Happy Birthday, Alison!

Happy, happy birthday, Alison, dear! I hope that your day was wonderful! We wish we could have celebrated with you! {why didn't we think of celebrating while you were here??} I told Jacob last night that it was going to be her birthday, and the first thing he said when he woke up this morning, "Call Alison. Happy Birthday?" He has been talking about Alison all of the time! 

You're great, Alison. We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

momentous

While at the park today, Jacob yelled, "I need potty!" Knowing that I didn't have much time to make the walk to the potty, we opted for the tree. We've tried it a few other times and he didn't like it. But, after seeing Noah do it, he thought it was time! And he did it! He was so excited! He was very proud of himself!

I don't know if I'm jinxing myself, but this potty training experience is a little better than I thought! He tells me when he needs to go...and goes when I tell him. We've had a few accidents, but that's expected. But, he's only in diapers at night time, and wakes up dry. It's a bit of struggle to change out of that diaper into underwear, but he's getting there!

Yay for potty training! And yay for no kids in diapers fulltime until August!!

happy father's day

We have a pretty special Daddy. In fact, Noah and Macie have been making pictures all day that say, "I love Daddy"! He's received many cards today! Adam really is a great dad. My kids adore him and countdown until he gets home. It's quite the occasion when Daddy does come home. When your six year old says that his Daddy is his best friend, you know you've got a good one! Thanks for being such a good daddy, Adam! We love you!

And to my Dad, thanks for everything you do! We love you and miss you already! 

We are so spoiled to have such great men in our lives. We have so many great memories of dads and grandpas. Macie came to me in tears this afternoon and said, "I miss Papa." I was a little shocked. But, I'm sure as we're celebrating fathers it really became real to her today. I explained to her that we still have memories of Papa, which is something that we will always have. And we will get to see him again, we just have to be good. And then she looked at me gave me a big smile and nodded her head. She understands. We love you, Papa. 

So, Happy Father's Day to our Dads. And to all of the wonderful father's out there.

fluke?

I sat down with Jacob yesterday to count the diapers. We realized that there wasn't enough for the baby. So, Jacob decided to wear underwear. There were a lot of tears shed because of how the underwear felt, but he did it. He didn't want to the baby not to have diapers! I had been doing laundry and I heard his little feet running downstairs, and then he yelled "I did it!". Sure enough, he had gone all by himself. And then the second time I heard his feet running across the tile, he did it again! I was shocked! And then we ran a few errands. We made a stop at the bathroom in Target, and, like a champ, he went potty. And then we stopped at the Post Office {which always takes a while!} and Trader Joes. Still dry. We got home and had a minor accident. But then he stayed dry for the rest of the day, and even took a nap without a diaper! At first he was hesitant to wear the diaper to bed, but since he usually ends up in our bed anyway, I didn't want to risk it! And so he wore the diaper, but woke up dry and headed to the bathroom first thing in the morning after he told me "I go potty". So, maybe this time will be the time? I don't know, though, it seems too easy. But, maybe third times a charm.

curlers

I love curlers. I love Macie. Don't you??

disneyland with cousins

My entire family came down. Erin and I packed the kids up and headed to Disneyland to spend a day with them there. They stayed down another few days before heading north so spend a few days at our house. It was fun. We hadn't ever been with any cousins before, so they kids loved it! This was the first time Jacob got excited about being there. He didn't like the inside rides though. They made him nervous. He's more of an outdoor ride kind of guy! He loved Dumbo, the carousel, and the teacups...and Buzz. {because who doesn't love Buzz?} He got to ride Matterhorn for the first time, too. He loved it. The older two refused to ride, but Jacob didn't know what was coming! He had a permanent grin on his face after getting off. He talked about it for a long time. He's still talking about it. He does actions of what the ride did and gets so excited and starts talking really fast and very animated. He loved it. I'm hoping this means I may finally have another roller coaster rider in the family. The other two? Yeah, not so much. I have to bribe them to go on things. They won't even ride Pirates, silly kids. We had quite the funfilled day and actually did quite a bit. Including riding the two new rides: Star Tours and Little Mermaid. Star Tours was only a 15 minute wait, and Little Mermaid was about 45. Not too bad. 

However, walking to and from Disneyland twice, having three kids, and being 29 weeks pregnant was not a good combination. I was hurting for days after, but it was still a good time!  

{the pictures are in no order...and there are very possibly WAY too many pictures. But it's 2:40 AM, I don't care! ;-)}

I had to add this picture which shows off the belly. My mom tried to make me hide it for the pictures...so this one's for you, Mom!

last day.

It's official, Noah passed Kindergarten! I wasn't worried that he would, he's such a smart kid...and so ready for First Grade. I, on the otherhand, don't think I'm ready for all day school! I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Noah LOVED school. Nine times out of ten he would already be awake at 7 to get ready for the day. He may have taken a little longer some days, but he was a trooper. He asked me this evening if he still has to do his hair every morning! Ha, I told him that he didn't have to for 8 more weeks...he got pretty excited about that! He made a lot of friends this year and has learned so much. He loved his teacher. She was great. I look at how far he has come this year and it amazes me to think that this kid who could have cared less about learning, really, has learned to read, count way past 100, add and subtract, write complete sentences, sound out words to spell, and even write his long last name! He's done so well. And I'm very proud of him!

