Grandparents Day!!

On Friday we went to Ashlyn's school where the Kindergarten classes performed for their grandparents.  Sadly you couldn't make it so we recorded it for you!

Our girls are so blessed to have wonderful grandparents!  Here's to you!

Song #1

Song #2

 Mommy School

This week was B for Birds!  To start the morning right we went on a Bird Hunt around the neighborhood.  These cuties were great hunters!  

Practicing spelling her name with beans

Bird sorting

I love watching them work together.  Claire enjoys matching!

They both loved the feather sorting!  Brinley wanted to do the whole bag (which is over 100 feathers), but I would only give them a handful because I didn't want to find feathers throughout the week all around the house.  :)

Helped me realize that I need to work with Claire on her colors. ha ha. (Look at the white paper).

They magically turned into birds and were given worms to eat.

The worms were sour!

Sour face!

With the feathers these girls created colored and glued feathers to their bird.

So creative!

We had a special guest at Mommy School!

We enjoyed him drawing the bird and making pictures of the facts.

  

 We painted birdhouses.

I love the enjoyment in Claire's face.  How great it is to be a kid and try new things!

We watched the book on YouTube The Best Nest and made our own nests.

Pretzels, chocolate, and marshmallows.

It was delicious!

Ashlyn did this program last year called Let's Play Music from my friend Mindy and sadly we don't live near someone that teaches it here.  Mindy was kind to give us an old CD so I "try" to teach Ashlyn (I don't know how to play the piano).  There is an adorable song that calls the black keys, candy bars.  We went to the store after school on Thursday to get a "surprise" for our lesson and then I put Kit Kat on the black keys to introduce the song to Ashlyn.  She (and the other girls) where so excited!  Of course they got to eat them all up!

During naptime, Brinley and I had a date swimming in the hot weather.  I love the one-on-one time I get with my kids.  

Brinley wanted to video us and share it on the blog...so here you go.

I found this picture on my phone and I just couldn't help but adore it.  (Ashlyn has been into stealing my phone and taking many random pictures...ha ha).  When I saw it, it brought tears to my eyes (it has been an emotional week) I hope with all my heart that my girls will look forward and prepare themselves to be a great mom. I am definitely not perfect, but I hope that they have many fond memories of their childhood playing with me and most importantly feeling loved.  I am thankful for the many "moms" in my life and how their examples prepared me to be a great mom.

Lessons Learned

I feel like I have learned so much this week and so much has happened. Not so much happened with events, but more of life lessons learned. I will share just a few with you.

So I have shared with you a few weeks ago about my struggle with finding a good friend since we have moved to Lufkin.  Well I felt like God smacked me in the head and said "wake up".  I have looked all around me and God has given me MANY friends here.  I have my running buddy, ladies in my ward, my calling, women that I have gotten to know through Ashlyn's school, my weekly playgroup I go to with the girls and I am joining a Mothers group this week.  God has placed all these people in my life for a reason and I wasn't content with what He was giving me.  I realized that I was trying to find someone that was a lot like me (similar interests, stage in life, hobbies, background). But as I was talking to a friend on the phone, she helped me realize that I need to accept others' differences and embrace them.  People come into our lives for various reasons and seasons.  I need to stop looking for friends and let it happen by accepting them for who they are and learn from their views, experiences, and friendship.  I am glad that I learned this sooner than later because there are so many great and wonderful people in my life.

Another lesson: Life is so fragile and we should handle it with care!  Derek and I heard some horrible news that some friends of ours that used to live in Village Green with us had experienced a death of their 17 month old son.  The father was leaving for work and ran over his child.  This just breaks my heart.  It has caused me to reflect on the importance of life and the relationships that we have with the ones that we love the most.  It has caused me to reflect on the slowing my life down and focusing on things that are really important. Makes me grateful for the gospel in knowing that Families are forever and everything is possible because of our Savior. 

I love this Ted Talks and thought I would share...

It is called What makes a good life? It is about 12-15 minutes and well worth the time.