Merry Melodies

I've got a lot of songs stuck in my head today...

Mary can play two hymns now! It's so exciting. She can play the simplified versions of Joseph Smith's First Prayer and We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet. Sarah had a brilliant idea to have the children play prelude music before primary opening exercises on Sunday. Mary is very excited to participate. She needs to have three memorized. We're so close.

Nicole is a little obsessed with the Frozen music since her play date with Elise yesterday where they acted out the entire frozen song "Want to Build a Snowman" word for word with matching actions. We went last night to the theaters to see it again for family night. And tonight Noah and I finished up his snowman for his school sharing project. We built a cousin for Olaf named Oley, with Mickey ears who went to visit Olaf at Disneyland with us. We kept playing the "In Summer" song on the kindle while we decorated it.

What "I wanna ride my bike" really means...

Cameron has it figured out....he puts on his shoes, and if I'm in the room he'll ask me if he can go out and ride his bike on the porch. I usually see him go once or twice back and forth before he disappears. If he doesn't see me in the room he'll just leave the back door open without a word. Where does he escape to? Almost always to the same place...Grandma's door step. Luckily my mom knows I never just send him, and he escapes without asking so she calls me on the phone to let me know he's there, saving me from a heart attack on several occasions. Today she didn't hear his knock but she did hear the water gushing from the outdoor faucet he turned on by her door. I tell him every time not to go to Grandma's with out asking. It happened two more times today without a word before I got smart and locked the back door.

Why you should live next door to your brother

Most Sundays one or two neighbor cousins come over to play and hang out. I love it because we don't see them a lot during the school week. All the neighbor cousins trickled in throughout today...some for a quick hello (Emma), some to help Grandma with dinner (Rachel), and some to play dead man walking with the kids (Nina). We are lucky.

Saturdays are the best!

Last night we went to dinner with the Bennetts and stayed up late talking and chatting while our kids played. That meant that we all woke up a little later this morning.  Aaron and I could hear the kids quietly making us breakfast in bed. They made toast, got yogurt and oranges. It was all so sweet. Once we finished we got to work around the house. We made their chore list a little longer than usual. There was no complaining however because they were all having play dates after lunch which was a nice incentive. Plus, it was really fun working together. Nikki went to a ballerina party, she's wearing Mary's old ballet outfit. Mary played all things girl with her friends and Noah, all things boys with his friends until dinner. It was a good day.

Brotherly Love

As Cameron is growing and changing Noah is becoming more of a playmate. They wrestle, act like dogs, build forts, ride bikes, play ball....it's awesome. Cameron jumps with excitement when Noah returns home from school each day. They got matching hair cuts today, and they just look so old.

Dinner Date

I had a long primary presidency meeting this evening. It started at 4, so I made dinner in the crock pot before I left. I was planning on staying at the church building afterwards for the enrichment activity that began at 7, but decided to go home because I had been gone so long already and Nicole was kind of sad when I left. It's a good thing I did because when I got home I learned that Nicole had waited for me to return home to eat her dinner. She wanted to eat together. What a sweet moment. (And what a sweet husband who got them all ready while I was gone).

A bedroom fit for a king

I've been transforming our bedroom slowly into a dreamy soft oasis in celebration of our tenth anniversary this June. We have been talking about getting a king sized bed for a while, especially on nights when little bodies squeeze us out of our comfortable spots. So I started buying new king-sized headboard, bedding, new nightstands, lamps..... you get the picture. The duvet I bought is just laying on the top of our old comforter and mattress right now. but soon it's sides will reach the edge of the headboard and it will be a big fluffy cloud for this queen to rest her head. We're working on painting the old queen sized bedroom set into storage on the other side of the room. These lamps arrived today. And it's all just very exciting.