Pictures

I'm resolving to do better at taking pictures. I love the one of him holding his cake. What a treat to have Sister Alvey show up at the door with a cake. I am impressed with people who really really magnify their callings. Justin loves primary because of these two teachers.

Justin is 4 and Easter and Update

My baby boy turned 4 on March 21st. I love this guy. He is pure joy. I love that he is so logical. Since he was a small baby I could reason with him. He is a black/white, yes/no sort of person. If I answer maybe or I'm not sure he persists in asking the question until I come up with something more definitive. This definately comes from me. It drives me crazy when people can't give me definite answers. I get him. He is into Lightning McQueen still and loves to play with anything that has batteries. He has his own jumbo pack of double A batteries and a screwdriver and he is my person if something needs changing. He's very handy and loves to fix stuff. Hans and I got him a Lightning McQueen bike, which he loves. It is the same size as Ashley and Katelyn's bikes and he can just cruise. It's fun to watch. He'll ditch the training wheels this summer, I am confident. He is SO close on his smaller bike. He watched Kate learning and wanted to try. He has amazing balance. Once he's started he can keep going, but when he wants to stop he falls off. And he can't start himself yet. He's almost there. It was good incentive for Katelyn. She was determined to get it before Justin, which she did. I kept telling her - If you can do cartwheels and back walkovers on balance beams, I'm pretty sure you have enough balance to ride a bike...she is a pro at it now. What else about Justin? I just love him. I count my blessings many times a day that I have him in my family. I honestly feel Heavenly Father's love for me through Justin. Everyone who knows him loves him. He has The World's Best Primary teachers who brought him a lion shaped cake for his birthday.

Our Ward split last week and we are now in a different ward. By far the saddest part for me was moving Justin from Sister Alvey and Sister Trujillo. They do bug hunts and incentives for listening and singing and just have a genuine love for these kids. I am excited to be in a new ward and for new opportunities to meet people and serve. It was interesting to see different reactions to the split. I decided that I am the weird one because most people were upset. But I am genuinely excited. I love change. I like moving.

For Justin's party we had a dog theme. We played "pass the present" with stuffed dogs for each kid in it. We ate a dog cake and painted dog faces. We played in a dog fort, played dog, dog, cat, and practiced rolling over and sitting. It was great fun. I love that Justin has great friends. They are mostly girls. Justin is a great chameleon. He will play barbies (although after one evening playing at a friends house he came home and said, "Mom, are Barbie's fun?" I told him sure. He said, "Okay then, I guess I had fun over there." He really loves to play with zhu zhu pets and cars. We had a Sunday party for him with Conleys and Morrills. By far his favorite present was a remote control jeep thing from Laurie. He was spoiled by everyone.

Easter this year was wonderful. It felt a little strange, but I really felt the meaning of Easter and am just so incredibly grateful for the Savior. I love the knowledge I have, which helps me find meaning and purpose in this life, which is easy for me to lose sight of in the chaos of the day to day. I appreciated that Conference was Easter weekend and I love feeling pricked by the Spirit to do better. I was amazed at how many talks were about the importance of relationships within the family and the responsibility it is for me to help my children return back to their Heavenly Father. I felt like I have such an important job, which is something that I forget often. I want to be better and to do better. Anything that makes me feel that way is so appreciated. I need that. I was supposed to drive to Utah on Thursday before Easter, but since I-80 and I-70 closed it didn't happen. I miss being with my family. I was anxious to be there. My kids were disappointed. We made it as fun as we could here. We built a conference fort, spend Priesthood session at Melanie's house with her friends, and had a nice Easter dinner with Conley's as well. I'm so grateful to have some family here. I wish Morrills could have been there too, but Laurie braved the drive to Utah today.

So now it is April and I feel like the countdown to summer is here. I love this time of year. It's just heavy with hope.

Disney Pictures

More highlights I forgot to mention were watching Justin get sick on the teacups, riding the monorail, watching the parade, watching the fireworks.

