Everything Is Awesome!

Saturday April 5th: We had just finished a very busy week at school and were very excited to have next week off for spring break! We spent the whole day together as a family watching conference. When conference was over we were gathered in the living room talking. "We should go to Legoland." I said. Then the kids started chanting "Legoland! Legoland! Legoland!" James and I talked about how much it would cost, how long it would take to get there, etc. The next thing I knew, we were packing bags and planning to leave for California in the morning! This is how our vacation began!
Sunday April 6th: We leave the house at 5 AM, headed to Cali!

I was actually very impressed with how well the kids did on the drive. It's such a long trip but they did awesome! I think they were so excited! Sunday night we arrived in Carlsbad around 5pm. We checked into our hotel then headed out for dinner. After dinner we went to the beach! We were hoping to get there in time to see the sunset but we were a little late. The sun was pretty much down but we walked around a bit and got our feet wet. It has been awhile since James or I had seen the ocean, Savanna was about a year old the last time she saw it, and Miles and Avery had never been. It was so fun to share that experience together. The waves kept coming in and Savanna's flip flops kept getting pulled out into the water. Amazingly, we found her shoes every time they were pushed back to shore! We got back to the hotel, washed the sand off the kids, and crashed into bed.
Monday April 6th: Legoland! First we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. They had a make your own waffle station and those waffles were crazy good! I looked up what kind of mix they use and I ordered some so we can make them at home, yummy!

We got to the park right when they opened and everyone was super excited! We spent the entire day at Legoland. The rides were fun and because we have an odd number of people in our family, Savanna ended up riding some the rides alone, she thought that was super special! My favorite was the dragon roller coaster. I was sitting with Avery and she was smiling until we got to the top and started going down the hill. Her smile turned a little into a grimace, I told her she was ok and she said,"yeah, I know." After though she said she had fun! We had hot dogs and ice cream cones for lunch, saw mini-land with all the amazing places made out of lego's and rode more rides. It was getting pretty hot as the afternoon wore on so we stopped to play at the splash pad area. My kids were not in swim suits but they didn't care. They were soaked in a matter of minutes and the smiles never left their faces! As I was putting the kid's shoes back on after the water park one of my primary kids from church ran up to me and said Hi! I was so surprised! Our neighbors were at Legoland that very same day! Small world! We ended the day at the gift shop! Everyone got a souvenir, then we left the park, had dinner and went back to the hotel and crashed again.

Tuesday April 7th: Beach day! We got up, had breakfast, packed up and headed to the beach! It was a wonderfully sunny, beautiful day! We spent a couple hours playing in the ocean. The kids loved it! I loved it! James loved it! James took turns taking each kid out a little further into the water and letting the waves crash around them. The kids loved playing in the sand, getting in the water to wash off, then rolling around in the sand again. It was so wonderful, I want to go back right now!

After the beach we started heading home. We stopped that night to sleep in Las Vegas. We stayed at The Excalibur which was pretty cool for the kids but not much else about Vegas is cool, and it smells like cigarettes. The next morning we packed up and came home! The vacation was so, so, so fun! It was awesome to be spontaneous and just leave the house on a whim and go on a trip.  It was good for us to get away as a family!

What's Been Up

Time to update the blog! This little cutie turned 4!

For Avery's Birthday we went to see The Lego Movie! Uncle Charles joined us and we all laughed the whole time. Good movie!

One day this dog followed us around. It was just wandering the neighborhood and followed us as we rode to and from school all three times. On our final trip home from school the kids named him Pinkachoo. They were riding their bikes screaming "Pinkachoo! Pinkachoo!" He played with us in the front yard for a bit and was snuggling up to the kids. Miles asked if we could take a picture of him so we could remember the day we had a dog. He was kind of cute, he reminded me of my mom's old dog Moe. Pinkachoo played for a bit then got distracted and ran off. We never saw him again.

James built this incredible shelf for our playroom. It displays all the monster trucks the kids have in their collection. James is such a good daddy!

Savanna loves to read! James got the kids headlamps for Christmas and Savanna reads every night before bed. Here she is reading Sideways Stories From Wayside School. Remember those books? I loved them when I was young. I love that my kids are bookworms.

The girls love to play beauty shop and one day Avery tried on my glasses :)

Its starting to get warm again, yay! Miles spent one Sunday afternoon covering the back patio with a giant Ninja Turtle mural. He is really into sidewalk chalk. Savanna showed off her skills on the playground one sunny Saturday afternoon.

