May 2014

On May 5th a couple of days after having her baby we had a baby shower for my sister-n-law. Matt spoiled the kids and they went to In-n-Out for dinner and Chick-fil-a for ice cream and to play.

 May 5, 2014

One evening Kaleb came down and asked Matt and I, "Who would like a foot rub with lotion for a dollar?" He had recently discovered a Halo costume he wanted to buy for Halloween and was trying to earn money. So Ashton decided to get in on the action and they both gave us foot rubs.

May 7, 2014

My brother asked for my help with making a present for Mother's Day using Christian's footprints and so I got to hold him and feed him in the NICU. He was still so small but he was a good sport letting us put cold paint on his feet. His hands weren't so cooperative so we stuck with the feet.

May 10, 2014

I told Matt after church for Mother's Day I wanted some pictures with the kids. Olivia had other plans so this was the first picture we took before she kicked off her shoe and starting squirming.

May 11, 2014

Olivia wouldn't stand still anymore so I took a picture with the boys.

Matt tried chasing Olivia down to get a picture but she's always on the move.

We have a pass to the aquarium and Matt and I stopped by on his lunch break with Ashton and Olivia to see some of the exhibits.

May 13, 2014

Olivia just kept saying "fishy, fishy" over and over again. She was pretty excited about everything.

Last year was our 10th anniversary but with so many things going on with extended family it wasn't a good time to try to get away. So this year for our 11th anniversary I surprised Matt with a quick trip to Disneyland. He already had taken the Friday off and I told him I wanted to do something but we had to do it on Thursday so he also took off that day. I'm horrible at keeping secrets and hate when I don't know something too and Matt couldn't take it anymore. I would give him clues but it was driving him nuts. So about a week before I told him where we were going. I was able to find cheap flights and hotel so our 3-day passes were the most expensive part of the trip but it was still worth every penny.

We left on Wednesday night and after arriving at LAX we took a shuttle to get our rental car. We drove a new Ford Focus and it was a great little car to get around in. After checking in to the hotel we stopped at Wal-mart to get snacks and breakfast food. The next morning we made sure to get to the park early. We first headed to California Adventure to get fast passes and go on the rides there. Our first ride was Toy Story Mania. I always get the high score for our group but Matt almost beat me this time.

May 15, 2014

After Toy Story we had about 10 minutes until our fast passes for Screamin' and the line was only 15 minutes long. Instead of waiting somewhere else we got in the regular line and figured we would just go twice in a row. That was a bad idea. I've never thrown up on a ride until the second time on screamin'. I knew after the first drop it was going to happen and held it off until close to the end but couldn't stop it. I'll spare you the details but I won't be doing that again!

In May the crowds are small since spring breaks are over but school is still in but it was also really hot this day. On the Tower of Terror there was absolutely no line and so he let us stay on the ride instead of getting off and walking around just to get back on. We asked him why there were so few people today and he said it's because it was hot enough everyone was probably at the beach.

There were still lines for some of the bigger rides like Splash Mountain and of course Radiator Springs Racers but it wasn't bad at all. We went on Radiator Springs Racers once with fast passes but instead of waiting in the long line all the other times we just went in the single rider line.

After doing almost everything we wanted in California Adventure we headed over to Disneyland to go on more rides.

Then we headed back to California Adventure because we had tickets for the World of Color show.

My favorite view is of Radiator Springs Racers at night. Both evenings we had dinner at the restaurant that overlooks this ride in Carsland.

The next day we started in Disneyland. It was 106 degrees and 104 degrees on Thursday and Friday so we were excited when we found things to do inside. We even stayed in the Enchanted Tiki room twice in a row to have longer inside an air conditioned building. It was a good mid-day break.

May 16, 2014

On Saturday we only had half a day in the park since we were flying out that night so we paid to park since we needed to check out of the hotel and didn't want to waste time walking back to the hotel if we could spend more time in the park. We went on some of our favorite rides in both parks and left around 2pm. We were almost to LA when we received a text saying our flight was delayed another hour and a half. It was a bummer we couldn't have been notified an hour earlier and we could have stayed in the park but now we had more time to burn so we found a mall to shop at. The boys were excited to see us but probably more excited to see what we brought them. They were bummed we went to Disneyland without them but they forgave us. :)

May 17, 2014

At Sunday dinner my aunt took some pictures of Olivia playing in the backyard. She loves being outside.

May 18, 2014

She also loves corn on the cob and licking the butter off of the corn.

May 19, 2014

Ashton's kindergarten graduation was a couple of weeks before the end of school. They always do a western program. Ashton told a joke with his friend, "What time is it when a horse is sitting on your fence? Time to get a new fence" and he also played a guitar for one of the songs.

May 22, 2014

He was really into singing and you could even hear him over all of the kids. So much expression in his face. I don't have very good video and pictures because we sat on the opposite side where he was standing so it was hard to get a clear view.

