Summer Catch-Up

 Willa's last day of first grade. We loved Mrs. Murphy SO much! She just went on maternity leave and isn't coming back next year for June to have her, wahhh. But she said she would hang out with me at Babytime at the library!

Willa did swim team this year! They had racing suits for the kids, which was just too adorable and hilarious.

Her friend Graham from school was on another team and we ran into them a couple of times at different meets. It was awesome because his parents would bring their pop-up tent and share the shade with us.

First swim meet

Rebecca took the girls out for a mani-pedi

 I won an interior designer at the school silent auction. So we used her to draw up a design and plan for the front room/library. She does these edesigns where you can see the rendering and then she has links to buy all the stuff. It took a while (and a tax return) to get everything. My favorite is this wallpaper. I'll have to do a separate post with more pictures for the whole room. It's definitely my favorite room in the house now. It sets the mood and it's nice to have one finished room that people can see as they walk in.

 I took the kids to Newport Beach at the beginning of July. Lars was enamored with Penny. Poor Penny, such a good job. She couldn't escape him even in her crate. She would go back and forth from her crate to a spot on the stairs trying to get peace and quiet and he would just follow her. Finally we would have to lock him out of the crate when she really needed a break.

Beach with cousins!!

My all time favorite picture of the cousins. It's just perfect.

Lars turned 1! (Back in April)

Yes, it happened, our sweet baby turned one. I honestly can't remember too many things, except I think he had two teeth but was cutting 4-6 more. His gums were so swollen, you could really see the little tooth buds trying to get through.

Lars LOVED being in his high chair and the center of attention as we sang to him. He loves music and gets his groove on dancing more than the girls did at that age. As soon as we started singing he got really still and smiled and just loved the sound of it. Of course, our chunky monkey loved his cake. I'd like to say that that's the first sugar he'd ever had - but that would be a huge lie. At the tender age of one, he had already had lots and lots of sugar.

We were in Utah right before his birthday and my brother took these adorable photos of him so we could document his one year mark. I think this rocking chair was my grandpa's when he was a little boy!

I had to sneak in this photo I took around this time period. Lars had been reminding me of someone and I realized one day it was Duckie from Pretty in Pink, ha ha!

The birthday boy! His sisters love him very much.

Since I can't remember exactly what he was doing at one year old, I will say that he started walking at 14 months, so he was definitely still crawling. He is and was such a happy and cuddly little boy. I keep saying it over and over, but he gives the best loves and just loves to snuggle, snuggle, snuggle. He loves wrestling with Ryan and the girls. I'm always surprised with how much more physical he is about everything than the girls were - he loves to do a deadfall onto the bed or couch and is an amazing climber. He's gotten into so many messes, but I can't be mad when I see his little mug. I really don't think he wants to make mischief, but he is just so darn curious about everything. One of his favorite things is switches and buttons of every kind. You can well imagine how much he is loving the remote control for the Christmas tree lights right now.

June's 5th Birthday

Way back in March, our June-bug turned five years old. The good thing about this birthday is that she was in preschool with seven other little girls, so I knew we would have plenty of friends to invite for a little party. I thought and thought about what we could do that wouldn't break the bank. I really wanted to do a princess tea party at one of the little bakeries around town, but they were extremely expensive. I was puzzling over it one day in my mind and realized that we had about fifteen (not exaggerating) nice princess dresses already at our house that we owned. We could do the princess tea party on our own! June was so excited at this idea and I had so much fun planning and looking up adorable little girl paper tea party goods.

At the little tea parties they let the girls pick out a princess dress and then they do their hair and make-up. So I laid all our dresses out and I made a little hair and make-up stand. Rebecca came over to help and I also hired a babysitter to come. So I had those two doing hair and make-up on the girls as they came, while I helped oversee the other girls on some coloring pages.

