Random Happenings

Here's some random happenings as of late. In no particular order.

On Friday we went to a super fun birthday party at a great friend's house. Our kids had a blast playing in their awesome backyard. Here's the super cute cake made for the super cute 3 year old! (Tiffany - I hope you don't mind that I put this on here). My friend's sister-in-law made it. She's so talented! It's kind of hard to see but there's some adorable Minnie Mouse ears at the top of the picture. This is totally random but I forgot to put it on an earlier post. Here's the girls picture from gymnastics this year. They totally loved it and I think we'll do it again next year.Back to the weekend. On Saturday my awesome sister-in-law Lexie ran a half marathon with me. We did the American Fork Canyon race and it was awesome! She's so amazing! I texted her a few months ago asking if she was going to do a half this summer (she and her mom are always doing all sorts of crazy bike and running races). She said she didn't but that she'd do one with me if I wanted to. I got brave (or crazy) enough to want to do one so we signed up. The course was beautiful and seriously everything was perfect about it! It was so fun!
With the majority of the course being downhill we ended up going faster than we thought and everyone missed seeing us cross the finish line by about 5 min. Oh well. Thanks for the signs guys! The best part of the race was the delicious chocolate milk, french toast and buttermilk syrup at the end! So fun! After the race we spent the rest of the day swimming and lounging around. To me, this is seriously the best way to spend those hot summer days!
After swimming and a picnic dinner in the backyard, we enjoyed some Skinny Cow truffle bars. Super yum! Mabel enjoyed hers. So did the other girls. Oh how I love these sweet babies! I also did some more random home decor projects this weekend. I added these shelves and trinkets to our bathroom. I thought it turned out ok. I love that after 4 years I'm really starting to get settled into this house. Better late then never right? And finally, here's what we do with Mabel when she needs a time out (or when I'm not looking and her sisters are tired of her getting their toys).

Circus Week

We had a great week talking about the circus! We did some activity sheets and made these toilet paper roll ring masters. We also had a mini circus in our house. Sophia was not so impressed with it all but Lilly thought it was fun. I put up sheets in front of our living room to make it look like a tent. Here they are getting ready to go in.
We had some fun snacks including circus peanuts. They really didn't taste as good as I had remembered as a kid. We also saw the World's Smallest Horse (I know that's more of a carnival thing but we really had to get creative). Sophia tried her hand at juggling. Lilly tried the tightrope. There was also a ring toss and lion taming.
We also make clown faces. Sophia got really frustrated with hers and threw it across the room. It was great. Lilly's turned out ok though.This week we're looking forward to Bug Week!

I finally made something!

My cutest blogging friend did some awesome features the other day including this fun one. I've had these old shutters forever and could not figure out what to do with them. I was so excited when I saw this! I think it turned out ok. It was my first time using spray paint and I loved it! I wanted a nice country blue but couldn't find one I liked so I switched to this instead. I think "Celery" suited these shutters fine. I probably should have staggered the shutters a little bit more. Good thing I still can! You can't see it very well but the thing hanging on the right side is what I wore in my hair when I got married. I think I'm going to by some thicker ribbon to hang the picture and hair thing from too.

Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty fun and I like the little bit of character it adds to my room.

More Celebrating and Talent Night

We had a pretty great week full of the stomach flu and more celebrating.
My other present(s) from Doug finally came. He got me these awesome nesting dolls that double as measuring cups! I saw them at the cutest boutique in Denver and totally loved them. I told him about them and was glad he was listening. Aren't they so cute? I think so.

Last Monday we had a fun FHE at Doug's parents house with a little talent night. It was fun but unfortunately we brought more than just a salad to dinner. We brought the stomach flu (we didn't really know it at the time!). We felt so bad but we seriously passed it onto everyone. Even Doug's grandma! Don't worry because we passed it to my family on Sunday. We're really nice that way.

Anyway, Mabel's talent was wearing her hair in a pony tail for the first time. I love those first little ponies!

Sophia played the piano (didn't get a pic) and Lilly did gymnastics. It was pretty great.

Doug's parents also recently returned from a trip to Brazil and they came bearing gifts. The girls got these awesome headbands that they wear during Carnival.

