Gotta Love those 4 year olds!

Four year olds tend to say funny things.

Little Miss Marin keeps us all laughing with the things she learns in primary... Like Lucifer, but not the cat in Cinderella. I also got a kick out of the time she blessed all of the people in Alaska in her prayer. Another favorite is when Marin was flying kites with her boy neighbor friend. Jaren had helped the boy get his kite really high. The little boy yelled over to Marin, "My kite is the highest!!!" To which Marin replied, "But mine is more beautifuller!"

Little Miss Maya, one of the twins I babysit for, said this to me the other day, here's the set up. She was eating dinner and had mashed potatoes and some mixed vegetables left to eat. She was eating sorta slow, so after a bite of mashed potatoes, I put her spoon in the bowl of mixed vegetables for her. Maya picked up the spoon in disgust because there was still a little bit of potato on the back of the spoon and in the most serious voice I have ever heard she said, "You should NEVER put my spoon in my mixed vegetables with POTATOES on it!"

While driving the girls home one day, they saw a bald man walking down the street. They thought it was very funny that he didn't have any hair. Then one of them pipes up, "Jaren is kind of bald too!!" And they both laughed and laughed.

They also tell me quite often that I have a big tummy and once asked me if there was a baby in there. . . I hope it doesn't look THAT big!!

Another week gone

This week has flown by for me. Time seems to be going very quickly, which is great because that means that we will be going home sooner. I think we are down under 60 days until we pack up and head back to Utah and we are both very excited!

The big news this week is that I got into nursing school at Weber starting this fall!! I'm gonna be a nurse in two years! I found out that my sister also got in, so we will be able to study together and ace the whole program! ...Hopefully. Jaren and I have been celebrating all week with pizza the night we found out and ice cream every night after. I think we are about celebrated out. :)

We went to an appointment with the missionaries to visit a sister named Joyce. She is from South Africa and had a beautiful accent. She was VERY familiar with the bible and has just begun to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I seriously admire investigators because they are so open minded and willing to accept the messages that the missionaries share. I hope I would be the same way. It has been interesting for me to get involved in missionary work; I have never done anything like it before. It is scary, especially when the missionaries put you on the spot in front of the investigator, but its also fun to be able to share what you know and believe.

We made some friends from our ward, Mary and Bryant Angelos. They met at BYU and are out here working and finishing up school. Mary is an engineer for a company here and Bryant is working on a doctorate in math... I think. They are both really fun. They love listening to Jaren tell stories about his work experiences (He has so many fun stories). Mary and I have hung out on Wednesdays for the past couple of weeks while the boys play basketball at the church. It is so nice to get out of the house and talk to another adult.

Bailey and Maya keep me pretty busy when I am working. They are very well behaved most of the time but need to be almost constantly entertained or they become a little crazy. I got them a book of fairy tales from the library and they both love the stories. Rumpelstiltskin is one of the favorites so far. I love when we can sit and read. It is very cozy with a twin on each side. Alot of times we get blankets and are all so warm and comfy! They take piano lessons so I get to help them practice everyday. They do really well when they put their minds to it and actually read the notes. It takes a little convincing and luck to get that to happen most days...

Jay, Jeri Dell and Blake (Jaren's family) are coming to visit us this next week!! They will fly in tomorrow morning and will be staying all week. We have a lot planned and we are SOOO excited to have them come!

One Month Down

We can't believe that it has already been a month since we have been gone! The time seems to have flown by so far, and I sort of hope it continues to. We both miss our family and friends and not having to entertain ourselves every night. We now know why people get dogs or have children. :) It is fun just chilling and watching movies or playing video games every night, but I think the novelty of it wears off pretty quick. Really, we have been having a lot of fun together and the relaxed time together has been good for the both of us. We have been enjoying a lot of "lite" ice cream and frozen yogurt over the past couple of weeks while watching our movies every night. Jaren every once in a while will ask, "What are we going to do tonight?" To which I reply, "What do we do every night, Pinky? Try to take over the world!!!" But really we will just eat ice cream and watch a movie.

We both enjoy our work. Jaren got trained on how to give an interesting tour of the US Capitol building yesterday and he loved hearing about all the interesting behind the scenes information and history that not many people know about. He says the Capitol is an amazing building and I am looking forward to my personal tour. :)

My work is going well too. I have started to figure out Bailey and Maya's fun little quirks and we are all getting along really well now. When I first met the girls, I was afraid that I would never be able to tell them apart because they are identical twins... for the most part. After about 10 minutes of being around them I realized that they are completely different. They both have very distinguishable facial features and very different personalities. I think most twins do. They are fun. Bailey is a little chatter box and is the little ring leader. She orders Maya around, but in a very passive aggressive way it seems like. :) She knows what she wants and it is hard to change her mind or get her to do something she doesn't want to do. Since she is the little leader, if she says she doesn't want to do something, Maya will follow right along. Bailey is very sweet though, and is very curious. I was wearing a shirt with some abstract flowers on it one night and she touched a flower and asked what it was. I told her it was a flower. Then she got this look on her face and put both hands on my chest and asked, "What are these?" Haha. I have had a couple discussions with the girls about private areas and told her that she could ask her mom what they were because they were part of a private area. I love how blunt little kids are sometime. Bailey loves to wear dresses and fun, colorful tights. Anyway, that is a little bit about Bailey. Maya is a super sweet little girl as well and seems a little more girly girl than Bailey. Maya loves putting barrettes in her hair and is more in to dressing up. Maya loves to wear jeans and loves to point out that I always wear jeans, so we are matching often! Maya is a little quieter than Bailey, most of the time. She has her moments where she will run around screaming and going crazy and is funny to watch. She is a little shy sometimes and loves to play with her sister. Maya is very strong willed at times and does things on her own time. I have learned to never try to rush her to do anything. I try to let her know about 5 minutes beforehand to try to finish up whatever she is doing, because oooh if I try to make her stop doing anything, I get the glare of death. They both love to watch Curious George on Saturdays and to help make dinner. We have had fun making forts, blowing bubbles on plates, coloring, painting, pretending we are driving or on a big boat, being inchworms, and just cuddling up on the couch to read books. I think it is fun how much kids love you if you are willing to sit and play with them and pretend with them. Anyway, the girls are fun and I enjoy being with them. Their mom works on Capitol Hill for one of the science committees. She is a very nice person and always tells me how grateful she is that we are here and how much of a relief it is for me to be close to help her. I think its just good for all of us!


Jaren and I are looking forward to my birthday on Saturday. We aren't quite sure what all we are going to do, but I know that we are going to take a break from our diet and eat everything and anything we want. French toast, pasta, maybe a doughnut, ice cream, strawberry shortcake, and pizza are on my wish list so far... :) We might go to the temple or go test drive some cars... Who knows.

We sure miss everyone and hope everything is going well for you all!

Kate The Great.

Driving back from our family reunion in Cedar City on Saturday, I looked over and saw these gorgeous eyes.
Kate was so fun and was so smiley. About five minutes after I took these pictures she was sound asleep.