Little Artists

We had an art fair at preschool yesterday!

Mommy and Mimi came.

See some of our beautiful art!

Rainbows by Leah:

Sunflower by Maryn:

 Action Painting by the whole preschool class:

Flamingo by Maryn:

Tucan by Brynn:

"Here's me doing the action painting, mom!" - Brynn

"and me!" -Maryn

A penguin Brynn drew 100% by herself! She's an artist!

We love preschool!



Swimming Lessons

We're getting ready for summer!

We started swimming lessons last week.

Do we like them, you ask?

We'll answer for ourselves.

Brynn: Love 'em!

Maryn: Yeah, they're alright!

Leah: My parents force me to do this. (and smile while they take a picture!) It's pretty awful!

 

We are learning how to do front floats, back floats, and rockets & rainbows.

Hopefully by the end of our lessons, we'll learn some great swimming skills so that we can "deep sea swim" in Sugar Lake this summer!

The weather has been SO nice, we spend as much time as possible outside!

We love going to the park! Weeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Spring!!!

RAOK UPDATE:

#3: Our lives are busy...stressful. So lately I've been focusing on random acts of kindness on the road. 90% of people say that they have experienced some form of "road rage" in the past 6 months. Whoa! That's a lot of us. So, in our little van, we're working on brightening days behind the wheel.

Letting people in (even when they wait until the last possible second to merge), "waving thanks" when they let us in, and generally trying not to be stressballs in the car. Seriously, a wave from a stranger as a "thanks" makes my day. It reminds me that there are kind, unselfish, grateful people everywhere! A good daily reminder!

#4: I drink Diet Coke. I drink a lot of Diet Coke. I also happen to collect a bunch of Coke Rewards. For a long time, I couldnt wait to collect enough to get another year of my favorite magazine subscription or a gift card to a store we frequent.

This month, though, I donated my saved Coke rewards to someone who is saving them for an amazing cause. She mentioned the cause in passing, and my heart felt pulled. A tiny but unexpected gift! :)

What's A Girl To Do....In The Winter?

Strap on your rainboots, and find a puddle!

Have your daddy spark up a fire, and watch a princess movie!

Get out some nail polish, and go to the "spa."

We went to "Ariel's Spa"....6 prietty pink thumbs up!

We also really love to play wedding.

One of us will put on jeans and be "Eric"....the groom.

The other dresses up in our bride outfit.

The 3rd girl will be the bridesmaid.

We get married, KISS, and then we DANCE!

A big ole' dance party celebration.

Eric must ask the bride, as he bows..."May I have this dance?"

We know how to get down at princess weddings!

Princess wedding pictures to follow....

Happy Monday!

Love,

MBL

New Words

Hi~Leah here!
Hope you are enjoying the weather as much as we are! We were out riding our bikes today, and it was the BEST!
We're still in Mrs. R's preschool, and we're picking up some really interesting new words. Let me tell you about them.

1) Weird
triplet definition: An insult; a mean word
Now, just because I am little, some people might think I can't hold my ground.
If you want to test me, try calling someone in my family a naughty word, like weird.
At MOPS school the other day, my mom was our teacher.
One of the "big girls" in my class called my mom weird.
I got right up in her face, finger wagging in front of her nose.
"Don't you DARE call my mom weird! My mom IS NOT weird."
She was 5, and taller than me...but I didn't care. Nobody calls my mom such a naughty word.
Weird...a word you should never use...cause it will probably hurt someones feelings.

2) Horrificist
Horrific-ist (From the word horrific...learned from Beauty and the Beast)
Definition: Terrible, awful, no good, very bad
Used in a sentence by Brynn: "This is the most horrificist day of my life!" (because she had to wear PANTS to school rather than a dress--oh, the horror!)

3) Rude
Definition: What we call someone when we don't get our way.
Mom and dad are SO RUDE when they make us go to bed.
Mom is SO rude when she won't let us dress Reese the dog up as Rapunzel.

4) Whatever
Definition: Mom/Dad-you seriously don't know what your talking about. I'm 4, and I'm smart.
Example:
Mom: "Brynn, SIT DOWN on your chair. You're going to fall if you stand up."
Brynn: Ignores the suggestion
Mom: "Brynn, SIT DOWN NOW!"
Brynn: (eye roll) "What-ever!"


Some of our new words get good reactions....some...not so much!

But, we are getting pretty smart at preschool. 1 more year and we get to go to Kindergarten!
I can hardly believe it! I wonder what cool new words we will learn there!

Happy Tuesday!
Love,
Leah

Mom and dad on Mom's birthday:

Pictures by Kathy Quirk-Syvertsen

Random Acts of Kindness

January 28th I turn 32.

