Tea party

To celebrate my birthday these sweet ladies took me out to Santa Rosa to see the movie Brooklyn. Then we went for tea.  We didn't wear the fancy hats, but we did have an amazing time drinking our herbal teas and eating tea party food. My red raspberry vanilla tea was delish. The chocolate tart and cucumber sandwich and meat pastie and scone were perfect and super filling. 

Shelby had fun and was vey well behaved. 

She wore herself out with all that hustle and bustle. 

Happy birthday to me

I celebrated year 32 in style!!  Breakfast in bed and opening presents all before getting the kids off to school. 

So excited to read the Harry Potter illustrated edition!

I think the pancake is a b and a balloon? 

Mac opened all of my presents for me. 

Sisters and leggings

So does anyone else know how hard it is to get a cute jumping picture??  

Trust me. It is hard. 

Wedding Miracles

A couple weeks ago Rich was asked to officiate a wedding for a sweet young couple in the spanish branch. Aaron and Alexis. I had met them before but didn't really know them. Fast forward to last saturday when I am on the phone with my sister Devyn. I am kid free and heading to Target. I get there, hop out of the car and get my cart. I start walking down the aisles and while I am on the phone with her I say, "Why am I at target? I should just go to safeway." but seriously, I LOVE target and honestly don't like safeway because there are so many choices!  I like small and simple and target has everything else I need besides groceries. Devyn reminded me I can always find stuff at target, but I decided to put my cart back and head on over to safeway. Little did I know at the time, but I was just following a prompting to be the answer to someone's prayer.

That someone happened to be these sweet sister missionaries and this young couple. As I was getting ready to leave safeway with my groceries I ran into the sister missionaries and this young man Aaron. I saw him picking up a boquet of white flowers and I saw the wild look in the sisters eyes as I asked what they were doing.  They told me they were shopping for the reception. I hesitated as I tried to process what was going on and then quickly asked if they needed help.  Sister Deneke (the blonde) said, "Yes, we don't have anything."  So I said, "Okay. I will be over to help soon.

I quickly enlisted the help of some of my sweetest friends in a mass group text message. I had offers of money to help, babysitters, backup help, people to buy things and be runners, and my saving grace was Stephanie the caterer.  I even had a friend chime in a couple hours later that said, "I don't know what we are signing up for, but I am in. How can I help?"

Fast forward 30 minutes later and Stephanie and I are at the house evaluating what needs to be done.  This young man is trying to put on a reception for his sweet bride with no budget (and it starts in less than 3 hours). He is proudly boiling potatoes and stirring chili and sliced loaves of bread are sitting on the table with some butter. It was so sweet, but they deserved something a little fancier (we found out later that the none of the bride's family showed up for the wedding and she had no support)  When we walked into the house with the paper doilies hanging from the ceiling the father patted his son on the back and in Spanish said, "see son, people do care about you."

We hopped back into the car and sprang into action. Flowers from trader joes were bought (she needed a bouquet!), balloons were gathered, tables and chairs and serving platters and table cloths and so much more were almost magically put into place. A friend Elizabeth showed up with 5 dozen cookies and bags of chocolates. A bag of ice made its way there, along with some much needed dish soap that the young man had ran out of during all of this. 3 different salads appeared, with water and party punch and while I was slicing the lemons and oranges to put in the water, Aaron comes to me and asks if I need help making the orange juice that he assumed I was making!  I quickly told him to leave for the church and to go get married, because this was all being taken care of.

While in the car he texted me the instructions for the potatoes. Like, long instructions. I told him not to worry, it was all taken care of, and that he needed to go get married.


Rich called me when they were headed back to the house for the reception. Tears filled their eyes as they came in and saw what Stephanie and I had done (mostly stephanie!) His mom came to us and told us that Alexis was just like her, getting married at such a young age with no support, but that she didn't have anyone who helped her like this. She was overcome with emotion because of what we had done. The sister missionaries said the service was amazing and they were so thankful for our help and for Rich.  It truly was an answer to their prayers. This literally took 4 hours of my day.  4 hours I was able to help someone have a day that they could proudly remember. I am not posting this to brag or boast, but to say how something so insignificant as me going to safeway instead of target changed the way this new family celebrated their marriage. Even from the humblest of beginnings this family will always know that someone loved them and that someone cared enough about them to celebrate with them.

