Are you kidding me???

My poor tulips! We woke up this morning to about 1 inch of snow and it has kept snowing ALL day. Mostly just flurries, but now there's 2-3 inches and it's STILL going. Do I need to send mother nature a memo reminding her that spring started March 21st? Cause it's April 29th and winter seems to be going strong.

Rock on, dude!

Feliz Cumpleanos a Ethan

In Spanish, Happy Birthday literally means "Happy Complete-a-year". Ethan turned 5 yesterday and had just about the best birthday any 5 year old could ask for. Taylor's family always opened birthday presents first thing in the morning (like Christmas morning) so he wanted us to do the same. I'm only slightly opposed to that because I don't really want to have my picture taken sans makeup 6 times throughout the year instead of just on Christmas morning. And this year I wasn't quite ready with all the presents since I couldn't shop over the weekend while Taylor was gone. So Ethan got to open presents twice and didn't seem to mind.
Love his bed hair!
Ethan made out like a bandit. His uncle Mack sent really nice, expensive Leapfrog toys a few weeks ago that his girlfriend got for free at her PR firm in NYC. Awesome! This puzzle goes to a "magic" pen called Tag that reads books and plays games with special books. Sam sent the Tag pen thing, a book, a puzzle, and singing maracas.
Ethan is at school for the first time so he got to bring treats to share with his classmates for the first time. He requested "piggy" cookies since he loved making them last year for Kristina. These two wouldn't even look at me let alone smile they were so focused on begging to eat one themselves.
After school Ethan got picked up by his dad and Grandpa who left work early to take him to lunch wherever he wanted. In true Woodbury fashion, he picked McDonald's. After naps we ran over to Taylor's mom's school for a performance by a Japanese Taiko group. Basically really loud drums that kept Ethan and Isaac mesmerized and terrified Miles. Poor guy jumped everytime they hit a drum- which was a lot.
After that Ethan and Isaac got to play outside in the gorgeous spring weather with Oscar and then Grams brought over her presents for Ethan to open (Grandpa was at a meeting and missed this part). Last week when Sonia asked him what he wanted for his birthday he looked at her really confused. It was cute to see how innocent he was and didn't have a clue that he could "ask" for something he wanted. Not even a concept in his little brain. So we explained things, he thought for a minute and then told her he wanted a fire truck. I have no idea where that came from but you ask and Grams and Grandpa will come through in a big way. Apparently they spent an entire morning going store to store until they found just the right one. And it really is great- complete with 2 water "blobs" that shoot out of a cannon, helmets and vests for the firemen, a million doors that open and close, and lots of loud siren noises. And because Sonia remembers being a mother, she was wise enough to get an extra set of the firemen so Isaac can have his own to play with. I seriously love this thoughtful mother-in-law!
Here's our second set of presents to go with all the great presents from Mack and Sam.
And after opening all the presents we tortured these children by making them leave them all without getting to play with them to meet Taylor's dad for dinner. And since Ethan got to pick, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. Doesn't Isaac look sublimely happy?
And Ethan was too.
After pizza we headed off to the games. Isaac actually has a pretty good shot already.
Just had to include a cute picture of the boys with their Grams. She's so good with them and they love her to pieces.
And as an extra surprise Taylor's dad got Ethan a cake and had Chuck E. deliver it, light the candles, and sing.
5 candles take a while to blow out.
Normally Isaac is terrified of large animal mascots but apparently he was so hopped up on soda, pizza, and games that he forgot to be afraid.
And of course the big boys couldn't resist a little air hockey while the little boys counted tickets and picked prizes.

Miles the Roller

So this is Miles' new trick. He rolls from his back to his tummy. Last week he mastered rolling from his tummy to his back and did that anytime I tried to impose "tummy time" on him. Strangely, somehow he has now forgotten that he has that skill. So anytime he rolls over onto his belly he thinks he's stuck. He'll hold his head up (and feet too) and play for a while and then he gets tired and puts his face into the floor and wails. It's the only time he ever wails too so it sounds pretty pathetic. And since he so rarely cries I'm a sucker and can't help coming to his rescue. So I end up flipping him onto his back a lot these days.
Last night this process repeated itself over and over again. Miles sees a toy he wants- flips himself onto his belly, gets tired and cries, mom flips him back. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I was trying to do dishes and make cookies and clean up so finally I had the bright idea to put him in his Bumbo seat on the counter next to me while I finished the dishes.
Apparently all the bright colored, plastic toys I gave him are not nearly as desirable as paper towels. Good thing he can't crawl yet- my toilet paper rolls would be in trouble. This child loves to pull and pull and pull. He sure does have an innocent face up above though.

