Mother's Day

I am so blessed to have these amazing kiddos in my life. I love being their mom & am so grateful for the joy they bring to Chris and I.

On Mother's Day I woke up to some beautiful flowers (I failed to take a picture of them) and some awesome notes from my kids. I love it when they draw me pictures, and even more I love the smile they have on their faces when they present me with their masterpieces.

 It makes my heart happy!!!

While Chris was at a church meeting, Parker made me the following while I was getting ready, without any help!:

It says: "Mom I love yow and I  wal nevr stop luve n yow. Mom I love yow."
(Translation: "Mom I love you and I will never stop loving you".)
How PRECIOUS is that?! Not bad for a preschooler spelling things all by himself, ay?
And if you wonder what the picture is, he wasn't sure! He later decided the pink guy was an elephant with a pack on his back. I can see that! :)

Parker helped Emmie with hers (above). So cute!

And this was a special gift he made for me at preschool. He came home so excited, hiding it behind his back and told me he was going to hide this special surprise in his room until Mother's Day.
 And that he did.
The flower petals are made with his fingerprints.
 I absolutely LOVE it!

After church, we were sitting on the couch and my tricky husband had his "helpers" start presenting me with the following pictures they made:

This one says, "You are the cutest mom ever", and was presented with a Visa gift card to go shopping! Oh, how I loooove guilt-free shopping!
 (I bought myself some tangerine skinny jeans - in case you wondered;). Super practical, right?)

This one says, "Use this to get a treat", and was presented with a
 Roxberry Smoothie gift card!
I'm a little addicted to their "Green" smoothies. Have you had one?!
LOVE! LOVE LOVE!

This one says, "This will help you relax", and was accompanied with a gift card for a spa pedicure! (I haven't had a chance to redeem this one yet and it shows.)
My husband definitely knows me!
Better than I know myself sometimes!
 I am one lucky mama, and wife.
We just stayed home this Mother's Day as Chris' Mom was in Texas with our sweet nephew, and my Mom was living it up in Hawaii. It was perfect, relaxed, laid back day at home! Chris cooked dinner, and I even got a much-needed nap. It's been a crazy couple of months, so this was the perfect way to spend our day.

Lexi is 7 months

This little girl is 7 months old today!


She had her 6 month appointment
(yes, a month late even though it was scheduled 2 months ago) on Monday and it's hard to believe that this Chunka Love is only in the 14.03 %ile for weight, and 6.96%ile for height!

Oooh don't you just want to squish those little cheeks?!
You should see her thighs...they. are. the best!
{Live it up girlfriend, sad to say but thunder thighs don't stay in style forever. ;)}

She's not quite sitting up yet by herself.
We're working on it!
She's super wobbly but Chris and the kids timed her the other day and she stayed up for 6 minutes.
She spins herself around on her tummy as well as continues with her rolling to get where she wants. She has zero interest in cruising or standing yet. Hopefully it stays that way for a while longer!

She is the BEST baby and I adore every squishy little inch of her!

Easter anyone?

I guess it's about time I post about Easter!
I wish I could tell about how our holiday was calm and serene and focused on all things it should be, but in keeping it real, and like usual, our holiday was a fiasco.  Good, but trust me, a fiasco. No matter how hard I try to be on top of things, that just seems to be my life these days. And that is an understatement. ;) We are considering a move across the country to see if that will ease up on the chaos in our life. ;) I'm kidding. Maybe.

Showing off their new shades...

I was hoping to have the Saturday night Easter Bunny visit, but with Chris working until 7 pm, that was not an option. So Sunday morning the games began and the kids were very excited that the white fluffy guy had come. Funny, his handwriting looks a lot like Chris'...

Lexi's first Easter!
 I wish I had gotten a better picture of her, or one at all of just her in her Easter dress, but the following is all I managed before our mad dash out the door...:

Easter 2012

I did manage to catch a shot of this cute girl before her hair and dress were ruined (there is about a 5 minute window there...). But as for the other two, it didn't happen. Oh well. She actually had the beginnings of a nasty cold and Lexi was just starting her very first sickness (we spent the following 5 days home sick), so the three of us stayed home while the boys went to Sacrament meeting...

Then we were off to my cute Grandma's house, where it felt a little more like Christmas than Easter. There were multiple Easter baskets for each of my kids,treats that will last us to inifinity and beyond, and we even hit the jackpot with Easter eggs containing $10 for each adult...spoiled!

