Things I love

I love that Emmett loves reading books. He sits with them all around him. Points and chooses specific ones. Flips through the pages and says different sounds. Pauses and says "Snoooore" on the Snoozers book. And I love that he says "diddle diddle diddle" like I did when I was little.

Earlier this week I rewarded Emmett for being good at not one, but two music stores by handing him a kazoo. At first he just blew and blew into it, perfectly content, but I had to kneel down for a couple minutes and try to get him to make it sound. He did it! And then he played the kazoo all the way home. It is one of the most adorable things...

This morning Ian said to me, "Isn't Emmett the cutest?" And I said, "I don't know you're pretty cute, too." He said, "Yeah, Emmett's number 1 cute and I'm number 2 cute and you're number 3 cute!" Then he said, "And Dad's number one snuggler and you're number 2 snuggler." I could die of cuteness...

And earlier this week Will decided to wear his snowboots to school (no snow on the ground right now). When I questioned him as I was about to drop him off he said, " Why not? Ella wore her boots to school." I said, "Those were fashion boots, not snow boots." He shrugged and clunked his way into the school. It was so adorable. I love that even though he is a know-everything teenager, there are still a few things he doesn't know. ;)

Emmett

Emmett just turned 15 months old! He is such a little, darling sweetheart! He is starting to put sounds together for different things. The other day he said "ah duh, bah bah" for all done, bottle. He says "dada" perfectly and when I get him in his chair to eat he says "muhmmy" over and over! It's so cute! Two days ago I was reading his favorite animal sounds book and when I got to the rooster page, he said, "lahdlelahdalahdle" and he's never made that sound before! I don't think he's ever made the "l" sound at all! He also likes to drive little cars on things (including his tummy) and go "vrrrr, vrrrr" He knows the signs for all done, bye/hi, more, eat, drink, and he does the cutest peek-a-boo. It seems like there is something new every day. The other day I was tickling his neck and when I pulled my hand away he grabbed it and pulled it back!

He is also crawling faster and faster. Sometimes he looks over to where I am and then makes a mad dash for the dog food in the laundry room. We have to run now to get there in time. I keep the door shut a lot, but then we forget to open it and Mimi can't eat! Emmett has also started to learn to arch his back when he can't get his way. This makes holding him very difficult when he is upset. Despite the occasional meltdown and probably 5 to 6 dirty diapers a day! he is so adorable. He has the cutest smile and he will tilt his head to the side and raise one eyebrow sometimes while he's smiling which just makes me laugh. He also likes to dance, even to our kids' music practice!

But the very best thing that melts my heart, is when I go to lay him down and he is happy and grabs hold of his little blanket, rolls to his side and then looks up at me and smiles with those beautiful sleepy eyes, with his little cherubic face and the peace of his angel spirit ready to drift off to sleep. That is the best moment. The kind of breathtaking, heart-swelling joy that I would take for a hundred dirty diapers, several tipped over dog dishes, and even a couple middle of the night screams when he is teething. :)

More April Photos

The kids had Spirit Week and one of the days was "blast from the past." Ella wore her pretty poodle skirt and Will dressed up in 50s style, too. He thought it was weird that people used to roll up their shirt sleeves and pants.

Ian is recovering from being sick on his birthday. So sweet to catch him still like this.

Look who's a big helper! He loves taking things out of the dishwasher. Sometimes we have to sneak and do dishes really fast when he isn't looking. :)

Ian loves getting a chance to hold Emmett.

We went and saw Austin and Cameron in Peter Pan. Cameron was Tinkerbell and did such a great job! She had a good way of showing Tink's little attitude and she sang and danced really well, too! Austin was an adorable little fox. It was a bright, colorful, sweet little play! So fun.

On April 23, Ella had her fourth grade Utah Program. They sang a bunch of songs about Utah and some of the founders and pioneers and even each of the counties in Utah! A bunch of the songs had actions, too. Ella had a speaking part and did a great job!

