{What Evette says}

Evette is a crack up. She has the cutest/weirdest/funniest things ever. Constant entertainment over here. Prepare to laugh:

"Mom! Look at Mir-rum smile! She so cute! She look like a pumpkin head!"

While riding in the double stroller:
"Mir-rum! You're hurting my rib?"

While showing a friend what Spanish words/phrases Evette knows:
"What does 'leche' mean?"
"Milk!"
"What does 'sientete' mean?"
"Sit down!"
"What does 'espera' mean?"
"umm...... look out for cars so I don't get run over?"
HA!
*'espera' means 'wait' - I guess I say it frequently while she's running ahead of me*

While we were shopping at Costco and the TVs were playing "Toy Story 3":
"Mom! look! It's buzz lightyear!"
"Yes it is!"
"I wanna do it again."
"Do what? Watch the movie again?"
"Yes! With Uncle Scott!!!!"
"Don't you mean Uncle Dan? You watched this movie with Uncle Dan at Christmas time."
"Yeah, but I wanna watch it with Uncle Scott."
"Why not Uncle Dan?"
"Because him an eye doctor now so him don't watch movies."
*apparently you can't watch movies if you're an eye doctor - maybe it really will make your eyes square*

"Mom! After we eat pizza I will go potty and then my poop will be like a rainbow!"

While a friend was over eating lunch with us:
"You got to eat your carrots! They make your eyes work good."
*lately she's had a fascination with food and what it does for the body. She always asks "what spinach do for my body?" or "What bananas do for my body?" It's pretty adorable.*

{No words needed}

{Valentine's Day Celebrations}

Valentine's Day was pretty low-key around here. We spent the morning running errands and Evette even drove for a little bit. Yup, while Daddy was at the post office Evette and I drove around the church parking lot. She  had a great time!

We also went to a little park on the bay. It has all sorts of little hills and dips for stunt bike riding, but we just ran around the place. It was super fun.

All of the hills are made up of crushed up seashells.

I love this face!

Then we came home, fixed up our bikes, and went on a family bike ride. Evette is getting quite adept at riding her bike and Miriam LOVES riding on in her seat on daddy's bike. Good times.

Then we fed the babies a peanut butter sandwich and threw them to bed early so we could eat dinner ourselves!

We love to cook and we love to eat and we love to do it even more without our sweet hooligan kids pulling at us. So we made ourselves some killer good food.

 

Lambs, pasta, mushrooms, asparagus.....dang good, y'all.

And some homemade Angel Food cake!

It was a lovely day! I'm so lucky that I have two sweet baby girls and the most perfect husband to spend valentine's day with. Happy day of love!

{Stake Conference Notes}

We recently had our stake conference weekend. We had a mini play area going on. 2 hours of church with no primary or nursery can be hard, but they did great! At one point we had 5 different kids playing.

Here are some notes that I took from the adult session and the general session:

"Sometimes all you have to walk on is faith - and great things will come from it." - Elder Nash

"Faith is Action." - President Fewkes

"We know what we need to do, we don't always do it, but what we need to do, is to do it." - President Carter

"The Lord has watched the consistency of your life." - Elder Nash

"If they (thoughts/ideas) are edifying and help with the work - it is inspired" - Elder Nash

3 Nephi 17

If I bring others to Christ, I will be there, too.

(Elder Nash) These things are vital to our faith so we can fulfill our purpose:

1. Family Home Evening (1xWeek)

2. Study the scriptures (everyday)

-find the time and take it! 

-We need to give our children the gift of feeling the spirit while reading the scriptures

3. Family Prayer (Morning and Night)

-We must teach them to pray

4. The law of the fast

-helps us care for the poor and needy

-"the heavy burdens will be lifted" -Isaiah 

{Spring is here - at least in my garden}

It feels like springtime over here!

Crocus - the first flower of springtime! I remember when we lived in Utah and our crocuses would pop up out of the snow and you knew that spring would be right around the corner! And lookie here! My crocus bulbs have bloomed!

I also bought some daffodils to herald the arrival of sping

and tulips

and hyacinths! One of my most favorite flowers ever! Their fragrance is perfect. I planted a bunch of these bad boys and they are just now starting to open up. Such happiness.

Roses! We have quite a few rose bushes at our house, at least 12, I think. Once we came back from Christmas break I saw that everyone was pruning their rosebushes. Never having had rosebushes before, I wasn't quite sure how much to prune or where or what. Plus, our rose bushes hadn't previously been pruned very regularly and were kind of a mess. They were in need of some serious help. Luckily, we have this sweet older couple that lives across the street. They are good people and very kind to us and our girls. They have a beautiful garden and their roses are spectacular, so I knew exactly who to ask for help. I asked George if he would teach me a little bit about what I needed to do and he came over and pruned them right there on the spot so I could learn. 

And now look! Just a few weeks later and they are going to town!

Also, I have no idea what this flowering bush is, but the flowers are so bright and happy! I want a million more of them. 

Our blackberry bush that we seriously hacked back when we moved in has all sorts of new shoots all over it.

Our plum trees are blossoming!

And our fruit trees are still going at it! Slowing down a little bit, maybe, but still going strong! 

  

This is how we get the high ones - family teamwork!

so many tangerines!

And pomellos! Not my favorite fruit, but we have a bunch of them, and they're huge! Maybe they'll be good in fruit smoothies.

And I planted our vegetable garden last week and the sprouts are coming up! I planted peas, carrots, lettuce, arugula, spinach, kale, radishes, and onions. I'm very excited about this.

{Girls night out with Evette}

Evette and I had a mommy-daughter date Friday night. The children's theater down in Palo Alto was putting on "Junie B. Jones the Musical". It was so much fun! We've read a couple different Junie B. Jones books in the last few months, so it was very exciting to see the "real" Junie B. It was loosely based on the "Junie B. Jones, First Grade at last" book, which was the one we most recently finished, which was great!

She wanted to bring her Junie B. book!

 Evette was so excited to see the real Junie B!

We got them all to sign her book. Very fun.

And an icecream cookie sandwich afterwards - delicious!

It was a cute musical. Fun stories and songs and Evette really enjoyed it. It was fun to watch her watch it - to laugh and smile at the funny parts. She's growing up so fast - it was a great night with her!