Spring has Sprung

Easter weekend was busy for us as it is for most families. We had several events to attend, ate more hamburgers and hotdogs than anyone should ingest in a 48 hour period, and enjoyed the excitement on our children's faces as they opened each brightly colored plastic egg to find a special treat that never dissapointed. Our first stop for Easter was the Lawson's house, or the "GIRLS HOUSE" as Jack and Addie call it. Our church had its Easter celebration in the Lawson's beautiful backyard which is conveinent for us considering it touches our backyard.

Despite the fact that I am deathly allergic to cats my children still insist on loving all over this sweet, purring death machine.
Addie pretty much planted herself in the volleyball sandcourt...which was just lovely considering we still had dinner at my parents to attend.

Yay Yay (Haley) was there. Jack was thrilled.

Then the Easter egg hunts began...

Cindy, our children's director, had thought of everything and had a fun relay race planned for the kids.

Poor Jack. He is alway having to pull his pants up! His legs are too long for a smaller size and his waist is way to skinny for anything bigger.


After church and naptime on Sunday we headed out to the Popes. We had so much fun and really enjoyed our time together.

Addie and Madi...such beautiful girlfriends and cousins.

I love this picture because it not only has the most beautiful children ever in it but also because Haley is the only one looking at the camera. That girl will stop dead in her tracks if she sees a camera and will straighten her back and smile her beautiful smile.

And we're off...

Sometimes I look at different pictures I've taken and I'm amazed at how much my little guy has grown. He looks like a little grown up in the picture to me.

After the hunt the kids sat down to see all the treasures they had collected.

Then it was time to put on our playclothes and play ball!

Haley, who has never played t-ball was a natural.

How cute is that little tongue!

Jack concentrates very hard when he prepares to throw the ball.

The little girls had plans other than t-ball...

Miece, I think we need a pink Barbie Jeep for these girls.

This is officially my first posting of my newest love...my first nephew, Ethan David Pope. He is such a sweet baby and I soaked up all the baby smells and loving I could get during our time together. You can't tell from this picture but his hair is in a mohawk...It is sooooo stinkin cute!

Addie took a short break from the fourwheelers to play with bubbles...

But didn't pass up a chance to ride with her favorite guy.

We enjoyed the rest of our evening sans camera due to the fact that my arms were full of a handsome sleeping baby.

Before Easter the kids and I spent a wonderful afternoon with our Mimi and Grandy. Jack took off with Grandy to see the baby colts so I didn't get to snap any pictures of him but I got some really beautiful shots of Miss Addie Grace in her Mimi's beautiful garden.

Checking for baby birds.

After cutting asparagus Addie wanted some lettuce too. (BTW-I am aware that fuzzy crocs are not the prettiest shoe to go with her little blue dress but I didn't want to get her white sandles dirty.)

This is the most beautiful gate for pictures.

Such a cute little face!

Mimi was gathering Addie a sweet little bouqet.

What a sweet day it was to spend with my grandparents and my children.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE MAN!!!

My sweet guy turned 5 this month and it might as well have been 35 because he thinks he is all grown up now. Apparently 5 is the pinnacle of aging and you are able to accomplish anything when you turn 5 years old...at least according to Jack. He woke up on the day of his birthday and announced to those of us still sleeping soundly that he was now officially 5 but he looked in the mirror and he wasn't any taller! He was quite disappointed. But he soon got over that once we reminded him his party was later that day!

Happy birthday Jackson Miller. You are super cool and I love everything about you. You have the most amazing imagination and can turn any boring object into entertainment for hours. You have the absolute best laugh ever!!!! It is one of my most favorite sounds. You and your sister have such a sweet relationship and you are the very best big brother. I love how protective, kind, helpful, affectionate, patient, and loving you are with Addie. You are such a big help to me me. I love that you honestly believe you have super powers. I even love that you still suck your thumb when you are tired...although that has to stop soon. You say the funniest things and give me and Daddy so many good laughs. I love to hear you talk to God. Don't ever stop. I love to watch you make friends with any random kid that happens to be within a 10 yard radius. You are such a sweet friendly little guy and nobody can resist your smile. You truly are a "different kind of person." You bring me so much joy every day and I can't believe you are growing up so fast. I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

My life as a sitcom

Scene: Set in a health food store. Mom is having to bring both her kids to work because of Spring Break (a vacation for everyone but her) and has just set down the five bags she has loaded up with snacks, lunch, toys, movies, games, drinks, extra clothes, files, computer, etc.

MOM: "Addie, do you need to go pee pee?"

Phone rings

MOM: "Health Food Store. This is Jessica."

Bank VP: "Jessica, we have a very serious issue with your store account..."

Mom looks down at daughter and notices a VERY LARGE puddle forming at her feet. Audience gasps. Mom strips down daughter and carries her to the bathroom and sets her on the potty while daughter is crying in Mom's ear...Mom is still on the phone.

MOM: "A problem? What is going on?"

Mom runs back to the office to clean up the mess while Bank VP explains she wrote a check out of the wrong account and now doesn't have enough funds to cover it. Mom finds Jack, the big brother dancing in the pee puddle.

Jack: "Mommy!" I have to pee pee! I have to pee pee NOW!" Audience laughs.

Mom, still on the phone trying to remember account numbers to make funds transfer runs back to the bathroom where the screaming 2 year old is, pulls her off the potty, points to the son then the potty.

Addie: "MY PINK PANTS!!!! I WANT MY PINK PANTS!!!!"

