Spring Break-Fairy Tale Town

I was really worried about Spring Break this year.  We wouldn't be able to go anywhere because of being so close to having Annie, but the kids had so many days off.  I guess I shouldn't have worried though because we had a great one!  The kids got along so great! They played together and had so much fun. It was actually kind of nice to not have them in school and have to rush around so much.  Nellie who I really worry about because she needs structure so bad and usually is so difficult during these times was really good too. Also I have an amazing ward and a few ladies took the girls a couple days to play while Russ was napping to give me a break. I wanted to do a couple of fun things with them that were out of the ordinary.  One of the days we went out to Kevin's work and had lunch with him which was so nice to see him during the day. Then we went to Fairy Tale Town which is one of the girls favorite places to go and I like it too because it is inexpensive.  It was extra fun this time too because Russ was big enough this time to actually participate.

 Russ would have gone down himself, but I wasn't going to let that happen.

 A favorite is the Old Woman Shoe slide.  They love it. Janie is still a little timid, but she still loved it too.

 I just think these kids are the cutest things ever!

 Russ really had a lot of fun and it was so fun that this time he was big enough to participate in most everything. They have a bunch of animals like the sheep for Little Bo Peep and The 3 little pigs and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. Russ loved them so much, but I think to him every animal is a dog, because ever time he sees one he just starts doing his little doggie bark. It is so funny that he seems to love dogs so much from a distance.  He is fascinated by them, but if one gets close to him he freaks out.

 I think sitting on the horses might have been Russell's favorite things. He kept coming back to them and having me lift him up so he could sit on them.

 One of the girls favorite things to do is water Mr. Macgregor's garden.  For some reason getting to use the little watering cans they just love.  I just noticed but I think maybe Janie needed to use the bathroom.  Just a guess.

Happenings

The girls had crazy hair day at school that they were so excited about.  I told Nellie about this way that I thought would be good and she wanted it.  I tried to get Lizzy to do it too, but her little friend was doing it this way and she has to do everything the same as her.  I try to tell her that it is okay to be different than your friends and that it doesn't change anything about your friendship but she just is too much of a people pleaser. Hopefully she will one day get it.  They were looking pretty cute in their crazy hair!

 Nellie's looked way crazy from behind.

 Russ just chillin with Dad. He just love love loves his Dad.

 We pulled out this bouncer for Annie and Russ has been in it constantly ever since!  He loves it, and thinks it is the coolest little seat to sit in.  For a while I was really worried about having Annie and that he was really going to struggle, but he is getting so big and seems to be understanding that there is a baby coming.  He even says Anne, it is really cute and he has even pointed to my belly when we ask him where Anne is.  I know he will still have a hard time, but I know he will do really well with her and love her.

Kevy makes some mean popcorn for us for our Friday movie night, and we have discovered that Russ is obsessed with popcorn, he loves it so much!  So here he was helping Kevy make the popcorn.  Anything to be with his dad!  Some other words that Russ can say that I forgot to put down before: bubble, eyes, ice, poop (he even brought us a diaper when he was poopy and said it, it was crazy!) bye, night night, big boy, all done, blankie, drink, milk, sisters, uh-oh. There are more but again, I can't remember all of them right now.  He just seems to be picking so many new ones up everyday, it is so fun to see him getting so big.

St. Patty's Day

I really like to do things that make the kids life fun and build memories, but I also don't want to overdo it and make it so they expect something huge all the time, and I want to try and remember my limits and remember that ultimately the most important thing is making sure my children always feel my love for them.  So I know that a lot of people do these huge things for St. Patricks day like a huge party and making a leprechaun trap, but I am good with giving them a green meal.  It is something that they think is pretty cool and it isn't too much extra work.  I let the girls make our decorations, which I think they actually like better than me decorating, plus it helps them stay busy.  We had Green mashed potatoes, green jello and salad, and then we I put some food coloring in sprite.  We also had pork chops, but I didn't color them because that just seemed too gross to me. And then we had green dirt cake for dessert.

 Janie was our little leprechaun, she wore the cute hat she made at preschool.  She also thought it was so funny that people call it St. Patty's Day because her teacher is Miss Patty.

 Russy sure had a good time eating his food. He absolutley loves mashed potatoes so he went to town on them, and the jello too.