Just me and the boys

A second weekend in a row with Taylor out of town called for some serious planning of activities (so I wouldn't go crazy and the kids wouldn't tear the house apart). Friday afternoon we dropped Taylor off at the airport so he could fly back to Hershey, PA for the wedding of one of his Business School friends (Taylor was partnered with 4 other people for every class and every assignment for the 2 years so they got to be really close and he felt like he needed to be there. I'm glad he went and might have joined him if we hadn't just gotten back from our crazy trip).
So we dropped him off and headed south to Provo where we did some shopping and then met up with my brother for dinner. We just went to Jason's deli, but it met Ethan's requirement that our restaurant "must have mac and cheese". Not too hard to please that one. As a fun surprise, we discovered they give out free ice cream cones. Isaac licked his for a while and then decided that he'd eat it the way he eats bread- by taking a huge bite out of the middle. Works for bread- ice cream cones not so much. He was very upset that the ice cream started leaking out and he couldn't make it stay in. Ahh, life lessons.
Saturday morning we painted little bird houses that we found at JoAnn's.
The boys loved it. I guess they like anything that's messy and new and since I rarely let them paint, this was a hit. I put on their little Home Depot aprons which were a life savor as lots of paint got dripped. I tried to convince Isaac to just paint one color on the roof but he thought it needed more so now it looks like there's already bird poo on the brand newly painted roof.
They were both very intense in their painting as you can tell by their expressions. And maybe next time I'll relax more (or just use water-based paint instead) and I'll have more fun.
After painting, we headed off to the dollar store. My mom sent the boys $3 each for Easter. You would not believe how excited Ethan and Isaac got when I set them loose in the store and said "pick 3 things". Ethan literally kept saying to himself "oh, this is so awesome, no this is more awesome." Score 1 for my mother. Especially because even after the excitement of getting to pick out new toys, they spent hours playing with them. Who knew plastic bats, balls, swords, puzzles, and crayons could bring such joy?
I decided to be brave Saturday afternoon and I attempted taking all 3 boys to a movie solo. It actually went really smoothly. Miles sat in his stroller most of the time eating his toys and only occasionally did I have to try to keep him quiet. It helped that it was a kids movie and that their were only 4 other people in the theater with us. Ethan and Isaac ate popcorn and watched like zombies.
They were all so worn out from the day that I put them to bed 45 minutes early and they passed out. Yeah!

When Dads Away

This weekend was the official start of Spring for the Woodbury Family- or at least for Taylor's dad because it was the official start to the Golfing season. Taylor, his brother Mack, his dad and 8 or so other friends of theirs jetted off to sunny Palm Springs to play golf, eat good food, do go-cart racing, and generally hang out and have a good time together. Always a fun "boys" weekend that Ethan can't wait to be old enough to join.
So it was just me and the little boys at home. So that I wouldn't go crazy with them trashing the house and being bored, we had lots of activities. Friday night we had yummy pizza and hung out with Taylor's cousin Heather and her kids (her husband was also on the golf trip). 7 boys, lots of pizza, tons of toys, and great mommy talking time= a great Friday night.
L to R: Jake, Owen, Same, Miles, Ethan, Isaac, and Cole. Sam and Jake are older than Ethan but they played so well together. Isaac is just 8 months younger than Cole and Miles and Owen are just 3 months apart. Yeah! Cousins- even if they're really second cousins- who cares! We love having them so close.
Saturday was such a beautiful day that Ethan and Isaac spent most of the morning out in the backyard annoying bugs, kicking soccer balls, and getting very dirty. Then that afternoon we headed down to Alpine for Henry Derr's birthday party. Alpine is beautiful and the setting couldn't have been better for a little kid birthday party. Horses to ride (although my kids were too afraid to even go near one), a trampoline to jump on, sand box to dig in, and lots of room to run and lots of kids to play with.
Ethan even tried out this zip line they had at the top of the tree house. It freaked me out the first time, but he actually held on really tight and had no problem jumping off at the end. He loved it so much that's all he did once he discovered it. And lots of tears when we had to leave. I think next time the Derr's have a party there they'll put the food table somewhere else because several people got beaned by kids on the zip line. Ethan beaned a few himself- woops!
The kids made cute hats and I'll definitely be stealing this idea for a future party. So cute, and an easy, cheap activity.
Isaac spent a lot of time playing with a tether ball. So much so that we may need to invest in one for our house. He was hilarious to watch chasing after the ball and running in circles.
Isaac's other favorite was this horse swing. He figured out how to climb up on his own and then ride/swing back and forth. This is what caused his tears when it was time to leave.
The kids were so exhausted from all their playing that there was snoring coming from their room just 3 minutes after I put them to bed. And I even put them down a half hour early!

