MIA

My hard drive failed. Luckily I was able to pay someone to get all my data off of my Laptop but as of right now I have no computer and therefore am unable to blog. I am using Chris' work laptop to write this post. My pictures are piling up and I'm hoping to get a new laptop this weekend so I can get caught up on all the fun things we've been doing. Its actually kinda weird not having a computer to use at my own free will. It tells me really how addicted to my computer I am. I'm finding that I'm spending more time doing productive things with my kids and keeping my home in order. I actually picked up a book from the library yesterday! I think I'm kinda liking my new computer free lifestyle. I even took myself off of facebook. I found that it was a big distraction for me and I would check it on my phone and computer numerous times a day. When Maddie wrote a poem about me for Mothers day that had the line "needs more time for Facebook" I knew it was too much a part of my life. I'm not saying its a bad thing at all, in fact I'm sure I'll rejoin someday but for me right now I wanted to show my kids that I don't need "electronic" distractions to keep me from being their mom and living in the NOW with them. With blogging I feel that it is a little different because I am Journaling my life as a mother for my family and I know that it will be a valuable to asset to my children someday. My blog is my Scrapbook and Journal and my audience is my family.

So the point of this post was to say... I'll be back soon with lots of pics and fun adventures we've been having. My kids are out of school as of Tuesday and Summer is in full swing!

Home buddies

The other day I found Sawyer holding Libby's hand on her play mat watching cartoons. Made my heart smile. Sawyer misses his big brother and sister when they are at school but loves his alone time with Libby.

Libby is Four Months old!

Its hard to believe that my newborn baby is 4 months old. She's not much of a newborn now but I still like to think of her as one. She truly has been such a joy in our home. I cannot even begin to express how much love and joy she has brought to our family. Our children just love an adore her. They all are so proud to have her as their sister it makes my heart melt. I had no idea how wonderful having 4 kids would be. I'm so glad we didn't stop at 3.

Libby is such an easy baby. She has slept through the night since she was just a couple weeks old. She goes to bed so easy and wakes up so happy. I couldn't have asked for a better baby.


She is such a smiley girl and LOVES interacting with people. She loves attention and wants to be talked to or played with all the time. I'm guessing it comes from all the attention she gets from the kids at home.

At four months she is starting to roll over, she's bringing toys to her mouth and she's babbling and cooing and giggling.

She had her Four month appointment at exactly four months. She weighed in at 15 lbs. 2.5 oz. Her length was 25 inches. She was in the 80% for both height and weight. She's our little porker!


She's really starting to notice mirrors which is lots of fun. She loved playing in the mirror in the exam room at her appointment.

This next picture was taken after her shots, once she was calmed down and bundled up. She was so upset and I felt so bad for her. She is definitely a dramatic child, and I thought we'd maxed out on dramatic children with Maddie and Sawyer!

Old Friends are Forever

Last week I was able to get together with some of my best friends. Carrie (Reeves) Warnick came down from Colorado to visit her parents in Riverside. Her Dad is the Mission President in the Riverside Mission. She invited Tiffany (Reed) Chang and I out to their home to visit. It was so wonderful seeing my old friends and their adorable children. Tiffany and I don't live too far away but we don't see each other nearly enough with our busy lives. Between the 3 of us we have almost 12 children! Almost an entire Reeves family! Carrie is pregnant with her 4th and Tiff and I both have 4. Tiffany's recently had twins, a boy and a girl and they were so much fun to watch. Here is a picture of them having their dinner!

Since Carrie married my cousin Brian our kids are second cousins. We don't see them very often so Maddie and Carter were pleased to find out that these fun kids they were playing with are their second cousins. Maddie especially hit it off with Caden. They had fun playing on the computer and chasing each other around the house.

Here's a picture of all kids minus one of Tiff's twins (who was nursing at the moment) and Carrie's youngest who was running around. It was a little bit crazy having all the kids in the house running around while we were visiting. I think my kids were the worst ones. Sawyer went into President Reeves office and rearranged his missionary board with all the companionships! I was mortified. Linda said, "its okay, we have transfers coming up soon anyway". Maybe Sawyer's rearranging inspired some of their transfers!

Here's a picture of the 3 of us with our babies. Carrie's little one in Utero.

Mothers Day 2010

I had a wonderful Mothers day weekend. I look forward to Mothers day every year because Chris makes it so special and really spoils me every year. I was also looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday break from Primary :)

It all started on Thursday when Chris had my car. He took it to a get a really good car wash, carpets shampooed and waxed. It came back looking amazing. I love my clean car. The inside looks amazing! Its hard to tell that it transports kids everywhere.

Yesterday Maddie and I got to go get pedicures. My mom came along to help with Libby. After our relaxing time at the Nail spa, we went to Claim Jumper for lunch. It was so much fun to spend the day with just us girls. With such cute toes we had to get some new Summer sandals to match so we went to Target and got some new shoes for Maddie and I.




