April Tidbits

April seemed to fly by for us. I still can't believe April is over. I blinked and it was May. We managed to do quite a bit and stayed uber busy as usual.

I got antsy to take my exercise routine outside. Briya did not agree. It  was just too cold for outside walks most of the month. However, I did manage to go for quite a few outside runs; I took Briya for a few walks, and accidentally was part of a bike race. (long story, but funny!)

We got some new baby chicks to replace the ones that were all eaten by neighborhood dogs. Remind me to express how much I hate dogs that wander the neighborhood eating my chickens and pooping on my lawn.

Briya was so cute with the chicks. I had it in my head to set up a super cute photo shoot with Briya and the chicks, but it never happened and now they are no longer chicks, but teenager chickens... not quite the same cuteness factor.

The pictures cracks me up. Briya and the chick were staring each other down. (On another note, you'd think I'd be terrified of the chick on Briya considering what happened to Mav last year, but nope, they are too cute to be able to cause any harm.)

Mav has become quite accustomed to having a little sister and loves to entertain her and share his toys with her and pile her toys all over her. It's adorable.

We had several firepit fires and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Probably one of my favorite things of all time to do. It's so relaxing and peaceful.

 

We finished the parts of the basement that were on hold and now the basement is complete! Hooray. We had to move storage around and clean up construction dust and it has consumed our lives. I also moved down all of my hundreds of books to the basement and organized them and, yes, even got rid of over 100. I can't believe it myself. 

We went on a wonderful date night to the temple and afterwards to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Eddie's parents and 3 of his brothers and their wives came too. It was a perfect night and one that I had been looking forward to for a long time. I hope to make it happen more frequently.

I spontaneously decided that I was going to make some jam after I saw how cheap the strawberries were on sale. Briya wanted to help, of course. 

My sister in law, Amy, and I spent about 5 hours canning strawberry jam. It is so delicious and we got almost 50 jars!!! We are set for a little while I think. 

She's 11

My sweet Maddy turned 11 on April 30. She had balloons on her door and our traditional birthday crepes for breakfast. She got to open one present at breakfast before school. It was Megastuff Oreos which are her absolute favorite and hard to find!

Grandma and Grandpa and cousins came out the Sunday before her birthday to celebrate with us. 

She wanted a piggy cake this year and I saw this on Pinterest. The link on Pinterest was bad and didn't lead to anywhere, so I kind of just made it up as I went a long. It turned out so cute!

The dinner she chose on her birthday was chicken patty sandwiches with crookneck squash. After her birthday dinner she got to open her other presents. Libby and Ryder both gave her presents and mom and dad gave her a camera. She's been wanting a camera for a long time and she was ecstatic. I do have pictures of her opening her camera but they are on Eddie's phone since my phone was missing at the time.

Maddy at 11
Favorite color: Purple, green, and orange
Favorite Food: Chicken patty sandwiches, summer squash, tacos, chinese noodles, oreos
Favorite sport: Soccer
Favorite Book: The sister's Grimm series, Harry Potter series, Fablehaven series
Favorite Restaurant: Chick-Fil-A
Favorite Animal: Zebra, Pig, Bunny
Favorite Song: Gummy Bear
Favorite Scripture Story: I like the book of Jacob
Favorite Thing To Do: Run, Playing outside, Exercise
Favorite Toy: Stuffed Animals 
Favorite Movie: Willow
Favorite TV show: Littlest Pet Shop
Favorite Hobby: Art and anything creative
Favorite Candy: Milk Chocolate Hershey Bar
Best Friends: Braxtyn Carlson, Crystal Lyman
What do i want to be when I grow up? A vet or something to do with animals, a mom, 

Some Crazy Weather

April was a month of some crazy weather. It was cold then hot then warm then chilly. It was confusing and depressing and wonderful and beautiful. We never knew what was going to blow in so it made it a very interesting month to get any outside yard work done. But we did start on our long list of yard work. It's never ending, but it is so nice to be outside working instead of cooped up in the house.

It got really hot one week and the kids all ran around in their bathing suits and couldn't stop smiling.

The sprinklers were going non stop and the kids played from sun up until sun down outside. I loved it!!!

And then there was the time that we had a crazy ice and snow and windstorm. We were without power for about 8 hours and the wind blew so hard I thought for sure our house was coming down. After the storm there were drifts of snow 3 and 4 feet high!!!

Our little piglets didn't know what to think.

It's hard to tell but the drifts of snow were insane. They didn't melt for over a week.

My poor horse couldn't even get to the gate because the drifts were too deep. We couldn't even open the gate and I had to climb over the fence and shovel it out so that we could carry the hay to my horse. Sheesh! What a storm!! I can't wait until summer and the hot, hot, hotness of every day.

4 Months

Weight: 11 pounds 4 oz – 9^th percentile

Height: 24 inches          50^th percentile

She is still just a tiny little thing. She squeals and crows in delight whenever the kids or I talk to her. She is such a good baby and rarely cries. She still snuggles with me, and has completely stolen all of our hearts. There is no doubt about it. She is our perfect little princess.

·        She rolls over from back to front, but not consistently yet.

·         She drinks 7 oz about 3 or 4 times a day. We discovered she has reflux and takes medicine for it morning and night. I’m hoping I will see big results soon.

·         She takes 2 to 3 naps with the morning one always about 3 hours and sleeps 12 hours at night.

