Fun in Utah

We had the opportunity to drive to Utah last weekend. We were able to attend the sealing of the Peterson's to Jacob, and then were able to be there for his baby blessing as well. This sealing was very special and I was so glad that we were able to be there to witness it and to feel the special spirit that was there. We enjoyed visiting with family, and the kids had so much fun playing with their cousins Jacob and Katelyn.

These are a couple pictures from after the sealing over at the Peterson's. We ate yummy cake and pizza. Noah kept finding pieces of half eaten cake and would lick the frosting off of them. Presleigh and Katelyn spent most of their time together upstairs jumping on beds.

We stayed with my sister Julie. And last minute my mom and dad decided to make the trek down to be able to be there for my sister's baby's blessing. Laila was blessed during 1:00 church and Jacob was blessed during 9:00 church, so we were able to go to both. It was so nice to be able to see a little of my family while we were down there too.

My mom helped Presleigh pick some dandylions on the walk home from church. She was passing them out to everyone like they were beautiful flowers, so we put one in her hair.

Here is Jules with her sweet little Laila.

This is Noah, during one of his "freezes." He does this when he gets scared or upset. He just stands there and won't look at you and kind of slumps over. It's pretty funny. Sometimes he does this and then collapses to the floor to throw a fit. That part isn't as funny.

Some other notes from the trip: Noah had Paul and Julie mixed up pretty much the entire time we were staying with them. It was so funny to hear him call julie paul everytime he saw her. The kids were angels in the car. We hit some pretty bad snow on the way to Utah.

It was blizzardy out but luckily it wasn't sticking to the roads. We played Mexican Train a couple times while we were down there. We love that game. Presleigh loved little Laila and asked to hold her a bunch of times. She is also very funny about feeding Laila. One time Jules went upstairs to pump and Presleigh ran upstairs after her. When I asked where she was going she said something like, "I want to watch julie get milk for baby." I love that she is so interested in Laila. I know she is going to be such a big helper with our next little one.

Crafting Again

I actually put this fabric up a while ago but this didn't take any work so I don't count this as crafting. But I did want to show one of the walls in the kids playroom that I have done. I am planning an alphabet wall for the other wall but it's taking me a while to gather all the letters. Here is a pic of Presleigh's Easter dress that I made last week. I still need to do the buttons in the back but it turned out really cute. I used this tutorial.

She wanted me to take her picture:)

I made this map pillow from a tutorial found here

And of course I had to make Noah a Bow Tie to coordinate with Presleigh's Easter dress. These are super simple and so fun to make.

Hopefully there will be more projects to come:)

Random fun:)

Noah is so funny these days. He is talking so much. He is saying so many things that his sweet sister says. He asks me for "Diego" in the mornings and when I tell him no he always says "Why" in the same tone as Pres. He also will sometimes ask "It Sunday?" when I tell him that he can't have or do something. This is straight from his big sis.

He is still the master at making messes. He also loves to jump. He jumps off the couch, off our bed, off the playroom table, and our sidetable too. He is fearless:) Noah loves loves loves to jump on the trampoline over at the Lewis' home. He also will hold himself up between our couches and just swing there. He's been doing this since he was super young. I'm thinking that he might be a gymnast. Although he still loves to shoot hoops.

Noah is such a sweetie. He is our cuddler. I love that he will still curl up in my arms and hold on to me super tight. He is also starting to tell me to hold him. He says, "hold me" in a whiney voice, and I think it's funny. He will also pat you and say your name over and over until you respond, and sometimes even when you respond he will just keep patting you and saying your name. Sometimes it seems like he doesn't have much to tell you, but he pats anyway. Or maybe because it takes so long for me to respond sometimes, he just forgets what he was going to tell me.

Presleigh is also such a sweetie and such a good helper. She likes to help me with the laundry and unloading the dishwasher. She is very good at picking up her things. The other night after I got home from work Wayne told me that she had picked up her bedroom. her clothes and toys were stuffed in drawers and in her closet, but it was impressive that she had clean up the floors so that I would come home to a clean house. The next day I asked her to clean up her playroom and she said to me "Daddy doesn't want to come home to a messy house." I'm sure that is what Wayne tells her to get her to clean up.

Presleigh can spell her name!!! It only took a few times of me telling her and now she pretty much has it down. She says R instead of the I sometimes when she isn't really concentrating on it. She picked it up really fast and I'm hoping that writing it will come quick too:)

The other day we were at Target and the kids were both running around crazy and started climbing on the end of one of the shelves. When I told her and Noah to get down she said to me "But mom, we are such good climbers." They really are good climbers.

Presleigh loves animals. She talks about them a lot. She was so excited when we were at the Lewis' last week and she saw a really big worm. She was also a little worried that it was going to eat her scooter. She is so funny and always says that different animals are going to eat her things or even her. We tried to go to a pet store to look at some animals but it didn't have any pets, so Presleigh was very dissapointed and kept asking me when we could go to the animal center. So on one of my nights off we went as a family to Petco and looked at the animals. Wayne wanted to get a hamster, but Presleigh wasn't interested. She wanted a bunny. So we went home with just our 2 munchkins.

