... exciting announcement!

My exciting announcement is that I've been called to be the 1st counselor in my ward Relief Society. We're a brand new presidency. I'm pretty excited about it. However, I haven't been given my list of responsibilities yet either. I feel really blessed to be able to be in this presidency with some really great ladies. I just need to remember that the Lord knows our talents and abilities and I need to rely on him to do his work. 

from left to right

Marcie Moeller-Secretary, Sherrie Brinkerhoff-2nd counselor, Konni Cluff-1st counselor, and Lynnie Wilde- President extraordinaire 

I bet some of you thought I was pregnant huh? ha ha ha ha... I wish.

Gardening

This is our 2nd summer in our house and I've decided that we're having a garden this year. Now, my mother always had a fairly productive garden when I was growing up but I never helped her or learned anything. So... needless to say I'm doing this blind. I also decided to buy the plants was too expensive for us and to save money I just bought little seed packets. The following is the beginning of my gardening 101. 

I decided to start my seeds inside. So, I used an egg shell carton to plants my seeds in and then I'll transfer whenever we get the garden tilled and the weather decided to start taking it's bi-polar medication again. 

 

Their all planted and ready for mr. sun to make an appearance. So, we wait...

and we sew a little dress for easter...

...and we learn some new trick to cause trouble!

Everyone in the house get sick.

We celebrate Daddy's birthday!

and wait,

and wait...

and then BAM! we have little sprouts and the keep getting bigger and bigger. We have quite a few green bean plants, some lettuce, one pumpkin plants, zucchini, and some celery just broke through the soil too.

We're on our way to our very first garden!!!

Announcement...

I have an exciting announcement but it won't be coming out for another few days. As if my life wasn't busy enough. I'm stoked though folks... I'll post in a couple days!

Pillow Pets

It's a pillow! It's a pet! It's a pillow pet!

Sterling's grandma Kite LOVES these kids to death. We decided to have her over a couple Monday's ago for dinner and family home evening. When it came time for bed g-g-ma (which is what she has chosen to be called) sang songs and did the bed time ritual with us. After we got them to bed we talked for a while and she told me she had gotten the twins a present. Sterling took her home and when he came back he brought in the cutest little pillow pets. She had bought Mattea an unicorn (which we named Whitey) and Micah a dolphin (named Dale). They love them. Micah like to grab either Dale, or Eli (the elephant in the top right corner of his crib) and bury his face in them and scream at the top of his lungs (for fun) when we put him to bed. Mattea likes to lay on Whitey when she goes to sleep and when I get her up in the morning she grabs Whitey and one of her favorite blankies so she can carry them around with her.

Projects...

I am notoriously good at starting a project and NEVER finishing it. Our ward does a few different "groups" that I have decided to participate in. I've been having tons of fun! First is card club. It's so much fun to get together with those ladies. I'm learning new things and FINISHING something I started because I have to have it done for card club. Next is quilt club. We meet tonight for quilt club and I didn't do my quilt square right so I'll need to re-do it but it's still so much fun. My mom is planning to come to that group with me now so I am STOKED that I'll be doing that with my mom. I am the YOUNGEST lady that is in that group but I don't mind because they are all such neat ladies that I still have a blast.
I also started sewing an Easter Dress for Mattea! The pattern is super cute, so I'm trying to follow the instruction very carefully so I don't mess it up. Every time I've attempted to sew something my mom always ends up finishing it for me. So, I'm bound and determined to do this on my own. It doesn't help that the very first instruction was to do the pleats in the dress and I had not a clue how to do that. Mom helped with that then stepped away so I could do the rest. So far so good. I'll post pictures to the blog so I'm help accountable for this project. Wish me luck folks!

Our little dooder-bug

I was hoping to do this post right after the post about Mattea but we got a little busy.

Micah is 15 months old now. Oh my, how the time has gone. We've loved every minute of it. Micah was in the hospital for his first birthday because he had his skull reconstructed 2 days before. It was hard for us to watch him in so much pain but we know it was for the best.

Our Micah Man is the happiest baby I've every seen. He smiles half a second after waking up and is always happy.

Most of the time you can see this little face...

or this...

Even the morning of his big surgery he was all grins!

The only time we didn't see him smile was for a while after his surgery and he was still in quite a bit of pain.

Micah LOVES his dad...

and his jumperoo!

He's so happy when he gets his "Daddy time"

and lets be honest... Daddy can't get enough of Micah either

They spend quality time watching the "big game" (BYU vs Utah)

Dooder is so soft and gentle with our new puppy Zeek. You can often find Zeek cuddled up next to him.

His new forward facing car seat was an exciting step for him. He's such a good boy in the car now. He loves to watch the world as we drive around town.

Micah enjoys playing with other kids. He and his little sister have tons of fun playing all day long.

Mattea often leaves him in the middle of the messes that she makes. Good thing we know he's a good boy and wouldn't/couldn't possibly leave this much of a mess in his wake.

This guys loves to eat. He's great at feeding himself crackers, goldfish, puffs, or even oreo cookies like below.

He's also "grandma's Micah Man". He loves his time with this sweet lil' old lady!

I love this little boy so much. He's so sweet, tender, and precious as can be. He's a beautiful baby and perfect in every way.

Lastly, we revel in the milestones that Micah reaches because they are so much harder for him to do. We have constant physical therapy, and occupational therapy going on. His newest trick is getting up on his hands and knee's.

The Lord has sent some very choice spirits to our home and left them in our care. I can understand to some small degree the love the Lord has for us because of the love I have for my children. Watching Micah with his trials and his struggles has built an appreciation for the pain the Lord feels as he watches us in our trials. How happy my loving Heavenly Father must feel as he watches us reach new mile stones and learn new things he's been trying to show us.

Ode to Mattea

Our little Mattea is one year old now. Well, she's actually 14 months now but I've been a bit busy. Let me tell you more about her. Her first names means "God's gift". Her middle name is Hope after her Grandma Beam. She's still pretty small for her age which is to be expected since she was born 3 months early. She weighs about 17 lbs. She is apprx 27 inches tall. She has her 2 bottom teeth and her two top "fangs." She loves to walk and talk. She has a lot of nick names: Squirty Girl, Lady Bug, Mattitude, Baby Girl.

She love, Love, LOVES her daddy.

Some of her favorite things to do with daddy is play video games.

Running around playing.

And singing, and playing peek-a-boo.

She enjoys bath time.

We have come to understand that Squirty Girl would make a very cute Cindy-loo-who. And she LOVES her time with Grandpa Beam.

Mattitude is kind of a stinker sometimes too. She likes to steal toys from other people. (we're working on it)

She has lots of fun talking and observing from her new forward facing car seat.

She is almost always grinning to show off her brand new chompers.

She tolerates her mommy dressing her up super cute.

This little girl loves dogs. We just got a new puppy and we constantly have to remind her to be soft.

We waited, prayed and hoped for Mattea for what seemed like a very long time. Having her here with us now makes the wait seems so worth it. We love this little girl and are amazed at how fast she is growing. We're thankful the Lord allowed us to become her parents. She has such a sweet spirit and keeps us on our toes. We love you Squirty Girl!