Foot snack

This little girl of mine. Where do I even start? 

Adele is just about 16 months old.

....yet....she started chewing on her toes just last week.

says the following words: Mom, Dada, Ow, Wow, Car, Cracker/Cooper (they sound the same), thank you, snack, no, rawr.

signs: more, please, milk

Copies just about every little thing we do. She particularly lives for the daily routine with each of us; brushing teeth, going potty, taking dish towels and wiping various things, emptying the dishwasher clean or dirty, "sweeping".

She is oh so sweet and loves loves loves her brothers whom she shares a room with and falls asleep with every night. They love her too. They help her and are gentle with her. They especially enjoy (and she does too) making her laugh and giggle. 

So thankful for this adorable bundle of pink who giggles and rawrs with us every day!

Weekends in Ramona

We have been down to Paige and Danny's twice and love it there. It was a nice getaway both times. They have lived there since May but they're back to Utah for Danny to finish school in a couple of days. We sure will miss seeing them as much as we do!

Megan's birthday

Megan's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. We had a group of friends gather at a local park up in the canyon in Oak Glen tucked in between all the apple orchards. Our friend Melanie baked a beautiful and even more delicious cake for Meg.

Daddy and Adele

Megan and her scrumptious cake

Sweet Adele

Lindsey and Jennie

Katie, Melanie, Brandon, Kim, Cutie lil' June

The cake creator, Melanie and Cadence

Meg and Adele

The whole gang

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

Cooper's HUGS award

Cooper's teacher called me a couple of weeks ago to inform me that Coop was receiving the first HUGS award for the kindergarteners. HUGS at the school stands for Huge Undertakings Great Successes. They recognize a different grade each Friday at an assembly and there are two boys and two girls from each class in that grade who receive the award. Cooper was recognized for his leadership, kindness and responsibility. (My mom just so happened to be here for it too!!) Just a few days ago a mother came up to me when we were dropping kids off at school and told me that her son told her about a time he fell down at recess and was crying and Cooper came to make him feel better. My heart just about burst when she told me. We tell him every day as he goes to school to be a good boy for his teacher and a good friend to his classmates.What a sweet boy he is! So glad he was recognized for his efforts.

The Day My Sister Became A Mother

This is the only pic I got of Quinn on my camera. I don't know how that happened.

I have to say a little about Paige and Danny and their new little girl Quinn! To make a long story (that's not even mine) short and sweet Paige was in early stages of labor for over 30 hours. And I use the technical term "early stage" because of how much she dilated in that amount of time but boy oh boy it was a long day and a half for her. When I got the go ahead to make the drive to be with her early Monday morning I packed quickly, got Cooper off to school and headed for San Diego to meet my friend Joni who would be keeping Jack and Adele for the next day or so. I ended up at Paige's around 11:30 that morning. She made a sandwich, we went for a walk outside and she showed me around. All the while she had regular contractions that I could tell were very uncomfortable. At around 12:15 when we were back inside and she was sitting, her water broke. We jumped into our cars and headed for the hospital. A long and painful 15 hours later Quinn was born! I saw Paige go through every long (2-3min) contraction with an epidural that never really worked for her completely. She had to push for a long time and that little girl's head just didn't want to come out. She almost had to go for a c-section but the vacuum, some serious pushing from Paige and clever maneuvering from the Dr did the trick. 

There was so much more that she went through but I'll let her tell the story :)

I was so thankful to be there. Thankful to sit back and watch her and her husband, Danny, do it all together. He was a great support for her. I remember at one point, when things were a little intense, seeing her looking at him to just get through it and I could tell that he was a rock for her. I was thankful to somewhat (barely) fill the shoes of my mother who I knew desperately wanted to be there with Paige. I was also very thankful to be one of the first people to lay eyes on the perfect baby that Paige grew in her tan belly. (You would laugh if you actually heard how many times Paige said how much all that hard work at the pool paid off this summer.) Paige and Danny are in love with Quinn. Paige is a proud momma and I love seeing her that way. She was meant for it. And that little girl, she's pretty dang cute. I guess making cute babies just runs in the family. I think Adele should be a little scared of her competition but I know in the end they'll be bffs.

