Easter

I can't believe I forgot to post our Easter pictures! I guess with everything going on....I just didn't! We had a very nice and sunny Easter. We loved having the Monson's (Jonathan's sister and family) here with us and are so sad they are gone!

The Party

Here are some pictures of Austin's 2nd birthday! He had such a fun time and was so cute. It seems like he's already grown up so much just in a few days!

Our baby is 2!!!

We can't believe that our baby Austin is 2 today!! It has gone by way too fast!! This morning he got 2 candles in his waffles and we sang him "Happy Birthday" and ever since, he's been walking around saying "Happy Birthday..Me". He is such a funny little boy with TONS of personality-we all can't help but laugh at him all day long. We love him so much and are so glad that he makes our family complete. He loves balls and any sport and will shoot a basketball or hit a baseball for hours. He also LOVES babies and can't help but touch thier faces everytime he sees one. He will be such a good big brother-we are just a little nervous that he will smother his new sister! Tomorrow he is having a "Ball" themed birthday party with our family-we'll post lots of pictures-we can't wait!!

Grandma Sharee's Zoo

My kids LOVE, LOVE to visit my mom's house. She has cats and parrots and they just can't believe it. Austin kept calling it the Tiki Room. Isaac was the only one who was brave enough to hold anything. Ally was not interested at all-except from afar. The Baldwin's also came down from Ogden one day and all the grandkids had fun together at Grandma Sharee's. What a fun grandma!

The Easter Bunny

We even made it to see the Easter Bunny with some more Manwaring cousins-aren't they so cute!!

3 funny cousins

It was so much fun to see these three cousins. They are finally getting old enough to really play together and it is hilarious! Morgan gets to be the princess and Lincoln and Austin just love her!

More fun at Josh and Joni's!

Isaac and Jaden

Isaac and his cousin Jaden are the best of friends! We talk about Jaden ALL the time in our house and everything that Isaac gets he wants to save for Jaden-pretty much everything he talks about is Jaden! So it was so much fun to stay at Josh and Joni's house and watch these two play together 24/7. They had a blast. My mom had bought my two boys these matching shirts-Isaac was so excited to find out that Jaden had the exact same shirt...so cute!

We always have so much fun at the Baldwin's house. Uncle Nicholas is always so nice to take all the kids to do fun stuff. The kids loved the rides on the golf cart, his snazzy new motorcycle and of course the horses. Austin was a little hesitant and scared but ended up loving it all. We love staying with them and playing with Kate and Savannah who are sooo cute and fun!!

Spring Break in a Blog

OK, I have been so out of blogging for a while...I don't even know where to start! So just get ready, I don't really have a plan of how I'm going to get everything on here!

Since it was Ally's spring break I really wanted to do SOMETHING fun with the kids since it will be kind-of the last hoorah before the baby comes. Both Ally and Isaac talk always talk about Idaho and seeing their cousins...so I thought it would be so much fun if we could take a quick trip for a few days. The problem....well, I am 7 1/2 months pregnant and Jonathan is currently in his WORST (as far as hours go) month of the entire 3 years of residency AND it takes 14 hours by car to get there! So NOT an easy task to say the least. On top of all of that, I'm a bit of a "weather snob" and when it had been in the 80's here and I looked on line to find out that the high was 35!!-well, it was almost too much. So after about 10 failed plans of how to get the kids and I to Idaho, about a week before we left a plan fell perfectly into place-well, almost. Jonathan found out that by some miracle he didn't have to work the Saturday we were going to leave so he decided he would drive us to Salt Lake and then fly out that night so he could be back to work at 6 am the next morning! My very nice mother bought him a one way ticket back to AZ-which was so very nice of her!! We then found out that Jonathan's sister Betsy and her girls wanted to come to Arizona the same weekend we would be heading back-so we could just caravan! How perfect is that!? The only thing that just about stopped it all in it's tracks was the fact that Jonathan tore his ACL in a brutal game of church basketball-the night before we were to leave! But he insisted that we should still carry on with the plan. We decided to actually leave on Friday night and try to drive through the night to Utah. It would have been a good idea except that Jonathan forgot the tranquilizers for me and Ally-we were wrecks!! Needless to say, we only made it 5 hours and ended up staying in a hotel. The rest of the trip was GRAND and we made it to my sister Ashley's house in Ogden in time for Jonathan to watch the BYU basketball game. I drove Jonathan to the airport that night-through a snow storm I might add!! and the plan went off without a hitch! We spent a few days in Ogden with Ash for a few nights then on to Idaho Falls to stay with Josh and Joni for another few and then it was back to sunny AZ. We had the best time! I of course didn't take nearly enough pictures of all the fun we had, but I'll try to post as much as I can! It's been fun reading up on what everyone else has been doing to past few weeks-it's amazing how out of touch I felt not blogging!!

