Before Spring Break and then Spring Break 2019

Henry had an elaborate idea for a hat and with some scissors and a stapler, he made this crazy thing.

It's kind of like a chefs hat, he said.

Then he helped Erica make a crown but they wouldn't hold still for a proper picture.

I was cleaning the kitchen when James asked me to take his picture. I had no idea where this was going but this was the face he gave me.

And then this one.

I asked him to smile and he did!

Aaaaand then it turned into this face.

And then it turned into this.

I sure love this boy. I could hang out with him all day. And I do.

Henry's been into creating comic books lately. This is one of many that he's made, "Robotic Frog"

They are so cute and I'm going to keep them forever.

March 30 was Sarah's piano recital. She played Canon in D and I am a Child of God. She did great and really likes to do the recitals. She gets a little jittery but it's more excitement than anything.

Her teacher, Melissa Quigg is in the neighboring ward so a few of her students are from our neighborhood. I loved seeing some of my activity days girls perform.

Erica has been working on learning all the letters of the alphabet. I told her once she could pass off all the letters, uppercase and lowercase, I would take her out for ice cream. She finally did it! She worked so hard and was so sweet and patient. She never got frustrated and was so proud of herself for doing it. 

Next we will work on the sounds for all the letters and go out for a treat. She's going to be so ready for kindergarten

I made everyone go through the coat closet and try on coats and whatever we didn't wear this past winter or didn't fit got the Marie Kondo treatment. I asked James to put this jacket on to see if it would still fit him next year. He said with a big smile, "I'm Nana!" He remembered Justin's mom has a similar coat and thought it was so funny. He walked around for awhile laughing and telling us he was Nana. He didn't take it off until his nap.

It's a rare treat to catch James sleeping but this day he was sleeping extra late and we had to leave so I went in to wake him up and he was so out. I watched him for awhile and then grabbed the camera.

Sometimes he doesn't like it when I call him a baby but he looks like a baby to me.

Spring break! Woohoo! Monday was also April Fool's day so Justin and I put together some good pranks before we went to bed like frozen cereal.

And Jell-o juice.

Justin put bubble wrap under the rugs and stuffed the toes of the kids' shoes with napkins.

Henry is turning into quite the little prankster. All his jokes involve lots of tape. He put tape on my doorknob (I woke up to him reaching his hand through my door and sneakily putting tape on the knob) tape across my doorway, and tape on the stairs. His tricks are harmless and ineffective now but I worry what he's going to do as a resourceful teenager.

I worked on Sarah's Easter skirt later that day and then I pulled out a button tin I got from my late aunt's house. I honestly don't know who's button tin this was as most of the stuff in it was really old.

I started looking through it to find something for a skirt I was making Erica but then it turned into a button sorting party with Sarah.

No one spring breaks like I do.

We spent 3+ hours going through it and it was totally fun the entire time.

We found a 1944 dime.

A San Francisco train token used 1921-1944!

This super old thimble.

And a lot of really cool buttons.

And a lot more things that weren't buttons. I sorted the buttons by color then poured them into my super old mason jars. I'm still on the fence on what to do with them. Should they be displayed? Used in sewing projects? Returned to their tin and kept as the time capsule that they were?

Tuesday we went to see How to Train Your Dragon 3 and we all loved it. Then on Wednesday we drove to St. George. First stop on the way down there was Herme's in Cedar City because shakes.

We got to Hurricane late that afternoon and decided to check out the Hurricane museum. It smelled really bad in there, like everyone's grandparent's musty attic. It didn't help that under glass was this:

Take a moment and read the plaque.

You really have to see it for yourself in person.

There's also this little beauty.

And this lovely collection.

The whole museum is pretty much where old people of Hurricane take their stuff. Or maybe where younger people of Hurricane take their parents' stuff after they die.

My dad took us to Sky Ranch, a neighborhood south of Hurricane. This is a subdivision with a runway in the middle and all the houses have airplane hangars next to their garages. We imagine some of them must work in California and commute to their jobs?? Or just super rich and want easy access to a runway. So crazy.

I made Pavlova because I like a culinary challenge. I did not like it.

Thursday we packed up the kids bright and early and went to Justin's favorite place in the St. George area: Red Cliffs.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was cloudy and calm.

The last time we went Erica was 2 so she didn't remember it but she loved it this time around.

James was not a fan of the cold water. I was relieved because that meant I didn't have to worry about him drowning.

He did end up falling down and soaking his shorts so he walked back to the car in his diaper. Many strangers commented on his "nice shorts, bud." Thanks strangers.