At the end they had a picture slideshow with pictures throughout the school year.

Ashton is always talking about food. My aunt brought him a breakfast from Carl's Jr. since she he had been talking about it recently. He loved it.

Another soccer season came to an end. I coached Ashton's team this time and they're such a fun group of boys.

May 22, 2014

At the game my brother and sister-in-law showed up with their new baby. They let them bring him home from the hospital so they surprised us by stopping by. The boys couldn't go in the NICU so it was the first time they had seen him.

I still had some free passes to Jungle Jim's from a couple years ago and so we took the kids after soccer.

May 24, 2014

For some reason on this ride Olivia would cry when the ride wasn't moving but as soon as it would start she would stop crying.

She loved the "neigh neigh's" as she calls them.

The fourth graders have a science fair for all of the parents and students to come to. Kaleb picked an experiment about different rocks. He had to make rocks with glue and sand and then experimented with adding other things to them to see if it changed the rock's structure.

May 30, 2014

This Friday night we decided to drive around by the Draper temple and went on several hikes around the area. There are trails all over and the kids loved it. We also walked to this lookout point but didn't stay long because Olivia just wanted to run around and it was a steep drop off so Matt had to hold her. It was fun to drive around and explore somewhere different.

 May 30, 2014

April 2014

On April Fool's day the boys went about their day and never said anything so I didn't think they knew what day it was. After work we arrived home and I hear Ashton yell from the bathroom, "What is all over the toilet seat?" I went in to see him covered in white toothpaste. I then found Kaleb laughing about what he was hearing. I asked him when he did it and he said in the morning. Awhile later I found the other toilet with the same thing but it was blue toothpaste so it was easy to spot. The bad part is that even after cleaning it off it bleached the toilet seat as you can see below. So the boys know not to do that ever.

Kaleb wasn't done there, about an hour after he went to bed he went upstairs without us knowing and had put Ashton's hand in a bowl of warm water hoping he would wet the bed. Luckily the bowl hadn't spilled by the time we went to bed and checked on the kids. The next morning while I was in the shower (not April Fool's day anymore) I had a cup of cold water dumped on me. I told him he was done with the April Fool's pranks after that!

April 1, 2014

Olivia loves sliding down her slide in the basement.

April 1, 2014

This is a bad picture (like most from my phone) but Olivia is always finding something with a handle to carry around like a purse and put things in. She's all girl and loves anything girly.

April 3, 2014

One evening Matt took the kids over to Wheeler Farm to play on the playground. Olivia loves being outside.

April 4, 2014

I finally went in for a haircut (it had only been about 18 months) and had about a foot cut off and more layers put in. It was nice to get all the dry ends cut off. This is a month after it was cut when I realized I still didn't have any pictures of my haircut. I hate taking pictures of myself.

April 8, 2014

I can't tell you how many pictures I have of Olivia in the swing. She just wants to be outside whenever she can and loves swinging. At this point she starting climbing up the ladder to go down the slide and starting to show more interest in the trampoline but would only jump if you were holding her hands.

April 11, 2014

Another season of soccer started and I coached Ashton's team. Such a great group of kids, they all knew eachother and had so much fun playing together.

April 17, 2014

Matt and Olivia both woke up one day with some sort of eye infection. Olivia also during April had the rest of her teeth come in and a cold so April was a long month where she just wasn't her usual happy self all the time. Made me grateful for how easy going she usually is. But we made it through the month and she's back to her happy self.

This evening Matt kept going in and out of the house and she loved waiting for him and they made a game out of it. You'll also see she has quite the set of lungs when she does her high pitch scream.

April 17, 2014

Easter morning Olivia didn't care about finding eggs, she just wanted a sucker. And since she wasn't feeling the best we let her have it. It wasn't until after the boys found all of the eggs and were opening them that she ventured off the couch. As soon as she realized they had candy in them she wanted in on the action.

April 20, 2014

At Sunday dinner my aunt with help from the sister missionaries hid 300+ eggs. It ended up that my 3 kids were the only ones there so they each found a couple buckets full of eggs. Olivia wasn't going to miss out and started filling up a bucket before dinner while we were outside waiting to eat. She would shake each egg as she picked it up to make sure there was something inside and occasionally they would pop open and spill on the ground. She had a blast as did the boys. We still have bags full of candy from Easter that we haven't eaten almost 2 months later.

April 20, 2014

I thought the clouds looked really cool right after raining when the sun came out. Ask Matt, I'm always in awe at the sky, especially sunsets and I'm always pointing out how beautiful they are.

April 23, 2014

Here's a picture of our almost finished bathroom. We still need to have the company come and do the surround like we did upstairs and install baseboards but that's about it. Kaleb's loved having a bathroom downstairs by his room and I've just loved having 3 toilets in general. It seems everyone always has to go at the same time!

