The Month of May

It flew by so fast! Last year at this time May seemed to last forever- with packing and moving I couldn't wait for it to be over. But this year's different. Even though we've lived here for almost 4 years, this is only our second summer here in MD! Now that May's over I realized that the majority of my posts for the month were all "catch-up" posts, so I didn't get a chance to record all the other "stuff" that happened. I like lists, so I'm gonna list everything I wanted to document- but it's in no particular order of when it happened or the importance of the event.

1) I first want to note the weather- mostly because it was pretty much perfect. The 21st of May was our first day of the month to reach 80 degrees. We had 20 full days of 70 degree temps!!! I felt so spoiled! Pools don't open out here until the end of May, so when we do get hot, humid, summer weather before then I get super ticked about our pool situation.

2) We finished up our little preschool co-op group on the 26th. I was scheduled to teach, but I thought it'd be more fun to have a pool party and picnic. I'm pretty sure all the kids had a good time!

I didn't get a picture of all the kids (6 girls above plus Troy and Samantha) eating on the beach towels- it only lasted a matter of minutes, but it was super cute while it lasted. Elle loved the cupcakes!

I've had such a good time hanging out with all these girls- Madi, Kate, and Tess were really the only ones in the "official" pre-school group, but many times Brooklyn would come hang out too. And Elle and Abby are always at all the parties! They're just such cute (and super sweet) girls all together. And of course Becky, Krista, and I always have a great time getting together too! :) The next two pics were actually from our Easter party- just had to include so I remember all our fun parties!

Notice Elle eyeing all the eggs hidden in front of her.

3) I spoke in church on the 22nd (it was my third talk given in this ward). I talked about the blessings that come from daily study of the Book of Mormon. I don't think I've ever enjoyed speaking like I did this time- and I didn't get nervous like I usually do. But the best thing about preparing for this talk was that it motivated me to get back into my daily scripture study. We always read with the girls every night, but it's just not the same. Since my talk Spencer and I have read together every night. I love reading with Spencer- he's always able to answer all my questions!

4) I've been loving my primary calling! I've decided it's probably my very favorite calling in the church. I found some great blogs that I'm a regular follower of and idea stealer from. My favorite is: The Ordinary Adventures of a Primary Chorister. She recently posted some fun games for teaching the "Big Words" to "Praise to the Man"- that was the song I taught for the month of May and it's made me even more excited about conducting it next month at Youth Conference in the Kirtland Temple!

5) I'm starting to feel more excited and less nervous about the whole music thing for Youth Conference. It's definitely been a very humbling experience for me. I've put so much time into this- youth choir practices, emails, organizing, practicing, and learning as much as I can from Karlie who's gonna have her baby any day and not be able to hold my hand through it anymore.

6) We had our first "ma and pa" training meeting for Youth Conference on the 26th. Even though Spencer and I are in extreme need of a vacation alone right now, and this weekend is really the only time we'd been able to go (with my mom in town watching the girls and all), we're still excited to be spending it with the youth of our stake and site seeing in Kirtland, Ohio.

7) My allergies were awful this month! And it was my first experience with allergies out here. The worst was this past Friday. I went running in the morning and near the end of my run the wind really picked up (didn't help that I was running against the wind). All of a sudden my eyes started itching like crazy and I began sneezing incessantly! After a good shower, Zaditor eye drops, and Zyrtec, I was feeling better. So then we proceeded to go to the park after dropping Spencer off at the Metro. We even went out one more time that afternoon. I must of totally overdone it because that night I was a mess- I was ready to claw my eyes out! When I woke up Saturday morning my eyes were crusted over- totally thought I had pink eye. Spencer assured me that it's completely normal for that kind of stuff to happen with itchy, watery, allergy infected eyes. Since then I haven't tried running outside and I've kept windows closed, and the AC running. Hopefully allergy season ends soon!

8) Went to Cafe Rio three times this month! SO happy to have it here!

9) Had a wonderfully relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Our pool opened on Saturday, then we went to our wards annual picnic at the Leafty's on Monday (first time we've ever been). It was crazy hot which made Elle even more tired than she already was, but Madi had a blast in the bounce house and Spencer and I had a good time hanging out with friends.

