Has it been that LONG

I really let a month go by with out blogging. Where has the time gone. I am now 35 weeks pregnant and getting ready for this little girl to join our family. The kids too are very excited for her arrival.

Charles starts kindergarten in 3 weeks and then Madison's whole world will change forever. She will go from having her favorite Chazoo (as she call him) all day to having him gone at school for 7 hours and a new baby taking all the attention. I am not sure if any of us are ready for all these changes, but we are trying to get ready.

We have been having a great summer so far. Lots of swimming, playing with friends and cousins, bowling, going to the beach, swim lessons, birthday parties, going to museums and parks, and just being together.
One Sunday afternoon Madison was so tired from all that we had been doing and not getting many naps that she climbed up on my lap while I was watching TV and fell asleep on me. She has only done that one other time and that time she was sick. It was so cute to see her so exhausted.

About a week or so ago Madison got another hair cut by our favorite beautician Aunt Janelle. Madison is a mini Janelle and loves her so much, they are so much alike it is scary! She will sit so still anytime that Janelle cuts or brushes her hair and she even lets Janelle paint her nails. She will not sit that still for me, but for some reason if Janelle does it she is an angel. Here are some pictures of Madison's pretty pink nails and being the perfect client for Janelle.



We cut 3 inches off and it looks so cute! And so much more manageable. I LOVE IT!

Construction Party

For Charles' 5th Birthday we decided to do a party with his friends from church and his cousins. The theme we picked was Construction! We got the idea from a Family Fun magazine last year and ran with it. I had a great time get the party organized and Charles and his friends had a great time playing. When all the kids arrived we had them find their chair that had an home depot apron hanging on the back with their name on it. Once they found their chair they were to put it on and then sit down and put their name on their construction workers hat. When they were done they put their hats on and we headed to the garage for the first game. I told them that we had lots of work for them to do tonight. In the garage I had a wrecking ball game set up. We attached a tennis ball to the string and hung it over the top of the garage and then set up 8 old boxes for the kids to knock down. It was demolition time!!! The kids took turns knocking over one box at a time. Each kid got two turns and then we let them each have a turn trying to knock over as many boxes as they could. (We didn't do prizes for the game, we just let them all play and have fun.) It was great to see the kids enjoying the game.




Once we finished the demolition we went back inside for some dinner. Yummy Pizza! Charles choice! The boys enjoyed talking around the table while they ate their dinner.



(Charles' cousins who live in Texas called and sang him Happy Birthday while they were eating dinner. I think he enjoyed it!)
After dinner I told them they had more work to do, so we headed outside to the construction zone. I made two houses out of big cardboard boxes and gave the kids paints and markers for them to make their houses beautiful. They each had a good time getting messy.




While the kids were outside constructing their houses John went inside and hid some tools around the house. Once they finished with their houses I told them a story about a Construction worker named Joe who was very clumsy and tripped on everything. And today he tripped and spilled his tools all over and the kids needed to help him fill his tool box back up.
After they found all the tools we took them back outside for the Pinata. This was a different pinata then normal, no HITTING involved. There was a trap door that one of the pieces of construction tape was attached to, so the kids had to keep pulling pieces off until they pulled the right one.

I made the mistake of telling Charles how it worked and he saw me making some of it, so we decided to tell everyone also. He also told everyone that the one attached to the trap door was in the middle. So John had to cover the kids eyes so they would pull the trap door before everyone had a turn. Turns out the candy was make it's own trap door inside. When the trap door was pulled open the candy didn't budge. So we let them keep pulling hoping that the movement would get the candy to fall out. It didn't. So when they were all done we had them line back up along the wall and then John shook it to get all the candy out and then they ran for it. I think they still had fun! I learned not to share secrets with a 5 year old.


After the Pinata we brought the kids in and had them sing Happy Birthday so Charles could blow out his candles and share his cake with his friends.

He was very excited and had a great evening with his friends!!!

Luckily at the last minute I decided to ask my parents to come help with party. (They don't like to miss out on their oldest grandson's party's.) They were such a big help with all of it, especially since John's train was running late and he got home much later then I expected.
Thanks MOM & DAD!!!! Love you!

Museum Fun

My sister-n-law heard about a great free event at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA. It's a hands on interactive Noah's Ark exhibit. She reserved us some tickets and we headed down there last Thursday. (I have not done that drive into LA for quite some time and don't really want to do it again anytime soon. But now have a greater appreciation for having two temples that are much closer than LA. I'm not sure if I could do that drive every month.) On our way to the museum I drove by the LA Temple so that Charles could see where Mommy and Daddy were married. He LOVED it! And was very excited to see it. (Madison was sleeping)

Once we got the museum and met up the my sister-n-laws and their kids we went into the exhibit and the kids had a great time. There was something for each of them to do. The whole exhibit was made of recycled materials. They enjoyed all the different parts of the ark. Madison especially loved the animals and the music time. They only let so many people in at a time and you have a 2 hour window of time to play and then you need to let the next group in. While the kids were playing they gathered them together and did a music time. Each kid got an instrument to play. It was great!
We we were done with the Noah's ark section we went outside and the kids got to play in the rainbow misters. The way the misters are set up if you look at it just right you will see rainbows in the water. It was the perfect way to end a fun day!

Making a wind tunnel & a Flood


Sending the animals up into the Ark two by two

Animal puppets, they came in pairs too!

Music Time!!!

Climbing up into the ARK!

All the cousins!


Having FUN in the misters!!

My little boy is 5!

WOW Charles turns 5 today! '
He is such a FUN kid and always keeps me on my toes! He loves being a big brother and can't wait for our new little girl to arrive in September. We are so Happy and grateful that our Father in Heaven entrusted this amazing guy to us! We can not imagine life without him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
CHARLES!!!!

Mattress Fun

My parents neighbors gave us a new twin bed for Madison. It has drawers on the bottom which will be perfect for when the new baby comes because her existing dresser will be moved into Charles room to use as a changing table for the baby. So while Daddy was moving her new bed around and taking the old one to the garage he decided it would be fun to slide down the stairs on the mattress. He hesitated about doing it since the kids can be wild and we don't want them trying it on their own, but then decided to take the opportunity to have some fun. Charles was really scared and did NOT want to do it at all. After much convincing he finally did it. And as you can see in the video and pictures, he was not to happy! Madison however LOVED it! She is our adventurous thrill seeker. Charles is more reserved and does NOT like to take risks. Daddy had such a fun time!

(I can't get the video to work...I will keep trying)

My New RIDE

So bought a NEW car!!! I love love love my new car, well SUV. John and I both are not fans of mini vans, no offense to anyone that has one or loves them. We are just not van people. So after we sold John's car we started searching for an older Suburban or Yukon that was in our budget. We looked at several on-line and checked out a few in person and than found this one. It was perfect! The dealership had just reduced the price by $5K which meant it was now in our budget. It is so clean and well taken care of. The kids love it! It has all the bells and whistles including two DVD screens and power everything! I'm still trying to figure out what all the buttons do. (I think I may have to start looking at the manual.) So here you have it... our spacious new ride.
Like the bling bling 22 inch rims!!! Those were just a bonus.