Her Reflection

Children's Book - Chicken Cheeks

 
Chicken Cheeks
Author: Michael Ian Black
Illustrated By:  Kevin Hawkes

My sister Emilee gave this book to me and all my sisters for Mother's Day.  What a thoughtful and wonderful gift.  Since then we have read this book at least a couple times a day.  And we giggle, laugh, and exclaim over the illustrations and the words.  I mean really there is not much funnier than different kinds of animal bottoms.

My daughter Fia just sat on my lap and laughed and said "Read it,  Read it,  Please...."
Now a pause to read the book

It all begins with a bear wanting some honey at the top of a very very tall tree.   His friends come to help him and each animal climbs on top of the other and you see their rear, tushy, derriere, cheeks, caboose,  I bet you get the picture now.
Speaking of pictures they are delightful and full of fun and laughs.  Each time we read the book all we hear is
"Again, Again."
It is a very fast read and the best parts of the book are the illustrations and if you are into a little "bottom" humor this book is for you.

NOT my Body

Drawing by Travik Frantisek Simon (1877-1942)

I was watching Nie Nie's New Life video  for the first time today.  It amazes me what she has accomplished through her faith and trials.  We all go through different trials and challenges through life and we never know who we will bless or help through our own experiences.  The thing that hit me today in this video and other days,other things have hit me,  is when she said

 "I am NOT my body."

 And my mind started racing and speeding through all sorts of different crazy.  How often I have and do feel like all I am is my body.  What limitations it has set on me, my emotions, my abilities and my desires.  And what I go through is not even a quarter of what I know Nie Nie does and others have to also.  I loathe what my body does and what it makes me think about and what I have to be conscience about.  I loathe how I feel judged and misunderstood by my choices and different challenges.  I am reminded every single day how blessed I am for my body to be in the condition that it is in.  I rejoice each day that I get up and play, hug, wrestle, clean and succeed.  My children in an of themselves are miracles.  I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the opportunity to be their mother.  I know I may not be doing all that I should or want to.  I am doing all that I can.  And no one can ask more than that.

Glorious Week

So  I had a GLORIOUS Week.  

On Tuesday I was making Tacos and my sweet Hubby

Surprised me with flowers.  

Noah tells everyone that they are Dark Red

and they are so so beautiful.

I told Kieran I would post a pic of me in my fabulous polka dot dress.

And don't you love love love my new Ruby slippers.

Every girl needs a pair of Ruby Slippers.

So sad the lighting is bad in this picture, oh well

I got to wear my fav new outfit for

 Joshua's Baptism

this is Kersten's Sister Nina's son.

And he was baptized into 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

My husband was humbled and honored when Josh 

asked him to baptize him.

His foot came up so he had to do it twice

Grandpa Heinz confirmed him a member of the church

and gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

It was a really exciting and special day.

Congratulations Josh!  I am so so proud of you

I KNOW you made the right choice. 

Love you buddy.

We had a pizza and brownie party afterwards.

It was super fun and yummy

I love it when the fam gets all together.

Sofia,  Of course turned it into a dance party.

She even provided the music. 

She was singing.  

And she had to dance with her Daddy.

She then talked Noah into dancing with her.

It was super super fun.

As you can see it totally wore her out.

Okay, now for a vote

Kersten has been growing his hair out now for awhile

I think it is HOT HOT HOT.

But it is driving him crazy because the curls poof 

Luckily the "Hair Whisperer" is on call to help

that is my sister Amy.

She seriously is so good with hair that it talks to her 

so she know what it wants.

So I am begging him to keep it.

He wants to cut it for the summer

What do you think?

Sofiaisms

This girl gets funnier everyday.  She is exerting her independence and her sense of humor is astounding.

Examples:

* She LOVES being naked.  And is always trying to weasel her way out of her clothes.  When she succeeds she yells "KAYKED".  And dances around the house, singing, skipping and jumping.   She loves  "kayked dancing",  and "Kayked Showers",  "Kayked Baths",  "Kayked Hugs" and anything "KayKed."

*She loves going to church on Sunday.  Part because she LOVES getting to wear her "Princess dresses" in her closet.  And she loves going to "My Class".  On Sunday as we were going to church she argued with us that it was only her church.  We would say "our Church", she would say "My Church".  So I went through all our names individually and say "Daddy's Church,  Mommy's Church,  Noah's Church and Sofia's Church."  She responded with "yep, My Church".

*  She has to show everyone her "Dress"  and her shoes.  She is obsessed with her clothes and it has turned into a struggle every morning to she what she is going to wear.  She loves to dress up with braclets, necklaces and "My Bow"  in her hair.  She has even started telling me how she wants her hair, in "Piggies" or "One Bow".  I am so in trouble in the future.  It has already started.

