Let me tell you something else

Next comes Weiland. Weiland couldn't be more different from Quinton than they come. Of course there are some similarities but on a whole he is a different kind of kid, which is great! Weiland is someone who loves to surprise you and make you happy. He loves to play with kids a little younger than him (probably because they're not so bossy) and has an imagination that goes on for days. He is my animal lover and has recently over come his fear of dogs. He is a snuggly kid and loves to touch you when he sits near you. He gives the best hugs and has a quick laugh. He is excited to begin kindergarten this year, after we came home from registration a few weeks ago he'd recieved a packet of things to do and he came running into the house and said "Quinton, Quinton I have homework!" He is a great brother and I'm hoping even though he and Quinton are not exactly alike (thank goodness) that they'll be great friends. I'm so thankful for Weiland and so blessed to have him in our family. Love you Wei!!!!

let me tell you something

As I was reading through some older posts it occurred to me that my rantings about motherhood and my children may give the wrong impression about how I feel about them. So I thought I needed to post what I really feel about my kids. I'm only going to do one at a time so that this doesn't go on forever. To start of course I have to start with my oldest, Quinton.


Quinton is my most tender hearted kid. He is sensitive to how you respond to him, how you treat or talk to others, and tries his hardest to make you happy. He excels at school and picks things up very quickly. He is fast becoming a great reader. He LOVES his littlest sister as well as Weiland and Ellie. He is a very obedient child and is also very helpful. He almost always is in a good mood and likes to be silly. We're trying to adjust to the silliness of a six year old so he keeps us on our toes with his "logical" explanations of how things are. I know he's going to be a great example to his younger brother and sisters and I am excited to see how much he grows just in the next year. I am so thankful that he is my son and that he chose our family to come to.
Love you bud!

Miss Ellie

Lately Ellie has had this perception of marriage that is a little odd. She'll come up to Todd or myself and ask if we'll marry her. Todd usually says he married mom already but she still persists. When we do say ok I'll marry you, she pulls us up from where ever we're sitting to dance. We've figured out her version of marriage is dancing together. If only it were that easy! Of course she's usually dressed up in her dress up dresses when she asks, wouldn't want to come to a wedding in PJ's. She's been quite cute in that sense lately. And of course she still has her moments (long moments) when she is as stubborn as can be. She's already saying "leave me alone" or "don't talk to me" I can tell this is going to be a fun ride.

I bet I can get you to say "oooohhhh"

This was too cute and don't worry I didn't let it go on for long.
It's her I'm hungry cry and no she didn't starve.

Piggies

We've branched out a little with Holland's hair style, not that there's far to go but hey a little variety never hurt anyone. The only draw back for the pig tales vs a pony is that her bald spot in back is more noticeable. But she's still adorable if I do say so myself. She's also become quite the talker, I think she jabbered almost the entire length of Relief Society yesterday and she even wakes up talking. She always puts a smile on my face.

Easter Weekend

Our Easter has been pretty low key this year. No egg hunts with cousins, no big Easter dinners, and fairly simple Easter baskets. The kids woke up Saturday to their Easter baskets on the foot of their beds (instead of hidden like we usually do). Actually I should say Quinton woke up to find it and then woke the rest up. They had to wait to go down stairs to see if the Easter Bunny had left any eggs for them, until both Todd and I got up. Well about 6:50am I'd had enough and couldn't sleep due to the noise the kids were making, so I got myself out of bed to take them downstairs. Todd and I had hidden the eggs the night before so they rushed down to find all the eggs they could.

Ellie pausing to see if she could see any more eggs.

Quinton checking out what was in those eggs.

Wei already enjoying the spoils of the hunt (and it's not even 7:30am yet).

Most of the day was spent outside enjoying the appearance of the sun. Weiland even got a little sunburned on the back of his neck and cheeks. I cannot wait for summer and I can safely say neither can the kids.

That night after baths and PJ's we dyed eggs. (you'd think it was Halloween the way Quinton is dressed)

Also that night we had Brad and Lacey and family over for movie night. I got some great shots of the little girls together. Cute cousins!! Brynlee was all smiles and Holland thought she looked good enough to try and taste. (you'll have to wait for that picture).

Then Sunday the kids got to wear their Easter cloths. The boys got new Polo's in their baskets and the girls had their dresses. Ellie's is the great deal I found while in CA and Holland's I found at Target for a great deal as well. And of course I had to make hair bows to match, aren't my girls adorable!

And of course my handsome boys.

The whole crew.

Tonight we are having our FHE lesson on the real reason we celebrate Easter and watching the church's video on the resurrection. I am thankful for this season and the chance to reflect on my Savior and all that he's done for me. I am so thankful for the opportunity to strive each day to prove my self worthy to return to live with him and my Heavenly Father and for the atonement to help me along the way when I fall short.

Happy Easter!

Twilight Bash (literally)

I loved the Twilight series the first, second, and third time i read it. And so to honor the book I had a Twilight movie night with a few other fellow fans. I have to say of course I like the movie but as with all book to movie comparisons it just didn't match up. It was so fun to be together and compare notes on our likes and dislikes of the movie as well as all the parts we loved in the book. I got great inspiration and ideas from one of my most favorite sites, Hostess with the Mostess.

I placed these great quotes around the room (not my picture, mine came out really blurry)

Labeled our red drinks with these great labels

Of course had to have party favors, I like to call them Twilight bites.

And a large amount of candles for mood lighting.

