Goofballs

These two kept us entertained all weekend while we were camping. There were such goofballs. Catie is a total ham and will do anything to make Andrew laugh. Andrew will do anything to make Catie do silly things (that she's not supposed to do)... They make quite a pair.

For example... during breakfast when Andrew started slapping his head. Cause you know, that's fun? So then Catie started slapping her head... which then led to them both banging their heads on the wooden picnic table and laughing hysterically.

I had to end it right before someone got hurt... but it was so funny!

Another favorite camping activity was washing the car and the plants. I brought them each their own mini spray bottle. This led to lots of free time for me to sit in my camping chair and read my book (I am currently reading Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs by Ellen Galinsky and it is phenomenal).

After washing the car and the plants... they moved to washing the inside of their mouths and each other!

This was seriously my favorite morning ever. I love the slow pace of camping and loved every minute of watching these two have so much fun together. They absolutely adore one another.

Stroller Buddies

This is what our day looks like most days. Pushing, running, and crashing... and starting all over again.

These two move so quickly that every photo is fuzzy. Our cute neighbor was getting rid of some girly toys and since I have barely purchased any, she passed them off to me! We now have several more strollers, Cabbage Patch dolls, and other sorts of baby dolls. Catie & Andrew are in heaven.

They crack me up every time I see them chasing each other with their pink strollers around the kitchen island. Occasionally there is a car accident.

Supposedly one of the strollers has better handles than the other (according to Andrew), so if he winds up with the lamer one, a fight ensues. Everyone seems to calm down a bit once the stroller takes a time out.

Love these cute little stroller buddies!

Little Chica

This little chica is growing up. She is completely crazy and gaga over her brother. She wants to do everything he does, copy his every move, and have the same things as him. He loves to teach her all the things that she isn't supposed to do (or he isn't allowed to do) just to keep my life interesting. 

I was kind of hoping to move into cute girly toys and baby dolls soon, but it looks like we have another train obsessed child. We introduced her to Thomas this week (and the Dora Choo Choo episode) and she is in love... 

The train table hasn't been of interest to Andrew for a little bit, but it is now adored by Catie... which means Andrew likes it too and I've been enjoying lots of time sitting in Andrew's room while the kiddos play happily with the trains. Thank goodness Grandma Julie gave us more trains than we will ever need! There is really never any fighting... they save fighting for baby dolls, dog stuffed animals, baby strollers, balls, and pretty much everything else.

Little chica is growing too fast for me! She turns 18 months next week and last Sunday she had her first successful day in nursery. They said she was happy 80% of the time, which is good enough for me. We are now back to avoiding one entire side of the church building so that there is no way she can spot us through the window and have a meltdown.

In addition to trains, Catie loves to throw food, smear plates of ketchup all over her face and hair, soak herself completely if she is anywhere near water, eat anything we give her, and climb up on beds, couches, chairs, or anything else dangerous. She also loves to go on the highest slides at the park and adores the swings. I am now training Andrew to push her so that I can avoid doing that all summer long.

My little cutie also still loves sleeping through the night every night and talking long naps. Her brother is trying to train us early for our newborn though and has decided to start waking up with nightmares every night... so just in case you thought we were benefitting from our awesome sleeper, be assured, we are still completely underslept and exhausted. I have been enjoying a diet Coke and M&Ms for breakfast lately just for an extra jolt of energy ;)

I'm sure I'll have more fun things to say about Catie next week, but that's what I am loving about her this week. She is adorable!  

Visitors and a Palo Alto Reunion

We have had a busy few weeks! I still haven't caught up from all of the Mother's Day events, but had to blog about our fun visitors that stayed with us last week.

(the only pic I grabbed... around 10pm Sunday night, so not the best)

Bruce & Christie arrived last Wednesday and left yesterday (they were in town for a friend's wedding). Andrew is suffering a bit of a withdrawal from not having an extra audience to entertain. We hadn't seen Christie since their wedding back when Andrew was 6 months old and hadn't seen Bruce since Andrew was about 9 months old (at Jocie's wedding). Now we have two kids (with a third on the way) and they have one adorable little boy with another arriving in the Fall. We definitely had a lot to catch up on... which meant lots of late nights over the past week!

