Blah

Today I feel like a failure.  I am anxious and grumpy.  I can't focus and I keep thinking about all of the things I haven't done right over the last several months.  It feels awful.

The rational part of my brain knows that I'm being ridiculous and that nothing is all that different than it was a week ago when I felt happy and confident.  I keep trying all my tricks to snap out of a bad mood.  We've been on a walk in the sunshine.  I visited with my neighbor while our kids played at the park.  I've blasted good music and danced.  I ate chocolate.  I got dressed.  It's really just not helping.  Maybe cleaning my house this afternoon will make me feel better.  Or possibly an hour on the elliptical with Psych. Or a good night's sleep.

I have been snappy with my kids all day which makes me feel even worse.  I forgot to send a stuffed animal and a snack with Davin for his preschool's teddy bear picnic.  I have a long list of to do's and only two items crossed off.  The kids watched movies all morning.  Mom of the year over here.  Please let tomorrow be better.

Spring Fun

We have been so busy lately!  I'm definitely phasing into the busy, running around season of motherhood.  It will only get busier from here on out.  It definitely makes me grateful for the rare days where I have nowhere to be.  Like today.  Which is why I'm finally getting around to posting about all of our fun activities.

Soccer is still going strong.  Davin is no more motivated to get in there and go after the ball than he was at his first game, but he seems to be having fun, so I'm not too stressed about it.  We will give him a chance to try a few different things.  Maybe soccer is just not his cup of tea.  He tells me he wants to try karate next.  One thing is for sure, he looks adorable whether he scores a goal or not.

This is pretty much the only time he kicks the ball in his games, so I had to get a video of it.  

Thanksgiving Point extended the Tulip Festival, so for FHE last week we went to the Children's Garden.  There were still some beautiful tulips to see and the kids loved playing in the water.  It was a nice, warm evening.

Just a couple of days later we woke up to late snow!  It was really coming down.  It all melted and dried out by the afternoon, but it sure was cold!  Gotta love our bipolar Spring weather here in Utah.

In honor of the cold weather I finally made time to try out my Aunt Pam's homemade granola bar recipe!  Oh my goodness these are delicious.  And they are really not hard to make at all.  The hardest (aka more time consuming) part was wrapping each bar individually.  I felt extra domestic making these because I was able to use the honey powder from my food storage.  Definitely cheaper and healthier than the store bought variety.  I'm a fan.  Maybe you will be too!

Aunt Pam's Homemade Granola Bars

2 c. old fashioned oats (not quick oats)
1 c. flour (wheat or white)
3/4 c. toasted wheat germ
3/4 c. brown sugar
3/4 t. salt
3/4 t. cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. honey (pour in the oil first then use the same cup)
2 t. vanilla

Mix all of the dry ingredients, then add all of the wet ingredients and mix well. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray cooking spray on the foil. Pat mixture into the foiled and greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until pale golden around the edges. Cut into bars while warm, then allow to cool before removing and wrapping bars individually in foil.

***This recipe works really well doubled and baked in a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. The mixture is too thick to use your KitchenAid. You really just have to do it by hand.

One evening the boys got to snuggle up and watch Superman with Ian.  They love watching "adult movies" (we are trying to having them not use this terminology to describe movies that aren't animated since it kind of sounds bad). :)

By the end of the week the weather was all warmed back up.  Weston had been asking me for a buzz cut all week.  I decided it was cheaper for me to cut his hair and a buzz is the only style I am capable of.  So Thursday afternoon we made the change!  He loves it and said it makes him "feel like a new kid."

Finally a few videos of the little ones.  This first one is my most adorable daughter singing (It starts as Twinkle Twinkle, but then she morphs it into Popcorn Popping).  She can be so super cute when she wants to be.

And when she doesn't want to be . . . it looks a lot like this.  Oh the 2 year old tantrums of a little girl. 

Beckett is pretty much always adorable.  Even when he cries.  He loves watching Ian play guitar.  This was after dinner while I was cleaning up the kitchen.  I had to hide behind the armchair when I was done because if he saw me then he would no longer be content to just sit and listen.  

Tulip Festival etc.

The Tulip Festival has been going on for a couple weeks but it has been so cold and windy that we hadn't been yet.  The stars aligned this week though.  The sun came out, the wind died down, Ian came home from work early (!!!!), and we headed over to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens as a family Wednesday night to check out the Tulips.  

I wanted to find the Secret Garden, so we grabbed a map and set off.  We started at the waterfall.  It's the kids' favorite.  We did finally find the Secret Garden and it was really cool.  Picturesque and definitely reminded me of the movie.  Plus it had a fountain that the kids played around.  Talia could have stayed there for hours.  As it was she managed to soak her shirt in only 15 minutes.

We also stopped and fed the hundreds of koi in the lake.  This was a highlight.  It's kind of scary how crazy the fish go when you feed them and there are SO many!  Anyway, it was a very fun, exhausting outing.  Lucky for me Weston thinks pushing the stroller is cool.  :)

ETC.:
Weston's school did Spring photos a couple of weeks ago.  It was nice that they sent home a proof of the picture then you could decide whether or not to buy it.  I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the proof.  He's such a 1st grade mess!  Crazy, messy hair.  Shirt on backwards. (He told me he realized his shirt was on backwards later that day.)  Needless to say, I had forgotten it was picture day that morning and we did not pay to order these pictures, but I felt this photo still needed to be documented.  Love my cute grade schooler!

