Swimming Strides

Brynn has been trying all week to dive to the bottom of the pool to get rings - and she finally figured it out today:
And here she is working on her breast stroke:

Tyler was a very brave boy, but still needs to figure out how to propel himself forward when he "jumps" off the diving board:

Dylan has learned to love the water. He likes to get out of his floatie and splash:
And the water has tossed him softly to sleep everyday this week:

Vacation Craziness!

In two days I was suppose to be spending my days here, with my hubby and 2 friends:

Moon Palace All Inclusive Resort, Cancun Mexico...hiking ruins, snorkling, hitting up the local water park, walking along the beach, eating to my hearts content, lounging in the expansive pools. I was REALLY really looking forward to this.

And it required me to finally get this:

...seeing as I've never been outside the continental United States. Very exciting!!!

But then these little guys ruined my plans:
Because they caused this to come out from the CDC:

Travel Health WarningTravel Warning: Swine Influenza and Severe Cases of Respiratory Illness in Mexico — Avoid Nonessential Travel to Mexico This information is current as of today, April 28, 2009 at 17:20 EDT
Current Situation: As of April 27, 2009, the Government of Mexico has reported 18 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection. Investigation is continuing to clarify the spread and severity of the disease in Mexico. Suspect clinical cases have been reported in 19 of the country's 32 states. The World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Alert and Response Network (GOARN), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent experts to Mexico to work with health authorities. CDC has confirmed that seven of 14 respiratory specimens sent to CDC by the Mexican National Influenza Center are positive for swine influenza virus and are similar to the swine influenza viruses recently identified in the United States.
On April 25, the WHO Director-General declared this event a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under the rules of the International Health Regulations. CDC and state public and animal health authorities are currently investigating 20 cases of swine flu in humans in California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and New York City. Some of the U.S. cases have been linked to travel to Mexico. At this time, only two of the 20 cases in the U.S. have been hospitalized and all have recovered, but deaths are reported to have occurred in Mexico. CDC is concerned that continued travel by U.S. travelers to Mexico presents a serious risk for further outbreaks of swine flu in the United States.
CDC Recommendations
At this time, CDC recommends that U.S. travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico. Changes to this recommendation will be posted at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/.

So now we are scrambling and redirecting ourselves here:Thankfully its all coming together very nicely (after hours and hours on the phone and computer). And even though I haven't ever had a real desire to travel to Hawaii - I kind of view it as an overpriced beach - this will still be an adventure, and I am excited.

Swimming Lessons

Brynn and Tyler started another round of survival swimming lessons today. I'm going to miss a lot of things about Arizona...I'm sad Tyler won't be around this fall to go to Ms. Jaimi's preschool, and I'm sad Dylan won't be around next summer to go to Ms. Bonnie's swimming lessons. So I'm glad we could squeeze one more session in before we leave.

Tyler wasn't too thrilled to be there, but he kick, kick, kicked to the side (for the most part):
Brynn is a little swimmer - but upon hearing the words, "we get to go to swimming lessons!", she immediately started to complain...there is just something about it that brings out a whine. But she was amazing once we got there and is now learning strokes:
And Dylan just had fun relaxing in the water:Ms. Bonnie does not have a heated pool so I was slightly worried about the temp. But the Arizona sun pulled through and the water was great. It was actually way better than the "heated pools" we swam at on our CA trip a few weeks ago.

Big Day!

So today was a big day in our home...Dylan learned to clap, and PJ finished his last day of his last rotation of his last year of medical school - yep, HE's DONE!!! And that means he is officially on vacation until his first day of work on June 8th. Oh happy day!

So here is a video of Dylan (while I am trying to get him to clap) that shows you how excited he gets when someone comes around to play with him...he's always trying to get people to pick him up. But this time I'm sure his excitement was because daddy is DONE!

Then here is a video of him clapping (well kind of, but its the best I could get on demand). I think its rathering fitting that he picked today of all days to show me he knew how to clap.

