Easter

Life is so busy! Like, crazy busy! But this year, I wanted to celebrate Easter and remember its true meaning. So I bought some plastic eggs, each containing a story about Christ while he lived on earth and an objects related to that story. We missed some nights, but caught up the following night. The kids were still super excited about the eggs, and the candy, and the Easter Bunny. But I hope to continue this tradition every year, and I hope that they'll remember it when they have kids of their own.

We may have waited until the day before Easter, but we dyed our eggs... my favorite way... shaving cream and color dye. The eggs look super nasty from these pictures, but they actually turned out really good. And a lot lighter than we expected.

All week, I laid in bed at night and thought to myself, "I need to take Alexis to the mall to get a picture with the Easter Bunny. It's her First Easter." And all week, I forgot to do it. So when we went to U Bounce on Saturday (yes the Saturday before Easter), and the Easter Bunny was there, it was a blessing. The boys didn't care to get their picture taken with the bunny, but Kendall wanted to. And surprisingly, Alexis didn't freak out. She screams anytime anyone picks her up or anytime I set her down and walk away, but not this time. Maybe the bunny was super soft... Oh, and I forgot my phone at home that day, so I had to ask a stranger to take a picture for me and text it to me. Haha.

The Easter Bunny was here! And he delivered some yummy goodies for the kids. I think next year I'll go back to filling their baskets with socks and undies, but I had just bought some a couple of months prior to Easter, so it didn't make sense to buy more.

Thank you Pinterest! And this one wasn't a Pinterest fail, so that's even better.

Since Paul and LeiLani moved into their new home, they have THE best backyard. So it made sense to do the Easter Egg Hunt there. Our backyard currently has a big hole in the ground, for the pool, so it probably wasn't the safest choice for 8 kids and 2 babies. The kids had a blast with their cousins and their cousins' cousins.

Our Easter pictures turned out like this... with Alexis freaking out... or with Kendall pouting and spreading out her legs. This is the picture that made it to Facebook and the blog. Sorry Alexis.

We did have a more fun photo session later that day, with empty egg and a cute baby who happened to look exactly like Alexis.

This one was taken the following Sunday, because I was really hoping we'd have better luck, and Alexis seemed to be in a good mood. But Taylor's eyes are closed and I'm not sure what Kendall is doing. Ugh. It's impossible to get a decent picture around here. Then again, maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist. I should just lower my expectations. Better yet, I shouldn't have any. Anyway, you kids will look back at these pictures and be like, "Why couldn't I just smile with my eyes open?" Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing...

Utah cousins time

Spring Break in Utah means Cousins Time in Arizona. 

The Hights arrived on Sunday (General Conference Sunday) and spent the night at our place. They spent the rest of the week at Paul and LeiLani's, who were going to Hawaii for a Conference. The Hights stayed there to babysit Kai, Luke, and Eli while their parents were gone. But even though they weren't staying at our house, we saw them every single day after school. We even skipped school one day that week. Whoops.

That was Monday. We didn't do anything special or cool during the day. We just kind of hung out. Actually, I felt kind of bad because the kids were probably bored to death. I mean, we blew giant bubbles. And we played at the playground for a little while. We also played cards for a good amount of time. That evening, though, was the last before Paul and LeiLani left, so we went to Culinary Dropout, ate some food, and played some games.

On Tuesday, we accidentally went to Flip Side and scored on a Special Tuesday and Wednesday deal where you can get unlimited plays on the video games or unlimited action games (like the bump cars and lazer tag). We got action cards for all the kids but only 2 for the video games, then the adults went around swiping those cards for all the kids. It turned out to be a sweet deal!

I guess I didn't take any pictures on Wednesday. We basically just went to Paul and LeiLani's house, and the adults cooked while the kids played in the pool then the playroom.
We celebrated Spencer's birthday Thursday because it was a good day to skip school. Friday was Spencer's actual birthday, but the boys had a field trip at the Aquarium and they would have been sad to miss out on it. Plus Lily and Marcus took Spencer out on a hike and lunch, so it didn't make sense to miss school to not spend time with Spencer.
Anyway, so Thursday, Logan woke up with swollen lymph nodes. A few minutes later I got an e-mail from the school nurse saying that Strep was going around the school. So I took him in and fortunately he tested negative for it. After his appointment we met with everyone else at the movie theater to watch Beauty and the Beast. Then we went to Urban Jungle and let the kids go wild for 2 hours. For dinner we went back to Paul and LeiLani's house for pot stickers and noodles, Spencer's choice.
And William wasn't around because he was at a Conference in San Francisco.

Friday was the day of the Carnival at Haley Elementary. I'm so glad our cousins wanted to go to it because the kids would have been bummed to miss out on it, even if it was to spend time with their cousins. The kids loved the petting zoo, the inflatables, the food trucks, and the game truck.

