SAHM Moments

I stay home with my kids. It sounds pretty basic. Boring even. And sometimes it is. But most of the time it's challenging and chaotic and exhausting (both physically and emotionally). I have been trying to pay attention to the little things more often though. I am so incredibly grateful to live the life I do and to be here for all the small moments as I watch my kids learn and grow and find joy in the world around them.

Beckett's first time coloring on purpose as a fun activity. I helped get him started with the "B." He's not a child prodigy or anything.

We had a no screen day last week and it was wonderful. Harder in a lot of ways but so great. We will definitely be doing it more often. I spent the whole day engaged as a mom, which I don't always do. We read books and played outside. The kids' favorite thing though is climbing on me. This game lasted a good 45 minutes.

Talia has been wanting to go to the "big park" lately. There is a smaller playground in the middle of our neighborhood, but she wanted to walk to the big playground with swings over by our church building. It was a nice day outside so we all trucked over to the park along with Davin's friend, Matthew. Then Talia's friend, Ellie, met us there. They were so funny making this slide train over and over again. I was surprised Talia didn't mind having people smashed up against her. I was not surprised at all that the boys loved it.

I taught Davin how to make cheese rolls with the uncooked flour tortillas. He was SO excited to learn and use that spatula. He can't reach the knobs to turn on the stove though so he still needs help but I'm ok with that. :)

Weston and Talia get along really well. Weston is usually really sweet with her and is willing to play with her outside, take her to the little park, etc. She likes to snuggle with him sometimes too. I think it's adorable. I hope he continues to be a kind big brother over the years.

While coloring a few days ago I asked Talia if she could write her name. She always tells people her name then says "it's T-L-A." I always correct her. We will see if she gets the hang of it the more we practice. Here's her first attempt.

Talia Boo

Miss Talia Boo is obsessed with McDonalds. She won't eat the food but she loves to play on the play place.  Unfortunately it is really convenient to let Tal and Beck play at the McDonald's around the corner from gymnastics. We go there almost every week. I usually buy a smoothie and let the kids sip on it while they play. The other nice thing about it is that it's usually pretty empty since we go between 4 and 5pm. Last week the place was empty and the kids had a blast going on the slides over and over again. Talia was being happy and silly. I love this silly girl!

Spirit Week

Every year the kids' school does Spirit Week. The boys absolutely love it. I usually forget about it. Luckily I kept the flyer with all the different days this year. I also really appreciated that the days were all relatively easy to participate in. No elaborate costumes or weird props. There was crazy hair day, hat day, 80's/Neon day, pajama day, and Fox Hollow day (wear your school shirt or school colors). The boys loved getting to wear different things to school. 

They especially liked 80's/Neon day. I helped them do their hair with the "wave." I vaguely remembered this hairstyle from my friend Jeff Stewart who is about four years older than me. I thought it looked pretty weird back then, but Weston loved it and now tries to comb his hair that way most days. Haha. Davin's wave turned mostly into a fauxhawk, but it still looked pretty cute. Weston thought the sunglasses added a nice touch.

I was surprised that the boys chose to wear their matching pj's for pajama day, but it was adorable. I couldn't not take a picture. :) I sure love these goofball boys!

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!