April 24, 2014

Horrible picture but I was trying on clothes and Olivia was with me and decided to walk around in my shoes. First time she had done this.

April 26, 2014

Matt was taking pictures of Olivia out in the hall at church. She does well in nursery even though she still will cry right when I drop her off but as soon as she can't see me anymore she'll stop.

April 27, 2014

Olivia loves sitting in her doll stroller at work. We go on so many walks at home in her stroller that I think she's hoping to go outside on a walk.

April 28, 2014

On April 30th 6 weeks early my nephew Christian Daniel was born at just 4lbs 5 oz. My sister-in-law was induced with pre-eclampsia and ended up having to have a c-section. You always forget how small a newborn is but I couldn't believe how tiny he was being this small. Ashton was 2lbs bigger and was still tiny, pictures don't show how small he was. Even being so early he never was on oxygen or had any real issues other than needing to gain weight and learn to eat on his own. He stayed in the NICU for just over 3 weeks and he is healthy and growing and weighs about 6lbs at almost 6 weeks old.

April 30, 2014

Getting a new nephew was a great way to end the month!

March 2014

Kaleb had his last basketball game on March 1st. His team did really well and we had great coaches that made sure the kids had fun.

March 1, 2014

Kaleb did great in the district spelling bee. He was so small compared to all of the other kids who were mostly jr. high aged. He ended up getting eliminated on a word we had practiced that day that he had trouble with so I knew he might get it wrong but he made it through 5 rounds.

March 10, 2014

On Thursday evenings there were wrestling tournaments at different high schools. There were always so many people crammed into these high school gyms it was a couple hours of chaos. And they typically want your kids by the mats and parents in the stands so you're not sitting with your kid while they're waiting. There weren't as many kids Kaleb's age and weight and so most of the time he was with a kid that was much taller and 5-10lbs heavier but he's a good sport and didn't mind that he lost most of his matches. The kids his age and up are more serious about wrestling and Kaleb just wanted something fun to do. He was really good though at making sure not to get pinned.

March 20, 1014

Each week they would learn a new move in practice and Ashton would always use that move during his matches. You can tell by this video they learned how to take down their opponent by grabbing their leg. Ashton won almost all of his matches and loved practicing with Matt in the basement. I was amazed how quick he picked up on everything. He's always been a wrestler so we knew he would love it.

March 20, 2014

 Not a great picture but I had bought new shoes for Olivia and when I put them on her at the apartment she wouldn't move. She stood there holding on to the chair like her feet were glued to the floor. I finally moved her feet for her to show her she could walk. Something about new shoes threw her off.

March 21, 2014

March 27, 2014

Olivia loves "working" in my office. My business cards are her favorite but in this picture she had recently discovered the phone on the fax machine.  She grabbed a stool and pen and was talking on the phone while drawing. Such a hard worker.

March 26, 2014

 In March we also started constructing a bathroom in our basement. Because new plumbing needed to be installed we paid a contractor in our ward to do the plumbing and drywall and we did the rest. It's one thing to replace existing plumbing but another to put new plumbing in and we wanted to make sure everything was to code and done right especially when it's plumbing in concrete that would be a pain to fix later. We also enjoyed the warm March we had and took many walks, visits to the park and went on bike rides as a family. Olivia loves riding in the bike trailer and even her helmet doesn't bother her anymore.

January & February 2014

Before I start into January here are a couple more pictures from my phone from December.

Ashton asked if he could go outside to shovel and when I looked outside awhile later he was shoveling the snow from the driveway onto the car. Not quite what I thought he was going to do with the snow but he thought it was cool.

December 6, 2013

 This age is so much fun but they also like to get into everything and Olivia loved getting into the fridge at work. Olivia must have been hungry because I caught her taking a bite out of a stick of butter. Yuck!

December 20, 2013

Later that night after a Costco trip I found Olivia climbing in the box of baking goods I had bought. She kept piling the nuts on top of her lap and thought it was so much fun to play in.

December 20, 2013

It took me a minute to remember what we did for New Year's. (Which is why I need to be better about blogging) Were at my parents eating dinner and shortly after Olivia broke out in horrible hives all over her body. I've never had issues with any of my kids so it scared me and of course insta-care closed early being a holiday and I didn't want to take her to the emergency room and hit my deductible on December 31st unless I had to so we watched it carefully. It didn't go away for a few days but eventually it did. She hadn't had anything new to eat and her pediatrician said sometimes kids get a virus that will give them hives. But on January 1st I ended up going to the insta-care because I had  had an eye infection for over a week that wasn't getting better and needed to get antibiotics for it. So it wasn't a very eventful way to ring in the new year but it was still fun and we saw a movie later that day.