I really wanted to make the table look special and there were some adorable party things online. I also borrowed a ton of cake stands and platters from friends. Rebecca brought a ton of flowers and we filled jars and vases all around. It was so sweet, I love how it turned out!

My talented neighbor baked the cake for free. June wanted a giant teacup cake and Christine delivered. It was adorable. The girls were so sweet. We colored some princess pages and we played "Pin the tiara on the princess".  We colored "tea cups" which were white mugs I got from Dollar Tree. My very favorite was that June really, REALLY was adamant that there be some dancing once everyone was dressed and ready. I think she was envisioning it like a ball because she wanted to dance with her BFF Ava and had all the girls pair off. The video is grainy, but you can see that they took it very seriously.

We had finger foods all in little containers that I got at Dollar Tree and it was just so cute and adorable! I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of doing these types of parties. I can kind of figure out what to spend money on that will make it feel special and where we should save money. Kids this age are so easy, they're just happy to be together so you don't need a whole lot of fancy games. I think for favors, we gave everyone a gift bag with a tiara, ring, wand, and some candy.

The Cake!

Presents!

I think a few girls had to go home before we got the photo, but they were all so cute and adorable!

Ava, June, Willa, Kensie, Presley, Annie, Lyla

Annie, Lyla, June, Presley

Lyla and June

It was such a fun party and went off so easily! I was on a high the rest of the day and I still smile thinking about it. I can't believe June is already 5 1/2 and has grown so much more since this day. June makes everything fun, when we do flashcards she will start singing and doing silly voices for each card. She loves Willa and really wants to be a big kid. June is very serious about her art work and she has a big vocabulary. She says very cute phrases like, "My friend Ava is a BIG fan of zebras" or "Ava takes her food verrrry seriously." The other day after an argument between her and Willa, I was standing by trying to be a neutral party and June yelled, "Why did you have to go tattle?! This was something we could have settled between the two of us!!" I had to run out of the room so they couldn't see me laughing - because I really do want them to try to resolve things without tattling on each other, ha ha. I don't know if I've ever expressed it so specifically to them before, so it made me laugh that she articulated it so well. It must be getting reinforced in kindergarten a little.  She's a sweetheart of a girl and we love her!

Legoland!

I love this blog and am determined to keep it updated - even if the posts are 7-8 months late! But Lars is down for his nap and the girls are in school. None of these posts are going to be Pulitzer worthy (they never have been) but it's a rough attempt at documentation.

In February of 2018 we went to Legoland! My parents got us tickets for a Christmas gift. Then, the Thalmans had been thinking of taking a trip too, so we coordinated and went together. Everything is always more fun with friends!

Here is a photo of the four girls. June, Abby, Willa, Bridgett. Abby was a champ and was June's best friend the entire trip. Whenever we get together, Bridgett and Willa go off together and Abby acts like it's her very favorite thing to play with June. 

The whole gang. Ryan thought it would be very Meta, Meta, Meta to take a photo in front of the Lego version of Las Vegas - a photo of a replica of a replica of a Pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, and Statue of Liberty.

We stayed in the Legoland Hotel, which was a little shabby but convenient. They had a lot of fun things for the kids, including a little treasure map where they followed clues around the hotel the discover the combination to unlock a treasure box inside the room - that was filled with Legos for them to keep (and refilled with new sets daily!). Ryan and I get stressed out by trips and the unknown, so being able to stay on site was nice. I'd say the worst part of the hotel was trying to sleep in the same room as Lars. By the end of the visit, he'd gotten used to it - but the first night he was up several times and ended up in our bed. I'm not going to complain about a little fluffy hairball sleeping in my face - but it was when he was crawling around and not sleeping that it got annoying. We also thought staying on site would be nice if I needed to take Lars back to the room for naps or diaper blowouts - but in that regard he was a perfect baby! Whenever I noticed him getting tired, I would put in him the stroller, lean the seat back, and he would snooze away. It was awesome and probably not repeatable now that he's older. He was about 10 months when we took the trip.

