Catching Up!!!

I have been horrible at blogging, and life has seemed to just be running at a rampant pace the past few weeks.  We have been busy with mom being out of town on my annual March trip for Nationals (post on this later), winding down with Cash's tennis and discovery club and pre-school, Emma coming and going, daddy out of town and working a lot, and just a whole lot of other stuff!  So this is very random with a lot of pictures of just things in no particular order that we have been up to!  Hopefully I will get back into the swing soon and get up more on our lives!

One week the only way the kids could see dad was to meet him for lunch - so we packed up and went to Cafe Rio, a favorite of ours!  Griffin devours the black beans and we all LOVE it!  Beautiful day too so we ate outside!

I never get tired of running at the beach and the beautiful scenery in the mornings!

 3 kids is a little tough to take to the beach with only 1 adult so on this warm day we just packed a lunch and did our swimmies at the park instead!  Close and kids were just as happy!  Way less work for mom!

 Although Ivy still has no teeth (some are coming it seems) she LOVES big people food and whenever I have an apple she always wants it and it will occupy her forever!  She is so cute chomping down on it!

 This swimsuit it my favorite of hers and I love her little chubby legs coming out!  She is quite the climber and pulls herself up constantly on things!

 Lara had a Discovery Club presentation after the kids learned all about their space unit - they had songs, showed us what they had been doing, and we all learned stuff too - it is awesome!!!

 Cash's space guy that was his body mold! Attached to the ceiling at the Freebairns house!

 When it is nice on the weekends and daddy gets a break we can go to the beach.  We met the Freebairns here and Ivy and Carter are having a fun little date!  He is 3 months younger, and a twin, and in this pic I think he makes her look small!

 Kyle took Chip out and showed him how to surf - Chip's first time and he was a natural!

 We have to watch this little girlie as she is in to EVERYTHING!!!

 YEEEEE-HAHHHHH Cowboy!  When we worked in Cash's classroom Griffin loved playing on this horse.  He was riding it around yelling yee-hah and it was super funny to me!  It was a great experience and we love Cash's pre-school teachers!

When the mom volunteers the kid gets to do show and tell!  Cash was SOOO Excited to bring his jack frost toy!  They have the kids guess and it was very fun to watch!

 Griffin enjoys finding funny things to do during Cash's tennis lesson - and this time he found this great place for his shoes.  He was so proud to show me what he had done!  He is our funny boy who always makes us laugh!

 This past week Cash has been learning about St. Patrick's Day and leperchauns and he has been setting booby traps ALL over the house so he could catch one.  Well, the morning of he was excited to see if one was in his trap! Alas, it wasn't there, but the boys did find a cute note from the leperchaun with some treats and things saying how he barely escaped Cash's trap and was off to search for more rainbows!  It was so much fun seeing him so excited about this - and the leperchaun turned our house upside down and left all sorts of funny things around for us to find (chairs on the table - shoes, on the chair legs, toys on the ceiling, dishes turned upside down, etc)  What a fun thing holidays are in the magic of kids eyes!!!

Ivy was so cute in her beautiful new white dress I had to take a few pics of her after church - for being super tired she still was pretty smiley!!!  She is darling and SO much fun right now!!!

Feb 25: A Day to Remember!!!

Well this day has been a LONG time in coming.  When Ivy was first born she was a great sleeper in the night.  From day 1 only waking up 1 or 2 times a night, and that quickly went to 1.  Then she would just eat and go back to sleep.  Somewhere along the road, however, things took a big step backwards --- maybe it was the fact we moved 2 time zones within her first 2 months of life, or maybe the fact I held her to keep her safe from her brothers and rocked her to sleep so she became spoiled, or the fact every time I seemed to be ready to sleep train her and let her figure things out she got sick and I just couldn't let her cry it out, or the fact I don't want her to wake the boys up so if it is close to 5 am or after I rush in so she won't wake everybody up and risk us all having to get up so early--- or maybe I just am too much a softy and when she cries it breaks my heart and I physically can NOT let her cry.  Whatever the reason, she came to the point where she was waking up every 3 hours and has become my worst sleeper/napper to date.  Also the boys schedules don't help the naps and so she really hasn't had a stable schedule which I believe is very crucial in having great sleepers.  Anyhow, it has been a long few months and I have been waiting and trying to figure out how to help her and what needs to be done.  She has finally figured out how to take 2 good naps during the day, and pretty much had a standard schedule of waking up sometime between midnight -1 am and then again at 5 am.  I wasn't sure how I was going to break this and then it happened.  On Feb. 25 she woke up at 3 am, and I let her cry for less than 5 minutes and she was back asleep.  Then she woke up again at 5 am and wimpered for all of 2 minutes and went back to sleep until 6:30 - so she slept from 8 pm-6:30 am.  YEAH!!!!!  I know many of your babies out there have slept longer and better and earlier and great for you!  My boys were this way and both were angel sleepers and nappers.  But for this little girly this was a HUGE accomplishment!  I am SOOOOO happy about it and hope it continues (even tho last night at 3 am she didn't stop crying until I finally fed her again....so who knows?!)!