James: This is my favorite!

Justin and I laughed at what a textile experience this is for them. They have to touch everything they come near.

Then we went back to Hurricane and ate lunch. We put James down for a nap and left him with my parents while we went shopping at the outlet mall. I rarely if ever take my kids clothes shopping since their stuff comes from online stores or garage sales so it was a treat for them to go into stores. We bought some clothes at Gymboree and some flip flops at Old Navy. You'd think it was Christmas to see how excited they were for $2 flip flops.  Then we got Italian ice at Zeppes (super good) and drove back and Justin made dinner for us all. Henry slept the entire time.

Friday morning, we again got the kids up bright and early and drove to St George to do the Temple Quarry Hike. This is a really easy trail, mostly flat. There's no shade so I'm glad it was cloudy again. It would be great to do in the late evening when the sun is behind his mountain.

James started out in the backpack but once we were past the stairs we let him walk. He turfed it a lot but if I picked him up to comfort him or carry him, he wiggled down and said "I walk!"

I think this is one of those moths pretending to be butterfly.

This isn't the end of the trail but it is about half way. It had a great view so we stopped here to eat a snack and take pictures then headed back.

We could see Thunder Junction Park down there which was our next stop after lunch.

And that, for some reason was the end of my picture taking. After leaving this spot, we ate lunch at Irmita's then let the kids play at Thunder Junction. James was super tired so we went on a drive down I-15 to show the kids the Virgin River Gorge then turned around and came back. Then we went to Gunlock State Park to check out the falls. The falls were amazing but it was so crowded that it made it impossible to explore or really move around but since the falls don't flow every year, I'm glad I saw it and I understand why so many people flocked to it as well.

Then we drove to my sister Julie's house in Santa Clara to see her new house and see my nieces and nephew and my parents and my brother and his wife met us there. My parents took my kids back to Hurricane and the 5 of us went out to eat at an Indian restaurant and it was so good. That was a busy day.

Saturday we ate cinnamon rolls from Muddy Bees bakery and watched conference and cleaned up and packed. We drove home during the Saturday afternoon session and arrived home in time for Justin to watch the priesthood session with his dad. Sunday we watched conference, went for a walk, ate dinner at Justin's parents' and put the kids to bed early.

Marchness

I have 8 of these photos on my phone.

What the heck was this thing in my garage the other morning?

It was not skittish, pretty sure it could barely see, walked slowly and wobbly like it wasn't all there. Yuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!!!  I hope it found somewhere to die and never come back. (It's been 10 days since. So far so good.)

 We finally got all our excursions booked for our Alaska cruise in June. I'm going on a train, a plane, a glacier, a raft, and a double-decker bus. 82 more days!

 I have 4 of these photos on my phone.

Henry and Sarah are big Monopoly nerds and this game lasted for days because they were making up their own rules to make the game last forever and I finally I got sick of protecting the board from James while they were at school so I declared them both winners (or losers) and made them put it away.

The kids didn't have school on March 15 so we took them bowling at BYU. They all had fun but we are terrible bowlers except for Justin.

 March 16 Sarah and I went with Justin's parents and grandparents to see Shen Wu in SLC. We thought it was pretty cool and now I'm practically an expert about Chinese traditional dance.

Big news! Justin had his eye laser beamed! He got to donate his spectacles because he doesn't need them anymore! He can't see very well yet because PRK has a long heal time but he certainly doesn't need his glasses anymore!

 While he was at his follow-up, I took the littles to Reams and was a nice mom and let them push the baby carts. I only needed 3 things and we had time to kill.

 I found this little gem under my bed while looking for a screw. Christmas 1987. I'm in the center.

 Friday was my cousin's wedding and during the reception James would only sit with me if I let him view the reception through the camera on my phone. He took this picture.

My mom, my cousin Joelle, my aunt Sue and uncle Doug

 And this picture.

 And this one.

Saturday I took Sarah and Henry to play with friends that moved to Orem. I had a few hours to kill in Orem so Erica and my niece Jaana came with me and we went out to lunch and then to some stores. I wanted to see what all the hub-bub about Trader Joe's was about. I only bought some cookie butter. I'm not sure what else is worth over-paying for. Erica liked pushing the mini cart.

Then we went to the mall which Erica had never been to and she was hilarious thinking it was the most magical place of sparkly things. It took forever to get out of there because she wanted to look at everything.

This one was her favorite.

