Sick

It's one thing to be sick...it's another when mommy AND daddy are sick. A had the stomach flu on our frive home so it was no surprise when I felt sick to my stomach Sunday afternoon and Daddy got sick a few hours later. Fortunately our dinner guests were understanding! Daddy crashed and I had bedtime duty, he took breakfast duty, I drove perfectly healthy girls to school and dealt with a sick Mg in the morning, Daddy took afternoon duty and then I got M from school and picked up a few groceries (things that sounded good to me and that daddy thought would help him feel better) and then we made it through the evening. E was starting to feel sick tonight and we're praying M stays healthy enough to go on her field trip tomorrow!!!! Our family rarely gets a stomach bug though so we're grateful for that and, other than daddy, we've all had a REALLY mild case.

Disneyland!

I don't have very many pictures yet - most of the pictures I have are from the first day there and they are on Daddy's computer (and he's sick in bed so I won't be getting those soon!). Until then here are a few...
Our princesses! We had a FANTASTIC trip! It went so well!!! The girls had matching minnie mouse shirts the first day (6 matching girls gets a lot of attention!!!). Then they all got matching princess minnie mouse hats! It was too cute!!! This was actually taken at the hotel just before we left when I realized I didn't have a picture of them with their hats. M is also wearing her purse - grandma made 6 matching purses for them to hold snacks and such in. They were quite the cute group!!!
Like I said, I don't have a lot of pictures (it was hard to get the camera out while keeping track of 4 girls!). This is from the continental breakfast at the hotel. First Daddy wore the hat, then it made it's way towards A and looked too cute. She was more interested in breakfast!


She didn't realize the donut tastes better than the plate!!!

Then she decided maybe the table would be better!!!
M took this picture for us...apparently Daddy has always wanted a light saber so he went all out and got one that pops out with the touch of a button and lights up and makes light saber sounds...he's been grinning a huge grin ever since and loves the opportunity to get it out! I decided since my name means princess I needed a tiara (especially with so many princess parties in our house!

We had just a fantastic trip...I hope to get more pictures up soon!!!

On Our Way

We are off for a great week at Disneyland with my parents and sister's family! (My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in the beginning of April so we'll go with them a different time). We leave Monday and drive back Friday. I'm not sure if M is more excited to see her cousin or to go to Disneyland!!! It's been a busy week - including x-rays on M's elbow which she fell on during school (she's fine) but we're getting close to being packed and on our way! Hooray for perfect weather and fun family time! Look for pictures in a week :)

A Not So Reverent Sabbath

Something got into Daddy tonight. I don't know what...but we sure had an entertaining dinner! Dinner was about done and it was time to give A her rice cereal...something she loves (don't you love the cereal falling off her chin!)While I was mixing up the rice cereal I asked if anyone wanted some. M said yes so I told her I was bringing it over for her and I started hearing lots of "yuck" and "ewws!" I told her she said she wanted some and I put it on her plate and we heard lots more "yucks" mixed in with giggles and E telling M that she was a baby while giggling...the girls were starting to get quite silly and to be honest their giggles were adorable (Mg fell asleep on the couch just before dinner and slept through the fun). As Daddy continued to feed Amy this started happening with every bite...

Notice the smile creeping in on Daddy's face while he *tries* to look at her as if she is silly. So quite naturally he offered her some and the girls about died with giggles as M scooted back.

This continued on several times...Daddy would fill up the spoon, go towards A and then quickly towards M (with squeals each time). Daddy tried to show her how to keep her mouth open so the food would go in...this is my favorite picture!!!!! (Now WHO does M look like??)

Of course the giggles are getting out of control by this time from M and E (and mommy!) and Daddy is trying SO hard to be "serious." Then Daddy got his "imp" look on (and he wonders where the girls get it from!!!)

