Princess Night

The end of last year, Lily and Aaron told me about an activity that their young women did which was a princess night that the young women in their ward put on for the activity day girls and they talked about how much fun it was. I brought the idea to my young women in January when we had our planning meeting and they loved it and were so excited. May was finally the month that it happened and it was SO much fun and such a great activity. All my young women loved it and I loved seeing the smiles on our activity day girls. My secretary made the cutest fairy tale invitation and the week before our princess night, we had our young women decorate envelopes and then each young women was assigned an activity day to give an invitation to. We decided on doing it very girly and pink. My counselor did great with the decorations and making it sparkly and pink. All my presidency did "tea party" desserts and each of our young women got fairy wings to wear since they were the fairy godmothers.

We had three different stations that each activity day girl went to: hair station where they got their hair done along with choosing a crown, then we had a make up station where we had some face painting crayons with simple designs and then some sparkle eye shadow and they each got to pick a lip gloss or chapstick to take home, and last was a nail station where they got their nails painted and I got some fun rings that each of them got to choose from.

I also got these super cute mirrors that each activity day girl got at the end of the activity. The quote on it says: "I am a daughter of a King who is not moved by the world. For my God is with me and goes before me. I do not fear because I am His!"

At the beginning the activity day girls started on the stage and got to write their names on a bag that they could put their things in that they got throughout the night. Then Bishop was there dressed up as a king and he escorted each of the activity days to the stairs to start off our fun night. The smiles on the girl's faces was so cute. They loved this special moment!

Then I had a semicircle of soft chairs that the girls sat on and then I divided them up between the three stations. They were at each station for about 15 minutes and then would rotate to the next one. The young women had chosen beforehand what station they would prefer and they were amazing. They were great at visiting with each activity day girl they were working with and were so attentive and caring. 

Our group of "fairy godmothers"- they are such a great group of young women and so fun to work with!

Our beautiful princesses! At the end, I had each of them look in a mirror to see themselves for the first time and asked them to say one word to describe how they were feeling. The most common one was happy along with pretty and beautiful. It was my favorite part of the evening! Seeing their joy and seeing their feeling of confidence and beauty was so magical.

The princesses with their fairy godmothers.

Such a great group of girls and such a fun evening!!!

May's Little Moments

We are loving our warmer weather and more time outside. I love this time of year and into the summer. I love being outside with my little family and enjoy any outdoor adventure we go on. We are looking forward to the end of the school year. May was a very busy month, but also a really good month. By the end of the month, I needed a little break and we got to go to the beach with Mike and Christy's family which was a much needed vacation and I'll blog about that soon. Here are some of the little moments from our busy month.

I redid our front flower bed. It had two bushes that I really didn't like that were thorny. Nate got the little Japanese maple tree and I knew it would be the perfect place for it. The picture on the top right is what it was like before and so I took out the two bushes and moved the middle one over to make room for the tree. I added some rock features and some succulents and hostas. I don't know how well the hostas will do, but I really love how it turned out.

Nate got the girls a bubble machine and Baylor loves it.

Silly, cute girl on the move.

I love getting McCall up from her naps and in the morning because she is so happy to see me. It's the best thing to see that sweet smile. She pulls herself up to the stand now and so we had to move her crib mattress down. She is growing so fast!

I took these two to Black Diamond one day to do some errands and so of course we had to stop by the bakery and get some donuts and Baylor wanted to go see the train.

From May to September, every Friday there is a car show in Walmart's back parking lot. It is something I've always wanted to go to so I took Baylor and McCall and we walked around for a bit and Baylor even got a little toy car.

Paige had her first orchestra concert that family was able to go to. She did amazing and it was great to listen to. She even did a trio with her two friends! She loves orchestra and playing her violin. I'm glad she wants to continue learning and chose orchestra as one of her electives next year in middle school. 

We got a new kiddie pool that I know will be used many times this summer. We got some hot days in May and put in our AC unit and McCall got her first dip in the pool even if it was with her clothes on. She loved crawling around in the water and splashing like crazy.

More bubble fun!

Baylor's dream came true and there was finally a car shopping cart available when we went shopping one time this month and so the two girls each got to help drive around the shopping cart looking for groceries.

Three cute girls waiting and watching out the window for Mom to come home from an activity.

Baylor got to go on a preschool field trip to the Point Defiance Zoo. It was a beautiful day and we had fun seeing all the animals. Baylor loved it and McCall was happy to be outside being pushed around in the stroller.

We got to pet this bumblebee! 

I love the aquarium at this zoo! It is incredible!

We had lunch at the zoo with her preschool group and then we did a little more exploring before leaving. Since I was right there, I decided to go to Owen Beach and I'm glad I did. It was so beautiful and both girls loved the rocks and exploring.

We took our own family picture to update the family picture in our home. I sure love this sweet family of mine and that I get to do life with them!

