Monday, May 5, 2014

April 2014

April 1-
^The reason why I make my kids try things over and over again even if they say they don't like something. I made brussel sprouts and to my surprise, Kai asked for more!! Proud Mommy moment!

April 3-
^Kai started karate lessons. I was amazed how attentive he was the first time we went. His teacher is awesome! Hopefully this will help me with behavior and his disciplining. :) He has to earn a uniform. Fingers crossed!

 April 4-
^Sarah had grandparents day at school. They had a program where they sand songs and recited poems. Afterwards we met in their class for a little snack. 

 April 5-
^Conference weekend. Usually consists of a run before Conference and then doing a puzzle while I listen. :)

April 8-
^My girls. Sarah wakes super early, so sometimes she goes in to play with Madison until the agreed upon time to come in my room. :)
^One of Madison's first jumps of the year. In spring when I'm craving warmth and sun, sometimes we go out to the trampoline and lay in the sun. 

April 9-
^My fridge the day I cook for dinner group. :)

April 10-
^More karate, and silly Kai hiking up his pants during class. :) Cracks me up.

 April 11-
^All of my kids have enjoyed singing. Thank goodness. The cuteness of it is so fulfilling.:)

April 12-
^Some neighborhood friends had us over for a fondue night and games. Yummy food and great company! The only thing I missed was a picture of the friends. :(

 April 14-
^The moon the night of the eclipse. It was giant. 
And I love tubs and have always wanted a tub that i could lay in and turn water on and off with my feet. :) I love my house!

April 15-
^Marianne invited us girls to a relief society activity with The Food Nanny. New recipes and a fun girls night. :)

 April 18-
^Spring break for the kids. We took them to Rio 2 in the day and in the evening we got shakes and watched a movie.

April 19-
^Our HOA does an Easter egg hunt every year. This year, the Easter Bunny came! Everyone eats breakfast together, and I painted faces.

^We celebrated our cousin Zoey's bday in the afternoon. Madison if fond of babies. Cute little Noah!

April 20- EASTER
 ^Easter bunny came. :)
^Small hunt for eggs in the front yard.
 ^Easter Sunday best! Love my kids.
^Happy Easter!
 Easter activities. Coloring eggs, painting, dinner with family and holding chicks.
^Love our little bunnies!

April 21-
^Felt like a mandatory month to make cookies. Cami came and helped me and we decorated spring cookies. Always more fun with company. Thanks Cam!

April 22-
^I work out in our neighborhood at the church gym 3 times a week.  I love the teacher. My kids come with me and run around while we work out. Sometimes they play with the equipment. Madison might have a future as a trapeze. ;)
^We went back and forth about putting in a salon room in the house. We finally pulled the trigger. Ed did a great job finishing it. He painted it, ripped the carpet out and put in laminant flooring. I got a hair chair and I'm ready to go! I didn't put in a sink, since I'm planning to go back into a salon when all the kids are in school, but this feels a little more official. ;) Thanks Ed!

April 24-
^I volunteer in Sarah's class every once in a while if Ed is home. This day I went in to read a story and do an activity. I brought my old mother goose to tell the story. The kids listened so quietly! I'll do this every time! We read The Ugly Duckling, and they made little swan's out of paper plates after. :)
 ^Meanwhile, Ed moved our garage door openers and electrical switches in the garage to accommodate another project. :) I'm happy he's a DIY-er. We are lucky his dad is around to help too if things don't go quite as planned. ;) At least he tries. It ended in success. Good job babe!
^Neighborhood book club night. Love chatting with these ladies. I didn't finish this book all the way, but I'm still trying to push through and read book a month. Thanks for the motivation ladies!

 April 25-
^2 year old tantrums and time outs. Strong will in this one! :)

 ^I was so thrilled when Kristen said she was coming for a quick visit. I grabbed her from the airport, we got lunch and did her hair quick before she visited her sisters and mom. I'll take and time I can get with this girl. Made my day!
^The kids had their cousins Felicity and Josh sleep over. Fridays we're usually around so they are the perfect nights to have families over or cousin sleepovers. The kids were great! They stayed up later than we liked and woke earlier than expected, but I'm glad they are creating fun memories just like we did. 

April 26-
^This was a much needed project for our garage! Ed put in a shoe cabinet. It turned out looking so much better! I love the transformation! Now Ed finally has a place for all of his shoes. :) I swear he has more than I do! Looks great Ed! Thanks!

April 27-
 ^Sunday morning Sarah climbed in bed with me and fell right back asleep. She's usually up and ready to go, so I snapped a picture of our sleepy girl. :) 
At church in sharing time she got to dress as a modern woman. 
Auzi snuggled Ed on the couch which used to be so common, but has turned into something rare.

April 30-
^I do lots of hair trades with people. This is Linda. She comes for a haircut and then helps me do all my mending and sewing projects for a couple hours! I love the help!
^Project #3 of the month! :) Ed is remodeling our half bath. Pain in the butt to remove the old mirror! Before after pic later.
^My cute friend Eve took me to zumba at her gym. Love her, love zumba and I love gym dates! Bimbos!;)

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March 2014

March 4-
^ I head up the RS weekday activities for my neighborhood. Our committee did such a wonderful job for our RS Birthday celebration. :)
 ^We had teriyaki chicken with rice, green salad, and fruit salad.
^Then at each table center, 8 women made cakes to share. They did a great job decorating and they tasted wonderful too!  The theme for the night was "The worth of "soles" is great"...it was a shoe theme. The sister in my ward that spoke, wrote a fabulous talk to go along with our theme. I love to see things come together. I'm go grateful for my neighborhood friends.

