Al fresco

I love our outdoor picnic table.  It keeps the mess outside and the kids love dining outside.  Today we enjoyed blueberry pancakes al fresco.  The mornings are SO beautiful right now and we are soaking it up.

 Ryder boy is getting really good using his utensils.  He loves feeding himself.

Rut roh

It happened and we knew it was coming any day now.  Ryder boy climbed out of his crib.  It was actually quite scary because he's such a peanut and could really hurt himself.  I put him to bed last night around 7:30 and he should have been quite tired after the busy day we've had, not feeling 100%, and only sleeping 2 hours during nap time.  I thought he would fall asleep within 5 minutes.  Not so much.  He cried and fussed for a bit and I was dealing with Reese, who wanted water, medicine for her cough, and was begging to sleep in our bed.  Cory had just left to help his parents with their new house, so I was alone dealing with the chaos.  I was trying to get Reese to sleep and I could hear him still crying and it wasn't his usual fussy "I don't want to go to sleep cry".  It was a bit more frantic and my gut reaction was that something wasn't right.  I ran down the hallway and when I opened his door I saw him on the outside of his crib hanging onto the rails.  His feet were in between the bars standing on the mattress and he was hanging onto the side.  I think he had been hanging on for a few minutes and I felt SO bad.  I'm a bit frazzled trying to figure out what to do.  We turned his crib around last night because the back side of it is much higher so now he won't be able to climb out that side.  I might be buying a crib tent from Amazon today.  Wish me luck and say a prayer that our little baby boy doesn't do this again and hurt himself.

We're not tired...

We don't need a nap.  We're not tired.  This was their mantra today.....and then they caved in and fell asleep on the floor.

Patriotic Salute

I've been a little emotional lately, that's no secret, but I was surprised how emotional I was on the last day of school.  The kids did a Patriotic program where they wore red, white, & blue and sang songs.  I started getting choked up when they walked in the room wearing their big Uncle Sam hats they'd made and singing "You're a grand old flag".  There's just something too cute about a bunch of 4 year olds singing songs and doing hand motions, especially when it's a patriotic song talking about how much we love our country.

This has been a huge year of growth for Reese & Ryan, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Ms. Nancy gave us a book of all their artwork and schoolwork.  It was so amazing to look back at the things they drew at the beginning of the school year.  They could barely write their names and at the end of the year they were drawing pictures of the whole family and writing their names perfectly.  Each child received an award tailored to their personality. Ryan received the Kung Fu Panda Award because she loved karate and always reminded Ms. Nancy that Tuesday was karate day.  Reese received the Crayola Award because she was always drawing, writing, or coloring, and she would bring blank color pages to school for the other kids to color.  They were both SO excited when their names were announced with their awards.  I'm really going to miss Ms. Nancy and Ms. Randi.  They were wonderful teachers and I am so grateful for the love, care, and education they gave to Reese & Ryan this past year.  I really hope that Pre-K is just as good.

Not sure where I fit in

This is a totally random post but I feel the need to blog about it.  I went to Nordstrom on today because their Womens & Kids Sale started and I thought I could find some great deals for myself.  Not so much.  I went to Brass Plum because that's where I feel comfortable most of the time.  While I was shopping I was surrounded by teenage girls that were yelling out things like OMG and LOL.  Shoot me now.  I felt like I was too old to be shopping in that section.  I checked out a few tops in the TBD  dept. and the cheapest thing I could find was $60.  No thanks.  Too frugal to shop in that dept.  Someone told me I should shop in the Point of View section of the store.  Cute but kind of mom-ish.  I guess that's where I'm at.  The kind of mom-ish dept.  I would really love to find a personal shopper/stylist that can go shopping with me and help me put a few outfits together.  I feel like I should be able to find some great stuff at Nordstrom, but don't know where to start.  Help!  I need a style makeover.

Buddies

 These 4 are buddies.  Rome & Haley have been staying with us a lot lately and we love having them.  It's crazy with 5 kids in the house but they all play so well together and have tons of fun.  It's always hilarious when we try to get everyone to sleep.  It's like one big party every night.

Birthday zoo

We had a crazy weekend of birthdays, four to be exact, but I have to say that the petting zoo party was the creme de la creme for our kids.  Reese, Ryan, & Ryder were all so brave and went right up to the animals.  There were chickens and ducks in the animal pen so I tried to stay outside as much as possible and take photos, but I did have to step in a few times to keep Ryder from drinking the goat's water.  Here are some fun highlights of our day:

Everyone wanted a piece of the baby bunny that was swaddled in a blanket.

Ryder L-O-V-E-D the animals and was all up in the mix.

 This was insane to me.  The girls wanted the rooster to sit on their shoulders!  Creeped me out but Reese was a pro and then she tried to help Ryan.  Such a thoughtful big sister.

Comic relief...

and just what I needed.  We had a girls night out at Kona Grill last night after we got the kids to bed.  It was great going to reverse happy hour and as we were finishing up around 10:30 wed decided that seeing the new movie Bridesmaids was a must.  Holly, Karen & I went to the 11pm movie.  This is crazy because it's waaaaay past our bedtime on a school night, but so fun being spontaneous.  The movie was SO funny.  I was laughing out loud in many of the scenes and it felt really good to laugh that hard.  Thanks to my sweet friends for a fun, impromptu, late evening out.  I paid for it today but it was worth it. 

Ready for Summer

The weather has been so cool and wonderful lately.  I am loving every second.  We've had a few hot days here and there and when it gets close to 100 degrees the girls are all about jumping in the pool.  They decide it's chilly after a few minutes and are promptly sunning themselves on the lawn.  I think they are so excited about the warm summer days where they can stay in the pool for hours on end.

William's 1st Birthday

Our little nephew William turned one today and it's hard to believe a year has flown by.  Jess & Jared had a luau birthday party at their house with friends and family and it was a blast.  We got dolled up in our Hawaiian gear and partied the night away.  What a fun party!!

 Birthday boy!

 We love cupcakes.

 Ryder & Daddy sporting the Hawaiian duds.

Me and Reesie doing our squish hug.

BBQ fun

You might remember that me and 2 of my besties were pregnant together and now our babies are all toddlers running around together.  Masey & Ryder were born on the same day and Kensley was born 3 weeks later.  We had everyone over for a BBQ and it was so much fun.  The kids all played so well together and we had a blast catching up with everyone.  I love my dear friends so much and it's so amazing to see them as mothers with their precious daughters. D&E--thanks for such a fun day!  Love you girls!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was such a great day. We went to Jared & Jessica's house for bagels and coffee.  The kids played while the grownups sat around and chatted.  The girls were so excited to give Mimi her Mother's Day gift, a windchime and a fun bowl with 4 little froggies on it that we decided represented her 4 grandkids.  Mimi gave Jess and I Bath and Body Works tote bags filled with all kinds of goodies.  I love that stuff.

 Reesie loves her little cousin, William.  

She always wants me to take photos of them together.

 Mimi, Me, Ryan, & Reese.

Cute little cousins.

 Me and William.

I didn't take any more photos of the rest of our day but we ate lunch at La Stala and then headed to Uncle Chris' house to see Grandma, Grandpa, and our cousins.  After we got home we put the kids to bed and I went to see Water For Elephants with Karen & Holly.  I read the book 4 years ago and was really excited to see the movie.  The book is amazing and I thought the movie was well done.  It was fun getting out with my girls and was a wonderful ending to a perfect day.