Happy Humpday!

Today I'm happy because...

• the next holiday doesn't revolve around candy.  Thank goodness for St. Patrick's Day.

  

  2-year olds shouldn't eat green Fun Dip.  Note to self.  Emery ate pink.  Much better choice.

• I made room in my closet today so that my maternity wardrobe is hanging up and ready for use (and not sitting in a ridiculous pile on the top shelf...).  It's time to embrace the belly. 

  

  23 1/2 weeks

• my style has come a long way.  Here's my living room when we 1st moved in.  And then now.  Even though this room will always be "incomplete" in my head (its missing the fabulous yellow curtains, board and batten wall, etc. that I had planned), at some point you have to stop decorating a 3 bedroom house when you want as many kids as we do.  A fireplace redo is still in the works, though! 
• my dining room table that I redid looks totally amazing.  I'm so happy with the huge ugly $25 table to gorgeous table with style transformation. 
• when Aaron called as I was putting the kids to bed they were sitting on each other under this.  And their response to dad's "how are you?" inquiry was "We're hyper, giggle giggle giggle..."  Well said, Em.  

  

  Yes, Van is naked under the plastic tote.  He took his diaper off at 1pm and went naked the rest of the day.  He went poop and pee in the potty every time he needed to go, though!  Good boy!

Happy Love Day!

Confession: In the past I've been kind of a holiday party pooper (I'm talking the little holidays like Valentines or St. Patricks... I'm festive at Christmas, people!).  Or at least did not much of anything to make it special.  Well, my kids are getting old enough that I needed to do something about it.  So we tried to make Valentines Day special around here this time around.

Success!!  Here's what we did:

• played Valentines Day games (hosted by Julie - thanks!) last night
• made a tiny heart-shaped pies for FHE treat last night
• they had Valentines from mom and dad when they got up
• had pink heart-shaped pancakes and heart-shaped scrambled eggs for breakfast

  

  And breakfast is upside down.... hmm....

• made heart-shaped muffins and delivered them with Valentines Emery wrote on to our family and a couple of friends



Van and Uncle Taylor



Em and Aunt Chelsey



Van took a million silly pics of his mom at lunch

• met dad for lunch at In-N-Out to have lunch with Aunt Chelsey, Uncle Taylor and baby Diesel
• went on a bike ride to deliver Valentines to Great Grandma and Grandpa
• had heart-shaped grilled sandwiches w/ tomato soup for dinner-which Emery declared the best dinner I've ever made. I'm either losing my touch or she's bored of mom's busy season cooking strike. 

And just a quick note to my sweet Valentine who crawled in bed at 12:45 this morning.  You are the best man a girl could ever ask for.  Always thinking of your family 1st... even when you work 14 hour days.  So glad you're mine forever. 

And my cute hubby did the 12 days of Valentines day for me in the midst of all of this madness.  If you know us we aren't exactly gift-givers, so this was a fun and special treat!  Lots of my favorite treats, a CD of songs that remind him of me, cupcake liners (which I'm too cheap to buy but always want), a gift card to buy maternity clothes, a Cafe Rio gift card and even a new piece of bling!  You like my new ring?  My real wedding ring is too big for me much of the time so this (very inexpensive, lest you think the Wilkinsons aren't the Wilkinsons anymore) CZ beauty will reside on my finger during times of skinny fingers.  :)  I LOVE it!  :)  And it doesn't fall off.  Always a plus.  Oh, and flowers today.  I love fresh flowers on my table!

Hope you had a very Happy Valentines Day full of LOTS of LOVE!!!  

Happy Thursday?

What?  Thursdays can be happy, too!!  It's been a busy week.  Aaron-less weeks are always lots better when they are busy!  I'm happy because....

• ...my week has been so busy with fun things!  Girls Night Out for Relief Society.  Its not terribly often that I laugh that hard.  I thought I might burst.  Presidency Meeting.  Always so uplifting and fun.  Love those ladies.  And Book Club tonight.  We read Romancing Miss Bronte for this month.  It was wonderful.  
• ...my kids BIKED today!  Like, really biked!  Emery is a non-aggressive biker and even though Van is aggressive sometimes he likes to opt for the trike even though he can ride the bike.  Van rode his at the park for an hour and then they both rode to a friend's house and back.  So fun.  They are getting so big.  I'm having visions of nursing this little baby girl in a camping chair in my driveway watching the other two bike around my culdesac.  How old am I?  My kids BIKE!  Whoa. See videos. 
• ... locking my keys (and my son) in my car turned into the best day of Van's life.  Apparently if you lock a kid in the car it turns into an "emergency" of sorts and the fire department comes to break you into your car.  Van got to climb inside their truck.  And they turned on the lights and sirens and honked before they left.  Now he makes noises like a siren whenever he hears one. 

  

  Thanks, Henderson Fire Dept!
  

• ...we tried potty training for a day.  As long as he's naked and we're home he's 100% in the potty.  Pee and poop.  Now I just have to stay home for 3 days to help him get the hang of it permanently.  If you know me, you know that's a big commitment.  I'm going to have to UNschedule to do it.  Yikes.  I'm really working on slowing down before this new baby comes, I promise.

  

  Caught him peeing behind a bench outside.  Awesome. 
  

