Let the Celebration Begin!

We started celebrating Shaun's 30th birthday five days early because 30 is a big deal people! We changed our plans a bit due to some tiredness, and went bowling and to Red Robin on Saturday! Bowling two games with tired kids was a little much, but we all still had fun.

 Gage enjoyed the ball machine way more than actually bowling!

 And Maisey enjoyed the blowing air way more than actually bowling.

 Mi Mi is getting two more teeth and wasn't feeling that great. But she sure loves the birthday boy man!

 And yes, this shows that my 3-year old beat me by 4 pins. 

(I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the 4.5 hours of kitchen cleaning I did that morning!)

We headed to Red Robin for a delicious family dinner!

 Birthday Sundae!

 She flashed a little smile with a french fry in one hand and an apple slice in the other!

Moochin some ice cream!

His actual birthday is on Thursday and I have the best gift for him!

I can't wait!!!!!

She's Got Spirit, How 'Bout You?

Last week was Spirit Week at Maisey's school.

Monday: No School

Tuesday: Pajama Day

Wednesday: Mismatched Day 

Thursday: Crazy Hair Day

Friday: Sports Day

As soon as Maisey would get home from school she would start planning her next day's outfit! She sure had fun dressing up for the week before Spring Break!

Monday

 It is not very often that I say I'm looking forward to Monday. After a pretty crummy weekend, I really needed it to be Monday this week. Maisey didn't have school, the kids were awesome, I was very productive (inside and outside of the house!), and it just felt nice to have a good day!

 I've got a little Cinderella on my hands! We cleaned bathrooms and baseboards! It was fun to be cleaning with her by my side!

 I bought Miley some new paci's but she wouldn't suck on them. When I put her down for a nap a gave her an old one and a new one and let her choose. She chose the old one of course!

 Her first cookie! I think she enjoyed it!

 Gage led the music for FHE. 

 And for our FHE activity, we practiced helping Mi Mi walk!

I just have to make it through this week! Once Saturday hits it will hopefully be smooth sailing. We are starting Daddy's birthday celebrations on Saturday with dinner and swimming, Sunday we are doing our YW Easter lesson, then it is Spring Break!!! 

Have I mentioned how much I am looking forward to that?

Maisey's Talk

My bright spot of the weekend was Maisey's Primary Talk. Her topic was something like, "Jesus was resurrected and I can be too." 

This was her first talk she did with out any help.

I was so proud of her!

Here is the script:

This is my Papa. When I was a tiny baby, he died. I didn’t get to know my Papa for very long, and sometimes I’m really sad about that.

This is Jesus. Because of his atonement and resurrection, I don’t have to be sad all the time. When Jesus died and came back to life, He made it possible for my Papa to one day have a perfect body. That will happen when Jesus comes back to earth and people are resurrected. I can hardly wait, because then I will see my Papa again.

I know sometimes people die. My family still gets sad sometimes when we think of my Papa. But we know that Jesus suffered for our sins, died for us, and was resurrected so that we can be resurrected too.

I’m glad I will be able to see my Papa and that he will be healthy. I’m also glad that Heavenly Father and Jesus loved us enough to make the Atonement happen so we can see the people we love again.

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

St. Patty's Day

This year's St. Patrick's Day was pretty low key.

 We started the day with green eggs!

 Then went on a treasure hunt that a Leprechaun left for us!

 Looking around for the answer to the clue!

 Anticipating the next clue!

 They found gold (chocolate) coins!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the lucky mom of these 3 cute kiddos!

Spring is Here!

Today is the first day of Spring! We have had several glimpses of Spring over the last few weeks we have enjoyed every minute of it!

Riding bikes, wagon rides (until mommy's arm wants to fall off), lawn mowing, bug finding, neighbor playing, popsicle eating, we'll take it all!

 

 The kids found a "sleeping" lady bug!

 I'm pretty sure she loves the wagon more than me!

 She is a bike pro now! She can start all by herself and doesn't need any help!

One of these boys was in heaven and the other wasn't! I'll give you one guess!

(during the video the neighbor boy comes and gets on Gage's bike and honks the horn the whole time!)

We love S.P.R.I.N.G.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Reverence Chart

One day last November, Daddy came home from work with a surprise! 

The kids each got their very own Book of Mormon.

They were very excited.

Well, after about two nights of reading out of these new books the excitement wore off.

So Mom came up with a plan. A reverence chart with spaces for 50 stars. 

They could each earn a star every night that they sat quietly on the couch, read when it was their turn, and didn't play with any other toys. 

If they each earned a star every single night, it would have taken 25 days.

It took them 4 months!

Last night they earned their final two stars!

 We headed to Lime Berry to celebrate!

And when we got home and read tonight, they each earned a star on our reverence chart #2!

Yay for star charts finally working for our kids!

And yay for learning reverence while reading the scriptures!

*** And on the way home, Maisey made a comment about earning almost all of the stars on their chart, which was a very true comment! :)

Exhausting Bike Ride

I've been riding my bike more lately, and one morning I set out with these two cuties!

This is what they looked like when we left

And what they looked like when we got home!

After a 6 mile bike ride carrying an extra 80 lbs, that's what I felt like doing too!

Fire Station Field Trip

 Checking out all of the gadgets on the truck.

 Excited to be checking out the hoses!

 This fireman described the jaws of life as "playing with big scissors"

 Checking his pulse and oxygen saturation. He was scared his finger was going to fall off, but the two boys who went before him reassured him that it wouldn't.

 The fire district map

Gage's preschool class and their siblings! 

What a fun field trip! It was also neat to hear Gage telling Shaun about everything he learned. It was nice to know that he actually listened! :)

I'm Almost Like An Adult

Maisey is getting way to big for her bike. We've raised her seat up as high as it can go, but she still looks silly on such a small bike. So we told her if she can learn to ride her bike with out training wheels then we would buy her a new bike. 

So yesterday, I took her training wheels off and she practiced and practiced all afternoon. By the time daddy got home from work she could ride from our house to the mailbox! I was so proud of her.

When she came inside she said to me, "Mom, I'm almost like an adult now because I can ride my bike with out training wheels and I can swim in the big pool!" 

Almost honey, almost!

Swimming in the big pool

Riding her bike

Miley: 10 Months

 This sweet girl is 10 months old today!

She's had a pretty good month!

 She got her third tooth on her bottom left. You can kind of see it in this picture.

 She is all about clapping, and also learned to wave. 

 She is so dang innocent and sweet

 but can sure pout and throw fits. 

(She has 2 great examples to learn from!)

Overall, she is really happy, as long as she doesn't feel threatened by mommy leaving!

She still loves to eat, sleeps well, doesn't crawl, has only pulled herself up to a standing position a few times, likes to dance to music, and loves to wreck her brother's train tracks. She enjoys listening to stories from anyone who will read them to her.

 Pulling herself up

This is Maisey in the same outfit when she was 8 months! 

Love my cute girls!

On Time (by a long shot)

It's not very often that we are actually on time to appointments, especially at 9 am on a Saturday! But today, we showed up to the kids' dentist appointments 5 minutes early! Yay us! Then we were told we were actually on the schedule for next Saturday. Haha! I told you I'm just wishing the time away until spring break. Luckily, they had two cancellations and were able to fit us in. Both kids had sparkly clean teeth and no cavities! Our dentist did recommend a consultation appointment with an orthodontist to help with Maisey's front teeth. We're going to check it out.

Here they are with their shiny clean teeth: