Little Show off!

If you were to come to our house any time in the past few days, Rome would show you his latest trick. He has learned to pull himself up to a standing position. He's so proud of himself. I'm starting to see his mischievous side coming out a little more too. If he can reach something, he wont leave it alone now.

Inspiring a six year old

Mckinley has joined a junior ballet company recently, and has been working hard every Saturday morning to get ready for Copelia, the ballet they will be performing in the middle of April. She is very much a beginner, and as I've watched her each week, I have wondered if she would catch the spark.
Then a couple of weeks ago, we went in for her usual rehearsal, to find a new surprise! The older dancers were there to put their parts with the childrens parts for the final act of the ballet. As soon as the older dancers began to dance, Mckinley was captivated. She couldn't take her eyes off of the dancing. A lot of times, when Kinley gets excited about other people dancing, she gets up and dances with them. However, this time she could see that a story was unfolding, and it was so much fun to see how enchanted she was with it all. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Mckinley seems to be quite artistic in several ways, and I was so excited to see her reaction to this new art in person.

Spring Break!

We went to Zion for a day during Spring Break this year. As always, it is such a beautiful and breath taking place, with something for everyone.

We started our visit with a picnic, which always makes it feel like spring time to me.

Last time we went, we did the Emerald Pools Hike. This year, we tried out the Weeping Rock Hike. It's very short, but was just right for the little kids to be able to hike for a few minutes and have a neat little reward at the end of the hike. At the top of this hike, there is a rock overhang that looks like it is weeping because water drips down the rock and falls down. It was fun for us to stand under the overhang and be rained on for a second.

At the bottom of the hike there is a little stream, and some little boys had found a frog and showed our girls how it could jump.

Mckinley loves to hike, and after the weeping rock hike, she wanted to hike some more. We thought she might lose interest while we drove through the tunnels.(We had the other babies with us, so we didn't want to commit to a huge hike.) However, she insisted on another hike before we left the park, so we stopped and did part of the river walk. I still don't think Mckinley got her fill, so we are already planning some more hikes for the summer with her. What a fun escape.

Spring Break!

For Spring Break this year, we wanted to get out and enjoy the perfect spring weather so we decided to go to St. George for a day. We had been planning a family trip to Fiesta Fun for a while and decided that Spring Break was as good of a time as any.



























We had a lot of fun! There are a few small kid rides like bumper boats and go carts, and when we were done with those, we spent the rest of the time mini golfing and playing the arcade games inside.

While we were golfing, Dolce found a pile of sand. At first she just started digging her fingers into it. Then she wanted to sit in it.






































Before long, she was lying in the sand. She's so funny sometimes.

Who Love's Girl Scouts?

I think it's safe to say that Baby Romee has his first crush. He loves girl scout cookies. He has tasted some of each kind. Unlike the majority of Americans who prefer the thin mint flavor, Romes favorite seem to be Trefoils. However, any flavor will do when you love girl scouts this much.

The other day after I have just changed Romes diaper I put him into his jumpee chair so that I could get something done, when Mckinley came in with a shocked look on her face and said, "Mom, is Rome jumping naked?" I laughed so hard because it really does look like he's naked. However, he does, in fact have a diaper on. Sorry about the blurriness in these pictures. When Rome gets bouncing, it's hard to get a decent picture.

His favorite food

Rome loves to eat paper. I always say it is his favorite food because I am always fishing little pieces of it out of his mouth. He loves crinkling it and tearing it but most of all, stuffing it into his little toothless mouth. Yes, still not a sign of a tooth. No wonder he's such a happy boy!

A free Play house!

This March, we have gone through every type of weather out there. We've had warm T shirt weather, rain, snow, high winds, and hail. On one of the cold days, David brought home an enormous box from work, and set about making it into the perfect play house for the kids to play in. They have spent hours inside it, decorating it, eating lunch in it, delivering each other little notes through a little mailbox from valentines, and hiding from bears in it. Mckinley even wanted to sleep in it the first night. Occasionally we have looked in and found all of the kids playing nicely together. Our cute little box house children.

Dirty Thirty!

29 days ago, David turned 30! Yay! For his birthday, we had a "Dirty 30" birthday dinner. We made Gioza, of course, and I put gummi worms in some crushed oreo "dirt, " which we used to play a game with. I also made Mississippi Mud for his birthday cake, although a better name for it might have been Mississippi BRICK. The cake part turned out as hard as a rock! It was a little disappointing, but a good laugh all the same.

The next day for David's birthday, we took the girls out for a lunch date in the wagon. It was so wonderfully warm, we walked to the Pastry Pub down the street for a sandwich and Italian Sodas. The Mississippi Mud flopped was redeemed by Caramel Tiger cake, one of Davids favorite desserts. Happy Birthday Love!