Springtime Artwork!

Las Vegas

On Friday, we stopped in Las Vegas to spend some time with family. Will and Ella were really nice to their cousins. Little Lincoln totally bonded to Will and followed him all over and Will was so super cute with him. It was adorable. We had a nice get together with Kimball's mom and fiance, Sheldon. Allen made a giant bonfire that was near catching trees on fire and Kimball roasted some marshmellows and made "The best smores he had ever tasted." It was a nice visit and super nice to break up the trip back home when we were all pretty tired.

visiting Grandpa

So, Thursday we went and saw Cinderella at the theater. It was such a nice movie! Then, we headed up north to Fullerton to visit with Grandpa Ross and Kathy. We forgot to take pictures! But there were a few fun moments that I wanted to record.

I told the kids that I wasn't sure what we would eat for dinner with Grandpa Ross, but that I needed them to be really respectful and kind and if they didn't like it they could take a couple bites and that was fine, but just to remember to have really good manners. Alex was so grown up talking to Grandpa. He asked some good questions about Chinese vs Japanese food and culture. Ian managed to stay on his seat most of the time, though he couldn't resist eating all the sweet and sour sauce and sticking his fork in his ice water and playing with the ice cubes. The next morning we heated up the leftovers for breakfast and you should have heard the complaints from a couple of the kids. "I don't want that for breakfast! I'm not eating any of it! I did not like the sauce! I did not like the chicken!" Hahaha  When I said, "But you ate it fine last night" I got "You told us to be nice! We didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings!!" Wow! They really did a great job! I didn't even think they'd listened to me telling them to have good manners. :) There aren't too many meals that everybody likes, so it's not too surprising that they didn't like some of it, but I was impressed that they were kind and had zero complaints the night of. Good job, kids!

A lady at the Chinese restaurant that we ate at with my dad said I had beautiful children. I was kind of expecting to get looks and surprised faces when people saw us walking around, but I didn't expect some really nice comments. One lady in a line at Legoland said I must be very patient 'cause it would take a lot of patience to raise that many kids. Then, the kids got restless in line and started hitting and punching each other. I'm not sure if patience equates with too much lenience sometimes, and I also don't think I'm very patient, but I supposed I am more patient than I was with one or two kids.

At the Chinese restaurant we were discussing our different personalities in regard to our "Year of the (animal)." It seemed to be true for each of us in some ways. The funniest was between Ian and me. We need to beware of each other... ya think!? Then, we opened our fortune cookies and almost all of them reflected something that was a big part of our lives. Alex's talked about being healthy and Will's talked about not having any troubles at home. I think mine even mentioned having peace and Ian's was something about good things naturally coming to him. I think Ella's said something about being brilliant or creative. I think even Kimball's talked about having more money in the coming months. It was crazy how perfectly fitted they were! I should have saved them, but it was cool to have such a neat time there.

Beach Day

On Tuesday, we went to Crystal Cove State Park just north of Laguna Beach. It was fun to explore some different parts of the park and we ended up on this beach with the most lovely sand ever! It was a little chilly and Emmett didn't like the sand, so he stayed in his jammies mostly on our laps and I kept towels on him and me. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand and they actually all worked together to build a fort to keep out the waves. It was the most peaceful hour of our whole trip! Having a bit of time with them getting along and not fighting was priceless! I even saw a little sea otter pop its head up out of the water right near the waves a few times. 

Emmett was really amazing on our trip. He stayed upbeat despite shortened naps, slept great in the master bedroom closet, and didn't even take a nap our second day at Legoland, but he didn't have a meltdown or fall apart. The day after we got back home to Utah he woke up at 8:15 and then leaned into me and cried when I tried to put him down to play. I laid him back down and he slept 3 more hours. Then, he was up for barely 2 hours when he needed another nap. He was shaking when I woke him up. The poor little guy was hammered! When we were in one of the lines at Legoland he saw a giant green dragon laying on a stroller and started doing the cutest Rar growl at it. It was so adorable I made Kimball go win him a dragon. It was a bit smaller, but he loved playing with it and growling at it. So cute! I just went to check on him in his bed and I think he is just the most precious, sweet, beautiful little boy ever.

