Ethan's Valentines Party at PreK

Thanks to my good friend Stacy, I was able to go to Ethan's Valentine's party at PreK. They made cute picture frames, exchanged valentines, and ate cookies. I will look for one of Ethan's valentines and post it that he gave out. We wanted to do a star wars theme, of course, so it was interesting writing valentines like Yoda would talk. Ethan misses his best friend Parker who moved away to Utah who was also in his class. He tells me he likes Will, Cole and Owen the best now.

Making the frames.




The lady in the very appropriate valentines heart sweater is his teacher. She's retiring after this year...Hmmmmm...I wonder if this is a coincidence.

What's valentines without treats?

In this candid, Ethan, Will and Owen are discussing transformers. Look how excited he is.

Old Pals Playdate

It's strange how one minute you're a junior in high school and spelling your friends names out of pretzels in the journalism room, and next minute you're past 30 and have kids spilling pretzels all over your journals.

It was so fun to have my friends from Leavenworth High School over back in January (I know, I know, it takes me forever to post pictures!) We get together once or twice a year and have so much fun reminising about old times and old boyfriends and old teachers and sharing the difficulty of potty training, teething, and being pregnant (with a toddler). My only regret this time, was that Julie and her little Trevor couldn't make it. We missed you, Julie!




Lauren holding Tania's little Otto...what a charmer (and the baby's cute too!)

Natalie and her little Charlie. I think Emma and Ethan were running around too much to get them still enough for a picture :o)

Ethan, Emma, Claire are swallowed by the ball pit. Charlie....do you dare?

Tania with her two adorable little ones, Otto and the newly potty training champ, Gretchen. Tania, thanks for the tip about Steve and Barry's. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!

Charlie and Hayden ejoyed the slide. Trust me, Hayden did love the slide, he was just annoyed with Aunt Lori and the camera in his face. What little heartbreakers!

Shhhhh.....Don't tell Claire and Ashton that they're cords aren't connected... Ashton was potty training, that's why he's sans pants.

Making Mr. Naismith Proud

In January Ethan played a session of community basketball. This was his first experience in basketball and he liked it a lot. There were some better dribblers and shooters out there, but when it came to the game, Ethan was the most engergetic and stole the ball the most times. He had more than 10 steals.

New Photography Blog

Many of you know that I started my own photography business a while back. I'm working on reworking my website with new pictures from this past year -- it's fun to review all of the photoshoots :o)

In the meantime, I've still been shooting a lot and I wanted to share a few pictures from those shoots. Like many photographers before me, I've decided to create a blog to post a few pictures from recent shoots. Here is the link:

http://lgstudios.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

President Elmo?

Today our church was cancelled due to the inclement weather, like many other churches in the area. Our Stake President suggested that we hold sacrament services in our homes with our families.

Rudi was cute. He repositioned our antique radio to serve as the pulpit, and used our FHE/Game Room's folding chairs as the pews. Ethan volunteered to serve as Bishop, with Rudi of course on piano, me as chorister and Ashton all over the place. We opened with a song and a prayer and then Bishop Ethan conducted the meeting. He and Rudi gave talks and Ash and I bore our testimonies of the gospel. As Ashton was bearing his testimony, I whispered what he should say. It went something like this...

Mommy whispers into his ear: "I want to bear my testimony..."

Ash: "I want to bear my testimony..."

Mommy: "I know the church is true."

Ash: "I know the church is true."

Mommy: "I know the Book of Mormon is true."

Ash: "I know the Book of Mormon is true."

Mommy: "I believe in the prophet, President Monson."

Ash: "I believe in the prophet, President MONSTER."


Anyone that knows Ashton knows he has a love of all things Elmo, but I would never pegg Elmo as a prophet of God. How funny!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Garcias! We love you all!

The Mother of Invention

As a mother, there are a few devices I wish someone would invent to make my life easier...

- The Lego Vaccumm - It's a special vaccuum that only picks up Legos and would be a miracle savor when the 2-year-old dumps the whole box over right after clean-up is over. There would also be an alternative model called the Barbie Shoe Vaccuum.

- Bath Color Tablets with a Purpose - You know the tablets you can put in the bath water to tint it blue or green or whatever, I wish they had these that helped you determine if your two-year-old was about to poop in the water.

-Splash Proof Glass - Okay, so we've all heard of bullet-proof glass...why not splash proof glass for the bath tub that would prevent the kiddos from turning the bathroom floor into the 6th Great Lake. It could come up from the side of the tub with a touch of a button that would go six feet high. This is especially needful when the builder of your house puts carpet around the tub....yeah, he doesn't have kids, does he?

- Control "Z" for Moms - You know, the short cut that allows you to "undo" on your computer. I wish they had one that would work in life....like let's "control z" the fact that you just took the Sharpie and drew over the 100-year-old quilt. (Thanks Dad for leaving the Sharpie out)

- Sticky Proof Soap - If they can make tooth paste that will put a protective barrier on your teeth for 12 hours, and soap scum remover for the tub that has teflon that put a barrier against future soap scum, then why not a soap for kids that puts a protective barrier that they won't become sticky minutes after you've washed them?

- Cookie-Colored Glasses - Special glasses (similar to their Rose-colored version) that when worn by your child, would make any and all foods -- including vegetables -- look and taste like cookies. Maybe my boys would actually touch their salad!

Just some venting from a mom who picked up a large container of Legos three times yesterday. (with some kid supervision and help)