10) And lastly- our pool being open is definitely something to document! It's pretty much my favorite thing about the end of May, and it opened just in time for the scorching heat we've had the past couple days. We'll probably end up going every afternoon- at least for a quick dip! I can already tell that this summer is gonna be a good one. The girls are both at such fun ages for pool fun. Neither know how to swim, but with water wings, Madi doesn't need any help at all- she just walks right in and starts swimming. And Elle's pretty brave. I'll probably be getting her some sort of life vest so she can swim unassisted.

Elle refuses to look at the camera any time I try to take a picture!

A Birthday Party for Princesses

Two weekends ago, while Spencer was off on his third annual fly fishing trip in the mountains of Tennessee, the girls and I also headed south, but to spend the weekend with the Calhouns. Aside from just going for the fun of it- to play with cousins, hang out with my sister, and not spend a weekend alone- our #1 reason for the trip was to be at Ani's 4 year old princess birthday party! The party couldn't have fallen on a more perfect weekend for us and Madi was beyond excited!! We had a fun weekend playing outside (the weather couldn't have been more perfect). We were able to go Adley and Ani's last soccer games- and Madi even got to join in on the donut eating celebrating after the game!

You can't see it, but Madi has pink frosting dripping from her nose! Awesome!

Saturday afternoon was the big party! Tisha had stations set up for fingernail painting, crown making, shoe decorating, ring finding, and dress accessorizing. It ran like clockwork and after each girl had her crown, shoes, rings, and nails done, they would come to me to accessorize themselves and get their picture taken. What FUN!

All 11 of the lovely princesses! I love how Ani sets herself apart from all the other princesses- red dress and all!

Check out the "Princess Books" station that Tisha set up! I got a good laugh out of her book selection- only Tisha!! To her credit, she also had a stack of more "normal" princess books piled on the chair.

Oh, and we mustn't forget the cake. . .

I was super impressed with Tisha's amazing decorating skillz!! This barbie's dress couldn't have been yummier!

Happy 4th Birthday Anneke! Thanks for the fun weekend Tish, Curt, and Calhoun cousins!

21 & 22 months

Elle's 22 months old today! Only two months till she's two- crazy!! I had a couple things I wanted to record about Elle at 21 months, but obviously that never happened. Time seems to be flying by! I'm sure part of it's because 3/4 of Elle's 20th month of life was spent in CA. Then the next several weeks were spent recuperating from being gone for so long.

Elle and "Kody Puppy"

The few things I jotted down about Elle at 21 months:

*Loves men- will happily smile, laugh, and go to most guys, but shirks away from most women.

*After months of Elle never wanting to say thank you, she now says it all the time and to everyone (love hearing her cute "thank you" as we leave the check out line at the grocery store)

* Her giraffe is no longer "Raff", but now "Raffie"

* Absolutely loves the beach

Not related at all- just taken at almost 21 months.

Ok, so I didn't have a ton to record from 21 months- I know I've forgotten a bunch of the little things I'd wanted to write down. This month I was a little better and tried jotting stuff down as soon as I'd think of it.

Elle's personality has been so fun to watch this month. She's super vocal now and will carry on full conversations with people. One night my dad called and I handed the phone to Elle who proceeded to completely talk his ear off. It was hard to make out everything she was saying, but she sure is a jabber mouth these days.

She's also really big into mimicking lately. Whatever Madi says and/or does, Elle copies. I've had to warn Madi numerous times about being a good example because Elle doesn't just copy the cute stuff- she's got Madi's whining and complaining down too!!

Elle is totally, completely obsessed with her binky. It's driving Spencer and I absolutely crazy. I had her completely off it during the day before we left for CA, but then after giving it to her on the airplane and sometimes in the car, she's totally attached again. Our family phrase is "Binkies are for babies and binkies are for bedtime." We're always telling this to Elle when she's crying for her binky. Because of this obsession, Elle whines a ton during the day- "binky, binky, binky, binky". It's really enough to make one go crazy- I've come close. I usually just stick her in her bed and she's instantly better. She'll grab her binky, give me a guilty smile. and say, "I gonna suck on it." Whatever works I guess- anything for a little sanity!

All the "pleases", "thank yous", and "love yous" I get from Elle these days completely melt my heart. "Love you mom". . . "thank you mom". . . "milk please mom"- I need to get them all on video cause I never want to forget her cute little voice. If she's whining for anything all I have to say is, "that's not how we ask" and she quickly add a "please... mom...."

Elle is a total picker! I think this started after our CA trip- and getting sand in her toes at the beach. She's now obsessed with picking at her toes. In her car seat, bed, on the floor- anytime Elle's really quiet, we'll look at her and see her picking away. Not even sure what there is to pick at, but Elle does it anyway.

