Rewards

Here is a reward of being a parent. Kaden can now ride without training wheels! He has been riding a balance bike since last summer. He didn't really have the pedaling down though. A few weeks ago he started riding Lynnlee's old bike with training wheels and got the pedaling down. Each day I help him ride his Buzz Lightyear bike(without trading wheels). Then today it all clicked and he did it on his own around and around the cul de sac.

Happy Saturday

Happy Saturday!

Love The Minis

Provo City Center Temple

I am excited for any experience to show the importance of temples to my children. I am really excited to take them when they turn twelve. I loved doing baptisms for the dead when I was old enough. I enjoyed going once a week when I was in college. We have a few more years to go before my kids will get to go so I have loved all of the new temples built near us. We went to the Brigham City Temple open house when Kaden was a baby. We went to the Payson Temple open house last year and now this year we got to go to the Provo City Center Temple open house. It was beautiful and special.

I am so grateful for temples! When we were going through the difficult trial with our renter I attended the temple as much as I could. I didn't always get the answers I wanted but I always felt peace. I am so thankful for a little piece of heaven on earth.

Grizzlies Date

A friend gave us box tickets to the Grizzlies game so Marshall and James went together on a daddy date. They had a great time!

I'm so glad they could have some one on one time together!

Meanwhile back at home, I played outside with Lynnlee, Kaden and the minis. Kaden is rocking Lynnlee's old bike!

Dress Ups

We love having Katelyn and Drew over! They came over a few times last week and each time the kids had so much fun dressing up. It brought back memories from when I was little and played dress ups at Granny J's house with my cousins. It was always fun!

You can't look at these next pictures and not laugh. The only thing that would be better is a video of these four bumping into each other with their soft pillow stuffed t-shirts.

It took some nudging to get Drew to dress up in a princess dress. James however had no problems and thought it was hilarious.

Dinner is very entertaining with seven kids!

Weekly Minis

The minis are so excited to get up in the morning. James, Lynnlee and Kaden are just as happy to get them out of their cribs.

They usually aren't happy to go to bed but if you rock them and sing songs then they are happy.

Sienna's white, blonde hair is getting longer and thicker very slowly. I tried pig tails but I think we will wait a few more months before we try that again.

Provo Beach Resort

We celebrated January and February birthdays with my family at Provo Beach Resort. It was extra special because Jack turned 16! I remember when he was born I was a freshman in high school and I thought it was so exciting to be an aunt. Now he can drive!

We played video games. James and Marshall did the ropes course.

I love this picture because my dad's favorite game is Skee Ball. He is pretty much a pro at it! Even better is that we all love it too. This is Kasey, Andrea, Lily and my dad all playing next to each other.

Ali is filming on Studio 5 for a St. Patrick's Day episode. My mom buys all of the grand kids a St. Patrick's Day shirt every year. We took this picture so Ali can use it when she does her segment.

We went to Malowi's for dinner. We had lousy service but the company was great! It was fun to talk and catch up with everyone.

Weekly Minis

The minis like to make trouble but they also like to help clean up. They will dump a toy box out and then be the first to clean it back up. One night there was a drink that spilled on the floor and they helped wipe it up.

A new favorite activity it diving off the couch onto pillows. Taggart started this one afternoon when he realized he could get up on the couch by using his toy as a step stool. He started going head first off the couch and laughing. Sienna and Lynnlee soon caught on and started doing it too.

Bath time is always an adventure with fights over toys and splashing water all over the bathroom.

We love going outside and playing. We usually start out in the cul de sac and then end up in the back yard.

The minis were so cute at my parent's house. They were looking at the picture and pointing and talking in their own language to each other.

The minis seem to be happier these days. We finally figured out a good time for them to go down for their naps. We have also found food that they will eat so they get full.

I painted Lynnlee's nails and Sienna watched and kept pointing at the nail polish. I decided to paint Sienna's nails too with a quick dry nail polish. She held still long enough for it to dry. It was so cute and she kept giggling when she would look at her nails.

I love chips and salsa! I have been known to go through a large container of Pace's mild salsa in a week all by myself. Sienna loves it just as much too. She couldn't get enough the other night and she tried eating it by the spoonfuls.

Orlando 2016

Marshall had a work trip to Orlando and I got to accompany him. Marshall and I have not been on a trip together, since Lynnlee was the baby. I was very nervous about leaving the my kids. Thankfully they were in good hands with family watching them and so it made me feel better about leaving.

Marshall's conference wasn't until Thursday but we won a trip a few months ago so we combined it with the work trip. We took a red eye Monday night.

We decided spur of the moment to get tickets for the Blue Man Group Tuesday night. We ate dinner and walked around Universal City Walk before the show started.

It was an awesome concert and way different than we expected. It was so funny, entertaining and clean.

On Wednesday we went to Universal Islands of Adventure. The Harry Potter  part of the amusement park was awesome! Every thing was just like the movie. There were three different rides that we went on. We ate lunch there and the food looked like it was from the movie. We even tried Butter Beer which is non alcoholic and tastes like a butterscotch cream soda with lots of frothy cream on top. Yum!

We did not purchase a $50 wand but we did have fun trying on the robes.

 

We took this picture for Kaden. He loves Spider-man!

I'm photo-bombing this one. Wolverine walked up in between us and was very intimidating. Marshall snapped this picture right as his blades went out.

My kids would have loved Jurassic Park. The museum was really fun with lots of kid activities. The ride looked fun but it was way too cold that day and we didn't want to get wet so we missed out on the ride.

The restaurant was in a beautiful building. The food was amazing and the butter beer lived up to how it was described in the books.

 

The trip was a nice recharge and good to rest and relax. We thought it would be warm when we got there. Even though the temperature was in the 50s which is warm compared to Lehi being in the 20s, we felt so cold the first few days. There was a really cold wind that cut through plus the humidity and so we were wearing pants and jackets most of the time. Thursday was our beach day and it was not warm enough for swimsuits or a dip in the ocean. Instead we enjoyed lunch on the beach and then a long walk.

Friday morning Marshall had meetings. That afternoon we went on a Disney business tour. It was so cool! I learned so much about Disney Parks, resorts, etc. We were mostly behind the scenes at Epcot and Disney World for the tour. We did get to walk through Disney World for a little bit and get a picture by the castle. We also got to walk in the tunnels underneath Disney World. That was pretty exciting!

That night we walked through Disney Springs and checked out the Lego Store, and enjoyed all of the musical entertainment. The conference rented out part of Splitsville Bowling Alley. We had dinner and bowled a few games.

 Saturday morning Marshall had meetings. We had a late check out and so I enjoyed sleeping in, exercising in the work out room and then swimming in the pool. It was a great morning! We went to the Orlando Temple and did a session after we checked out. It is a beautiful temple. My grandmother worked in that temple. I visited her during the summer when I was 16 years old and we went to the temple together so I could do baptisms. It was two hours away from her house so we had a really good time visiting on the drive to the temple and home. She told me all about meeting my grandpa, dating, getting married, raising her children, etc. So I had fun thinking about my grandma while we were at the temple.