Davin Turns 6!

Davin's birthday weekend kicked off with a surprise visit from Grandma Denny and Papa! They told me they were going to come a couple of weeks before, but it was a surprise to the kids. They were pretty excited to see them on Friday! They got in just before dinner. We went out to eat that night at JCW's. 

During dinner Davin's eye was bugging him and turned all red. We decided we should take him to urgent care in case he had come down with pink eye. The doctor wasn't conclusive but prescribed eye drops just in case. We started the eye drops that night (which was extremely traumatic) just in case since we were supposed to have a birthday outing with friends on Saturday. His eye looked better on Saturday and I'm not sure he ever really had pink eye but I'm glad we were safe.

Saturday at noon Davin's buddies, Cole, Ella, and Matthew came over. We loaded up the van and Gma and Papa's car with kids and headed to lunch at Carl's Jr. The kids had a blast and it was relatively low stress. After lunch and a little play time we continued on to the Nicklecade.

It was pretty crazy crowded since it was Saturday afternoon, but the kids didn't care and had a ton of fun. They ran around with their nickels and played games and everyone got enough tickets to get a prize or two. Talia and Beckett were mostly happy just riding the little ride on toys. It was nice having Grandma and Papa there to help wrangle all the little ones too.

When we were done at the Nicklecade we drove home for "cake" (Ding Dongs) and to open presents from friends. Davin got some fun stuff from his friends including a Nerf bow and arrow he wanted, rainbow loom bands, and a little Lego set. What a fun time celebrating with friends! We were all pretty tired by the end of the day.

Sunday was low key since it was stake conference. Ian, Grandma and the big boys went while I stayed home with the little ones. Beckett was pretty snotty and definitely needed a nap. Papa wasn't feeling good either and stayed home for a nap. Mel and Brad were going to come over for dinner and cake, but Mel wasn't feeling up to it, so it was just us for dinner, which was fine.

After dinner we did Davin's cake. It was just a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting (which he requested be green). He loved it and loved opening all of his presents! He got Legos and a camera from us. He also got a big Lego Superhero set from Grandma and Papa along with a smaller Star Wars set. Grandma B and Grandpa Bob sent him a silly fart book and cool Star Wars ice pop molds that look like lightsabers and actually light up and stuff.  One thing about Davin is that he is very easily excited. He had the cutest excited faces every time he opened something and would jump around saying "this is the exact thing dat I wanted!" I love him so much!

Monday morning Davin requested birthday french toast, so I made that for him and even got out the Special plate. He loved it. I felt horrible that I forgot to send his birthday treats with him (gummy bears), but he didn't seem too upset about it when he got home from school.  He told me it was ok if he brought them the next day.

After school Grandma and Papa took Davin and Talia with them and met up with Ian for lunch at In N Out. Beckett really needed to stay home and take a nap. That afternoon Davin put together Legos in the basement for hours. His friends kept coming by asking if he could play outside, but he said he didn't want to. He just wanted to keep working on his new Lego's. That boy gets really focused when he's working on a "project."

That night I made Davin's birthday dinner request of tuna burgers and we had more cake. He wanted to keep working on Lego's after dinner. Grandma and Papa decided to pack up and start driving that evening so it wouldn't be such a long driving day on Tuesday. They gathered up and we took some last pictures and said our goodbyes.  We are so glad they came! It was a really great visit and extra fun to have them here for Davin's birthday celebrations!

Motherboy

Every year the PTA at the kids' school puts on a mother and son activity. Last year it was a picnic and reptile show. This year they had a dance. It was a total blast! At the beginning the kids were all about getting cookies and standing against the wall, but then they had a demonstration of some break dancing and the performers taught us a few moves. After that ice breaker we were all ready to get our groove on.

The boys found their friends and ran around dancing with them and luckily I'm friends with the friends' moms. We had so much fun. It was like a stake dance for adults. About halfway through Davin wasn't feeling well and ended up lounging on the stage playing on my phone for about an hour, but Weston was completely into it. He got right in the middle of the big circle and busted a move. He pulled his shy friends out onto the dance floor and danced with me too. Even for a slow song. My mom friends and I shook it and sang along. Good times. Sorry for all the blurry pics but it was pretty dark inside.

Gangnam Style

Davin and his kindergarten posse (Holding hands! They are so cute.)

Weston practicing his break dancing skills.

Me and some of the hot mama dance crew. ;)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of anticlimactic after last year's big 30th bash, but it was still fun. I kicked off my birthday weekend with lunch and shopping at the outlets with my buddy Tara and her sister Tiffany. We had a great time together and it was nice to be out without kids. Thanks to Ian and Justin for watching the eight kids (separately at their own houses, but still)!

