Goodnight Routine

I just wanted to document our nighttime routine.  Of course we do the brush the teeth and go potty/change diaper thing first.  Sometimes Tony and I split the kids up and tuck one in but sometimes we do it together.  When we tell them it's bedtime sometimes Pax will run and jump in Macie's bed and pull the covers over him and say "I sleepin"...it's too cute!

Seriously?  Could they be any cuter?!
(P.S.  That giant stuffed dog is Macie's newest thing that she has to sleep with...along with her blue bear "Bluie", pillowpets, and a few blankets!)

My kids LOVE books which makes me happy.  We have to read a story before bedtime every night. Macie is learning to read so she helps out a lot.  And Pax will finally sit and listen to a book without losing interest.  His current favorite is "The Potty Book for Boys"....he requests it EVERY night!
Macie's favorite right now is "Green Eggs and Ham."

And of course we say our prayers.  Macie is getting really good at saying them on her own and Pax will say "Heavy Fodder, mank you for dis day" then as one of us continues on with the prayer he'll kind of copy words here and there.  If we try to leave his room without a prayer at naptime or bedtime he yells "Fold Arms" until we go back.

Both the kids have to sleep with humidifiers to drown out noises and Macie has a butterfly nightlight.  Pax has to have his puppy, binky (still), monkey, and a blanky over him.  Nothing is sweeter than checking on them while they are asleep and seeing their sweet little sleeping faces.  We have enforced a strict "no kids in our bed" rule during the night but on the weekends they will come in in the mornings and snuggle with us in our bed and watch "Bubble Guppies" so we can get a little more sleep!

Pax usually goes to bed around 8:30 and wakes up between 7:45-8:15am.  Macie usually goes to bed around 9:00 and wakes up around 7:15-7:30am. 

Love those two!  :)

Easter

Well I'm a little late posting Easter, but oh well.  The week before Easter I took the kids to see the Easter bunny at the mall...Pax was creeped out and wanted nothing to do with her...can't say I blame him!  You'd think they could come up with a better costume than that!

This year with both kids birthdays and a busy week before Easter, we didn't dye any eggs.  Luckily Macie didn't even notice!

On Easter morning the kids were super excited to see the baskets that the the Easter bunny had filled for them.  They got some cute things.  Then they hunted for their special eggs...Pax was more interested in the candy from the first egg that he found and didn't really care to find the rest.  Macie found all of hers really quick and of course had to open every one of them to see which ones had money so she could put it in her bank!

I love 1pm church when it comes to the holidays.  The kids were able to enjoy their new Easter treats/toys and we made a big breakfast and just hung out all morning.  We went to church and attempted to get something out of our meetings which isn't always easy with kids!  I was really looking forward to Relief Society but after being in there for maybe 15 minutes the nursery girl brought me Pax with a poopy diaper.  Not only had he pooped but of course it was runny and soaked through his pants.  I changed him but his pants & onesie were still wet so I had to run home with him, put his pants in the wash, change his onesie, throw the pants in the dryer and be back to pick up Tony and Macie. 

We hurried and got ready to go then headed to my aunt and uncle's house in Centerville.  We had dinner with all of my family there and it was such a BEAUTIFUL day that the kids were able to play outside the whole time and of course loved it!  We had an egg hunt after dinner and Macie got the golden egg...she was so excited she found it...it had $5 in it!

Anyway, we had a fun day!

The Easter bunny left the coolest reusable plastic cups with straws.  I had been searching everywhere for them because we have smoothies on a daily basis and I could never find kid-sized cups so we always used the cheap cups you get at restaurants.  So I may have been a little more excited about those cups then they were, but they have definitely gotten their use!

I love that face!

My favorite part of Easter is getting to dress my kids up in super cute outfits!

Macie & Mack found the golden eggs!

Everyone checking out their loot.

This is the best (and only) family picture that we got all day....the sun was so bright we couldn't even look at the camera!  (And Pax wasn't happy about having to part with his candy!)

Cute Macie and Molly...they wore the same exact outfit so they could be twinners!



Macie's 5th Birthday!

How sad is it that I had to work on my daughter's 5th birthday!?  It made me feel really bad but since we mostly celebrated the Saturday before it was okay.  She woke up before I left that morning and I had a little gift for her....Little Mermaid squinkies and a new outfit for her day. 

