Easter Weekend: Part Two

The kids had so much fun together over the weekend. They got to do a huge egg hunt in the yard. I love that they are all in jammies with messy hair in these pictures. Bennett and his cowboy boots with shorts cracks me up!

These three kiddos make me so happy. They look so big. I hate that they are growing up so fast, but at the same time it's so fun to see them grow and learn. I love watching them go through their own experiences in life.

Bennett and Jonah are best buddies now. They play so well together and they get along so well. They miss each other when they are apart.

Indiana has very few hills for us to carry on our tradition of throwing our hard boiled eggs down a hill. Bryan got creative and created a pully system. The kids and B would load an egg in the bucket, pull it up high in the tree, pull the string and drop it into the pool! We all had a good time watching this while Bryan did most of the work. :)

The kids loved getting the unbroken eggs out of the pool to send them up in the bucket again.

We might have to try this again next year. Actually, Bryan will probably use his inventor skills to come up with a new way of breaking our eggs! It's funny how such simple things made the kids happy this year. Just being with family and hanging out at home made our Easter extra special.

Easter Weekend: Part One

We were lucky enough to have family come visit over Easter weekend. It's times like these that make me really excited to, hopefully, get back to Utah next year when Bryan finishes residency. I love spending time with family and my kids are always so happy when they are with their cousins. We went to Warren Dunes on Lake Michigan and it was the perfect day to be outside!

I feel so blessed to have the family I have. It was great to have conversations with someone other than my kids in the days and I love staying up late talking to them about everything! It doesn't happen often enough. I think my little sis should come stay every six months! We had a great Easter weekend and I think it will be one I remember for many, many years to come.

Tough Mudder

Bryan ran a Tough Mudder race today with some of his residency buddies. It's a 12 mile course with obstacles throughout- including an ice bath and 10,000 volts of electric shocks. (Bryan has a huge fear of being shocked, by the way.) I haven't even talked to Bryan about the race yet. He is still on his way home from Cleveland, OH where the race happened. I'm anxious to hear all about it! Thanks to some of my friends, I have pictures to prove that he is still alive.

Here's a before the race shot... Bryan's shirt is not so white anymore. I'm sure it's already in the trash.
Yay! He finished! He looks cold.
Way to go B. I'm proud of you for doing the race and for staying alive! :)

Chloe is Five

Whoa. Where did February go?! I was a total slacker when it comes to blogging. I'll blame it on my computer. It is soooo slow, it takes at least 30 minutes to get it up and running and then to get on the internet. I get too frustrated with it so I avoid it! Hopefully, there will be a new computer in our very near future. :)

Chloe turned five last Friday! It seems to me that she was just born into our family. Her five years of life have gone so fast.

Chloe was anticipating her birthday for a VERY looooong time. When the day finally arrived she was so excited! She was very particular about the details of her party- who to invite, what kind of party to have, decorations, food, what to wear, etc. She's quite the party planning assistant! She decided to have a butterfly/tea party. It was so much fun for her. She felt extra special because Grandma Mel and Grandpa Mike got to be here on her birthday. I think that made her day perfect!

Chloe decided she just wanted cupcakes this year. When it came time to blow out her candles, Chloe was able to blow them out all by herself! She's never been able to do that because her muscles just weren't strong enough. I was so happy. It seems that her speech lessons at preschool are paying off!

We loved the photo booth idea so much from Niah's party that we decided to do it with Chloe's friends too. The girls thought it was the greatest thing.

Adalie really got into it. I love how hers turned out!
Chloe is such a sweetheart. She is so easy going and she is always smiling. She loves to do crafts, play beauty salon, dress fancy for ANY occasion (she has an incredible sense of fashion for a five year old), and she is a great sister to Niah and Bennett. She loves Mabel and is usually the first one to give her affection or play with her. Her speech is coming along well. I was worried that it wasn't helping to have speech at preschool, but just in the last couple of weeks Chloe is really trying hard to pronounce her words. She will even tell people her name now. A month ago she wouldn't answer when someone asked what her name was because she couldn't pronounce it. She can't wait for Kindergarten. The count down has already begun in her mind. August is going to be a long time coming!

We love you Chloe Nan and are so happy that you are part of our family.

Love These Little People

Lately, I have been feeling very grateful for these three little people. I love them so much! They make my life so great. I'm so lucky to be their mother.

