THIRTY, FLIRTY, and THRIVING!!!

What an amazing day. Loved that the day was filled with time with my sweet family and on the phone with friends and family. Friends spoiled me and family spoiled me. Such a great day. Bring on the 30 – Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving! :)

Little bunny ...I get to snuggle this. Might keep me good company since Andrew isn't home all the time :) Haha – Emily loved giving it to me because it's blue – her all time favorite color.

I told my great friend Yvette that Andrew gave me “Frozen” Soundtrack to which she replied, “Oh my gosh! Where you just dropping huge hints here and there of what you want!” To which I replied, “NO!!! No hints at all! I was completely shocked.” To which she replied, “Awww....he knows you well!” Yes – Thank you to my wonderful husband!

Favorite cereal. Sweet.

Clue!!! Got this from the girls and Andrew! One of my favorite child-hood games. Carolyn and I had fun playing it together – what fun :) I love board games and esp board games with the family.

Angela's AMAZING homemade gift to me!!! An amazing homemade book she made all on her own. I esp. love how she put holes in it and put it together with ribbon! So beautiful! And look at those pictures. And that she says, “I luvw” - “I love you” So beautiful! Love the picture she drew of me and her together. Thank you to my Angela :)!!!  

I am excited because Randy and Carolyn gave me money to buy Roots Magic – I love and have such a strong testimony of the amazing service of family history service!  

My sweet friend, Lisa, made this cookie cake for me. Great friend. My friend, Yvette, also gave me a very expensive and cute and amazing purse that I am just inlove with.

Emily and Angela's cake for me!! Oh man - best family ever!! To Emily, this is a Grinch Cake. Angela used the popsicle sticks to create a princess castle. Oh, my family!! :)

Angela's Butterfly :)

And Carolyn's AMAZING homemade gift to me!! She put 3 cards in 3 envelopes. In the cards were beautiful letters and poems. So beautifully written and made me feel so loved! Oh, Carolyn – thank you so much sweety. Just read the sweet letters and poems :)

Andrew took me out on a date. Perfect 30th Birthday gift. We went to Del Friscos - best Stake in Denver. My birthday falls on Restaurant Week in Denver so I have been lucky enough to get a fancy date with Andrew for the past 3 years. I just love dressing up in my fancy purple dress and having a reason to look fancy. It was so fun. I loved just talking to Andrew and being with him. I love Andrew :)

Best Quotes of the Day

While putting Emily to bed, Emily, Angela and I had a great conversation where we were dreaming of having a little baby in our family. Here are my favorites that the girls said:

Emily - "When we have a baby - can I hold the baby. I won't squish it."

Angela - "I want a girl baby because I like girls. Boy babies really like me so if we have a boy that would be okay."

Cleaning the Car!

Who else would be cleaning the car in those heals?

 Angela definitely has a spiritual gift of loving to help and serve others. She is always quick to find ways to help me and is so happy to do it. She was so excited to help me clean my car - I told her I was doing it and she happily and enthusiastically asked if she could help me :) What a sweet girl! And looks fashionable while doing it too :)

 Emily LOVES vacuuming. Definitely her favorite thing to do to help in the home. She was all over being able to help me vacuum the car. I love that Emily is always my little side-kick that LOVES to talk and be with people. Today Emily went to Trader Jos (just came to Denver) with some of my friends today. My friends were laughing at the fact that Emily always wanted to be talking about everything. If she can't think of what to say right away, she'll keep saying "Ummm....Ummmm..." until she can think of something to say. Haha. Definitely a great gift she has been giving. How many lives will she bless by loving to talk and be with people? I love how she blessed my life. She is always by my side to talk to me :)

Carolyn Michelle Kim

BEST FRIEND: Kaycee Pearson (they are obsessed with each other. They are in Ms. Haber's class together and she's in our ward. They are inseparable and get along so well together. Not that Carolyn doesn't get along with anyone. She definitely has a spiritual gift of being a peace-maker and loving people and being so kind and sweet). It's fun to see those two girls be silly together.

