Mother's Day... and Cinderella!

For Mother's Day our ward had a Primary Activity and made these really cute "flower" pots! Each child traced their hand, and wrote something that they would do for their mom! It is so cute! I love it. Mara is small enough that hers just has her name on it, but she colored it :)


And my present from Pat was another Precious Moments figure! I love them so much! My sister Karri went to Disneyland recently and picked up this way cute one! It's a park exclusive and I have been wanting it for about a year! He also made breakfast (french toast). It's always nice to have a day where your husband says "Honey, you can do whatever you want!" We have a DVR to record our shows, and I am sooo behind on Brothers & Sisters, so Pat was wonderful enough to let me spend time and catch up (but I am still 1 episode behind). I had a nice relaxing day and am very grateful for my wonderful husband and 2 adorable kids and all the love they give me. During Sacrament Meeting the whole primary got up and sang "Love is Spoken Here". This is one of my most favorite primary songs and of course I immediately start crying. There is just something about children singing that makes me cry :) I'm amazed that I went through over a year of being the Primary Chorister and never really had any crying fits. I love being a mom!

Another thing that I love is Lilacs! And they are blooming all over!! I am lucky enough that our neighbors have a bush that's right on the property line and it's huge, but half of it is dying :( But I was able to pick some blossoms with Mara and she had to have a flower of her own! So of course I got out the camera. Most of these pictures are of her smelling the flower. Oh how I love my little girl!!



My neighbor Alexa went to her Senior Prom and wore her dress to church. It is such a Cinderella dress and Mara was totally in love with it. She even ran across the aisle to sit by her :) So after church she came over so we could get come pictures of Mara with her "Cinderella".
I just can't believe the prom dresses these days! Mine were so plain compared to what they are now (and not to mention cheaper!) It makes me wish I was back in high school, just so I could wear a pretty dress!!

Randomness

I feel like I have been ignoring my blog lately! I mean, I have posted, but haven't put up any pictures of the kids for almost 2 weeks! I have just been busy doing other things. So here are pictures.

This first one demonstrates how Mara likes to start her day: By getting all dressed up. No matter what, she has to take off her pants or skirt and put on a dress-up skirt. She will do this at least 2-3 times each day!!











Once pictures were being taken of Mara, Xander wanted his picture taken too! So here is my boy with bed head!! Which is a lot better now that we got his hair cut a few weeks back, Thanks again Stef!!

Last week I was getting the kids ready for bed after a bath and I just loved how Mara's hair was curling!! I just wish it would flip out every day! She is just getting so big!




And of course Xander wanted to be in pictures so I tried doing a picture of the three of us by myself. (You know where you hold the camera out and hope that it works!) Needless to say after about 6-7 pictures of closed eyes and heads cut off my mom stepped in and took a good one of us! It turned out really well, I just wish that I had done my hair that day! LOL

For Mara's birthday I got a bunch of little princess figures to put on her cake. After that they just went in her toy box. They have been missing for about 2 weeks and on Sunday morning, my mom comes walking in the room with her hands full of princesses! The girls (Mara and Conli) had played hide-n-seek with them in her room and left them under her bed! So here is Mara playing with them before church.

We left church a little early to drive to Springville to be there when our nephew Jacob was ordained to a Teacher! It's so crazy that he is 14!! When I met Pat, Jacob was barely 3! Gee how time flies. Anyway, we were gone all afternoon so Mara missed her nap. But on the way home she was playing around with her blanket on her head and her tiredness caught up with her when we were 3 blocks away from home! (It is so frustrating that kids will fall asleep right before you are home!) We were nice enough to let her sleep a bit.

That evening all my family was here for dinner and the 3 older kids were out in the backyard playing. And in runs Xander complaining that there was something in his shoe. So he takes his sock and shoe off and puts on 1 of his flip flops and heads back out the door!! My brother was able to stop him and get a picture first! And after they were done playing outside, he ran around the house with 1 sock on! Kids are so crazy!

