March and April

Let me just say that the last six weeks of my life have been INSANE. It always happens that the craziest weeks of mine and the kids' lives fall in the weeks when Tom is entrenched in tax season. I always think I can pull it off and then the week before tax season is up I come just moments away from a panic attack. A friend even offered me some of her valium at some point. I politely refused. I've done this before, I knew I would survive.

The problem is that Isaac's scout stuff always comes due in April and since he is way into music and theater it is also the time of year when he has recitals, competitions, performances and plays. It is a little crazy. Now it turns out that my youngest also happens to be a musical dancing girl and now we have her stuff too. Add Easter, the fact that my children have all outgrown or outworn their clothes. (Isaac was literally down to one pair of shorts and 1 shirt that fit him last week.) and magazine deadlines and meetings and I was feeling just a little overwhelmed. People kept trying to call me at home last week and saying I couldn't get you. Yep, that is because I was barely home. And the disaster state of my house proves it! 

So, a few photos of what we have been up to this month. 

 A little Spilbeedog one March morning.

 With Tom's band playing in the background, Lia gets 2 feet up the climbing wall before succumbing to pure terror.

Isaac went on an orchestra trip to Disneyland to compete in the Heritage Festival. It was quiet in our house without him. His sisters were so excited when he came home they anxiously waited for him to get off the bus. This is the cutest picture to me.

Spring break came and I decided to take a hike with the kids. I had heard of this Lion's Mouth cave west of Cedar City that had petroglyphs. We set out to find it -- which took us much longer than I expected. There are no signs or marked path indicating how to get to it. Finally, we decided to head up the hill towards the rock formation. It was a much longer and steeper hike than I thought. Rebecca and I were laboring all the way up. Rebecca kept saying. "How did I get to be part of this family. I hate hiking. Nature hates me." It was actually quite comical. Meanwhile Isaac and Lia ran ahead of us like little jack rabbits scurrying up the hillside yelling, "Hurry, Hurry." And then finally "We are here. Where are you."

 

Becca and I finally made it. And the view from there was amazing.

And then came Easter. We dyed some eggs. Isaac got so artistic it was a shame to eat his eggs later.

                                                             Lia goes to the park hunt

                                                        The haul from Nana's house.

And then Lia gets ready to be in the Cedar City Junior Ballet Company's production of Coppelia. Lia only had a small part in this ballet but she worked really really hard for months and especially the week before the production. By Sunday she was exhausted and so was I frankly. But she loved being part of this bigger production where she got to dress up, go on stage, put on makeup and watch the big ballerinas sway by in their beautiful costumes.

Saturday morning both Isaac and Lia sang at different times at a fundraiser for a local family who lost their mother in a car crash. 


Isaac has joined honors choir -- the blessing and bane of my existence. He has to be there at 6:45. Which means I lose an extra hour of sleep but I don't have to fight him to be on time for school. Isaac actually sang a solo at this event but forgot to tell me so I only got 3 seconds of him singing. Turkey. Lia is also in her school choir.

Recaps

I kind of lost track of my blog. And while probably no one is reading it, someday I am going to print it out in book form for my family. 

We have had a busy few months. With lots of family.

  

First, Thanksgiving at my house with the Winwards and my brother Jake. That is Jake in the front doing a photo bomb. We love Jake. He is the life of the party. And it was so great to see my sister Nicole and her family. Nicole and I are a lot alike. I love cooking with her. She asks me to hand her a "thingamajig" and I know exactly what she wants. We speak sister language so we don't have to use real words.

We ate and ate and ate and went four wheeling. And the cousins played and played. I love the look on Lia's face after she and her cousin Joshua broke the wishbone.

Before you know it Christmas was here and my parents were here to spend a week and half with us. Jake came again too.  We spent Christmas eve with Tom's Mom and Nana Ora too and I have this awesome pic of Nana Ora with a Christmas headband on from the White Elephant gifts. But I seriously can't find it. We had a great Christmas day and my kids were so excited to finally get a trampoline and an XBOX Kinect. We are trying to get ourselves moving this year. We have a goal to be healthier as a family.

The week after Christmas we did a little exploring with my parents and brother in Zion and Pioneer Park.

 The cool thing about Zion in winter is that you can basically drive anywhere and get off and explore wherever you want. See those two boys way up on the rocks -- doing a little off trail bushwacking in Zion.
Jake introduced us to Pioneer Park in St. George. So excited to learn about this free park which is a virtual playground of bouldering.

 Hiked to the top.

 Three of my favorite people are in this picture.

Jake showing his skills.

 Grandma and Jake helping in the kitchen.

It was a really great Christmas. 

In January Tom and I escaped to Vegas for a couple days for our Anniversary. Despite a little bout of food poisoning we had a good time together. 

We even saw The Blue Man group. Which was entertaining while being totally weird. Our 13 year old would have loved it.