Wednesday night we introduced them to Zachary's Pizza (best of the East Bay in our opinion) and we ate loads of treats and Bruce's favorite root beer. Andrew was so excited to see our new friends that I don't know if he took a breath for air the entire first three hours they were at our house... he just talked and talked!

On Friday night we had a date night out at the San Francisco Creamery. We gorged ourselves on ice cream and yummy food and chatted for about three hours (without interruptions from our crazy kids who were at home with a babysitter). It was lovely! Bruce & Kevin also had several late nights of playing Kinect and the xBox.

Sunday evening we had a mini Palo Alto reunion with some of our friends from the Stanford ward that we love and that wanted to see Bruce & Christie. We watched the eclipse (you can see the eclipse on our garage in this picture), ran around outside, and had a yummy BBQ while we caught up for hours and hours.

Unfortunately this was the best pic we grabbed of the party. :( Next time I'll have to be a better historian.

Andrew and Catie loved running around and sneaking into the neighbor's backyards while we chatted with our friends and watched the eclipse. Jeremy brought CDs, which we were awesome to use for checking out the eclipse without blinding our eyes.

Not only did Andrew love having Bruce throw him around and play with him... he loved having coloring buddies each morning at breakfast.  

We are already planning a trip to Texas sometime soon so that we can meet Bodie and the new little Edwards baby. What a great week! I was so exhausted from all the fun that I took a nap yesterday afternoon for two hours and went to bed early and slept in until 8:30am today.

Thanks for coming to visit Bruce & Christie!

Baby Shower Fun!

My friend Chrissie had a new baby girl about a month ago... so we had to celebrate! A few of us put together a small little "pamper the new mom" baby shower for her. The party was last night and I had a blast. I managed to snap a few photos of the food before I passed off the camera so that I could cuddle with the adorable little baby girl. 

Here are a few shots I got of the party. It was so much fun!

Yummy treats!

Cara made these deliciously rich cake bites. Yum!

Adorable favors made by Cara

We had two pampering stations- one where you could put together a little bottle of sugar scrub and personalize it and another where people could do your nails. My friend painted my nails and I'd brought cute little nail stickers for the nail station so now I have the cutest finger nails that I have had in probably a year! Andrew loved the little flowers I stuck on them.

(Personalized sugar scrub)

Note to self- the scent gets stronger and stronger the longer the sugar scrub is around. By last night my very sensitive pregnant nose was having an allergic reaction to my sugar scrub the entire drive home. Instead of relaxing after the fun night, I had to intensely wash every dish in my house that smelled like lavender. :)

Back to the party... We ate treats, chatted, did our nails, and opened presents for about two hours. It was a very relaxing and fun night!

Pic of the party-goers (minus our beautiful hostess who is snapping this photo-- see me holding the cute new baby? So adorable!) Don't you love how Chrissie looks like she never had a baby too? She was teaching zumba at the local Ballys for almost her whole pregnancy. She is amazing! I am hoping to have her energy with my pregnancy!

11 Ways I Was Pampered Over Mother's Day Weekend

1. Got to fly to Utah to spend Mother's Day with all of my siblings and my mom and visit with Kevin's mom and sister too!

2. Lots of cakebites and a giant cupshake from Sweet Tooth Fairy.

3. Running with my sisters (not pushing a stroller that weighs 60 lbs) in the Susan G. Komen 5K in SLC on Saturday.

4. Sleeping in until 9am several days in a row (thanks to Caitlin who enjoyed sleeping in till 10am basically every day of our trip, Kevin, Andrew being quiet, and Kevin's mom waking up to play with Andrew).

