More Trip!

Beth and Dane have a beautiful canyon literally in their backyard, so we took a 15 minute drive up to a small lake for some canoeing on Saturday.  It was a little rigorous with two 1 year olds, but overall everyone had a fun time!

We've been driving around this 20 year old 'burban that Dane's cousin left at their house because it fits all of us.  But it has no air conditioning and is sort of Griswald-ish.  We even pulled up to church in it - with the canoe and all!  

Jordyn is super willing to try anything and loves a new adventure (like her Daddy)!  She was the first one who volunteered to go in the canoe!

Lexi and Jacob

My Lexi Lou

A fish "jumped into the canoe", thanks to Dane *wink wink*

Even Peyton got a turn in the canoe with mommy!

And we were also able to go to church and meet their new ward on Sunday.  Very nice people, and lots of history here.  The kids were quite match-y too.  Beth and Dane were "lucky" enough to give talks.

(Beth has a new haircut...and is about 5 months pregnant....isn't she cute?)

 

Their "new" house.  It's really a historic site, and was built in the 1800's.  It's been in their family for a long time, and  is now theirs.

Documentary of a Road Trip

Ever since Beth & fam moved (abandoned us), I knew it would only be a (short) matter of time until we'd need to see for ourselves exactly WHAT it was that drew them away :-)

So, the kids and I left on a road trip.  To South/Eastern Utah.  aka: Out in the middle of nowhere.  But beautiful!

I told myself that since it's 100 miles less than our usual mileage to Salt Lake ,"it'll be a breeze".  

Yeah right!

11 hours in the car is too long for any children.  Mine did amazing, considering.  I'd really prefer to never drive more than 8 hours. But really, it wasn't too bad.  It didn't scare me off from doing another UT road trip later this summer.

I thought it would be fun to document our road trips.  I'm sure this will be a staple memory in my kids childhood since we have so many loved ones choosing to habitate in the state of Utah!

This  was in the beginning, and they were happy and excited.

Jordyn asked "are we still in California?" at least 85 times before I could say "No".

I was thinking about California's new hands-free cell phone law starting July 1st...and I thought if only the police realized how much MORE distracting it was to have a bunch of kids in the car, they'd outlaw that too!

Luckily I had passed out barf-bags to the kids at the beginning of the trip (I'm a seasoned road-tripping mom) and Lexi managed to get all of her throw-up in hers!  (yuck AND hooray!)  We stopped and got some child dramamine after that.

This is my handy box of ALL sorts of snacks!

And this cooler as my passenger, full of gogurts, cheese sticks, grapes, apples, water, soda, juice, milk, etc.

Peyton got so bored by the end.  She's never even taken a pacifier, but these two random ones in my car bought me like 15 minutes of happiness.

I always eat healthy on road trips.

And the scenery is exactly like this 80% of the time!

By the end, Pey was randomly hitting Lexi because she was so frustrated!  But the good thing about a road trip is that it just ENDS when you arrive at your destination!  We all recovered within half an hour of being here and are having a good time with our good friends!  

All together again! After a short night's sleep, today we went swimming :-)

Peyton and Mommy by the pool. She is scary by the water for two reasons: She is nearly a ghost-white child, and she has ZERO fear of the water. Today she was pushing out of my arms saying "Let go mommy!!!!"

The whole gang!

This Kid

Man, I love this kid so much! I feel so happy that I get to spend every day with her! She is so stinkin' cute and is so full of personality! I just love it. Every morning when she gets up, her sisters fight over who gets to have Pey Pey sit by them. They love her 99% of the time. The other 1% they aren't in the mood for "a baby in their room".

• Peyton is 20 months old.
• Her favorite songs to sing are: I am a Child of God, You are My Sunshine, ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, 5 Little Ducks....but honestly, she rocks, dances and sings to nearly anything.
• She can sign at LEAST 35 signs. And usually signs with her conversations. I have to really watch close to remember what she's signing.
• Pey talks in full sentences a lot of the time. She will come into a room and say something like "JoJo scare me mommy" or "Mommy take a shower?". She talks all day long, really.
• Peyton still LOVES her baby dolls. Often has one with her.
• She is obsessed with Tucker's car. Every night when he gets home, she runs outside (she can open the front door, scary) and yells "DADDY'S RED CAR!!!" with more enthusiasm than I've ever had for anything.
• She loves to tease. She knows her cousin Lyric's pet peeves, and will persistantly do them over and over to make her cry. I'm scared for what the "twos" might hold for us.
• When Peyton is mad or frustrated, she will put her hands on her hips and shake her hand at me YELLING *something*?!
• She loves her blankie so much. It is already very tattered, so Grandma has bought her two others and I have bought her one other....and she does NOT like them even close to as much. She sucks her thumb while holding her blankie and makes it all look so cozy!
• She is obsessed with "lo-chun". She is ALWAYS finding lotion and putting it all over her body.
  
• Peyton loves her family so much. She will SCREAM "GRANDMA" when she sees a picture of her (or sees her) and when Paxton comes into church, she RUSHES over to him with the most intense happiness. She is overall a very happy and passionate little kid.
  

Here are a few pics of her "in action".

Paxton and Peyton (9 months apart)

Peyton with her "blankie".

Every single day as I get ready, she begs for "lo-chun"

Our routine is for her to brush her teeth while I fix her hair.

And here is what she looks like when she's screaming at someone!

Swimming Lesson Graduates

We successfully completed our swim lessons this summer!

Lexi: Loved every second of it. She is so close to swimming on her own, but I still prefer her to swim with the floatie (pictured). It helps her to still have to swim, but with a little added support. This is HUGE improvement from last summer when she cried most the time. Way to go Lexi!!!

