moo-foo-LET-ta

Growing up, we had some great neighbors the Lisonbee family. We spent a lot of time together - going on road trips in our suburbans with walkie talkies to communicate - I'll never forget the trip to Kino Bay, Mexico!! Bianca was born on the ship while her family was traveling to the US from Italy. She is a very cool and talented person. Her family (maybe uncle or aunt or grandfather) owns Central Grocery in New Orleans. It is an amazing store that sells various Italian foods and the ever yummy muffuletta sandwich. It is a sandwich with salami, provolone, and ham on a crusty french bread with an olive spread. It is amazing!! Well, Hema's work is having a Fat Tuesday party today (I know it's Friday) and so I made some mini muffulettas for them. I haven't had one in years and I had forgotten how tasty they are! Thanks for the yummy recipe mom!

And now for a few shots of the babes...

A picture of Vela getting ready for her swimming lesson. She LOVES to wear her goggles. So cute! She is so relaxed now when she floats on her back she closes her eyes and nearly goes to sleep. She LOVES the water.

Hema's preschool class had a Circus Day today and Hema got his face painted like a lion!

We're ready for spring!

I have been loving the warmer weather. It has been great to go for walks and push the kids on the swings outside. Hema has also been enjoying the warmth and doing some fishing. We can't wait for spring. I love this time of year. I get excited to start in on projects. I've got some big projects planned for this spring. Painting the kitchen cabinets and redoing the master bedroom. I picked up new bedding and paint for the master and can't wait to get started on it. But here is what I'll be doing tomorrow... Our builder installed this sweet fan in every home he built. Honestly, what is with the brown bumpy glass?? Well, I painted ours, flipped the blades and swapped out the glass and it looks so much better. I have been wanting to install the same one in the living room for a few years but haven't been able to find it (I guess this awesome fan isn't a top seller!). My neighbors just replaced theirs and brought the old one over tonight. So I am going to work my magic on it tomorrow! Yeah!

Here's mine now. A serious improvement right?? I picked up the glass and paint tonight and can't wait to get started. I love quick projects. If you have never used Rustoleum spray paint, I highly recommend it. I am using a hammered bronze one that I love. It is very addictive!

An finally, my sweet Vela is growing up. She LOVES her bottles. At her 15 month check up the Dr said it was definitely time to lose the bottle. Well, we took it away 3 days ago and the first two days were terrible, but today she was a great. It is kind of sad to see her growing up so very fast!

Bye Bye bottle baby!!!!!

Josh, Laura and baby Brynlee

My brother Josh and his family are moving to California on Tuesday! I can't see the lure of living on a sunny beach and having a Josh's dream job.... I mean can you really beat this sweet cold inversion weather here? Well, okay so it will be awesome for them, but we are really going to miss seeing them as often. Josh lived with us while he was engaged to Laura and Little Hema and him had so much fun together. He is a great uncle. He also would always rave about anything I cooked (I highly recommend inviting a single guy who has lived with other single guys for a while to move in with you - they appreciate anything you cook!). He and Laura are such a great match and they are wonderful parents to the sweetest little baby. Here is a picture from Brynlee's blessing last Sunday. Aren't they a beautiful family!

We had them over for dinner last night. Here are Josh, Laura, Hema and Hema playing some rock band. I was taking advantage of every second I could hold Brynlee. Little Brynlee and Vela at the blessing - Brynlee is so tiny!!
Hema can't get enough of baby Brynlee and loves to kiss her. I try to keep him at a safe distance, but here he is stealing a kiss. Brynlee isn't so sure about it. Little Hema loves babies and decided last night we need 5 more. I'd be okay with that - just not all at once!
Josh, Laura and Brynlee - we are going to miss you guys! We love you and wish you the best in your exciting move!!!!

The Valentines Run Down

What a fun day! I woke up and found a sweet letter from my honey taped to the mirror! He is so thoughtful. Here is a picture of part of the breakfast we made this morning. We never did get a picture once all the food was done.

Here is a picture of the shrimp boil. We had tons of shrimp cooked with corn on the cob and red potatoes. We also had bread sticks, strawberries and grapes, plus tasty margaritas to drink. Little Hema loved it - I think he ate his weight in shrimp. We have decided this is a fun meal and will be our new Valentines tradition.

A shot of my boys ready to dig in.

After we got dinner cleaned up, we turned on some slow music and danced. A friend had told me that her family does a dance on Valentines. Our kids loved it. It was especially cute when the kids danced with each other! This has been the best Valentines! Nothing beats spending time with your loved ones!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentines and get to spend the day withe the ones you love!!! I sure do love these three!

We started the day with the kids first Valentines breakfast. Hema was a bit hesitant to try the pink pancakes, but ended up loving them. Tonight we are staying home and having a shrimp boil! Yum!

And last but not least... today is Vela's birthsister's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Leiana!! We love you!!

I couldn't resist posting this picture of her. She makes the cutest faces!!!

Proud Papa!

