Spring Randoms

By Spring my kiddos were itching to break out one of their favorite pastimes....

Their bikes!

I was more than ready to break out the sandals....


Which meant my feet desperately needed some salon intervention with an intro-to-summer pedicure. 

My toes weren't the only thing in our house to hit the salon...

You can tell by Roxy's face she was not thrilled to be dolled up by Emmie.
Such a good little sport that dog is!

This little monkey loves to be outside & was thrilled when our snow drift finally melted.
 Our cheap-o swing set doubles as a jungle gym and still proves to be a great purchase. 

This little cutie began getting into anything and everything, leaving a trail of random whatever-she-can-get-her -hands-on all throughout the house... She is smart enough to know that she can get away with it with a few bats of those big eyes and kisses from those plump rosy lips. 
And she does!

And as for the engaged couple....

 

 Pure trouble!
Next door neighbor, Connor, proposed, yes, proposed to Miss Emmie a few months back. Emmie is smitten. & they are inseparable  Truly. She'll stomp into the house in search of finding her sunglasses, telling me that "Connor wants me to wear them". She asks me things like, "Are Connor and I going to live with YOU guys when we grow up?", and in super scary, way too pre-teen drama fashion she gets jealous when her "boyfriend" (as she refers to him) hangs out with other neighbor girls. One day Mr. Connor apparently hit one of Emmie's friends, and Emmie later asked me,
"Why did Connor hit Braylen? I'M his girlfriend!".
What?! Speechless.
I even overheard Emmie telling Parker that Connor had kissed her, on the cheek. And in true neighborhood-gossip fashion, Parker responded with,
"Yah, I know. Cole (Connor's big brother) told him to kiss you on LIPS!".
Huh?! Again, speechless.
Oh, Emmie. Like I said, TROUBLE.
Besides the hitting incident, Connor's a great little dude so we will take him!
But let's wait another 20 years or so please. :)
*I say WE, although let it be known that Chris refers to any "dude" interested in his daughter, four years old or not, as "punk".
It could get interesting in the years to come, especially with E and her jealous ways.
But hey, for now - looks like she's got a pretty sweet ride in that jeep of his, ay? ;)

The Farm

Parker only had school until 10 am on the last day (normally he goes in the afternoon but everyone went that a.m.).
In celebration, we went to Thanksgiving Point Farm for a few hours and had some fun!



Lexi loooves animals!  It was fun watching her interact with them.
 She especially loved the baby chicks and the goats.
As for Cowgirl Emmie... she loves to ride the ponies and horses, and Parker, he thought the peacock was pretty awesome.

We love this place!

 

May craze

This Spring was crazy busy! 
From the end of March through the beginning of May we spent three weeks traveling,
and we came home to 3 weeks of end-of-school year
CrAzInEsS! 
This was my first experience of public school as a mom and had no idea it would be so nuts!

Here are just a few of the events that contributed to our Spring:


First off, this cute girl graduated from Preschool! (well, kind of - this was just her Associates - going back next year for a Bachelors. :)) She went to the Elementary School preschool that is just down from our house. She had the BEST  experience there and loved it! She and P were on the afternoon schedule so I dropped them off together at 12:30-3:30.
It couldn't have worked out more perfectly!
She learned a lot and absolutely loved her class. Her favorite things were all the songs she learned (she is always singing them!), all the friends she made (it was pretty cute to see how tight her class was), and, of course, RECESS. :) Emmie is my dreamer girl and I was worried about her focusing because last year at this time I couldn't get her to sit down long enough to hold a pencil. But by the school year's end, she had soaked up all that was offered in her class and more. She's a smart little girl (just a little ADD like me;) and we're proud of all her hard work this year! She has a sharp memory and all the educational songs she learned were especially helpful for her. 

Our cute little graduate. 
She loved Mrs Chris!
 We carpooled with her friend Emily everyday (right picture). 

Parker had his Kindy 500 (actually this was in mid-April, right before our Cali trip). It started off with a small program singing patriotic songs for the parents (kept interesting by a little boy from the other class passing out!), followed by the parade of cars through the school. They then spent the rest of the day "driving" from different American landmarks they had learned about throughout the year.
Parker and Chris worked to build his cute car.  I was pretty amused and had to take a pic of the contrast between the monster truck and the tiniest car of the lot that happened to park next to each other. Is that the essence of the term "keepin' up with the Jones'" or what?! Totally made me laugh.

