Happy Birthday Reesie!!!

I can't believe it's been 3 years since this little girl was born and I became a mom. She has brought so much joy into our lives. This picture of Reese in the NICU always reminds me of her love for life. Reese truly loves life and finds joy in everything around her. She cannot walk by a flower without smelling it or getting so excited when the sun wakes up. Heavenly Father has blessed her with so many amazing qualities and I feel grateful everyday that I am her mother. Here are just a few things about Reese that I love.......

-Reese is very selfless.  She has never had any issues with sharing or I should say not sharing. She loves to make people happy and hates to see anyone cry. 

- Reese is an amazing big sister. Reese cannot wait for Nora to wake up in the morning and I have never had to worry about Reese being mean to Nora. When Nora is crying in the car, Reese will find a way to make her laugh. Reese will make funny faces, silly noises, or just sing a song for Nora. One of my favorite sounds is to hear my girls laughing hysterically in the car together. Nobody can make Nora laugh quite like Reese. 

- Reese loves the temple! Her favorite song is "I love to see the temple" and she sings it multiple times throughout the day. She sings it in the grocery store, at the mall, and constantly in the car. We see the Brigham City temple at least once a week on our way to gymnastics and she has to sing her song as she passes the temple. A couple weeks ago, she told me that she wanted to go inside the temple again. I told her that she couldn't go inside, but she could touch the temple the next time we went to gymnastics. Forgetting that the temple is closed on monday, we went to the temple and the gates were closed so she said she just wanted to touch the gates. She just wanted to get as close as she possibly could. I am constantly learning from Reese's desire to do good! 

-Reese is always so happy and finds joy in the little things! She looks at the good instead of the bad. Everyday, she will tell me......"Mama, your room is so beautiful. I love it so much" ( My room was a complete mess), "Mama, I love your necklace. It's so cute!", "Mama, your blanket is darling.", "Mama, your car is so beautiful", "Mama, the house looks so clean", "Mama, thank you for making me dinner" (even though she didn't eat a single bite). She comes up with the most amazing things to compliment on and it truly makes my day. Ever since Mother's Day, she has told me "Happy Mother's Day! I love you so much!" Then she will give me a huge hug and she celebrates that I am her mom every day! Her little comments are worth more than any paycheck I could ever receive. She truly is a piece of heaven in our home. 

We started Reese's birthday off with a huge pancake with berries and coolwhip, "Just like Nora's." We were all still pretty sick and I just wanted to make her birthday special. She had been looking forward to it for months and now that it was here. She was sick, Nora was sick, and I had bronchitis. We were planning on going to Kangaroo Zoo with her friends in the daytime for her birthday, but we decided to postpone it. Reese slept most of the day and then we went bowling later that night. Sickies and all! Sorry to anyone that got sick from our germs at the bowling alley. We were just trying to make 3 yr olds big day special. We were planning on having Reese's "Frozen" birthday party on Saturday, but because my house was so germ infested, my mom volunteered to have it at her house. My sister and mom really saved the day and made Reese an awesome Elsa cake and helped with cupcakes and decorations. I would have coughing fits every couple of minutes, so I tried to just stay away from everyone. Reese had a blast at her party and loved every minute of it. We made little Olaf's out of marshmallows, and played freeze dance to "Frozen" songs, and then had some yummy cake. The party was a success and Reese was so happy!

Happy Birthday Nora....

 Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet Nora. I can't believe that a year has gone by since we brought her home from the hospital. We didn't think we would actually be able to adopt Nora and thought that the birthfather or birthmother would change their mind. She was considered a high risk adoption, and yet I had such an overwhelming feeling that she was supposed to come to our home.I felt a how much Heavenly Father loves Nora and how she was a chosen daughter of God and great things lie ahead in her life. I felt my responsibility to teach her and love her and help her to know the gospel because she was going to share it with others.  I had a lot of anxiety the month before she was born and had rashes all over my arms and stomach from stress. Yet, when the stress would almost get too much, I would again get this overwhelming feeling that everything would be okay. The words would always come into my mind, "Be still and know that I am God." I knew Heavenly Father was in control and we truly were able to "Be Still" and watch Him work miracle after miracle to bring Nora into our home. She is still my "Be Still and Know that I am God" baby. When she was a newborn, I would get busy trying to take care of Nora, Reese, clean, etc. and as soon as I held her, she had such a peace about her and would help me to be still and just feel the spirit. She still is that way. She just has a peace about her that testifies of Heavenly Father.

