Welcome Spring

I made these big blue flower clips for us to wear to church. The girls had matching dresses and flowers and I had a matching flower in my hair. It was fun to coordinate for a day!

The Day Max Became a Little Less of a Male Dog...

He wore the cone of shame and hated every minute of it. Sorry Maxy, no babies for you!

Magic Show!

We went to a free magic show/balloon animal making time at the library.

The magician called Mikayla up to assist him. He gave her a red foam ball to hold in her hands. She closed her hands and he said some magic words, waved his hands around, yada, yada, and...
POOF! 3 balls appeared where there was one! Mikayla thought this was UNbelievable! She was laughing so hard and it really was fun to watch her helping him out. He did it again and this time about 8 balls popped out of her hand and flew all over the floor! So funny!
Here's the kids with the balloon dogs he taught the kids to make. So fun!

Elephantastic

Chloe's baby shower

We had a baby shower for Chloe before they moved to Missouri. She's about halfway and they're having a girl.

I had fun making a little cake for her shower. A baby in a baby carriage! What you don't see though, is that I went to Kohl's at 7am while everyone was sleeping. I returned an hour later to see all the spokes off the wheels were removed and chocolate chip dots were pulled out leaving nice little 2-yr.-old-size finger indentations in the cake. Naturally, said 2-yr old got a time out and a massive "what were you thinking?" talking to. Then I calmed down, did surgery on my cake, replaced chocolate chips and spokes and it was (almost) as good as new.

and they're gone...

I've known it for months. I knew they'd be leaving and I'd feel alone. I knew the day was fast approaching. Yet, the reality of them all leaving me on the same day is heartbreaking. I have truly loved having Josh and Chloe live next door for the last 18 months and having Dusty live with us for the past 5 1/2 months. They have all helped with watching children, making meals, eating meals, keeping me company, playing games, helping at church, and so much more. I really, truly will miss them. I wish them will in Missouri and Dusty at school in Idaho.

On Josh's facebook he wrote, "saying 'goodbye' to family was easy, until I realized I was saying goodbye to my best friends." My sibs really are best friends and we have really grown close to each other. We will miss you all.

My poor girls brought me kleenexes and gave me hugs this afternoon and Mikayla cried her share of tears too realizing her uncles and aunt and gone.

18?

Mikayla: Mom, can we go to 18?

Me: 18?

Mikayla: Yeah, you know, 18. To get a slurpee.

Me: 18?... Oh! You mean 7-11!!! hahahaha

(sometimes you have to think like a five year old who's learning to add to understand their thinking!)

Somebody Find Me a World's Strongest Baby Competition!

So here's Kendra playing on her back with toes...

Here's Kendra 3 seconds later, she did the full-body flip and turn...

And then this... (pretty good form I might add)

And then this.

This sequence of events happened in about 30 seconds time. How is it that my 5 month old thinks she's old enough and big enough to do this?! When you see her up on all fours like that, knock her legs out from under her. Kidding people. But I can't come to terms with the fact that she's about ready to be on the move.

Kendra is amazingly strong and often gets on all fours and lowers her chest to the floor and back up. Maybe I need to stop exercising around her. She's learning the push-ups from her momma! We did 72 in my gym class today--all on my knees people, I'm not that freakin' strong!
But I am glad to be back to my pre-baby weight (even if the body is a different shape now) and am loving working out at the gym. The morning workouts give me energy for my full days when I need to manage on little sleep. But enough about me. Why is my baby trying to crawl already?!

Tutu Adorable!

How in the world did my little munchkin go from this tiny pink tutu to standing in a bigger purple tutu?! We love tutus around here and I can't resist playing dress-up with my sweet baby.

It's amazing I get anything done during the day with this cute little face to stare at...

Easter Egg Bash!

We dyed eggs at Magaw and Papa's house. Here's Dusty and Breanne, a family friend of ours from Washington.

Megan loved dyeing (and dropping) eggs

Mikayla made several hot pink eggs.

Mikayla with her find, including the special golden egg with "3 whole dollars inside!"

Megan was excited to find her silver egg and all the candy.

Our friends, the Browers, introduced us to a new tradition, Egg Bashing! We made a bracket and everybody chose an egg to bash. You roll your egg into someone else's and if your egg cracks your out, if not, you move on in the bracket to the next round. Only one egg cracks, so it's a sure bet that someone's moving up each round. Chloe was the winner this year.

Mikayla was out in the first round!

Kendra even advanced a few rounds rolling her pretty egg across the table. :) Next year she won't need help to roll the egg, but I'm betting the one year old will be throwing her egg!

Why 5 Year Olds Should Not Skateboard...

It was a doo-oo-zy! The pictures do not do the size of the goose egg justice!!

Cousin Bryson came to visit (and he brought his mom and dad too!). We had fun playing with the two babies in Chico and here in Sacramento.

Since Uncle Josh has found out he's going to be a dad soon, he likes to hold crying babies and make them happy, swaddle them and shush them to sleep and bounce them on his knee. He's going to be a great dad.

Tim and Michelle dressed Kendra up in a little baseball outfit and everybody thought it was Bryson at first glance. Girl clothes or boy clothes, she still looks cute to me!

Bryson before church on Sunday, looking mighty handsome.

We had baby feeding time at night and I got a little idea of what twins might be like--thank heavens mine come one at a time!

Josh sat down on the rocker and it became niece-dogpile time! We tried to get a good pic of the 4 grandchildren before church.... but it wasn't happening.

It sure was good to spend time together as a family. We played disc golf, went on walks to the park, ate way too much food, went to the temple, and just enjoyed being together.

Shhh! Don't tell Tim! (I couldn't resist)