O.L.F.

 

Olivia and her buddy, Mary, memorized and rehearsed over and over for the Oral Language Festival.  We were so proud of Olivia for doing it.  It took a lot of guts.  She just really wanted a t-shirt with her name on the back.  She and Mary memorized a children's story (they chose Knuffle Bunny Too) and they put hand motions to it and performed it in front of several classes.  We've all heard it so many times that Abby is reciting the whole thing now too.  Then they had to compete to move onto the district level.   They didn't move on, but their story was so cute and it was so good for both of them to do something out of their comfort zone.  They did an excellent job and Olivia was very happy to sport her new t-shirt and to be a part of the Oral Language Club.

Being a good big sis and helping Abby paint her nails.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Room for a 9 Year Old

My mom came for a visit.  Whenever my my mom comes for a visit there are never any pictures of her.  Just the projects that we do together.  We worked on Olivia's room.  I had it all planned out.  We had furniture.  The bed was mine when I was little.  She already had bedding from Gramma Jackie that she got for her birthday.  It just needed some paint to pull it all together.  I'm not quite done.  I still have a blank wall behind her dresser to decorate but I have an idea in the works that I will hopefully get to soon. 
My mom got right to work the morning after she arrived.  She painted and I assisted.  I even rolled a bit and painted the baseboards.  So awesome.  Projects in my home make me feel so good.

I don't have much of a "Before" because it was just plain white walls.  So here is the best "before" pic.

I realized that I needed to use a very coordinated look for Olivia because she is so messy.  So this way, her room still looks nice even when her clothes and books and papers or all over the place.  Her two favorite colors are blue and green.
So here is the "After" look.  We painted the walls a nice "true gray" color.  It took me 3 color samples to get the color right.

 Nightstand and lamp are from Gramma Jackie.

A place for her dolls and books.

These little birds were black.  They got a coat of green and some teal ribbon.

Her sock bunny and a little pillow I stitched for her.

This curtain rod was in Abby's room and I just painted it green.

The blank wall.  Still a work in progress...like everything else in life.

 Speaking of work in progress, here's my hallway full of stuff that needs to be done.

Chores

Sometimes these kids amaze me.  They are getting really good at cleaning the bathroom.  It's taken years.  And someone still needs to learn to clean the tub/shower, but still....progress.

Getting Bigger

My 3 year old is getting big.  So big that she tells all of her friends over and over and sometimes it makes them cry or get mad.  We're trying to teach her that, yes, you are getting big, but keep it to yourself.  It's difficult for a little girl who is trying so hard to be big like her sisters to not share the news with those who are a little shorter than her.  On the other end of the size scale, she wanted me to take a picture of her tiny pumpkin.

It came and went

Halloween didn't seem like Halloween this year.  Maybe beacuse it was so warm?  Maybe because our ward held its Trunk-or-Treat on Halloween night this year?  Maybe because we didn't do our normal traditions because of the trunk-or-treat?  I don't really know.  It was Halloween yesterday and today it is not. 

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves and I was in a mad dash to get everyone ready before there was no more light outside. 

A Bee

A Ballerina/Dancer/Princess  I think she settled on Ballerina

and Greek Goddess. (so Olivia)

We also had parent-teacher conferences yesterday.  Sammie and Olivia are both doing so well.  It was fun to talk to their teachers about them and their little quirks.  They are each excelling academically so we mostly talked about their personalities and how to help them achieve some of the goals they have made.  Sometimes I look at my kids and see so much personality and so many strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, that I could write a book about each one of them.  They are each so different from the other.  Being a mom is the best job in world and also the hardest.  Sometimes I don't know how I've made it through these past 3 years not feeling 100%.  But there is so much strength in knowing that we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows each of His children.

Hoot

 

Sammie made these cute little owl cupcakes for the Fall Festival at school.  She didn't win the cake contest, but we sure had a sugary time making them.  The girls' hands were all streaked with chocolate frosting.  It was on their faces, arms, and chairs.  I am still finding chocolate frosting on a few doors and walls.  I'm sure it was Abby.

It took all afternoon to bake, cool and then decorate before bed just to get 12 cupcakes done.

And here is more Fall baking that I let the girls do.  Also a mess, but they were actually really good at rolling out the dough. 

Yum!

Twinners

Abby wanted her hair "like Mommy" today.  She also thinks twins are people that dress the same.  And she also told me, "I just want a real elephant so I can have it for a pet then I can ride it and it will sneeze."