Grandma and Grandpa's House

After our fun in Lake Jackson, we headed up to Sugar Land to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gary's house. We had lots of fun there as well. We went swimming and to the splash park twice, went to McDonald's to play at the playland, had a great Memorial Day barbecue, made homemade ice cream, and played LOTS with all of the toys at Grandma's house.

Grandpa, Uncle Stephen, and Grandma with Sabrina at McDonald's

Grace shooting Benson with the water gun

Benson stomping on the water

Uncle Stephen and Grace watching the fun

Sabrina playing in the water

Daddy and the girls swimming

Mommy and Benson swimming

Grace and Sabrina making homemade ice cream with Daddy and Grandma's help

We had a great trip and are so glad that we are now within driving distance of both sides of our family!

Sleepover at Uncle John and Aunt Emily's house

For the Memorial Day weekend we went to the Houston area to visit family. This was the first long drive that we have made as a family since our ill-fated move to OK from CA. The kids did really well on the drive. Before we left, Benson asked to watch 9 movies in the car. We aren't sure where the 9 came from.
We headed down to Lake Jackson first to visit Uncle John (my younger brother) and Aunt Emily. As we were driving, Benson asked us if we were having a sleepover with Uncle John and Aunt Emily. He was so excited when we told him that we were! Uncle John and Aunt Emily planned a great day for us. We went to the Sea Center and saw some fish and turtles and other marine animals.

Touch pools at the Sea Center

Benson and Grace checking out the turtles

Uncle John helping Lucy and Sabrina color pictures

After the Sea Center we had lunch and naps and then headed over to Lucy's house to play. Lucy is the little girl that Aunt Emily nannies and she was kind enough to let us play with her toys.
We finished off the day with a barbecue on the beach. The kids LOVED the beach! They probably could have stayed for several more hours. This was the first time any of our kids had been to a beach. The Gulf of Mexico beaches aren't the prettiest, but they have sand and water which is all the kids care about. They loved it all and were filthy by the time we left. I put together a little video with our pictures and videos from the beach.

After baths we put the kids to bed and then John, Emily, Mike, and I played cards and talked until it got REALLY late. It was fun to see their new house and we thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality! Thanks for the fun Uncle John and Aunt Emily!

Grace helping Uncle John play the guitar

Kid Stories

Tonight after Mike got home and we had read scriptures he said to me, "When did our kids get so cute?" It's funny how it just hits us sometimes, how cute our kids our. It is so fun watching more of their little personalities be revealed all the time. I wanted to record a few stories to help us remember them at this age. The pictures have nothing to do with the stories, they are just random ones from the last month.

First story - So today Benson was doing his morning chores which are: 1. Wake up happy, 2. Eat breakfast, 3. Clear dishes, 4. Use bathroom, 5. Brush Teeth, 6. Get dressed, 7. Put pajamas in laundry basket, 8. Make bed, 9. Take bathroom trashes to kitchen, 10. Get hair combed. (I should note that Benson can recite all his chores from memory, but it takes quite a bit of "encouragement" to get him to complete them all in a timely fashion each day.) So this morning, he had completed his first 8 chores and then I reminded him that he needed to do the trashes, so I nudged him in the general direction of the bathroom and continued doing my morning chores. A few minutes later I went to put something in his room and as I was walking out I happened to glance in the bathroom. There stood Benson in front of the toilet, fully clothed, holding the toilet lid about half-way up.
Me: Benson, what are you doing? Do you need to use the bathroom?
Benson: Blank stare
Me: Ben, you already used the bathroom
Benson: Oh, right
Me: Weren't you going to do the trashes?
Benson: Oh, right - picks up the trash can and walks to the kitchen
Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten why you went in there?

Second story - I was in the kitchen doing something and I sneezed rather loudly a few times.
Grace: Mommy, do you need a tissue?
Me: No Grace, I'm fine, thank you.
1 minute later, Grace walks into the kitchen with a small piece of toilet paper
Grace: Here Mommy, wipe nose.
It's a good thing that I have her to look after me.

