Awards Day

A morning full of awards. Mrs. Lane honored Tyler with a scholarship award. Why does he look so big?! Nine next month!

Tyler and Audrey both received certificates and trophies for participating in the Reflections art contest. The parent in charge of Reflections at our school did an awesome job honoring all the students, even made a video of all the kids' art entries for us to watch. She's an artist and had their drawings critiqued by her colleagues. They wanted to honor every student who participated and really encourage the arts, which I so appreciate. I could tell Tyler and Audrey felt really special.

Tyler also had his last comic book class this week. It was so great for him, he loved it. I want to find something else like it - maybe this summer.

Cole was a trooper during the assembly. Here he is exploring the new couch - at first I wasn't so sure about it, but it's growing on me and I think it's a keeper.

Cole's little buddies were supposed to come play but got sick, so after assembly we hit the pet store, then Trader Joe's for Super Bowl Sunday snacks.

Now it's pouring down rain (and a little thunder), which is nice since my house is quiet while Cole is sleeping, but big kids don't have umbrellas so maybe I should be a nice mom and get to school pick up a little early. Saved movie night for tonight (since Adam's been working a ton), might be perfect with rain. Happy Friday!

Cookie Time!

For the first time ever this cute Daisy is selling Girl Scout cookies! Our house will be full of 'em starting this weekend. Let us know if you want any - we deliver locally and anywhere near Ladybug Music. Pretty sure Adam will be taking some to set, too. I know our family already wants about five boxes - a once a year treat so I guess we're stocking up. The lemon Savannah Smiles are sooo good, in my opinion.

Solvang

Spent a wonderful 36 hours in Solvang. I've always wanted to go there, and am grateful for a husband who made it happen. Gorgeous drive, too, and it was in the 70s all weekend. It is the cutest little Danish town - lots of shopping and food. We explored some cool gift shops, an old bookstore with a Hans Christian Andersen museum upstairs (brought home a book of fairy tales), even got massages. Ate delicious Danish cuisine - like meatballs, sausage, potatoes and cabbage. Visited a Danish chocolate shop for dessert. Ebelskivers for breakfast, picked up butter cookies from a local bakery to bring back for kids. So good! 

Adam + Ebelskivers

Crashed at our hotel at night, watched a couple movies. We slept great, and slept in! Happy 11 years to us - perfect quick getaway. Nice to spend time, just the two of us.

The Week

We had a bunch of sickies this week. Including Adam who has the week off before going back to finish season 1 of Henry Danger. Tyler missed church due to fever, Audrey missed a day of school. She played mommy to Cole that day, sang him songs and rocked him to sleep:

Totally unexpected, we bought a couch today! (We've been wanting to for quite some time, just didn't think it would be this week.) This is it at Costco. Hopefully we can all snuggle on the couch together now.

Lauren sent this picture of me and Cole on TV! It was fun to shoot this Ladybug Music class for OWN. Cole probably looks like a deer in headlights because there were so many camera and sound guys around - not a usual staple for him at music class.

We've been trying to play all our new board games for family nights. Adam and I are catching up on our screeners. Every year there's a movie I end up loving that I probably never would've watched if it weren't for the screener. Last year was Philomena. This year it's Still Alice. Really moving. I recommend it.

Okay, two funny stories I've been meaning to tell. Tyler and Audrey's school does this cute holiday boutique so the kids can Christmas shop for family. I thought it was really sweet that Tyler bought both me and Audrey jewelry. He got Audrey a silver infinity necklace, and me this ring. When I opened it he was all smiles and I said, "Oh Tyler I love this ring soooo much!" He said with pride, "Yeah, and it was cheap!"

Also caught Audrey intensely playing with these lego guys. I asked her what she was playing and she said "The BAT-chelor" !!!!! According to Audrey Batman is the host, Superman is looking for a wife. His choices are these lovely Lego Duplos: Catwoman, Jessie from Toy Story, the Zookeeper, the Circus Lady, and a clown! Poor Superman. Looks like Catwoman is in the lead - might be his best choice. I also reminded her this is not how you find a husband or wife, for real.

It's our anniversary this weekend! Kicked it off today with a date to the temple. Tomorrow I'm helping in Audrey's class, then Adam's parents are coming to stay while we escape to Solvang! I'm excited - have always wanted to go there. Happy to celebrate eleven years.

Back to Life

Back to school, back to Ladybug, Adam is back at work on a new pilot this week. Cole is back to being three and Mommy's little buddy. Had a great last week of winter break (we got three long weeks off). Got mani/pedis with this cute girl, who was funny and super shy about it. Blue on her fingers with a flower, red on toes.

Play dates with friends, birthday party at trampoline place, park day because the weather was gorgeous, and lots of time at home with Christmas toys. It was nice to be home after Utah. Christmas decorations are down except the dang tree is still here with nothing but lights (waiting for Adam to help with that one.) A few holiday toys don't have a home, but I basically need Audrey to move to her own room and move the girl toys with her. It's happening soon, but Cole is still napping so well in his crib I can't bring myself to shake it up. Once he's in a big boy bed the naps might be gone forever, and right now I love my quiet nap time before big kids get home. Adam and I are also catching up on all our screeners which is another of my favorite things during winter break.

