Kewpie Baby

The kids are happily playing together on this Sunday afternoon, which has got to be one of the best sounds to a mother, ever.  I'll take this moment to do a little blogging.  I have a lot of really cute photos to share.  Boy, I love these kids.

Little Sis found someone's Easter chocolate: 

Mondays are awesome:

Happy little "helper":

Yesterday, I gave Daisy some spaghetti for lunch, which she loved:

She, of course, needed a bath.  She went right in the kitchen sink (it was closer):

  

And then I took so many sweet photos of this babe I had a hard time deciding which ones I liked best:

My sister says she looks like a kewpie doll.  Yup, I can see the resemblance.  It's all in the big eyes and chubby cheeks (the hair up on her head doesn't hurt either).  Oh, and they are both naked.  :)  What do you think?

 I have one beautiful baby.

And look what she can do:

 She's gonna take off walking one of these days.  She just stands up right in the middle of the floor.  I was told the Sunday School class was quite impressed with her skills (I wasn't ditching, in case you were wondering... :)  I play the piano for the primary).

Oh, and one last favorite photo of raisin baby toes:

Easter

 What is it about a Monday morning that makes me want to sit back and take it easy?  That is the day, more than any other, that I have a billion things to do.  But here I am sitting at the computer.  Probably because the weekends are always noisy and crazy, and this is my bit of downtime?  Yep, I'll buy that.

We had a wonderful weekend chock-full of family, food, and traditions.  My mom had her annual Easter party on Saturday.  One of the highlights for all was the rockets:

And then the anticipated egg hunt.  The round-up:

Eggs were dyed:

Four-wheeler rides:

 It was a very nice afternoon.  Thanks, Mom.

Sunday morning was a bit crazy.  It is no easy feat getting 4 girls, 1 boy (and yourself) ready for 9am church.  Throw in the Easter Bunny and it's just nuts.  We made it though, on time, and looking spiffy:

 The girl's Easter dresses turned out so cute.

After church we enjoyed some down-time (and delicious homemade fish tacos, I'm pretty sure Nick would want me to mention those - it's all about the food, people :) and dyed some more eggs:

I didn't really take any photos of the kids discovering their Easter treasures Sunday morning, I was busy getting myself and kids ready and fed, remember?  But, Everett waited until after church to go on the search for his stuff (the Easter Bunny hides stuff all over the house for them), so here are a couple of him trying out his new swim goggles:

 What a silly monkey.

My happy girl:

But wait!  It's not over yet!  We went to Nick's parent's house and enjoyed Easter dinner with them (oh, the most delicious burgers...) and another egg picking:

This is my baby, STANDING without assistance.  Um, excuse me!!  Not so fast, baby!

Maren was so excited to find seeds in her eggs!  Good thinking, Grandma!

And now, we feel thoroughly spoiled and sugar-filled.  

I love these traditions that brings our families together.  But of course, the real meaning of Easter is much deeper than that, and we know it, and hopefully our kids know it too.  We're working on it.  I'm so grateful for my Savior and I have felt his Spirit once again testifying to me that He lives and that through the atonement, I can become all He has prepared for me, and progress with my family eternally.

Enjoy

Viva Las Vegas

 Spring Break has come to an end.  :(  Boo Hoo.  Seriously.  It wets our appetite for summer break and we'll be counting down the days.

On Thursday morning, we headed to Las Vegas.

Thankfully, my kids are fairly good travelers.  Actually, the award for best behaved in the car goes to the two year old.  She did the least complaining and required the least attention from mom and dad.  It's true.  Here she is entertaining herself with stickers:

When we got to the hotel, Daisy was introduced to her reflection:

 "Why hello there!  How do you do?" 

"Oh, I'm doing pretty good.  I've been tied down in a car for the last 6 hours and they forced chocolate cookies on me to keep me happy for the last hour, can you tell?"

That night, we made our first priority the pool, and then dinner and a drive down the Strip.

The next morning after breakfast at the hotel we went to M&M's World:

 Like a kid in a candy store.

We enjoyed choosing some m&ms and then watching the 3D movie:

I wanted to see the Bellagio fountain, so we paraded our kids up the Strip to the gawking of most:

 I always get a kick out of the reactions to our family of 5 kids (which is really nothing, I know, I came from a family of 12, after all).  One guy said, "How is this even possible!  They are all so little!  What, are they like, 6 months apart?!"  Or the lady who I could see counting my kids and then whispering to herself, "WOW!  Five kids!"  She just kept looking at my kids like she couldn't believe what her eyes were telling her.  Yep, we're a circus.

Anyway.  We paraded our kids up the Strip, and through about 2 dozen elevators, I swear, answering more uncomfortable questions than I would've liked and trying to shield their eyes more than once ("Mom, what are they wearing?" to the show girls or to the two scary guys dressed as KISS, wearing very tight speedos- seriously, my brain is a little scarred on that one).  We got to the Bellagio just to find out that the water shows don't start until 3 in the afternoon (and it was like, noon, at the time).  Stink!  Negative points for mom and dad for not checking times!  Oh well, we had a nice (ok, hot with tired and ornery kids) walk and got rewarded with m&ms at our destination:

We picked up lunch on the way back to our hotel and headed to the pool to cool off:

 Honey, you are awesome.  Especially with that glob of sunscreen on your chin.  This photo makes me want to kiss you, right here in front of everyone.  Ok, it's getting late and I'm starting to be silly.  Seriously though, I love this photo.

My girls were little fish and loved every minute of the pool time they got:

The little 'uns enjoyed it too, as long as they had mom or dad to cling to:

 Oh, look, a rare photo of the momma:

 We spent several hours in the pool that afternoon.  The weather was perfect.  The company was perfect.

That night we took tired kids to the Outlets and convinced them it would be fun by letting them pick out something there if they were good.  Actually, I don't think we needed to bribe them, they were so exhausted that they didn't have the energy to run around and be crazy.  They were happy with their treasures, though, of course.

We had dinner at Round Table Pizza that night, a family favorite:

I like that in the photo of Daisy, you can see Lainey doing who knows what?  Looking for ABC gum?

Kids were asleep that night about as soon as their heads touched the pillow (Daisy on the other hand, does not sleep well in her port-a-crib, the little stink).

On Saturday, the kids voted to have one last swim before check out time, and then we were on our way home.  We hit AWFUL traffic, which added another 2-3 hours to our travel time, but we made it, thanks to a little pit-stop at the park in St. George:

We were all happy to be in our own beds again.  A good time though.  Travelling with little kids is stressful and crazy, I'm not denying it, but it is well worth it to spend quality time with my family without distractions.  And, we only lost Lu a few times, and found her again every time.  :)

Oh, and this little gal is 9 months old today:

 Nine months in, nine months out.  And only 10 more baby pounds to lose.  She is a sweetheart and we adore her, even if she keeps us up all night when we take her to strange places.