Out like a lamb

Today was the first day of pre-k registration. Our little pre-k'er was so ready she took her backpack with her! As we filled out forms she said "where's my class?" We've got fingers and toes crossed that she gets in, I think she'll love it!

As we left the school, she showed me her new trick - she can buckle herself!!! This is a long time coming and very exciting to me! After Delaney was born I found myself buckling and unbuckling 3 car seats, so the thought of being down to just one thrills me!

Oh this girl. I really miss my sweet baby. She has been very temperamental lately. 

Good thing we think she's so cute. 

"I did it!" I looooove the look of pure joy on her face! Now I owe her a toy. I am not above bribery. 

Letter learning time. Joni sent a link for a song about "v" that they sang at preschool that Frankie loved. Only, she can't say "v" so she says "we, we, we, we," and it's so adorable! Then she says wulture (vulture), wenom (venom), and my personal fav - wiper (viper). Seriously, so cute. (:

Also, check out her awesome ensemble. She was very proud that she matched the checkers. She was like, "look, it matches!" Almost, sweet girl. Almost. She also jazzed up her ensemble with all the jewelry she could find in her room during her "rest time." 

And since we're talking Frankie, how about a st pats pic for good measure. 

Pretty girl. 

And speaking of goofy. Haha. (: she went through a stripping phase at bedtime, which thankfully didn't last long. Aaand she wet too. Oh these kids. 

One of my other favorite moments today was when Addie said "I see France, I see London, I see my underpants." Hahaha, I love these kiddies. 

Also today:

*Chris went with some friends to outback for some cheesy fries. Yum. 

*Lex accepted her byu-I acceptance. 

*laney got about 10 time outs

*matt and I went for a 9pm run. In short sleeves! It was awesome. Except that I felt like I was gonna die and I only went 1.2 miles. Oh my! It's been a long winter with no running from me! I've got a long row to hoe!

I'd definitely say March 2014 came in like a lion, stayed like a lion, and then went out like a lamb. Ready for some more lamby days!

birth!

i finally made it to a birth! little miss adeline pola'i aina was born on march 10 at 9:15pm - she was a very good girl to be born at a such a very convenient time. and she was born quickly, what a little angel!

i have been contemplating becoming a doula, since i love birth and all, for a long time. but i wasn't sure how i would do since i don't do gross very well, and there's kind of a lot of gross surrounding birth. but i wasn't phased at all! i loved it! i came home around midnight (i think?) and couldn't sleep, i was so jazzed up from the birth. and of course, everyone at home was asleep. i should have just gotten up and written my version of the birth story, but nope, didn't do that, and still haven't. anyways, it was awesome and i totally want to be a doula. someday. :)

we had abby and ellie over to play for a few days so mama could have some baby time. we actually had a nice day, so were playing at the park when ellie hit her lip and was bleeding. thankfully chris had just passed by getting the mail, so i caught up with him and ran her home for some water and cleanup. isn't she just the cutest, most pathetic thing ever?!

thankfully she was fine as soon as we got back to the park. :)

so, adeline was born on a monday, and for fhe we had gone to waldorf to see mr peabody and sherman and then do some prom dress shopping. on our way home we saw this car and matt got so excited!

he did some maneuvering to get us traveling next to the car and i got these pics. the driver was totally giving me a thumbs up, it was awesome.:)

new york!

for the bubba's 16th birthday trip he chose to go to new york to spend a few days with auntie alli. they left thursday night (the 13th) and came home sunday night (the 16th). for lexi's 16th birthday we went on a girls trip to ocean city, but apparently that's not the most fun thing for a boy. plus also, he has a february birthday, so no beaches involved. i suggested a weekend of snowboarding, but no dice. it's pretty nice and convenient that ny is a cheap and short'ish bus ride away!

brunch with the auntie. and aren't they hilarious.

i'm not sure...

they had a really good time. chris did some research and picked out some things he really wanted to do. alli wanted to take them to see a show on broadway, so they chose matilda, which they all enjoyed. chris also wanted to try authentic new york pizza, which they did.

