Seeing the Positive

In January Arizona was hit with lots of wonderful rainstorms. We love storms of any kind and any chance to cool off and get caught up on rainfall. However, our poor roof did not get so excited and leaked into our home, and down the walls. There was some damage but luckily we have some good friend that could come over and get things fixed up. Our insurance company has declined to cover our damage which I am a little bugged about. Anyone have a good insurance company out there? Clint had to repaint our entire vaulted ceiling by himself. He rented scaffolding to get the job done and the kids were on cloud nine. Now that is a fabulous fort just waiting to happen. Sunday morning they got busy and spent most the day up there.

"Posers"

What is it about little girls and their poses? My little girls all have signature poses that they pull out every time a camera comes their way. Although I have to say my brother Parker was a pretty famous poser (especially in his underoos). So, as Eliza has now chosen her signature pose, she and Clara practiced their stuff.

We love Grandma and Grandpa "Heart Attack"

My parents left for the MTC a little after Valentines Day so we decided to "heart attack" them. Lisa, Jim, Benjamin, and my family all got together for a little FHE fun. We had hamburger and hot dogs, frosted valentine cookies, and decorated hearts with little love messages. Each of the grandkids wrote reasons why they love Grandma and Grandpa. It turned out really cute. We went over and put them all over their kitchen cupboards. They had a lot of fun reading them all and we had a good time getting together. Hopefully we can still get together now the master planners are gone. We missed the families that live far away. But, 20 cousins filled the house pretty good.

Eliza and Joshua--Eliza is defintely perfecting her posing.

Lisa is really the picture taker of the family. She took a lot more than I did. Every time Eliza gets her picture taken, she wants to see how cute she is.

Susanna and Annie had a lot of fun frosting and decorating.

Nathan and Dallin, are they eating or frosting?

So many fun girl cousins. Her are Betsy, Annie, Zoe, and Clara getting crazy with decorations.

Any time we get together these kids have so much fun, it makes all the work worth it.

I wish I had taken a picture of my parents kitchen after, it was darling. They were snowed in at Jenny's house in Maryland and were happy to come home to the fun messages and a large "LAST" box of Sees waiting for them.

Sisters

Eliza has gone missing a few times lately. Usually later at night (she is night owl and can stay up forever). Yesterday we found her on the top bunk which is Clara's bed. Sweet Clara was fast asleep and little Eliza was just happily sitting by her sister playing with her toys while Clara slept by her. She loves to be by her wherever she is. A few weeks ago the same things happened. It is a good thing Clara isn't claustrophobic. Clara falls asleep really early. I think she plays really hard and just konks out early. We find her on some couch fast asleep usually by about 7. It was about 10 and I went searching for Eliza thinking she was with her dad. She had just squeezed her little body right up next to Clara and put herself to sleep. These are the moments that melt my heart. So sweet to see. I wish I took better pictures.

My "Best" Friend

when little kids have older brothers and sisters, they say such grown up things that you would never think would come out of their mouths. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I won't share some of the not so pleasant ones. But, we love it when Eliza talks about her BEST friend. She loves her little friend Halle and they talk on the phone and love to play together. They always want to go to eachother's houses and talk about how they are best friends. I love watching them play together at such a young age. Too cute.
It looks like they are sharing secrets but Halle is trying to give Eliza a kiss on the cheek but Eliza is trying to kiss on the lips. It was kind of funny to watch.

But, it is almost impossible for me to get them both smiling at the same time. You have to be one of those photographers that take 25 or more pics and hope for a good one. I take 3 or 4 and know they are usually not great.

The first lost tooth

How exciting is the first tooth you lose? My little Clara has been talking for months about all of her friends at school that have lost teeth, even more than one and she hadn't lost any. Well, finally it got a little loose. In my family a little loose means wiggle the heck out of it and rip the sucker out as soon as possible. There is no three or four days of loose teeth. She has always been my biggest ham and has the greatest smile that lights up her whole face so I told her I would be so sad when her perfect smile had holes in it. I had to take one before.

Behind in Blogging

I have about three really good posts that I need to update but I have a two year old. Everyone knows what that means right? A couple of weeks ago I was trying to print something on my husbands computer and had my laptop open behind me on the floor (hooked up to our other printer). All of a sudden my daughter says mom Eliza broke your computer. I look over and sure enough, she figured out the magical combination of buttons to push in order to make a computer completely unusable. When it turns on, it tells me that Windows has a fatal error. I jump on Clint's now to check my email but without my own computer never have a chance to actually blog about anything.

My mom and dad had their farewell today. . . I am starting to get way too emotional already. They leave on Wednesday and I am not ready for them to go. They are going to Guatamala to run a dental clinic in an orphanage. I have this fear they will like it so much they will keep going like my Grandpa and Grandma Ray did and I will never get to see them. Some may think it would be so much fun to visit but I am not adventurous enough. I wish I was but I really am quite the homebody. Anyway, had a fun family luncheon at my house after. Thanks to everyone that brough yummy salads and treats, could not have managed alone. I hope that we will keep getting together when they are gone. It was fun to see Parker and his cute family. I think Paul's hair is redder than Susanna's now, it has been a process for him to get that red hair. My kids are all in heaven playing with their cousins...and I am tired. And I am glad that I have a husband that doesn't stop helping till all the clean up is done. He just keeps doing little things to help it be easy to clean up after--such a blessing.