Birthday Season and other stuff...

It's been a little busy since my last post. We've done Maci's 1st Birthday, Ethan's 6th Birthday and we can't forget my personal favorite, Mother's Day all within about a week. And now with the end of the school year activities and a trip to Las Vegas that we squeezed in last weekend I'm struggling to even make this post...

So let's get started-

MACI TURNED ONE!!

I really wanted to send announcements and probably still will next week but ever since her birthday she has been SO grumpy! She has been fighting off every germ out there while her miserable teeth all decided to come in at the same time. She has had runny nose, cough, soar throat, throwing up and fevers all consecutively for 3 WEEKS!! I can't blame her for being a bit crabby, but I have to admit, it's getting a little exhausting (for me).

In stead of the big 1st birthday shin-dig, we decided to stick to just family this year. (It's about all my small house can handle now as our family continues to grow.)

ETHAN TURNED SIX!!

We struggled on what to do for Ethan's birthday. Kyle was able to take him to a D-Back's game the night before so we wanted to keep it simple and definitely NO PARTY-we thought just a few friends that we could take to do something fun but when all was said and done- we had a party. He had about six little boys come over for pizza, doughnuts (Ethan's request) and a bike ride. It was still very simple but it worked out great!

We headed back to Las Vegas for our final farewell! Jake has officially graduated from Medical School and they are headed to Michigan next month. I really like Nevada- we're going to miss having an excuse to go again.

ONE MORE THING...This was also the last time we will see my parents for the next year and a half. They got their mission call... they are headed to Romania!! Wow- looks like we probably won't be visiting. How fun though. That is definitely a day down the road that I look forward to with Kyle.

My Mr. Smarty Pants

This is Ethan's most recent spelling test. I was especially impressed with this one because, one- I'm not sure I could spell all of those words, and two- we normally get the new words on Friday and then he takes the test the next Friday, but we were out of town and didn't get the words until Wednesday and then because of a school holiday that Friday, he took the test the next day on Thursday. Is it just me or does that seem pretty incredible for a kindergartner.

Don't mind me...

I was so personally inspired after watching this last General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints that I wanted to make sure I posted something to remember it by. (http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-851,00.html)
It's so easy for my life to fall into auto mode. I have an incredible life and really feel like I have been given so many blessings already. But then after hearing some of these messages, I'm reminded that there are so many things that I could be doing differently that would make my life even more enriched. I, like many of my family and friends, have this amazing opportunity to be counseled by the most incredible leaders of the church who always seem to have such a simple yet profound message for me. There were two talks in particular. The first was by Elder Holland who talked about some misconceptions on the Mormon beliefs. He pointed out that so many other religions seem to dispute whether or not it is possible for Heavenly Father to speak to us today. My ears perked up when I heard this because it seems like this particular topic has come up for me and I never seem to have the right words even though I believe with all of my heart that we have a prophet today. In such a humble and simple manner he taught how it is possible and how wonderful it is to have a prophet speak to us today. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-30,00.html
The other talk that spoke literally to me was by Elder Ballard. He spoke about being a daughter of God. He gave so many inspiring words on mothers and the sacrifices we are making to be mothers. His words were so touching and really showed me that what I am doing here in my life at this time is such a privilege. I just need to slow down and enjoy it. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html

So, like I said, this is my reminder, so when life goes into auto mode again (like it is sure to do), it might not take me so long to regroup, slow down and remember that Heavenly Father is still by my side, willing to help at any time.
If there is anyone who may wonder about the Mormon faith, this web link is perfect for answering questions: http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

Happy Birthday to me!

No it's not actually my birthday- but, I certainly celebrated like it was! Kyle was the one who turned 30 last Saturday so for his birthday I planned a surprise trip to California. We had a blast (I had a blast!)!! I wanted to make sure we had plans for each day so I made an agenda and we actually stuck to it. It was such a great trip and more than anything, it was awesome spending time together as a family.

Friday we spent the day at the beach. Maci had no fear- she loved the water! And Ethan and Licity could have stayed forever- or until the food ran out. It was the perfect beach weather!

Saturday we woke up and went on this pretty cool hike- the kids especially loved the snakes that were everywhere.

Saturday night Kyle and I went to see Wicked (the original birthday gift to Kyle and the reason we came to California). I loved it! Oh and I think Kyle liked it too- I'm kidding, he actually liked it a lot. It was hilarious and the music was just so fun- it was magical.

P.S. Not the best pictures- but I insisted on a picture for memories sake, so after taking a few of ourselves, we finally just asked some guy in the parking lot.

Then On Sunday we relaxed with our wonderful hosts, the Nelson's.

Monday was the big day- DISNEYLAND!! I was more excited for this than anything else. Sadly, I may have been just a tad bit disappointed (based on our last time at Disneyland, my expectations might have been a little too high), but overall it was definitely still worth it. It was just really exhausting and poor Licity heard "No." a lot that day- she tends to wander a bit. Lucky for us we met Sarah and her family there which made it even more exciting to have cousins with us, not to mention it was a beautiful day and there were hardly any lines for anything. My lessons learned are: It's never worth parking at Disneyland- get a cheap room within walking distance; if you want to do roller-coasters make sure everyone is 40in. (Licity threw fits every time Kyle and Ethan would leave her behind; check the times on the shows- we missed both the Fantasy Faire (princesses) and the Jedi Training (bummer!). Besides those things- it really was super fun day. I almost think that had we planned for a second day at Disneyland it would have been a lot better and probably would have solved a lot of the other problems- well, except Licity and her wandering (there's not much you can do about that).