Mom spoiled her throughout the day and let her choose all of her meals...she chose McDonalds pancakes for breakfast and Little Caesars pizza for lunch.  During my lunch I was feeling guilty for not being with her on her day so I went to Target and bought a few more presents for her. 

I met Tony, Mom, Macie & Pax at Wingers (Macie's choice) for dinner.  Then we went over to Mom's house and had cake (a yummy Schmidt's cake that Tony picked out for her) with my grandma and Dad.  Then we stopped by Tony's parents' house because Grandpa Dennis LOVES Schmidts cakes and we felt we needed to share....so we had cake with them and Casey & Tracey who were also over there.  She had a fun birthday week!

We sure love Macie!  I can't believe my baby is going to Kindergarten this year.  I am so proud of the sweet girl she is becoming and how smart she is.  She is always saying funny things and making us laugh.  Happy Birthday Macie!

Macie's Birthday Party

As much as I love having spring babies, having 2 birthdays within 2 1/2 weeks with Easter right around the corner can sometimes be kind of stressful!  But I wouldn't trade it...because once we're done, we're done for a year!  Anyway, Macie's birthday is always right around Easter as well as LDS General Conference so planning a birthday party can get kind of tricky.  We had it on the Saturday before her birthday this year (March 31st), between conference sessions.

Macie had a "Sweet" party and we had a candy/sweet shop that everyone got to take home their choice of sweets in their bags.  Almost everyone we invited was able to come so we had a full house but they had fun!  We ate lunch, played "Pin the candy in the mouth" (kind of like pin the tail on the donkey but my own version), played a gumball in the cupcake pan game that I came up with on a whim, ate cake & opened presents!

Macie had a great time but I could tell she was a little disappointed that her boyfriend Dallas wasn't able to come.  His 92 yr old great-grandma was baptized into the LDS church and understandably it was something he had to attend.  However, he stopped by a little later to bring Macie a cute little gift (some darling earrings & a bracelet) and we sent him home with some sweets and balloons for him and his brothers.  That completely made her day...she was so happy after that!  We sure love Dallas!

Since we pretty much celebrated Macie's birthday on Saturday we gave her our gifts that morning.  She had to wait until after ice skating lessons to open them but it was the first thing she did when she got home.

We got her a new scooter, a barbie set, some books, and a few other little things.

The Sweet Shop....the balloons in the middle were wrapped and put on a stick to look like lollipops.  I had planned to line them up on the walk into the house but it ended up being a super windy day so we kept them inside.

We decided we'd better feed the kids something healthy before we loaded them up with sugar!  They had turkey sandwiches, chips & strawberries for lunch.

One of the party favors that I made most of the girls (some left without theirs) were the gumball necklaces that Macie has on.  I saw it on Pinterest (my favorite!) and had to make them.  They turned out pretty cute!

Top Row: Crew, Rilyn, Molly, Halle, Savannah, Macie, Grace
Bottom Row: Guya, Kally, Pax, Maddie, Bailey, Mia, Rachel

Someone was a little tired from a long day of partying!  :)

Macie's 5 Year Checkup

About a week before her 5th birthday Macie went in for her 5 year old checkup.  She weighed in at 42lbs (50%) and is 42 inches tall (50%).  She did really good on her eye exam on the left eye but when she got to the right eye she struggled a little.  She was having a hard time seeing the smaller things, but the nurse said that sometimes when they are covering the first eye they press their hand on it too hard so when they test that eye it can be kind of blurry.  Hopefully that's all it is, but Dr. B said we'll monitor it. 

Macie is getting smarter by the day.  She knows all of her letters & sounds & can recognize a lot of words and can sound out most of the ones that can be sounded out.  I never realized how complicated the English language is until I started trying to teach her!  There are so many exceptions to the rules!

She has been learning to write this year in school and is getting so good.  It is so fun to see her write her own name and be able to write a letter to someone.  It's also fun to hear her read.  She can read Paxton's little dinosaur book (she has it memorized) and she reads it to him all the time...it's so cute!  Her other favorite books are the Little Critter books, especially "Just Go to Bed" and "I Was Just So Mad", and also Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" because she can read most of the words. 

