Easter Dresses

One thing I love about having two little girls is matching dresses. Here's my cute girls in their Easter dresses. Trying to get a picture of them together... not so easy! Enjoy. :)

Easter Eggs

We dyed Waster eggs for FHE. The kids always love doing this. Claire just loved stirring the eggs. I love to do things like this with my kiddos and watch their reactions.

Sleeping Beauty

I love to see my kids sleeping. I love to see them quiet and peaceful. One night I went in to tuck in Lily. She was sound asleep with her scriptures. I thought it was cute so I took a picture. A few nights later she put the scriptures under her pillow. I, not knowing they were there, took all her bedding one day and put it all into the washing machine. I learned that scriptures fall apart and make a huge mess if washed. :)

Swimming Lessons

Ollie and Lily both did swim lessons this spring. It was Lily's first time and she was very timid. Even though she was timid she was always excited to go each time. I remember the first time Ollie did swim lessons... I had to drag him kicking and screaming out the door to get him to go because he was so afraid of the water. Ollie has now done several sessions of swimming and does great! He loves the water! In his most recent lessons he was learning how to dive into the water. Most of the time he just jumped in feet first but he did get it a few times. :) Claire didn't want to miss out on the action so for the last lesson Spencer took her in and did her own little lesson with her. The girl has no fear and loves the water. Funny how they all have the same parents and such different personalities!

Cowboy day

Ollie had cowboy day at school. He got to dress up like a cowboy. He even got to borrow Papa's hat to wear. His favorite part of the day was having a snack of beans and cornbread. He ranted and raved about them. I love how he gets excited about little things. :) Lily also wanted to dress up that day. She loves Ollie and wants to be just like him.

Lily's Glasses

Most days I walk to school to pick Ollie up. I push the girls in a double stroller and we all just enjoy being outside. One day I got home with all the kids. I went to get the girls out of the stroller when I noticed that Lily wasn't wearing her glasses... I quickly asked her where they were and she just said, "I don't want to tell you." I worked on her a bit and found out that she had taken them off and just dropped them in the road on the walk home. I quickly loaded the girls back up and we headed out again. We found them, but not before they had been run over by a CAR. They were smooshed! We took them in to see if they could fix them but no luck. She had to get new glasses. We were able to get the exact same frames because one of the lenses wasn't broken and they were able to just fit it in. New rule at our house- You can NOT take your glasses off without asking Mom or Papa first. :)

St. Patty's Day

The leprechauns made us some yummy green cake with green sprinkles. They made a huge mess in our kitchen for Mom to clean up but the cake was delicious! They also left Ollie and Lily gumball machines but Claire found Lily's first. The leprechauns thought Claire was too little for gum... We had to sneak it away from Claire and give it back to Lily. Next year the leprechauns will have to remember Claire. :)

Grandparents Visit

Back in Feb. my parents came for a visit. We surprised the kids... they knew that Grandma was coming but they thought that it was going to be later in the week and they didn't know about Grandpa. So, my mom rang the doorbell and I pretended to be busy and asked Ollie to answer the door. The look of shock on his face was great. He just stood there he was so surprised. Lily was surprised but mostly just excited! Claire, of course, had no idea what was going on. Then about 10 minutes later my Dad came and rang the doorbell. Ollie answered the door again and was even more surprised to see Grandpa than he was to see Grandma. He just said, "I can't believe it!" His reaction was great! I wish I had thought to video it! We had several fun days with them! We went to the zoo, the Mammoth site, and Cameron park. Grandpa was also here for his birthday so we got to celebrate with him. Our kids love birthdays so it was extra special! Grandpa had to leave sooner than Grandma but Grandma was able to stay a few more days. She watched the kids so Spencer and I could go out of town for our 10th anniversary. We went over to Tyler, TX to a Blue Man Group concert. It was super fun. It was nice to get away from the kids for a few days. We also went hiking around a lake, went to the rose garden, and the temple in Dallas. My favorite part was being able to talk without interruptions! We had a good trip and visit with my parents!!

Trouble

This girls middle name should have been trouble! She is super busy and gets into everything. She is one of those kids who can never be alone, or else!!! This was one day after she got into the flour bucket.

Marshmallow Races

For FHE one night we had marshmallow races for our activity and out treat. What you do is you put mini-marshmallows on the table and blow through straws to race them across the table. We had several races and then we put Claire in the middle of the table and tried to keep the marshmallows away from her. It was a huge hit! I got the idea because we played this game when I was little and I remember liking it. :)

Ollie's 100 day project

For school (a while ago) Ollie had to do a 100 Day's of School project. He had to bring in 100 objects nicely displayed that he could carry around the school in the 100 day parade. He choose to do 100 books that he has read. He took pictures of all the books and then we took the pictures and mounted them onto a poster board that he had folded to look like a book. He was very proud of his project. He especially liked that he got to do so much of it by himself. His favorite part was taking pictures. Some ended up off center and we had a few with little sister standing in the way but we took extra so it worked out great. Then they had a parade and the girls and I were able to go see him walk around the school with his project. He was very tickled that we were there and had fun being in a parade.

Stirland's Cafe

We decided that we wanted to show Papa how much we love him so we decided to open up a one night cafe. The kids and I spent all week getting this ready. We spent one day making a menu. We made art work for the wall. We shopped for the food. We prepared the food. At the end of the week Papa came home to a family all dressed the same, a nicely made up table, and a wonderful looking menu with items chosen with him in mind. The kids practiced being hostesses and what each of them should say when he got home. Lily got to be the door greater and Ollie got to take the order. We had a wonderful dinner! It was especially fun to have the kids involved and gave them something to do each afternoon after school!

Peanut Butter Baby

Claire has found a new love. Peanut butter. Crackers or bread are only a tool to getting the peanut butter into her mouth. She especially likes it when I just give her a spoon with PB on it. She always gets super messy and loves to feed herself.

Six Flags

We had the opportunity to go to six flags in January. We had never been before and we were excited! We had lots of fun in the kid section and did all the rides several times. Ollie was tall enough to go on lots of rides! Lily was still a little short but she had lots of fun on the rides she was tall enough for. Claire mostly just liked going up and down some stairs that she found. :) Fun times (and pictures to prove it)!