Playgroup

We had playgroup at our house this morning. It was cold outside so we didn't get to play on the playground, but the kids had fun playing inside. Even though Kate doesn't share all the time she likes having her friends over. It's a process to learn to share, right?! This is normal for three year olds, right?! She is getting better. :) We do playgroup through church. So a person plans an activity usually each Thursday and we rotate or take turns planning it every three months. It's worked out really well so far. We try to plan different activities, some at people's homes and others at parks or museums or whatever. We try to keep it mostly free, but some of the activities cost money. I think it's good to get out and have the kids play with other kids and of course, it's nice for the mom's to interact. I planned playgroup for April, May and June. I put down some new parks to try out so we'll see how we like them. But we have a fun ward. There are lots of young couples in it so it's fun to do things like this and actually have people come.

This afternoon while Preston was sleeping, I took Kate outside to play for a bit with Darbi's kids. (Darbi is my neighbor and good friend. In the summer we see each other practically every day because we are always outside!) The sun was shining for a little while, but it was still cold. I can't wait for the warmer weather. Then we ate dinner (we had gyros), I made cookies and then I took off and went to a stamp party at a friend's house. There were 8 of us there and it was a lot of fun. We made 4 cute cards and had fun chit chatting. Good times. :)

Random Moments

Kate in her snow white dress. It's a little big. She ripped it the very first time she wore it so I took it back and exchanged it. Now I'm nervous to let her wear it again.

Kate likes to read to Preston. Of course, it's a princess book. Right now he doesn't care, but he may soon! She is telling him all the names of the dwarfs and it's cute to overhear her read to him.

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

We bought a new car!!! We traded in Kyle's Nissan Titan Truck for a Black 2005 Cheverolet Suburban Z71. It has leather, DVD and even a sunroof. It's my dream car and I LOVE it! I don't love gas prices, but Kyle was driving his truck around for work and I'm hoping I don't drive as much as he does so we'll see if we spend the same on gas each month. It was kind of an ordeal to get it, but we're glad we got it since it's more of a family car. Now more kids will fit into this car along with room for visitors when they come! I also love the storage in the back. It allows for all my shopping excursions, right Kyle?! ha! We didn't actually get to bring it home until Monday night and we bought it last Wednesday night. They had to still check the car out mechanically and detail it because they had just gotten it in from California. We were going to pick it up on our way over to my parents on Thursday night, but we found out right before we were leaving that we couldn't get it because they were going to replace the brakes on it. That's good and bad. Good because we get brand new brakes, but bad because Dee Ann was with us along with all our stuff so we needed the room. They ended up giving us a Tahoe as a loaner to take over for the weekend so it worked out. So today I had to try it out and took it to Winco to go grocery shopping. It fit my groceries like a charm. :)

Happy Easter!

Family Picture with Kate actually smiling.

The kids were kissing Grandma Dee Ann- so cute!

Preston on his first John Deere!

Kate gingerly picking up easter eggs.

Kate used her hands to dye the eggs. Who needs to use the wire egg holders?!

We had a fun Easter weekend. It was fun to see all our family. I'm thankful for my Savior and the real reason we celebrate Easter. I have so many blessings and I'm grateful for all of them.

Cinderella Has Arrived!

Cinderella is here aka the Nanny aka Grandma Dee Ann. She is up visiting from Las Vegas. It is her spring break. Kyle and I are hoping to get a date night in this week. I'm filling in at work tomorrow and so she gets to watch the kids all day. She's excited to spend time with Kate and Preston. Dee Ann just got here mid-morning and Kate already made her be a horse, cow, elephant and a giraffe. Dee Ann is a little sore because she just moved so being all those animals is taking a toll!!! :) (And it's only been ONE day!)

Kate loves playing with Preston. Preston smiles at her all the time and thinks she's funny. It's nice when I need her to entertain him for a bit. Other times she is a little too playful and I have to save Preston. It's fun though to see them start to interact more.

I have fed Preston rice cereal a few times and it's been interesting! I remember it took Kate 3 weeks before she finally caught on to eating solids. So since Preston is 5 1/2 months I decided I should slowly start to try solids. Tonight, we tried applesauce and rice cereal. He did okay, but this picture shows him sticking his tongue out while I was trying to feed him with the spoon. He has a strong tongue! Every time I tried to give him some food he would stick his tongue out and I would try to shove the spoon in- I could barely get it in. It was hilarious! We'll see how long it takes him to catch on. :)

One Year Older and Wiser Too?!

My birthday was yesterday! Kate loved helping me blow ALL those candles out.