Mom runs away from the screaming daughter back to the office to finish cleaning up the puddle and her phone conversation. She hangs up the phone, dresses the daughter and notices that Jack has yet to make an appearance out of the bathroom. Background music: DUN DUN DUHHHHH!
Mom opens the bathroom door to find yet another puddle on the floor!

Jack: Looks up with big brown sad puppy eyes, "Somehow pee pee got on the floor. I stood like a statue but my pee pee went everywhere." Shrugs his shoulders like it is a mystery to him and just walks away leaving pee pee footprints all the way back to the office.

Mom cleans new puddle and footprints and heads back to the office to find her not cheap self-inking stamp filled with a mixture of lotion, water and ink. Ink is all over the desk and dripping on the floor. Mom spends the next 20 minutes trying to salvage the stamp, desk and floor while sacrificing her manicured nails.

Lights fade to black...except in the real world the Mom continued to work with stained hands, came home, cleaned the house, and made dinner. By the time Dad came home the situation was already losing its harshness and made for a pretty great story to tell.

Something worth remembering

I have no time to sit down and actually blog but I'm doing it anyways because I want to record this insignificant but very defining moment in our lives. Last weekend I cleared our schedule and as a family we practically lived up at our store. I was determined to rearrange the shelves which sounds simple but it was a mess!!! It took a lot of planning and organizing (thank you to my amazing second in command, Jacqui) and then the actual moving of supplements was quite an undertaking to say the least. The kids stayed at my moms the first night and Levi and I (and our friend Ashley who dropped by for some nori and got suckered into staying) spent our date night with the music turned up and vitamins everywhere. We got home somewhere close to 3 Saturday morning and woke up and was back up at the store by 9 am to continue the work. Levi brought the kids sometime that afternoon. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back. Levi had the opportunity that whole day to play Mr. Mom and rocked it! He packed the kid's sleeping bags, jammies, juice cups, and laptop and set it all up so that the kids could have a little camp out in our store. The kids just LOVED it! Jack said he didn't want to go home for one hundred hours (which is an eternity for a 4 year old). But there was this moment that evening that I want to remember... I was exhausted (the kind of exhaustion you get when you decide to clean out your closet and you have taken everything out and now it is time to put it all back in and you no longer have that excited drive to do it anymore) and I'm standing in the middle of this store that has always been my Mimi's and is now ours and I look over at my kids who are in their sleeping bags watching Dora and at my husband who is trying his best to organize the "Glandular" section even though he really has no clue what supplement does what and I had this realization that although our life is CRAZY BUSY, we are together, we take the craziness on as a unit, a family. It is nice that when I'm in the middle of chaos I have my family there with me. We tackle it together. I like that and I just want to remember that feeling of togetherness, the feeling that life gets insane but we will be okay because we are all in it together.

Pottytraining....check!

I officially no longer have babies in diapers!!!! Last Friday was the official potty training day and it was quite an adventure. Because Jack's potty training took a couple of years I have put off training Addie and now she has a ballet recital in May and required to wear her costume sans panties (and especially big bulky diapers). So I realized it is time to start with the training and this time I was going to do it right, give 110%. And I did!
After Addie and I dropped Jack off at school we came back home to discover a tea party and our new big girl doll! Addie loves having tea parties and this party was extra special because we used the beautiful little china tea cups I've been collecting for Addie. Addie's doll was a big part of our day. The "bible" of potty training said that the first part of the day should be spent having Addie train her doll but every doll that pees looks like an infant and I wanted Addie's doll to look like a big girl. So I found this beautiful blond princess Aurora doll and knew Addie would fall in love with her like I did. I made the doll panties from cutting up old baby blankets and duck tape and tucked one of Levi's travel size contact solution bottles into her dress so that when I squeezed her she went peepee. I can be pretty resourceful when I need to be.

Addie got several special potty books and movies (of which I have the "Bye bye peepee" jingle fused into my head.)

We spent all morning watching our new movies and reading our books to Chloe (aka Princess Aurora) with interruptions to run to the potty to give Chloe potty practice.

I was initially afraid Addie wouldn't be very potty trainable because she hates potties because they are "yucky" so I glammed out the kid's potty with as much pink as I could find. She LOVED it and wanted to take her new princess potty seat and pink stool everywhere!

After lunch it was time for nap! So Chloe had to wear her new princess pull-ups and Addie insisted that she wear them too!

After naptime Addie walked into the living room rubbing her eyes and I told her that she had one more present to find and unwrap. This woke her up and she started running all over the place searching for her last present.

She finally found it and proceeded to pull out and throw over her head ever pair of her new panties. We put them on and sat on the potty...for 30 minutes. Nothing happened. Then the UPS truck turned down our driveway which could only mean one thing...our new shoes were here!!!! So before putting on panties we opened our new shoes and put them on! We danced around the house to the Justin Beiber's Baby when all of a sudden Addie ran to the bathroom screaming "POOOOOOPOOOO!!!" and slammed the door. I, of course, ran after her and opened the door to find my pretty little princess stomping around in the mushy diahrea poop in her brand spankin new shoes!!! By the end of the day I was a little dissapointed because we didn't have one successful potty attempt. The next morning we started fresh and new at 6am! It was an exhausting but very satisfying day. We had way more successes than accidents and I perfected my Barney act...well it wasn't so much Barney as it was a cheerleader on speed.

By the end of the third day I had exhasted my vocal cords with many repetitions of ABCs, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Baby Shark, This Little Light of Mine, Jesus Loves Me, and Twinkle Twinkle but it was all worth it because had NO accidents all day long!

So I officially have no more babies in diapers and I'm sad but relieved to have this one thing off my todo list. Congratulations Addie Grace! You are such a big girl!!!!