Disney World

We were so lucky to do our first official family vacation with just the 6 of us. We had so much fun. We spent 8 days in Florida doing 5 days at Disney. 5 days was a little much, but since 5 days costs the same as 3 days we decided to really do Disney. It was exhausting, exciting, and we enjoyed every second. We spent 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 1 day at Epcot, and 2 days at Animal Kingdom. We ate dinner with the princesses, swam in the hotel pools and hot tubs, mini-golfed, went to church, played at the park, and spent an afternoon sitting in the sun in front of the Orlando Temple. It was a great vacation. I feel like I am a pro at Disney World now. By the last day we had the whole fast pass, rider switch, waiting in line thing down to a science. Katelyn rode Everest 8 times in a row. Katelyn is the kind of person who rides in crazy roller coasters with her hands up and would go upside down if they let her. Ashley rides on them all, but more thoughtfully. Justin is 40 inches so he was able to go on all the rides, but only wanted to go once. Mia loved the carousel and the hiccups (what she called the teacups). The teacups can really ruin the day. So can Mission to Mars in Epcot. I felt awful after that thing. The girls, of course, had to do the expert one. They actually have barf bags on the ride. By the time we made it to Mars I thought I would cry if we had to go back to Earth. Luckily, we were done. When I came out for Hans to go he looked at me and then decided not to. It made Ashley decide she wants to be an astronaut. I would never make it. Other highlights were the butterfly garden, the Finding Nemo live show (just keep swimming...just keep swimming...), space mountain, buzz lightyear, thunder mountain, splash mountain, and more, I am sure. It was a great time of year to go because there was minimal waiting. We did every last ride in Magic Kingdom and a lot more then once. Animal Kingdom was fun. We loved the petting zoo, the jeep safari thing, and the walking tours of the jungle. In Epcot we loved the boat ride through all their agriculture, the ride through the gigantic ball, and the shows. Epcot made me the most sick. We stayed in a great 2 bedroom place with a full kitchen so I was able to pack in lunch and dinner everyday, which helped a lot. The kids were beyond excited about everything, accomodating of each other, and grateful. I have great kids. Mia had 1 accident on "It's a Small World." She told me she had to go potty, but we were stuck on a boat listening to It's a Small World in 40 different languages so she went all over the boat. More my fault then hers. So I think if you are 2 and have only 1 accident during 5 days at Disney you can consider yourself potty trained. Hooray for Mia! It was a totally different travelling experience for me. I didn't need porta-cribs, diapers, binkies, bottles, blankets, bibs, etc. It was very liberating. In a couple years we'll only need 1 carseat too. Pictures of Disney to follow. I have a million, so I will try and limit it to my favorites!

Cute kids

I have to blog pictures in order or I don't get to it, so here are a few pictures before I can blog about Disney World!Notice Mia's curly hair in this picture. Crazy!

The Boys.

Mia looked in the brown paint to see if there was any left.

We love each other. Mia's my buddy.

All dressed up for Church. It's rare all the kids look presentable at the same time. Got to capture it while I can!

The rest of my pictures

This is not the most flattering picture of me, but I never have pictures of me, so it's probably good to document what I look like the day I turned 31. I was watching a home video from 4 years ago and I definately look older. I don't feel older though, is that what old people tell themselves? I feel good. I have been so busy. I am teaching yoga 3 times a week and that alone has added about 5 hours to my week. It doesn't seem like a lot, but I am adjusting anyway. It takes time away from when I feel like I can be doing yoga or other things for me, but I am enjoying it. I am trying to get a job at Villa because it is closer. I am being persistent. It will save me time in driving, which is valuable. I think my ultimate would be to work at CorePower where I practice yoga just once or twice a week and then get free yoga, so I am being patient for that. I am enjoying the craziness of it all, but I have to remind myself to enjoy it a lot of times. I love my kids. I feel so grateful to have the kids I have. They love me. And I love being with them. I love that the girls are getting older. We play settlers together and for the first time went shopping at Target for new swimming suits for them (we go to Florida next week). It was so fun having them pick out 3-4 choices and then just sit in the changing room watching them be excited about which ones they wanted and liked. The picture above is of the swimsuits they picked. So fun. And Melanie even came and took Ashley to see a movie last week. They are growing up.

