Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Rodeo

We headed to the rodeo with a friend this year. She was taking her four kids by herself (one being a 3 month old baby) so I decided to dare taking my three by myself. So glad I did!

Checking out the bunnies.


Ms. Climber just really wanted to walk around. She loved the animals and started saying moo.

Helping Lili get around.

Look at her go!

Brand new baby piglets.

Gathering the fruit and vegetables to sell.

The petting zoo



I let each boy pick one ride.


We love the rodeo!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Fun at the Children's Museum

 When we decided to home school Dallin for his Kindergarten year, I bought season passes to the Children's Museum. Since we moved to our new house, we can get to the museum in 20 minutes. We have probably been to the museum almost once a month since the school year started. The museum is huge so we spend time in new areas each time (although we hit the Lego building section a lot.)

Being a Veterinarian

Racing his lego car

Parachutes

Shooting off airplanes

Water table
The first time we went to the museum, Gavin got in the tables before I could stop him (he is sopping wet in the below picture.)

Pulleys

More Pulleys

Molecules

Balls

More Balls

Rock climbing

Lili would love the museum more if we could head to the toddler section each time. If the museum isn't too busy, I get her out of the stroller and let her run around. She climbs on everything though!

Sometimes we head to the museum alone and sometimes friends join us.

 The newest exhibit in the Children's Museum is the boys favorite yet. I don't think anything can top this one. The exhibit teaches about the digestive system and the foods we eat. When the kids step on a food, you hear a different bodily noise. They were in heaven.


Lots of fun memories!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Dallin's 6th Birthday

Every year I make a cake for my kids with the decorations they choose. Dallin made it so easy on me this year. Life was pretty busy with getting adoption paperwork done so I was super grateful. He wanted a Ninjago cake with legos on top. It was really a win/win for both of us. Easy cake for me and Dallin got a new lego set. He put the guys on himself which explains why one of them was headless (a zombie).


Dallin discovered Skylanders recently from a neighbor friend, so that was one of his presents.

We decided that boys shouldn't have to do school on their birthday, so instead we invited one of Dallin's friends and headed to the Children's Museum. Dallin and his friend had a great time together which means I got very few pictures of them as they were busy doing their own thing.

Gavin doing his own face painting

Lili and Gavin playing with the water (Lili's favorite part).

Instead of a birthday party, Dallin really wanted to go to Legoland. There is a Legoland Discovery by my brother's place so we headed up for a visit.

This is how I caught the boys sleeping before I moved them to a more comfortable position.

Gavin and his cousin Ellery getting ready to go in.

Watching the 3 D movie


Gavin playing with his favorite part which was building then racing your car.


Lili climbing and trying to build


 Zane and Dallin were off doing the big boy activities so ironically I don't have many pictures of Dallin at his birthday celebration. Dallin had fun and was enthralled by everything, but he would have had more fun if we brought a friend with us or Zane could do the rides with him. Gavin was too small for a couple of the areas and they wouldn't let adults in so Dallin was by himself. Our social butterfly would have had a better time if he wasn't alone.



I felt like we celebrated Dallin's birthday all month long. It was a great month though and Dallin loved all the attention!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Enjoying Our Wintery Weather

We experienced real winter weather and had a ice day last week and one yesterday. The boys cracked me up with their jumping and sliding into the ice. They would run inside complaining about being cold, change their wet pants and get new gloves (we don't have any snow gear or water proof gloves) and then head outside to slide some more. I'm surprised how long they lasted before the cold got the better of them.




Second ice storm with a lot more ice.

Snow Angels


This wasn't anything like Utah snow they played in last winter, but we will take what we can get!

Finding the Humor

One of my goals this year is to find the humor in motherhood/parenting. I figure if I'm laughing then I'm not yelling. Zane will come home at the end of the day and ask how the kids were and all I can think of is the negative things that happened and yet there are so many funny moments or moments when I'm astounded at the intelligent, thought provoking words coming out of my kids mouth. I'm also hoping to catch it on camera more often so that I can remember those little moments that make me laugh.

Lili is a little climber. With her two brothers as her examples, she doesn't know anything different. It gets her in trouble. She thinks because she can crawl down the stairs backwards, that she can get off of anything backwards. She climbs up and down the chairs at church, in and out of a stroller (she will find an empty stroller at a play ground and start climbing), and she even tries climbing off of high items like her changing table or bed before someone catches her. She thinks she is invisible! Like any toddler, Lili is obsessed with the toilet. If the bathroom door is left open, she crawls in to play. Hopefully the boys shut the lid (or at least flushed)!


She climbs into this walker too. She can get herself all the way in sitting in the seat but she can't get herself out...yet.

Sometimes she chooses to try to stand on top instead. Good thing the boys help me keep an eye on her!

Gavin is a terrible eater. Dinner time with him is super frustrating. I'm choosing to celebrate the small victories though instead of getting to frustrated at him. Here we are celebrating him eating little florets of his once piece of broccoli. You can imagine that eating broccoli like this can go all night long!


There are some things Gavin will eat without a problem. Usually gross things like the conditioner in his hair. He tells me he wants to do his own hair (I'm trying to teach him to do his own hair to save me time) and then sometimes when he gets the conditioner in his hands, he eats it instead. It must be good because Lili likes it too. She rubs her head on her high chair while I'm doing her hair then turns her head to lick the high chair.

Gavin also really likes butter. He will lick the butter off the bread and then sometimes eat the bread.

When Gavin takes a long nap, he gets to stay up longer than Dallin. I love these moments of one-on-one with Gavin. His favorite game is to play Duck Duck Goose even if he is just playing with his dad or me. In this video Lili was awake too, but normally it is just Gavin.



Lastly, Dallin looked at Zane's head one day and asked if he was already resurrected because he had hair again. I guess we make a lot of jokes about Zane being bald instead of clarifying and saying he is starting to go bald.

Dallin is also blowing me away with how much he is learning. He started taking piano lessons and really likes playing. He makes up songs and likes to play those songs for people. He is also a really good helper with Lili. He knows how to calm her down, feed her, and plays great with her. Now if I can just get him to change her diapers....!

So amongst the chaos, fighting, wrestling (including the wrestling match after Sacrament meeting last week that I'm still trying to find the humor in...at least my skirt didn't rip as I was crawling on the ground trying to separate the boys), there are lots and lots of great moments to capture and remember!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Family Portraits

 My sister-in-law Kara came into town and she was sweet enough to take our family portraits. We are hard subjects and she did a great job like always!



Silly Dallin as photogenic as ever



Gavin got a great picture the first try. You ask him to smile and he flashes you his biggest and handsomest.

Some daddy and son funny pictures




And of course Lili who is a daddy's girl wanted to be thrown too.

Trying to catch Lili smiling and holding still for the camera is a team effort. It paid off!




Getting the three kids together was even harder. This picture is typical. Lili stuck in the middle of two boys wondering what is going on and Gavin annoyed that Dallin is touching him again. Dallin is happy as can be hugging his favorite people.

My sweet, crazy, loveable boys

And my sweet angel Lili

 Zane and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary in December. I'm so glad I have this man by my side.