Dash update

I have to do a quick journaling update on my sweet chubby dash. He is getting so big so fast. He will be one in two weeks!! He has been walking since he was 10 months old and is really fast to get places now. He is my "little tornado" and is constantly getting into things he shouldn't! Last week I heard him saying "uh-oh" (his favorite thing to say) over and over from the bathroom. I go in there to see what the problem was and I saw maias piano notebook ripped up and thrown in tht toilet. Awesome. This is what happens on a daily basis. I just follow him around putting out fires I swear! He is getting so much personality. He can sign more, milk, sleep, dog, potty (just started signing this one today:), dad, all done.... He is really quick to pick up on things! He can say uh oh, dada, mama, and he tries to say Jesus and doggie while he makes a noise like he is barking like a dog:) 

He takes two good Naps a day and goes to bed for the night around 7 and wakes up around 630. He loves to play and interact with his older siblings and is getting to be more of an active part of what they are doing. He loves loves loves to be outside. He cries when we come in or when I shut the door to prevent him from going out. He is still my "chubby" as I like to call him, but he is thinning out since he has started walking/running everywhere. He loves his blankies and drinking milk from a sippy cup. He is busy and crazy but an easy going content kid:) we love him so much. He has bumps and bruises all the time because of how active he is! Just part of being a little boy I guess! Church is a huge challenge with him as he will only sit still for 2 mins tops. He does love the singing and will sing right along with it which is really cute. He is a good water and loves avocados, cucumbers, corn, beans, strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears, oranges, blueberries, grapes, carrots... Tonight I made rolls and he wouldn't eat them!! My only child who doesn't like rolls. I have to ration them out with the others! I'm aure thay will change:) anyway he is a sweet boy and we love him so much! 

Dash Update

Dash is such a happy, content, sweet baby. He is chubby and squishy and we can't get enough of him. He babbles and talks and laughs all the time. He is crawling fast everywhere now and is into everything. He wears me out so much sometimes I find myself really really looking forward to nap times and bedtime:) he loves to crawl up the stairs and does really well but doesn't know how to get back down. He pulls himself up to standing on everything and has even started pulling away and balancing for a few seconds. 

          His favorite things are pulling my scrapbook paper off the shelf, digging through the drawer that has kids dishes in it, pulling things off the lowest shelf in the pantry, climbing stairs, splashing in the tub, snuggling his blankies, playing with his siblings, copying is when we click our tongues or breathe in and out of our nose really fast (he is really good at both of these things:), playing with his sit and learn chair... He truly is such a joy. A busy one, but a joy none the less:) he is a pretty good eater for the most part. 

          Some of his favorite foods include: avocados, olives, oranges, peaches, pears, strawberries, blueberries, beans... He's not a fan of carrots, broccoli (although he will eat those in baby food form). He also loves eating a whole graham cracker. 

       He now has 4 teeth with more breaking through. He almost completely weaned himself about a month ago when his top teeth were breaking through and he was biting... The natural reaction from me of course is to gasp and scream out in pain and he took offense;).  He eventually forgave me and went back to nursing.  It was a rough couple days tho in the meantime! 

    A few pictures of our happy chubby boy.  His smile is so infectious! 

Orem Trip

Over the 4th of July David took the girls on a river trip with my family. Sienna and I stayed behind with our two youngest because we wanted to make life a little easier for our hubbies:) so instead of staying in the heat we went up to siennas house in Orem. It was so nice to be able to play outside all day and enjoy the cool evenings at night. 

One of masons most favorite things ever... The Escalade... He is actually quite a good driver! It doesn't hold a charge for very long so we had to plug it in a lot. Mason would get impatient waiting and would constantly ask "is that thing loaded?" Meaning is it charged:) 

Mason scored this pretend knife from his cousins house. He didn't let it leave his side (or pocket really) the whole time! 

We went to a splash pad and I was amazed at how much dash loved it. He crawled all over the place letting the water spray his face and everything! 

Look at this chubby boy. That is my nickname for him... My Chubby... Love baby rolls! 

