Father's Day 2011

So I know Father's Day was a week and a half ago, but alas I'm just now posting about it. Anyway...I tried to get creative this year with Father's Day because if anyone knows Nick, he gets what he wants, which is everything anytime he wants it making birthdays and anniversaries, fathers day, christmas, pretty much every holiday difficult to shop for him. He had just recently gotten a new gun as well as a new bike so he was lucky he got what we got him for Father's Day as he's gotten his next 50 presents with the previous ones listed. So I got this last minute idea to have the kids spell out Happy Father's Day with their bodies and make a banner for our fireplace. They had a blast doing it...the girls did at least. Rex was asleep for half of the letters and then he joined us for the last half and I barely got some good ones of him.

Here is the word "Happy"
Here is "Father"

And I couldn't get "Father's" to fit altogether so I had to put the " s" with "Day" here....And the apostrophe (who is Rex) was an accident that worked out great! This was one of his fussy times and I was trying to get the girls to do a good "s" and he kept trying to get me on my bed, so I just added him into the picture and made him the apostrophe!

And here's our finished product on our mantle. The girls were so excited to show Daddy. We were supposed to put it up while he was at his meetings before church and then it would be a surprise to him after he got home, but of course his meetings were cancelled because of Father's Day so we had to have him close his eyes while we put it up on the mantle. You may not be able to see the words from here, but they obviously spell out "Happy Father's Day"

And he got another surprise that he wasn't expecting...one that I was really excited about and excited to make. It's not put up yet as I'm waiting for the one of myself and the kids to come in the mail. It's a mounted wall art from shutterfly, similar to a canvas wall art, but a little different. They are pictures of all three kids with Nick when they were first born or shortly thereafter. Mine will be very similar to this and I'm going to put them both up in Rex's room. Can you tell which baby is which? It's not the best picture of it but hopefully you can tell. I'll have to post another picture later of both when I get them on the wall together. We also celebrated with Cashew Chicken of course! His absolute favorite meal of all time!

For those wondering, it's left to right: Kayley, Cora, and Rex.

And this picture I took earlier tonight...and I'm actually blogging about it!! Haha! But sadly both Rex and Cora have fevers...just in time for little Rex's 1st too! I was hoping his fever was due to his new tooth coming in, but then Cora ended up having a fever too...so even though we had fevers and colds last week, we have fevers AGAIN for some reason! Oh well, I just hope they get better fast! But Cora was resting on the couch this afternoon and zonked out two different times. She was really cute this second time with her arms folded.

The Magic House is full of Magic!!

So about a week and a half ago we went to St. Louis for a temple visit for Nick and I, got a hotel for the night and then went to the Magic House the next day for the kids. It was of course a great trip to the temple and the kids waited very patiently for us to finish our sessions. Then we headed to the hotel. The kids had a blast swimming in the pool...luckily for my sake it was pretty warm water. And I say luckily for me because hotel pools are usually way too cold for me and I end up spending my whole time in the hot tub. Sadly the hot tub closed right when we got there for the night to be clean. It was very saddening but pleasing at the same time because they actually drained the water completely and cleaned out the hot tub...so if we ever end up staying there again, at least I know they really do clean the hot tub! But the pool was pretty warm and we spent quite a while at the pool letting the kids swim. They had a blast! Then we got our complimentary cookies...YUMMY and took them to our room for a nighttime snack.

The next morning we just had a very leisurely morning and then got ready for the Magic House. Only our luck though it was pouring down rain when we were leaving. Nick lovingly went and got the car and he got DRENCHED! While we were waiting outside the hotel under the awning, two or three lightening crashes happened literally right next to us so the girls went balistic! But we survived, went to lunch, and then headed to the Magic House. This is probably the girls favorite place to go. And we've been there twice now and love it everytime! Rex now got to enjoy a little bit of it this time as the last time he was a little baby. We forgot the stroller so Nick willingly wore him in a front pack...what a trooper...that boy is HEAVY! So here are some pictures of our fun time at the Magic House!

Cora was sadly not old enough for some of the displays that Kayley could go in, but she was a very good sport about it and waited patiently for Kayley to finish...here she is waiting at the scientific area for Kayley.
They had an Alice in Wonderland display which the girls loved. When we were leaving the display we ran into some of the characters. They only wanted their picture taken with Alice. I didn't notice until I loaded the picture that Cora's eyes were funny...and they only wanted to take one picture. Oh well!

The water play area...this part reminds me of Paradise Park...as well as the grocery shopping part. The girls could have played for hours in both places.

Here's a pic of Rex who was also a great trooper in being happy having to stay in the front pack for so long. We did let him out in a few areas. We let him play for a long time in the under 2 section. They had slides and climbing places...he had a blast!

