Easter 2015

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Easter baskets, followed by General Conference and then dinner and Easter egg hunt at my parents' house. Plus it was my mom's birthday so we celebrated that as well!

Taking a quick nap before heading to Grandma's!

Her feet are not touching the floor!

The girls in their Easter dresses. Originally I was not planning on having them done in time for Easter - since there was no church on Easter Sunday. However the girls begged me to finish them so that they could wear them to Grandma S's house. Blondie and Kitty have the same dress pattern in different colors and then Kay and MJ have the same dress pattern as well.

The girls love to play with and entertain their baby cousin!

My sister made the cute vests that her boys are wearing!

MJ reaching for the egg!

DH going for an artistic shot...

Life of a teenager...

Thursday, November 13

Where is M&M?

Sleeping MJ

Friday, October 3, 2014

I thought this was a funny position that MJ feel asleep in in the car:

Sleepy MJ - again

Wednesday, July 2

Apparently I tire MJ out too much and she will fall asleep wherever she is.  I love how she is sleeping with her leg crossed!

Sleepy MJ

May 14, 2014

Another cute picture of MJ sleeping:

Jumping is tiring!

February 22, 2014

I guess the jumping tired MJ out!  We found her like this just after 7:30 that evening!

Sleeping MJ

February 9-10, 2014

Apparently it was a rough couple of days for MJ - not quite sure how she was able to fall asleep in these positions!

Tired MJ

Saturday, December 21, 2013

I thought it was cute that MJ fell asleep in this chair:

Worn out Luke

Wednesday, January 29

This evening for scouts, the Deacons went to our city fitness center and ran the mile for the personal fitness merit badge and then they went swimming for the remainder of the time there.  Luke still needed to pass the BSA swimmer test for his rank advancement so he had asked his leaders ahead of time if he could do it during that time.  They said that would be fine so after Luke ran the mile he went down and was able to pass the BSA swimmer test.  I was really impressed that he took it upon himself to do that on his own and that he actually passed!  He was quite exhausted (and hungry) when he came home and he somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch while we were watching T.V.  I tried to wake him up to get him to move to his bed but he wouldn't wake up easily, so I removed his glasses and he kind of jerked awake for a few seconds but then fell right back asleep again.  He said that he woke up around 1:30 in the morning and went to his bed at that time (it took him a few seconds to realize where he was).

Early church

Sunday, January 26

9 a.m. church usually calls for an afternoon nap:

Exciting video games?

Sunday, August 11

This was MJ after church one day:

MJ & sleeping

MJ has had some issues with sleeping lately.  Sometimes she wants to be near me when she is falling asleep and other times she will come into my room around 3 or 4 in the morning and tap me until I wake up and then she will crawl into bed next to me.  Sometimes I don't mind it, but she is usually a very restless sleeper and will toss and turn and toss and turn and throw the blankets off of herself and adjust her head back and forth on the pillow...  Sometimes I will pick her up and take her back to her bed and lay there next to her until she falls back asleep.  Hopefully this won't go on too long...

MJ curling up on the couch while I was folding laundry in the family room.

Sleeping in my bed - apparently she did not get her mouth washed off the night before.  Nice mustache, huh?  I love her eyelashes!

Sick, tired MJ

Wednesday, March 27

Here is the picture of MJ crashed on her bed on the first day she was sick.  I came out of the shower and found her curled up on her bed without any sheets on it.

Exhausted...

Monday, March 11

From a long day at work:

From a long day of play:

Sick MJ

Last Wednesday, MJ woke up around 5:30 in the morning calling for me.  I went into her room and picked her up and brought her into bed with me.  She went back to sleep for a little bit and then I woke up to the sound of her dry heaving a little - not a pleasant way to wake up...  Nothing really came up and then she was hungry and wanted to eat some breakfast.  She didn't eat too much and then when I went upstairs to take a shower she was complaining that she was tired.  I told her she could lay down if she wanted - not really thinking that she would do that though.  After I got out of the shower I went into MJ's room to put something away and found her sound asleep on her bed.  I then spent the next hour or so helping Kay clean her room and then MJ stumbled into the room.  At first she just wanted me to hold her but then she got down and started playing a little while I continued to clean.  After a little bit she burped a few times and said, "Mom, I'm burping."  That was a sign to me that I quickly needed to get a bowl for her so I ran downstairs and by the time I came back up she was in the process of throwing up all of her breakfast.  She was pretty miserable the whole day and just wanted me to hold her.  She threw up a few times throughout the day and had some diarrhea as well.  She went through several changes of clothes and I hardly got anything done at all - which was unfortunate because I was in the middle of finishing up all of the Easter dresses for the girls!

MJ had a slight fever on Thursday and didn't have much of an appetite so we encouraged her to drink water whenever she would.  I ended up canceling a soccer practice that I was supposed to be holding that evening.

When MJ woke up on Friday she actually had a smile on her face for the first time in a few days.  It was nice to see her getting back to her normal self!

Her sickness has really thrown off her sleep schedule though and she was up until around 2 a.m. on Friday and 1 a.m. on Saturday because she has been taking naps at odd times.  She is also a very whiny kid when she is sick and it has definitely tired me out.  And unfortunately she will very rarely allow anyone other than me to hold her or comfort her or do anything for her...

(I have a picture of her that I wanted to upload with this blog post but I unfortunately left my camera at my parents' house so I will upload it later when I get it back.)

