Greetings

Alillia wakes up after Gage and Aviendha almost every morning. Almost every morning Alillia is greeted with competing high-pitched squeals of pure delight consisting of "Hi baaaaaaaaby! Hiiiiiiiiii! Cuuuuute chunky baaaaaaby!" The sentiments vary but the level of squeal rarely falls below ear-shattering. But alas, Alillia soaks it up and shakes in delight and smiles from ear to ear. One of these days I'll get it on video so everyone can bask in the adorableness of it all!

Woodland Park Zoo

A week and a half ago we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle with some new friends. Surprisingly it went well considering nobody got a nap, and I'm not just talking about me! Hahahaha! I was glad I wore comfortable shoes because we did A LOT of walking.

It was a little chilly so Alillia spent the first quarter of our day in a front carrier zipped up with Nick in his jacket.

Here are a couple of cute animals while waiting for Daddy to buy tickets:

Next we checked out the Penguins:

There was copious amounts of bird doo doo all over the rocks.

Here we have turtle soup- uh, I mean turtles which are floating in murky water with a bunch of vegetables... 

Holding hands, awww how cute!

This gorilla was posing for us:

Gage flirting:

And then my camera died about a quarter into our trip.  I tried to use my phone...which sucks. So, unfortunately, unless I get some stuff off of Tekara's phone this is pretty much it.  We got to see quite a bit of animals though.  We saw brown bears, arctic wolves, elephants, hippos, giraffes, flamingos, giant snakes, lions and a lot of other things. The park was quite large so we didn't get to see everything but we're hoping to go again soon! Maybe next time I'll double check my camera battery before going!!!

Whip it! Whip it good!

Gage has been interested in wearing hats per Aviendha's desire to constantly wear one. He's worn her hats, buckets, baskets, clothes, ect on his head. Recently we kept seeing dirt in his hair from incidents like this:

This is what happens when Aviendha and Gage play together. But we weren't seeing this so we were wondering what exactly he was doing to get bits of dirt all over in his hair.

Then I caught him wearing this:

This is from a hanging plant we used to have inside. Nick threw it out back to put in the trash later or use again. 

My first thought? "Whip it! Whip it good! When a problem comes along, You must whip it!...."  Hahahaha! Music aside, it solved the case of a chronically dirty scalp.

Oh well, I think he's pretty dang cute either way!

Flooding

After our basement flooded in March we were told that it usually doesn't rain like that and so even if the drainage in the back yard isn't fixed, it shouldn't be a problem.


And then a couple of weeks ago we had this insane downpour where lake and waterfall were formed in mere minutes. Ignore our messy yard.

Fortunately nothing came into the house and it only lasted 15 minutes or so. But two weeks later here we are with a lawn that is STILL trying to dry out. We're hoping that nothing happens for rest of our lease time because I really don't want to try to move again so soon.

The best tantrum ever!

I forgot to post this, things were a little crazy at the time. This is during our flooding basement issue so their toys and all sorts of things are up in our living room. The space you see here is all we had for about 2 weeks so tensions were running a little high... You don't need to watch the whole thing, it's pretty much the same for 3 minutes, but still funny.

Changing Doctors

Today the kids all had their first appointment with their new pediatrician. I can't say that it went smoothly. Gage is a VERY shy little boy and so panics when people try to talk to him, or even dare to look at him. This doesn't explain all the random women he flirts with when we're out and about but I suppose that's another post in and of itself.  Anyhow, he was NOT happy at all. Not to mention, I'm not a huge fan of the pediatrician we saw.


On my way over I thought to myself: If we don't like this one, we can just go see a new one.  And then after checking in I was handed a stack of papers to fill out for EACH child. My hand was cramping before I got done with the first kid's paperwork. The paperwork alone is enough to discourage people from changing doctors! My goodness! 


I don't really like the doctor, you know the type that "talk down" to you instead of "with you." She assumed a lot of things that I had to keep correcting her on, even when I had already told her. Very frustrating. I'm hoping we don't have to see her consistently as there are other pediatricians in the same practice. 


If they want us to keep seeing her specifically, I'm going to have to prep for more paperwork...

Random thoughts....

It's been incredibly sunny out the last several days, just beautiful! My problem? I'm EXHAUSTED! I don't know if it's just that everything is blooming and my allergies are kicking in but this weekend was the worst. Allergens here aren't nearly what they are over in Pullman so it's barely fazing me on the nose and eyes. But darn-it-all I'm tired! It's getting a little better but I can't even take a nap because Alillia is going through a growth spurt so she's eating like crazy.

I did manage to clean a little today so that feels nice. Do you ever find that when your house is in perfect order, you feel like you want to get to doing all those things you've been putting off? Me too! Only then I can't because I have a VERY needy 4 1/2 month old even without the growth spurt. But it still feels good to have a clean house!

Which reminds me, every time I clean the kitchen I look down in the sink and there, written on the metal drain rim it says "in-sink-erator." So naturally I start thinking about Dr. Doofenshmirtz and all of his "enators." Before I know it I'm quoting some of the best bad-guy quotes ever and then singing the theme song to myself.


On that note, I think I'm going to relax a little while baby is happy and kids are busy. Hopefully I get at least 5 minutes worth! Hahahaha! I wish :)

Yay for a sunny day!

