The little women in my life

I am so lucky to be around such lively, creative, and giving girls.  They treated me so nicely on Mother's day.  Even without Josh at home, they still brought me a bagel slathered in too much cream cheese (just the way I like it) in bed.

 Here they are posing with their mother's day flowers from dad.  Cora is doing something very clever apparently. 

 It is not common to have a day without fighting, but I could tell they were trying hard to work together just for me.  They even let Cora have a Barbie.

 To finish the day off, they gave me a mani-pedi.  Pretty fancy.

This picture was taken today.  I am sneaking it in this post before it gets forgotten.  While I was hiding from them after church, the girls made an impressive spiderweb with yarn.

Cora

My friend took some one year old pictures of Cora and I thought I would share.  I am so pleased with them.  She looks so beautiful.

For Cora's birthday I had all of the girls born in our ward this past year over for a party.  There are a quite a few little ladies around here (we are even missing a couple in this picture).  

Cora and Jingle are about the same in size and interests right now.  They both beg for food (or just snack on what they can find on the floor), they love balls and can play fetch with each other for a good while, they love looking out the front door, dog food and dog treats are delicious, and I am not sure who loves the dog bed more.

Soccer girls

We are about halfway through spring soccer season with the YMCA.  The first few weeks were miserably cold, but now that it is warmer we are all feeling more positive about our commitment to our teams. 

April 29th

These past two weeks have seemed very busy and hectic to me, but I can not think of anything that could have tipped the scales compared to any other week.  So here I am getting back on track with a couple of random pictures.

 Cora's hair is getting longer and fluffier.  It stands on end and gives her a crazy blond halo. 

 Here is Ava doing her daily morning puzzle.

Baby Mary, Janie, and Annie all got hit by lightning.  Poor girls.

Cora turns 1!!!!!

We have a big one-year-old in our house now.  This year has gone by so fast!  Cora has been such a wonderful baby.  She is so patient and funny.  She loves her sisters, her dog, her binkie, and mom and dad. 

Cora loves when her sisters play legos, so she got some of her own.

 The highlight of the day was when Cora tried her first piece of cake.  She was not sure what to do with it at first.

 But after a little taste,

 she was won over. 

  

PARTY!!!

EASTER

We started this weekend out with an Easter tea party for the girls and some friends.  Liezl came up with the idea and did all of the work for it.  She was up at 6:30 cutting fruit, making place cards, and folding napkins. It was really fun sitting in the kitchen while these girls sat at the table for 45 minutes snacking and chatting about books, London, and food.

 The rest of the weekend was filled with an egg hunt,

 dying eggs,

and Easter dresses.

Four!!!

All of these girls were apparently too excited for Ava's birthday to sleep, so we started the day at 6:00.  That is when I gave up control of the day and let Ava call the shots.... we had cake for breakfast.

 After opening her presents, the first thing she HAD to do was put together her new puzzle.  She loves puzzles and is really good at them.  I wonder if some of the obsession has to do with organizing and controlling the chaos.  Everything is very clear to her how things should be done and will gladly take over the situation if it is not up to par.  This can be very frustrating to a mom who is calling the shots, but when I take a step back and take the time to see her point of view I see the wonderful qualities in her that made me fall in love with her daddy.  Watch out world, this girl is going to do great things.

 Breakfast of champions. 

 We are all a little obsessed with Wreck it Ralph right now, so I was not surprised when Ava requested it for her cake.  I am not talented at all when it comes to cakes, so thankfully this one I could just make a rectangle building and call it good.  Who am I kidding, it is always a different interpretation of the same rectangle.

Such a great day for such a great girl!!!!