Category: Family Fun

I am very pleased right now! The weather has been in the 80s all week, which is perfect. Pace has fixed a lot of random things lately; I’m so grateful for a handy, techie husband. My house is almost totally clean, laundry is under control. Yes, that’s an accomplishment. Kids were cooperative and helpful today, lots of hugs. Both kids were asleep at 8:15pm, even though hubby wasn’t home to help get them to bed. All of these successes aren’t always the case, so I celebrate when things are so orderly around here!

Our yard is looking wonderful. Pace does a great job keeping the lawn mowed, despite his allergies. I love when he mows it diagonally; it looks professionally done! We got the 800 sq. ft. concrete patio done on the north side of our house– yet another home improvement project that sucks up the money, but will add value to the eventual resale of our house! We still have some weeds in our backyard, but I’m hoping that the Round-Up I just sprayed will help with that.

Today was a great day! I cleaned a little in the morning, then Becky and her 4 beautiful children came over to visit. She got a new “SwaggerWagon”–she’s such a hip mom. (If you don’t understand the term SwaggerWagon, please find the video on youtube and watch it.) I love when Becky and I get to talk– she’s an amazing mother to her kids, and such a fun person, too.

Later, Charlotte napped while Chase watched a movie and I took care of random things. Then we had neighbor friends over to play in the backyard for a while. Next we baked homemade chicken nuggets, then went for a walk and bought some little bracelets from our friends selling them on the side of the road. We talked for a while, because we just love the Fears– they’re very service-oriented and hard-working, yet they don’t complain about all they have to do. They’re just very enjoyable to hang out with.

It was an ordinary type of day. There were not many injuries or tears, which is always a good thing. I can see how there’s a lot of beauty and so much to be thankful for in a simple, uneventful day!

So I’m gonna start this party, the dancing waters at Epcot were one of my favorite stops. We played for only 20 minutes but everyone had so much fun that it was one of the highlights. I snagged some photos on dad’s camera so I’ll post those when I get em, here’s a video. I wish I had kept recording for just a few seconds longer b/c right after this Chase leans forward thinking the water is all done and instead gets a whole stream of water right in the face. He was so happy about it.

…Make lemonade! haha. The main decor of Rachel’s wedding reception was fresh lemons, so needless to say, there has been an abundance of them around here. We’ve made lots of fresh lemonade, which is soooo delicious. And it’s a great activity for kids!

In case you’re curious, we just mix 1 cup of fresh lemon juice, 4 cups of water, and 2/3 cup of sugar (or a tiny bit less) in a pitcher.

We enjoy using the juicer my parents have. We might have to get one of these things for ourselves, because with it, the kids and I are able to whip up a gallon of lemonade in less than 5 minutes!

As a side note, I love when they stick raspberries on their fingers and then eat them. It’s just adorable!

(Chase’s eyes have been puffy and swollen here due to allergies. This has never happened to him before, so I’m guessing there’s something in bloom here that we’re not used to. We’ve given him Claritin and we did eye drops once, but those don’t seem to be doing much. Advice?)

After the Fernsten wedding festivities and all the rainy weather, we’ve enjoyed the California sun and just being lazy. Things have been going at a slower pace than they usually do back home, and it’s been a nice break.

Chase has played with a few new (temporary) friends:

We’ve hung out in swimsuits, even though the pool is still a little too cold.

And of course we had to hit up Howarth Park, because that is the best place ever, even since I was little.

I often don’t think to take pictures of things we’re doing, but I decide not to be too hard on myself after all, because maybe it means I’m just enjoying the moment (or I’m too busy cleaning up, disciplining, talking, etc.)!  🙂

We’re almost done with Joy School! It’s hard to believe it’s already going to be over. When I realized that this was the last time it would be at our house, I decided to take some photos (since I haven’t taken ANY at our house in the past! SILLY!). So here are Rachel, Jaxon, Nolan, and Chase, playing on Chase’s top bunk during free play time.

Snack time, which is always entertaining and eventful:

The unit was on Imagination and Creativity, so we were focusing on creativity on this particular day. We had a few stories and songs, problem-solving situations, and lots of art. They loved the art projects! The clean-up wasn’t too bad with the “smocks” they wore (and the washable paint). It’s always good to have lots of artsy materials on hand for kids!

The Joy School program required a lot of prep at the very beginning, but after tha,t it was just a matter of reading over the lessons and getting things prepared for the day.

We had a bin of basic materials that we would pass around each week. It had a few posters along with crayons, scissors, and glue sticks for the kids. Below we have a tree that the kids would put an apple on when they arrived. Each of the apples have a photo of each kid taped on it:

A special helper would do the calendar and weather each day after we sang a special song for each one. For the calendar, we had fun September – May month signs (that Pace & I made), and we would reuse the numbers each month. (The Joy School program suggests to make different-themed numbers for each month, but I chose to simplify and just have basic numbers we could use all year)!

The weather chart is just a spinner type of wheel. They’d look out the window and decide what the weather was like.

One of the moms had made these little mats for the kids to sit on during lesson time. These mats were easy to fold up & transport in the bin.

This upcoming school year, I will send Chase to preschool, as will the other moms. But I am glad that I did Joy School for him this year, because otherwise I don’t know how I would have entertained him all the time!

Chase really acted up almost every time it was at our house, so it was extremely helpful to have Gretchen (or my mom, if she was in town) watch Charlotte for me! Even still, it was often pretty chaotic at our house, so I wouldn’t really recommend having more than 3-4 kids in a Joy School group. I actually think that four kids was the perfect number, because we each did a certain week in the month and rotated to take our turn again the next month.