Anyways, the last couple weeks have been a little crazy around our house.  She has had a bad cold and been a little sick and that is no fun! But it made for a LOT of holding and snuggle time for me!

She has started crawling on all fours instead of just her scoot and can pretty much get around everywhere and anywhere - and she does!  I love it that I have my first crawler!

Happy girl!

 Bathtime is a favorite around our house and even tho this was taken in Cville I can't help but LOVE the way these two are sweet to each other and appreciate the moments of them being best friends!

 She pulls herself to standing and is SO happy about doing so!  And has the cutest ruffle bum ever!

 So independent and curious!

Dressing her up for church is a favorite activity as she is such a doll!  And SOOOO happy all the time. She makes everyone smile as she pretty much has a smile on her face 24 hours a day.  I am lucky and wish I felt as happy as her this often!

Ready for her nap!

 My favorite!

 Exploring and figuring how to stand up here!

 And She is up - and even letting go of one hand!

 Can't get enough of her!

 She will be 9 months in 2 days and I can't believe how time has flown so fast from that first night of meeting her late on that Memorial Day.  I love her so much and hope she will sleep more nights in the future!!!

Valentines Part 2!

As if Valentines wasn't eventful enough at our house --- another BIG, no HUGE surprise came when my sister's BF proposed on this special day of love!  OK - so the family knew it was coming -but she didn't.  She was TOTALLY surprised so his plans worked!  Also, he picked out the ring for her without any say - and DANG! He did a great job! The ring is beautiful and we are so excited to have Hooty in the family!  They got engaged up at Timpanogas where they had a special date, and then came back down the canyon and got on a flight and came to my house later that night.  Happy V-day to them and congrats.  On a side note Chip proposed to me also on Valentines Day 7 years ago - so now we share it (along with probably a bunch of other people too - good day to celebrate your love!) Looks like we are now planning for a June wedding!!!

 Since I was busy getting the house ready for my lovebird visitors we decided to go with the order in pizza this year instead of making it - and this awesome place called Valentinos delivered it in the shape of a heart for the special holiday.  The boys were SO excited!

 Then it was marshmellow fight time with the boys new guns we made and it was a blast.  Daddy joined in the fun too!

 I made a delicious strawberry brownie torte for dessert for the special occasion!  

 SOOOOOO yummy!

 My sweet little one who wasn't feeling so great but still smiled and looked cute today!

 Friday we went down to the beach as it was 79 degrees and had a great time!  So much fun!

 Ivy didn't much care for the sand or water, but enjoyed the blanket for a bit!

 The next morning I woke up and these two were just super lovey dovey to each other.  Ok so every morning Ivy is SOOOO excited and loves to kiss Griffin.  He is a little charmer and man his sister loves him!  Melts my heart!

 Most the time he is good to her too, although she has learned to be tough already for when he is ALL boy and jumps on her!  He said to her this morning "Ivy you are my best friend!" which was really sweet!

 More beach time on Saturday in the 80 degree gorgeous weather, and the boys had a blast jumping in the ocean and playing by the pier.  Chip was sick so kept Ivy home with him, and we all had a blast enjoying and soaking up the sun!

Didn't take any pics of the dance comp but as always Kimmy danced beautifully and looked amazing!  Was a fun weekend!  Great way to celebrate love!!!