Starting to Save

The tradition in our family is that when the girls turn five years old we take them down to the bank and help them open up their own savings account. They take all the money they have earned in their first five years through allowances or birthday gifts and deposit it at the bank. It was Samantha's turn on Friday and even though she was nervous that the bank was taking away all of her money, once she understood that it wasn't the case, she was very proud of have her own account. Hopefully this will help her learn the value of saving her money!!

Happy Birthday Samantha!!!

Last weekend was a Birthday Weekend for Samantha! My baby girl turned five years old. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital. When she was a baby it seemed to me that time was going too slow and I would wonder when she would start to grow up. Now the time goes by so much more quickly - if you blink for one second, the moment is gone. I informed her that there weren't going to be any more birthdays and that she was always going to stay five years old. Her response was, "Mom - I have to grow up. But I'll always be your little girl."

We started the weekend off by having a friend birthday party. We had lots of fun playing with balloons, going on a treasure hunt, and making necklaces. This is Samantha with her very best friend Nora.

The little girls were so cute and the weather was perfect to spend time outside. Mom was pretty tired afterwards, but the party was a big success and there were lots of smiles!
The other special occasion for the weekend was being at my niece's baptism. Tracie flew into town and Todd and Suzann and their kids made the trek from Utah as well. Because Kennidy's baptism fell on Samantha's birthday we had a big family dinner to celebrate both of the girls. The baptism was very special and it was so nice to spend time with family. The girls always have a fabulous time playing with their cousins and feeling very spoiled by aunts and uncles and gramma and grampa. Of course I couldn't resist taking a picture of my precious little niece Lillie.

Here is Aunt Tracie with Camryn.

Unfortunately I was having too much fun visiting with my siblings and my parents that I really neglected to take very many pictures. My sister's house was filled to the brim with lots of little children - it was kind of an organized chaos and I wasn't thinking about the camera too much. But I did manage to get the birthday cake moments. Here are the girls of honor - Sam and Kennidy. (Samantha has black makeup under her eyes because all of the "older" girls were playing dress up with the makeup).

Here they are blowing out their birthday candles.

It was such a great weekend! We love you very much Samantha! Happy 5th birthday!

Shoutout to Girlsfriends!

I have a very special group of girlfriends that are so much fun to be with. The four of us do all kinds of things together and share our innermost secrets and wildest ideas. It isn't uncommon for a "Girls Night Out" to last until 2am because we just can't stop laughing! What a blessing it is to have friends who understand your concerns and insecurities, who can relate to you when life gets frustrating or confusing, and who aren't afraid to offer advice or to be brutally honest. We can have a great time together going to Walmart, folding laundry, taking the kids to the park, or going to a nice restaurant for some much needed dessert. At this particular outing we were celebrating Alisa's birthday with some delicous key lime pie....and a few onion rings to go!
I often wonder what I would do without you three gals. You are definitely kindred spirits and I love you!

Exercise Groupies

One of the ways that I enjoy working out is by doing a pilates and yoga video. It's a good workout and I can sneak it in at various times during my day, depending on my schedule. On this particular day I did my workout right before Emma came home from school. The yoga mat was still out and when the girls saw it on the floor they decided that they wanted to have a little workout for themselves. Here they are doing the single let stretch.

The teaser is pretty hard to do.

Not to mention this move...

Now she is the Exalted Warrior!

It's nice to be able to exercise with my girls and hopefully they learn some good habits!

School Field Trip

It has been a few weeks since I have made any posts to our blog - not that things haven't been happening with us, but because our computer has been so dreadfully slow and I didn't want to take the time and sit for five minutes to wait for each individual picture to download. However, we purchased some extra ram this week and then installed it on Friday night and now the computer works WONDERFULLY! I'm so grateful!!! Now I can be more on the ball with filling you all in on how things are going for our family.

Being a stay at home mom, I am fortunate enough to be able to volunteer in Emma's classroom which I love doing. At the beginning of April I was a chaperone on a class field trip to the local newspaper office where the kids learned how to put a newspaper together. They then came back to school and the rest of the week worked on publishing their own newspaper. Emma and I had a fun time together and I loved being there with her.The machines were very loud for the kiddos, but of course it was the most exciting element of their tour.

Here she is at the end of the tour where she saw how the ads are inserted and the newspapers are loaded up.
Emma enjoys really enjoys learning so this was a very fun experience for her.

Happy Easter!

It sure was a nice and relaxing Easter weekend! We enjoyed spending time together as a family and participating in our Easter traditions. I think the only thing that would have made the weekend better was to have warmer weather. (Winter finally arrived this past week.) We still had a wonderful weekend though, despite the cold temperatures. We started off by making some Easter goodies and delivering them to ward members which we did between sessions of General Conference. Then we colored eggs while Daddy went to the Priesthood session.

The girls were very creative.....

When Dad came home we had ice cream sundaes which are a Perry family tradition, dating back to when Mark was a kid. You can't go wrong with ice cream.

This morning we woke up to a blustery and very chilly day - it was 19 degrees! It was hardly the weather for an Easter egg hunt but we figured that if the Easter Bunny could handle it, then we could, too! The girls literally jumped out of their beds before seven and were anxious to get outside and find their treasures!

Emma and Samantha weren't too phased by the fact that they were wearing their pajamas along with their heavy coats and gloves.

