Cooking with mom, karate, Harry Potter, Friends and getting past hard stages!!!

Cooking with MomThe kids were helping me make dinner for another family the other night. They were really excited about serving others. Anyway, we had to chop onions...they each took a turn and it ended up like this. It was so funny! All of our eyes were watering like crazy! The dinner turned out great!

Karate

Oliver has been in karate the last couple of months. It's actually a mixed martial art (I forgot the name of it) but we call it karate. Oliver LOVES it and he is really good at it. His instructor gave him this karate uniform to wear to class because he wants to start filming him during class so others can take the video and practice at home, also to use as samples. He's a tough little kid. Every class they do a lot of conditioning. He's getting really good at push ups and sit ups.

Harry Potter
Sabree has really gotten into reading lately. We started reading Harry Potter in December. We read the first one together. She has gotten so into them now. She's on book #4. I've been surprised how quickly she reads them and how much she comprehends. I'm really proud of our little reader! Good job Sabs!

Friends
My friend Becky and her kids live in Boise, Idaho and they were driving home from a funeral in Orem. We haven't seen them in a long time so we met them in Brigham City and had lunch with them. It was really fun. Sabree and Sam were together almost everyday from 6 months of age to 3. We've gotten together with them frequently since then. They have always been great friends. Every time they get together it is like they were never apart! It's really cute. Here are some photos from our lunch.

Sabree, Paige, Ethan, Sam, Oliver, Jaylee

Oliver and Ethan (only 4 months apart)

Sabree and Sam (only 4 months apart)

Getting Past Hard Stages!!!
Many have seen how difficult Jaylee can be. For the last year she has had issues with her clothes being tight so she'll only wear certain outfits (stretchy pants, soft shirts with no weird seams, only slip on shoes that are 1-2 sizes too big). It has been really strange and VERY challenging. She also hasn't let me do her hair. Everything in her hair has been too tight also. She throws the biggest fits all day long if you fight her on her clothes or hair. It's not even worth it. Anyway, it has been really hard thing for me to deal with. I know it sounds weird but you'd have to hear the whole situation. Anyway, just over the last month or so we have seen some HUGE progress. She finally started wearing some different clothes. Most of them are still comfortable, stretchy clothes but she was quite opinionated in the past, even with those. For those of you who know that situation, you will see the huge progress in the pictures below.

The fact that she's wearing pink and a jacket is huge!!! She got to the point where she was very limited on the clothes she would wear...1 pair of black leggings, 1 pair of brown leggings, and 2 white shirts that were exactly the same. I was washing those clothes almost daily!

This is a new outfit and a new headband...huge progress!!! She threw a fit in the beginning but now she loves them!

What is that...her hair has a tie in it? I know its not much but it is awesome for us. Plus she has on a tight leotard.

2 hair ties...I haven't done this in her hair for over a year!

She let Luke put piggy tails in her hair...now we're on a roll!

Yes, that is a pony tail! She's also wearing her Christmas p.j's...she wouldn't even wear them on Christmas. It took her a month to wear these.

Who knew that a 3 year old could be so difficult...at least we are on the upside. She's really been cute and sweet lately. She is finally getting easier! I don't have pictures to prove it yet but she has even worn Levi's twice, she also has worn tennis shoes that actually fit her over the last week. It's AMAZING!