Utah 2012 - Week 1

We try to get up to Utah as a family once a year. Andy usually is able to sneak in a few extra trips a year due to work. And we have decided that we really enjoy going up there during the summer. The winter can be fun too, but right now with the ages our children are, the summer is fabulous! We enjoy being able to see family. The time always flies by too quickly. For our trip this year we were able to go up for about 2 weeks - Andy finally took his paternity leave! :) We enjoyed our time even though quite a bit of it involved children under the weather. Audrey started off the trip not doing too well and Ian ended the trip not doing too well. We did have about 4 fever-free days, I believe. Despite the sick children, we still were able to do a lot and enjoy our time. This year the timing worked out well as we were able to be up there to help celebrate birthdays and an anniversary for Papa and Grandma. Here's our adventures the first week:

Ian meeting Aunt Julie the evening we got there (June 12th) and he does look a bit tired... We spent a lot of time in the backyard in the evenings. It was so nice to not have any mosquitoes and cooler weather!

Rachel loving playing with Presley and Isaac on Tuesday night (Audrey was still a bit under the weather):

On Wednesday (Grandma's Birthday) we hung out. Andy took Audrey to the doctor and of course was told it was just a virus that had to run its course. Poor girl! Our kids don't get fevers very often (especially 105), so it was kind of frustrating to not be able to do anything for her. So, we took it easy on Wednesday. The kids played and so did Ian:

On Thursday (Papa and Grandma's Anniversary) we decided to venture out. As long as we kept on switching beeing Tylenol and Motrin, we were able to keep Audrey's temperature down. So, we took 2 strollers - one for Ian and one for Audrey - and headed to the zoo with the Kings and Papa and Grandma. Nothing like celebrating your anniversary at the zoo! Here's beautiful Brinley holding Ian at the zoo while I was able to eat with my hands free:

Ian hanging out in his first baseball cap at the zoo:

 

Rachel's as big as an adult female gorilla:

And Audrey's as big as a juvenile:

All the kiddos:

I just love how this picture turned out (I'm not even sure what they're looking at):

We enjoyed checking out the polar bear, which is new to the SLC zoo. He was very active when we were there, swimming, climbing around, etc... I guess we were too busy checking him out to take any pictures. After the zoo we grabbed some slurpees from 7 Eleven (we kind of splurged on those while there) and then headed to the Gateway to enjoy the water:

Although Audrey didn't really enjoy it. She was a bit worn out by this time and just wanted to snuggle with Mommy:

On Thursday night I was able to get together with 3 of my college freshman roommates. It was so much fun to see these ladies and catch up with them all. There's a special bond you have with those first people whom you live with once you move away from home. And I was extremely blessed when it came to roommates...

Since Ian slept through most of the dinner with my roommates he was ready to enjoy Papa and Grandma once we got back home to their place that night:

 

Crazy boy:

Friday (Papa's Birthday) was another day that we took easy. Audrey was still running a bit of a temperature and we had worn her out on Thursday. So, Rachel joined her cousins for a movie that afternoon while Ian and Audrey got good naps. South Jordan Days was going on, so Rachel and Andy went to a little carnival that evening. Here's Rachel enjoying one of the rides:

Saturday morning Audrey woke up fever free!!! So, we celebrated by attending the South Jordan parade. Parades in Utah are always fun, especially when lots of taffy is thrown. At first the girls were very timid about getting candy, but soon enough they got into it. We had some very nice seats in the shade, so Ian enjoyed his first parade as well. He even slept through the marching bands for a bit. It was a pretty long parade - I think we were there for about 2 hours...

The girls and a little friend they made at the parade:

That same afternoon we enjoyed a little hike (a great find of Uncle Nate's) to Rocky Mouth Falls. Here are some pictures of us enjoying ourselves on the short hike and enjoying the falls:

Andy hiked up a little further with Nate and Isaac while the rest of us just relaxed and he took a picture of the Salt Lake Valley:

 

A picture of all of us in front of the "scary bear cave" as Audrey called it:

Saturday night a lot of Andy's aunts, uncles, and cousins from the Smith side came over to visit. Andy's cousin, Robyn, has a little baby boy as well, so we grabbed a picture of Ian and Dallin together (we hadn't even planned the coordinating, cute Carter outfits):

Sunday morning we all enjoyed a lazy morning. It was nice to have church at 11 am for 2 weeks. I really like that time of church when I have babies, it allows you to get them a decent morning nap and afternoon nap. Anyhow, we enjoyed a lazy morning...

