Piggies

I got my 2nd blog book made. They are fun to look at. It makes blogging worth it. Looking back at the pictures and stories have been fun for all of us. It makes me realize how fast time goes and yet it's only been a few years. Kids grow up fast and things change quickly. It's funny because Kate was telling us a story of when she was young and I asked her where she heard that story and she said, "Lublin Life" as if it was a well known book. Duh, Mom!

Good Bye Piggies! 

Dee Ann gave this blanket to Kate when she was born and it became Kate's favorite blanket. Somehow Lindsey got attached to it and wanted it as her blanket, even though she had several new blankets to choose from. So Dee Ann found Kate a newer version of the piggies and Kate let Lindsey have this one. Well, Lindsey ripped it a little. I fixed it. Lindsey ripped it even more and I couldn't fix it. We had to throw the piggies away. Sad day. Lindsey still asks for them, but she's had to choose another blanket. Those piggies had been through a lot and weirdly were like a part of our family! 

 I redid my picture wall. Jeni gave me the "L" picture for Christmas and so I took down all the pictures I had so I could rehang them amazingly (you know like some adorable collage you see on Pinterest). That didn't happen, but this is what I came up with. I had the scrolly thing about my front door and moved it to put it above these pictures and liked how it completed the look and matched the scrolls inside the "L" picture. I shouldn't have waited so long to do it, but I was putting it off because I had to patch the old holes and paint and you know how one thing leads to another...I ended up touching up all the other walls with paint downstairs. 

Lindsey and Kate had a tea party. On the menu were mini cookies, mini marshmallows and mini ritz bitz peanut butter crackers. Kate even brought her flowers down from her room for the centerpiece. I love Kate's pinky finger sticking out in the bottom picture as she drinks. So proper around here. 

Kate was actually really sad/mad she couldn't play the iPad or computer (she got in trouble for throwing a fit when a friend was over so she got those taken away for a week) and to keep her mind off of it and to cheer her up, I suggested they have a tea party. It worked and they both loved it.

Kate's friend, Lanae, came over last week to play after school. They dressed up in Kate's ballet costumes and danced around. And you can't miss that they put on make-up either! Love those pink cheeks and blue eyelids.

One Year Older...And Hopefully Wiser

Happy 33rd Birthday to ME!

I don't have a choice if I don't want to know how old I am each year because Kate reminds me often. "Aren't you excited for your birthday? You're going to be 33!" I'm excited to celebrate, but each year quickly comes up on me. I don't know about this getting older business. Last Saturday, my parents drove over for the day and Marci also came up. They are all nice to come spend my birthday with me!

My Mom took a self portrait of me after I put on some fun pink lipstick thanks to Marci. Before my family arrived I went to Chipotle to get us all lunch. It was delicious. My goal was to not cook and to have a break from the kids. Oh and to shop to spend my birthday money. :)

Thanks to my Dad and Kyle for staying with the kids in the afternoon so that my Mom, Marci, Kate and I could go shopping. I thought they'd stay home, but they ended up going to Costco and Les Schwab to get new tires for my parents car. We met up with them at Olive Garden for dinner. We were successful at shopping and found some cute things at Macy's, Bath and Body Works and Penney's. We also browsed through Ann Taylor Loft, Chicos and White House Black Market. If we were rich we would have gotten clothes from there too. 

Preston and Lindsey being nice even though it looks like Lindsey has Preston in a choke hold. haha! Preston enjoyed the mints after Olive Garden.

Dessert of choice- cookie cake, made and brought by my Mom. So nice of her. It was delicious!

Then we hung out, watched basketball, watched Kate perform (sing and dance) and laughed. It was a great birthday and just what I wanted. I appreciate my parents for being so supportive and driving over and back in one day to spend the day with me. And with Marci around I am always laughing and having a good time. Hears to being 33!

She Strikes Again

Yes, that's red lipstick all over her face. Yes, that's blue and purple nail polish all over her shirt and jeans. Kate and Preston had just gotten home from school and I had opened the door for them and turned around and saw Lindsey on the stairs looking like this. You can tell she knows she's in trouble.

