Spring Break 2011

This may be one of the biggest blog posts I have ever done, and I didn't include a lot of our trip. That's what happens when you spend a whole week at "home" with so many great people. Every day was filled with seeing Grandma's, Grandpa's, Cousins and visiting good friends. The only problem is that a week doesn't even give us enough time to visit everyone we would like to visit. The girls and I drove to Utah on Monday April 18th (Happy Birthday to me), and Micah was able to fly up the following Thursday to spend Easter weekend with us. Here are a few highlights from our trip:

A few good action shots bowling with Grandma and Grandpa. I should mention that I did win the game. :) It was just me against my three girls, but it was a fun game.

Aliza was insistent that she could do it all by herself the entire time we were bowling. I swear that ball weighed more than her, but she would carry it all over the place.

While I was at a doctors appointment my mom took the girls to the aquarium. They had a great time. From what I was told Aliza was the only one who got to touch the sting rays. I'm not sure if she was the only one brave enough (very possible) or if they were hard to reach.

We spent one afternoon meeting my sister at Trolley Square for lunch, then went to the mall for some shopping. They each had $10 to spend and it was burning a hole in their pockets. For a fun surprise I took them each to get their nails done. They thoroughly enjoyed getting pampered for a few minutes.

Aliza and Avery chose a bright pink, and Abbie chose bright green. The ladies were nice enough to put flowers and polka dots on each nail.

Aliza wasn't quite sure if she wanted to do it at first, but after seeing Avery's nails she was ready to hop up in that chair.

I love this picture of Aliza trying to hold very still.

Too cute!

After the girls had such cute nails I offered to take my sister to get hers done. We both went in for a pedicure and left my poor mom with the kids for an hour. I seriously didn't think it would take THAT long. The ladies just kept rubbing and rubbing my legs and instead of enjoying it I was just thinking "enough lady, lets just paint my nails. I have kids outside waiting for me." My mom was definitely tired when we got done. I felt really bad.

Abbie had seen a commercial for Rice Krispie treats where they molded them into egg shapes. My mom was nice enough to let us take over her kitchen to make this gooey mess.

The trickiest part was getting the eggs to stay closed long enough to make the two parts stick together.

They turned out really cute!

We died eggs three times while in Utah. At both Grandma's and at their cousins. Spoiled kids!

Abbie and Aliza both really wanted to go to the Dinosaur Museum. One afternoon the three of us went for a few hours. Avery just wanted to hang out with her Grandpa and play checkers. Thanksgiving Point is one of the top places I miss most in Utah. We used to live so close that we would be there weekly with so many fun thing to do there. You also can't beat their 25 cent ice cream cones for the kids. I really miss that place.

We also did a total of three Easter egg hunts. A bit much I suppose, but it was a lot of fun. It's too bad that I didn't plan too well for the cold weather. It was a really cold weekend.

Above is the Easter egg hunt in Saratoga Springs, and below is in Herriman. They spent the night at their cousins in Herriman on Friday, and then we meet them early the next morning for the egg hunt.

They also had blow up slides, free pizza, and train rides (below). It was a fun morning.

She had a ride in the horse on the train, and loved every minute of it.

They waited a very long time to slide down this big slide.

We took Avery to White Elegance while in Utah to pick out her baptism dress. There were so many beautiful dressed that it made it hard to pick one. I did notice that whenever we mentioned that we liked a dress she quickly moved it to the "no" stack in the dressing room. She later explained that she wanted to pick the dress, and didn't want anyone else to tell her to pick it. I'll never forget her trying on all those beautiful dresses. It was priceless!

Abbie's cousin Taylor is in beauty school right now, so Abbie asked her to do highlights for her. She did a great job, and of course Abbie feels so big with highlights. She looks cute.

This is the big egg hunt we look forward to all year. Micah's parents put several hundred dollars in their back yard for the annual egg hunt. I still don't know how I ended up with only $5 this year, but it's more than I started with I suppose. There is always next year.

This is Aliza with one of her cousins Zaylie. These two are unseperable once we get them together. We had such a great trip, and can't wait until this Summer when we can spend even more time in Utah. We will be loving the cooler Utah weather during the Summer months. It was a fun Spring Break!

Easter Dresses

This year I let the girls pick out a skirt for their Easter outfits instead of an actual dress. Cute dresses were really hard to find this year, and I could also just put a shirt we already had with it to save a few bucks. I was really surprised at the skirts each of my girls picked. They are getting to the age that they definitely have their own likes/dislikes about clothes.

Well, I do have to admit that I did persuade Aliza to get this skirt. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but she is the only one who would fall for my tactics. I just LOVED this cute little skirt at Target. She looked adorable and it just seemed to fit her personality.

Both Avery and Abbie have their different opinions about clothes, and the funny thing is that they are complete opposites. Avery would love anything frilly, sparkly, pink, and totally girly girl and Abbie wants everything simple.

I thought they looked beautiful in their spring colored skirts. Abbie is looking so grown up.

I thought that this picture turned out really cute, but what happened seconds later is funny:

Well, I guess it's not funny that someone hit Aliza in the face as they stood up, but it's a funny picture. Lot's more Easter pictures to come.......

Fun Surprise!

