Finishing up February

Kids have it so good at the dentist these days! 

Millie dresses herself and comes up with some pretty awesome outfits. If I say anything or suggest anything different, she digs her heels in or sometimes takes it a step further (read: crazier). So I've learned that this is not a battle I'm willing to pick. I just smile and embrace her fashion creativity (though sometimes inwardly cringing haha)!

I hope she will like looking at these pictures one day and maybe giggle like I do!

While we're talking about Millie, she was a HUGE help to me in weeding our Jumanji-like backyard. I was putting it off because it was so early in the year I thought, but once we had weeds taller than Millie, it was definitely time haha. I was pregnant enough that this wasn't easy and Millie was so helpful! I'm so thankful for her!

We ended up with 12 large bags full of weeds. Wowzers. I also put down some fertilizer and the yard looks so much better!

Last Millie tidbit: it took forever for her scripture case to come in the mail (mostly because I thought I'd ordered it but actually hadn't, haha). When it finally came she was so happy!

Poppy snapped this during Stake Conference. Those lips are so luscious! 

Max loves doing yoga. I do a lot of yoga lately and found a YouTube channel with yoga for kids (Cosmic Kids Yoga for anyone interested). Max loves to do it and Harvey follows along as well as expected. It's pretty darn cute!

Holding hands while walking through a doctor's office. These boys are such sweet buddies.

Harvey has been watching Millie and Max do piano and loves to have his turn afterwards. He hopped up there and said, "I can play the pinano too!"

I finally accomplished my 2018 goal of making Harvey's baby picture book. Just in time to start a new one for baby number 4! Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this time. No guarantees.

Outside fun

We always love living here, but in the winter we feel extra grateful as we hear about friends/family in super cold and snowy places. We've had some nice weather recently and have tried to take advantage of it! And look super cool while doing it. 

Tyler happened to be on his way home one Saturday while we were at the park so he joined us for a little bit. It was so nice.

We're back to walking around the lake occasionally and the boys love playing at this park afterwards because of this cool web. 

More walking, this time around the neighborhood. It was a little weird to only have one kid with me!

Picnic lunch on Valentine's Day. Max was pretty excited about the goodies he'd gotten from preschool that day, including an awesome slinky. 

Even if it was freezing we had to stop by the boardwalk after a doctor's appointment! Deceivingly beautiful day!

Beginning of February

I saw Millie with her goldfish all paired up and asked her what that was about? She said she put them in pairs so she could have one on each side of her mouth. I about died laughing. This girl is so my child, and does all the little weird things I used to do as a kid without me ever telling her about them!

We had a fun Friday night with Gigi, Poppy, Nana, and Botz. Everyone came over with pizza and we had dinner before going to a high school basketball game. We got to watch Tyler's high school team and see one of his old coaches. It was fun. The Lobos had a buzzer-shot win too! It was very exciting.

One thing I really appreciate about our kids is that they can be very self-entertaining. Max will just quietly play for such a long time by himself. I love seeing him off in his own little world!

I can't remember if I've written about this already, but Harvey loves to pretend he's a cowboy with this "hat." It's actually part of the potty training potty we have. Not sure why he thinks it's a hat or why he thinks it is so fun, but it cracks us up!

Tyler is in the thick of busy season but has started calling us every night to say goodnight to the kids. They love to see him and talk to him and also play with the funny filters.

Harvey has had a hard time going to bed lately. I'm wondering if he is ready to stop napping? Or at least to nap shorter? Anyway, he kept wandering out of bed and was being so cute that he somehow ended up in bed with us having a cute conversation with Dad. Can't resist that little dude sometimes!

He also likes when he's the only kid with me at Sam's and gets an Icee almost all to himself. Harvey really loves special drinks so sharing wasn't realistic.

Millie had a fall recently while playing tag outside. She slipped and landed hard on her elbow before rolling. It looked bad to me but she jumped right up and hopped on the bus to head to school, saying she was fine. She came home not really able to move her elbow much and held it close to her body. After a couple days we decided to take her in and make sure it wasn't broken. Thankfully it wasn't.

While we were waiting for x-rays or something, a nurse popped her head in the room and asked if we needed anything. She offered some snacks, water, apple juice, etc. Millie and I both said no thanks, we're good, and then Harvey leans over and pipes in. "Apple juice!" We were laughing so hard. The sweet nurse indeed brought him a little cup of apple juice and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Oh Harvey.

A sling for a couple of days, some exercises to get her range of motion back, and some ice helped her feel good as new within a few days! She was a little sad to not get a cool cast or brace like her brothers have had in the past but the sling made her feel pretty cool.

Another talk with Dad, this time he showed us his sushi he was having for dinner. The kids were fascinated haha.

I just really love this cute bunch!! Super grateful for each one.

Little things January

The kids get a little puff every time they respond to a request with a "Yes ma'am" or "yes sir" or "I'd love to!" or some other positive yes and then follow through. When they fill up the jar, they get some kind of reward. The first time we did a little mason jar and they filled it up really quickly, so we upped the game with a vase. One time that they filled it up we got donuts and they were pretty happy!

You know you're tired when you sleep through a diaper and outfit change.

Poor Millie got sick. After a couple of days I took her in to the doctor, where we learned she had both the flu AND strep. Who knew you could have both of those at once?? Poor thing. So thankful for modern medicine that had her feeling so much better within 12 hours. Also very thankful that no one else got sick! That was a miracle.

Grandma made the kids new hooded towels and the kids love them. Harvey didn't love that I wanted to take a picture and thought he was so funny taking it off over and over.

Sweet little baby profile - sucking her thumb too! 

We thought this street was maybe going to go through to the next neighborhood over, but it looks like we're safe for now. I'm so glad - we love having this little area to play in!

Max requests bubble baths a lot lately. They're not my favorite but I love how happy it makes him! Max saw this picture and thought he looked like a Transformer, which also made him very happy.

Doing some object lesson with light during scripture study. The kids listen so well in the dark for some reason.

Gigi and Poppy got the coolest swingset in their backyard! The day it was set up was very cold but these kids were not going to wait for warmer temps to play. We had so much fun and have lots of times since!

Millie gave me a pedicure. Sweet girl.

Since Millie has an early January birthday, we were invited to the "8 is great" meeting the Primary does with all the kids turning 8 in the next year. Crazy to think this girl will be baptized soon!

Tyler sometimes brings me home leftovers of the yummy stuff he gets at work. Silver lining of busy season! This margherita pizza is amazing.

I love having a little one-on-one time with this cutie when Millie and Max are at school!