Lately...

... not a lot has been going on. There's been lots of laundry and lots of spring cleaning which worked out perfectly since I have a hard time unpacking into clutter. So I might as well spring clean and unpack at the same time.
We did go to the aquarium and the children's museum and Ethan's back at school now.
Miles is so close to rolling over, he just doesn't think it's that important and prefers to move on his back. It get him where the wants though. Yesterday I left him in the middle of the floor with toys and turned around to find him 3 feet away, next to the couch where Ethan and Isaac were playing. He'd noticed them launching cars off the slide and decided it was better over with them. So he joined the fun and got to "eat" on all the cars left in the landing zone.

Two funny stories I have to record for later.
Ethan normally doesn't need a nap but Tuesday he woke up really crabby so I made him take one after school. When he got up (and was in a much better mood) he announced to me that "I can't take a nap tomorrow too or else I'll lose my super powers. That's what happens if you take a nap two days in a row. And I don't want to lose my super powers so I can't take another nap."

Since Miles is almost 6 months old I'm finally getting around to giving him rice cereal. The first time I did, he kept making faces because of the texture. He'd had crackers and rice cakes before so I knew it wasn't the bland flavor. Isaac was eating his lunch at the same table and noticing Miles' expression declared in a very loud and insistent voice "Milo no like it. Milo no like it!" No amount of explaing on my part would sway his opinion and he was very upset that I kept feeding Miles. It's nice to see he's concerned for his brother though.

Easter

When I first realized that we would be traveling over Easter, I thought, Oh this will be fun. I can have the Easter bunny bring sand pails full of shovels and treats and then we can spend some time playing on the beach. And then the reality of how much stuff we needed to bring set in, and the sand pails got thrown out the window. Even Easter got thrown out the window for the most part. Esther's mom did bring the boys giant chocolate easter eggs though.
So I decided we'd celebrate Easter a week late and hope that Ethan wouldn't realize. It worked great except for a few adults who gave him a confused look when he'd tell them it was almost Easter and really it was passed already. But they were kind enough not to say much and Ethan went to bed really excited on Saturday. On the upside, Easter was really cheap this year- 70% off to be exact. Taylor says maybe every holiday should be celebrated a week late now. Ah, he's turning into a true Kitchen.
The week before we left, in Nursery, Isaac made this. It was really amazing to pick him up and have him excitedly explain the whole thing "Jesus die. In tomb. Rock move. Jesus come out." At which point he'd bring Jesus out through the hole. Pretty elementary but impressive for a 2 year old. He played with it for several days too as you can tell by the chocolate stains on it.

Extra fun baskets and stuff when it's so cheap.

Miles was excited to grab his basket (although you'll notice that hand already reaching into his basket to "see what he got". Really to steal his candy which is tragic since I was planning to eat his candy.

I have learned that I need to let the kids see what's in their baskets and then instantly take most of the candy away. They took their baskets downstairs and came back a few minutes later absolutely bouncing off the walls. I later found chocolate wrappers strewn about the room. Seriously it was unwrap, eat, unwrap, eat.

It was nice to have afternoon church for once and have lots of time to get over the sugar high and even to color eggs. Isaac kept calling the colored water "juice" and trying to drink it.

Ethan was much more into the dipping but the white crayon was a little lost on him since you couldn't really see the crayon until after the dipping.

Even Taylor got in on the egg dieing action. And that's a testament to how bored he was. Forgot to take a picture of dinner with the colored eggs. A good Easter, even if it was a week later.

Tuesday (a really looong Tuesday)

