{EGGS}

 

I told myself it would be so fun to paint....and dye....and do all sorts of crafty things with our eggs this year.  That was really stupid.  Yes, the girls had fun so it was worth it, but after like six hours of a major mess I was over it.  These girls are super cute though so that makes up for all of it plus some.

 

Ivy was so fun doing this.  Every time we pulled an egg out of the dye, she would get so excited and say "Ooooohhhhh, Ahhhhhhh".  We were all totally entertained by her.

Palm Sunday

 

 

We tried.

Happenings

 More sickness from this kid, and lots of burying herself in my legs allllll day.

 

When I'm lazy and let her feed herself.

And then it backfires big time.

 

Our town opened a car wash and offered free washes for two weeks.  

So I got several free washes AND free entertainment. 

Why is it so funny to watch my kids cry like this?

 

Prepping our EASTER baskets with daddy. 

Crossing our fingers that the grass grows in time since we are late getting it planted.

 

 Sage snapped several pics of Ivy trying to beat me up while I was trying so hard to catch some zzzzz's.

 

Got to chaperone a field trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens with my favorite kindergartner. 

Charlotte and I had so much fun, despite her being terrified of the butterflies. 

 

Our Conference tent!  We sure enjoyed watching two days worth of awesome talks from our prophet and apostles.  The girls all slept in the tent Saturday night and we vegged Sunday morning before the EASTER festivities started.

 

We have our own style around here.

{Charlotte}

 

Charlotte!  She is 5 going on 16 based on her hormones lately.  She has been extremely emotional the last few months and cries at least ten times a day.  School has been a fight for a few weeks and the aides at the drop off line usually have to pull her out of the van crying.  I felt so so sad the first few days this happened but now I am over it!  She always has so much fun at school and talks about all the cool things she did during the day so I know there's nothing serious going on.  I think Spring Break and our change in schedules just threw her for a loop.  Hopefully she bounces back soon.  Charlotte is the sweetest thing.  She LOVES Ivy and takes such good care of her.  She is an extreme perfectionist with all things school related and gets horribly upset if she reads a word wrong, misses a question, etc.  Her teacher worries she'll develop ulcers if she continues to put so much pressure on herself.  We've tried to talk to her about it but so far we're getting no where.  She bursts into hysterical tears at home and/or at school when she does something wrong.  It's crazy.  She is our master jump-roper!  It's the first and last thing she does every day.  She  won first place for kindergarten at jump-rope-for-heart...in ALL of the contests.  She is awesome at it!  She loves to eat veggies and healthy foods and while I know she enjoys junk food, she always asks if it is healthy or not, and if it's not healthy--she either doesn't eat it or only has a tiny bit.   Hopefully that's a trait she'll keep up.  She is a peacemaker most of the time.  If Emery (because let's be honest, it's usually Em) is screaming about something, Charlotte is the one who will help out to diffuse the situation.  She is turning into the most beautiful little thing, and she is ALL girl.  She wears dresses or skirts every day, is extremely picky about how I do her hair, and loves to have her nails painted at all times.  She's quite the little diva and I love it so much.

{Emery}

This stinker of a three year old is a ham!  She is the most stubborn child I've ever met.  It's her way or no way and no amount of bribery, reasoning, love, patience, time-outs, ultimatums, etc can change that.  She is a ball of energy and is on the go all the time.  Her newest thing is to stick her butt out at people and do the tootie-tot dance.  Usually she lifts her dress up or takes her pants down while she does it, too.  So that's fantastic.  She loves to watch movies on the tablet.  She loves to play outside.  She loves cereal, turkey and cheese sandwiches, granola bars, yogurt, fruit, and anything with sugar in it.  She is totally potty trained and hasn't had any accidents in several months.  I usually wake her up around 10 to take her potty one more time before I go to bed, but if I don't and she wakes up in the middle of the  night to go, she just comes in to get me for help.  She LOVES her sunbeams class!  She has so much fun being in primary with the big girls.  She loves when daddy comes home and runs right out to his truck to ask for a piece of gum, every.single.day.  She refuses to put her seat belt on in the car unless I threaten means things.  She is always saying the funniest things that catch me off guard and I bust up laughing.  The other day she started singing "Uptown Funk" out loud like it was no big deal.  For some reason it was so funny.  A few weeks ago, Clint came home around 5 from work and I decided to go for a jog.  I left him in charge.  During that time, Emery managed to walk right out the front door to come find me and he did not notice.  She made it about a quarter mile away from  our house and was in the street with no shoes and her princess dress, when our neighbor from church happened to drive by and see her.  Thankfully.  She was gone for about 20 minutes and Clint didn't notice.  When I found out I was furious, to say the least.  Since then we've all been much more careful about keeping our eye on her.  She doesn't get scared of things which worries me.  Emery and I butt heads every day, many times a day.  She has been my most difficult child by a long shot but also my most endearing to me.  I love her so so much.  She captivates me and I could stare at her all day long. 

{IVY}

I haven't dedicated a little post to each individual kid in a while, so it's long overdue.  

Ivy has proven to be our sickly child.  She has been fighting colds and ear infections and random things since she was born!  Poor (and expensive!) kiddo.  She is totally healthy right now and is THE happiest toddler ever.  She dances to music all day and is always smiling.  She has yet to start talking but sure gets her point across when she wants to.  She loves to climb on everything and is always falling down.  She is about 22 pounds at 18 months.  She hates having a runny nose and will walk up to you with a kleenex in hand as her way of asking you to wipe her boogies.  She is super picky!  She hates strawberries, all berries, all veggies, all meats.  She will eat bananas, applesauce, yogurt, toast or granola bars all day but that's it.  I sneak bits of healthy foods into her by making her a green smoothie every day because she loves to drink from a straw and will guzzle her smoothie every day.  She has become very independent lately!  She doesn't like help with anything, and likes to pick out her own food and things.  Last night, for example--after family home evening, I let the girls pick a piece of candy from the candy jar for our treat.  I picked out some smarties for Ivy and she pitched the gnarliest fit, because she wanted to pick it out herself.  She does that ALL the time.  She loves her blanket and pacifier and I'm having a hard time taking either away from her since she's my last baby.  She'll be sucking on that thing till she's ten, I'm sure.  Her kidney is still acting up.  We went for our third VCUG and although the reflux is gone (yay!), her kidney is still very swollen.  Her surgeon is not sure if it's just taking a while to heal because of how infected it was, or if it was so infected that it is not healing itself.  At any rate, we go back in three months for an ultrasound to see if it is shrinking.  Fingers crossed that it is!  We love our little Ivy so much.  She makes our home so so happy.  Her sisters LOVE her and are constantly chasing her and smothering her with kisses.  She eats it up.  Sage and Charlotte are always saying they wish she would stay little forever.  Me too, kids!  Me too. 

March

March is over!  Crazy.  

Every day I plan to catch up on the blog and write down some of the things that happen, or funny things the girls say, or random thoughts I'm having.  And then....I don't.  Life is busy! 

Cheering on gym mates while they finish a workout with my crew + one.

Two of the most beautiful ladies I've ever seen!

Nightly routine is exhausting but worth it.  We read our scriptures, pray, and read a story together.  Then Em goes to bed while Clint and I read Sam books with Sage and Charlotte for school.  It's a process!

Most nights when I'm making the rounds to make sure everyone  is tucked in and safe, I find these two babes in bed with each other.  It's pretty magical.

Back on the baking train cuz I'm gaining weight like a fool and can't seem to stop.  These four make baking so much fun.

We stole cousin Kate and took the girls to see a Cinderella play and they all had so much fun.  (except Ivy!!)

After the play we went to eat at Rumbi's and then out for frozen yogurt after. 

Over Spring Break, we hit up our new local DQ several times.  Ivy had her first ice cream cone and seriously devoured it!

We went to the park lots of times

We went with cousins to see Cinderella!  Everyone but Ivy loved it.  Ivy survived about half way through thanks to a huge bag of popcorn, but after that she was way more interested in roaming the halls and driving the cars.

These two walked a fine line for several days between cats, fairies, and real human girls.  It was great.