Utah...Temple Square

Temple square in downtown Salt Lake is one of my favorite places in Utah. We went on a Sunday morning and a few of us went to watch and listen to The Spoken Word in the old tabernacle while the rest of us watched it in the visitor's center. The kids LOVED the visitor's center and Brynnli asked to go back all day to see the Christus. They were also interested when we pointed out where President Monson's office was.

I wish Carson wasn't wearing this hat in this picture...but oh well.After the Spoken Word was over, we let the kids go in and check out the tabernacle. My favorite part and the kids of the day was the Church history museum. It was seriously awesome upstairs where they had a fun kids exhibit.

So fun!

Too much Birthday

Carson's birthday was earlier this week....I've been trying to post since then but blogger and I are not getting along right now.....

Anyways....has anyone read the book The Berenstein Bears and Too Much Birthday? It's one of our favorites around here and I feel like it was pretty much how Carson's birthday went at one point. I'll get to that. We started out the day opening presents, and went out for breakfast to our usual birthday place. Then Carson was off to school. We showed up with sugar cookies (Carson's request) and juice boxes for his class. He was so happy....but didn't like the sugar cookies (not sure why....) and ate one bite. He didn't care though and smiled the whole time. There went two hours of my time wasted:)

After nap time (Brynnli and Cole's) we took him and his two best boy friends bowling (his request again). The boys and Brynnli had a blast and it was all going great until halfway through the game when Carson had a full on meltdown...."because he was hungry." This is when the too much birthday story came to mind. As a side note, all the kids did well, but Brynnli kicked some serious butt (due to the ball roller thingy I think...but still she got two strikes) It was too funny too that Carson's friends were helping her carry her ball and put it on there.....who says chivalry is dead?And Cole....he had a blast in the stroller for a good while, until Grandma and Grandpa showed up and he realized he had options....

Then we headed off to Carson's favorite pizza restaurant (yes with all FIVE kids...but that's what Carson wanted) where things magically improved again. I think he really was hungry.

We went back to our house for cake and to play for awhile. We won't talk about how Carson also didn't eat any of his cake......

Woody and Jessie even made an appearance!

And then Carson got to play school, which he wanted to do most of all. Here's what he asked for for his birthday:

His own stapler, his own tape, and his own camera. He loves to play school right now. He also wanted some lego things and trucks....he's not totally crazy:)

Here's what he's up to at five: (this is for my journaling...so skip ahead if you want...)

He can write his first and last name without any help, knows all his letters and numbers through 15, and how to write them and can count to thirty. He also knows how to count in Spanish. He knows how to add with his fingers, and about ten sight words. THANK YOU PRESCHOOL!!! I can't take credit for much of this because he won't ever let me teach him anything! Thankfully his preschool teacher "knows way more than me" and he listens to her. He is a very good boy at school and listens to most everything his teacher says.

He loves garbage trucks still, trains, trucks, playing school, playing outside, and riding his bike. He has an incredible imagination.

He is 45 inches tall and 33 pounds. He requires only minimal sleep.....

We are so thankful he's around!

Utah trip Part 2

I'm so behind at blogging the rest of our trip to Utah, but here it is anyways. The days we weren't skiing were spent doing all kinds of fun things.

Rick and I went out on the town in Park City for Valentines (but a day late...i.e. no crowds)

We took the kids to the heated pool for a Polar Bear Swim....which they LOVED!

Cole was too little for the swim but came to watch:)

Fun snow time

And of course, for all of us to enjoy skiing, we had to take turns watching the kiddos. It was a fun time. But man, watching two infants, two three year olds and a five year old was busy!

Carson helped us out a lot! I love this shot of him having a heart to heart with cousin Matthew

Grandma and Grandpa T. definately did MORE than their share of babysitting too....I just wasn't around with my camera to get a picture!