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When we got home Chris and I had a fun evening planned with his Mom and Sister, Kelli for their mothers day gift. We went and saw a movie and went to our favorite place for dinner Lucille's Smokehouse. It was delicious, (the scale agreed this morning) and we had some great company! We even ordered a banana pudding for dessert which was to die for! Libby tagged along and its getting harder going out with us. I'm thinking next time we'll leave her with a bottle. I'm sad I didn't take any pictures.

Then this morning Chris fixed me a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon and fruit. The kids were all so sweet to me too. We had a great time at church and I enjoyed going to Relief Society. After church I had a long uninterrupted nap. Then we went to my parents house to have a nice dinner put on by Chris and Amanda. It was a lovely day and I'm relishing the last few moments of Chris being in charge of the kiddos! He's putting them to bed now while I enjoy getting all caught up on my blog.

This was my mothers day gift from Chris. I absolutely love it! I've been asking for a necklace that has my kids names and now that our family is complete I kept hinting that I can get my necklace now! So I helped him find one I liked on Etsy and we ordered it. I didn't get to see it til today and I wore it proud!

Bento Box Lunches with Love

I saw a blog post from someone who started making these type of lunches for their kids and I became inspired to do them for my own kids. I had gotten into a rut of sandwich, crackers, apple and juice. Now there's nothing wrong with this but my kids started complaining that they were bored of their lunches and they were coming home half eaten. So I thought this would be a great way to give my kids a healthy, fun lunch while showing my love for them. The containers are just the reusable Ziplock containers and I try to variate the types of fruit, crackers and sandwiches that I use. There's actually a lot of resources online for these. Believe it or not there are several blogs where people take pictures of their kids lunches every day and blog about it http://www.bashaw.com/ I don't have that kind of time. I've been doing it for a little over a week and the kids LOVE it! They fit perfectly in their lunch bags with a capri sun and an ice pack.

Signs on the door

My kids love to put signs on the door of their room and usually they are not loving. This one was found on Carter and Sawyer's room written by Carter without any help.

"No Madeline in Carters room and Sawyer But Sawyer don't make messes okay and Sawyer you're not allowed to invite Madeline in."

Disney Day

We have been going to Disneyland a lot lately because its not too crowded and we know it will be very soon! We're trying to enjoy the in between Spring Break and Summer season. Last week, the kids and I drove down and met Chris in Anaheim (his office is a short distance from Disneyland). It was a beautiful warm afternoon and I had fun dressing Libby in her Minnie outfit. She got plenty of admirers while we were there. The kids had a blast and got to go on some fun rides. Maddie and Carter rode Indiana Jones for the first time (Carter finally is tall enough now!) Maddie closed her eyes the entire time and Carter loved it and can't wait to go again! Maddie also got to ride Space Mountain with me which was lots of fun. I hadn't been on a roller coaster in about a year since I couldn't ride while I was pregnant. Sawyer can't wait to ride Space Mountain he is barely under the minimum height so hopefully next time we can put some taller shoes on him and see if he's tall enough. Sawyer loved climbing the stairs to Tarzans tree house. It is his type of attraction. He even wanted to go again all by himself while the big kids went on Indiana Jones. So I let him go alone while I waited by the exit. He's growing up so fast!

2 Wheeler Finally!

So we've never been a big "bike riding family" so our kids don't ride their bikes as often as they'd like. We're determined to change that and start taking the time to do more fun things outside as a family. A few weeks ago after Carter got his new bike for his birthday, we started getting the bikes out and riding them around the neighborhood. Maddie was long overdue for riding a two-wheeler so Chris took off her training wheels and within a few minutes she was riding like a pro. A couple days later (in order to give Maddie her 15 minutes of fame) Chris had Carter get on the bike (Maddie's since his is too tall still) and he was riding a two-wheeler like a pro as well. It feels so good to finally have my 8-year-old and 6-year-old on a big kid bike! Hopefully Sawyer does it a little sooner :)

Riley's Farm Field Trip

Chris is such an awesome dad.

Maddie came home from school a few weeks ago with a flier about an upcoming field trip to Riley's farm. She was so excited about it and wanted me to be a chaperon on the trip which I've done in the past. With a new baby nursing all day and not on a bottle yet it was out of the question. Her immediate response was "I'll ask Daddy" So when Chris got home from work she asked him to come on her field trip with her. Chris agreed to it and was actually kind of excited about it. We put it on the calendar and Maddie looked forward to it for several weeks.

Chris took the day off and had some great one on one time with Maddie. She felt so special to have her daddy there with her. She sat next to him on the bus and snuggled up with her Dad. (Chris wonders how long this will last :) It was so fun to hear about the fun things they did. They learned all about pioneers and got to be in a real log cabin and see handcarts and covered wagons. I'm so glad that Chris is the kind of Dad that loves doing stuff with his kids!