Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Our Last Summer Activity!

We headed out with Grandma and some cousins for one last summer fun day right before school started. We rode the FrontRunner train to the Gateway to get lunch, play in the fountains, and get ice cream. It was a great day and perfect weather. The kids especially loved the train! It had been so long since they'd ridden it, I don't think they remembered it much.

The Ride on the Train:

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Playing in the Fountains:
 
 
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Then Bennett and Mylie visited the moon and mars:
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Coy's Third Birthday!

Oh, how I love this boy! To say he was excited for his birthday would be an understatement. I think thanks to older siblings, little ones learn fast the excitement, fun, and anticipation of birthdays! Coy turned three back in August. He chose a robot cake for his birthday months before the actual day. He asked me almost every day if it was time for his birthday and robot cake.

After an eventful morning (you can read about that at the very bottom of this post), we celebrated that day by going out to eat at Noodles & Co. to get his favorite dish of all time, Macaroni and Cheese. Then later that night we had a Robot party that night with Robot cake, Robot Pops, and Robot games. Coy even wanted Happy Birthday to be sung to him in Robot-style.

The night before, my parents took him to Build-A-Bear and this is what he chose all on  his own. The bear's name is Camo Jazz. Coy's favorite color is green, by the way. Thus it was love at first sight when he saw this bear.

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We let him open one present that morning to play with through the day. He loved it and calls it his "IPad".
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Here is his cake and Robot Pops. The pops were definitely better looking than than they tasted. I didn't have time to actually make cake pops, so I just did marshmallows. Russ actually stayed up late with me the night before adding all the candy details. It was kind of fun to have him help me. It was tedious work to glue on all the details and took a lot longer than we thought it would! The cake was relatively easy, though.
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Coy loved his cake and pops. We were planning on having the party outside, but right before a HUGE windstorm hit, and we had to set it all up inside. Luckily it calmed down enough later to still play outside and do some robot races with the cousins.

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Here are some more pics before the party.
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Opening Presents:
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His excitement could hardly be contained when everyone sang to him. He was just shaking with excitement. Russ and I always just try to describe him as really having a "zest" for life. He just loves and appreciates things so much. He makes life so fun because he find such excitement in the littlest things.

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Here is just some journaling for myself to remember some things.

Coy at Three Years Old...
He is finally starting to make his "S" and "F" sounds at the beginning of words, and is really starting to pronounce words so clearly.

He is FINALLY trying foods!!! After 3 years of being THE PICKIEST eater ever, he has finally gotten brave enough to try things and even has some new favorites, such as meats, fish, and poultry. That kid literally didn't try any of that stuff the first 3 years of his life. I can count on one hand how many times we actually got him to swallow a bite of chicken. Now, one of his favorite foods is fish, especially salmon. And you should have seen how much trout he ate when we went camping! He even ate fish eyeballs! He also has a newfound love for edamame, another food we never could get him to touch. In fact, most vegetables we could rarely get him to eat. He also loved zucchini this summer. It is so relieving to have him eat foods, I can't even fully express it!

He is smarty. He knows all of his uppercase letters (and has since he was just a few months past two years), knows almost all of his lowercase letters, and knows many sounds. He is funny though, and really has to be in the right mood for me to work on it with him. Mylie on the other hand loves teaching him these things while she is working on her kindergarten homework. He also counts really well, and as long as he can remember 7 without saying 11, he can mostly get to 20 with little or no help.

He and I are enjoying our one-on-one time each morning as the two oldest go to school. It is so special to be just with him each morning, and I will cherish it as much as I can. He is the sweetest child when no one else is around. It is a whole other story when his siblings get home :) He really can bully them good, but a lot of the time, he can be a sweet brother and has learned how to say sorry really well. (He gets a lot of practice.) He is a lot more physical than the older kids, and will hit, punch, and kick...and I honestly have no idea how he learned to act that way! On the other hand, he and Mylie really have become good friends in the time they get to spend together while Bennett finishes his day at school.

And just so I don't forget, here is a little more on another subject:

The morning of Coy's birthday turned out to be quite eventful! Bennett had a soccer game that morning so amidst the rush of getting ready, I was filling the tub for myself (because no one loves a good bath when she's pregnant quite like I do), and didn't even quite notice for a bit that the water looked a little brown, OK a lot brown....no extremely brown and orangeish and even sandy!!! AAAAGHHH! What in the world was going on. (And believe me, I really needed that bath!) I immediately drained the water, and of course turned on all the other faucets to check it (dumb idea), and sure enough our water was majorly contaminated. So I called my mom (the city offices weren't open yet, and I wasn't even sure if they were who I was supposed to call.) She suggested running the water for a bit to see it it would flush clean. Well it didn't, it just got worse and my sinks and tubs were filthy!! So once I FINALLY got a hold of the city, they investigated and found out someone had opened a hydrant (without permission) and messed up the water very badly. The lady said run my water in every faucet that I had turned on that morning (all of them, unfortunately) for 20~30 minutes and it should clear up. Well, after an HOUR of running the water, it was still terrible, and probably getting worse. So I reluctantly called again...Eventually, they had to flush the lines, and then after running the water for probably another hour or so, it was finally almost clear. My water heater was full of it though, so I had to try to run out the hot water about 3 times until the hot water was mostly clear. (Bennett's shower after his game was still a little yellowish.) So, needless to say, I did not get a bath that morning, got to enjoy the day in a greasy bun, and got to clean all of the tubs and sinks. Luckily I had gotten a lot of the cake and marshmallow pops done the night before. Funny thing is, they told me it was still OK/safe to use the water. Really? I would just love a tall glass of muddy water, wouldn't you?