Parker looked forward to FINALLY celebrating his birthday at school along with all the other summer birthdays on pajama day during the last week in May.
He also went on a field trip to Thanksgiving Point during the month and had a special day of eating lunch in the lunchroom.
He came home to inform me that he wasn't interested in having hot lunch next year in first grade.
 Just took one day of trying it to figure that out.
I don't blame him. I guess we'll be cold-lunchers!
Healthier, anyways, right?!

The day before the last day of school was the annual school Dance Festival. It was the cutest thing ever! All the grades did their own dances on the back field. Kindergarten did "Lolly Pop Lolly Pop" and dressed in 50's gear. The preschoolers did "Going on a Bear Hunt" and dressed like hunters. Did I mention it was so stinkin' cute!?
What an awesome school my kids go to!
We feel so blessed that we happened to land down the street from one of the top elementary schools in Utah, not to mention we live in SUCH a great, kid-friendly neighborhood and community!
It was such a fun and busy school year.
I'm in shock that they start again in 4 weeks.
Where did the summer go?!?

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day was a great day!
 Unfortunately, I am writing about it too late to remember much of what went on, (ahhh! My mind these days!) but I DO know that I'm SUPER lucky to be the Mom of these amazing kids!

What's not to love?! I am one blessed Mama!

The Friday prior I got to go to Mom's and Muffins at the elementary school... TWICE! Once with this adorable preschooler, who filled out that little survey on me. Not totally accurate (I'm short, but 11 inches...not quite;), but pretty close! 

I love this cutie.
She was SO excited to have me come to her class and see her cute little program (a poem and song). She had been sick with a fever etc for two days prior, and even that actual day, but she was SO upset at the prospect of not getting to do her Mother's Day program, that I took her for that and then she skipped the rest of her school day.

Next up I (with the girls in tow) moved down the hall to P's Kindergarten class. They sang the cutest songs, gave us the sweetest decorated planted pots, and a buffet of muffins, donuts, and drinks.  I seriously love these little kids! I was able to volunteer in his class throughout the year and came to adore these little classmates of Parker's.  Okay, so there were a few hellions in there (the class was dominated by boys)...but still...what a great class Parker had for his first Elementary experience!

Funny sidenote... the cute girl in the purple shirt... throughout the year, she would attach herself to me anytime she saw me with a HUGE hug...when I came to class to help out, for this and other programs, even out by the parking lot as I was picking up carpool on a regular basis. One day at the end of the year she confessed to me with a whisper in my ear,
"The reason I love YOU so much, is because really, I  am in love with your little boy!". 
Ha ha! Oh, she melted my heart.
What a cutie that little Evie is. After her confessed crush, and after observing Parker, I realized that he was completely oblivious to the fact that he had such a smitten little fan out there. Rather than shatter his sweet Kindergartner innocence & humility and let him know of her professed love for him, I chose instead to give my little friend Evie a favor and instructed my cute little dimple blondie to be sure to say "Hi" to and smile at his classmate whenever he saw her.
 Parker has a good little heart and I'm sure he followed through, hopefully giving Evie some
  sweet first-crush satisfaction.
 I'm so glad it takes boys longer to tap in to noticing the opposite sex! 
While Parker might be oblivious to these things, his 4 year old sister is not.
She's already planning her wedding.
 For reals. Heaven help us. ;)
 Details to come....:)

Munchkin at 18 months

After we got back from our vacation in the beginning of May, this little Cutie had her
18 month check up (which was actually 19 months).