FAVORITE SPORTS: Basketball (Is in it right now and is doing so well. Recently, she has become more ambitious with practicing. We have a hoop in the backyard were you can find her every nice day outside practicing). Soccer (is signed up to start next month) 

FAVORITE ACTIVITIES AT HOME: Hmmm...there are lots of things she loves to do at home. She loves crafts (got about 5 craft books from the Library when we went on Tuesday), loves to read in her bathtub spot :) (Currently reading "Matilda"...her favorite chapter book is "Witches" (Roald Dahl)...she made a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon this year).  Cooking/Baking...loves it. Gets cook books from the Library and loves even making up her own recipes. She loves being in charge of making meals. Loves TEACHING. She creates and plans lesson plans for Angela and Emily and loves TEACHING them. Loves watching movies (favorite movie - "Frozen" of course). 

Loves being silly and making people laugh.

Pretty Girl in High Heels

Pictures say a thousand words, right?

'Nuff Said:)

Optimistic Angela

Angela is constantly showing me why we are taught to be like children. This girl finds the best in life always. Loves the good in the day and loves the little things that makes life good.

After I put her to bed tonight, she came down for some water. I got her a water bottle full of water and ice to which she declared: "I really think water is the yummiest thing in the world." 

Daddy's Love

Andrew works hard for the family. Real hard. I often think about President Monson's dad when I think of Andrew. In President Monson's biography, it talks about how hard his dad worked for the family. How he would be gone all the time working to provide for the family's needs. How admirable that was. And how admirable Andrew is. He works so hard. After going to the temple on Friday together last week, we went out to eat and talked. There are obvious blessings of his job. The financial blessings are so evident and we feel so blessed. I hope we recognize the spiritual blessings as well. That in this time we can each personally come closer to the Savior through this trying experience and that we can come closer to the Savior as a family. I know that trials we are given are so that we can come closer to the Savior - use His atonement - and be close to Him. Andrew's job is such a blessing- financially, yes. And also how it allows us to come to our Savior and partake of His living water. That is the sweetest ever. Partaking of the Living Water daily - having that personal relationship with our Savior. How much Heavenly Father loves us that he provides experiences and trials - that we can partake of that sweet living water daily.

Last night (as Andrew has usually been getting home past 1 AM), Andrew went to say "good night" to the girls. He makes me laugh. He just loves those girls and I know it's so hard for him that he doesn't get to see them as much as he wants. He went into Emily's room when he got home and gently nudged her awake...she squirmed a little bit and then once she saw it was Andrew waking her up - she got the most genuinely happy smile on her face. She got to see Daddy. And she was so happy and content. They had a little special moment together - where Andrew even shared his ice cream shake with her in the middle of night.

Daddy's Baby

Today I was getting Emily out of the car and said something like, "Oh Emily - my baby."

To which she replied, "I am Daddy's Baby."

Day at the Library

We went to the Library straight after school and got home at 7:45 PM. Read lots of books (particularly loved reading about Oceans with Angela. We had a blast reading about some of the scary-looking creatures as well as the beauties). Carolyn got to read to a Dog at the Library. They have a READ to DOG program at our Library where they have service dogs come in and one child gets one-on-one time with the dog to read with him. Pretty fun for Carolyn. Emily had fun collecting as many Clifford books as she could.

On the way home, Angela randomly declared: "I like road trips more than riding in airplanes because then you get potty breaks." Oh my gosh, I love that girl. She is the most optimistic and life-loving girl ever!!! Haha! Only Angela would be inlove with potty breaks.

A few moments later, Emily very, very randomly declared: "I like hugs from Angela."

Me too, Emily. Thanks for reminding us how awesome an Angela hug is and for being so cute in randomly announcing this to us. I love being my cute kids' mom!

Personal Cooking Supplies

Carolyn loves to cook and bake. One of the careers she dreams of is being a Chef. Angela isn't quite doing the baking and cooking solo yet - but I love her helping me in the kitchen. Today all 3 girls picked out their own personal aprons and measuring cups. First thing they made with their new supplies was their Sister Healthy Pancakes (made mostly with oats). While they cooked and I cleaned the kitchen, we listened to "Frozen" soundtrack. Because that's what we are obsessed with doing right now. Listening to "Frozen." We want to see it AGAIN and can't get enough of the music. For FHE, each of the girls sang a solo of "Do you Want to Build a Snowman?"

Ways the Gospel Makes us Happy

Today's FHE discussion and weekly challenge was based off of Elder Bednar's words of how the gospel makes us happy. Look how cute my girls are making their flowers for their part of the discussion...

Overgrown Girl

Carolyn came downstairs first thing in the morning for her dressed like a goof-pot.