The gang settled in to enjoy the show. (had to get two shots to get everyone in)

Sorry again Lynne, Merideth and Rachelle. They hadn't seen the movie before and this probably wasn't the best way to introduce it to them. We all talked pretty much the whole way through the movie about what was happening, what should have happened, what we thought would happen in the next one, etc. etc. etc.
I hope you'll still at least want to read the books after this. I had a great time putting this together and am so thankful for such great friends to share it with. Thanks for coming all!

Such a big girl

It seems this day has snuck up on me and I even put it off for as long as I could. But when she's intently watching me eat or drink I take that as a sure sign she's ready to try it for her self. It didn't take a lot of coaxing to get her to try and she even kept most of it in her mouth (even if the pictures say otherwise). We mostly do cereal at dinner time but of course there are stipulations, she can't be too hungry or she's too impatient to eat, she can't be full or she'll look at me like I'm joking, and she can't be distracted by toys or kids or she wears more than she eats.
So hard to believe how big she is already.
We're working on rolling over but with hardly any time on the floor (due to dangers called Quinton, Weiland, and Ellie) we're a little behind. We set up a new rule to help, I put Holland in the middle of a big blanket and the kids aren't allowed on the blanket. In theory this should work but for some reason they just can't help themselves and end up right next to her. Hopefully we'll have video of her rolling soon. Until then we'll keep growing those cheeks.

Loved the spoon!

My San Francisco Treat

WARNING: long post

What an amazing three days I had! My time in San Fran was so great and I am so glad I got to go. Of course there was a little drama involved with me getting there, it started to snow. I was planning on leaving at 3:30am on Wed. morning to drive to Salt Lake to catch my 9:15am flight. That night as I'm dropping of kids at my sisters it's started to snow. Of course I'm paranoid about driving this by myself as it is and now to add not so fabulous road conditions was a little much. So I decided to leave that night as soon as I got home from dropping off the kids. I was out and on my way by 9:30pm. And let's just say I NEVER want to do that again. I am barely out of Rexburg and the truck in front of me suddenly swerves out of control and into the ditch. So here I am ten minutes out and already extremely stressed and tense. I also encountered really bad roads in Pocatello and of course the pass from Blackfoot to Malad. Once I got a ways into Utah things got better. I am so thankful for prayer, I know I only stayed on the road because I was protected.
Anyway on to the fun stuff. I arrived in San Fran around 2pm and Todd was there to greet me (& Holland). I got to experience the Bart to get to downtown and the fun walk of the city. Well the walk to the Hotel wasn't far and to my surprise we were staying at the Westin on Market, smack in the middle of downtown. It was an amazing hotel and we had an amazing room.

This is the view from our room. We were on the top floor and could see most of down town and the water.

Todd and Holland enjoying the very comfortable bed.

After we checked in and had a little break we headed out to check out downtown and the amazing shopping that it had to offer. (unfortunately Tiffany's didn't have what I was looking for in my size-LOL).

Even Macy's was amazing, found a cute Easter dress for Ellie marked way down, woo hoo. Ya just don't get the same kinda shopping in I.F.

This is Union Square park right in the middle of the city. Love those palm trees! We also ate at the Cheesecake cafe and I had a great dinner and brought cheesecake back to the hotel for later.

Thursday we did a LOT of walking.

Todd found some friends.

Sometimes I really miss being able to go to the city. Reminded me of Seattle.

I truly experienced the San Francisco hills. We saw some amazing row houses and great views.

We walked to China town and saw all the fun stuff there. They had a ton of jewelry stores with some of the most gaudy stuff I've ever seen. Also lots of small shops and markets. very interesting to see.

Later that afternoon we headed out to the Golden Gate bridge. We rode the city bus most everywhere. We drove right by Fisherman's Warf which also reminded me a lot of Seattle's waterfront. The bridge is an awesome sight and is awe inspiring to see. We could also see Alcatraz Island from the park.

Most days were really windy and even more so near the water.

Later that night we went to the Asian Art Museum and wandered around there.

Friday we did some more walking and bus riding. We went out to Golden Gate Park and went through the de Young art museum. We used to go to the art museums in Seattle and have missed being able to go. It was great to go again and we had a good time taking our time going through and enjoying the beauty there.

Right next to the museum was the Japanese Tea Garden. We have also visited other Japanese Gardens in Seattle and Portland and this one was also very beautiful. Some day Todd would love to have his own little tea garden. We spent a lot of time here too. It made me more anxious for spring to come here in ID. Loved the cherry blossoms! I also realized while walking through that I miss the sound of the breeze in the trees. Ya just don't get that here were there are so few trees for the wind to blow through I didn't even know what I'd been missing since I've been here.

Todd also took me to see where his apartment was and we went and saw what are called the Painted Ladies. If anyone knows the show "Full House" from the 90's you'll recognize these from the opening shots of the show. They were really pretty row houses with a great view of the city. We ate lunch on the hill overlooking these houses and enjoyed another sunny day.

That night we were changing hotels to one near the airport because of our 6am flight the next morning. So we went and gathered up our luggage from the Westin and headed to the airport to catch a shuttle to the hotel. Well when we got there Todd had a message that our flight had been canceled and we'd been re-booked on a flight for Sunday instead. GREAT! not really, I was anxious to get home and see my kids. Weiland had had a hard time with both of us gone and all three were counting on us being home by bed time on Saturday, not to mention my sister had six kid in her house and I didn't want to make that any longer than needed. So long story short, ok I know too late, they put us on a 6am flight out of San Jose instead so now we needed to get ourselves out there. Thanks to Todd's dad for rearranging hotels for us so we had somewhere to catch a few hours sleep. It was a very long day of traveling and I am very glad to be home and even more glad to have Todd here and know he's not leaving again. It was a fabulous time and just the break I needed after having been here for the last almost three months without a husband.