We stayed at Mandalay Bay which is considerably quieter than other places on the strip. However I would suggest avoiding the crepe place. 

So there it is a little catch up. 

Next up, hopefully a video of Isaac in his middle school musical. 

Vacation In Cali

FINALLY! We have been in desperate need of vacation. Our family getaways in the past year and half have consisted of 3 -- 1 day trips. One to the mountains and one to St. George and one to Tom's family reunion.

Tom and I are both physically, emotionally and mentally worn out this year and we really needed a vacation. So UEA weekend came and I was determined to go on vacation. Tom was so tired he said," I don't know, it seems like a lot of work." I told him I was going right that minute to book hotels. We were going on vacation and we were getting out of the state.

We decided to go to San Diego and Orange for 5 days. It turned out great. We had a fun time as a family and for a week our brains were basically empty except for "where should we eat dinner and what should we do next." It was great.

In San Diego we visited the bay one day. We decided to go to the Midway museum. As soon as my kids saw this huge ship sitting in the harbor they asked if we could go see it.  It was a lot of walking up and down stairs but it was also fascinating.

 Becca in the ship's brig.

 Lia tries out one of the helicopters. It was amazing how huge this ship was. 

Isaac and Becca did the flight simulator. This is them getting off after a 10 minute ride. You should have heard Becca screaming. "What are you doing?" As soon as Isaac saw the flight simulator he started jumping up and down like he was a little boy again. It may have been the highlight of the trip for him.

Day 2 we went to the San Diego zoo. Rebecca has been begging to go to this zoo. She loves animals. I swear she took a picture of every animal. She got a camera for her birthday. I was actually a little under impressed. I was expecting something more but it was still a nice zoo. We had a few terrible moments when Lia's lactose intolerance attacked and she puked all over herself. Lia and I were resting by ourselves and Tom and the kids were off somewhere else in the zoo when it happened. We also happened to be far away from any bathrooms. It was awesome. Fortunately, she felt better as soon as she threw up and we were able to enjoy the rest of the zoo, especially the pandas, which is why Becca wanted to go to the zoo in the first place.

Day 3 we went to Orange. But no Disneyland this trip. We decided to do Knottsberry Farm and I am grateful we did. This was a fun park for the older kids. There are a lot of great rollercoasters and they are closer together than in Disneyland. Plus the lines were shorter. There were boring moments for Lia and me because Lia won't go on a lot of rides and she was too small for lots of rides. It was not until the end of the day that we found most of the kiddie rides. Although Lia really liked the water rides. At least she was brave enough to go on this ride. But that is a her "I am a little bit scared face."

One time when I wanted to go on the 300 foot high swing set, Isaac opted out and offered to go on the carousel with Lia. Poor Isaac -- he regretted it.
Somewhere there is a picture of him riding the carousel. I can't find it but it makes for a good threat.

The Boomerang roller coaster that had us walking sideways for about 10 minutes. I actually went on this roller coaster. But my favorite ride if you ever go to Knottsberry Farm was the Pony Express. Tom and the kids loved the Xcellerator that went from 0-80 miles per hour in 2 seconds. I would not go on that ride it seriously freaked me out just looking at it.

A few other great stops on our vacation included the San Diego Temple.

 

And Watson's - One of Tom's favorite places to eat out as a kid growing up. He of course had a chocolate malt with his burger. Lia had her favorite kids meal of the trip. That car went straight home to the barbies.

First Day of School and a Milestone

I have a ton of catch up posts to do, but for now I am just going to do the obligatory First Day of School.

I have reached a milestone. Every single one of my children is in school all day. That means I am by myself from 9 to 3. Let's just say I am both happy and a little confused. Although I have yet to have a full week of no kid watching in the day -- I babysat one day and one day I had a sick daughter, it is an interesting place to be in my life. The first time in 13 years.

Last month I was ready to give up my magazine. It was driving me crazy trying to pull it off with kids at home all summer. Now I am extremely grateful I have this project to keep my days full. I am ready to give it my all and go to work every day at 9 a.m. I am afraid I would be a little lost without it. Yes I would find projects without the mag. I would organize my house, work on my yard, can food and clean my house. But then what? No one has ever accused me of being a born housekeeper. Even my own mother knows I need an outside project. Therefore, I have grown grateful. I feel like I have something to focus on. I was prepared for this new change in my life. And although sometimes I feel a little awkward without my Lia next to me. I am too busy to be extremely sad about it. Plus they are all so happy to be back in school.

Isaac goes into 8th grade. He decided to go to Canyon View Middle instead of Gateway and has been so happy. I love this shirt he is wearing. It totally reflects his personality.

Becca goes into 4th grade. She was just plain giddy to be starting school again.

She made me take a pic of her hairdo. This is her current favorite hairdo. She is really into her hair being just right every day.

Lia started first grade. She is excited to eat lunch at school. Aside from a few really tired days, so far she has loved it and already made new friends.