A day at Wheeler Farm

My favorite Jenny was in town this past week and so we had a little get together with all of our kids at Wheeler Farm. It was a warm and windy day, perfect for chocolate frosty's from Wendy's - (Thanks for the fun treat Jen!) - and everyone came out clean and neat except for my little Kate who spilled chocolate ALL OVER herself and, with the help of the wind, spilled two of them on the ground:). Also, there were so many cute, cute picture taking opportunities, but my camera was on the fritz and so most of the pictures are really blown out, and then, of course, the batteries died. Just my luck! So even though there isn't a lot of evidence of our fun day, we really did have a lot of fun.

Here we are eating our frosty's.
Kate, Kira, Abby, Jenny, and Hallie in the stroller behind them.

Kira and Abby eating frosty's and sporting the "windblown" look. Abby and Kate feeding the ducks.
Kate didn't really understand the concept of throwing small pieces of bread, so she decided to throw the whole piece in. I'm just grateful that the duck didn't choke to death.
Kira watching the ducks eat all the bread.
Bryce and his first trip ever to Wheeler Farm. I know this isn't the best picture - no animals or anything - but the camera was about to die.
At the end of the day it was all worth it and Kate is living proof that we lived it up inspite of the wind, the chocolate stains and the dirt around the eyes:). We had so much fun hanging with the Hansens. It was fun to see you and we love you lots!

Bryce is Two Months Old!

What a whirlwind the past two months have been. Luckily, with the help of good friends and an amazing family, we are back to normal life - well as normal as it can be with a newborn:). Bryce has been such a joy to have in our home. I love having a baby boy. He is my little prince and I just can't stop kissing him! What a cutie pie. Here are a few pictures of Brycee's two month birthday.

Happy two months Bryce!

The Simple Joys of Motherhood

The other day I was in one of my favorite little shops in Heber, "My House", and I read this poem on one of the plaques they had.

I am your parent, you are my child.
I am your quiet place, you are my wild.
I am your calm face, you are my giggle.
I am your wait, you are my wiggle.
I am your finish line, you are my race.
I am your praying hands, you are my saving grace.
I am your lullaby, you are my peekaboo.
I am your goodnight kiss, you are my I love you.

It got me to thinking about my kids and being a mom and what an amazing relationship that is. Sometimes I get into a rut of boredom and yelling and thinking my kids are so bad all the time, so I decided to stop and look around at all the things they do every day that make me smile and laugh. It has been fun to document for myself and so I thought that every once in a while I will do a blog of all the things that I simply treasure about being a mom.

Bryce was crying so I walked into my bedroom expecting him to be in his bouncer and this is what I found. What you don't see, because I picked him up, is that Kate had pulled Bryce out of his bouncer and put him down next to the bouncer on the floor, hence the crying, to replace him with her bear. I love that she even strapped her in!

Later that same day I went downstairs to find Zoe with a new addition to her collar. Kira was the culprit here. Here is a closeup so that you can see her stretchy Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast is what she wrapped around in the collar.
Doesn't Zoe look thrilled! The girls are always putting necklaces on her neck and riding her around the house. No wonder she runs away!

I love it when Kira draws because she is so passionate about it and she does a really great job. Here are a few of my favorites.

This is Barbie Island Princess, complete with peacock wings.

Here is a picture of Sponge Bob Square Pants and a Princess. I didn't even know she knew who Sponge Bob was, but apparently she watched it at grandma's house and drew me this picture when was in the hospital with Bryce. No one helped her and I think it's awesome!

These hang on my fridge because I love to look at them. It is me, Kira, Kate and baby Bryce in both of them. She finally started to draw Kate in the pictures. She was boycotting that for a while and would draw the whole family - minus Kate. Funny.

I found this leftover cookie and drink of Kate's when I opened the fridge to make lunch the other day.

