Gorgeous embroidery thread

A rainbow of crochet yarn

Even though I managed to get the shots I needed, I thought I’d share a few of my outtakes.

I spy with my little eye, a baby finger!

This is what you see when I zoom all the way out from the pictures I was trying to take.

Clara our little charmer.

In reflecting on trying to get these pictures done I now realize that I was “zoomed in” on the task at hand. But when I zoomed out, my two girlies were there and in need of attention. It made me realize how often I am zoomed in on the wrong things in life. This isn’t a new realization or anything as I am fully aware that I’m often focused on the wrong thing. It was just a nice (and not harsh) reminder to be in the moment, and to zoom in on what matters most.

Inez and her friend, Olivia, at gymnastics, on the balance beam.

Olive is constantly twirling. She never wants to wear pants or shorts. In fact, she will actually cry if I try to dress her in anything but a “pretty” which is a skirt or dress in Olive’s talk.

I asked Clara to give her baby a hug, and this is what she did. This girl is constantly charming us all.

Two babies, up to no good. Actually, Olive was picking out a movie to watch and 99.9% of the time it’s a princess movie. As long as it’s not Ariel, I’m good. That has got to be the worst story ever. If you don’t think so, you don’t have daughters. If you have daughters, you haven’t watched it since you’ve had daughters. If you have daughters and have recently watched it and think that it’s a perfectly fine movie, then I hope your daughter doesn’t get any crazy ideas at the age of 16, and decide to sell her soul and run away with a boy (she just “met”) because she’s in love with him. I need to get rid of that DVD.

I was lucky enough to attend two full days of Women’s Conference last week. It was fun and tiring and inspiring. I came home renewed and with a deeper love for my family.

One small part of my notes from Women’s Conference.

I asked Gwen to model her cute new frock for me. All of a sudden, Olive jumped in the picture, shirtless, with rain boots, and a bowl of popcorn (that she promptly spilled after this picture was taken).

I got some lovely fabric. Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but you can never go wrong with Union Jacks.

At my nephew’s baptism last week, Clara clearly preferred to be with Dave. That makes girl #4 that is a complete daddy’s girl.

This picture was taken during church on Sunday. I had to leave my meetings because of my loud and unruly babies. My caption for this picture in Instagram best describes this shot: “As my children grow older and (undoubtedly) find fault with their mother, I will tell them those are the lessons I missed at church BECAUSE OF THEM.”

I bought some yarn for a crochet class I will be taking in June. I’m going to learn how to make granny squares, and I’m beyond excited. Gwen’s preschool teacher, who is also Inez’s art teacher, is going to be teaching art classes for kids this summer, and she will also have a class for the ladies. I will post more on this as soon as the information & registration is available. If you are local, you should come with me. Or you can just meet me there. Whatever.

My brother, Jon, has just joined the Army. He’s away at Basic Training and OCS for five months. He has left behind his pregnant wife and son, Jon-Jon. This little family is going to be blessed for the sacrifices they are making right now. Anyway, Jon-Jon just turned three on Sunday and we gave him a bucket of soldiers (from Toy Story). I was SO happy that I caught his initial reaction as he opened his present. After he opened it, he showed all of us and said, “This is my Dad.” It was a tender moment with a hint of funny.
Also, I have to point out here that I think my Mom looks gorgeous. Especially for someone who is in remission for the second time!

This picture doesn’t need an explanation. Also, I love everything about this picture.

As she was riding the trike, she kept telling Dave to get on. So he did. And this is why all our girls are daddy’s girls.

She enjoyed all the attention.

Shoving it in.

Showing everyone how to do the beauty queen wave. I think the frosting on her arm adds a little something extra, don’t you?

Clara loves to point to Dave or me when she is wanting us to pick her up. I just love it. And her.

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby Clara!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Clara Bug!

One of my favorite things about her right now is that when I sing to her at night, she always asks for the same three songs, and always in the same order. They are: “Twinkle, Twinkle”, “You Are My Sunshine”, and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” She sure knows how to end on a good note (pun intended!).

I absolutely love this picture of her feeding Clara. The body language here kills me.

We got some free balloons from the grocery store the other day. I have a love/hate relationship with balloons. Olive has a absolute love for balloons and wouldn’t even give these up while napping. When I took this picture she was about two hours into her nap and still holding very tightly to them.

We went to Ikea a few weeks ago, and even though they had this slide locked into the shelf so that no one would slide down, Dave and I turned around and discovered that Olive was determined to go down. She didn’t quite make it (in case you were wondering).

At the Disney Store, she found this Rapunzel doll and hugged it tight for quite some time. This was after she had already hugged Rapunzel pajamas.

One cold, blustery morning we snuggled under some blankets and watched a movie (Rapunzel, in fact). At one point I looked over at Olive and she was picking her nose (the way two-year olds do).

After Valentine’s Day, she found her sister’s stash of candy and I found her hunkered down eating chocolate kisses.

I’m not usually one for animal print clothing, but these particular pjs, on this particular bed-headed girl…I’m sold!

Olive got a birthday package from Aunty Heather and it had some plushies from Yo Gabba Gabba. Foofa (pictured) got a nice long hug from Olive and is one of her new favorites.

What more can I say? Driving with sunglasses on at night and picking her nose like a two-year old.

This girl really does love chocolate. And especially chocolate donuts.

By far, she is my most girly-girl and already has an opinion of what she wants (and doesn’t want) to wear. Here she is all about the accessories.

