Easter

For a preschool field trip before we left, we went to Peter Piper Pizza, made our own pizzas and toured the kitchen.  Then we had an egg hunt and the Easter bunny came and sang a few songs and took pictures.  She was darling to the kids!  The milk carton was a handmade Easter basket they made in class.

Impossible to get a good picture of these two together.  But at least they had fun hunting for eggs and multiple occassions.

The main reason we went to Utah was to celebrate Pookie & Papa's 80th birthdays and have an Allred Easter party extravaganza and carnival!  Nancy and the aunts really outdid themselves.  I'm glad we were able to be there.  

Keeping in mind that this was the reason that we were there, at the very beginning we wanted to grab a family picture, which we were mostly prepared for.  Rachel was not ready - she was emotional and wanted to sit on a chair.  Then followed the TANTRUM of AMERICA by our 3 year old.  I kid you not. I was so embarrassed, and we tried threatening her with anything we could think of.  We got the picture, but barely - as you can see, Rachel is a mess.  After this picture, we took her straight to the car and home to Grandma Nancy's (missing the first hour of the party).  She missed the Easter egg hunt, which I was glad because she needed to understand the severity of the situation.  Her bad behavior had come at the worst possible time ever.  But what do you do?  Her and I drove away with her screaming bloody murder, and her kicking and screaming and spitting.  It was the.most.out.of.control she has EVER gotten.  

Hale Family Picture

Grandkid picture after the party - Rachel promised to be happy this time

Morgan and Brandon with some carnival prizes

Allie, Rachel & Kennedy sporting their new glasses

Andrew easily won the best behavior award of the day!

Pookie with Andrew and Miles.  Miles is Rachel Murray's little boy and he is such a cutie chunk!

I wanted to take a picture of me and my friends :)  Kacie, Rachel, me and Leslie

Call me a bad mom, but I don't really get all that into dying eggs - luckily Gma Nancy saved Easter and she helped the kids color some eggs.  

Easter best - dress courtesy of Nana

Easter best - Bubba's first suit!!  Brandon came home with this outfit for Andrew a few weeks before.  He was at Sears looking at the tools, and on his way out he saw this and thought it would be perfect for Andrew.  He looks so handsome!

Checking out the loot!  I love my mom's spring yard!

He got the goods and now he's out!

Egg rolling and other games at Nana & Papa's

Not great of the kids, but my parents look darling!

I think Rachel was being a stinker because she was having to share Nana with Andrew.

Fun to see Andrew and Logan together this trip (about 4 months apart)

Cute girl cousins!  Kennedy, Brynn & Rach

Hogle Zoo with Grandma Nancy and Hale Cousins

Flight home by myself was a breeze - especially when you have two movie players and old fashioned suckers.  

This was one of my harder trips to Utah.  I am a big baby and don't like to be there when Brandon is not.  He is such a big help to me - particularly around bedtime.  And the kids and I both miss him, of course.  We stayed for an extra week while Brandon went back to work.

Andrew was so sick while we were there.  The day before we left, I took him for a well check and the Dr. said he had an ear infection.  So we got him on an antibiotic, but it wasn't doing anything for him, so 5 days later, I had him back into our Utah doctor (yes, we have a pediatrician in both states) and he had a terrible double ear infection, so they quickly changed his medication to something else.  He really is a trooper when he's sick, but he still just isn't able to act like his normal, happy self.

Brandon and I don't take the children out to dinner hardly ever - personal, family rule - and for good reason.  While in Utah, I took them with my parents out to dinner twice.  The first time was at a pizza buffet and they did fairly well.  I was thinking I was a pretty awesome parent.  :)  Reality check - the second time I spent half of dinner in the car with Andrew since he couldn't stay in his seat and refrain from running around the restaurant.  He also just happened to not be wearing any pants since my mom had just taken them to a garden nursery and he got soaked in some puddles.

I hate to highlight just the harder stuff, but that is all that is coming to memory - how sad!!  We also had some fun times and love to catch up with family.  We had a fun trip to the Hogle Zoo with Grandma Nancy and the Hale cousins.  I took Cade's senior pictures, and helped Kyle get set up on mint.com and start a budget.  I got to visit with sister-in-laws, go to Chris' birthday, and get a haircut from my favorite hairstylist there.  More is coming to me now ... we also got to see Hunger Games (loved!!) with four different couples and went to J-Dawgs (delish!) and I also attended a shower for Naomi.

