New Do

A few days ago, I had cut some bangs for Tali for her friend's birthday party so she would look more like Cinderella.  Since then I had wanted a change in my hairstyle as well.  Since the weather is starting to get cooler I didn't want to chop off my hair.  I also didn't want to color it because I'm too cheap to have to keep dying it once my roots started to show.  This morning I had the thought "why not just cut bangs myself?"  So, I did what any spontaneous person would do.  I got the scissors and snipped them.  I have to say, I don't think they look too bad.

Princess Party

Today Tali went to her best friend's birthday party.  They were supposed to dress up in their favorite princess dress.  The only dress Tali had was a Merida dress from the movie Brave, but she has always loved Cinderella.  So, today while I was at Walmart getting a gift for her friend, I saw a Cinderella dress for about $13 so I went ahead and got it for her.  I was able to snap some ADORABLE pictures of her before she left for the party and a few when she got there.

 She loves posing!  I know I'm a little biased, but she's so flippin' adorable!

 Tali with my handsome princes.

 This is my FAVORITE picture of her!  Haha!  She looks like she's waiting for her Prince Charming to show up!

 She loves her little baby brother.  She's such a good big sister!

 Tali with her best friend and another girl from our ward.

 More friends.  I'm so glad she has a lot of friends her age here!

 

The girls were making Sophia the First amulets.  Such an adorable idea!  It was such a cute party!  Thanks Danielle and Sophia for the invite!

Sunday Sillies

The kids and I were taking some silly pictures this morning and I thought I'd share them with the few people who actually read this blog.  I had to laugh at some of the faces the kids were making.  They are so silly!

This is the good life!

Proud Parents!

On Friday (09/20/13), Brian and I attended parent/teacher conference for Tali.  Our awesome friends/neighbors, Leora & Bob Silver came over and watched Tali and Jairus while we went over to the school to meet with her teacher.  

Her teacher, Mrs. Jones, had nothing but good to say about Tali.  I was so proud! On a test Tali had taken before school began, she had received the score of 19/20!  Her teacher said very few kids scored that high.  She also said that she was doing so well that she could just "soar through kindergarten."  She also said that Tali was such an advanced reader that they will have her finish the reading books that she's currently in and then she'll get to go to the tutor lab to pick her own books to read and pass off at school.  Tali has been bringing home chapter books from school and her teacher lets her because one day she saw Tali sitting on the carpet looking at the book very intently.  She loves me reading them to her too.  At first when I tell her we need to do her reading she's a little reluctant, but after we start reading then she doesn't want to stop.  There have been days where we would be reading for 30-45 minutes!  We are so proud of her!  I took a photo of the form her teacher filled out on how well she was doing.

About the only thing Tali really needs to work on is her numbers and writing them.  Other than that, she is just soaring through kindergarten.  We were all really worried about her at the testing and on the first day of school because she was not being cooperative at all!  She has improved a great deal!  We are so glad that she is succeeding and loving school!  We find it funny that she will try to make play dates with other random kids as we are walking her home from school.  We have such a smart, funny, and amazing little girl!  We are so proud to have her as our daughter!

Reading Hickie

Yesterday while I was reading to Tali for her 20+ minutes, I wasn't really paying attention to the fact that she had been sucking on her arm and giving herself this awesome little hickie.

My baby girl can be so silly sometimes.

Subtle Smile

Yesterday (09/21/13) I was able to snap a picture of Zach sort of smiling.  It's more of a subtle smile.  He's still so darn cute!

I will definitely post more pics when he really smiles.  We all just adore this little guy!

Photo Fun

The kids really like having their picture taken...well most of the time, anyway.  The other day, the kids and I were playing around taking "selfies."  Here is a sample of our fun photos.

I just love my kids!  They are so fun!  I am so grateful that I get to be their mom!  They are the best!

Artists in Training

I realized recently that my kids are super talented and create major works of art in no time at all.  Here are some of their most recent works of art.

This is signed by our son, Jairus.

