Little Love Bugs

Sometimes I get an idea in my mind and just have to go with it. I am so happy with how these pictures turned out. Emalee is so beautiful and we had so much fun taking these pictures. Levi is CRAZY and really enjoyed having his picture taken. I am so blessed to have these kiddos. Happy Valentine's Day!

Grandma Marjie's visit

The kids had a good time while Grandma Marjie was here. They walked down to the school and played on the playground and even ventured down to Hunsley Park to play one day. It was over 100 degrees the whole week she was here so they played inside a lot too. We are so grateful that she was able to come and take care of our kiddos while we both went to camp. It was such a blessing to have Ivan there with me.



Grandma and the kids.

On Sunday I was so exhausted I thought I might die! We enjoyed church and used up some leftovers from camp to have really yummy burritos for lunch. Then we all slept...and slept...and slept. I continued to sleep while Ivan took Marjie and the kids to check out Palo Duro Canyon. He took some pretty awesome pictures. Grandma didn't know to wear hiking shoes and wore the opposite. Apparently after she hiked up she had to come back down on her bum...in white shorts! haha She was a good sport though.



There were giant spiders crossing the road!



 

 

Independence Day

For the 4th this year we stayed at home! It is nice to have kind of a laid back day with family and friends. We went that morning to our ward breakfast at the park. There were quite a few people there. We were glad to have the pavilion when it started pouring! We had a nice time enjoying breakfast and visiting with friends. We really love our ward here in Texas and feel so at home. We have met so many amazing people and have lots of great new friends.

We had a BBQ that evening at our house with the Carver family. Jessica and Tyler are our good friends. They have a son Emma's age, a girl a little younger than Emma and a little boy just younger than Levi. Our kids love having good friends to play with. Tyler's parents came too as well as his younger brother, Tucker. They are also in our ward and we love them as well. Denise is our Relief Society President and I get to be her visiting teacher. She is such an awesome lady! Joel is such an nice guy and we have loved getting to know their family. After eating and hanging out for a while we did some fireworks in the backyard with the kiddos. Then we went that night to watch the city fireworks. Good times.

First week of summer.

We had a great first week of summer. On Monday I had a meeting for Young Women's then we went to the pool with some friends. The kids had so much fun! I was happy to get some sunshine. :) This pool is just in Canyon and was pretty fun. Our gym in Amarillo has an outdoor pool that is really fun! We went there Saturday as a family and had a blast. We plan on spending lots of time there this summer. They have a fun kids area where the water is just over a foot deep with a slide and guns that you can shoot water at people with. There is also a fun splash pad and big slides for older kids. Emma really wants to learn how to swim this year so we spent most of our time on the deep side while Ivan and Levi played on the kiddie side. We were too busy playing to take any pictures that day though.

Emma got way cold...because it is ALWAYS windy in Texas!

He had a blast!

This is my buddy Hunter.

He had a good time too.

We spent lots of time at the park that week and the kids love just playing in the backyard. Rollie Pollie's are the new favorite way to spend our time. Emma collects whole families of them and Levi likes to bring them in the house to play....and break them in half. :(

Levi and Emma both smashed their fingers in our back door one day. The wind was blowing just right to slam the door as they tried to come in the house. Levi just lost some skin....Emma ended up with a black pinky that we later found out on an x-ray is fractured. Her nail is going to fall off and we had to torture her by sticking a hot needle through the nail to drain it. It is looking much better now though and it doesn't seem to bother her anymore.

I have been VERY busy getting ready for girls camp and am so excited to leave next week! I am the camp director this year and am very grateful that it is stake camp. We have lots of things to do to get ready but it is going to be worth it! I made these cute bags for my girls to put their journals (which I am also making) in and their camp books and scriptures. I used a paper doily as a stencil and free handed their initials for the monogram. Our theme is S.M.I.L.E so I included that as well. It stands for surrounding myself in light everyday. I took these pictures at night with my cell...they are much cuter in person.

I had our leaders draw names for secret sisters this year and am way excited about it. My secret sister is Sister Harmon. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met!  I know she enjoys sewing so I made her a cute sewing kit in a mason jar. I put batting on the lid and covered it with some scrap fabric I had so the top is a pin cushion. Inside I put the contents of a small sewing kit I got at the dollar store, safety pins and a cut pink measuring tape.

For the second day I made these super cute bobby pins. Brittaney usually has her hair pulled back in a ponytail and uses bobby pins to hold her hair back. I just used bobby pins and buttons I had at home. I slid a round piece of felt into the bobby pin and then glued it to the button. Then I just cut a cute piece of scrapbook paper and put them on it. :)

 

Brittaney is moving the first week in August so for the last gift I wanted to make her something to put in her home to remind her of us. The young women theme this year is "Standing in Holy Places." I bought this little frame at the dollar store and found the printable on pinterest. I used ribbon and a little flower that I had at home to dress up the frame.

 

 

Grandma Marjie will be here a week from today to watch the kids and they can hardly wait! Emma is counting down the days. :) Ivan is my hero and is coming to camp to be one of our priesthood leaders for the week. Our camp this year is 5 hours away so it is hard to get priesthood leaders that can travel that far or stay that long. He is serving as the first counselor in the Young Mens presidency right now and the other priesthood leader that is coming is our Young Mens president so they should have a good time.