Friday, February 19, 2016

Jan- Week 4- Utah Gymnastics, Rest of Laura's trip, NFBD

Saturday, we all slept in a little.  Put on our matching pants and headed to the beachfront for some brunch at Crystal Cove.  
After brunch, we had a blast taking pictures and being silly!  We were pretty entertaining to watch! 


We also had fun taking videos with the Boomerang App.

Then we drove to and walked around the Newport Beach Temple.  

We went back to the hotel, took naps, some of us took a dip in the hot tub, some played tetherball and basketball.  Next, we headed to an early dinner at Ruby's on the Pier.  Laurie's parents live in So Cal and met up with us too.  
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to put babies to bed and play games.  We had to get up super early the next day and we were all pretty worn out from go, go, going, so none of us wanted to stay up too late.  
Saturday back at home, Dan took the kids to a Utah Women's Gymnastics meet.  It was the blackout meet and they got to ride the Trax train too!

The top picture is fron Ben's "crazy hair day" at preschool on Thursday.  
Saturday night Dan took the kids to uncle David's house for a pizza and movie night.  I love seeing Kate with her arm around Anna in the bottom right corner.  
Sunday, we made it home just in time to go to church, though I was a little late.  While I was gone, every time I facetimed with the kids they would say, "Hi mom!  Where's Bethany!?!?"  Needless to say, they were pretty excited about seeing her for the first time at church.  
Sunday evening I gave the kids their souvenirs, showed them pictures, and went to stake choir practice.  

Monday was definitely a "catch-up" day.  I did lots of laundry, Bethany had a hard time taking regular naps, and the kids watched more screen time then normal cause I was so dang tired.  In the evening, McKenna and Ben had gymnastics and then we went to the Nelson Family Birthday Party for January birthdays.  Laurie Marsh took this awesome picture of Anna. :) 
Ben loved being celebrated once again!
The cute decorations (Ben's balloon is the red one on the right) and fun people.    
Bethany loves prunes! 
Tuesday Dan's cousin Alex got home from her mission to Argentina.  Dan got to go to the airport.  The kids and I got to see her later at Dan's parents' house for a little lunch.  

Tuesday I worked a lot on my UEN class for teacher reliscense points.  
Thursday Dan stayed home in the morning because he worked late the night before.  My visiting teachers came in the morning and our home teachers came in the evening.  They were so sweet to bring Ben an Star Wars birthday present.  I also attended an open house baby shower for our good friend Melissa Roth.  

Friday we Skyped with my mom who was working on packing up her life in Chile as they prepare to move to Florida.  While we chatted Anna got her thumb closed in a door.  I thought for sure the fingernail would bruise big time and possibly fall off later.  But so far, it looks like it has totally returned to normal.  
Friday evening I attended a Relief Society craft and dinner night.  I made this cute decoration.  
Saturday we had a pretty good sized snow storm!  I consider it a big storm when the plows can't keep up with clearing the roads.  In spite of that, McKenna and I headed to a volleyball tournament for our niece Emma.  We made it back to Bountiful just in time to attend a baptism for two of McKenna's primary classmates (still in our non-church clothes because we knew we might get stuck on the roads if we tried to go home and change first).  
That night Dan and I went on a date to the temple to do sealings.  Since the storm had blown over by then, there was a very pretty sunset.  Afterwards, we picked Bethany up and went to eat.  I experienced my first Waffle Luv waffle.  It was REALLY good! 
Some Sunday morning snuggles.  

Jan- Week 3- Bethany 6 Months, Disneyland!!

Tuesday Bethany had her 6 month check-up.  She got 4 shots, one being her flu shot.  The doctor also gave her a suppository to help her poop and it worked!  She is still a great sleeper.  From 4-6 months she slept through the night 54/61 days!! 
Bethany's 6 Month Stats
Height: 25in (.5in increase in 2 months) 15th percentile
Weight: 12lbs 3oz (1lb increase in 2 months) below the charts
Head: 20th percentile
November
  • 29th- Rolled from front to back
December
  • Crying sometimes sounds like a cat
  • Chews on tongue a lot
  • 15th- Grabs at toes a lot
  • 16th- Making a cute new noise with nose and throat (mouth closed)
  • 20th- Tried rice cereal for the first time.  No gagging or spitting out.
  • 26th- First Jazz game
  • 27th- Tried carrots.  Gave a weird look.  Gagged after 6 or so bites
January
  • Poops transitioned
  • Tried bananas, strawberries, pancakes,
  • 4th- Another Jazz game
  • 8th- Tried applesauce. Lots of twisting at trunk.  Trying to look behind her and roll from back to tummy
  • 9th- Loved mashed potatoes
  • 10th- Loved canned peaches
  • 11th- Tried sweet potatoes and canned green beans and loved them
  • 19th- Tried prunes


Right after the appointment I got a phone call from McKenna's school saying she had fallen in the mud on the playground and was pretty wet.  So I ran home and got her some new leggins.  This is how muddy she was.  
Mommy enjoyed post shot snuggles!
Wednesday I ran errands and packed for my Webster girls trip.  
At the airport...just a little excited!
 Sat by grandma on the plane.
 In our sweet rental 12 passenger van.