There was an Easter Egg Hunt at Layton Lakes on Saturday. 4,000 eggs. And I brought 6 kids with me: Charlie, Kai, Logan, Taylor, Kendall, and Alexis. That's all that could fit into my van. The hunt was over in just about one minute. We also played in the pool because it was warm out. Well, when I say 'we', I mean the kids. The water was way too cold for me and Alexis.

It's fun when the cousins come to play with us. I wish they lived closer so that we could see them more often. But we average about twice a year, which is okay, I guess. Until next time...

Alexis: 8 months

This sweet girl... I can't get enough of her. I want to kiss her, snuggle with her, and hold her all the time. I really do!

I have a confession. This spoiled little lady has been sleeping in our bed. I know, she's totally rotten. You see, my heart wants to be with her all the time, but my head knows it's a bad idea. I've been trying to convince William to put her in her own bed since she was 4 months. I think I even tried for one night, but she screamed so hard for so long that I gave in and brought her back into our bed. William isn't complaining. He has actually loved having her in our bed. When she's awake, she wacks him if he even tried to kiss her. But in her sleep, she doesn't fight it and he can kiss her as much as he wants, which is a lot. 

This week, Alexis will be 9 months, and logically it is time for her to sleep in her own bed, in her own room. So this week, I went for it and put her down in her bed. She cried for 30 minutes. I went in, held her, comforted her, and put her back down. She woke up 2 more times that night. The following night she didn't cry at all when I put her down. And she only woke up once. And she naps in there no problemo either. I feel good. I feel good. Thank you, sweet angel, for letting mommy sleep. Now if only Kendall could stay in her own bed, because since Alexis has been in hers, we've been finding Kendall in ours. 

This month, Alexis has started moving more and more. She doesn't crawl, per say, but she scoots her bum and definitely gets around.

Her favorite food is still milk from mommy. She'll eat baby food, but she'd rather have the milk. She also eats puffs but isn't interested in eating normal food, like what we eat. She'll eat paper any day, though.

I love that she sticks her tongue out when she is focused. And she wrinkles her nose when she smiles. She wacks people when they kiss her against her will. She doesn't like being held by anyone other than mommy. Sometimes daddy can hold her, but it doesn't happen much. She loves watching other kids, especially babies. She smiles at strangers, which always gets her a "Oh my goodness, she is soooooo cute!"And if she doesn't want something that you give her, or if she gets bored of something that she is holding, she throws it. No, she doesn't just drop it, she actually throws it. And if you mistake her throw for a drop and hand that thing back to her, she'll grab it and throw it again. And again. And again. Do you get it now???

We are so blessed to have her in our lives. Before she was born, I couldn't picture my life with another kid. But now that she's here, I can't picture my life without her. She's so fun. And when she's not with me, I miss her. Like right now, she's sleeping and I miss her. I just want to crawl into her crib and cuddle with her. Mwah!

Funny story

The following story happened back in January, I think. I wanted to make sure I wrote it down because it was so funny... and disgusting... and a true test of my parenting skills, kinda.

I heard the 3 older kids giggling in the boys' bathroom. Why were all 3 of them in the bathroom at the same time? We have 5 bathrooms, so there is really no need for more than 1 person at a time to be in there. I figured they were probably being inappropriate with their privates, so I decided to investigate. What I found was shocking! It was gross! And at the moment, I froze. Because I didn't know how to react. Should I scream? Should I laugh? Should I cry?... Taylor was using the potty for his business. Logan was peeing in the bathtub (because the potty was being used, duh). And Kendall was squatting over the sink, peeing as well (because the potty and the bathtub were both being used, double duh). I just shook my head and walked away. Speechless. How do these 3 even come up with that stuff?!?!

Saint Patrick's Day

Those naughty leprechauns... They turned our milk green! And by default, our crepes turned green, too! And then Kendall decided she doesn't like green, and she doesn't want to embrace the Irish traditions, so she wore her American rompers. Haha. Silly girl!

Disneyland (Daddy-Taylor trip)

Over Christmas break, William wanted to go on a trip, but I was hesitant to take Alexis on vacation anywhere. So William took Logan to New York City. He picked it. That's where he wanted to go. And he loved it. So over Spring Break, we thought Taylor deserved a daddy-son trip, too. He chose to go to Disneyland. Yippee, that's a trip they could drive to. Taylor had a lot of fun, but although he speaks a lot of smack, some of the pictures below demonstrates that he got a little scared. Haha. We love to tease him for it. He's cool with it. Some of those rides really were scary.

Day 1: Drive to Anaheim, chill, and eat.

Day 2: California Adventure

Day 3: Disneyland (that first pic, though -- haha)

Day 4: Disneyland

Day 5: Goofy's kitchen and dive home