Resident Retreat

A week ago Nate had a resident retreat with the other 2nd year residents he works with at Nellis. Families were invited, but I am still completely against camping overnight with a child Emmy's age. He begged me to let him take all 3 kids with him (and I could stay home), but I just could not in good conscience let him do it.  I did consider it, and even asked everyone's opinion on Facebook. We got mixed reactions. :) I felt like 3 kids is hard to keep track of even with both parents around...and Emmy would be a lot of work, thus detracting from the fun the older kids could have with Nate. So Nate set off for Valley of Fire with just Jansen and Natalie. 

Just today Jansen's teacher mentioned that he told her ALL about why strawberry marshmallows are not ideal for s'mores. And lots and lots of other information about strawberry marshmallows.

Natalie doesn't seem to have any problem with the marshmallows.

 Natalie snoozing away in the tent.

 I guess the story with this picture is that the kids were trying to pile the rocks high enough to help them climb into the little cave you can see above them.

Nate caught Jansen at just the right moment in this one.

 The kids had a blast, but sometimes you've just had enough. I hope Jansen and Natalie are old enough to be storing away all these fun memories with their dad.

Day to Day

Our sweet elderly neighbors gave us this birdbath. (The same neighbors that gave me a tourist type T-shirt for Jansen that said "Son of a Beach" on it. Should I be offended? Also the same neighbors that brought us some pastries in a Victoria's Secret bag.) The birdbath has spent most of its time with us rolling around to different locations in the backyard. One day the girls had the wonderful idea of using it as a table.

I think we all know why I included this picture. Thank you, Emmy, for making me laugh every day.

 We had a cold-ish day a few weeks back and the kids went wild inside. Natalie LOVES to raid the recycling box. It drives me absolutely crazy to see her drag garbage back in the house, but I also cannot bring myself to tell her that she can't "make" whatever it is she has in mind. She and Jansen made this city.

 A close up of their hard work. 

 I'm pretty good about letting them make messes but ALWAYS warn them that they will need to clean it ALL up. They agree happily. But then clean up time comes and there is ALWAYS much groaning and moaning. I wouldn't want to clean this up either I guess. It's also a barricade to keep Emmy out.

 The other half of the mess.

Grandma and Grandpa's House

When my cousin Meggie and I were younger we referred to our grandparents as "Grandma and Grandpa," always in that order. Since we said "Grandma" first pretty much all of the time, our little minds thought that maybe Grandpa must feel slighted to always be second. So we got a jar and made a rule that every time we said "Grandma and Grandpa" rather than "Grandpa and Grandma" we had to put a quarter in. Just a little memory I had while writing this post.

On our last day of our recent visit to Utah, we stopped by my grandparent's house. They have lived in this home my whole life, and I even lived there for awhile as a child when my family was building a house. It's always a flood of memories when I go there...smells, sounds, and sights.

The weather was nice enough to spend most of our time on the front lawn.

 This may seem a little strange, but I snuck in the house while everyone was outside and took some pictures. Boring, random pictures to most, but to me, each of these photos sets me off on memory lane. I want to remember the little corners of a place that means so much to me.

 I can practically smell the garage just looking at pictures of it.

 It's too much work to keep up now, but this pool was an integral part of my childhood in Orem. I can almost smell the backyard in my mind as well.

 I couldn't be happier that the carpet and curtains haven't been changed for YEARS in the study. 

Now I feel like I need to get back there and take even more photos of this special place!

Not Worth the Fight

It just wasn't worth the fight.

So she wore her water shoes to church.

Wait, she didn't even really wear them while we were there. I can't keep shoes on her sometimes. I sent her to nursery in barefeet. Is that disgusting?

Earache

Last night was one of the longer of my mothering career.

Jansen had an earache and the Advil and Motrin weren't even touching the pain. It's one of the worst feelings in the world to be helpless when your child is hurting. (I know, I know, I'm thinking the same thing. Did we really go to medical school only to feel powerless when our own child has an earache? :) ) Jansen and I simply endured the night...catching 30 minutes of sleep here and there. I would start to drift off and then he would cry out in pain. Looking at the clock, begging for the night to be over but praying 6:30 wouldn't come so soon when the girls would wake up. We moved from his bed to our bed to the recliner to the couch...played the Itouch, watched a movie, warmed up washcloths...just one long painful night. At some point in the morning his ear drum ruptured, which was a good thing.

Thankfully today was much better than I anticipated. Jansen slept from like 9-3 and Nate's patient delivered (a baby) during the day instead of this evening when she was scheduled for an induction. So he was home at dinner time! I'm crossing my fingers tonight goes better than last night did.

Ah, Yes, Easter Pictures

Is coloring eggs a dying art? (Or dyeing art, haha)

I found myself remembering at the last minute a day or so before Easter that we hadn't dyed any eggs, and I really didn't have a strong desire to do so. But Nate was going to be gone on Saturday, and Emmy would take a nap, so it would be a good thing to keeps the kids busy. Watching them made me realize that even if it wasn't fun to ME anymore, they loved it. So we'll keep doing it.

