The Amazing Mom

I know I already mentioned that my mom came to town, but I just have to write a separate post publicly thanking her for all she has done. We are trying to pack up our life all while Kyle's taking his finals and Brighton has a bajillion end of the school year stuff going on so it's been really crazy in our house. She has been so so so so so helpful and I know we wouldn't have been able to do all these things without her here, so thanks mom! You're amazing!

The Princess's 6th Party

Prepare yourself because this is a long post! Brighton turns 6 tomorrow and because we are leaving soon, I thought it would be nice if we had a birthday party for her. When I asked her what type of birthday, she immediately said Rapunzel. I thought her love for the princess would wain in time but if you'll remember, last year all she wanted was Rapunzel stuff for her birthday. So it goes without saying, but our house is full of purple and gold! Anyway, this year Rapunzel was still on the brain so, thanks to pinterest, we had a pretty fun and creative day!

Here are the decorations, all homemade (I am a cheapo) and super simple, but brighton loved that they looked like we were in the town village. She also loved the jello boats. My kids favorite part of the movie, for some odd reason, is when someone yells "To the boats!" after they all get done dancing in the square so every time they'd see these jello boats in the fridge, they'd start yelling that in the house.

I found the easy idea to make a tower cake out of donuts, which in theory was great, but by the time the party started, it ended up being quite a few inches smaller due to the weight of all the other donuts. I'm sure there was a better execution than mine, but I was in a rush that morning so this is as good as it got. Not impressive, but Brighton love, love, loved it. Also, we played pin the nose on Flynn Rider and we had a tower piñata which unfortunately (or maybe it was a good thing) I didn't get a picture of before it was demolished. I made it out of a plastic container and when they couldn't break it, we just took off the top. Sad, I know, but they were just going to bust it up anyway.

Also, as a party favor I made these Pascal party blowers which were a hit. All of them had pink tongues but Porter's just had to be a boy's color so his was green.

After eating and opening presents, the girls were able to go play on the

playground since we had the party at a park (best place to have it by the way). Although, running around and playing in the sprinklers made them hungry again, so they came back and polished off the rest of the mini cupcakes. It seemed like it was a good day, and even though I didn't get half the pictures I wanted to, I'm sure the memories will last.

One of the pictures that I didn't get but wanted to was of all the girls wearing their Rapunzel hair. One of the other party favors I made was Rapunzel tiaras with yarn hair. I think this was the highlight of every guest's day. They all seemed to love them. Brighton wore hers to the party and even added flowers for a real Rapunzel effect. I took these after the party when she put on her fake nails (one of her birthday presents). Just had to document it all.

And Porter had a good time too except for when he got sent to timeout for turning the sprinklers on. The poor kid can never catch a break.

This little guy was a champ for the whole thing. Didn't cry a bit, even when he was food-deprived thanks to a frantic mom trying to corral the little princesses.

All-in-all it was a great day and one of the things that made it even more special was that my mom came all the way from Alaska to help out with it. Brighton loved having Nana there and we all had a great day. Happy Birthday Sweets!

Week 25

Did I mention Graham has found his toes? They are his new best friends. He could be entertained by them for hours. Sometimes he gets so fixated on them that when he's grabbing them his little ball-shaped body rolls to one side accidentally, which shocks him out of his trance. It's pretty amusing to see. He's eating solids now and has been doing really well with them. We haven't been too daring yet so he's only been introduced to rice cereal, but I'm okay with that. All in good time I guess.

Art Party

Brighton and Porter were able to go to their cousin Jarom's birthday party. I had to post this because Jess is the most creative friend/cousin! She had an art party for Jarom that included painting, crafting robots, and kyle's cousin Josh even did caricatures of all the kids. It really was pretty cute. It's sad that our year here is coming to a close and we haven't spent near enough time with them. We wish we didn't have to say good bye, but we're grateful we got to spend a little time with them and become better friends. Anyway, great party guys!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

For some reason, all my saved posts got scrambled up before I could publish them so although he came a while ago, I wanted to share that my dad came to town to visit one last time before we move. One of the major reasons he came was to catch some of the MLB spring training games in March. For those of you who don't follow baseball, Phoenix has at least 6 major league teams that come to practice in our area. When I say in our area, I mean they live down the road from us and 3 of their stadiums are minutes from our house. There's the Mariners, the Padres, the Angels, and the Rangers just to name a few. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to come see it while we were still here. The only down side is that the Red Sox don't train here, they're in Florida although from these pics you'd think we were at a Boston game. Luckily, we didn't get anyone booing us while supporting our own team at an Angels and Rangers game. In fact, there were quite a few Bosox fans sporting their pride and every time we'd pass a Boston hat or shirt we'd give each other a little shout out.

