Okay Missy...

that's enough growing up for one 7 year old to do.  Slow down, I'm not ready!

The Elder-ly

Mikayla watching the news about the cruise ship wreck, thinking that finding bodies meant they found people alive:

Mikayla: Wow, did you hear the news?  They found 2 elderly today!

Papa: Do you know what elderly means Mikayla?

Mikayla: Yeah, they found 2 missionaries.

MLKJ

Mikayla:  Mom, we need to do something special to celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King.

Me: Ok, why's that?

Mikayla: Because, without him, we wouldn't have black people.

Messy Missy

 I made sweet pork burritos with the works.  Lettuce, lime cilantro rice, black beans, cheese, salsa, shredded sweet pork...  Megan chose to only have lettuce and rice.  Bad decision!  Nothing helped it stick together and thus it all fell out on the table!  after she was done eating, we let Max have at it!

Unfortunately, we found out he doesn't like lime cilantro rice!  Megan got to use the vacuum cleaner and a rag instead and loved it.  She wants to be messy all the time now so she can have fun cleaning it up she said. Welp, having her be responsible for her own mess...that plan backfired...

Before Church

Trent has early morning meetings before church which leaves me to get all 4 of us ladies ready for church.  Showers, curled hair, breakfast, nylons and all.  the girls wanted to get a pic of us before church all dolled up.  Love my girls!

Megan loves to dance!

Livin' the Country Life

Ya know, I had a hard time imagining myself living in and liking Gridley.  I was worried about having friends, living in such a small town, what we would do for fun, where we would go out to eat, etc. etc.  We instantly fell in love with our new city and friends and are loving the country life.

Don't get me wrong, we don't live in the country. 

We live in a newer housing development with safe cul-de-sacs where the girls can ride bikes and play with friends while the moms chat and watch from the sidewalks. 

We live in a ward where a few wear cowboy boots to church, but not the majority as I previously had worried.  Most are in high-heels that I envy and I've even learned to embrace wearing chiffon flowers in my hair as I've seen others do here.

We live in a town where our friends sell kiwis at a roadside stand and it sits there unmanned all day.  People drive by, pick up a bag of 10 kiwis, and leave a dollar in its place.

We live in a town that is so safe that just driving the girls to school in the morning I might see 6 different cops driving around looking for ANYthing that might give them something to do!

We live in a town where our friends invite us over for a hot dog roast and some s'more making in a bonfire in their backyard.

We live in a town where I can go to a neighbor's house and buy 20 lbs. of peaches for under $4. 

One day, I danced around barefoot in the kitchen, peeling all my peaches with my little paring knife to make a homemade peach cobbler, singing aloud to Luke Bryan's "Country Girl Shake It For Me" on the radio, listening to my children's laughter in the backyard as they picked fresh mint from our yard to put into their lemonade--and it hit me.  This really couldn't get any better...

On to Texas

 Kendra and Bryson playing on a HUGE horse that a friend gave us.

 Bryson and Bailey are 15 months apart, but get mistaken for twins quite often!  It's easy to see why!

 We had a lot of fun with them while they were visiting for 5 weeks.  Tim has started a job in Texas and Michelle and the kids came out to pass the time without him until they make their big move to Midland, Texas.

 I taught Michelle how to make this cute little skirt and a couple jumpers, a dress, and some hairbows.  She did a great job and loved being able to make some cute things for Bailey.

Too cute for words!

2 Yr Old Photography

Yes, it really is as hard as it looks to get a good pic of my 2 yr old!  I asked her to say "cheese" and she got mad at me.  All she wanted to do was run around, not sit still.

Then, she found a pinecone.

She made sure I saw her pinecone.

She REALLY wanted me to see that pinecone!  She kept saying, "pie-cone" over and over again as she'd pick them up and throw them in the little canal.

Yes, that's how much I really needed to see this pinecone...

She kept pretending she was going to fall in the water because she liked how scared I got each time--I really was quite worried she would slip in the freezing water and I'd have to retrieve her, it wasn't as funny as she thought!

Just when I thought all hope was lost, she looked at me for a brief moment...

and then sat down on my little stool for one pic...

and then I got THIS!  I was so happy to get one good pic of my happy, smiling, energetic, stubborn, opinionated, affectionate little girl.  After I snapped this one picture, she took off running to the van and said "All done!  Les' go!"  Ah Kendra, it's a good thing I love you so much!

Bringing out the red dresses again...

Megan loves having so many dresses passed down to her from her big sister and this was no exception.
  Mikayla was quite sad that she didn't have a matching dress since these used to belong to Mikayla and Megan, so the night before church we made a red flower for her hair so she could "match" her sisters.  Too cute, I love that she still loves to match her sisters.

And, flashback to the past, here's the girls in the dresses the first time around!  This is just 3 yrs ago!  How time flies!  Seeing them grow so quickly makes me sad!  I'm thankful I take so many pictures to remember their sweet little faces, but I see how quickly Mikayla is maturing and it really makes me wish they'd stay little longer.

Persimmon Picking

Our friends have an orchard on their property with persimmons as well as other kinds of fruit.  We were able to go and pick a bunch of persimmons and the girls had a blast trying to pull the fruit off the tree--not an easy task!  They cling to the branch with fierceness and we had to tug and twist pretty hard to get the fruit down.  Mikayla liked picking the large ones even though those ones are for baking and we didn't eat them.  We do like to pick, peel, and slice up the Fuyu persimmons to eat as a snack.  They sell for a buck a piece in the store, so it was quite nice to go out and pick 30 of them for free to eat during Christmas break.

Megan liked to inspect them for bruises or imperfections.