Trip to SLC

Well, we went to Salt Lake for spring break again this year. We had a wonderful time visiting with family, but the weather sure didn't cooperate. It was snowy and cold until the last day we were there! Even though it was the day we were leaving, we wanted to get the kids on an outside adventure before we left. So we called in the troops and went to Hogle Zoo. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone in Salt Lake had the same idea- the place was packed! But we still had a wonderful time.

This is in front of the "wishing water" at the entrance of the zoo. Josh and Lauren both asked for coins to make their wishes. Josh was quick to announce that he had wished that Pokemon were real :-)


This is a fun picture because 3 of the characters in this shot have the same birthday! Josh, cousin Andrew and ..... the baby giraffe were all born on November 28th!




This sweet little boy is our cousin Henry- the kids adore him!


Don't you love this? This cute little guy trying to keep his precious ice cream safe from his big dad and uncle!


We had such a nice stay with Grandma Pam. She made her famous cookies with the kids at least twice, had a fun easter egg hunt, and watched the kids for 2 days while Paul and I went to Park City! Thanks Mom!


This is my beautiful nephew Andrew- isn't he adorable?! He is the first cousin on my side of the family and we are all so excited that he is here! I am a very proud aunt if you couldn't tell :-)



This is a special picture to me. We went to Grantsville (the little town I lived in until 6th grade) to visit a friend of mine and ended up going to my old elementary school. She is a teacher there now and had a key to get us in. It was at night so no one else was there and we had a blast! I got to see all my old classrooms- her room was actually my second grade room! When we went to the cafeteria, she told me how she remembered our first day of kindergarten. Our moms were there with us having lunch and when it was time to take our trays back, I came back in tears. I guess I didn't know exactly where to put it and it kind of freaked me out!! It really hit me at that moment how special it was to be standing there with a dear friend who has been a part of my life for so long. Then we went into the gym and that is where the history really hit me. It is the exact same! Not just from when I was there, but my dad and grandparents! The gym floor is the original floor from when the school was the high school (with the cowboy still in the middle)- WOW! This picture is amazing to me. My kids and Lisa's kids on the same floor that we played on when we were kids. Cool!

New Pictures!

Fun Things for Lauren

So Lauren has had a few fun things happen the last week or so. First of all- She had her first sleepover!! It was with her bestest bud Brooke. We weren't planning on letting the girls have their first sleepover quite yet, but Brooke's poor Mom had an emergency root canal AND her Dad is out of town for almost two weeks! So, my friend and I made a last minute determination (at about 7:00 PM) that Brooke would just spend the night instead of going home. This became a monumentous occasion all of a sudden so I hurried and popped some popcorn, let them watch a little show, and took a few pictures :-) They had a blast!

Then, we decided to make the playroom Lauren's room so that she could have her own space and fill it with all her little girl things (she had been sharing a room with Josh since we moved Olivia into her room). So, she had a fun sleepover at Auntie Tracy's place while we scrambled to do it as a surprise. The green paint I chose turned out too dark, I think, but she was really excited. She especially likes the chandelier and describes it to people as a "light with necklaces on it". I still have some stuff to do in there- but here are a few pics....



A really fun thing for me to watch was her "decorating" her room all evening. Bit by bit, she would go get a basket filled with toys and carefully put each one in the perfect place. Towards the end, she was running out of room on her dresser, bed and table, so she started putting things on her play kitchen and on the floor. It actually looked like a tornado had hit when she was "done" but it was so fun to see her so excited. She wanted to take some pictures of her fine decorating skills, and the pictures below are some of them. I got a kick out of how she placed things....



In the end, Josh and Lauren asked if they could sleep TOGETHER in her new room :-)

Easter at Goatopia!

So this is my attempt at a group picture, and believe it or not, this is the best one! I knew I had to get a picture of Olivia as soon as I got her dress on, but I waited about five minutes (seriously) and she was already dripping with some gooey candy slobber! Oh well.....



So, I bet you can't guess what Josh and Lauren's favorite colors are!



We were so happy to have Grandma Claudia here with us! Lauren had an especially nice time with her. They spent much of their time outside collecting rocks for their "rock band". They would clink them together making different sounds depending on how big the rocks were. Cute! The Easter Bunny gave some fun things including Webkinz, sparkly flip-flops, rain boots, a watering can, garden tools, a DS game and cute sunglasses for all the kids. They also, of course, got lots of goodies and had a blast searching for easter eggs. We made nice Easter brunch and with Auntie Tracy and Jack also here, we had a nice little group!

I also have another "Josh's amazing memory" story. The day before Easter, Josh and I were talking about the Easter Bunny. He asked me if he is a boy or a girl (boy?) and then said "I wonder if he will hide the eggs in the same place as last year- like the purple one next to the time out chair and the pink one behind my buzz lightyear chest...." Wow!! I know he didn't get this amazing memory from Paul or I, so I am thinking that it is a recessive gene that has been passed down from my Dad. Thanks Dad!

Spring Tidbits

Happy spring and Easter everyone! I thought it would be fun to begin this post with Lauren's cute Easter egg that she made at preschool today. (Notice the cute scene inside- thus the odd angle). I understand that they had to practically rip the frosting out of her hand- she had a blast!