My sister kept my kids so I could go shopping at Ikea all by myself! It was wonderful. I had tried to go with them the day before and it was a nightmare (hungry, tired kids+Mom forgot snacks=unhappy kids) The kids played outside in the water and had a much more fun time then they would have shopping with me:) 

My little brother babysat the older kids so sienna and I could go shopping with his new wife Lacee. It was so fun. He made a water slide out of the slide in their backyard and it was a big hit! 

It was such a fun few days and went by so fast. I love being close to family and letting my kids have cousin play time. Those relationships are the best! Oh and a quick cute story from the weekend before I forget. This is a conversation I overheard between star and mason. I came in at the end of it so I'm not sure what exactly they were talking about but this is what I heard: 

Mason: "why?"

Star: "because"

Mason "why?" 

Star: (a little louder) "because"

Mason "why?"

Star: (clearly annoyed now) "BECAUSE!!!"

Mason: "wow you're rude." And he walks off. So hilarious. 

Stickers

Dash is just starting the mobile phase and subsequently the "get into everything" phase. I always forget how exhausting it is to constantly be checking on where he is, what he might have in his mouth, etc. This particular day he had gotten into a pack of stickers in the office. I'm not sure how he managed to get them all over himself like this, but what you see is ALL his own doing. We got a good laugh out of it! 

Ryken's wedding

My little brother got married at the end of June. It was a extremely busy and fun weekend. It's hard to believe he is all grown up!! I love spending time with family and it was so fun to see not only my immediate family but also extended family that I haven't seen for a while. I was actually good about taking a few pictures with my real camera for once so the two below are the only ones I captured from my phone (hence the poor quality) 

Does it get any cuter than this face?! Love my baby Dash:) 

BMX bike park

Maia was staying at a cousins house for the week so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some one on one time with Elsie.  I feel like she all too often gets lost in the mix of things. She is so easy going and rarely complains but I just had been feeling like she needed some time with just me. She decided she wanted to go to this little bmx bike park here. We got all loaded up to go when mason came out feeling sad because he wasn't coming. I told him he had to ask Elsie if he could come. He did and she said "well okay sure" and he was so excited. He gave her the biggest hug and said "you're the best Elsie!!" It was sweet. So it ended up being a double date;) it was so fun. The kids loved riding aroun and going down the "big hill". Mason is a champ on his strider balance bike. I am amazed at how well he has mastered it. He stands up on it, stops it with the back of his heel while standing, cruises amazingly fast and is just really a master at it! 

    We finished the night off at Ice Box, a little sno cone shack here. Everything was perfect until I didn't want to wait an hour for the kids to eat their GIANT sno cone (we had already been there 20 mins!!) so I said the kids could just ride in the back of the truck and eat it on the way home (it's literally just down the street from our house) they were super excited about that idea... Until they actually did it... We got home and I got out of the truck to find two crying, sad, and really sticky kids haha. The turns and bumps had spilled their sno cones and it was everywhere and they were NOT happy. Mom fail. Oh well the rest of a night was perfect:) 

Mason

I need to journal a few things about mason at this stage or I will forget them. He recebtly turned 3 and is becoming more and more of a rambunctious boy. He can be super stubborn and difficult at times. One particularly hard day he was throwing the biggest fit and I took him aside (we happened to be at Maia's school watching her in a relay race) and put him in a timeout to talk to him about his behavior. In the middle of my frustration, I had the thought to just tell him "I love you mason" and then tell him what we were going to do when we got out of time out. Those little words "I love you" changed him. He responded sooooo well to that love. He calmed down, stopped throwing a fit, and was so much better behaved. That was a few months ago but it has still stuck with him. Anytime he knows I'm starting to get upset he will say in a sweet, quiet voice "I love you mom" and it reminds me to calm down. When he feels himself starting to get upset he will say "I love you mom". Or if he is really angry and frustrated and I say those 3 words to him, he almost immediately changes and through tears says "I love you" back to me. My favorite is when he says "I love you in the whole wide world mom". He really is such a tender hearted and sweet boy. 

