Dancers At Heart

I have so much to blog about. What an awesome time we had in Hawaii, how much fun I had with my family all being here last week and how my little man is almost six months! But since I don't have the time or energy yet, I thought I'd share this video in the meantime:

The Kiddos

The girls are starting to look really old to me and my little newborn is a little boy! I am definitely the sentimental mom that I swore I wouldn't be and wish I could just stop time! But since I can't, I need to be better at recording their personalities at each stage. Here they are:

Adelyn (almost 2, 23 months)

-Is usually more friendly with strangers and quicker to give smiles.
-Loves to follow me around and loves when I hold her and I love holding her.
-Must have sensitive ears. She cries when I turn the vacuum on, the blender on and when the lawnmowers are on.
-Loves to be independent and is fine playing alone.
-Loves stacking things and puzzles
-Loves vegetables. She has no problem finishing her salad.
-Still sometimes has a hard time when I am feeding Christian or rocking him.
-Nicknames: Addy, Adeloony

 

She loves to dress herself

Avery (almost 2, 23 months)

 -Loves babies. She loves her dolly and has LOVED holding Christian. She tries to wrap her dolly up and then sings "I Am a Child of God" to her.
-Loves her daddy. She cries most days when he leaves for work. I will try so hard to get her to cuddle with me and fail and she will just go climb up on Tia and lay on him.
-Loves climbing up on everything.
-She's sensitive and very caring
-Loves trying to dress herself and put her shoes on by herself
-Sucks on her thumb to comfort herself
-Loves helping mommy clean. She is such a good little helper and always wants a rag when I am cleaning.
-Nicknames: Averoonikins, Avery Sue

Singing "I am a Child of God"

Helping Daddy do homework

Both

 -Very empathetic. Their nursery leaders have told us they can't believe how empathetic they are towards sad kids there.
-They love singing! Their favorite songs are "I am a Child of God," "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus," "ABC's", and "Old MacDonald." Just like their excruciating loud cries, their singing voices are so loud and straight from the heart.
-Love to copy each other. The other day Avery fell off the chair so I was comforting her. Adelyn ran over to the chair and tried to fall off it. I guess I need to give them more love :) Same thing happens if one of them does something naughty and gets in trouble. 
-Are slow to talk. These sweet girls are so lazy! This is usually how their prayers go we help them with: "He Fa,...foo, tha tha...foo, in mane ah Pa Pa, Amen." I know they can talk but are just being stubborn.
-Still love food. :)
-Love going up to kids and giving them hugs, high fives and rocks
-Nicknames: Averlyn and Aderly

Playing "Ring Around the Rosies"

Christan (almost 5 months)

-Is handsome! People always comment on what a good looking baby he is and obviously, with bias I agree
-Is all boy. He just came out looking like a boy and his squawks and everything seem so much more masculine than the girl's were
-Loves sucking on his third and fourth finger. If those aren't in his mouth, something else is. He puts everything in his mouth
-Is rolling over both ways and loves being on his stomach
-Just started eating solids
 -Seems to be getting his first tooth
-Sleeps an average of 10 hours a night (Yay!)
-Has more hair than the girls did at one year
-Gives more smiles a day than both girls give in about a week put together
-Has to be the most patient baby ever! His face has been sat on, he gets rolled by his sisters and usually doesn't make a peep, sometimes he even has a big smile. He will play on the floor for so long!
-Is at such an easy stage! Sleeping well and not mobile yet. I have a feeling he will crawl early though, ah!
-Makes a lot of noise. He loves yelling and hearing himself. Cute, unless I'm trying to keep him quiet at church.
-Nicknames: Christiano, Christo, CT

 

 We love these kiddos!

They love to copy Christian

Trip to Washington

A few weeks ago we went to see Chrissy and her cute three kids for a few days. Kevin, her husband had a month long training in Ukraine and Tia had scout camp so I figured since we had never been to their lovely home in Washington in the 2 1/2 years they have lived there, it was time! On the way up my awesome friend Nicolette drove the 11 hours with us. Before we left, I just tried not to think about the drive because I figured it would be pretty miserable and all three kids would probably cry most of the day. After a blessing and lots and lots of prayers, the drive was better than I could have ever hoped for. The kids were so so good, Nicolette was so helpful and Christian only cried for the last half hour. Miracle? I think so. We felt blessed enough to go that far with no accident or car trouble let alone having a pleasant time inside the car with three kids under two.