 Day 1- California Adventure! 
The babies all ready to go, and later napping together.  The first day they were pretty much on the same sleep and eat schedule.  
The first ride of the day was the Mater ride.  (The rest of these pictures won't be in order.)
Midway Mania was Bethany's first ride.  She did great.  
California Screamin'!, Goofy's Flight School, Radiator Springs Racers
Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, waiting outside Tower of Terror, and of course a Mickey ears ice cream bar!
Tower of Terror, and more Cars Land with an awesome sunset. 
Chew Chew Train again, Monster's Inc. (we got talked to at the end of the ride by "Roz"), watching the Pixar Parade, and me as we're leaving the park the first night.  
These girls were such a delight!  And what's not to love about babies in Mini Mouse ears?!
Thursday back at home, Dan had some fun gaming with Sam while Ben and McKenna were at school.  
Day 2- Disneyland!
 We started out heading straight to Peter Pan!  While we waited my saw Mary Poppins and Bert stroll by.  We did tons of other rides in Fantasy Land: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White, Pinocchio, and Story Book Canal (they added the Kingdom of Arendelle from Frozen. It is AWESOME!!).

Then we had fast passes to Indiana Jones!  An awesome ride except for the spider part. ;)

We saw Princess Tiana while we ate lunch in New Orleans.  Then we rode the Haunted Mansion and  I unfortunately started to get a really bad head ache. :( 
We rode It's a Small World, and the Winnie the Pooh ride.  
A few of us went to Toontown and met Mickey! We also saw the Mickey's Magical Map show.  
Once it got dark we rode the Matterhorn.  Our favorite ride of the trip by far was Hyper Space Mountain!  We rode it 3 times!  Unfortunately the last two times I rode it I was still fighting a pretty bad headache which Ibuprofen didn't touch.  Thankfully, Laurie gave me some Excedrin and it was like a miracle drug for me!  We had dinner, I facetimed with my family, then we saved spots for the fireworks show.  While we waited, Bethany had her first crackers and loved them!  
The fireworks show was amazing and I totally cried.  Such a softy!  Once that was done, we headed back over to CA Adventure to do the Cars ride one more time.  
We went to Downtown Disney for some shopping and then headed back to the hotel.  Phew!  What an amazing two days at the parks!  So much fun being kids and doing whatever we wanted! :)

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Jan- Week 2- Carpets Cleaned, Ben's BD Date and BD Party

Friday was chill day helping Ben recover from the throw-ups.  
I took this picture of Bethany on my lap because she laid like this for a good long while as I stroked her back. Just like her mommy--she loves a good back tickle.  
Saturday we did our normal chores.  I took a really good afternoon nap and was woken up by cute Anna.  Once she saw me on my phone she went and got hers.  :) 
In the evening my sister babysat and Dan and I went to Orem for an Institute Council (from his time at UVU) 10 year reunion.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a single picture.  Those are some great friends and leaders who have had such a great influence on us!
Sunday I had to document this GIANT grape we had at lunch.  
McKenna had a stuffy nose all weekend and really wanted to stay home from church, but I had already missed the previous 2 weeks, so I made her come to church and tough it out.  Mean mom.  
In the evening we enjoyed watching Dan's Grandfather and wife Wendy speak at a CES Fireside about what it means to be a true millennial.  After the kids went to bed Dan and I moved furniture to prep for our carpets to be cleaned the next day!  
Monday we got our carpets cleaned for the first time since we moved into this house 5 years ago.  
Before and after
I know it might be hard for most to see, but I could definitely tell the biggest difference on the stairs where some dirt lines had formed at the edge of each step.  
Before and after
We spent almost the whole day in the basement waiting for the carpets to dry.  The kids thought it was fun to set up "camp" down there.  
Sunday and Monday I also felt really nauseous most of the days and fully expected it to be my turn to have the tummy bug, but thankfully it never developed into anything more.  
Tuesday we took Ben and Anna for a trial gymnastics class at Flip's.  Anna loved it but we decided she's still quite young to have an "extra curricular" class.  
Ben loved it and has started going regularly on Mondays.  McKenna also started back up.  
Documenting a cute new outfit from my cousin Mykenzie.  
Thursday I watched our neighbor, Desi (Anna's age) during the day, and then babysat cousin Hailey in the evening while Dan attended some church meetings.  

Friday I let the kids play with PlayDoh.  On the left you can see Ben made a swimming pool, complete with a slide, a green bush, and some flowers.  
Friday Ben also had his birthday date with Grandma Sibber.  
Lunch at Chick-fil-A and shopping at the Disney Store.  He was seriously SO spoiled! Thank you a million times, Grandma!!

He even got this Kylo Ren costume!  I had him wear it and stand at the top of the stairs when McKenna got home from school that day and I captured a pretty great reaction from her. :) 
Friday evening we went to Ugurt to celebrate McKenna practicing the piano 25 days straight!  Uncle Adam was working that night.  She's going for 100 days of practice so she can go out to dinner with her music teacher.  (I told her I would help motivate her along the way by giving rewards every 25 days.)
Saturday was Ben's (rescheduled) birthday party!  It was very much planned by him.  He chose all the games, treats, and goody bag stuff.  I only influenced who he invited and I added two game ideas.  
We read superhero books while we waited for everyone to arrive, played "bubblegum bubblegum in a dish,"pin the shield on Capt. America, bean bag toss, shoot the nerf gun at Capt. America's shield, and my favorite--freeze dance!  
Freeze Dance videos
 Happy 
After we opened presents we had chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and cookies and cream ice cream.  
After treats, the boys watched an episode of Ninja Turtles then had some free time to play.

Monday we celebrated January birthdays at Webster Family Dinner as well as Martin Luther King Jr. day.  Because Ben gave such a great speech at Christmas Adam at Mantua, people wanted more!  So he gave the people what they wanted with another killer speech
Happy Birthday 
Adam, Ye Chen (a Chinese teacher living with Dave and Laurie for the school year), and Ben!