Twenty-six

 Today I celebrated my 26th birthday. It started bright and early with breakfast in bed and gifts. Camilla excitedly brought me her gift wrapped in a brown box with a bow on top and a whole lot of scotch tape to keep it shut. She had wrapped it a week ago and has been waiting and waiting for my special day to watch me open it. Inside I found one of her teddies and an old pair of my slippers which she promptly placed on my feet to keep them warm. I love that girl and the love that she has for those around her. 

 

In the late morning a dear friend gifted me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a trip to the grocery store sans kids. It was pretty great! I spent the day surrounded with those I love most and enjoyed many birthday calls from family. I enjoyed a few quiet moments of self reflection and set some goals for this next year. Mr. Stannix arrived home from work a bit earlier than usual and ordered pizza for the kiddos and Auntie Chris who kindly agreed to babysit for the entire evening! I left a bottle in the fridge and prepped myself for a whole evening away from my baby.

 

Our night began at a cute little Italian joint called Franco's. The atmosphere was lovely and the food was delish! If I could eat pasta every day I would!

 

Mr. Stannix and I both ordered different dishes so that we could share, but both of us ended up liking our own dishes better anyway. I had a delicious chicken lasagne topped with mushrooms and lots of cheesy goodness and I ate the entire thing.

 Mr. Stannix watched me eat with a twinkle in his eye knowing how much I enjoy food and feeling pretty proud of himself for picking such a great place to eat. I love that guy!

We finished off our evening in Row 7 at Rexall to watch the Oilers take on the Kings.  We snuck out a few minutes early missing the final goal that led to their 4-2 win against LA. We beat traffic and arrived home to a quiet house and sleeping kiddos.

A Favorite

Bathing my baby is one of my favorite things.  Sometimes when I look at him tears of gratitude well up in my eyes for his perfect little body, his happy disposition and the joy he brings to our family. He is such a little blessing

Good Friday

Our Good Friday was oh so good. The weather can't quite decide what it's doing though so we've been alternating between snow covered ground and brown grass. I am looking forward to packing up the snow gear until next year. 

Mr. Stannix had the day off yesterday and we kicked off our weekend with breakfast at iHop. The kids each got a funny face pancake, I enjoyed a huge plate of french toast and Mr. Stannix had an egg sandwich. I enjoyed having him around all day to help with the kiddos and snuggle Finley while I tried to get stuff done.

After dinner we decorated Easter eggs. It's been a tradition since forever and the littles are finally catching on to the whole thing. 

We had a vast array of colors and some crayons to get the job done.

Joe started out with the trustee whisk to avoid any casualties...

But quickly graduated to the spoon after watching the older two.

Hyrum LOVED putting his eggs in the food coloring mixture.

And concentrated extra hard when it came to scribbling on them.

Camilla got extra creative and made a few two toned eggs. She was pleased as punch about those little eggs of hers.

Mr. Stannix always puts a lot of effort into his eggs.

He turned his two into "Fire" and "Water".

Here's his game face for the egg champ which will take place tomorrow!

I loved hanging out with this little man and watching. It seemed weird to have such a quiet Easter, just our little family.

Surprisingly we only had one casualty the entire evening.

Lots of fun had by all, even if my minions looked more like egg heads than minions.

Easter Minis

Last week my sister was close by doing Easter minis and we went out for part of an afternoon to keep her company while she waited for her next shoot. She snapped a bunch of awesome pictures of the kiddos and we had a lot of fun despite the chilly weather. When I look at these I can't get over how big and grown up these kids are getting! We will be spending our weekend listening to General Conference and celebrating Easter as a family. The Easter bunny will be visiting on Saturday so that we can keep Sunday as a special day to remember our Savior and all that he has done for us. Because He lives I know that I can be together with my family forever. Happy Easter!!

A New Treasure

I have been drooling over these wooden growth charts for a while now. Not too long ago I e-mailed the idea to my Dad hinting at a Christmas present for the future. Last time I was out at the Acreage, my Dad was out in the garage working away and he came in and surprised me with my very own wooden ruler. He is a pretty busy guy, so the fact that he took time out of his day to do this for me really meant a lot. He built a jig to help him router out the lines evenly and took care finishing the edging. We then worked together painting the tick marks, sanding, and staining the board. I will never forget how loved I felt when he walked into the house to show me what he had been working on when he could have been doing a million other things. I love my Dad. This will definitely be a treasure for our family and a constant reminder of how much my Dad loves me.

April Fools

 The wind sang and howled all night long blowing in a nice, slushy storm. The snow began around 7:00am and hasn't stopped. I looked out the window this morning and felt bad for this poor robin. It seems Mother Nature frequently likes to make it snow on April Fools. 

We braved the wind and wet snow to make it to and from the grocery store before it got any worse. The children were pretty well behaved. I only had a few people inquire if they were all mine and a sweet elderly gentlemen smile and wave at Joseph while he told me I had my hands full. Camilla was standing on the front of the cart, Hyrum was standing on the back,  Joseph was strapped into the seat, and Finley was sleeping away snuggled next to me in the carrier. I joked that I actually had a cart full and got a good chuckle out of him.

 

Camilla kept Finley happy while I unloaded the groceries. Today has officially been dubbed an inside day. That wind is insane. It's a good day to eat chicken noodle soup for lunch, and bake cookies!

Sunny Spring

 Today was filled with blue sky and sunshine. Finley happily put himself to sleep amidst the chaos of morning chores and family prayers. When he woke up I enjoyed cuddling him in the rocking chair while the morning sun poured through the window and the older kids played downstairs. 

 

The afternoon brought us to a favorite park full of kids. The combination of Spring break and warm weather made it the busiest I've ever seen it. The kids had fun climbing, sliding and rediscovering. It took Joseph a while to build up the courage to go down the slide. The way he fearlessly bombed down it last year used to make me nervous, so it was nice to see him being a little more cautious this year.

 

We finished up the afternoon playing in the backyard until we saw the clouds rolling in. The weatherman was calling for storms. The littles came in just as the wind started picking up and the rain started spitting. The wind has been howling ever since. It makes me think of Frozen, "A real howler in July eh?" Except it's the end of March. T-shirt weather today, winter coats again tomorrow. 

South America

This morning before church the children came up from the basement and informed me they were heading to South America in search of adventure. Oh how I will miss these days filled with imagination and adventure. I am in love with Hyrum's outfit. Its like Peabody and Sherman combined with the old man from Up. Hilarious!

Land Ho!

 It's late, so this will have to be short and sweet. Here are a few things that made me smile today...

Watching these two as they spent the morning creating together.

Watching Hyrum enjoy loves and cuddles from his baby brother.

Watching this guy explore on our walk this afternoon. Pricless.

I only wished I had a pair of splashing boots so I could join them.

 

Listening to them as they turned into pirates and started shouting "Land Ho!" as they explored this massive puddle and discovered an island of ice in the middle.

Watching Joseph as he trudged through the water singing as he went. I had to pull them away from this body of water with promises of warm milk and caramel when we got home.

Finding Peace

After a fun filled morning we decided to take it slow for the afternoon. The older two were playing quite well tucked away in Camilla's room in an imaginary land. I decided since the house was so quiet, it would be a good time to bath the baby. Joseph was my side kick and drove his army car around at one end of the tub while I bathed the baby at the other end. It was a very peaceful bath time smack in the middle of our afternoon. I spent the next little while smooching my chubby baby all over while I dressed him and trimmed his nails. Joseph played quietly at my feet making the perfect car noises. I couldn't help but breath the moment in deeply. It's not often that moments like these come along with four energetic littles.