Sleepy

Aria tries to fight naps, but she clearly still NEEDS to take a nap.

Meaning Our evening is going to be rough if she successfully avoids a nap.

One day she apparently decided she didn't want to sleep so she got up to read a book.

Clearly she wasn't tired

New School Year

We started a new school year here on September 3rd

I decided to get some pictures

Parker

And Aria is starting homeschool this year too

Both of my 'big kids'

We've had a lot of fun homeschooling so far. 

I'm so glad we made this decision to teach our children at home and get to watch them learn and grow whie spending lots of time with them!

Goofy

We went to a cousins baptism and I tried to get a picture of my kids

Looks good

More Writing

I have posted things about Parker's writing before, so I'm sorry if you think it's boring to see it again, because I'm pretty sure I will never get tired of his cute little misspelling and messy writing.

A worksheet in his homeschool binder said to draw a picture of himself and then write about the picture:

"A bug in mie sok

I du not like 

the bug in mie sok"

Translates to: A bug in my sock, I do not like the bug in my sock. 

Can you see the bug in the sock in the picture too?

So hilarious!

One day we did an activity where we "drew on the sky' with these mirrors outside.

Here's what Parker did:

Close-ups:

I guy laughing while shooting a rocket

Someone yelling AAAAA as the rocket goes by

The rocket making a fire.

The cutest thing ever...

The best ever...

 Parker wrote a note and put it inside a little box and asked me to leave the room so he could deliver something.

He followed me out of the room and gave me the box, inside was this note:

"Mommy i will nevr frgit how moch i love you"

Of course meaning, 

Mommy, I will never forget how much I love you

And here are his notes he took during General Conference: 

(With translations)

"Jesis Criste is are Saevyeer"

Jesus Christ is our Savior

"We are all made with prfikt love"

We are all made with perfect love.

"Godis nevr hidin even if we are"

God is never hidden, even if we are

"If you needtd holp ask te mishunaeres"

If you need help, ask the missionaries.

"Evreebudee isnot prfikt

evreebudee hastto obay god"

Everybody is not perfect, everybody has to obey God.

I love his writing and I really loved the things he picked up and learned from Conference

15 Months

Terra went to her 15 month appointment and we got her most recent stats:

Height: 31": Just under 75%

Weight 20lbs: Just over 10%

Head circumference: Over 95%

So we've been seeing a trend for her of getting thinner, but at this appointment it broke into the 'underweight' category.

So we're are going to put some effort into getting her a few extra calories and some fattier food, since we don't eat a lot of fat.

She got a few shots which always breaks my heart.

A little about Terra at 15 months:

She is a pretty good eater. She loves oatmeal and smoothies, but her favorite is bananas. She is crazy about them- like screaming throwing herself on the ground because I only let her have 3 (yes, three whole bananas)  for breakfast.

Sneaking blackberries with Aria

Smoothie face, after she ditched the straw

She has learned to move the ladder over to the section of the counter where we keep bananas and can pull them apart and open them herself

Terra is so dramatic right now. Everything causes major tantrums and she gets super pissed pretty easily.
Unfortunately when she gets mad she bangs her head on things. A LOT. She has given herself some big bruises when she got mad and the surface she chose to bang her head on was too hard (concrete, the refrigerator, etc)

She is so smart- you can see her putting things together all the time.

 She is learning new words all the time and talks really well, she also has the CUTEST little voice.

She likes to read books and especially loves books with animals in them.

She already plays pretend quite a bit (I don't think my bigger kids did it this young) maybe it's because she has older siblings, but she pretends to eat and cook, take care of babies, pretends to sleep, drives cars and flies planes, and pretends to be a dog.

Terra loves to play with and copy her big brother and sister so she ends up participating in homeschool when she can:

We love this girl!

UTAH!!!

To escape the awful heat the kids and I said goodbye to Jason and headed up to stay with my sister in Utah for two weeks back in August.
My sister lives on campus at BYU. She has three kids also. SO there were 9 people (six of whom were 4 or younger) in a little three bedroom apartment... but guess what? WE HAD FUN!

Parker is already making plans for next summer and often says "The best, funnest thing to do in the summer is go to Utah!"