  
• ...I finally got this little girl signed up for a real dance class.  Tap and ballet.  With Jayne of course.  They are adorable and she's actually getting the hang of it.  It's so cute and she loves it.
• ...I got to go on a date with my hubby last weekend compliments of Uncle D (aka Deloitte).  Aaron is a "buddy" to one of the interns and the company paid for us to take he and his wife out.  We ate at Chili's and then played laser tag.  The 4 of us wasted (I mean WASTED - 1900+ points to less than 500 points) a team of seven 15-year-old boys dressed in black.  And the pregnant girl got 2nd overall.  You should have seen the dad's face who was with the boys.  I didn't know I could get so much joy out of beating 15-year-olds at laser tag, but it was seriously fun.  And when I went to pick up the kids, the little Royals looked like this at Grandma and Pa's.  Spoiled. 
• ...I think my kids are starting to play better together.  They normally don't play together.  She's really girly.  And he's really.... destructive.  And makes a lot of truck noises.  Princesses don't make truck noises.  But put them in the living room with a big pile of pillows, in the sand box or on their bikes and they are really starting to play together.  It's warming their mommy's heart. 
• ....I got my hair done.  Whew. 
• ...I have the best parents in the world.  And on top of it they adore my kids.  And my kids adore them. 

Sorry it's so long!!  I missed last week!

climbing with 8 kids

We ventured out with some friends of ours, their 5 kids and a friend of their 9 year old to do some bouldering and rapelling a few weeks ago.  It was really fun and kind of crazy with all of the munchkins!  We ended the day with pizza at their house and then their 6 year old gave all of the little kids a bath while the 4 adults played "Just Dance" on the Wii.  Responsible parenting at its finest.  Aaron has been avoiding that game for forever... it turns out he's pretty good!  Thanks for a great Saturday, Julie and Jay!

this girl not only gives a great bath to 4 other little kids, but she is an awesome little climber too!

the mommies

the daddies

happy humpday!

Ah!!  It's Wednesday!  So to further avoid the rental, grocery budget balancing and check writing I need to do... here's this week's addition of Happy Humpday!

• I'm happy that Van loves to help... even if it usually does more harm than good.
• I'm happy that Van loves that salami we got for Christmas. 

  

  That's a giant salami and a small white truck in that hand.  Totally Van's style. 

• I'm happy that my little buddy was so sad about his shot this afternoon that he scarfed down his whole dinner (sniffling, or maybe just still crying...) and then fell asleep in my arms. 
• I'm happy that I read my scriptures and Ensign this morning before we left the house.  And said my prayers.  It must be a good day! 
• I'm happy that I got 30 minutes all alone with this sweet girl before I plunked her in bed. 
• I'm happy that Aaron is coming home "early" (he'll be home at 9.  ha!). 
• WAIT - EXTRA happy because I just got a text.  He'll be home at 8:30!  WOW!!  And he brought me leftovers from Lemongrass last night.  That curry I just ate for dinner is making me happy still too. 

Happy 29th Birthday, Aaron!!

My cute hubby turned 29 at the beginning of the month! 

Here are 29 things I love about my hubby on his 29th:

1. The only thing he ever wants for his birthday is this apple pie.  
2. He can't pass an unmarked dirt road without driving up it. 
3. The first think he does when he gets home from work is kiss his wife, then he goes up to kiss his sleeping babies. 
4. We found his 1st gray hairs this year.  So hot.  
5. He's really worried that he's balding.  And it's really cute. 
6. He always gives me the leftovers. 
7. He calls me so much his co-workers started to think I'm a crazy controlling wife who makes him call.  He just loves me! 
8. He's always the 1st to say he's sorry.  
9. He's made his co-workers so aware of my extreme foodiness that they always send the restaurant leftovers home for me.  
10. He's the best dish-doer and stair vacuumer at our house.  
11. He really loves his siblings and parents.  
12. He's the king of PMA (positive mental attitude).  
13. He thinks my birthday is a sacred holiday.  
14. He'd rather cuddle than get out of bed in the morning. 
15. He loves adventuring with his kids so much that he hasn't really climbed much in 2 years.  
16. He can still do this (below) even though he "doesn't climb" anymore. 

    

    Bouldering on Emery's birthday

    
17. He loves yoga.



On his birthday date... a food marathon.  appetizer at Applebees (we had a giftcard), green curry at our favorite little Thai place and then concrete from Nielsen's for dessert.  There was supposed to be another course, but we got full!

18. He likes to eat healthy as much as I do - and actually likes vegetables a lot MORE than I do.
19. He totally fits in in the Deacons Quorum (the 12-year-old scouts he works with at church). 
20. He's not materialistic at all.  He thinks our kids should have just a few toys and wonders if Emery should wear fancy boots.  :)
21. His contagious imagination has given our kids the gift of creative play.
22. He refills my water... downstairs from the fridge... or gets up to get my eye drops or excema cream... even if he was already in bed. 
23. He likes to help me paint furniture.  
24. He makes friends with guys twice his age.
25. Old ladies love him.  
26. He's such an enthusiastic scripture reader that Emery loves morning scriptures now. 
27. He's never lucky... he's always "blessed".  
28. He hasn't failed to make me brilliantly cute children.  
29. He puts ketchup on everything.  And thinks our kids should too.  Sick.  :)

The circus and a hockey game

We have done two things we've never done before this year already (thanks to my friend Marissa who finds out about all of these fun things and lets me in on the secret...and lets us tag along...).  We went to the circus and to a hockey game!  They were both really fun! 

At the circus, we couldn't convince Emery to ride anything but the pony.... meaning her pony obsession led to her not being able to ride an elephant!  Stubborn little girl.  :)  My kids had cotton candy for the first time, too, at the circus, which they loved and Emery had her face painted for the 1st time.  Emery's favorite act was the girls who climbed the ropes and did tricks and Van loved the motorcycles doing jumps (of course).  

Van and his best buddy Tyler watching the elephant

Van riding his pony

Emery the butterfly

Van LOVED the hockey game.  He yelled at the ref with the other fans, danced to every song and clapped vigorously for every goal.  I think we have a sports fan on our hands!!

crazy mom and cute girl