If I had a nickle...

...for every time I heard "I'm a do it!" in a day, I'm pretty sure I'd be a millionaire. I could probably also say the same thing for "I love you mom" or "thank you mom" so I guess I shouldn't complain.

They're finished!

And by they I mean Doug and our yard (and get ready for a long post with a lot of pictures - sorry - but this one is for Doug's parents).

We had a fabulous day yesterday with Doug graduating! The girls did a fabulous job with the 3 hour program (there were 1,000 graduates) but Lilly did get a little bored about halfway through.We are so proud of Doug and his accomplishments. 5 years ago (when we were engaged) I remember going to lunch with Doug and he told me that he wanted to switch majors. He was currently a graphic design major and he wanted to switch to accounting. I remember he told me it was going to be another 5 years and hearing that made me not so sure about the whole change. I was in my senior year and was expecting to be done with school in a much shorter time than 5 more years. Needless to say we (he) made it and we're so proud of him! He graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Master's of Accountancy. He truly blows my mind and I'm so proud of him!

Doug and the girls getting ready to head out to the 'ole Marriott Center for the Marriott School Convocation exercises.

The Happy Family at the end of the ceremony!

Doug with his surrogate parents - Sis. Wilkins, my mom wanted you to know she
stood up for you when they asked all parents of the graduates to stand. The happy grad with diploma in hand - no more teachers, no more books...

Doug with his friend Taylor after the ceremonies - he had already turned
in his robes but Taylor was nice enough to share.

And now on to the other great accomplishment we've experienced this week. We have a backyard! (Almost, we're short about 20 square feet - oops). Here's a little montage to portray the work in progress.

Here's what the yard looked like when we first moved in. It really wasn't too bad
but by the end of the summer it was completely full of dead weeds that were about 2 feet tall.Here's what it was like in the winter - I included this one just for fun.

Here's what it looked like halfway through the tilling process.

Here's what it looked like during the spreading the 11 yards (about 1 dump truck) of top soil.More of the dirt mounds.

Here's what it looked like after a huge hailstorm we had last week and drum roll please...

Here's what it looks like today! Hooray for sod - and wonderful family members who help you lay it!

Isn't it funny what a difference only 3,000 square feet of sod makes?

We seriously could not be happier with how it turned out and now we're just keeping our fingers crossed that it will grow! Thanks again to Dad and JD (and Jeffy) for helping us! We definitely could not have done it without you! Thanks for the lawnmower too mom and dad - you're the best! Once it gets good and settled we'll have to have a yard warming party or something - assuming that it doesn't die. We'll keep you posted!

Million Dollar Cookies

So aparrently this is the cookie that took the cake and the $1,000,000 this year from the Pillsbury contest. We made some today and I must admit they are pretty tasty. Not quite sure if they're worth that much but they were pretty tasty. Of course my husband couldn't get enough - who can resist double peanut butter. Enjoy!

We're gittin' 'er done

Today we went to the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at BYU with cousins! It was so fun! We did a digging tour and got to do some digging ourselves. All the kids dug for arrowheads and then got to make a necklace. It was fun and all the kids had a great time digging! We greatly missed Kimber and her crew. It was crazy to see so many of the grandkids in one place at one time! Doug's sister pointed out that there are 15 grandkids and 14 of them are 5 and under! His parents also have not seen/met 6 of them! Wowsa! Their necklaces turned out great too! Here's Sophia showing you how hers turned out. After that we went to the park to feed the ducks and eat lunch. Sophia had such a great time feeding the ducks. She's usually afraid of them but this time she couldn't get enough. There were many moments when we thought she was going to jump right in and join them!

Here's a few other random pics of what the girls have been up to lately. The other night while I was at spinning class I came home to this adorable scene on the couch. My favorite part of the picture is the cheesy pasta remains on Sophia's face.Here's one of Lilly with LOM (Little Orange Monster). My brother Stuart gave this to me a few years ago. He got it from one of his students when he was teaching English in Japan. One of his students gave it to him on the last day of class. Isn't this something all of us gave our teachers? Anyway, we have a picture of Sophia with LOM as a baby so we felt like it was Lilly's turn.
Now to what we're really gettin' done. We spent the afternoon digging up our yard to prepare for laying sod next week! It didn't take as long as I thought it would but it was still a project. Lilly was a big helper. I also included one of Dougie the Tillman hard at work.
Here's what the yard looked like half-way through the tilling process. I totally forgot to take a before picture so this will have to suffice. We're getting 11 yards of top soil tomorrow and will spend the day spreading it and leveling it out. It's so fun to be so close to having a real yard! It's definitely a lot of work but definitely worth it!
Here's some bonus pics for my sister Liza. Here's what the mini Janes were dressed in last Sunday. Thanks again for all the clothes! I think my kids would go naked without them! Yikes! Everyone is always asking me where I shop for my girls and where I get their cute clothes. It's so fun to tell them they're all hand me downs! Thanks again sista!

Links on the right

I just wanted to let you all know about a few of the links I have posted on the right. The first one is Funny Ads and Stuff. My bro Stu passed this along to me. It's hilarious! The 1973 Sears cataolg is pretty good. There's some pretty funny commentary with each picture. The Ancient Ads are pretty good too. Check it out.