Here's a little rundown epic story of the trip-- along with pictures

Thursday-
I had packed everything in the van the night before so I just got up in the morning, buckled the kids in and pulled out around 4:30 am.
I picked up my 'cousin-in-law' Tina who was going up for a wedding that same weekend.
Our drive went pretty easily until we suddenly saw a sign that sad "Welcome to California" OOPS I had missed the turn off in Kingman! We asked the guy at the border crossing and he told us there would be a turnoff to get us to Vegas in just a few miles. Turns out we went about 70 miles out of our way, but the road was way faster so we probably only added 30 minutes to our trip.
Poor Parker gets motion sickness (inherited from me, I guess) and threw up a few times on the way- but now that he's bigger he can grab a bag and aim into it- so I saved lots of cleanup compared to previous car-vomit situations with him.
The kids did great, no DVDs and our iPod even quit working half way up- but they we so calm and well behaved. We really have good kids
We pulled in at exactly 5 pm AZ time- not too bad for three little kids with plenty of potty stops and an accidental detour to Cali.
The cousins were excited to see each other, and we had an easy evening- dinner, playing and off to bed.

Friday-
We just hung out and played down in the quad. We actually spent quite a bit of time this day trying to get kids to take a nap and to go to bed- the newness of sharing a room was still a bit too much for them.

Saturday-
We drove over to see bridal veil falls, to play and have a picnic.

On the bridge

They had a little thing where you could feed the fish and the kids were all over it!

After feeding the fish we went and had our picnic.

The 'big kids':

Parker and Aria under the falls, the water was FREEZING!

Sunday-
We went to church- and since we're at BYU we just walked over to the church building. Church was good, but Terra is wiggly, and since I'm usually in nursery I don't often have to deal with it she just plays in Nursery instead of getting crazy during class.
Anyway- Aria was sad and crying (not throwing a fit, just sad crying) through all of nursery. It broke my heart-  I guess being in a new church plus the fact that she's used to me being in nursery made it hard for her.

Monday-
Random but adorable pictures from Monday:

The day we got to Utah was my niece Minnette's birthday, and she had these bright pink balloons to celebrate.

I don't know why but little Terra with the matching shirt and balloon was so stinkin cute!

Silly kids

Terra, dancing on the kitchen table.

On Monday we also took a walk over to the Provo Temple and spent some time on Temple grounds.

The walk to the Temple:

On temple grounds:

Playing on the hill

Getting a drink:

Hiding under a giant tree

That night we went out to Chili's for dinner and went shopping while Katie's neighbor kept an eye on all the kids (who were in bed)

Tuesday-
We mostly sat around for the day, that evening the kids ate dinner as a picnic on the balcony.

And my girls after they were in their PJs for the night.

Aria, 'cooking'

I love babies with big books

This is around the time that my kids were all in the room with me. It started out that the four 'big kids' were sharing a room, and Jovi was in with her mom and Terra was in with me (in Jovi's room).

Well Parker was totally stressed out by the fact that the girls room was pitch black, so he spent a couple nights sharing a bed with me. But it turns out that Parker is a TERRIBLE person to share a bed with. I hardly slept, He kicks and rolls and everything else.

So I moved his mattress to the foot of my bed and he was crammed half way under my bed and right up against a bunch of stuff (closet, rocking chair, dresser) but it worked and he didn't mind. Then Aria was having trouble sleeping with the Willman girls so she came in and shared a bed with me (Terra was in a crib in the same room as me all along). 

Unlike Parker, Aria is awesome to share a bed with. 

She sleeps like a log. If she does happen to move and roll into you, you can just push her over and she'll sleep right through it. And she is just so sweet. She loves cuddles so she would roll over and put her hand on me or grab my hand and place it on her back. It was adorable. I really enjoyed sharing a room with my three babies. And when they would wake up in the morning they would all come cuddle with me- it was really awesome.

Wednesday-
We played around inside and out in the quad.

Captain America riding a bike

Aria riding
she LOVED going on bikes and scooters NONSTOP while we were there.

Terra Lynne

That evening we went with the Willmans to a small party for the Wymount Community Aids at the church movie studios. It was so pretty there! Plus free dinner and the kids got to play in some sand. It was a good night.