 Kevy decided to set a bad example when I took his picture and show me his potatoes and the girls thought it was the most hilarious thing ever, so naturally they had to do it too.

Russ really enjoyed his dessert and even decided his nose needed a little taste too.

Buddy Bear

Oh my goodness do we love our Buddy Bear!  Russ is 17 months old now and I just can't believe how grown up he is starting to seem.  He really is starting to look and seem like a little boy rather than a baby.  Although he is still my baby and I just want to eat him up all the time!  He was never chubby, but he is really starting to thin out and get tall.  At his 15 month checkup he was 22 lbs. (15%) and 30.5 inches (25%)  I know not very big, but for one of my kids not too bad!  He is definitely bigger than all the girls were.  

It is crazy how different he is than the girls, which is so fun to have that difference!  He is so boy, it is crazy!  He loves sticks and dirt and balls and trucks and anything that he can use as a weapon.  So funny.  One of the funniest things that he likes to do is act like a monster.  He will start growling and chase the girls around. He has really picked up his talking lately too.  He can say Mom and Dad and all of his sisters names.  But lately he has started saying baby a lot and he says it so clearly.  If he gets a phone he picks it up and says Hi, Hello.  He says ball and he even recognizes when it is a baseball and can say baseball.  Which Kevy of course thinks is the coolest thing ever. I got him some baseball jammies and when he first saw the pants he started petting them and saying baseball.  He also says Santa and Big Boy, and raises his hands when he says that, and banana and night night.  He even has started saying Harry, as in Harry potter since Lizzy is so obsessed.  I know there are more I just can't think of them right now.

The thing he loves probably more than anything though is his dad.  He is a total daddy's boy.  When he hears Kevin get home from work he races to the front door screaming DADDY!  I love that he loves Kevin so much and even though it makes me a bit sad that he prefers Kevin every time over me, I am so glad that since they are the only boys they already have that special bond.

 I just thought he looked so cute sleeping here with his blankie and monkey,  he is super attached to his blank and if he has it his thumb automatically gets put in his mouth.  We have found a few more blankets that he will take, which is good because this one is getting hammered.

 Russy loves trying on glasses and wearing them.

 Another thing he really seems to like is the remotes and always is changing the channel on the girls, which drives them crazy.  These two are my little day buddies and are so fun to be with while the others are at school.

 The girls love playing with him outside, which is a good thing because he could spend every waking hour out there.  We have lever handles on our doors so I have to make sure I keep them locked at all times because he will be outside the first chance he gets.  The girls couldn't find his stroller so they put him in our fruit cart and were pushing him around.

 He is going through a bit of a picky phase with eating, which drives me nuts because he used to eat EVERYTHING!  And now stuff that he used to love he won't touch.  He is still a better eater than most kids but one of the things I can't ever get him to eat is bread, silly kid!  He does love frozen gogurts and another thing he really loves besides fruit, (all kinds) is Chips and Guacamole.  He loves that stuff.  Most babies I know don't really like chips that much but Russ sure does.

He really likes his treats too.  If he knows there is a treat he will not let us have some without him.  He is such a special boy,  I can't believe that he is already 17 months old.  Time is going by too fast and I just want it to stop so I can keeps these kids little a bit longer!  But we are really enjoying him getting bigger and seeing his super fun personality shining through!  We love him SO much!

President's Day

So for Presidents day we had a four day weekend and I was really itching to take a little trip.  It has been a while and I knew with Anne coming this was my last chance.  Unfortunately we just don't have the money, but we didn't want to just stay home and have a regular day, so Kevy took off work and we went down to Fairfield to see my parents.  We had lunch together and then we went to visit the Jelly belly factory which happens to be there.  Apparently a lot of other people were doing the same thing, because the line was really long.  So we bought some jelly beans and waited it out.  The girls were really patient and good waiting in the line. 

 Russ was a bit wild and it was a bit hard keeping track of him while we waited.  He wanted to be held and wander around too.  There was also some live entertainment, which was probably the highlight of the whole thing, because it was so awful.  It was a singing group of young girls and I don't know why they were there all I know is that it was some of the worst singing I have ever heard!  The poor little girls were so awful and singing so loud.  Lizzy was making funny faces and we had to teach her not to, but I had a hard time not making those faces it was that bad.  Like make you want to cover your ears bad.

