HOPpy Easter!! :)

"HOPpy Easter" was what Carolyn and I were telling each other all last Sunday :) I love the fact that some people (meaning my kids) find my cheesy humor funny...it's nice not to be the only one laughing about my jokes sometimes...hehe.

Anyways, Easter was marvelous! Just look at the smile on this sweet girl's face!
I love this picture :) Emily laughing with her big sissy :)
My attempts to take pictures of all 3 girl amuse me :) Really, I don't think I'll ever get a good shot of the three of them (at least not for another year :)




Angela is sooo inlove withe her little sissy :)



Easter was really wonderful! It was great to reflect more on our Savior's love for us and how he lives today. I love our tradition on Easter morning of BEFORE we see what the Easter Bunny brings we read in the scriptures about our Savior's resurrection. We do this for Christmas, too, and I love how it puts the true meaning of holidays in perspective.

The BIG Easter Egg Roll was a success (this is a HUGE deal in the family if you don't know about it..) Here Carolyn is with one of her eggs that won 4 times. Janeil was the big winner this year.



Don't you worry, Andrew might think he's all intimidating with his Jannie Killer egg- but I SOOO beat his ugly little egg....for the second time in a row (he makes " Jannie Killer" egg every year since we've been dating - he makes it as ugly as possible and I make a "Andrew Defeater" egg as beautiful as possible. Every year up until last year, ugly has won...but I turned things around last year :) The Jannie Killer has seen his last victories :) Mawhahaha!

The Easter bunny was good to us!




My pictures are a little reversed...but it's alright...here we are decorating the Easter eggs! We also went to a fun community Easter Egg Hunt where the girls got to get eggs and meet the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, I couldn't get pictures on my camera of it - but it was a lot of fun!
Angela made most of her eggs yellow (of course!) It was fun because this was the first year Angela was really into making her Easter eggs! So fun to watch her.

Everyone's facial expressions make me laugh in this picture. My little family is crazy - they make life so fun.

Em's First Laugh!

This cute little girl laughed for the first time today! What a sweet, sweet sound!

April Preschool Highlights!

CHAPTER BOOKS! I have been sooooo looking forward to the time where I could read kid chapter books to my kids and they would really get into them - that time has come for Carolyn and I am loving every min. of it! (I have a huge love for children literature) The first "real" chapter book we read together was from the Magic Tree House series...I fell inlove with this series during my student teaching. Of course, the book Carolyn chose from the series had an alligator on it :) It was so fun reading it to her...if you know "reserved" Jannie's theatric side, you might be able to imagine the animation I used while telling the story. Carolyn was totally fixed on what I was shouting, whispering, and my facial expressions while I read - and it was so cute to watch her react :) Angela was even excited at times :) We read this book in almost one sitting (we would have finished it in one sitting but had to take a break due to the other cute kids' needs) - Carolyn didn't want me to stop reading and even brought the book to the park so we could read on there. In Carolyn's words after each chapter, "One more chapter!!!!" Sooooooo fun! And we read it again the next day (today). Guesses are we'll read it tomorrow, too. These books are great because, for instance, this one teaches about rain forests. Carolyn learned so much about the rain forest from the book and then we continued talking about the rain forest after the book was done. I think we'll finish reading this kids' series in no time! Next on our list in the series is about volcanoes!

I can't wait for all the books Carolyn and I will read this summer! Yay! (...and now I'll anxiously await the time to read her Harry Potter :)

This month's highlight was also "How to Draw..." books. My sister-in-law, Janeil, has a "How to Draw..." book for her kids that totally inspired me! There are these books at the library and websites for kids to learn how to draw (one I like - http://kidsfront.com/how_to_draw/ ). I also made some flip books for the girls to follow (I drew the ending result on the cover and then each page in the book shows one step at a time). Carolyn loves this activity. Her cat :)
Carolyn's math work...Put the strips of mathematical equations into the right egg (i.e. put "3-1" in the "2" egg).
This idea I stole right from my sissy, Michelle...transfer beans with plucker's into the egg carton (1 bean goes in slot "1"; two beans in slot "2"...etc.)
Angela putting together her name. I wrote her name out in an egg carton with little colored paper and also pasted letters on eggs for her to match up to create her name.
Inside the eggs with labeled letters had an additional letter inside for more matching practice.

We also did some story telling this month using our learning board.

