Cutie Pies on Temple Square

We did a surprise birthday visit to Temple Square to give my mom her birthday present while she was doing her missionary service. It was too short of a visit-- we had to get back for preschool-- but the girls loved having it be a surprise and we even got to see Pata for a few minutes inbetween meetings. Mom snapped these cute pictures of Cora and Violet on her phone, while Luke and I hung out inside where it was warm!

Luke's Baby Blessing Weekend

We had a busy weekend full of family, friends, Valentines, Olympics, and games. It was great! Saturday we did some shopping and food preparation, and had a Valentines dinner. Cora had to miss her two Valentines parties because she was sick, so this was a lot of fun with Kissie, Pata, Grandma and Grandpa around too. Cora and Violet made heart people and got new nightlights and sticker books from Kevin and I.
Sunday was the blessing day-- beginning bright and early due to 9:00 church. It was nice though, I was able to get up early and it was a fairly relaxing pre-church time with no rushing. I should be so diligent every week!
After church, we had a delicious brunch at our house. Thanks to everyone for coming and bringing yummy food! It was fun to visit. And lots of our family members hadn't seen our house yet, so that was fun to share too. Amazingly it didn't end being too crowded and the kids, even the big ones, had fun playing upstairs in Cora's room. We finished the day with games and leftovers with just our immediate families. It was a great day.Here are some pictures of Luke in his blessing outfit. I took them today, because of course I forgot the day of. He is 6 weeks old.

More Brunch Pictures

Definately my girls....

Grandma: What restaurant do you want to go to Cora?
Cora: the Costco restaurant!

And Violet always points out Costco when we drive by on I-15. It's definately one of my favorite stores. And very kid friendly with two-seater big baskets that can hold all three of my kids, and of course, samples.

We had a lovely big weekend of family and fun. I'll be sorting out the pictures and posting some, hopefully.

One Month Old!

Luke turned one month old on Sunday, we took this picture Monday night, and finally, today on Wednesday I am posting it! We've been busy passing around a mild cold, which hasn't hit anyone too bad except Cora, who got it as croup and has had a miserable couple of days. We are busy cuddling and watching movies and trying to prep the house... and us... for our big weekend-- Kevin will be blessing Luke on Sunday.

I took Luke into the doctor yesterday, just to make sure he is ok, since he has been congested for over a week now. He is looking good and doing even better today, so like most colds, it's just a waiting game to get over it all. Luckily the cold never moved to his lungs.

At the doctor yesterday (one month and two days) Luke weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces, a whopping increase from his last weigh-in, 7 pounds, 7 ounces at two weeks old. He's still in the bottom quartile so he's not huge by any means, but it is cute to see his little legs and tummy begin to chub up.

Luke gave me his first huge smile while I was holding him a few days ago-- how adorable! And unreplicated, so far at least. He is now doing some ooos and gaas in addition to all his usual grunts. Again-- how adorable!

In other news, Violet gave her first unprompted prayer the other night. She just jumped in and began before either Kevin or I could start helping. I guess we've been holding her back! Violet is very into jumping now, she loves to scare me jumping down each stair and totes her handy stool around the house looking for new spots to jump off it. She was in heaven at the Superbowl party at Monique's house when she figured out she could jump onto the huge beanbags in the family room. Violet is our super singer, she knows 20-30 Primary songs and sings them at the top of her lungs in the car and around the house. She talks all the time and can say pretty much whatever she wants. She also likes cameras and uses Cora's camera every chance she can, and my camera too. I had some surprise videos on my last picture download-- here's one of them.

Cora is just busy trying to get better, hopefully in time for her Valentines Day preschool party tomorrow. She loves our new games, Don't Break the Ice, Candyland, Cooties, and Memory, and I'm excited to try out Yahtzee with her soon too. Cora also loves Primary and has happy things to say each Sunday after church about all the things she is learning.

Luke's Birth Announcement

Cora's First Primary Talk

Cora gave her first talk in Sharing Time last Sunday. She did an awesome job! She was so happy and excited to give her talk, and she didn't even require much prompting at all. She's been excited all week, but we weren't quite sure how it would really go in front of people, but she was terrific. I'm so glad it was a great first speaking opportunity. And of course it was fun for her that Kevin and I and Kissie and Pata were there watching. I talked to one of the Primary presidency members and they told me Cora always raises her hand to answer questions and usually has the right answers! How funny to hear about a whole other side of your child's personality that you've never seen much of before.

Here's the text version of Cora's talk, the video is below of one of our practice sessions. But no, she did not give us thumbs up during the actual talk or jump or talk to me :). We also went to the church midweek to practice in the Primary room with the microphone, which was helpful. I got the basic idea of her talk from here and some really good hints about Sunbeam talks from here.

I like the song “I am a Child of God”. It teaches us many things.

Everyone is a spirit child of Heavenly Father. He loves us.

Heavenly Father sent us to earth to learn and receive a body.

Our families are special. Our parents love us, teach us, and protect us.

We want to return to live with Heavenly Father.

We must choose the right.

The Holy Ghost will help us.

While we are on earth, our job is to learn and grow.

We can read the scriptures,

Attend primary,

And listen to our parents and teachers.

It makes me happy to know I am a Child of God. I know Heavenly Father loves me. I love my family and want to be with them forever.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

One of my favorites from the comics last Sunday