Have I mentioned PJ is done with medical school and that we are very happy about that?! ;)

Home Sweet Home

It was a good trip to WA. PJ and I miss living by Katy and Clay. So it was nice for me to be able to be there at this time and to try in help in little ways if possible. The whole time I was there they kept commenting on the gorgeous weather they were having (it was in the 60's and even hit 70). And they also kept rolling their eyes at me as I was layering on their sweaters and jackets and blankets and standing and sleeping two feet in front of their space heater. At times when I couldn't get the goosebumps to go away I did want to wonder what was wrong with me. But as my plane landed last night and the pilot welcomed us to Phoenix Arizona he announced that the weather (7:30pm) was a "warm" 97 degrees. Wow, we have some adjusting to do once we arrive in the midwest in a few weeks.

I already miss playing with Jack and snuggling with the newest, handsomest, littlest guy and forcing Katy to eat food & drink plent of water and giving Clay a hard time. But really...who wouldn't want to come home to this...

I definately missed my own little family lots! And it makes you feel so good when they are so excited to have you home. Thanks again PJ for letting me go! Oh!...and my baby decided to start doing his own really wierd version of an army crawl in the 4 days I was away! What's up with that?!

Newest Little Cousin

My husband can be so thoughtful! Last week he surprised me with a plane ticket to go to Washington (Thursday to Monday) to help my sister with her newest arrival, little Brody Grant Warren - born Wednesday, April 15th!

So here I am...
...doing what I can to be helpful :)

And Brynn called me for an update on "cousins". So this is for Brynn...

I taught Jack how to make his own special pizza just like we do at home:
He LOVED the presents you and Tyler picked out to send to him:

And I took him to "the Workshop" to make a special friend:

And I get to hold baby cousin lots and a lot:
Its been very fun, but I miss you more and hope you are having fun with daddy!

Choose your weapon...

I'm not sure which was worse:

When 2 year old Brynn dumped an entire Costco sized bag of chocolate chips on my living room floor and proceeded to distribute them all throughout the house...

Or when two year old Tyler smashed 3 boxes of cereal (Cheerios, Kix & Rice Krispies) into my living room carpet and on my couch and then proceeded to leave trails of them out into the kitchen and playroom...
(Please notice Dylan taking notes on how he can up the ante for when he turns two.)

Through the years...

On a sentimental note, every year we go to daddy's school for their wonderful easter celebration. And every year we take our picture with the easter bunny. We've had our ups & downs and have come a long way over the years...

2006:

2007:

2008:

2009:

We will be (OK, I will be) sad to not go next year ;(

7 Months

Dylan turned 7 months old today. And yes, he is finally (within the past couple days) sitting up pretty steadily. He loves to grab stuff, especially noses and jewelry. And a few times we've seen him start to almost army crawl, instead of roll, in an attempt to reach toys on the floor. He's still a very happy boy as long as he has eaten and slept and hasn't been left alone in a room. Since his 6 month update he has learned to eat - I started giving him Puffs and Cherrios (which he loves) and he learned how to work them to the back of his mouth. So now he understands what to do with baby cereal/food. I guess I just need to figure out how to sit down and feed him more than 1, maybe 2, times a day. Other than that not much is new with him - just loving life and playing with Brynn and Tyler!

Egg-celent Easter!

We hope everyone had an egg-celent easter just like we did! This morning the kids woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had left them lots of fun surprises - the kid each got a scooter and Dylan got this cute walker lion which he loves cause the nose does fun stuff when he grabs it.

But really, the Easter fun has been happening all week long.

Friday morning we had an Easter party for our friends. We formed eggs out of white Crayola Model Magic and decorated them with markers. And then of course had to have a huge egg hunt!

My sweet friend Lisa made this most darling cake for the party!

(Friends pictured from left to right: Summer, Christopher, Trevor, Sam, Easter Bunny, Rhyan, Tyler, Preston, Abby, Parker)

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Easter egg hunts?!?! And this year did not disappoint: We went to one for our ward a few weeks ago, had one at our own party Friday, one at daddy's school yesterday, and another one today at home with our cousins. Can't get enough of the finding fun...one day I'm hoping someone will do one for me :)

Best Birthday Ever - Family Vacation 2009

Last night we got back from a wonderful family vacation...oh sorry, it included kids so it was actually a trip. But still, it was wonderful.

Last Wednesday we got ready, packed up the car, and made the 5 hour drive over to our hotel in CA which was right across the street from Disneyland (totally the way to go). The kids were angels on the drive and seriously, not a single one cried or even whinned the entire way there. It even took them several hours before they asked for a snack - don't know what got into them but we loved it. After we arrived we got dinner, swam at the pool, and just hung out. Then Thursday we were up bright and early and headed off for two days of Disneyland fun.