The reality of living away from family is that when you get to go visit, you want everything to go perfect, but it usually is pretty much the opposite.  You want your kids to act perfectly and be the cute, little angels you know them to be and show everyone all their tricks and little darling things that you get to see everyday.  But it just doesn't happen when they are out of their own routine and home, sleep deprived, usually get sick, and being run around from place to place.  A normal, laid-back mom would just roll with the punches and enjoy herself regardless.  I think I'm just too uptight and too much of a people pleaser to not stress out about it.  Don't get me wrong, I love visiting our families - and how lucky are we that they are all in one place!  We don't have to pick and choose and can see our entire families on both sides every time we go up.  We truly are blessed, and for now, we wouldn't have it any other way, even though it sometimes feels a little challenging.

Night Owl

Might as well put this stuff on the blog, so that I remember what I spent my time doing on the computer in the late night hours after the children and husband go to bed.  :)

Prints for my house and one for a friend.  

Invitations and Announcements

Church stuff, fliers (technically from last year), and birthday cards

Disneyland!!

Our pictures don't do the trip justice (the pics aren't great) - we had such a good time, and felt so grown up to be having are very own family vacation trip that wasn't to Utah (always a trip when it involves kids - I learned that from my parents).  Trip taken March 22-26.

Highlights of the trip include:

- Doctor visit Thursday morning for Andrew, which delayed our time leaving by a couple hours.  He was coughing in the night, so I took him in and got him on some antibiotics, not sure what was wrong exactly, but he was pleasant on the trip, thankfully.  He slept pretty poorly, but I think that had to do more with the fact that we were all in the same hotel room; that and sheer exhaustion.
- Sweet hugs from Andrew to Mickey ... at least four of them
- Andrew finding the perfect toy - a stuffed Mickey Mouse which he cuddled for 10 minutes in the store
- Rachel wanting to buy a stuffed Bambi as her prize for the whole two days, then when we went at the end and were ready to buy, she changed her mind to Simba last minute.  Her and Kennedy got matching baby ones that come with a swaddle blanket.
- Swimming in the hot tub at our hotel and watching the Disneyland fireworks show
- Rachel's surprisingly good behavior at Disneyland.  And she was so brave!  She went on Splash Mountain, Star Tours, and lots of other "big kid" rides and was bummed when she couldn't go on the big roller coaster with daddy.
- At "Talking with Crush", Rachel asked him what his favorite song was.  It was "Turtle Rock".  He then asked her what her favorite song was and she said, "I am a Child of God".  A cute family came up to Rachel afterwards and told her that that was their favorite song too.  Cute little missionary.
- Rachel dancing to the music while walking, anytime music came on
- Rachel needing to pee 10 times a day - not kidding.  No wonder we have issues with keeping her panties dry, poor girl.
- The disneyland parade is always so fun!  This time did not disappoint, and we even got to sit by a creepy man who knew half of the characters in the parade and he blew lots of kisses and would yell their names.  What was shocking to me was that they seemed to all know him, and were very kind.  I think we heard him say that his daughter is one of the characters at Disneyland, so he is familiar with many of them, but it was still a little too strange.
- I brought some little things to keep the kids entertained in lines - one of them was bubbles that hung around their neck and for the little girls, they pretended it was also their camera and they took pictures of everything.  Who knew 60 cents could have gone as far as it did?
- One night, Chris & Brandon left after the kids went to sleep to fit in some more big-kid rides.  I'm glad they were able to do that and go on some of the adult rides.
- Heading to the beach in 55 degree weather.  Stayed for 10 minutes, then left when it started raining.  We went to a movie, "The Lorax", which was a good backup plan.
- Cousin time!  We're thrilled that Chris & Kacie's family could come with us and the kids could play together!  We had hotel rooms with connecting doors, so that made for lots of playtime together.
- Only a 6 hour drive, which felt like a breeze compared to our drives to Utah.

How come In 'N Out always tastes better in California?

Not feeling the MAGIC

I say I'm not feeling the magic, because here we are just a few days before Disneyland aka the happiest place on earth, and I feel like the kids are at their worst.

Particularly, my cute, little, Rachel has been giving me all sorts of trouble these days.

As an incentive for getting to buy a toy at Disneyland, Rachel has been trying to earn "disney dollars", and it has been hard to find opportunities to give them to her, but much easier to take them away.  She's been pushing her brother, getting her panties wet (an ongoing issue depending on the month ... please be a phase she'll grow out of), yelling (can't imagine where she picked that up.. eh hem), talking back like a teenager, not staying in timeout and lots of whining.