 I heard her tell her friend about our visit to the mall "It's a place you can be with your friends or just find things you want to buy."

A Post about Baby J

Here are some things about James I don't want to forget.

He loves to say the prayer and volunteers every time. If he's not chosen, he'll say it anyway, talking over who is saying the prayer, kind of repeating what they say.

He went through this phase of trying to speak along with people, matching exactly what they said. It started by watching the older kids say jinx when they said anything in unison. James would try to do it on purpose and if he could pull it off, he'd proudly say "Jinx!" Then for a couple of weeks he would try to match everything everyone said including books read to him. It made me laugh every time and convinced me he's a genius.

When he's done unloading the silverware from the dishwasher the drawer looks like this and it makes me so happy.

I find his cars in my underwear drawer, under my pillow, in my makeup tray, next to my crockpot, inside my purse, alongside my books and I love seeing them as reminders that I have a little boy in my house

He's doing this thing of saying "No" and then after he realizes he does want it says, "Actually yeah". This goes on multiple times a day from having an apple with lunch to letting me read to him. "No!" (Wait for it.) "Actually, yeah." It became our quote on the board for a few weeks.

He walks down the stairs like this every time.

When I say, "I love being your mom" he replies "I love being your boy."

He counts to 10 and can actually count things to about 4 or 5.

He knows all the colors.

He is taller than Henry at this age---6 months ahead, in fact.

Favorite book is 10 Little Ladybugs and it's hidden under his nightstand because I need a break.

He's obsessed with Tiny Trucks on Amazon. He's also obsessed with these Spiderman pajamas. These 3 pictures were taken 3 different days at 3 different times.

I know when he wakes up in the morning because he instantly starts talking to himself but I know not to go get him until he says "Open the door!" Anytime before that and he refuses to be picked up.

Once I do open the door, he greets me with a new random bit of information:

"We went to the movie feater and watched Spiderman!"
"We're not going to Chick-fil-a today."
"I awake. You awake?"
"I ate peaches at grandma's"

He loves to brush his teeth and says "pootaste" for toothpaste

Action songs---all action songs all the time.

Or custom songs like the orange motorcycle song or the purple racecar song.

These pictures are from November but I can't remember if I posted them and I love them so.

He doesn't need his blankie to go to nursery anymore but it was a good way to lead him in the right direction.

Is it weird that I like James at 2 way more than at any other age? He's so funny and smart and way less whiny and clingy than he was for the first 2 years of his life. From the moment he was born he acted like he had things to say and places to go and things to do and now that he can, he's content and rather pleasant.

Dear 20-Year-Old Me

Dear Diana in 2004,

This is future you, in 2019. I just have a few things to give you a heads up on.

First of all, you'll accrue college credits from 4 colleges (you should be on your third college at this point) and that's fine. But major in something I'm interested in now like nutrition. Just kidding, the chemistry will scare you off. That won't change. Maybe HR. There's something called a hiring manager that sounds interesting to you at 35 but your television journalism degree doesn't apply. Hiring managers get to read everyone's resumes before anyone else and get to see the negotiated salaries. It's professional nosiness and it sounds right up your alley. Your journalism degree only makes it impossible to enjoy watching television news and compulsively change what people say into active voice in your mind. But any career path will take you to blogging about your kids and perfecting your cookie recipes for the next foreseeable future so whatevs.

Second, wear compression socks when you're pregnant. All 4 pregnancies! It will save you $5000 and lots of pain from 10+ shots and catheter up your thigh. Ironically you're going to have to wear compression socks anyway if you don't.  Let's go the cheaper, albeit hot and ugly, route of prevention.

Third, don't throw out that dark blue denim jacket or those black leather sandals from American Eagle. They're not as easy to replace as you think. Go see if they still sell the Revlon 1875 watt hairdryer that you're using and buy a backup. The one you've got goes caput in 2016 and no other hairdryer compares. Stock up on bootcut jeans. I know they are everywhere and why would we depart from a fit that flatters everyone but jean designers of the future don't think calves need air. I saw someone peg their pants just like we did in 1st grade. The future is caaaraaazy!

Fourth, you'll buy pork neck bones at the store. Nothing you need to do about it. I just wanted to laugh at your reaction because I bet you didn't see that coming.

Fifth, you know that guy in Home Alone 2, lost in New York in the hotel lobby with the dumb haircut? Donald Trump? He gets his own reality show on NBC. Isn't that crazy?!

That's all I have time for. Enjoy your new Evanescence CD!

Sincerely,
Diana in 2019