Fourth Time Around

Yea!  Mason did it!

Just one last kid left in diapers!

*Sorry for the potty picture; I think it's clean... and Mason looks pretty cute!

Bouncin' Fun

When we were in Colorado a few years ago, staying with my parents for 6 months, I took the kids to a few bounce places to play with their friends and cousins.

Afterwards, all my kids would start throwing up.  Every time we went.

It would start with one kid, and then cycle through the three of them.

I quit going.

So it's been almost four years since we've gone to a place like this.

I haven't missed it.

But one Friday morning a friend convinced me to take my kids to play.

They had fun, and thankfully no one threw up.

Molly and Katelyn.  Mason LOVES her friend Kay-Kay!

Mason, flying the plane.

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Colten, poor boy, along for the ride again.  Confined to his stroller.

Well, I guess we let Colten get out of his stroller.  Just this once...

I still don't know if I'm a big fan, but at least this time went well!

Easter

Our Easter, in a nutshell:

We got back from our trip to Illinois the night before at about 11pm.

All the kids slept in.

I got up,

got baskets ready,

and finished my lesson for the Young Women at church.

Ran around like crazy, feeling stressed.

Wished we had a peaceful Easter morning.

Tried to think about the Savior.

The kids had breakfast (cereal),

got bathed and dressed for church,

begged for their Easter stuff,

got scolded for begging for their stuff.

Finally got into their baskets right before church.

Threw everything around,

and made a huge mess.

Ate all their candy.

Then we went to church.

Thank goodness the spirit at church was strong!

Next year I'll try a little hard to be on top of things so we can really enjoy Easter and focus on Christ.

Thank goodness for our friends, Chris and Valerie Auger, who invited us over for Easter dinner.

It was spectacular, and we finally got to breathe a little after a hectic morning.

Grabby, Grabby

At about 3 1/2 months old, Colten started grabbing things with his hands.

Then whatever he grabs goes straight into his mouth.

Ashton always shoves her fingers into his mouth because she thinks it's funny when he sucks on them.

I just hope they're fairly clean.

Oh well, he's building up immunity.

More proof that Colten gets tummy time.

He's even rolled a couple of times now, on purpose.

Five months old, our quickest one yet...

It's a whole new world of exploring for this little one.

Fridays

I love, love, love Fridays!

Lillian goes to preschool Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for four hours, but it takes us 20 minutes to get to her preschool.  So by the time I buckle three little kids in the car, drive to her school, get the kids out of the car, take her into class, put the two little kids back in the car, drive home and take them out of the car it takes a whole hour. 

Then, 3 hours later we have to do it again.

So despite the long time she's at school, I really don't have time to do much when I have to factor in the eating and sleep schedules of a 4 month old baby.

So I LOVE Fridays.  Generally we have nothing to do and nowhere to go.

Perfect!

And I get to spend time with Lillian.

Lately she's taken an interest in baking and is always asking if we can make bread or cookies.

I'm usually on board with this.

Friday night is also our stay-at-home movie night with all the kids, so Lillian and I thought it would be fun to make some Muddy Buddies.

They are just so tempting, all spread out on the counter.

I tried to appease Lillian (and myself) with a banana,

but then relented and let her have some Muddy Buddies.

We needed some quality control, right?

Next we made some Smore's Cookie Bars.

Oh my!

These call for Marshmallow Creme, which I can eat straight out of a jar with a spoon!

Add in the chocolate bars, and a surprisingly good graham cracker cookie layer and it was a heavenly treat!

Mmm...delicious marshmallow creme!  It's really a good thing we had friends to help us eat these that night.

Now during this baking extravaganza, Mason was peacefully playing.

And making a HUGE mess.

She got into our game cabinet and pretty much tossed every piece to every game we own all over the family room.

But very quietly.  I had no idea she had been doing this.  In the room next to me, where I could see her if I turned my head slightly, no less.

But at least since it was Friday, and I had nowhere to go, we got that cleaned up nice and quickly.



So apparently Mason has mastered these toddler-proof locks, and I should keep a better eye on her.

Tummy Time

As a mother, I fail at tummy time.

All four of my older kids.  Seriously.

I think I did OK with Cayden.  He was my only responsibility when he was a baby, so I could put him on his tummy and play with him and practice rolling.

In fact, Cayden was the only one who started rolling at the proper age (6 months).  The three girls only started rolling when the started crawling (9, 10 or 11 months).  I think because the rolled and crawled so late, the walked late.  Ashton was the earliest walker at 14 months, but Cayden, Lillian and Mason were all at about 17 months.  And our babies weren't lightweights - it got hard hauling them all over the place!

So with Colten Andy and I vowed that we'd be better.

HA!

We have made an concerted effort to give Colten his tummy time.  We've put him on his tummy at least a few times...

Here's the proof:

I still don't think we're going to have an early roller, crawler or walker.

But at least he doesn't scream at me the moment I put him on his stomach.

AND when I took him in for his 4-month check up and the doctor observed him on his stomach, she said he was doing just fine.

So I guess we're not failures. 

And look, Mason can do tummy-time without screaming now, too!

And she's pretty good at entertaining Colten when he's stuck on his tummy.

Cherry Blossom Extravaganza!






This is what the Cherry Blossoms are supposed to look like.  We've had such a cool spring this year that the trees were barely blooming on the first day of the festival, thus no pictures of our own. 



Our last day with the Stones was jam-packed with tons of things to do.

It was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, so we planned to ride the metro downtown and go to the National Building Museum, and the back to the monuments to walk around and see the blossoms.  After that we stopped in Alexandria, rode the Trolley up King Street and met up with some more Tucson friends for dinner before heading home.

Whew!

A big part of the Festival for kids was held in the National Building Museum.  Schools and businesses set up booths where kids could learn about Japanese culture and make some crafts.

No surprise, it was packed!

And extremely warm.  I suppose it's a good thing that Colten is still stroller-bound, so that everyone has a place to dump their coats!  I don't think he minds, though.

After we crafted our hearts out, we hopped back on the metro, bound for the National Mall and the Washington Monument.

The kids did super with all the walking they did!

We had such a beautiful day, but a little chilly.  I suppose we can be grateful for the exercise to get our blood moving.

From the Washington Monument you can see a lot of the main DC sights; the White House, Capital building, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and across the river to Arlington.

After gathering our energy, and escaping the wind at the Washington Monument we set up for the Lincoln Memorial.  It's probably about a mile walk in between the two, and very pretty.  Unfortunately the reflection pool is under construction, otherwise it would have looked a lot better.

All the kids (minus Colten) lined up on the steps:  Seth, Jonas, Ashton, Cayden, Mason, Lillian and Maren, with Tina off to the side.

After seeing Lincoln, we headed back up to the metro stop.  On the way the kiddos needed a little break, so the stopped to climb all over this tree.

We took the metro back to Alexandria so we could meet up with another family from Tucson (I'm always amazed at how all the Tuscon people Andy grew up with stay in touch after so many years!)

We got off the metro with our hoard of kids, and then boarded the free trolley that takes you all the way up King Street.  I spent the ride looking out the windows and thinking about how much fun I could have shopping there!

We met up with another John and his family for a big pizza dinner.  Between all of us we had 12 kids.  YIKES!  They all did so well, all day.

After dinner, and saying goodbye to John's family we hopped back on the Trolley,

back to metro and then home.  It was a truly packed, busy and fun day.

We sure enjoyed our visit with the Stones.

We LOVE when ANYONE comes to visit us!