Happy Birthday to Me

One thing I really wanted for my birthday was to make my own awesome birthday cake. So I asked for suggestions and found Martha Stewart's 6 layer salted caramel chocolate cake. It was pretty amazing. I made the cake and caramel and frosting all from scratch. It took a few hours, but boy was it worth it! So delicious!!! The other thing I wanted was a new desktop computer to replace my old laptop, which is bound to die any day. And then without me knowing Ryan ordered it and it showed up just before my birthday on the doorstep! Such a happy day. 

Then Livy had her very first official soccer practice on my birthday. There was no other way I would rather spend my birthday. It was so fun to see her with a coach and friends, running and playing and having fun. Then that night we celebrated with family and enjoyed my yummy cake. It was a great birthday. 

Spring Snow

The day before my birthday, on April 15th, we got a huge snow storm! It was crazy! We had had a huge storm on Christmas day, but then hardly any snow all winter (it was kind of nice actually!). But then But then when Spring is just about to come we had a huge snow storm! It melting relatively quickly so Olivia and I ran outside to make a snowman. She named her Sophia. But what was crazy is that most of it melted by the next morning. It was nuts! I guess that's Spring in Utah!

Livy my little best friend

I signed Livy up for soccer this last Spring with some friends. She was so excited to get a new "exercise outfit" and a soccer ball and shin guards. One day before practices had started, she told me, "Mom! I want to put on my exercise clothes and go practice my soccer!" It was music to my ears. I loved hearing that my sweet little girl wanted to go play soccer with me. She played pretty good through out the season. She only touched the ball a few times, even though she is pretty fast and one of the tallest kids, she is just too nice! All day long I tell her not to push or shove, and then she is supposed to get on the field and do that opposite!? She had fun though so that's all that matters!

I was looking forward to the Tulip Festival this year because I know how much we loved it last year. So we actually went the day it opened, and it was beautiful, but a lot of the flowers hadn't bloomed yet. So we made sure to go back the next week with some friends, and it just didn't disappoint. 

I often get these crazy DIY project ideas, and Livy loves to see them happen. She was my little shopping helped this time to get some wood to build our own garden boxes. It wasn't that bad, and I was pretty proud of what Ryan and I were able to build! 

Sunday snuggles.

One day Livy decided to play mom. She doesn't do this often, but she had a whole lot of fun bottle feeding this little lambie and wrapping it in her coat to keep it warm. She is the best big sister and will always be such a good helper!

Penny

This little girl is becoming more and more trouble. She is still as sweet as can be, but she has a bigger mischievous side than Livy ever has. She loves jumping on our bed into the pillows. She loves playing with toys, and then throwing them all around or dumping a bucket of toys out. She is obsessed with dogs. She absolutely loves Sarge. She loves to throw his ball for him, and give him loves. It's a good thing she loves him, because he often drives him mama crazy!

Easter Sunday

We had heard that Nanny wasn't doing very well, so we made sure to stop by for a visit before we went to Mimi and Grandpa's for Easter Dinner. She wasn't very responsive for a few minutes, and then all of the sudden she recognized who we were and had a nice conversation for a few minutes. It was so nice to have those nice last memories with Nanny. My girls were able to give her some loves and wish her a Happy Easter. 

Since Easter was on Conference Sunday it felt strange not being in our Easter outfits for Easter dinner! But we were in our comfy's, and the girls loved the Easter Egg hunt at Mimi and Grandpa's. We're lucky to have a few cousins in town to share fun times like this!

Vegas Get-a-way

We were getting a little spring fever and decided to take a little get-a-way. We booked a discounted room to the Four Seasons, and enjoyed a little sunshine. It was a little bit windy while we were there, but we still were able to play out at the pool. 

The girls enjoyed the massive bath tub. Especially after being a little chilly outside, they took a nice warm bath and they even had little bath robes just their size waiting for them! Another thing we loved is that they had written their names with bath crayons on the tub, it was so fun to have that personal touch!

We were recommended a bunch of places to eat, it was hard to choose! We also loved how our hotel room overlooked the strip. The girls loved looking at all of the lights at night. 

A breakfast place recommended by several people was Hash-House-A-Go-Go. They had the most delicious banana pancake which pretty much fed our whole family, it was huge!

We then went to the big aquarium in Mandalay Bay. It was pretty cool, but we have been spoiled by the new aquarium in Draper, that we weren't super mesmerized. 

The girls loved walking through the Hershey's store, and seeing the Statue of Liberty made out of chocolate! We then had dinner at Shake Shack, another highly recommended place. 

We stopped by the fountain show at the Bellagio, and the girls absolutely loved it. I think we could have stayed there for hours and watched it over and over again. 

Such a fun and much needed weekend to get away from it all! Liv had mentioned at one time that she wanted to live in Las Vegas. I think living in a fancy hotel, with a pool and yummy restaurants would be awesome too sweetie. 

Sweet Olivia

This girl is growing up to be such an independent, smart, funny, and beautiful young girl. She loves to do crafts, color, paint, bake, do puzzles, legos, and loves to watch shows. 

I love this picture of her sleeping because she sleeps just like her mama! When I go in to check on her at night, she is always sprawled across her bed like this and it always makes me laugh. She loves to have a routine and have things in order. She still likes having 3 books, and absolutely loves all the Berenstein Bear books that we've borrowed from Grammy Sue. She always has to have an ice cold water with her when she goes to bed too. She always sleeps with her pink blankie (that she's loved since she was a baby), and it has to be perfectly spread out over her covers. She also hates sleeping with a sheet, she just wants her covers. I love this little girl. 

At the beginning of the year Olivia said she really wanted a bike. But after being flooded with presents at Christmas, I decided it was time to learn the value of money and earning something. So we made a like rainbow chart that had just over 200 little squares on it. She got to fill in squares whenever she was good. Most days she got about 5, but some days were only 1 or 2. Other times 10! After about 2 months, she had filled in her chart and earned her bike! So I took her to Target, and she got to pick out her very own bike and matching helmet. She was excited to get the Princess bike. We put it together and she did great on it right away! It was so fun to see her so excited for something she had worked hard for.