That evening Mel and Brad came over to hang for a little bit with the kids before we doubled for a fun birthday date. My kids sure love their Auntie and Uncle. Even Beckett was happy to see Brad and snuggled right up with him. :)

We went out for a fun night of bowling. My choice, of course. I love bowling! I forgot to bring socks, but the nice man at the counter gave me some for free since it was my birthday. I was embarrassingly excited about my "cool" birthday socks. We were silly and had fun bowling. We all did pretty well the first game too. By the second game Mel and I started to lose our edge and get tired, so the boys beat us pretty bad.

After that we had a little more time, but not enough to play another whole game, so we played Horse. Kind of. We agreed on a way to bowl before the frame then everyone did it and whoever got the most pins down won bragging rights until the next round. :) We bowled granny style, backwards and granny style, and under one leg.  We are such nerds!

After bowling we headed up to Red Robin for dinner since I wanted fried food! It definitely hit my happy fried food spot. Love their onion rings! They brought me a ginormous piece of mud pie for my birthday dessert too.  It was a super fun way to celebrate. I'm so glad Mel and Brad could go with us. They're so fun. :)

Sunday was a pretty mellow day and then my actual birthday was Monday. It was mostly a regular Monday, but I did meet up with Ian after my Sam's Club run for lunch at In N Out. I also picked myself up some cake bites at the Sweet Tooth Fairy. Yum. That afternoon I finally got Talia down for a nap and curled up on the couch to watch a little bit of Jane Eyre. I tried not to do anything boring like clean. That night we went to Dickies for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook. Then I got to open my presents (I got an ice cream maker and fun movies). Ian got me an amazing ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. It made me feel fancy since we didn't do store bought ice cream cake ever growing up. It was really yummy too.  It was a good day and now I'm 31. The end.

Mish Mash

This post is a hodge podge of random thoughts and stuff we've been doing recently and not so recently. Enjoy!

About a month ago I gave away this changing table dresser. After serving us well with four babies and going through two moves it was on it's last legs. The bottom drawer was useless and it was wobbly and dinged up. I had gotten a "new" 4 drawer dresser from my neighbor for free, so I decided to pay it forward and give this changing table away. It went to a good home in my neighborhood. Once it was gone I had a little moment of mourning the fact that my baby days are pretty much over. Somehow Beckett must have sensed it because he woke up the rest of that week crying in the night and I got to rock him back to sleep.  And I loved every second of it because it is truly almost over.

I got new glasses! I was very excited about this because I had gotten a new pair of glasses last year that never fit my face correctly and I was dying for a pair that wouldn't fall off every 5 seconds. I love my new ones and they way they fit. They are the biggest frames I've had since elementary school but I think they are kind of nerdy chic and I love the slight cat eye. Anyway, fun stuff.  Now I can actually wear my glasses on days I need a break from my contacts!

This kid. He's hilarious and mellow and sweet. He loves his Lego's. He was so excited about his Lego pen creation. He wanted a picture printed out of him with it and I think I will oblige just because he is so darn cute. I'm enjoying having Davin home with me half the day since he's so easily entertained. The biggest annoying thing about Davin right now is that he is a big time cryer. He cries about everything. Every time I tell him to turn off a screen he's crying. Every time it's time to come home from a friend's house or do a job he's crying. It gets old, but at least I get good snuggles from him when he's calmed down.

Last weekend Ian and I went out on a date to Provo. We only live 20 minutes away but we seriously never go there. We got my wedding ring cleaned, ate dinner at Burger Supreme, then enjoyed a BYU gymnastics meet at the Smith Fieldhouse. I swear I hadn't been in the Fieldhouse since my graduation almost ten years ago. It was kind of weird. And it seemed smaller than I remembered it. Anyway, the meet was fun. I always love watching gymnastics. Afterwards I wanted a treat so we stopped at Krispy Kreme for a hot, fresh donut. I was feeling generous so we also got a dozen donuts to take home. The kids were pretty excited when they got donuts and cartoons on Saturday morning. :)

You know I'm not much of a fashionista, but I ordered this cute scarf awhile back and I finally found a good day to wear it for the first time. This is the first scarf I've owned whose main purpose isn't to keep my neck warm in the cold. I thought it looked really cute and it made me feel so fashionable. I might have to get another color and wear them more often!