Next stop was the Hansens, where we enjoyed an Easter dinner and of course an egg hunt for the kiddos.

I was so exhausted this day that I honestly can't recall another detail!
 Good thing I have these pictures to help me remember.

St George

The week before Easter (March 29th-April 4th), we hit the road and drove down to St. George to see my Mom and Reed and in hopes of some good quality family time with our kiddos!
With NO mountains of laundry and endless messes calling my name!
Ok, so that place doesn't really exist with 3 kids but this was the next best thing!;)

 Steven and Kylie decided to come down last minute too  (and their new puppy, Winston), so it was a full house! It was fun to have them there. We did a lot of things that I decided not to haul my camera to and swimming was one of them. This of course topped the kiddos list of desired activities. They are WaTeR-CrAzEd little people! Good thing we start lessons again in June so that I can maybe stop having anxiety attacks every time we get near a pool because my fearless 3 year old goes sprinting to jump in, completely confident she can actually swim (um, she can't.)!
Deciding that Lexi was too little to expose to the germ-infested waters (and realizing we had no baby swim diapers), I let Chris handle the crazy two in the water while Lexi and I laid in the sun (okay so she was shaded) and read The Hunger Games (FINALLY and I LOVED it!).
Ahhhh. So nice. :)
 We also went to the park, miniature golfing, to  Jumpin' Jacks, and ate at Brick Oven (yum). We  cooked smores one night in the fire pit (pics above) and I've never really been a believer of aliens, but was a little bit convinced one night as Chris and I hot tubbed and were mesmerized by this bright light hovering in the sky (not a plane, not a planet... trust me, UFO was the only logical explanation) above us. It was actually a little creepy, I'm not gonna lie. ;)
{I mean, hello, it was the perfect scenario for the aliens to abduct us....}

Back on planet earth....
I don't know what this place is called but it's downtown and my kids always like to play in the fountains. We also went on a Carasoul ride there.

Our "hike" in Snow Canyon.
This was our first time there and we will definitely go back!
 It was so pretty and just a short drive.
 Those are supposedly some pioneer names carved into the mountain by the actual pioneers. Hmmm... They were a little too perfect if you ask me for 150 year old carvings...
(I know, I know...believer of the aliens but not the pioneers... go figure! Haha;)

On Sunday between conference sessions, the kids got to go on a fun Easter egg hunt in the front yard.
They were of course beyond thrilled for this activity brought to them by Uncle Steven and Grandma Jane.
(are those the cutest eggs that link together like that?!) 

I managed to snatch a few cute pics of this little cutie.

And THIS sweet little one didn't make ONE PEEP our entire 5 hour drive down and back (except to laugh hysterically at Parker for about 15 minutes). She was perfect the entire trip! What an angel! I think she almost has Chris convinced that we could have one more (haha almost)...
Fun times. :)

Good to know!

Parker and Emmie were playing out back yesterday as I was trying to get a few things done in my kitchen. I am usually pretty strict about wearing sunscreen, but was busy and just didn't think about it, especially since it was a pretty cool day (I even had Emmie in a coat).

 I felt awful last night as I noticed how their little faces had gotten burned by the sun!

Then today I happened upon this post (as I was looking for a recipe) about a girl who is a melanoma cancer surviver. She went to the doctor after noticing a small mole turn a different color (I have one on my arm that's been calling my name for months now...) and sure enough it was malignant melanoma and they operated the next day! She went through this twice and was super lucky to have caught it early on!
Some facts that she shared...

 Did you know that children who get sunburned before the age of 18 are twice as likely to get  skin cancer? And that if you don't catch it early, your chances of survival past 5 years are only 10%?!? 10!

I just thought this was such a good reminder of how important it is to wear that sunscreen all.the.time! I have had a nagging feeling to get to the dermatologist for about 6 months now to have a few things checked out... I think I'm going to finally make that appointment. I had no idea how serious it really can be! Chris is a red head and absolutely refuses to wear sunscreen - he just bakes in the sun! Aghh!

CLICK HERE to read the article. If you haven't already visited the Six Sisters' Stuff blog, I highly recommend! Great recipes, crafts and insights!

It's a short post and I highly suggest reading it before you go forgetting to lather up on your spring outtings.

Half a year!

Lexi turned 6 months old on April 4th.

How has time gone by that quickly!?
I just want to freeze her.

She has been such a sweet baby and such a joy to our family!