Finally, here is a picture that I took a while ago and haven't ever posted, but I love it. This is Mara getting into the cupboard. She will just sit there, look at everything and say "Ummm.." It cracks me up!

New Discovery

On Wednesday Pat, Xander, Mara and I went to Draper/Sandy area for a little road trip. We went to IKEA and the Sandy WalMart so Pat could get his Live Wire Mt. Dew. We have never found the Live Wire down here, so we asked to find out that you can only get it in SL County :( So whenever we go north we always stop and load up on the Dew. On our way to WalMart, we were stopped at a light, and I was looking around at the stores and saw a sign on a building that said

"Schlotzsky's"

I immediately started freaking out and pointing and saying "Holy Crap, There's a Schlotzsky's!" Pat was just as amazed as I was! You see, we loved Schlotzsky's. There used to be one on State and Center in Orem, but it's now a Panda Express. When I was pregnant with Xander I craved their sandwiches! And then out of nowhere they closed!!!! I was heartbroken. We haven't seen one since! I thought that it went to the unknown land to be room-mates with Kenny Roger's Roasters, (which I so, so, so, so miss, sometimes I feel like Kramer on Seinfeld yelling out "Kenny, Kenny").
But anyway, I am glad to report that Schlotzsky's is still around!! We had lunch there and my Turkey Original was fantastic, just as I remembered!! They didn't have Pat's favorite Sun-Dried Tomatoes Pizza anymore, but he said their BBQ Chicken pizza was really good. When we got home I went to their website to see where other locations are, and apparently there are only 2 in Utah!! Sandy and SLC. So it looks like we will be going to Sandy more often now :)
It was a very nice surprise for me and now I can't get Schlotzsky's off the brain!!

Uppercase Living

I am have an Uppercase Living Open House! They make Vinyl Lettering and designs for the home. You can choose your design, colors and size!! You can even make your own saying (or last name), pick your font, color and size too! It is really cute and there are so many to choose from. You can put them on your walls, windows, or even a piece of glass or wood to display anywhere! The open house is on Wednesday Night the 30th, at my house. I moderate my comments, so if you are interested in coming just leave me a comment with your email address and I will send you the info. (Your email address won't be posted) Here are some examples of things you can do with the designs, (I got them from their website).

How Does She Know!!!!

I have been trying to get a good video of Mara singing the beginning of "That's How You Know" from Enchanted, and I was finally able to get one last night. She sings "How she know, you love her?" She loves this song so much and sings it all the time. She even sang it during Sacrament Meeting on Sunday!! (It got me laughing) We love Giselle in our house and listen to the music all the time. She picks up on the funniest lines of the songs. In the "Happy Working Song" she will sing "cleaning up the toilet" and "sponging up soapy scum". And she has just started to sing "I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss"! Oh how I love my children :)

My Boy on a Bike

My mom bought a kids bike about a year or so ago on clearance from Target. We have been wanting to get it out for Xander for sometime, but never could find training wheels to put on it. Last summer (yes we have had them this long) we found some, and just put them away for some dumb reason. But today they finally got used!! Pat had taken the day off to study for his finals (which he really didn't do, shh, don't tell anyone), so he was home and (after he passed Mario Galaxy and opened the game to play with Luigi), he and Xander went outside, got out the bike and put the training wheels on! Xander was excited to try out the bike, but a little weary at the same time. He did a really good job for the first try. He really enjoyed it and I'm hoping that his joy with the bike will continue :)

Sidenote: The helmet that he is wearing came from his cousin Noah's Hotwheels birthday party, so it's just a plastic helmet for fun. We are going to purchase a REAL bike helmet, so don't worry, we are good parents :)

Mara's Pictures

I took Mara to Target to do her 2 year pictures on Monday, and got the email with the pictures last night. I just love the Target Portrait Studio so much! They always do such a great job :) Here are some of my favorites. I just love the one that I put on the sidebar. Her eyes just sparkle!!

