February

Just thought I'd give an update on what we've been up to lately.  The weather had been quite wonderful here so we've spent a lot of time outside, playing in the neighborhood or at the park.  By bedtime my kids feet are black (they won't wear shoes outside) and they are exhausted, most nights Leila falls asleep before we finish reading her books.

Leila has been busy going to preschool and dance class. She was struggling going to dance class because all of her friends got in the earlier class, but Miss Lori said she could switch classes and it has been wonderful she is so excited to be with friends and goes right in without begging me to stay in the room. Leila had her valentine party at preschool last Thursday, she was so excited to make Valentine's for her friends. My mom told me about a cute idea to make an ipod valentine out of a box of conversation hearts. So Leila and I spent one night making the Valentine's for all her preschool friends, I mostly made the ipods and Leila colored and decorated hearts for her friends.  Leila is learning so much at preschool but won't tell  me a single thing.  I ask her questions and try to talk about her day but pretty much all I get is who she sat by, who was the class leader and what the snack was.  But Paul for some reason can get all sorts of information out of her.  She can recite the whole pledge of allegience, she knows who our president is, and she knows who Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are and I'm sure there's a whole lot more that she is just not telling us. 

All I can say is at least she's wearing underwear

Leila has been pretty mischevious lately.  One day I found her and her friend cleaning toys with my toothbrush and another day and found her and her friend both in the bathroom sink taking a bath.  Leila was naked and her friend was fully clothed, they had emptied a bottle of hand soap into the sink so bubbles were everywhere and water was streaming down the front of the cabinets. 

 

Greydon has been getting his 1-year old molars and has been super onery.  He now has 3 of the 4 and they  each came in one at a time,  I just wish they would all come in at one time so we would have several days of fussiness instead of several weeks.  Most days when he wakes up from his nap all he does is cry and cry.  He doesn't want to be held but does't want to be put down, the only thing that will make him happy is to go outside and play. 

Such a boy, he found the remote and is lounging in the chair

Grey totally fell asleep while I was pushing him in the swing, I don't think he felt good because right after I snapped this picture he woke up and puked all over

Greydon has been really sleepy lately and falling asleep anywhere

Greydon is a climber, everytime I turn around he is on top of something

He loved watching a movie with his sister and especially loved having his own bowl of popcorn

Leila and Greydon went in for their 4-year old and 15-month well child checks.  Leila was not happy about it at all.  When they called her name to go back she lost it.  She cried and whined, wouldn't stand on the scale or get measured but we eventually got it.  And then the poor thing had to get 5 shots luckily no more until she is 11.  Greydon was great and only cried a second for his shots.

Allyson's surprise birthday party

 

Paul is on his surgery rotation and loving it.  He gets bummed when they only have one case, he prefers to be super busy.  The rotation hasn't been too bad, he is usually home by 6 and has only had to work two weekend days.   And I've been busy with baby showers, book club, birthday parties, relief society and just being a wife and mom.

Tangled Party!

Months ago Leila told me she wanted a Sleeping Beauty birthday party but after going to Disneyland and meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Rider and then seeing the movie Tangled she was all about a Tangled birthday party.  I started searching the internet for ideas, there weren't a ton out there since its a fairly new movie but I did find a couple really good ideas.  Like this really cute invitation idea, I found it here. Plus I found a bunch of other cute ideas from that same website. 

I really had a lot of fun planning this party and tried not to stress to much about it.  It turned out really fun and even though Leila had several meltdowns I think overall it was a success.  Leila woke up at 5:30 am on Saturday morning because she was so excited.  We already had the house decorated and ready so it was a long morning of waiting for the party to start for Leila. 

We started out the party coloring rapunzel and flynn rider coloring pages that I found here. But we I forgot to start taking pictures until later on during the party.  We then moved on to making little Pascals Party Blowers. The instructions call for foam eyes but I have a huge bag of googly eyes and thought that would be a lot easier.  The template for the pascals is found here.

We then moved on to the games.  We started with a princess walk.  I had printed off pictures of different Disney characters and glued them to constuction paper and then layed them out on the floor.  The kids walked from picture to picture until the music stopped and whoever was on the character I called out got a thing of Rapunzel paint (watercolor paint).

The next game was Pin the Hair on Rapunzel. 