Elle is such a great helper. She's always the first to start picking up the toys. All I have to do is mention to Elle that the blocks, cars, beads, etc need to be cleaned up and she's there!

Everything to Elle is "MINE!!" The swings at the park are "MINE!", when friends come to play, all the toys are, "MINE!" Anything Elle doesn't want Madi to touch is, "MINE!" She's very possessive with her stuff and will only share after I've praised Madi for sharing something.

In the last month I've noticed the little rivalry that Elle and Madi have going on. Spencer tells me not to encourage it, but I think it's absolutely hilarious! For example: Madi doesn't finish her food. I tell her, "Ok, I'll just let Elle finish it." Madi quickly yells, "Nooo, I want to finish it!" Or let's say I let Elle sit somewhere at the table that Madi had been sitting. Normally Elle wouldn't care at all if I moved her somewhere else, but once Madi puts up a stink and starts freaking out about it being her spot, Elle's determined to make sure she gets to sit there- just to tick Madi off. I get to put up with that kind of stuff all day long- ahhh the sisterly love! :)

I've been totally surprised to see how brave Elle is at the park. She's alot like Madi in that she's cautious in the parking lot, or wanting to hold my hand across the street, but when it comes to climbing stuff on the playground, Elle doesn't need me to supervise at all. Of course I do it anyway and good thing cause I've been there to stop many an accident with all our park outings this past month. I do love her bravery though. And I love how when she has gotten a scratch or skinned knee, the freak out is only a few seconds (instead of a few hours- what I've always been used to).

I also should note here how much Elle loves the park. I love watching her delight as we pull up and then hear her yell, "Yaaaay.... the park!!!!" Then watching her cute little legs run off to the swings- usually calling out, "MINE" to other kids who might be going for the swing she'd picked out. Thankfully she's also good at waiting and knowing when it's, "MY turn!"

Oh, and I should also note that she still does not like getting her picture taken. Elle's always such a silly, happy, funny, easy going kid- then I whip out the camera and she's only got serious faces!

Camarillo

After spending almost 2 weeks in Brentwood (4 days for Spencer), we packed up and headed south. We opted out of dealing with airports and instead convinced our parents to each drive us half-way. Since our parents are totally amazing- both sides agreed and my dad drove us down to King City where we met up with Spencer's mom who drove us on to Camarillo (all while Spencer drove along side us in a U-haul that Aunt Fay filled with stuff from Grandma Jenkins' place in Half Moon Bay). Since the Monterey Bay Aquarium is just an hour outside of King City, we left Brentwood a little earlier and got to play at the aquarium for an hour with my dad. The girls had a blast and it was a nice break from a long day in the car.

Perfect how this picture comes just after the "stitches" post- Madi was totally insistent on wearing a lovely band-aid across her forehead every day (look for the band-aid in the many pictures to follow:)

We got into Camarillo the evening of Tuesday, April 12th- which gave us 5 days and 6 nights of play time! And play we did!! We seriously packed everything we could into those 5 days. Oh how we love Camarillo- the first time I ever visited I completely fell in love (and not just with Spencer :). Ventura county is where we hope to someday end up. Of course the beach was one of our first stops. . .

Gotta love the seaweed jewelry (and the band aid of course)!

If there's one thing that makes our entire little family completely happy, it's going to the beach. I think we went a total of three times, but would have liked to have gone every day!

Another favorite place- Santa Barbara!! Since we bought seasons passes to the Zoo on our last trip out there we figured we ought to use them one more time!

Don't know why it's so hard for me to get a smile out of Elle- she really is the silliest of us all!

And oh how we love the "Zoo slide"

More fun: Taking out the canoe and dingy followed by lunch at Andrea's.

Everyone but Elle and I got to enjoy canoeing in the harbor, but since Elle's last experience with canoeing wasn't the greatest, I was totally fine with making sure she napped instead of rowing around in the canoe. But from what I heard- this time it was Madi who had the freak-out, but only because Spencer accidently put too much sunscreen on her face and Madi rubbed it into her eyes!

Other favorite things about our visit:

* Having lots of time to hang out with Boppi and Grandpa Al. One of the top things I love is watching my kids be adored by their grandparents. It was fun for me to watch Madi help Spencer's mom out in the yard, seeing the joy on Madi's face when handed some of the beautiful flowers from the yard, listening to Boppi read stories to the girls, watching them tackle Grandpa Al on the trampoline, etc. etc.