The kids had Monday off school this week for a teacher development day. I really wasn't sure what the heck we were going to do all day, but luckily Auntie Mel had the day off and met up with us for lunch at Chick Fil A. We had a great time! After lunch we stopped at the mall so I could go to Sephora and get a few makeup items I had run out of. The kids were relatively well behaved while I got my stuff and checked out so we stayed at the mall and played in the dino playground area. Beckett was in heaven. I even let them play on the ride on toys and splurged for a shared ride on that green train. The kids always beg to ride those things then think they are pretty lame when they actually do the ride. Sigh. It ended up being a really nice day off. After the mall the boys went to their friends' house to play while the babies napped and I got the house cleaned up. Then we were all home that night for dinner, FHE and baths. :)

This is what we woke up to on Tuesday. Sheesh! It was 64 degrees on Monday and we were all playing outside in our sandals, but Utah weather is crazy and I knew we weren't done with the snow, so I wasn't too surprised. The snow had stopped and was all melted by the time Davin got home from Kindergarten, so no lasting misery for us. Thank goodness.

The next couple of weeks are going to be kind of crazy with birthdays (mine and Davin's), church stuff, a baby shower I'm throwing at my house, and Ian going to Chicago for work. Then we are heading to California for a fun filled, warm Spring Break!

Healthy!

I think it's time for a fitness update. I have a few things to report. Nothing super crazy, but I feel like I am making progress to a healthier me. Let me start by saying I have not lost any weight. This is frustrating, but I'm trying really hard to remember it's just a number that matters less than how I am feeling and looking. 

Now is a good time for an update because tomorrow is the last day of the 6 week bootcamp challenge I've been doing. I am lame and missed a few of my personal training sessions at the beginning of bootcamp, so I didn't get my "starting" measurements done until halfway through. That means that the progress I'm seeing is just in the last 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure I made progress in the first 3 weeks too, but I'll never know how much. However, in the last 3 weeks I lost 1.7 pounds of fat, gained 1.4 pounds of lean muscle, and lost 1% body fat. I am feeling pretty proud of that.

Sorry if this grosses you out.

When bootcamp is over the awesome gym RIGHT by my house is closing. Such a bummer!  I am going to be doing a few classes and a few days of working out at home each week. I'm so glad I have to option to work out at home! I'll do a cardio sculpt class on Mondays, Zumba Wednesday and Saturday, plus a couple days of elliptical and hand weights at home. I may even throw some Jillian Michaels videos in there for variety and weight training. I learned a lot of new ways to use my hand weights at bootcamp so I'm feeling pretty confident I can keep up a good fitness level without the strict format of bootcamp.

As far as nutrition goes, I'm still using My Fitness Pal and keeping track of what I eat. I still eat things I love. I still eat out. I try not to eat out as often. I try not to eat as much of what I love (since I love chocolate), but I don't believe in cutting those things out completely. Life's not worth living if you can't eat good food. :) I am pretty excited about my new diet addition . . . green smoothies!

I have wanted to try them for awhile, but my ten year old cheap Oster blender wasn't up to the task of making a decent smoothie. I looked up reviews and asked friends about the Ninja Professional blender since it seemed like the best lower budget blender for making smoothies (obviously the most highly recommended blenders were the Blendtec and the Vitamix, but they run $300-500). I found it at Best Buy, which was perfect because we had a gift card we could use to lower the cost even more.

I bought smoothie ingredients during my Sam's Club trip on Saturday then picked up the blender that night while I was out with some girls in my neighborhood. Sunday morning I made my first smoothie. I had asked on Facebook for recipes and looked on Pinterest. I started with the most simple recipe. Unfortunately it didn't taste very good because it didn't have any dairy in it.

Day 1 Smoothie: 1 c. water, 1 banana, 1 c. frozen blueberries, 1-2 c. spinach
Verdict: Blech.
I didn't blend it long enough so I ended up chewing it. It also didn't have dairy to help cover the spinach taste. I won't make this one again.

Day 2 Smoothie: 1 c. vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, 2 c. frozen pineapple mango blend, some skim milk, some apple juice, 2 c. spinach
Verdict: SO yummy!
This one was a hit! We will be making it often. Everyone loved it except Weston who just can't get over that all of these smoothies have spinach in them. Davin is the biggest fan. He drank a cup of it with his breakfast then another cup of it with his lunch. I also thought this one was the prettiest. The kids were calling it a slurpee.  I was very happy they were willing to drink it!

Day 3 Smoothie: 1 c. strawberry yogurt, 1 c. skim milk, 1 c. apple juice, 2 c. frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana, 2 c. spinach
Verdict: Ok. Kind of bland.
This one turned a weird brownish color and the boys couldn't help making gross comments about it. It tasted ok. Not terrible but not as flavorful as Day 2. It needed more flavor than just strawberry I think.