The other day we met some friends at the park and Presleigh played with this little girl the whole time. It was so fun to watch her talking and playing and imagining with a friend. Noah was

feeling a little left out and tried to follow them around, but he had a hard time keeping up.

Our kids are at such fun ages right now. They play really well together and are best friends, and I love it. Presleigh asks where Noah is when he is napping. And Noah will ask about his sister in the morning when she is still sleeping. We are excited for things to warm up so we can have more fun outside.

Bounce

Wayne took a partial day off last week so that we could go to the DMV to get us all set up here in Idaho. We spent the day as a family going to lunch and taking written driving tests. before we left I had told Presleigh that if her and Noah were good then we would take them to this jump house place called Bounce. They were both troopers the whole boring day, so we stopped by Bounce and enjoyed some family fun time. We had gone to this place once before and Presleigh and Noah were both afraid of the big slide. This time they both would climb the stairs and go down the big slide all by themselves. They also went on the obstacle course a lot with daddy:) I mostly took pictures. It was so nice to be able to spend the day together as a family.

Some funnies

I've been holding on to a couple little things Presleigh has said lately that I think are hilarious. I have finally decided to write them down before I forget.

So the other night we were sitting at the table after dinner (I think) and we were talking about how Presleigh is growing up and getting so big. Presleigh then told Wayne and I that when she is older she is going to get to wear a ring. I then said yeah when you get married you'll get a ring like mommy and daddy's. I then asked her if she was going to marry a handsome boy like daddy when she gets older. She then replied in her duh mom voice, "No mom, I'm gonna Mary a little lamb." I could not stop laughing. Both of our kids love the song Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Sunday night I had to work, but when I got home Wayne told me that Presleigh had asked in their family prayer that night, "Please bless that we can watch tv on Sundays." I love that she is starting to say more in her prayers than her classic three lines.

Noah is making all sorts of messes these days. He is constantly dumping out his cup or bowl filled with his lunch or breakfast. He says mess probably 15 times a day. Sometimes I think he makes the messes just so he can talk about it. It's also his way of throwing a fit. When he gets upset he finds some way to make a mess. The other day it was his smoothie all over the table and floor. One of his new favorite things to get into is the laundry detergent.

Noah has been waking up a little during the night, and usually when this happens Wayne takes him in the front room and lays with him in front of the fireplace. This is Wayne's favorite place to sleep (he grew up sleeping on the heater vent a lot) because of the warmth. So today when I went to put Noah down for his nap he cried and cried and kept telling me "fire" at first I looked around the room thinking that there was a fire or something, but then I remembered that he has spent a few nights sleeping with daddy by the fire. I guess he's a big fan too.

A trip to Utah and a new job

Last weekend we were able to take a short trip to Utah. Wayne didn't think he was going to be able to go with us because he had a big assignment at work that he was working on. So I packed up the kids and headed to SLC to visit my sister and attend Wayne's niece's baptism. We were a little over 100 miles out of town when Wayne called and told me he wasn't going to be able to spend the weekend working on his assignment and asked if I would turn around and pick him up, so that we could spend the weekend as a family in Utah. Of course I wanted us to be together and didn't want him left home alone all weekend, so we went back and got him.

We got to stay at my sister's house which was so nice because she just had a sweet little baby girl. Laila is so adorable and so tiny. I am always amazed at how little newborns are. My kids had so much fun. They were so excited to see aunt Juju and Paul and even Grandma Patsy was there. When I decided to turn around to go back for Wayne, Presleigh got upset because we hadn't made it to Utah yet. Noah and Pres both loved baby Laila. Pres wanted to hold her constantly, and Noah kept giving her kisses.

We spent most of our Saturday in SLC with Wayne's family. We went to Emily's Baptism and then got to celebrate her 8th birthday too. It was such a special day for her and I am so glad that we got to be there to enjoy it with her. The kids got to play fun games at her birthday and pretty much loved the balloons more than anything. I wish I would have had my camera with me:(

Here are some pictures of sweet baby Laila:)

And sweet Baby Noah

Life has been crazy for us lately. I am working nights again at the Texas Roadhouse. It was a little crazy at first going back to work in the real world after having 2 years off. But it has been pretty good so far. I am working a few nights a week which is nice because Wayne is home to watch the kiddos. My first week of work Wayne got a major assignment at work and was working crazy hours so that he could be home in time for me to go to work. Hopefully things will slow down a little now that he is done with his special assignment.

Outdoor Fun

We've been spending a little bit of time outside this week. It's been pretty nice weather, and the kids have needed some outside time. I can not wait for it to start warming up so we can explore all of the fun parks around town.

We went to the park after dinner the other night. The kids had so much fun:) Presleigh found a friend and pretty much followed her around the whole time we were there. It was good though because Presleigh has been missing having friends around to play with. She was also very proud that she could climb UP the biggest slide at the park, all by herself. She is obviously feeling much better. I love her crazy hair in this picture:)

Noah is so fun to watch when he is playing. He makes the funniest faces and pretty much talks and sings to himself while he plays. Yesterday I secretly watched him while I was in the kitchen. He was playing with these wooden shapes and stacking them to make a "towa" (tower). While he was stacking them he was singing Popcorn Popping. Totally adorable. Too bad he stopped as soon as he heard my video camera beep:(