That Periodic Randomness

I got so behind on the blog, that now I have to do one requisite photo dump post so that I don't get bogged down in trying to blog every little thing, and never actually do anything.

 Summer parades!

Our Grahamster the hamster passed away last week.  He went in to hibernation, and since Hamsters aren't built for that, it was his demise. The girls were extremely sad for about... 16 minutes.  They wrote him love notes and we buried him in the backyard.

Messy boy - as usual!

 Cutie miss!  Not this small anymore.

 Family outing - Grizzlies game!

 Our life for the past year - finishing the basement by ourselves... now that has been a bit by bit endeavor...

 Baby belly!

 Visit from Liam and Mal - we hit the waterpark.

We're always finding surprise pictures on our phones that the kids took... like this one!

My mother's day present!  I've wanted a swing forever and spent many summer mornings on it with my babe.

Ruth's Chris in Park City for Jeff's 30th birthday.  It was an awesome evening!  We spent the night there in one of our condos and I had a surprise hot air balloon ride scheduled but it was too windy. :(

Pushing them on their little cars with the stroller.  They thought it was the best thing ever!

Amie's first report card, aw!  She did great!

Not happy.  Not happy at all!

The Lonestar State!

My sister Mallory and her family moved to Texas last year, and ever since Mal and I moved to Utah together almost 10 years ago (WOW!) that is way too long for me not to see her.  So, we decided to make our big summer vacation this year to the good old heart of Texas.  We took our minivan and drove straight through with our 4 kidlets and my brother, Ricky. It was really helpful having him in the back with the kids and especially the baby (Ace was only 4 months old!) We arrived at Mallory's and all kind of crashed for a bit. They made up the spare room for us and it was super fun nights for everyone in the house, when Ace would wake up... then Liam... then Carson... then Liam again... then Ace again...

We spent a fun day in Dallas, saw some historical spots and played in a great park/splash pad.

Where Kennedy was shot, and where he was shot from.

After church on Sunday (where we saw an impressive array of Texas mustaches) we all packed up and drove down South to stay in a condo (which was sweet) and check out some more of Texas.  We went to the Alamo and Riverwalk, where I don't know if I've ever sweat more in my life - and I'm from Florida!! We went back for a swim at the condo and some num barbecue. 

The next day - the beach!! Yay and woohoo!   Despite the 5-10 foot wide barrier of kelp between our car and the water, we had a great time and it was fun to be at a drive up beach.  We may or may not have gotten just a liiiiiiiittle bit burnt to a total crisp.

We intended to spend a day at a water park back in Wylie, but it was rainy-ish and we were just so exhausted from all the travelling and activities and HEAT that we opted to rest instead.  All the while, we ate at lots of lovely places that are unavailable to us in Utah, like Whataburger, yummmm.

The drive home... now that was a story.  The short version goes something like this... after about 15 hours in the car with 4 little babes and adults that were exhausted, I thought I'd get myself a speeding ticket.  That way, I'd already be in a really good mood when, at hour 17 or so in the car, my van would decide to self destruct.  Still 4 hours from home, by the way, and in a spot where there was no cell service.  It was magical.  We coasted our way back to Hole In the Rock, where we figured they at least had some things to look at while we figured out our rescue plan.  I called my mom who actually got in her car and drove 4 hours to save us.  Meanwhile, we got an expensive tow to the closest civilization - Moab - where the mechanic told us we'd need a whole new $5000 dollar engine.  Yeah, that wasn't an option, so we drove it off the lot down to McD's to wait for people, and our van was literally dropping pieces of the engine on the road as we went!  When we left with my mom, Jeff stayed at McD to wait for his brother, who also drove down to save us, to tow our van back to SLC. The kids and I slept at my mom's while we worked out the mess.  That didn't stop us from heading to the lakehouse the next day with our friends as previously planned, though!  We love those weekends.
Other than the dramatic ending, the trip was so much fun and Mal was a totes gracious host! Love you guys!

Valentine's Day

This year was my turn to plan Valentine's Day, but we didn't know whether I'd be pregnant or have a newborn or what! So, I kept it pretty low key. We started out with pink heart pancakes and heart bacon, then the girls had gymnastics and brought valentines to the kiddos there. We had some Iggy's for lunch, and then I can't really recall the afternoon for the life of me! We came home to the usual heart attack and jammies from grandma. I decided to go with a family dinner for the first time this year. I made steak, twice baked potatoes, roasted broccoli, bubbly with strawberry hearts and chocolate dipped berries. It was really fun (until Carson wanted to play with the flutes, but what else could we expect?)

Acey Baby's first 3 months

Acelynn is just over three months old now and it is flying by! Life is definitely crazy with 4 kids, but I am truly doing my darnedest to savor these little baby moments, cause this sweet one is my last. It is hardest to remember at around 4 am when she wants to get up, but... it is actually nice snuggle time where there is no one else tugging on me, and nothing waiting to be cleaned or cooked.
I only really had that not-even-close-to-enough-sleep-delirium phase for a few weeks.  Jeff is great at helping get up with her at night once he can bottle feed her (I was only able to nurse her for about 2 weeks) and then she got a pretty decent schedule going.  For the past few weeks she has actually been sleeping from around 9 or 10 until 5 or 6.  I can not complain about that!  She'll still occasionally wake but will go back to sleep after a bottle.
Ace had some good solid laughs at 2 months, but we have a hard time recreating them and I have never been able to record them. It seems she will only tickle once, then just stares at you amused-like. She can hold her head up well and is just barely starting to tolerate sitting in the bumbo chair or laying on the baby play mat for a few minutes at a time.  She's got an adorable smile she likes to show you when you talk to her, and has really amped up her spit-up abilities in the last month, yuck.  At her two month appointment, she was average for height, in the 50's, but only 17th percentile for height!  Short and chubby.  She's definitely a chunker.

Family Days

These are just some random family days we've taken together, whether out or at home.  We sure love family time and are relishing this stage where our kids still do, too.

The Little Gym

At the beginning of this season, Amelie decided that she wanted to try something besides dance, so I found a class at the Little Gym.  After just one day of dance, Alisa decided the same and I can't say I minded having them both in the same class again. They have been loving gymnastics! Lisie just loves the physicality, getting the chance to release aaaaaaallll that energy, and Amelie is a natural, plus she really takes to the format there, soaking up the instruction.

One week, Lisie was doing her own thing (as usual) and fell off the low parallel bars.  I tried and tried to put off taking her to the ER, but when it became clear the cut was deep, and that no one else would do it, we had to take her up to Primary Children's Hospital for some staples.

Ew!!  She was a trooper, Jeff said.  He had to leave work to take her, cause I said there was no way I was doing ER by myself with four tiny kids.

Now, Amelie is saying she's thinking something new for next season.  She suggests horses, but if my preliminary research on pricing tells me anything... I don't think so.... We'll see!