A Wedding Reception for Bryce

We packed the kids in the little Corolla (to save on gas) and hit the road to California for Bryce and Serena's reception and wedding. We were so excited for this big event. We love us some Bryceeeee.

The drive went um, awesome, amazingly enough. We got to Laura's and the kids were thrilled and remained thrilled to stay at their cousin's house for the weekend. The next morning (Friday) we got to work. Landon and Scott got to work babysitting all the kids and building Laura and Brian a new TV console and the girls all got to work cutting fruit, setting up tables, decorating and getting everything ready for the evening.

It was beautiful. Mostly, Serena was beautiful, but the flowers and decor were nice too. The food was delish. Of course it was, Landon and Sarah made homemade ice cream for sundaes. Can't go wrong. And the fixings for sundaes went right . . . . right into my mouth, at least two helpings worth.

Here is a view of it all:Brielle meeting her new baby cousin, Alexander Scott.
Me and my favorite boy.

Ok, did you see that chocolate fountain and a counter full of ice cream sundae fixings? And these girls got Taco Bell.
The men's corner.
Our Aunt Terri (who we were all so excited and so grateful to have there) and Serena's mom (you can see where she gets her looks).
Zachary providing some mood music.
Another couple in love. Next in line for the altar.
It was a good night. We ditched the clean up efforts to take kids home and put them to bed so we would be ready for the big day the next day.

Can We Get Some Sleep Around Here?

We have had some major sleep issues at our house lately. We've had about a month of sleepless nights. It is awful. We just need one decent night's sleep!!! And who is keeping us up all night?

Culprit #1 - ZacharySure. He's cute and all, but the poor guy has had a continuous ear infection since turning one in September. He starts acting grumpy, miserable, runny nose, no eating, no sleeping and we know he has an ear infection. Brian checks his ears at a Sunday family dinner or something and calls in a prescription. He finishes the prescription and we have a few days of a laughing, running, sleeping, happy boy . . . . but then the infection is back and we start all over.

Last week the double ear infection was made worse by a virus that kept Zachy (and me) up with a very high fever and a lot of coughing. Not fun.


Culprit #2 - AvaOh how this girl is killing us. She has never been the best of sleepers, but lately it is down right torturous. She also got the coughing and fever virus that made it hard for her to sleep. What's worse though is that for the past month she wakes up in the middle of the night with night terrors. She is kicking and yelling and crying. There is nothing we can do to calm her down and she is completely irrational. We have ended up bringing her to sleep with us sometimes and that definitely calms her enough to sleep the rest of the night. She sleeps. We don't because she is rolling and kicking and taking up a king size bed with her little 3 year old body. We are trying a few different "tricks" right now to see if we can prevent the night terrors, but from all we've read we just have to let her outgrow it.

Until then, we're not sleeping. Agggghhhh.

Big Days

Two very significant events have happened at our house. Two things that have never happened before. Two days in history that will always be remembered.

One. On the day that BYU played San Diego I managed to have ALL THREE of my children dressed in BYU blue. They each agreed to wear their t-shirts and wore them all day long without complaint. Wow. It really was a miracle. The game was certainly fun to watch and it was made even better to finally have someone on my side.
Two. Scott and I joined Tawna when she received her patriarchal blessing. This really is a miraculous happening in someone's life and we felt very privileged and blessed to be there with her. Scott even cried during it (all the more fitting of the Roger role) and Tawna gave him the appropriate eye roll. We are so happy for Tawna and are so glad to know just how special she is.

Five Favorites

I have come up with some new favorites. Five to be exact.

1. The Table. My first favorite is our new table. Hip Hip Hooray! We can finally fit food and people at our kitchen table! Our old one was just getting too small. Scott and I bought our original table when we were first married and in a small apartment. Now we have three kids and a Tawna and a Korey to add to the dinner table. We also host Buchanan and Allred family dinners at our house once a month. There wasn't room for everyone to sit let alone actually have food on the table.

