Our Sunday Walk

A new trike...
A princess bike....
And lots and lots of fingers to chew on!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend! We started off with a trip to Liberty Park with our friends Heather and James. The kids had a great time with lots of swinging and running. We then headed to Kissie's to try on these cute shirts she made for all the granddaughters in the family...
I think it will be so adorable to see the girls running around in these all together in Tahoe!

Unfortunately, a family Kevin home teaches had a medical emergency and Kevin came up to Primary Childrens Hospital to help give their son a blessing. A side benefit was that we all got to spend the evening at Kissie and Pata's together afterward. It was nice a relaxing, and luckily for everyone, their son is doing much better now.

Saturday was our Provo day! We went down to do 2 year old and 4 year old pictures of Cora and Violet. I must say they turned out super cute (postings later!). We then did our favorite BYU things-- the Bean Museum, the Museum of Art, the Creamery, and the bookstore. I guess we really are old alumni now, because we came out of the bookstore with a hat for almost everyone in the family.But after all that, even though it was only 2:30, this is what happened in the car just minutes after we got off campus.
They were tuckered out! The rest of Saturday we did a few house projects and planted flowers.

Here are our little cougars doing their cheer...

Monday we attempted family mini golf for the first time. Kissie and Pata met us there, which was fun, and o-so-nice to have some extra adults hands to help the girls and pass Luke around to. I think the girls had a lot of fun, but 18 holes was quite a lot for a 2 and an (almost) 4 year old. The girls came up with their own golfing strategies, Viole would hit it once and then pick it up and put it in the hole, Cora would hit it once, and then guide it to the hole with her club. It was fun to watch them learn to do something new, especially after all the Wii golf we play with them.

Cora saw these cars on the way in and was dying to try one out. She just barely hit the height restriction and had a blast on the track, even with Kevin driving. You can see her little hand waving out!
We then had a little bbq at our house and did more house projects. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Stansbury Day

We had a lovely time visiting friends, seeing new babies, and playing with cousins in Stansbury on Tuesday. We sure miss our friends there! Here is a picture of Luke (almost 5 months old) with Dylan (6 weeks old).

Preschool Graduation

Cora had her last day of preschool on Thursday! She has been so excited about her end of year program. The kids sang 5 or 6 songs, many of them with signing too, and then they got their certificates, watched the class video, and ate a cookie. Cora was also very excited to bring home her portfolio for the year. It was neat to look through her work and see how much she has learned this year!

The last day of preschool was also Hawaii day, so the kids wore Hawaii style clothes and got leis. Two of the kids in her class were gone, so there were 6 of them there for the program.

Cora getting her certificate from Mrs. Emily.

The little graduate!

This was my favorite song that they sang, I was so glad I got it on video!

Cora is having a hard time understanding (or accepting!) that she won't have preschool again until fall. We'll be trying out another preschool, and that will be exciting. In the meantime, we'll just have to fill our summer with lots of playing!

Mommy Day and Daddy Day at Preschool

Cora's preschool had Daddy Day in April and Mommy Day in May. Kevin and I got to go to preschool for the last half hour, do a craft with Cora, watch Cora and her class sing and sign a few songs, and have a treat. Cora was so excited to have us visit! It was fun to be at preschool with her. And the mommy song they sang was so so cute!

Our Sleeping Beauty

One of my favorite comics

A new record... Snow on May 24th!

We had our normal crazy weather Utah spring here! We got all kinds of weather this May, including snow! It set a record for latest snowfall of the year in Salt Lake City.

More about Cora

A few more dance pics and a couple of videos....


Often heard around our house:

When I'm a mommy..... I'm going to have twins! I will live across the street-- not too close but not too far away. Then you will be a grandma and you can watch my kids while I go to the hospital (to have another baby).

When you were a little girl, what tv shows did you watch?

Where did you learn that song?

Where did we get that?

Tell me a story about when you were a little girl.

Tell me a story about when I was a little girl.

When I was little I didn't have super powers. Now I have super powers!

I was delighted to catch Cora napping in the bum-up baby nap position-- for all of that talk about being a big girl, she's still my baby!

Craftiness

Well, craftiness only in its mildest form. I've discovered that having three little ones running around doesn't lend itself easily to big crafts or projects. But I fit a couple of little ones in the last while, everything I do now pretty much has to fit into a 15 minute increment-- that's as long as I can usually go without feeding, changing, helping, or soothing those three and under in our house.