And the boys got these awesome masks.

Good thing Doug's good at making them look awesomer.

I had to bribe Mabel with a Brazilian style Nutrigrain bar to wear this again.

There's also a really cool rock shop in Brazil that they love and they brought back these cool nativity scenes for everyone. Pretty cool! Thanks guys!

Open for Business

Last week Sophia opened up "Sophies Shop". She had arrows directing you to the store.

And a few bags waiting for your use at the door.

With a note that read "pick both for munee and for biinge."

There were plenty of awesome things for sale.

I think she had some success. It was pretty cute and pretty fun!

Princess Week

This was a pretty fun and low key week. We really didn't do too much with our theme. Just the right amount. We checked out princess and castle books from the library one day and watched plenty of princess movies.

On one of the days we had a tea party. It was pretty fun. The girls even helped me make lemon tea cookies for it. I also let them use the china tea set that belonged to my Grandma Lilly. My mom gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago with the intent that I would pass it on to Lilly one day. I haven't let them play with it yet but I decided it would be ok to use it for this occasion. I think they had fun with it but it definitely went straight back into the closet when we were done. I think I need to lighten up a little. Anyway, we had PB&J's, strawberries, cheese slices, lemon cookies and apple juice (I mean "tea").
While we were in Denver my mom had a bunch of the crafts for the girls to do. She sent me home with everything they didn't get to and these crowns were one of the projects. They had a blast decorating them and I thought they did a good job. They had so much fun staying in their princess dresses and even wanted to wear them for pajamas that night. Here they are after their bath. What silly little princesses.

Happy BirthFathers Day

We had a pretty good celebration weekend! I was lucky enough to have my birthday on Father's Day this year so we celebrated on Saturday to break it up a little. We went to dinner at Magleby's and it was so fun! We went to their new location in Provo and got to sit out on the patio. It was so fun and pretty with the river flowing behind us. I ordered the buffet which included the dessert buffet and it was completely worth every calorie! So yummy. I seriously can not get enough of their chocolate cake. Delicious! On our way their Doug gave me tickets to The Weepies in August. I was so excited! I love them! They're coming to a venue that only seats about 300 so I'm super excited about that as well. It's also 2 days after the Death Cab for Cutie concert so we may be a little worn out at the end of all of that. It should be fun though. Anyway, after dinner we went to see Super 8. It was pretty good. I wasn't expecting much so it was better than I thought it would be. Definitely too much swearing though.

The best present came the next morning at 4 am when Sophia threw up in my room. It was awesome. I felt so bad for her (and I have to admit for me a little bit). She stayed home from church and I was nervous about having Lilly and Mabel by myself. Mabel actually slept most of sacrament so I could focus on Lilly and she did really well. We actually had the people behind us tell me that my kids are very well behaved. I totally burst out laughing! I told him that this was definitely an exception. I guess it was a good birthday gift though.

After church we came home to this. Doug's the best. It was so cute (and yes that's Sophia passed out on the couch. Poor girl). The little pink and gray boxes in the bottoms center of the picture are these awesome plastic gift bags that have "Happy Birthday" written on them and they light up. I think I got them at the Roberts outlet for 75 cents. They're really heavy and I think they're supposed to be a balloon weight or something. I thought it was cute that he had pulled them out. Later that night we went up to my brother's house for some delicious sliders. The highlight of the evening was definitely when my family sang "This month is such a special one..." to me. It was hilarious. Doug again was so nice and stayed home with the sickie. I told him I felt so bad leaving him and he said "I can't think of a better way to celebrate Father's Day. This is what being a dad is all about." I thought that was sweet.Overall it was a great day and I was spoiled beyond belief. My sister sent this cutest card that she made! She's amazing! I love it!I also got a lot of other really nice things from family and friends. Me and two of my collage roommates all have June birthdays and so we usually get together every year to celebrate and exchange gifts. This year one of them gave us these. I totally love it. She got them on an Etsy site and you can tell the person who makes them how many beads and what colors you want. I love that she chose three pinks for my three cuties.
Overall it really was a good day and I was spoiled. The girls helped me clean up the streamers last night and had fun wrapping themselves up in them. I couldn't ask for more!