Spring West Jordan Trip and Time with Jon!

 At the end of May, we got to go out and visit my family in West Jordan. We went over Memorial Day weekend, so my mom had work off on Monday to spend with us and it was my cousin's wedding and Luke's birthday, so it was a great time to visit! 

The drive out ended up being a bit of an experience. We wanted to leave as soon as Ben was done with work, but when we had finished loading everything (including the kids) in the car, we couldn't find the tire gauge to check the tires. We knew at least one of our tires was low, so we couldn't leave until we filled it up. We eventually ended up borrowing one from the neighbors, but it set us back a bit on when we left. 

We left around dinner time. The kids had some food in the car to eat, but Ben and I decided to stop at a food truck in Vernal that we'd been wanting to try. Unfortunately, it was closed for the week, so we decided to try hamburgers at a place in Roosevelt called Rockies Place. We had recently gotten ice cream there with the kids and really enjoyed the ice cream. 

We were less than impressed with their hamburgers. They weren't expensive, but they took a long time to make and then the hamburger patty was tiny. I honestly have never seen a hamburger patty that thin. Ben had gotten a double, so it wasn't as bad for him, but I was sorely disappointed with my single. As we were turning from making the order to the pickup window, our power steering went out on us. 

We finished the rest of the drive to West Jordan (2.5 hours) without power steering. Luckily, most of the drive is straight. Then Ben looked at the car and called his dad while I got the kids in bed. Oliver was not happy about sleeping somewhere else, but he settled pretty quickly. The girls always love sleeping at Grandma Dee's, but it was harder to get them settled. 

The next day, we had a lunch date with Jon and Eric and Alison. We considered taking our van, but ended up borrowing my mom's car. We got lunch at Mo'Bettahs and it was delicious. Ben and I shared a dish that came with three meats, rice, and cabbage, as well as a salad. We especially liked the steak meat that we got. It was also really fun to catch up with my siblings and talk. 

That evening, we had my cousin's wedding reception. We went back and forth on whether or not to bring our van and take all the kids or to borrow my mom's car again and bring just Oliver (to make it easier on my mom to babysit). We ultimately decided on the latter. The girls were really disappointed to miss the reception and everyone there kept asking about them, but they had a movie night with my mom and loved that. 

My mom got pizza for the girls, but Ben and I decided to try In N Out since our first hamburger had failed so badly. It has been years since we've gone there, but we have always liked their burgers. We were shocked when their hamburger patties were paper thin as well! I'm not sure when that happened, but I for one am probably never going back to In N Out 😔

The reception was really nice. It was just the perfect weather when we got there (it had been raining earlier in the day) and it was so nice to see so much family, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Oliver had a great time once he warmed up to it, eating treats and walking around while Uncle Jon followed him to make sure he was okay.

Sunday, we went to my mom's ward, which is something I always love doing. I love seeing all the neighbors I grew up with. 💗 after church, my mom made a yummy chicken sauce and Luke's kids and grandkids came over. It was fun to chat and the kids loved playing with their cousins! It was a little birthday celebration for Luke (whose birthday was on Saturday). 

Monday, we had planned to take the kids to Wheeler Farm, but with the power steering out, I didn't want to do that. We decided to take the day easy and just play in Grandma Dee's backyard in the morning. 

The kids especially love when Grandma Dee shows them where they can pick flowers or plants to eat from her garden!

Me trying to write while Oliver was extra Mom-clingy because we were traveling 😂

During Oliver's nap, Ben and I decided to try one more time for a good hamburger (Vernal is severely lacking in that area) and go to lunch while my mom watched the girls. We went to Habit Burger and finally got the kind of burger that I wanted. We stopped for ice cream afterwards and got the biggest ice cream we've ever gotten at Coldstone. It was like we had gotten two Gotta Have Its. It was also raining while we ate it, which was fun.

After lunch, we packed up the car and stopped by my cousin's house for dinner before heading home. It's always fun to go visit them. We also got to bring Jon home with us this trip, for a little visit! The girls couldn't have been more excited. 

Once we were home, we got our car into a mechanic to fix the power steering pump. We didn't have our van for most of Jon's visit, but we were able to borrow vehicles for everything we wanted to do while he was here. The first night he was here, we did a hike at Moonshine Arch. It's a fun hike, really good for kids and ending at a bunch of rocks that are beautiful and fun to climb on. 

Caleb came with us as well. It was fun to have him with us and it gave us enough vehicles to get all the kids there.

