School's Out for Summer!

I have been so excited for school to get out this year. I don't know if it is because that would just leave me with one month left for this baby to be born or if I was just really sick of driving the kids to school every day. :)

This morning was a whirlwind of taking and picking up. Chase was at school at 8:00 and then Hunter and Michela had to be to school at 8:45. I then dashed out to buy some gifts for their teachers. Yes, I know, Miss Procrastination. I got done just in time to get to the school to pick up Chase at 9:30. Here he is with his darling teacher Ms. Petty. He had such a fabulous time in First grade. I'm so proud of him for working hard and being such a great help in class with the kids who were struggling. He was in the top reading group with three cute girls, but he didn't let it bother him.

I then had to run over and pick up Hunter, Michela, and the other car pool kids at 10:15. Here is Hunter with his teacher Mrs. Hardy. She is a gem of a teacher. She had so many fun learning activities for the kids to do this year. Hunter really seemed to come out of his shell this year. He works so hard and is such a good kid.

Here is Michela with her teacher Mrs. Siebach. I had heard that Mrs. Siebach was a really tough teacher before the school year began but I found her to be so wonderful and encouraging with the kids. She pushed them to do their best and taught them so much. They did some awesome activities in their class especially when it came to learning about history and government. She even taught them some German!

What a fantastic school year the kids had. They all did such a wonderful job and worked so hard. They made some great friendships and had lots of fun. Now I'm looking forward to summer where I don't have to be in the car all the time and we can finally find some time to relax.

Neighborhood Block Party

It was our annual block party last night. It all started off with a bike parade. The kids started in our cul-de-sac and rode up to the party.
Chase and Hunter were in the back of the pack.
There were also a few cool old cars in the parade.
Dinner was delicious, as usual. Lots of good things to pick from. And there were even some treats that weren't chocolate! Mike loaded up his plate.
Aria went for the cookies first.
Hunter always whines about how he hates hamburgers and hot dogs so I had him make himself a PB&J to bring with us. Usually he just ends up with chips and cookies on his plate.
Chase gobbled down his hamburger, he must have been starving, and then started in on his dessert.
Michela with a cotton candy beard.
Aria wanted a snow cone so badly. When she finally got one she was so excited, but it wasn't long before she was crying about how cold it was. :)
We had so much fun hanging out with our neighbors and listening to all of the wonderful musical numbers that had been prepared. Of course I forgot to have myself be in any of the pictures so I had Michela snap one as we got home. At least I'll be in one!

Birthday Surprise

This morning I woke up to a little surprise. It was snowing! And not just a little bit of snow, but a blizzard! We got a good 3" at least.

And yes, the date is correct on this blog entry. It is May 24th, not March 24th, but May. I've never had snow on my birthday.

Yep it is my birthday. I turned 36 today. I got the best compliment from one of my Visiting Teacher's when she asked me if I was 30 yet. :) Plus they brought by the most heavenly homemade bread. Yummo! My friend Natalie brought me a cute bag, flip flops and earrings. The only thing that fits when you are pregnant are shoes and jewelry! Ha, Ha, ...

We also went to Carrabbas for dinner with my brother Brian, his wife Stephanie, my nephew Kyle, and my sister Tiffany. Brian and Steph gave me a cupcake cookbook. It is the cutest thing. It has all these great and easy ideas for decorating cupcakes. For some reason I have been really into cupcakes lately. I just think they are so much easier for birthday parties than a cake. Plus they don't fall in the middle like my cakes tend to do.

It was a pretty low key birthday for me. On Sunday we celebrated with dinner at Mike's parents' house. She made me Red Velvet Cake. Here I am ready to blow out my birthday candles.

Today Aria and I pretty much just lounged around the house. I was able to watch the Series Finale of Lost. Let's just say it was a teary morning saying goodbye to one of my favorite shows. I also got a trip to Costco in without children! How good is that! And to my great surprise they had La Brea Rosemary Olive Oil Bread. This is my favorite bread of all time and they haven't had it at Costco in like forever. It makes the best homemade croutons. I can't wait until I can have a big salad.

And to top it all off, I am now on the one hand count down. Yes, that's right, only 5 weeks left to go.

I'm so excited to get this new baby here, I am so done being pregnant. I am ready to snuggle her and rock her instead of being kicked and punched by her. Still no name, but don't you think it would be pretty funny to have Peanut Staker on her birth certificate?

Boys and Girls Nights

On Friday it was the Father's and Sons camp out. Mike and the boys had a lot of fun with the rest of the male population of our ward up American Fork Canyon. They went fishing at the reservoir where Hunter caught 2 fish. Luckily I insisted that Chase bring some extra clothing because as usual he fell in the river. Thank goodness for Moms!

It was supposed to rain, but they had a great clear evening. Mike said he woke up in the morning and couldn't hear any rain and thought they had escaped the storm. A few minutes later the Bishop came by to announce that breakfast had been cancelled because it was snowing. Mike came out of the tent and there was 3-4" of snow on his truck! They took down the tent poles and just threw the whole tent and it's contents in the back of the truck and took off down the canyon. They ended up going to Kneaders for breakfast with a few of the other Dads and their boys. Chase and Hunter probably didn't mind as long as they were able to have pancakes!

Whenever the boys are gone we feel like we need to have a Girls Night. This year we went to Olive Garden for dinner, Michela loves the salad and breadsticks. Afterwards we went looking for this new Cupcake place. I think it is called the Cocoa Bean. It is also a Coffee/Drink shop. They had so many yummy cupcakes to choose from so we got six different kinds to sample. The cupcakes are pretty big so we had plenty to share with the boys the next day. Here's a picture of the delicious cupcakes.

