Blessing Bags

It happens quite often that we pass someone on the side of the road that is homeless and hungry. I always feel bad because I have nothing to give them and never carry cash. Chad came up with an idea of keeping food and water in our car so we were always prepared. So the girls got busy and put together some blessing bags...

We just put some oranges, granola bars, and peanut butter crackers in small bags. And I also picked up some of those mini water bottles. They fit perfectly in the glove compartment of our van so we are always prepared.

Sophie is always on a mission to find "hungry people" now. I tell her to look for people who are holding a sign because that will tell us if they need help. We have given a few away and Sophie got really excited to see their sign. She tells me "Mom! their sign says I'M HUNGRY!!" After we give the food to them Sophie and Lydia get so excited because we made someone happy. Sophie says "aww look Mom he's happy."

It took Lydia a little bit to understand what the snacks were really for. She used to ask for one and Sophie would say "No Lydia those are for hungry people!" and Lydia would respond..."I'm hungry!"

But she has gotten it down now.

Current Happenings

Some things that have been happening around here:
Its been really cold....

So 20 to 30 degree weather is probably a laugh to most people, but when it has been 80 to 100 degrees untill a few weeks ago.....we might as well be in the arctic. Its just cold.

We have officially stopped giving Lydia naps. Which is bitter sweet. She had several weeks where she would wake up at 1 a.m. ready for the day. I couldn't take it anymore especially since I will have to get up at night in a few months with a baby. Practicing that didn't sound fun. But now that she doesn't nap she sleeps great!

And occasionally is exhausted and passes out at odd times. This was the first time we have ever lost a kid at dinner.

We also added a new member to the family....

Yes I know we are now a minivan family...sigh. But I love it! We searched for quite awhile and weren't sure if we were going to be able to find what we wanted in our price range. But after a lot of searching I had given up when a ad for a Nissan dealership popped up. I don't know why I clicked on it (we did not want a Nissan with all the issues we had with mine). When low and behold they had a Dodge Grand Caravan with all our criteria and in our price range! Its even a bit fancier than we had planned with automatic doors (which I Looove) and a trip computer. But my favorite part of all is the stow and go seats.

So far we really like it and are grateful that we found the right car for us.

Christmas Fun

On Christmas Eve we headed to my parents house and got everything set up for our family tradition of eating on our pretty china dishes. I wish I had gotten a picture of all of the kids at the table. They did a great job using the china and I think they liked being served all of their food. Here are the tables though....

I did the Christmas story for the table centerpieces. The wise men following the star, the angel telling the Sheppards of Christ's birth, and of course the nativity under the star....

 

 

My sister Sarah made the cute pine cone trees and roses to make the tables look all pretty. We enjoyed some yummy dinner my Mom made and four different flavors of cheesecake yum! After dinner I read The Night Before Christmas to all of the kids and someone special rang the doorbell...

 

That sneaky Santa left a bag of goodies for everyone. The girls got some pretty cute necklaces!

Then the kids got all dressed up for their part in the nativity play. Sophie and Lydia were angels and we made them some fun wings out of paper plates...

 

Sorry they are not very good pictures I couldn't get them to hold still. Toodles even had a part. She was a good little sheep...



The kids did such a great job and they only got to practice once before dinner. Here is the whole cast!

 

 

We ended the evening with the white stocking and writing down our gifts to Christ.

 

Christmas morning was nice. The girls slept in (Merry Christmas to us!). Sophie was excited that Santa remembered exactly what she wanted! (Which Lydia wanted too)...Princess walkie talkies!

 

Lydia was a bit cranky since we had to wake her up but she got into it once she saw Sophie stacking the presents in front of her...

They had fun opening all of their gifts...

and enjoyed playing with their toys the rest of the day until we headed to my parents for a potluck dinner.

One more thing Santa left....

Their very own Bow and Arrows! They were pretty excited once we told them what they were. Now they are just like Princess Merida form Brave (which Sophie quickly informed us of ).  Sophie will go out and shoot with Chad for a long time and she is getting really good at loading the arrow herself and shooting it with Chad helping her hold the bow. Lydia likes the idea of it and will shoot a couple but then she is done.

 

 



Mini Vacation

On Friday we headed to Phoenix and hung out at some play areas while we waited for Chad to get off of work. Then we took turns going to the Temple and took the girls to see the temple lights again...

They wouldn't cooperate for the picture but they really did have fun. We stayed at a hotel which the girls just think is the coolest thing in the world. On the way home we stopped at the Rooster Cogburn Ranch to feed the animals. They had donkeys...

and really cute deer....

and goats. They had some of the goats in a pen high up in the air. The goats really like it and it was fun feeding them.

You had to put the feed inside the yellow cup and then crank the handle and send it up to the goats. They had other goats you could hand feed too. Chad saw on the sign that they will eat it out of your mouth. He picked a long piece of food and fed a goat...

 

 

Then he convinced me since his goat didn't even touch him. I hesitantly agreed and Chad picked out one shorter than his was and I got licked three times before the darn goat took the food. Chad thought that was pretty funny... thanks Honey. 

We fed ostriches too. They are a little scary though I kept thinking they would peck Lydia's hand off for sure...

The coolest part was feeding the lorakeets. Right when we walked in and were getting instructions they swarmed us...

They take off the lids to the nector and drink out of your hand...

Lydia was insistent on doing it herself but freaked out when the bird landed on her hand and dropped the cup. Then we fed some ducks...

The girls loved feeding all of the different animals and it was nice to get away for a little bit.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Lydia Bug!!

Lydia turned 2 on Friday!! It was kind of funny I had a doctor's appointment at the same time she was born 10:32 am. So she got to see Dr Ighani at the same exact time two years later.

Grandma and Grandpa Clayton stopped by and gave her a present....

It was the perfect gift for our little girl who just loves to clean!!

and the apron is adorable!! They took the girls out for some fun too! Then when Chad came home she got to open her present from us...

She is so excited to finally have her own bike!!

Saturday she had a Minnie Mouse party...

We played some Mickey Bowling...

And they colored bows and played Pin the Bow in Minnie....

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Lydia Bug!!