Speaking of beautiful babies, here are a few recent pictures of my darling children:

One week down

Well we made it through our first official week of law school and kindergarten! Jake had a whole week of orientation/classes before the first real day of school but he and Cooper shared their first day. We made pancakes and took pictures (which I can't post because the card doesn't fit in the mac :/ ). Jake left shortly after me and the kids. It's nice that we have him in the morning to have breakfast with and read scriptures and pray together. Me and the kids walked Cooper to school every morning. It's about 2mi roundtrip. Can I just tell you that it is SO NICE being able to count on walking out your front door every morning into the sunshine!!! I love walking to school in the morning. Luckily Cooper got AM kindergarten and goes from 8am-1130am. Once Jack, Adele and I make it home we have a snack, work on stuff, play, Adele takes a nap and then we hop in the car to go pick Coop up. It's still too blazing hot to take the kids on a 2 mi walk right around noon. We probably walk both ways come fall. I love getting the workout and I think the kids enjoy being outside in the morning.

Every day that Cooper came home from school he was a little grumpier than the previous day. By Wednesday I had to force him to take a nap. Cooper has never been a napper but he NEEDED it. He came home everyday with stickers on his hands from being a good boy, so I think he's fine at school but by the time he gets home he just emotional and whining about everything!! We also spent a few afternoons swimming at our new friends pool with them. Another reason I love Cali. (You'll read that line a lot... just a warning.) Cooper never seems to be able to remember any kid's names or what he did at school but he is saying that he's having a lot of fun and there haven't been any tears about having to go to school. He's been excited every morning!

Jake has had quite the load so far. But considering all the horror stories we've heard I'm surprised how much time we've actually had with him. We were able to spend some of Tuesday evening with him. Also a good chunk of Saturday. I'm sure it won't be like that every week but he's been super great at working really hard every day and getting the most out of every hour he spends studying so that when he is home, he's HOME. He treats this like a full-time (and then some) job where he decides on a daily basis how long he needs to be at school so he's ready for the next few days.

Although I miss seeing him, I understand he has to be gone a lot. I feel very blessed with how smoothly me and the kids' transition has been into life without him around as much. Me especially. It was a big change going from working a lot and having him around a lot of the time and being able to run errands without kids where we're at now. I know it's a huge blessing living with our friends too. They help me so much every single day. Megan goes running with me in the evening and it's some awesome end of the day therapy! We have some good talks during that hour. Brandon comes home from 12-14 hour days and plays with the kids. They are some awesome friends. We had a nice weekend to gear up for the next week and I am ready for it!

Boonshoft Membership

Last week we went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles courtesy of a membership we bought at a museum in Ohio the night before online. My friend from back home tipped me off to this a few months ago. Here's the deal:

Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, OH has a membership for families that is $85/year. That includes 2 adults and up to 6 children in one home. "But I don't live in Ohio," you say. Here's the awesome part--the membership has reciprocal benefits to over 300 other locations in the US including zoos, aquariums, museums, science centers, etc. What that means is that because I bought the membership at Boonshoft, I can take that membership card to listed locations at just walk through the door! We live next to my sister, Paige, and there is an option to boost your membership and add on a few extra people. We added her and her hubby so the membership cost us $125 for the whole year. Here is a link to the reciprocal list for each state in the US. It's important that I note that different locations may have different rules. For example when we went to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles they allowed 2 adults and 4 children listed on the account. Any additional people would have to pay the full admission. This particular museum also required that we showed ID to prove we lived more than 90 miles away from the location. For this we showed our WA drivers licenses. Not all locations require ID for proof of residence. If you look closely at the list it will specify (IDs) after the name of the place.

I had to share because I feel like it's such a great deal!!!! The first time we used it at the Museum in LA we saved ourselves (or put toward the $125 membership already paid for) $34. And that was one place. There's a great huge list in our area and I hope you can find some in your area too.