The Pioneer Woman is pretty good too. I saw this on one of my sister's friends blogs. I love the recipes she posts and I love how she does it. I've made a few of her recipes and they are pretty tasty. Overall, I think she's a pretty funny gal with some pretty good ideas. I can't wait to try this salad. It sounds delicious!

If you have a bored minute (or few minutes) check these sites out. It will be worth your time!

What's in a name?

My sista Lissa tagged me to do a post about how we came up with the names for our kiddos.


We got the name for this sleeping beauty by looking at a ward list from Doug's mission. Since we didn't know what we were having we were having a hard time deciding about names. Sophia (or Sofia in Swedish) was the only girl name we could agree on. We could not agree on a boy name so thank goodness she wasn't a boy! We were going to do the name Mason regardless of whether it was a boy or girl but I guess Sophia won out.

We named this bundle of joy Lilly after my grandma Lilly Nicholl. Again we didn't know what we were having so it was hard to decide. When I was a few weeks away from delivering we decided we needed to get serious about choosing names and Doug said, "how about Lilly". I totally felt her kick right after he said that (I know it's sounds cheesy but I'm serious - she was sealing the deal). If she had been a boy we would have name her Lewis after Doug's grandpa. Before she was born we were going through a list of names we had written when I was pregnant with Sophia and Lewis and Lilly were written on the back of the page right next to each other - spooky.

I tag Kimber, Sarah, and anyone else who thinks this post might be fun. I know some of you may be concerned about putting your kids names on your blogs so feel free to avoid this tag!

Fun Times With the Girls!

We had a fun weekend with our silly girls. Lilly was in the giggliest mood yesterday. He and Sophia were jumping on the bed and she thought it was absolutely the funniest thing ever. She sure loves her sister!

We also had fun today because it was time for...matchers! I dressed the girls in these outfits before Easter but never snapped a picture so I figured I'd dress them in these again so that we could do a little photo shoot. The funny thing about these outfits is that they were hand me downs from two different people. They're even different brands! I couldn't believe how well they went together though. The craziness! Sophia also got a hair cut yesterday (although you really can't tell too well in these pictures).

Lilly had an especially good time playing with this basket today. She kept sucking on the very edge of it and it seriously kept her entertained for about 15 minutes! We love it when our babies start playing with toys!

This evening we went on a nice walk around the block. When we got home we had a fun time exploring the flowers! Whenever Sophia sees them she says, "Look our flowers! They're growin' up!". I'm just pleased that I was successful at planting bulbs (even though only about half of them came up). The picture I have at the top of our blog is of these flowers that grew randomly in our front yard. I thought they were pretty pretty (hee hee). I must give major props to our camera though because each of those flowers is about the size of a dime. You can see in the picture below how they compare to the leaves and woodchips. Can you believe those two pictures are of the same flowers?

Here's one more video to suit all your fancies. I was sitting next to Sophia today and overheard her naming the first presidency. I didn't realize she really knew these men so well. She never ceases to amaze me!

Super Fun Movie Week!

Since we lead such exciting lives, we had nothing going on this week so we decided to watch a movie every night this week. I know, we're so exciting! Here's our list of what we saw:

Monday: It Could Happen to You - It was pretty good. A cute little story that was a fun watch. We also started to watch Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves but it was pretty boring (and Doug had already seen it so we turned it off).

Tuesday: August Rush - Such a good movie!!!! At first I thought it was a little too artsy for me but I ended up loving it! Doug thought it was one of the best he's ever seen. We strongly recommend it.

Wednesday: Amazing Grace - This was based in England about the abolition of the slave trade. I hate to admit it, but I fell asleep! Doug thought it was okay but it was a little too slow going for me.

Thursday: The Seeker - This was kind of a sci-fi movie that I guess it based on a book called "The Dark is Rising". It was acutally better than we thought it was going to be. Kind of cheesy but still pretty suspensful.

Friday: Enchanted - I watched this one with Sophia while we waited for Daddy to get home from work. It was pretty cute and better than I thought it would be. I thought Susan Saradnon did a good job in it. I think she was my favorite. After Doug got home from work we watched The Kite Runner. It was pretty good too. It was kind of sad but a good story.

Tonight I'm going to watch Miss Potter with my mom during the priesthood session. I'm looking forward to that one. It really was a fun week but not something I want to do every week. We hope you all had a great week! Enjoy Conference!

A little bit of news...

I'm pregnant! I hope it's a boy this time. Well I guess I can't really hide it any more and we feel like now is the time to let everyone know about our newest arrival! April Fools! Did I totally fool ya?

Anyway, on to some real news. Doug got the stump out finally! I just had to take a picture of him on top of his latest victory.

Here's a couple of the girls. They both love the Elmo chair! Thanks again Lissa! Sophia fell asleep in it yesterday and Lilly has been enjoying it lately.

Finally, Happy Anniversary to 2 of the greatest parents in the world! I think Jeffy told me it's been 39 years! Way to go! You are truly an inspiration to us all and I'm so thankful for all you do and the example you've set! I love you both!