Sooooooooooo I started watching the classifieds and came upon this beauty about 20 minutes after she listed it. We considered it to be a great deal, so we bought it. They had only had it for 2 years and never used it so it was quite new.

It even has two leaves that turn it into a 10 foot table seating 12 comfortably. This is from Buchanan family dinner on Sunday.
My only concerns were that it is such a dark color wood in such a light oak wood kitchen. Scott is afraid I'm going to want to stain the whole kitchen. I'm not sure. Is it ok? Should I stain the banister?

The other concern was that it only came with four chairs. Soooooooooooooo, my other favorite thing, that just arrived this week is . . . . . a new 60" bench from Target that matches ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY. I was so excited that it worked. It'll fit four kids easy. It even has the black leather cushion top like the chairs. (I should note that Target is definitely a favorite also.)

2. The Lipstick. I've said it before and I will say it again, MAC is my favorite makeup. I tried Bare Minerals and just didn't love it as much. I wanted a new lipstick that was a lighter color. I bought two different ones (at Target) and didn't like them when I opened them and put them on. Thank Heaven for MAC. I was able to go to the counter, try a few on and finally found exactly what I wanted . . . . Viva Glam V. It is a great color.

3. The Water Bottle. Jessica was right about this one. She went on and on about what a great water bottle she had and now I get it. We own 4 Contigo water bottles now. It really is one of my favorite things. I carry this water bottle with me all around the house and in the car and in my bag. Everywhere. It holds plenty of water, it doesn't spill, it's dishwasher safe, the kids can't really backwash, it clips easily to things. Ask Jessica for further fabulous features. It's a good thing to have around for sure.

4. The Treadmill. So, you know how our treadmill caught on fire while I was running on it last October? We went without one until January and I really missed it. We were able to get a newer model (thank you Fidelity Fitness Reimbursement and Mom & Dad's Christmas money) and I'm in heaven. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning Zachary goes down for a nap at 10am. The girls and I head downstairs. I run 5 miles on the treadmill while I watch "Good Things Utah" and the girls play and play and play. The stay and play because I'm there. I can break up fights and have them clean up when they are done all from atop my treadmill. We even stretch together when I'm finished.

I don't know if I would get exercise done any other way with three small kids. I'm so very grateful for the treadmill in the basement.
The aftermath.

5. Almonds, Cashews and Chocolate. I seem to always have a favorite treat from Trader Joe's. This is a new one. It's just a mixture of almonds, cashews and chocolate. What could be better? Need I say more?


And of course, these three are for sure favorites. They were all sitting on the stairs reading together until Zachy saw the camera.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, just like every holiday, lasted for a full week and included a lot of candy. I was in charge of putting on our Playgroup's Love Day party. It was so fun. We decorated the house with heart doilies, heart helium balloons, shimmering hearts and all the other Valentine decor. We made heart shaped Jello Jigglers, sugar cookies and Fluffernutter sandwiches. We got games to play and a craft to do. We were all ready for all of our friends to come.

Zachy was excited for party time too.I don't have pictures because I was busy with 13 kids under the age of 5, but we did have some fun. We played Valentine's Twister and then Valentine's Bingo. Then we did a craft where we made Valentine's picture frames for them to give as a gift with their picture in it. The kids got to run wild and play for awhile (which is their favorite part anyway) and then we served all our heart shaped foods for lunch. After lunch we decorated and ate heart sugar cookies. Whew! Everyone went home, I wrapped everything on the table up in the plastic table cloth, threw it away and we were done. Brie and Ava actually did think that was Valentine's Day and it was done and over and it had been their "favorite day".

I could have avoided the actual day all together, but I didn't. The kids woke up Valentine's morning to a treat from us.
Brielle got to pass out Valentines in her preschool classroom and came home with a pile of loot to share with Ava. That evening they had a babysitter and a heart shaped pizza for dinner. I met Scott downtown to go out to dinner. The food was not great but the setting and being out together was wonderful.