Peyton: Did mommy & me and we were the only ones in the class. What a nice teacher to patiently sit there while Peyton whined most the time. We enthusiastically said "kick, and blow bubbles, and jump to mommy" the whole time, and by the end she didn't HATE it, but didn't love it. She was more interested in saying "Hi Jo Jo, Hi Lexi, Hi Lyric, Hi Paxton, Hi Lindy, Hi dumptruck, Hi Leah (her teacher). What a friendly kid.

Jordyn: Is a fish, like her daddy. Swimming comes naturally for her. She was swimming last summer, and this just brushed her up again and she was swimming across the whole pool by herself! Great job Jo!!

(the floatie that is working great for Lexi and Lyric this summer, it just goes over their tummy and back, slides right on and stays in place. It's around $10 at Toys R Us)

Funny Friday

This is the first summer my girls are really aware of the differences in their skin color. And they've been asking me more about it...like in the bath tub "mom, why is Lexi's skin so brown?", that sort of thing.

So, along the lines of skin color, I have a funny story: The other night, Jordyn, Peyton and I were at a little Mexican restaurant (Tucker was working late and Lexi was having a special date with Grandma) and we were chatting. Jordyn was asking me things like if her chicken nuggets were considered Mexican food. And then she was asking me if Mexican people speak only Spanish. So I was giving her examples of Mexican children that were in her Kindergarten class who speak both English and Spanish.

She thought about that for a minute and then she said, "So, is Lexi Mexican?".

I paused.

"You mean Lexi, your sister?" I asked, thinking she was kidding.

"Mmmm-hmmmm" Jordyn answered and she was really serious.

"You mean because her skin is brown?" I asked.

"Yeah" Jordyn said...still waiting for my answer.

So I went on to explain that just because someone's skin is brown, that's not enough to qualify as a Mexican. I tried to explain that their family was born in Mexico, etc. But I found the whole thing so funny and I was definitely caught me off guard!!! Good one Jordyn!

All That Jazz

I'm not a pageant-y sort of mom by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing that comes close is that people have always teased me and my family about our "perfect hair", never having a strand out of place (by the way, it's called OCD).

Anyway, the other thing that could lead someone to believe that I AM a pageant-y sort of mom is if they visited my home for the three days each June that my girls are in FULL costume, mega-curls, and lots of mascara. aka Dance Recital!

It has been so fun (and a lot of work) to have them in dance. I think it's been the most fun because THEY think it's fun. This completed Jordyn's fourth year and Lexi's third year. Most of their years have been a tap/ballet combo class.

From September through May they work hard practicing and preparing for their dance recital in June. It's quite a huge production! The past two years, one of the two girls has freaked out last minute and cried hysterically (I would too when I see how big the theatre is!). But this year was smooth as butter!

They loved every second of it and Jordyn kept saying how she wants to dance on stage forever! (maybe that's what's wrong with my summer vacation). They did such a great job and I was so happy for them!! Cousin Lyric shook her hips better than anyone else on her team (or so I hear....I was with little Paxton fixing his diaper blow-out). It was a fun family affair! Aunt Kristy even surprised the girls by showing up at the recital!

Here are pics from both recital rehearsal and the actual night:

The supporting crew, my family! So nice to have them there!

Me and my Lexa-Lou. What a brave girl she was this year, and even had a big smile on her face on stage!

Miss Amanda has taught Jordyn and Lexi for most of their dancing years. This is her last year and we are very sad about that. Here she is with Lexi's cute little 4-5 year old class (danced to "Twist and Shout")

Me and Jordyn Lyn, my passionate and energetic six year old.

Jordyn's got a big class this year. Her class danced to "Love Potion #9".

I keep wondering if I can do a THIRD dancer soon with Peyton? Sometimes I feel like Miss Hanagan from Annie singing "Little girls, little girls, everyday I eat, sleep and breathe them". I love it though!

Re: Summer Vacation

The voices in my head are starting to repeat: "Find a summer day camp for your kids before you lose your mind"

Flashback Friday

My sis Carly and I in 1981 or so. We had sponge rollers in our hair ALL the time! Especially Saturday night for church the next day. I remember my hair would shrink to about 1/8 the length it really was! My mom would always wrap our heads in silky scarves to sleep in so the rollers wouldn't come out.


Here are my girls last night with their first sponge rollers! They have recital rehearsal today and I'm experimenting with something more than the curling iron. Brought back memories!!

Nothing Better

As a bread lover, I don't think there is anything better than homemade bread! And what better compliment to it than strawberry freezer jam!?

So, with our strawberry season coming to an end, Lindy and I decided we better get on it. This was our project today!

The Fun Thing About Having Girls...

....is you get to use lots of pink nail polish and it counts as a fun mother-daughter activity!

cousin Lyric (3), Lexi (4) and Jordyn (6)

What Time is It? Summertime!

So, I have a love/hate relationship with summer time. For example:

I love:
swimming
sleeping in
late nights
lazy days
less scheduling
trips
memories

I hate:
the extreme heat (x10)
too much free time (i.e. fighting kids)
less breaks from the kiddos (x5)
through-the-roof electric bills
an old car with no rear air conditioning

This is only our third official week-day without school and we've managed to have some fun so far! Tucker was gone most of last week on a scuba diving trip to Catalina Island (that's for another post), so this is all stuff with me and my girls, sans Daddy!

Summertime means it's time for........

.......popsicles!

.......bubbles!

.........swim lessons

......dance pictures, and soon recital!

........walks to Sonic for slushees!

.......walks around the block (only to feel sad when we walk by Ashlyn and Tanner's old house)!

...........pizza and Martinelli's!

........projects, like recovering chairs!

What are YOU doing this summer? Give me some IDEAS!