Licity was so thrilled to meet Little Mermaid- she had no problem singing her favorite "Ah, Ah, Ah..." song to Ariel.

It's one o'clock and this is Maci's first nap.

It was just one ride too many...Both girls completely broke down at the end of the night and ended up passing out on my lap together.

Seriously?

Alright, I know this is getting old to hear about (especially for me), but this really is my life... constantly. I promise I'm not a completely careless mom (yes a little bit, but not completely), but seriously, I should be able to turn my back every once in a while, right?

Apparently not.

Common questions some may ask:

1) Blue paint?

- Yes, royal blue (permanent) paint that I usually hide in the preschool closet, but had just taken out about 10 minutes earlier for a project.


2) Where were you?

- I was happily listening from downstairs to my two girls playing so well together.


3) How much damage was done?

- A very large stain on the carpet (luckily only upstairs), a permanent hand print on the preschool rug, 1 white shirt of Kyle's gone, one very cute outfit of Licity's gone, one not so cute outfit of Maci's gone, a bit of blue smudges on the new leather couches and a few blue specks on every other wall in the house, oh yeah, and that cute white dress Maci wore for her 10 month pictures, yes that too has blue on it...other than that, not so bad. :(


4) How did you manage to take pictures?

- Even I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I saw poor little Maci. She was completely thrilled with all the attention.


5) How did you get it off?

- A couple extra rinses and a little more scrubbing and it wasn't too bad- although, they both have a bit of a blue tint to them and my tub has a permanent blue ring.


Really, I should have seen this coming. Licity's has been into painting herself lately but up until now it's only been with food. A couple weeks ago I found both her and Maci completely covered in ranch dressing (hands, arms and face) and then last week Licity had painted herself with applesauce (I could see this becoming a pattern, so I took a picture of that one).

All I can say is, what a wonderfully creative child I have and I feel so lucky to be her mommy!!(That sounded sincere, right?)

Check us out!!

SEE THE FULL STORY BELOW!

So... here's the full story (finally). Kyle and I were invited to a Phoenix Suns banquet with one of Kyle's good friends Curtis. We weren't sure what to expect other than we were hoping to get an autograph or maybe stand in line for a picture with whichever player was around. But as it turns out, all of the players were there. (This story will be better when I have all the pictures to go with- Curtis was the only one with the camera.) When we first got there there weren't any celebs out, but quickly they just started filling the room. Most of them I didn't know (famous sports announcers, ex-players, team owners...etc.) Then SHAQ walks in. He didn't stop to talk to anyone so we totally thought that was it- and even that was pretty cool to just have him walk right by us. But after a few minutes all of the players started coming out. We saw Boris Diaw next- I need the picture to explain how nervous we were to approach him (it took us like 20 minutes to ask for a picture and then we ended up cutting his head out of it), but after that we totally got the hang of it. So after taking some less important pictures (at least to me), we went into the banquet room and saw Shaq just hanging out at his table. We were thinking of going over when this random lady (the one in the photo) grabbed on to me and my friend Emily and shoved us straight into him, insisting on a photo with "the pretty girls". We got the photo but didn't say anything to him, but because of that Kyle was able to go over and shake his hand and get a picture with him also. Nash was next, and that took a little more stalking. He was pretty much bombarded with people all night but as soon as he was free our friend Curtis (who seriously was hilarious) went up to him and got our perfect photo. Each of us said our token "Your awesome, man." type of comment and that's about the extent of a conversation but even that you could tell he was a really cool guy. After Nash we lost a little bit of drive. The banquet was really fun. They had this painter come- I can't think of who but he is this amazing artist who only uses his hands and one paint brush, paints really quick while rotating his huge canvas and somehow comes up this amazing painting- this one was of Shaq. They auctioned it off and started the biding at $10,000. With the help of Shaq- who was hilarious, the bidding got all the way up to $41,000 and would have kept going but they decided to do two more of that painting (since it literally took 10 minutes to do) and sell all 3 of them for $41,000. (WOW!) Queen Latifah was there and sang which was really cool because it was such a small venue and she invited everyone up close so we (Emily and I) went right up there next to the stage and danced. Things pretty much came to a end after that, but when every one had kind of left we saw the coach, D'antoni. He was super nice and even made small talk with us for a minute. Kyle was so stoked! He was seriously like a kid in a candy store. I've never seen him blush so much- that was probably my favorite part of the whole night! Wow, what a blast. I will definitely add more pictures when I get them.

10 Months of Loving Maci

She's all grown up- well, I guess not all grown up- but 10 months! That went by so quick for me. It's been so much fun having her. She is still the happiest, craziest, busiest little girl ever! I love that she loves me so much and will (literally) bend over backwards to get to me wherever I go. She stands on her own pretty well now and took her first steps last Sunday but is a still a little ways from walking. She loves to crawl on her hands and feet (doesn't want to get her knees dirty). It looks really funny because she can cruise so fast, she looks like a little spider. She can wave (bye,bye and hi and sometimes when she's tired she'll start waving), she can clap and often claps for herself when doing something well, she can make lots of noises and loves to try to mimic others. She loves to knock things down and hates when things are in order, my nice neat piles of laundry for example. It's as if it were her life's mission to scatter them all over the room. She's still a bit leery of strangers (okay she brakes down if they approach her) unless her mommy is holding her and then she is happy to smile for anyone. These are just a few of the things that make Maci so fun to love (well, that and the fact that she's just so cute). I will take her in for some better pictures (where she actually sits still) , but for now these will have to do.






We love you Maci!