march 2016

Lots of exciting things happened in March: Spring Break, Truman's FIRST birthday, and Easter!

I got out my "real" camera one morning and took some cute photos of my busy, blue-eyed boy:

 

Truman likes the vacuum. Such a great helper (love his little tongue sticking out!)

We wrapped up winter soccer. Tosh's awesome team after the last game of the season:

Coach Rob:

Liv went to a birthday party one evening for one of her classmates at Chuck E Cheese and so the rest of us got dinner at Some Burros and then killed time at a sporting goods store while we waited for her. These cute photos of my boys in the mirror make me laugh:

For Spring Break we headed to Las Vegas (We sold our timeshare a while ago and had one last Marriott exchange to use. Las Vegas was the only destination we could find that was the right week and close enough for us to drive to.).

We walked along the strip one morning and explored lots of stores and shops. The M&M store was a favorite:

New York, NY:

 Hershey Store:

The kids really enjoyed the activities at the resort and played lots of games and swam a ton. Liv fell asleep in my lap one evening after a busy day!

We went back to this fun park that we visited the last time we were in town:

We played some soccer, football, and frisbee:

Liv is really liking Frisbee:

There was some sort of dessert offered at the resort each day. Tosh went a little nuts at the Chocolate "Tasting" and feasted more than sampled, for sure. I wasn't in line by him and was a little embarrassed when I saw his plate later (where is this child's mother??)...

We went to the strip one evening to watch the fountains at the Bellagio.

 Waiting for the show to start (and here is some proof that Burke did indeed join us on the trip):

Inside the Bellagio:

 Another fountain show after leaving the Bellagio:

We spent a day exploring around Red Rock Canyon--so fun!

I had to sneak this shot of Burke when he was far away from me:

After our hike, we took the kids to a buffet for a late lunch. They loved the variety of food, but mostly the endless desserts! These three cuties are always happy to smile for a photo.

The entire time we were in Vegas, Tosh and Liv kept talking about how much they wanted stuffed M&Ms (that we saw our first day there). We went back to the M&M store for the kids to buy them on our last day:

We also visited the Coca-Cola store:

Our last evening there, Tosh won the candy bar guessing contest at the resort. The prize was, you guessed it, candy bars! Later that night, Rob and the three middle kids watched a movie poolside. It was a fun little get-away.

We drove home from Vegas on Sunday morning and got home in time to go our church (we had 2:30pm church for a few weeks). I should mention that we are in a brand new ward and stake now. They created a new Chandler South stake (with people from the Chandler and Chandler East stakes) in March. Our ward lost the members in the north part of our boundaries (they are still McQueen 2nd ward in the Chandler Stake), and then we gained about 10 families that were formerly in the East Stake. As the brand new ward in the stake, we didn't have a bishop for a month which was a very unusual experience. We are now in the Paseo Crossings ward. Rob is the 11 year-old scout leader and teaches the 10&11 year-olds in Primary, and I am the MiaMaid advisor (which was my first calling when we moved to Chandler).

The evening we got home from our trip, Tosh and Hewitt were playing around in their room (when they were supposed to be getting ready for bed). Tosh collided with the corner of his dresser and I heard lots of yelling (Tosh and then Rob!) while I was nursing Truman and getting him down for bed. I came out to discover Rob and Tosh in a bit of a panic--Tosh's eye had swollen up bigger than a golf ball! By the time I got to him, he already had ice on it and the swelling had gone down quite a bit. Rob started feeling faint (he claimed it wasn't related) and so I tried to get everyone to calm down. We had Tosh strip down to his underwear and lie down on the cool floor because he started to feel like he was going to pass out as well. We were trying to access how bad the cut was and if he would need to go to the hospital. Tosh kept yelling, "No! I don't want to go. I want a scar!!!" I texted a couple of our doctor friends, and after a while could tell that the cut wasn't very bad or deep, mostly just a bad bruise on the eye.

The top left photo is from Sunday night, and then middle photo was Monday morning. Tosh was able to rest all Monday, and then felt good enough to go to Cub Scout Day Camp on Tuesday (bottom photo). The injury didn't seem to slow him down at all--he had a fun time at camp.