And then he found the ball pit........... Have a said that this boy LOVES balls...of any type or size! It took us a long time to get him away from the balls. It's like he's in his own element here. He had so much fun I couldn't even get him to look at the camera for a picture!

And more pictures of him enjoying himself. He loved looking at himself in the mirror. He kept talking to himself, it was cute. He also loved being able to stand and play with the girls in the pretend kitchen. The girls really weren't supposed to be in this section since it was for kids under 2, but they were the only three kids in that small part, so I didn't feel so bad letting them play with their brother!

Then there is the baby section!! Daddy got to rest his weary back on the nice recliner and Rex very patiently watched...did I tell you he was really good?

And you know how I mentioned Rex being in his element in the ball pit, the baby section was the girls' element! They wanted to play there for hours too! They loved being able to play doctor and weigh their babies, bath them, dress them, change them, you name it. I couldn't get them to look at the camera either they were having so much fun! And the last stop was the craft section. We almost didn't go to this section as we found out we were there the free family night and it was almost time for it to start. We wanted to miss the crowds and crowds of people that were lined up outside waiting to come in for free. We like free, but I think we would have passed on that even if we had known ahead of time...there were tons of people! But luckily none of them were itching to go to the craft section. The girls both painted pictures, I missed getting a picture of Kayley painting hers. And then Nick had a blast at the magnet part. They all three got into these magnetic pieces...not even sure what they are called, but I know now to look out for them for all the kids, including Nick! I think he found his element here! And Cora even did the beanstalk this time, the last time she was scared to do it and this time she went down with Kayley once. Kayley could spend hours in the beanstalk. The Magic House is so much fun and I'm sure we'll be back sometime soon the next time we're in St. Louis!

Arkansas and Branson for Memorial Day Fun

So this last weekend we very last minute decided to make a trip to Arkansas and Branson along with the rest of Nick's family for Memorial Day. Nick actually had a 5 day weekend, which was really nice as it was his four day weekend to begin with (what he usually has before the week he has to take call) and then he got an extra day off with Memorial Day being this last weekend. We originally were going to just take a trip to the Temple and then stay at home, but everyone in Nick's familiy was going to Silver Dollar City on Monday so we decided to join in on the fun since we would be the only ones not going if we didn't go. So we started out on Saturday heading to Arkansas to Shannon's house for Addison's 2nd birthday party. We actually stopped in Joplin and looked at some of the damage by the tornado, but weren't able to see all of it as the traffic was horrendous! Then we made it to Centerton for the party. It was fun with all the cousins there and some of Addison's friends. Can you tell they all had fun helping Addison open her presents? Needless to say Shannon was probably a little bit cramped!!
She also had all the kids made their own candy necklace. Kayley and Ashlyn were really the only ones who had the most patience for this kind of craft as all the other kids only strung a few pieces of candy and then just wanted to eat the rest.

Then the rest of the weekend we spent hanging out at the house that Michelle, Quentin, and Arlaine had all rented, so it was fun to have a place big enough for the kids to play and be themselves as well as the adults being able to visit with each other. Then church on Sunday, Sunday dinner, fun in the park in the evening, and then a ride from you know where to Branson!

I have vowed that I will never ever ever drive from Centerton to Branson again in my life! I'm not really sure why Shannon even does it? She must really love us!! First of all, Nick always likes to think that he knows a better way than the way other people try to tell him to go...so the way Shannon told him to go, he didn't go of course. He decided to go a different way thanks to the GPS's route. I've never been on a more windier, narrower route in my life! It took us on turns that made you feel like you were on a roller coaster. Then we also got to see my worst nightmare, a bridge that was under water, which was supposed to be our route, so we had to turn around and figure out how to calm my blood pressure down. Then the sort of normal route we found took us through Eureka Springs...I thought Missouri had some hicks...wow is all I need to say! I also got to learn what a "slide" is on a road. The road was actually crumbling beneath us down to a very steep cliff! Luckily we made it across! Then Nick swore to me that the rest of the route was going to be bigger roads, etc. Not so much. We continued on one lane, very narrow roads and even more sharp turns in the middle of no where, with no civilization in sight! Nick kept giving me scenarios of "What if our car breaks down or a tire goes flat, etc" What would you do, would you stay with the kids by yourself...it's pitch black by the way! My blood pressure has always been low naturally, but not this night, I felt it boiling! Then come to find out that Nick could have taken a route with much bigger roads from Eureka Springs but he decided to take the windier route just to get a rise out of me! I had to remind myself why I loved him, but this wasn't one of them!

We finally made it to Branson and hooked up with Ann and Jared who was waiting for us at the Condos. The condos air conditioning of course was not working and it was 10:30 at night so no one could come fix it. They tried to see if we wanted to switch rooms, but we had already gotten a lot of the kids down to sleep, so that was out of the question. It was a long and hot night, but we all made it.

