St. George

In June my parents invited me and the girls to St. George with them. It was such a nice time. Isaac stayed home because he had to work, and while we enjoyed long lazy days at the pool, he was working hard and being drenched with non-stop rain. We had such a great time that I didn't even get any pictures, with the exception of the inflatable bouncing place we went to. The girls had such a great time. I seriously cannot remember a better week. We all returned home with tans, yes even fair skinned me. We took the girls to see the production of Annie at the Tuachan at the beautiful outdoor theatre. Charli has been in love ever since. It is so fun to see them get excited and passionate about things at such a young age. The only thing missing from this nice vacation was Isaac. I seriously hope he can make it next time.

Last Chance at the Zoo

We had to take Isaac the very last day our Zoo membership expired, May 31st. I kept thinking we would make it back once the Elephant was born in August, but we didn't. Again I cannot believe this was almost a full year ago. They were doing the Madagascar exhibit at the time and it was really fun to see the animals.

Dance Dance

I enrolled the girls into a tumbling/dance class in February. My mom started me in dance at a really young age and we thought they would really enjoy this. The performance they did in May was really cute. The song was the purple people eater. The entire recitals theme was around colors. I had to laugh because Charli was going through this stage that anytime her picture was being taken she would make the slouchy hip poses. You may notice from some of the other recent pictures posted. They did group pictures with her class and the photographer was getting a little frustrated with Charli because as soon as she placed her in a dance pose for the picture and Charli saw the picture was about to be taken she would change position into her model hip pose. I couldn't help but giggle.

Zoo Time

I think the best investment I made all year was a membership to the Zoo. We used it so much and had such a good time. Since we were making frequent trips to Primary Children's Medical Center it was always nice to add something fun on the trip down to Salt Lake. This particular day we brought Dannie along.

San Diego Get Away

I have such a fantastic Husband who allows me to take time away with my friends. My girlfriend Dannie and I did a quick trip to San Diego the first part of May. I had never been and had such a great time. We actually were there only 24 hours, literally. We flew in and picked up our rental car around 11:00 and dropped it off the next morning at the same time. I was amazed at how much we saw and did in that amount of time. When you don't have kids in tow you really can pack the day. The only thing we didn't do was Sea World, but I think it is something I would enjoy more sharing with my girls.

Nature Center

For Skye's birthday gift her Grandma gave her a membership to the Ogden Nature Center. Perfect to add to her bird theme birthday. I am sad to say that we haven't taken enough advantage of it. They have really great classes on Wednesdays for the kids, unfortunately this is when I am at work. The girls had a great time when we went this particular day. They saw rabbits and deer, and plenty of birds.

Skye Turns Six

I think it is so fun to see what my girls choose for their themes when it is their birthday. Well, Skye chose to have a bird theme party, where this idea came from I really don't know, but once she decided she didn't change her mind in the slightest. It turned out to be pretty cute, aside from the fact it was a bit challenging to come up with ideas. Bird theme birthday parties wasn't something I could easily google. The kids decorated little wooden bird houses, and played games like feeding the bird gummy worms. In so many ways it seems just like yesterday, but it has been a full year.

Blog- a-thon

I think this picture pretty well describes Mine and Isaac's two greatest joys. We are soon to add another to the mix and I figure it's about time I catch up on my journaling. I have this problem moving forward if I haven't kept up and I really would hate for another year to fly by that I didn't keep record of.

2009

I seriously cannot believe how fast this year has flown. It makes me sad to think that another year has past in the lives of my fast growing children. I am reminded at how terrible I am at recording our history and realize the importance of recording our lives. It is fun to look back at the memories we have created and the pictures I may or may not have taken and know now how much I have neglected recording these fleeting moments. I downloaded my camera the other day and it was so sad to say that I still had last Christmases pictures on it and everything in between now and then. I have come to the reality that life will not slow down in order for me to catch up, it only seems to get busier and busier, if I am going to get it done, I just have to do it! So here's to starting my new 2010 goal...keeping better record.

In order to feel I have a "fresh" start, I must record the highlights from 2009.

Someday!

Someday I will download pictures from my camera and make a record of our happenings.  Someday.

Thoughts by Charli

We have been trying to take the kids and dogs for a walk every night to "magic" park.  On the way its a wonderful time to visit with the girls.  The other night Charli and I were walking hand in hand and she asks me. "Mom, when I was in your stomach, did I explode it because I was growing so fast?"  She proceeds to tell me what is was like to be inside my stomach, "It felt so right, like I was finally alive and I could feel my heart start beating!"  Charli is a very observant little character, and I was really taken back by her comment. 

 We often find ourselves giggling and at the silly things she says and does.  Often times when we are walking she is talking constantly...so much that I have to tell her to take a breath.  Her personality has changes drastically from when she was an infant.  She was very quiet and easy going, and leery of people she didn't know.  Today, she is much the opposite with bounce and zeal,  she talks openly with people she doesn't know, and is continually teasing her bigger sister.  (Good thing Charli is the younger, not older sister).  

UPDATE ME!

Update me please!  Life is flying,  kids are growing, and I have not taken one moment or one picture to record our Herrera Happenings, and sadly the desire is about as strong as my desire to go to work today.  Urgh.

STARS

Charli was sick with a stomach bug a couple weeks ago, and I went to the store to get a few things that feel "not so bad" on a sick stomach.  I ended up buying a can of "Chicken and Stars" soup.  Well, it has sat in our cupboard with small pleas from Skye, "Can I please have some star soup".   Isaac fed the girls a early dinner, so when I got home from work they were hungry once again.  I caved and gave the girls the soup.  You thought they had died at gone to heaven.  They were so excited and then Charli asked me, "Do they have to kill stars, to make star soup?"  Then she proceeded to look out the window and admire the stars up in the night sky, with the look of  , "How do they do it?"  

New Year Resolutions!

I have yet to even upload pictures from Christmas day, and record the memories which came along with it, the whole purpose of my blogging.  Yet, more often then not I wish to blog about other things.

I don't know if many of you have seen this manuel or not, but it is fabulous in my eyes.  It is the new nursery manuel the church put out and it is amazing.  I secretly wanted to go back into teaching in the nursery, just so I could use it with the kids.  Anyhow, it is so simple to use, it has everything you need, right where you need it, including lesson pictures, art projects, and songs.  

I bought one for our family and wrapped it up, along with some other church related gifts.  On the night of Christmas day, after all the unwrapping and toy playing, I got my girls together and talked with them once again, about what Christmas is really about.  I told them that Jesus had a gift for each of them, and I let them unwrap their gifts.  It was nice after all the chaos of the day, to bring the focus where it should be. 

I often feel like I fall far behind on the numerous things that I would like to be accomplishing.  Well, this New Years I made a resolution, not to pressure myself, not to add to the list of "I didn't do's".  I made one resolution, and that was to have a family home evening lesson every week with my girls.  I decided to use the new manuel "Behold your Little Ones", as our outline.  It has made it so simple and flawless.  I just add to it to make it more age appropriate. 

In just the past few weeks, this one change has allowed for so many other things to fall into place.  This is just another testimony of where our priorities need be.

New Year!

Well, the laundry is finally caught up, and now it's time to catch up on what has been going on around here.  I am just beginning to feel under control from the Christmas after math.  Can you believe it has already been over two weeks?  I still have gifts that are not delivered.  I am grateful that the weather shows no snow removal needed this week, and maybe just maybe I might have time to figure out how to use my new Christmas gift.  It was a Christmas of pictures.  I received several framed pictures along with a digital picture frame.  Now I just have to give myself sometime to get our Holiday pictures downloaded and posted.