Niah Turns Seven

My baby turned seven on Saturday!! I can't believe Niah is that old. I am really weirded out by it, actually. She had a great birthday. She had been saying for months that she wanted a Justin Bieber birthday party. Bryan and I weren't real excited about that idea, so I talked her into a rainbow party. She was happy with that so we went with it! She helped me plan everything- except the details of her dance party that she requested. It was such a fun party to throw! I love planning and throwing parties! I probably got a little carried away, but I usually do. Bryan told me I was 'intense'! Ha. The rainbow cake was probably my favorite. It was so fun to eat and the kids got so excited when I cut into it and they saw the colors.
Here's the dance party. This is the part I kept secret from Niah. She left the house for a couple of hours with Bryan. When she came home I had transformed our family room into a disco dance room! I covered the windows with tinfoil and hung up sheets to block out the light. I bought a disco ball to hang from the fan and there were flashlights shining on it to make it sparkle. Before the girls could go in to dance they had to give me a ticket that they won from a game we played. And yes, they danced to some Justin Bieber music!!
Niah invited some of her cute friends from school and one from church. They had a blast together!

I set up a photo booth so we could take some fun, silly pictures of the kids. They turned out great! I think I will print them off and give them to the girls as a thank you card for coming to the party.

Niah said it was the best birthday ever!
Niah brings so much joy to our family. She is at a fun age. Very independent, smart, knows what she likes and doesn't like, is friendly, caring, thoughtful, and very aware of what's going on around her. She is growing up. I don't like it! She's hit a growth spurt recently and every time she puts on her school pants after I wash them they are another inch shorter- I swear! Stop it Niah! I love Niah so much and am so glad to be her mom.
Love you Ni!

Not sure why it posted so funky. I can't figure it out. Oh well.

Christmas Memories 2011

I am slow getting to this post, but I want to make sure we write this Christmas down for the books. It was a fabulous holiday for us! We stayed in South Bend and celebrated with just the five of us. Bryan had from Christmas Eve to January 2nd off! It was so great. The time went too fast.

Christmas Eve we took the kids to a movie. That's a tradition I grew up doing and it's a great idea because it uses up a lot of the time that day so the kids aren't going crazy waiting for Santa to come! Then we went to our neighbors' house to visit for a while. They were so sweet and they gave each of the kids a gift. Then, it was finally time to open up Christmas pjs! (You will see a lot of Captain America in this post. He doesn't go many places without his costume these days.)

We decided to let the kids draw names for each other this year. Here they are showing off what they got. Benny loved his guns that Niah gave him.
Before the girls went to bed they set their alarm for 6:10. It went off and they didn't wake up! I was so surprised. I reset it for 6:30 and they woke up that time. Bennett wasn't so sure about waking up so early!
The girls are waiting for everyone to get ready and come downstairs with them.
I made a booby trap this year and covered the doorway with crepe paper and tied a jingle bell to it. The kids were such snoops this year that we couldn't risk any more presents being seen before Christmas morning! I think they liked running through it.
Chloe got a beauty salon and some accessories to go with it from Santa. Niah got a magic wand and spell book. Benny got a Captain America shield and a sled. Santa was so nice this year and brought them everything they wanted! I'm not sure why Bennett was sad in this picture. Probably too early in the morning.
Christmas day was spent going to church, opening more presents from family, playing the Wii that I gave Bryan, and we even went caroling to some of the neighbors. We also fed the missionaries so it was a busy, but memorable day.
" I am strong like Captain America, Mom!"
Here's the damage the day after Christmas. It looks like a tornado hit our living room!
Niah loves her wand and spell book. She's casting a spell on Bryan to be a better singer. She told him it didn't work when he tried to sing for her!
A couple days after Christmas, we took a road trip to my sister's house in Columbus, OH. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins. I wish we could do that more often. Tam took us to a place called Recreations Outlet. It was awesome! They have tons of playgrounds set up that the kids can play on. All of the kids had a total blast. It was great for them to get some of their energy out!
Bryan and I also got to go on a date to the temple and out to lunch for our 9th anniversary. Thanks Tam for watching the kids for us!



New Year's Eve wasn't that exciting for us actually. The kids wanted to stay up until midnight, but they were tired from our drive back home and from playing hard with cousins for a few days. I also had a lot to get done for primary the next day. So, I switched the clocks and made them think it was 11:30. We played games, had a treat, popped some poppers and then they went to bed. It worked out nice and the kids thought they stayed up until 1:00 am! Only Niah got a little suspicious, but she didn't put up much of a fight about it.
I really love having time as a family to just relax and enjoy each other's company. Life gets too busy and I forget to just slow down and spend quality time with the kids. I think this Christmas will be one that we all remember. It was one of the best ones we've had.