Doesn't she look so grown up with her piggies?
Her stats came in at: 
okay so of course now that I'm finally posting about this I can't find the papers for the exact numbers (I'll find it later!) but I remember the percentiles! 
HEIGHT: 0.68%ile
WEIGHT: 5%ile (about 19.6 lbs)
We had been pushing more calories since January as the Endocrinologist had requested. She did go up a little in weight, but the discouraging fact was that it didn't stimulate an increase in her height. This was just her regular pediatrician appointment however. He did recommend not pushing her calories any more than we already have, as it will just make her short and chunky and do nothing good for her health. He's pretty much retired her case over to the "growth detective" specialist however, so he really had no other insight to offer. He is baffled as to what is going on just as we are.
We just had some blood tests and bone scans done the week before last so we will be meeting with the specialist soon to discuss the findings (if any - which there probably aren't), and see what the next step is in figuring all this out. 

Meanwhile, this little peanut continues with her strong-willed, yet sweet personality and pretty much runs the show around here. She might be tiny, but watch out for the smoke because she is a firecracker! Tantrums are in full swing, and don't get too close because this girl can throw quite the scratch at your face when she doesn't get her way or if you tick her off (which is not hard to do)!
The little Stink! I blame her bipolar mood swings on the fact that she cut at least 6  new teeth all at once this spring and is still going. Hang in there, however, because the next minute, she's lovey, gives the sweetest back pats, and has an irresistible smile & the sweetest singing voice. She LOVES music and sings at the top of her lungs to anyone, anywhere, all the time. She might even bust out a few dance moves. She is NOT shy!! She loves to read stories and knows pretty much any animal and the sounds they make. She is pretty good at counting to 5, and sings the ABC's in a mumbled language that she likes to use (although she says most things properly she busts out this crazy jumbled language all the time ). 

She finally started walking right before our trip - in mid-April (18 months old). She is still wobbly but she is doing great. She is obsessed with "Hoos" (shoes) and is always getting into the shoe baskets and coming out wearing whoever's she could dig out. She sleeps every night with her sippy of water, her "banky" (made by Gma Jane) and falls asleep to the music and glow of her glow worm. Definitely a bed-time staple! She loves mac n cheese like her big sis, waffles, turkey, cottage cheese, refried beans with cheese, beans and rice, cheese, fruit smoothies, and apple sauce squeezies to name a few. She also now loves whole milk as it was on Dr. Swinyard's "push the calories" list. She loves to go on walks in the stroller, be outside, and play with Parker and Emmie. The threesome recently started breaking out into a sporadic "Cha Cha Cha" line while of course singing "cha cha cha" - hands connected to each other's hips throughout the house. It's pretty cute!

I could go on forever but better get some sleep before my routine 3 am wake up call courtesy of this spunky little munchkin! 

Despite my early and hopeful parenthood projections, after (almost) 7 years, I have succumbed to the fact that I will not, and should not, expect to be getting a full night's sleep, and therefore may not be sane, for at least another 16 years or so... heaven help me!! The extreme forgetfulness has set in and my apologies to anyone who has fallen victim to my loss of mind, as I fear there are many. Yesterday as I was vacuuming I could not remember if I had already done my entry way tile and rug just minutes before. 
Could NOT remember for the life of me. 
So I redid it just in case.  
This is a common scenario for me that pretty much happens on an hourly basis! For the record, this mental state or lack thereof did not begin until about 6 months into child #3....you can understand why the thought of a #4 is terrifying for me...! ;)

Off to San Diego

After our days at Disney, we headed south to La Mesa, CA to spend more time with Steven and Kylie. They moved there in December to get Steven's MBA, of course taking Jack, P, E, and L's only Utah cousin with them. Their place was great, especially for CA, and they were so nice to let us overtake their 3 bdrm/2 bath apartment for a few nights. Our first night there they took us to this amazing BBQ place, called Phil's BBQ - and they were right - it was pretty awesome! Sooo much food and the sauce was excellent! I've been wanting to go back ever since!

The first day we went to Seaport Village. Chris and I went there on our honeymoon (too many years ago to mention) and this was our first time back. The kids loved feeding the ducks along the walkway while window shopping, enjoyed the ocean view, and watching the cute little old Islander (??) man  balance rocks. It was impressive.  In following tradition, we also picked up a few Christmas ornaments to remember our trip by. My mind is way too fuzzy to remember what they are exactly, so I guess I will be surprised in December when we decorate our tree. 

