Simplify

I loved this post from my friend's blog Creative Nesting on simplifying

I totally agree

So I am going to share it...

The German Painter, Hans Hoffman is quoted as saying, “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

And if actions speak loader than words, what am I telling my children with my actions? I have to admit I am not proud of what my actions are saying.

Here are some of my goals to simplifying:

Less Internet

More time with the kids

Less hurrying through the chores by myself with crying, screaming, fighting kids following me around

More teaching my children how to work with me

Less "Just a minute"

More "I would love to play in your room"

Less counting down the minutes until nap time (project time)

More soaking up the time I have to teach my children the wonders of the world

Less talking

More listening

Less impatience

More love

Happy Simplifying

Memorial Day

We got the slip and slide out for the first time with our girls

We had so much fun!

Who was the genius who made the slip and slide, I'd love to know!

It was a little cold, so we filled up the kid pool with warm water

which saved Karli because she isn't a fan of being cold...

she would go in the cold water and then run over to the warm water as fast as she could.

Alexa's silly walk/dance...she loves to be funny

Earlier in the day, we went up the canyon

with Jeff, Amber, and Jade!

It was beautiful, fun, and relaxing.

We had lunch up there,

we hiked around,

and we played.

The girls wore matching sunglasses

They are so cute together...they make me smile :)

We had a great day having Tyler off of work

We always love when he gets his holidays!

Happy Memorial Day

In honor of my WWII veteran Grandpa and his lovely bride.

Yesterday, we went to visit their grave site at the

Utah Veterans Memorial Park.

It was really neat to take our girls their and share some stories of my Grandma and Grandpa,

and also of our Country.

The girls enjoyed seeing all the flags at all the grave stones.

There is also a beautiful view there.

It was a fun thing to do to celebrate Memorial Day!

Binky No More

Karli became pretty attached to that binky of hers,

so you can only imagine how these past two days have been

getting her to quit it cold turkey...

The thing it has affected the most is her SLEEPING.

With her binky, we could just pop that sucker into her mouth

and she would usually be asleep pretty fast...

but now it takes a whole new stategy.

It hasn't been as bad as it could've been,

and I am so excited for her to be done with it!

Ladybug Party

We promised Alexa a friend birthday party this year

...so pretty much she totally scored this year with birthday celebrations...

We threw a BUG PARTY

so Alexa could dress as LADYBUG GIRL from her favorite book!

Our party was complete with

 bug antennas

 bug games

bug growing

cupcakes(the ladybug ones did NOT work out)

bug face painting

bug boxes as party favors

 We had a blast!

Karli couldn' resist eating the already licked oreos we used for "pin the dot on the ladybug" :)

gymnastics

Alexa has been taking gymnastics since last August

She LOVES it! 

I have tried and tried to get good pictures of her,

because she is so cute doing it,

but chasing around Karli keeps me a bit preoccupied

So I decided to just post some I took from yesterday

I can see such a difference in her since she started

She is so much stronger, coordinated, and brave :)

CALIFORNIA TRIP part 2

After spending half of our trip and Dad and Mom Shelley's, we spent the

second half with our friends the Johnsons.  We went to Disneyland again,

stayed in Oceanside by the beach, and went to Sea World!  We stayed

busy some more, and had a great time!  The kids were so cute together!

CALIFORNIA TRIP part 1

We had a great time visiting Tyler's parents in California!

We stayed really busy and had a blast!

Dad and Mom Shelley took really good care of us--feeding us
yummy food and showing us around!

We went to Disneyland, had a couple of beach days,
went swimming, mountain biked, partied, etc! 
We were even lucky enough to have Ashley
there for her college summer break!

Thank you for the wonderful time!

May Birthdays

Happy Birthday Alexa!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We have a lot of fun celebrating these two birthdays

only two days apart!

We had a mini celebration

before we left on our trip to open presents!

And then we celebrated again in California

at Tyler's parents home

with some friends and family!

We went to Disneyland on Alexa's birthday!

She had fun dressing up as Minnie Mouse,

Our friend Krista made her the cutest outfit!

And on Tyler's birthdaywe went to Sea World!

We had WAY TOO MUCH FUN

celebrating their birthdays this year!

Thanks for having your birthdays so close!

We love you both so much!

Have a great year!

Alexa's "Big Girl" Prayer

Tonight, we had a mini birthday party for Alexa and Tyler, since we will be in California for their birthdays and didn't want to take wrapped presents for them to open there...boring I know...but it was SO EXCITING for Alexa!  She felt like a queen opening her presents that she LOVED, and eating the birthday cake ice cream she picked out!  She thanked us a bunch, and was acting so cute :)
Before she got all tucked in in her new princess sleeping bag...she said the cutest prayer...
..."please help me to be happy.  Please help me to be happier while being FOUR years old, and nicer, and good...please help me to sleep really good in my new sleeping bag, I LOVE MY NEW SLEEPING BAG..." 
She definitely put a big smile on mine and Tyler's faces :)