Ticklish

So Boston came to me yesterday holding his head. I asked him what was wrong and his reply was "my head tickles" aka I have a headache. Too cute!

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

So take a look at these photos and tell me if you see a common trend?


Londynn's 1st birthday


Londynn's 2nd birthday


Londynn's 3rd birthday


Londynn 5th birthday

This child does NOT like for us to sing Happy Birthday to her. It all started on her 1st birthday. While we were singing to her she burst into tears. That first year I didn't think anything of it. I thought maybe she was scared of the candles. Her 2nd birthday it happened again. We all started to think it was funny. Third birthday came around and we all started making bets as to whether or not she would cry. Sure enough she did. On her 4th birthday we had a friend party and unfortunately I was a bad mom and totally forgot to sing Happy Birthday to her; however, I'm pretty confident that she would have ended up in tears. That brings us to her 5th birthday. We celebrated the kids birthdays together at a local pizza joint. I wasn't sure whether or not she would cry this year. I was kinda hoping she had outgrown it. We started singing to her and she was all smiles. It wasn't until after we had finished the song and was congratulating her on not crying that she broke down into tears. I think she caved under all the pressure. Poor thing. Good thing grandpa was there to comfort her because I was too busy busting a gut. Yup I know I'm a mean mom, but you have to admit that it's pretty comical right?

The big 15...I mean 5

Well my little/big girl turned 5 today. Anyone that really knows Londynn knows that she is 5 going on 15. People tell me all the time that she is a lot like me. Hmmm not sure what to think about that. :) This girl is full of attitude and personality and I couldn't imagine life without her. At 5 she:

1. LOVES preschool. Everyday she asks if she has school. Poor thing missed the deadline for school so she has another year before starting kindergarten. Everyone says this is a good thing and I'm sure it will be in the long run but it sure is hard having her home when she is ready to go to school.
2. Londynn is ALL girl and still loves everything girly, especially if it is pink and has sparkles (what can I say, she takes after me).
3. loves playing with her friends and makes friends easily.
4. is very reluctant to try new things even if i know she will love it (i.e rides at disneyland, trying new foods, participating in an activity at school or dance etc.)
5. Londynn just learned how to whistle today. She was so proud of herself and the look on her face was priceless.

Happy Birthday sweetie. We love you!!

Look who's 3

Happy Birthday to my little boy!!!

Well another year older and full of personality. I can't imagine life without this little guy. He's my tender hearted go with the flow little boy. At 3 you:

1. just became potty trained and are doing awesome
2. love doing and saying everything your sister does and say
3. are finally getting into "boy" things. With an older sister and all the "frills" having a sister comes with, you were a little slow getting into the boy things. You now love cars and play fighting.
4. LOVE Toy Story
5. are very giving and think of others. When Londynn has a friend over and you ask for a snack you will always ask to have one for sister and her friend, even if you weren't playing with them at the time.
6. are very easy going and rarely fight over toys. You usually just end up giving up whatever it is your sister or cousin or friend wants. Perfect example: We were at aunt cristy's with family and you had just pulled out a bucket of toys to play with. Your cousin a year younger than you saw you pull out these toys and immediately came over and tried to take the toy away from you. You actually fought for it for a minute and we let you fight it out because rarely do you ever do this. A minute later your cousin had stopped crying and we looked over to find that you had given her the toy and went to find something else. That was either you being really kind or you couldn't stand to listen to her scream at you any longer and gave it to her (learning at an early age to give the girls what they want to get them to be quiet :)).
7. love to eat. We have to remind you constantly to slow down and chew your food.
8. have a major sweet tooth (hmmm I wander where you get that? )
9.have a love/hate relationship with the movie Enchanted. i think you love the movie for the music, but you are soooo afraid of the witch. You'll watch the first have just fine and then hide behind my leg telling me how scary the witch is for the second half.
10. when you get embarrassed you shrug one of your shoulders up and down. It's the cutest thing.
11. are tender hearted. I wouldn't say that you get your feelings hurt very often but when you do you have a quivering lip and eyes that fill with tears enough to melt anyones heart.

Happy Birthday little guy. We love you!!!

