Oral Ballam funeral

Anton's incredibly sweet, amazing accomplished, humble, darling grandpa Ballam passed away on February 18th. It was only a few short month after his Grandma Ballam passed away. I knew loosing his grandfather would be especially hard on Anton. Anton has always adored his grandpa, and had held him far above many others. Anton traveled down to St. George before he passed so he could say his goodbyes. He called me shortly after and was so sad, and so emotional. He went on to tell me that that outside of something happening to me or the girls and some close family members, he knew he would be one of the hardest to say goodbye to. Grandpa played such an enormous role in Anton's life. He was such a great role model for Anton, and taught Anton so many things - some by example, some in words. When I was reading his obituary, I couldn't believe how many incredible things he accomplished. I have never read an obituary like that before - and that is saying something since I look at the obituaries almost daily. He was quite the man. As we were getting ready for the funeral, I walked passed the marriage certificate hanging in our room. It was signed by Grandpa, who married us. It was a sweet moment for us to remember...especially since just a few days later, we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. He was such a sweet man, and we will miss him very much.

 

For my records part 2

Life is never dull with Claire. She has the world's best imagination...and it usually involves animals. Her current favorite is to get her "exercise outfit" on, put her softie or brown bunny in the waist band and jump on the tramp. She imagines she is a mommy kangaroo. I love it. 

I have loved going hiking lately. It is such a nice change from the usual treadmill and eliptical (which I was starting to dread). Plus it burns so many more calories in a quick amount of time. It has been fun and rewarding to use my watch Anton gave me for Christmas, which I use to track my time. I am getting quicker which is fun! I have just been going up Olympus, so when the snow melts it will be fun to start on the hikes in the canyons. I am so lucky to live here, and that I get to take off in the middle of the day to do this. 

Love these little twerps, and love that they adore one another. Hope it always stays that way!

Pretty soon Claire will need to stop sucking her thumb. I am a total push-over and haven't been as good as I should be about making her stop. I guess it is partly that she seems so little when she does it...and there is a part of me that really really really doesn't want my baby girl to grow up! As soon as she looses those front baby teeth - which are loose - she will have to stop. Oh dear. Wish us luck!

Mickey Mouse on in the back ground - jammies on at 10:00 - doing crafts. A little slice of heaven in my opinion! I am going to die when she starts school next year!!! 

Lunch on the tramp with her favorite little buddies!

For some reason, Claire loves Home Depot - and she loves Anton's hats. With all our projects, she gets to spend lots of time at Home Depot!

Ok, Lilly is SO adorable with babies! We have the most darling little baby girl a couple doors down. We all love her, but she really only likes Lilly. Everytime Anton and I try and hold her, she cries. When Lilly holds her, this is what happens:

Another hat picture. Couldn't resist. Like the modeling pose?!

For my records

I took so many random pictures throughout the last couple of months. I always take a quick picture because I think to myself "I never want to forget this". We haven't had a lot going on lately...just the same old, which in reality is kind of nice. We are such creatures of habit, and do so much better on our usual routine. So, here are some day to day pictures...and moments I never want to forget!

I got to go with Claire on her class field trip to the Aquarium. She was SO excited to go. Every night before bed she would ask me how many more sleeps until the field trip. She got to ride on the bus for the first time, which was kind of exciting for her. It took me right back to my days of riding the bus! She had such a great time there, and loved having me with her. I also loved it. I feel so fortunate that I get to do things like this with my girls. 

We were dog sitting this little dog named Chip, and he quickly became a family favorite! No one wanted to have him go home. There were lots of tears shed when the time came to drop him off. 

I was cooking dinner one evening and I could hear the girls laughing while jumping on the tramp. After what seemed like a long winter, the sound of the kids laughing and playing outside was music to my ears. They spend many many hours out on the trampoline! They just make up their own games, giggle and get lots of energy out...I love it. 

I should have posted this in the last post, but clearly forgot. On Valentines, Lilly's best bud Blake knocked on the door and gave the girls both roses. It was honestly one of the cutest things! Lilly was a little embarrassed and didn't quite know how to react, but I knew she loved it. Major props to his Mom...too cute. 

We had several weeks of beautiful weather. On a Friday the girls had off of school, we got the bikes and scooters out and spent several hours outside with some of the neighbor kids. Cooper was in heaven! 

Fun At School & Valentines

The school held a family Bingo night which was really fun. Anton was out of town, so we had Nana come with. She can't turn down a game of Bingo! It's her favorite!

The week of Parent Teacher Conferences they had Grandparent lunch. It just so happened that Claire's was at 11:30, and Lilly had hers at 12:00, so it worked out perfectly! It was really cute because I guess my Dad had a really fancy lunch that day with work and he told my Mom he was going to cancel it because "there was nowhere else he would rather be, than having lunch with his granddaughters". And, if you know my Dad, you know that is the truth. These two love their grandkids more than they love their own kids! And for that, I am so grateful! These little girlies loooove their Nana and Pops!

The little Kindergarteners had their "100th day of School", so they got to dress up like they were 100 years old. Oh man, Claire was so excited! We sprayed her hair white, I let her use some of my old glasses, and we used Lilly's ice skating tights and she was set! It was a fun day for her.

Valentines Day this year was a fun one! They kids didn't have school the Friday before, so they had their parties on Thursday. They were excited to give their teachers and friends their Valentines, especially Claire (since this was her first Valentines at the school). I helped out in Claire's class this time, since the last party I helped in Lilly's class. They got a grundle of candy and had a lot of fun playing games and doing crafts. The one down side...we have had the worst inversion, so they haven't let the kids go out to recess for a week. You combine that with two days off school, and loads of Valentines candy and you get totally insanely hyper kids! Thankfully the weather has cleared up, and they are back to playing outside!