Sleeping woes

These pictures have all been taken over the last month.  Ever since we moved MJ out of her crib, she has had a hard time taking naps.  Usually after lunch I will try and lay down with her or put a movie on and try and get her to fall asleep in my lap on the couch, but unfortunately no matter how much effort I put into it, it usually does not work.  She is usually still bouncing off of the walls and will not sit still.  So quite often by late afternoon/evening time she has hit her limit and will fall asleep wherever her head hits.  And we usually don't notice that it has happened until we find her somewhere asleep.  MJ is also having a hard time at bedtime and feels the need to "cuddle" with someone until she falls asleep.  Sometimes I will take the time to lay down with her until her constant moving around drives me crazy and I leave the room (or she actually does manage to fall asleep).  Other times when I don't lay down with her sometimes she will climb in the top bunk with Blondie - and usually Blondie doesn't mind.  Sometimes Blondie will read books to MJ until she falls asleep.  Other times we have found them both asleep in the bed and will move MJ down to the lower bunk so she doesn't fall off (or push Blondie off).  There have also been several times where I have been gone in the evening and MJ will climb up on her dad's lap and fall asleep there.  Some nights when DH and I go up to bed we will find her asleep in her doorway - with her pillow and a blanket wrapped around her.  Hopefully one of these days she will actually have a normal sleep schedule!!

This is one of my favorites - asleep on the hard kitchen tile with a hat, two different mittens and a blanket wrapped around her.  This was one of the Saturdays where I was gone for part of the day and DH came upstairs from his office and found her like this!

Arches - Day 2

Friday, October 19

MJ's sleeping spot on the floor.

After a super healthy breakfast of doughnuts and some fruit, we headed back to Arches.  We decided to start with a hike up to Delicate Arch (3 miles round-trip).  The parking lot was super full and busy but we just happened to get there at just the right moment when someone was backing out so we got a good parking spot.  It was quite the climb to get up there.  At one point when we had stopped for a water break, Kay asked how much farther we had to go.  We said that we were almost to the top of this part and then probably had a little more beyond that.  She then said, "Well, when we get to the top I'm going to need to take a nap before we finish."  There was a lady standing near us who had stopped to rest as well and she just started laughing at that comment and said that she needed to take a nap too!

See the line of people in the picture above?  This was the middle part of the hike to Delicate Arch.

Wow the arch was massive!!  In the pictures that you see of Delicate Arch, it looks small.  That is our family, minus DH who was taking the pictures, under the arch.  It was quite the production because it was fairly crowded there and everyone wanted a picture under the arch so we had to take turns walking over to it and having a picture taken.

It was a little scary walking over to the arch with the younger kids.  I made sure to keep a tight hold on MJ and M&M was holding onto Kay for me.

The picture above is DH under the arch with MJ on his back.  As you can see there is someone walking over to get under the arch who was totally clueless as to what was going on with people taking turns...

A picture with no one under the arch!

This bowl in the picture above is where Blondie lost her water bottle!  When we got up to the top of the hike where you can finally see the Delicate Arch, there was a ledge to climb over and then this large, steep bowl that you had to hike on the upper edge of to get over to the arch.  When Blondie climbed over the ledge, her water bottle slipped out of her hands and rolled right down into the bowl.  Luckily it was just a disposable one, but someone who was up there said that it was the third one he had seen fall down there since he got up there!

Petroglyphs on the rocks - a side trail on the way up to Delicate Arch.  We were planning on stopping at this spot on our way down from Delicate Arch, but at this point Blondie and I had left the group to hurry her to the bathroom.  While we were finishing up at the bathroom, M&M came hurrying up with Kay in tow - who apparently also needed to use the bathroom...

After Delicate Arch we got back in the car and headed off to try and find a picnic table to eat lunch at.  After driving to the end of the park and finding nothing available, we drove back to the parking lot for Sand Dune Arch and ate lunch in the car.  Then we hiked (short hike) to Sand Dune Arch and were surprised to find a little sand, play area for the kids.  It was really fine sand and the kids (especially MJ) loved playing in it.  It was nice because the whole area was in the shade.

Sand Dune arch (the kids are all making funny poses in front of it)

After we finished up playing at Sand Dune arch we went back to the trail to hike to Broken Arch.  Some of the kids sat down on a little step on the trail to take off their shoes and get the sand out of them.  Kay was sitting there putting her shoes back on when all of a sudden she yelled out and started crying.  I looked down at her finger and there was an ant clinging on to the end of it.  I quickly grabbed her hand and brushed the ant away, but Kay was still crying about it.  (We think it was a fire ant.)  We all started walking down the trail and I was bringing up the back with MJ who was walking really slowly and kept stopping to play in the sand on the trail.  Kay was walking up front with her dad and just kept crying and whining about her finger so I called up to him that I would take the two little ones back to the car.  MJ was walking really slowly back to the car so I finally picked her up and put her on my shoulder and then had Kay walking beside me.  Kay kept telling me the whole way back to the car that I need to protect her from ants and things like that - that it was my job to protect her...  When we got back to the car I took a look at her finger and cleaned it off and put a bandaid on it.  I also got the girls a snack to eat while we were waiting for DH and the rest of the kids to get back.

This is Broken Arch which is another side trail off of the Sand Dune arch trail. 

Balanced Rock

The leaves were gorgeous in the park!  It was really beautiful seeing these bright yellow trees against the red rock - although hard to get a picture of that shows the beauty...

By this point the two little ones had had enough so DH took the 4 oldest on one last small hike before we left the park.  They hiked the one mile Park Avenue trail which is a one way hike past the Courthouse Towers.  Apparently there were quite a few steps that they had to climb.  All in all it was a good family trip and we got home at a decent hour Friday night.