On Monday for nap time, I had put her in Preston's room and was downstairs thinking how quiet it was so she must have fallen asleep. Usually, if she wakes up she comes downstairs. I was enjoying my peace and quiet. I was nervous to go into my room to see the damage. The blue fingernail polish bottle was tipped over on the carpet with a big puddle of nail polish on the carpet. There was also purple nail polish specks on the carpet. In the bathroom on the floor was Clearasil, eye cream and foundation squirted all over. My foundation tube was empty. There was black makeup on the cupboard. (The next day I found out she had gotten into my mascara b/c it wasn't closed and the wand was bent.) She also scribbled with a pencil all over the bookcase. Luckily, the pencil and makeup off the linoleum floor came off. The blue fingernail polish is another story. We now have a blue spot on the carpet. I tried getting most of it up with acetone remover, but it's pretty bad. I tried cleaning her jeans, but the blue wouldn't come out and she also got white nail polish on it and I tried Clorox for Colors and it just bleached the jeans. They got thrown away. Guess I get to go shopping for more mint jeans. The next day I put her in Preston's room with a child lock on the inside door knob. She took a nap. It was a lovely afternoon.

On Monday, I took Chelsea in for her 9 month check-up and she weighed 20 lbs. My other kids weren't 20 lbs until 1 yr old! She's eating some table food and baby food. She stands up against furniture and likes to explore. She loves balloons, tags and ripping magazines so several Ensigns have been destroyed. The doctor found she had a double ear infection so she's on her first round of antibiotics. I'm kind of glad she got antibiotics because she's had cold after cold this winter so maybe it will help her body fight all the germs off (even though I know colds are viruses, I'm hoping it helps). 

Kate brought home this reading test that her school does every so often to test their fluency. They are supposed to be reading 80-110 words per minute for 2nd grade. Well, Kate tested at reading at 203 words per minute. I was very proud of her. She also earned enough AR (accelerated reader) points to eat pizza with the Principal which she was excited about. You need 75 AR points to do that. Books that she's reading are either .5 or 1-2 points each, so that's lots of books she's had to read and tests she's had to take- they have to pass a test on the book at 80% or higher to get credit for the book.

Preston cheers every time he gets to go to school. I'm glad he loves it. I registered him for Kindergarten last week. Yikes! I'm nervous for him. We are transitioning him into normal ed Kindergarten. His teachers think that's the best fit for him and even though I'm nervous, I agree. He's come a long way with his language skills and is pretty independent. He learned to button his shirts on his own so now he wants to do it all by himself. We are working on snapping his jeans. Those are tough for him. He loves little lego sets and will put them together, take them apart and put them back together again. I guess it's like a puzzle to him and he used to love puzzles. 

Lately...

These next two pictures are what happens when a 2 year old takes a nap in my bedroom, but doesn't nap.

Lip stain, not just lipstick, all over her legs, arms, clothes and some on the bed sheets. That pink stayed on her legs for a few days. Lip stain works good. ha!

Eyeliner all over her face. I didn't learn my lesson and so the next naptime, she used my fingernail polish to paint her hand, a plastic container and her clothes. Some got some on the carpet too. At first, she was doing so good sleeping in my room, but after she found my makeup it was too tempting for her. She now has been moved back into her room and Chelsea is now in the portacrib in my room for afternoon naps.

Preston drew me a flower. You can't see it very good, but I had to document this because he has never drawn me a picture, ever. Maybe one from a coloring book, maybe, but never one on his own. I loved it. He wanted to cut it up with scissors, but I wouldn't let him.

Chelsea's been battling colds since Thanksgiving. It's getting old. Poor girl. She loves her "new" toy we pulled out of the garage.

Kate finished up basketball at the end of February. They handed out medals and had a pizza party after their last game. She loved playing basketball. She wishes she could keep playing. 

 L-R: Tatiana Koford, James Parr, Bro Haven, Kate, Patty Lopez, Pres Lopez, Ryleigh Koenig, Tyler Koenig, Joseph Arrington and Mack Martin.