Thursday-
Thursday morning Katie's kids were slow getting going so I went with my three kids to the dinosaur museum. It was fun to see the fossils, but I think the coolest part was the window that looked straight through into where they were working on cleaning fossils.
On the other end of the parking lot of the dinosaur museum we saw the marching band was practicing. So as we left the kids and I spent some time watching them march and play. We drove around a little, stopped and played at the playground and then spent the rest of the day just hanging out and playing with the Willmans.

Boo no pictures from our fun day :(

That evening Katie and I went to the mall and just hung out and talked while Kyle 'babysat' the sleeping kids.


Friday-
I know we had a picnic lunch out on the softball field on Friday, though I don't remember doing anything else-- we probably just sat and read books and played and went outside and played... yup that sounds about right.
Also I did get a video of the kids dancing on Friday
Dancing Cousins Video
Silly kids- I think the best part might be Minnette's laugh right at the end.

Saturday
A family that the Willmans are friends with invited all of us to go up to Payson lake and go kayaking. It was a really nice day and the drive up the mountain to the lake was GORGEOUS!!! Unfortunately it was also a little winding and twisty so Parker threw up a couple more times.
It was fun though- the kids got to play in the water and mud, go 'fishing', eat snacks on a precariously perched picnic table, and ride in the kayaks.

Aria at the Lake:

Trying to go fishing

Eating lunch

Terra at the lake:

Muddy bum

Parker

He kept saying it was cold

Parker was not feeling great after his motion sickness on his way up the mountain, and he also gets nervous around new things so he didn't want to go in the boats at the beginning, but he finally came around, and I'm glad he did- he loved going out in the kayak.

Me with Minnette and Aria

About to go out with Parker and Aria

Going for a walk after playing by the lake.

When we got done we tried to clean the kids off a bit, but they were a MESS! We went back to Provo and ordered pizza and ate it on a blanket in their living room since the kids were so dirty.
Then home to the Willmans, bath, and bedtime.

Sunday-
Church once again, pretty much the same story as the previous week but Aria was SO sad that they brought her into me so she joined me in Relief Society.

Monday-

In front of the fountain- and the best part of these pictures is Katie 

(You're welcome for posting them publicly)

Outside the Salt Lake Temple:

Cousins:

The crane in the background is because they were beginning to put up Christmas lights...in August!

Exploring the visitors Center

In front of the Statue of Christ:

Tiemans  (minus Daddy, of course)

Willmans

Then we headed across the street to the mall for lunch and some play time.
I heard the renovated City Creek mall labeled as the nicest mall in America, and at first I scoffed (based on my experience there a few years before) They were probably right, though. I haven't been to enough malls to say for sure, but City Creek has got to be one of the best.

Tuesday-
We dropped Kyle off at class and went over to the duck pond by the bell tower. We fed the ducks, the kids ran in the grass, and my kids and I climbed the waterfall.

Feeding the ducks

I think this was on the way to the duck pond- 

Cute, right?

And Parker and Minnette holding hands
 (this wasn't exactly unusual for the two for them)

Kyle met up with us and we got to go onto campus and eat lunch in the Wilkinson center. Parker thought it was cool to see where daddy went to school, where daddy worked and to eat lunch where daddy might have even eaten lunch pretty often.
On the way to the Wilkinson Center we stopped at the art museum.

Wednesday-
We got up and headed out to the 'Bean Museum' where they have a bunch of stuffed preserved dead animals... it was closed though, so we drove over to the Bicentennial Park

We played there for awhile before heading over to the Creamery on 9th and having lunch. The rest of the day we just played around and Katie and I went grocery shopping after the kids were in bed.

Thursday-
We got up early again to head down to AZ. Unfortunately I was not able to sleep almost at all the night before so I was TIRED. While I don't drink soda often, I decided it was worth it to avoid falling asleep and killing us all. So I drank about a gallon of Coke that day and we made it home. We even ate yucky McDonalds so I could get more Coke and the kids could get out and play.
Again my kids were really good, until Terra got crazy about when I hit the 303 (about 20 minutes from home). Parker got sick a couple times again. Overall though it worked fine.
As a farewell to Utah we drove through temps like this for a few hours:

It was more than 50 degrees warmer when I got home.

It was a good trip and we had lots of fun- Thanks to the Willmans for letting us invade. 

We enjoyed it for sure!