Hooray for the Easter Bunny for finding his way to La Grande! The girls were tickled with their discoveries.
We spent the rest of the day watching General Conference and snacking on the Easter goodies. Mark cooked a turkey so we had a delicious Easter dinner and then listened to the Tabernacle Choir concert on BYU TV. It was amazing and a perfect way to end our holiday! And....thanks to our very nice neighbors who helped the Easter Bunny find his way back to our house for a SECOND time! :) The girls were sufficiently spoiled!

Conference Weekend

I love General Conference. I look forward to it every spring and every fall.
It's wonderful to be able to stay in my home with my family and listen to the messages that have been prepared for us. I feel particularly blessed this weekend -- I feel uplifted and spiritually fed. Every talk was amazing and hit home to themes that have been on my mind lately. I love that a good deal of the talks given centered on family relationships -- how we can learn from one another, how we can look to our parents and how we can teach our own children. I was also grateful to hear a few of the Brethren talk about the Youth Programs of the Church. (I sure hope that my Young Women were listening and have recommited themselves to Personal Progress!) Most of all, I was drawn to Elder Ballard's talk on Mothers. I am so grateful for the mothers in my life, including each of my sisters and sisters-in-law. What a blessing it is to have so many wonderful examples to look to and to share my joys and burdens with! I love you!

Spring Break Activities

This past week was our Spring Break and we had a wonderful time together. I really enjoy having my kids home with me and not having to stick to a certain schedule. We could just relax and have fun! Unfortunately, Mark had to work all week so most of our activities were just me and the girls. We started off by having a family movie night. Mark turned the living room into a movie theater and we had popcorn and watched Kitt Kittredge. Emma has been reading the "American Girl" series of books lately so she really enjoyed seeing the movie.

Most of the weekend the weather wasn't nice at all. It was cold and windy. On Tuesday the weather was so nice we decided to take advantage of it. We spent lots of time outside playing in the backyard or at the park. Emma has learned this past year how to go across the monkey bars which is a huge accomplishment!

Samantha couldn't get enough of what she calls "The Spider Bars." She is getting better and better at climbing and is such a monkey!

On Wednesday the girls and I went to stay with Gramma and Grampa and to see their cousins. Mark stayed behind because of work responsibilities so we reluctantly left without him. But we kept very busy playing and spending time with family. Here is a picture of 18-month old Jordan swinging at his house. What a cutie!

The kids played on the trampoline all afternoon together and got all their energy out. In this picture the kiddos are trying to make Uncle Jon come alive!

Here is Emma, Samantha, Eliza, and Isaac.

We spent time with the Perez cousins at the park, even though the wind came up and it was stormy. Emma and Kennidy love the swings!

My camera died again so I didn't get very many pictures at the park. (I think I need some new batteries). But they played hard and had a great time! We also had a birthday celebration for my niece Karlie. She turned five years old. Plus, it was Gramma and Grampa's anniversary and my sister Shellie came to visit.

Here is Karlie with her little sister Lilly. How precious they are!

Uncle Jon, Kennidy, and Jordan at the birthday party.

Samantha and Karlie having a fun night together!

We came home on Friday and that night the girls had an "Almost Slumber Party" at their friend's house where they made pizza and painted their nails. Last night we capped off our school vacation with another family movie night. I was really sad for spring break to be over and today it was hard to send Emma back to school. Dare I say that I am looking forward to the summer break????

Morgan Lake Adventure

The girls were out of school on Friday and Mark was off of work so we had a family day and took a little trip to Morgan Lake to hike around and enjoy the warm weather. It was nice and warm at our house but once we got up to the lake it was very chilly and we found that the lake was still frozen over. We walked down to the water's edge and took turns throwing rocks and sticks onto the ice.
The girls had a lot of fun playing in the trees and climbing on the rocks. Samantha pretended that we were in a cave and that we were explorers.

Blogging Again....

It's been two months since my last blog post and unfortunately I haven't been keeping up on it as I should....in fact, I haven't really been taking too many pictures. I suppose we've just been too busy. However, I would like to share a few random pictures that I've taken over the past several weeks. These are of the girls playing together. It's so fun to watch them enjoy being sisters with each other.
We have had such a mild winter this year - I think it's only snowed three times all season. Although I miss not seeing the snow this year, it has been advantageous because the girls have spent so much more time outside burning their energy! We have some nice neighbors next door with teenage daughters who are so kind to Emma and Sam. They let the girls play with a badmitton set and they had a fabulous time! Emma is growing up so quickly. Every day there is something new and she gets closer and closer to not needing me as much anymore. This is very hard for me to watch but I'm trying to let her be her own person and find her way with her classmates and her other activities. Apparently it is "all the rage" to wear a side ponytail to school so Emma wanted me to take a picture of her before school to prove how stylish it is.

I did have a birthday in January...not that I want to commemorate the fact that I turned 33. I did agree to take one picture with the girls after we opened presents. I actually did have a wonderful birthday spent with family and friends which I am very grateful for.

Yesterday Mark had his birthday and I will spare him the agony and not announce his age to everyone. :) Hopefully he had a nice day. I snapped a few pictures as we were having cake and ice cream and opening up presents. (I think that Emma and Sam usually have more fun at our birthdays than we do.)

I will definitely try to be better about documenting the events going on in our family so I can share them all with you!