She started rolling from one place to the next a few weeks back and it has become her favorite mode of transportation. She especially enjoys her new hobby while wearing comfy clothes and a crazy hairdo.

She hasn't started to say any real words yet, but does say "uh-muh" sometimes when she's crying, so I like to think she's trying to say "mama". :) Parker translates it as so and big brother's know best, so we are going with that.
 Her favorite babble lately is to say "buh buh buh" over and over.

She had her first taste of rice cereal last week! She loved it! Well, sort of. She loved putting the spoon in her mouth anyways. :) We're going to start some fruits and vegetables this week. Exciting!
{We hold off on baby foods around here for as long as possible. I don't want to chance any food allergies by starting too soon. Life without peanut butter would be a real drag.  Plus it's what my pediatrician recommends and nursing is just easier, cheaper, and not so messy.}

Lexi looooves her baths and this was her first one in an actual bath tub a few weeks ago while we were in St. George! I must be crazy but I've been giving her baths in my bathroom sink and that pink little tub that you get from the hospital when you have a baby. I haven't wanted to risk exposing her to any of the kids germs in their bath tub (and until I force myself to clorox all their bath toys - they really gross me out), and my tub seems like it's too big and would be a waste of water. So, I've been squeezing her into my sink! So far it's worked fine but we've got to graduate to the real deal soon - she's getting too big!

Red is good

Parker's first love was for strawberries.

He demanded them in the womb.

Literally.

They were my #1 craving while that handsome first-born child of mine swam around in my uterus.

 I ate hoards of them during his 9 month stay in my belly (via my beloved "Sprouts" store in Surprise, AZ!).

In hindsight it's no wonder he didn't want to come out.

 He had his own built-in strawberry IV!

  & from the first moment he tried them as a toddler, it was as though he was reunited with that first love.

 He was smitten.

 Five and a half years later,  he and his strawberry love affair are still strong as ever.

 He will eat a whole flat of them in one sitting if I let him, at any time of the day.

 I have decided that his infatuation with them may be why his favorite color since he could say so has always been RED.

Well, there is lots of love in his little heart (& tummy) for that color...

This last year P has developed an almost equally-obsessed love for another red produce that I have mentioned before...

Tomatoes!

Personally, I refused to touch the red vegetable until I was 21.

{Now I'm hooked.}

 But this 5 year old will pop grape tomatoes like candy.

 (& trust me, this kid knows how to eat candy!)

As for me, I prefer to eat them after 12 p.m., but not him.  He begs for them beginning at 7 a.m. with his breakfast, post his ritualistic waffle with powdered sugar (& strawberries of course).

My little mommy heart smiles (& kind of giggles) as his precious hands and high-pitched voice simultaneously start quivering in anticipation as he asks,

 "Mom, can you get me some tomatoes with my waffle, please?"

*SIGH.*

I love this sweet little guy. How can I turn him down?

Especially when the request is such a healthy one?

Well, I can't.

And I don't.

Needless to say, we're excited for the upcoming months of eating these goods straight from our garden.

 FOR FREE!

We're so looking forward to summer around here!

The little green man invasion

 Parker and Emmie woke up on St. Patricks Day to find that our house had been invaded by a little green man.
 It's true.
 Here in the living room was their first clue of the incident:

The before and after of his night of havoc on our home.
(Pics taken at midnight-ish resulted in the lovely lighting)
 The Leprechaun made quite the mess and left Parker and Emmie to embark on the mission of finding his lost green boots...

Their first clue led them on a freezing morning jog to the mailbox with Dad (which is down the street and around the corner). They found all the clues and gathered some fun treats and a game along the way. The Little Green Man even left his mark in the bathroom.
 Green footprints on the toilet seat and green toilet water.
Ewww.
The kiddos ate it all up
(the fun, not the toilet water).