Good job, Noah!!

one year later.

One year ago we said goodbye to one of the greatest men. There hasn't been a single day that the image of Papa hasn't been in my mind. There hasn't been a single day when the kids haven't asked about Papa. There hasn't been a single day when we haven't laughed about something Papa said or did. We really love Papa. We know he is with us and watching over us, and laughing with us. His phone calls to see if the kids could come out to play or just to check up on us are truly missed. But, his legacy does live on. The kids wiggle their eyebrows, we all tell stories ending with "and they laughed", we eat hot dogs at Costco and never forget to say "And only $1.50", we listen to Jazz music, we play the bongos regularly, and we try to spoil his wife. It's been a rough year. Lots of tears and lots of memories have flooded through us. But we will never forget him. We never want to. And now it's "back to the salt mines"...{with maybe a Costco lunch later! ;-)}

We love you, Papa. We miss you everyday.

the dance recital 2011

{May 21st}

Macie has been so exited for her dance recital. She loves going to ballet and being with the other girls, however, she doesn't like to actually dance in front of people. I know she knows the stuff, but she gets nervous when other people are watching her. She may not be as graceful as the other girls, but she loves it and does everything the "Macie" way. And I love it!

This year she was lucky enough to have three good friends in her class. I have to admit I loved it, too. Who doesn't love carpools?? ;-) She loved her teachers Miss Bridget and Miss Ivana and talked about them all of the time. It'll be sad when we move and no longer get to benefit from Hancock College Dance. We have loved it!

The song that her class danced to was "The Lonely Goatherd" from Sound of Music. It was very cute to watch her dance. I was impressed with all of the little girls as I watched them do all of the ballet positions and moves, they knew what they were doing. The costumes were adorable. I was a bit nervous about Macie in the costume, though. When we tried it on in the store, it was funny, she was all one color. The blond hair, the pale skin, and pale pink leotard, she sort of was lost in it! But, with a little bit of dark makeup and bright lipstick, she didn't look so washed out!

The morning of the recital Macie woke up at 4:30 AM. She was ready to go. When I told her we still had 4 hours, she insisted that I just put the make up on then, and then she'd go back to sleep. I didn't give in. I did make her wait, but I'm sure the wait was awful. She was more excited to put the makeup on than anything else! We will never be doing any beauty pageants, by the way. She is much to young to be putting make up on her. It was scary! I thought I had put enough on and then at the rehearsal it was apparent that I did not. You couldn't even see her face, and so for the performance she got a much heavier application of eye shadow! But, she didn't complain. Not one bit!

Last year, I cried watching her. I wasn't pregnant then. So, of course, I cried this year too! She was just so dang cute up there dancing. And so brave this year. Last year we were all a bit worried that she wouldn't make it through the song. This year she was very confident. She was a pro. On the way to rehearsal, her and her friend Aliyah were talking about how since they did this last year they weren't scared at all. And they were right, they weren't. The two were probably the most scared last year, but this year were awesome!

After the show, it was very cold. And the poor girls weren't wearing much! So, Macie was not happy having to get her picture taken. The four friends all got a dozen roses and a ballerina Barbie, and Macie was so excited to get it. Especially the roses from Daddy. She was also happy to go get frozen yogurt however cold she was!  Go figure. She did sit in the car while everyone else ate outside.

I'm proud of my little ballerina.

easter 2011

{yes, I'm slow. Hey, I'm pregnant. It's okay! ;-)}

My kids have come to expect too much when it comes to holidays. Christmas I can see, but when they start making lists for Valentines Day and Easter, I think it's time to draw the line! I wanted Easter to be more Christ centered this year, and not so much all about the Easter Bunny. Yes, the Easter Bunny still did come, and he did bring lots of candy and a movie for each child, but we also did something extra. Each kid got a Book of Mormon in a case. The older two got a flip book of pictures of Christ, and Jacob got a gospel ABCs book to look at during Sacrament Meeting. It worked out well. They really enjoyed getting these gifts. However, waiting until the night before to make the scripture bags was not a good idea! I was up until 3 making them plus bow ties for the boys. I'm very glad I didn't decide to make Macie's dress! 

I think my kids are finally starting to get what Easter is really all about. Macie came home after church and retold the story of Jesus' resurrection. She was right on. She got every detail about the tomb, the spices, his clothes...everything. I was very impressed. I'm so glad that all three of them love going to Primary, and that they have great teachers who teach them effectively, and they are loving learning about the gospel. It makes me so happy to see their love of the gospel.

I always try to get cute pictures of all three together, but that is nearly impossible. Even an individual pictures with Noah is far and in between. And now we'll add another into the mix, and it's going to get even worse. Goodness.