Professionals

Every year, we get the girls pictures taken when they turn a new year. I was fortunate enough to be able to get my "original" photographer, Stephanie, to take my girls pictures again when we were out in Colorado. She is an amazing photographer and I love how she can capture my girls personalities to a tee! It's so funny because it seems like I can never get my girls to be on the same page. Last time we took pictures, Aleah was being a stinker about it and Mya was being a ham. This time, Aleah was being all sassy and classy and Mya was being a major stinker. I finally told her to show me her attitude and we were able to get some good personality ones from her. I love it!!! I LOVE good pictures so bear with me that there are alot posted. So, here is Aleah at age 5 and Mya at age 3. LOVE THEM!!!!

My Poor Car

As some of you already knew, while I was out in Colorado, I got into a pretty bad car accident which resulted in them totally my Ford Windstar. Let's just say that this is NOT how I wanted my vacation to go. Four days after I got there, I went to Loveland to meet all my sisters for breakfast. Traffic suddenly came to a dead stop due to construction. I was able to stop before I hit the car in front of me and yelled at the girls to hold on! Next thing I knew, I looked up to see the guy behind me swerve out of the way to miss hitting me and I thought that we were all in the clear. Except the guy behind him wasn't as aware of what was happening and slammed right into me. AND the guy behind him seemed to do the exact same. So, needless to say, I got hit twice and it was pretty bad. All in all, the accident and police report claimed that there were 6 cars involved. Obviously, the force threw me into the car in front of me and so on. Fun stuff! I was involved in a 6 car pile up and I was right in the middle. The rest of my vacation was spent dealing with insurance companies, police, and doctors visits. The girls weren't hurt but I hurt my shoulder and neck pretty bad. So, all in all, we were pretty lucky and figuring that this is a blessing in disquise. We are able to take the money that we are getting from the van and it covers almost ALL of our debt. Yeah!!! I guess that the Lord works in weird ways sometimes. Although the girls were pretty shaken up by everything... they weren't hurt and that's mostly what I am thankful for!!! So, here are the pictures of my car when it was all said and done at the body shop. Bye bye my cute little mini van!!!

BEAUTIFUL COLORADO

So, after a long six months of major homesickness I was finally able to make the long trek to come back and visit everyone in CO. With a 2 day car ride, I didn't think that I would EVER make it here.... but I did. And let me just add that I have the most AMAZING children EVER!!!!!! They are the BEST travelers in the world. 18 hours in the car and I didn't even have to whip out all my tricks. They were SO content just coloring and listening to music. I rarely even used the DVD players. It was AWESOME!! Surprisingly enough, I actually like road trips by myself. We can stop when I want to. (which we only stopped ONCE each day) I can listen to whatever music I wanted to. And I didn't have to feel bad that one second I had the heater on and the next second was the air conditioner. It was great!!!
And let me just say that I have never really appreciated the beautiful mountains of CO until I hadn't seen them for a while. They really are beautiful! I am really getting used to my life in NV and it actually is feeling more like home.... but sometimes there is nothing like going back "home" to visit. One day I will probably say, "I'm ready to go home... to Nevada!" But for now, it's great to be home!!!!!

Cosmotologist

So, Mya decided that she wanted to already try her hand at becoming a hair stylist with the help of an accomplice. She found a pair of scissors and decided that she would cut her hair. One of Aleah's friends also always cuts her hair, so she thoughtfully helped! I walked into the play room to help the kids clean up so that Hank didn't eat their toys and I found THIS on the floor! I freaked out!!!!!!

So, here is what the final product looked like. As you can see, the left side is alittle bit "less full" than the other side. She now has bangs that go from behind her ear, all the way around!!!

And this is what happened to the back. As you can see, not quite even. I guess that we are going to have to have her Aunt Jenny (who owns her own salon and is her hair stylist) to teach her how to cut evenly :) Go figure that MYA would be the one to cut her own hair!!!!