That afternoon, Emmie dressed up like a princess and went to a friend's princess birthday party, and RAPUNZEL was there.
Rapunzel!
 It was QUITE an exciting day!
Chris just rolled his eyes at the festive efforts, but hey, he just worked all day and we like to have a little fun around here every once in a while. Especially when we have a good excuse for it! :)
We are not just lucky but BLESSED to have these little people in our life! :)

Sunday Chaos Accomplices

In my previous life
 (aka my ignortant pre-children life where I thought kids were simply cute, obedient accessories), Sundays meant a few, nice, edifying and uplifting hours of church, followed by a dreamy, satisfying nap or possibly indulging into a great book, and often ended with a peaceful drive to visit family to celebrate a birthday or holiday, and/or to have a Sunday dinner.
We leisurely took our time and enjoyed our 'day of rest' and worship.
HA!
LEISURE is not a part of my vocabulary any longer.
{*Sigh. Miss you "leisure"!}
A lot can change when three of those "cute accessories" enter into the equation.
No matter how organized I try to be (laying out every person's Sunday best on Saturday night- accessories included, & stocking the diaper bag with snacks and coloring books sacrament meeting essentials ), I find myself SPRINTING and I mean literally to get myself + my three other human responsiblities church presentable and out the door each Sunday. Chris works one especially dreaded Sunday a month and the other three these days he has meetings and therefore is absent in the commotion to get to church.
 Lucky him. :)
There is always some sort of crisis that accompanies our Sunday morning routine.
 ALWAYS.
The baby has a blowout. The baby spits up down my dress. Or in my hair. Emmie gets toothpaste all over herself. Em decides to give her mermaids a bubblebath in the sink and in the process soaks herself. Our lovely dog that is getting old and sickly pees on the carpet. I can't FIND the darn dog to lock in her cage during our absense. Someone's missing a shoe. Or a sock. Someone has a meltdown. Where are the keys?  I can't find my slip that is essential for an otherwise see-through-in-the-sunlight skirt. Emmie doesn't want her hair done. We have to go on a hunt for Emmie's must-have blankie...
Just a few scenarios that inevitably arise on my (sorry to say, but dreaded) Sunday mornings.

A few Sundays ago Chris was working. I was teaching the Young Women (sometimes a crisis in itself). Parker was sick and I knew he really shouldn't even be going.
 (In case you don't know me, I'm not a fan of the mom that brings her sickly children to share the misery.)
Since I was teaching I knew we had no choice, but (the good non-germing mom that I am)  elected that we would only go to the third hour (the hour of my lesson).
So this left me with two extra hours to get my ensemble in order and out the door.
EASY. I can do this!
Thats what I thought.
 We were doing great on time until I was doing Emmie's hair and heard some crashes down the stairs followed by P crying.
Yep.
He tripped and fell down the stairs.
 Head first!
The poor guy managed to carpet burn his face and get a partial black eye. Not even kidding. Of course it was the same unfortunate eye that brought on an Air Med flight a year ago last Fall. Of course. I panicked a little bit. After assessing and consoling, I decided he was okay. Or he would have to be at least until we were through with church.:) But the poor guy really looked like he was in pain.  Hurriedly, I finished Emmie's hair, fed the baby, loaded up  my lesson handouts and props (yes, props -us girls like a decorated table), had E use the bathroom one more time...
and that's when I noticed it. Something in her hair.
 "What's that in your hair?", I asked.
The mumbled, matter-of-fact answer,
"Bubblegum".
Wha-huh?
Seriously?!
I didn't have time. Didn't have time to be mad, or ask questions, let alone slather peanut butter in her hair to get it out, rewash it and redo it.
 We had to GO!
So, we rushed to church.
 Parker with his developing black eye and a nasty cold (that I would normally never expose to his sweet classmates), & Emmie with a huge gob of bubblegum running down the front portion of her hair.
AWE-SOME.
AWESOME!
I kind of had to laugh.
This is SO MY LIFE.
What a sight.
My friend helped me get my kids to class upon arrival.
I instructed P's teacher to sit him in the corner and not let him  breathe on a soul.
 I'm not sure how serious he took me.
And.... I made it.
Made it in time for my lesson.
SIGH.OF.RELIEF!
I am pathetic, YES. I. am.
Am I the only one who scrambles like this?!
Sure appears so.

So here are a few of my accomplices who contribute to this crazy life of mine. P with his banged up eye (this pic does not reflect how bad it was -it really did turn dark blue the next day and a lovely scab adorned the middle of his nose all week), and I didn't have the energy to address E's bubblegummed hair until the following morning. (The peanut butter did work  btw, but I also combed out half her hair in the process...)
In the end, all was well. I did what I needed to do.
We missed the important part of church (the Sacrament) but that had to happen regardless, due to P's sickness.
And what about the littlest?
 She didn't make a peep - not one.
 Slept like an angel my entire lesson. It wasn't until we had gotten home and the kids were eating lunch when I took a peek at my cutie in her carseat and found her like this....