 Nora is so kind and loving. She loves music and it runs in her blood. Nora is very smart and observant. She watches everything we do and especially what Reese does and wants to do it too. Everyday I am amazed at how much she is learning. We will sing her a song and then she can usually say most of the words and do the actions by the time we are done singing it. She is a very big tease and loves to fake coughing or she will try to share her food and then pull it back. She gives the best hugs and kisses and I love cuddling with  her. I love how excited she gets when Ron or I walk into the door. She is my little shopping buddy and loves clothes. Every time I show her clothes and ask her if she likes it, she says, "Yeah!" and then tries to put the clothes on with the hanger still on. She loves music and has an ear for it. Nora loves to pray and you can tell that she is really giving a meaningful prayer even though we can't understand her. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that I have been blessed to be Nora's mother and everyday with her gets more and more exciting. We love you Nora Boo!

  I am always excited to watch how my babies eat their first birthday cake. Nora was hilarious! She loved eating her cake even though I added too much black food coloring to the frosting. So a hilarious thing I have to add is that Nora was not eating her cake at first and so Ron helped her out and ate a huge might of frosting to get her going. Ron kept at it and he was laughing and smiling and then I realized that his lips and teeth were stained black. Oops....my bad! That would be the food coloring. ( Everyone that ate the black frosting mentioned that their pee color had been changed for a week:) I was laughing so hard when I heard that. Anyway, Nora loved playing in her cake and had it in her diaper, her hair, her ears, and loved trying to feed it to everyone. I think her favorite part was playing in the sink afterward:) Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Sickies

The flu has finally hit our house. We have actually been pretty fortunate to not get sick until now, but when it hit, it hit us hard. It started with me and I blame it on the gym:) Anyway, I was feeling fine and then in the middle of the day, my chest started to get tight and I thought it was allergies or something because I usually get a sinus infection before anything hits my lungs. By the next day, I could definitely tell I had bronchitis. I felt so bad because a couple days later, Reese started to have a cough, runny nose, and she just felt yucky.  A couple days later, Nora came down with the same sickness. We had to get one of the electric booger suckers and suck everything out of their noses to try to prevent RSV or pneumonia. We spent a couple of weeks in the house because nobody felt well enough to leave. One of the good things about having sick children is that you get LOTS of snuggles and cuddles. I absolutely loved watching Reese and Nora cuddle as well. They truly love each other and when they are sick, they just want to watch movies and cuddle together under the same blanket. Reese kept telling me over and over, "Mama, we are all sickies".  Ron finally got bronchitis last of all. He seems to fight things off really quick, which is a blessing. Me on the other hand, ended up having bronchitis for over a month and I had to try to sleep on the recliner for over 3 weeks because I would have a coughing fit if I tried to lay down. I finally realized that I need to rest more and slow down or I will not get better. This has happened to me several times in different ways that Heavenly Father tries to tell me that I need to slow down and focus on the things that are most important. Before I got sick, I thought I might have adrenal fatigue, but I just kept training for the marathon, waking up super early to get things done, and staying up way too late to get things done. Then I got the bronchitis that totally put me out. I could barely walk without having a coughing fit and it forced me to stop running and slow down. When this happened, I finally could see that Heavenly Father was trying to teach me something and I wasn't listening at all. Over the next few weeks while we were all sick, I realized how much I have missed morning snuggles with my girls and it will only be a couple more years before they are off to school in the morning or they will be too old for morning snuggles. I was reminded once again that my body is a temple and I need to respect it and give it the rest it needs. I learned to just slow down and enjoy all the little things my girls do together every day.  I have such an amazing sister that will come and  pick up my girls so they can play while I am sick. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that continues to teach me the things I need to do to bring about the greatest happiness!