Grandparents are Great.

David's parents came all the way from AZ this week to visit! We've been looking forward to this for a long time, and Caroline honestly, loved every second!

We kicked off the week with a combined Family Home Evening with Dave's brother's families at our house.



Caroline and her pretty cousins! (Emily, Ashley, Caroline, Katelyn, Jessica, and Becca)




For our lesson we learned about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty. The girls each made their own "title" to remind them of what was most important to them. They did a great job!


The next day we took Nana and Grandpa to the Memphis Zoo!



Caroline and Nana on the zoo train.

The best part of the zoo was the polar bear who was very interested in the kids behind the glass! He played right in front of them and kept looking at them for a good 10 minutes! Just before we came to the polar bears we were discussing just how much the animals are aware of the humans walking around, looking at them. Well, the polar bear answered that! He really put on a show!

That's Caroline with her hand on the glass. It looked like he was trying to eat something out of her hand!

The Memphis Zoo is huge and beautiful. We decided to get a family membership, so if anyone wants to go sometime, we'll be happy to join you!

It was a great visit, our only complaint was that it was too short!

Caroline was really a ray of sunshine for those couple of days! No tantrums or whining, she just bounced around with a huge grin on her face! That was, until she found out that Nana and Grandpa were going back to Arizona. Her face just fell and she stared off into her lap. It broke my heart!

Speaking of grandparents, my grandma Madeleine passed away this week.

For most of my life, my grandparents lived in Utah and we only got to see them once every 1 or 2 years. But this last year they moved in with my parents and gave us all an opportunity to spend more time with them. They have seen so much and my grandpa tells the greatest stories of their lives together. Grandma was such a sweet lady and loved her grandkids and great-grandkids to pieces! I'm so glad I have this picture now.

I'm flying to Tucson tomorrow for her funeral. Unfortunately because Caroline is 3, she doesn't fly free anymore, so I'm going alone. This makes me nervous for many reasons. First, I don't know how to be without Caroline for 6 days!!! It hurts to think about it - I miss her already. Second, flying by myself is so scary! Not so much the flight part, but airports are big confusing places and the hustle and bustle makes me so anxious. So wish me luck and hopefully I'll be able to get on the right plane and on time! I'll miss grandma, but I'm excited to go home and be with my family.

p.s. thanks to everyone who is helping with Caroline while I'm gone and Dave is working - I appreciate you so much.

Watch This!

So funny, so true!

First Day of "School" !

Caroline had her first day of "Thursday School" this week!



Thursday School is a free preschool program at a big Baptist church here. Several other kids in our ward go to it and their Mom's gave it high recommendations, so I thought we'd try it out! It's just one day a week for two and a half hours, which I think is just perfect for her (and me!) It gives her an oppurtunity to be with other kids and learn in a school-like setting, without her being gone all day every day! We've been looking forward to this since November when we signed up!


Caroline said she had a great time. Her teachers are just so nice and sweet and seem to take genuine interest in each child individually, which is so important to me.
She was the first one in her class to arrive and sat down to do puzzles and automatically said, "Mom! Come do this puzzle with me!" But after a few minutes with one of her teachers she said, "Mom, go now. I'm staying here, but you go." :)
I love being a stay-at-home Mom, but I think there are just some things that a kid doesn't learn at home with mom, like waiting your turn in a line or raising your hand to speak and such. It's strange though to think that she's having experiences with me!

Did you notice she's wearing a different shirt in the pictures? Of course, it wouldn't be a special day without spilling a cup of milk on your shirt and racing to change before getting out the door, now would it?!

Surprise Snow

I had no idea when I left the house on Saturday afternoon (for a girl's night out - woohoo! - thanks ladies!) that it would be snowing all night!

We got a few inches and church was cancelled! Snow is fun, but IT'S MARCH!!! Isn't it supposed to be Spring now?! I'm tired of tennis shoes, rainboots, jackets, gloves and coats! I really didn't expect it to be so wet and cold in this region. It rains about twice a week!


We did have a good time though. It was the good kind of snow that's perfect for snowballs and snowmen... if you know how to make snowmen. Ours always end up sort of triangular.

Archie loves snow! He romps around and plays outside more when it snows, than when it's sunny and dry!

Her future is bright...

Caroline and I were listening to her primary songs cd in the car today. "I Love to See the Temple" came on and we had the following conversation:

C: Let's go to temple and get married, Mom!
S: I'm already married to Daddy! Someday when you get older you can marry a boy in the Temple, ok?
C: OK. ...(quiet for a few seconds)... Like when I'm a Susan?
S: Huh?
C: I go to temple when I get bigger and I'm a Susan?
S: (laughing, now realizing what she means) Well, yes, when you're bigger and a grown-up like Mommy you can get married in the Temple, but your name will still be Caroline!
C: Oh. And I'll have big feet?
S: What?!
C: Yeah, when I'm bigger and a grown up and I go to the Temple, I'll have big feet like you?
S: Do you want big feet?
C: Yeah!
S: Sure then, When you're big and have big feet like Mom, you can go to the Temple and marry a nice boy.
C: Yes!

I'm just glad she has something to look forward to in life :)

Our Week

Ms. Independent:

One morning last week while I was cleaning up from breakfast, I told Caroline is was time to get dressed soon. A few minutes later she came down dressed! By herself! I was so surprised because she usually asks for help with everything - even slip-on shoes! The outfit she chose was: blue Nike track pants, a pink and purple striped turtleneck and her black church shoes! Everything was rightside out (including clean undies!!!), but her pants were backwards. I was so proud I didn't change a thing but her shoes because they fall off too easily.


Block Party:

Friday night David was at a camp-out for the scouts and I was watching our nieces for the night. We decided to have a High School Musical 3 party and invited some kids in the neighborhood to join us. It was CRAZINESS at Susan's house with 7 kids under 7 years old! (Baby Britni is not pictured) The ONLY time they were all sitting was when I made them sit down to take a picture! But the kids had fun and I'm glad that Caroline has friends in the neighborhood she can play with.



Hockey:

Saturday night we went with some other families to a RiverKings Hockey game. They're a semi-pro team that plays at the arena just 10 minutes from our house. This was our first time and it was pretty fun!


This is Caroline's photography - not bad! She's been wanting to take a picture every time the camera is out. I'm thinking of getting her one of those kid-proof digital cameras for her birthday next year.

Not the most flattering picture of me, but the other two look so cute so oh well! We had a good time and let me tell you, Hockey is MUCH more enjoyable in person than on TV! Caroline was actually pretty good and LOVED all the music and lights and was dancing with her friend Rhylan most of the time (and eating snacks of course).

Caroline started coughing that night so Dave kept her home from church (which she was not happy about, and she was missed by her friends who asked about her!) When I got home, Dave and Caroline had made me lunch and colored me a beautiful picture! I also noticed that they had read her "Book of Mormon Stories" book and Caroline told me they sang Primary songs while I was good which made my day! Later, Caroline took a nap with Dave. She's always been a kind of Mom's girl, but lately has been asking for Dad all day long. She always wants to call him at work and she lights up when he comes home. I am more than happy to pass the torch!