Sponge Curlers

The other night Ally let me put her hair in sponge curlers...I'm sure you all remember the ones our moms would put in our hair. My friend Laura and another friend Katie always put their little girl's hair in them and they always look soooo cute! It's taken me a LONG time to convince Ally that we should do it. We got onto Laura's blog so that I could show her what the final product looked like and she agreed. She was so anxious for the morning to come and see what her hair looked like. Right when she woke up we raced to the bathroom and started taking out the curlers. That is when the tears came. She did not realize that it was going to make her hair so short. She was trying so hard not to cry since she knew I loved it, but she just couldn't help it. We got her hair all done up cute and she felt a lot better about it-I LOVED, LOVED it!! I thought it was a success but when she got home she informed me that she didn't want curlers in her hair ever again!-we'll see about that. She is so funny about stuff like that. Here are some pictures-she wouldn't let me take any pictures until I promised her that she didn't look like she had been crying :). I think she looks darling regardless of what she thinks!! Thanks Laura for all the tips!!

What $2 can do...

The other day we went to Target and they had the most hilarious little sunglasses in the dollar spot. I'm normally not a big fan of letting the kids get things at the store (mainly so they don't get in the habit of asking!), but these were so funny and there were only 2 pair left. They have both worn them all day and think they are pretty dang cool! It was worth every penny! What sweet little boys they are and I love that they love each other so much and play so cute all day!

Field Day!

Yesterday was "field day" at Ally's school. The boys and I went to volunteer. We were in charge of the "thread the needle" station using hula hoops. It was so much fun to be able to spend most of the day with her at school. She is such a sweet little girl and I am always so proud her wherever she goes. She has the cutest class in the entire school and I absolutely adore her teacher. Her class was also the tug-of-war champs-a very coveted position apparently. It was a super fun day!

Who says a 2 year old can't???

Well, I guess he's not quite 2-but close enough.

There are sometimes when being a parent makes you beyond proud. Sometimes they are the big accomplishments, but most of the time they are the small and simple everyday lessons learned.

Tonight I had all the kids in saying prayers in Ally's room. Right after prayers we always read a story and when Jonathan is on call (like he is tonight) we all read a story together rather than individually to help save time and get kids in bed asap. Sometimes Austin sits really good and listens, other times right after we say "amen" he is out of there with something else to do in mind. Well tonight right when we were settled down ready to read he came with his little suitcase filled with toys. He couldn't get it opened so he asked me to do it. I told him that he had to pick up his other toys first. Of course he was NOT happy with this answer and proceeded to whine and "fake" cry as he asked both of his siblings to do it. They obviously didn't and I just kept telling him that he had to pick up all his other toys first-I never in a million years really thought he would understand this concept. So we started reading and he went in the other room. By the time our story was over he came running into me with the biggest, most proud smile, holding the container with all his toys in it (which was probably like 30 little pieces) that he had picked up all by himself. I was completely proud from the tip of my head to my toes-I really thought I would bawl. Silly, I know, but I couldn't help it-HE GOT IT!! There is just nothing like when you teach and preach all day and then all the sudden-they really get it!! It makes every single time that they don't so, so worth it! Sometimes I think we don't give these sweet little kids the chance to show us how much they really do understand and how much they really can do! They may not get it the 1st time or the 2nd time, or even the 20th time-but you know what-one day they will get it. I'm so glad for the constant lessons of patience and learning not to give up on continually teaching them. I LOVE being a mom more than I could ever express. Everyday I am so grateful for these 3 precious babies and can't believe I really get to have another!!