Gracie's Birthday

Last week we celebrated her 4th birthday. I can't believe how big she is now. I had so much fun planning her party and getting her presents. We started out the day with a "Huge Pancake Castle" as she called it. Complete with a candle and pink sugar sprinkles. She made sure to get dressed in her "party dress" as she called it. Then we went shopping at the dollar store to get all her party supplies. She was so cute. In her excited-trying-to-convince-me voice she would say things like, "Mommy, look at these things. We need to buy them for sure. All my cousins and friends will loooooooove them." It was so funny to listen to her. The party was that afternoon and was a blast....for the kids anyway. I was totally pooped after that. We started out with playing duck, duck, goose, then it was "pin the crown on the princess." Thanks G-ma Mullenaux for your wonderful artistry. We also had an easter egg hunt since Gracie was our little easter bunny. (Born on Easter Sunday). After that it was a candy filled Dora pinata. Dan bought that one because he said he always wanted to beat the crap out of Dora. I hear ya! Then it was on to presents and cake. Allison helped me make her butterfly cake, requested by Gracie. She loved it. I thought it turned out so cute. I love my little princess and I'm so glad I get to be her mom.


Notice Mariah pouting while everyone else was playing. Her birthday was a couple weeks before Gracie's but she was having a really hard time with it. Girls.









Even the babies got some cake. They loved it.


I sometimes go to check on the babies after they fall asleep and will find Violet like this. Too much partying for her.

Today was such a great day. I can't go without writing it down. The morning and afternoon were filled with fun play time, naptime, and errands. Dan got home around 5 and after dinner we decided to have a music night. Gracie is so in to instruments. She is constantly begging either me or Dan to play the piano, trumpet, guitar, violin, or whatever she comes up with. So Dan decided that we would have music night for FHE. We had a contest where we each chose a song off the ipod and "played" along with it. Whoever did the best performance won the contest. First Dan and Gracie did their rendition of a Coldplay song with Dan on the guitar and Gracie on her violin. It was cute how Gracie got herself all dressed up for the evening.
Then it was my turn and we sang Bubbly while I "played" the guitar, Gracie was my backup dancer and Reece and Violet joined in. By the time the contest was over and Gracie won, we ended up having a big dance party. After putting the babies to bed. It was scripture time. We decided its a little easier for Gracie to learn if we watch a living scriptures video first then talk about it. Those movies always stuck with me when I was younger. Dan made our yummy desert-white chocolate, macadamia nut cookies...with milk. We had such a blast and love hanging out as a family.





Ah, our loverly hair.





The Dancing Queen!


Glad we have vaulted ceilings. :)

I've decided I don't really like blogging. It's so time consuming and who really has time to read them anyway...besides my mom. But this really is for my family so I can journal a little here and there to record certain things. Anyway, here are some of the things that I've been thinking about. I go through my day and realize some of the things that are tiresome and hard but realize I'm going to miss them when they are not there.
-Scraping scotch tape off of every surface in my house.
-Wrestling babies to hold still so I can put their diapers on.
-Trying to cook dinner without stepping on anyone.
-Wiping slobber, hand prints, and slobbery hand prints off of everything.
-Stopping whatever productive thing I'm doing to play a song on the piano so Gracie can sing along.
-Not being able to wear any article of clothing more than once between washes because it is covered in baby food.
-Answering every "Hey mommy" and listening to a "great idea" even though it is so hard to give 100% attention sometimes.
-Trying to smile and laugh it off every time a baby grabs my face, pulls my hair, or nearly bursts an eardrum with their squeals.
-Laughing at myself when I, being dazed and desperate, push the pause or mute button on the remote towards my children thinking that it would really work.
-Not reacting when a baby gets my leg, arm or hand with their sharp, sharp, shaaaa-harp teeth.
-Breaking up fights between Reece and Violet. No eyes, no pulling hair, let go of her shirt!
-Sounding excited and saying "wow" to every pink thing in the store that Gracie wants.
-Patiently answering no to every, "Is it my birthday today?"
-Not getting mad when Reece or Violet knock a spoonful of food all over the place before I can get it to their mouths.
-Fighting to pry open their jaws so I can save them from choking on every imaginable thing that they find and try to eat.

This is just to name a few events during my day. Most moms can relate to these things and it is so true that it's a hard job but if you can find the humor in everyday tasks it makes it that much easier. I love my family so, so much. I'm so glad I have them and that I'm able to share every day with them.

Gracie Roo. I just love her smiles and her goofiness.






Reece's smiles and screams. Really I think I would call it yelling or squawking. She is such a hoot. Notice the pieces of mashed up carrots she has smeared in her hair after ripping her bow out. So lovely! :) That smile makes up for everything.