How cute are these? The school put a heart out with every students name on one. I thought that was such a cute thing!

The girls were so excited to see each other during school!! It was really cute. Lilly came down to Claire's class with me and got to say Hi. Claire was so happy to see Lilly. Warms my heart to know how much they love each other.

Anton and I very rarely do anything for Valentines because it is a busy month for us (Birthday, Valentines and Anniversary) so I was surprised when I came home to these gorgeous flowers, chocolate covered strawberries and a sweet card with a gift certificate for a massage. I can't think of many things I love more than a massage! It's a dang good thing I bought something for him. It wasn't much, but at least it was something!

Pictures from January

We got blasted with snow - which you can't really tell here. It had been a couple years since we had a big snow storm, and we finally got a pretty good one. The girls loved playing out in the snow and building a snowman. Anton did NOT love shoveling and snow-blowing constantly.

Random Claire in primary.

Random Claire eating dessert with her favorite mask on. I tell ya what, I love how quirky and funny this girl is!

What is it about boxes? My kids still love them. We were at our friends house, and they saw this box and really really really wanted to take it home. Perfect! Keeps them busy, happy and doesn't cost any money! My kind of toy.

Claire is loving her tennis!

Maddy is still #1 in this house. I laid her on the bed while I was petting her, and then I walked away to go to something. I came back like 10 minutes later and she was still sitting like this. We love that chunk.

New Floors & Midway

We had been tossing around the idea of resurfacing our hardwood floors. Anton had done it on the floors in our old house, and they turned out really well. This time around we decided to hire it done. That's a big deal around here. Anton is such a "do-it-yourself" kinda guy, that we very rarely hire things done. We had gone up to Midway and seen my parents new floors, and couldn't get over how beautiful they were so we asked for the number of the guy who did them, and we had him come and give us a bid. We were really surprised at how reasonable the bid came back, and so we went ahead and did it. Anton was out of town the week they did it, and so was my dad...so I spent a lot of time with my mom at her house. We were able to be home when the sanding was taking place, but had to be out as soon as they put the final coats on. Anton was getting home from Montana on Friday, and right when he got home, we headed up to Midway for the weekend...which was perfect because that's when they were going to be applying the stain. Both of us couldn't believe how much fun and relaxing it was in Midway. We became babies about going up there because it seemed like so much work for such a short weekend - but now that the girls are older, and we don't have as much "gear", the weekend was a dream. We went sledding at Soldier Hollow - and that was a BLAST! We all loved it. Anton also got to eat at his very favorite restaurant while we were there...which always makes him happy! We played games, watched movies, relaxed...it was such a great weekend. We can't wait to go back. When we got back home, we were really pleased with how the floors turned out! It is amazing how floors can change the look and feel of your house. Not many people would notice a difference because we went with a similar stain, but we can tell a huge difference in them. We are super happy we did it!

January

January got off to a busy start! I was sad to see Christmas go, but always welcome the new year. Every single year, I get a little sad taking down Christmas but once it is done, I love it! I love how fresh and clean my house feels - and how good it feels to get back into a routine. We had Anton's sister come into town for New Years which is always fun. We went sledding, saw the new Star Wars movie, went Ice Skating, Anton & Nicole even fit in a few hikes and all of us managed to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve! It was so fun having them in town. 

Claire loves to hang random things from her new light in her room. This particular day I thought it was so funny. Notice the sock. Funny girl!

I promised the girls that I would take them sledding over their Christmas break. I have such a love hate relationship with sledding. It is so cold & I hate the crowded hills, but I remember loving it so much as a kid that I feel guilty that I don't take the girls as often as I "should". This particular day, we woke up and decided we were going to go. It was early, and it was freezing cold, but we did it and had a blast. And, we were the only ones on the hill! (If you can't tell, I struggle with "crowds") We ended up taking the Leonard's to this same hill when they came to town!

I took the kids up to the Rec center to let them ice skate. Claire was insistent on wearing Lilly's ice skating dress - and she paid the price. She was so cold, and didn't last long on the ice. Its a perfect little dress for performances, but not great for a long time on the ice. The other kids had a lot of fun, and I was impressed how quickly Truman & Prentice picked it up. 

Lilly & Jack at Jack's baptism. These two have always had such a sweet and special little friendship. I hope they always stay close!

One of my favorite gifts from Christmas is my laminating machine! So nerdy, but so fun! I have used it so much since getting it, and have a whole list of things I want to laminate - including some art & notes from the girls that I never want to get damaged...then hopefully I will put them in a keepsake book or something. Anyway, one thing I was bound & determined to do was to put together chore charts & work for hire charts for the girls. So far, it has been great. Claire has no interest in doing the work for hire jobs - but Lilly does! They each have jobs they have to do during the week and on Saturday, and then if they choose to they can do a work for hire job and earn some money. So far, so good.

One day I got a phone call from Claire's teacher and she said "Claire has something very exciting to tell you"...it was she lost her tooth! The exact same thing happened with Lilly's first tooth - she lost hers while at school too! I knew it was going to happen soon because it was getting super wiggly and the permanent tooth was already on its way in. Both of my girls have gotten "shark mouth" where the permanent teeth come in before the baby teeth fall out. It looks so weird! But, it is quite common I guess. Anyway, she was super excited to show us, and was even more excited to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy!

Cute Anton. He came home from work one day with flowers for each of his girls. I couldn't get over how sweet that was. He was buying flowers for me, and saw the brightly colored ones and grabbed those for the girls. We put them in vases and put them in their rooms. They loved it, and so did I! The roses he go me were stunning. We are lucky girls to have Anton!!