March 7-
 ^Ed took Sarah up to ski again. She is getting more confidence and doing well!
^Jenn had an unexpected visit back to UT from NYC. Funerals are never the best reason for a surprise trip, but we were all glad to see her. :) We loved getting together for Jenn and miss her.
^In the evening, Ed took his mom to they symphony as her bday gift.

March 8- Madison turns 2!!
^Kai sporting the sombrero we got in Mexico- and his undies. ;)
^My baby is growing up! I have a love/hate relationship with Madison getting older. She could be my last, so it seems harder to let go of the baby in her.
^I made this cake for Sarah's 2nd birthday as well, but I think it was more fitting for Madison. She loves cows especially and farm animals. Worth the repeat for sure!
 ^Madison loved the attention when we sang to her.
^She figured out just what we wanted her to do. Blow out the candle and make a wish!
 ^I held out on sugar much longer for the other two kiddos. This one has a strong liking for it already. No hesitation. She knows what's up. :)
 ^Wanted some pictures with my girl.
^So wonderful to have supportive family and friends! Madison treats some of them like a second mom. :) She is not shy one bit! She is so smiley and welcoming to most.
^Thank you for celebrating Madison with us and also for the gifts everyone!
^A Madison sandwich before we lift for Stake Conference.
 ^Celebratory ice cream at Letherby's afterwards with friends. What a great day!

 March 11-
^Always cool! Even in bed. :)

March 12-
^A new baby for her bday. 
^St. Patty's cookies for the month. Love the rainbow addition this year.
^The dinner group continues on. Loving it! I made chicken broccoli alfredo.

March 13-
Madison had her 2 year old check up. 

Head: ?cm (16%)
Height: 32 inches (9%)
Weight: 22lbs 15oz (8%)

Kai at 2yrs: 
Weight: 30lbs 8 oz (80%) Height: 36.5 inches (93%)
Sarah at 2yrs:
Weight: 29lbs (77%) Height: 36.5 inches (93%)

Madison is such a joy! She is mostly happy, but starting to show her 2 year old independence tantrums here and there. She is definitely our pickiest eater. She prefers anything sweet, and she likes meat. Takes after her mom. :) She had one shot at her check up and looks healthy in every way. She is moving up the charts, but she's still a lightweight.  She loves to sing. She sings "abc's" now and "let it go" of course. She is starting to count to 10. She plays great alone. She's in bed between 7-8pm and up sometime around 7am. She naps between 12-2 for a couple hours. No interest in potty. Loves her giraffe blanket.  Binki's just during naps and bed. We'll take them away soon. I'm so much less rigid with this child. She must be the youngest. :)

March 15-
^I was in CA when they played their championship game and won it, but I played with them quite a bit to feel the pride. :) GO Ladies! Our stake took 1st! 
^I thought September was my last hair trip to CA, but then my sweet client Madeline(top left) offered to fly me out to CA with some miles she had in exchange for hair services. Happy to accommodate! I booked myself up for a couple days and visited with friends in the evenings. :)
 ^Kaylynn and Brook showed me a good time with a toast and some dancing. :) Always quality with them!
^Ed being a good daddy and snuggling our Madison while she missed her mommy for a few days. :) Thanks babe!

March 16-
^Rebecca and I spent a day catching up. Always a treat!

^Back at home some neighbors relieved Ed for an hour or so, just because, and played with our kids. Such awesome neighbors that are so good with our kids! Lucky!

March 17-
^Sweet Michelle let me use her kitchen for doing hair again. So sweet to share her space. Her kids give up their room, she feeds me and visits...I am undeserving. :) Thanks Michelle!
When I got home I was thrilled to see my family and grateful to not have to make dinner since my dinner group friend provided a delicious, cute St. Patty's themed meal for us! (I missed getting a pic of my kids in their cute green! I'm cheesy like that and hate to miss those festive plans. Next year.)
^Since the babe is turning to toddler and turned 2, we are starting to take away the baby-ness. :( Mads had her last bottle. I'm just as sad as she is. Weird to think it could be my last use of bottles....unless Ed gets his way... ;)

March 21-
^Some of my Michelles. :) (Yeates and I showed up matchy). A wonderful night out with some book club friends and our husbands. We went to dinner and then to the movie "Divergent"- our book club book. I thought it was great. I'm not hard to please. Throw in a little teen romance and I'm all giddy! Give me more!! ;)

March 25-
^Sarah and her kitty Auzi. They go everywhere together. :)

March 26-
^Needed a change. Not the best pic (I'm no good at selfies) but my hair is a deep red with a little pinkish/red strip. Always switching' it up!

 ^I took this picture thinking this vacuum would be a good new addition to our household. Silly I know. I was wrong. My other one died and then my research failed me. Cleaning excites me, however, I took this out of the box and it didn't work. I have a feeling it's going to be a headache and a loss of money trying to resolve the issue. I've had better cleaning days!

March 27-
 ^Ed went up and skied. Nice pic. :)

March 28-
^Our car needed some repair. It got a boo boo while we were in Cancun. ;) Looks good as new. 

March 29-



^Ed suggested I go up the mountain with he and Sarah since I hadn't been for 7 years. (Last time I went was in Denver when I was pregnant with Sarah!) I'm glad it worked out. :) It didn't take long to relearn how to ride a snowboard. ;) I was the only one on a board but we had a great time. The weather was decent and Sarah took a leap for her 6th time up. She got much faster and daring, going through trees and such with neighbors and cousins we saw on the slopes.
^Lift pics
 ^Our friends, Mike and Michelle Spens were up there with their family. We spent a good part of the day with them. Sarah and Taya.
^We also saw Uncle Stewart and our cousins there and spent a little time. 

March 30-
^Sunday morning movie snuggles.