Oliver wanted to be an independent boy on the hike.

We also caught a lizard, which was super fun for the kids!

It was a really fun hike. The next night, we took Parker to the rec center for her birthday date and Jon babysat the other kids for us. The next day was Parker's birthday, and she was so excited to have him here for her birthday. We had a lot of fun just hanging out, talking, and watching movies while he was here as well. And the kids loved watching him play his switch and take turns playing his games. We were so glad he was able to visit!

Parker's Seventh Birthday!

 Parker turned seven this year and had a wonderful couple of days celebrating with family! 

For her birthday date, she wanted to go to the rec center to swim. Because of swim hours, we ended up going the night before. Our van also was still getting fixed (our power steering was broken), so we had to borrow a car, but it all worked out. 

Parker loved swimming. We took off her floatie to have her do a little swim lesson with Ben, but she still has a hard time putting her face under the water. She mostly swam around with her floatie on. She loves the lazy river area and had a lot of fun playing a chase game with me there. 

After swimming, we stopped at Wendy's and got her a chocolate frosty with fries. 

After she went to bed, I decorated. I don't always do this, but I really like to get the decorations for their birthday up while they're sleeping so they wake up to them. Parker loved coming down and seeing it all. 

Oliver and the kids had a lot of fun with the balloons! 

You can also see Jon in the background. He drove back with us and stayed for Parker's birthday, which she loved. 

Another tradition we have is making (or sometimes buying) donuts. I had gotten the fry donuts all formed when Parker informed me she didn't like those and only liked chocolate cake donuts, so I decided to do chocolate donuts as well. 

They all turned out yummy and Parker liked both the fry donuts and the chocolate donuts. 

Uncle Jon gave Parker "sticker stackers", that made different foods. It occupied the girls all afternoon while we were getting ready for the family to come over. 

We only do friend parties occasionally, but I always let the girls pick a theme that we decorate around for their family birthday party. This year, Parker chose Bluey. 

I like to do balloons and streamers in the living room. In the kitchen, we move our table and put a banner behind where the birthday child sits. Then I do some decorations on the table and the kids color pictures to decorate the wall by the table. It's fun for me to theme it, but is also simple enough that it's not overwhelming. 

Parker got a lot of cards from grandparents with money in it, and she got a kite, binoculars, and a painting apron from another grandma. When she opened it, she said, "I've always wanted a kite!" From her aunt Melissa, she got an art kit and a makeup kit and was super excited for both. 

Another tradition I've started recently is taking a picture of the kids' drawings before we throw them away. Then for their birthday, I make them a Shutterfly book of their art from the previous year. They always really love it and it helps us not need to keep all their art around. 

When Ashtyn was two, we started the tradition of doing a birthday date instead of a big gift. I still like them to have something to open from us, though, so we started another tradition of getting them a book (or a couple of books 😅) for their birthday. This year, I had actually gotten Parker a couple of princess books because I wasn't sure what to do. Then I found out that Ada Twist (on Netflix) was originally a book and knew that Parker would love them. I love how excited she was when she opened them 💗

Parker asked for an Oreo cake and Oreo ice cream. I had made her an Oreo cake the year before and it was a lot of work. We had had a lot going on, so I asked if she would want some Oreo ice cream cakes instead. It was more expensive, but she loved it and it was super easy for me. 

Happy birthday to Parker!

Rylee and Navy are only a few months apart and we sure love Navy 💗

Oliver loved the ice cream cake! He is all for birthdays!

Parker had such a wonderful time celebrating. My goal with birthdays is to make the child feel special and loved. I love the traditions that have grown with our family and love celebrating each child! We are so glad that Parker is part of our family 💗

Our Family May Memories

 May was a wonderful month with warm weather and lots of chances to see friends and family. A highlight of the month was visiting West Jordan to see my family. We love summer more than any other time of the year! 

We got our first watermelon of the year!

And ate a lot of ice cream and popsicles. 

This is how my kids "run through the sprinklers" apparently 😂

We did a fire with hot dogs.

Then we helped Danny in the garden and Lindi made us chocolate donuts 😋

I came over and all the kids were hiding behind the empty door, trying to get the bird to come inside.

It must have a nest close by somewhere, because this isn't the only time it's done this.

Scavenger Hunt Day is in May, 

which is always a fun and simple holiday to celebrate with the kids.

Our first hike of the year was with Chris and Ashley. 

We went up to try one of the hikes behind Redfleet. 

