Cute Hat

So on Saturday I went shopping for presents for Natalie's birthday. In one store, as I walked toward the toy isle, I saw a little hat in the baby section that I just had to get it. By looking at it, and knowing what a big boy my Owen is, I didn't think it would fit him long, but we should be able to make good use of it through the summer. And then we'll save it for his little brother for next year. So check out this cuteness!

As soon as we put it on him we all squealed with delight at what a cute little man we have! So far he hasn't liked wearing hats, so we were all very happy when he kept it on. He eventually got a little tired of it and took it off at each kid attempt to put in on. Yesterday before church, the kids really wanted him to wear it, so we were lucky to start fresh with a new day. We put it on right before we walked out the door... and... no little hands reaching up to pull it off! Hurry Mom! Get a picture!!

Then he wore it into the car - Owen you're so CUTE!! Let me take another picture!

He got tired of it after a while, but wore it again when church was over, thanks to Wesley's "keep Owen's hands distracted" strategy of carrying Owen on his back. 

Back in the car. He was looking a little sleepy... or maybe it's the heat?

Back at home, Wes kept holding his favorite little brother. I liked Owen's crossed ankles.

Owen, trying to hold on and not give into slumber... He lasted for about 5 minutes...

Next time I walked by, they were both out. I love pictures like this, you guys are too cute!

 I love my boys!

Natalie is Three!

May I take this opportunity to wish happy birthday to the cutest three year old around.

I took this photo after church. I wanted to capture her in her favorite dress that will always remind me of her and is almost going to start being too small for her. Natalie has two modes of fashion: she's a princess in a dress, but occasionally runs around as a jungle child naked in a loin cloth (diaper). The latter is how she was dressed for bed last night. Thus how she was also dressed this morning as she came downstairs to the kitchen (a little too early I thought) and told me "I want cake." My mom had brought over a birthday cake and presents last night.

"Don't you want to wait for candles and for everyone else? We need to sing happy birthday!" She didn't care, so I gave her a slice and then went to wake up the rest of the crew to see if they wanted some healthy cake for breakfast. They were a little slow to come. We sang a song but forgot the candle, and the new three year old was very happy.

And we're teaching her to say she is three and how to hold up three fingers - that's it, you got it!

You're not "a two" anymore, you're "a three"! So Natalie ate all the sprinkles off her slice and then pushed the plate toward me and asked for more. "You have cake..."  But it's her party, so I scraped off a little from the sides and gave her more "cake" which she accepted. She ate the whipped cream and sprinkles and then left to follow Abi and Lily, who had presents for her and were eager to teach here what a birthday is really all about. They played for a while, complained when I made them bathe and get ready for church... Natalie cried when I stopped her game to rinse her off in the tub. You'll survive. I broke a sweat blowing their hair dry - so hot!! I'd like to run around like a jungle princess myself sometimes ~ these hot summer days!

When we got home from church, Abi helped Natalie get dressed in the dress up clothes she got for her - a crown, wand, and fairy wings. Then she helped put on her high heels and fancy Natalie was ready to go.

Luckily I was able to change her out of her favorite dress before it got dirty - thanks to a new Elsa outfit from my mom. Soon Corey's parents came over with more gifts. The older kids, as always, were eager to help unwrap the gifts.

Natalie and Sophi both got a cute dress up set. Wes was checking out his good looks in the mirror as he combed his hair...

Then he and Abi really got into some funny character roles: Wes seems to be doing a Mr. Bean impression, Abi is just a fashionista.

I couldn't decide which was the best of these three photos, so here ya go with all three.

You kids crack me up. 

Wes and Abi were enjoying making fun of the dress ups, but for Sophi, this was legit. She really is a fashion queen, and it's about time she has an outfit that does her beauty justice.

And it's amazing to me that these little ones know how to pose their hips, hands and feet. Where do they learn that? Are they born with it? You look great Soph, but just so you know, you were beautiful before you had on those diamond earrings. But I understand how it's fun to really feel the part. Hollywood, here she comes!