Summer Lovin'

People are starting to say that summer is coming to an end and that fall is just around the corner. Every time I hear the word the fall I cringe a little. I'm not ready for summer to be over. We've had an awesome summer. I'm not sure what made this one different from all the rest but I think that my kids are at a good age makes a huge difference. We are out of the baby stage and my kids are a little more independent makes for more enjoyable outings. We've kept busy and I've loved every moment of it. Some of our outings have included:



The Tim McGraw concert. We went with my sister and her husband. Jared can't stand country but believe it or not he loves Tim McGraw. His concerts never disappoint (okay except for the sound system is definitely lacking if you have grass seating). Good music (and people watching) and a night out without kids makes for a nice relaxing evening.



Our summer has been full of swimming, which unfortunately has resulted is a few sun burns. :( We kicked off the summer with running through the sprinklers. It was a hit the first time but they weren't so interested in it after that. We are fortunate enough to have an awesome outdoor swimming pool at our gym. On many occasions we have packed a lunch and spend the whole afternoon lounging at the pool. This is where my kids age comes in handy. They are finally old enough to know not to go into the deep water. They are perfectly content hanging out in the shallow while I hang out on the lawn chair in the shade watching. This has been one of my favorite things to do this summer.






I love summer time and being able to spend time in the mountains. I'm not much of a hiker but I love going on picnics and having a camp fire and hanging out with family and friends. The kids are just happy to get out of the house.




My favorite summer outing thus far has been just this past weekend. Some of our friends invited us and few other families to spend the night at their cabin. I don't think I have laughed as hard as I did in a long time. It was definitely a good time. We hung out, went four wheeling, ate, played games, and watched wild life. These two little guys (okay maybe not so little) decided to pay us a visit on Sunday morning. They were fun to watch. We saw deer, bats, squirrels and humming birds all while sitting on the deck of the cabin.


Between 4 families there were 9 kids. Overall the kids did amazingly well. I loved the fact that there was enough for the kids to do around the cabin that they could entertain themselves.




These two love birds were hilarious. There was definitely a lot of love going around. :)







Thanks Millgates we had a blast!!


Summer is not complete without tinfoil dinners up the canyon. We started this tradition a couple years after realizing how much work it takes to actually go camping, and the fact that getting a camp ground isn't as easy as it used to be. This particular weekend we had actually made plans to go camping. We had hoped to wake up early Friday morning and head up the canyon in hopes of getting one of the few "first come fist served" camp sites. Unfortunately that didn't pan out. By the time we made it up the canyon and to the site there was already a waiting list. We decided to have a picnic that night instead. Maybe it was a good thing we weren't able to camp because we got rained out later in the night and had to call it a night before we could shove our faces with smores. Still a good time was had.









Ahhhhh Mill Hollow. Our family loves this place. It's the only place that I know of that you are almost guarantee to catch a fish, because we all know it's only fun to fish if you catch something (even if they are small). This was Boston's first fishing trip. He loved catching the fish. Londynn loved it the first time until she realized that after you reel the fish in it splashes in the water and swings towards you until you grab the line. She didn't so much like it after that. She would reel it in as long as you told her there wasn't a fish on the line.






It's been quite a few years since we have been to the Heber demolition derby. We were able to get tickets this year and went with my sister and her husband. It was just as exciting as I remember it being. The kids loved it but I forgot about all the down time there is while the cars are being towed off the field. Definitely a fun night.



....and there you have it. We hope to add a few more swimming sessions and a few more canyon runs before "fall" arrives. aaahhhhh how I love summer.

What gives

I took the kids swimming today, granted it was for 4 hours. I applied sunscreen at least 4 times thinking that I was being a good mom and preventing sunburns. However, when all was said and done my kids still got burned. Boston started out with a shirt on but the poor guy was freezing when he got out of the water so I took his shirt off and heavily applied sunscreen thinking he would be okay. I was wrong.
Here is Londynn's burn and Bostons back is just as bad. We won't mention my legs but lets just say I didn't apply ANY sunscreen. In my defense though I spent the majority of the time in shade watching the kids. Apparently it didn't matter thought because my legs are still pretty toasty.

I guess there goes my plans of taking the kids to the pool again on Friday. :( Next time I think we will all wear pants and long sleeve shirts with hats. I think that's the only way to prevent getting burned in our family.

Like father like son

Jared had a couple days off this week and on one of those days he decided to go to the apple store. He took Boston with him and I think I should be a little worried. He said Boston was in heaven and he had a picture to prove it.