Kate turns 8 in May and gets baptized in June. It's crazy to think I have a kid old enough to get baptized! She is excited about it and we are glad she wants to be baptized. We went to our ward's 'Great to be 8' activity and had a good time.

This is Chelsea at breakfast time one morning. She is waking up awfully early, like 6am! The other morning was 5:30, ugh! Her face was smashed against the high chair tray, but she was asleep. Too funny.

Running, Discing and Celebrating

We went over to my parents last weekend and it had been a long time (2 mo's, but that's a long time for us! ha!). We were celebrating my Mom's birthday and the kids really wanted to go to "mama" and "papa's" house. We had a great time as usual, laughed a lot and ate waayyy too much homemade yummy food (think cinnamon rolls, chocolate bundt cake, cherry cobbler, rolls, stuffed spuds, cafe rio and a turkey dinner).

Marci asked me in January if I wanted to run a 10k with her in March. I was hesitant because I have only ran 5k's, but I agreed to do it. The two months gave us enough time to train for it. We decided to do our own race because most of them are on Sundays and with some of them you pay a big registration fee and get either an ugly shirt or no shirt. We said we'd save the money and go shopping on our own and buy a cute shirt. So we set the date for March 2nd. We ran our 6.2 miles in Desert Aire and we were SO glad when we were done. That's a lot of running! I kept thinking of my Dad who has ran marathons and wondered how in the world he did that. It's not easy. I ran 10.5 minute mile and finished in 67 minutes. I was happy with that. 

Kyle was very excited to see my Dad's new big fancy tractor. While Marci and I were running our race, him and Kevin took all the kids out to the field to drive it. They did some discing. This is by far the fanciest tractor my Dad has ever had. Marci, Jeni and I grew up driving cabless tractors and arguing over who gets the best radio and headphones! Don't get me started on how nasty it was when there were lots of bugs out (this was in the middle of the night when we were baling hay with a dew- they don't bale with a dew now that they have big balers). They'd eat us alive so we'd raise our hand up to keep the bugs away from our face! Now they have amazing radios, air condition, digital everything and cabs! My Dad deserves it though. :)

My Dad was planting wheat seed and Lindsey rode with him and fell asleep in the tractor. Cute. 

Preston got all dressed up like this and said he was Jared. haha! I think Jared would wear a jersey, but I'm not so sure about him wearing a necklace or carrying a zebra striped wallet. We got a kick out of it. 

Carter, Kate and Paige having fun playing together and being ultra silly.

We celebrated my Mom's birthday on Friday with a yummy cafe rio dinner and chocolate bundt cake. Everyone was there except Jeff and Sadie and of course Jared. We had fun being together. After my Mom made her entire birthday dinner, Sara spoiled her with a pedicure and I gave her a massage. It's the least we could do since she was doing everything else!

Pin the tail on the Donkey

On Saturday afternoon, my Mom had her birthday party for the kids. She did some popular birthday games and the kids had fun. She's such a good grandma. Sara, Derek and Zane came back for the day on Saturday. We played some games of course! (our fave is Oh Heck)

Chelsea on the move and I love her smile and dimples. She is pulling herself up and standing. She's almost 9 months old already.

Hot potato 

A family favorite- Don't Eat Pete

Chelsea using my Mom's vintage/retro bouncy chair. We laugh about this thing. It's awesome. I also liked this picture showing Chelsea's new top teeth, she basically got all top 4 at the same time.

Dee Ann wanted to see the kids and us so she came out to Mattawa for Church on Sunday then came to my parent's house for the day. She brought some new clothes for the kids, which I always love getting. It was fun visiting with her and the kids were excited to see her. When we sat down in Church with Dee Ann (she was there saving us a seat), Preston didn't see her at first so a few minutes later he goes, "there's Grandma Dee Ann" and got a huge smile on his face. Then he wanted to go hug her. So cute.

Before we left Sunday, we got some permanent markers out and had to leave our mark. No really, it's fine. My Mom and Dad are getting new kitchen cabinets and counter tops this week so it's all getting ripped out anyway. Marci, Kate and I decorated it for her while she was at choir practice.