Davin Turns 5!

Davin's birthday weekend kicked off on Friday at preschool with his Student of the Week spotlight!  I went to his class for the last 15 minutes to help him with his presentation.  We made this fun poster all about Davin for him to show his class.  He also brought his favorite book and his teacher, Miss Mikki, read it to the class.  Then he got a birthday certificate and the class sang to him.  He handed out ring pops to all of his friends.  It was a fun school day.

Saturday morning was his big skeleton birthday party!  I had been a little worried about how this was all going to come together, but it was great.  It looked great with the scary skeleton banners and glowing eye skeletons on the walls.  Davin picked out the purple plates and cups, the snacks, and insisted on the party hats.

Once everyone was here we had snacks at the table and worked on making silly skeletons with these great sticker pages I ordered from Oriental Trading.  It was a good activity to keep them busy while they ate.  We had such a polite group of kids!  They were even raising their hands to talk.  It was adorable.  They were also pretty quiet.  Maybe they were all just concentrating on their sticker pages or maybe Davin just gravitates towards quieter kids.

After food, we played a couple games.  We started with a skeleton hunt.  I had cut out the bones of a skeleton and hid them all over the house.  The kids had to find the bones and put together the skeleton on the wall.  I forgot how limited kids' knowledge of the human body is because they had no idea where the bones should be.  It was still fun.

(Davin and his little buddy Benson goofing off at the end of the party.  Aren't they so cute?!?)

Next we played a balloon game.  The kids took turns trying to hold as many balloons as they could in 30 seconds.  The high score was Weston with 9 balloons!  It was pretty funny watching them scramble and chase the balloons.

We finished up games with a pinata!  Davin loved this.  I had really hoped to be able to do the pinata outside, but we woke up to 6 inches of snow on Saturday so we did it in the basement.  Luckily no one got whacked in the face.  All of the kids got a turn to hit the pinata and then Ian finished it off.

Finally Davin opened presents.  His friends gave him such fun gifts!  A couple of Lego sets, a Skylander, some fun Spring toys like a water gun and bubble wand, and a car and truck toy.  He was really excited about all of it.

We ended the party with cake.  I tried to make a skeleton cake and this was the best I could manage.  I thought it actually turned out pretty cute and was really easy.  I just frosted the 9x13 with chocolate frosting then piped the skeleton on with vanilla frosting in a baggie.  For the red heart I used actual writing frosting.  Davin thought it looked cool and that's all that matters.  He had a really hard time blowing out his candles and mostly spit all over the cake.  I ended up having to help him blow them out before they burnt all the way down.  I really think we need to have a family tutorial on candle blowing. Sheesh!

I'm cracking up because this is like his 9th try to blow out those five little candles!  It was getting ridiculous!

The party was only an hour and a half so it went pretty quickly.  I kind of liked having it shorter.  Parents started coming right as we finished cake and everyone was gone by 12:10.  Davin played with his new toys for a little while then got on his shoes and went to his friend, Andrew's bowling birthday party while I went to get my hair done.  It was a busy fun day!

Sunday was his official birthday.  He spent all morning playing with his new things.  I let him play Wii in the morning before church so that was pretty special.  Davin gave his first talk in Primary on his 5th birthday.  He did a great job.  He spoke loudly and clearly and didn't even stumble on the hard words ("example" and "respected").

Sunday night I made him his birthday dinner of tuna biscuits, salad, and fruit.  He was so excited to open his presents that he didn't eat much of his dinner.  He had been asking to open them all day and I'm mean and made him wait.  So as soon as we were all done eating he ripped into his gifts.  He was SO funny.  Every time he opened something his eyes got all big and he jumped around saying "I reawy reawy wanted this!"  He got spoiled!  We gave him a Lego Batman set, 3 Skylanders, Epic Mickey 2, a Batman mask, and a Webkinz.  He also got 2 more Skylanders from his grandparents and a cool superhero shirt from Aunt Aly and Uncle Ryan.

We did everything early enough that Davin had time to play some Skylanders and start building his Lego set before bed.  I think he had a good birthday.  I sure love Davin and I am so grateful he is part of our family.  I can't believe he is getting SO big!