To top off a lovely love day I watched the Bachelor with Tawna while I folded 3 loads of laundry. So very romantic!

BHS Cheerleader

Nope. Sorry to say, that is not Bakersfield High School, but Brighton High School. Brielle got to be a "real live cheerleader" for BHS at their boy's Varsity Basketball game.

We have a couple of girls in our ward who are cheerleaders for Brighton. Their fundraiser this year was a Cheerleading Clinic. We could sign our girls up for 3 different classes on cheering, dancing and tumbling. The cheerleaders taught them. Scott and I went for it for Brielle. She would love it, her friends were doing it too and we wouldn't have to buy cookie dough. Great idea!

Brie and her friends loved the classes/practices. I think for Brielle, she mostly loved feeling like she was hanging out with the teenage girls. She was beyond thrilled when she showed up the first day with a pony tail and white bow in her hair and she came running to me shouting "all the teenage girls have a white bow too!!!!!!" Absolutely thrilling.These are the two girls from our ward.
The big night finally came. The girls did some rehearsing and then out onto the floor for the half time performance. I can't say this was really a good night. Brielle hung onto one of the cheerleaders and wouldn't let go. Not because she was nervous, but was just playing around too much. We, as in me, Scott and a friend from church, got in a fight with a real jerk sitting by us in the stands. We both went home really mad and were bothered by it all weekend. Kind of ruined the night.

Brielle performed though when it came time . . . . and she had so much fun. So that is what matters. Go Brighton Bengals!

5 Years Old and Proud Of It!

Brielle at 5 years old.

Weight: 34 lbs. 4 oz.
Height: 42 1/4 inches

At her 5 year old doctor appointment Brielle was weighed and measured and asked to write her name and draw a picture and jump on one foot and read an eye chart and more. She passed it all with flying colors . . . . until Dr. Brian did the hearing test.

Scott had been wondering about Brielle's hearing for a couple of weeks. I just kept thinking she was distracted or just not wanting to hear us. She did one hearing test and failed. She did a more accurate one in a different room and failed. I sat looking at her getting really sad thinking she was slowly going deaf and when would her hearing be totally gone and how will I learn sign language. Then Brian looked in her ears and found a HORRIBLE ear infection in one and TONS of ear wax in the other. They irrigated one ear and she's been on Amoxicilin for the other. We'll go back and test her hearing, but I can already tell all is well with her hearing.

We went to take her 5 year old pictures and Brielle absolutely adored getting to pose for the camera. Loved it! Can you tell? The lady put her in all kinds of poses, but the top picture is the one she let Brie choose and yep, it's my favorite. It is very her!

Fishes!

We made a visit to the Aquarium. It is one of our things to do in the winter when it is cold and snowy outside. We tried to go months ago, but it must have been a school holiday because there was a line out the door. When I explained why we weren't going in to the girls they heard " big lion" at the door instead of "big line". They were just fine not to go in. They have been talking forever about the BIG LION outside the Aquarium and were glad to hear it was gone for us to go this time. Phew!

And I'll say, I'm glad I waited. They have really stepped things up there. The new penguin exhibit was FANTASTIC! We saw all the jelly fish, seahorses, sting rays, sharks, sea turtles, salmon and eels you could see. We watched them feed the sting rays, but neither Brie or Ava were brave enough to reach in and pet one. Zachary was though. He would have flung his whole body in if we would have let him. We also watched the feeding of the penguins. I was mesmerized. They were so cute and so fast in the water. We even saw them "courting" as the keepers want them to start mating. Fascinating.

Jelly FishCoral Cave play area
Rowing through the Amazon jungle.
Little does he know, but Zachary has an alligator above his head.
Sea turtles and sharks.
Diving in to swim with the Sting Rays.
The feeding of the penguins. Check them out. They are all swimming in the water to get the fish she is throwing in. So cool.
And again, clueless to a penguin above his head.