our little angels

For those of you who may not have gotten a look at these pictures on facebook.
Just some pictures I took in our backyard last week. I'm lucky to have gotten any of Katelyn. The girl definitely has a mind of her own and an iron will.


mmmm, flowers taste good!


see what I mean?


Alaina was slightly better behaved, mostly because she couldn't run away from me :)


I like this one.


awww. don't you just want to pick her up and kiss her?


there's my beautiful brown eyed girl


our little pre-schooler


sisters. friends.





you can never have too many rose bushes....or can you?

you can.

sweet little ones

Yesterday Justin and I were asked to sub-teach Katelyn's class at church. We obliged. When I told Katelyn that mommy and daddy were going to be her teachers at church, her eyes got really big and her mouth open wide. She was excited. I guess I felt a little surprised that she was excited. I shouldn't have. She is 4 years old and still likes us right now.

Because of absences and 3-4 year old emotional melt-downs, we ended up only having two kids in the class. For the first hour all the junior primary kids meet together for singing time and sharing time (the lesson). It was really fun to watch Katelyn in her Primary environment. Every time they would ask the kids a question, her hand would shoot up in the air, even if she didn't know the answer to the question or even why she was raising her hand. I loved seeing her participate and get involved.

Katelyn also got to go up with the entire Primary during Sacrament Meeting (the main meeting at church that the entire family meets together) and sing for Father's Day. She was apprehensive about going up, so I walked up with her and then sat on the front row while she sang. I don't know what happened to me, but I started blubbering like a baby. I love when the children sing. I love it. It is the sweetest thing. And to see my own child up there for the first time, just sort of touched my little heart.

Since I have become a parent, I have developed a greater love for children. They are truly special. My Brazilian friend Marina-in her South American accent would always say, "they are so beautiful", and they are!

check it out!

So I started up a new blog to enhance my Tupperware business. I plan on posting video demonstrations of my favorite Tupperware items and recipes. It's so much better to see it live!

find me here: www.tupperwarewithdeanne.blogspot.com

play time at the park

This week Justin is doing some training and gets to be on a "normal" schedule from 8am-4pm. We took advantage of having him home yesterday evening and played at the park for a while. There are many times when I wish he worked these hours regularly.








Love this girl!




Justin almost got stuck on the slide.

yeah baby!

We are the proud new drivers of this ultimate mom wagon. Good grief! I can't believe we have a mini van. But, I already love the extra space and automatic door openers. The way to buy a used car is to find one that some old people had. They are usually really well taken care of and perfectly maintained. I was hoping to find such a vehicle and we were blessed. Katelyn loves it! She's so excited about the 3rd row seating.

This was our second time as a married couple to go through the car buying process. It's probably not going to ever be fun, but this time we knew exactly what we wanted and I thought we did pretty well holding our ground. Next time, I hope we can pay cash. Then they really have to do what we say. haha.

Here's to taking the plunge into the world of the mini-van.

Kate's birthday!

She wanted a princess castle cake really, really badly. We watched some videos online and I did my best to replicate one that we saw. I wasn't overly impressed with it, but Katelyn loved it! While she was watching me decorate it she kept saying over and over: "it's gonna be so beautiful". As long as she liked it, I succeeded.


We had a few friends over to play, have cake and open presents.


She was so excited to get a princess nightgown.


and this kitty. She loved all of her gifts and enjoyed having her friends celebrate with her.

It is amazing how much they grow up in just one year. We love our Katelyn~

Katelyn

is turning 4 tomorrow.

Thoughts on Dave Ramsey

My very kind neighbor loaned us Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" on CD. Justin and I have listened to the first lesson together so far and I am taking it in the car with me so I can listen to it in the car while I drive to Spokane today. I am LOVING it!!!!! It is SO motivating! My neighbors paid off $50 THOUSAND dollars in debt in SEVEN months by using this program. Granted, they don't have small kids at home (yet) and were both working their tails off at jobs that pay very well. Still. I have never felt so inspired, in a financial way before. I want this (meaning, financial peace) really bad right now. Baby steps! That's what lesson one is about. I made a good baby step today while I was out running errands. I began to feel very, very hungry. I had $8 cash in my wallet. I thought I could just go through a drive through and grab a sandwich real quick. I was so close to doing it. so close. Then as I kept listening to lesson 2 while driving aroun, changed my mind. Decided I would do my last errand and just go home and make a sandwich instead. It felt good.