First Foods

Beckett has not been the best sleeper.  He has been up 2-3 times a night still for the last several months. I had tried letting him cry when he woke up the first time then feed him the second time but then he would wake up again just a few hours later.  It was frustrating and I was hoping maybe he was just hungry and it was time to start solids.  I really really dislike starting solids with babies.  It's time consuming, messy and expensive so I always wait until they are 6 months old.  

It worked out that I had planned to try rice cereal with Beckett last weekend and my mom was here!  She loves being a part of these kinds of milestones, so I let her feed him his first solid meal.  Since none of my kids have been big fans of plain rice cereal I mixed it up with a tablespoon or two of carrots.  He ate it up like a champ.  At first.  Then he started shuddering every time he swallowed.  Finally he gagged on a mouthful and threw it all up.  I'm pretty sure there were two contributing factors to the yakking.
1. The carrots. Too many flavors too soon.
2. The texture.  I think it was too thick.  I have thinned it a little more for his subsequent feedings this week.

Poor kid was sad.  We gave him a bath and a bottle and put him down for a nap.  It was semi successful.  The next day I tried again but mixed the rice cereal with plain water and he did just fine.  He has been eating every day this week and is getting better and better at it.  He eats almost his entire bowl!

Sadly it has not helped with his sleeping so far.  Yesterday was his official 6 month birthday!  I can't believe how fast that went.  He wanted to keep the party going all night last night and was up every couple of hours.  I'm so tired!  I suspect he may have an ear infection and I'm taking him to the doctor this afternoon.  We shall see if my mommy intuition is right.  I kinda hope it is so that we can get some meds and get this kid sleeping!

Surprise! I'm 30!

I have been well aware of my 30th birthday slowly sneaking up on me for the last few months, but it hadn't phased me.  I really am not freaked out about being 30. It makes me sound like a real adult, but I've got four kids, so I'm thinking that's a good thing? I'll tell you one thing, I was super excited to celebrate my official adulthood!  

Melanie and Ian put their heads together and planned a really fun party for me.  I knew about it and I was looking forward to it.  What I didn't know was that at about 3am on Friday morning my mom and CA sisters pulled up to my house and snuck into my basement for a few hours of sleep before surprising me for a weekend of birthday fun!

Friday morning I got up with Weston and Beckett.  Davin and Talia randomly slept in.  Weston headed off to school.  Mel texted me and let me know she needed to stop by and pick up some papers from her stuff in the basement.  This is not unusual and didn't raise any flags.  She showed up at about 7:30 and I headed down to the basement with her.  I turned on the lights and SURPRISE! there were my mommy and sisters!  I seriously was shocked and couldn't believe they were there.  I cried.  And I'm not a crier (although in my newfound adulthood I seem to be turning into one).  It was seriously an awesome surprise and I'm impressed that they pulled it off.

On Friday morning we just all hung out and showered for the day.  Our friend, Natalie, came over for lunch and we had a fun time visiting while Davin was at school.  Mel and I got our birthday presents from Mom and Dad: ukuleles!  So fun!  Joy gave us uke bags and Jules made us these really cute framed quotes that said "I love you a bushel and a peck." Sentimental because our Grandpa Snowball used to sing us that song all the time.  What fun gifts!

Friday night was girls' night.  We headed to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate Mel's birthday.  It was so yummy and fun!  We laughed a lot and talked a lot and sang a little.  We overran the ladies restroom, joked around with our waitress, sang Happy Birthday in harmony to Mel, and had to request more ranch at least 3 times.

After dinner we did a little shopping, of course.  Nothing major since the stores were only open for about an hour by the time we finished dinner.  But we got some makeup, clothes, jewelry, nail polish, and hair accessories.  By the time we got home and chilled with Ian and Brad for a bit it was beyond time for bed!

Saturday morning Mom and I went shopping at Kohl's.  It was fun and successful.  I was proud of myself for finding great deals and getting stuff I actually needed.  I found capris and a few spring tops.  And even had saved my Christmas gift card for it!

That afternoon Ian and my sisters went and set up for my party while Mom and I rested with the kids and I got a ukulele lesson.  We also fed Beckett rice cereal for the first time.  That will get it's own post. Saturday night was my big party!