Alright! Probably more info than anyone wanted, but I do highly recommend doing Joy School or some sort of preschool for your child because all the benefits are well worth the extra work!

Easter was pretty enjoyable this year. How could it not be with 3 Easter egg hunts?!? Also, we’re proud of Chase for understanding the resurrection of Christ (partly because that was what his recent primary talk was on). I’m not very into the Easter bunny thing, so unfortunately there was no suspense or waiting for the Easter bunny to come… sad, I know. Chase still believes in Santa, though, despite Pace’s attempts to tell him otherwise.

We had one egg hunt at the park, with some little friends from the ward. I called a few people who have preschool-aged kids, and told everyone to bring a dozen (filled) plastic eggs. It was a better turnout than I had anticipated!

At Grandaddy and GG’s church Easter party, we were proud of GG who won the “best taste overall” award for her apple pie. There were at least 30 desserts there, so it was no small feat!

The kids decorated their own Easter bags, and Charlotte actually enjoyed it! She also drew on Chase’s shirt, which did not please him. But he’s such a nice big brother that he forgave her!

These days we’ve been getting sick and getting better, then getting sick again. I thought we’d be pretty safe from sickness now that it’s April! Oh, well. 🙂

This wild experience happened a few weeks ago, and it’s one that I want to remember and laugh about…

It was late afternoon. I had just gotten Charlotte out of the bath, wrapped her in a towel, and had taken her to her bedroom. I rummaged around in her closet to find something to help her endure the dreaded diaper/clothing time that she generally loathes. I selected a big plastic bottle of Benadryl (that we had recently bought) and handed it to Charlotte. She immediately shook it, and it fell and landed on the floor, breaking somehow (it’s very sturdy plastic so I don’t know how that happened)! Benadryl seeped out of the bottle all over her closet floor, into the cracks and everything!

Despite my surprise, I put Charlotte down, snatched the rapidly draining bottle up in my hands and rushed it to the bathroom. I stuck it in a cup so I could later salvage the last few ounces that remained. I soon found that Benadryl had dripped and leaked everywhere. I took a deep breath and even kinda laughed at what was going on!

I scurried back to the bedroom to wipe up some of the mess so the fresh, clean Charlotte wouldn’t play in the puddle and track it all over the house! As I was madly mopping up the mess, Chase woke up from a little snooze (which he doesn’t do anymore–sad!) and when he asked me what was going on, I impatiently told him that Charlotte had made a mess so I needed to hurry and clean it up.

Meanwhile, Charlotte was still running around naked. I then heard a thump and a scream over in my bedroom, so I ran in there to find that Charlotte had apparently peed on our laminate floor and subsequently slipped in her puddle of pee and hit her head in the doorway! So she soon had a nice goose egg on her head. Meanwhile, Chase was just quietly standing there, wondering why everyone in the house had gone crazy. I comforted Charlotte, figured that she had just peed so she wouldn’t pee again soon, so she could stay naked while I continued addressing the messes at hand. I went back to cleaning up the Benadryl and pee puddles.

Aaahhhh, finally, everything was taken care of. I went down to the kitchen to retrieve little Charlotte who had been thoroughly enjoying running around the kitchen naked. I probably did some of these things in the wrong order, but it all happened in about 2 minutes so I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I’m glad things aren’t that chaotic around here all the time!

It was so weird to me to have all 3 of us pose with rings on our fingers! Yep, my youngest sister, Jessica, just got engaged to Casey on Friday night! Funny thing is, my other little sister Rachel is engaged and will marry Nathan in May. What fun! Haha, okay maybe some don’t see as much humor in it as I do, but it’s certainly something that we’ll all look back on with a chuckle! 

Rachel put all 3 of our rings on for fun. We each decided that our own rings were the prettiest.

The happy “old” couple, and the happy, newly engaged couple. Congrats to Jessica and Casey!

We always love when family comes to town! Grandma came recently, and we had a great time. Chase’s favorite thing was the Dinosaur Museum, especially because we got to have Jaxon along. And I especially loved having In ‘n’ Out Burgers afterwards!

Charlotte loved snuggling with her Grandma, and I think Grandma loved it, too. (Chase just can’t miss a photo op!)

Thanks, Mom, for visiting and for spoiling us!

Well, getting a decent “posed photo” of these two on such holidays is nearly impossible. They both hopped down and went to look out the window when I was trying to get a smiling shot! But I do love how tiny Charlotte looks when she’s standing next to Big Brother.

I occasionally put a little gel in Charlotte’s hair to avoid the mullet look… Because when she doesn’t have gel in it, a mullet is exactly what her hair is. And in case you were wondering, YES, those little cheeks of hers are very soft & kissable. She smells so sweet– I really adore this baby!

Chase made valentines for his Joy School friends and a few others. I cut out the hearts and he was willing to take it from there! He chose to have the candy hang from the hearts with Scotch tape.

Chase’s best friend Jaxon came over after Joy School that day, as he often does. We love having friends over all the time, and Chase and Jaxon happen to get along extremely well. I think it’s helpful that Chase is the oldest child in his family and Jaxon is the youngest in his.

(1st photo: Charlotte apparently saw something astonishing?!)

They made these cute Valentine’s bags in class. Ah, the memories of giving and getting valentines in school! I remember totally “reading into” the message on the valentine from whoever my current crush was. (Notice that the candy that originally accompanied Chase’s valentines = already devoured. That’s my boy!)