I love this picture. Just before I took it he said quietly to me "I really want to start a food fight but I don't want to clean up the mess." Knowing that he truly hates messes I knew I didn't have to worry about rice cereal and chow mein flying through the air but he could NOT wipe the imp grin off of his face and I knew we were in trouble.

E went over to Daddy to get into the action and Daddy put A down and M immediately got under the table with the best belly laughs I have heard in a long time as Daddy caught Emily and began the tickles...

He started tickling M under the table and then dragged her out and decided she WOULD eat some baby cereal and I don't think any of us have laughed that hard in a long time!!!!She is squirming and trying not to laugh but had to let it out eventually and Daddy got the cereal in and let her go (she went after a napkin to clean up!!) and caught E to do the same thing. These crazy girls decided to hide under the table again and we went through the process a couple of times and I managed to get a few pictures while videotaping at the same time and tried not to laugh too much so I didn't shake the camera!!!! Go Daddy!!! I think we all laughed over it the rest of the night. And somehow Mg was able to SLEEP through all of this right next to the action on the cough!!! A wasn't real happy having her meal interupted but it was lots of fun! Thanks Daddy for the entertainment!! (As I write this he is fast asleep on the couch where he has been for the last hour...it takes lots of work to tease!!!!) We love you Daddy!

Little moments

A few fun things lately...

Our friends let us borrow their jumper...my little brother loved these things as a baby so I Was excite to try. The first order of business was to get it assembled and Daddy had a cute little helper...

Then A got to try it...she hasn't learned to jump in it yet but she enjoys being in there and she's starting to get the idea! (she's figured out how to get her arms out now :) )

This last Tuesday the Tour of California bike tour came through Davis so of course we had to go check it out! The race actually went right past M's school so M got to walk over with her class and watch. I took the other kids to the library for awhile and then we went over to get a place to watch. We happened to end up right next to my "favorite old ladies" from church and we had a great time. E had a new book from school that she proudly read to my "favorite old ladies" and we had some library books to keep us entertained as well. For some reason the race was REALLY late and we waited around for an hour but the kids were SO well behaved and we had a good time, especially once all the police motorcycles and such started coming by!

The race was really neat but REALLY fast! There were a ton of bike racers but they came in a tight pack and it was over quickly. But we enjoyed all the police motorcycles before and all the "helper" cars in the back and had fun.

Mg

It's so rare to have pictures of this little one!! I had to cheat a little to get them. Mg started a preschool last week with some friends from church. She's growing up fast but still loves to be held and I love that! To get the pictures for her first day of preschool I had to run around and let her chase me then all of a sudden go really fast and get ahead, turn around and shoot the pictures. The things I do for pictures is pathetic!

go ahead and try to take my picture :)

"I'm going to get you!"

I love this kid!

Random Thoughts

Daddy and I were trying to coordinate schedules and discovered that he forgot to tell me about an experiment he was running late one day. I reminded him that it really helps when he communicates those sorts of things to me and he said "sometimes I forget to communicate with myself." I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!!!!

Yesterday our ward had time reserved at the dry pack cannery and we found out that kids who can be trusted were welcome to help. So we packed everyone up and Daddy was wonderful and played with Mg and A in the parking lot while M and E helped me...they were WONDERFUL!!! I was hoping they would be willing to try but expected that they would get bored after a few minutes and I would send them out to play with Daddy. They stayed in there the whole hour with their hairnets and gloves on busily scooping food into cans and keeping us stocked with empty cans. It was so fun and I was so proud of my little helpers! They're excited to go do it again :) Since we were already in Sacamento we had looked up and went to a park pretty close by called McKinnley park and had a great time together - it was such a beautiful sunny day! They had fun on the playground but then we got out the bat and ball that we brought - there was an empty baseball diamond - a "real" one with bases to run to and everything and the girls had SO much fun hitting the ball and having Daddy chase them to a base. When both girls were on a base Daddy would pitch the ball to himself and when he hit it the girls would run while he chased his own ball and then ran after them. Sweet Mg had a great time running bases when ever she felt like it and which ever direction and order pleased her at the moment :) We had left our stroller at home to fit the food storage in our trunk so I was assigned cheerleader and baby holder duty :) We had a great time and ended with a little frisbee. Then we made Daddy's day and stopped at Fry's (his favorite electronic store) so he could drool over hdtv's and all sorts of stuff and tell me all of his dreams for a future house. We had a great day.

