Memorial Day in Chicago

This is the first year when we haven't driven back and forth from DC to Salt Lake and been able to stop and visit my parents. So for Memorial Day I packed up myself and the kids and headed off to Chicago. (Taylor unfortunately had to work- he even had an 8am meeting on Memorial Day and pulled 12 and 15 hour days the entire time we were gone).
On Memorial Day my parent's ward had a pancake breakfast. The boys love pancakes but 30+ kids running around the gym made this heaven on earth for them. Plus flags on sticks to run around with!
Miles enjoyed the pancakes with fishy crackers on the side but was upset not to be given a flag on a stick.
Breakfast was followed by a rousing game of popper balls (ping pong balls that shoot out of guns). This is easily my kids favorite part of every visit and they talk about it all the time. Isaac is right now pointing over my shoulder and shouting "looka Ethan, shooter balls, come here, shooter guns, mommy geta shoot."
After they shoot it's like an Easter egg hunt in the grass.
After a fabulous barbeque we headed off to an incredible park. Miles enjoyed being carried by Grandma Tina and chewing on a plastic spoon.
Isaac found a rock climbing wall and refused to leave.
The ground is covered with almost a foot of shredded tires so it's very bouncy- still I'm not sure I like him climbing up 7 feet and then running along the edge to get to the slide. Luckily Grandpa Pat is so attentive.
Ethan, never one to be outdone, discovered a giant boulder that he climbed and then jumped off of.
Both boys agreed these were the coolest swings they'd ever been on. Just wait til they're big enough for roller coasters.
Both boys were so exhausted that they took over the stroller.
Amazingly one little boy isn't too tuckered out!

The Small Stuff

Just another day of me trying to focus on these sweet boys instead of the countless other messes, chores, and activities clamoring for my attention. Thankfully they're such wonderful kids that it's easy to find moments that remind me why I choose to be a mom.
Example 1:
I left all 3 boys downstairs while I shower. This is what I find afterwards: Miles somehow "magically" got himself up off the floor and somewhat into a chair (okay so Ethan admitted to picking him up. Kinda glad I didn't witness that.) Miles looks a little nervous to be half-in/half-out of the chair.
But look at what amazingly sweet little brothers they are. They're both cooking and play eating so of course Miles needed to be at the table with them.
Example 2:
Miles is the first of our kids to sit BEFORE crawling and I think it's about the most adorable thing ever. I honestly cannot resist kissing those cheeks.

Growing up too fast

Sometimes it breaks my heart how fast these cute boys grow up. Miles was such a wonderful, cute, snuggly infant and he's becoming a big boy overnight it seems. He's still just as wonderful and cute but snuggly not so much unless he's asleep.
I've also been replaced as his favorite person by Ethan, Isaac, and especially Taylor. This boy LOVES his daddy. He starts laughing and reaching for him as soon as he sees him. I can't blame him, Taylor throws him in the air and tickles him and lets him eat his nose (which Miles thinks is hilarious) . And I can't blame Miles for liking Ethan and Isaac more too, they have lots of cool toys that they share with him and they do more fun things than mommy. Of course he wants to be one of the big boys!
He has recently figured out how to get almost anywhere he wants. He rolls and turns and somehow maneuvers his way around. He can even get up high enough to fish toys out of his box.
He's such a little charmer that he can convince Taylor to lay on the floor instead of the couch- and all without speaking any words.
He's such an easy baby that he even opens his mouth on his own to be fed. No prompting needed! That may not be much to some parents but we literally had to pry Ethan's mouth open or blow bubbles in the air so he'd look up and open his mouth in the process and we could sneak a bite in quickly.
We went to lunch last week after Ethan's program and the restaurant gave the kids balloons on the way out. Ethan and Isaac spent the ride home swinging them around the back seat and in the process Ethan's got tied up on Miles' carseat. The child went nuts!
And since it was so stuck that I had to cut it off, I tied it to a giraffe to weight it down and then gave it to Miles. You can tell how excited he is by his kicking feet! We love this kid!

A few more Playmats

My brother Jim and his family are coming out to Utah for a visit in July and since we've just lived through the struggles of really-long airplane rides with lots of kids in tow I feel their pain so I made these felt playmats for them (with lots of helpful ideas from Necia).
I actually got to make something cute and pink! Yeah! Just a basic version of the gray castle I made for my boys but MUCH cuter!
I almost want to buy some little princesses or fairies so I can play with it but I'll leave that to Madeline.
Nathan's stumped me for a while. He likes army men and volcanoes currently. Kind of an odd combination but we made due. The gray building is their barracks and both the mountain and the volcano have caves to hide in.
Necia requested a dinosaur mat for Robert and since my own boys have been begging for one, this is what I came up with. Kind of generic but lots of room for dinos.
And lastly another car mat for little Joseph. He's just 4 months older than Miles so he'll probably just eat the cars instead of drive them, but we couldn't leave him out.
I've stolen so many ideas off of other people's web sites so I figured I owed it to everyone to share these ideas.

That's more like it!