She loves her “polka pot” pajamas, but they tend to give her a little bit of trouble at times.

She is currently obsessed with our popcorn maker. She is always getting it out of the cupboard down below, putting it on the countertop, dragging a chair over so that she can reach it, and finally putting the top on. She was very proud of her accomplishment this day.

This is one of my favorite smiles that she gives me. She is such a charmer.

I really do love ALL four of my girls. But if I was guaranteed I would have another Olive, I’d be pregnant already. I’m not.

So, now it’s three against three. Three with a glasses/contacts Rx and three without.

At this rate, I wonder who will be next to join “the club.”

How is it that my day-to-day life seems to drag and is a never ending cycle of dishes, laundry, picking up toys, making meals, changing diapers, and helping with homework. But when I step back and “look up” our little Miss Clara is on the verge of turning one.

Anyone know how can I enjoy the day-to-day without getting bogged down in it?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Not to mention how much her personality is starting to show.

How does my own baby make me baby-hungry?

Don’t worry Dave, it won’t happen anytime soon. Plus, you’d be the first to know.

Once we started pricing it, we discovered that it’s actually called a Zipfy Mini Luge, but decided that we like her name better. Anytime anybody asked her what she wanted for Christmas, “a blue zippy mini luge!” would roll right off her tongue.

When Christmas came, Santa—of course—brought her one.

So today, we called Grandma & Grandpa K to see if Gwen could spend a few hours at their house, to play in the snow and sled down their little backyard hill with her Blue Zippy Mini Luge. Of course they said yes.

She had a lot of fun playing in the snow.

She even built a snowman with Grandpa, because he is so awesome. I came over after awhile with the babies, put Olive in some snow clothes and let her play with Gwen & Grandpa too.

Olive took a ride on the Blue Zippy Mini Luge, but didn’t realize the importance of holding onto it until about halfway down the hill. Unfortunately, my camera decided to be slow right at the moment of impact. She kind of laughed it off, but didn’t want to ride the Blue Zippy Mini Luge anymore.

She took to her cousin’s snow shovel, and decided to focus on being cute instead.

She’s pretty good at it.

I have A LOT to catch up on as far as blogging goes, but for now, I’ll take you on a trip of our trip via Instagram.

The week after Christmas we drove to southern California for the wedding of Dave’s old college roommate, Matt. We stayed with our friends, James and Melissa, in Orange County. James was also roommates with Dave and Matt, and Melissa and I were in the same singles ward as the guys. So whenever we get together, a grand, grand time is had by all. Hi James and Melissa! I’m not sure Matt reads this blog.

Without further ado, here are some pictures.

Heading south. Yay!

Babies really enjoy getting out of their carseats along the way. Even the next car’s baby is out of it’s carseat. See?

I always have great intentions of what I will read when we go on road trips. I gave this magazine to Clara to “entertain” her for a bit and then I never saw it again.

One of my favorite landmarks on our way south is in Las Vegas on the right side of the freeway. I especially think it’s cool because my family had desert tortoises when I was growing up. They were my great grandparents (because tortoises live very long lives) and were named Ike and Mamie, as in, Ike and Mamie Eisenhower. If we have another child and that child is a girl, I want to name her Mamie. All the other girls have family names, and that turtle was basically a part of the family. You don’t think she’d resent being named after a beloved reptile, do you?

The Los Angeles Temple, where Matt and his lovely bride, Sara, were married. I hadn’t been to the LA Temple in about 20 years, so it was very cool.

Best reception food I’ve ever had.

One girl in particular was very tired by the time we sat down to eat at the reception. See her untouched hamburger? What a waste.

The twinkling lights of LA.

James Dean.

Everyone is happy at Trader Joe’s.

The eucalyptus trees were so fragrant as we drove through Irvine one evening. Seriously, I was freaking out about how strong that wonderful smell was. Dave thinks I am weird sometimes.

We visited my big sis who lives in the cutest little house on Balboa Island. It was great to see her, and we took a little walk around her hood. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of her! There was a beautiful sunset and this picture hardly does it justice.

Of course we had to hit Sprinkles while we were there. They were a delicious dent in our pocketbook.

The biggest disappointment of the trip was driving to the Purl Soho store with so much anticipation and excitement, only to discover it was closed for inventory. Melissa and I were so sad.

James and Melissa took us to see The Most Decorated House I Have Ever Seen In My Whole Life. They even had a movie showing on two flat screens and you could tune into a radio station to listed to the movie. It was INSANE.

Dave and James are happy little gingerbread kids.

Clara fell asleep on me one morning. It was heavenly.

We made our way up to Downtown Disney one afternoon. We didn’t dare try to go to the parks since the week after Christmas is one of the busiest (if not THE busiest) times of the year, but we wanted to get a taste of Disney while we were there.

Plus, it’s so pretty with all the Christmas decorations.

We had a little New Year’s Eve party with lots of dancing.

I took this from the freeway on our way out of town. So nostalgic!

One thing I love about the In-n-Outs in warmer climates that they don’t have here in Utah Valley, are the iconic crossed palm trees.

Dave drove as I typed up our 2012 resolutions.

Home Sweet Home.

The night we got home, I went in to check on the girls, and this is what I found. A bunch of small stuffed animals taking a ride on the panda pillow pet. It was a sure sign that Inez had returned home.

It was such a fun trip and I’m already planning our next trip down south. I’m thinking a birthday trip next month? Hi Dave!