We/the kids were a lot more adventurous this year and we were able to do a lot more stuff. And yes, we only got Brynn's attitude once the whole time.


I'm a big fan of the character meals. Not only is it pretty good food but I love the time with the characters that we don't have to stand in hours worth of lines to see. Thursday for lunch we hit Goofy's Kitchen and then Friday for lunch we did Breakfast with Minnie. Friday was also my birthday so I got a special song and cupcake :)

While we did and saw a lot more, our top favorite rides stayed the same with Dumbo coming in as #1. Brynn also still loved the carousel and teacups. But Tyler couldn't get enough of all the "choo choo" trains everywhere and even loved the roller coaster and rocket ride.

We had a lot of good quality time with the characters - it was so neat that it wasn't just 'snap the picture and move on'. They really spent time with us and tried to talk to our kids - if only Brynn would have talked back...

Dylan seemed to get a lot of attention...and what did he want to do? Grab all of their noses :) And they let him!

On our trip last year each of the kids got to pick out a special toy to remember their first trip to Disneyland. Brynn picked a stuffed Minnie and Tyler picked a stuffed Mickey. They both have loved their stuffed animals ever since. Then for Halloween they were Mickey and Minnie and Dylan was their Pluto.

So we had to get Dylan the matching stuffed Pluto to remember his first trip to Disneyland. He loves it - he loves to chew on its nose and ears. But mostly I loved how excited the kids were to help pick it out for him and they didn't even ask to get something for themselves.

It was a great few days with our little family and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend and celebrate my birthday!!! Thanks Disneyland for letting me in free on my special day!

Then Saturday we took it easy in the morning and headed down to San Diego where we met up in the afternoon with Travis and his kids and Grandma Eccles. That evening we took the kids to the beach where they were in heaven!

I don't know what got into them but they ran (fully clothed) right out into the ocean, plopped their little wet bodies in the sand and went to town playing and building sand castles. Then Uncle Trav threw us a mean bonfire for dinner where we roasted hot dogs and smores.

My only regret from this trip is that we didn't spend more time at the beach because the kids were so happy and content. Last year all Brynn wanted to do was build a sand castle and put a flag on it...only we had forgotten to get a flag...and I've been hearing about how we forgot the flag for the past year. So before we left for this trip we spent time making and decorating flags to put on our sand castles. And they were very excited to be able to put them on.

Sunday we headed off to the San Diego Wildlife Animal Park.

It was a nice change from a regular zoo. Brynn got to feed a bird and was actually OK with it until it decided to land on her (but I can't blame her for that). She also got to pet a deer and a baby hippo. Tyler loved the "train ride" through 'Africa' - and it wasn't so much seeing the animals, it was just being on the "train".

Monday we hit up Sea World! The day started out a little rough when the first show we went to was the dolphin show and a big old fat whale parked its booty right in front of me and the kids and decided to pound wave after horrific-salty-stanky-wave over our heads and the kids LOST IT. We were literally soaked to the bone for hours after that, and then dried with a layer of salt over our hair and skin. I realize that we sat in the 'soak zone' but I should have not listened to the crowd, but instead listened to the good mommy voice in my head that told me to move before the show started. Lesson learned.



We also enjoyed our time at the hotels. And our kids love hot tubs - One night, while Brynn was relaxing in one, she looked over at us and very seriously asked if we could get one at our new house we were moving too.

Tuesday before we headed back we took a walk around the beautiful San Diego Temple.

And then we had to leave. It had to come to an end.
I don't believe there is such a thing as too much fun...but do you think we wore them out to the point of total exhaustion??!? They were such troopers.

By the time most trips end I'm usually ready for them to be done and get back to normal life. However, I was sad to see this time together end and could have kept going (had we had enough clean clothes to see us through). I'm not sure what made it different this time - maybe it was knowing that in a few weeks we would be losing our valued daddy time as he starts his new job that will have a rough first year, maybe it was seeing the kids get so excited and love and appreciate what they were having the opportunity to see and do, maybe it was avoiding all the real world stuff I had to come back to do and accomplish with our big changes ahead...whatever it was, I will always remember and cherish this trip. As cheesy as it used to sound, it may have cost us a little, but really...it was priceless.