Feeling very thankful this week...

Audrey is so imaginative and talkative lately. German bought me flowers on Friday, but the lilies had not yet opened. One opened on Sunday and the girls were so excited, then yesterday another lily opened overnight and Audrey saw it first, she squealed with joy. "Mommy, mommy, LOOK! The lily opened and it is soooo pretty. Oh, I am SO proud!" Hands first went in the air and then she clasped her cheeks, obviously filled with so much happiness. She's adorable, I love her.

Lucy loves that they have spots...I told her they were pretty freckles. She saw me cut off the stamens on the first lily and had to know why (she started the WHY phase), so when the second lily opened the first thing she said was, "Mom, we need to cut off the yellow part because it is so messy!" The girls cannot resist touching those bright yellow anthers and in the past I learned the hard way that they leave impenetrable stains.

Notice Sage laying upside down on the chair watching a movie, silly girl!

I finally uploaded pictures to my computer instead of to German's. Last night German brought home take out from Pei Wei for dinner. We all love it and since dad uses chopsticks, the girls HAVE to use them as well...and they are getting really good at it!

I am so thankful for my husband and three daughters. Life really is good (sometimes it can be a pain, but ultimately it is good and I feel so blessed).

I'm so glad when daddy comes home!

Dad is driving home right now! We survived the 15 week long two internships and I am so glad he will be home with us again. I miss him and I'm tired! The girls have missed him too and are constantly asking when daddy will come home. On Wednesday Lucy asked when daddy would be home and I told her in TWO days! Then yesterday during prayer she prayed for daddy to come home on TUESday.

We've been practicing writing their first names for a few months now. Usually they'd trace the letters or follow dotted lines, but today they both did it all by themselves! I can't believe how grown up they are getting,...so crazy. Audrey drew a smiling sun and a straight lined rainbow. She ran out of room to write her name, so on another sheet of paper she asked me to draw a butterfly and colored it completely green. Lucy also asked me to draw a butterfly and she wanted a sun with a tree. Then she drew three holes in the tree trunk for the squirrels to live in and she also drew nine big red apples in the tree each with a black stem and a green leaf. Of course, the butterfly needed to be pink and the sun needed a smiling face like Audrey's sun. Sage just screamed at me to draw her things and scribbled.

Audrey's smiling sun, rainbow and squished name (she added the tree w/ apples after she saw Lucy's)

Audrey's green butterfly and name--for some reason she wanted an O on the end ???

Lucy's sun, butterfly, and apple tree. She did the Y twice...hers are the two on the right

She did her name again on the back with more room.

Sage's beautiful orange and black scribbles...she must be excited for Halloween!

Lucy Lu

During scripture reading and prayers last night, Lucy started kissing my arm over an over. I smiled and said "Thank you for your kisses, Lucy." She said "You're welcome, mommy, they are angel kisses 'cause I'm an angel!" To which I replied, "Yes you are..."

I love her.

And today we drove home from Fort Worth and I hoped the girls wouldn't sleep in the car so we could all take a nap when we got home. Lucy sleeps anywhere and took a 45 minute snooze early on in the car. I wondered how naps would go, but I gave it a shot. Audrey and Sage were out in minutes, but I heard Lucy still making noise. I was soooo tired and couldn't stay awake. I faintly remember Lucy coming in my room asking if she could watch Strawberry Shortcake. I mumbled "yeah yeah, sure..." Well, she pressed play and turned on the TV and watched Strawberry Shortcake all by herself while the rest of us slept for over an hour. She is an angel. Thank you Lucy!

And thank you Nana Gail! The girls love all their princess jewelry and tiaras. Lucy yelled "I'm a butterfly princess!" when she saw herself in the mirror, followed by lots of giggles and smiles. Not sure how I'm going to convince them to take it all off, so we can go to the gym. Oh, and I'm going to save Rio to watch tomorrow. Thanks!

ha, everyday...