This morning I was SOOOOOO tired from being up 3 nights in a row with whiny kids and so when Bryce started crying in the morning it took me a while to wake up enough to go and get him. When I went in his room he was SCREAMING and sweet Kira was laying next to him singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and trying to calm him down. She is so cute.Here is my last picture. When I came downstairs this afternoon I found my manly little boy with this cup on his head, lovingly put there by his big sister Kira. The look on his face says it all! I love being a mom!Oh, I also wanted to write down a few of the cute things I hear during the day:

The other day we had Barbie Mariposa movie on in the background and Barbie says, "I have to go, duty calls." Kira turned to me and said, "Mom, who's duty?"

One night Kira started to pet her arm and she asked me where her arm pet was. It took me three tries to figure out that she meant her arm pit:-) She is learning about her body at preschool and has so many questions, but this one took me a minute to answer.

Kate walked into Bryce's room one day and I had all of his toys out playing with him and she got this look of horror on her face (with one eyebrow up and her hands on her hips) and said, "What's going on here!" It was so funny.

And tonight, as I write this blog, Kira is cheering for daddy and his PS2 football game with her pom poms and everything and Dave tells her she is his good luck charm and to "keep it up" so Kira stops and looks and him and says "Daddy, why can't I keep it down?" I love all the fun things they say. More to come later.

Happy Birthday Grandma Linda

For Grandma Linda's birthday we went to Heber to visit and party. Here are all the grandkids: Linda, Vanessa, Kira, Bryce and Kate.
Here is daddy terrorizing the kids on Little Linda's fun trampoline.

Ginger and Vanessa

After eating lunch at Pizza Hut we went to the park to wear the kids out:). Kate wanted to slide on the big slide, but this is about as far as she dared to go.
Pearl and Vanessa on the big slide. We're so glad Pearl's home. She is so much fun and the kids absolutley love her.
Daddy, showing Kate how to ride the bouncy horses. (I love this picture because Dave and Kate have a special connection, she's such a daddy's girl and you can see it the way they look at each other.)
Kira,
Kate,

and Linda on the bouncy horses.
Grandma and Bryce

Grandma blowing out the candles on her cake. We had such a fun day. Happy Birthday!

When the mom's away the kiddies will play...

So it is conference weekend and I thought I'd get a little cleaning done while I listened to conference, so I finally got Bryce to sleep and I thought the girls were downstairs watching a movie, but when I checked on them, this is what I found. Number 3 was sleeping like a baby:)...
...number 1 was creativly making a mud soup in the backyard...
(Looks yummy huh) ...and number 2 found the markers and was making herself into a work of art! All I can say is thank goodness they're washable.
(is this the face of an angel or what!)
These are my three little ones to a tee - Bryce is still in the sleeping all day but up all night phase, Kira is my little "loves to be creative and make a concoction out of everything", and Kate is my independent spirit and makeup artist who loves to put ANYTHING that she thinks is makeup all over her body. I love seeing their little personalities come out. Being a mom is the best!

Princesses on Ice!

This is a blog long overdue and I have a minute so I thought I'd share. On March 13 we all went to see Disney Princesses on Ice and we had so much fun! Dave was very excited to take the girls and they were so excited to be there. Kira even dressed up like Snow White, but oddly Kate didn't want to dress up that night. Oh well, she's still our little princess.

Here is my pouting girl. (I actually think she inherited this wonderful quality from me:) I hear I am pretty good at this, but I don't know what anyone is talking about.) She was bummed when her mean parents wouldn't spend $20 for the little slushies in the princess cups that EVERYONE ELSE had. Silly us, we thought just seeing the princesses would be enough:) But then when the show started...

...she forgot about the treat and really enjoyed the whole thing. Especially when Snow White came out because they were dressed the same. Here is Kira with her new princess wand.

Tinkerbell introduced the show with a wave of her magic wand and off we went on a magical adventure.

Aladdin and Jasmine started the show with "A whole new world"

and then the Genie appeared!

Snow White twirled her way through the forrest where she met...
the Seven Dwarfs! They were so cute.

Then Lumiere invited Belle to "Be My Guest,"

and Ariel and Flouder swam their way into Kira's heart. (They were her favorite)
Also, she was so so excited when Sebastian showed up.
Here is Kira watching intently as the prince kisses Sleeping Beauty,
and Cinderella ended the show with a bang - literally - with fireworks and everything. It was so much fun and the girls enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to daddy for a fun night.