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Ready to Turn Three!

Sometime between 2 and 3 years Coy finally decided that he loves to pose for the camera and actually wants me to take his picture. This was just one day close to before his third birthday. He'd worked very hard on getting those three fingers up and holding down his little pinky.

I sure love this little boy. He is so full of energy and spunk. He can be the sweetest thing ever, but can also be a huge stinker. He truly loves life and just gets so excited over the littlest things. He makes me smile a lot every single day :)

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Lagoon

Lagoon is always a highlight of our summer. It is so fun to experience through the eyes of a child. It was especially fun to experience it with Coy, this being his first time there. That kid just has a zest for life. He gets so excited about things and still literally shakes when he is excited. He has since he was a baby, and luckily hasn't grown out of it.

I spent most of my time hanging out with Coy and Mylie while Bennett went off with Russ on the thrill rides. I couldn't ride much being pregnant, but I still really enjoyed myself. It is so fun to see the excitement of the kids. Bennett was at that funny in-between stage where he can still ride most in kiddy land, and wants to, but also likes to ride the grown up rides, too. So he still rode Bulgy the Whale but also got to try out the new Air Race Ride, being just barely tall enough. He also can't get enought of Wicked. Oh, and just so I don't forget, Mylie was also excited about Bulgy the Whale, but called it "Wedgie the Whale." So that is what she and Coy called it, and if I said "Bulgy", Coy thought I was saying it wrong. :)

Lagoon definitely isn't Disneyland, but at least there are pretty much no lines and not much waiting. The kids didn't ever have to practice their patience.

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My very favorite picture of all is of Coy putting his arm around Mylie on Bulgy...I mean Wedgie, the Whale.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

17 Weeks Pregnant (16 weeks ago...)

Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks pregnant, but this post/belly pic was from when I was 17 weeks pregnant. The doctor told us at 13 weeks that we were going to have a GIRL!!! But that was just too good to be true! He was certain, but I just couldn't believe it. I was convinced/had a feeling it would be another boy, and up to that point, I had been 100% correct on my feelings of what gender each of my children would be. I just knew Bennett was a boy (well, everyone did). I "knew" from the second I found out I was pregnant with Mylie that she was a girl...in fact I told Russell one day before even testing, "I am pregnant, and it is a girl." With Coy, once again we all knew he'd be a boy. For those who know the story, he was labeled the "next little boy." So when my "feelings" were telling me my fourth would be a boy, I convinced myself it was, even though deep in my heart I REALLY REALLY wanted another girl, as did Bennett and Mylie. They always said the baby would be a girl. But I just knew it was too good to be true. I mean, who really gets that? Boy, girl, boy, then a girl? So as said before, 13 weeks, she was looking like a girl. What!!?? I couldn't TRULY get excited until this day. 17 weeks pregnant. July 5th. We went in, and guess what? She was STILL a GIRL!! YEA!! Bennett still thinks it is great that I was wrong and he was right. He just knew it was a girl. So we are anxiously awaiting her arrival, and I think this is the last time I technically took a "belly" pic of me. Shame on me!

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Of course Mylie and Coy had to get in on the action and get their picture taken, too :) Oh, and looking back, man I've grown a lot since then!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Summer Recap~Independence Day

I don't think I have ever gotten this far behind! I am almost three months behind on my posting! The Fourth of July was fun as ever this year. We started the morning with the annual Cherry Days 5K. I had helped Bennett train this year, and it got to the point that I couldn't keep up with him anymore in our training! (I blame my pregnancy and round ligament pain...in regular circumstances I would be able to keep up with my 7-year old son, right?) So we decided Russ had better run with him so I wouldn't hold him back...Let's just say even Russ had a hard time keeping up with this boy! He is a fierce and competitive runner!

We knew he'd run it fast, but were blown away with is 23:53 time!!! And it isn't an easy 5K. The first mile or so is uphill. Bennett almost beat my fastest time on that 5K! He won second place in his age group, finishing just a couple seconds after an 11-year old. Since the age group is 11 and under, he is hoping to win first in it next year!

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Here are some cute spectators waiting to see Bennett finish! I am grateful for cell phones and that Russ could call us to warn us that he was coming so fast.

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Then of course it was off to our annual Breakfast and Swimming at my aunt and uncles. We always have so much fun and the food is so so so good!
 
We had some exhausted kids on the drive home!
 
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Later that night, we attended some fireworks and had a great time. I didn't take any pictures there. The evening was so beautiful and the fireworks were fabulous. We sure love our Fourth of July traditions!