Mid-February

I am trying to post more regularly on here, if you hadn't noticed! Not making any serious commitments or anything, but we'll see how it goes! Just so you know!

Sorry but most of this post is basically things I already posted on instagram or texted to people. But maybe you'll find something you haven't already seen.

 I took Ashlyn to Jump Time with another of her little buddies. They had so much fun. I took her once a year ago and she had fun....but it was so cute to see how excited she was when we walked in and she realized she got to play here! She kept jumping up and down shouting, "Thank you thank you thank you!" Hey at least she has some manners?!? She and her buddy Addison jumped and climbed and slid and rode in a train for a good 3 hours. Both took good naps later that day!! :)

SO SO cute. What are we going to do when the De la Cerdas move!??!

 This is Ashlyn's special birthday card for my dad. I gave her some stickers to put on it, and I guess I always have this picture in my mind of how it will look after she puts the stickers on: neatly placed stickers, accenting the words and pictures that are already on the card..... like I would do I guess..... Well HA! Like she would do that. She's 2! I wasn't watching while she put them on so when I saw the finished product (pictured above) I laughed. So cute. I hope Grandpa enjoyed it. It's so fun that we can sit down to make Valentines and B-day cards and stuff and it's actually fun for both of us! (for the most part)

 Just more pictures of my "kids." Couldn't get them both to look at the same time.

I love Lucy in this one though!:

And then yeah, I tease Lucy sometimes. I have the most hilarious video of her attempts to get this bread. I am so mean. But it is so worth it!

 We went out to Cafe Ole for my bestie Chandra's birthday last weekend! It was HEAAVENNN!! Like seriously the best night so far this year! I have been watching what I eat due to fitness challenge and generally needing to shed some pounds but I saved up my cheat day and calories for it! Chips and salsa, chimichangas and street tacos, fried ice cream! Plus the best part-my best buddies to chat with. I have not seen most of them nearly enough lately! After the restaurant we went to.... drum roll....Target! Surprise surprise! And spent 2 hours there. It is getting to be a regular tradition! Love it! I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends here! Don't know what I would do without these ladies.

 I made some cupcakes for my students.... still attempting to be that fun piano teacher, you know. Just for the record.... I never ate a single cupcake! In fact, I stupidly licked the frosting lid, and then realized I had to count that as eating sugar and lost a point for the fitness challenge! Even though I didn't have any more than that! Oh well. Still being healthy, right! And besides these were strawberry cupcakes which are not good in my opinion. Still fun, I have not been baking sweet stuff like this at all lately. So I had to document!

 We went up to Bogus!!! 3rd time snowboarding this year! Best part.... I had a breakthrough! Finally figured out some sort of balancing step I was missing to be able to carve down steeper hills--like not just the easiest green circles! I hope we get up there one more time before the snow is gone. It has been sooo fun. I'm so glad we went too--it was a snowy week and it was seriously a blizzard up there the whole time. I was really glad we have the awesome gear we do where I was covered from head to toe and warm as toast and dry, so it was just really enjoyable! By the way..... my facemask was upside down in this picture, did you notice?!? ha ha! I didn't realize until we got on the first lift! I am such an idiot! It's amazing I didn't smother to death.

 We had New Beginnings this week! Seems like we JUST had Night in Excellence. These 2 things seem so close together?! Anyways, we have the most phenomenal YW president. Even as her first counselor I can tell you the other 3 of us in the presidency do probably like 10% of the work and she does the other 90%! Every time! Not because we don't try...she is just super woman! She is so talented in all things party, baking, decor, craft, and fashion. So it's fun to see all her amazing creations! (like this one--this is one of the smaller examples!) The girls just adore her and I do to. It has been so fun and I can't believe it's already been a year we've been the YW leaders!

And a side note about YW.... I admit there have been a lot of Wednesday nights I am grumbling to myself as I drive to mutual...after scrambling to get my responsibilities for mutual ready, dinner on the table, my kid to a sitter, etc. Wishing I had a night to myself since I work Mon and Tues nights. I am almost always wishing I didn't have to go. Then when I get there it always ends up being just what I needed--in so many ways. My testimony is strengthened, my bonds with girls and leaders are strengthened, and generally I leave feeling so uplifted and glad I went and served. I know that makes me sound horribly selfish but I just kind of realized that the other day. I often feel the stress of this additional time commitment with my already super-busy husband's schedule to work around, my own job, and no family in town to help out with kids. But I am often reminded through small things that I guess this is where Heavenly Father wants me right now. For whatever reason! More for me than the girls, I'm sure!

And finally.... I have been practicing a little more these days! I have actually been able to go to Piano Club (where a bunch of fuddy-duddy teachers like myself get together to perform for each other and be general music nerds) lately, so that means I have been having to prepare for it! I have loved it. It's not easy to make the time for myself to practice, ever. But when I go a long time without playing the piano, something is....missing. So I keep trying to make sure I do! Plus I ordered my first big book of Chopin pieces and I am pumped  to get learning some of them! Ok, end nerd moment.

Thanks for tuning in! Hopefully more to come in a week!