Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Mid March Update.

This is another one of those "life according to my phone camera" posts... Random fun, doctor visits, my birthday, and more...

When we take walks or play outside, all Jace wants to do is checkout every car in the lot. There is a big yellow truck at the far end that he adores.
Lainee comes running every evening when I say "I need a table-setter!"
Have I mentioned this guy can't stop climbing on stuff? (Luckily this day he forgot to pull the chair out so he didn't make it to the top of the table).
One night Jace noticed that everyone kept closing and opening their eyes (aka blinking) so he spent some time experimenting with his own eyelid abilities.
Lainee had a follow up appt for her previous issues, and while we were there, the doc said she couldn't see much in one ear because of too much earwax, so they drained a huge mass of wax out and it was nasty.

Sometimes Jace uses legs and arms as tracks for his cars.
But mostly he just uses the tv stand.

He is so learning to use his little sporks.
He's so proud of himself!
We are having perfect weather for hanging out on the patio lately. I have to wash it down once a week our so because of all the dust and green pollen but it's worth it.
We had some visitors from Idaho on their way to California and it was soo fun to see them!
Lainee and her buddy, Will.
The crazy crew (minus Sophie).
Lainee's hair-before.
After.

I had a birthday and went on a date for the first time in forEVER! Thanks honey!
On my actual birthday, Garen snuck home during church and finished cleaning the house and left me a surprise!

Last week preschool was at our house so the second day, we did St Patrick's Day stuff... Leprechaun book, word family in a pot o gold, rainbows and the color wheel, lucky charm graphing, green snacks, Irish facts, and river dancing! Fun!
(I have no clue why Lainee struggled to write her name on the paper here, since she's been writing it for over a year now. Haha, funny kid.)
When the kids are out on the patio, Jace likes to knock on the door and window at me.
All the kids' friends have been on this train at the mall so I finally gave in and spent the $6 to let them ride. They loved it.
On occasion, when no one has to be anywhere in the morning, and we need some bonding time, we have family movie nights and sleep out on the air mattress all together. It's been almost a year since the last time, so we had one of these fun parties last Friday. 
Poor Jace had these rips (idk the non-gymnast term for this) on the bottoms of his feet Sunday afternoon and I hadn't noticed before so we weren't sure where they came from. Then I was tidying up and found a thick piece of skin the size of a nickel stuck to the strap on one of his little flip flops. The poor kid never even whined or acted like his feet hurt.  :(
I have never been one to "celebrate" St Patrick's Day because, as far as I know, I'm not Irish. This year was fun to teach the preschool kids some stuff about Ireland, and of course, one of the girls brought up the fact that her older siblings planned to set a trap and catch a leprechaun for St Patrick's Day... So guess who thought that was a great idea and has an easy mom to talk into stuff like that? Ding ding! Lainee! So we set up this oh-so-original trap and then the leprechaun forgot to show up (whoops) but don't worry, he came while we were at the grocery store! He left a note saying thanks for the treats but he was too fast for the trap. Haha.

I hope you all had a LUCKY day!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Life Recently

Random happenings from January and February, 2014:


Jace likes to push stuff, especially this purple doll stroller. (Actually he just loves anything that has wheels or can roll).

Typical little brother, no?

We ate at a really super fancy steak house for Garen's Grandma and grandpa McKenna's anniversary. It was yum! And fun to see some family :)

Sometimes we have FHE every Monday and sometimes it includes treats like chocolate chip cookie ice cream bowls!

The preschool kids learned about emotions and this was their snack.

Lainee girl had an ear infection and I happened to snap this lovely photo of the kids waiting in line for her prescription at the pharmacy. Nice one, Jace.

Ear infection day. Rest time.
(So far this winter- throw up flu, strep throat, ear infection, eye infection... Let's hope it's over now.)

Another of Jace's messes. Chocolate milk powder gone to waste :'(

We went with our friends, the Durrants to see Frozen-the sing-along. These stinkers wouldn't sing, but their moms had fun busting out some lyrics!

There was a Super Bowl game and we root for the SeaHawks of course. 

Super Bowl Sunday in our blue and green.

Jace likes to steal my laundry baskets out from under my nose.

Lainee is learning to pump her legs and swing on the big kid swings. Woot!

Jace. Loves. Cars. 

And wearing things draped behind his neck.

On a windy day, we made valentines. Mom did the cutting and Lainee did the gluing and the stickers. Jace crawled all over my stack of cute paper, naturally.

We had a girls night after kids were in bed and husbands were home studying. I made this. The number blocks confused us a bit ;)

We got to spend a beautiful day with Dad at the park one Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure how I feel about this crazy "winter" down here...

Then there was Valentines day...
We made cookies.

And ate them.
And then licked our fingers.

The kids got some cute hugging monkeys from the people who love them most- mom and dad.

My sweet valentine brought these beauties home.

And I got him this perfect candy deer.

This is all the junk we got from various friends and each other. Spoiled.

And this was our Valentine dinner for four.


Garen made some yummy smoothies.

And we got to read the love notes we wrote for each other earlier in the week.

I always try to get a good picture of these  little buddies together but I'm always just a second too late. They're cute anyway though, right? 

Jace likes to stand on top of stuff so he flipped the basket over and got on. Good thing he's not very heavy.

Somehow my house ends up looking pretty much like this every afternoon, even though we clean it up so tidy each and every evening before bed. (And by "we" I mostly mean "I.")

Jace likes it when his dad comes home.


Lainee's little preschool group learned a little about the Olympics this week and their own Olympic Games, where they won medals (made by themselves) and everything!