Conference Bingo

I love when Conference time comes around because I love to hear the prophet and apostles speak. But with my lack of patience sometimes, I often get frustrated that I am not going to be able to even listen with the girls. So, we decided to try to get the girls involved and also try to get them to listen. I know this idea has been around forever, but I was excited that my girls were actually old enough to play it. I printed some Conference Bingo cards from the Internet, picked up little bags of M&Ms and set it up. We played it backwards though. We put all the M&Ms on the board and when they heard one of the words, they got to eat the M&M. I was amazed at how many talks they actually sat through and listened to. And more importantly, I got to listen to!! It was alot of fun! We were able to have some friends over and they had alittle girl that was 9 and so the girls wanted to be just like her and listened even more. It was great!! But they soon realized that it just took too long to hear ALL the words and said, "I'm tired of playing this mom! Can we just eat them all now?" Sure! You did well!!! Looks like new traditions are finally starting to come about in the Hemerson household!!

UNWIND

Here's Don! Here's Don unwinding! I can always tell when Don has had a stressful day and just needs to relax for a bit. He does puzzles! I came walking out of the bedroom the other night and found this.... a table set up in the living room with a puzzle spread out and I smiled! His favorite are the Thomas Kinkaid puzzles and he can sit for hours and hours putting them together. Now I know where Aleah gets it from :) She followed in her daddy's footsteps and loves doing puzzles. She usually asks to help daddy put them together. I am glad that he has found a way to unwind. We all need that sometimes :)

TURNING 5

Aleah turned 5 on Sunday and let me just say that I am just sad (and excited) to see her get SO big! She was so excited that her Grandma and Paka were able to come out and spend time with her. She got to go to Toy's R Us and pick out fun things that she wanted for her birthday. She also got to go have a sleepover at the hotel with Grandma and Paka and you KNOW there was NO spoiling going on there :) She is such a big girl and gets even more and more beautiful each day. I am glad to see that her curls are still there and that she is as sweet and smart as ever. She is such a great big sister and always watches out for her little sister. I love that she loves to sing and dance like her mommy and that her creativity in her drawing and coloring is continuing. She is very quick to see the best in everyone and isn't afraid to tell them that they are great! Not a day passes that she doesn't tell me that she loves me and that I'm her best friend. She is so sweet and I pray that she will stay that way. School has been so great for her. She is loving every minute of it and amazes me with all the new things she is learning!!! She is even starting to learn how to read already with the books that we got her for her birthday. It's so great having girls!! Her Great Grammie Frazier got her this dress up outfit. Isn't she SO beautiful???
How fun are these. The girls 2nd mom (Stacie) made them these cute little boxes and they were filled with all of their favorites... chapsticks, body glitter, necklaces, nail polish... anything a little girl would want! They have not been able to put them down since they got them. They take them everywhere they go and can't leave the house without their nails painted and their "lips on." (That's what they call having chapstick on) Too much fun!! Stacie, you need girls :) :)

These are two of Aleah's greatest friends out here. Coutney lives next door and has been coming over since the day we moved here. (literally) And Hailee is Aleah's friend from school. What sweet little girls!!! When I asked Aleah what she wanted for her birthday, all she wanted was a CTR ring. And so it was really fun to find a pink one small enough for her finger. Too much fun!!! What a good example she is already!!!
Her Aunt Kayla found the entire collection of the Little Critters books. Do you remember reading these when you were little? I love these books and so do the girls. We read them EVERY night before bed! They are so fun to read and the girls love hunting for the spider and grasshopper on every page.
Grandma and Paka let Aleah pick out a new bike. It seemed SO big to me but this is the one she wanted. My little girl is still too little for such a big bike!!
Aleah has ALWAYS loved to draw and Mya is quickly following in her footsteps, and so we decided to encourage this talent and get them an awesome easle for their birthdays. Too fun!!