February so far has been amazing!!! Here are some highlights!!!

First and most importantly, we got to celebrate our Emily's birthday!!!

Emily would give a hug after opening each gift. Here she is hugging Carolyn.

The last gift opened was a gift to all the kids...they had to solve the riddle on the poster...lots of wrapped gifts were a part in the poster they had to put together....

HARRY POTTER WORLD, DISNEY WORLD, FLORIDA BEACH, RESORT STAY....coming to us May 2016!! :)

Let the countdown begin! 106 days...also happens to be Carolyn's birthday!!!

The girls looking at the Florida agenda....

Emily making her birthday cake with me...she kept switching what she wanted the cake to be decorated like...in the end, she choice a Snoopy cake. Yes, we are obsessed with Tommy...so much that we make him the design of our birthday cake.

Best. Expression. Maker. EVER.

So blessed this sweet spirit came to our home 5 years ago. Definitely one of the best days of my life. And she's made every day since then better. In her blessing as a baby, it would said she would bring peace to our home. She does. We love her. And she is amazing.

She got a baseball bat and ball....guess what Emy and I did in the basement for a while on her big day? Yup, played ball :)

She got to choose something to do on her birthday night, she kept changing her mind. First, icestaking. Then movies...a whole bunch of other things. She ended with going to Chuck-E- Cheese :)

BRONCOS parade! It was insane getting there. But we got to see Peyton Manning live and got to be a part of a historical day of a million people gathering in Denver to celebrate SuperBowl 2016!

Some nice ladies let Carolyn sit up with them. They were very nice.

I love the cards Emily constantly gives to me.

Tommy is 5 month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So squishy!! So cute!! So sweet! So happy! So snuggly! So smart! So good! We love this boy!!!

VALENTINES DAY! Andrew made us each a spot on the table to get Valentines stuff from him :) Angela gave Daddy a spot back :)

Andrew made a cup with things he loves about each person. So awesome.

Daddy gave us Mouse Trap.

....we had friends over for a valentine get-together. Andrew made these delicious and beautiful sugar cookies :)

Ethan and Tommy.

Annie and Emily!

Annie, Emily and Seth.

Out of all the students of orchestra at Mortensen Elementary School, her teacher picked CAROLYN to play at a huge orchestra event!! Tons of kids playing to represent their elementary/middle/high school. she did great...the music was amazing!

FEBRUARY 20, 2016....TOMMY ROLLS!!! YAHOO!!! He was laying on this mat and then rolled over to take a look in a mirror!!! We were all freaking out!! GO TOMMY!

Tom Tom and his Nana Blankey.

Angela is rocking gymnastics. Her coaches have to give her different stuff to do than the rest of the class because she is awesome. We love this girl. We love that on Saturdays, we all get to go watch her do gymnastics! She is awesome and makes me smile. She is ALWAYS doing gymnastics...during dinner...during homework....etc.

We have been prepping this boy for Florida!! in the tub and getting splashed like crazy!! hopefully he is Florida ready!

Emily's birthday (again) - getting letters from her awesome loved ones.

Sonja and carolyn at a birthday thing for Sonja.

Broncos win superbowl 2016!

Everyday we count down to the big day we get in a plane! We started the countdown at 106!!!

Emily spending her Grandparent bday money. I didn't take a picture of it, but on Emily's bday party we invited everyone from her primary class over to our house. we had cupcake and sang to her and played. it was so fun to celebrate this special girl!

For Valentines day, i got to go see the girls in their classes...so fun!

more orchestra pictures!

One of my favorite pictures:

This Past Week....

Angela celebrated her 100 days of school. Her 100 Day book was so awesome!

 If I had $100...I would get a beautiful dress. I would wear it. It would have a bow on it. I would wear it all the time. It would be fun to wear and (I'd) wear it a lot."

 "When I am 100 years old...I will not know as much as I do now. I will probably not know how to do gymnastics then. It's probably not going to be that fun when I am 100."

SNOW DAY!!! This past week we had a snow day. The girls slept in their PJs inside out and it worked...snow came and no school. I think the highlights were playing Monopoly, watching a Christmas show (with snow - what else is there to do?:) and just being together. Having Andrew around (although working hard) was amazing.

 For FHE this week, we took on a 14 Day Challenge. When we began our lesson, we shared experiences of when we felt that someone loved us and how that made us feel. The spirit was so strong. I know that as we try to follow our Savior's example and love others we can feel that amazing spirit that was felt when we were sharing experiences together.

 Emily picked out a wonderful Ponderize scripture for our family for the week. How amazing it is that we have been given wonderful things we can do like ponderizing to take our minds to the word of God amongst the craziness and hardness in life. I am so grateful for prayer and that we get to ponderdize "Ye must pray always."

This girl. I love this picture Emily made for Angela on our snow day. Such a great picture with pretty flowers and stayed in the lines amazingly!!!

 Too much prettiness!

