St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was once about a Christian Missionary.  He went to Ireland to spread the gospel of Christianity.  He used the shamrock to help explain the Godhead.

Now St. Patrick's Day is about Green, Luck, and Leprechauns.  So, that's what we did! 

Sofie and cousins got to have a special party with Grandma and Grandpa.  They had party favors, scavenger hunts, games, movie, and tons of food.  (Which I'm grateful for, 'cuz at my house, I felt crappy and could barely get dinner on the table with Derek's help.)

So, on actual St. Patrick's Day, it was about having a fun dinner.  That was enough for me.

Shamrock pizzas.

Minty Milkshakes

Shamrock Jigglers

Lost my cookie cutter and had to just cut them out, turned out looking more like trees... and they were totally disgusting.  Even the kids wouldn't eat them.

Green garlic bread

Pot O'Gold cupcakes

Meimei Turns 2

Totally forgot my camera on Mei's birthday... and I don't have all the copies of other people's pictures yet, but it's holding me back from blogging the last month and a half, so this will do for now!

Mei turned 2!!

(Mei's messy face shows signs of sneaking cookies before it was time!)

It took her quite a while to blow out the candles. 

Daddy trying to help.

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Mei got lots of fun gifts from family.

Here's her new bike

(we're still working on pedaling, it's too hard for mom to bend and push at this point...)

She is my favorite 2 year old.  She's funny, silly, determined, unafraid, and still naps 2 hours a day thank goodness!  She repeats everything she hears, and loves to sing primary songs (and add her own words, pretty funny). She's the only one that can make me laugh out loud on my worst days.  I'll keep her another 2 years at least :)

Candid shots courtesy of the 4 year old.

Can't keep this girl's hair under control!

Sofie got ahold of the camera and helped herself to a few videos, I'm just now watching them, silly girls!

Pics of the Day

Okay, so this one wasn't taken today, but the next one was.

Made my entire day when I discovered this next to my porch.

School Days

With all these kids I got these days, we were bound to have recitals and programs.

Dia is in the winter drumline at her high school and has started competing locally.

Here she is with her awesome chimes.  Their performance is pretty impressive and they got 2nd place at their last competition.  (the video was too long to upload, sorry!)

Sofie had a fun parent activity day.  We got to do games and stuff together, then they had a program at  the end.

Her teacher Mrs. Loni.  Sofie LOVES her!

Hee hee hee.  So darling.

(Wow, somehow the quality from my camera to blogger really got lost.)

Tada! Cupboards!

We started the finish project on our basement last winter.

This was the laundry room...

This is where we finished in the summer while we waited over 6 months for the cupboards to go on sale.

Here they are finally!

I love the blue and white contrast.

But mostly, I'm excited to have the storage space in this house that has some serious lack of pantry.

The last thing we need is a door on the crawl space to the right.  Way too tempting for the girlies.

Of course, Mom's slightly invalid right now, so Dia came to the rescue.

"Mei, go tickle Dia!"

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day!  To me, not only is it a romantic holiday to share with a sweetheart, but it's a family holiday for those close ones we love.  Being sick this year, however, I felt helpless.  Fortunately, when I woke up that morning I got a bit of a break from the death grip on my stomach and was able to make it special for my girls.  I even got dressed, put makeup on, and did my hair...it's been 8 weeks.

For breakfast they got:

Pink milk

Pink scrambled eggs

Strawberries

Heart shaped toast

Sofie is still asking for pink eggs.

For lunch:

Pink Mac & Cheese (made me a bit queasy)

Heart shaped apple slices

(At this point I wasn't feeling as ambitious and that's all they got.)

The spread.  By this point, my feeling-good streak was gone, so Derek got to go buy heart shaped pizzas for dinner.

Placemats

Sofie was so happy about our "party" that she came and gave me a big hug.  

So sweet.  Thanks Dia for being quick with the camera.

Sofie was even nice to Dia, a rare treat!

My kitchen slaves doing the dishes.

For dessert we layered cupcakes with a pink mix of cool whip, yogurt, and pudding.  

The girls got to decorate their own cups with foam stickers.

Mei was in heaven with all those stickers!

Took her 2 days to eat it.

Dia's creation.

See, even did my hair!!  

(probably won't happen again for a while)

Cookies!!

Getting ready for Valentine's Day!

With some help, I got some cookies made, then for family night we got to decorate them.

Meili only ate frosting...

Dia's creation.

Cheese!

Cookie decorating is serious business.

I...participated.

The finished products.

Getting the decorations out and ready.

The girls had fun throwing silk rose pedals EVERYWHERE!!

Chinese New Year

One of my first excursions out of the house this year. 

 I'm grateful for the chance we had to go to Lehi High School and celebrate the Chinese New Year!

I don't have many pictures, but they had lots of activities, some food, and a few performances as well. It was a lot of fun, and of course, I love China.

The girls each got a beautiful calligraphy painting done of their names (sofie's of course was a transliteration, but Meili's was legit)

Derek's friend shares a love of Asia with me, so she bought these darling outfits for the girls last year and it was such a perfect day to wear them!  All the Chinese ladies whispering to each other "Oh! Hen piaoliang ah!"

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Derek keeping Mei busy on the bleachers while we waited for the program.

The fun part is that the Chinese teacher at Lehi, who runs the festival every year, is Aaron Anderson. (the guy on the right)  He and I did a BYU study abroad together in Nanjing, China way back when.  It's great to see how he's put his knowledge to use and now the whole community benefits!

Dia got to sing with the choir in the program. "Gong xi, gong xi ni ya!"

Sofie missed out on the face painting booth, so Dia gave her a butterfly when we got home.