Jessica

Dearest Jessica,

I'm pretty sure you can check yourself off my FAVORITE list!
Thanks for chatting away with me on the phone, for hours on end,
about nothing important.
Thanks for sharing all your amazing design/party/crafty ideas
whenever I'm in need of one.
Thanks for letting me vent about all my petty problems.
Thanks for being a shining example of faith, in every aspect of your life.
Thanks for being my sister.
HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!
I love you!

Rachel

Shut the front door...

TWO posts in one day? Who knew?

I think perhaps my MOST favorite person may just be in this post. And, we just may be doing one of our favorite activities to do together. Can you guess who my MOST favorite person is? It's some pretty amazing video people. Do enjoy.

Evelyn

Another favorite of mine!



Miss Evelyn just celebrated her first birthday, and boy was it a great party! You should check out her cake HERE. I sure wish I had more opportunities to kiss Evie's sweet cheeks, as she lives in Oregon and all, but I think she is sweeter than sugar and I can't wait to see her again! Loves to you Miss Evie!

Happy Birthday To YOU!

Today is one special day for my favorite #3! It's Sophie Bean's birthday! My niece is adorable, and I fully admit I am partial. I am actually partial to all my nieces, I think they are all gorgeous...BUT today is Sophie Soph's big day and we're celebrating in style. A lunch of pizza and bread sticks, swinging in the backyard, and playing with cousins is a great way to celebrate. Some of my MOST favorite things about Sophie are:

- Her perfectly round head.

- Her dimples when she smiles.

- Her obsession with Lauren, aka Lolo (or as she says it: Doh Doh). This is a serious obsession people. Lolo is all she talks about, or so Christa says...seeing Lolo today may have been the BEST birthday present ever, I don't even need to get her anything! :)

- The fact that she answer's "yeah" to every question you ask her...

- She has the squishiest cheeks, and I love to give them smooches!

Happy Birthday Miss Sophie! We sure love your stinkin' guts!

P.S. I think it's positively fantastic that Sophie gets to share her birthday with one of my FAVORITE authors...Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss! How great is that?

Audrey

Bet you couldn't guess who my favorite #2 would be. Since we spend almost every waking moment together, it's easy to see why my girls are my favorites. #2 is also a bit sassy, but she's also a tender hearted girl. She seems to get her feel bads hurt quite often, because she takes everything WAY too seriously. She wouldn't hurt a fly, usually, so she doesn't understand "why people are mean". She asked me this just the other day, "Why are people so mean mom?" I wish I had a good answer to that. She's a lot like her mother in this way...at least I think I'm nice. Am I nice? I sure hope so.

Audrey has had a busy, busy week. We like to refer to it as Audrey's week o' fun.

Last Wednesday, praise heaven, we finally lost our first tooth! She's been asking me for a year now when she is going to lose her first tooth...and the day finally came. We had to call almost everyone we knew...grandma's, grandpa's, aunt's, uncle's, cousins. I've never seen a girl so excited. Especially when, nestled under our pillow the next morning, we found TWO whole gold dollars. It was a joyous occasion.

This same week a letter came home from school. "Your daughter Audrey has been awarded Principle's Pride for Patience." Really? Patience? Now, this is not exactly Audrey's strong point at home. But, we're pretty glad she has no problem with this at school! Way to go Audrey. Yesterday we attended an assembly to recognize all the other students that received Principle's Pride in February. It was great...as part of the assembly they had a group perform called Opera Works. They presented the students the basic principle's of Opera, and they performed a small show...The 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. Audrey was chosen to help with make up for one of the pigs...perfect for Audrey. She loves makeup and all things girly!

Upon arriving home after school that same day, Audrey announced that she was also Student of the Day! Life couldn't be any better! All her classmates drew a picture of Audrey and the teacher assembled it in a book. We spent a while looking at it, definitely saving that one in the memory book.

Holy cow! Best week ever! I love that favorite #2! She's such a hard worker, always wanting to do her best, and cute as a button to boot! Who'll be #3? Just you wait and see.

Lauren

(We love dress up)

Favorite #1 comes in the form of a petite 3-year-old, who is full of spunk and attitude. Miss Independent doesn't want any help from anyone, and she won't do anything unless it's her idea. While these might not be my favorite things all the time...I think they are attributes that will help her accomplish amazing things in the years to come. As long as we teach her how to use them in the right way. Oh, and we need to teach her patience and sharing and gratitude, and the list goes on and on. It will be no easy feat, I'm sure.

In December, Lauren finally decided that she was ready to be potty trained. I admit that I didn't push her as much as I could have, but given the above statement I just made, you can probably guess why. Things have been going really well and we decided that she could make it through the night without pull-ups anymore. So far, we have only had a few accidents...which leads to us doing extra loads of laundry the next day...which Lauren LOVES to help me with. I tell you this because last week Lauren came in my room and saw me pulling the sheets off MY bed. Here's how our conversation went:

Lauren: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Me: "Taking the sheets off the bed so I can wash them."

There was a long pause and then,

Lauren: "Did you pee the bed mom?"
Me: "Nope. (insert much laughter here) We wash sheets regularly, not just when we have an accident."
Lauren: "Oh. Can I help you?"
Me: "You bet."

Pure awesomeness.

Another recent observation:

Lauren was sitting at the table with a stuffed puppy and a bowl. She had the dog's head hanging over the bowl and was chatting away with it, comforting it. When I asked what she was doing she said, "My puppy is going to throw up mom." More Awesomeness. I bet you can't guess what sits next to your bed if you have the stomach flu at my house?

Lauren loves to play with Audrey. If Lauren has slept long enough for Audrey to get out the door and off to school, the first thing she asks me when she wakes up is, "Where is Audrey mom?" When I tell her she's at school she will always hang her head and say, "Awwww." And then proceed to ask me 15 more times where she is and when she will be home.

Lauren is my favorite little helper. She comes running when she hears me loading and unloading the dishwasher. She's in charge of the silverware. If I'm in the laundry room, she's putting things in the washer and dryer for me. Every Friday we empty the garbage's together, and she loves to help me clean the bathrooms...even though I don't love that. Why did they decide to put bleach in Comet I ask you? Maybe all this helping will last? One can only hope...

If you want to know my favorite thing about Lauren, it has to be...her sweet kisses. Really, she knows how to smooch a cheek, and she loves to give them out. They always come with a sweet hug too. It's really quite a treat. You must try one someday...

And there you have it. A few of my favorite things about my favorite #1. Please remember, these are in no particular order. I like all my favorites the same.

My Favorite People

Lately...well, lately life has been a little boring around here. This is the time of year when most people start going stir-crazy, and we are no exception. The weather has kept us indoors for FAR too long, and add to that our extreme frugalness, and you get two bored kids and one somewhat annoyed mother by the end of the day. So...in my bored state, I've been thinking about all of my favorite people...that I get to spend time with, and wish I could spend more time with. I got to thinking that I wanted to document these thoughts, so I'm going to feature my favorite people every couple days in a post. Exciting right? Since only a handful of people read this blog, it's mostly for myself. But, it will be fun to think about each person and their unique qualities and things that make them so likeable...and loveable! Will you be featured? Well, since most of my favorite people are the only one's that read this blog...it's highly likely! Plus, more posts more often right? Please try to contain that excitement. Now, off to think and work I go.