Becky is keeping close track of all the kids "firsts"...first teeth, words, etc. Well as a proud dad and fisherman this "first" is right up there with all the rest...well at least up there with his first fish.

Well... I have taken lots of people fishing and have seen hard core gangsters and grown adults scream like little girls (no offense to little girls) when it comes to putting a hook through a worm. My little guy is only 3-1/2 years old and he got his own worm out of the bait box, pinched it in half, and then wouldn't let me help him put it on the hook. Now that's a "first" to be proud of!

My Sweet Kiddos!

I waited a long time to be a mommy and seriously dreamed of all of the fun firsts, like when your child is the spotlight and such. Well Hema is the Special Helper at his preschool this week. I have been sick and a little busy with our stake women's conference and nearly forgot his poster for preschool!! He was so excited to make it and wanted to do it all by himself. He had very specific ideas of what pictures he wanted it to include: football, fishing, his family, Katie, a missionary tag, swimming, his birthday, dinosaurs, lions, little giraffes and big giraffes and it had to be on green poster board (we could only find this bright one and luckily he loved it). When I went to drop him off at preschool, he wanted me to take a picture of him with his poster! So cute!!

He LOVES preschool and loves to learn or do any kind of homework. He especially enjoys his little workbooks. He is such a good boy!! I am so grateful to be his mommy and am trying to soak in every minute of his sweet life! How could you not love this sweet face??

This week we started Vela's swim lessons. For those of you who don't know, our swim teacher is a bit... well for lack of a better word intense. Little Hema really gave her a run for her money and I was a bit stressed out that Vela might be the same. She started on Monday and has done awesome! Today was her 4th lesson and she floated on her back for about a minute. She is doing so well! I can't swim. I never have been able to and I think that is why it is so important for me that my kids feel safe and confident in the water. I love our swim teacher!! I seriously want to take lessons next!!

People often ask me if I miss my old job. I don't even have to pause for a second - NO WAY!! This is the best job ever!!! I love my sweet kiddies and am so grateful to be their mommy!

Catching up AGAIN!!

Okay I know that it would be more convenient if I just posted nice short posts regularly, but I never seem to do it! Sorry!

So here is what we have been up to:
The weather has been so cold! The only good part is waking up every day to everything being beautifully white! I am so ready for spring, but I hear that the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter! Bummer!

Little Hema is loving preschool. They do such fun stuff every time. Last week they each made and baked a loaf of bread. He is only there for 2 hours. He was so proud of his own bread he ate the whole thing himself. Why can't I seem to get bread made in those 2 hours that he is gone?

We of course have been to the dino museum many times in the past few weeks. Here is Hema with his friend Luke.

Speaking of Luke, he says the alphabet backwards. No one taught him, he just came up with it on his own. No one believes me when I tell them. Here he is.

We went to Color Me Mine last week and of course Hema wanted to paint a dinosaur. Luckily they had one. He also painted a mug for his dad to take to work. He had so much fun there. Thanks for the gift certificate Jess and Sterling!

We spent a couple of days in St George last week. It was much warmer and nice to get away. Somehow with 2 cameras, we only ended up with 1 picture: Hema playing a video game. Oh well!

Tonight it was actually warm enough to go to the Thanksgiving Point farm. We did a little craft, rode the horses and then got to help milk the cow. Little Hema was a bit freaked out with milking the cow. He couldn't quite figure out why it was "peeing in the bucket." And no he didn't want to try milking it! We tried to explain - but he was just too freaked out!

Little Hema is really making progress in his swimming! He is doing some awesome dives and loves to dive in and swim to the bottom of the deep part of the pool and pick up the diving sticks. I wish I could do that. His breath stroke is also coming along great and he is finally getting the side breathing down.

Vela is not loving swimming lessons as much! But I do remember that Hema hated it at first too, so I am not giving up.

Little Vela had her 15 month check up a bit ago and she is growing up fast. She is 33 inches tall (97th %) and 24 1/2 pounds (75th %). She cut 2 more molars this week and now has 11 teeth. She is running all over the place, but sometimes can't stop and tips over when she tries to. She is climbing all over the place and into everything. She loves to sit on my lap and read books, snuggle and laugh and play. She loves to carry her babies (dolls) around and hug and kiss them and try to feed them. She is all girl and the sweetest thing ever! We are so blessed to have her in our family!

And on Saturday we went to the Draper temple open house with Hema's brother Joe, Tina and Little Joe. It was very cool and it was neat to explain the temple to our sister in law Tina who isn't a member of the church. The best part was hearing little Hema explain it all to his cousin. He said "This is Jesus's house." "This is where people get baptized in water." In the sealing room he explained "Your mom sits over there and your dad over here and you are in the middle." Pretty awesome that he remembers from Vela's sealing. He was wearing his future missionary badge and I kept thinking what a great missionary he is now! Of course we have no pictures because they shuffle you from a church to a bus to the tunnel to the temple then after the temple back out to a tunnel to a different church and back on a bus to the first church. I forgot to run over and take one! It was awesome, just not handy for photos!