Silly kiddos!

Last week I took all of the kids to the dentist. Hannah went first, and I had Noah watch closely so there would be no surprises for him when it was his turn. He watched very intently, it surprised me. When it was his turn, the hygenist asked him to climb up on the chair. He eagerly got up and then immediately layed flat on his back closed his eyes tight and opened his mouth wide. He layed there for about a minute exactly like that, not moving, eyes shut, mouth open. It was so so so funny! The hygenist and I got a good laugh out of it. I wished I had been quick enough with my camera, but I was too busy laughing and enjoying the sight. It was adorable. He did pretty well for his first check up. And I am proud to announce that all kids are cavity-free. Hooray! On the way home from the dentist I had all the windows down in the car so we could enjoy the beautiful weather. We went on the freeway, so it was pretty windy. Landon was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the noise and air so he was covering his ears and looking kind of worried. Ava lovingly encouraged him by saying, "It's okay, Dude. You got this!" How funny is that?! Where has she ever even heard someone say that before? I have no idea, but it was so stinkin' cute to hear her say! I love that she was trying to support and encourage her brother. I love the sweet moments with my kids that make me laugh, smile and be proud for who they are becoming. Makes being a mom totally worth it!

Pretend Prayer

Noah had his speech therapy today, and his therapist brought a tea set to have a pretend picnic. Noah passed out all of the dishes and utensils, gave us our pretend food, and then managed to fold his arms, close his eyes and said the word "prayer". His therapist caught on to what he said and what he was doing, so we all folded our arms. His therapist asked if the prayer was over, so I said, "Amen", to which Noah followed with "Amen". He did it multiple times while we were playing. It was hilarious and so stinkin' cute at the same time!!! I laughed and laughed, but felt so proud at the same time. His therapist said to me, "You know you're doing well when he wants to say pretend prayer on the pretend food at the pretend picnic." That made me feel good. I hope it was a little missionary seed planted in her mind, too. What a good example Noah is, even though he's only 2 years old. What a little cutie! I'm so thankful for my little man.

How do you get a baby?

Yesterday on my way home from picking up Landon from kindergarten we had this unexpected conversation:

Landon: "Mom, how do you get a baby?"

Me: "Hmmm....[trying to decide what to tell him]. Well, you have to be married."

L: "And then what do you do?"

M: "Why are you asking? Did someone talk to you about it or something?" [I was obviously trying to avoid having this conversation with my 5 year old!]

L: "No I was just thinking about it."

M: "Oh. Well....we will talk about it when you're older." [I was pretty sure this answer wouldn't satisfy his inquiring mind, but to my happy surprise it did!]

End of conversation. Hooraaaay! And what makes a 5 year old little boy think about these kinds of things anyways?!

CTR or Supergirl?

Last week Ava was wearing one of the two Supergirl shirts she has. We were driving her friend home from preschool and they were talking about the shirts they were wearing. Ava confidently proclaimed, "I'm wearing my CTR shirt. I have two CTR shirts." I just looked back at her shirt and laughed to myself. Apparently she thinks the Supergirl "S" shield looks like the CTR shield symbol. I didn't correct her because if she wants to think it's a "Choose The Right" shirt, by all means, she can be my guest! So cute! I love it!

Things I Want to Remember...

