My cute girls

JILL: Mom, I just saw {Ben's co-worker} on Strawberry Shortcake!
MOM (quite befuddled): He was on Strawberry Shortcake?
JILL: His name was in the credits. It's {First Name} {Last Name}.
MOM: How did you know his last name?
JILL: I just know. I do my research, you know.
***
Natalie was waving at a baby over my shoulder in church.
NATALIE: Mommy! Baby!
MOM: Oh she's so cute, isn't she? Should mommy have a baby like that?
NATALIE (scowling): NO. I'M your baby!
***
My girls are keeping me laughing and having fun lately. We're also in the middle of potty-training (yes, again) with Natalie. She's actually done great today but it's all been her decision. Argh! I hope she decides to be totally trained soon! :) I've had her in panties for the last two days and she really is improving, so I shouldn't complain. I'm aiming for a goal date of 5/1 since she'll officially be 2 1/2 that day! :) Yeah right, like she'll stick to MY timeline!

I'm having a good time in my YW calling at church and love getting to know the girls. It is a VERY busy calling but I hope they will get something out of all of my effort and planning on their behalf!

Ben is scheduled to get Lasik surgery next month and I am so excited for him. He has had problems with his glasses and contacts since his last eye exam and it's just such a pain to deal with, so hopefully he'll be 20/20 this time next month!

Jill is BORED of school and wakes up every morning asking if it's the last day. She loves her friends and teacher but is tired of the kindergarten routine evidently. She is jealous that her sisters get to stay home with me all day. Lucky girls! :)

One of the favorite activities at home is coloring. Jill is making a book about animals. I print out an animal for each alphabet letter. She colors it with markers and then writes a sentence or two about each animal. (Strangely, she complains about all the boring coloring she has to do at school.) Miranda is making a princess book and is phenomenal at coloring. Great fine motor skills there! She gets really upset with herself if she gets out of the lines. Poor OCD child! She rarely gets any marker on her anymore! Natalie is actually REALLY good at leaving the markers alone! I have some Color Wonder paper and markers for her but mainly she uses crayons and colors right next to her sisters who are using markers. I'm proud of her for her restraint! :)

We are all looking forward to the summer. We'll have Miranda's birthday next month, YW Girls Camp in June (and Grandma is babysitting), Youth Conference in July, and school starts again in August! I hope we'll have time to spend a week or so in Kansas too. It actually hit 98 today and I'm wondering where Spring went???

Spring's evil twin

Well, Spring's evil twin has arrived at our house too. ALLERGIES! A doctor told me last year when we moved to Abilene that pretty much everyone in this town is on allergy meds. Grrrreat! :( My poor little girls have problems year round and are on meds for that. Jill & I are usually only affected in the Springtime and we got hit full force this week. I just loaded up on meds at Walgreen's and the cashier asked if I had an army of sick kids at home. :) Hopefully what I bought lasts us a long time!

We had a great weekend in Dallas with Ben's family. We watched General Conference and just hung out with cousins. On Monday, Jill & I went on her class field trip to a farm and we were very excited. Too bad it decided to be 40 degrees and hurricane windy that day! A lot of the kids had these thin jackets on and one little girl asked if I could please warm her up. Luckily Jill & I were bundled in big coats and gloves (this is April in TEXAS remember) and we weren't too frozen. Jill got to hold a bunny and a baby goat (so cute!) and fed horses, donkeys, goats, and sheep. She got to play fetch with a really awesome dog named Bliss and it made me wish I could get her a pet. But I'm just not willing to take care of a dog at this point in my life! Do any of you know of a kind of dog that is extremely clean, good with kids, and won't bark constantly??? Let me know, if so. :)

Tomorrow Jill has another field trip and the teacher asked if I would go again. This time I get to bring the little girls. We're going to Western Heritage Days at the university here. Supposed to see sheep shearing, quilting, roping, weaving, chuck wagon cooking, roping, storytelling, and strolling musicians. Should be a blast! It's supposed to be 80 of course. What is UP with this weather???