Tour and Camp

We're missing three kids right now. Ethan and Hyrum left for their annual band tour early Wednesday morning. I haven't talked to them at all, but have been able to peek a little into their experience via facebook. They've been in San Fransisco

They performed on Pier 39, fun! Hyrum is the third head from the left in the photo below, Ethan front and center.

I trust they've had a good time, we'll hear about it Monday morning (since they get home late Sunday night). Melodie has also been missing for a day - she went up to Bear Lake yesterday for our church ward's girls' camp. They are staying at a cabin, so pretty easy on the "camping" part, but still enjoying getting into nature. One of her leaders shared this photo on facebook.

I drove there to pick Mel up tonight because she has an audition early tomorrow morning. She would have liked to stay the night and leave early tomorrow, but sleeping over and leaving at 5 am to get back in time for the audition didn't sound realistic to me. So we're coming tonight and going home tonight, sorry Mel! So off I went ~ Corey's parents watched the kids for me so I didn't have to hold any of them hostage in a carseat for such a long drive. Abi was a sweetheart and came along to keep me company during the 5 hour round trip. I rewarded her with some fast food in Evanston. When we got to Bear Lake, we stopped so she could quickly dip her feet in the beautiful mountain lake.

Then we met up with Melodie and her friends for some world famous Raspberry shakes at LeBeaus in at Raspberry Square.

It was a good drive, glad we're done and back home. Thank you to Brandon Flowers for keeping me company as I listened to and sang along to 6 repeats of his Flamingo cd. Flowers and John Denver are my driving discs - I can always trust them to keep me awake.

Binky Boy

Just killing time taking pictures of Owen tonight. He likes the camera light shining in his face. I think he's starting to understand that he's the star of the family. Well, not for much longer, little man, but you enjoy it while you can!

You've got such a cute little face! I could just squish you.

Owen coming right at-cha from across the room - full steam ahead.

I liked the two binkys he had dangling ~  he's prepared for an emergency.

And I love his baby blue eyes, we love Owen!

Eye Patch

Sophi had an eye doctor appointment this morning. I've been taking her to a different eye center than where I take the rest of the kids - one that is better for pediatric eye care eventhough it's more expensive. I thought today would be my last appointment there, since Sophi knows her ABC well enough now that she can go where the other kids get their exams done. But that plan got derailed as he said her left eye got worse and so she'll need to wear an eye patch and then he needs to see her again after a few weeks...

Ten weeks to be exact, and I was like "TEN?!?!" Ten is like forever! Then I realized I still have over 10 weeks of pregnancy... ahh! FOREVER!!! I can't think about it, gotta just keep my head down! So, if I just focus on her eye patch and try not to count pregnancy weeks, then when her eye patch is off, I'll just have one more week, yeah! That might be a way to look at it to cope?

So she only has to wear it for two hours a day. I haven't had a kid in a patch before, so this is new.... I shall have to do some googling to learn about it. One thing I did learn is that the eye patches are kinda stupidly expensive, a bit of a racket. Should be about the same as a bandaid you'd think, right? Only you can get 100 bandaids for a buck, and you have to pay $7 bucks for just 20 patches. I thought that was a bit ridiculous. So I need to get 70 patches for her to make it through the next 10 weeks. I might try to get some that are more girly on Amazon... might order these. I liked these designs better but the reviews weren't as good... hm. For now, we stopped by Walmart on the way home to get some that should last us two weeks. Sophi was a good sport about it, she's such a humble little person. I could tell she didn't like it but she was obedient and didn't take it off until I said. She's a good little girl, love ya Soph.

