Happy 5th Birthday Kaylee!

Kaylee had her 5th Birthday last Wednesday, the 30th.  It was a blast!!  She woke up to streamers in her doorway and was super happy to get ready for school that day.  She was so excited to take her cupcakes to celebrate her Birthday at school.  I dropped her off to school, took Preston to his Dr. Appt, and was so excited to see how school when when I picked her up at 12:30.  She got a cute Birthday hat and a Birthday book signed by all her classmates.  The cupcakes were a big hit, and she was so happy to tell Miss Trish that they don't even make crumbs.  Yes, you see, it was quite the deal to me to find the right cupcake mix that would be dense, yet tasty, so I could avoid having the biggest mess possible.  So I think she overheard me when I talked about the cupcake making process and how I was so glad to get this recipe from Jana that was a very non crumbly cake mix.  So whenever she would talk about the cupcakes herself, she was sure to point out how they are not messy since they don't crumble.  Funny as that is, it was very true.  I was very happy with how the cupcakes turned out.  I was going to do a cake, but then the cupcakes just seemed like an easier plan, and it was!  With great help from Jana and a cute cupcake stand from Kristi, they were perfect for what Kaylee wanted!!  I love my friends!

 We had lunch and started getting ready for her party.  Dad was able to come home early that day and was able to help us.  I needed to finish frosting the cupcakes and decorate our backdrop for the music videos we were going to make.  The theme for her party was "Pop Star".  Since she likes to sing and dance, we thought that would be super fun!  Here is what the front and back of her invite looked like:

Again, most of the creativeness came from Jana, who let me use her ideas and make it fit for Kaylee's party!  The kids first autographed everyone's bag that they were going to take home.  You know, because when you are famous, you have to autograph things for your fans all the time!  Then we had pizza for dinner.  Then we went downstairs and did some singing and dancing to some fun music like "We are never ever getting back together", "Firework", "Call me Maybe" and Dora.  Then we had cupcakes and opened up presents.  She got a ton of really great gifts!  Here are the pictures from her party that turned out to be super fun!

 Here are my two cute boys in their matching guitar shirts.  You can't really tell, but they say ROCK on them.  It was cute!  I found them on clearance at Childrens place and thought they would be perfect for the party!

We sure love our Kaylee bug!!!  She is such a bright little girl with a fun and out going personality.  Her most favorite phrase is "Do you know what?!" and "I need to tell you something".  She will talk almost anyone's ear off that will let her and she has a hard time going to bed since she wants to just stay up and hang out with us and not miss anything.  She knows all her letters and numbers and can write not only her name, but everyone in our family names.  She loves to paint, draw, color and create.  She is also super brave.  When we went to her 5 year checkup on Friday, she had to get her booster shots and didn't even flinch when they gave them to her.  Then she had to get her blood drawn to check her thyroid levels, and again she was so brave and didn't even make a peep or move while they did it.  I think the nurses where all impressed with how brave she was.  It made me so proud of her, so I bought her a starburst and lemonade from the pharmacy on our way out of the doctors office.  She deserved it!  She weighed in at 39 lbs (46%) and is 43" tall (62%).  Her vision and everything else was great!  She will be so ready to start kindergarten in the fall!  It was so cute today at Primary...we were doing opening excersizes, and she got my attention and told me that she didn't get sung too.  I realized she was right!  They were in Holden last weekend and so she was gone when they would have sung to her.  So, since I was just put in as the new Primary Chorister this past week, I was able to quickly solve that problem and we sang "Happy Happy Birthday Kaylee Dear" to her.  It was cute!  Even though she seems so big and grown up to me, it is still hard to get that she is already 5.  She is just a joy to our family and we love her SO much!

Another lost tooth....

Carson lost another tooth on Tuesday night (Jan 29th).  It is his front left tooth.  It has been loose for awhile now and he has been wiggling it to get it to come out.  I was in the middle of making cupcakes and Jana was over helping me with the frosting and we were just saying goodbye when I heard something land on the floor and Carson ran in to show me his tooth!  Gone!!  It was kinda funny!  (Honestly, the whole losing a tooth thing grosses me out and so even though it is exciting, I really don't want to see the tooth or the whole it came from!)  So Carson got a visit from the tooth fairy that night!  He got $1 and even got to keep his tooth!  Lucky kid!!!

Preston is 4 months!