alli wanted to take them on a hop on/hop off bus tour, so here they are. alli's roomies tagged along. so alexis almost died laughing telling me this funny story about the bus tour. they were all sitting in the very back on the top of the bus. alli's roomate (carlos, maybe?) was wearing a baseball cap, and when the wind blew, it flew off, but they were stopped. so carlos told chris to run off the bus and get it for him, which he did, (good boy!) and also which they filmed. he dodged through traffic and no one had run over the cap, so it looked like it was going to be a happy ending. but wait! as christian was running back to the bus, the bus takes off. commence alli and alexis screaming/laughing "oh no! stop the bus! someone tell the driver!" finally the other roomie went to tell the driver, while carlos calmly reminded the crew that the driver would have to stop at the red light just up ahead, and christian was returned safely. oh those silly kids and their shenanigans.

they went to the top of the rock and it was terrifying to my afraid of heights bubba, but he did it. :)

i love to travel and am glad i can send my kids off on fun adventures. i am glad they are such good friends that they want to go on fun adventures together. and i am glad that we have at least one relative that is within 5 hours of us.

their bus came back sunday night. the sunday night that started the storm that dumped 6-10 inches of snow on our little county and surrounding areas. bytheby, i am totally making that number up, but in my expert opinion, having been involved with dozens of severe snowstorms this season, (ok, that's an exaggeration) that's what i would guesstimate. and it's always awesome when one can say (or type) guesstimate.

 

anyhow, bad snowstorm brewing sunday night. i was pretty sure school would be cancelled on monday and so we debated changing the ticket to come home monday night. but we didn't know for sure, and since chris is applying for the tech center next year, we're really trying to watch his absences. and we also didn't know if the weather would be even worse on monday, or if it would be bad on their bus route on monday and the bus would be cancelled and then they could be stuck in ny. anyways, after hemming and hawing all afternoon, we finally decided that i would go sunday night and just drive really slowly. and that's what i did. i gave myself 2 1/2 hours to get to baltimore and took it nice and easy. the snow was pretty heavy and visibility wasn't great, but slow and steady wins the race and we finally made it home 5 hours later. Two 16th birthday trips down, three to go! thankfully we've got 10+ years to think about the next one. ;)

Snow, March 30th style

After church I was walking upstairs from the basement and saw snow out the sliding glass door! Snow! Snow! Thankfully it didn't stick and it's supposed to be in the 60's tomorrow. Hallelujah. But, snow!

Landon gave Frankie this cute Sophia purse to color. She loves it! She colored it a little bit all day and just had to take it to church. 

I just love scenes like this, when people spend time just being together in close proximity and with no tv. It was a sweet and peaceful morning. 

Sunday after church drive home. Every. Week. 

Snow!

And now for the daily rewind. Several weeks ago, Addie went to a birthday party at the gymnastics center and sibs weren't invited. What's a mom of many to do? We hit up chicfila for milkshakes. 

I checked on the girls one night and found Frankie like this. Kids are such funny sleepers. 

We went and played at the Myers house one semi warm day and ended up having lunch with them on their awesome deck. We will take any slightly warm day and run with it!

We had fhe and Sunday dinner with the mc's one week and I tried my hand at a few Pinterest recipes. One was for Samoa brownies. Only, I didn't have any caramel, and it was almost time for church. So I googled a quick caramel recipe, but I must have cooked it too long because after cooling for a few minutes it turned into hard candy. Like, a pot sized piece of hard candy. Against my better judgement, I decided (upon returning him from church) to try to melt the hard candy and use it as caramel. Guess what? It didn't work. We ended up with hard candy coconut and chocolate atop nice soft brownies. The next day I peeled the hard top off and made my model Frankie pose like she was eating it. It looks delicious though, right?! Adventures in cooking with Michelle. 

This pretty girl is sooo destractable. She's totally my "squirrel!" girl. 

Drive home from church. So. Tired. 

Church was nice. I got to visit for awhile with Kelly. She is such a dear, sweet example to me. I am so thankful for good friends. 