And finally: Miles and I took a selfie :)

A Beautiful Experience

On Saturday, February first, Savanna was baptized. My oldest child being baptized was such and incredible experience for me. It was a beautiful day! We had family and friends there to show Savanna love and support. She was in such a happy mood all morning and was very excited that the day had finally come. I was a little worried about how the actual baptism would go. She is on the shy side and really doesn't like having all the attention on her. I was worried that she might be too nervous to enter the water with everyone watching. In the end, I had worried for nothing. She bounded into the water, all smiles! During a baptism the persons entire body has to be submerged, the first time she went under her cute little toes came out of the water. She came up smiling and turned around and sloshed toward the stairs. We had to call her back so James could perform the baptism again. This time he made sure she went all the way under. After the baptism I helped her change into her dress. She was a little cold and was shivering. I wrapped some towels around her and just held her tight, rubbing her arms trying to warm her up. I kept telling her how proud I was of her. The service ended with Savanna being confirmed a member of the church and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. This is a special blessing given by her father. The spirit was felt so strongly during the entire day.  Eleven years ago James baptized me and now he has baptized our daughter. I have such a wonderful husband and family. I am so blessed. Perhaps the best thing about the baptism was the phone call I got from my mom a few days later. She told me that she really had a wonderful time at the baptism and that she felt a strong feeling of peace and could see how happy Savanna was. My mom is not a member of my church, but I know she felt the spirit that day and that means the world to me.

HAPPY New Year!

I just wanted to write a little post to ring in the New Year (10 days later)! We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent our vacation at home enjoying the holidays and each other. James was home from work more than he has been able to in a long time and we stayed in our pj's, ate yummy food, watched Ninja Turtles and built Lego sets. This incredible feeling of peace and happiness has settled over me lately. I have realized that I have absolutely everything I need plus way, way more. As of this moment there is nothing lacking, that is a good feeling!
I was reading my New Years post from last year and wanted to give an update on how I did with those goals I set. Take more pictures: I think I did better! I definitely have more pictures this year! Get Avery potty trained: To this I say Hallelujah!!! I can't believe it actually happened! It took nearly all year but it did happen! She was struggling so badly with her fear of pooping on the potty. I was getting so frustrated and worried and upset for her. We tried so many things and just tried to have patience with it. Then in October I ordered some books. Scared to Poop, this one was for me. It Hurts When I Poop! A story for children who are afraid to use the potty, and I Can't I Won't No Way! A book for children who refuse to poop. Scared to poop gave clear, very blunt instructions on how to help your child over come this issue and we put them into action. The other two books I read to her several times a day. These books told her story absolutely perfectly and told her it was ok to have this problem and gave ideas on how to overcome it. The DAY AFTER we got those books, she sat on the potty and pooped! And she has been pooping ever since! It is such a huge relief and I am sooo happy for her!
Be more patient and calm: This was definitely going to be the hardest for me, but I am improving. I am realizing that everything in my life is really really good and I don't need to be anxious or worried about the little things. This is my goal for this year to keep calm and enjoy life!
I have been living in the moment and enjoying the happiness of my everyday life. Maybe to some people my life looks really boring and uneventful but to me it is all I ever wanted. Enjoy some pictures from the end of 2013 and hopefully I will be better about blogging this year! yeah right!

The Mommy Track

The other day I was talking on the phone to my good friend who lives out of state, we don't see each other too often but we try to keep in touch as much as possible. We grew up together so we know each others families a little bit and we always ask how everyone is doing whenever we talk. My friend was telling me about her sister who is a buyer and retail merchandiser for a nationwide woman's fashion store. She travels around buying clothes for the stores, designing the stores, attending fashion shows, pretty cool job. Her other sister runs a successful dental business, and her sister-in-law is the Mayor of Saratoga Springs, is running for congress and is always on some news program as a political consultant. After talking about these awesome, successful women, we both kind of paused and said, hmm, we are just moms. We talked about how sometimes we wish we had some talent or success, but for both of us, being a mom is what we always wanted. We never really had bigger dreams than that. We agreed that we are good moms and the world needs women like us that like being stay at home moms that can raise the amazing successful people of the future. Yeah! That's right! We said, we are awesome... right? These thoughts were in my mind as my family and I settled down to watch the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, my church. Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a talk entitled "The Moral Force of Women." In the talk he praised women and all they do and talked about "the mommy track". He said that today some women are ridiculed for choosing the mommy track. Some people believe that raising children and keeping a home is demeaning to women. Elder Christofferson praised those women who do choose to be "only" a stay at home mom saying that there is no more important or fulfilling work. I loved this talk. It was really nice to hear those words and feel like my choice to be just a mom was a good one. I really have never wanted to be anything else or had great big dreams to be anything other than a wife and mom. I really am living the dream! I think I know what my talents are and what my potential is and being a mom probably won't be the only thing I ever am, but for right now, I am loving the mommy track. No, I do not run a city, but I run a home. No one would ever ask my opinion of political issues, but someone might ask me how I taught my kids to read. I certainly  don't know anything about fashion, but my kids are dressed everyday! I don't earn a paycheck, but I try to teach my children the value of hard work. I don't travel, meet important people, make important decisions, or win any elections. I make breakfast, I drive the kids to school, I help with homework, I wipe butts, I bathe kids, I go on bike rides, I read stories, I take the kids to church, I babysit, I tuck in, I play "stuffed animal fort", I tie shoes, I clean up spilled milk, I microwave corn dogs, I say prayers, I color and paint, I go to the library once a week, I tickle, I play, I love, hug and kiss my kids all day long because they are mine and I'm raising them and I love them. And I'm good with that.

