Great Sunday

 We had a wonderful Sabbath day.  I'm so thankful for all I learned today.  I feel like I NEED the spiritufal uplift as a mother and always leave our church meetings with more resolve to do better.  We had an amazing lesson with the Young Women today about the importance of keeping records.  I've always known it is important, but get so busy, I forget to write down my daily thoughts and struggles and inspiration.  I guess our blog is a great place to do so :)

I posted pictures of my beautiful girls because right now, they are my life.  They have made me a better person in so many ways and I feel so privliged to be their mother.  I don't always feel worthy to be their mother as I fall short so many days.  Sometimes,  I let my anger get the best of me, and I NEVER wanted to a be an angry mother.  But, I am learning patience and love each day.  There are so many days when I feel overwhelmed with daily tasks of meals, cleaning, laundry, and keeping my girls entertained and running a little business.  I try to make sure there are plenty of days where we just enjoy eachother and don't stress so much over the "perfectly clean house".  I realize they won't be little forever, and this time is so precious with them.  I stress over them so much and hope I am teaching them a love for their family and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Gavin and I laugh sometimes about the fact that we have all girls, and obviously it wasn't by mistake :)  I'm a pretty emotional person myself, and those emotions are multiplied most days between the four of us girls :)  I guess it is a good lesson for me to learn, to be more patient and control my own emotions. 

Tomorrow is Gavin's last day of his first year of law school.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone, but so look forward to finishing up our school years.  He works so hard in school and I'm thankful to have a husband who works so hard.  What I love about him is that even when he is really busy and has to spend time studying at home, he makes a point to spend quality time with each of us.  The girls LOVE to wrestle with him and watch movies with Dad.  They get SO excited when he pulls into the driveway (and so do I most days :)  It is nice to have a husband who will play with them as soon as he gets home to relieve me of the stresses I face each day as a mother. 

 This life really is about family and helping eachother return to our Heavenly Father.  Our whole marraige, we've never had a lot of money, and most months we barely make it by.  This can be highly stressful sometimes, but we've always been able to make it when we've paid our tithing.  It has been an amazing blessing.  And the best lesson I've learned is that material things DON'T matter.  We've been just as happy living in little tiny apartments as we are now in this nice rental house.  And I would never trade being a mother for anything in the world.  It is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but so rewarding.

Anyway, this post is mostly for me to record some feelings I've had lately :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Gavin and the girls made Mother's Day really special yesterday :)  Abby brought me cheerios in bed, hehe :)  And Gavin cooked me more breakfast food and also made me dinner!  And, he even baked a cake :)  (with a little help frrom me :)  I love my little family, I'm one lukcy Mom!  Becoming a mother has been the best decision I've ever made and has made me a better person.  I'm so thankful for the hard days and the wonderful days as a Mother, they have all strenghthened me so much.  I'm also so thankful for my Mother and for all she sacrificed for me and our family.  I wouldn't be where I am today without her influence and love. 

I'm also thankful for my mother-in-law and for how sweet she has been to me since we've been married.  She is a wonderful Grandmother and friend and helps so many people. 

And I'm thankful for my sweet Grandmothers, who have also influenced my life so much.  They are such wonderful examples of love and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Missing my family a lot, but so thankful for all the time we had together in Utah :) 

Just some cute pictures

 I've been meaning to take some better pictures for my Etsy shop, and so I decided to get some business/family photos tonight :)  The girls had a blast running around and posing for me :)  Anyway, here are some cute pictures we got tonight.  I'm lucky to have such a cooperative family, hehe :)

life these days....





We've already hit 100 degree weather here in AZ!!  It started feeling like summer about a month ago though, hahaha.  I'm still getting used to it :)  We've had a lot of fun the past few weeks though!  Gavin's sister, Stephanie, moved to Arizona a few weeks ago and invited us to come swim in their pool...which the girls LOVED.  Gavin and I love having her family here. 

Gavin and I got to go to our stake "Prom" night about a week ago, which was a blast.  We also went to dinner with quite a few couples from our ward before the dance; it was a really fun night! 

Anyway, here are some recent pictures, I'll explain them as we go down :)  

                   Thanks to the website, Pinterest, I found a really good sidewalk paint recipe, and weve tried it out a few times already.. needless to say it gets messy, but is washable :)

                                             Hallie even got in on the fun :) 

     We've been doing some crafts lately :)  We made little balloon animals (pigs and a mouse).  The girls were so proud of their work :) 

                                              So....we had to hang them up!

Here is our sweet Hallie.  Lately, she loves to play with her big sisters a lot.  She is growing up too fast :( 

Here is a recap of our girls (mostly for my record :)

Abby is such a sweet big sister.  She is so willing to help with her sisters and with chores too!  Today, she folded an entire basket of clothes for me, without me asking her to.  She checks on Hallie every morning as we're waking up and tells me as soon as she hears her wake up from naps too.  A lot of times, she'll help push Hallie on the swing too to help me out :)  She is quite the little artist lately, I think we have hundreds of her drawings all over the house.  And, she LOVES to dance and sing, it is so cute.   We've really been working on getting Abby and Bailey to keep their room clean everyday.  Well one day, after cleaning up really well, she told me, "Mom, I cleaned up my room so you don't have more work to do".  Made me tear up.  She is really growing up and has become a really good helper.  Can't believe she'll start Kindergarten this Fall; I'm going to be an emotional wreck!

Bailey is still our little cuddle bug and is just so sweet.  (Yes, she has her 3 year old tantrum moments, but we're working on those :)  She tells me "I love you Mom" a lot and give me kisses and hugs all throughout the day.  Our girls don't always get along, (go figure), but I love the moments when I see Bailey giving Hallie or Abby a hug.  She has this suttle sense of humor and likes to do things like take my phone and wait until I notice, and then she'll burst out laughing.  She also loves to sing and dance.  Did I mention cuddling?  Can't get enough of her squeezes :)  Oh, and she loves to play with barbies and her doll house and I'll catch her having cute little "pretend" conversations between her dolls :) 

Hallie is 18 months old, and I don't know where the time has gone.  She is so sweet and loves to give us hugs and squeezes.  Yes, she is very attached to her binky (as you can see) and also her blankets....we'll have to work on this one soon :)  She is climbing up stairs really well and loves to run and play outside with her sisters.  She is quite the dare devil at times, kind of make us nervous :)  She has started to say "please", which makes me feel like I've done something right as a Mom, maybe?  Hallie has always been really little (except for her head size, hehe, which is in the 90th percentlie still).  She is still wearing size 4-5 shoes.  Anyway, we love her so much, and wish she would stay little.  Everytime I see this little person running around, it just makes me giggle. 

I've been busy with Etsy orders, and sometimes I wish I didn't have to work almost every night, but I'm glad I can help our family out a little bit financially.  Gavin works so hard in school, and I'm thankful to have such a wonderful husband.

Easter

 Just realized I never posted our Easter pictures!  We made these cupcakes a few days before Easter, but of course, they never made it to Easter :)  They were tasty!  The girls had a good time decorating them with me, and Hallie enjoyed eating them! 

 Easter morning was really fun...the girls were so excited about the Easter bunny coming, and had a fun time with our little egg hunt. 

 And yes, we had them use Target bags for the egg hunt, their baskets won't fit all the goods :)

I love the Easter holiday, such a wonderful time to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel and to have the opportunity to return to live with our Heavenly Father and Savior one day through his atonement.  Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!