Pink Polka Dots!

Emma's grandma Harshberger made her a new dress. She LOVED it, and of course looked darling.

Here she is spinning. She loves to spin and see her dress fly out.

THANK YOU GRANDMA!

In our house... and outside too!

Here are a couple of things we have been doing in our house lately, and outside our house as well.

Bugsy loves to grab Daniel's finger and pull him in the living room saying, "pleez play rosie?" It is so cute. I don't know why, but Daddy is the official Ring Around the Rosies and Tea Party player. They don't ask mommy, just daddy. It is darling!

We had snow again a week ago Friday. I could tell it was going to melt pretty quickly, so we went out and played that morning. Matthew helped a little with the snowman, but was mostly intent on shoveling the snow. Of course it had all but melted on the cement, so obviously he shoveled the grass. :)

Emma really wanted to build a snowman, so we did. The snow was so wet and heavy that when we got to the second ball, I almost was not able to get it on top of the first one. We tried 2 different angles, and broke several parts off the middle ball, but persevered and were finally able to get it up there.

After the snowman, shoveling, snow angels and a lovely temper tantrum from Bugsy when we had to come in, we enjoyed some hot chocolate together.

Yesterday was "crazy hair" day at Emma's preschool. I forgot until I looked at the calendar on the fridge. Fortunately, we had about 1/2 hour to do her hair, and even with that we were still a couple of minutes late. We braided different colored pipe cleaners all through the top and then curled the back and pinned it up. She loved it! She is getting so old!

"What [ye] shall say"

I had an interesting experience a little over a week ago. I had been asked to prepare a talk for Sunday Feb, 13th. It was supposed to be on the talk "Every Woman Needs Relief Society" by Sylvia Allred. I had a difficult time preparing the talk, especially the second half. Late Saturday night, I was reviewing what I had prepared and found that the last page of what I had printed had a lot of extra space on it. I had the thought that maybe I should print out the Relief Society Declaration on that page just in case. I didn't think I would really need it as I had a lot of material, but I did it and just did not expect to use it.

The next day durning church, I discovered that I was the last speaker. After the second speaker sat down. I saw that there was a special musical number. I ended up with about 7 minutes left in the meeting to give my talk. As instructed, I had prepared a 15 minute talk. During the musical number I had the thought that maybe I could give the first part of my talk and just use the Relief Society Declaration, discuss it for a minute and then close with my testimony. I could quickly see that there was no way to condense the second part of my talk without rushing through and not giving each point I had prepared adequate attention. I decided to use the Relief Society Declaration in place of the second half. I ended my talk right on time, but was still able to make the talk flow and not feel so rushed. It went just fine and I felt like the message that I was really trying to get across made it out and that perhaps if I had tried to give the second half, it would have made the first half less memorable. I think it turned out better that way as I felt more strongly about the first half anyway.

It was pretty incredible to see the promptings of the Spirit in my life in that way. It reminded me of the scripture in D&C 124:97. The second half says, "...let him be humble before me, and be without guile, and he shall receive of my Spirit, even the Comforter, which shall manifest unto him the truth of all things, and shall give him, in the very hour, what he shall say." I can definitely say that was the case for me. I definitely did not know the declaration by heart and would have had a very hard time cutting the talk down. It was very interesting to have those thoughts come into my mind. They were so subtle that I did not even realize until I sat down after finishing my talk that they must have been the whisperings of the Spirit. It is no wonder I miss those small promptings so often. I almost did not print up the declaration, it was late and I was tired. Yet, I am so glad I did so that the Lord could show me that He is guiding me. In fact, the first month I was in as Relief Society President, I had 2 separate occasions when I stood up after a lesson and bore testimony of what the teacher had been teaching. The words came easily and freely, they were not my own. I do not have the natural ability to stand and speak to a group with eloquence, yet both of those times, it came easily. What a blessing that the Lord guides us and that we have the opportunity to always have his Spirit if we live worthily.

That was a much longer post than I had planned, but I have had the thought several times since this experience that I needed to write about it. I kept putting it off until it occurred to me that perhaps that in and of itself was a prompting. Perhaps I will need to look back and read this later in my life and remember. Anyway, at least I did it!

What Time Is It?

I haven't been feeling completely up to par lately and thus we have been spending a lot of time at home. So, we don't have anything too exciting to report, but here are some everyday pics of our kidlets!

Emma is often cold while eating breakfast. Thus her being wrapped in blankets. Bugsy is finally starting to feed himself. Happy day!

This is really actually deceptive. Bugsy has not taken naps a whole lot lately. He is only taking about 2 a week now, thus his very tired expression as he waited for lunch.

This was one of the rare occasions when Bugsy did take a nap and Emma helped me "make" cookies. Really she likes to help eat the cookies! :)

The kids live for movie time. I let them watch 1 per day. Well, that is usually the case. Sometimes I get a little busy and they watch 2 on days like that. Fortunately it doesn't happen all the time.

While I was putting my makeup on today, Emma was watching the end of "Sleeping Beauty." It got over and the menu started playing the "Once Upon a Dream" waltz. I heard Emma say, "Let's dance Bugsy." I came out and saw them trying to dance together. It was so cute, and of course they ended up on the ground several times giggling mightily. They were darling!

"I Dis Wake Up"

I put Matthew down for a nap about 20 minutes ago. About 5 minutes ago, he came running out of his room and told me, "I dis wake up! I dis git out my bed!" I suppose the days of napping are pretty much gone as he learned how to climb out of his crib this morning. At least Emma waited another year to stop taking naps. On top of that I am enjoying morning sickness which of course is completely misnamed since I am sick all day and not just in the morning. Why do they call it morning sickness? Oh well, here we go with another phase of life. What an adventure!

Happy Birthday To My Favorite Husband

Yes he is my only husband, but indeed my favorite!

Daniel turned 35 yesterday. We had a pretty low-key birthday, cleaning the basement (Daniel's idea) and ending the day with pizza and cake. Here are some things that Daniel did this year that shows how wonderful he is.

Daniel worked very hard to get our back yard in this year. We did not finish, but he worked very hard to try to, especially helping me get 5 fruit trees planted for my birthday. It was great, and the kids loved being outside and helping him in the yard.

Daniel has spent more time at home this year. He has played more with our kids and they have loved it. Bugsy loves being with daddy, especially driving in his black truck.

Emma also loves being with daddy, especially when he dances with her. It is so darling to see them playing together.

As always, he has been so supportive of me. He helped with the float that I had to do earlier this year, and even dressed up like a ladybug for the parade.

He has also been so supportive with my new calling as relief society president. He is the most wonderful husband I could ever have hoped to marry.

We love our daddy/husband!

Happy Birthday!

Bugsy in 2009!

This is my year in review!

Me on my first birthday:

These are the things I learned how to do this year:

These are the things I learned that I like and do not like this year:
Actually I HATE haircuts and scream the entire time! Lucky mommy!

This is me at the end of this year:

What a fun year it has been!