The flavors we got were "Dirty Turtle" (Mint Chocolate", Orange Dreamsicle, Marbled Chocolate, Raspberry Chocolate, Red Velvet (My Favorite), and Ultimate Brownie. I think the Ultimate Brownie would have been my favorite if I could have eaten it. It was brownie on the bottom, cheesecakes on the top with a marshmallow in the middle. The kids were in heaven! Aria loved the Dirty Turtle. Basically she loved the frosting. She called it Ice Cream.

After cupcakes we got in our jammies and watched "The Spy Next Door". It is a kids movie with Jackie Chan. I wouldn't be giving this movie 2 thumbs up any time soon but Michela and Aria thought it was pretty funny. At least they were happy! Next year we'll be able to include Peanut in our Girls Night!

Family Home Evening Chart

I made this family home evening chart before Aria was even born. I just took an unfinished wood shelf, some pegs, red paint and vinyl lettering. I made these cute little people to move from peg to peg. The only problem? Aria is 3 1/2 and she has never been represented on the board, until now. Today I decided to make a few new people. These are Chase and Michela's old people.

As you can see, Chase was still quite little when I made these and Michela had bangs!

Here are close ups of our people now.

I made new ones of Michela, Chase and Aria. Now I just need to figure out what to do when Peanut gets old enough to participate. I only did 6 pegs!

Exhausted

Let's just say I haven't been sleeping so well lately. For the last week and a half I have been sick with a stuffy nose which makes sleeping difficult. In addition at 7 1/2 months pregnant I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I try to go back to sleep Peanut starts doing her Kung Fu training. To top it all off Chase has a cough again and was coughing most of the night last night. This morning I crawled back into bed for a half an hour because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Two days this past week I have fallen asleep while Chase has been reading his take home reading books to me.

I don't think "Exhausted" quite describes how I am feeling lately. Is there a word for beyond Exhausted? So sorry I'm not doing so great at doing any new posts. I have a list of projects I want to complete before the baby comes but I can't seem to find the energy. Hopefully I'll be feeling better in the near future. So to recap the last couple of weeks for you- I'm still very pregnant, the kids are in the middle of state testing at school, it's raining here, soccer games and practices galore, still no name for the baby, and I'm getting nothing done. Now I think I need to go lay down for a while. :)

Pippi Longstocking

I always wanted to be Pippi Longstocking when I was little. I loved the crazy way she dressed, how she had so many animal friends and the freedom to do anything and go anywhere. I loved reading books about her and was over the moon about that funny movie I saw when I was a kid.

On Sunday it was cold so I had to look through Aria's long sleeve dresses and tights for an outfit. I love this little purple polka dot dress on her and would you believe these tights had the exact same colors in it! I know, polka dot and stripes together might be too much for the average person, but on a spunky little 3 year old they were too cute to pass up! I so wanted to put her hair in two pigtails but I thought that might be taking it a bit too far. :)

"I Have a Boyfriend"

Aria has been cracking me up lately with her little comments. Her little Best Friend, Seth, lives across the street from us. Seth is 6 months older than Aria and her best pal. Everyday she asks if she can go play with Seth. They actually play really well together. I think one being a boy and one being a girl really helps things out. They are usually interested in different toys so they don't argue too much.

A couple of weeks ago Aria announced to me, "Mom, I'm going to marry Seth and I'm going to wear a white dress with flowers on it and have lipstick!"

In the last week she has been proclaiming, "Mom, I have a boyfriend and it's Seth. He's my boyfriend because he plays at my house and I play at his house."

Then the other day she told Seth's Mom, "I'm going to marry Seth." When Seth heard this he said, "No way, the kissing is disgusting!"

Today she said, "Seth is my friend Mom. He's going to marry me. Seth loves me Mom."

Whenever we take pictures of them together we joke that we need to save them for the wedding video. These two are so cute together and so flat out funny. Love them both to pieces!

Car Caddy for Daynen

On Saturday it was my nephew's 3rd Birthday. The theme of the party was "Cars". I didn't want to just go buy him some car toy and leave it at that, I wanted to make it a bit more special and personal. I remembered a tutorial I had seen on Homemade by Jill for a cozy car caddy.

This is what I came up with.

It has pockets for five cars and a little road to drive them on. It folds in half, then rolls up and gets tied off with the ribbon. Nice and compact so you can throw it in your purse or diaper bag.

What could be more perfect for a 3 year old little boy than a way to pack his beloved cars around. It was a big hit!

My sister in law said he took it to church with him the next day and he and his little brother played with it the whole time. Perfect timing!

It only took me about an hour to make. I could have done a few more cute things to it, but of course I had procrastinated and didn't have any extra time. I used a pair of jeans from the cast off pile and some other scraps of fabric I had laying around. All I had to buy were the little matchbox cars. Little Boy Car Heaven!

Cars Birthday Party

On Saturday we were invited to our nephew's birthday party. We were told to bring any pinewood derby cars we might have. Hunter brought his car and Mike stopped off at the Hobby Shop on the way home from work to grab a few car kits for the other kids.

It was a super cute party, all decked out in checkered flags and "Cars" party decorations. They had rented a pinewood derby track and all the kids had a ball racing their cars.

We didn't have time to do any more than decorate the kit cars, but Chase and Aria didn't seem to mind.

Mike even raced one of the cars because Michela didn't feel like doing it. He had to add a rock or two to the cars to help them weigh the right amount. Aria kept telling me that hers was not a car, but a bus!

The best part was that Chase's car kept beating Mike's.

He was so excited to have the faster car. Chase ended up coming in 2nd place overall!