We're not sure we ever found the actual trail, but it was a ton of fun anyway. We always love hiking with Chris and Ashley and it was great to be outside with the kids.

Ashtyn loves making "rock art". 

And Oliver loves to play on the lawnmower.

We had a wonderful Mother's Day. 

Ben made paper roses for me and I love them. 

He also made some for his mom and grandma's. 💗 

On Mother's Day, Rylee woke up feeling pretty sick. Colds tend to hit her really hard.

We ended up staying home from church and just relaxing all morning.

For Star Wars Day, our library did this activity with the kids, and we watched a Star Wars movie.

Ashtyn had her end of year performance for her theater class and did so well.

She really loves the class. 

My little "helpers" in the kitchen!

For Truffle Day this year, I made Oreo truffles (I make them every year), pumpkin pie truffles, peanut butter truffles, and cheesecake truffles. They turned out yummy!

The weekend of Mother's Day, Ben took Oliver to a Fathers and Sons outing with his dad, so the girls and I had a girl's night. We made pizza and ice cream and watched Matilda. 

Ashtyn also had her end of year piano concert. 

She works hard on piano and we are very proud of her.

After her piano concert, we wanted to get ice cream cones. When we went to McDonald's, though, they were all out of ice cream so we went to Wendy's for Frosties. We showed them about eating fries with the Frosties and Oliver loved it. He won't eat fries normally, not even with fry sauce (he just licks it off), but he ate a bunch of fries with the ice cream 😂

One thing I did this month was prep for Parker's birthday. This year, we did the 12 days of Parker, an idea I got from my sister-in-law. For 12 days leading up to her birthday, Parker got to open a little present. Parker loved it! 

 I also spent a good portion of the month redoing my bullet journal. There were a lot of pages in my old one that I wasn't using or wanted to be different, and then I started running out of room on some pages and wanted to add pages to those sections. Instead of waiting 9 months, I decided to just redo it. It was fun and I was happy with how it turned out!

Ben and I make homemade ice cream often. We recently experimented with our vanilla recipe to improve it and this month, we decided to add Oreos to make Cookies and Cream. It is yummy!

Ben's cousin Makenzie recently found out they are having twins and in May, they did a gender reveal. The kids were excited to guess and Ashtyn made a fortune teller to guess what it was. She would do it over and over (that's what the tally marks are). I guessed girls and Ben guessed boys. I was right, they are having girls! (Although, I have to say that my cousin is also expecting a baby soon and did their gender reveal as well, I guess girl and Ben guess boy, and they are having a boy!)

Oliver loves ice cream!

Ashtyn used my phone's camera to make each of them into a superhero!

Oliver loves cars and dogs 💗

Poor Ashtyn. The tooth fairy forgot to come change her tooth for money two nights in a row, so she decided to write a note to help the tooth fairy remember.  

She also made these so she could practice her handwriting. 💗

Ashtyn has also been learning to crochet. She has been making washcloths and is working on counting stitches. She wants to make a perfect one, because I told her I would pay her $10 for one that she counted stitches the whole time. 

Parker did a little drawing lesson with Ben this month and learned to draw eyes. 

This is what she did after their lesson. 

Parker is also getting better and better at reading. She's started reading things like this beginner reader graphic novel on her own, without me. 

💗💗

Rylee fell asleep with a book on her face, which left this mark lol 

Rylee building blocks!

Every morning, we make a protein hot chocolate for the family and Oliver loves it. It is the first thing he asks for when I get him from his crib, so I let him drink it while I change his diaper. He is so cute laying there drinking from his sippy cup 💗

Some cute pictures of Oliver that Ashtyn took 💗

Oliver loves to be included and play whatever his sisters are playing!

 I love sleeping toddlers!

His selfies are so cute 💗

Oliver is talking more and more. 

His favorite thing is to label something and be understood.

A couple more pictures from the kids.

At the library, they had the kids do an activity where they were drawing something that the kids could conserve water for (ie flowers, fish, etc.). Rylee decided to draw ... Blood. 😮

One day at the library, Ashtyn and Parker practiced a puppet show about bugs for almost an hour, made invitations and set up the chairs in front of the puppet area, and then did a puppet show. It was really cute and they had fun, though I had to cut the show down because I think they would have kept going for over an hour if I'd let them. 

We really love going to the library and I'm really grateful for all the Vernal library does 💗

It was a great month! May is a fun, warm month and we love the time we get to spend together each month.