Leah is FIVE!

Someone had a birthday this past week...

 

Leah turned 5!

It's no surprise that birthdays are my favorite.  Celebrating the birth of my babes is one of the highlights of my year, and I just love giving them the attention they deserve on their special day.  Leah has been looking forward to her birthday since last year!  No joke.  So, it wasn't a surprise that she was beyond excited when her birthday finally came.  She loved the fact that she was turning 5..."a whole handful", as she put it :).

We had a pretty eventful week celebrating our little princess.  

We started her actual birthday off by singing to her and opening her gifts.  From us, she got a stamp set, the game Spot It, a ladybug pillow pet, and a razor scooter.  She was pretty excited, since she specifically asked for each thing...

We had our traditional pancake breakfast, where I spelled out her name.  They all love it when I do this :).

It was a pretty cold and dreary day, so we spent the day at home playing with her new goodies.  She and Isaac had a blast zooming around the kitchen on the razor.  Oh, the things we let our kiddos do...on their birthday :).  Leah requested to go to In-n-Out for dinner that night, since all she really wanted was her very own vanilla shake.  Doug and I were happy to oblige to her request.  She was in heaven with her shake...definitely one of the highlights of her day :).

Man, I love this girlie so much!  After dinner, we just came home and hung out, since that was what she wanted to do :).

Leah's second request for her birthday was to go swimming with her cousins.  This little girl is a fish, and she LOVES the water!  We had a great afternoon swimming with the family.  Afterwards, we went to our house for dinner and ice cream.  It was so great getting together with everyone, and we're so thankful that they all came to celebrate her special day :).

We ended the weekend off by having my parents come over for dinner on Sunday.  They totally spoiled Leah with an outfit for her doll, and outfit for her, and an nano!  I think she was most excited over having her own little Nano...she LOVES music and has been listening to it ever since she got it!

Singing *Happy Birthday* to Leah one last time :).  She totally ate up having all of the attention on her all weekend...can you tell??

She even celebrated her birthday at school by wearing a cute little crown, birthday sticker, and taking cupcakes to share with her class!  

Needless to say, Leah had a very good birthday this year!  We love this girl more than words and we're so thankful that she is ours!  I still can't believe that she's been with us for FIVE years...man, oh man, how time flies! 

We love you sweet girl...to the moon and back!!

My Little Helper

Isaac LOVES to help me clean. Whenever I am vacuuming, he insists on me pulling out this red vacuum so that he can clean as well. I love that he loves to help me, and I actually really appreciate it :). It's great being able to rely on my 2 year old to help me around the house...

 

Kate {at 11 months}

Our sweet baby Kate is one month shy of turning ONE!  Say it isn't so!  Yes, I'm totally sad that my baby is almost a year old...  I love everything about this little one, and I love that she is growing and learning so much as of late.  I know she can't stay a baby forever, but, man, oh man, I SO wish that she would!  Newborns and babies are, and have always been, my favorite stage.  I love all the snuggling that comes along with them...it really is the best.  I really need to cherish every moment while I still can :).

At 11 months, Kate...

...can pull herself up to standing, and she does it all.of.the.time.  The best is when she does it on something that really can't support her, and she tumbles over and starts laughing hysterically.  We find it hysterical too :).  I'm just so proud of her and that she *finally* figured it out.  I think that standing is one of those things that they just have to figure out on their own.  I've been trying to teach her, but she wasn't really getting it.  But, now that she's figured it out, she pulls herself up all of the time, and the best is the happiness on her face every time she gets my attention after she has done it...priceless!
...is still an absolutely amazing sleeper!  A 2 hour nap in the morning, a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and goes to bed at 7:30 and sleeps until 8!  Bless her little heart for sleeping so well!
...loves to snuggle, and I love it too!
...does NOT like wearing socks!  At all!  Every time I put socks on her, she pulls them on within seconds!  I have to put footy jammies on her at night so her feet don't get cold, but she doesn't like these either.  She tries as hard as she can to pull them off with no avail.  As soon as she pulls her socks off, she'll stuff them both in her mouth and play.  It's pretty funny to see!
...is crawling everywhere on her hands and knees.  She finally figured out how to crawl for real and hardly ever does the army crawl anymore.  She's not very fast though...she likes to take her time :).
...prefers to be held when there is a lot going on in the house.  When the kids are playing, she'll crawl over to me and beg to be picked up.  I don't blame her one bit...those kids are craaaazy!
...does not like it when the kids hold her...at all!  Leah tries to hold her all of the time, out of love...I get it.  Leah wants to be a little mommy to Kate.  But every time she grabs Kate, she freaks out.  Hopefully Leah learns not to hold her, but she doesn't.
...is a great little eater.  She especially loves her bottles, which is fine by me.  Especially since she wasn't gaining weight a few months back, and now she is :).  She also prefers real food vs. baby food.  I have made an effort to make her baby food, and she likes it SO much more then the store bought stuff.  Plus it's easy to make and saves me some pennies :).   I really, REALLY, hope that she doesn't become a picky eater like Leah and Isaac!
...absolutely loves to play and read.  Lately, she'll crawl in her room and bring a book out to me to read.  It is seriously so adorable to see her come around the corner dragging a book along.  And I also love that she will actually sit in my lap while I read it to her!
...loves to dance and clap her hands to the music!
...has the saddest cry ever!  Man, oh man, it breaks my heart every time that she cries!  But, I swear her cry is just and act, 80% of the time!  Like...when she's playing with my phone and I take it away...boom...she cries!  Sobbing!  I know it's sad and all, but seriously, it is a little amusing.  That said...
...she LOVES my phone!  Just like last month, she prefers my phone over most toys.  Kids these days ;).
...absolutely loves crawling over to the back door and looking outside.  It's probably one of her most favorite things to do, and watching her find joy in looking outside makes me long for summer even more!  I know that she is going to SO enjoy crawling around and playing this summer!  Can't wait :).
...has TWO teeth on the bottom.  Seeing her smile with those two bottom teeth poking through is so precious :).  The sad thing about her teeth is that she's getting more and they are making her so miserable.  Poor baby.  That's another reason we've been cuddling lots and lots lately :).
...loves anything that involves water...whether it be a tubby, or swimming...she loves it all.  She freaks out whenever we put her in the water.  It's great fun :).

