Pearl's Haircut

I gave all the girls haircuts the other day, and Pearl begged and begged me to cut hers short.  I really didn't want to, because we just started putting it in pony tails, but now I am so glad we did because it couldn't be any cuter!

She's so proud of it!  Good idea Pearl-girl!

All dolled up.

Since Grace turned 8 she has been going to Activity Days with our church.  She absolutely love it and a couple weeks ago she got to dress up and go to an etiquette dinner.

So beautiful!

Scriptures

Pearl just loves her "scriptures" and wants to take them everywhere she goes.  She is always so excited when I actually let her, but it's really hard to say, "No Pearl, you can not take your scriptures with you to your friends house." I mean what parent would say that?

In case you can't tell....its a Winnie The Pooh book.

First Tooth

Lilly lost her first tooth on Feb. 3rd!  She was determined to lose it as school so she could get a treasure box from the school nurse.   And true to stubborn Lilly form she did!  She came home and I don't think I've ever seen her more excited!

One tooth down...many more to go!

10 Year Anniversary

On February 3, 2017 Sam and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.

It's hard for me to believe that is has really been 10 years, it has been so fun!

 I decided to try out these curlers that I bought for the girls.

They worked....

Really well! almost too well. But after a few minutes it calmed down a bit.

Sam gave me a beautiful ring as a gift.  It is a pear cut aquamarine and I just adore it!  Almost as much as I adore him!

I've included a letter I wrote to Sam and gave to him at dinner.

I also gave him a foot massager that he has been begging for.  He has it in his office and uses it everyday while he reads his scriptures.

February 3, 2017

Sam,

Today we celebrate our 10 year anniversary, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have spent these past ten years with you.  I love you so much and I feel so lucky that you asked me to marry you.  Today I have been thinking about what I love most about you, and I had to narrow down my list to my top ten, or else you would be reading this until the wee hours of the morning.  So here you go:

1.     You really listen to me, and try to help if you can.

2.    You love good shoes more than I do!

3.    You are an amazing father, and love our girls so much.  I love that you make them a priority and take them on dates.  I know you do it for them, but it means so much to me.

4.    You look hot in your cowboy shirts and your business suit!

5.    You always want to make me happy.

6.    You are always excited to share your accomplishments with me.

7.    You arrange your schedule to help me when I really need it.

8.    You can make me laugh harder than anyone else.

9.    You are SO handsome!

10.  You always kiss me goodbye.

I love you, Sam.  Thank you for a wonderful 10 years, I am so excited we get to spend the rest of eternity together.

It wasn’t long after we got married that I started to realize what we had gotten ourselves into.  I think in my young 18 year old mind I kind of thought I was just playing pretend, and not making choices that had eternal consequences.  When the enormity of it all started to hit me I remember taking the biggest sigh of relief because what we did was so huge, but at least I did it with you.  I knew as long as I was by your side I would be just fine!  Thank you for choosing me to go on this wonderful journey of life with you.  You make every day wonderful.

Love,

Alisha

2016 Christmas Card and Letter.

Hello Everybody!

  Pearl here.  Dad is way behind on things, and probably never would have gotten to writing the update.  So I’m just gonna do it.  Between work and church he stays super bored busy.

I’m 3 ½ now.  Almost 4.  And still super cute!  Mom & Dad call me a monster, but I know they really mean a princess.  I go to pre-school already, and am doing my best to learn the alphabet.  More than pre-school, I love my dance class and I am mom's little partner in crime.  I like to keep mom on her toes and making sure her heart is in tip top condition, I do this by running away and hiding from her at stores.  I think it's so funny, but she hasn't found the humor in the situation yet...

Grace and Lilly are taking a tumbling class, but they also get to take piano lessons!  Lucky.  As soon as I can reach the keys, I’m going to take piano lessons as well.

Grace spends most of her days doing boring homework.  3^rd graders get so much homework, it is crazy! Grace got baptized this year the day before we ate a huge turkey dinner.  I was mad that I didn't get to go swimming as well, but they gave me a lot of cookies afterwards, and I got to play with Uncle Kurt, so that made up for it.

 Lilly is in 1st grade and gets homework as well, I think.  It doesn't take her as long to do it, so she has more time to play with me.  We love to play "mom and dad" together, or “Big teenage sisters”, or “Mom and lost cute puppy Mom found on the street”, or “Movie star and really cute fluffy kitty” or barbies, or matching games….you know, the usual. We also like to color, but when we color on each other mom gets mad, so we try to save that for when she isn't looking.

When mom has time to take a break from whatever she does all day she likes to have dance parties with all us girls in the kitchen.  Our favorite song right now is "Shut up and Dance".  Sometimes mom makes us dance to her favorite songs when she was in high school.  She is so weird.

My favorite thing this year was going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  We got to catch crabs on the beach, collect sea shells, and play in the waves!  It was so much fun.  My whole family abandoned me in February and left me but it was with some really fun friends so I wasn’t too mad about it.  Mom and Dad, Grace and Lilly all went to Disney World for a week. I still don't understand why I didn't get to go, but I had fun with my friend Molly.  I just keep trying to grow big so I can go next time.

Mom and Dad are the same.  Really boring!  Mom is always doing yoga or making quilts, and dad is always doing bishop or work stuff. When Daddy has free time he like to take one of us girls on a date, but Mommy gets the most dates.  I don't think that's fair, but what can I do, I'm only 3 1/2.

That’s enough about us.  Merry Christmas!  And come visit us! I love to jump on our house guest in their bed bright and early so they know that I am awake and ready to play.

· Pearl

Christmas 2016

We had a wonderful Christmas in 2016.  It was very busy and full of service and friends which made if even better.

On Christmas Eve we made cookies and delivered them to the staff at the hospital Sam is over in Shamokin.   We wanted to thank all the employees that worked over the holiday.

Then we came home, at Chinese food, opened our jammies and watched a movie together as a family.

On Christmas morning we had to wake up and get ready for Church, but first the girls got to see their new rooms!  A couple days before Christmas I got a phone call from an elf saying that I needed to pack a bag for each girl and they had to sleep on the couch until Christmas morning, because the elves needed to work in their rooms.

So Christmas morning, they ran upstairs to discover that Grace and Lilly's room only had one bed in it, and Pearl's room had bunk beds.

So Grace got her own room (until baby #4 comes along) and Lilly and Pearl get to share!

They got to open their stockings and then we got ready for church and headed out the door.

After church we went with the Koster's back to Shamokin and took lunch to the employees.  The girls loved seeing everyone and wishing them a Merry Christmas.

After that we got to come home and open our presents.

Make up!

Pearl asked for a Pink  Unicorn, and Lilly found it and bought it for her!

She was thrilled to pieces.

Grace got a sewing machine for Christmas and she made a bookmark with it.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas.  We loved being able to serve others and watch the joy on our girls' faces!

Three French Hens

Grace was in her school's Christmas play, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" And she had one of the main parts as a French Hen.

She is such a good little actress!

We were so proud of her.  She practices her lines and songs regularly and really dives into the character, doing everything she could to nail a french accent!  She did such a wonderful job.

Homemade infinity scarf

I was looking at buying some scarfs at teacher gifts this year for Christmas, and decided after staring at them long enough that I could make them myself.

So I did.

Pearl's Piggytails

Pearl surprised one day a few week ago by doing her own hair!  She was so proud and I was so impressed that I let her go to school without "fixing" anything.

How could I when she had a smile like that??