Day 2 with G & G Wilson

After a long night with Landon who is in the process of cutting 3 teeth we were up early so grandma and grandpa could take us out to breakfast at IHop. The kids were super excited to go to a "special place" for breakfast and get smiley face pancakes. The pancakes were huge and we were all surprised that Mason ate the entire thing while trying every flavor of syrup available! Emma was also a good eater eating about half of hers and Landon was loving getting fed pieces from both grandma and me. Following breakfast we headed back home, Landon went down for his morning nap and the rest of played outside in the front yard for awhile. Then grandma and grandpa took Mason and Emma to the park for awhile. Steven had to run into work for awhile after we had breakfast, but he was home well before lunch time and even made it in time to play catch with the kids. Mason will be starting T-Ball next week and my parents were practicing hitting, catching and throwing with him.

 Playing catch

 Mason pulls some of the funniest faces when he's getting ready to catch the ball!

  He actually has a pretty good arm on him and was even doing pretty good catching the ball too.

Emma flying high with daddy, she was loving it!

 Emma and grandma riding the wiggle racer

  A little before 1:30 I put Landon and Emma down for naps and then our baby-sitter Berkleah arrived so that we could attend the temple with my parents.

 In hindsight I should've had her come 15 minutes earlier so that we could've made it to the 2:00 session, but since we didn't make it to that one we did the 2:30 session. It was a neat experience to be there with my parents and I'm thankful for their suggestion that we go while they were here because we haven't been great about going every month and we needed a little push! It was also neat to hear more about their experiences as temple workers at the Manti temple. It was close to 4:30 when we left the temple and headed to Olive Garden for an early dinner. Originally I had thought about taking the kids with us to dinner, but in the end I'm glad we decided to leave them home with the sitter because it was nice to have dinner with just adults. It was a nice double date and break for Steven and I to be out without the kids.

Landon at 10 Months!

How is my baby boy 10 months old already! He sure is getting big and is keeping us on our toys now that he is officially crawling and on the move!

Not only is he crawling now, but he is also starting to pull himself up to standing too. I think it will still be awhile before he walks though. 

His schedule remains about the same, however he has decreased the amount of milk he's been drinking and has been more interested in regular table food versus baby food. Regular food that he's had so far include; bananas, avocado, pancakes, bread, crackers, cheerios and of course ice cream! 

He's still taking 3 naps a day, but we are getting closer to getting rid of the evening one. He is also still nursing once during the night. I was actually planning to make this stop this week, but he is in the process of cutting 3 teeth on top and has been more irritable than normal and waking up a lot at night. I just keep telling myself that he'll eventually figure out how to sleep through the night, and until then I'll just continue to be sleep deprived.

I realized the other day that he doesn't use his binky like our other two have. He pretty much only uses his wub-a-nub binky during nap time and bedtime and the rest of the day never uses one. He will use a regular binky in the car sometimes, but other than that he's never interested in it, which is just fine with me.

I was looking back at what Mason was doing when he was 10 months old and I had written this,

 "Another thing I wanted to make sure and write down is what he does when getting put down. As we walk into his bedroom I give him his binky and turn on his music, while I do this he immediately lays his head down on my shoulder, because he knows it's time for bed. It's the cutest, sweetest thing ever! Then I lay him down on his back, give him his blankets and he usually grabs his blue one and rubs it on his cheek." 

 I laughed because this is EXACTLY what I do with Landon and he does the very same thing! Almost instantly after I give him his binky he lays his head down on me and it is one of my very favorite things that he does! I feel like it's the one time he is a cuddler even if it's only for a minute before I lay him down. 

He still loves his baths and splashes like crazy! I'm looking forward to taking him swimming this summer. 

He loves to follow his siblings around now and has earned the nickname "wreck it ralph" because he is always destroying the things they build.

When outdoors I almost always end up pulling dirt or wood chips from his mouth, and he's even knocked over our indoor plant too to get to dirt. 

