VERY Proud Mama

On April 8th, and 9th we worked with R on riding her bike without training wheels. Then we went to St. George, and came back to practicing on the 13th. This post was taking on the 14th. After 3 days of practicing it just clicked and she is now a pro!!! They were one of the most frustrating 3 days of MY life, but I stuck with R and she stuck with it, and we both got through it!!! Now it makes for fun bike rides around the block!

 One VERY proud girl! I love her so much!

 Thinking it TOTALLY cool that she can ride through puddles!!

And what better way to end this great achievement than some good old puddle jumping!!!

She later figured out how to start herself, and that she can go on and off the driveways. She is getting more brave everyday. She would lift her fingers up and say "look mom, no hands". Then Jared gave her the idea that she could really do it with one hand. So now she waves with one, and steers with the other. She also thinks she is pretty tricky that she can stand up and pedal at the same time! Just wait, I am sure there will be a post about her biggest crash.

St. George with the Demings

 Even though we had been to St. George a month earlier, we were lucky enough to go again with the Demings. This time Jared was able to come with us!!!

The drive down was better because we left at 8pm. Which meant P fell asleep pretty quickly, and R fell asleep halfway. I was a little nervous because they both woke up going into the condo, but both fell back asleep rather fast.  We stayed at a GREAT condo. The amenities were GREAT!!!  The first day we spent most of our time in the pool. It provided much needed Vitamin D.

  

 R loved the "kid" pool. It was only 2 feet deep, and she made some friends there!

 Rori is half fish. The kid LOVES being in the water!

 P, is a little warm blooded and the water was a little cold for him! But still got some swim time in!

 We visited the St. George Temple again,

 and actually went inside the Visitor Center!

 R took this picture outside, and I love it!

 On the way home, P lost his sucker! :)

 We visited the park at the condo

 Inside mini-golf at the condo's clubhouse

 We had a few unexpected obstacles

 Basketball at the clubhouse

 We had a GREAT deck off our condo, the largest there. We spent a lot of time out there. The babies loved having the freedom of going in and out as they pleased! Although I did find a few stray toys on the ground off our deck.....BABIES!!!!

 Then we visited the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site. It was pretty cool.

 P enjoyed following the dino tracks painted on the path

 The only bones they had

 Darwin was in his element. Kiara won the best-wife-of-the-hour for staying by Darwin the whole time. We were done seeing the site, and they weren't even a fourth of the way through! :)

It was SO nice to be able to get away with the Demings! We used to get away a lot more before kids came along. Maybe it was because we could fit into one car. They just need to buy a mini-van so we can all travel together again. Thanks again Demings for letting us crash your week in St. George!!! :)

EASTER 2012

This year my kids Easter celebrations dragged out longer than one day! It happened over the course of 3 different days. The first was a family Easter egg hunt at the McSweeney house. All the cousins (except Lila)were there. It was a great intro on what to do for Mr. P!

I had suggested that we color coat the eggs, that way each kid was able to find the same number of eggs as their cousins. It worked BEAUTIFULLY! The kids were able to find them at their own pace. And the hiders were able to hide according to the age. So Mia, the oldest, her eggs were hidden a lot harder than P's.!!!!

R was purple

and P was orange

P looks a little shocked, but my kids are cute.

Almost all the cousins! Lila was sick :( we missed her!

 My BEAUTIFUL girl!

The next weekend (Saturday, before Easter). I was able to take my kids, plus Aurora to the city's annual Easter hunt. I call it the Easter Race because all the candy is spread out over the high school's football field, and when they yell "go" everyone races out picking up as many as they can. The kids are separated in age groups: 1-3 year olds, 4-7 year olds, and 8-11 year olds. I was with "the babies" so I didn't get any actions shots of R!

Aurora picked up a candy in each hand and was done. It was so funny. We kept having to show her to actually put the candy in the basket, and get more!

P had practice, but still needed motivation

The older kids-funny to say.

Our group- Missy's kids, her neighbor's kids, and my kids(including Aurora)

Finally REAL Easter morning.

P got 3 big eggs, with cars inside of them. If this is all he got he would be pleased.

Our little family Easter morning

By this time, P was a pro, and knew what to do!

R was SO quick most of my pictures were blurry.

Checking out their goods

R got a kite. There was NO wind, but she was determined to make it fly. Uncle Mitch showed her if she ran it would fly for a little bit. She got it up a few times!

I am a total procrastinator. Yes I promised my girl we would dye eggs. I just didn't think it was going to be Easter night! :) Either way, they were dyed, and she was happy. We did it after P went to bed, less mess you know?!?!

Coloring on the egg before dying.

The final product! Not too bad I would say!

I am grateful for this holiday. Like every other holiday, a lot of it that is commercialized, but I am grateful for the chance to remember why we actually celebrate it, and what Jesus Christ has done for me.

Hope everyone had a great Easter like we did!

Grateful For NO Twins!!

 We were lucky and had a sleepover with Rori. She joined our little wild clan for the night, and we had fun. We went to the our ward Easter party where I was asked a few times "are they twins?". (yes, shows you how well my home ward knows me (:   )I just laughed because P is 2 months older than Rori, and his head is 100 times bigger than hers LOL!!! After the 24 hours of having another 1 1/2 year old, I am SOOO grateful that I haven't had twins. When I was pregnant with P, I caught myself a few times wishing for twins, cause then I could knock 2 out with 1 stone. Rori would only want me to hold her, but then P would get REALLY jealous, and so I found myself holding both kids at the same time a lot!

Bath time really made me laugh. Aurora was playing with a little sand shovel. Filling it up with water, dumping it on herself, then laughing hysterically. I was laughing hysterically because 90% of the water in the shovel ended up on P. Check out his face in the next few pictures! That is why Aurora's arm is up in most of the pictures! :)

 She LOVED it! Check out that smile!!!

 But who can be mad at this face???

 After bath "the babies" were up to their usual selves which equals trouble!!!

 R even got some Rori time.

 I am proud to say that we have converted Rori, who is now a fan of "The Fresh Beat Band" on Nick Jr!! It must have been a serious part :)