My Summer Days

Well, this is what's going on with me right now. Three days a week, I wake up early (between 5:30 and 6) to go on a walk before the sun it up. I go for an hour, which I think is about 3 miles. Trying to channel my Parque Portugal from last year, I loved by Brazil mornings. Back here in the US I get up early for the same reasons that I did in Brazil: a) because it's my only guaranteed alone time and b) because I try to avoid the sun at all costs (part of my pregnancy mask prevention program). Another part of my morning is delicious peaches! The past month I've been eating Marilu Henner style with food combining, thus I have fruit for breakfast and look so forward to having my California I.M. Ripe peaches from Costco... they are sooooo good! I'll have two peaches and one pink lady apple.

Part two of my day the past month has been an hour of scripture study. My study had been sporadic and somewhat lacking in nourishment, and then at church we had a great lesson from the President Hunter manual about Scripture Study that very much inspired me and was just what I was looking for. Two things he said 1) an hour is ideal and 2) you gotta set aside a fixed time. That #2 what what I really needed. So I tried it out a few days and figured out that for now my best time for study is as soon as Owen goes down for his morning nap. On the days I get up for the early walks, I might struggle and be a bit tired, so I'll pause and take a break, plus I'll usually take a nap when Owen goes down for his afternoon nap. If I'm exhausted and it doesn't appear that he's going down for a nap any time soon, I'll ask the kids to baby sit while I crash for a few.

On the days I don't do a morning walk, I exercise in the basement lifting weights in Bill Phillips Body for Life style. Today Abi and Natalie joined me. I think they are cute. Work it, girls!

I remember when Melodie was my little toddler lifting weights with us back in 2003. Back then, Corey was applying for Business school and I was on a health kick. Corey thought doing the challenge would help his school application and I was just in the zone, so we officially entered the BFL competition and were going for the prize. We were so sure we were gonna win it! Ha, that's been funny reading my thoughts about that. I've been reading my old 2003 journal to try and channel my old self actualized self to help prep myself to get my body back. I haven't gotten it back after Natalie or Owen, so I really gotta do it after this baby.

So that's a little of that - and that is what my summer days are like - walk, scriptures, nap, and try to clean a little if I can. Haven't been doing very good in that area - but the dishes aren't going anywhere... I know cause I ignore them at night and wish they'll just go away, but no, there they are patiently waiting for me in the morning. What's the hurry? :) We're enjoying our summer. 

Happy Fourth!

Happy Birthday, America! We started off our annual independence day activities with the 6th annual Fun Run. One new thing this year - Corey and his little musicians were asked to play the national anthem before the run. It might have caused Joseph to start the race a little winded. Plus he said it made his mouth super dry.  

Still, Joseph's competitive juices were ready to go! Here he and Ethan were right as the horn blew!

Here's a link of some pictures a neighbor took - like this one on Joseph on the home stretch:

Our young hero came in third, right after two big time marathon runners who took first and second. Joseph turned the corner toward the finish line and was blown away to see a time of 8:21 on the race clock. What?!?! That would be a whole minute and a half faster than the record time that was broken last year... he was confused. The phenomenon was explained to him when they said the clock started 2 minutes late. Joseph was pleased to figure out his official time, a personal best of 10:49. 

I was in last place this year. Dead last. I was pushing a stroller with Owen and Natalie, and I probably could have finished it with them, but I also had Lily and Sophi walking beside me. And they were just slowing me down big time. I tried to get Lily to skip the detour into the neighborhood but she insisted we follow the other fun runners. After that loop, we were alone with no one showing the right direction of the course, and so I lied to her and told her the race continued with a right turn instead of a left, thus sparing me an hour walk with my crew as I cut off over half of the 3K distance by taking a major short cut. We headed back north toward the finish line. Lily saw the runners up there and assumed that was where we were supposed to go, phew! "There they go, let's hurry!" Glad she didn't notice that everyone was coming up from a different street than the one we were walking on. She saw Hyrum run by the corner. Then Wesley. As we approached, Abi came up behind us out of breath and with great confusion asked "HOW did you get ahead of me?!?! I've been running the whole time!!" I told her I cheated. But I'm pregnant and am pushing a stroller, so I can do whatever the heck I want. Here is how Owen crossed the finish line, it was a total breeze. 