We sure do love you baby girl...to the moon and back!

... Ou

St. Patty's Day ~ 2013

Growing up, the only thing that mattered on St. Patty's Day was wearing green...or you got pinched.  It was a simple holiday.  I'm going to admit that I probably went a little more *out* this year for this holiday than every before, and I did this by making a skirt for the girlies and some clovers to put in Leah's hair.  I guess this idea is more fun...for me at least ;).  I will NOT ever make food that isn't supposed to be green, well, green...yuck.  BUT, I did take breakfast up a notch by making rainbow pancakes...but that was it.  And, thankfully, it wasn't hard to do ;).  I just like dressing up the kiddos so they are matchy matchy :).  Hope you wore your green too!

Kate's First Tooth!

While eating dinner last night, I noticed that Kate was sticking her tongue out more than normal. My first thought was that her tooth finally popped through and she was feeling it! So, I put my finger in to see, and sure enough, she has a tooth!! We all got so excited...I love making the most of these precious moments! The second tooth isn't far behind, and I so look forward to seeing her smile with two cute little teeth poking out!

Lately...

Life has been pretty slow and mellow around here lately...I assume it's mostly due to the fact that we are *trapped* inside. Although, we did get some lovely weather this week and were able to venture outside, which made us long for spring even more! I have also realized that I need to take more pictures of my Noah! Life gets crazy around 3:30, right when he comes home, but that's not a good excuse. I guess taking more pictures of him will be my goal this month :). Here are some pics of some random happenings around here...

St. George

Doug and I have been wanting to go on a little weekend get-away for a while now, so we finally caved and went this past weekend. We need to go away more often because we all had such a wonderful time really enjoying one another outside of our element. We decided to escape to St. George because 1) it was supposed to be very warm, and we are totally and completely longing for summer, and 2) I had never been there, and wanted to go! We didn't tell the littles we were going until the day before, and even then, we didn't tell them *where* we were headed. Once we told them, they were so excited...I love surprising them :). The trip down there wasn't all that bad, thank goodness!

 

Once we arrived, we went and got some food, since we were all *starving*, then we headed back so that the boys could shoot some hoops.  Man, they were in heaven!  Especially little Isaac...he loves to play ball!

'

The next morning, we got ready early and headed to St. George to do some exploring.  First, we stopped to see the temple, which was so beautiful!  We walked around the grounds for a bit and just took it all in.  

Then we just went and walked around downtown for a bit.  It was fun to stroll through the shops, and make the kids stand in a telephone booth!  Noah was so confused to what the booth was...even after we explained it, he didn't understand the concept of people paying to use phones.  He's obviously being raised in a very technological world!  We made him pose with the iPhone to his ear ;).

The kids eventually got antsy and kept asking to go back and swim.  That's honestly all that they wanted to do this whole trip :).  They also enjoyed "swimming" in the huge tub at the condo!

After a fun night of relaxing and watching movies, we packed everything up...thankfully everyone was happy to get going, even if it was a short trip.

Doug and I decided to make a little detour and go to Zion!  Neither of us had been there, and we figured, why not?!?  It really was so beautiful!  I love seeing new things, and this was truly amazing!  It was the perfect end to our little get-away.

The drive home seemed like it lasted forever, even if it was only 4 hours!  All I can say is thank goodness for cars that play movies and iPads!  Even then, they still complained.  Oh the joy of having four kiddos 6 and under ;).  I'm just glad that we were able spend this time together and really savor one another's company.  We had so much fun!  Don't get me wrong, we have fun at home too, but there's just something about the quality time you spend together away from home.  I look forward to our next get-away for sure :).