Date Night: ArtPrize

Proof that Date Nights still exist :)

I've missed our baby-sitting swap group SO much! (for

multiple reason- great friends for both me and my kids!)

We enjoyed a night out on the town with just our baby- who was pretty

good the whole night. We had some good, not great, Thai

food and walked around downtown GR for more ArtPrize.

We went as a family for FHE (another post coming next) but didn't get too

far with three boys in tow. It was a fun night out with Matt.

No one called us 'mom' or 'dad' for 4 amazing hours-

thank goodness Austin can't talk yet!

Productivity

So far:

- Ran (we don't have to talk about what measly little distance!)

- Ab workout

- Made breakfast for the boys

- Made 2 dozen breakfast tacos (with bacon, sausage, potatoes and onions- yum!)

- fed my baby

- cleaned the kitchen

- finished writing 3 blogs posts

- clipped Sunday paper coupons

- steamed and pured 7 pears for Austin and put them in the freezer

.....and it's only 10:30 am. Pretty sweet. How come when I'm productive, I'm REALLY productive, and when I'm not, I'm REALLY not- as in we don't even have a decent dinner on lazy days. Crazy!

little man eating his pears slices from a mesh bag- LOVES it!

9.18.11: Let's Go Fly a Kite- Or Not

First things first- this kid is Adorable!!!

It was pretty windy the other day after a family bike ride so we got the kites out. It's been a while and we were a little rusty... and I guess there wasn't enough wind but we had fun running to keep them up!

9.6.11: First Day of School

Taylor's birthday is August 5th. We have been thinking about when he would start Kindergarten since we knew his due date... 5 1/2 years ago!!!! It's been really stressful trying to decide when to start him. He did great in his preschool- loved spelling tests (he got 100 on each one last year)- really loves learning, but he'll be young. Matt was pushing for Kindergarten and my 'mother's intuition' wasn't enough evidence to have him wait a year.

We went to sign him up for K and went to 'meet your teacher' day and I just about lost it! There were 14 boys and 7 girls in his K class. 8 of the boys were already 6 years old, and were WAY bigger and taller than Taylor. That's what I was afraid of. I think that, for us, it will be better for Taylor in the long run, academically, socially, emotionally, and physically to wait on K for one more year. I came home and talked with Matt and he agreed! Yea! The best part is that Michigan has a great program for kids in exactly this situation- kids that are ready to learn and have class room structure, but are just a little young- birthdays from Aug 1- Dec 31. It's called Developmental Kindergarten.

Taylor goes to school from 8:36- 11:36 everyday. He even gets picked up by the bus in the morning (which was HUGE for him!) and gets dropped off around noon. Academically it's not advanced at ALL! But he's in a classroom, has art, gym and music class and gets to go to the school library once a week. He loves it. Next year we're hoping his name will be drawn in the lottery for the Spanish immersion program here. It's supposed to be amazing! But for now... I'm going to be excited for my litte DKer!

First day of school- front door

waiting in line at the bus stop, across the street from our house

Getting on the bus and the bus driving away

Getting off the bus at school- walking to his classroom
(yes, I know, kinda ridiculous to follow the bus but I just wanted to make sure he got there- he has

to switch buses at another Elementary school)

Home!

8.30.11- Rice Cereal

The first taste of solid food is always fun. I knew this kid would take to it right away, and I was right. He gobbled up his first serving and has since moved on to bananas, pears and applesauce- all made by yours truly!

Cousins Meeting

I'd always wanted to be pregnant with my sister.

I'm so glad it finally happened! We were due just

two days apart. I was induced 5 days early and

her baby, Rex, came early so they are 5 days apart.

I can't get over how similar they look and

can't wait to see how these boys grow up. We're already

planning on them being the best of friends! When we

were together, everyone would ask if they were twins.

Austin (l) Rex (r)

Austin {4 Months} 8.25

Such a big boy!

