Like Sister

Katie loves to sing as much as her sister. She's obviously been listening closely. Here's her version of Eleanor's solo. She kind of trails off at the end, but it's too cute. Singing in the shower at such a young age - that's my girl!

Eleanor's Recital

Eleanor's been taking group voice lessons with our friend Carli for a few years. She loves singing, so we are very lucky to have a local pro to help her along!

Eleanor is the youngest of this class, so it's pushed her to improve and make some new friends too! I love the songs they got to sing. I'm especially proud she was brave enough to sing a solo! Not something I would like to do myself... Here are a few of my favorites from the night.

Mother's Day

I try to capture a picture on Mother's Day every year of me with my sweeties. I should have done this before church cause my friend's lesson in Relief Society had me balling from beginning to end. Never mind my red nose, etc. My sweet girls worked with dad to bring me breakfast in bed. Katie sat up with me and picked all the strawberries out of my cereal. :) Eleanor whisked away all the dishes. What more could I want?



I've realized recently how much our loved ones on the other side must be involved with our lives. Those Grandmothers are still spreading their good influence, I'm sure. Eleanor was named after a Great Grandmother Eleanor and "happened" to be blessed on said Eleanor's birthday -without our planning. Katie happened to be born on my Granfather's birthday and carries his name as her middle name. Eleanor's baptism this month also fell on another Great Grandmother's birthday! There are probably more of these events than I even realize, but I'm glad to know about these. It makes me feel like we have lots of good family watching over us!

Happy Mother's Day

I'm still trying to remember to take a picture of everything I make this year. This is a quick craft I've been looking forward to for awhile. Just a blank canvas, some paint and vinyl from my cutter (thank you sweetie). I'm hoping the message will sink in to my children's heads. :)

We have the best Mothers, Grandmothers and even Great Grandmothers! I hope you all feel loved and appreciated this weekend and all the time! And thank you for letting us call whenever we need your wisdom.

White Dress pictures

We took some quick pictures for Eleanor's baptism invitation, but I wanted to go outside when the weather cooperated. So, here's her birthday/baptism pictures. Her Grandma made this beautiful dress for her. She also made her blessing dress. So, maybe some day she'll have a 3rd white dress to make. We won't rush that.

Coming Soon..

I'm so excited about the new arrivals we're expecting in our backyard soon!

Great to Be Eight

Eleanor got to be baptized this weekend into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She's been looking forward to this for so long, but I think it was even better than she thought it could be. We were so fortunate to have all her Grandparents here and even her Great Grandma Payne and lucky Uncle Matthew. Lucky because he got to speak at the baptism - and did a great job. She'll have lots of wonderful memories of this experience, especially having her dad not only baptize her, but give her the baptismal interview as well. Believe me, we've been paying attention to this date for the last five years!

Katie soaked up plenty of attention this weekend too. She learned several new games on Grandma's Iphone.

The menfolk went golfing Friday and let us ladies alone to watch the Royal Wedding. We pulled out some fancy hats and had a great time! It definitely made me hungry for another trip to London.





Looks like those dimples might come from my side of the family after all! These pictures are for Matt to take and use to his advantage - I mean handsome, single guy showing his softer side with adorable nieces has got to be worth something, right!? :)