There are lots of positive things about her these days as well:  Good playmate to Andrew, eats meals on her own so well and tries everything, fairly easy to fall asleep and she sleeps in her own bed, she's a trooper when she gets sick (which is very often) and she never dwells on it when she gets hurt (brave), she loves to be read to, and gives thoughtful, sincere prayers that make my heart smile.

Story from this week:  on our way home from Five Guys tonight (oh man, it was my first time - thank you Dobson's for the introduction!), we were dropping off a Redbox movie, and Brandon was teasing Rachel about maybe leaving mommy at the gas station.  She loves me, so she of course said, "No Daddy, don't leave mommy".  Then he said, "Well, what does mommy do for us that we need her?"  Rachel replied, "She cleans the house, drives us to stores, and takes out the trash ... and drives us to more stores."  Yep, that pretty much sums it up, although I disagree that we shop all that much.  And I do take them to parks quite a bit, but of course I don't get credit for that.

These kids are MESS MAKERS!  All I do is clean, and it doesn't even look that awesome.  I probably haven't done a great job at enforcing "one toy at time" policy, but is that even possible?  And it is such a fight to get them to help clean it up unless I am right there helping, right when they're done playing with something.  I try to look at the positive side ... at least they are entertaining themselves.

Guilt moment:  I have been terrible at any sort of art projects with the kids these days.  Rachel could do art for a long time, but it is hard with Andrew because he wants to be involved, but I don't have much patience for crayons, markers and paint with that boy.  Crayons to him = snack.  However, I am good at getting the kids out of the house daily.  Either a trip to the park or walk around the block or playing in the backyard ... what are we going to do this summer?!

Rachel's favorites:  "Gnomeo & Juliet", the movie, daddy's nightly "Fluffly the Turtle" or Mickey stories and someone to lay by her for a few minutes, her cousin, Kennedy.

Andrew's favorites:  "treat", cows, family prayer, "movie" (Baby Einstein, Mickey or Gnomeo & Juliet), "no no no no", the color blue, singing songs

Movie time - I took a picture because they were sitting so close together, it was cracking me up.

I gave them yogurts, and the next thing I know,  they're eating them together inside a box - of course they are!

Go, Cubs, Go! & GNO

Brandon & Jason, Rachel & Sophia - fast friends already holding hands

This weekend we went to a Cubbies spring training game and no, I have no idea what the score was - I'm pretty sure we won - I'm a die hard fan like that.  At least I wore blue & red (sort of).  Don't get me wrong, I had a great time.  We went with one of Brandon's co-workers and his family, and they have a girl and a boy at just about the same ages as ours (their names so I remember - Jason, Sonya, Sophia & Ryker).  We got lawn seats and found a place where the kids could run around and play freely.  I think Sonya said it best when she said, I think we just payed $25 to let the kids play at a park - amen, sister!  But it made our husband's happy and we got to know some new friends.  

Sidenote:  a few weekends ago, Brandon and I went to dinner on the firm's bill since he was taking out a recruit who's flight wasn't leaving until the next morning.  We went with the interviewee (happened to be from UofC) and another couple from B's firm - Joe & Danielle, out to Hillstone (same group as Bandera) and we had a really great evening!  Appetizer, main course, drink & dessert all paid for - yes, please!!  The Roth's have a little girl and are expecting number 2, a boy, and we had a lot more in common with them that I would have anticipated.  I enjoy getting to know Brandon's co-workers' families because it makes his work-life a lot more real to me, and it makes me feel like I'm part of work too - in a small way, of course.  We'll have to get together with them more often.  

Also, Lore came into town for a weekend visit (without her kids) and it was so fun to catch up and hang out!!  It felt like it had been a long time, yet at the same time, it felt very normal.  Mandy, Lore and I went to Ikea and Cheesecake Factory to celebrate.  We also hung out at our place all morning, my kids were a disaster and looked and acted kind of terrible, especially since I was very distracted, but we needed to get in all the girl time we could.  So happy to have seen her!!