January 4th on Eli's first birthday we all went up to the grave to release balloons. The boys had picked out some toys to put on his grave. Ashton wanted to get him a "soft pillow to lay on". It was a cold day but also clear skies with the sun shining bright.

 We miss Eli and are grateful that we'll see him again!

This was Kaleb's first time playing basketball and he loved it. He always plays basketball with his friends at recess but we hadn't ever signed him up since it's in January and after the holiday's it's nice to have a break from hectic schedules but he loved it and wants to do it again. Olivia and Ashton loved running around the loop up where the parents sit. So at least they can run around during the games and get their energy out.

 January 4, 2014

This was a Saturday night ice cream run to Cold Stone. Olivia might need her own bowl next time, she loved it!

January 11, 2014

 The Sunday before Ashton's birthday we had cake and ice cream. He wanted a cake with Lego guys on it so he picked out all of the Lego's from their collection that he wanted on his cake and we washed them and put them on the cake. He loved decorating his own cake.

January, 19, 2014

Kaleb bought Ashton a gift with his own money and spent hours decorating his wrapping paper. This was one of the sides of the present with R2D2 on it. He decorated every side of the box.

 Olivia enjoyed eating her brother's birthday cake!

This is the present Kaleb bought Ashton, a Marvel Agent P.

The next day Ashton opened his other presents at my parent's house.

Olivia enjoying her first margarita, non-alcoholic of course. :) One of our favorite Mexican Restaurants, La Cocina, has free margaritas 3 days a week and the boys, and now Olivia loves the Strawberry margarita's.

January 25, 2014

 A week after his birthday Ashton had his tonsil's and adenoids removed. For about 6 months he kept waking up most nights and saying he couldn't breath. We knew that Kaleb and Ashton both had big tonsils but after asking about Kaleb's at a doctor's appointment a couple of years ago he told us how they don't really take them out much anymore unless it affects their sleeping or other serious issues. Kaleb has always snored loud because his tonsils are so big. So with Ashton feeling like he couldn't breath and when you listened to him sleep he would almost choke when he was sleeping and it would wake him up his doctor said to take him in to an ENT doctor. He started by saying that just because they're big they don't always take them out unless there are other issues and that they rate the size on a 1-4 scale, 4 being the biggest. He then looked in Ashton's mouth and said, "Wow, that's a 4+ they're basically kissing eachother." After discussing his sleeping issues he said once it gets to that point it's not worth keeping them in and we decided to take them out.

Side note but when Ashton was between 2-4 years old he would constantly store food in his mouth and not want to swallow it. Eventually, even if it had been 30 minutes later he would go and spit whatever it was in the garbage can. At the time we thought he was just being stubborn and it drove us crazy but we now know it was because it was hard for him to swallow due to his tonsils. 

I was the most worried about keeping him hydrated after surgery (Matt and I had our tonsils out and we remembered how it was eating after) and so we let him pick out popsicles and other soft foods before his surgery and he had no issues at all eating after. I was really surprised at how much he ate. I think it was because we had all sorts of goodies to eat that we usually don't have on hand. He slowed down how much he ate around day 3 and 4 but that was it. I was also worried about pain and him not sleeping well and the first night home Matt and I couldn't believe how quiet he was when he was sleeping. It was silent in his room and he slept the whole night and hasn't woken up at all since his surgery. I heard people talk about how it also helped their child with learning because they were finally able to concentrate after getting a good nights sleep but didn't think that it would affect Ashton. Ashton always struggled learning his sight word lists at school and as crazy as it sounds it was a day and night difference in his reading and attention span when doing homework. I truly didn't think it would change anything other than his sleeping habits but I guess he really wasn't getting a good nights sleep and didn't realize how much it was affecting him. We're so grateful he was able to get them out and that everything went as smoothly as it did.

The doctors in surgery wrapped up his Perry he took with him with a hand bandage, mask and hair net. He thought that was pretty funny.

  

I didn't take out my camera much in February but the boys had fun making Valentine's for their class.

Olivia loves playing on the boys computer. She puts on their headphones like a necklace and pretends to play games with the mouse and keyboard. Just wants to do what her brothers do.

February 21, 2014

Kaleb and his friend Thomas placed in the top 5 for the school spelling bee and so they advanced to the school district spelling bee the following month. They are in 4th grade, the youngest grade that can compete so we were proud of how well they did. Kaleb took 4th place and Thomas took 5th place. We didn't study the word lists very much but after learning that the district spelling bee would have grades 4-8 competing we knew we had to practice. 

 February 24, 2014

 

After the spelling bee we noticed a flyer for Murray wrestling and practices started that night. Kaleb had done wrestling before but said he didn't want to do it so we took Ashton that night to practice and to sign up. The next day Kaleb changed his mind and wanted to do wrestling too so they both ended up doing wrestling over the next month.