Catching Up: School and My Special Kids

Ahh, my poor neglected blog...oh well! I thought life was so crazy and busy when my kids were babies. That was nothing compared to now! Life just flies by and I honestly don't have enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done, let alone blog about it. So, what has happened since my last post? School started: Savanna in 2nd, Miles in Kindergarten, and Avery and I are doing neighborhood preschool with 5 other kids and moms and it is the funnest thing ever. Really, it is so fun planning the little lessons and activities, it's giving me ideas of maybe having some sort of preschool once my kids are grow up and gone and I am so lonely :) Three days after school started Savanna broke her arm, bummer. She fell/leaped of the slide at James' parents house and  landed right on it. It was a crazy experience, usually when our kids are sick or hurt James and I take our time deciding whether or not they need a doctor or medicine or if we should wait it out or whatever. This time was different though, there really wasn't any discussion, we just looked at each other and at Savanna and knew something was up and we took her to the Instacare right away. Her break was really high up on her arm so they didn't cast it, just gave her a immobilizer. This made us nervous because with out it being in a cast it seemed so vulnerable and Savanna is super clumsy, so we kept her home from school for quite awhile, just to be safe. Everything is a-ok now though, she can move it normally and do just about anything she did before. This is the funny thing about my kid though: Savanna is left handed, well mostly. As a baby and toddler she switched back and forth between her right and left hand all the time. As she got nearer to school age, she was using her left hand most often and as she got into school, we considered her left handed. The ironic thing is she broke her left arm, so while it was in the brace, instead of not writing at all, she just started using her right hand. Now she uses both the left and right hands for everything and even switches back and forth when she's doing her homework! And her handwriting looks the same left or right, what a weirdo! Or, to put it in her own words, "There's just something special about me." The kids being in school is so fun and crazy and busy! I feel like all I do is drive back forth between school and home, but it's fun. The kids are getting older, which brings new challenges, new adventures, and new worries. But it's still the bestest job ever!

Summertime and the living's easy!

This is the second time that I have used lyrics from a song as a title for a post, oh yeah! This summer has been awesome! We have been having tons o' fun!

Bike parade! 

 

 

 

 

Bike ride to Park Elementary! 

This spring Savanna learned to ride her bike without training wheels and we got Avery her own bike. I also got a bike and we have been having a blast cruising around. I love that my kids are all old enough to go on bike rides together!

Monkey!

Savanna has been trying for a long time to be able to do the monkey bars all the way across. This summer she did it! She is so excited to go back to school and show her friends!

Krispy Kreme and Gandalfo's, why not?

Savanna helping make the delicious dessert!

We made patriotic juice!

Avery gabbing away on her horse ride.

On the 4th of July we had our traditional breakfast in the park. This year it was a cloudy morning so we got to play for awhile before it got too hot. We spent the day making and eating treats. In the evening we went to James' parents house for rides on the horse, BBQ, and fireworks!

This summer the kids all had swimming lessons and loved it! I am amazed at how much they learn and love the water. The are becoming great swimmers, especially Savanna!

Monster Truck Cake! The funnest cake I've ever made!

On July 21st Miles had his 5th birthday! This year was the first time he invited friends to a party and we had so much fun! We made monster truck treats, did an obstacle course, water balloon fight, pinata, and cake! So much fun!
So, yes, the living is easy and fun and hot. We love summer!