Dance Recital

Rachel had a little dance recital the first weekend in March, and it was a VAST IMPROVEMENT if we're talking about trying to follow the teacher compared to last year's.  I posted the video below - Rachel's the one in the back row and if you only want to watch the best one minute, then I'd say 1:30-2:30.  I could tell she was really making an effort to do the dance moves and still having a great time.  My favorites are when she constantly has to get back on her little tape mark, coughs into her elbow, fairy dust sprinkle and spin, still so proud of first position, the girl in front of her who did.not.do.one.dance.move, it's all pretty good, but then again, I'm her biased mother.

My Grandma & Grandpa Thompson had their motorhome about 15 minutes away from us for about 2 weeks, so we got to see them a few times while they were so close.  We had them over for dinner one night, and then we visited their motorhome.  Grandpa gave us a ride in his little golf cart and the kids sang songs for them (technically Rachel would sing and then Andrew would say, "a one more?!"), we played "I spy", ate her snacks and looked for her cat who was hiding from the kids.  Anyway, Gma & Gpa also came to Rachel's little recital, which was very nice.

Recital video password is pink.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Thompson, we're glad they're snowbirds!!

Not the greatest pic, but of all Andrew's shirts, this is his favorite one - if he sees it, he gets so excited and says, "blue, blue blue!"  

Winter blues

I'm not sure how I've gotten the winter blues living in Arizona with perfect winter weather, but it feels like I've been extra emotional about the most random things the last few months.

I have the thought often that I am not doing enough (particularly with reading / studying the scriptures and being sincerely prayerful).  I'm having guilt, but it's not transferring into an any action or change in behavior.  Dare I say that I am lacking a desire in this area?

I have also been seeking ways to increase my happiness having to do with church service ... I'm just not getting that warm, fuzzy feeling when serving but feeling irritable, stressed and resentment.  And then I research a topic like "Sacrifice" (i.e., church talk) or go to the temple and I am reminded about the importance of dedicating ourselves to building the kingdom.

I keep reminding myself of the importance of my yearly goals but for whatever reason, I seem to keep putting them off (I'll get to that after camp, or do that after that YW activity that I'm in charge of, etc.).  I am trying to look for realistic ways to work on my relationships and do more sweet things for my husband and children.

I have also been having a lot of negative thoughts it seems, so I'm trying to figure out ways on how to see the positive in more situations and trying to think about what I say before I say it.

Speaking of the positive, here goes ... I am going to pat myself on the back for doing a better job at dishes and making the beds (nowhere near perfect, but better) and I am continuing my budget tracking and have been able to help a few family members as well.

I have come a long way on my attitude towards my neighborhood.  I am so happy with our house and our backyard is perfect for the kids.  I long for a family-friendly neighborhood, but that will come one day.  Our neighbors keep very private and hidden away and there is a very wide demographics of age, with us being the very youngest by a long shot.  I am also continuing to work on my attitude towards my ward ... I'm pretty sure it's a well known fact that I've struggled with feeling like I fit in here.  That plus the realization that we will not ever be in a ward like Hyde Park - so I can just be grateful for the experiences I had there, but will not use it as measuring stick against future wards, because I know that it just won't measure up.  A lot of those good feelings had to do with the time of life we were in - a young, married couple just starting our family and we were surrounded by so many other church member that were in the exact same situation as us.  It was pretty special.  So I am working on appreciating my ward for what it is and trying to focus on the worship part of church, and focusing less on any social part.  And to be honest, I leave church many times after wrestling with the kids, wondering if anyone got anything out of it.  But I'm glad to have gone and fulfilled our duty, partaken of the sacrament and at least made an attempt to worship.  I also try to be kind, particularly to new-comers, but deep down I know that I am a little jaded and hope I don't come across that way.  I regret the fact that I cowardly "gave up" after the first year and half to two years here.  I wonder what others say about us - not too many know enough to talk - and I know it's not important, but I still wonder.  On a positive note, I rarely gossip about others in the ward to friends especially since I don't know anyone's business to share, so that has been a breath of fresh air and I have been guilt-free in that department.  See, look at me being little-miss-positive-pants.  :)

I am happy in my mother role.  Monday through Friday, I am pretty gung-ho and keep a good routine for the kids.  I naturally ease off a little on the weekends - less timeouts, less cleaning, etc.  Of course I could do better in some areas, but I don't beat up on myself, I self correct pretty easily in this role and can easily recognize the areas that need improving.  Then I try to work on those things and do what's best for each kid.  It's a challenging, and a sometimes rewarding job and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I have learned more about myself as a parent, then I ever imagined, and I love those two kidlets more than I ever thought was possible.