The Best Gift

Pulling out of our driveway on Thursday with a million things on my mind trying to get everyone where they needed to be for that night's 3 performances, her little voice piped up from the back seat: "Mommy did you remember your wallet?"

I looked down and to my surprise, it wasn't there.

"Audrey I don't believe it, I did forget it! Thank you! I'm always very careful to remember it because it has my driver's license in it, but somehow I forgot with all the other things we had to bring. We have a long drive ahead and that would have been very bad. That's amazing, how on earth did you think to ask me that question? I almost think you were inspired by Heavenly Father just now."

"Actually I was. I've been wanting to give Jesus the best gift. Want to know what the best gift is? It's listening.
I wanted to give Jesus a gift by listening to him."



Funny amazing girl. I took this photo to show her later because during a silly conversation tonight she adamantly insisted that when she sleeps her eyes remain open. No amount of convincing made a dent so I laughed and told her I was going to take her picture after she fell asleep and we'd settle it. I teased her that even then she'd cleverly deny it, like the pigeon of one of our favorite books, Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late. Maybe she and Cosmo are just playing hide and seek and she's starting to count.

End of School Shenanigans

Preschool Graduation!  

 What a wonderful teacher and preschool she's had.  With the small class size, dance and performance opportunities, incredibly caring teachers and kind classmates, I can't imagine a more perfect fit.  What started as Audrey's fixation with Angelina Ballerina and me consequently looking for a ballet class turned into a match made in heaven. We will treasure her memories here forever and are BEYOND grateful that she was able to come home from Boston in time to finish out the school year.

So much fun at the preschool end of year party!!

Captain Bluebeard, 

post slushy.

Audrey and Giddy conquered two school carnivals in 24 hours
 and then rode off into the sunset.

At his fun "Kinder Store" on the last day of school, Gideon bought a special princess book and a sparkly hat as presents for his sister with some of his class "dollars." Love the bond between these two.

Best Birthday Ever

This past Saturday will live in our family's memories forever. Ever since last autumn when Audrey hiked the difficult Y mountain trail on her own two feet to help BYU students light the Y for homecoming, and saw the mascot Cosmo and asked me about him, when I explained about school mascots and told her that most cougars are scary but Cosmo is our friend, she has literally mentioned Cosmo almost every day as though they are BFFs. She'll see a picture of a real cougar and say, "I have a friend who's a cougar! He's Cosmo!" The truth is though, she had only seen him from a distance that September night, at the start of the hike, had asked me if we could go hug him and I said we could after the hike, except we didn't make it down the mountain quite in time to see him. I felt awful but reassured her we'd see him again. She agreed, "because he's my friend." And it stuck. She's mentioned him so many times that I got the idea to try to find out if there was an event I could bring her to to hug him and make up for the hike day, in honor of her birthday. I wrote to Cosmo, explained her love for him and a tiny bit about her history but said I didn't want to ask for special treatment, that I just wanted to bring her somewhere to an event where she could hug him, as a special surprise. But he did me one better. Much, much better. He said, well if she's having a birthday party, could I just stop by? Except he didn't just stop by. He drove up in his Cosmobile, shocking the socks off the kids, did a backflip, and played tag with eleven wily toddlers for more than 30 minutes. I'm in awe of his energy and kindness. He gave her a stuffed animal of himself, and she hugged it with all her might and said, "Now I can see Cosmo whenever I want to!" Just wow. Look at the joy on her face. My heart is full.

My beautiful mother and amazing dad visited from Oregon for a week, and the only photos I have are of them working, which is the real truth because they pretty much never stood still. Mom spent the first half of her Mother's Day weekend making the most beautiful Little Mermaid cake you've ever seen for Audrey. My Dad spent hours upon hours making our yard glow. Then at the crack of dawn on Sunday they hopped on an airplane to spend the rest of the weekend celebrating with the family in Oregon. This is so like them. Modest, generous, focused, and incredibly hard-working, all for love. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but man, they really deserve to be bragged about. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

Mother's Day

Happy birthday and happy Mother's Day to my sweet mother in law, Diana!!! Thank you to you and Dad for helping our family so much this spring during the two weeks I was first home from Boston. It's a lot of work keeping up with this crazy crew. We love you! And a huge thank you also to my dad and mom, Ron and Sharon, who have been with us from Oregon for the past week attending performances and rehearsals and working incredibly hard to help us with house and family. Between kids headed so many directions and the dishwasher breaking down and squeezing a birthday party in the middle of our packed Saturday I really don't know how we could have survived this week without you. In fact, I really don't know how we would have made it through the first few months of 2016 without all four of you. You have sure given us a lot to live up to. We are so blessed!

Number Five is Alive!

Audrey turned 5 years old! In the past two weeks we've visited the tulip gardens, had our traditional family picnic at the flowering trees, ripped out our family room walls and floor and replaced them just in time for a visit from my amazing parents. Their helping hands during this insane week of performances and final projects have been an absolute godsend.

Our enthusiastic junior helper as we redid the floors and walls
 in the back room of our house,  a project that's been sorely in need for a decade.