Road Trip!

We went to Boise this past weekend to surprise my brother for his birthday since we haven't seen him for a while. It was so great to see Paul and Amanda and my kids really loved their cats. For some reason I always forget to get our my camera till about the end of our trip so I will have to see if I can steal some pictures that they took. We stayed in a hotel with a pool and Isak and Lucy of course were so excited that they got to go swimming. We went to church with them Sunday and Paul actually taught the primary class that Isak was in so that was really fun for him. It was so fun to catch up with them and I'm excited we get to see them again this summer.

 Kevin's cousin Misti happened to be in Boise visiting his aunt the same weekend. She lives in Colorado and we rarely get to see her so we were pretty excited to get to see her and her kids which are about our kids' age. They bonded right away over their mutual love for angry birds and electronic devices that you can play angry birds on.

 Misti had a baby girl about a month before I did. Her birth story is much, much more exciting as she had her baby in her car on the way to the hospital. Way cooler than just having it in the hospital. I wish they lived closer, I think our kids would be good friends!

 We headed down to Twin Falls that night to see Nathan and Stephanie. They took us down to the falls on Monday for a picnic which was great since we've never actually taken the time to look at the falls up close.

 Edyn also loved the sunshine. Either that or she thought she was going to get to eat those sandwiches....

 Ohh Lucy. I found her a pink angry bird shirt at the mall and her head about popped off she was so excited.

 Jayden was walking and would give me big grins. He was pretty darn cute. Edyn loved their stroller because it sat her straight up and she could look around.

 Isak really liked the falls and wanted to hike up everything.

 Conner and Isak played really well together and spent some time playing in the sprinklers and in the sandbox outside.

 Steph and I made this sinful dessert that has a lot of peanut butter and chocolate and makes you feel like a little sick afterwards. None of us could eat very much!

 My kids always remember Uncle Nathan's house because of their hamsters and the bunkbeds. They LOVE the hamsters and we got them out in their balls and let them run around. Those hamsters are pretty tough to survive all these kids and their "love" that they give them.

4 months!

 Edyn turned 4 months on May 12th. She is 15lbs (80 percentile), 25.25 inches long (75 percentile), and her head is 16.25 inches (55 percentile). She smiles all the time, and loves laughing at Isak and Lucy. She is really good at grabbing her toys and manipulating them around. She also got her first tooth! On the middle bottom and the one right next too it is trying to break through. So while she was sleeping well, that changed once she started teething and hasn't gone back unfortunately. She pushes herself up during tummy time and is quite strong. Still doesn't love the carseat but loves to sit up and look around in her bumbo and will stand up in her bouncer.  We took her on her first major road trip this month and it was a little rough, probably because she has a tooth coming up. She is a really good baby though and very patient. That probably comes with being the third child..We love this little girl and I wish she would slow down a little!

Preschool Graduation

 Isak had his preschool graduation last week. After two years of preschool he will be starting kindergarten in the fall! He had a wonderful class and of course we loved his teacher Miss Cheryl. He learned so much and is definitely ready for kindergarten. He's able to recognize a handful of sight words and has started sounding out words while we're reading books. He is so excited to start reading and go to school!

Isak's Birthday Party

Isak turned 5 last week and we had a birthday party for him the Friday before with some of his friends. Since our house is in remodel mode, it was a pretty simple party. But since Isak is only 5, he thought it was the best thing ever. He wanted a robot cake, which we made together. It was pretty easy, other than the fact that we have no kitchen so I had to pull the oven over, plug it in, mix up the cake on my kitchen aid on the chair, then decorate it on top of the chest freezer. Still not too bad and Isak loved the cake. We did twinkies for the arms and lollipops for the ears and top. Then decorated with candy. Really, whats not too like?

For his party we had everyone make these goggles when they first got there. Isak wore his throughout the party as did Lucy.

 Then we had three legged races and played red light/green light.

 I found this awesome transformer pinata on clearance at |Wal-Mart several months ago and have kept it tucked away in anticipation of Isak's party. It was pretty tough to break and in the end I took a bat to it and finally broke it open. Lesson learned, I should have pre-made treat bags with equal parts candy so not one kid takes all the pinata stuff and someone else finds like 2 candy bars. They all ended up pretty happy but it was crazy for a while.

 Isak opened a few presents and he was very excited about all of them.

  The kids played on the trampoline for a while before it was time to go. Only a little over an hour, 10 kids and several juice boxes later we were done and Isak thought it was the best party ever. Lets hope he's always so easy to please! I love that at this age they are still so excited about the littlest things

 We also had a family party for Isak with his grandparents closer to his birthday and he got a new scooter, a transformer toy, and a water/sand table for the outside.

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3 Year Checkup

I took Lucy in for her three year check up on Thursday. I know, she turned three in February, but my doctor has been on maternity leave so I just waited to take her in. Lucy insisted on wearing her bee costume to the doctor appt and was quite charming for the nurse. She was rather disappointed in the princess stickers and said "I want angry bird tickers!". Here are her stats:
Height: 42.5" (100 percentile)
Weight: 40lbs (96 percentile)

I don't know where her size comes from but she's just a big kid. In every other way, she is definitely three though, and has no desire to do things for herself that she can get someone else to do for her. She is kind of potty trained, I take her places in her underwear and she usually does fine. But, I have to take her a lot without her telling me first. I figure it will take through the summer to get her all the way ready. She is my busiest kid right now by far and takes lots of patience. But she is super sweet and I love her.  Good thing she's so cute!

