Valentine's Day

I really do love holidays with little kids. They bring magic and fun and just excitement to the day. They get excited for the little traditions we do for each holiday. The girls woke up excited for the day with chocolate kisses leading to their gifts that we got them to start off their day.

McCall was especially excited for the chocolate kisses and was all oohs and ahhs and later tried to gather up handfuls. 

Of course we had heart shaped pink pancakes (the ironic thing was that Baylor was super excited about them on Valentine's day and the next day she said they tasted funny because they were pink.)

Nate left sweet notes for us to enjoy when we woke up in the morning. He truly is the best!

Paige and Baylor had school so it was just McCall and I for the day. It was a pretty low key day with not much going up. The sun was shining so we went outside for a bit and I tried to get some cute pictures of her in her Valentine's outfit, but she is so busy and never holds still.

Baylor had her first school Valentine's party and was so excited to hand out her Valentines and the three of them had fun looking through her stash when she got home. Paige even got a few Valentine's from friends and McCall was just looking for any candy she could get her hands on.

Our traditional Valentine's dinner is spaghetti, salad, heart shaped cheesy toast, and pink Jell-O. McCall had the cutest spaghetti face so I went down memory lane and found some pictures of all my girls loving spaghetti.

Leading up to Valentine's day we put a heart (Nate does half and I do the other half) on the girl's doors about what we love about them. I sure love my sweet girls and wanted to post here what we love about them for 2024.

Paige: I love thrift shopping with you, I love your handwriting, I love how you strive to be your best, I love your grace, forgiveness, & empathy. You are so sweet!, I love how kind you are, I love your FHE lessons, You are an awesome big sister, I love the thoughtful gifts and notes you give, I love seeing all the art you create, I love that you are an amazing friend, I love that you are like a little Bethany, I love the activities and games you come up with to entertain your sisters

Baylor: I love your silly sense of humor, I love the cards & gifts you give, I love how you play with your sisters, I love your imagination, I love your eyes when you smile, I love cuddling you and kissing your cheeks even when you are trying to get away, I love how you are a good friend, I love teasing and having fun with you, I love to watch you do math and listen to you read, I love your giggle, I love that you love to be outdoors, I love playing games with you

McCall: I love how you love puppies, I love how cute you are, I love how excited you are when I get home from work, I love watching you learn new things, I love your smile and your dimple, I love how you hold my pants and step on my feet until I pick you up, I love how you try to sneak past me at night, I love how happy you are every morning, I love your little run and little jump, I love the silly faces you make, I love your love of the outdoors, I love the words you say and how you say them

Happy Love Day!

 

Tri-Ward Olympics

We had a really fun combined youth activity with the 2 other wards that meet in our building. It was one of the other wards that decided to head it up and then assigned each ward different assignments and to be in charge of different events. I volunteered to do the decorations because I love that kind of thing and then I put our young men in charge of our event and I'm so glad that I did because they did a great job and had so much fun with it.

I did have a little mishap when I went to set up. I had McCall with me and went to set up by myself. I got everything needed in the building along with McCall and all her things to keep her entertained. I locked the building since I would be by myself and I didn't want anyone to come in that didn't have access. I realized that I forgot something in the car and ran out to get it without even thinking and locked McCall in the building! Our church uses our phones to unlock the doors and my phone along with my little girl were locked in the church building and I had no way of getting in. I was in a complete panic and wracking my brain of what to do. I had my car keys, but felt horrible leaving her to go get someone. She was just as happy as can be staring at me from inside wondering what mom was doing. I decided to run around the building and it was such a tender mercy that Dale happened to be there working on something in the building and I just had no idea that he was there. I ran around another time trying to see if there was a light on in a room so I knew where to knock. I ended up banging on one of the main doors and thankfully he heard me and opened it up for me. I was out of breath and my heart was racing, but it all worked out and Pops had a little sidekick and I was able to get everything decorated.

I loved how it turned out and I loved seeing all the ideas in my head come to fruition.

I got colored poster board for the Olympic rings and the the different colors in streamers for each of the walls. I used yellow and orange tissue paper and cut it into squares and crunched them up piece by piece with a tape to create the flames underneath the rings. Then on the opposite side I did the youth theme for the year since that was our spiritual focus for the evening. I painted the sign and then created the hand with the flame with poster board, paint, and tissue paper.

I painted the different flags and made sure I had flags from each of the continents and made sure that the flags I chose actually participate in the Olympics and had simple designs. I created the torches on the side with tissue paper and some poles I got from my first counselor. 

Then the two back walls I had Baylor create these handprint rings to represent the Olympic colors, but also a handprint to represent spreading light. I had the youth from the three wards write on them either ways that they can be a disciple of Jesus Christ or how they can share light with others.

We had an opening ceremony where the youth (we had close to 50 youth!!!) were divided into teams of 4. Then we had an opening prayer and the youth all together cited the youth scripture for the year. Then one of the leaders from another ward carried in the torch and another one did some amazing baton throwing to kick off our amazing night.

Then the youth had 4 events to do. Each event had 3 teams of 4 and it turned out great and they had fun at all the different events. First was pickleball. We had 2 courts set up and the teams rotated through. This one was probably the most challenging since half of the youth knew the rules and the other half didn't. Each event lasted 15 minutes so it wasn't a lot of time to explain rules and play. The second event was brain trivia. When I walked by I heard gospel related questions and Washington state history questions though there may have been other categories that I didn't hear. The third event was corn hole. The last event was the one our young men leaders were in charge of and they did relays. The first relay was trying to flip plastic cups and having it land either side up just not on its side and then once you got it, you could place a token and your team was trying to get three in a row. The second relay was cookie face where each of them had an Oreo and you put it on your forehead and only using your face muscles trying to get the Oreo into your mouth. The last relay was throwing marshmallows and getting into your partner's mouth. They were all really fun to watch and it was super nice for me to just be able to walk around and enjoy it and take pictures and not be in charge of any aspect during the evening.