And finally we went on a treasure hunt.  All my creative juices had pretty much dried up but luckily my husband came to the rescue and wrote an adorable treasure hunt.  These are all the clues the kids recieved. 
-Treasure hungting we will go, To find some treats and toys you know, I'll tell you where you want to start, A seat the color of a heart
-The next step I'll have you take, Is to the place you bake a cake, So hurry fast and don't look back, It's in the room where you make a snack
-You're doing great I can't deny, Can you find it? I hope you'll try, The next clue that will lead you there, Is in a room under the stairs.
-So now you found another clue, I'm gonna tell you what to do, Make sure your wearing all your clothes, Cause your next clue is near the hose
-I hope you all are having fun, Cause now I want you all to run, Into the room where you make a stink, You may want to look behind the sink
-You'r almost there your getting warm, So please be careful not to swarm, the treasure you're about to win, Is found within the brown square bin

After the games it was on to cake!!! My amazing and talented friend Robyn made Leila's incredible Rapunzel cake, check her out at Patty Cakes Bakery.  I was so relieved to not have to make the cake, it is so stressful to me plus I could never come close to making a cake so awesome! 

She seriously is amazing!



This is where Leila's melt downs began.  She had told me earlier that she didn't want us to sing Happy Birthday to her so we all just said happy birthday and then she blew out the candle.  But when I first place the candle I put it in the river but she wanted it on the grass she immediately started flipping out luckily I was able move the candle without too much damage.  Then she got upset that it was too noisey and then because I gave her the wrong piece of cake.  The kids at cake and ice cream and played outside. 

Then at the end Leila opened presents.  She was blessed to have such generous and thoughtful friends.  She loved every single gift she got!

I also have to add some pictures of Greydon.  Thank goodness my mother-in-law was here to help because Greydon was a handful during the party.  At one point him and his buddy Jaren snuck outside and got the lid off the water table and got soaked.

And after the party we all had fun playing with rapunzel's hair!

Happy Birthday Leila Girl! Have a fantastic year 4!

Fabulous Four!

Oh my Leila girl sometimes I just don't know what I'm going to do with you.  You have been so excited to turn 4 and have been planning your birthday party for months, but for some reason on the day of your birthday you were insistent that it wasn't your birthday and that you were still 3 1/2.  You continue to be our very passionate, opinionated, stubborn, particular, lively, and shy girl. 

Lately you have had major issues with clothes.  Clothing has always been a problem with you but most of the time we can work through it and make sure you keep your independence.  But as of about January you have been bugged by clothes and underwear.  You went two straight weeks without wearing underwear because you insisted that they bugged you.  We finally got some larger sizes and that seems to have fixed the problem for the most part.  But you refuse to wear tights or leggings so we got you leg warmers to wear when your legs get cold.  You get bugged if anything rubs you the wrong way or is too tight.  You're really into dresses right now and wear them pretty much everyday.  Because getting you dressed has become such a chore I'm just happy if you actually have clothes on and don't care one bit if your outfit matches. 

You love to take showers, and now want to take them by yourself because you don't like to share the water which is fine by me because I don't like to share the water either.  You like to choose how your hair is done and there is no convincing you otherwise once your mind is made up.  Most of the time you just want my to round brush it but every once in awhile you'll let me pull it up or curl it. 

For about two months straight all you wanted to eat for breakfast was chocolate chip pancakes which I didn't mind making because you would actually eat them and not have a huge fight about it.  Now your beginning to want cereal again but you don't eat it quite as well.  Your favorite food is ravioli with green sauce (pesto).  You ask for it for lunch and dinner pretty much everyday.  Some of your other favorite foods are quesidillas, edamame, apples, peanut butter cups and mint oreo ice cream.

 

You say your favorite color is red and you don't like the color orange.  You love to watch Dora, Barbie movies, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White.  You love going to the library and picking out books and movies.  You love playing with Barbies, stuffed animals, polly pockets and craft stuff.  You LOVE to cook even if I'm making something you don't like to eat you want to be involved.  You enjoy going to dance but hate wearing leotards because they are too tight and just bug you.  Preschool is one of your favorite things, you look foward to it every week and never have a problem going.  You also love going to church and absolutley love primary.  Every morning youwake up and ask who you can play with or who's house you can go to.  You love playing with friends and never want to leave their house or them leave yours. 