We've been up here in Fort Worth this weekend and the internet was crappy in our hotel. The girls love making up bedtime stories ever since we stayed the night in Albuquerque with my friend Melisa and her daughter Julia. Melisa made up a story about little girl princesses and ended it with happily ever after. So now the girls love making up stories about three little princesses riding pink or purple horses and wearing big pretty dresses living happily ever after. Everyone has to have a turn, even Sage...so cute to hear her baby talk. I love my girls!

I have a new goal to write something every day...

...and look I'm writing twice! Today I started off on the wrong foot and it pretty much ran downhill fast. Why do I go beeserkko?? I yelled way too much at my sweet girls today and I am totally feeling the guilt now that they are sleeping. Does that happen to anyone else? I just can't see the big picture sometimes, I love them so much and wish I could stay more calm. They behave exactly like 3 year olds and a 2 year old should behave. I, on the other hand, act like a spoiled teenager who just wants to be alone or go get her haircut or go running in her new shoes, but can't because her three daughters have noses that are running more than Niagara. And I really don't mind wiping noses, but when they repeatedly feel the need to wipe their noses on my leg or my shirt or the couch, I feel my patience slipping away.

Audrey will at least get a tissue and try to blow and wipe her own nose, only w/o much success. Today after using about 10 wipes, she yelled "UGGHHH, come out boogers! Mom, the boogers aren't coming out!" I think she wanted me to put her boogers in timeout or something. And Lucy no less than 5 times today came up to me, pretending to kiss my thigh, when in actuality she would finish her kisses with a nose press and wipe. Sage is the runniest faucet, she will just run to me and throw her face into my shirt or pants and just swish her head back and forth as fast as she can. Usually the snot is running down into her mouth or she'll use her hand to wipe it up her cheek into her eyebrows and hair. She will also do that to the couch, the hanging kitchen/bathroom towels, the bedding, her sisters, anything really. I had to take all three to Walmart to get some snacks for the drive to Dallas tomorrow (we are going to visit dad) and that is never fun. Then to Walgreens to get yet another humidifier, we've gone through 4 now...then come home to do dinner/baths/bed. I just get so overwhelmed and this mean crazy yelling lady comes out. I won't even tell you the junk I've eaten today...I'm a mess.

Ok, I was a mess. Tomorrow I will try to be less of a mess. I just went to kiss and hug my beautiful sleeping girls. I am so thankful to be their mother. I am so lucky to have them, so lucky they are healthy and so lucky they are forgiving. I love them each so very much. Tomorrow I will try to feel honored to be covered in their sweet snot! At least they'll be strapped into their carseats most of the morning, but I'm sure I'll be covered by the time evening rolls around. Thank goodness, tomorrow is a new day. And thank goodness tomorrow we get to see dad.

Mom, this is a really long drive...

On Sunday July 17th around 2pm I decided to take the girls to Utah since German would be in Dallas doing his internship. We packed up and left by 7pm to drive Fort Worth, then Monday onto Amarillo, Tuesday to Albuquerque, then Wednesday after about 10 hours of driving, we arrived at my Aunt Janice's around 6pm. It was really great to visit with them all and enjoy sitting outside w/o dying of heat exhaustion. We then headed to my mom's house to surprise her, she had no idea we were coming to visit. It was fun! The girls only had a few freakout moments, but the car DVD player I bought in Amarillo helped alot.

German & Abuelo

Like grandfather like son...

In 2005 we lived in BYU married housing and Abuelo came to stay with us for a few nights. One morning German woke up and smelled smoke. He entered the kitchen and saw flames and smoke coming from the gas stove top. Dear abuelo was washing the dishes totally unaware of the fire. He thought he was heating up the water in our 'electric kettle' to make some mate for breakfast. Actually when he saw the smoke he said "German, what did you do???" We love abuelo Oscar and hope we have a little boy someday to name after him.

Earlier this week German was getting ready for work here at his dad's house in Dallas. We just drove all weekend from Utah and he was pretty tired. He thought he had grabbed his dad's teapot to heat up some water for mate, but he didn't. He grabbed our electric kettle and the flames melted the plastic. We had a good laugh, he and abuelo are so alike.