The next day we went to Coronado Beach on Coronado Island. To be honest, it was a little freezing, so I wasn't too sad that we only stayed maybe 2 hours.  After a little frisbee action, searching for sea shells,  getting busted by the Beach Patrol for flying a kite (no kites on the beach??), and Jack's lunch on a little beach sand, we headed home. That night we went to Old Towne and ate some Mexican food and picked up some ice cream. 

Sadly, the next morning, we loaded up our car and headed back home... but not before getting a few pictures of the cousins!
Impossible to get a good picture of four little ones but we did our best.
We had such a fun trip & are so grateful we could go!

We thankfully were able to break up our trip by staying in St George with my Mom and Reed on the way there and back. Definitely makes a long road trip with kids doable! They did great in the car and little Miss Lexi hardly made a peep the entire 24-hour, round trip drive.
I love my little family and love quality vacation time with them! 

Disneyland

{Yes, back to blogging and determined to catch up!!:)}

DISNEYLAND 2013
On April 19th we left on an 11-day trip to California, 5 of which we spent in the Happiest Place on Earth! Yep, I said FIVE and we loved every minute of it!

Our hotel was the Anaheim Marriot Suites & with our package came free breakfast every morning. This wasn't just some lame continental breakfast... it was  the hotel's amazing in-house restaurant and it was SO GOOD! It was a buffet of fresh blueberry pancakes, French toast, a chef stood by at the omlette bar to whip up whatever kind of omlette you wished... there was bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, bagels, toast, cereal... anything and it was SUPER DELICIOUS!! We ended up being later than we wanted to the parks most days because we were enjoying our breakfast a little too much... but it was so worth it! And it was FREE! (We did tip the waiter of course!) I have to make note of it because as silly as it sounds, it really was one of the highlights of our trip, haha!

We spent 3 days in Disneyland and 2 in CA Adventure Park.

The weather was nice, but totally bipolar! Thank goodness I threw in leggings for the girls, and had to take them on and off depending on the time of day. It made for interesting outfits during the leggings-on moments, (they were long and didn't look so hot with their skirts) but they were just glad to be warm when we needed them!

 

CA Adventure Park!

(P & I in the front row)

 

The Tower of Terror. Parker of course loved. Emmie, on the other hand, was traumatized for life by this one. I will blame it on her Father who thought she was fine to go... and myself who reluctantly let her. When she came back wide-eyed and white as a ghost I knew we were really, really bad parents. Who lets their four year old ride the Tower of Terror?! Poor thing! She didn't scream or cry but her face said it all. Needless to say, she was not a returning passenger for this one.

Emmie was big enough for the Matterhorn this year, and at P & E's request, it was the first ride we rode of our trip and the very last. They LOVE it! Emmie was so brave and it didn't even make her flinch. I was desperately trying to hold onto her from my seat right behind her but she couldn't have cared less- wasn't scared at all.  I bet they went on it 8 or 9 times. Sadly, Big Thunder and Space Mountain were closed, but they both also loved Splash Mountain! My four-year-old was WAY braver than her thirty-something Mom on that huge hill. She loved it! Another one that she loved were the tea cups.

Another favorite was the (upside down!) Mickey roller coaster in CA Adventure. Emmie was too short for it (thank goodness;) so us girls stood on stand by while the boys rode it a bunch of times. I usually love roller coasters but I find that the older I am the less brave I am. Last time I rode this I got a huge headache so I elected to just sit this one out. Sadly, we didn't make it on the much-talked about new CARS ride. Whenever we went to use our Fastpass, it was broken down. :(

On Wednesday Steven, Kylie & Jack (who live in San Diego) came up and spent the day with us at Disney. It was so fun to see them and the kids loved seeing their cute cousin again! We actually randomly arrived at the exact same time and they parked right by us in the garage so we entered and exited with them. Talk about perfect timing. :)

Lexi liked the characters from afar but once up close she would lean as far away as she could from them. P & E had fun filling their autograph books.  

This little girl was such a trooper! She did a LOT of waiting while her older sibs rode the rides ( she could actually ride a good majority of them), and I don't think she cried once, sleep deprived and all! In the bottom left pic,  she was wandering around a shop grabbing all the characters while we waited for the others on Splash Mountain. She had just begun walking a week or two before, so she definitely had the shaky-baby walk going and people kept pointing out the cute little "walking" baby, thinking that she was much younger than she is. I heard several people say how "cute it is when babies walk at such a young age". I just smiled and didn't bother telling them that the "baby" was actually 19 months old, although she looks more like a 10 month old, LOL.