 We had to get a picture of all of us in our cool Jelly belly hats.

 It was cool to see all the portraits they made out of jelly beans.

 Russ really didn't like wearing his, but I had to get a picture with Kevy and him in theirs because it was just too cute.

 After the factory we went back to my parents and went swimming.  Or I should say the kids did.  It ended up being a cool windy day, so Kevy and I were not interested in swimming but the kids had a blast.

 Kevy put Russ in the pool after being in the hot tub, and you would think he would cry and be sad but he wasn't he loved it, even though this picture doesn't look that way.

 The pool was heated, but on a cold day and after being in the hot tub I thought the girls were crazy to get in, but they didn't care.  Silly kids. Jane knew where it was at though and she stayed in the hot tub the whole time.

Russ especially loved the swimming.  I was out there fully dressed with a hoodie on and I was cold, but Russ was crazy and loved it.  He only got mad when we made him get out.  I am seriously in for it this summer.  He loves the water way too much, I know it will be trouble.

Valentines Day

Last year I made a fun Valentine's dinner for all of my sweet valentines.  They loved it so much that I decided to make it our new tradition.   I made mini heart shaped pizzas last time and this time I decided to just make one big heart shaped one.  Much easier.  I also made this fun stained glass jello, and a yummy valentines drink.  I let the girls decorate for me because they love to do that.  It is so cute to see them get creative with crepe paper.   I also have almost perfected my homemade pizza and it turned out really good. (It has taken me a while to figure out how to get the crust not doughy in the middle with the toppings not overdone.)  

 Russ loves pizza, just like his dad, so he enjoyed this dinner.  I love how he always smiles for the camera.  I have so many smiley pictures of him.

 I love when I do things that the kids think are super neat and special.  It makes me feel like I am doing an okay job as a mom.   I made giant sugar heart sugar cookies and frosting earlier in the day and I had gone and gotten a bunch of valentine bulk candy to decorate.  The girls got to decorate two for friends and then we went and took them to them.  It is a family tradition that I have carried on from when I was a kid.  I always looked forward to decorating them every year and now my kids do too.

 Janie made hers for two of her friends from church and playgroup.  She did a super good job.  They all ended up needing a little help with the frosting, but the decorations were all them.

 Lizzy made hers for two of her church friends too.

 Nellie made hers for a church friends , but one is her little friend that is in her school class who is  boy.  She tells me a lot that it would be okay for her to marry him because he is a member of the church, but she is worried because he is a giants fan and she is a dodgers fan and she just doesn't know if that will work out.  So silly.

Russ loves climbing on the chairs and turning on and off the lights while the girls are at the table.  He is such a silly boy.  Maybe next year he can decorate his own cookies.  After the girls decorated theirs it was time to deliver them.  I had to stay home because I was having a ton of contractions that night, so many that we almost went to the hospital.  So I was sad that I didn't get to go with them and deliver them, but Kevy said they had a lot of fun.  It was a great Valentine's Day!

Lizzy's Harry Potter Birthday Party

Yes I realize that Lizzy's birthday was back in October, but I am a slacker what can I say. With her baptism and all of the festivities that went along with it, and then it was Thanksgiving and then Christmas, I just couldn't get around to doing her party.  That was part of it at least.  The other part was Lizzy was obsessed with having a Harry Potter birthday party.  I was not excited about that.  I had looked online and there was very little to do with Harry Potter parties that was easy.  All of the stuff I found online was so much work.  Do people really spend that kind of time and money on their kids birthday parties?  There was one lady that made a cape for all the guests and it only took her 2 hours per cape.  Really?  Do you have nothing else going on in your life.  What I really wanted was to go to the party store and buy some stuff for the party, but no, there was no Harry Potter stuff, so we had to make up all the stuff we did.  It seriously caused me a lot of anxiety and dread every time I thought about it.  We tried multiple times to try and get her to do something else, but she was so bound and determined to have it.  Lizzy is such a good girl and such a good helper to me that I just had to do it.  I just hoped that the simple things I came up with would be good enough for her.