Today was also a good day. E read a scripture for Primary and did such a good job! One of our goals this year was to switch from just telling a scripture story to the kids before bedtime to actually reading it out of the scriptures. We had planned to still show them the picture of the story we were reading and slowly make it through the Book of Mormon but "The Friend" has a reading program for the year that we switched to (January's). They have selected chapters to read each month so you make it through an abbreviated version of the Book of Mormon by the years end. It has been so wonderful - my mom got them each their own scriptures (with their name on it!) and each night they grab them and we sit and read...I am amazed that M can read most of the words by herself and E is excited to read all of the words she knows. Tonight I was remembering one of the first times I got to read the Book of Mormon by myself for family scripture time and remembering how proud I was that I was big enough to read and it just made me so happy to watch my girls read. It's those moments that keep you going! How grateful I am for a wonderful upbringing - thanks mom and dad!!!! You guys are incredible. It is certainly these moments when you realize what is most important and what brings true happiness.

Cute kids

Here's a few random shots. My mom made these life sized dolls for the kids and they have elastic on the bottom of their feet and on their hands so they can dance with them - it is a riot to watch them!! E loves dressing the doll up almost more than actually dancing and she often has her doll in her favorite clothes (and pj's!)

When we were opening wedding presents after our Utah reception Daddy one of our gifts was a deep fryer. My first thought was "that will be the first thing that gets returned!" however Daddy was SO excited! I didn't even know what the thing was but quickly learned that Daddy grew up with homemade french fries and onion rings every Sunday after church and that the tradition started with his grandpa. Not only did we keep the gift but we have since gone through about 5 more deep friers!!!! (and the annoying part is that his cholesterol is LOWER than mine even though I only eat a few of his fries!!!) Here Daddy is showing the girls how to make donuts for family home evening!

This is how my oldest celebrated groundhog's day...by being a groundhog herself!!! Never a dull moment around here!!!

Saturday afternoon

Two Saturday's ago Daddy needed to go to Sacramento to pick something up. We had had rain literally for 2 weeks straight and this Saturday the sun had decided to peek out so we decided to go as a family with Daddy and then go out to enjoy the American River. We had such a wonderful time! We brought the girls rain boots and they really enjoyed the water!

Enjoying the stroller ride

Daddy had a lot of fun showing the girls how to skip rocks. He was quite good! They didn't quite get the hang of it but they had LOTS of fun throwing rocks into the river!

Guess who fell in!!! E and M both enjoyed "falling" in (Daddy remembers "accidently" falling in on trips as a kid!). Luckily Mommy was well prepared and had dry clothes for everyone :)

She is too cute (and actually smiled for a picture!!)

This is my favorite picture...on our way back we could hear their boots full of water...look at how much water we had to dump out!!! We had a great day!

Isn't she adorable! I'm so lucky to have such a great family!

Our Little Scooter

A is starting to move around a little. She just has to be different...she is the first of our babies to enjoy being on her tummy. She loves it! So much that she hasn't learned to roll from her tummy to her back. I've noticed lately that she has been moving a little bit from where I put her but today she really figured it out...

When she started out she was playing with the duck on the left. I took this picture after she made it to the floor. After I moved her she continued scooting all around...time to baby proof!!!

She is such a doll!!! She still makes the sweetest sounds and absolutely loves people. She is finally healthy and we're almost done with her antibiotics....HOORAY!! I don't know who hates the meds more - us having to shove them down her throat or her having to taste it. Either way we'll be glad to be done!!!