Yes, can you believe it has been FOUR months!!!  Preston turned 4 months, last Monday the 28th.  I took these pictures on Tuesday because my Monday was so crazy trying to get back to reality after such a long and fun weekend.  He is such a happy baby most of the time and freely gives us smiles.  He slept 11 hours on Monday night and 12 hours on Tuesday night.  Too bad that didn't continue for the next few nights, but we will blame that on his tooth that is trying to come in.  I took him to his 4 month check up on Wednesday.  The doctor pointed out the tooth to me, and it makes sense.  He is SO slobbery and is always chewing on his hands.  SO I hope that if we can get this tooth to come in, we can get back to our good nights of sleeping again. Until then, he is still pretty easy even when he does get up.  He eats about 4 to 5 oz and then goes right back to bed.  Super easy!  He weighed in at 12 lbs 8 oz (8%) and was 25 3/4" tall (79%).  So tall and skinny like his siblings!  He has been healthy and I really hope to keep it that way.  Knock on wood...all of us have been healthy for the most part.  So I am hoping we can make it through this flu season healthy!  He has learned to roll onto his side and he will turn in a circle on the ground, but no rolling over yet.  He loves to grab his feet and anything else that is nearby.  Sometime it is hard to feed him a bottle because he is always trying to put his fist in his mouth.  He is quite a wiggle worm too. He has been sitting in the bumbo a few minutes every day, but still doesn't seem too like it or just isn't big enough to stay upright yet.  I guess that is the problem with skinny babies...he just doesn't fit in the bumbo to make it easy to sit him up.  Kaylee loves to pick him up and hold him and is always willing to help me with him.  However, the other day while I was working out she came and told me he was awake, so I told her I would be up in a minute to get him.  When I came upstairs, she had gotten him out of his crib and was holding him.  WHAT!?!  She thinks she is such a big girl and can do that, but I told her it was still best to let me get him out of his crib still.  But it is fun to see her want to help so much with him!  Here are the pictures I took of him at 4 months.  I included a few pictures of Kaylee too...she was helping me make him smile and she looked super cute and wanted me to take her picture, and I think she is just beautiful, so I did.  I think they are one of my favorites of her!  Wow, 4 months....2 more of these time frames and he will be a year old! :)  Crazy!

Snowy Sunday

Last Sunday, we left St. George and headed to Holden that afternoon.  We had dinner and then loaded up to head home.  We noticed around Nephi the big clouds that were waiting for us as we headed North.  By the time we got to Payson, it started snowing.  We stopped in Provo at Chris's apartment to feed Preston since he was fussy and I didn't know how long it would take to get home.  I had been texting back and forth with our friends and neighbors, the Boynton's, who had also been in St. George and were about 45 minutes ahead of us on the road.  She had told me the roads had gotten worse the further north they got.  We also found out I-15 had been shut down due to a jack knifed semi truck.  At the last minute, we decided to book a room online and stay in Provo for the night and finish driving home in the morning.  Yes, we probably could have made it home, but I didn't want to risk having it take us hours and have one or two screaming hungry babies for the whole ride.  And we thought it would also be really fun for the kids to stay over at a hotel.  And it was!!!  We booked online at Priceline again and got a room for about $40.  We stayed at the LaQuinta Inn, which wasn't too bad.  It was a little dated, but really clean, and they offered a hot breakfast in the morning.  The kids loved it!  We popped popcorn and watched the X Games for a bit before going to bed.  We got up early and got ready and had breakfast then got back on the road.  

 We made it to Woods Cross by 9:45 AM, and dropped Kaylee off to school then Nick took Carson to school.  Nick was going to head to work, but decided to stay home and start shoveling the snow.  I did about 7 loads of laundry that day and got everything put away before piano lessons and dinner.  It was such a fun weekend, but it was really nice to finally be home!

St. George Getaway!

After a week of 6 kids, a root canal, and just plain craziness, I was ready for a break.  (I was ready for a break even before the 2 extra kids).  So Nick called his mom and made arrangements for her to watch ALL of the kids while we spent 2 nights in St. George.  I was so excited!  We booked a room on piceline.com for super cheap on Thursday.  We booked at the Wingate by Windham.  It was such a last minute trip that I was pleased we were able to put something together so fast.  I spent Friday packing while Nick went on the fieldtrip with the girls.  As soon as Carson got home from school we took off Southbound!  The weather was just fine driving on Friday.  We made it to Holden around 4:30 and hung out until Gma Karen was done doing hair for the day.  We grabbed a sandwich in Fillmore and made it to St. George around 8:30 that night.  We had asked for a king room but they were all booked and only had queen rooms left.  So we asked about a king suite, and were were able to upgrade to one for just a little bit more.  Since we got such a good price on the room to begin with, we figured we would splurge and do it!  It was so awesome!

 It was probably a little more than what we needed, but it felt fun to have it feel so fancy and special.  Of course, as a mom, I kept thinking, "Oh how fun it would be if the kids were here...they would love this room!".  We spent Friday night eating popcorn and watching tv.  Ahhhh!!!  So nice!  On Saturday, we slept in, worked out at the hotels fitness center, and had a yummy free breakfast there too.  It really was a nice hotel!  Then  we made it to a session at the St. George temple that morning.  It was great!

 It was a little rainy, but still warmer than it had been in SLC, so we enjoyed it still.  We decided to eat at Paradise Bakery for lunch.  It was still tasty and I didn't have to make it.  Aftewards, we headed back to the hotel, changed, and spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at the outlet mall.

 After shopping, we headed to dinner at our favorite place, the Roadhouse.  The food is just as good in St. George as in Bountiful.  It was great!  We even splurged and ordered the yummiest apple pie for dessert!

We enjoyed another sleeping in day on Sunday before having breakfast at the hotel again and heading north to pick up the kids.  I loved seeing the blue skies in St. George, and knew the weather wasn't going to be the greatest when we got home that night, but we enjoyed it while we could!

I just gotta say that was such a fun trip!  It has been awhile since Nick and I have been able to get away from the kids for that long and just hang out and enjoy one another.  I think we will be making this an annual trip from now on. Loved it!