The Cole-man

That's what we call him. So when you're the third kid, sometimes your mom might remember you are six months old that day while you're flying on an airplane....which is what happened to Cole. Happy six month birthday kiddo....spent sitting on a plane flying to Utah for eight plus hours! These types of posts are just for me and journaling...so skip ahead if you want:) Here's what Cole's doing at six and a half months....

-Sitting really good, and reaching, and rolling, and up on all fours trying to crawl with his bum in the air.....I really don't want him to crawl yet.....too many choking hazards around in our house on the floor....

-Eating baby food...although he doesn't LOVE it. What does he love? Anything we're eating. Soon enough...smart boy.

-Says ma ma and really means me. He looked right at me the other day and said it. He says all kinds of other things too...dadadada....and babbles to himself.

-He's a mammas boy....for now...until he realizes daddy is way more fun. But I've got the food.

-Loves paper (and ate a huge pink peice the other day....it came out...just as it went in..in case you were wondering), loves putting everything in his mouth, and LOVES the bath and water

-He's our chunker weighing in at around 18 pounds, the same weight Brynnli was at over a year old.

-He sleeps good for naps....he goes to bed super easy.....but still isn't sleeping through the night....too hungry I guess.....

-He is just the sweetest tempered little guy....we are all smitten. If I knew I'd have another just like him I'd go for another kid for sure....

Park City!!

For Rick's dad's 60th birthday this year we celebrated by all flying out to Park City, Utah to go skiing. It was awesome. The day after we got there we headed down to BYU to rent some skis. All of us getting fitted was a little crazy.....

But oh was it worth it. The first day we took Carson and Brynnli and Rick's sister and her husband took their Kaitlyn. It was so fun. The kids were really good, actually that first day they might have been better than me......I was a little rusty. Not that I was ever very good to begin with.....They were both going down mostly by themselves that first day, Carson would just fall down when he got going to fast. He was so cute. We tried to stay with Brynnli but she kept saying "don't help me, I do it myself." She is fearless. I wish I was like that. This was the second time we took the kids, had to stop for snacks and to eat snow. And of course, the lodge for lunch.

Since I prefer to stay on the easy slopes and Rick loves to go really fast, one of the days (Valentines Day) the girls (me, Rick's sister Trish, and his mom) stayed home while the Rick and his dad hit the slopes. They had so much fun. Isn't it beautiful?

And one day we got to go skiing by ourselves, which was awesome. The last day we brought Grandma so she could watch the kiddos in action.

Grandma and Grandpa

It was so fun! My favorite moment of skiing? Watching the kids of course, but a close second...watching Rick crash (for the only time on the trip)on the easy slope while trying to take a picture of me (going really slow....)

Hehe.....

Happy Birthday Fancy Brynnli

This birthday post is a few weeks late sadly..... Brynn's birthday was the day before we left for Utah for two weeks. She was such a cute fancy birthday girl though! We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said clothes!!! Fancy clothes to be exact.....we definately in trouble in a few years. I can't even count how many times she changed her clothes on her birthday.....

In the morning we opened presents and went out to breakfast

Then while Carson was at school, we picked up Brynnli's best friend Izzie and went to ride ponies, they had so much fun together!We stopped by the house first though and the girls couldn't help but try on some dressups first....Then we picked up Carson and headed to Chicfila for lunch, and headed home to take naps!Then we brought out the bounce house and ate pizza and Fancy Nancy cake for dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Tolbert
Fancy Nancy herself even made an appearance:) Great idea Grandma!

It was a great day!!

Just a few of my favorite things about Brynnli right now:

First.....she's finally potty trained!!! This has been a LONG time coming.

She loves to be girly and dressup, and have her nails done, and play dolls and barbies.

She can count to fifteen, and knows a few numbers and letters.

She LOVES to dance and LOVES dance class.

She's still napping everyday......(fingers crossed)

She's fiesty, which she gets from me, and I am constantly reminded of my mom saying "someday you will have a daughter just like you..."

I'm so glad though, because as Brynnli likes to say, "mom, we're girls!" I love having a daughter.