I am so thankful for this opportunity I had to help be an instrument in the Lord's hands. It was such a blessing to me... way more than to them I am sure... because I know that the Lord is blessing us for all of these things that we do without hesitation. I am also so thankful for these women in my life who are able to be so supportive and loving to this couple that they didn't even know.

Conductor Shelby

Mac won't wear his hat, but Shelby doesn't seem to mind. 

She is still rocking her double chin and continues to be pretty easy going. I think some day soon we will start solids, but that depends on how lazy mom is.  Hehe

Little mover and shaker

Look at her go! It is so much fun to watch this little girl start to move.  No more beds or couches for her. 

Start of birthday week

The birthday week celebrations have begun!!

We tried for a family picture.  Haha. Not happening. 

New decor

A friend of mine made this amazing sign! I love it and I love that I can have somewhere to put my baby carriers instead of smashed in a corner in Mac and shelby's room. 

The pink picture is the international baby wearing symbol. I love it. 

Night shift

I have started to get creative on my sleeping habits now that I am working night shifts (rich working, Mac sleeping, and Shelby sleeping in our room) 

I sure love cuddling with 30 stuffed animals. Brings me straight back to when I was a little girl. 

Train tunnels

While in Tahoe last week my dad took ryann to the abandoned train tunnels. She had a blast and is still talking about it. 

Bedtime stories

I haven't ever had a bedtime routine for Shelby, but I figured I should get off my phone and read to her every night. So the past two nights I read her a book. And guess what? She only woke up once each night!!  Coincidence? Probably. But I will keep it up. 

This is such a cute book that my friend got me. I want to paint the little picture below to hang in my girls room to remind them how awesome they are. 

Mover

This happy girl is squirmy. She can roll, scoot backwards, and turn in circles of put on the ground. At church the other day she decided to try to eat the diaper bag straps. 

Spanish branch Christmas party

I didn't post these pictures yet because I was hoping to get some better ones from rich... But that hasn't happened yet so I guess I better get started. 

I needed to write down the story of our first branch Christmas party so I don't forget it in years to come. 

Party starts at 5pm. There are a total of 4 missionaries, 6 hamiltons and maybe 6 other people there. 515 our friend Trent who is playing Santa shows up. He plans to eat and then go be Santa. 530 someone reassures us dinner is on its way but it isn't here yet. There are 2 sodas and bread and the plate of veggies I brought (which are now being chopped up and thrown into a salad). 

545 we decide to have the kids put on the living nativity while rich reads the scriptures. There aren't enough kids so the missionaries participate. 

615 the food arrives. More people have shown up so by now there are maybe 30 people. We start eating. 630 someone brings a bunch of soda. I am talking at least 12 2 liter bottles. 

7 pm and Santa goes to get dressed. But then a mom who wasn't there earlier wants her son to reinact the nativity so all the kids get dressed up again. There are enough kids now that only 1 missionary participates.  Ryann is the Angel, Cara is the donkey (who plays dead in the middle of the production) Shelby is sleeping and Mac is crying on the floor until we finally give him a cookie to make him be quiet. 

730 and Santa finally comes. The branch members bought presents for Santa to pass out to every kid who sat on his lap. It was so sweet and the kids loved it. After the kids sit on santas lap, every single adult does too. They take pictures and laugh and at this point more than 50 people are at the party. 

By 8 dessert is served and the piñatas start. Cara starts and she hits the piñata 3 times and tried to pass the stick to the next kid. But no. They are singing the piñata song. So this means she needs to keep swinging and hit the piñata until they finish singing. Then Ryann gets a turn and every other kid does. Usually we would start over with the kids.... But nope bathe adults get turns. Every single one. And the missionaries. And the branch president. And I think I was the only one who didn't do it because I was holding Shelby. 

After that piñata broke and a few heads were bashed, they started the second piñata. They were filled with toys and candy and stuffed animals and money. So much fun. 

Finally around 850, my kids are exhausted and crying now and fighting and what not, they decide to clean up. I load up the kids in the car and I can't help but laugh and remind myself to never go to a party again with only 1 car. 

It was so much fun, but a 4 hour church Christmas party?!?!

Skiing

For Christmas my parents it our family a trip to Tahoe! It was more fun than I could have imagined. Seriously. The girls had so much fun (until their hands got cold) and they were troopers. 

My parents sent us off on our way and they took care of the babies while we went skiing (I snowboarded).  It was awesome. 

They did the lifts and took lessons and they can't wait to go back. 

Thanks mom and dad!!