I've been looking for a fruit holder I like for quite a while now. Everything was too big or small or not raised or too expensive. Finally I found this plate and bowl and Tai Pan and with a little superglue, wa-la! It's perfect for my kitchen. Isn't all that produce so lovely? I missed a week at the food co-op, so I was especially pleased to pick up my order on Saturday.
Luke's finally got his room and the letters on the wall to prove it. The letters are from Michaels, covered with scrapbook paper and some buttons. He's been napping in there regularly, now that we got a new baby monitor, a child lock for the door (to prevent eager sisters from checking on him), and raised the mattress. Eventually the closet will be his too, and hopefully he'll be sleeping nights up there sometime soon.
I was especially impressed with myself for hanging his mobile by myself... the high ceilings required quite a reach. Thank goodness for 3m tabs, otherwise Kevin would have had to do it to get a hook screwed in properly.
Lastly, most recently, and a bit more ambitiously, more hair supplies. Mom came over on Thursday and showed me how to make these organza hair flowers. They are so easy, even easier than bows, and will give some nice variety to the girls' bow collection. Mom helped, and played with the kiddos so I could get them all done. It was still an all day deal, what with helping out at preschool, doing dinner, Violet's stomach bug onset, and feeding Luke, etc etc, but a lot of fun. And of course the girls loved playing with Kissie in the sandbox and going to pick up cookies. There are a couple of other hair do-dad projects in the works, we're just waiting for more supplies to arrive.

A Cora Update

Kevin taught Cora 'eeney meeney miney mo' and now that's her primary decision making tool. Although she always manages to land the last syllable on the item she truly wants.

Cora is really good at taking turns with toys.

Cora loves to give compliments. It always makes me smile when she tells me she loves my hair in the morning or an old t-shirt I'm cleaning in. She also picks up on the new stuff too :).

Both Cora and Violet are obsessed with the "lollipop, lollipop" song now. It is pretty catchy! They also randomly insert the word lollipop into their conversations when they are feeling particularly silly.

Cora like to play hide and seek. Other favorites at Cootie and Don't Break the Ice (appropriately misnamed Break the Ice at our house). She also likes to ride her bike and play in the sandbox.

Cora knows almost all of her letters and her phone number and all of our full names. She can count to 20 and is beginning to be interested in making words with her wordwhammer.
Cora spends most of the day playing with her camera, her dollies, her dress-up clothes, and her farm animals. She and Violet also love burning off energy with the slide, bouncy horse, and office chairs in the basement. I think one day this week she and Violet slid each other across the basement floor on the office chairs for a constant 30 minutes!

Cora is beginning to really get into playdates. We have been meeting the 3 and 4 year old girls in our neighborhood and ward, and they are so cute. Violet is still a bit shy at first when friends come over, but warms up after a half hour or so. They all have a lot of fun together, it gives me a chance to catch up on cleaning or other tasks while they play.

Cora is so excited for her birthday. She will often talk about how this month is May, so next month is June, her birthday month! She'll ask to sing the "months of the year" song with me and stop the song at June to say that's when her birthday is.

Cora is a great helper to all of her family!

Cora and Violet play so well together by themselves too. They really are great friends. They have been playing together for longer and longer stretches of time, and don't fight often at all unless they are tired. It is so fun to see them have so much fun together.

Cora has been doing a ballet class the last 6 weeks and has 2 more weeks to go. It's a low-key community education class at a middle school once a week. She loves dressing up in her "tard" (leotard) and tutu and going to class.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a lovely big family day on Saturday... we took a day trip to Idaho! We were able to go to my grandparents' 75th birthday party Saturday night, and spent a few hours with my other set of grandparents Saturday afternoon. It was so nice to see lots and lots of relatives, it made the drive totally worth it. It was a long day, we left at 8:30am and didn't get home until 1:00am Sunday morning. We had a relaxing visit and lunch with my Ellis grandparents, and my aunts put together a neat program with songs, a slideshow, memories, and a dinner for my DeGiulio grandparents. It was nice to catch up with everyone... well try to catch up with everyone inbetween caring for 3 kiddos!

