Fabulous Four

My sweet Kate turned 4!  Holy cow.  Where on earth did the time go?  But I will get to that in a minute.  First I need to do a little picture purge of the happenings around here.  Here's my cuties that I get to hang out with every day, all day.

 Here's gorgeous Rach posing with my pretty flowers Trav gave me for our anniversary.

 And if there's one perk (among many) to having a dad for an architect....your block towers are seriously cool.

 We've got to get the worm's-eye view with the belly shot....

 The kids had a serious bubble bath which was 80% bubbles.

 And last week this is what they were doing before church.  We LOVE story time at our house.

 Everyone looked so cute I just kept taking pictures.

 For Kate's birthday my sister, Aimee, made the cutest minion hat for Kate (along with the movie).  She said she couldn't not make one for all the kids they turned out so cute!  They love them!!  And they look so stinkin' cute in them too.  Thanks Aim!

 William wasn't too sure about it all...

 Rach has been taking a gymnastics class the past few weeks.  She is in heaven.  I think this might be her "thing."  It's tricky to take good pictures of her doing her thing but I tried!

 Leaping off the beam into thin air....this girl is fearless in this gym.  (but if a basketball happen to bounce her way she'd duck and cover)

 There is this really tall rope that they try to climb.  Her first week she only made it up about 1/3 of the way.  They 2nd week she made it up half way.  And now.....

 She's getting higher....

 So close.....

 She totally made it!!!  She's made it 2 weeks in a row now and is so proud of herself. I know there is no way that I could climb that thing!  It truly is amazing!

 Okay, now we finally made it to the birthday girl!  I let her open one present before everyone left to school.

 She got to eat on the special plate all day long....

 This year she requested a mickey mouse cake.  This is what I came up with....

 When daddy finally got home at the end of the day she opened the rest of her gifts.  I've never seen a bag of sweedish fist disappear so quickly.

 William thought the party was fun too...

 After opening Hungry Hungry Hippos, a very intense game occurred....

 Can I blow out the candles yet?

 Here's a picture of Rach playing basketball.  Remember my previous comment of running when a basketball was near?  Yeah...

 Then we took the kids swimming yesterday.  That is what Kate chose to do for her birthday (even though we had to do it a couple days late).  The camera got really foggy so it gives them a "mystical" look. Will wasn't too sure at first but loved it by the end.

I didn't get one single picture of Rachel at the pool. She was too busy going down the big yellow slide by herself. 

It was an awesome birthday!  I still can't believe Kate is 4.  Crazy!

Happy new year!

I love the new year. I love fresh starts.  I love making resolutions even though I rarely keep them very long.  I love trying to get myself to be a little bit better than I was yesterday.  And when I fail to do that...I can always try again tomorrow. 

Here's a confession:  I sometimes feel like I am the worst mom ever. My kids don't hesitate to tell me this too, and let me tell you that it is hard to hear that.  I am trying my best and it's never perfect but I'm doing what I can.  I am trying to teach them and help them learn and grow, which brings about lots of tantrums and melt downs because I don't always do everything they want me to or let them do everything they want to.  Once in a blue moon, however, I am reminded that I am raising amazing kids that do know right from wrong.  After a particularly bad night a few weeks ago where I thought the tantrums and blaming would never end we woke up to this note:

 I do have awesome kids but sometimes it's really hard to remember that when they are so mad at you for "being a good parent."  Wow, parenting is hard.

Okay, on to a lighter note...Rachel decided she wanted to try basketball this year.  She's actually quite good if she weren't so afraid of getting hit with the ball.  And she does look so cute too.

 I took Kate and Will to the zoo last week with my sister and her cute boys.  The zoo in the winter on sunny days is the absolute best.  Nobody was there, the animals were up and awake.  The tiger was even growling!  It was a much needed outing.

 We even got up close and personal with the gorillas....

 And then there's this boy.  I just can't get enough of him!  He gets cuter and trickier every day which really doesn't seem possible.  He now has 4 teeth that he's constantly gritting, he claps, sometimes will "raise the roof" and today he waved "bye bye" for the first time when Kate was leaving to go to a friends house.  He is always talking and is so stinkin' cute!

 Oh, and let's not forget this little piece of information.....I got my piano!!  It might not be the "dream piano" but the price was right, the location was awesome and it's in really good condition.  I absolutely love it and we've been tickling the ivories ever since.  Merry Christmas, Happy birthday and Happy Anniversary to me!  I LOVE IT!!

 Speaking of anniversaries...we just celebrated our 12th.  12 years?  How the heck did that happen?  I still love my hubby so much.  That was the best trick I've ever played was getting him to marry me.  Hah!  If only he would've known 12 years ago....We had an awesome day of watching Trav's church ball game, going to the temple and doing sealings and then going to P.F. Chang's for dinner which was not only delicious, but they also gave us $20 worth of gift cards because we are so cool.  It was an awesome anniversary!  Here's an oldie but a goodie for your viewing pleasure...  This is when we were dating

Okay, now here's the test.....we've always taken pictures of our babies in boxes.  Can you tell who is who?  I think they're related...what do you think?

 Happy new year!