The pictures of Katelyn are with HoneyBear. He is a bear that gets to go home with different kids from her kindergarten class. She was SO excited that it was her turn this weekend. She brought him to the swimming pool, made waffles cut-outs with his cookie cutter shape, made sugar cookies with him, took him sledding, and played all sorts of games with him. HoneyBear goes back to school tomorrow. I love kindergarten, and especially kindergarteners, but mostly I love Mrs. Myers. She is awesome.

So now I think I am mostly caught up on blogging. Wow.

Swimming Pictures

It's fun to take the kids swimming. It's a great activity and it wears them out. I love that my kids are so close in age and that they all love doing the same thing. I know that won't last forever.

Mia

Mia gets tired at the swimming pool.
But mostly she loves it. She likes the pool more then the others right now. We go once a week. It is great exercise for all of us. We alternate between our YMCA without the slides and Melanie's Y with the slides. We take Hans with us every once in awhile:)

She gets cold or coldy as she says.

She loves to open my sliding door, stick her head out, and yell "Friday! Friday come home!" over and over again. Wonder where she got that one from?

Got it on video. It's painfully cute.

Mia is my baby. She hasn't worn diapers since Wednesday. I have been telling her for 2 months when she asks to go on the potty that she has a diaper on so she just should use that. I guess I wasn't really ready for the annoyance of it and the ending of a diaper changing era. I've been changing diapers for over 7 years. I used to joke that I wouldn't potty train Mia until she could say with perfect diction "Mother, I would like to use the toilet now." So I find it funny that my not even 2 1/2 year old is potty trained. Piece of cake, actually. She has had 2 accidents. That's it. And one was with a babysitter and the other at the Y daycare. Other then that she has been perfect. It was good timing because I realized I only had 3 diapers left too. I don't do pull-ups or diapers for naps (if she still took one) or bedtime and she has been perfect with that as well. She did wake up at 5 am 2 mornings to use the potty, but she went back to bed. We made a special trip to Target to buy underwear for her and she picked out Dora, of course. She loves them. She will show them to anyone who walks by. She just bends over into a down dog and pulls the underwear up so you can see them. They are quite big on her. She is a small gal. We should get a couple years out of them. She felt so special and it was fun for me to watch. When Hans and I got home to the babysitter and an accident, Mia said, "Dora is so sad. I went poop on her." But she said this in a singsong voice while she was dancing. At least she gets that she shouldn't do it. She is so cute. I love this little girl. Now I think I'll make her stay in her crib until she figures out a way to persuade me otherwise.

Katelyn is 6!

Katelyn is a star gymnast. 20 pull-ups and a back walkover on the beam! She is always in a leotard and she is upside down more then she is not.

We had a baking party and decorated our own cakes. Here is Justin's masterpiece.
Ashley's cake. And Melanie helping decorate in the background.

Can you tell that this was exciting for Katelyn?!

Opening presents. Katelyn thought of a number between 1 and 10 and had her friends guess. The closest one got to give their present first. Katelyn got a zhu zhu pet, a picture making kit, a purse craft, matching nightgowns to wear with Kit, a new jacket, 20$, and a big coloring book and crayons. WOW!

We played pin the chef hat on the giant picture of Katelyn.

It was funny to watch people play that game.

Justin was the most disoriented.

The girls in their Aprons that I made. Check out Mia's Dora apron and Justin's lightning mcqueen apron. 9 in total. I'm pretty darn proud. They are all doing their impressions of a chef. Cute girls.

The birthday girl. I love when we can have the birthday party on the actual birthday day.

Decorating hot pads with fabric markers.

Blowing out candles! We also made our own pizzas, rolled out our own dough, put fruit on skewers, and played pass the present with our aprons. It was a very fun and exciting party. Katelyn and Kit in matching nightgowns.