Grandpa and Grandma in the House

We love when my mom and dad can come visit, which isn't nearly often enough. They came this year at the end of February. My dad's birthday is the beginning of March so Sarah and I decided to surprise him with some indoor skydiving. I have to give Sarah credit for the great idea. We were all able to watch and it looked awesome. I think I know what I want for my birthday next year! 

 

We also all got to go to one of EZ's basketball games. It was a bit of a rough season. We were really unimpressed with EZ's coaches and he struggled a lot in the beginning with the higher basket and the bigger kids. Despite that he says he loves it and he requested he go to basketball camp over the summer, so hopefully he can get the attention he needs there to help him improve more. My brother-in-law Casey got some sweet action shots of EZ. I love these first pics and his expression when he trips.

 

King did not want left out of the picture action and kept insisting Casey take his picture as well.

 

We tried to get a cousin group shot. Fail.

 

We also took a trip to Zilker park to ride the train and let the kids run around. EZ really wanted John to take pictures of him practicing his ninja moves. He kills me.

 

 

And once again King could now be left out of the picture action.

 

 

Casey got this adorable Shot of EZ and King on the train. King really does look up to EZ and wants to do everything he does.

 

I have really been wanting some portraits of Conrad and Casey was nice enough to take some for me at the park. It kills me what a cutie he is.

 

Finally, some shots of my parents with the kids. Of course I have none of them with Conrad. I just can't get my act together. My dad is always talking about changes going on at his work and how some day he could be closer and I am just praying it happens soon!

 

 

 

 

 

Febuary Was All About Netta

Not sure how this happened, but despite the fact that my birthday and John's birthday are both in February, the pictures from this month are all about Netta. John and Netta went to the now traditional Daddy Daughter Dance. Netta absolutely loves this. And I love the pictures we get of her and John.

 

It was hard to top last year's professional picture, but I think they managed it this year.

 

Netta is in a playgroup with 2 other little girls and they were really on a roll one day and they shoved tons of stuffed animals up their shirts so that they could be pregnant. She just kept yelling "Look at my babies!" I think they have may shifted a bit too high and turned into another "b" word.

 

We got Netta's preschool picture and her class picture absolutely cracked me up. Netta is the most social child on the face of the planet and somehow the photographer made her look completely ostracized.

 

Netta's preschool class also got to go on a bowling trip. She was so excited to finally get to go on a field trip like EZ does. I love the way the hand drier was blowing her hair in these pictures.

 

Of course King and Conrad got to tag a long on the field trip. It is looking like Conrad is keeping his blue eyes.

 

Finally, there actually are 2 updates that weren't Netta focused. Conrad is still the runt of the family by a good 5 pounds, but at his 6 month check up the doctor said she is no longer worried about his weight gain. In the back of my head it still weirds me out a bit, but I will trust her judgment. I thought since he his smaller, he might do things like sitting up and crawling sooner than the other kids, but so far he is proving to be just as lazy as they were.

 

 

Also, EZ has been losing his top teeth and looking like a crazy person with one tooth gone and the other one hanging down all wonky. As goofy looking as it is, I love seeing him enter all these new phases.

I Hate January

Let's just say that January is not my favorite month. The weather is crappy and you are coming down off the holiday season high. Add to that the fact that John was working crazy hours, Conrad was not gaining enough weight and he still wasn't sleeping through the night, King forced us to start potty training him and I started teaching an online class for BYU-Idaho. Oh and I gave up sugar for 2 weeks. Probably not the best timing. It wasn't all bad though and here are some pics to help remind me of that. 

First, we have King in what I like to call his "dress jammies." His obsession with wearing jammies all the time is still going strong so I bought him some more button up ones so he can look "nicer" when we go out. Not sure why it matters when you eating dinner at Ikea, but I tried. 

Next some cuties of the runt of the litter, Conrad. When we took him in for his 4 month check up in December his weight percentile had dropped and that concerned the pediatrician so I had to start closely tracking how often he ate and for how long and I had to try to add in another feeding. That meant letting him nurse whenever he wanted at night. Usually by now, I have the baby out of our room and in the nursery but because of the weight scare Conrad was still sleeping with us and keeping me up all night. After a few weeks of letting him nurse through the night, I realized that he was latching on and then I was passing out and not knowing if he was actually eating. Well finally one night I made my self stay awake and that boy was just using me as a pacifier and not really nursing at all so he was immediately moved to the nursery and immediately started sleeping through the night. That little trickster. A cute trickster, but not cute enough to override my need for sleep. I am still trying to get used to how small he is compared to my other kids. I am not sure I will. The crazy part about him not gaining enough weight is that he is the happiest baby on the planet. How can he be so happy if he isn't eating enough? I just don't get it. 

I had no intention of even starting to potty train King till March, but he gave us no choice. He decided that he had to have his diaper changed the minute he peed in it no matter where we were, so I would turn around in the grocery story and find him with his pants off, laying on the ground, waiting to be changed. To his credit he caught on really fast and after 2 days of potty training he started insisting that he pee standing up like the big boys. He also started insisting the he go commando at all times. We tried to force him to wear underwear, but that would entail pinning him to the ground and putting it on him and then he would immediately take it off, so we gave up on that one and let him be free. He also flung his poop a couple of times, but I will spare you the details on that one. 

