A wonderful Legacy has returned to her sweetheart.

I just got a call and found out my sweet Grandma Wilma Oakeson passed away this morning. She left footprints in my life that I will never forget and I hope I can learn to duplicate. She was one amazing woman and although we are sad to see her leave us. I know she is having a joyful reunion with grandpa. We Love you Grandma!

Holdyn LOVES School :)

There are a few moms that I met up with from church to start a little joy-school for our kids. We rotate being in charge and we are doing one letter a week. I did "A" last week and we had a blast!! There are 6 kids in all so it only rolls around to our house one week (only 2 days a week) out of every 6. It is perfect for little Holdyn! She LOVES it and has her backpack and folder all ready to go the night before. I forgot to take a picture of the whole class last time they were together... so I've only got 3 of the 6 kids. (Charlotte, Josh, and Holdyn in the bottom picture). It has been so fun and it's fun to see Holdyn learn to interact with the other kids.

While daddy's away, the girls play!

I'm not sure what the fascination is, BUT my girls have discovered how much fun mixing bowls can be. They especially love them on their heads as you will see, they also work great as beds for dolls, drums, step-stools, and just about anything else you can think of. Who knew they could be so much fun!

Here is Holdyn helping me make home-made noodles. She really likes to help roll them out and cut them.... but I think she likes throwing flour around the most.

A quick trip to the L.A. temple

We finally found a babysitter who could watch the girls all day so... we could make the trip to the temple in L.A. We've been trying to get someone for the last couple of Saturday's that Ben had off... who knew it would be so hard! But now we have a list of great babysitters so hopefully we can go more often! We'd never been in the L.A. temple and it was an awesome experience and very big and beautiful, inside and out.

I had to put this picture below up because Ben is concentrating so hard on holding the camera straight. He did a pretty good job getting the sky scrapers in the background.

Anyway, we had an awesome day! We had a great dinner afterwards and really enjoyed the drive! It isn't to often we get to spend a whole day without the girls. We missed them but it was great to just spend time with each other!

Kimber discovers the bike horn

Here is our little Kimber! She finally started taking more than one step yesterday! She is almost 15 months so we are super excited she's finally getting it down! She's had a rough life in many ways, but she seems to be pulling through and doing better each day! We love you Kimber!

Back yard fence and fun

We haven't seen much of Ben the past few weeks, but we did have him for a whole 2 days in a row last week! It was GREAT! We've been wanting to put something up around the little garden/dirt area next to the wall.... not to keep the kids out, but the dog. She LOVES to dig holes and she's been working on destroying this area since we moved in. Ben and I decided to put this little fence in. I even got to use the drill, watch out Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor! Now we can plant some veggies and other things and not worry about the dog digging them up. Anyway, it was great to have a project and a husband with a day to work on it together!

As you'll see in the video, the girls pretty much just hung around and played in the water with the dog. It was very fun to have a family project that we could work together on, plus I thought the finished product turned out quite nice.

Holdyn showing her creativity side

Holdyn LOVES doing anything with glue, paper, scissors, markers, paints, crayons, play-dough etc. etc. etc. So today we focused on the leaves in our yard. She had a blast picking them...hopefully she doesn't try to pick them every time we go out now.
She's also been wanting to go to school for the last few weeks. She wakes up every day and asks if she can go to school. So far the answer has been, "Not Yet Holdy-locks." SO, she decided to make a school of her own with her and Kimber's dolls. Not sure where the bowls come in but she also uses them as beds for her little ones. If I go to the cupboard and find it empty of mixing bowls, I usually know they are full of her animals/dolls and I must be quiet, because they are having naps. I also never knew that wash clothes and dish towels doubled as blankets. Not sure where she comes up with it, but hey, it keeps her entertained and using her imagination. Fortunately, there are 5 other moms from church with the similar situation of young children wanting to go to school. We met up yesterday and we are starting a pre-school HOORAY! Our first day is at our house and I will be teaching the infamous letter "A" We are very excited since we will only have to host the pre-school 2 days a month. It works out VERY nicely for the kids and moms involved!