Mara Singing

I was trying to put new pictures of Mara up, but blogger isn't my friend today. So we'll see if my video works. She found one of her birthday cards and started singing "We just got a letter" from Blue's Clues!

Mara's Birthday Parties

I have been meaning to blog Mara's birthday for a few days, but have been so busy doing little things (playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii) that this is the first time that I have sat down to do anything. On Friday we had the family on the Tolman side come over for some cake and ice cream. It was so much fun to have almost everyone there (we miss you Boise Tolmans!). Tammy's mom, Ethel, is in town for a few weeks and it was great for her to be with us! And Pat's cousin Ashley & husband Paul came too!! Thanks to everyone for coming!!
Mara got some fun toys and clothes. She got a really cute Cinderella doll that came with a horse from Dansie cousins. A fun Princess Phone from Tolman cousins. A cute baby doll with bathtub from Stradling cousins. And a dress, shirt, socks and shoes from Grandma & Grandpa Tolman! She was loving everything she got!! Then we had food :) My kids have always been ones to only eat the frosting, they are so funny!! When Mara saw her cake she got really excited about the Princesses! :) Every time she sees a cake of any sort she will say "Happy birthday to you!" and want me to sing the song. She is so cute! It was a great night and always fun to see the family. Then on Sunday we had a big birthday party for the April birthdays (Mara, my mom, and my niece Sawyer) Mara got a ton of clothes from Ramey cousins, Aunt Karri, and Mana :) A neat Bathtub Cinderella Doll from JD & Chris. And a fun Princess Coloring book and Cinderella Polly's from Grandma Joan :) Mara loves the little Polly doll, she is constantly wanting me to change her dresses (I'm just glad I was able to put away the small shoes before she noticed) It was fun to have all the birthday's together. It was Sawyer's first bday, so it was fun to see her eat her cake. Which she would only do if Brent or Lisa lifted the cake to her face. It took her awhile to get her hands dirty, she is just so cute!!! :) Thanks again to all the family that helped make Mara's birthday special. We love you all!!

Today she had her checkup at the doctors, and she is 35 inches tall and weighs 31 1/2 pounds!! She is still in the 90th percentile for her weight which is a far cry from where she was at birth (5th percentile, weighing 6 lbs 10 oz) It's so fun to see how much kids grow!

My Baby is 2

Today is Mara's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe she is this big already. It seems like just yesterday she was a newborn! She was born weighing 6 pounds 10 ounces. The smallest at birth of all her cousins on both sides of the family. I was so worried that she would stay skinny, but sure enough, she did get chubby like her brother.
There are so many things that I love about her. I love her smile and the way she laughs, she is just so sweet. I love the way she talks, and she talks a lot!!! LOL She is always saying "Mommy, dance!" (whenever there is music playing, whether it is in the car or at home), "I'm OK" (when she coughs or sneezes), "Bless you" (when someone else sneezes), "I wanna see" (to pretty much anything that is out of sight), "I can't like it" (when she doesn't like something), "I felled!" (even when she does the tiniest little trip, and doesn't even hit the floor), and "I'm princess" (whenever she is wearing dress-ups). She is loving Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but I am trying to make her watch the other princess movies. Her favorite thing to sing is "I know you, I walk you...dream" from Sleeping Beauty and "Cleaning up the toilet, ohh" from Enchanted (that one always gets the song stuck in my head)!! She loves for me to sing "Twinkle" and "Rock baby" when I put her to bed. She loves to wear her "Jellies" and skirts. Her favorite things are her blankie, bear and pillow, (all things that Mana has given her, coincidentally) There are just so many things that I love about her, that I can't even think of all of them. I always have a hard time getting my thoughts in order when I blog. But for her birthday I made yet another slide show of some of my favorite pictures of the past 2 years. Too bad there's a 30 picture limit because I love so many.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRINCESS!!