Photos from our week. Took Audrey to an audition Monday evening for Disney Princess Legos. She rarely auditions bc we don't really pursue it, but when they call we try to go. It was a good experience for her, but we were there for quite some time (with the boys in tow), so afterward we found the fanciest Menchies with a cozy fireplace nook! Perfect after-audition treat (or might've been dinner.)

 Watched Paisley yesterday and took a nice wagon ride to pick up Ivy from Grandma K's preschool. Don't mess with these two... seriously, they're tough:

 This kid - sure love him a ton even though three is a crazy age. He might be the king of time-out right now, but at least he's cute. Thanks Aunt Stephanie for the perfect t-shirt:

 Back to our usual Wednesday morning story time at the library, then we pick out loads of books and dvds.

New Years Resolutions... I don't really call them that, officially. A few things I'm trying to work on are 1) finally printing family photos and blog books, even if it takes me a year or so. 2) Being more chill and go-with-the-flow. It can be hard for me when I get all "schedule-y" - sometimes makes me uptight and cranky, but I need to just go with it. I am the best busy ever, and I can have a sense of humor about the crazy days. Love this post by one of my favorites, Momastery. Showing kids your humanness is the best, and really so freeing I think. 3) Playing with my kids a little more often. We got a ton of board games for Christmas, so that's a good place to start. 4) Making my house prettier, even on the cheap. 5) Simple meals.

PS - If you have the OWN network, Ladybug Music should be featured in this week's episode of the show Raising Whitley. I think you'll see me and Cole, we sat right next to the little boy in class.

More Utah

The rest of our time in Utah was great! Catching up with family is wonderful, and hanging out with Kim always inspires me. She's such a great mom (and person), and she's just really real. We went on a double date with her and Steve to see Interstellar. Girls Day with Jodi and her girls, too, to see Annie. Boys had batting practice. Ice-skating, lots of video game playing (great way for cousins age 1 1/2 - 18 to play together, actually). Hit the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum, and stayed up way late for New Year's Eve. Ate yummy food, lots of talking and laughing, and playing. My kids discovered their love for Grandma Sycamore's bread, which they now call "Utah bread". I had three loaves in the freezer and we now have none! Next time will stock up more. Here's a few last pictures:

Ice-skating with Whitney, Devin, and Lexi:

Hanging around the house. These girls stuck together a lot: Audrey, Emma, Kayleigh, and Whitney:

Cole napping with Devin and the cutest dog of all time, Gizmo (he made me almost want a dog):

My mom got Tyler a book full of blank comics and he was pretty inspired on our trip. He's taking a comic book class at school and loves it. Maybe he's our writer?

So happy we met up with Noah! He and Tyler are great buds, and he moved to Utah at the beginning of the school year. I think it made Tyler's trip to see Noah again. We met him at Classic, a bounce house, arcade, laser tag place.

Tyler hit the 500 ticket jack pot! Cole did too! Audrey won a stuffed animal - all kids were happy.

Waiting for laser tag, Audrey looooved hanging out with her older cousins.

Children's Museum:

Happy New Year! So fun to ring in 2015 with these guys! Streamers and poppers, yummy food, and lots of games to play. It was a good time and we all made it to midnight, except Cole!

Trip back was great despite Vegas traffic and Cole getting carsick an hour from home! For the most part our kids travel so well, and I'm grateful for that. Hope that means lots more trips in our future. There was a moment at the end of Christmas Day Adam and I thought of canceling this trip because we were a little overwhelmed from the holiday. So, so glad we followed our gut and went ahead - it was worth it! I feel refreshed and rejuvenated, reconnected to my kids and Adam. It's a reminder to me that sometimes I need to get away from home (and the to-dos) to really feel that again. Maybe Utah at Christmastime needs to become a new tradition.

Snow!

It had been about four years or so since we'd seen snow! Lucky us, not only was there snow on the ground when we got to Utah, it snowed for two days while we were there. Kids ran right out in the snow with Lexi and Whitney and made their first snowman.

Henry Danger representing in Utah!

Even snow at church is cool to California kids! It snowed the whole time we were in sacrament meeting for baby Spencer's blessing.

Monday we went sledding with Kim, Jodi and all the kids. Cole wasn't too sure about borrowing his cousin's pink snow pants, but he totally pulled them off!

The hills were awesome and the kids were so brave, and had a great time. Favorite thing was races down the big hill. I definitely beat Adam both times. By the time we left it was snowing again - it was so cool to take our last rides down the hill with snow falling.

Went home to lots of hot chocolate, and pizza and movies with family. After our sledding day the temps dropped to around zero, so we got our outside playtime in before it got too cold. Such a treat for all of us.