Tuesday ended up being our only real "vacation" day of the whole trip. Every other day was filled either with traveling or with wedding events (or naps/recovery for our poor kids). It was nice to have one day to just relax and see some things. Ethan wanted to go to a children's museum but we compromised and instead agreed to go to the Salt Lake Children's museum and the aquarium and the zoo once we got back. Plus we agreed to rent them a little car stroller. And Ethan will do just about anything for one of those. So off we went to the larger mall in the world, and we weren't disappointed. Just a random monster light LCD screen to walk across. Why not? That seems to be Dubai's theme: Why not?
And why not add a 4 story waterfall complete with metal diving men sculptures? Why not? And let's just make 2 different ones for fun too.
And even though it's the desert why not add an ice skating rink to the mall? Why not?
And while we're at it, why not have a giant rotunda filled with paintings of the ruling shiek? Why not?
And since there's some dead space in the middle of the mall let's just build a whole hidden jewelry and gold market.
And around every corner let's build fountains and sculptures. Why not?
And more fountains and more ambience. Why not?
And let's add amazing tilework. Why not?
And let's for sure build a star room with gorgeous light things. Why not?
And we maybe need just one more giant rotunda. Why not?
And we absolutely need a 3 story aquarium where we can build a glass tunnel through it and let people pay to scuba dive inside it (since there's not an ocean anywhere near the mall- yeah right) and feed sharks. Why not?
And since this is Dubai we definitely need to build the tallest building in the world.
And let's make it so tall that you'll have to take 2 pictures of it just to fit it all in. And at the bottom of the tallest building in the world let's build the largest fountain (ie lake since it's so large) in the world.
And let's surround this world's largest mall and largest fountain and largest building with amazing buildings that will make architects the world over drool. And let's do all this just because we can. Why not?
That's the tallest building in the world on the left. It completely dwarfs everything else. This view is like 2 miles away from the building. It makes me laugh how quickly you go from skyscrapers to bare desert.
Another view as we were driving. It is pretty impressive to see.
After our mall trip we went back for naps and packed up to leave. Our flight left Dubai at 10:30pm. After a very frustrating attempt at returning the rental car (absolutely no signs pointing you where to go and we ended up driving the wrong way on a one-way road because we just couldn't figure out how to get there) we finally got into the airport.
The first thing that greeted us was a passport check followed by a line to go through the metal detectors- WITH all our luggage. After that we checked in where they checked our passports AGAIN. Then we went through ANOTHER passport check followed by regular security. Once we got to our gate we went through another passport check followed by another metal detector AGAIN and a personal pat-down (they even took the ladies into a separate room so it was a private pat-down) followed by a person checking every item in our carry-ons and also checking our shoes by hand. It was good we were there 3 hours ahead of time for all that. So we should all feel safe about flights incoming from Dubai. They take their security very seriously.
We were given the bulkhead for this flight and were even luckier to get the bulkhead behind Business class so it was quiet the whole time (no bathrooms or kitchen) and no one was really walking past us since business class goes forward to first class. So our area ended up being quiet and dark for most of the 15 1/2 hour flight and amazingly the time flew. Ethan and Isaac alternated taking 2-3 hour naps with watching cartoon movies. They both slept in their seats part of the time and part of the time on the floor. Miles was a champ and slept for 10 straight hours in his bassinet! 10 STRAIGHT!!! He wins the prize for best traveler. So the longest flight wasn't that terrible- even if our Tuesday had 34 hours instead of just 24 (Dubai is 10 hours ahead of Salt Lake so we picked up all those hours on our way back).
We arrived in Atlanta a little out of it but feeling very blessed for how well our kids slept. We headed to customs thinking we'd be through in no time (customs in London took 10 minutes, Dubai just 5 minutes) and then we stood in the queue for an hour and 20 minutes. Not a problem... except we only had 1 hour and 45 minutes for our layover. When we FINALLY got through customs we ran. Literally this was the first time in my life I have RUN through an airport. And I'm sure we were quite the sight. Me running while pushing a stroller with Miles inside and Isaac riding backwards on the front. Taylor dragging/carrying all our carry-ons. And both of us yelling at Ethan to run. Poor thing ran and cried the whole time and just kept saying "I just want to sit down". We found all our bags, got them re-checked, made it through security again and all the way to our gate in just 22 minutes.
We got to the gate and couldn't believe they were still there. We boarded as they closed the door and we started taxying out. We were still unpacking bags and trying to settle our crying, begging for food and water children into their seats. That's when Taylor discovered baby poo all over his hand. Apparently Miles decided to explode during customs. We tried to wipe what we could there, and then tried to just hold him standing up for take-off. A kind stewardess recognized/smelled the problem and let us run to the bathroom to change him. They even stopped the plane which was good since there was again no changing table so poo ended up covering every surface of the bathroom while I tried to hold legs, prop head on the toilet seat cover, strip the child and wipe him and the bathroom down. But we made it and 3 hours later we were home. Blessed home! And just to welcome us... there was snow on the ground. Amazingly our bags arrived with us and we made it safely home. Ate McDonald's (our bribe to get Ethan to not just lay down and sleep on the floor of the airport in Atlanta) and went to bed.
We survived. We're glad we went. We know it meant a lot to our family and we're grateful for all the small and large miracles that made the trip possible. We're grateful for how understanding our kids were and what good sports they were. And we're glad it's over and we don't think we'll ever have to do it again. Halfway around the world and back in almost exactly 7 days. We left Wednesday at 9:50am and got back Wednesday at 10:15am. What a trip!