Eliza's 12th Birthday

Eliza's 12th birthday is pretty special! The youth of the stake went to the Philadelphia Temple Open House today. What a special opportunity to tour the temple on her 12th birthday!  I packed her a fun lunch for the bus ride up, with Happy Birthday stickers on her food. We celebrated yesterday since she was going to be gone all day today. I am so proud of who she is becoming!

Trip to The Broce's in NC

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Last week Eliza went to her first YW camp. She had a great time, by the way.

Sadie, Levi, Grant, and I went to Boone, NC to visit my very dear friend, Alisha Broce. She lives in the mountains. The kids loved running around her country yard till late at night with the kids. We stayed two nights. Alisha took us tubing down the river. It was nice with temps in the 80s and a cool, slow moving river to float down. We tied 6 tubes together and floated as a group down the river. It was super fun. I am glad my kids could benefit from Alisha's adventurous nature!

The kids were sad to leave and tried to make plans for more sleepovers with their new friends. 

While in Boone, Alisha and I went to lunch at Indian lunch buffet. Then we went to a touristy general store. I did not expect to spend any money. But nostalgia took over when I saw Melody Pops. 😆 I loved them as a kid and I had told my kids about them before. I bought them each one and gave it to them after Family Home Evening tonight.

https://youtu.be/ML7woa5DwJg

https://youtu.be/AreciZtkdCs

https://youtu.be/MUUKw9h48j0

Eliza is in the middle with the turquoise bandana. 😍

Eliza is on the right with the turquoise bandana again in these two. 💕

Ward Time with Bishop Ferguson. 

Pancake Love

This morning Eliza woke up extra early to make pancakes for Sadie so that she could have a good breakfast on the day of her SOL testing. 💗❤️💗❤️😍

Sadie feels so touched by the love Liezee  has shown her. She seems more optimistic about the testing. I am so proud of Eliza for being so thoughtful and serving her sister. 💗💕

Mother's Day 2016

Grant painted a flower pot at preschool. It is decorated with butterflies made from his fingerprints. 🌺🌸

Sadie used her birthday money from Grammy to buy a Fondue set that the neighbor's were selling at their garage sale. She made me chocolate dipped strawberries and bananas! 😋🍓🍌💗🍓

Levi was so excited to give me this coupon book! Right after I looked through it, he said, "I know what you want me to do, Mom! Clean my room!"

I quickly responded, "Yes! That

is right!" He ran upstairs and cleaned his room enthusiastically! It was a Mother's Day miracle! And the best part... Levi insists that I can use each coupon an unlimited number of times! 

The Twins!

Last month when I was in the hospital to have Levi, David did a great job updating my blog and facebook with my progress. There is one part of the story we didn't tell...

I'd mentioned before that my little sister, Molly, was pregnant at the same time as me. She was due on Sept. 15th and I was due on the 28th. On Monday, Sept. 15th, Molly saw her doctor. She was 2cm dilated. He agreed to induce her on the coming Friday, the 19th, if she had not gone into labor naturally since she was past her due date and huge. I saw my doctor the next day and found that I was 4 cm dilated. My doctor said that the baby was big enough and I was dilated enough to be induced. He called the hospital and scheduled my induction for 7am on Friday the 19th. I told my doctor that my sister is also scheduled to be induced on that same day. He said, "Oh so the race is on!" Molly saw her doctor again on Thursday. She was still 2cm dilated and she complained to her doctor that her sister is due 13 days later than her and is already 4cm. He said, "Now, its not a race."

When my mom got the news that we were both scheduled to be induced the same morning, she started referring to the babies as "The Twins."

At 6:30am on Friday morning I received a cell phone call from my sister. David and I were nearly to the hospital. Molly announced, "I won." She had gone into labor on her own at 3:00am. She called our mom to come over and watch her kids. Our mom got to her house at 3:30. Molly got to the hospital at 4:19am. When she arrived she was 6cm dilated. She soon began to beg for an epidural but was told she was fully dilated and it was too late. Her doctor broke her water and six minutes later Baby Camille was born at 5:18am, just 59 minutes after Molly got to the hospital. Camille weighed a whopping 10 lbs 11 oz.

I congratulated Molly for winning and on her new baby girl. Then I headed into the hospital. I was happy she made it until Friday to have the baby. I think it is SO fun that we had our babies the same day. I delivered Levi 3 hours and 19 minutes after the doctor broke my water and about an hour after the pitocin was started. I truly love birthing babies. Both of my experiences with it were great. I think its fun and immediately after both my babies were born, I looked forward to doing it again. Unfortunately I don't feel the same about pregnancy and it takes a lot longer than delivery.

The Twins: Camille and Levi at 1 Month

Camille was bigger at birth than Levi is now. :) And isn't it fun that Molly happened to have a matchy nighty to the one Levi happened to be wearing when I went to visit them?!

Here are some photos of Levi that I took yesterday.

Eliza loves to hold Levi! She especially loves to cuddle him while lying on her back and having him lay on her tummy.

I'd like to thank my Mother-in-law, Linda, for this wonderful Moby Wrap. I use it everyday during those times when Levi needs to be held and I need to do some housework.

Portraits Of My Girls

Since Eliza just turned four, I took the girls in for portraits. We got some fun ones of the girls in their new Halloween costumes too.