Girls, girls, girls!

Just wanted to document a few sweet moments with my girls (and others) from this week.  

 I LOVE moments like this when they're working/reading quietly together.

 Wow Mabel!  What do you see?

The other day I was watching my friend's girls for a minute (they're some of Sophia and Lilly's favorite friends) and they were all huddled around the Kindle.  It was too funny so I had to snap a picture.  Even her baby was in on the action.

 Smile girls!

This is kind of random but here's cute Mabel in a little costume my nephew (who is now 18!) used to wear.  I wish I had a picture of him in it.  He was the cutest kid (and still is I guess).

Here's a few sweet moments with Mabel and Grandpa Wilkins from last weekend.

 This picture would have been really sweet also if it wasn't for the finger in the nose.

Finally here's a cute little book Sophia made for Lilly a few weeks ago.  I love how she even made a latch for it and everything. Pretty resourceful.

 It was full of beautiful flowers like these ones

and on the back she was sure to draw a picture of Cinderella's dress because that's Lilly's favorite princess!

Soccer and Dance

Just thought I'd quickly post Lilly's latest soccer and dance picture.  She just had her last soccer game yesterday and loved it.  Her best little friend Sydnee's dad was the coach which made it even more fun!

These pictures are from the beginning of the summer but I just got them so I'm posting them now. Here she is with her tiger costume.  She loved dance last year and is loving it again this year!

Feeling Blessed

We had kind of a crazy thing happen this week so I wanted to document it.  Let me just preface this by saying that I am not trying to brag and that we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination.  On Friday Doug called me to see if I'd done anything to our mutual fund account.  I assured him that I didn't even know to access the account so I was pretty sure that I hadn't.  He said that it was empty and so he was a little concerned about it.  He saw the money come out the day that some was supposed to go in so he thought they had made a mistake somehow and accidentally took the money out.  We checked our bank account and didn't see the money in there either.  He called the company and found out that they sent us a letter in June saying that if accounts were below a certain amount then they were going to close them and issue checks to everyone. The minimum balance was really not very high and we didn't have much in there to begin with so apparently our account qualified for that.  We hadn't seen the letter because I usually throw things from them away because it's usually something like a privacy notice or notice of a board member change or something so I don't bother to open them. Anyway, this week we kind of forgot to take our garbage out (did I really take a pic of our garbage?!) and I had cleaned out one of our sheds so it was seriously overflowing and looked like this (and I raked up our acorns yesterday so it's even worse than this now). 

Anyway, when I would pick up the mail this week I just left it in the car because I was lazy and because I didn't want to burden our poor garbage can with more garbage.  Also, when Doug was talking to the mutual fund company earlier they said they sent the check out on Monday so we probably should have received it this week.  I told him I most likely had thrown it away (because I usually do) but then I remembered that all the mail from the week had accumulated in the car!  We went and checked and sure enough, the check was there.  It was just kind of crazy that Doug happened to check the account and discover the issue the same week that I didn't throw out the mail each day. I know that sounds sort of silly but we really felt a little bit blessed and that there was a greater power involved.  I know that eventually we would have been able to have another check issued or something but it's nice to know we didn't have to go through all that hassle.  Anyway, I'm just grateful for small blessings in my life and to know that we're being watched over.

Lovin us some Fall around here.

We are so excited that fall has arrived.  We're loving the cooler temperatures and the yummy treats fall brings like caramel apples!  We made these for FHE this week and the girls enjoyed them.

 Mabel preferred to lick hers.

Sophia and Lilly dove right in though!

Last night we had a super fun RS Fall Social.  It was a country fair and it turned out so cute.  My friend who was in charge did an amazing job.  There were super cute things set up like a canned goods display and a weird/large produce contest.  There was also a produce swap which was a huge hit.  We also did a pie toss and people got to through pies at the bishopric.  Unfortunately Doug had to work late (thank you extension deadline!) and so he missed out.  I'm pretty sure he was sad about not having a pie thrown at his face though. 

Here's a cute random picture of Mabel.  She plopped herself in front of the pantry with a snack and had fun watching dad on the computer.  I love her.

This week also brought the start of preschool for this little one!  She absolutely loves it and has had so much fun!

 Here's some of the cute stuff she came home with on the first day.

Today when I went to pick her up her teacher said that while they were eating some marshmallows she said, "oh! These are so yummy!  I just hope I'm not dreaming!"  she then went on to tell her teacher that Sophia always says that when she's really excited about something.  She cracks me up!



Trip to the South

Doug and I were lucky enough to take a trip (sans kids!) last weekend to the Carolina's to visit some family.  It was the first time we'd been on a plane together in about 8 years!

The main reason we went was to see these cute people (Doug's sister Leda and husband David) and their adorable new baby!

 Sweet Savannah is the cutest baby!  It was so fun to just hold and snuggle her for a few days.

 Doug with 2 of his sisters on Leda's CUTE screened in porch.

We did a lot of fun things and ate some delicious good like these hot dogs at Yum Yums.  We also discovered Cheerwine which was pretty tasty.

Savannah's cute nursery.  They've put so much work into this and it turned out so adorable!  David built the cute ladder.  They got the idea from a banister they found at an old furnishings store.  Such a fun idea!

Cute wall of pictures with some of Savannah's ancestors.  I also loved the little frame around the booties on the right.  What a cute idea!

These cute frames are above her crib. They have music inside of them that belonged to Doug's great grandma (or maybe great great) that she would play at silent movies.  What a fun touch!

More cute nursery decor.  Leda's house was so adorable! She's seriously done the best job decorating it and I loved every inch!

This is kind of a bad picture because it's taken through the screen but it's a view of her backyard.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  So many trees everywhere!  Doug and I were tempted to move here just to be by all this greenery!

This southern baby loves her BBQ!  One night we were there David and Leda fixed up a delicious southern barbecue for us.  It was to die for.  I'm still craving that pork.

The sweet babe on her blessing day (in the dress her mommy wore).

 Love these people!

The luncheon after the blessing was so yummy.  Half the table was desserts (I guess it's a southern thing) which was so fun!  This chocolate chess pie from David's dad were delicious. His sister also brought some amazing cupcakes (and pound cake) that she's kind of famous for.  She's quite the cake decorator and everything she makes is delicious.  You can see some of her creations here.

Aside from spending time with these cuties we also got to spend time with 2 of my brothers who live in South Carolina.  It was so fun and I'm kind of embarrassed I don't have pictures of them or their kids!  My camera did die the day after we got there (of course) so I had to resort to using my phone which was not always handy. The last day we were there (Labor Day) we went to a local amusement park called Carowinds. It was so fun!  Doug wasn't feeling super hot that day so he actually stayed home in bed.  I felt bad and probably should have stayed with him but I couldn't keep myself away from the roller coasters!  I rode "The Intimidator" with my brother Derik and it was awesome! It's the biggest roller coaster in the southeast. "After Burn" was pretty sweet too.  They were so nice to hang out with me that day and it really was so fun!

Here's Kim and I on "Ariel Chasers"  We're the second from the back and my 2 cute nieces Elyse and Karen are in front of us.

Overall we had such a great trip and felt totally spoiled by everyone (like my sister-in-law who cooked us an amazing 5 course meal at 11 pm since our plane was delayed - she's awesome and it was delicious!).  There truly is such a thing as southern hospitality and we definitely experienced it!  It's definitely hard to be back in reality and I'm hoping the adjustment to "normal" life goes quickly!  Thank you everyone for an amazing trip!