 The day before Easter we had a ward picnic/egg hunt. As I was getting dressed that day I suddenly spotted my rabbit shirt that Kami gave me years ago. Perfect for an Easter celebration. And then I perfected life again by adding rabbit earrings...that someone says look like Playboy bunnies...and then I took them off but not for that reason. I was just feeling a little too rabbit-ish. 

 I was flying solo at the ward party. Nate was at work. Emmy "hunted" for eggs the same way all the little wee ones did...find one, stop, try to open it, have mom open it, eat what's inside, go find another egg. It's a slow process.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of Easter morning. But here's Emmy after she found her basket.

 And one picture of the other kids. Happy Easter was when I finally got the back of Natalie's hair combed out later that morning. We had dinner with another couple in our ward that afternoon and enjoyed a slow, no-meetings-for-Nate Sunday. 

To Salt Lake

Still have some blogging to do about our spring break!

We headed up to Salt Lake after spending some time in Orem. We spent Monday and Tuesday with Nate's family and packed in some good memories. All those pictures from my last post with sunny skies...not to last. It snowed on Sunday and was wet and cold. We still enjoyed being together inside and watching General Conference.

 You'd think being cooped up in the house all day would drive us crazy, but the kids played SO well. They pretty much took care of themselves and moved on from thing to thing with no fights. Although Jansen sure looks ready if there were to be a shake up.

 Did I mention it was cold and snowy? Well...the moms still kind of *insisted* the kids get some fresh air. Fresh air is Nate's specialty. So we bundled them up.

 And these guys took a short walk. Just enough time for us to hide some Easter eggs for a little in-house hunt. 

All defrosted and ready to find some eggs. 

 Inside some of the eggs were temporary tattoos. I drew the line at putting them on their foreheads, but other than that, I let them go crazy. Nothing says tough like a flowery Easter basket adorned with flowers on your forearm. 

 Din Din. It was so wonderful to see everyone.

 Some post-dinner fun at the foosball table. There was a moment that the men realized the pain potential for each of them associated with those foosball handles. And the game took a nasty turn. Everyone's okay.

 Monday was a trip to Temple Square and to the Church History Museum.

 There was some incredible art work from an international art competition on display there. 

Here's one of Nate's favorites:

There were also a lot of fun things for the kids to do. I'd love to go back some day and really look at everything and read all the information available. Can someone older than me that doesn't have kids at home tell me if that ever really happens? You go back to all those museums you went to with kids and get to enjoy them in a new way?

 Here's Natalie in the stroller I bought that morning at a ShopKo. Since we didn't have one with us. Since I've left 3 of them in parking lots. Nate says from now on they have to come out of my birthday money. :)

 Sometimes you just gotta stop and smell the flowers. 

 Till next time Utah!

Took a Trip

Nate had some time off, so we headed for Utah. It was a wonderful coincidence that it was also Spring Break and General Conference. Grandma Becca's was our first stop, and we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday in Orem. I'm realizing more and more that backyards are magical places. If I have any control over it, I will never live in a home without a fenced backyard for the rest of my life. Jansen created a little dinosaur community in Grandma's backyard that I kind of wanted to play with myself.

Can we all just pray that Emmy never quits with the funny faces? Lately she loves to peek around the corner or walk into a room and just say, "Hi."

Cul-de-sacs are magical too. We spent a fair amount of the afternoon playing in the road with cousins and eating pizza.

Evie and Jansen have a connection. When asked what his favorite part of Utah was he answered, "Playing Animal Heroes at Evie's." I hope they'll be buddies forever.

Go Fish and Old Maid were a hit. We played a few rounds of each over the course of the trip.

Saturday night the men attended the Priesthood Session of conference. You can see a distraught Jansen at the bottom left. He didn't want us to leave. See, the girls had to leave too. To have dinner and caramel apples. He cheered up fast. In fact, this was the night he played Animal Heroes.

In a moment of unselfishness I chose to post the picture in which my eyes are closed. Everyone else looked great, and I love how Aunt Robin is smiling at Emmy. My selflessness knows no bounds.

And there's a baby girl in Lexi's tummy as well!

Mom. I love you.

A trip to Orem would not be complete without some lounging in the family bed. Channels that exist only in my children's wildest dreams can be found here.

 And of course I got to see Kami. She loves me.

 Uncle Anthony. Favorite quote from the trip.

Jansen: "Mom, Anthony has a lighter."

Me: "It's okay, Jansen. He's an adult."

Jansen: "A weird and not so sophisticated adult."

I literally fell across the room howling and laughing and gasping for breath.

As Nate commented to me one morning, Anthony is so great with the kids. The love hearing him meow on the phone.