadness in Lexi's voice. As a parent, you want them to have so much joy, even in little things like losing teeth, because for them, they are the big things in their lives at the time and knowing it was my fault for ruining the moment was horrible. The tooth fairy scribbled out a note as quickly as she could and left it on the bathroom counter to apologize for the delay and to say she'd be there soon. Alexis wrote back that she would leave the tooth out for her. Alexis told me she had dreamed that she got "princess" toothpaste from the tooth fairy. I made sure to relay the message to the tooth fairy and when Alexis returned from school on Monday, the tooth fairy had made the trade and all was well in the world again. Alexis is now brushing her toothless grin with "princess" toothpaste. :)

A Toothless grin!

The tooth fairy came to our house twice this past weekend! Alexis lost her two front teeth; one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The tooth fairy delivered a new tooth brush one night and new tooth paste the next. That was Alexis' idea and not a bad one in my opinion. She also earned a dollar for letting me help pull the dangling tooth from her mouth. (I'm not sure who was more nervous about how easily it would come out. I talked like it was no big deal but I was terrified of hurting her!) She was SO excited to go to school and show her teacher and get her name on the board at school. Her class sang "All I Want for Christmas" to her; she loved all the attention!




Other fun things at our house since the new year started are a dance class for Aubrey at her friend's house and our little parrott we call "Allie" who now mimics everything we do and say. She is still singing "Jingle Bells" on a daily basis and is starting to grow fond of the "Old MacDonald" song. This month, she is practicing counting to five, Aubrey is working very hard on writing and spelling her name, and Alexis plans to learn to count from 10-20 in French.

I bit off more than I wanted to chew on this one.

Here are the girls Holiday dresses for 2009. My mother-in-law had actually sent some beautiful dresses for the girls, but sadly they didn't all fit and so they'd have to be altered and I wasn't sure I could figure out how to do it nicely. I tried to find different sizes but they didn't have them. We also searched for different dresses but nothing was just right. Somewhere along the way, I got the crazy idea to make them dresses. I've done it twice before, so why not? I learned that Holiday dresses fall into a completely different category than an ordinary dress and I can honestly say that I've never wanted to give up on a project so badly before...but I didn't, and I'm glad. Each dress has both a lining and an overlay. All in all, it was like sewing nine dresses (three layers each), in the middle of the holiday season. Insane! I won't do that again. (Don't let me forget I said that!) Aubrey was thrilled about her dress and has thanked me many times and wants to wear it everyday so thank you Aubrey, for making this project more worthwhile for me.

(Side note: The first time the girls wore their dresses, we got to church and Allie threw-up all over hers! Thankfully, it washed up just fine.)

Happy Holidays

We had a wonderful Christmas back home with our families followed by a Happy New Year at our own home. We hope you all had a delightful, safe and healthy holiday season as well. One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the snow. Aubrey had been looking forward to that most of all. She ate her fair share of it too! Alexis had a lot of fun in the snow with Aubrey but Allie had a different opinion. Snow is cold; better to look at in from indoors. I think I agree. :)