Now that's a lot of sauce

Joey was up until midnight making sauce for our Ward Spaghetti dinner. He made 8 batches. 8 messy batches of pasta. My eyes were burning from the onion as I went to bed last night. My towel smelled like pasta sauce when I used it after my shower this morning. It still smells in here. The kitchen was not a pretty picture this morning. I cleaned and scrubbed for an hour this morning.
The Spaghetti Dinner is tonight, but sadly I can't go. Sammie is sick with a fever and we will be staying at home. So goodbye sauce. I hope you get eaten ALL UP.

"Baby Shishter"

Sammie is excited for her new baby sister to come.

Let the Madness Begin!

Alright family it is starting. Let the Madness begin! I know we are all wanting to get our hands on our little Mad to the Max. Jackie has been holding onto him for two straight years. Is she going for a three-peat or can someone dethrone her?

65 Teams
64 Games
Who will win?

Madness...

The Hills are Alive

We had heard that the wildflowers this year are amazing. We decided to load in the car yesterday and see if we could spot some. We were driving along and then realized that we didn't fill up the gas tank so we didn't get to venture very far. I'm sure if we had gone a little further we would had seen much more. We did still see some and had a little picnic in a grassy field off of the road. The kids had fun climbing up the hills and looking at the flowers. It made you almost want to spin around and start singing "The Hills are Alive, with the sound of music. Ahh-ahh-ah ah." My girls are really into the Sound of Music right now.
I put it on a few Saturdays ago just to have some background noise while I cleaned the house. I told Olivia, "I'm just putting this on while I clean. It's kind of long. You and Sammie don't have to watch it. You'll like some of it, but some of it might be boring." They sat and watched the WHOLE thing. Now they sing all of the songs which they somehow have learned after only watching it once. It's fun when the girls get excited about things that I also enjoyed as a little girl. It brings back so many memories of singing those songs.

On the go

I was trying to take some pictures of Sammie but she is always on the go. Then my camera battery died. She loves to move and rarely sits still. I wish I had her energy. Like right now. She is supposed to be asleep in bed, but I hear her walking around the house. She's in her room...then stomping around the living room...now she's in here. Don't really know what she's doing.

Nesting

I most definitely have the "nesting" syndrome right now. Nothing seems clean enough and I am constantly trying to find better places for things, throwing out things I don't need, and putting the new things in place. I realized today that I could be having the baby just 10 weeks from today. It seems too soon. My mom came down a couple of weeks ago and helped me get doors ready to paint and helped with a few other things. Getting a door ready to paint is no easy task. I wish I could just paint them. My goal is to have the rest of the doors and trim painted before the baby comes. Which might be difficult because moving gets harder everyday. I've just been busy trying to keep up with things and chasing after the girls. The girls are cute and excited for the baby to come. Sammie always remarks how there is a baby in my tummy and Olivia likes to gently give my tummy a little hug and kiss. They love their new little sister already.

Sammie is Three!

Sammie turned three yesterday. I decided to keep her birthday low key by inviting over her two favorite friends--Raia and Ethan. I asked her who she wanted to come to her birthday and that's what she said. Whenever I asked her what she wanted she would say, "A pony cake." I love making birthday cakes. I am definitely no professional. I just like coming up with some little creative decoration and my kids always love them. I don't think I could ever bring myself to buy a birthday cake, even if it looked prettier or tasted better. I'm following in the footsteps of my mom. She reminded me that I was probably 3 when I also had a pony birthday cake. "My Little Ponies" are back in style. I remember it actually. It was a pink cake with pink icing and a pink pony on the top. Sammie loves blue and so this is what we have.
The Cake:

These three years have really flown. She was such a tiny little baby and seemed like she was a baby forever. She is always surprising me with the things she says and does. She makes us laugh with her funny voices and faces. She has quite the sense of humor. She can also throw a tantrum like no other. She loves to watch how mommy and daddy do things and then try to help. She loves to move. She never stops. She is always climbing, twirling, up on her tiptoes, spinning, getting in and out of her chair at dinner, and running. I don't think it is possible for her to walk. We are so blessed to have her in our family and we love her lots.
The Decor:
The Party:

Happy Birthday to our little Sammie!

"I'll Be the Best I Can Be"

Olivia is a lively kindergarten student who tends to talk a lot in class. Her school gives out these t-shirts every Friday to students who are following the rules and they present them with the shirt in the cafeteria at lunch. So for the past few weeks she has been working so hard to earn a t-shirt. She would come home and say,"I just really want to get one of those t-shirts. I'm going to follow all the rules so I can get one." She didn't give up when other kids got shirts before she did. Instead she kept working at it and her face was so lit up when I picked her up from school as she came running to me wearing this bright oversized red t-shirt.
Great job Olivia!