{Yes, her hair is out of control. Does that surprise you?}
Oh Lexi, thanks for being such a good baby.
 I can't imagine how crazy I might be if you weren't as mellow and go-with-the-flow as you are!

So, that's the truth about my life.

I'm sorry if you don't want to be my friend anymore.

But there you have it.
And often we have a very short down time once we've had lunch before we have to repack, rebathroom and rescramble back out the door to a Sunday night family event. The myth of Sunday being a 'day of rest' is just that -  myth! It's unfortunately quite the opposite at our house.
Go ahead. Judge away.
At your own expense, mind you. ;)

Parker asked us on the way to a family dinner the week prior,
"Mom, what time-o'clock were we supposed to be there?". Yeah that pretty much sums up our life these days. Pretty sad when your 5 year old knows what kind of schedule you keep...but that is just how I am handling
3 kids under 5. I like to think I am doing great!
Just as long as I don't have to go anywhere, or do anything.
Just stay home and spend time with my threesome. :):)
Whom I love and adore, despite the chaos they add to my life.

THOSE are my favorite days.
 And the ones I prefer.

{Parker and Emmie are standing on an ottoman. In case you wondered. I'm short, but not that short. :)}

Pre-dinner entertainers

A common scene at our house:

Cute, right?
 I think so too.
As long as the poor girl has a pocket of air to breathe through, it can fall under the "cute" category.
{Not gonna lie....sometimes they are a little overkill and their actions land under "obnoxious" and "relentless" but today we can call it the "c" word.:)}
But this popular little cutie doesn't seem to mind the adoration or attention.
Even in it's smothering form.
Not one bit!

The other night, I was fixing dinner and the older kids had just gotten out of their bath when I heard Lexi giggling. Like a lot.
I peeked over the kitchen island to find this:

 

P and E had pulled up their chairs and were practicing some sort of Vietnemese Tai Chai.
Er something.
 But whatever,
 the entertainment had arrived,
and Lexi thought it was hilarious.

Good thing because they kept her good and happy through the remainder of my dinner prepping.
 (Not to say she doesn't just sit happy as can be regardless of her sibling's attempts at Cirque Du Soleil...)

 

I could be wrong, but
I think P & E kind of like having their very own fan club.
Or is it the other way around? :)

Boy's night makes for a girl's night

A week ago last Monday, Chris announced that he was taking Parker to the Star Wars movie that came out in the theater.

I was all for it.

 The poor kid has watched in surplus his fair share of Netflix Strawberry Shortcake reruns, and dutifully played his part as Emmie's "pince" lately more than any good 5 year old boy should ever have to. He didn't even mind riding on E's pink scooter a few weeks back when she wanted to switch him vehicles midway through our walk.

He is a good sport, that boy (okay, most of the time that is).

 I figured some serious Darth Vader action, spaceship time, & light saber fighting, (or whatever it is they do in those Star Wars movies because I honestly have no idea) would serve to remind him that he does likes boyish things. A date with Dad does a little guy good every once in a while, right? I'd say so. :)

To make sure Emmie didn't get all jealous of their night out, I told her that the girls were staying home and having our own party.

 It worked.
 She was excited.

I realized about 5 minutes after the boys left that she had misunderstood my definition of "party" when she asked when our guests were going to arrive. I quickly explained to her that her dolls and stuffed animals were our guests, and thankfully, she was just as excited.

So we started the party.
 And she wanted to take pictures.
Because apparently that's part of what you do at parties.:)

So we did.

Emmie (in her favorite mismatched hot pink party shoes) and her party goers.

 Quite a diverse group. Even the teddy bear I bought when we were on our honeymoon 11 years ago (cringe that I'm old enough to be married that long...yiiiikes!) made the guest list. Emmie has recently adopted the tattered little guy. Lucky him. :)
She really has a big heart for the misfits.

The three girls.

 I love that the word daughter is now a plural one in our home. I love that I have these girls to do "girly" things with for the rest of my life. How did I get so lucky? And Emmie, she's most definitely girly. She had us singing and dancing our little hearts out (okay maybe more her little heart out) for our guests.

And this little attendee loved every minute of the entertainment!

We ended our "party"  like every good party should, with
chocolate ice cream and oreos.

We loved our girl time!

And Parker felt refreshed and renewed to be a boy upon his return from watching a bunch of Jedis beat each other up.
 Or whatever it is that happens in that movie.

 (That must be close, right?:)
It was all around a successful night. ;)