Carolyn telling the story of Lehi's dream...
Some stories the girls told used pictures from, for instance, The Friend, some used pictures they colored, some pictures from online, etc.

April Showers

April has been a month of showers of blessings. On April 10th, our sweet little Ems was blessed. It was such a wonderful blessing; I will never get over how blessed I feel to have Emily as my sweet little daughter. She has a giant of a spirit squished in that little body of hers and I feel so blessed that she is in our family. One thing that was spoken of in her blessing is how she will have a calming influence in our home. It couldn’t be more true right now – she is so easy-going and sweet…I’ve never met such a little baby that smiles as much as Emily…she’s been smiling since she’s been just a few weeks old and hasn’t stopped since :)

People who traveled to be at her blessing include Grandpa and Grandma Ashton, Ponka and Nana, Alex, Chris/Janeil and kids, Chantal and Dave. (**Pictures of blessing day to come**)

We have loved having people in town for a little over a week. Andrew’s mom came to be with us for a few days before the blessing and my parents stayed a few days after the blessing. We love family! Andrew’s mom always makes amazing quilts for all of her grandchildren. Here are pictures of the blanket Nana made for Emily. AMAZING, AMAZING - I know!!!

Don't you want to just give her a big smooch on the cheeks? This beautiful face had to be in the pictures, too :) I know there just might be one too many pictures of this pretty girl with her blanket- but I am just in love with her smiles and couldn't leave out any of the pictures. Angela cracks me up. She loves dress-ups...including putting on her baby sister's bows. What a silly and pretty girl! While Nana was visiting, Chantal (Andrew's sister) had a birthday - I made her a cake using homemade fondant. I made her a "#1 'Ant'" Cake...my kids have LOTS of #1 Aunts :) I love these two little sisters...I thought I'd share a little of what's going on with them these days... Carolyn – It’s so fun to watch Carolyn pick her interests. She has taken a few sessions of dance now and a little bit ago she began gymnastics and really has a passion for it. She is always trying out new tricks around the house and loves setting up obstacle courses around the house. She also just loves to learn. She’s always asking for worksheets to do and for me to teach her more preschool. Last week we went to her school she’ll go to next year (which I really love from the first impression) and met all the kindergarten teachers. She just couldn’t be more thrilled to go to kindergarten! I think it’s so exciting! She got a t-shirt and loves wearing it and we are always talking about the fall time when school starts! Carolyn is also such a sweetheart. She is so sensitive to peoples’ feelings and truly, truly tries her best to make good choices. She has such an amazing testimony and I learn so much from her sweet example. She bore her testimony all by herself for the first time last week and did such a great job walking up there all by herself and sharing what she knows. What an example to me! She is so amazing with Emily and is truly a life-saver sometimes. She babysits Emily while I get some chores done around the house and does such an amazing job watch her. She reads her books to her, sings to her, talks to her (and makes Emily smile so much), etc, etc . One of Carolyn's favorite parts of the day is "Mom Time" - which makes me feel so loved (Mom Time is where Carolyn gets to pick anything she wants to do with me - usually she wants to play barbies with me). We love our sweet Carolyn!

Angela- Our little mama around here. If something needs to get done, she gets it done. If Carolyn is hungry and wants something to eat, Angela will ask her what she wants and do anything it takes to get Carolyn want she needs. Yes, this means climbing up to the highest shelf in the pantry to grab a box of cereal for her – or this means pushing Emily’s swing up to the counter so she can climb up and walk around the counter to get what she needs. Angela is resourceful and loves taking care of everyone’s needs. She is also my little cheerleader and sweety. ALL day long she tells me how much she loves me. If out playing in the sandbox and I’m in the kitchen, she’ll run in every 10 min. or so and say, “Mama – I love you too much!” She always is so amazing and making sure everyone knows how much she loves them. I absolutely love that about our Angela! Angela also loves her gymnastic class and has the biggest smile ever the entire session. She also loves the outdoors and loves parks, the sandbox, walks – whatever will get us out. I think Angela's two favorite things to do with me is get soft tickles and snuggle me and do puzzles with me. I love that whenever I need a hug, Angela will be there to give me a great big hug and tell me that she loves me - I feel like her encouragement is what gets me through the days sometimes. We love our sweet Angela!
It's a lot of smiles over at the Kim home this April! :)