April Fools Day!

I woke up this morning disappointed in myself for forgetting it was April Fools and not having anything fun to do to Tia. I realize I always put our nicest pictures up here so I wanted to put up some of the ones that make us laugh even if they are not very flattering of our sweet girls.

Adelyn
Avery
We have found my mom's walk-in closet is a good place for the girls to sleep. Avery enjoyed snuggling up to Grandma's sweaters.
Poor thing. I was giving Avery a bath and Adelyn was kind of fussing for a while. This was why.
A little messy after eating.
This was after we tried for a while to get cute pictures of them. She was finished.
This is in the middle of Avery laughing/making funny squeals.
Adelyn arches like crazy. When I came out of the bathroom this is what I saw. She doesn't have anything under her back.

Hope you have all had a wonderful beginning of April and a very inspiring Conference Weekend! What an amazing weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

A Weekend Full Of Memories

For the first time in about thirteen years, I am not participating in BYU's Dancesport Nationals. It feels really weird because usually at this time I am orange, have grossly long nails, oddly dark hair and everything in our house smells like dance. Last year, I didn't compete individually, but Tia and I did Timpview's formation teams, so I was really involved and probably more stressed than I had ever been competing.

This week has always been so fun and I have so many fun memories. Here are a few of my favorites:

-How pretty I felt dancing a preteen medley to Anastasia's "Dancing Bears." We even got our hair done! I felt pretty special. That was my first time dancing formation.
-So many years of watching with my best friend Allie and Becky after we had danced and come back looking kind of normal. Watching all of our crushes, especially vest boy.
-Getting a scholarship and being put on the Back Up team as a freshman. That was so exciting for me and I still feel so blessed!
-Debuting many dresses. I especially remember my first dress I designed when I was dancing with Shane Jensen. It was royal blue and black, had gloves and a unique skirt. I felt so hot in that dress :)
-Hard work paying off after formation events.
-Watching my four of my siblings compete and cheering them on.
-Going home afterwards and trying dance moves with my siblings. David and I would attempt some cabaret moves. We soon learned to not even try with that.
-Watching our teams do well after lot's of stress and hard work.

So many people made that part of my life so exciting! Thank you mom for all the money, time and energy you put into so many years of me dancing! Thank you to my family who would come and wait and watch those competitions for so long! Thank you to all my formation coaches, and individual coaches for caring and rooting me and my partners on. Thank you to all my friends for the fun times! Thank you to all my partners for helping me got where I did and for being patient with me. And thanks to my eternal partner for being so fun to dance with and for so many fun years of dancing together!

Here are the last few years of pictures I have.

2005- With friends from team. Idanced with four of them all through college as well.
2006- My senior year doing team


2007-My freshman year in college. Dancing with Mike.
2008- My first year dancing with Tia

2009- Second year with Tia when we were dating


2010- Our last Nationals Competing.

2011- With our team

Good luck to all competing this weekend! Enjoy every minute! (I sound old :)

And The Cousins Begin!

This week Lola, Tia's sister had her baby. She is so sweet, has a flawless little face and has tons of jet black hair. The name she is going by is Brooklyn (lucky for me, I can't say her other names.)

The girls didn't quite know what to think of her but I know they are going to be great friends.

She is the first of four Purcell babies arriving in the next few months. Abish is having a girl in April, Hannah is having a boy in May and Glo is expecting a few months after that and doesn't know what the gender is yet. We are so excited! This means Tia's parents will go from 0-6 grandkids in less than a year!

We are also getting two cousins from my side. Heather is having a girl in April and we just found out Sara is having a baby in August! There are two babies less than a year older than Avery and Adelyn so this means altogether they will have eight cousins less than a year apart. They are so extremely lucky! Tia and I were talking about what a fun stage of life our families are in. We both have siblings who are starting families or who have young families and some that are still in high school. It is such a perfect time; we are trying to soak up all the excitement.

P.S. On Sunday, a deacon in our ward started rubbing Avery's head and asked, "Why do you guys shave her head?"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Adelyn

Avery

First Swimming Trip

We put their swimsuits on:

Then we got them ready to go outside:

Then we sat in the hot tub (don't worry, it wasn't very hot):

They loved it!

Family Living

Tia and I just moved out of my mom's house after living there for about seven months. It was very bittersweet, especially since this is where the girls have lived their whole lives. We were lucky to have a lot of extra help, love and fun while we were there. I have lived with my mom, Jessie, and David before, but not Heather. It was so fun getting to know Heather better and I am so glad they are here for a few more months while they wait for their assignment. She is such a good mom and example to me and helped so much with the girls. Our kids slept in rooms right next to each other and I'm sure there were many nights that our girls woke her kids up and she was always so sweet with our girls. We had so much fun during the day (and continue to) while Tia, David, Jessie and my mom are all at work, studying or at school. Taylor and Kyla were always sweet and patient with the girls.

My mom was so nice to let us live there, eat her food, use everything and anything in the house, and tolerate the girl's crying in the middle of the night. There were also many times she would rock the girls to sleep when I was too tired or needed a break. It was so nice to ask her advice right then and there about anything! I keep thinking to myself how it is weird that we become moms and are just supposed to know what to do with no training. Thank goodness I have a wonderful mom who knows everything on how to be a good mom. The girls love falling asleep on her.

David was such a sweet uncle to the girls and did funny things with them. Of course he has always been cute with his kids, but it is really sweet how much he loves and spends time with our girls too. Of course he is the best at singing duets off tune with me (poor everyone else in the house.)

Jessie was not home very often as she is in school, dancing and has quite the social life. But when she was here, she was always helpful and happy. She is always fun to be around.

At one point there were fifteen people here. Becky was here for about a month as well as Chrissy and her kids. You would think that would be unpleasant. Not at all. We had a whole system down. We each had our own days we made dinner for everyone, we had a day to do our laundry, were able to leave our kids whenever, and had so much fun! What a wonderful way to spend our first few months with our little angels. Thank you family for all the help and love and service you gave while we were living there and continue to give us! I am so glad we are still so so close (less than a mile away)! Here are some pictures of the girls this last month.