A few months back Abbie was given the assignment to write a letter to someone she admires. After much thought she chose the Henderson Police Department. Her letter was really appreciative of all that they do for our city and asked quite a few questions about being a police officer. We sent the letter on it's way not really expecting to hear anything more about it, but I was wrong. Abbie's teacher e-mailed me this morning letting me know that two Henderson policemen were headed over after lunch to answer her questions and give her a surprise. Of course I dropped everything and went to the school to capture a few pictures.

She was so surprised to see me and her sisters walking in with the police and kept looking at me as if to say "what is going on." The policemen were so cute with her. They read her letter to the whole class and presented her with a letter from the Chief of Police in Henderson. He spent a lot of time answering all her questions in her letter which mostly had to do with police dogs and what education they needed to be on the police force. Then he answered a lot of questions from everyone in the class. Some of my favorite question were "what do you feed the prisoners" and "what weapons do you have?" He then went through everything he had on him from pepper spray to the different sizes of handcuffs and guns.

He then presented her with two books. One was an encyclopedia of animals and the other is a book full of puzzles. I think her teacher Mr. Giacomino was really excited to have them visiting (that's what the front office staff told me anyway.) It's not very often that you get a response from a simple letter written from a fourth grader.

She also tried out for an acting part in her school's choir performance coming up in April and got the part. It's been a great week for our Abbie! Way to go Abbie!

Aliza 4th Birthday

On March 21st our little "Lizzie" turned four years old. I made sure to spend the day doing whatever she wanted to do on her special day. Our first stop after taking her sisters to school was the party store to get a few supplies for her birthday party scheduled for the next day. We then headed over to McDonalds for a kids meal for lunch. With this being her choice for lunch she was even more thrilled when she realized that I had picked a McDonalds with a play place. I personally think those play places are so gross, but it was her birthday wish. She was so excited as we were heading inside that she gave me a great big hug and said "this is what I have always dreamed of." Well it didn't take much to please her.

When we got home from lunch all she wanted to do was play in the bathtub with her new tub toys. So that is what we did for about an hour. She then helped me make and decorate her birthday cake which was fun.

Her request for birthday dinner was pancakes. I was not going to argue with that, so that is just what we had. She even wanted to eat them with her hands and I just let it slide. It was HER birthday after all.

She seemed thrilled with her all pink cake and sprinkles.

The day after her birthday was my turn to teach preschool. The other moms were nice enough to let me just do her party on my preschool day rather than having everyone over twice in one week. We had a great time with her princess party. We played lots of fun games, made crowns, painted princess nails (in the picture), and ate cake and ice cream. This little group of girls is so much fun.

This was a great princess pinata with strings on the bottom to pull rather than whacking it with a stick. I was a little nervous about that whacking part with me being the only adult supervising. Aliza had a great birthday and we can't believe our little one is four years old.

This video is really funny if you can stand to listen to the awful singing in the background. I didn't think we sounded THAT bad, but I guess we really do. I love the big breath she takes long before it is even time to blow out the candles. Too cute!

Build A Bear

Aliza was given a gift certificate to "Build A Bear" for her birthday. She had so much fun picking out each piece of her stuffed animal. She fell in love with this fluffy, purple dog as soon as we walked through the door.

She then picked a sound which was called "Magic." They had all different sounds to pick from, but she loved this sound. When you push her paw it sounds like she is making all your wishes come true. :)

This is Aliza filling her dog with stuffing. You could tell Aliza wasn't sure of this guy helping us because she is twirling her hair on one side. She always does that when she is a bit nervous or tired.

Kissing her dogs heart before putting it inside of her.

Of course she needed a good cleaning and fluffing before we could bring her home.

She named her new dog Ariel which is her favorite Disney princess right now. She came home with this cute pink dress, high heel shoes and a cute leash to take her for walks around the house. We had a great time!

Our New Toy

Several weeks back we were given this fun new toy from my parents. My kids have been asking for a telescope for quite a while, and finally they got their wish.

Unfortunately the weather in the evenings is still a little bit too chilly to be outside, but this past weekend it was just right. We had a great time examining the moon and all it's craters.

The hardest part was waiting for dad to line it up right, and then being patient while each took a turn.

Abbie is our little science fanatic. She was really loving it!

My favorite feature is the remote control. Not only does it find the planet/stars your looking for, but while your looking at it a recording plays with all sorts of information. While we were looking at the moon it talked about it's temperature, craters, landmarks, and much more. What a fun learning tool.

We may have some future astrologers on our hands. Thanks mom and dad!!!

St. George Trip

We were able to head to St. George last weekend for a fun get-together with Micah's side of the family. Now that we have moved away we don't have many opportunities to have ALL of us together at the same time. We were only missing one of Micah's brothers, but everyone else was there.. It was totally worth the trip to just let our kids play with their cousins and feel like they were having a big sleepover. I think one of the things my kids miss most about not living in Utah is being with their cousins. It's a unique friendship that doesn't matter if they are different ages, or have different interests. They just love each other.

We spent part of Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park which was beautiful. The kids loved being able to climb all over the beautiful red rocks. For some reason Aliza was being camera shy and would duck every time a camera was in sight.

I didn't even attempt to make it through this tight squeeze. Of course the kids had no hesitation in climbing all the way to the top.

This is Avery climbing with her Gramps. It's funny how being up high doesn't even phase these kids. They have no fear.

It was tricky, but we did try and squeeze in a quick photo of all the grandkids. Twelve grandkids in all with one on the way. It's very hard to get all of them to sit still long enough to take a picture, but we got it. The weekend flew by way too fast so hopefully we will see everyone again sometime soon.