Our week

Eli taught FHE about Noah and the arch. His primary teacher made this for him and I'm grateful for teachers that are dedicated to serving the little primary children each week - especially my kids. :)

Eli gave a simple, powerful lesson and shared feelings from his heart. I cried! It's a wicked world, but the kids being born in this generation are strong and capable of standing for good.

 

While Eli was at preschool, Austin and I had a date to Focus on the Family. I have a similar picture of Eli this age in this same room!

  

Austin is in love with his new bed. But he insists on taking a nap in my bed. Oh well. At least he still naps even when I took his binky away - something I was terrified about! And we love going to Moms and Totes once a month. I work on family history and the little boys color pictures, play pioneer games and listen to pioneer stories.

        

  

Alex and her family drove down on Wednesday night to bring my mom to our house! She was here for a few days and helped watched the boys while Aaron and I had several dates. I love my mom. I'm sad I don't have a picture of her at my house. On Thursday I watched my friend's daughters and I loved snuggling this sweet baby. 

Thursday night Aaron had a promotional dinner that I was invited to. Aaron won Company Grade Officer of 2016 for USAFA! We're so proud of him and the hard work he does to provide for us and take care of us. This is Aaron's boss with all the medals from his squadron.  

              

Aaron wore this uniform when we got married and we spent the night reminiscing of our perfect wedding day. We're celebrating 5 years of marriage this year and I love being by Aaron's side. 

 

     

 

Every year I make a book for the boys on their birthday and every year I wonder if I should keep it up because it's a lot of work, but then I see them constantly looking at them and laughing about family memories - that's one reason I make them. I want them to always know we love them and we've made family time a priority. 

 

Crazy story. It was 76 degrees on Thursday and then a blizzard came that night. The base was closed so Aaron had the day off. On Saturday my parents ran to the temple and we offered the Honda since my dad had a big trailer on his pickup. The Honda started acting funny, but my parents were safe. Saturday night as my mom and I headed to the church for the Women's Conference via satellite, the Honda died!! Thankfully we were only 1.5 miles from home. Thankfully my dad was at our house so he could stay with the boys while Aaron came to rescue my mom and me. Strangers were so kind offering to help. We called a tow truck and a pink one should up to help us and turns out it was a belt. Aaron is working on it now and fingers crossed it's fixed!!

   

Sunday we were able to attend Cambry's baby blessing. Oh how great it is living close to family!!!

 

St. Patrick's Day

For FHE last week, Eli was in charge of picking our activity and he decided bowling. It was a blast!

On Tuesday when Eli had preschool, Austin came with me to Chick-fil-a and played while I did visiting teaching. Austin was so content playing alone.

As I was in tears about how to help Austin take a nap without his binky, Aaron suggested that maybe Austin wasn't comfortable in the crib any longer. I asked Austin if he wanted to take a nap in Eli's bed and he went right to sleep all week!! We bought bunkbeds this week for the boys. The bunkbeds are separated for now, but when the boys are a bit older, we'll make them into bunkbeds and they can share a room! I loved sharing a room. Also, Aaron took apart the crib and we've been using it for 4 solid years!! So crazy. 

             

     

We love holidays around here so we were all excited for St. Patrick's Day. We had Lucky Charms for breakfast and gave the boys coupons for dinner. We decided to have a little one on one time with the boys for dinner and we all had a great time. Eli picked Texas Road House for dinner and Aaron took him there. Austin and I went to Costa Vida and then went to grab some frozen yogurt where we won free frozen yogurt! The weather was amazing this week so we spent a lot of time outside.

  

  

      

A lady form our old ward posted on Facebook that she is collecting receiving blankets for babies in the Philippines. Her parents are serving a mission there and they said the hospitals run out of blankets often. I have so many blankets from when the boys were born that have been sitting in our closet so we decided to donate the blankets to a great cause.

 

    

On Saturday the bunkbeds were delivered bright and early and then we spent the day cleaning and organizing our home - a hobby I love doing. After naps we went hiking to Helen Hunt Falls. The boys and I have been a couple of times, so we were excited to take Aaron with us this time.

Sunshine and family and fresh air are so good for all of us!! 

Little minds

Austin had his 2 year check up on Monday and the Dr. was impressed how well he speaks. The boys have Aaron's gift of tongues. :) I love watching their little minds work. This week we played with gears and kinetic sand and those little pills that grow when put them into water. (Do they have a name?) 

   

   

Austin loves his scooter!

   

Aaron promised the boys a pet when he returned home. We all felt good about fish. Meet Branch and Poke.

   

On Wednesday we went to Sky Zone toddler time with the Bensons. This week we also got new library books.

   

My dad was traveling on I-25 to Denver and stopped by for a quick hello. The boys were sooo happy! They love their papa!

   

Thursday it was so warm. It may have been a little too premature to get out the water table, but the boys had a blast getting wet and spraying each other. I love their growing friendship! 

   

Saturday morning after finishing our chores, we went to an event put on by the community college here about reptiles.

   

   

We all loved Fred the tortoise.

   

 

After church today I went into Austin's room and found these two asleep on the floor. 

 

Our new family tradition - cream soda in frosted glasses during family council. :)