Boppi surprised the girls with matching jammies the first night we arrived! You can't tell from the picture, but they both could barely contain their excitement of new matching jammies- with tutus and everything!

*Hanging out with Truly is always in the top 5 favorite things!

*Hanging out with friends!!! I love how many close friends we have in Camarillo. The Bells just recently moved back to Camarillo (we were so jealous), so it was extra fun to see them. I got together with Lindsey one morning for a play date. The kids were super cute together. It took a little while for Madi to warm up (she mostly just had lots of fun playing with Brooklyn's toys), but it was hilarious how Elle took off to play with Brooklyn (kinda reminded me of how my sister always got along so great with all of my friends).

But the cutest was definitely Easton! He's such an adorable, mellow, layed back little guy. I obviously wanted he and Elle to hit it off- I think the last time they saw each other they were 5 months old and just hung out in their infant carriers. I was quite impressed by his smoothness....

And I had to laugh at how all Madi's friends (and cousin) her age tower over her.

Madi and Brooklyn (almost 3 months part)

Madi and Milana (Milana's also only 3 months older)

I think this might have been taken from a weird angle or something because Madi looks crazy small next to Milana in this picture for some reason. There's one more below that looks more "normal".

I love how Madi and Milana are holding hands in the picture above. Kirk and Valerie came up (from Glendale) for the weekend and the girls got to be visitors in primary together. I snuck into back at the beginning to watch them being sung the welcome song- so adorable!

We tried to make sure we got to hang out with all our friends without taking away our precious family time with mom and dad. We always loving hanging out with Adam and Lora (thanks Lora for being my early morning running partner:). It was super fun to go out to dinner with the Stolworthy's, Barton's, and Kelly's. And then Sunday night the Bell's were able to join us for dinner in the gazebo. Lots of good times!

Ah yes, and other favorite thing- breakfast in the gazebo! Yummmm!!

Our trip really was so wonderfully relaxing. It was actually Sunday morning when Madi woke up crying about something. I snuck over to her bedroom door to hear her crying, "it's our last day." Madi wasn't the only one who was sad about leaving. Spencer and I both commented how hard it was to pack up. Thanks mom and dad for the super fun visit!!

Stitches

Sunday morning, April 10th, we were almost ready to leave for church. I walked down the stairs, saw all the boys playing legos at the dinning room table. Then I noticed Ani trying to help Elle put on her shoes- which were not the shoes I wanted Elle wearing to church, so I quickly intervened. Once shoes were on we'd be ready to go. Madi was completely ready and super excited for church. She was twirling and dancing around the family room in her "beautiful dress" telling me that she looked just like Belle. She did a little spin, came leaping towards me, and next thing I knew she'd tripped and crashed head first into the corner of the wall.

I immediately knew it was gonna be bad just by the sound of it. I quickly scooped her into my lap (I was already sitting right there on the floor), pulled her hair back to take a look, and then started to freak out a little (it was a super deep cut). Surprisingly, there was only a little bit of blood on her headband and in her hair, but other than that it wasn't really bleeding. Since obviously this kind of thing had never happened to either of my kids I wasn't sure of my next move. Thank goodness for Tisha- within seconds she'd taken the headband out of my hand, handed me an ice pack wrapped in a small white dishrag, and told me we needed to go to Urgent Care.

I looked down at Elle and Tisha quickly assured me that she would take care of Elle and not to worry. So I picked up Madi, grabbed my bag, slipped into my white flip flops (looked pretty awesome with the nice black dress I was wearing), and hustled out to the car. Madi was actually doing ok at this point- as long as I was holding her, so I sat in the back with her in my arms as Spencer drove the short mile to Urgent Care. As soon as we walked up to the counter to check-in Madi lost it! She was totally freaking out, telling me she didn't want to see a doctor, etc, etc. I calmed her down a little bit, but as soon as they were able to take her back she freaked out again. The nurse took one look at Madi's gash and told us we'd need to head to the ER- something about it being too deep, they could see the scull, needed to be done by a plastic surgeon, etc. I wasn't about to start asking questions- dealing with Madi's screaming was enough to handle at the moment. Spencer took care of the details and directions and we were off to the hospital. Madi was super calm on the drive over. She'd mention that her head hurt, but other than that I just enjoyed holding her in silence.