Sometimes being a stay-at-home-mom is a very challenging job...well, okay...more than sometimes! ;-) But it's moments like these that keep me going and I want to remember them forever. #1. A couple weeks ago, Justin was at his meeting before church, so I enlisted Hannah's help in getting the kids ready. She's a very good helper! Ava wasn't wanting to get her dress on, so Hannah managed to try and force her and was in the "bossy, oldest sibling" mode. She came to me frustrated and complaining that she couldn't get Ava to put her dress on. I told her, "Maybe if you take a different approach to it she would be more willing to get dressed." Then I gave her an example, "Ava I know you don't want to get your dress on. I didn't want to either. But sometimes we just have to do things we don't want to do", etc., etc. talking in a nice calm tone of voice. Hannah said she couldn't remember what I said, but she still managed to come up with her own way of getting Ava to put her dress on. Let's just say it completely blew me away that she came up with this all on her own! She took Ava into their closet and then shut the door and said, "How do you feel right now, Ava?" Ava responded, "Scared and sad." Hannah replied, "That's just like when you don't listen to mommy it makes you sad." Then she brought Ava out of the closet and asked her how she felt now. Ava said, "Happy." Hannah said, "That's just like when you listen to mommy by getting your dress on...it makes you happy." Ava's response was, "Oh. Okay." And off she went and immediately got her dress on. Wow! Kids are so simple sometimes. Go Hannah! I was so proud of her! #2. That same Sunday when we got home from church and were eating dinner, I was asking the kids what they learned about in their classes. Ava and Landon have pretty typical 3 and 4 year old responses most of the time, "We had a snack and colored a picture", etc. But today Landon had a much different response. He told us, "I learned about Jesus when he was on the boat with his disciples. Jesus was sleeping and there was a storm, so the disciples had to wake Jesus up. Then he woke up and put his hand up and stopped the storm." Justin and I looked at eachother in shock and wondered who he was and what he had done with our little 4 year old, Landon. We quickly regained our composure and praised Landon for remembering the story with such great detail. I was so excited to know that he is actually starting to learn and get some gospel knowledge. #3. One recent Sunday the kids decided they wanted to play "Nativity", like you would play "house". I thought that was a creative idea, and Justin and I gladly joined in. Landon was a wiseman, so he excitedly exclaimed, "I'm a wiseman, and the wiseman built his house on a rock, so my house is on a rock!" OH MY GOSH!!! HILARIOUS!!! I thought that was so adorable, and I definitely got a good laugh out of it! What a little thinker he is! #4. This morning Ava came up to me and randomely said, "Girls are pretty, and boys are cool. I'm a girl, so I'm pretty." Thank you for that profound information! Oh how my kids make me smile! :-)

Easter Saturday

Our Easter Saturday always consists of fun-filled commercial Easter activities. I wish I would've been better about taking more pictures this year. :-( I always love watching the kids dye eggs, do an Easter egg hunt and look through their baskets. So much fun and excitement!

And here's one I captured of the cute boy enjoying all the festivities.

I am truly grateful to have this special holiday to celebrate my Savior's atonement and especially His resurrection. I look forward to tomorrow when we get to truly focus on that and feel the special spirit that always exists on Easter Sunday.

9 years and counting!

Happy Anniversary to the man I love most! Crazy that it's almost been a decade that we've been together! How time flies! I am so grateful that we got to go celebrate this last weekend. Today I gave Justin this fun gift basket. It was filled with lots of different items, and on each item I wrote a note that said, "I love you because..." (then filled in something that related to that item. For example, a pair of warm socks said, "I love you because you're willing to keep my feet warm at night." A can of spray starch said, "I love you because you do the ironing." Etc., etc.Thanks to the Dating Divas website for awesome ideas! Justin really liked it.

Family Restaurant

Tonight the kids wanted to set up a family "restaurant". We thought it sounded like a fun family activity. They named the restaurant and made a sign.

And ofcourse set the table nice.

We all played the parts: chefs, servers, customers, etc. The kids loved it! It was a fun time together as a family, and I'm sure we will do it many more times since everyone enjoyed it so much.

Anniversary Weekend

Our 9th anniversary is this week, so we decided to have a little time away to celebrate. Justin planned everything and surprised me. It was such a relaxing, romantic and fun weekend to reconnect with my man! Our first stop was to check into our hotel. This is the bed and breakfast we stayed at on our wedding night. We love it!

Next, we headed to our all-time favorite restaurant for dinner. Seriously, it doesn't get better than the Melting Pot!

Our last destination for the evening was to a musical. We watched "Forbidden Broadway", which is spoofs off of a whole bunch of different musicals. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!! We loved it!

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast in bed.(Don't judge...I just woke up.)

Our room was called "Dream", and yes, everything about it is like a dream.

Then later we went to the Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!!

Our final stop before going back home was to the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra. It really wasn't that exciting, actually. I could've just as easily listened to the music on the radio, but it was still nice to spend time with Justin.

All in all, it was a perfect weekend away spending quality time just the two of us. I loved every minute of it. I feel so blessed that we were able to get away and enjoy eachother's company and celebrate the life we've created together for 9 years now.

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like....

NASTY!!!