We haven't had too many sunny days but when we do get them we try to get out as much as possible! Gage spent a good chunk of the morning riding his bike while I recovered from yesterday on-the-go. When I made it outside I found Aviendha digging for bugs...again.

This is (I think) a pill bug, one of the many different types she found today.

Gage enjoyed some time playing in the dirt. His favorite pass-time now that we have some dirt for him to play in.

Here are some of the beautiful blossoms from a couple of the trees we have in our yard. I still can't get enough of how green and flowery it is around here. 

One thing I do miss about the Palouse are all of the wild daffodils. We thought about taking a couple of bulbs with us when we moved but we forgot. Guess we'll have to dig some up when we go back for Tekara's graduation!


Later Nick tried to do some giant bubbles with the kids....

They didn't work out so well because he needed some better bubble solution and different string.


Aviendha showing me how dirty she had gotten.

Alillia got some time outside just chillin' in her bouncy chair.

Later she had some fun being thrown in the air several times by Daddy which she enjoyed thoroughly!

Fortunately for Daddy, she didn't puke until several minutes after they were done! 


Over all it was a great day outside today! We hope there are many more of those to come until next winter!

It's a birthday!

Gage had his second birthday today and he sure had a lot of fun! Around noon I took him out to lunch and then to get a hair cut. He was really shy which was exacerbated by the stylists who kept trying to talk to him, but we got it done. A girl who was in-training started on his hair but had a little trouble because he wouldn't hold still. The lady who finished him up was amazing, you could tell she had been doing it for years.  Gage was moving his head all over and she followed him almost effortlessly!

After our outing we went home to a present!  I just love how excited he gets over stuff, it makes for adorable pictures, but I might be biased ;)

Aviendha was probably even more excited than Gage, there are several pictures featuring her jumping and all sorts of crazy movements, but this one is my favorite.

The trike turned out to be a big hit!

Behind Gage here you can see the "Lake of Doom" trying to form from the rain the last few days.

This is the result of said lake. A VERY dirty little boy.  You can't even see half the mud and dirt covering this little man!

After some time on his bike we all went out to eat dinner and went to Petco nearby to look at some turtles, fish, mice, ferrets, rats, birds, snakes, and a decent sized tarantula. We finished by stopping at a grocery store to get one of his most favorite things ever: a "blewww." That is Gage-speak for "balloon." He picked out a nice dinosaur one that somehow I missed taking a picture of.... Nick tried to convince him to get one that was as big as him but it didn't float very well so it was automatically out.

We ended with a cake and some ice cream. No, I did not make this cake. Yeah right. My life is still way too hectic to even sew! Unfortunately I think our candles got thrown away in the move so when we realized this at the last minute I decided tea lights would have to do. Hahahahaha!

Forgive this ugly picture, I tried to salvage it from an accidental dial switch on my camera somewhere between the cake picture and blowing out the candles. He didn't like all the attention on him so he wouldn't even try to blow them out. We ended up hiring a more than willing Aviendha to do it for him.

We are so happy and so blessed to have this handsome little man in our lives! He really is as sweet and adorable as he looks! How could we not love him?! It just isn't possible!

Not so much of an accident...

I mentioned before that the kids have been playing outside. While Aviendha has enjoyed getting dirty...

She also enjoys using the garden shovel on her brother. 

This is 4 days after the fact. But the day after it happened he had a little bit of a black eye. I couldn't quite get all the dirt out but fortunately with it's coming up with the scab and healing OK. The trauma only lasted until the next morning so he's back to being a happy, happy boy! Aviendha tried really hard to comfort him after she did it, I think mostly to not get into trouble. We didn't really have to do much to make her realize it wasn't a good idea, she cried herself when she saw the gash. She has quite an aversion to blood and wounds so I don't think this kind of thing will be happening any time too soon....we hope!

Post flood

Finally we've been able to let the kids go outside to play in our now de-saturated lawn. It was nice to have some quiet time inside and let them run around to burn off weeks of pent up wiggles.

Aviendha adopted this garden shovel and digs up every bug she can find in the dirt. She was even kind enough to bring me a WHOLE hand full of them!

Meanwhile inside, Alillia enjoyed her time without the incessant jabbering of her brother and sister. Look at that drool dripping off her chin! Adorable!

Loving the Camera

I was taking pictures of the quilts I made and the kids kept jumping in so I let them smile for a few...

and also cry in a few. 

Family is definitely family!

I've noticed for a while now how much Corbin and Gage look like brothers and now I have a picture with both of them in it!  Aside from the fact that this picture is adorable, what do you think?

Easter

Finally I'm baaaaack!


It's been several months, I know and I'll do some update posts but first here's our Easter!


We decided to do all the egg and bunny stuff on Saturday so that we could separate fact from fiction for the kids. Tekara and Alillia slept in so we spent a lot of time with Gage and Aviendha first thing in the morning.

At first Gage ate everything out of each egg he picked up.

Yes that is a Phineas pez dispenser! Gage got Ferb and Tekara got Perry.

This is Aviendha first discovering the eggs!

Gage promptly dumped out all of his candy when he was done picking up eggs. He pretty much dumps everything out these days...

Sunday afternoon I took this picture literally 2 minutes before walking out the door to go to church.  We are so blessed to have three amazing children!  I'm so grateful for the Atonement which allows us to be able to spend eternity together!