This was Tali's artwork.

On the upside, at least she had spelled the word "love" correctly.

Thankfully, all of this came off the walls and the couch...with the exception of the sheetrock.  But in a way I am glad that I was able to take these photos first even though I was really mad when it happened, but not as mad as I thought I would have been.

Here are some photos of my kids playing chef with cherry jello and peppermint chocolate chips.  They work very fast and are oh so creative.

This work of art was done last Sunday about an hour or so before church....on a warm day.  We had to work fast so that things didn't melt or stain.  Thankfully, it all got cleaned up.  At least I can now look back at this and laugh...sort of.

Last Dance

When I first put Tali in dance, I did it hoping to help with behavioral issues she was having.  During the summer, I had put her in a dance class.  She kept leaving halfway through the class so I told Tali I wasn't going to put her in anymore dance classes if she couldn't stay in her class.  She kept telling me that she just wanted to be with me.  It may be obvious to everyone, but it wasn't to me that she just wanted to literally spend time with me.  She loves to dance, but just her own way.  Anyway, she had BEGGED me to let her take a tap and ballet combo class.  So we bought everything she needed for the class...which wasn't cheap.  Three weeks later, we still are having issues with her leaving class.  Today she had given the instructor some problems and we thought that it wasn't fair to the teacher, students or parents because her teacher couldn't keep chasing Tali around.  So as I was talking to a friend, she mentioned that maybe Tali literally just wanted some mommy/daughter time.  I decided to ask Tali if dance was too much for her and if she just wanted to spend time with me.  I was shocked to hear that she did want to send time with me and quit dance.  At least I was able to get one last adorable picture of her in her dance outfit.

I just love this sweet, adorable girl!

Oh My Pumpkin!

The day we blessed Zacharias, Brian had told me that I had to cone down stairs and see what he saw.  So I go downstairs to our spare room and find this: 

Yep!  We have a pumpkin growing through our window well cover (which really is just some wooden slats nailed together).  I was able to get some pictures of the kids with it.  

I know it's a little dark, but they were pretty excited to see it ripening.  I wonder who will get this pumpkin if it doesn't break.....

One Month!

My how time flies!  I can't believe little Zach is a month old already!  He has already learned to lift his head on his own.  Here are some photos of our sweet little one month old.

       

       

       

       

       

Happy one month little Zach!  We love you!

Zacharias's Baby Blessing

On Sunday, September 1st, Brian had the privilege of using his priesthood power to bless our little Zacharias.  It was a beautiful and heartfelt blessing.  He blessed Zach that in these challenging days that he would have the strength to stay strong in the gospel.  I wasn't able to hear much of the blessing because Jairus was crying for Brian the whole time.  Brian's brother Matt and his family was there along with my mom and stepdad, Brian's parents, my sister and her two youngest, and one of Brian's long time friends Chris Munro and his wife with their two girls.  We also had some good friends from our ward stop by at our open house: Curtis and Kami Porter and their kids, Leora and Bob Silver, and Camilla Frank and her three boys.  It was such a great day!  Here are some photos I was able to take of Zach before the blessing.  My sister took some much better ones after.  I regret however not getting a family photo of him in his blessing outfit.  

    

I thought he looked so handsome!  We adore our little family!  Tali and Jairus just love him!  They are so good with him and try to be so helpful.  I am so blessed to have such a great family!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Tali had her first day of Kindergarten on August 27th.  I am proud to say that there were no tears, but a lot of close calls.  When I was taking some photos of her, I told her that I couldn't believe that she was already heading off to Kindergarten.  She looked at me with empathy and said in her sweetest voice "it's okay mom.  I still love you!"  I almost lost it, but I was able to hold it together.  She is absolutely loving it and making lots of new friends.  She is such a little smarty pants!  They have the"popcorn" sight words they pass off by reading the words to the teacher.  They have only been in school about two weeks and she has already just about passed off all of the words.  She is just awesome!  Here are the photos of her first official day of class.