Tyler, Texas for the Summer!!

We left for Tyler, TX early Saturday morning and spent a very very long day in the car. The kids did great, we have trained them well. Misha was a trooper and traded me spot in the passenger seat when I needed to go back and take care of the babies. The kids did very little sleeping but they were very excited. We stopped for dinner in Albuquerque at a Village Inn and got some "non-fast food" food, the kids were pretty well behaved for being in the car for over 12 hours. Then we drove all the way to a little town just a few miles outside of Amarillo where we stopped for the night around 1 am. Dave and I were exhausted and the kids couldn't get comfortable in their car seats so it was a good time to stop.

Sunday morning we left the Best Western and headed for our Home away from Home for the next 3 months. The apartment is a lot better than I was expecting, we seem to have plenty of room for the kiddos to play and the complex has 2 pools which gives us a great get away during the day. Here are a few pictures from the inside of our place...

Ethan's Preschool Graduation

Ethan is officially done with Preschool and has changed so much in the course of one school year. He has truly come out of his shell and although he is still not one who enjoys being the center of attention, he has definatley become less shy. The last week or so of preschool they had a show-off for you parents day in each of his activity classes, so I brought the camera along and snagged some pictures along with a few from his actual preschool graduation. He was in a less than stellar mood at the actual graduation so I only got pictures of him after the performances.

Mondays Ethan went to Tumbling for the first half of Preschool.

Wednesdays he did swimming class... PICTURES TO COME (they are all on Dave's cell phone)

Fridays he went to either Tennis or Movement (a.k.a Dance) however, I missed his movement class day so I only have pictures and video from his Tennis day.

Then of course he smiles for mom after the big Preschool Graduation performance where they sang some of the songs that the kids had learned over the course of the year. Ethan spent the whole performance standing next to one of his teachers and making a frowny face as he didn't want to sing. What a funny kid.

10 months old and crawling...

I swear I can't keep up with this kid, he is getting so big. He has become quite the baby babbler saying "mama", "dada", and "baba". He has also gained a new appreciation for tummy time now that he is an active army crawler. He goes all over the house and rarely sits anymore. He is still figuring out how to actually crawl on all fours but I for see him perfecting that in the next week or so. We have started trying some new "big kid" food such as yogurt, bread and a few others but texture and temperature seem to be a major deterrent, at least for now. There are no new teeth yet but they can't be too far off as his lower gums are very swollen and red. Here are some recent pictures and video of my little baby boy.

Ethan turns 5!!

Ethan's birthday was very busy this year. It started off with a drive to the airport to pick up daddy followed by a mad dash back up to Logan so he could be on time to preschool. After preschool we came home and had a Transformer cake and ice cream party with friends. We were very fortunate this year that is was a beautiful warm sunny day so the kids played in the backyard most of the time. We had asked Ethan a few days prior to his party where he would like to go eat for his birthday dinner and he had decided he wanted pancakes. So after the party we loaded up the kids and went to IHOP. It was pretty fun especially when a few of the waiters and waitresses came over and sang happy birthday to him. He had a great birthday and received tons of gifts from all our friends.

He specifically asked for a scooter and a boy zhu zhu pet this year.... so that's what he got from Dave and I :)

Another fun surprise came a few days later when My Dad and Miriam drove down to spend the weekend with us. I'll blog about that later but they did bring Ethan some more awesome Transformers. Thank you so much to all our Friends and Family who helped us celebrate my little man turning 5!

Easter and More!!

First off the Month of April was crazy busy for us. Dave and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary on the 2nd because he left for Texas on our acutal anniversary. We went to the Melting Pot in Salt Lake and then walked around the Gateway, basically we just enjoyed some "us" time. Then Preston turned 9 months old on the 11th. He is getting so big so fast. He is a pro a sitting up and has started rocking on his knees, I am sure he will be crawling here really soon.

The rest of the month up until Easter we spent keeping busy with school, Easter activities and of course being silly around the house.

Easter was a bit bitter sweet this year because Dave was unable to celebrate with us. However, we managed to keep up our family traditions. Jocelyn was a bit over excited for the Easter bunny to show and woke up at 2am to find her Easter basket. Needless to say I promptly put her back to bed. When the kids did officially wake up for the day we did a small treat before getting ready for church. Don't they look so cute all hyped up on Sugar and dressed for Church. Church was wonderful and I was so grateful to have my mom and Todd up to help. After Church we had our traditional family Easter egg hunt however this year we were blessed to have received an Easter Egg Scavenger hunt with eggs find with symbols and scriptures of the True Easter Story of our Saviors Resurrection from our wards Primary. Here are some pictures of our egg finding fun.

The kids did great at finding the eggs. After they found everything we sat down with Jocelyn and Ethan (Caitlyn went down for a nap) and went through the Story of the Resurrection with the Easter eggs. The kids were so involved and I think they really started to understand why we celebrate the Easter holiday and what an amazing gift our Savior and Father in Heaven gave to us. Although we missed Dave immensely we had a great Sunday.