He's wearing 12-18 month old clothes and still in size 4 diapers.

He's also a pretty good little traveler now, and does well in his car seat for trips. 

Well that's our boy at 10 months old! Can't believe he'll be turning one in just 2 short months!!

Day 1 with G &G Wilson

My parents arrived this morning around 10:30 and the kids were super excited to see them! We only told them a week ago that they were coming and they have been on the countdown ever since. My parents brought them each a new toy, but Emma quickly refused her's since it was the same Sophia toy that our neighbor Anne just gave her yesterday for her birthday. After a few minutes of Mason playing with his new toy and giving my mom her late mothers day gift Mason was already itching to get grandpa outside to see him ride his bike and go to the park. The kids also really wanted to go to the jump zone with my parents so after we had lunch and before nap time we headed over there only to find out that it didn't open until 2! The kids were so disappointed, and I had to promise we'd go back later. While we were out though we swung by Kmart so that grandma could exchange Emma's toy and she came back with an Anna figurine that Emma was much happier about. We headed back home, laid the little down for naps and then my parents ran back downtown to go shopping for some clothes for my dad. While they were gone Mason helped me get stuff ready for dinner so it would be ready to go when we got back from the jump zone. Landon didn't have that great of a nap, but Emma slept till after 4 so by the time she got up and I fed Landon it was around 4:30 before we got back to the Jump Zone. The kids played hard there and by 5:15 they were nice and sweaty!
 Landon was also getting pretty tired by this point so we started getting ready to go, but first grandpa treated the kids to ice cream sandwiches. When we were done we headed home and were surprised to come home to Steven already being home and prepping dinner. We grilled chicken and pineapple cabobs, but they took a little longer than anticipated, so we didn't sit down for dinner till after 6:30. While Steven finished up I hurry and put Mason and Emma in for quick showers and got them ready for bed. By the time dinner was done I think we were all ready for bed, but the kids went down right away while we waited a little while longer.
Playing a board game with them. 

Full Moon

Getting ready for bath time and I couldn't help myself but take a picture of this cute, full moon! 

I just love all his chub and little dimply bum!

MINIVAN!!

Since it was Memorial Day yesterday Steven and I both had the day off from work and Sunday we decided that maybe we'd use the day to go van shopping down in SLC. I've been wanting a minivan for awhile now, but I've been trying to be patient and wait it out. However, Steven started seriously talking about it Sunday and I figured I had to jump on it while he was considering it! We decided to leave early yesterday morning and headed down to his parents house where we dropped the kids off with his mom who graciously agreed to watch them for us while we shopped around. 

The kids loaded up in the Escape for the last time. Poor Mason has been so squished between the car seats!

We went to the Larry H. Miller tent sale at the expo center first and walked around their lot, but they didn't have anything we were interested in and their greasy salesmen were really rubbing me the wrong way so we didn't stick around there long. Next we headed to downtown SLC to Mark Miller Toyota, which is the same place Steven's parents just bought their new minivan at a couple months ago. Our salesman Jeff was really nice, and wasn't pushy at all which I liked. They had about 5 different vans that we looked at, but right away we were drawn to a 2011 dark gray one that had all the features that were on our wish list including; power doors, DVD player, and leather seats. It also had a lot of other features that we loved including: window screens built into the doors, a rear view back up camera, fold down seats, and lots of storage. We took it for a test drive and came back thinking we would test drive another one, but the more we talked about it we decided we really weren't interested in any of the other ones since this was the only one that had everything we were looking for. Then it was time to figure out the price and do all the paperwork! They actually price their cars pretty close to the Kelly Blue Book price which didn't leave a whole lot of room to get them to come down on the price. However, we did get them to go up on our Ford Escape that we were trading in and also to give us the extra middle seat which was missing for free.

