Great Times!

Here's a bunch of random pics of our happenings recently:

 We like to borrow the puppies from Paca. 

The Girls love to play with them.

And I love to return them home again :)

 

 Off to the Mailbox!

 Silver's security blanket:  Her Nukies.  Lately, she has taken to having 3 with her.  She needs one to suck on and one or two to hold.  I usually give them to her only at nap time and bed time.  But on sick days or days when extra comfort is needed, she gets them for a while.  On our trip back from up North last weekend, we were stuck in the truck for 8 hours and she needed some extra help.  She would calm down when she had 2 nukies :)

 I love this picture of Silver in blue on the blue couch.

 River takes good care of Silver.

For Halloween, River painted a butterfly on my hand.  I thought it was really good for a 4 year old!

My idea of a perfect day:  Yesterday in a nutshell:

Well, for the perfect day, it really starts the night before.  Into bed at a good time to rest deeply with minimal interruptions in the night.  Wake up before the girls and read scriptures before they wake up.  River says in her prayer "please bless my mom to not yell."  With that start to the day I was set to face any trials of the day.  Colt got home early! (7:00) for Family Night.  It was a great time of family togetherness over dinner, wrestling and a short lesson about what we are most thankful for.  Counting your Blessings helps put everything in perspective.  ALL we have and ALL the blessings we enjoy are from the Lord.  We had a turkey cutout and wrote on his feathers things we were grateful for:  Some of the feathers on the turkey:  Food, That we were safe while traveling in the snow and ice, All of God's Love and Blessings, Daddy - that he provides for us and is a good leader of our home, that we got new tires for the truck after the big ice storm, That we are usually so healthy and have shots to keep us healthy, that we are safe, Music and songs that teach us about Jesus, being happy and the gospel, Mommy, that she makes good food, that we got new carpet in our house, and that River, Silver and Summer are here with us, a good marriage, a happy home, and peace.  Truly Blessed indeed! 

This was followed by having a horsey (Daddy's back) ride into their bedroom to deposit them on their beds after a family prayer.  Got into bed early again, for a good night's sleep.  Sleep, scriptures, perspective, prayer, good attitude, and family time...my idea of a great day!  Oh yes, and River's prayer helped, no yelling here today :)  

River's comment this morning:  "Mom, I can't wait to grow up and be a Mom!"  Mom:  Why's that?  River:  Because there are so many great things to teach your kids!!"  Yes, I have a Great Job!!

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God - Elder Holland

Inbetween General Conference Sessions, they run a program for the 2 hour break.  Colt and I were trying to watch the program, but our internet wouldn't stream it...so we were watching the "Mormon Messages".  These are clips of either personal testimony or General Authority Talks with video and pictures put to their message.    The program was playing one clip after another.  We had just barely gotten all 3 kids asleep for nap, and I was cleaning up the table from lunch.  I walked up behind Colt and put my chin on his head telling him how weary I was.  I had barely gotten the words out of my mouth when this clip started playing.  Click on the following link to play this beautiful talk by Elder Holland:
Video:  Motherhood:  An Eternal Partnership with God
A very tender mercy of the Lord for me at the EXACT moment that I NEEDED it!  I have watched this clip over and over, and each time it makes me cry knowing that "I know deep down inside that I am doing God's work."

 The camera comes out, and smiles are hard to catch.

 Got A Cute One!

 Sweet Silver showing that her jams have Froggies on the toesies!

 Summer really enjoys this position - on her tummy on a big pillow.  She can still get her legs underneath her with her head up.  Too Cute!

 This is River saying "I love you THIS much!"  She usually puts her hands all the way inback of her with her hands touching, showing that she is spreading her arms as far back as they can go!

 River tucked Summer into bed after "babysitting" her on the bed for me.

 I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH!

We are so blessed to have the gospel while raising our girls.  To have prayer and scriptures to guide in the raising of these special spirits.  To know that they are Heavenly Father's daughters and have divine nature.  To have a living prophet and apostles to buoy us up with their apostolic testimonies and witness, is truly a treasure of infinite value!!

Apricot, Peach, Berry Delish!

We LOVE Smoothies!

I did a blog post recently about Icees and Slushies - these are frozen juice, but a Smoothie is a creation indeed!

 River and Silver are my big helpers to create our smoothie masterpieces!

 Add any fruit:  Some ideas:  Peaches, Apricots, Pears, Strawberries, Blueberries, Bananas, etc.

Add ice cubes, frozen fruit, Strawberry shake powder (Available at Costco "Breeza Brand" a big tub for $3), milk, yogurt or frozen juices like orange juice.

The possibilities are endless and delicious!!
They each turn out different and oh so yummy!

 My Omi (grandma) gave us a vita-mix for our wedding, and we use it ALL the time :)  It is fabulous to make shakes with - it really blends all the pieces up so finely.  Even the peach or apricot skins it cuts up so fine.

 We also love vegetables!

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets.  This is seriously the best thing ever!

Every other week we get to pick up two large bags of veggies and fruit for $15. 

http://bountifulbaskets.org/

It has a large variety of different fruits and vegetables.

They also include ones that I don't buy regularly, so we have quite a bit more variety in our diet these days - yams, artichokes, pomegranates, pineapple, berries, etc. 
The girls go with me on Saturday mornings to go pick up our healthy stuff - they tell me the colors and what it is called as we gently (sometimes) put it in our bags.

It is available all over the Western States.  Fabulous!

 My cooking friends

 Our Day of Tears:

     When onions were on the shopping list Colt brought me home a 25 lb bag of onions. WoW - maybe I may need to be more specific of what I had in mind on those shopping lists! The next day my project was to dice and get all the onions in the freezer. Now, I love onions, but I have a hard time peeling and cutting them up. I cry buckets of tears for each onion. I couldn't get through an onion before tears were flowing too quickly and I'd have to step away. Between my tears, Silver's tears, Summer's tears, and countless interruptions.....it was a long morning. After 30 onions I called it quits until nap time. To finish up the bag was 33 more onions - I didn't shed a tear. Either I was completely out of tears, or the open window blowing cold fresh air against my eyeballs was a wonder! We now have a freezer full of chopped onions :)

Another of my favorite things is scents.  We have a scent warmer that heats up wax to release the scent.  Think a scented candle without the fire.  Here are the girls finding their favorite scent:

Some better than others, heh?

River found a keeper!

Oh, my precious girls! 

You're growing up so fast.

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 

Our first picture all together as a family of 5!

Halloween has never been a holiday that I have enjoyed.  I remember being really scared when I was little by someone knocking on our door in a scary outfit.  I don't care at all for black, although Orange is my favorite color :)  Growing up we used to go bowling on Halloween night - this was great fun for us because the bowling alley was usually empty and we didn't have to deal with scariness. 
Although, now that I have little kids, Halloween is fun to see it through their eyes, it's  a time to dress up and be something else for an evening, and see your friends in their outfits too.  Too Fun!  Plus Pumpkin carving, decorating and Candy!!  What a great Holiday!  I am a little kid at heart and have quite a lot of fun with ordinary or simple things.  I think I get just as excited about little things as the girls do.  :)  Life is good!

 Silver:  Magenta puppy off Blues Clues 

River: Princess Riding a Unicorn

Summer:  This is the cutest outfit, it is really snuggly warm and has little ears on top!

(I love our local thrift store - I got both Silver's and Summer's outfits there - I it for 50 cents!)

I am a big fan of Trunk-or-Treat!!  Kids get to see each other in their outfits, the entire community is together at one place, and everything is safe for all the kids.  Fun evening for all!

 Silver's Ready to go Home! 

She's showing me how she's SO Chilly!