It was such a blast! It was all decked out with fun decorations and balloons.  There was a salsa bar, fruit with fruit dip, M&M's, and drinks.  Lots of my friends were able to come hang out and wish me a happy birthday.  We played a couple of games, but mostly just visited and listened to music.  There was an Apples to Apples type of game where each guest picked a card with a word that described me and then I got to pick which one of those I liked the best.  It was really fun and everyone (almost . . . Quinn) picked such nice words to describe me.  :)

The other game was a 2 Truths and a Lie worksheet about me.  There were five sets of three "facts" about me and the guests had to figure out which one of the 3 facts was a lie.  It was kind of funny and I was impressed that my friend, Michael Ann got all of them right!

Everyone sang and we had cake and ice cream.  It was really a super fun night.  I felt so loved and grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life.  I am definitely a lucky girl.

Sunday was my real, actual 30th birthday.  In the morning Mom, Joy and Jules packed up and headed back to California.  I was sad to see them leave but I am so glad they made the trip out.  It was really wonderful to have all of us girls together for a few days.

Ian and I were pretty exhausted so it was a nice, low key day.  We didn't go anywhere.  Just stayed home all together and watched movies.  I opened my presents from Ian and Jim and Denny at lunch and I got lots of old movies to add to my classics collection.  7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Sound of Music, and The King and I.  I made corned beef and cabbage for dinner but it didn't turn out very good.  Kind of a bummer.  We ate leftover cake from my party and I got sang to again.  I went to bed early.  Like an old person should do.  It was a good day.  A good birthday weekend.  And now I'm 30!

Talia's 1st Haircut

Last week I took Talia to get her first haircut at Cookie Cutters. It was kind of nice not having to do this until now because she is old enough to understand what is going on.  And old enough to understand the concept of bribery.  The boys got their first haircuts when they were one or younger and it was harder.  I still wasn't sure how Tal was going to do with someone else combing and touching her hair, but she was a champ.  She didn't particularly love it but she didn't cry or scream and she held relatively still.

BEFORE:  

Talia probably didn't need a haircut and I could have waited, but I thought her ends looked kind of scraggly and needed to be evened up.  Her hair doesn't look much different since I only had the stylist take half an inch off the bottom and layer it a tiny bit.  However, I think it makes her curls a little bouncier and it makes the ends look healthier.

Talia loved the fun play area and the slide.  She picked the blue car chair to sit in and watched Jake and the Neverland Pirates while she got her hair cut.

AFTER:

She also got to get a cute french braid twist style at the end.  She looked so pretty and loved her blue balloon and blue sucker.  Can you tell her favorite color is blue?  I blame it on having so many brothers. :)  I'm glad that it's done and she won't need another cut for several months.  Girl hair is easier than boy hair in that regard, but harder than boy hair in every other way.  Hooray for a successful first haircut!

Catching Up

As promised . . . a catch up post!  Last week was super busy and I felt like we were gone a lot.  Because we were.  Here's what we were up to.

Saturday (the night before the Oscars): 

Eating great food at Brio on our shopping date.  Ian needed new jeans before his trip to San Francisco so we made a date night out of it.  The bruschetta sampler was the highlight of the meal.  The actual entrees were not bad, but not amazing.  Definitely would rather spend that kind of money at Faustina.  However, I would go there again just for the bruschetta.  Yum!  Oh and Ian found jeans that fit nicely on sale at Target.  We also popped into Jos A. Bank to exchange his white shirt from Christmas where he also picked out a new tie.  Shopping and dinner seems to be our new normal date night.

Sunday: The Oscars . . . see my post about it earlier.

Monday: 

We went out to Red Lobster with Melanie and Brad to celebrate Mel's 25th birthday!  We had a great time and Mel had lobster for the first time.  I ate a ton of shrimp.  It was great.  I loved getting to see Mel on her birthday and give her big hugs.  The kids made her cute cards and I brought her a little bunch of pink tulips.  We celebrated for real over the weekend.

During the week:

The kids were generally adorable.  I can't get enough of Beckett's cute smiles!  He is almost always happy.  He got some new clothes recently so I've been having fun dressing him in his new outfits.  

Talia can't get enough of the dinosaur museum.  She would go there every single day if I would let her. So naturally when I asked her where she wanted to go after we took Davin to school one day she picked the "seum!"  She pretty much just runs through the whole thing.  Her frequent stops are the rocks and drums in the sound exhibit, multiple walks through the star room, playing in the cave, the dino scale, sitting on the baby triceratops, seeing the giant turtle and crab in the ocean room, the shark, and the Elephant Bird egg.  