Enjoy some pictures of my young women from our fun evening.

Then we had a closing ceremony where the Bishop from another ward shared a spiritual message about sharing your light and talking about the logo from the youth theme. Each youth got a tea light to turn on and the lights were turned off to show that we can all be a light and it will shine in the darkness.

Then we had the award ceremony. I made the medals and they turned out great and it was fun to see all these youth on the podiums.

The other ward was in charge of the refreshments and they did an amazing job with the Olympics theme. The youth devoured them up and I think they all had an incredible time.

January

January is usually a really hard and long month for me, but this year it seemed to go by faster than normal. I wanted to post about the happenings and fun little times in our household for the month.

We started the first Saturday of the year with such a special and memorable experience of Paige getting to go inside the temple for the first time to perform baptisms for the dead. She was so excited and ready! We decided to go as a family for her first time so that I could walk her through every aspect of it. She wanted Nate to be able to baptize her and we took Pops we we had enough priesthood to do everything needed. Pops and I got to witness her being baptized and we took a few family names which was another cool experience. There were so many other "first timers" there and it was just such a sweet experience. It is so special and amazing seeing your own children have the desires and experience the things of the gospel that bring them closer to Jesus Christ. Pops even treated us all to ice cream afterwards. Nona kindly watched Baylor and McCall for us so we could have this experience together. I did find out that Margaret has never done baptisms for the dead so next time we do it as a family, we will have to bring her along.

Paige thought she was so funny with the swim diapers and I guess McCall thought it was funny too. :)

And we caught this sweet moment on camera. McCall has been folding her arms for prayers and it's the cutest thing ever. She even says amen, though most of the time she says it before you are done with the prayer. :) Sometimes she will say her own little prayers especially when I am cooking her breakfast because in her little mind once she says the prayer, it's time to eat.

Three cute girls ready for bed. I'm so grateful to be their mom!

Paige finished up the gymnastic season and had 2 meets in January. She has loved it so much and her confidence has grown and she loves doing the beam.

The judges in our opinion weren't quite fair on their scoring and Paige got a really low score but she handled it with such grace and optimism compared to her questioning parents. :)

I got to go with Baylor on her school field trip. I was in charge of a group of 5 and we had so much fun. We went to the Kid Quest Museum in Bellevue.

It was Baylor's first bus ride and she must have had fun at the museum since she fell asleep on the way home.

Front row seats for watching Bluey.

Lazy Saturday of playing Mario Kart. (Not pictured is the tears when it was done! Video games are not my favorite and it seems whenever they play them someone is in tears.)

Paige got to compete at the Varsity meet in gymnastics as a 6th grader and first time ever doing gymnastics! Her team ended up getting 3rd place and they all did amazing! It was so fun to watch Paige every week and she loved the whole experience.

Go Paige!

Little helpers cleaning up afterwards.

Paige got to go the the temple for the second time in just a month since we went as a youth group. We had the biggest group go that we have had in awhile and it was such a good experience. Paige was most worried about having one of the young men baptize her but she did great and loved the whole experience.

Gymnastics banquet.

Paige and Baylor had dental check ups. I took McCall with me to watch for the first time and she was very observant and a little unsure about it all. Every time they moved Baylor's chair, it would make her cry so hopefully overtime we will get over that fear.

Yesterday we had a pretty nice day for January so we enjoyed being outside for awhile. McCall got to splash in puddles and Paige and Baylor got to ride their bikes. And I got to be their personal photographer as I followed them around because they are all so cute and I want to capture all the moments with them because they are growing up way too fast.

Ice Skating

The first Wednesday in January we went up to Bellevue and took Paige and Baylor ice skating for the first time. It was a really fun experience and they both wanted to stay so much longer. We got there right when it opened since I knew that they would both need the skate helper and I knew they had a limited number. It was so fun to watch them and help them along the way. They both struggled at first and I wasn't sure if they would ever get it, but by the end they were both skating on their own.

It was really fun to see the progression in both of them. Paige struggled even with the skate helper at first. She was not really understanding how to move her feet and after lots and lots of laps around and she said she would watch how everyone else was moving their feet, she finally got it. She decided to give up the skate helper and relied on the wall and me to help her stay on her feet. She had lots of falls (even pulled me down once!), but she always got back up and tried again. She loved it so much by the end and didn't want to leave.

Baylor wasn't quite strong enough to push the skate helper on her own at first since she didn't understand how to move her feet correctly either. So I helped push from behind until she got it. She also said that she watched other people's feet in order for her to figure out how to do it on her own. (I have some smart and observant little girls!) Eventually she could push it on her own and while I was helping Paige stay on her feet, Baylor was just zooming around, doing laps. It was so cute to watch because I would be looking away for awhile, focusing on Paige, and I would look around to find Baylor and she would be on the other side of the skating rink with a big smile. She also ended up giving up the skate helper and tried it on her own. She picked it up way faster than I thought she would and lasted the entire time. She isn't as persistent as Paige so I thought she would give up after about an hour or less (we ended up being there for about 2 1/2 hours!), but she also didn't want to leave and they both want to go again.

It was so much fun!

Dad's little buddy. She enjoyed walking around with dad and finding us and enjoyed lots of snacks while Dad was our personal photographer. 

The city all lit up when we left the skating rink was gorgeous!

This was such a memorable evening that I always want to remember!