Monday's snow lasted until about noon and then the sun came out and it all melted and it even got up to 55 that afternoon. Whew! A little bit of winter to make me really appreciate the spring.
The rest of the week has been beautiful so we're taking full advantage of it and our wonderful backyard. Ethan and Isaac each got scooters for Christmas which they've happily used in the garage during the cold weather but they're loving riding circles around the pool.
Isaac can't seem to resist jumping off of... well everything. Couches. Stairs. Tables. Book shelves. Plastic play kitchens (that's another story). And of course the large decorative rocks outside.
I'm not sure which one I should blame for starting this game. It's like having their very own mountain of rocks (aka the stairs). You see they're very cautious with their jumps. Emergency room here we come!
Of course he can't just climb up the regular stair part. That's not enough of a challenge so up the larger, side rocks he climbs.
And ever faithful Oscar is always ready to chase a ball.
Or to sit dutifully by the baby.
who managed to find a stick amongst the grass. Stinker. But a dang cute stinker. Seriously who can resist the blond mohawk of curls.
Stay spring... please! Pretty, pretty please!

Making the Best of It

Miles has for the past week had the lovely habit of waking up between 5:20 and 5:40. It's terrible because you can't really go back to sleep after that but it's still too early for me personally. So this morning when he woke up at 5:20 I fed him and then crawled back into my warm bed. Ethan came running in promptly at 7:01 (he's officially allowed out of his room after 7am) to tell me that it was snowing outside. Seriously??? It's May 24th!!!
After much grumbling on my part and threats to pack everyone in the car and drive south to Vegas, we finally decided to make the best of it. I bundled up Ethan and Isaac in hats, gloves, coats, boots, and even snowpants and sent them out to play.
It was snowing so much my camera almost couldn't focus on the kids!
Yep, those are my Mother's Day flowers that the dog killed, then got re-bought/re-planted this weekend and now are going to be killed by the snow. Luckily they're under an overhanging balcony so it's just the cold air that might kill them.
Isaac covered in snow after just 3 minutes outside.
I do have to admit this was a nice adventure for the kids. It snowed lots here in November and December but I'd just had Miles and hadn't gotten them snow pants or boots yet so they never got to play in the snow. Then for the rest of the winter it's been really cold but not much snow- never more than 1 or 2 inches. Isaac had this silly grin on his face the whole time outside today.
And since Ethan's school is out for the summer he got to join in on the fun. He happily showed Isaac how to make snowballs.
Which Isaac couldn't resist throwing at me.
And at Ethan, and thus ensued a major snowball fight. Luckily they both have really bad aim so no one got it in the face.
Since it's supposed to be summer or at least spring- it was 85 last Monday- all the summer toys were already pulled out and got snowed on. Ethan discovered the slide was extra-fun with snow on it.
Isaac couldn't resist following his lead.
A fun adventure for this morning and now we're all holed up inside trying to stay warm. Hot chocolate and a movie anyone?

Kelli and Dana's Visit

My younger sister Kelli and her husband Dana came through town this week on their move from Texas to Washington State and we were lucky enough to be able to keep them for a few days. We'd really keep them forever but alas, Dana has a job and they need to move on.
Tuesday morning it was raining so we had to find something indoors. I searched online and found the Church History Museum downtown which I've actually never been to before nor had they so off we went. Let me just say if you've never been before you MUST go. They have just about every famous artifact from LDS church history that exits. They have John Taylor's pocket watch with the bullet hole in it, Joseph and Hyrum's death masks, real covered wagons, and keepsakes from each of the prophets lives. They also have a huge kids section where of course we spent a lot of time since Isaac's idea of a museum is to run-not walk and to either touch everything or climb on it.
They even have little old missionaries there to do crafts with your kids. So Isaac made a hand shaped dog.
Dana went with a green elephant. He assures me it's an elephant since I'm very confused.
And Isaac spent a lot of time throwing bean bags to decide which "kingdom" he'll go to. Tragically he's leaning towards the "telestial" but I'm blaming that on the larger hole.
And he and Dana built some amazing block temples. For a 2 year old he has some very steady hands.
Tuesday afternoon, since it was still raining and I couldn't think of anywhere else to take them, we brought out Guitar Hero. At first Kelli protested that she didn't think she'd like it or be any good but of course she turned out to be the real rocker in the family and beat everyone hands down.
Ethan's not quite old enough to be able to play the game so he brought out his fake red guitar so he could join in on the jammin' with Dana.
And Miles couldn't resist jumping in on the vocals. Actually this is how excited he got when I gave him the microphone as a chew toy. Luckily I caught the picture when I did because 3 seconds later he had that thing in his mouth and wouldn't let go.
Tragically for Miles, Ethan decided that he NEEDED the microphone so he could sing along (love his arm by the way). Miles is no dummy though so he decided to get back by rolling over and over until he could get at the cord plugging the guitar into the X-Box and pulled it apart so he could chew on it thus interrupting the jam session. Good times were had by all and Dana was caught several times later that night and the next day sneaking down to play more songs. Kelli promised to get him one if he passes the BAR this summer.
No rain Wednesday- yeah! So we headed off to the zoo which was Kelli's one request for the visit. A brief stop to see the baby elephant.
And a brief stop to let the boys climb on the statues since apparently that's more fun that the animal-watching.
And we were lucky enough to hit the penguins at feeding time so we got to see them waddle around, eat, and even swim to get the fish thrown in by the trainer.
We were so sad to see them go (especially Ethan who adopted Dana as his buddy) but we're glad they're just a 10 hour drive away instead of 16.