5. Cafe Rio- ginormous order of enchiladas and a diet coke. Yum! Thank you Shari! Normally I get a salad, but the enchiladas were a great change. I want more right now!!

6. An entire afternoon of shopping at SLC's new shopping spot- City Creek... including lunch at Kneaders and treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I even got a nap on the couch in J Crew while we were waiting for Scott to decide on clothes... shopping without crazy kiddos is bliss! I also got a cute pair of tall Toms sandals. So excited to have something besides black reefs.

7. A fun evening lounging at the Provo "beach" resort (this wasn't actually relaxing... because we ran around after the kids, but it was fun to see them having so much fun!). Andrew loved the miniature golf croquet course!

8. Listening to Andrew sing Mother's Day songs in Sacrament Meeting at church on Sunday morning. His smile and little waves were totally precious.

9. Yummy Mother's Day BBQ lunch at my mom's house where the girls got to chat and fix food while the guys watched the kids and grilled.

10. Having Scott and Cat on the flight home with us to California. They had Andrew sit with them and Kevin and I got to devote our full attention to crazy Catie. She was adorable and loved all the cuddles.

11. Getting surprised late Sunday night with a few treats and presents from the kids along with a beautiful bouquet of flowers on Monday.

I barely got any pictures because I was lounging and relaxing so much, but I did managed to snag a few. Most are all below kind of in order. Loved my Mother's Day this year!

Cute kiddos on Sunday

Olivia

Andrew modeling his new sport coat

Cute cousins- Andrew & Madeline

Grandma Julie with all the grandkids... 

quite a fun adventure trying to get them all sitting

This was the best pic we got of my kids...

they would not look at me

Little twinners running (Maddie & Catie)

Elise and I both picked the same Janie & Jack dresses for our girls for Easter... so that was fun to have them all in the same dresses for pictures.

How cute are they walking with Kevin?

Watching Grandma Julie be goofy

Princess Ariel dress up time while we got dinner ready

Ladies working in the kitchen

Adorable Olivia watching all the commotion

My gorgeous Mother's Day flowers from the kiddos

Thankful Tuesday & Baseball

Tuesdays are our busiest days. I have actually come full circle in life and now absolutely despise busy days. I used to thrive on stress and busyness... now I just crave an empty schedule. People who have to schedule life months in advance make me stressed out. I am so glad I am in a chill phase of life right now where my days can be lazy if I want.

The evenings, early mornings, and naptimes are filled to the brim with bloggy work stuff, chores, and church stuff, but I looove the rest of my unstructured days (other than Tuesday)!

But, today I was grateful despite the busyness.

(love this little body that is always grabbing me and getting up in my face)

Here's why...

1. Andrew made a baggie explode goldfish and jelly beans all over our wood floor. I wasn't that excited when it happened because the cleaning ladies had just mopped the floor. But late tonight when he woke up crying, reminding him about the baggie explosion made him laugh. I love his little smile.

2. Catie will sit on my lap during gymnastics and sing songs and cuddle with me. A-DORABLE... and totally a new thing for kids in our family to do.

3. I didn't get my morning workout in... but I did get to run all over the park and gymnastics class following Catie around.

4. My rosebush has four new roses on it and the kids have only destroyed one of them.

5. Andrew didn't do somersaults for his entire baseball class (only part of it) and despite multiple attempts he fortunately never actually threw a baseball at any of his teammates.

6. The baseball moms that usually act like I am a terrible mom had problems with their own kids today. Hmm... 6 kids, all waiting their turn to bat for like 10 minutes... I wonder why Andrew struggles? :) I can't help but laugh when Andrew lies down on the field, picks flowers, dives to catch balls (and then rolls around on the grass for awhile) and always pretends that he can't hear the coaches...

7. We had a McDonald's picnic at our neighborhood park. I bought Andrew a milkshake because he asked and I decided that I would be nice...even though it was a vanilla milkshake- ugh! He was such a sweetheart and shared it with Catie.