Legoland

This is a mix of two days at Legoland. We went on Monday and Wednesday of Spring break. The first day was great. We rode some rides and got to see the actual set that they filmed a lot of "The Lego Movie" on. We also got pictures with Wild Style/Lucy and Emmett! When we were taking the picture with Emmett I forgot for a second and called out to the baby, "Emmett, look over here!" I then realized and said, "I meant the baby." There were a few chuckles in line behind me. We went to the water park which was super fun. The kids played in the wave pool and on a big play structure and then in the lazy river. Towards the end, Ian had a blast playing all by himself in the splash pool while the older kids rode some big water slides. I was impressed with how big he is getting to play in the pool all by himself. It was so cute! Then, we did a couple more rides and had some dinner. Emmett even took a nice little nap while we walked around Mini Land which has a ton of Lego replicas of famous cities like New Orleans, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and even New York, along with several scenes from the Star Wars movies.

The second day didn't go off quite as well. We started by forgetting our stroller at home. That may or may not have contributed to our forgetting a backpack at a basketball booth where Kimball won the kids a large Pokemon doll. The backpack had our waters and lunches and sunblock in it. We rented a stroller that was hard plastic and not very comfortable for the baby and about an hour into our day we realized the backpack was missing. We spent quite some time retracing steps, checking lost and found and went to the opposite side of the park and tried a ride there. We all said a short prayer that we could find it and then went on the ride. I realized I had Capri Suns and fruit leathers in the diaper back so we had those and then about half an hour later Kimball found the backpack. At this point I was starting to have a headache. The older kids rode Lego Technic and Will and Alex came off crying. I guess it was a little freaky. We ate lunch and baby was trying to sleep but then we got him out of the stroller and held him while we stood in a very long line. So, he never got a nap. We did a few other things, and had some popcorn while the kids played on the playground. Towards the end of the day, we went to ride a little boat ride and when we got in line, we realized Alex was missing. The kids had wanted to go into the Lego store and I guess he didn't see us turn towards the boat, so we found him pretty quick. When we were getting on the boat ride, Emmett started going, "ooooo" and I realized he had spent the entire day in our arms being passed along as we rode rides, so this was his first ride! He is so patient! We ran out of the time at the Lego store because we wanted to watch a short Lego 3D film and we had missed the first show time we wanted. By the end of the show my headache had grown into a full migraine. We were all hungry and tired, but the kids wanted to see the aquarium and we wanted to get food closer to home. I waited in the car to try and rest my head, it was the worst I've ever had. Everyone quickly returned and we went home and got dinner. My head slowly started feeling better and we all slept very well.... So, one good day, one bad, but all in all we had fun and everything turned out okay.

Easter Sunday

We went on vacation to California for Spring Break. We ended up in a house in San Clemente which worked out pretty well being only about 30 minutes from Legoland. This house was so comfy, we had Will and Alex share a room, Ella and Ian share a room, and the baby slept in the big master closet in our room. They had a couple big tvs, a nice big kitchen, and a beautiful yard. It was so nice to be able to make meals at home and relax and enjoy all the comforts of staying in a house. Somehow, the Easter bunny found us and we got to have a nice, relaxing Easter Sunday with treats and toys!

We walked the San Clemente pier Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day. The food in these restaurants smelled so good! The lady taking our picture has two kids up in Utah! 

I don't know if it's the California sunshine, but all my pictures seem prettier.

The backyard at our house had a pretty palm fountain and this cute little fire pit. It wasn't really warm enough to warm anybody, but it did roast marshmallows! It was relaxing to sit out there. We saw a lot of different birds and lizards, too. It was nice to see all the green after so much winter in Utah, even though it was a mild winter for us.