We were able to get back from our trip and do my favorite annual tradition on Memorial Day- go and see the flags at all the gravesites at Tahoma National Cemetery. It is also so peaceful and calm and a time where I am filled with such gratitude for all those that sacrificed their time and even their lives for our freedom.

11 Months

11 Months! The closer I get to the year mark, it makes me so sad that time is flying by. I want this little one to stay my baby forever even though I know it doesn't work that way. I truly wish I had a pause button. I can't believe McCall is almost one, but I love every moment with this little miracle baby. She is just the cutest little thing and I'm loving this stage with her. Even though I wish for all my girls to stop growing up so fast, I always love each stage of life with them and love that I get a front row seat in watching them progress and become.

Here's what McCall is up to at 11 months:

• On May 12th, she had to go and get her iron checked again and thankfully it did go up and so hopefully she will only have to be on it until her 1 year check up and then we can be done but we will see. At that appointment she was 15lbs 7 oz (4th percentile) and 2 feet 3.17 inches long (9th percentile). So still my tiny little girl which I love! She is still in 9 month clothes and in size 2 diapers.
• She is an awesome eater and eats by the handful and is very messy. She doesn't like being hungry and is usually her fussiest when she is hungry. I'm excited for her birthday because I might actually have one child that goes crazy for her cake.
• She still wakes up one or two times per night and nurses to go back to sleep. This past month, she has transitioned to one nap. We have also gotten to the point during the day and when I put her down for bed at night that I can nurse her and if she is still awake, I can just lay her in her crib and she will fall asleep on her own.
• She is still not a fan of her car seat especially if the car is not moving or if she is in the house. If she is left in her car seat for too long, she will let you know that she wants out.
• She is very observant and always curious and watching her world around her. You can't do out of sight, out of mind with her because she will just look around wherever you put it until she finds it. 
• She still prefer army crawling but also does a mix of normal crawling with it. 
• She is starting to cruise on furniture and is into climbing on anything she is able to. She loves to open up cupboards and drawers and is into pulling everything out. We clean up lots of messes a day but it keeps her entertained so I just let her do it. 
• She has two cute teeth on the bottom and her smile just melts me especially when her little dimple that she has on one side shows up.
• She loves looking out our front window when Daddy comes home and just lights up with the biggest smile for him. 
• She loves her sisters and they are the ones that get the most laughs. Paige loves to carry her around and make her laugh and smile. McCall loves to climb all over Baylor and Baylor loves to hide from McCall and lets her find her.
• She loves her blanky and binky. She will snuggle her face into her blanket especially if she is tired.
• Of all my babies, she has the least stranger danger and is willing to be held by most anyone. My young women love her and she is always passed around at activities and at church.
• She loves to clap and bounces up and down when we sing songs. She has started to wave and it is the cutest! This past week, she has also learned to blow kisses. She is very much into mimicking things especially sounds that we do. It is funny when we are calling for Paige or Baylor and then she will give out a little yell to call for them too. She also loves to point at things.
• She doesn't talk a lot. She is a little quieter that way but sometimes can be chatty. She really doesn't say too many words yet but does an uh oh sound when she drops something. She says things that sound like mama and dada but I don't know if they are connected with us or not.
• She loves to blow raspberries. She is also pretty ticklish but has to be in the mood for fun and giggles or it just makes her mad and she pushes your hand away.
• She loves to be outside and is the least fussy when we are out and about. She is still loves water and is still a little hesitant crawling on grass. She loves to try and eat rocks. This past week we went to the ocean and she loved crawling on the sand.
• She is a busy little one and does not like to cuddle. She wants to see the world around her and see what is going on. She is always on the go and just wants to explore her little world.
• We love our little girl so much!!!

We got a few pictures with the sticker on but she always immediately takes it off. :)

Blowing some raspberries for the camera.

Happy 11 months of having this sweet baby girl in our lives!

Bellevue

On the 20th, we had a stake temple day where our stake president asked that everyone in the stake try and go to the temple that day. It could be doing temple work or just being on the temple grounds. Once I heard that, I looked to see if there were baptisms available for our youth but all the appointments were already filled so I reached out to a temple grounds worker and we were able to go and serve by weeding at the temple. It was a pretty cool experience and quite the view of the gorgeous temple as you are weeding. It was a little disappointing that only two young women and two young men were able to go but a Saturday in May can always be busy. I was so grateful to those youth that did attend and my whole family went and helped out too.

The temple grounds are always so pretty and it was great to be able to help out and I love service opportunities for my children because I feel pretty strongly that service is important and it teaches us to reach out instead of focusing on ourselves. They did great and were a big help.

Since we were in Bellevue already and it was a beautiful day, we went and got some lunch when we were done at the temple and then went to Bellevue Botanical Gardens. It got a little hot towards the end but so many flowers were in bloom and it was so pretty to walk around.

This bridge was pretty cool to walk on. Nate and Baylor were not fans of it with the height and the fact that it was a suspension bridge so it was a little wiggly but Paige and I loved it.

She did great in the stroller and was just along for the ride.

 A beautiful day with my beautiful family!