We didn't do much for my actual birthday on Sunday, but on Saturday my family surprised me and drove 2 1/2 hours one-way just to come spend the afternoon with me!!! It was so much fun. I was taking a nap and Kyle came up to get me to come look at something. I followed him downstairs and my family was down there! It was so nice of them to come over for me. All the girls went shopping and the boys took Kate and Preston with them to their stores. It was great shopping with my mom and sisters without kids. Then we met up at the Spaghetti Factory (yummy!) for dinner and then we split up again and us girls went shopping some more. Sara (my sister who is a senior in HS) had a fabulous time shopping in all our fun stores over here! They left super late that night. Thanks family for spending the day with me!!! (We missed Jeni and Kevin and their kiddos.)

Sunshine!

A couple weekends ago we went over to my parents house and had a fun time. It was beautiful weather, nice and warm. The kids were outside a lot. All the men/boys went motorcycling riding and they didn't even have to wear coats it was so nice. All of us girls stayed home (with kids, of course) and made cards. We do our own stamp camp where my mom, sister and I come up with two card ideas and then exchange and make one another's cards. It's fun and we always go home with cute cards. Here's some cute pictures from that weekend.

Feeding Evaluation

I took Preston to his feeding evaluation at Children's Hospital last Friday. Everything looked normal so that is good news. It was so interesting to watch though. It was done with an x-ray. We fed him Barium through a bottle and we could watch him suck this dark liquid and we could see it as it went down his esophagus. Then we'd stop the x-ray and feed him 1-2 ounces of formula. Then, we started the x-ray and fed him Barium again. We did this a couple times because the radiologist wanted to see how he did swallowing throughout the entire bottle to make sure the milk wasn't pooling up above his esophagus/trachea area. Things looked good throughout the feeding and Preston was a champ to put up with it. It didn't answer my question of why he is such a slow eater though. I guess that's the way he is... My friend, Sara, watched Kate while I took Preston to the appointment and she had a great time there so thanks for helping me out!

Messages...

My Mom gave this message board to me for my birthday (she gave it to me early). But I brought it home and I LOVE it! I had an older wood message board, but wanted a newer and cuter one. So I'm glad my Mom found this one and thought of me. It has a dry erase board which I use all the time, pleated pockets to hold papers and then a cork board. It's perfect and it even fits on my wall. We didn't know if it would work. So here it is Mom. Thanks!

For lunch yesterday we had tuna fish and pickle sandwiches. Kate kept saying we were having "Ariel sandwiches". I just kept saying "uh, huh" but didn't really know why she was calling them that. Then I realized there was a picture of a mermaid on the tuna fish can!!! It was hilarious. I thought it was so funny she even saw the mermaid.

Preson is sick again! He started coughing more late last week and woke up Sunday morning with a nasty green boogery nose. We were surprised he even slept that night with how his nose looked in the morning. We wondered how he breathed! So onto more breathing treatments (he is a little wheezy) and hopefully the cold and cough will go away soon. He was doing so well for a couple weeks so it's a bummer he got sick again. He's still happy so that's good.

Happy Birthday Mom!

It was a great weekend. My Mom's birthday was on Saturday and we went over and surprised her!!! She was totally surprised. I had thought of doing this earlier in the week and called Marci to see if she wanted to meet up with us in North Bend and ride over together. She was all for it. So early Saturday morning we met up and headed to my parent's house. My family was at the church cleaning it that morning and so we got home before they did. We parked the truck on the side of the house where they wouldn't be able to see it when they pulled up. Everyone knew we were coming except my Mom. When they drove up, we ran downstairs so she wouldn't see us when she walked in. Jeni and Kevin had come over the previous night for Kevin's brother's play so when my Mom came inside they tried to act normal. While they were talking in the kitchen, we sent Kate up the stairs and she said "Hi Grandma". My Mom was thinking it was Aubree or Carter, but then took a double take and saw it was Kate. Then the rest of us came up the stairs and my Mom was so surprised and happy we came over. It was fun. :) I love surprises. We had a great visit with everyone. Kate was so excited to see "Grandma Vicki" and all her cousins and be able to sleep in her pink bag (her sleeping bag!). My Mom did some games with the kids and then later that night both sets of grandparents came over for dinner and cake. We left early the next morning to get back in time for our church. It was a fun, but fast weekend.

All the kids like riding on the four-wheeler and motorcylces so Grandpa took them on a ride. Kyle also took Kate for a ride on his motorcycle. She used to be scared of the sound of them, but I think she is getting more used to it. She better since there are a bunch of motorcylces zooming around my parent's property everytime we go home! (All the boys like to ride them.)

So Happy Birthday Mom! It was fun to surprise you and I'm glad you like having us all come over there so much. You and Dad are so supportive to us kids. Thanks for all you do for us! You are a great example to us all and we are so grateful for you and Dad. We love you!!!