Another thing he has been saying a lot lately is "keep an eye on it". Like if he has to leave the room for something he will ask me to "keep an eye" on his food or something like that. It's so funny. "Mom will you keep an eye on that for me?" He will ask. He just wants to make sure no one is going to take his stuff:) 

His favorite scripture and bedtime story as of late is Ammom. What little boy doesn't love that story?! David tells it to him every night before bed. It's really sweet. Well mason found these cardboard tubes and made them into his "sword" and wants to fight David lately. He gives David a sword and then yells "I'm Ammon!!" And starts cutting off David's arms:) I love how he yells out "I'm Ammon!" He is all boy through and through. He needs that rough house interaction daily. Our next door neighbors (who had 2 boys that mason absolutely adored!) just moved and it's been sad for him. He honestly played with them every day and they mean the world to him. They were always playing sports, wrestling on the tramp, riding bikes, you name it. I hope I can find some boys for him to have play dates with because he certainly needs it. He plays well with the girls for a while, but then starts to get to crazy for them and tries to tease and big them (which he succeeds at every time!) and then they end up in a fit. Anyway here is mason playing "Ammon" 

Jumping cholla

Mason had a horrible run in with a "jumping" cholla cactus the other day. We had been shooting his rubber band gun and a rubber band went into our neighbors yard. He went to go get it and was being so cautious to the big cactus plants they have. But he didn't notice some of the balls that had fallen off the main plant and onto the ground. I was in the garage and heard this blood curdling scream. I run out there to see this giant cacti ball embedded in masons calf. I thought it would be an easy fix so I grabbed my gardening gloves and quickly put them on, thinking I could just grab it and pull it off. It didn't budge and it poked me like crazy so I knew I had to do something way different. Long story short I ended up having to literally yank out each prickly thorn with tweezers, being careful to keep his leg elevated and away from the cactus as I pulled it out or it would get re-stuck. Poor mason was crying so hard and shaking in pain, but he miraculously sat still for me and allowed me to pull them all out. He was so brave. I kept telling him that and he would get so mad and say "no I not!!" I researched the cactus afterwards and found out that they are so hard to get out because once the prickles penetrate the skin they basically curve, creating a hook, so they are securely lodged in there and extremely difficult to get out. Hope we don't ever have to do it again! 

11 years

On April 18th David and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary. It's crazy to think that we have been married for that long! Here's what we've done in those 11 years:

-Lived in 4 states and moved 5 times. 

-Endured undergraduate schooling 

-endured dental school 

-had 4 kids

-bought a dental practice 

-bought our first home

I guess that sums up the really big life events.. That I can think of right now anyway:) 

We celebrated by going to dinner at a nice steakhouse here. I even had. We had a babysitter for the older kids and then a friend had offered to take Dash so we were actually able to really enjoy the evening without any distractions which hardly ever happens these days. 

I'm so blessed to be married to David. He is such a good man. An excellent husband and father. He is a hard worker and attentive to me and the kids. He is good and going with the flow and keeping things balanced around here as I can too easily stress out about things. I couldn't have asked for a better partner! 

Highland Manor Service

Over spring break I organized a little service project for the kiddos, thanks to an idea from a friend. We first met at a park and painted flower pots and planted flowers in them. Then we went to a local nursing home and delivered them to the residents there. It was a good experience for the kids! I want to make it an annual thing, it was such a hit with the kids as well as adults. On a sidenote.. Mason is going through a phase where he does NOT want to be in pictures. I love that I still captured him on the very edge of this picture:) he would have been furious if he had known. 

Pool time

We have already braved the swimming pool a few times this year! Well, correction, the KIDS have braved the pool. I have observed them from the lounge chairs... See picture below:) we are sure going to love having a pool this summer and get lots of good use out of it I can already tell! 