This month:

travelled from California to Utah

travelled from Utah to Colorado

met your cousin Rex

met your uncle

met your aunt

wearing 6 months clothes

in size 3 diapers

reaching for toys

smiling at brothers a lot- especially Taylor

still a little scared of Brayden

not sleeping great again
weighs about 16 3/4 lb (from grocery scale)

8.9.11- 26th Birthday

After Dino Ridge we did a little shopping and drove around the Denver temple. Then it was time for the 'jumpy place.' My mom had bought a groupon for a jumpy place and the kids were so excited! Matt got some energy out there as well!

One of Bray's favorite toys there

After the jumpy place we met up with my parents and sister and her little baby, Rex at Red Robin for dinner. We hadn't met Rex yet and we were so excited to see him!

After dinner we headed home for my birthday cheesecake! YUM!

26 years old!!!

best accomplishment- our great family:

I'm not really sure what I think about being 26. 25 was cool because I felt old enough to have kids but not too old to be frumpy... I don't have impressions of 26 yet... we'll see!

Blowing out the candles. Notice my mom's hand over Taylor's mouth. Bray was practicing.

8.9.11- Dino Ridge

From Utah- we continued on to Colorado to see my family and to prep for my baby brother coming home from his mission.

We dubbed Aug 9th 'Family Day' and spent the whole day together- with only us. We hadn't had our own space in a while and it was a fun day. Matt was leaving for MI just two days later so we tried to soak up our family time.

There's a place called Dinosaur Ridge near my parent's place that has dinosaur fossils and tracks. It was really cool to see.

The boys in front of the replicas of the dinos that lived in the area

The tracks

They think this part of earth used to be a river bank and the dinosaurs walked through it, it dried and then became a fossil. Taylor thought this was so cool. Brayden was too hot and not really picture worthy! :)

Bray thought the dino was thirsty- it was a hot day.

8.3.11: 5 Years since his birth- Taylor edition

After driving for 12 hours in the car (which they did SO well) we figured we'd celebrate Taylor's actual birthdate at Chuck-E-Cheeses in Utah. The boys had a blast!

A few things I want to remember about Taylor:

-he hates goodbyes.. A LOT!

- he loves his family

-he wants to play super heros all day long- every day!

- he is so helpful

-he tries to calm Austin down any time he's crying

- he loves his grandparents

- he can do a lot on his own: shower, get dressed, buckle himself in the car, start a movie

- he's an awesome Big Brother

-he takes his scriptures to church every week

- he always gets 'extra' of stuff for Brayden (at school or at church)

We sure love you Taylor, Happy 5th Birthday!!!!

*sidenote- I can't believe Chuck-E can hold a baby. With all that padding I can't see how he can get a good hold and not drop him. At least he didn't drop mine!

8.2.11: Taylor's Birthday Party

So we had to drive from California to Utah on August 3rd, Taylor's actual birthday, so we had a little party on the 2nd. We've decided to do 'friend' parties starting at age 5 and having them only on the odd birthdays (5,7,9...) so this was our first experience with a friend party. I think we pulled it off.

I baked a chocolate cake and thankfully my MIL decorated it for me. I did make the superhero little flags :) Taylor thought it was awesome!


We raided my MIL's closet and found a crown for him to wear. Lara made all the kids black superhero masks to take home- they were so cute!

Playing a velcro superhero game.

'The girls' One of Matt's good friends from high school still lived in the area and has three girls.. all about 6 months older than our boys. We hung out with them quite a bit while we were there.

L* taking her turn at the spiderman pinata

the loot

blowing out the candles

L* and Taylor

*most of the kids at the party showing off their Iron Man stance*

I didn't get a picture of one of the games we played but I had 'bad guys' send all the kids a note that said the superheors were captured. They had to run around adn find the clues around the yard and finally the last clue said the super heros were 'frozen in time.' So we ran to the freezer and there was batman, 2 spidermans and iron man frozen in water. The kids got to break them free with a hammer. Everyone wanted to play that one over and over again- not easy when it takes a while for water to freeze.

Taylor got the Iron Man mask and repulsor from his dad and I- it was a big hit!

Bray being Iron Man and L* wearing the spiderman pinata's legs

Tay refused to take pictures without the mask on. We sure love our little Iron Man!