Arizona!

We spent last week in Arizona visiting the Bishop family. Everyone was there, except one very important person- Annie. We miss and love you Annie! Katie said I was having twin denial because when she and Ryan arrived Thursday night I said she looked different- older. I said she looked maybe more like Annie and I. She said I was in denial that Annie was gone and had to have someone look like me. Whatever, maybe I am.

We had lots of fun in the nice, but not typical, Arizona sunshine. It rained and was only in the 70-80's- which was great because we could do more outside without roasting. We love summer!

We were excited when we arrived back home and found that it had rained here also and our plants in our yard were HUGE. Today we did some yard work and planted our sunshine flowers (sun-flowers) and tomatoes and flowers. We hope they do well also.

Something special for Julie

I have started making some cards as a fun little hobby, and I made a bunch for Julie for this. I hope the cards lift her spirits a bit as her family has had some trying times as of late. Can't wait to see you in Laramie this summer, Julie!

Something special for Katie

I made a set of these blocks for myself recently, and thought my sister, Katie, might like a set as well for this. I'm sure her husband can think of a least 20 different ways to use them ;)

Congratulations Mom!

Today was my Mom's last day of teaching- she has retired. She taught kindergarten for 30 years, and was great at it. She taught and touched many lives; any little boy or girl who had her as a teacher was VERY lucky. We are in Arizona visiting and were able to visit her school twice this week, including today for the last day of school. The kindergartners did a program that was very cute. Then my Mom gave them awards and we witnessed the love the kids have for their kindergarten teacher as they gave her hugs and presents and smiles. She really is a terrific teacher. Congratulations Mom, and we love you!

At home she got 30 of a bunch of different items.

what a difference

I finished, and hung, the curtains in our living room earlier this week. It has made such a difference in making the room feel complete, and not so barren. One more project complete; many, many to go.

A closer look:

Where in the world?

My twin sister, Annie is in the Congo in Africa. (Click the link to see the exact location). She went for work for 8 weeks. It is a copper (or maybe gold) mine for Freeport McMoRan. She will only be working the whole time- no touristy things. Alot of the Congo is in unrest, but she will be in a secure area owned by her company. We hope she has fun and we will be excited to hear all about it!

summer

It is un-officially summer at our house. It will be official on Wednesday when all of Chris's grades are due and he will be done with school.

Dad was home today and the girls loved it. The weather is more consistently warm, so we got out our summer clothes. WE LOVE SUMMER!

Happy Mother's Day

My three favorite things about mothers day:

1-

2-

3-

I wouldn't be a mother without you. I love you three.

bath time

The best thing about bath time are the moments right before when Ashlee gets so excited.

Ash- you are a fun girl and I love your excitement about....well, everything.

progress

Thus far in Ashlee's mere 9 months of existence, she hasn't taken any kind of interest or liking toward books. If I hold her in my lap to read her a book she squirms, turns, wiggles and tries to eat the book. If there is a book on the floor she rolls over to it (no crawling) and starts eating it.
Then today she did something different.
She rolled over to a book on the floor, picked it up and rolled back onto her back. She held the book and looked at the front and back covers over and over and made noises as if she were pretending to read it. She held it for 5 minutes and didn't try to eat it!
Yeah Ashlee!

memory

Chris made a memory game for FHE last night, which was a huge hit with Caitlin. She wanted to play it over and over again. She even wanted to keep playing rather than have the treat.
This picture would say otherwise, but she isn't really a "peeker"