More Pics of GWL

Gotta love Ashlyn's face. Whether smiling or crying, she loves to photobomb pictures and movies...

It's so fun to see the kids different responses to dressed animals (like the Chic-Fil-A cow and squirrel seen here). Brinley tends to be the one to run right up and give a big hug. Claire is very nervous.

The girls don't experience real tv. At home we have an antenna that gets four channels, three of which are preaching channels, the last plays old shows in black and white (the shows Derek grew up watching). So when they see something on TV they are always confused what the commercials are, why they are playing, etc.

At Great Wolf Lodge, they have different quests that you can go on with a wand. The girls enjoyed it.

Ashlyn wanted to go to the gift shop and see if she could buy a toy. Turns out she didn't have enough to buy anything there. Brinley didn't have her money with her. So it was just a fun browsing session.

She loved the unicorn she found. She was pretty distraught when I told her we couldn't buy it because she didn't have her money. Tough love...

Jenny is a very selfless Mom. She took care of Desiree during most of our time at Great Wolf Lodge. I took Ashlyn and Brinley on other slides while Jenny held Desiree and watched Claire play.

This girl was tuckered out by the end of the trip.

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.

Great Wolf Lodge!

We had thrown around several different ideas as far as what to do with the Labor Day Holiday weekend. We finally decided to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas. We are glad we went, we had a great time. Here are some videos from our trip.

The circus was here!

The circus came to Lufkin!

I had a playgroup at my house and one of the ladies said she was going to the circus that night.  I text Derek to see if he wanted to go because it was a Tuesday evening.  Well I was too late to get tickets online so we just showed up hoping we would get in.  Well I forget we are in a small town because we showed up a little late (from dropping off Des at a friend's house) and we got right in.

The kids had a great time!  Their favorite parts were...

Ashlyn: The 10 Jasmines doing tricks on the rope

Brinley: The clown scene (in her words "When the clown tooted from his pants")

The clowns were getting married and did silly tricks.

Claire: Seeing the tigers.

Mommy School

These cuties are working on building their name.

 

We learned about Ants this week.  We made a poster that describes an ant.  

Ants are so strong... we pretended we were ants by carrying pillows across the room.  

We watched The Ants are Marching on YouTube.

I loved watching them march along.

Putting marshmallows on the A

We learned parts of an apple and then we had to test it out. Claire loved the seeds and even ate most of the core.

We painted an apple tree and then put apple stickers on the tree.  These girls spent about 30 minutes painting their pictures.  I have been so impressed with Brinley.  She is such a great little student.  I thought she would have a difficult time because she is a lot more physical and active, but she does great!  

Des is just adorable!  I can't believe she is 7 months now!  My baby is getting so big!

A drawer that our garbage and recycling go in is very stinky.  I have cleaned the drawer with soap and water, then put vinegar overnight, put airfreshners in drawer, and now I am cleaning out the cans.... but it still smells awful.  If you have suggestions, I would love to hear. 

I had helpers!  They had a lot of fun with bubbles and water!

Last week I came home from the store and found out that at the check out line Brinley put this Rapunzel on the belt.  We had a big discussion about earning money and paying for things with her own money.  WOW she was motivated to get that Rapunzel.  She worked hard for a week to earn it!  I was so proud of her!

Some of the projects that I have been up to..

Babysitting Binder.

Derek and I hired a babysitter from our ward to come babysit every Friday.  It is wonderful!  I look forward to our date nights each week!  It is so awesome living in a small town because it literally takes 5 minutes to drive to a restaurant and because we go on Friday nights, which is the night the high school football games play, we get right in.  After we eat it has only been about 45 minutes or 1 hour and so we have to get creative with what we do here because there isn't much.  ha ha. 

You may laugh about Friday night football but FOOTBALL is BIG in TEXAS!  They have season tickets for the high school team...ha ha.  In October Ashlyn will be singing at halftime with her kindergarten class and we are ONLY allowed 2 tickets ONLY for halftime.  It is hilarious to me! 

Back to the binder, I am so glad I made this... It has emergency contact, our address, information about each child, ideas of activities to do with the kids, routines, schedules, and information about how to use the EpiPen!  It was a great reminder to me to how and when to use it!  I hope it never happens.

I also organized the pantry.

My little helper

I flipped the camera to do a selfie of us while I was making dinner, but she wouldn't smile.  I made all sorts of faces and then I got a half smile at the end.  

We have been going to Ashlyn's school once a week to eat lunch with her.  It is so fun for everyone!  It is fun for me to get to know her friends and be familiar with people at the school. This week Ashlyn said that she misses eating Mac and Cheese... by golly I made it and brought cucumbers and grapes too.  

The tiger is at the main entrance of the school.  The girls LOVE IT!  We have to pet, hug, and kiss it!  I am sure this tiger gets a lot of love.

It is fun to see Ashlyn's work in the hallway.

 I feel so blessed!  Life is so wonderful and I feel like things are falling into place.  I really enjoy this stage having Ashlyn in school and enjoying the other 3 at home.  Having Ashlyn at school is the perfect place where she needs to be.  She is learning and really enjoys school.  It has given me an opportunity to focus my attention on the other three and see Brinley really step up to take on the role of older sister.  Brinley and Claire laugh and giggle so much, they are little buds.  Brinley helps Claire and is so sweet to her and Des.  Brinley is learning to be my little helper.  

I was in a slump a couple of weeks ago and then I was talking to Nicholette on the phone.  She shared with me about a book called The Morning Miracle.  I haven't read it, but I watch 1 1/2 hour clip on YouTube about him sharing his life story and described what the morning miracle was... it has been a huge game changer for me!  If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it!  He gives some steps to do in the morning, which I have altered to what works for me, but to sum it up...

-Get up an hour or so before everyone else in your household... for me 5:30

It is amazing the difference it makes to get up on my own, then by my little peeps.  I am a much happier camper:)

- Read something uplifting and inspiring.  

For me this is my scripture study.  I have felt revelation come to me in the wee hour of the mornings when there is silence (rare occurrence at our house)and scriptures in front of me.  Scriptures are an amazing key to receiving revelation.

-Visualize your day

For me I just go through my schedule and to-do list for the day

- Say your mantra

To be honet i haven't done this yet... I feel silly talking to myself, but as I have gone throughout the couple of weeks I bet it would be benefitical. I will have to try it out.

-Exercise

After 20-30 minutes of study I meet a lady from my ward at the church (which we live next to) and we run around the neighborhood at 6-6:30.  She is my pace and it makes the time go by so fast because we are chatting the whole time.  The days we don't run, I do something online called dailyburn.  It has all sorts of programs and all different levels.  I enjoy the cardio and strength training ones.

After all of this I am ready to conquer the day!