More snowday fun :) 

 TOMMY TURNED 5 MONTHS!!!! And this is what this loveable boy is up to....besides being so loved and kissed and hugged and kissed and hugged more than explainable:

- He is such an AMAZING sitter!! Look at the pics :) Carolyn started something with Tommy on Sunday where she would count how long he could sit and then congratulate. His longest time on Sunday was a minute and 7 seconds...and he gets better every day. Oh, don't you just want to kiss those cheeks!!!!! 

 I love this picture below for many reasons. The cute cheeks. The little smirk I can see him making. Oh, I love this boy. Emily has a way of coming up with family jokes. For instance, she loves calling people (especially people that are funny) "Bobby Peyton." It makes us laugh and is used ALL the time. It's random. She started calling Tommy "Spit Spit Boy" about a month ago. It doesn't sound as funny as when she says it. Because...see that face she is making in the above picture? That is sorta the look that describes her passion when saying "Spit Spit Boy." We sure love our Spit Spit Boy.

Tonight while I was putting Tommy to bed, Angela knocked on Tommy's door and said something like this, "I just prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. And it is." <3

 I love what the spirit teaches us in how to be better. This week we started two things that I love. First, we've been eating a bigger breakfast together - although it is always my intentions of sending Andrew out the door with a smoothie (or else he doesn't eat much all day) - I've been striving to make more homemade breakfasts together that we can sit down and eat together - which includes something Andrew can take out the door with him:)

 Also, we started "The Question Jar"!!! This is amazing. It was totally inspired by a "face-to-face" questionaire with some of the general authorities and leaders in our amazing church. I loved that the youth would ask the leaders and apostle ANY question they wanted answered. SOOOO, on Sunday - the girls all put ANY question they had and each morning one girl picks one out and reads it and then we discuss together. I have loved this and the girls get excited and always want to pick out more than one. Some of the questions we have discussed this week are:

"Should we cheat?" (Emily's question)
"How can I get closer to my family?" (Carolyn)
"How do we feel Jesus with us?" (Angela)

I am feeling the spirit as I write this post. How blessed are we to have children to look for for an example - their amazing capacity to ASK!!! And we have had WONDERFUL discussions this week!!! I love my family!

 ....And some more highlights from the last few days. A picture by Emily. What an artist. Here is a picture of a castle:

 ...On Monday she was cracking me up because she spent 20 minutes while I was feeding Tommy putting together this great outfit:

 This is Emily's FAVORITE game this week. Yes, THIS week. If you know Emily, you know she is absolutely obsessed with games! Trouble takes the charts this week!

 This happy happy happy and sweet and good boy is 4 months!!! What a complete cutey. Last night during devotional, Andrew shared what he learned in his scripture study that day. He was preparing to visit a family in the ward and was reading Elder Bennett's talk from this past General Conference. Elder Bennett said "Our loving Heavenly Father rejoices in each and every faithful step, and if we fall, He rejoices in each effort to get back up and try again." He talked about how Tommy loves to try to talk and sing. When he asked the girls how he does at talking and singing - they were laughing - he sure tries, but we can't understand a word he says. But, we love Tommy and think he is doing a wonderful job - he tries so hard and we see that and just are inlove with every single sound he makes. He makes us so proud for trying. Andrew said this is how Heavenly Father feels about us. We come so short of becoming like Him - but if we are trying He is so happy about us. Here's to the boy we so love!! Our cute 4 month babe!!! I just don't think he could be more loved!!

Emily and I had a fun time coloring together today. I love Emily and do love being her mommy. I am going to miss my Emy when she goes to Kindergarten!

What a sweet, good girl. Today she spent about 20 min doing the dishes after she colored :)

Kims:

What Book of Mormon heros can we compare our girls to?





Emily (February 8) - KING BENJAMIN....We think Emily is like King Benjamin because she has a very generous heart. For example, this Christmas she got a big marshmallow treat in her stocking. She went about on Christmas sharing this treat with everyone. At the end of the day when we asked her what her favorite gift was, she said the marshmallow treat was one of her favorites. We were so touched by her generosity in selflessly sharing her favorite gift with everyone she could. This is one example of many -she is so wonderful at sharing with others and giving generously. For this reason, we think of King Benjamin for Emily.

Angela (May 16) - LEHI - Angela has the gift of obedience. Her desire to be obedient to her parents, leaders, teachers and Heavenly Father is so evident in her life. Just as Lehi left Jerusalem and all that he had to be obedient - we see that same obedience in Angela! She is such an example to us of being obedient even when it might be difficult or something we don't feel like doing - just as Lehi did.

Carolyn (May 24) - Alma and Amulek - When we think of Alma and Amulek, we think of amazing missionaries. Carolyn definitely has a gift of being a missionary. In first grade, Carolyn's teacher told me that Carolyn was the most spiritual child she had ever taught (and she had taught for about 30 years) - she said Carolyn incorporated God into so many things the class would talk about. Carolyn is amazing at sharing her testimony to others and inviting others to learn of Him.