Then we talked about family history during the third hour and everyone shared fun stories. I have loved family history since I was a teen (old soul;) and so I really enjoyed it. I was able to share an experience of doing the temple work for my great grandmother Aimee donmeyer. I brought one of dad's scrapbooks to share. during sacrament meeting Addie enjoyed looking through it. Laura had come over one day and looked through them and kept telling me how lucky I am to have such detailed records and pictures. I cherish those scrapbooks and mementos I have.

After church was hard. Boyfriend drama is hard. Patience is hard. Knowing where to draw the line is hard. 

This too shall pass. I am so thankful for my family (past and present) and to be a mother. Even on the hard days. 

One bite at a time

It's how you eat an elephant and catch up on a blog too. 

The latest installment of - "take a picture of me, mommy!" Lexi says Addie is gonna be the weird kid, but that people will still like her because she's pretty. At least there's a happy ending to lexi's story. 

Frankie tells the best stories. If you can get past about 15 "like, like, I said I was gonna, like, like... um, like..."'s, then you're in for a treat of a story. (And she does homework!)

Just one of many daily time outs. I call this the "idontwanttogetdressed" time out. There are many, many other versions. 

She dresses herself. All day. Different outfits. All day. Every day. 

Uncle mike came to visit! He's working in NC and drove up to visit grandpa, and us too. (; he and Matt were able to drive up to spend a day in DC and hang out with their dad. 

Addie is so creative. She found the little clothespins I had used for preschool and created a clothesline. I love the way her brain thinks!

We went to target today for birthday gifts. The snow piles are almost gone! That's January snow right thar!

Frankie got to go play with Landon today and went to Christiannas birthday party at Bert's. 

She loooooves Landon! Johnna and I used to say that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but then I realized that if I don't want them to date till they're 16, they probably shouldn't have boyfriends either. So now Frankie says something like "he's my best friend and he's a boy." But she says it cuter. 

Even though she's pretty brattie a lot of the time, she's also pretty sweet a lot of the time too. It's been a cold winter and in front if the space heater has been a favorite place. 

Also:

*i went to a baby shower for Frankie. It was really nice and yummy. 

*addie went to neighbor kaitlyns birthday party

*chris had a friend that's a girl over

*lex and I went to the general women's meeting. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about including all girls over 8. I really enjoy mommy only time. But it was really awesome. Next time I feel apprehensive about something like that I will try to doubt my doubts. 

sweet 16!

the boy turned sweet 16 in february. so grown up!

we get pretty festive around birthday time. on this day we had a lot to do, but we were feeling pretty good about everything. our first errand was to pick up a caramel turtle cake from giant. as i was making my 18 trips to take things to the car, i remember looking at my purse and thinking, that would be so lame if i forgot my purse. duh, duh, duh.... i forgot my purse. that doesn't ever happen, seriously. ever. i called my sweet friend and she agreed to lend me some cash so i could get the boy a cake and some birthday lunch. oh my poor, overworked brain!

we took bubba some chicfila to school, complete with birthday tiara's. as i was taking this pic, delaney poked me in the eye. haha.

after taking bubba lunch, we met up with birthday girl ashby and darlaina back at chicfila for a birthday lunch for ash. birthday twins! after chicfila it was ballet time, and then they invited us to sweet frogs. then frankie was convinced that sweet frogs = birthday and we were going to sweet frog on her birthday. lexi nixed that, hello yo kool competition!

after all of our birthday fun it was time for some more! we caught an early dinner at okada, with the boy at the wheel. he can get his license in august, so for now he's cruising all of us with his permit.

we got there a few minutes before daddy and the mc's, so the big kids played with the littles in the pond.

yummy dinner and then yummy cake!

 

 

 real men wear pink.

we took the girls to the dollar tree and let them pick out any gift they wanted for chris. frankie picked these cool shades. it was really cute.

his favorite gift was this cool iphone lens attachment.

i love these pics.

check out the poor abused child without a high chair to sit in. ;)

by the time i got her her own high chair, delaney was done. oh the trials of a photographer!

these three are a handful, but i love 'em!

the gang! with a very 2-year-old, 2-year-old!

 

twas a good birthday. and we are that much closer to adulthood!

yikes!