We had such an amazingly fun few days. The kids enjoyed each other and each day got more and more excited to be together. Chrissy is an amazing host and made us feel so at home. She hosted a Little Miss Basics party and it was successful and fun. Some of the highlights of the trip were: going out to a delicious Mexican restaurant, being in such a beautiful green place, seeing the kids interact and play together, our movie night of our favorite love scenes from movies (no, we're not cheesy), seeing the movie "North and South," cookies, brownies, and more cookies, swimming, going to the "Fun Spot" and getting pizza, late night talking, making pretzels, and playing hide and seek. Chrissy took such good care of us and we had so much fun! I am so glad we were able to make that trip. The car ride home seemed a lot longer and kids were a lot fussier but we were able to spend some time with David for part of the drive and not only did we came home to flowers and balloons from our sweet husband/daddy who was still gone, my mom and Craig came and helped me carry everything in and gave the girls baths while I fed my poor starving boy. They also brought food to last us until I could go grocery shopping. I felt so blessed to have gotten there and back safely and felt so taken care of! Here are some photos of our fun week:

 April was so sweet with Christian

 And loved doing the girl's hair

 And let them play while she was practicing piano

 Okay, so swimming was a little cold :)

 Matchy, matchy :)

 April cuddling Christian

 Avery and Landon had lots of fun together

 Cute girlies

 This is actually Avery giving kisses after pushing Brigham

 So cute!

 At the Fun Spot

 Pizza!

 Fun spot

 Playing in the boy's room

 Prayer time!

Fun night out

 Pretzel Making

 Adelyn

 Avery

 Watching them cook

 Waiting...

 Eating ants on a log

 The long ride

I needed to go to the bathroom while I was at a stop waiting for David and didn't know quite how to go about that with all three of them. I figured finding a Walmart was the best way. We didn't make a scene or anything. 

Singing for Uncle David :)

Thanks for the awesome trip Thomases!

Life Lately

A week ago today we were on a cruise to the Bahamas with everyone in my family. It was so amazing and so so much fun. Tia talked about it as being the eat, drink (water of course) and be merry cruise. It was such a nice break to sleep through the night, not have to make or clean up any meals, take as long as I wanted to during meals without hearing "pah! pah!", stay up as late as we wanted knowing we could sleep in as late as we wanted, traveling but not having to pack up your suitcase at each place, relaxing, knocking on each others doors so that you always had a fun group to go places to, and enjoying having my whole family together! Some of my favorite things were sleeping, dances, 24 hour free food, perfect beaches, kayaking with a glass bottom boat, hearing everyone say, "Yah Mon," formal night, late game nights and talking, hot tubing, kareoke, watching my awesome brother in the talent show, being all excited at the Hotel in Florida with everyone the night before we left, the list goes on and on. The whole time was our time and it is something I am not used to now that I'm a mom. It was incredibly refreshing and a wonderful way to catch up.  Everyone sacrificed a lot to be there and we were all so blessed to be safe to and from and that everyone's kids were safe while we were gone. A HUGE thanks to Purcell's for watching our kids for the week so we could have a much needed break.  (I put pictures up on Facebook of our cruise.)

Even though I already miss my sleep, my daily chocolate lava cake and having my whole family together, we have loved the time home with our kids. 

Picking up the kids from the cruise. At least he missed me. 

 They were so sober and confused. I don't think they wanted to go home :)

 I got good cuddles that night though

 My two handsome men

 I love his sleeping positions

 The girls woke up crying the other night. We let them stay up for a few minutes with us. I LOVE these pajamas.

 I can't believe how alike they look in these two pictures. Avery is above, Adelyn is below.

 We found a way to get facial expressions from the girls: Looking at themselves on the phone. Daddy and Avery.

 With Adelyn.

 Adorable aprons Aunt Heather made.

 I LOVE this boy.

 We went grocery shopping yesterday. The girls LOVED driving the car.

 Caught in the act :)

 Not Avery's most flattering shot. I could not stop laughing at her squished down ears and eyes.

 

Have an awesome Wednesday!