 Not the prettiest cake, but hey it was cheap and Lizzy was fine with it. I convinced her to do that instead of sorting hat cupcakes which were quite a bit more work.  My writing didn't look to good, but hey its for kids they don't care right?

 By far the activity that was the biggest hit was the potions class.  I made up some cups with baking soda in them and hid some food coloring in the middle, then we had the girls pour vinegar in them and bubble over.  They loved it because they had different colors that had a different fortune and they didn't know which one they would get.  They all really had a good time doing it.

 We also did the candy bar game that I had wrapped all the candy bars up to look like bars of gold so we pretended it was Gringott's bank.  The girls were all nice though so there wasn't much stealing, they just kept the ones they had.

We also did Hot Potato with a stuffed snake and the girls had fun with that.  Afterward we had cake and ice cream and I still am amazed that so many kids don't like cake.  What's not to like?  Also Lizzy has a little friend that she for some reason wants to be just like and she said she didn't like frosting, so then Lizzy decided she didn't like frosting, which is NOT true.  Little punk.  Lizzy has a bit of a problem thinking she has to be the same as other people to fit in. We had a little talk about it later.  She is just such a people pleaser, and that can either be a good thing or a bad thing.  Just like all personalities.  For their party favor Kevin made them each a wand and they turned out really cute, the girls all seemed to like them.

Lizzy got a lot of cute things from her friends and I am so glad that we did that party for her and even more glad that it is in my rear view mirror.  I seriously cannot say how much I was dreading this party, but it turned out good and Lizzy appreciated it.  That is the most important thing.

All About Jane- 4 Years

There is so much to say about my little Janie lady.  I really can't believe that she isn't going to be my baby girl anymore.  I can't believe that she is 4! Craziness!  She is such a silly little girl with such a different personality than her sisters.  I love that they are all so different.
Jane has really grown up a lot this past year and has really started to show a bit of stubbornness that I didn't realize was in there.  She really doesn't seem to care if I want her to do something, if she doesn't want to than she isn't going to do it.  This is not to say that she is really difficult.  For the most part she is really easy still. And if it is something I ask her to do for me, like get me a diaper for Russ then immediately she is running and doing it.  But if it is putting on her shoes or making her bed, then it is really hard to get her to do it.  So silly!
Jane has always had a funny sense of humor and it is really fun to see her now.  She really likes to try and say stuff that will make the rest of us laugh. She is always trying to be silly at the dinner table to make her sisters laugh.
Jane is SO excited for her baby sister to come.  She comes up and kisses and talks to my belly everyday.  I think sometimes she feels a little left out with her sisters so she is excited to have her own little one to play with.  When we would tell her that we wanted her to stay 3 forever, she would automatically say "But I have to turn four so I can help with Annie!"  Because for some reason she can only help if she is four. :)
One of the things Janie loves to do is color and write.  Give her a pad of paper and a pen, markers or crayons and she will be happy all day.  I am not kidding either.  She will literally color all day.  She is so good too!  I love seeing her little drawings, they are so cute.  She is constantly drawing pictures of the family.  Another thing she has really picked up is writing her letters.  She can write almost all of them now and she can write them really good.  She loves to write everyone's names in the family.  Her writing is so good, she has better handwriting than Nellie.  And the funny thing is she just taught herself and just practices over and over.
Jane is also really funny when she is in the car.  If I am listening to the radio and I change it, I seem to always hear from the backseat, "But mom that was a good song!"  And if there is a song she really likes and we are to oi destination she will say. " Don't turn it off until the song is over."  A couple of times I did and let me tell you, I suffered her wrath, she was not happy with me.
Jane is really funny about food.  She is a good eater but sometimes she doesn't want to eat her meals but  she wants to snack all day long.  She loves fruit still and will eat an entire bag of little oranges herself.  She does have a tendency to get into the food while I am upstairs getting ready, and she will make the biggest messes on the couch!
Jane is really shy at first, but once she is comfortable she really will be outgoing and fun.  We LOVE having her in our family.  It just goes to show how Heavenly Father knows best.  We thought we wanted a boy after having two girls, but if we didn't have our cute silly Jane I just can't imagine what my life would be like.  She truly brightens my days and I can honestly say that the day she goes off to school I am going to be a sad Mom, because I love having her around!