As we entered the Emergency Room, Madi lost it all over again. By this time I was super annoyed with her freak outs and lost my temper a bit. Spencer wisely asked me to hold myself together. We had to wait for awhile- in several different rooms, but by now I think Madi was understanding that she was going to have to see a doctor in order to go home. The first thing that helped calm her down was when she was given an ID bracelet. Madi thought that was super cool- to get a bracelet with her name on it. She was also very fascinated about why everyone else was there and what happened to each patient. When it was finally Madi's turn to be seen she was actually pretty reasonable. Of course they have to ask what happened and what caused the cut, so Madi quickly became known as "the little dancer". Every nurse and even our doctor asked Madi about her dancing. It was nice to have so many friendly people helping us. One nurse heard that Madi had been super excited to go to church and the nurse told us that she was the Sunday School teacher at her church for kids Madi's age. This particular nurse let Madi pick out a stuffed animal to hold and squeeze while she was getting her stitches. The nurse also came back to check on us multiple times- which was super nice. When it came time to get the stitches, Madi was completely numb from the stuff she'd been holding against her cut. They wrapped Madi in a swaddle like blanket which I later decided she probably didn't need. Madi would be super still and then start to get clastrophobic. So naturally she start freaking out, yelling, "Get me out of this blanket! I can't move my arms!" I was basically laying on top of Madi- quietly talking her threw it, telling her stories, singing to her, and basically keeping her from moving. All and all I was super impressed with how brave Madi was. Spencer and I had always talked about how much we were dreading the first time Madi ever got a serious wound- she's our child who cried for a week straight about a little scratch she got on her knee. I think it helped that this wound was on her head and she couldn't see it. When all was said and done, the entire experience- from crashing into the wall (at 12:45pm), to getting back to my parent's house (4pm)- was pretty quick and not as terribly awful as I would have expected. I'm just grateful that it happened at a time when Spencer was with me. These are the kinds of things I would hate to have happen on a day at home, by myself, without the car. Now that would be awful!

I was super bummed that I didn't get a picture of her pre-stitched gash, especially when just before it was ready to be stitched up, I remembered that my camera was in the back of the car we had driven to the hospital (I hadn't taken it out after being at the temple the day before)! But here's the picture I took as soon as we got back to my parent's house.

Notice her cute little bunny friend. We haven't been able to find it since we got back from CA though- I thing we might have left it in Camarillo. Gotta remember to get it on our next trip back.

Madi's was great about making sure we applied the antibiotics the nurse gave us and changing the band aid regularly.

Madi's stitches were removed 7 days later (the day before we flew back home) by the doctor Spencer's mom works for. He was super great with Madi and she made sure to mail him a nice thank you after we got home.

Back blogging

Wedding pictures are IN! And perfect timing cause it's been driving me crazy to have several unfinished posts. But as I looked through the wedding pictures, I started to have tons of regrets, namely- NOT getting a picture of Karlee and I together. I'm not going to dwell on it, cause I'll just get myself all bummed out, but I'm definitely disappointed. It was a totally crazy weekend, and a very busy temple day, giving us limited time for snapping. Plus kids always make everything more complicated. I barely got my camera out and didn't even think about putting in picture requests.

This is the closest I got to a picture with Karlee. We were on the way to the temple for her bridal shoot.

The wedding was absolutely perfect, but then I came out to a very tired and hungry little Elle. I'm pretty sure she didn't smile for any pictures that day. I held a bag of fruit snacks under her dress and would pop them into her mouth between group pictures. It worked for awhile.

Our immediate family (minus Scott, Curteis, JoSue, and the triplets)

Another regret- not spending more time getting my girls ready. Looking back at the pictures I remember how I wasn't a fan with how I did (or didn't do) Madi's hair. I really wish I would have pulled it up or done something (anything) different with it! We were rushing out the door at 9am, me throwing dresses on the girls, fighting Elle to get her hair pulled back, and Spencer making something like 30 sack lunches (we didn't have a luncheon immediately following the wedding. Instead they had a dinner at 5pm before the reception).

After this picture we let Madi and Elle eat whatever treats they wanted and then Spencer and I whisked them off to bed so that we could enjoy the reception.

I always feel like such an odd ball when I take pictures with my sisters. Lucky for me, Jeremy's sister also didn't have matching hair color.

Regardless of the pictures I did or didn't get- I had such a fabulous week hanging out with these two!

Congratulations Karlee and Jeremy! Love you guys!!