Bye bye Escape

 I'm not sure how much use that extra seat will even get, but it makes it an 8 passenger van instead of 7 and I wanted to have it so I was happy. We were there over 4 hours doing all the paperwork and stuff and I was SO glad that we didn't have the kids with us for all of that because it would have been a nightmare! We were so excited to get back to Cory and Terries and show the kids our new purchase! They were most excited about all the extra room they'd have and of course the DVD player! It really is super nice and in really good condition for having 66000 miles on it. 

Hello beautiful minivan!

I know Steven isn't as thrilled about having a minivan as I am, but he knows our growing family needs it and it will be so nice to be able to carpool with other moms for activities. I'm super stoked about it, now I just need to get used to driving it!!!
Tonight Steven went out to set up the DVD player and they all ended up having a little movie party in the van for a bit.

Play Date

Today after Mason came home from preschool his friends Joel and Ethan came over the play for the afternoon. 

They had a picnic outside. 

They played the Wii, played outside riding bikes, ran around playing good guys vs bad guys and really just had a ton of fun together. I'm so glad that he has some good friends that live close by. 

Later this evening Emma was being a silly ghost underneath this blanket. 

She was quite hilarious as she kept walking into things because she couldn't see!

This little boy has just been so happy today and has been funny to watch chase after his older siblings and try to be involved with whatever they're doing. I just love this happy boy!

Mason's Preschool Graduation

I feel like it was just yesterday that I was taking Mason's first day of preschool picture and now here he is graduating! His preschool class put on a cute little program for all the parents and even wore little cap and gowns for the ceremony. He looked so cute and he did such a good job in his program.

 Receiving his preschool diploma!

 Mason and his best friend at school Rylan

 Moving his tassle

 Throwing their cap!

 After the program we had to make sure to get a picture with his amazing teachers Mrs. Jen and Mrs. Angee.

They were so cute to make sure he looked just right for the picture!

 The best preschool teachers!

How can he be old enough to be going to Kindergarten!! This seems like it has all been happening so fast! I know he's ready though and so excited to ride a bus to school!

 Mason and daddy!

 Mason and mommy!

 His diploma

 The graduation program

10 Year Anniversary!

It is absolutely crazy to me that Steven and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary today! It seems like it has gone by so fast, but then when I look back at all that has happened in the last 10 years I'm amazed at how far we have come as a couple and a family. It's not something I talk about ever, but 6 years ago I wasn't sure our marriage was going to last. We were in a real rough patch, but thankfully with the help of our Savior, an awesome bishop and a lot of work on both our parts we were able to overcome our trials. Although that was probably one of the hardest times my life I'm personally so grateful for the trials that we have gone through, because it has made us so much stronger as a couple. I feel so blessed to have been married to such an amazing man for the last 10 years! He seriously is the best husband and father I could have ever asked for! He works so hard for our family and always makes sure that we have all that we need and want. He is always so helpful around the house and is 100% a hands on dad. He is 100% my best, and most trusted friend and I would be lost without him. I could not ask for a better life, I have an amazing husband and 3 beautiful, healthy children. Life is so good. I love you Steven! Happy 10 year Anniversary!

Unfortunately, with Steven's busy season at work starting this week and other activities going on today we didn't really get a chance to celebrate, but Steven did bring this beautiful bouquet of flowers home to me! Such a sweet man!

Mason's Preschool Class

Jump Zone

My neighbor and good friend Anne Hill's sister has been on life support down at McKay Dee hospital for the last week or so after having some complications following surgery. She has 5 kids and done of her boy is Mason's age and he came over to play yesterday. He and Mason get along well and I like that he has an imagination and shows Mason new things to play, like dressing up as heroes!

 Today we took the kids to the Jump Zone with Anne's kids and her sisters kids and they had a blast. This was the first time our kids had been there and they were in heaven!

We realized our little Emma is quite the little monkey and daredevil!

 She liked the giant foam pit. 

 They both loved climbing up the tramp

 Trying to keep Landon entertained was a little more difficult. 

 Sorry all these pictures are super blurry, I only had my phone with me.