·         She has discovered her hands and they are constantly in her mouth.

·         She loves to be on her play mat and will lay there in awe for such a long time.

·         She is a thumb sucker and that is how she goes to sleep. She doesn’t want me to rock her to sleep, she just wants to be laid in her crib and she does the rest. A very no nonsense approach.

·         She drools a lot and I keep thinking she’s teething already.

·         She’s still in 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. I keep pulling out cute 3-6 month size clothes and putting them on her, but they still drown her.

·         She still has eczema and extremely dry skin.

·         She has found her voice and she is a talker. She is constantly making noise and “talking” to me. I find it completely enchanting.

Spring Break Fun

The best part of Spring Break is sleeping in as long as you want. My kids (except Mav) are sleepers. They will all sleep until 9 or 10 a.m. if allowed. They loved sleeping in!

Maddy got to stay with Grandma for a few days.  While she was gone I realized how much I rely on her and how much everyone missed her. She is the greatest big sister ever. But it was so good for her to be able to have some alone time and get spoiled. She had a wonderful time, and even got to make her own dress with Grandma's help.

We colored Easter eggs and Maverik LOVED it. He could have colored eggs all day if I would have let him.

We did lots of fun crafts and made Spring pictures.

Instead of Easter baskets for the kids, I like to do a Spring scavenger hunt with a  basket for each of them at the end. I like to do this after Easter so that we can focus on what Easter is really about and celebrate Spring in a different fun way. They were quite excited by their Spring Baskets!

Look at all that loot! Best part was I bought it all at half price because it was after Easter.

We did a fun day in Salt Lake. We ate lunch at Chuck-a-rama which is all of my kids favorite place to eat. They each had a free meal certificate from school so it worked out pretty great.We went to this awesome park and had so much fun. Eddie and I even climbed up the pyramid a few times. I raced Maddy up and down and then sat at the top and only came down when Eddie got tired of holding a fussy baby.

Even Briya got in on the climbing fun.

More fun, unique playground toys.

It really was the best, coolest park I've ever been too. We're already excited to go back. 

Then we went to Scheel's. It was so much fun. 

I just loved all of the photo booths. What a great idea!!

I had to give Maddy acting lessons. Her "scared face" wasn't cutting it.

My little stinkers with real stinkers

The boys loved the big jeep.

Maddy ready to take out that bear.

We all couldn't believe how enormous that moose was. Wow

So many photo ops!

Of course, we had to ride the ferris wheel. So much fun!

They had an amazing HUGE aquarium too.

We also made homemade slime. It was really cool.

This was one of their favorite things they did all week. 

I'm really glad we decided to do it outside.

We also did a park and pizza day, which is a favorite for our family.

Ryder loved showing me his ninja moves. He's so funny!

It was a great spring break, and I loved that it was pretty low key. Almost all the activities we did were free so we didn't spend hardly any money, and we all had a great time enjoying time together.

Easter 2013

I love holidays. Everyone who knows me knows that. I love decorating and celebrating for each holiday. With that said, Easter has never been one of my favorites... I don't know why. Of course, I love and am grateful for the Resurrection but the Easter holiday has just been "another holiday".  I've also been thinking a lot that I need to make the holidays more meaningful for my kids and not just another day to get candy and presents. This has weighed heavy on my mind for quite awhile now. This year, since Easter was so early and our March was so busy, I decided to do things a little differently. Because of this, Easter has now become one of my most favorite holidays! I found some ideas online and implemented them into our traditions. I know that each year they will develop and improve and I'm excited to see what our Easter traditions will become. 

Holidays are always so much fun with a new baby. There are so many photo ops.

I love the idea of Lent. Traditionally it's about 6 weeks long but for the past few years I've given up something for 1 week instead of the full 6. This year I got my kids involved. I talked to them about how giving something up is a great way to work on will-power and be more healthy but that most importantly, when we give up something for Lent, every time we’re tempted to do whatever we gave up for Lent, we have a chance to think about Christ’s sacrifice for us as we make our own little sacrifice. I really like that. I gave up sugar for a week. It was so hard, but not only did I lose 5 pounds (woo hoo!) I was able to think about the Savior a lot more frequently. These were both blessings. My kids didn't quite make it the whole week, but they tried and I am excited to watch them get better and better each year.

I planned out the week before Easter to do something special each night leading up to Easter Sunday. We didn't fit them all in, but we did have a passover type meal with pita bread, olives, and cheese. We watched some videos about Christ's death, and read out of the scriptures.

On Easter Sunday, we woke up and watched a short video of the Resurrection. Then they each got a new Sunday outfit. I love this tradition. it's exactly what they need after a long winter.

I love this sweet Easter dress of Briya's. I was very excited about all my girls' dresses. I found perfect ones for each girl. I love it when that happens. My boys' shirts were pretty perfect too.

The Saturday before Easter we had an Easter egg hunt with cousins and neighbors. We had so many eggs and 15 kids. Here they are (minus a few slowpokes) ready to go!

They were having such a hard time waiting to start.

Mav insisted on the pink bucket. Ha ha!

We had the eggs spread across 2 yards so the egg hunt took quite awhile. I just love watching the kids' excitement.

The aftermath of the hunt. That's the best part. It's so fun to see what is in each egg.

We had Eater Sunday dinner at Eddie's brothers house and his parents came too. I love a big dinner with family, especially on a holiday.