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy mother's day!I had to work this weekend so I was pretty tired before church on Sunday. I got a quick hour nap when I got home at 730 before I had to get ready. But our church was only an hour because they had just laid carpet and it wasn't completely done yet.  I picked a lovely hanging plant for my mother's day present for outside our front door and Isak made me a wonderful card and flower at preschool. Kevin also gave me some chocolate and a card which while not needed was also awesome. We spent most of the day at my parents, I was sleeping while everyone else took my kids, then we headed to Kevin's grandma's and then his mom's. It was a very full day but I feel pretty lucky that we live close enough to have that many people to visit. Lucy celebrated mother's day by dumping cheerios all over the brand new carpet in church and peeing on some bark at the park. Oh Lucy, she is challenging me greatly these days.

 My three sweet kids. I feel so lucky that I get to have three healthy kids to take care of everyday that are mine and Kevin's forever. Pretty awesome. I am so grateful for my own mom and everything she taught me growing up and still teaches me. She is so great with my kids and loves being a grandma. We are lucky we get to see her so often. I am also super grateful for Kevin's grandma and mom, they are always so excited to see our kids and are happy to come to all their little events and games. We love them!

 Isak's tball game was on Saturday and it was across the street at the park. He did a great job batting and hitting the ball off the tee. But the poor kid woke up at five that morning and was pretty tired. He later fell asleep on the couch for an hour and he NEVER takes naps.

 Last weekend we had a yard sale at my house. Lucy discovered this great chicken suit someone was selling along with rollerskates that just happened to be in her size. She has worn this and the purple eyore suit she also found daily since and I have done many washings.

 Our cabinets came for our kitchen and are stacked all over our house. We had some leftover cardboard from one of them we had to open early and we made a fort in Isak's room with it. I let the kids decorate the inside and we threw a sheet over the top.

Isak started Tball the end of April and had his first game the last Saturday of April. He really likes it and he is pretty cute all dolled up in his white pants, shirt and socks. Lucy loves this bee costume and wore it outside to play Tball with Isak.

We started demo on our kitchen and it is now completely 100% gutted. The fridge is in my bedroom along with a table and my makeshift kitchen and microwave. I see lots of crockpot cooking in my future....

Texas!

The end of April I flew down to Texas with Edyn to visit my brother, Aaron, who lives off the Gulf Coast, about an hour south of Houston. My sister who lives in Wisconsin, met up with me down there as well and we spent 4 days without children (minus Edyn), decorating and helping my brother with his new house. It was so much fun! I have never been there and neither has Valerie and we hardly see each other or Aaron because of where we live so we had a great time!  Aaron took us to the beach on the first day we were there and we walked our on this mile long jetty. We were able to see dolphins swimming near by and got sprayed with plenty of water. 

All the homes there are on stilts that are nearby the water, for obvious reasons. In church on Sunday they had a hurricane preparation meeting and we got to hear everyone's stories from experiencing all the various big storms over the years. The hurricane season starts June first. All I can say is that I am so glad I don't live down there!

 We went to to the state park there where there are alligators crawling around. This alligator was about 20 feet in front of us in the grass right by the trail. As we were looking at it, it walked across the trail to the swamp on the other side. Pretty creepy! They are scary because they camouflage themselves so well..all you see is some bump and eyes and there they are!

 We borrowed this mosquitoe net from someone in Aaron's ward, its meant to go over a carseat but I used it over Edyn's stroller. I thought it was pretty awesome!

We celebrated Aarons' birthday while we were down there as well and decorated cupcakes and a cake.   I also tried the local Bell ice cream while I was down there which apparently can only be found in certain areas in the midwest and it was delicious. We spent a day furniture/household shopping for Aaron in Houston and also went to China Town where we had delicious mango frozen yogurt. Aaron also took us to a BBQ place that was very yummy, Valerie is vegetarian so I wanted her to take a picture in front of the big cow...

 Aaron's new house is very nice and clean and bright and I think just about anything will grow in his garden. He even has an orange tree! I loved his plantation shutters, so pretty!

 I also got to pet a baby alligator. It was quite soft. I really want to go back and take my kids, they would love it there.

Edyn really loved all the attention she got from Aaron and Valerie but was not a big fan of riding in her carseat all over the place. She spent a lot of time crying in the car.  But she is a tough baby and survived. She did really well on the plane, by far my best baby flier. Isak was super fussy as a baby on the plane and Lucy I think did okay but she was pretty wiggly. She was also about 6 months and Edyn is only three but still, she did really well. Slept almost the whole way back and loved sitting up in her stroller being pushed around the airport.  

                    She was happiest at Aaron's house, lying on his floor and staring at his ceiling fan.

 It was pretty warm down there and humid but it was also very pretty. I'm not a big fan of the huge insects that come along with climate but seeing the turtles, different birds, fish and of course the alligators was pretty interesting.  We had a really fun time and I am thinking that I need to visit Aaron at least once a year. And next year I can probably go with no kids! Kevin survived at home with Isak and Lucy and they were all alive and well when I got back. Thanks Aaron for the great time!