 It was interesting how much Tosh was missed while he was away during the day at camp. The other kids were so happy to see him when he got home every night. They were all trying to get his attention or show him things they had done. It made me realize that Tosh (our true middle child) has such a great relationship with each of the kids. Tosh is generally interested in every member of the family and it was so sweet to see how much they love and missed each other. Makes a mama's heart happy.

Burke put Truman in this shopping cart one evening and was he was LOVING it, until we had to put a stop to it for safety purposes.

Rob and I spent the second week of spring break painting our entry way and living room--goodbye yellow! Rob used his last two weeks of "bonding leave" from when Truman was born and we were able to get it done with Burke and Hewitt home to help entertain Truman. Our ceilings are pretty high (and we had to prime everything before painting), but we were able to work pretty quickly and well together. Rob dumped a bunch of paint on my head when I was painting under his ladder once, but I was able to get it out of my hair and clothes by showering immediately (it wasn't funny to me at all when it happened, but was funny by about 15 minutes after the episode). 

We painted over the vines and like how it turned out:

 

Truman turned ONE on the 20th of March. I am writing a separate post just about his birthday.

----See Birthday Post to follow----

Tosh had a cub scout requirement about visiting a place of worship and then creating a "visual display of your visit" with his den or family. We had gone to the temple a couple of weeks earlier, and I had an idea to make a temple out of Legos for family home evening. The kids loved the idea:

When we were finished Tosh said, "We work pretty well together!"

I took Truman for his one-year appointment and here are his stats. Tall and skinny:

I sure love hanging out with my little buddy during the day:

Liv had a bake sale/lemonade stand at the park by Natalie's house and they made a bunch of money!

Liv, Tosh, and I went over to the Andelins just before Easter to dye eggs. We forgot to take photos during the process, but got some of the kids holding the eggs afterward:

On the way to piano one day, I was asking the kids what their favorite Easter candy is. Liv said, "I like all candy except eight legs." The car was dead silent as we were all trying to figure out what she was talking about. Suddenly it came to me-- "You mean, Sixlets?" Hahahahaha!!!
Rob and I had to take a photo of some Sixlets when we were out Easter shopping:

We had the Andelins over for a big Easter lunch prior to our 2:30 church. They brought the ham, and we had funeral potatoes, salad, rolls, carrots, deviled eggs, jello eggs, etc. Rob and I both spoke in sacrament meeting on Easter. I also taught Relief Society that day, so it was a busy one! It was nice to come home from church and eat yummy leftovers. I'm so grateful for our Savior and for the Atonement and Resurrection. I know that HE LIVES!

Truman is obsessed with toilet paper! You can't leave it within reach.

We had a little time between piano and cub scouts one day and so I took Tosh, Liv and Tru to the park in our old neighborhood. The kids are always telling me how much they miss our old house, and they loved going back to our old neighborhood park and introducing Truman to it. This photo of Truman in the tunnel cracks me up!

The example Liv used in this school work made me laugh out loud (so glad she didn't say "my mom")!

  I try to jot down funny things that Liv says, but I sometimes forget. Here are a few funnies from this spring:

Hewitt got a biography about "Dr. J." from the library and Liv was asking about it. Then she said, "Dr. J. has his own book about him? Does he know that? And we got it?! That's lucky, huh?"

We were watching Cupcake Wars together on Netflix one evening and a woman made a comment about how some cupcakes looked so bad that a first grader could have done them. Liv was so offended by the comment and jumped up and said, "I would NOT do those decorations!!!" Needless to say, she did not want that team to win.

Liv said that she felt a little dizzy before school one day (but seemed fine). After school she said, "I'm not feeling dizzy anymore. Maybe from all that learning it helped my head."

For some reason we got talking about the girls I grew up singing with and Liv said, "You should get back together and make one more show with your friends before you die. Oh yeah, you won't die, you just had a baby..."

After Rob went back to work after vacation, Liv said, "Finally things are back to normal around here once and for all!"

Conversation prior to leaving the house:
Me: Are you going to wear two necklaces?
Liv: Yah, who doesn't wear two necklaces to a party??

LOVE that funny girl! Coming soon: Truman's birthday!