Our Growing Brood

Our Growing Brood

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies out there!!  I had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day!  Trevor let me sleep in, which I always enjoy!!  The boys came in when I woke up and gave me their cards.  Then Trevor made me some yummy breakfast burritos per my request.  We went to church and Hunter's present to me was going to nursery without crying (I bribed him with my Mother's Day candy from the bishopric).  It was so nice to not spend the first half of Sunday School in nursery with him!  After church I took a brief nap and then went to my parent's for one of my favorite dinners, Hawaiian Haystacks!  It was a great Mother's Day!  I love having Trevor and the boys wait on me!  It's one of the best days of the year!!  When we told Jacob it was Mother's Day, he thought about it for a minute and then asked, "When's it gonna be Kid's Day?"

You Say Goodbye..

Bryce & Becca left us and moved to California.  It's not just regular California..it's Northern California.  Which means 11-12 hours of driving, which means not seeing them as often..not even close.  They promised they would come and visit, but I know how it goes.  Sabrina & I were able to go to Bryce's farewell breakfast at the Dennys where Tracy works (Becca had already left a few days earlier to paint their condo before all the furniture arrived).  We had such a great time that he left much later than he anticipated (whoops).  I am so sad to see them go!  We will miss you guys :(

Swimming Lessons Pro

Hunter's last swimming lesson was on Thursday, May 13th.  He was excited to have Daddy come watch him do his swimming tricks.  He was actually more brave with his Daddy there. He wanted to show off.


This was the first time he would jump off the side by himself.  I have always helped him by tossing him in or holding his hand and helping him jump. I was so proud of him!

I had to bring 2 towels to lessons..one for during swimming lessons & a dry one for after.  We have had an unseasonably nice May and I felt a little bad for him having to get in that chilly water and get out to do jumps or dives.
He can climb out of the pool all by himself on the side!
Love those lashes!
She taught them how to find the wall and reach for it.
His favorite parts of swimming lessons were getting the rings (because he knew that was the last trick before lessons were over) and getting his licorice, which he immediately shoved the entire thing into his mouth at once.  I am proud of how far he has come.  He obviously didn't enjoy the first few lessons and I was met with lots of whining and crying each morning he had lessons.  His attitude changed that last week.  Now that they are over, he keeps telling me he wants to go again!  Sheesh!

FINALLY!!

After a year of this mauve nightmare:...

I FINALLY decided on a color and got our bathroom finished!!
It is SO nice to FINALLY have the bathroom fixtures back up again (toilet paper holder, towel racks, light switch cover).  I can't believe it has taken me a year to finish this project, but SOOOO happy it's finally done (minus a new light fixture)!

This is what Trevor accomplished on the 2nd half of his birthday week vacation (post-Disneyland):
He put casing around our front entryway.
And crown molding in our front room.
I LOVE it!  I am very impressed with his work since this is the first time he's ever done a wood-working project like this.

We also FINALLY got our pool fence!!  I wish we could've gotten it a few months ago so the kids would be able to play outside and enjoy the nice weather, but I'm just grateful to finally have it so the kids can have free reign outside!  YEAH!

Avatar In Primary

This is Jacob's picture he colored in Primary last Sunday.  "I colored it like Avatar," he told me.  He has only seen bits & pieces of the movie (due to the language) so I'm surprised it has had this much of an effect on him!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

DiSnEyLaNd!!! (Warning: Picture Overload)

Trevor took his birthday week off to get some projects done around the house.  I coerced him into going to DISNEYLAND!!  We did the Give a Day/Get a Day & got free tickets (unfortunately Jacob couldn't do it since he's not 6).  We decided to go before Hunter turned 3 so we wouldn't have to buy another ticket.  We left on Tuesday, April 20th, went to Disneyland on Wednesday the 21st and then drove home on Thursday. The night before we left, I got online to check the weather so I knew what to pack.  I found that there was a slight chance of rain & thunderstorms.  I was a little nervous about getting poured on..that's never fun.  I said a lot of prayers and packed our rain coats, umbrellas and ponchos.  Luckily my prayers were answered and we had GREAT weather!  It was overcast for most of the day and we even got to wear our coats because it was a bit chilly.  We felt a few random sprinkles, but nothing serious!  We lucked out!
Here are some pictures of our fun time!  The boys had a BLAST of course!  I also mentioned to my mom that we were going..if they were interested in meeting us there.  They were!  My dad needed a break since tax season had just ended.  It was so fun to spend the day with them!
Our first ride.
I didn't fare so well in this self-portrait of us.
Jedi Training
We were a little disappointed that Jacob didn't get picked for Jedi Training even with his Star Wars shirt and Light Saber.  He was sad for a few minutes until I told him that he didn't need training because he already knows how to be a Jedi.  The disappointment finally melted away and he showed us his Jedi moves.
This must be the happiest place on Earth!
Jacob chose to ride with Grandma..
Hunter chose Daddy.  That left me & my Dad to ride together.  He generously let me drive.  We were in front of everyone and kept turning around to take pictures.  Once when my Dad turned around, I heard this BONNNNGGG!  He had hit his camera on a passing pole when he turned around.  We chuckled pretty hard after we found out his camera wasn't broken. 
My parents took Hunter on the Buzz Astro Blasters ride (again) so we could take Jacob on Space Mountain.  This was before the ride...all smiles
AFTER:  He didn't like it.  He said it was too dark.  When we were waiting to get off, the car started moving again to get us to the exit area.  He panicked and said, "Oh no we're going again???"  We went on Pirates of the Caribbean and within the first few minutes he laid his head down in my lap so he wouldn't see anything scary.  I was very supportive of that..I don't want him waking me up at night with bad dreams!  We decided the Haunted Mansion was out.
I have seen a picture of me and Mom on this same ride when I was probably this age.  Classic!
Our Home's Natural Order:
Hunter has something.
Jacob observes and decides he wants it and therefore, tries to take it away from  Hunter.
Trevor or I step in to save the day.
The kids were trying to push this car to get it going.  It didn't work.
Check out Jacob's dribble. I was wiping noses ALL day!
After I took their picture, Jacob asked if he could take ours.
Then of course, Hunter wanted a turn with the camera.  He pushed down the button as Trevor was trying to hand it to him.
After his practice shot, he did pretty well. 
We headed over to Goofy's Kitchen a little after 6. I was gung ho about staying at the park until we saw all we wanted to see, but the wind started to pick up and it was getting a bit chilly. We were afraid of getting poured on (especially since the Monorail had mysteriously closed right when we needed a ride over to the restaurant) so we started walking over early.  We missed out on Toon Town.  Maybe next time!  It was nice to get inside the restaurant and strip off all our layers!
We had such a good time dining and having characters stop by our table.  We tried to get the kids to agree to a picture with them while we were at the park, but they weren't interested.  I didn't argue too much cause I didn't want to wait in the line to see them!  This worked out perfectly!
By the time Chip arrived, Hunter had had enough with the characters and retreated under the table.
Jacob is not normally enchanted with princesses, but he looks pretty awestruck with Mulan.
He's watching her leave and yelling bye to her.
Young Love.
I think this is a sign that they had a great time!
We were bummed that we only got to go to Disneyland for one day (well, Trevor wanted to get home and get busy so he wasn't too bummed) but we had such a good time and we'll probably be heading back more often than once every 4 years!!