Anyway it was nice having my dad come and hang with the kids and they loved every minute of hanging with G'Pops! Thanks dad for coming!

*And that top picture of Porter is what happens when he misses a nap and goes crazy…timeout in the middle of center field!

Rock and Roll

Graham did this on his own. He has officially made it over to his belly. He's at that fun stage where he can make it over, but can't seem to make it back to his back so he gets upset about every 5 minutes until you roll him back. Fun = sarcasm in the sentence. Thank goodness I have 2 cautious helpers that know just what their little bro needs and are more than willing to roll him around when I'm not there!

Week 24

What can we say about Graham that we haven't already said? He's cute. He's super squishy. His dimples are the best. Oh, and he loves to curl his toes now which adds to the cute factor. We love him. The end.

Week 23

Things are starting to die down only to get more crazy with the move (yes, we are moving but there will be more on that later.). Luckily my mom is coming to visit and help so we can be on our way to ???? I know this post is pretty cryptic, but bare with me while we are in the process of life changing events. As for now, just enjoy little G at 23 weeks!

Week 22

This week has been a busy one! Kyle's parents and sister and brother came to visit and we've been having way too much fun, but I wanted to share a late weekly picture of the little Gus. He is as happy and playful as ever and his relatives are loving him a ton. We are so appreciative that they could come out to Arizona and spend time with us and finally meet Graham on week 22!

Happy Easter!

I know their smiles really aren't saying it, but these 3 wanted to wish you a Happy Easter!

*I just love the bottom picture of Brighton and Porter but Graham was definitely not cooperating. It seems like a big feat to overcome is getting all 3 of my kids to smile for the camera at the same time. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Egg Hunt Overload

I'm not sure why I do this to myself but this year I went overboard and let the kids participate in 4 easter egg hunts. No kid should ever have that much candy in the house. First was a hunt with our ward playgroup. My kids were the oldest there because most people have morning kindergarten. Brighton goes in the afternoon so I thought it might be fun for us to go to since we rarely go to playgroup anymore. They clearly got spoiled because they just kept grabbing eggs and the little toddlers weren't even interested in what was going on. They got so many, they had to go around and give many of their eggs to surrounding little kids. Anyway, that was our first hunt. then came her school hunt where she loaded up on jellybeans. they invited the younger siblings as well so both Porter and Brighton were bouncing off the wall by the end of school. Next was Kyle's school Easter egg hunt. This was an amazing event. They really go all out with bounce houses, the easter bunny, food, games, and a TON of eggs. It was especially nice because they actually didn't have any candy in their eggs. They filled them with little toys and trinkets which I was relieved about. Lastly, we spent Easter with some friends from our ward and and had a little hunt in their backyard. Luckily we already had so much candy that I just filled their eggs with stuff we already had so we didn't get much more after that. Anyway, it was an easter hunt overload, and this may sound bad but I'm kind of glad it's behind us. Now if only I could get rid of all this junk without the kids freaking out!

The kids' spoils after the first hunt.

This is what Porter 's face will look like for the next week if I have all this candy in my house!

Easter Egg Fun

Sadly, this is the only picture I got of us decorating easter eggs. Kyle's always the one who gets his hands dirty in situations like these while I'm the one on the sidelines taking the pictures. Since having Graham, I haven't been doing a very good job of taking the pics, due to the baby in my hands, so just know that they had fun and the eggs turned out great no thanks to mom and all due to dad. Kyle even used this special glitter so our eggs sparkled, but mom was a goof and didn't take a pic of the finished product. I feel like this holiday is coming and going way too fast, but that's how life is I guess. One big, fast blur. Anyway, there's way too much stuff to be doing and not enough time to do it. Maybe I should just enjoy the little things and stop worrying about all the many checks on my checklist. Here's to a better spring and a more insightful Easter!

Week 21

In spirit of the spring time that is upon us, I thought we'd break out the short sleeved onesie for this week's shoot. Graham was being super sweet and smiley but this picture really captivates one of his classic expressions. It's like his eyes are staring into your soul. Maybe it's just me. Anyway, he has figured out what his hands are and now that he has something to put into his mouth, they are in there all the time! It makes him look extra cuddly when he's got his little hand nestled up into his face. I just love it. He's learning and doing new things everyday and pretty soon it will be hard to keep up with him, but for now I'm okay with the innocent little baby that is entertained by his appendages.