8. I got to run errands for two hours by myself tonight.

9. Swimming is still a pleasant experience. Let's hope that continues.

K, I think that's all I have time for today. There are tons of random things I am thankful for, but they will have to wait till next Tuesday... hopefully by then I'll get more pictures taken. I have been a slacker lately!

Thankful Tuesday and Swimming Lessons

Andrew had his first swimming lesson of the season yesterday. Swimming was filled with lots of anxiety last year and lots of tears. I am praying this year is different. I think this kid has matured a lot in the past year. 

• Andrew can listen to an adult and deal with life when he isn't in charge... and not throw tantrums nearly as much because he isn't in charge. 
• He can be reasoned with and you can explain things to him rationally... and assuming he is being rational (and is not already in crisis mode), he'll listen.
• He is way more determined and stubborn and wants to be better than other people now :) We'll call that competitive... and the trait is helpful at swimming class. 

He was eager to get started with his lesson yesterday and knocked it out of the park. He dove for toys on the steps, reviewed strokes from last year, jumped into the pool and swam to the side, and floated on his back all by himself (a skill he refused to recognize he could do last year... and kept yelling, "I can't float" while he was floating and screaming... and this year he proudly acknowledged his accomplishment and thought he was sooo cool!).

here he is floating on his back... bad camera pic though

The 15 minute private lesson flew by and we spent all evening rewarding him for his incredible performance and attitude during his lesson! He also loves his new coach. I'm crossing my fingers we have a terrific summer! He is also very motivated because he wants to be a super star swimmer when we go to Maui soon.

We've got lessons MWF till we get close to our Hawaii trip, so hopefully he'll be ready!

And... just had to say I'm super thankful today... so I'm going to try and focus on the things I'm thankful for every Tuesday... or at least every Tuesday when I remember.

Here's this week's Thankful Tuesday Top 10 List:

1. Andrew's terrific swim lesson (above) and a fun afternoon yesterday with our neighbors!
2. Caitlin's adorable hugs and obsession with me... and that she calls Andrew, "Anrooo" :) (He thinks she says, "Paulo" and giggles every time she says his name)
3. My fun little jobs here, here, and here where I get to be creative, make some cookie $$, and meet cool people.
4. Baby #3- I feel very blessed. So far he/she has been growing happily, not bothering me too much, and is very excited to be here! 
5. Grilled cheese and fries- I've been loving them lately. I'll blame Baby #3. Last week I had an amazing dinner at The Counter in Palo Alto (with Jessie and the fam bam) and we've also been frequenting the In N Out drive thru at least once a week. Yum!
6. Insanely gorgeous weather and parks with water features- The kids jump in the jogger with snacks most days, I push them 15-20 minutes to the park (uphill today), we play in the water features, and then I push them home. I feel awesome and they have a blast and are exhausted and sleep or have quiet time for a long time afterwards.
7. Screen free week- We tried it last week. It worked better for the kids than for me. Today I tried to get them to watch a show so that I could get something done and Andrew turned it off and wanted to play. I think we'll keep the screen free run going (other than long drives in the car). I also got tons of areas in my house organized when I was having screen free time during naptime. I need to do that more often.
8. Chocolate ice cream with crushed oreos, M&Ms, and mini chocolate chips- I love it. I think about my bowl of ice cream all day long... and then I get busy at night time and forget to make it for myself. So then I only get to eat it every other night or so... so then sometimes I have to eat double :)
9. Running buddies- I try to go running 2-3 times a week at 6:30am with some friends. It is awesome. I wish I didn't stay up so late some nights or else I would go more often.
10. My bed and sleep- I love it and also dream about it all day. Last week I fell asleep on the floor of my carpeted bathroom while I was organizing closets. I was so sad I missed the chance to be in my cozy bed. I would take a nap there every afternoon if I could... but for now I only do it maybe 2-3 times a week. 

Nothing overly noteworthy or amazing, but these are the things I am grateful for this week. 

Happy Tuesday!