"Yeah, I'm so good I can do the fun run in my sleep!"

So then we had breakfast, sponsored by Jiffy Lube. They did a raffle drawing and guess who won a year of free oil changes again? Woot woot, thank you Joseph for being our ears for the raffle!

I was sitting over on the grass in the shade, but just happened to walk over to get a drink of water. Luckily I heard the raffle going on, got our ticket, saw Joseph there, gave it to him, told him "912313" and he came over a few minutes later and presented me with an envelope. What? We won again?! We won the oil changes last year, wow! What are the odds?! Pretty fun. So, then we hung around and waited for the parade to start. 

Mel kept the kids all entertained by painting fireworks, bald eagles, and flags on their cheeks.

The parade started at 10, I stayed for a half hour and then headed home with Owen and Natalie. Natalie had had her share of taffy, and Owen was done, so I broke a sweat getting home and rewarded myself with a two hour nap. We had a little bbq with family after and then Corey took the kids to Holladay for the night time fireworks that night. It was a good day, we enjoy our fourth of July traditions. 

Scofield 2016

We have been down at Scofield this weekend with friends and neighbors. We've had a great time joining our friends in Scofield for the past few years: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. This year I headed down last night with a van full of kids, and Corey kept Natalie and Sophi home with him so he could work. They came down today with Joseph (he had a date last night). It was all the usual great times and fun: tubing, roasting marshmallows, lots of good food and visiting. I had lots of good helpers with Owen. It was fun to see him sitting by the fire~

"There's that red camera light... is that lady taking pictures of me again? She is like obsessed with me!"

Yes, Owen, I think you're pretty cute and I admit I can't get enough of your little round face. It was nice for me to be there with just one little kid - Owen and I chilled at the "cabin" (a double wide mobile home) and I let the other kids run loose. They were free to go down to the dock or run around in the dark without much concern from me as to whether they were safe or not. It was a nice break for my motherly instincts. No concern for anyone falling in the fire pit either.

Although Lily and Abi both did singe their fingers a bit on the metal roasters as they pulled off their burnt marshmallows.

I also didn't do a good job today with protecting them from the sun. They ran down to the boats before I remembered and around 4 when I caught them I could tell they had gotten a bit fried. "Go put some sunblock on, you're burnt" I told Ethan. He didn't heed and I didn't follow him around to make sure he did, and he's feeling it now. They got pretty red. The little kids are good, Abi got a bit red. Her and Ethan got it the worst. I told them that I really just have my brain on watching Owen, so I need them to be in charge of themselves and come to me. I'll try to do better, but it would help if they could help.

Tonight finish of a fun day at the lake, we all went out on the boats to watch the fireworks. I walked down to the dock with Natalie - here she is showing me the way~

It was my one and only time on the boat this trip. It was nice to get out on the water.

The highlight for me was seeing Owen on the lake for his first time. He looked quite sobered and out of his comfort zone.

Owen and I were sitting near the back of the boat. I let him stand up and look backward over the end of the boat to the water. Standing there helped him to be able to move a bit more in his life jacket - the same life jacket Sophi wore in 2012. She looked adorable too (actually she looks pretty funny in picture 3 there, lol!) Good memories. After the boat started going fast, Owen looked at me with great concern and as if he needed some reassurance. He looked like he could have broken into tears at any moment, but a little smile and kiss on the cheek from me helped him keep it together and he was just adorable.

One Year Ago

Every now and then, facebook will tell me what I was doing a year ago or 4 years ago... Today it showed me one that I shared with the kids - "Guess what? One year ago today we were heading home from Brazil" They were surprised like I was at how quickly it has gone by~

Has it really been a year? Time is flying.