THIRTY TWO...boy, does life go fast!

High school feels like yesterday.

Wasn't it last week that I was practicing the running man in my parents basement?? Getting my drivers licence? Going off to college?

Am I really married with three kids??

Thank God I am!

I am so blessed! But, where does the time go?

Lately, I have had the song Blink by Revive in my head.

You can Google it to listen to the lyrics.

Here are a few:

Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Take in all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life? It happens in a blink.

Every time I hear that song on the radio...it kind of urks me. It really does happen in a blink, doesn't it?

This year to celebrate my birthday...I've been inspired to complete a mission. A mission of random acts of kindness.

I will complete 32 random acts of kindness this year. One to celebrate each year that God has blessed me. Some will be big, some will be small...but I hope they will all bring glory to God...and a smile to someones face.

I hope to bless some unsuspecting people and make their day a bit brighter. Just a small little way to "give back."

Random Act of Kindness #1:

Left $ on a vending machine.

Who doesn't love a free snack, right??

Random Act of Kindness #2:

Attempting to help jump a stalled car.

Today, in my work parking lot, there was a man who was sitting in his car for a LONG time.

(I know because I was parked in the WAY back of the lot...it took me about a year to get to my car)

Every time he turned the key, the car made an awful "putting" sound.

Now, I know NOTHING about cars...but I knew that wasn't normal.

Thanks to my FAB hubby and some car trouble of my own...I actually do know how to jump a car.

So...I checked for jumper cables and drove on over!

I asked him if he needed help.

He tried one more time, and what do you know...the car started.

Okay...so I didn't actually get to use my "jumping skills"...but at least he knew someone cared!

So, for the next year...along with adorable pictures of our girls...you will get an update on Project RAOK (Random Acts of Kindness). (I am sure they will be helping me with some of these!) And...hopefully through Project RAOK...our beautiful girls will learn more about the value of being compassionate and generous!

Here's to a great year (and many more) of counting our blessings!

Ali

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What We've Been Up To..

Hello Friends!

We've been so busy, we forgot to update you on all of the fun things we've been doing.

Christmas was a blast!

We must have been REALLY good girls, cause Santa brought us everything we asked for!

Bummer that he only comes once a year! :)

We're 4..and since we are big girls....we each want to give you our own update on us.

Maryn:

Let's see. Well, I love dance. (See a picture of our dance costumes below) And I love my teacher Mrs. Rebecca. And I love my Great Grandpa!

Every time I see him, I jump right into his arms.

I love to find his special lap.

(never mind that he is in his early 90's)

We have a special connection.

He gives the best hugs!

I love princesses...especially Ariel.

I love my cousin Alex. I love when he comes to our house. Feeding him is fun!

I love to sing. I sing lots of princess songs, songs about Jesus, and I even make up my own songs.

Mimi says I sing like a bird.

I do.

Brynnie here!

We got new jackets and snow pants for Christmas.

We're all set to go sledding and make snow forts! But where is the snow??

I love animals. Especially my dog Reese.

I LOVE Reese SOOOO much.

I love to rock her and carry her like my baby.

I'm not sure why, but she always runs away when she sees me.

Maybe she likes to play tag?

She's good! She can hide under my mom and dads bed where I can't get her.

No big deal though, I just wait until she comes out.

I know I am 2nd born, but mom and dad say I act like I am 4 going on 14...I've got something called sassy in my pants.

I guess that is what teenagers have??

:)

I went to the American Girl doll store for lunch with all of my cousins.

Look for a few pictures!

Leah Marie in the house!!

You can call me "fashionista!"

I like to dress myself every day. Head to toe.

I never forget sock-tights, sparkling shoes, necklaces, rings, bracelets and clip on earrings.

BEA-U-TI-FUL!

Sometimes I don't "match"...according to who??

I know I am gorgeous!

I love that it has been warm enough to play outside.

55 in January! Awesome!

I can't wait until it is really summer though, and I can wear short dresses with no tights.

Even more beautiful!

On Christmas, we got to play with the big boys!

Triple lift!! (aren't we cute!)

Happy Sunday!

Love,

MBL

Preschool Christmas Concert

Happy holidays!!

Right before Christmas we had our big preschool performance.

We sang our hearts out!

Mom made Maryn wear a dumb bow that I (Brynn) told her I absolutely WAS NOT wearing.

Good thing too! The mega-bow kept falling off Maryn's head right in the middle of our songs.

Poor Maryn. Where do you get a bow that big anyway?

Who's who????

Can you tell?

Mega bow flops again...

We had a great time at our concert. Thanks to all of our dear family who came to watch us perform!

Love,

Brynn