Spring Break 2014

Last week was our spring break. It didn't last long enough-they never do. Unfortunately, we were all sick at some point during the week with something (colds, coughs, pink eye, sick tummies). That threw our week and some of our plans off a bit, but we managed to squeeze in some fun. 

Saturday and Sunday we watched a wonderful General Conference. I loved having all of us home together, listening to the words of our Prophet. Conference is always such a special weekend for our little family and the kids look forward to it-mainly for the junk food. 

Adam did puzzles while he listened to the speakers and Tessa made flowers for everyone in the family. 

For all of you who think my house is always clean....hello Conference weekend!

2 of Gwennie's favorite things-snuggling with Daddy and Doritos. 

I put this Conference board together a couple of days before Conference began. The kids had fun with it. 

On Sunday afternoon, Adam got to leave for a quick trip to California with Ma and Pa. He has been so excited to go!! I will have pictures from their trip soon. Gwen was devastated they left without her. 

Monday morning, the girls and I did some Easter shopping. Shopping with Tessa can be so fun and so hard. Everything she finds is "adorable!!". Sometimes it's hard to tell her no.

That afternoon we headed over to Mamma and Bampa's house to see our cousins. Paige and Tessa loved playing dog and getting inside the dog cage. 

Monday evening, we went rock climbing with the Nielson crew. Tessa is super scared of heights, so I didn't think she would like it, but she wanted to give it a try. 

She never really got much higher than this, but at least she tried it!

I got to chase Gwen around. I can't keep up with her very well these days. 

This was Gwen Tuesday morning. She didn't wake up until after 9am. Being sick and having a quiet house was a good combination for a long sleep. Oh, and Mommy and Daddy's bed. 

Tuesday afternoon we headed up to Kangaroo Zoo for some bouncy fun. My girls loved it and can't wait to go back.

Mya, Tessa, and Ellie

Gwen like playing with Milo.

Both of my girls went up the highest slide. I was proud of Tessa for going so high, but was amazed that Gwen did it without thinking twice. She spent most of her time climbing up this ladder and eventually climbing up the slide. Crazy girl! Tuesday evening we went with all the cousins to the Frozen sing-a-long. 

Wednesday morning we were all not feeling well, but we got out of the house in the afternoon and went over to Salem Pond to feed the ducks. 

Wednesday evening we went to Nickel Mania and back to Mamma and Bampa's for a campfire. I love watching Paige and Tessa together. Tessa was so happy to have Paige around for a couple of days. These girls are the family artists. 

Thursday we headed up the cool canyon for a picnic and some games of Pooh Sticks. Aunt Katy and Uncle David joined us. 

We played at the park for a while and Gwen spent most of her time making piles of wood chips and then stomping on them while singing, "Here I stand!" (from Frozen)

Friday, Tessa got to go have a special day out with Ma and Pa-more on that later. 

Adam, Gwen and I survived grocery shopping (barely) and then that night we made our homemade pizza for dinner and had a camp out. 

Tess helped me make cinnamon rolls for breakfast. When she couldn't find a ruler to measure out the perfectly spaced rolls, she made her own ruler.

And this pretty much sums up our Friday with Gwen. It was a challenging day to say the least. All afternoon and evening she lived in her diaper and pink fuzzy high heels. She walks around singing song from Frozen non-stop. 

We ended our spring break by splurging and going to the real movies-something we never do! Daddy was at school, so it was just Mommy, Adam and Tessa. We saw the Lego Movie. I loved listening to them laugh through the whole show. 

Now we are anxious for summer to come and have more time to spend playing and more mornings to be a little bit lazy. Thankfully, everyone is healthy again and hopefully we can keep it that way for a while!

Riverview Art Show

 On Wednesday we went to Adam and Tessa's Art Show at their school. They both worked hard on their art pieces that they entered. Tessa was so happy with her painting and Adam drew a picture of a farm. He thought it was awesome that his picture got its own wall.

 I am proud of their hard work! They both did a great job!!

Another Adam Weekend

Last weekend, Adam had a fun filled day with Uncle David and Aunt Katy. Uncle David took Adam to the Spring Scrimmage at BYU where they got to cheer on their Cougars and meets some members of the team. Adam is excited for football season now!

After the Scrimmage, Aunt Katy picked Adam up and took him to the Festival of Colors. They were gone for hours, had so much fun and came home totally covered in colors. It took Adam a few days to get all the purple out of his hair. 

He is lucky to have such good Aunt's and Uncle's to make fun memories with!

Our 4th Little Miracle

I have been so excited and nervous for my ultrasound. Ever since Tessa, there is a part of me that dreads ultrasounds. I'm so afraid of getting bad news. With that fear comes the excitement of seeing my baby and hopefully finding out boy or girl. 

Eric was able to take the day off yesterday and we headed up to the doctors office first thing yesterday morning for the big event. As I watched the monitor as the technician began, I quickly scanned the screen to see if I could find the most important things-head, 2 arms, 2 legs, 4 heart chambers, spine. All there-now I relaxed a bit and anxiously listened as the Tech point out everything on our beautiful baby. This was probably the most thorough ultrasound I have ever had, but we got the worst pictures from it. The baby was in the perfect position for us to see all the organs, so that was nice.  The baby is measuring right on track, the brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, and everything else we checked looks perfect. It is so amazing to me that you can watch the blood flow in the heart. Thank goodness for our amazing technology!

We were able to find out that we are having another BOY!!! We couldn't be happier and I am so excited for Adam to have his little brother. 

Mostly, we are so grateful to be able to welcome another perfect little baby into our family. It is overwhelming to me at times to think about the responsibility I have been given as a mother to care for and teach these little spirits. Heavenly Father has been so good to us and for that we are so very, very thankful!

 This was the best profile shot we could get of the baby. My placenta is up there above the head and chest. That was good news!

 Little baby foot!

 Here is a shot of the baby looking straight at us. you can see the eye sockets and nose and mouth. He was moving his mouth a lot right here. So fun to watch that. 

We couldn't get him to uncross his legs when we were trying to figure out the gender. Finally he moved and "saluted" us. That makes me 4 for 4! I knew this was our little boy and the kids are so excited! We are 95% sure we have our name. We are still discussing middle names. Although, after listening to some of the kids ideas at dinner last night, I told everyone that I have total veto power and get the last say!

I picked up the kids from school and greeted them with a bunch of blue balloons. They were so, so excited! When I asked Tessa yesterday morning if she hoped it was a boy or a girl she said, "I hope it's a boy cause I'm being nice to Adam. Besides, I already have a little sister." So Tess was happy for Adam and is already planning on being my good little helper with the baby. Gwen still has no idea about what is going on and was really bugged when we interrupted her Frozen time to take some pictures. 

Love these kids and can't wait to add one more cute little boy to our bunch!!

The Frozen Party

Last Friday, Aunt Katy had a Frozen Party for the kids. They have been so excited for this party and couldn't wait for the party to start! Aunt Katy did some really cute things with food and activities. She had the family room decorated with snowflakes and had lots of munchies for everyone to enjoy. 

 We had jell-o that looks like ice cubes, carrots, build your own snowman doughnuts, strawberries that looked like frozen hearts, and frozen blue punch. 

 The kids got to decorate their own mugs to have frozen hot chocolate in at the end of the party. 

 Gwen loves to color and ended up with a very colorful mug!

 The kids got to make their own snowman pizza's and then eat them while they watched the movie Frozen. 

 They had such a fun time! Thanks Aunt Katy for such a fun night!