Here are some of the family shots we got.
This baby Luke and baby Ryker talking to each other. It was pretty cute, they were talking up a storm! Ryker is 5 weeks older than Luke.
We left the party about 8:00, which really wasn't too late. We got a slow start though while we got the kids into their pajamas, figured out how to get back on the freeway from Iona, accidentally took the business loop through Idaho Falls, and stopped by Blackfoot to pick up a set of movies we left at my grandparents house. We didn't realize just how slow of a start it was though until Cora told us her movie was done and she needed a new one.... in Pocatello! Oh well. It made for a slightly tired church experience Sunday morning, so thank goodness for Sunday afternoon naps! Saturday made me so grateful we aren't driving to Portland this summer, and a little worried we are driving to Tahoe this summer.

After Sunday naps we had dinner at Kissie and Pata's house, so it was a nice meal, fun to hang out and relax, and a great Mother's Day.

Isn't this the truth!

Mother's Day

Cora did this little Q&A at preschool this week. Pretty funny! She filled in the blanks with the words in blue

My Mom

My mom is 22 years old.
My mom is this tall.
Mom mom's favorite food is salad. (I wish!)
My mom loves to play hide and seek with me.
My mom takes care of my sister while I'm at school.
My mom's favorite thing to wear is flipflops, shirts, yellow pants.
I love my mom because she loves me.

Card from Cora...
My mommy reads me books, she tucks me into bed at night, she tells me that she loves me, she lets me watch movies, she cuts me apples, she makes me food, she makes me cookies.

Card from Violet...
My mommy plays games with me, she helps me pray, she reads me books, she takes me to the store, she takes care of me when I am sick, she does fun things with me, she takes me out for icecream, she gets me dressed.

My New Life

If you haven't seen this video, you really ought to take a few minutes to watch it. I've been reading her blog for about a year now. Stephanie is one amazing lady, she's an inspiration to me as a mother and a follower of Christ.

A few tidbits from this week....

I took Cora to the eye doctor. My eyes are so bad, I've been paranoid that my kids are going to get my eyesight. The doctor was a pediatric ophthalmologist, and he was awesome. For now at least, Cora's eyes are right where they should be.

Cora and I attended a baptism on Saturday. I was conducting the music, and she wanted to come along. It was great for her to see a baptism, after hearing about them in church and FHE. At least once a week Cora will talk about how she can get baptized when she turns eight.... and go to Disney World. This week she asked where Mickey Mouse lives, I told her Disney World, and she's been full of questions about mouse land ever since. Since we won't be going to Disney World for quite a while (which phrase means nothing to an almost 4 year old, I've learned) I finally said we'd go in 4 more years. Which she hasn't forgotten.

I saw the production 42nd Street at Pioneer Theatre this week and LOVED it. It's not super strong on plot, but a fun fluffy show with lots of great tap dancing.

We started having Violet sleep in her big girl bed again this week. It's actually been a success! She's been doing great, and they've only gotten out of bed in the middle of the night a total of 3 or 4 times all week. Much better than I expected. They are still getting up too early, I think they must be waking each other up, but hopefully that will subside. Luke took his first nap in the crib today, and we'll gradually work him into sleeping in the nursery this month.

We brought out the playdoh this week, it was kind of forgotten for a while until I found it cleaning out the office closet. The day before mop day is messy project day... for playdoh and muffin eating and practicing cutting with scissors.
I got to go to Oh Sweet Sadie craft fair again. It's so much more than a craft fair, those words don't do it justice. I came away with a couple of fun things and ideas for future projects, and since Cora was with me and was irresistibly drawn to these silky soft nightgowns... they made it in the bag too.
While I was trying to get a good photo, I tried out a few phrases to make the girls giggle. I think the one that went with this picture was: Think of what you're going to dream about tonight.

Luke at Four Months

This little cutie pie turned four months old today. He now weighs 13 pounds and is 25 inches long.
Luke loves chewing on his fingers. Maybe he's going to be an early teether like Violet! He also likes chewing on the shoulder strap in the snugli. And anything else he can get into his mouth. But that's mostly his own ten digits.
Luke's got a little bald spot on the back of his head, and one on one side of his head too, where he likes to rub when he's getting ready to wake up.

Luke likes to try to stand and stiffens his legs when you hold him up.
Luke has many facial expressions.

He's a big-time smiler. He loves his bumbo chair that gives him more of a view than looking at the ceiling.
He also tried out the exersaucer this week, it was a hit!
Luke has started to enjoy playing (looking at and trying to eat) toys this month.

Luke took his first nap in his crib in the nursery today.
Luke doesn't like his feet covered, he'll kick and kick until he gets a loose blanket off.

Luke gets an awful lot of love at our house.