I don't have a specific story for Sabrina, but I thought I would list some of the cute things she has been doing and saying lately. Every drink is "milk". She says "hand" and grabs your finger and drags you to wherever she wants to go. When you put her in her car seat or high chair or get her out of her car seat or high chair she says "buckle, buckle, buckle" until you get her buckled or unbuckled. She will try to sing any song. We've been told several times that she loves singing time in nursery. Tonight she was singing the ABC's with Benson and Grace.
I LOVE these children!!

Water Fun

Well the next several posts will have lots of pictures of our kids playing in the water. I guess that is just a sign that summer is just around the corner. Last week we pulled our water table out of the attic and set it up on our very nice covered patio. If only we had a fence, the backyard would be perfect. I'm always amazed at how long my kids can play in the water. I was also amazed at how long they played in the water without fighting. Hopefully the water table will continue to be this entertaining all summer.

There was a lot of spitting and water dumping going on

I love her little nose scrunch!

Do you think he spit the water at me?

I told them not to climb in the water table...my children are always obedient! (That was a joke.)

The Happiest Place on Earth...

The Kiddie Park! I guess I should have said the Happiest Place on Earth...in Oklahoma, actually probably just in Bartlesville, but you get the idea. On Friday we took the kids to the Kiddie Park for the first time this year (click here for last year's trip). We learned lots of new things while we were there:
1. It is much more enjoyable to go to the Kiddie Park in May than August!
2. Benson is deathly afraid of clowns. If a clown came within 30 yards of him he would stop dead in his tracks and insist on being carried until they were at a safe distance (out of sight). On the rides that were close to where the clowns congregated he was eyeing them the whole time.
3. Grace goes through a myriad of emotions on any given ride. She would go from laughing and enjoying the ride to crying and screaming in one rotation.
4. Mommy is mean and enjoys watching Grace go through her myriad of emotions. While she was riding the airplanes the girl running the ride asked if she wanted to get off and I said "no, she'll be fine." Then the girl stopped the ride for another screaming kid and asked me again if she wanted to get off and I said "no, she's fine." She eventually was fine because Benson held her hand and I think she did enjoy at least the end.
5. Sabrina is not a big fan of the rides, but she LOVES snocones. I got some ice cream thinking that she would like that better, but she devoured the snocone. She got so cold, but that didn't stop her.
6. It is SO much easier to go to places like the Kiddie Park when there is one adult for every child. THANKS Aunt Chelsea!

Riding the boats

Still riding the boats (it's impossible to get all 3 to look at the same time for a picture)

Benson and Grace holding hands in the airplane

Grace's favorite ride. She asked to go on this one (she had to be forced to go on most of the others) and while she was waiting impatiently for her turn she had already decided that she had to ride the purple one!

Daddy and Sabrina on the train

Mommy, Grace, Aunt Chelsea and Benson on the train

Snocones and popcorn, what could be a better way to end the evening?

Major Parenting Milestone

Today we reached a major milestone as Mormon parents. Sabrina turned 18 months old this last Friday so that meant that today was the first day she was able to attend Nursery at church. So for the first time since March 2004, Mike and I were able to attend our own classes during the 2nd and 3rd hour of church without children! This morning while Sabrina was eating breakfast I said in an excited voice "Sabrina you get to go to nursery today!" and she raised her little arms in the air and said "Yeah!", totally unprompted I might add. And she went willingly with no tears. Mike and I almost didn't know what to do with ourselves. On the way home from church we were able to have a knowledgable discussion about the lesson topic from Elder's Quorum (men's meeting during the 3rd hour) and Relief Society (women's meeting during the 3rd hour). Mike's (joking) comment to me between meetings was "I guess we need to have another baby." That is by no means an announcement of any kind.
We are so grateful to the wonderful teachers and leaders our children have in Nursery and Primary at church. I am overwhelmed by the great blessing it is to know that other people love my children and are working so hard to teach them and help them to grow in the gospel.

Strollin' Sisters

I have two cute pictures of the girls and strollers from this week.
On Monday we went to Bartlesville and while we were there we went out to the mall with Aunt Chelsea and Aunt Jenny. I only had our little umbrella stroller in the van and since my kids seem to always be fighting over the strollers lately - who gets to ride, who gets to push, etc., the girls started fighting over who got to ride. So we stuck Grace in the stroller and put Sabrina on her lap and told her to hold on tight. I was a little worried that Grace would shove Sabrina off, but thankfully she didn't. However the cuteness didn't last long and they pretty much whined and fought over the stroller the whole time we were in the mall. Next time they can walk.