My sister Rachel is great about sending packages for the kids and this time she sent one including an awesome pink wig. Of course everyone had to try it on except for EZ who is getting "too old" for that sort of thing. 

With EZ in school and Netta in preschool and play group, King and Conrad get to have a lot of time to bond and King is a great big brother. I really love the second picture, because you can see Conrad's blue eyes and by some miracle King actually has underwear on. We have spent so much money on underwear trying to find something he will wear it is ridiculous. 

Netta is really on a makeup kick lately. She loves covering herself with tattoos and she told me she wanted to have fake nails like her preschool teacher. As luck would have it, we found some clearance holiday fake nails and she got to try them out. She loved them at first but it didn't take long for her to realize that it was really hard to do anything with them on. Hopefully, painted nails will suffice from now on. 

Finally, this gem of a trailer showed up directly in front of our house. I guess Cousin Eddie came to visit the neighbors. As funny as I think it is, I was glad it was only there for a couple of days.  

Christmas Break Means Family Time

EZ had over 2 weeks of vacation from school and John had a week, so we did our best to make the most of it. We went to an indoor trampoline park and the kids loved it. We had gone to one in Utah and the kids had a blast, so we wanted to try one here. Luckily there was a Groupon, because man those places get expensive fast. The kids of course loved it, but for some reason we didn't get pictures of them jumping. However, we did get picture of them all on this little teacup ride. EZ didn't really fit but we made him do it anyway. 

We also went to SeaWorld. May grandpa always sends money for the kids and we decided that they needed more experiences then toys, so we got SeaWorld passes. There was a sweet deal going on where you could buy a one day pass and it would be good through the rest of 2012 and all of 2013. They do a whole special program over the holidays and when you walk in the front gates they have snow blowing all around. So that is snow on my jacket and not dandruff. The kids were so excited to see snow in Texas. Too bad it only lasted for a couple of seconds. 

They change the shows around to have a holiday theme and they also try to make them splash less. That being said I was still nervous anytime we had to sit in a splash zone. We never got wet, but there were some folks who did and that must have sucked. 

The high was 50 degrees that day, which might have sounded warm before we moved to Texas, but we were freezing. Well, we being John and I. We made the kids leave earlier then they wanted to, because we couldn't handle the cold. Luckily, we do have those passes that let us go back again. The promise of a return trip was the only way to convince the kids to leave somewhat peacefully. 

On the way home we had to stop at Buc-ee's. It is like a Walmart sized gas station. We were pretty stoked when they opened one up kind of near us.  

EZ got the game Skylanders for Christmas and that got played a lot. It is his first true video game that isn't on the Kinect and he was dying to get it. Whoever came up with it is a genius, because there are all these characters you can buy and you can easily drop $400 if you bought everything. We will not be buying everything. He loves it so much that he wanted to explain it to his brothers. 

On New Year's Eve we got to go to a rockin' party at our friends house. Before we left John put some gel in EZ's hair and he was concerned that since he looked so good "all the girls would want to kiss him." He kills me. One of the highlights of the party was a couples' belly dancing competition that John and I won. After all of our travels in the Middle East and my belly dancing classes we frickin better have won. 

After the party Sarah and Casey came over and of course we worked on a puzzle. We know how to party at the Browns' house. 

For some reason EZ really got obsessed with the idea of having a New Years Day party for him and some of his friends, so we decided to let him do it. Of course they spent most of the time playing Skylanders. I forgot to take pictures, but here is one that EZ took of his friend Ethan and one of his Skylanders. Then below we have some other pics that EZ tooks of just his Skylanders. Have I mentioned that he likes that game?

Christmas Time is Here

Our new family tradition is to go to Waffle House on Christmas Eve. We like to keep things classy. Really though the food is awesome. Here are Netta and I about to enjoy some waffle deliciousness. 

EZ was extra excited this year!

Conrad was just along for the ride. 

Growing up Christmas Eve was always spent with friends and family so we had my sister Sarah and her family and my friend Lara and her family over for dinner. We ate way too much and the kids had a blast running themselves ragged. Here are Lincoln and Conrad showing off their festive garb. 

This is Conrad's new trick. Eventually he will graduate to standing up in John's hand, but right now he is still a bit too floppy for that one. 

New pajamas have become a part of Christmas as well. Here I am in my new pair from Sarah. I wish I could wear pajamas all the time. Oh to be in college again. 

Conrad got these cute pjs from my Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy. 

And Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve took care of the rest of the kiddos. Poor John didn't get any. Oops

Of course Christmas day was spent watching all the new movies and playing with all the new toys we got. John surprised me and got me a new phone and of course himself one was well ;) I'll be honest, it is now April and I am just now getting around to writing this post, so that's about all I can remember. Haha. But I know I am so grateful for my family and for the birth of Savior and for the knowledge I have that my family can be together forever because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Belated Christmas!