The Lego Friends area was very cute. The girls also loved doing the little Lego people swap. You take some Lego men in and if you see a worker with one on their tag, you can trade them. It became fun (and sometimes stressful and tearful!) to find new Lego characters! It was a challenge to find girl characters... I'll just leave it at that.

Since my girls are total scaredy-cats, Legoland was the perfect place. There was only one or two rides that they were too scared to do! Everything else was super duper slow and easy.

One of the best and most unexpected surprises was seeing some friends from our USC days! They live in Fresno and it was totally, totally unexpected to run into them. I looked up and we saw each other and just looked - like, we looked familiar but couldn't believe it was us because it had been so long since we'd seen each other in person! Seeing Julie and Brian and their two boys was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We wished we could have spent more time together, but we were leaving the next day and they weren't staying nearby. Last time we saw them was probably 2009, yikes! But friends from the USC days will always be special to us.

We spent two days at Legoland. On the last day, we checked out of the hotel and drove further south to spend the night with the Fjeldsted's in Chula Vista. Even though we hit traffic and didn't get there as early as we thought, it was still so nice to be there! Our kids get along so well together and just played and played. We were debating about heading home Saturday or Sunday. We wanted to spend more time with our friends, but we also hate getting back right before the week starts. It's nice to have a buffer day to unpack, unwind, and relax. Willa ended up making the decision for us by throwing up Saturday morning! Eek! So, we packed up, tried to sanitize their house, and said good-bye with Willa holding a bag in the back seat. She didn't end up being sick anymore, so I'm chalking it up to a really large and fatty hamburger in Legoland the day before, lots of other junk food,  and not enough sleep. We were sad to say good-bye, but also happy that the visit happened at all. It was so nice to see their house and their 'hood.

And that was our trip! It was actually the first real family vacation we have ever taken where we haven't just tagged along with my parents or siblings. It was a little stressful at times, but we did it and have a lot of good memories looking back.

Christmas!

Dan, Melinda, and Rebecca were with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas. We did Christmas Eve dinner at our house. We attempted a Nativity, it was semi-successful. My mom had brought down the costumes, but with only two actors who didn't have much stage experience and a wiggly baby, it probably wasn't too recognizable for what it should be. Still, we tried!

Luckily, Santa was able to get some early prep done so when he visited our house, it was a relatively easy night for him. I think the girls and Lars looked perfectly coordinated this year. I love top of the stairs Christmas photos! So much excitement and happiness.

Lars liked his blocks, but probably his favorite thing was having the ottoman moved out of the way so he could roll around on the rug in every direction. I think it's what finally got him really crawling.

My mom sent this photo of Cameron and Celeste at the top of their stairs Christmas morning. It cracks me up! But hey, if you're unmarried and home for Christmas then you've got to do it.

Both girls got new bikes. June got a Frozen bike with a sleigh on the bike that holds a doll - squee! Willa loved getting a bike that had a little purse attached to the front. That purse came in very handy just a few weeks ago when she did a little triathlon and kept her glasses zipped in there for after her swim! June got a hatchimal, which she was dying for. Willa got another big Lego set. Those were the major Santa gifts. 

They got a few other things and some great wrapped presents from family and friends who love them. We ended up getting them Kindle Fires because they were on sale soooo cheap. And I figured with my parents getting the St. George house, we would be making that two hour drive a lot in the near future. Letting them each have a tablet for that drive would be so much easier than trying to hook up the car DVDs every time. So, we gave in. And now they are obsessed with them and constantly want them. They get to play them a couple of times a week, but not too much. Normally, I make Willa earn tablet time by practicing. It's been very motivating and she's faced with a conundrum when she rushes through and wants to be done practicing, but then looks at the timer and realizes she'll only get ten minutes of tablet time if she finishes then.

A great Christmas, again! I love Christmas. A few days later, I went and bought all the Christmas decorations that were on sale. I can't wait to decorate for next year!