Sunday curls

 This year Andrew and I have made more of an effort to go on weekly dates.  We've only missed two weeks so far!  Our usual babysitter is only available on Saturday nights so it's been a long time since I've been home before bedtime to put curlers in the girls hair for church.  This last Saturday Nora watched our kids for a lunch date so we were able to have baths, a family movie night and I was home to put curlers in the girls hair!  As much as I love Saturday dates, I forgot how nice it is to take it easy and having a family night on a Saturday.  Especially because we have 8:30 church Sunday morning.

 Zara has thinner, shorter hair so I usually use rag curlers for her hair.

For Avery I use these bendy foam curlers and for both girls I put them in with their hair damp after a bath and add a little Herbal Essence mousse to keep the curl.

Loving how close these girls are. ♥♥

Avery stops a bad habit

All my babies have been self soothers except Rupert.   Elliot and Zara were thumb suckers like me (and my dad and his dad) and Avery always sucked her middle two fingers.  When Elliot started kindergarten I encouraged him to stop sucking his thumb because "he was too old" and a couple weeks in he had!  I tried that again with Avery and it didn't work.  So here we were, several years later in 2rd grade and she was still sucking her fingers at night and in class!  Her teacher was very good about reminding Avery to stop without embarrassing her but this needed to stop.

A little positive reinforcement goes a long way!  I let Avery choose the parameters.  She choose the number of slip up days and weeks before earning her reward.  She even had some say on what the reward was.  I wanted it to be something that motivated her.   I love how she wrote her own compliments on her chart. :)  One month later and she did it!

I've never taken Avery to the nail salon before and she has beautiful nails, so this was a special treat!  So proud of Avery for accomplishing this on her own!

 The next day she wanted to give me my own mani/pedi after church.

It started out great on my toes but my fingers were a little messy.  :/  She'll get there!

Easter Pageant

 Have you been to the Easter Pageant this year yet?  This is the last week since Easter is this Sunday!  We feel spoiled being able to see family in it.  This year Nora participated as part of the crowd with Maggie and Damon, and my Dad was a High Priest again.  He's done this a few years.  It's easy to spot him because there are only three and he also gets to "play" the rams horn to the recording in one of the first scenes.  My mom also helps back stage and has been doing it for years.  

Normally we go to the dress rehearsal because it's early on a school night.  We already had plans that night so we opted for Friday night so the late night wouldn't interfere with school or early church the next day.

 I asked Elliot before hand what we could bring to make the experience better.  He suggested blankets and popcorn, so that's what we did!  Oh, and some English chocolate.  Andrew really enjoyed his Mars bar.  I passed on the chocolate.  It really hasn't tasted good this pregnancy and that's ok!

 We also brought Cassidy, a friend from church and school who lives down the street.  We love Cassidy with her energetic personality!

Andrew snapped this before it started.  I don't have many pictures with my mom and I love her.  It was a good night.  On the way home we asked everyone to share their favorite part.  Avery loved the ten virgins, Cassidy loved all of it, Andrew loved the part at the end where only the Savior is lit up right before it's over and he's high above the stage, I also love the 10 virgins, the end, and Mary's Lullaby.  I don't remember Zara's favorite part and Rupert just rambled a reply. :)  Hope you make it this year, and better yet, invite someone!

Sunday Makeovers!

 Here are those photos I mentioned from the girl's Sunday makeover we did 2 weeks ago.  I even broke out my good camera to capture these pictures. :)  Ever since having an iPhone I just don't break it out often enough and have to be reminded how much better the quality is.

 The only makeup the girls are wearing is sparkly eye liner I got for cheap at Primark in England, my favorite pink lipstick, and some blush.  They felt sooo pretty!

 Love these girlies!!!

 These apple glasses had to make an appearance!  The girls got them the day before for free at the Phoenix Zoo.  We went with our Pogo Pass on the day they had a Zoo race event so there were a lot of fun booths with freebies and activities.  Apparently Andrew took the kids on the same day last year when I was running the Ragnar Del Sol as team captain.  Can't believe that was a year ago!

 Zara's expression just cracks me up here! ;)  She's all business and Avery's all smiles.

 This black and white one I edited with the Afterlight app.  I love how warm and moody it is.  The ones below Avery and Zara edited and they had so much fun!

This might become a monthly Sunday activity!  With 8:30am church this year the afternoons can get a little long.

playdate makeovers

The first Sunday of spring break I did makeovers on the girls and took some pictures.  I'll have to share some of those photos later because they're so cute.  Of course I always tell the girls they look beautiful without makeup, but everyone loves a little makeover every now and again.  The next day the Bennett girls came over all afternoon so we did makeovers again.  This is something I never did as a kid because my mom hardly wore makeup and didn't have very much.  I, on the other hand, have a dozen lipsticks.  I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to makeup but I love playing around with color.

After doing makeovers I let the girls edit their own selfie with the app Afterlight.  I love this app and use it to edit most of my instagram photos.  I taught them the basics and let them have free reign, something I don't do very often.  We trying to keep screen time to the minimum over here because they're happier when we do and my kids have such great imaginations I want them to continue to develope.  This was such a fun way to be creative and hopefully boost their confidence.

I've tried several photo editing apps but do you have a favorite?  I'm all ears. :)

spring break forts

 Last week was spring break and the first half started off great!  Swimming, playdates, Phoenix Zoo, and other fun things.  For October and Spring breaks I try to find that balance of planning one or two fun things every day so everyone has something to look forward to without over planning and getting burnt out.  Because it's spring break, ya know!  A little relaxing and chilling is good too!

Our week slowed down as soon as Zara had a 103 degree temperature.  She was sick for days, and then Rupert also got sick.  A week later Elliot is home sick today.  Thankfully Avery, Andrew and I haven't gotten sick.  Hope that lasts!  Staying home half of the break the kids and I had to get creative.  Check out Elliot's amazing forts!  Each blanket was a "room" for each kid.  I love it when they use their imagination like this.  Elliot even put everything away after so this was a perfect way for them to spend an afternoon.  How was your spring break?

St. Patrick's Day

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I broke our my green stash for today and I think everyone still fits the same shirts as last year.  Thank goodness because with it being spring break this week and having sick kids the last few days all my fun St. Patrick's Day plans didn't happen.  My kids are easy to please and didn't know they were missing out on anything.   

 As you can imagine, St. Patrick's Day is not a favorite of Andrew's.  It's right up there with Independence Day.  He did not wear green today.  He did, however, make a green smoothie this morning.  And not just any green smoothie with lots of spinach and kale but one he intentionally added green food coloring to!  When he told me I thought "who is this guy anyway?!".  :)

Well, I hope you wore green and didn't get pinched.  It's been a good one for us.