Thankful

I don't have any new pictures to post, but I just wanted to quickly say how thankful I am for my life. My husband and girls are amazing! Things aren't always easy - sometimes they are just plain hard - but man, when you experience those moments of joy that Elder Ballard talked about in his talk this past conference, you can't help but feel completely blessed. The girls have just been learning so much - I know a lot of it is because they are a year older - but they can now pump their legs when they swing so I won't have to push them when we go to the park - it used to drive me crazy and now I feel a bit sad that they don't need me to do that anymore. We also got out their soccer ball since the snow has officially melted and they are SO much better with their feet and controlling the ball, Gracie is a pro on her "big girl bike" with training wheels and Whit is getting there. The girls are still loving their Daddy time and are so excited when he gets home each night. All of us are SO excited for Olivia to get here. I just had a really great day with my family yesterday - with no t.v. by the way - and am so thankful for it.

One quick thing - I was getting a talk ready for one of the girls a couple of weeks ago and was trying to find a quote and pulled out the book "Stand a Little Taller" by President Hinckley - I kept it out and have been reading the thought for the day each morning before work, etc. and it has really helped me be mindful of what we are on this earth to do. The one for yesterday was this:

"I feel to invite every woman everywhere to rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass."

Daddy Time

Ever since Jeremy went back to work for Mike he has been getting home MUCH earlier and therefore is able to spend more time with the girls before they go to bed - the girls look forward to their daddy time each night - mostly because Daddy is a whole lot more fun than Mom and plus, he is able to really get down and play with the girls - they both took their cues from dad for the picture posted here - Jeremy usually makes some sort of face like this whenever his picture is taken.



A quick update on the whole no t.v. situation - on Thursday the girls were playing after breakfast and Gracie said, "Mom, I'm really glad we don't have t.v. anymore." It has not been as big of a deal as I thought it would be.

I also had an appointment with my midwife this past Thursday and everything looks good - I am measuring perfectly with how far along I am - which will officially be 33 weeks on Tuesday. We can't wait to meet Livvy. She was dancing around after church today while I was lying down with Whitney and Whit thought it was the neatest thing to not only feel the movements but to see them. I hope she is as excited and loves her sister as much when she finally arrives!

Big Girls!!!

So, I bought the girls some dry erase doodle boards while we were in Utah a couple of weeks ago - very good purchase. The boards are spiral bound and provide spots to practice tracing letters and numbers and then to write them on your own. The twins have known their letters for a while but only really been able to write letters like X, T and H. Today Whitney was asking me how to spell my name and then her name and this is what happened -


Gracie was quite proud of sis and wanted to try too - she struggles with her writing her R's and gets frustrated pretty quickly and just won't do it anymore - she will tell me or Jer she wants us to do it instead. But, we practiced her R's a few times and then I spelled her name for her and she wrote the letters - I am SO proud of both of them.


We have cancelled our DISH network - so no t.v. since last Friday and it is amazing the things that are happening in our home. We were usually watching a show at night before the twins went to bed and it was kind of hard to settle them down and now we go upstairs, say prayers and they are asleep in about 2 minutes. Jeremy and I have also been going to bed MUCH earlier - I can't believe how truly exhausted I am around 9 or 9:30 - but have been staying up until around 11 to watch "my shows". It has been hard - mostly on me - but the twins are loving all of the family time we spend together and I can't believe how much I enjoy the quiteness of our home - just the sound of little girls chattering and laughing - not muffled anymore by the sound of our t.v. I expect our power bill to go down dramatically =). We have also started eating at the kitchen table again - ya, bad habits abound at the Sorenson home - I have also noticed that the girls aren't constantly asking for snacks - which they usually do when they are watching a show. I hope this didn't come off as braggy - the t.v. has just been a huge challenge and weakness for us - for me - for a very long time and Jer and I finally agreed that the best thing to do for our little family right now is to do away with it. We still enjoy watching movies together - Red Box is great - but so far, SO much better!

Spring's sprung.....wait a minute!!!

The weather for the most part last week was great - snow was melting, the sun was shining, I personally felt like southeastern Idaho was on track to welcome some green and blossoms in the near future - until it started snowing Sunday afternoon, yesterday evening and apparently overnight!!!! Quite depressing. I have started taking the girls on walks and on up to the church so they can ride their scooters - it was during this outing yesterday evening when it started to snow again. The girls didn't care - they are SO happy to be outside regardless of the temperature after being cooped up for 4 months - they were quite upset when it was time to go home. Here are some pictures of them - our camera is a little on the slow side to I always seem to get the tail-end of their smiles. But I love the close-ups.






I also took them with me to the hospital last Friday and we pre-registered for when we have Olivia. They let us take a little tour of the birthing center which I was very happy for so the twins are a little familiar with where mommy will be. I, of course, being the emotional pregnant girl that I am got a little teary when the nurse was explaining to the twins and showing them where they would put the baby after she was born and weigh & measure her, etc. because it made me think about when I had them. When we finished I asked them what they learned and they said "That you and daddy can eat lunch in your room and we can watch t.v. when we come and see Livvy." That's my kids for ya!

Trip to Utah, Easter & Tigers

My sisters informed me last week that I am NOT doing a very good job of blogging on a consistent basis - so here I am, trying to do better. The girls and I went to Utah last week for 5 days and had such a good time. We got to stay with both Grandma Holt and Grandma & Grandpa Van Dyke. The twins had a sleepover with their cousin Savannah - they talked about it constantly for weeks and had such a good time at Melissa & Ivan's house. We went out for lunch a couple of times and had dinner at Marianne & Kelly's house on Thursday. Saturday was the big day as we had Amber's baby shower, Savannah's birthday party and then got together that night at my parents house to play cards where I am quite sure I offended my sisters date. It was great to see everyone especially those we don't normally see on our trips down - hint, hint Matt & Carly.



Melissa and Ivan's daughter Sienna - SiSi!! We love her so much.



Three of the four pregnant girls on my mom's side of the family. Me, Melissa & Amber




Gracie looks like she lost one of her bottom teeth - don't worry, she was just eating a brownie and gave me a big grin and I had to take a picture!




Gracie, Ty, Whitney and Charlie eating breakfast at my mom's house Sunday morning.


Here are some pictures of the girls on Easter morning in their cute dresses - I just love green! The Easter bunny comes to our house on Saturday morning so that Sunday can be Jesus' day. They came home from church that day and told us about when Christ was on the cross, the marks on His hands and feet, and when He was in the tomb and how he lived again. It is SO amazing to here these types of things from your children.




I was throwing out some of my old make up the other day and the girls asked if they could play with it - they started out with a modest amount of blush and eyeshadow and all of a sudden Gracie said "Look mom, DeeDee is making me a tiger" and Whitney had put TONS of makeup on both of them and they actually looked a bit like tigers. Here are some pics of them growling like tigers.