I got my craft on and made a floral spring wreath!  I had fun browsing Michael's and picking out my supplies then spending one afternoon naptime putting it together.  I think it turned out pretty and makes my house feel hopeful that it will eventually be colorful and warm again.

I ran errands.  Of course.  I braved Walmart and Sams Club with both Talia and Beckett.  Talia was such a good girl and helped with Beckett sitting up in the cart.  It was fun to spoil her with a new toy.  She was in love with this puppy in nursery, but now she goes to a different nursery class.  She still talks about the puppy though.  It was on sale and I had a coupon and she LOVES it!  :)

It actually did warm up enough this weekend to play outside!  Ian grilled.  Twice.  And Talia rode her trike and played in the backyard.  She is now obsessed with going outside.  It's going to be a fun summer for her.  And once again I am so grateful for our fenced backyard!

We squeezed in another date night to a BYU gymnastics meet with our friends, the Matagi's, on Friday.  We had a great time being back in Provo and reminiscing about our college days.  I love watching gymnastics and we had great seats.  We will definitely have to do it again sometime.

Saturday Mel and I had a super awesome girls night to celebrate her birthday.  We went to Chipotle for dinner.  Then headed over to the mall for pedicures and some shopping.  We had great shopping karma!  I came away with a spring skirt, cute necklace, and fun sandals.  Mel and I got matching shirts and shorts because we both have good taste.  :)  She also got another top, a scarf, and cute flats. We ended the evening with a red velvet mini bundt cake.  So delicious!  I sure love having Mel close by.  She is so much fun!  Happy Birthday seester!

Luckily Sunday was low key and this week has been a lot less busy.  I'm kind of enjoying the down time.  

Davin-My Middle Child

I cannot believe that it has only been a week since I last posted because we were so busy and so much happened, but I have really been wanting to do a post about Davin, so that's what we're doing today.  There will be a catch up post later this week.

Davin is such a cute, funny, sweet kid.  He also gets lost in the shuffle sometimes.  I underestimate him.  He is truly my middle child.  Weston is the oldest, Talia is the girl, and Beck is the baby.  Davin has carved out a little place somewhere in the middle.

The last couple of weeks I have all of the sudden realized how grown up my little almost 5 year old is becoming!  He has been doing so amazing at school and I just didn't see it before now.  I always knew Davin was bright, but he is not as verbally advanced as Weston was at this age, so I figured he would be more of a middle of the road kind of kid.  I'm not so sure about that.

At the beginning of the year Davin started working on sight words in preschool.  He brought home lists to practice and learn, then pass off.  There were 7 lists.  He has now passed them all off.  He was so enthusiastic about learning his words and practicing writing them.  Now that he has learned all of his sight words he gets new take home reading books.  He loves having homework like Weston and is doing really well with sounding out (and guessing based on the pictures) the words he doesn't know.  I'm very impressed.

He also loves playing Weston's math games.  For homework some weeks Weston will have a math game to play where you roll dice and subtract the smaller number from the bigger one or add them both together.  Davin is actually pretty good at these games and only needs a little help from me.  I had no idea he knew all of this stuff!  That probably makes me sound like a horrible parent, but Davin is such a creative, imaginative little soul that it's easy to assume he's just not paying attention or interested when we talk about numbers and letters.  I'm so glad that he is and I'm so proud of his enthusiasm for learning!

Davin really loves school.  Last week he got to bring home the letter bag.  The letter that week was "P" and he had a blast going around the house and finding items to take to show his class that started with the letter P.  He filled up his "P" bag and then got to present his things to his class during their pirate party.  It was a really fun day for him.

Here he is with all of his items that begin with P. (puzzle, plane, pirate puppet, Perry the Platypus, person, Power Ranger, pants, panda, puppy, picture, piece, Pez, and pom pom)

This was after school when he did his President's Day craft.  Too cute!

I also really really love his imagination.  He makes things up all day long and will often entertain himself for hours building with Legos or just plain old playing pretend.  He will pass up outings to stay home and play in the basement.

Davin is a tiny little thing, but he is truly growing all the time.  I hope that I will always remember to expect the best from him and not let him fall between the cracks as my attention is easily pulled toward the other kiddos.  I love my Dav!