Day 4 Smoothie: 1 c. vanilla yogurt, 1 1/2 c. cranberry pomegranate juice, 2 bananas, 1 1/2 c. frozen blueberries, 2 c. frozen strawberries, 2 c. spinach
Verdict: Delicious
This one was a prettier color. A little more purple. It had better flavor than Day 3 and had a nice thick consistency. You couldn't taste the spinach in it at all. Downside to this one is that it has a little more sugar in it than the others. I will make it again though.

Day 5 Smoothie: 2 scoops chocolate Slim Fast powder, 2 c. skim milk, 1 c. frozen blueberries, 1 c. frozen strawberries, 1 banana, 2 c. spinach
Verdict: Ok.
This was only ok. I will need to tweak it a bit. I think it would be better with just one scoop of Slim Fast. Also this one needed some ice, but I didn't have any. Still not bad and Davin liked it. He drank the leftovers at lunch.

So far green smoothies have been great. They are right up my alley for a healthy breakfast since my preferred breakfast was a Slim Fast shake, but this is even better since it has so many more nutrients in it and uses mostly whole foods. I would like to experiment with adding fiber (oats) and protein (flax, chia seeds, or possibly protein powder) to make them more filling. I am hoping that we will find a recipe that Weston likes too since my kids never eat enough veggies. If I can sneak in some spinach with breakfast that's awesome! Davin is my best veggie eater so it's not surprising he's the biggest fan of the green smoothies. Talia will also drink it at breakfast most days.

I definitely recommend the Ninja too! Our smoothies have been nice and smooth and it's really easy and fast. The Ninja is even pretty quiet for a 1000 watt appliance. It is not super expensive either. It's $100 at Best Buy and Amazon, but I've seen promotions on it in the past. I've seen it go as low as 79.99. Or you could get a great deal on it at Kohl's with a coupon and Kohl's cash.

I am excited for the next phase of my journey. I am feeling good about myself and the progress I'm making and I hope to drag the rest of my family along with me. And hey! It's March and I'm still keeping up with my New Year's goals! Amazing. Check in with me again in June and we will see how I'm doing. :)

President's Day

Ian actually had President's Day off this year! Woohoo! It's been awhile since he's had a paid holiday that he has actually not had to work. It was a fun day having him home to hang out with. We did a little cleaning and stuff around the house, then decided to take the kids out for ice cream with their Baskin Robbins gift cards that they got from Grandma B and Grandpa Bob in their Valentine's Day cards. Talia and Davin both chose rainbow sherbert, but neither of them actually finished their ice cream. Weston got cookie dough and I got peanut butter and chocolate. Beckett happily munched on all of our sugar cones and refused to eat any bites of the scoop of gold medal ribbon ice cream I got for him. Silly baby. 

After ice cream we detoured to Target because Davin had his heart set on buying a little Lego set he saw at the check out last time we were there. I didn't kid myself about browsing through Target with all four kids in tow, so we got the Lego set and a couple mini rolls of cute wrapping paper from the dollar spot then headed home.

That night we got a babysitter. Ian and I grabbed dinner at Zupa's and some cakebites at Sweet Tooth Fairy then went and got massages at Massage Envy. We had a gift card for 90 minute massages that we were excited to have time to use! It was a good massage and very timely since I had a really sore muscle in my shoulder that made it hurt to turn my head to the left. I had the guy work on it for awhile and it felt a lot better afterwards. Woohoo for two date nights in one long weekend! I love getting to head out with just Ian. He's a good date. ;)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Every once in awhile I capture a precious moment on film (well not really since this is a camera phone picture). I am always surprised when I manage to do this. I was so glad that this photo turned out and that I have photographic evidence of my children being sweet and loving to each other. This was taken after morning family prayer. We were all in various stages of eating breakfast and working on homework when Ian was ready to head out the door, so we had family prayer at the kitchen table. After prayer we usually do loves, so the kids all got up and gave Daddy loves and then were giving each other loves.

It must have been a miraculous morning because Talia was a willing participant in this group hug. It is also miraculous that all four of the kids are dressed! This picture makes my heart swell up big. I look at it often because most moments in our home are not this sweet and loving. I wish they all were, but this is real life here folks and most of the time at least one of these kids is frowning or crying. In the meantime, I'm printing this in black and white and putting it in the frame on the piano so I can refer to it as much as I want to remind myself that we all really love each other and that all of the hard, exhausting, disciplining days are so worth it for moments like this.