The little doll stroller that we got the girls for Christmas has been a constant source of contention at our house. The ONLY times when it is out and there isn't fighting are when one of the girls is riding in it and the other is pushing. You would think we would wise up and buy another stroller, but we haven't.

Notice that Grace is "helping" me get the picture by holding Sabrina's head still.
Grace has become quite the little "mother" lately. She keeps me laughing with all of her stern reprimands and attempts at soothing upset siblings. She is often heard saying "It's ok, it's ok baby, don't cry. Shh! Shh!" while giving Sabrina hugs and patting her back. Today Sabrina kept changing the channel on the TV and Grace finally yelled "Stop that, baby, TIME OUT!" while pointing to their room. Who knew little girls could be so bossy?!? (If you know me, you know that that last part is said with extreme sarcasm since I am the oldest of 7 children and if you ask my siblings they would tell you that I invented bossy.)

Rainy Day

I obviously should post these things more quickly because I can't remember for sure which day this week it rained, but I think it was Wednesday. We'll just pretend that it was Wednesday for the sake of this story. So it was a very, very rainy day and we obviously weren't going to go anywhere. We're talking pouring rain and flooded yard. I was trying to figure out what we were going to do to pass the time and then I noticed that I had an email from my brother John. He had sent a recipe for homemade pretzels that my sister-in-law Emily had found and that they have really enjoyed several times in the last week or so. Presto, the solution to my problem of what to do all morning. We made pretzels! The kids especially enjoyed making "snakes" with the dough. There was a lot of hissing going on during the process. It kept us busy and provided a very delicious lunch. So thanks Uncle John and Aunt Emily for spicing up our rainy day!

She really is happy in this picture. This is her fake laugh face.

Benson rollin' the dough

I caught Sabrina eating some of her dough SEVERAL times, she's lucky she had a cooked pretzel.
In case you couldn't tell, Grace is hissing like a snake while she's working with her dough

What can happen when mommy gets on the phone...

2 Thoughts:
1. Why didn't we throw away Mike's old planner pages when he switched to a PDA?
2. Why is a bunch of paper so much more entertaining than the TONS of toys that we have purchased for these children?

A Walk in the Park

Well spring is definitely here and we know it will be gone all too quickly, so we have been trying to take advantage of the nice weather. We have been enjoying playing outside and especially going to the park. Last week we found a new park that met all of the criteria I have for being a great park...
1. No SAND!!!
2. Toys that are toddler friendly - not too high, easy to climb on, slides that don't require mommy to go down them
3. Small enough that mommy can run from one side to the other in less than 30 seconds in case of emergency
4. Baby swings
5. Close proximity to our house so no one falls asleep in the car on the way to or from
6. Big beautiful shade trees, perfect for picnics

It is amazing to me how many parks out there DO NOT fit within my criteria, so I'm glad we have finally found one around here that does. If there is one thing that we miss about Sacramento it is definitely the great parks! Here are some pictures from our adventures at our new favorite park last week. Happy Spring!

Scripture Power

The other night when we were reading the Book of Mormon as a family, Mike was trying to keep Grace quiet and entertained so they were looking at the pictures that are included in the beginning of the soft cover Book of Mormons.
When they got to the picture of Samuel the Lamanite (see below), and Grace saw the people shooting the arrows she said, "Look Daddy, robots." Umm...robots? Then he asked her who the man on the wall was and she said "Superman" I guess to a kid it might look like he's wearing a cape, but we just thought it was hilarious that to our silly little two year old, what should be a harrowing story of faith and divine providence is robots attacking Superman.
A little background for anyone who is not familiar with stories from the Book of Mormon: The above picture depicts an ancient prophet of the Americas named Samuel, the Lamanite. He is shown here preaching repentance from a city wall to a wicked group of people who shoot arrows at him and try to kill him. He is protected by the power of God and their arrows are unable to hurt him. That's the story in a nutshell. For the full version, click here. Keep clicking the "previous" button at the bottom of the page on that link if you want to read Samuel's full sermon.