The next morning we went to Silver Dollar City and eventually met up with everyone in Nick's family. All his siblings and his mom and dad were all there as well as Ann and Jared and their two kids. We were quite the show, especially when the adults wanted to ride the big kid rides. Only Mom, Shannon, Natalie, and Randy were left watching 11 kids, 4 of which were babies. They made us promise to never leave them alone with that many kids again! But no one got lost..that was a plus!

I honestly didn't take that many pictures only because there are only so many pictures of the kids on the rides you can have in a collection and Rex cries the whole time on any of them so I only took pictures of Rex enjoying himself like crazy in the ball room. He was in 7th heaven. He loves balls and this is an area that is filled with these soft cushiony balls you can throw and put into little guns to shoot places and there's this huge conveyor belt that takes them up to the top...it's a blast for kids as you can see from the pictures. I love some of his expressions!

On the right are the guns the girls were playing with. Notice Kayley who is shooting with one hand and holding her finger in her ear with the other..it's kind of a loud gun. She used to not get anywhere near these, so this is a huge step for her to be this close!

Rex was Nick's little buddy during the day, which was great for me! In fact during the time of the ball pit, Nick left and I kept Rex in the balls, which he loves and he cried like crazy for Dad and calmed down as soon as I took him out to Nick again. I was soaking that up like crazy!! He wiped out on the train!

And I almost can never get a picture of these four together with everyone looking and with everyone making a decent smiling face. I think I sort of suceeding while they were all strapped into the train! It was a great fun day!

Fashion Show, Graduates, and Tornadoes

Earlier this month Sarah and the girls came up for a visit and Kayley and Audrey realized they had the same PJ's and were absolutely thrilled. They probably have a lot more matching clothes than they realize as my big sister supplies both Sarah and I with a lot of girl clothes thanks to her two girls Caroline and Julia and like any mother, who wouldn't want to match their girls in outfits as much as possible? So now when we visit Audrey, Kayley has to have her Audrey PJ's. Cora and Lauren don't match but they wanted their picture taken together anyway.
While they were here, our Young Women had a great fashion show! The MiaMaid girls did the fashion show as one of their Personal Progress projects. It was great as so many girls participated. I struggled trying to figure out which category to enter as I didn't feel like I had anything nor could I make anything work for any category. So I entered the princess category and of course my girls and Audrey and Lauren wanted to participate. It was great!

Then we had Kayley's preschool graduation. I have to admit, I cried a little...never thought I was one of those mom's, but when Mrs. Porter started talking about Kayley going to kindergarten and growing so much this year, etc...I teared up a little bit. It was fun with all their songs they sang and the little presentation from Mrs. Porter. Then afterward we all got to share a cookie and lemonade with them. Cora was in heaven being at Kayley's school, (can you see her in the bottom right standing on the chair to get the best view?) she is still begging to go to school. Oh...and the boy next to Kayley is one of her best friends, Marshall...she talks about him all the time. There is only one other girl in her class this last year and they were polar opposites so she connected most with Marshall. He is going to Kindergarten next year, but I'm not sure if they'll be in the same school or not. Oh and what was cute about Kayley realizing she had graduated, she had also heard me talking to family on the phone earlier that week about Ashlyn graduating from her preschool program as well as Cassie having a graduation ceremony for her Associates program. Kayley then thought that we should get a graduation cake for all three to celebrate. I thought it was a great excuse to eat cake!

Then, one morning Rex was so tired that when I went in to wake him up, I was able to take two or three pictures of him sleeping, can you say he was tired!?!

He also now knows when I'm taking pictures so it's cute to see him strike a pose. This is him striking a pose while drinking his bottle.

Then two weeks ago we had a crazy Tuesday as we got some tornadoes coming through. Of course everyone was extra cautious with everything happening only a few days before with Joplin's tornado. So we spent the noon hour or so in the basement during the warnings. Nick even got evacuated to the interior hallway of the hospital for about an hour. The kids were in heaven as they just played downstairs with toys. Rex of course got to preview one of his birthday presents and I think he liked it! It was cute as Kayley kept wondering what the upstairs was going to look like when we went up. She and Cora had both watched some of the footage of everything that had happened in Joplin after their horrible tornado and they were expecting our house to be the same. When I told them it was time to go upstairs, Kayley yells down to me, "Mom it's all the same up here! Oh wait, I need to check my room!" She goes to check it and says, "Yep, it's all here!" Then I found Cora checking the pantry and saying, "Yep, it's all here!" Then she checks the fridge, "Yep, it's all here too!" It was cute to see them react to the tornado, I was just very grateful that everything was there and that we were spared any damage of course!