Also in this post I just have to include a bunch of pictures of my cute little Beckett.  He is getting big so fast and I feel like I forget to document it like I should.  He is now 7 months old.  He still just has his same 2 teeth.  He has slept through the night the last couple of nights, so I'm really hoping we are getting settled in that department.  He's pretty much the cutest little guy ever.

This was a random little hat I tried on him while wandering Hobby Lobby.

He's definitely on track to become another Bowles vidiot child.  He loves watching Baby Einstein!  This is his zoned out face.

He is finally trying more foods.  We've had carrots, green beans, apples, and squash mixed with our oatmeal so far.  While we were eating at Carl's Jr. last week I fed Beckett tiny pieces of bread.  He loved it!

This little guy is no longer content to lay on his back and play.  He immediately rolls over on his tummy to play.  He scooches backwards and moves in a circle.  He can lift himself up into push up position too.  I have no doubt he will be my earliest crawler.

He babbles and chats up a storm.  He just started babbling "mama."  I love it!

Just For Fun

Just for fun . . . 

-Here is what our mornings look like.  These kiddos love their shows!

-Beckett was up a few times in the night and was a very tired baby the next day.  I was trying to get him to play but he was just too worn out apparently.

-Ian just finished a big, long, busy project at work that kept him there a lot.  He tried to make it up to me by taking me out on a date to see The Host and let me do a little shopping.  I got a new outfit!  And even better it was all on clearance and I paid $25 for the skirt and top.

-Davin decided to do a little writing practice on the mini magnadoodle.  I think he's getting really good at his name!  I didn't even say anything about the backwards "N" because it was too cute.  :)

-I love my baby boy's baby blues.  I really hope that his eyes stay blue!  We shall see.

-Ian was working late and we really needed to get out of the house so I braved an outing with all 4 kiddos by myself.  We ate at In N Out then played at the dinosaur museum.  The kids did great and we had lots of fun in the practically empty museum.  Oh, and Talia insisted on wearing the red cape.  It was adorable.

Two Wheels!

One of Weston's goals this year was to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  We really wanted him to accomplish this goal too.  I mean, the kid is seven years old.  It was time.  Ian worked with him several times during Spring break and took the pedals off his bike so he could get used to balancing.  On Saturday afternoon Ian put the pedals back on and within half an hour Weston was riding a two wheeler!  He was so so happy and excited and proud of himself. 

When he first started learning, Ian had told him that when he rode around the block on his own then we would take him out for frozen yogurt.  Weston told me that he was even more excited that he could ride his bike than he was about the frozen yogurt.  But he still wanted to go.  Saturday night we all went out to celebrate Weston's accomplishment. 

I'm so proud of Weston for sticking with it and trying hard even though it didn't come easily.

Soccer

It's official.  I'm a soccer mom.  Davin started Spring soccer last week.  This is Davin's first extracurricular activity and he was SO excited.  He was clueless and adorable and had so much fun.  His team met on Tuesday for a practice, but it was really windy and cold, so they only lasted about 20 minutes.  I'm not sure how much instruction he really got. 

 

The game on Saturday wasn't much better.  It was overcast, windy and cold.  Davin ended up wearing his zip up hoodie jacket under his jersey.  Mel and Brad came to watch and were very fun to have there.  They were also much more prepared on the snack front than I was.  :)  Davin pretty much stayed on the very fringes of the game the whole time.  He ran back and forth and did an awesome fist pump/yessss thing every time anyone scored or they stopped playing to kick the ball back in.  He kicked the ball two or three times, but mostly stayed away from the other kids because he didn't want to get "squooshed." (as he told me after the game)

 

Talia was pretty miserable and whiny the whole game.  Beckett endured it without a fuss.  Weston claimed he wasn't cold.  Davin's favorite was getting a juice box at the end of the game.  He said he had fun playing soccer and is excited for his next game.  I'm hoping it's a little warmer this Saturday.  And Uncle Brad put out a bribe for Davin to get in there and score a goal.  I'll keep you posted on our little soccer player!

Motherboy

Last week was a fun one at school for my big boys.  In preschool Davin is learning about bugs.  On Friday he could dress up like a bug if he wanted to.  He really wanted to be a bee, so we put together a homemade costume and I thought he was a pretty adorable little bee. 

 That night was a mother/son activity at Weston's school.  Ian liked to refer to it as Motherboy.  If you are unfamiliar with the Arrested Development reference please watch this clip and all three seasons.  It's hilarious.  Anyway, I decided to take both of the big boys for a pizza picnic followed by a reptile show.  Aside from losing Davin between the picnic and the show we had a great time.  I loved watching Weston with his cute school friends.  They are so funny and silly.

 Davin was enthralled by the show.  The tarantula and scorpion were his favorites.  Weston's favorites were the turtles.  My favorite was when we got to stand up after sitting on the cafeteria floor for an hour.  :)  At the end the kids got to "pet" the giant 14 foot snake.  It was definitely a good time and nice to get out of the house and spend some time with my boys.