Scaredy cat

So yesterday afternoon I sent the kids outside to eat popsicles and I sat down at the computer for a minute. A few minutes later I hear both kids screaming bloody murder. While I'm running to the door I'm thinking that maybe Londynn got stung by a bee or maybe they had a run in with a big spider or something. I get outside and ask them what was wrong and Londynn cries "there is a cat in our yard". Yup no bee sting, no big spider, my kids were terrified that there was a cat in our yard and instead of opening the door and coming inside they felt it was best to stand on the stairs and cry like they had just been hurt.

Look what I did

Well I finally finished my first furniture makeover. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be and I actually had fun doing it. I think I'm on the lookout for my next project.

here is the ugly before:

and after

I knew I wanted to paint his dresser orange to match the orange stripes in his room, but I wasn't willing to buy a brand new dresser only to paint it orange.

So the total cost for this dresser was $25. $15 for the dresser and $10 for the primer (I did it the easy way and spray painted the primer on). I already had the orange paint and the stain. I love how it turned it out.

Bad hair day

Sometimes I wonder where our kids come up with the stuff they do. This morning I was blow drying my hair curly and Londynn comes in and says "mom I don't want you to have curly hair today I want you to have straight hair and me have curly hair". After I was done doing my hair I asked her how she wanted her hair done (because heaven forbid I do it the wrong way). She told me that she wanted a flippy and a ponytail. So I attempted to do it how she said. Apparently I didn't do it right and she stormed out the the bathroom saying "mom that's not right and now I'm having a bad hair day". I'm not sure where she came up with that one because I don't ever remember saying that. We never lack the drama at our house that's for sure.

Big boy room project

Well it's official. My baby is in a big boy bed and is no longer a "baby". At the rate we were going he could have slept in his crib until he was 10 except for the fact that he'd just about out grown it. He's a good sleeper and at 2 and a half is still taking a nap most days and has never crawled out of his crib.

I've had the decorating and crafting bug lately so his room was my next project. I don't have a before of his room but it was nothing special. White walls and not much hanging on them. He had primary colors in his nursery so I wanted to go with something different. Brown and orange it is. Jared was mister handy man and made his bed (with the help from http://www.knock-offwood.com/) . I LOVE how it turned out. His room is still has a lot of work to do but here it is at it's current state.

Boston pretending to be asleep in his new bed.

My mom found this dresser at a yard sale on saturday and I picked it up for $15. It will be my first furniture makeover project and will be going in Bostons room.

I wanted to do something fun and bold so I'm painting it orange to match the stripes on his wall. Here is it with it's first coat.

More to come when the project is complete (what am I talking about my projects are never complete!)

starving

Apparently I starve my kids. Londynn just came to me saying "mom I'm starving, if you don't give me food I'm going to die".

Vacation part 2

We decided to do Disneyland during the week to avoid the crowds. Our first day of Disney was on Monday. The day started a little rough. The kids were way excited to go to Disneyland but I knew Londynn would probably fight us on the rides, and she did. We thought that if we started her on way easy rides and worked our way up that she would be good. We started with the teacups and right away it was "I don't want to go on that ride", being the mean mom that I am I made her go on it. It took a lot of talking to and convincing her that it wasn't scary. Once the ride started the words that came out of her mouth were "that's not so bad after all". It ended up being her favorite ride and we rode it many times. This was the perfect time of year to go. I don't think we waited in any line for more than 15 minutes.

That first day we all wore ourselves out, as you should at Disneyland and by the end of the night I ended up with the worst migraine of my life. So not fun!

On Tuesday we decided to take the day off of Disney (we had a 3 day pass) and just relax and do a little shopping. Wednesday and Thursday we hit it hard again; however, by Thursday we were worn out and only lasted about a half of day. When we go again I think we will do the 3 day pass again but this time allow enough time to have a day off in between each day.

This here is the Londynn "I don't want to go on that ride" face.

The 2nd day she was rewarded with these ears for trying new rides.

The whole fam (and some strange guy in the way)!

My cute nephew Bryton and Mark. Bryton wasn't quite sure what to think of pluto.

Boston loved seeing the characters. Londynn not so much. She viewed them from a distance.

This was Boston when he saw Woody from Toy Story. He LOVES Toy Story. I would say this was probably the highlight of the whole trip. It was so fun to see him get so excited.

Mark, Heather and Bryton.

Boston with uncle Derek

Overall the vacation was a success and we all had a fun time. We had plans to stop in St. George for the night to split up the drive but our kids surprised us and were awesome in the car so we drove straight through. And there you have it......