Then there is Violet. So sweet. She does this new thing when she wants out. I love her little reach, shrug and scrunch she does in my direction whenever I am near her. Her smile gets me every time.


I love my family!

Is everyday not Valentines Day?

Yes, I am one of those who thinks its silly to be romantic just because of the date and you're supposed to. Don't get me wrong, I think its fun to celebrate Love Day but sometimes it doesn't always work out with our schedule. For us, the valentines day celebration happens everyday...the reason this post is not happening last Saturday. Not urgent enough for me to make that deadline. Although it was funny, we decided to go to Denny's for breakfast, with the kids, and after we were there for about a half an hour Dan leans over and says, "Oh yeah, Happy Valentines Day sweetie." We totally forgot about it! No big deal though because I'm not one of those wives who looks forward to any special occasion such as anniversaries and such just to get some attention and affection. My hubby is good about keeping things spontaneous and romantic when I least expect it. For instance, the other day he came home with a bouquet of lillies and I had to stop and ask, "Wait did we get in a fight yesterday?" Dan told me no, it was just because. He is so sweet. I was thinking about this post and remembering how and when we fell in love. For him, he said it was at first sight and even more as we got to know one another. For me, I wasn't attracted at first but it only took one date to realize that I wanted to be with him forever. I grew to love everything about him and he constantly had me laughing. He was so adventurous and promised me a whole list of fun things we were going to do. Some of which consisted of: surfing, camping, NYC, Hawaii, bungee jumping, snow boarding... and those are just to name a few. We were a perfect match and I knew it right away. We dated for only about three weeks before we were engaged. We planned on getting married a few months later but it turned out to be only a few weeks. I don't normally recommend this but for us, it was how it was to be. We look back and are so glad things worked out the way they did. I love you so much Dan and I'm so glad I get to keep you forever!

Sadly, this is the only picture I can find of us when we were dating. Typical Dan, always trying to get a kiss. I think I just got done with a volleyball game at CGCC and was probably smelly.


Trip to Hawaii. One of our many honeymoons. Because both of us worked for the airlines that meant free flying to most of the places we went. Hawaii I think was $200 round trip for the both of us. We got so sunburned but had a total blast! Dan- I'm still mad that on the way back you took my food from the flight attendant and said you would save it for me. You totally ate it and I don't care if I was asleep you turd! :) Still love you though.

Oh that smile!







Couple of beach bums at Corona Del Mar



Beach right off of Santa Monica Blvd. in L.A.



Such a goof. Why I love you though.

Our first apt. in Mesa. My parents brought us a piano. I played that thing so much back then. It was especially funny when Dan would try to sing along. He could rarely be serious about it.


Well that's not all of our story... but all that I'll be journaling for now. Hope everyone had a great Valentines.

Update finally!

Nothing formal or professional about these but they will work until I get around to it. Violet is on the left, Reece-on the right.





How can you not smile and laugh out loud?!!! Reece loves her bath and loves to splash. She does this new face whenever you smile and talk to her.







Of course, the flip side. Both babies are sitting up and starting to pull themselves up to furniture. Reece fell and obviously was upset. Don't panic all you people who think I ran and got my camera while she was lying there hurt. This is after 30 seconds of comforting her and I had my camera in my hand. She really likes to milk it sometimes. :)




I think it was Tuesday morning we woke up to this. So crazy. I could tell it was coming because a couple nights before it was so comfortable and warm outside.




Check out the sprinkles!

We made cupcakes and sang happy birthday to everyone for no reason. Gracie loves to celebrate and she is always planning a party.

These are just some funny things Gracie has said these last few days. I sure love to laugh and Gracie makes me everyday.
She has no concept of time. When she talks about certain things it is always "Yesterday when I was a baby" or "Mariah can come over to my house in 70 weeks."

Here's some more funnies....

One morning she got out of bed and came and sat on my lap. I asked her, "How did you sleep?" She replied, "About 20 minutes."

The other day she said, "I want to get earrings in my ears." I told her, "Well I think you need to be a little older." She replied, "Okay, maybe when I'm 65 or maybe...67. Well it would 'probly' be better if I was 7 - 30."

Yesterday, "Mommy, I can't wait for 'Valenstines' Day." I asked her, "What are we going to do?" She said, "Dress up in our costumes!"

Last night it was hard not to laugh. "Daddy what did you do at work today." Dan- "Well, I took care of sick, old people and gave them their medicine and some really yucky stuff to drink." I asked him, "Oh, was it that nasty stuff to make them poop?" Then Gracie piped in very seriously and matter-of-fact, "Yes because if you drink poop then you will get really sick huh daddy." She cracks me up the way she processes some things! :)