*  Sofia, What's your Name?..... Baby A
Once in awhile she will say that she is "Fia"  most of the time she is Baby A.

*  "Sofia, How Old are You?  " I Six"
Noah just turned Six and that is a big number around our house.  We are making 2 be a big deal too.

*She has been talking with her fingers like a puppet.  Ever since My Dad played "Mr. Sniffer" with her at Noah's birthday party.  At breakfast the other day,  she talks with her fingers and says  "Hi,  I'm A",  So Noah pipes in  "Hi, I'm A."  And I join and say "Hi, I'm K,  So now we say AAK."  We all start hysterically laughing.  We started all talking with our hands and saying different letters to make different sounds.  But Sofia had to always be "A".  And she would laugh and smile in a smug way that showed that she knows she is funny.

*Whenever she is looking for something,  she looks around and says "Hmmmmm" and then when she finds it she says "Oh, there it is".  In her sweet two year old accent

*  All of her toys have to kiss and talk.  She plays everything like such a girl.  She is zooming around the room with her cars and they stop and say "Hi, Kiss"  then they kiss and keep driving.  All her stuffed animals and dolls do this too.  Even Noah's "Guys"  any action figures are just "Guys"  and they kiss too.   They all have to dance together too.  The other day I caught Buzz Lightyear and Tiana the Barbie dancing and kissing in her bedroom.

*She is OBSESSED with dancing.  She is dancing all day, any time and any place.  She is begging us to dance too. And she will even sing her own music if I am to slow to get the music on.  She is always a Princess and Dancing with either a Frog or a Prince or we are Princesses together.

Party- Noah is 6

We had two family parties since I last wrote on here for Noah's 6 year old birthday.  It seems like he has had a birthday month instead of just a day.  It sure makes it super fun though.  So for the sake of all who want to know I will attempt to do the highlights of both parties.

On Sat.  April 17 we had a Pirate Party with my side of the fam.  Here we are searching with our Treasure Maps for the buried treasure..  We found it in record time.  It really was not that hard to find.

For each kid inside there was Pirate stickers, pirate pencil, some gold coins and Swedish fish.  And they all went home with a Pirate flag.  It was awesome and a very big hit.
For food we had taco salad, the day was so nice outside we ate on the deck and in the kitchen.

Noah's cousin Colton who is 17, gave him this awesome Yoda.

He is so snuggley.  We use him for a pillow 

and he is helping Noah train his stuffed animal "Force".

Noah also loves his red eyes in these pictures

He says it makes him look evil.

I am a bit disturbed. 

Nik and Lena wrapped their presents at least 3 times in newspaper.

This perplexed Noah quite a bit.

He was spoiled as usual.  With two new board games, Playmobil Knights and Pirates,

Toothless the Dragon and Hiccop and 

My friend Kieran painted this Darth Vader curtain for his DarthVader Closet.

It is seriously so amazing that it takes my breath away.  

He looks so menacing, shiny and tough. 

Her talent astounds me every day.  

He wanted Donuts for his cake. 

So we made a "castle" or "mountain" as he calls it.

And he blew out his candles.  

We also had Root Beer Floats.  Mmmmm,  I love them.

Here is how the curtain looks in Noah's room.

I love how both Yoda and Darth Vader have their light sabers drawn.

If you ask Noah,  Darth Vader and his Yoda are friends now.

They are training and practicing to get the real bad guys

We are going to sew on a piece to the curtain so it goes to the floor.

I love love love it.  It fills my heart each time I walk in his room.  

He says it makes him feel "safe" at night and his room in now the coolest.

We had the April birthdays at Kersten's family today.

Virginia as always did an awesome job on the cake.

She used Playmobil Pirates for the top 

and Noah requested white cake with white frosting with Strawberries in the middle.

It was super yummy.

After we ate cake,  he came and asked everyone if his cake was the favorite.

It was super delicious.

Noah really wanted a shield 

So now he has the gear he needs to train his dragons and his force.

The axe is a big hit.

The theme of this party was Lego, legos and more Playmobil.

I think now we have a whole Playmobil Pirate and Knight village.

He jumped around like a silly monkey he loved everything so much.

He loves that he shares his birthday with Josh and Grandma.

It was a very fun and delicious party.

Light switches

I made these last night for my kids rooms and I love how they turned out.  They make me really happy.

Sofia's Room

The picture is when Fia was one year old.  

And now you can see the color scheme of her room too.  

Noah's Room

The picture of Noah was taken when he was just barely 2 

on the steps of the Salt Lake Temple at my brother Nik and his wife Lena's wedding.

I love how little he looks and that he looks so proud boyish