Josh was star of the week recently and here he is displaying his poster. I asked him if he wanted it cute or plain (heaven knows with all of my stamping and scrapbooking stuff I could have made a real masterpiece!) But, not surprisingly, he asked that I keep it plain- so I did, but I am hoping my girls will want theirs nice and sparkly!! :-) He was a tad uncomfortable answering the star that asks what he likes about himself. He finally settled on his blue eyes and the fact that he is tall. He was fine reading the tall one to his class but he was so embarrased to say that he liked his blue eyes! Interesting.....
He is also very much into the Nintendo DS that he got for Christmas and the Pokemon game that we gave him. It is the first thing he asks to do in the morning and after school. We limit it to an hour a day, but that is hard. One good thing is that he stands while he is playing it! My Dad bought a DS for himself while he was here a couple of weeks ago and he and Josh had a blast playing eachother in Pac-Man. The 2 machines are wirelessly connected and one is the ghost while the other is Pac-Man. Amazing toys these days!



Lauren had so much fun with my Dad while he was here- she likes to say that she is his girlfriend :-) It is such a joy to watch him with all of my kids, they are sure lucky! Lauren did make me a little upset recently- she cut Olivia's hair!! Yes, the same girl who got into so much trouble for doing it to herself a year ago, cut the precious few curls around Olivia's right ear while Paul was "watching" them. Ahhhhh! People tell me you can't really tell- I hope not :-)



Olivia has really been testing our love lately... The other day, she literally brought me to tears! I was in the bathroom and she grabbed the lotion and started rubbing it in her hair. So I put the lotion up, washed her off, and went into the kitchen. There I found that she had taken the lid off of her sippy cup of milk and poured it all over the floor around the sandwich she had ripped apart and scattered around. So, when I get done cleaning that up, I went back into the bathroom (which I now lock) where she had gotten some liquid soap and rubbed it in her hair. After I cleaned that up, I went into the family room where she had taken an apple, eaten 1/4 of it, dropped it, and spit out everything she had chewed. It was all over. Just one thing to the next. Then, we had to leave her little preschool early because she was pushing all of the kids. Seriously, ALL of the kids! But, she is also such a sweet little girl. She is smiling all the time and loves to say "Hi" to every adult we pass by. And even though she only says a handful of words, her clearest and most consistant phrase is "Thank You". She thanks me for getting her dressed, for changing her diaper, doing her hair, giving her milk, turning music on in the car....everything. It is so sweet. She also yells "night!" with a big smile on her face while waving to the family when I take her to bed. So, no matter what happened throughout the day, she always ends it in such a joyful, happy way, and all is forgotten. Almost. :-)



I love this. I just had to show you what amazing wrestling skill my husband has. One of the kids joys in this life (and Paul's) is "wrestling" together. They all just laugh and laugh and it is so fun to watch. Paul's skills have been put to the test, though, as our brood has grown in number. One was very easy to wrestle with. Two gets a little more difficult because you have to interact with both of them while making sure that they don't get bonked. Well, now we have three kids and there is NO WAY that Livi is going to be left out of that party. So, Paul has taken to holding her up with one hand while he uses his other hand and rest of his body to play with the other two. I have resisted Paul's hope that Josh will love wrestling as much as he does, but I have now decided that wrestling should be a manditory sport for all future fathers! :-)

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a nice Valentines Day this year! The kids had been begging me (not exactly sure why) for cupcakes lately and for one reason or another they hadn't had one for awhile. I knew that they would be getting plenty of candy at school so I got little heart plates and put a cupcake on each one for them to wake up to. I think they were more excited about these than all of their Christmas presents! It was so fun to see them so excited. I have such fond memories of my Mom leaving little treats out on Valentines morning and I really want my kids to have that too- I hope I can do as good a job as she did!! I gave Paul a mug filled with a big bag of all green M&M's that I thought was so funny and a gift card. Paul made each of us the funnest most creative cards I have ever seen. And for all of you who know Paul, out-doing himself is quite a feat! He made them at the office with post-its, red file folders and heart shaped velcro- among other things. I am realizing that I should have pictures of them on this blog- you will all get such a kick out of them. Thank you for making us all feel so special Sweetie- I Love You!


When Livi saw her cupcake, she opened her mouth and made a fun squeal- I made her do it again so I could get a picture :-)


Lauren had such a cute Valentines party at her preschool. They made these cute hats (the boys had Valentines top hats) and did a little performance for a bunch of teary, grinning parents lovingly looking on :-) It was the cutest little song about love related to all the letters of the alphabet and when it was over, each kid ran to their Mom with a tulip that they had been hiding behind their back- so cute!



Josh had a fun party with parents at his class too. It was so fun to see him interact with the little girl he has a crush on- her name is Baylee. But, unfortunately, she has eyes for the other little boy at their table- Raul. Josh is undeterred however and still tells us that he wants to sing the "song from High School Musical with her". It is the one at the end where they sing together holding hands and looking longingly in eachother's eyes. He makes me play it over and over again in the car- I know he is picturing the two of them every time! :-) By the way, Josh just lost his seventh tooth since school started- he is growing up too fast!



This is Josh's teacher Miss Jackson- she is a wonderful teacher. Josh is having a blast this year and has learned so much.


I just had to include this one. I bought some sponge curlers a while ago and hadn't gotten around to trying them out on Lauren yet when she BEGGED me to put them in her hair. I was pleasantly surprised how well they worked, Lauren's hair is as straight as a rod and previous heat attempts to curl had only made a slight wave. Anyway, she was so proud of her curls I just had to take a picture.

Group Picture From Whalewatch