And then in the afternoon and and evening we enjoyed more time with family. I love this picture of our girls on the typewriter and Presley on the i Touch. These girls had so much fun together while we were in Utah and this is just one of the many things they enjoyed together:

I love this picture of Isaac and Ian:

A good chunk of time on Sunday was spent out in the backyard. We loved our outdoor time. Ian loved some snuggle time with Papa:

Audrey enjoyed performing for us and twirling her hair:

We definitely enjoyed our first week in Utah. There's so much more to come, once I get through more pictures...

Our Puppy Dog

Every once in awhile the girls will get puppy hungry. Now that we've discovered Rachel's allergic to dogs like her dad is, the discussion doesn't come up as often. However, we did end up getting a cute baby boy who has an adorable puppy dog cry:

Ian's "real" cry doesn't happen too often. Most of the time he does this little whimper. And we were able to catch video of him doing it this past weekend. You can't blame him though, he was a little under the weather. When we took this video he'd been battling a 102 temp for three days. Not much fun... We've wanted to get video of his puppy dog cry simply because he will grow out of it soon enough.

5 months

Ian got to celebrate his 5-month mark doing a lot of this on an airplane:

 

He proved to be a good little traveler and I enjoyed the snuggle time I got with him! On his 5-month birthday he got to meet lots of family whom he hadn't met before, so that was fun.

Ian is doing so well. He is pretty much sleeping through the night. Right now he's usually down around 8 PM and then wakes up around 6 AM. I would prefer for him to sleep later, but since he's sleeping through the night I am not going to complain! I know for some of you this is quite a common thing at 5 months, but we don't have that great of a track record with our previous children... So, we are loving Ian and his sleep habits. He's still taking 3 naps a day and usually only lasts about 2 hours before he's ready for a nap or to go to bed at night.

Ian loves the bumbo. I've never bought one, but I have a sweet friend who is letting me borrow one. He is trying to master sitting up as well, but we aren't quite there yet... He is pretty tricky with all his digits. He uses his toes just like fingers sometimes. It's really fun to watch him play with toys on the floor with all four appendages. He still enjoys his swing, bouncy chair, and play set that he can lay under.

 

Ian is our first baby who actually does well in his car seat. Sometimes it seems like he spends hours in it while we run errands and he usually doesn't complain. We have a pretty long road trip scheduled for the end of the summer and we are hoping the road trip doesn't ruin his tolerance of the car seat. We shall see...

This little guy is still quite a chatter. Sometimes he surprises us with the sounds he makes. I think he's actually trying to talk to us and make us understand something. If I would allow this boy to watch TV, he would. He loves watching the TV screen. If it's on and he's facing it, he zones in. It's kind of an interesting thing... For the most part I try to distract him into doing something else, he doesn't need to become a couch potato quite yet! 

We are certainly loving each and every day with this little guy. He's learning and growing each day. It seems like he's getting too big too fast. We are trying to enjoy it all!  

3 1/2

Audrey is no longer 3, she's 3 1/2, which half birthdays are pretty important in our house. Unfortunately Audrey celebrated her 3 1/2 birthday with a stomach bug. The first time any one of our kids has had a stomach bug. We definitely learned something new about Audrey - she's a trooper when she's sick like that. She didn't cry and all she wanted to do was sleep or be held. Luckily it was a pretty quick stomach bug, since we were on an airplane the next day...

Audrey is so much fun! She has lots of personality and it's so cute (most of the time). She loves to learn!!! And she loves for her sister to teach her. Audrey has almost mastered writing her name, due to her sister working with her. Audrey loves Rachel. Sometimes we call her a mini-Rachel, just by the way she'll act and talk. But Audrey is still her own person with her own unique qualities. Audrey loves being a big sister. She loves Ian has learned that she shouldn't get into his face or else he'll grab a handful of her hair! 

This little girl enjoys playing with her siblings, but she is also quite an independent little player. Sometimes when we meet up with friends at the park, she doesn't even play with them and just does her own thing. Audrey loves to dance and just move with the music. It's so much fun to watch her. She recently went through her first session of swim lessons. It didn't go as well as I hoped, but whenever Miss Amy was her teacher she did fabulously. (She wasn't a fan of Mister Josh.) Audrey is quite the little fish though. She's more than willing to practice swimming and floating with Mom and Dad, so we aren't worried about her eventual ability to swim on her own. I figure at the end of summer next year we'll be in good shape. 