Macie can count to 100 and even past it, and she can also count to 100 by 10s. 

One thing I have noticed over the last few months is how much she is learning in Primary at church.  Over General Conference weekend we were watching a session on that Sunday and I could tell she was pretty bored.  I don't force her to watch it, but she can't watch anything else so she does at least hear it while she plays.  After it was over she said "Is the prophet show over yet?  Cause it's kind of boring!"  Haha...love her honesty!

Macie is such a big helper.  I have been having her have "chores" and she rarely every complains, and in fact usually is excited about doing them.  She puts her folded clothes away in her drawers, makes her bed, "cleans" her room, and picks up her toys.  She loves to clean with Windex whenever I'll let her so I usually assign her the glass door or something big that will keep her occupied while I clean everything else.  She is also a great helper with her brother.  She is always willing to grab me a diaper or whatever else I need and she is always looking out for him.  When she hears him wake up in the morning or after his nap she is usually in there before me to get him out of his crib.  It's crazy to watch her get him out since he is almost as big as she is!  But he loves when she comes to get him, and they will stay and play in his room for quite awhile on days we get to sleep in so it's very nice!  She makes me think I could probably handle another baby since she is like a 2nd little mommy and helps so much...and she wants another baby (preferably a girl) SO bad!  We'll see!

We love our little, independent girly and everything about her!

Discovery Gateway & City Creek

A few weekends ago my cousin Nikki & her kids were in town from California.  We only get to hang out with them 1 or 2 times a year but we sure love seeing them when they're here!  Macie had a field trip down at the Discovery Gateway with her class so they came with us to that.  We had never been before but we were really impressed!  The kids absolutely loved it...we had to practically drag them out of there!

Allie, Sam, Dallas (Macie's boyfriend) and Macie in the helicopter....so cool!

Pax loved the "horsey"

On that Friday we went down to the new City Creek Center which is AWESOME!  I was a little worried that the 2nd opening day would be too crowded but it wasn't that bad.  Well, except for the food court- that was crazy, but it was fine.  We met my sister-in-law, my aunt, and my mom down there for lunch then we did some shopping.  I'd really like to go spend a day shopping without the kids...I think I'd get a lot more done!  But it is a really neat place and I intend to spend a lot of time there!  :)

Paxton's 2 Year Check-up

Pax went in for his 2 year checkup a couple weeks ago.  Thankfully, he didn't have to get any vaccinations, but he still wasn't thrilled to be there (see photo below!)  At age 2 he now weighs 31.5 lbs (75%), he is 35 inches tall (75%), and his head is 50.1 cm.  Dr. B was very impressed once again with his vocab skills as well as his comprehension.  One would think that would help cut down on tantrums since he can communicate with words....but one would be wrong!  I was glad Macie was with us because she helped Pax be brave during his exam.  He looks healthy with the exception of a strep infection in his poor little bum...it's probably his 5th one...so annoying!  She gave me a scrub to try after the antibiotics work for a little while to hopefully get rid of it once and for all.

Anyway, a few more cute things about Pax at age 2....

*He is so good about saying his prayers at night and also at naptime...if I forget he yells "Fold arms" until we pray with him.  Then he starts the prayer by saying "Heveny Fauder, mank you dis day," then he copies everything I say after that.  And he makes sure to say "Amen" as loud as possible.  It's the cutest!

*Pax is a copy cat.  Everything Macie says, Pax says!  The other day we drove by McDonalds so of course Macie was suddenly hungry and said "I'm hungry" and right away Pax said "I'm hungry"....haha, these two!

*Pax loves "Donalds" (McDonalds) and almost every food he eats he has to "dip it."

*He will take our hand and say "C'mere" and lead us to where he wants us to be.

*Pax is a sweet boy.  If he hears someone crying or if something concerns him...he'll say "Wha happened Mommy?" in the most concerned voice!

*We are working on living without the binky.  I wouldn't have minded him to have it a little longer since it's nice for sleeping, car rides & church, but he insists on biting holes in it so he's down to his last and I refuse to buy him any more!  I try giving him one with a big hole in it and he says "Don't want it" and throws it out of the crib...last night was rough, guess we'll see how it goes! 

*This boy LOVES to be outside!  We are so excited for summer (or even the nice weather we've been having sans wind!)