Soccer

Well soccer season has officially ended. It's always bittersweet.  I'm ready to have my Saturdays back, but it sure is fun watching the girls play and to see how much they have improved. Maia has improved so much since starting 2 years ago. In the beginning, she was reserved and timid and didn't like to be in the middle of any of it. She was fine to sprint down the field and kick the ball as long as there weren't any other players around:) Now she gets right in the middle of it all. In fact today I overhead twooms talking and one of them said "she's mean!" About Maia. It really bothered me... She's not MEAN, she's just aggressive! That's how you play the game! I get tired of parents who complain about everything or think their kid needs to be babied. What ever happened to buck up?! Anyway, I'm so proud of her aggressiveness and her hard work this season. This picture is from tournament day. They had three games (9am, 10am, and 12 noon) to determine if they made it to the championship game. They won two of the three so they played the championship game at 3 pm. The poor girls were so tired. It was a long hot day in the sun for sure. Her team is really good tho and they played so hard! Maia had two awesome goals (the only two of the game!!!) but their team ended up losing by one point in overtime. Maia was so sad. She cried after. She wanted that big trophey so bad. She told me how hard she had tried and how bad she had wanted to win:(. It was a hard loss! But such is life. Have to accept it and move on:) (and DQ blizzards always help with that;) anyway, I'm just really proud of her and how far she has come. It's so fun to watch her play! 

Not to leave miss Elsie out... She has improved a ton this season as well!! I somehow got suckered into being the coach for her team. That was exhausting/fun. I think it helped her break out of her shell a little having me right there on the field. Last season, she basically just stood on the field with her fingers in her mouth, doing nothing. This time around she was really getting into it! This age group is hard to coach and get them to stay focused but they did a good job. I grew to really love the kids on the team. Elsie even scored a really great goal today! She was so proud of it:) She played in 3 games today, so between her and Maia we had 7 games... Long and exhausting day! But I wouldn't have it any other way and I know its only going to get busier as the boys get old enough to play sports. It's so great to have the kids involved in sports and watching them learn and grow.  Now were on to tball/coach pitch.... First time trying it out so we will see how it goes:) 

Dash

This sweet, happy boy is almost 5 months old already!! I can't believe how fast it has gone. Some little facts about Dash right now:

He is such a happy, mellow baby  

He almost always has his fingers in his mouth (or anything else he can get in there!)

He is constantly smiling and laughing

He is chubby and squishy. Weighs about 15.5 lbs (60%) 

He has THE worst smelling gas in the world. It's amazing the smell that can come from this sweet little thing!

He can roll over and does so immediately after you set him down. 

He is starting to really love his door jumperoo thing

He loves any attention people will give him and will kind of fake cry until someone starts talking to him 

He lost most of the beautiful dark hair he had at birth but is starting to grow some fuzz back in. 

He is now pretty squirmy in my arms if I'm just standing there holding him

He is growing up too fast and I wish I could stop time!! 

I love him to the moon and back! 

Elsie turns 5!!

Miss Elsie turned 5 on march 14th. This was her year for a birthday party and since every child is obsessed with Frozen right now, she wanted a Frozen birthday party. She had quite the invite list... Wanted boys and girls to come this time... So we ended up with about 13 little ones here! It was a success tho. This first picture is on her actual birthday. We went up to St. George for her birthday dinner at the restaurant of her choice... Pizza Factory of course! They make the pizzas into the number of your age which is pretty fun. Elsie is my free spirited girl and it's hard to get a serious picture from her:) 

The rest of the pictures are from her party. I commissioned David to draw Olaf for our pin the carrot on Olaf game. He did amazing!! 

Melted snow to drink... 

Elsa crowns for the girls and Sven antlers for the boys 
Ice crystal suckers...

Party favor... Snowman building kit...

The decor... Snowflakes, white tissue paper "snowballs" and paper chains which was supposed to look like snow falling. I'm always too busy during the actual party to get any good pictures so there are none of the kids or activities we did:( i was lucky I grabbed my phone to snap the ones I did get before it all started! Overall it was a success! Elsie had a great time and I was completely worn out afterwards. How it goes right?