The night that Steven and Kylie were there, we walked right onto "Small World" as the parade was going. I had forgotten how that ride is about three hours long! In the middle of it, Emmie had that dreaded look of panic on her face. I knew immediately she had to go to the bathroom. The ride went on and on and then of course there was a big hold up with the boats and we sat there stuck for what seemed like forever. E was about in tears and ready to pee her pants.  I seriously contemplated jumping out and pulling her through the emergency exit but FINALLY our tour of the "Small"(But Really-Long-World) was over. She and I sprinted to the nearest restroom, barely making it. As she was finishing, I heard the Cinderella chime of the clock striking midnight, indicating closing time(which in D-Land in April is 8 p.m.). I  looked at her excitedly in the stall and explained  that the familiar sound was Cinderella's clock. Her eyes widened on her cute, super sleepy, dazed face, and she gasped as she tried process what I was telling her.
 Making one of my favorite moments of the trip, she looked at me in all seriousness and drama that only Emmie can convey, & said, (eyes wide as ever),
"Is she COMING???".
I love my Emmie.
& this is why I love Disney.
The wonder and awe and believing  in something magical that ignites the imaginations of us all through this awesome place.
 

Another one of our favorites from this trip was Goofy's Kitchen. We went there in 2010 and knew we had to go back. And we didn't regret. It's pricey, but so worth it! Our kids loved it! We had dinner there on our last night and had great food, way fun character interaction...it was the perfect way to end our Disney adventure. Minnie was especially excited that us girls had coordinating outfits. She doted on Parker like crazy and made him blush a few times.
 I love that my kids think these peeps are real. I realize that it won't last forever and I'm going to relish every minute of their young innocence.
 We love you Disneyland!
We had such a wonderful time and the kids are asking when we get to go back!
Next stop? San Diego!

Easter Getaway

A week after the wedding we headed down South to St. George for warmer weather and for a Spring Break/Easter getaway.

My heart melted when I looked up to catch this on one of our excursions...:

 

 *SIGH*
These two BFF's had a great time hiking, swimming,  & playing at the park... not to mention the Easter Festivities.

 

Hiking in Snow Canyon! P was pretty excited to come across the lava rocks & insisted on a pic.

Hiking in Pioneer Park... this place is awesome! P & E loved exploring the red rocks here and Lexi was such a trooper strapped to Chris' back in the hot sun.

On Saturday we hit the Arts festival in town and enjoyed some Van Gogh, a carousel ride and snow cones, which proved to be a little piece of heaven in the blazing heat (Chris will tell you it was 76 degrees but I'm telling you it was more like 96:)).

On Easter Eve back at Grandma Jane's and Gpa Reed's we did some egg dying and had a yummy BBQ.


Easter morning we threw on our Easter getup (which yes, conveniently was also our wedding gear the week before), took a few quick pics and flew out the door to make 9 am church. Poor Lex, you can tell she looks sick. She seemed to have a little bit of a cold, but, two days later, while still in St George I noticed that her heart rate was really rapid and that she seemed to be breathing funny. She also had a fever of 103. She ended up in Instacare and had a steroid injection because of stridor breathing and a diagnosis of an ear infection and Croupe. Strange, because she hadn't been coughing but the doctor said she was on her way to becoming dangerously ill so it was a good thing we took her in. Poor Lex. Needless to say, she and I sat out the rest of the activities on the trip.
Back to Easter....

The kids loved the Easter Egg hunt after church and I loved (as much fun as it always is), not running from place to place like we usually do on this day.

Easter is such a special day and I'm grateful to be able to reflect on the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, his atoning sacrifice and for the celebration this holiday signifies of the Resurrection. Having lost loved ones prematurely, I am especially touched on this day and grateful for the knowledge that not only does our Lord and Savior live again, but that through him, and because of him, we have the promise of eternal life for our loved ones as well!

Easter Getaway - Success! :)