Emily's First Dentist Visit

The Dental Hygienist said Emily was very rare for a 3 year old in the way she took on her dentist appt. She LOVED it. Smiled the whole time and was just on cloud 9 that she was finally 3 and could go to the Dentist. She'd been waiting her whole life for this!

Sally's New Shoes

I love how in Angela's class they get sent home a book in their reading level. Can I just say I love Turnberry Elementary School? Today's book was a perfect fit for a journal entry for Angela. Angela dreams - I mean DREAMS of these boots she has in her head (Yes, she is a major shoe-girl - just check out Christmas post). Anyways, loved reading her book with her and then having Angela write a journal entry and draw a picture of her dream shoes. Sparkle boots. With heals. And lots of glitter.

Eli

We love our neighbors, the Crawfods. Love when they can come over and play. Had so much fun with Eli today. He usually walks in and the first thing he asks for is our cash machine :)

Being His Hands

 Discussion with the girls...

2 nephi 2:3

It's neat that I read that scripture in my personal scripture study this morning. I felt like I should share this with the girls and discuss that we can serve God each day and that we can seek for guidance from the Holy Ghost.

We discussed how we can serve God.

Angela – by doing what Heavenly Farther tells us

Carolyn – by serving other people. By serving other people it means you serve God.

We talked about while we read the Book of Mormon we can think about what Heavenly Father wants us to do TODAY to serve Him. It's so amazing how Heavenly Father connects the dots. After we talked about how we can think about how to serve, we read 2 Nephi 32:5 – how amazing it was in Heavenly Father's hand for us to read a scripture that further taught us about serving Him. The Holy Ghost can tell us how to serve. Here is what the girls felt they should do as we read the scriptures and thought about 2 Nephi 2:3.

Carolyn – right after we read the Book of Mormon and she said, “Mom. I know what I need to do. Mom, I am sorry I was mean to you two days ago.” (I love her courage in saying sorry- she shared it was hard for her to do it – but she did it. And I felt so happy inside and so did she. Such an example to me on doing what we are guided to do – even if it's hard!)

Angela – smile at some people today. (love this goal – her smile is so contagious and will bring joy to others).

Angela's Words of Wisdom

My children remind me every day of why our Savior taught that we should be like children.

Yesterday Emily, Angela and I were discussing avoiding using inappropriate words. This is what Angela shared with us:

"When I say those words I feel like Heavenly Father can't talk to me any more."

Beautifully put.

Carolyn and My QWEST to Follow the Prophet!

I love Carolyn. I love her testimony. We have been discussing a lot about how the prophet wants us to have a year of food storage so Carolyn has been by my side helping our family get one year supply.

 I used the calculator on Provident Living to figure out how much food our family needs for a year supply. It has been an amazing experience. For instance, last week we hit a few stores with sales to put in our food storage. Yesterday we had all the food out in the different categories and Carolyn and I together used math to figure out how much we have (lots of adding) and how much more we needed. We did a lot of math in our head, used the calculator, and used Excel to help us find the difference as well. It was such a beautiful experience today! We talked about what the prophet teaches us, we did math together, and we just got to talk and spend time together. I love the gospel. I love the joy and peace it brings. I love how a commandment like getting food storage can bring even more blessings that just having the food storage- today it brought a beautiful moment with Carolyn where we could learn and talk together.

 Here is what we have so far! We are getting close to one year!! In March Carolyn and I are determined to have a full supply!

FOOD - IN POUNDS:

FOOD    NEED          WE HAVE                DIFFERENCE
Grains                1580             1308                         272
Sugar                  237                163                          74
Legumes              237                237                          0
Dairy                    118                 5                             113
Leaving Agents       24                  22                            2
Fats                    119                33                            86

Guppies!

Really? Can my guppies get any more adorable than this?! I think not!!! Love watching these guppies swim twice a week at swim lessons!

 This has been Emily's first session of swim lessons. She is a shark out there. No fear of water. She jumps right into it and does everything with no fear. Amazing.

Before her first lesson she was so worried that I wasn't going to be there to constantly wipe off her eyes after she would get in and out of the pool. So, we would practice how to wipe her eyes with her hands. It was so cute and even more cute to see her do what she practiced in the pool. Hehe.

 Angela is awesome. She's always been a talented and fearless swimmer!