You are super shy and never talk to strangers and are even shy around people you know.  You like to be independent and do things on your own but only if mom is standing right by your side watching you. You are constantly dancing and jumping around, you never walk anywhere your leaping and twirling as you move from place to place.  Even your tantrums are quite entertaining because they involve flips and somersaults.  I also find you doing headstands all over the place which totally reminds me of me when I was little.  You definitely have opinions on things and like to be in charge.  If I give you options and you don't like them you inform me that those are not your choices and then tell me what you think are good options. 

Your a great big sister and love to play with Greydon, you almost always share with him and let him be involved in what your doing.  You are definitely a mama's girl and pretty much want me to do everything for you, you're my little shadow and go wherever I go.  We love your passion although most of the time we don't quite know how to deal with it but we are so happy you are apart of our family!

All of January

We had an enjoyable month in January.  We were busy enough that we avoided downtime tantrums but not to busy that we didn't enjoy our lives.  When we go back from Utah I felt overwhelmed with messy closets and rooms and had lots of new toys and stuff to find places for.  I spent the first week cleaning out closets and organizing rooms.  I think I spent that whole week in sweats but the cleaning finally got done and I took a bunch of stuff to the DI.

Paul started his pediatric rotation in January.  He was with a doctor whose office was really close so he came home for lunch most days.  The doctor was always on time too so Paul was always home by 5 pm.  It was a nice rotation schedule wise but I'm pretty sure Paul brought home germs from all those sick kids.  We were constantly sick the whole month, my kids had coughs that lasted over 3 weeks long.  Paul even got super sick and had to miss one day of work.  We are finally all better (knock on wood) and hopefully will stay that way for awhile.

Leila finally graduated out of nursery, it seems like she had been in nursery forever.  I was so excited for her first week in Sunbeams and since I was just called to teach the Valiant 9 I got to watch her during opeining exercises.  It was so cute to see her sitting there trying to be reverant and folding her arms and singing.  I also love to see her come down the hall with her class to get a drink, she is always walking so reverently and folding her arms.  They tell me she is really good, which is always nice to hear.  I think she is mostly good because she is so shy and terrified to get in trouble with her teacher.  Leila loves going to to Sunbeams and asks everyday when its "church day".  We also got her, her own Book of Mormon stories book and loves reading it everynight.  The other thing she gets excited about is FHE, and if I make the mistake of telling her its FHE that is all I hear about all day long so I usually don't tell her until right before.  She loves planning the activity and treat and picking songs.  Its fun having her so excited about the gospel and it makes sure we always have FHE. 

Leila had a field  trip to Red rock Canyon and got to learn all about the animals and plants that live there.  The weather was beautiful except for the super cold wind.  But we still had lots of fun.   Leila also got invited to go see Disney on Ice with her friend Paisley.  We had a blast seeing all the disney characters. 

We spent a lot of time playing at the park and enjoying our beautiful weather.  We usually just walk over to our little neighborhood park and meet a bunch of our friends over there.  Leila rides her bike there so she can ride bikes with her friends at the park.  Greydon loves playing on the playground, going down the slide, and making mommy nervous by trying to jump off the top of the playground equipment. 

Paul and I were able to go on several date nights thanks to our babysitting co-op.  One night we went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack with Rachele and Jordan and then out for frozen yogurt and the other night we went out Go-cart racing and out to dinner at SmashBurger.  The go-cart racing was so much fun.  On the first race my head stocking kept falling over my eyes and at one point I couldn't see and crashed into the wall so hard that my helmet flew off.  The next day I was really sore but it was totally worth it.  We also went out one night with a bunch of our ward friends to celebrate Sadie's birthday.  We went to India Palace and the food was delicious and the company was tons of fun.  We were able to go to our ward temple night too, it was really nice to have so many nights out with Paul.  I was able to go to lunch with my friends at Pei Wei to celebrate Nikki's birthday and got to book club at Casie's house.  I'm so thankful for such good friends and have so much fun with them.

My mom game to visit the end of January.  We spent one of the days pulling out the caulk in my shower and recaulking it.  It's so nice to have it all fixed, no holes and water not getting onto our bathroom floor.  We went birthday shopping, out to eat, prepared for Leila's birthday and went to the Children's museum.  Once night we celebrated Leila's birthday early, we went out to dinner at Red Robin, had cupcakes and opened presents.  Leila got clothes, a new suitcase and a puzzle game.  Leila loves that suitcase and every time I turn around she is packing it up for her pretend trips to Utah. 

 And last I just had to throw in some cute pictures of Grey.  He likes to say "cheese" for the camera and I just love his cheesey smile.