Mollie-O

Dear Mollie,
Please don't grow up.
You are almost 18 months old. You are learning so much so fast. I want to keep you as my baby forever. You went to nursery today for the first time and I felt a little lost. I've looked forward to this day, but it surprised me how hard it was. You are learning to fold your arms for prayers, and to make unbelievable messes. I like to call you my little tornado. You love books and we could sit there for hours reading them...unfortunatley, you also destroy most of them.

Your hair is crazy. And curly! (where did that come from?!) And I can't get enough of those curls. Im amazed at how girly you are already. Wanting to wear "prettys" in your hair (although you pull them out in 2 seconds). And for the first time the other day, you wanted your nails painted and you held still for it!

Piggy tails were a first this month too! Your hair is growing and chaning as quick as you are.

You love to be like mom and wear your sunglasses.

And you are often found wearing a tutu while playing with cars.

You HATE to shop, although you love to push around this cart and fill it with things that I have to clean up later.

You LOVE zuzs (shoes). I am constantly helping you put on shoes and they usualy arent yours.

And you discoved one of your favorite hiding spots - the dryer. I can't keep you out of it! I am amazed at how different you are than Carter. You keep me on my toes constantly and are very good at letting me know when I need to slow down and spend some time with you. Never let me forget that. I love you so much Mollie. You are a miracle in my life.

LOVE MOM

Some fun new words Mollie is saying at 18 months:

bebe - baby

bebe - puppy

bebe - pretty

Mommy

Daddy

Papa

CaTee - Carter

syses - eyes

tat tat tat - quack quack quack

sus - Jesus

naa - snack

suice - Juice

book

men - Amen

BAAAAA - sound for a sheep

FIVE years and counting....

Has 5 years really already come and gone?! Mar. 1st was the day I married Chad in the Logan Temple in frigid condtions. It was such a special day. I love this man even more than the day I married him. He is constantly making me smile and letting me know how much he loves me.
One way he showed his love this year was getting us a night away! (thanks to grandma for coming to stay with the kids!) He surprised me and took me to the Filmore Inn Bed & Breakfast here in Twin Falls. It was such a neat little place and the food was great!! We ate at Johnny Carinos, then checked into our room.

Roses, chocolates, sparkling cider, chocolate covered strawberries, and cookies were waiting for me when we arrived.

And a wonderful jetted tub!

We slept in late and enjoyed a great breakfast in the dinning room.

It was so homey and the service was great. I HIGHLY recommend this to my Twin Falls friends (or out of town friends for that matter) for a little get away or celebration. It was wonderful and much needed!

Thanks so much Chad for loving me through everything and making me feel so special, just like the day we were married. You are the man of my dreams. Love you lots.

On to February....

We started off February with Hiccup & Annie. 2 goldfish who became a part of our family as Carter's reward for being potty trained. Yeehaw!

We had a special visit from Grandma Reed and had a indoor picnic with plastic dishes...A fond memory from my childhood. (Dont look at all my laundry on the couch..)

If anyone knows my husband well, you would know he is a lego nerd...(love you dear) and he made this for me the week of Valentines Day.

I woke up Valentine's morning to 15 love notes scattered around the house with reasons on each one of why Chad loves me. Very sweet. It made my whole year. :)

And later that night....well, I'll leave it to your imagination. ;)

Happy Valentines Day!

January has come and gone....

But it sure doesn't feel like it! The weather has been very mild, with no snow. Come on, it's January!! But we had a great month. Probly the best month we have had in quite a while for a number of reasons.

#1: My brother and his family were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on their 5 year anniversary which was Jan. 5th. I am so proud of my big brother and all the hard work he has done to get his family here. Love you guys!

Reason #2: We tagged along with Chad on a business trip to Utah and me and the kids played while Chad was in class all day. We did get to steal him away and do a few fun things. Staying in a hotel room with all 4 of us had its challenges, but i would do it again. We had so much fun playing and shopping! We went to a huge aquarium in Sandy.....

And to Jump on It with TONS of trampolines and bounce houses...

And to the mall where they had a neat play area for the kids....

And to Planet Play, which is like an arcade for smaller kids....

Carter was in heaven and I think he was in shock about how many fun places he was getting to go to. The trip also included Jim's Jungle, lots of eating out, swimming, a memorial service for Chad's grandma who passed away, and lots of cousin time with the Dudschus family.

Reason #3: Scotty McCreery, The Band Perry, and BRAD PAISLEY! Yes we took a quick trip to Boise to see this concert with some great friends the Sorensons. We had so much fun with them and the concert was amazing. It was Chad's first concert. We were a little late and missed Scotty McCreery (Chad was heart broken....he really likes him) but i was so glad when he came back on stage at the end. GREAT night.

(Scotty)

(Brad) Ok, so I lied....a little at the begining of this post....we got a tiny amount of snow and we ran outside to play in it before it was gone. Carter and Chad had a snow ball fight.

Mollie didn't love the snow and just wanted to play on the slide.

Chad pulled the kids in the sled.

And we built a snow man with the best packing snow I have ever seen! Carter sang "Once there was a Snowman" every day for weeks as we watched it melt away.

I give January 5 Stars. It was a wonderful month!

Good Bye 2011 We will miss you

Tonight I feel kind of lost....last year at this time i had LOTS of plans and goals set to ring in 2011. I was motivated to make change in my life. I knew we were going to add and addition to our family soon, I knew i was going to work my butt off in the gym, I knew I wanted to get better at wake boarding, reading my scriptures, and pleny of other things. But when I sat down tonight to think about what 2012 will bring....it looked kind of bleak. I wanted 2011 to be my best year yet and I really believe that it was! So i have big shoes to fill for 2012. I still plan to work out at the gym, no babies are in our near future, Im sure ill be able to pick up where i left off with my wakeboarding skills (if you can call them that!), scripture reading has become a habit....where do i go from here?

I have a looonnng way to go before I'm perfect (hee hee) but I do have a few "inner self" things i want to work on. So maybe "myself" will be my project for this year. Who knows?! I have learned alot about myself in these last two weeks as a primary president and I think there is an amazing person in there....i just need to develop and uncover her!

Here's to a GREAT 2012! Happy New Year!

CHRISTmas 2011

I won't lie, the first weeks of December were quite hairy. I was fighting a horrible cold, dealing with the challenges of a new primary president, writing a talk for sacrament meeting on christmas day, making treat plates, and sending christmas cards. The Christmas spirit almost passed me by. But the Thursday before everything was done and ready and I was ready to enjoy my Christmas!

We started out our celebrations to see the lights in the south hills....always a good time, and Carter was happy to see Santa and get a candy cane.

We were SO happy that Grandma & Grandpa Hymas came to spend Christmas with us! We always love having them. New Christmas Jammies!

And of course Christmas morning was magical. It is so fun to watch the faces of suprised little kids, especially when they are your own!

G&G Hymas even had a few suprises!

Man was this kid happy!

I wish that every christmas we could attend church. Im not sure if it was because I was speaking and had to sit on the stand or what, but I felt the christmas spirit so strong that day. After church we spent 2 hours on the phone with my brother on his mission. It was so great to hear his testimony and that he is being cared for by others & heavenly father. Christmas was so wonderful! What a special time of year. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Nativity

I mentioned 'simple faith' in my last post....

I was totaly impressed with my sweet Joy School group and their Christmas program. It was so sweet. I watched in awe at the reverence they had as they acted out the Saviors birth. AMAZING.

Although there were a few wisemen who were slightly silly and were seeing who could jump the highest to reach the star.....nonetheless, precious!