Rahel's first day of preschool and other random pics

Rahel on her first day of preschool!  She was SOOOO excited!

I walked in on this after setting up for guitar lessons and picking up the house getting ready for my students to arrive.  She was ready to go!  So cute!

My cutie in her pajamas and sleep mask she got for Christmas.  I couldn't resist snapping a pic! 

I was changing out my wreath and found feathers all over the house.  This is what I tracked down!  What a scream!

Faith's inventions

Faith has ALWAYS pawed her way through the garbage finding little "treasures" to build things out of. It grosses me out, so I have been saving containers and things to clean out and put in a box for Faith to use. That way she stays out of the icky garbage. Well, this is what she came up with this week (o:

Goggles

 

Bath boat with oars and everything!

St. George, some history and a miscarriage

As some of you may know, I found out I was pregnant in December and miscarried a few weeks ago.  I needed to spend some time resting and decided to spend it in St. George with my Grandmother and my Mom.  Grandma took me to the temple the first morning and we did sealings as daughters to parents.  It was such a positive and uplifting experience.  Our sealer was so personal and insightful.  Gran took me to lunch afterward and we toured the Brigham Young home in down town St. George.  It was so beautiful!  I do love history and architecture.  How fun to see his home.  In the living room, there was a square grand piano.  I don't remember ever seeing one - it is SO beautiful!  You should google image square grand pianos.  They are beautiful.  If you ever have the chance, I would highly recommend visiting the Brigham Young home in St. George.  Also, do some sealings in the St. George temple.  It is just magical upstairs.  Such a good experience.

Gran and I had some good times.  One of the days we toured the Jacob Hamblin home also.  We stayed up late at night talking and she offered me some amazing support and stories.  I love you Gran! 

It was so warm there (62 deg.) I didn't want to go home!  Thomas took me to the Beehive house in Salt Lake on Monday for a date.  Wow.  I really like the St. George one so much better!  How fun to see so much history.  I so missed my girls!  It was so good to see them after our date.  They make me so happy!

Prince Fairy Boy

Last night we had a Family night and when we were done, Faith and Rahel played fairy princess. Faith came out in her complete princess garb to the living room where Thomas and I were talking and deemed Thomas the "prince fairy boy" and handed him a snowflake wand! Our girls are so fun! Thomas spent the rest of the evening searching for his manhood (o:


I often find the girls praying together.  What a heart melter!  My girls are SO sweet and thoughtful.  Faith wants to build a lemonade stand so she can help raise money to bring Kidist home.  What a sweetheart!
I just wanted to give a thank you to my sweet girls today who make my life so much brighter.

Adoption news: Sweet Kidist

This year I've decided to love a little more, study the scriptures a little deeper, attend the temple and expand my family.  We've felt very strongly that it is now time to bring Kidist home.  We are sure that the financial end of things will not be a block in our path to Kidist.  We have come up with methods of raising the funds and are confident that the Lord will take care of us. 

Sweet Kidist,

Ever since we met you, you have taken a part of our hearts.  Though we can't speak to one another, you have truly left an impression on us.  Your sweet smile and the look in your eyes tells me what a wonderful, kind and sweet person you are.  Those who know you have nothing but good to say about you.  The tender way you interact with Rahel melts my heart.  I know this won't be an easy journey for you, but I am sure that the Lord is involved and will make up our differences.  Language will be difficult for you to learn and leaving your friends will break your heart.  We can promise you love and security.  You will be looked up to and ADORED by your two little sisters (they already adore you!) and you will never run out of love from your new parents.  My heart feels like there is a yarn attatched that stretches all the way to you and it gets shorter every day pulling me closer to you.  You have been through so much in your short life.  More than many people go through in a lifetime.  You are a strong young woman and will touch the hearts of many people with your strength, your sweetness and your love.

I love you!

Mom

Before and After play kitchen

Here's the before on our kid kitchen:

Take an old entertainment center and sand it on down

Primer is a must

Then use left over paint from their bedroom and voila!

With the help of your super talented husband, you should come up with something like this!

Play kitchen

Phew!  I finally have time to do a post on the play kitchen we made for the girls.  We are SO happy with how it turned out!

I used pancake mix and syrup containers for Orange Juice and Milk jugs.  I stuffed the syrup container with batting for the milk and used my cricut to cut out lettering and an orange tree.

Thomas worked his magic on this cute little iron

Look at this great little washing machine Thomas created!  Way too cute!

The ironing board folds up (o:

I found this little magnet board/cork board set for a dollar at HONKS.  Too cute! 

I got the phone from freecycle.org.  The girls LOVE it!

I spray painted CD's for the burners and Thomas installed a light that turns on in the oven when you slide the oven knob.

The faucet is one I rescued from the old summer kitchen at our rock home in Mendon.  It worked perfectly!

We had to "make" the girls open other presents on Christmas morning.  It was like pulling teeth to get them to leave the kitchen alone for enough time to open another present!

Too funny!  I'm glad they like it.

Gratitude

I have recently injured my pelvis making it impossible to do much of anything without causing myself severe pain.  I thought I'd share my journal entry from yesterday.

I went grocery shopping with the money that the bishop gave us for Christmas and was unable to bend down to the lower shelves in the store.  I was overwhelmed with the kindness of others around me willing to help out with the smallest things.  One man bent down and went through the gallons of milk until he was satisfied that he found the one with the best date for us.  Another man reached down for a gallon of salsa for me.  Another lifted Rahel into the cart for me.  A woman got a chicken for me and put it in my cart.  Even a worker who was stocking the shelves reached spaghetti-o’s on the bottom shelf for me.  When it was time to load the groceries and kiddo’s into the car, I began to panic.  I wasn’t sure how to do this!  A woman 2 cars down walked up to me and asked if I needed any help with my groceries.  She kindly lifted both girls out of the cart and loaded the groceries from the bottom of the cart into the trunk of my car.  She even put the cart away for me.  She asked my name and offered to pray for my back.  What an Angel!  The Lord truly has been mindful of me today and served me through kind people all around me.  I was almost in tears with gratitude when I pulled into my driveway to find that it had been freshly shoveled and salted.  My cup is running over!  What a wonderful day despite the excruciating pain in my pelvis – it didn’t even seem to affect me.

Free Christmas: Medical kit

Here's a longer re-post.  I've posted as I've finished parts of the medical kit.  It is finally finished, so here it is again!

This is the medical bag.  It's made with duct tape and fabric - no sewing!

Here's the syringe Thomas made for them - so cute!

The blood pressure cuff with a corn starch-filled balloon.  Looks, feels and sounds like the real thing!

ENT scope - the picture doesn't show it, but Thomas made it so you can even see through it!

My Over-the-ear Stethoscope.  I used the stem of a huge Gerbera daisy.

Bandage tin made from a mint tin.

ENT head lamp.  This is made with elastic, a mini CD and lots of glitter.



Free Christmas: Checker pieces

This is sort of a re-post on the Checkerboard.  I finished the game pieces and thought I'd share.

I used floral glass drops and cut vinyl flowers on my cricuit.  The plain ones are "bubbles".

Free Christmas: Oven mit and "Spices"

I traced Faith's hand and made this oven mitt.....yeah.  It's sorta special. 

It's a good thing kids don't care if things aren't perfect!

This is cupcake "spice" 

This one is Hot Chocolate "spice"  I also made Pie "spice" - it has faux berries in it. 

I hot glued the lids on so the girls don't make a mess.

Free Christmas: Pillowcase nightgowns and sleep masks

Free Christmas: Felt pies