Audrey is a girl of routine. She's not afraid to call you on something that you are doing differently. She sometimes still takes naps (it depends on the day). She's like me when it comes to falling asleep, it usually takes her awhile. Whereas her sister konks out pretty quickly, just like her daddy. So, after everyone is put to bed we'll usually get 1-2 visits from her since Rachel is asleep and she is not. But she's good about going back to bed and usually after 30 minutes she's settled in for the night. 

She has developed the habit of playing with her hair - twisting it, stroking it, etc... She takes after me in that department as well. :) She very rarely keeps the same outfit on all day, whether it's changing her outfit several times or playing with dress-ups. Audrey is a snacker. She eats quite a bit during the day, just a little here and there though. And she's a pretty healthy snacker - she loves fruit.  And Audrey is quite adventurous when it comes to food - she's willing to try most things.

We are so glad to have Audrey in our family. She brings us so much joy and laughter to us!

Dance Recital

Rachel's dance recital was on June 8th and she did a wonderful job. I'm supposed to get professional pictures that I paid for...I guess I need to call the dance studio and find out when. Here are a few pictures we took. Here's Rachel and her friend, Claire, in our backyard before leaving for the recital:

  

Backstage just hanging out and waiting to perform - Rachel's class was the last performance of the evening:

Back home after her performance with the flowers her daddy had bought her:

Rachel looks so grown up to me in this picture!!!  Where is the time going??? I have a video of the dance as well, but it's too big of a file for blogger. I guess that's what happens when you get a decent camera... But Rachel did a fabulous job. She has definitely learned a lot this year. And even though she enjoyed ballet, she wants to give gymnastics a try next year. She's decided she wants to do a pattern - ballet, gymnastics, ballet, gymnastics, etc... We'll see... Maybe she'll be able to decide what she prefers out of the two or try something else new the next year. I just want her to enjoy and I'm grateful we're able to give her the opportunity to do so!

The Little Mermaid

Today we went downtown to the Miller Outdoor Theater to see "The Little Mermaid". And it was so worth going to!!! Since the performances are free during the week, they aren't always all that impressive. Well, we were very impressed with this show. The cast did a great job. The costumes and stage were all well done. Even Audrey enjoyed the whole 90 minutes (which she doesn't normally do). It was very hot, but we still enjoyed ourselves!

 

Joy School Graduation

In February some friends and I formed a Joy School group. I enjoyed doing Joy School with Rachel and it has been fun with Audrey as well. We kept it pretty casual since 2 of us had newborns. We only did it once a week, on Thursdays. The kids loved it, which is always a good thing! We'll do another full year of Joy School with Audrey before she's enrolled in Preschool. Another girl is going to join the group, which will be nice for Audrey. For the past couple of months we focused on colors and did activities around a certain color each day. This coming school year we'll focus on letters and numbers. On May 31, we had a little graduation ceremony. Our older kids were getting out of school early for the last day of school. So, we had a little ceremony and then headed to McDonald's for lunch and an opportunity to play.

Here's Audrey with her friends Wade and Caleb:

 

Audrey checking out her certificate:

 

The cute graduate:

 Rachel was there to support and cheer Audrey on:

 Mommy and Audrey:

I'm so glad I have the opportunity to do school with my kids. It's fun to get to be their teacher when they're so little and so willing to learn. Audrey has definitely learned a lot this past year. Not only in Joy School, but from her big sister. It's so much fun to watch Audrey learn. We are definitely blessed with little girls who love to learn!

Butterflies

One of Rachel's most favorite birthday presents was her live butterfly garden. Today we released the butterflies. On her birthday she received the net cage and a coupon code to order some caterpillars. A few days later we received 5 caterpillars in the mail. We watched them form their cocoons and then we pinned them to the inside of the cage. About 5 days later, the butterflies came out:

We kept the butterflies in their cage for about a week. This morning when we checked on them we discovered one had died (butterflies only live 2-4 weeks). So, we decided it was time to let the others free. We had to wait for Daddy to get home from work. Once he was home, we let the butterflies go:

 

They were all monarchs, so unfortunately we weren't able to keep them straight. I believe they all just had the name, which was Cassie. Rachel really likes butterflies, so this was a perfect little project for her. And for us, it's the perfect little pet scenario as well. Very little upkeep and it keeps them happy. We haven't ordered more caterpillars yet. Maybe once all our summer travels are over. The girls both enjoyed watching the caterpillars turn into butterflies!