Kaitlyn is 6...

My sweet Kaitlyn turns six tomorrow. Every year she gets older and every year I say "I can't believe I have a ___ year old". Today in the car we had this sweet conversation:

Kaitlyn: "How do you find someone to marry. Is it hard?"
Amanda: You have to go on dates to find a boy who is really nice. Yes it's hard.
Kaitlyn: Does it have to be somebody from church. (I can tell she is picturing the boys in her Sunday school class)
Amanda: No, but if you want to get married in the temple then you have to marry somebody from our church. I met pappa when I went to BYU. There are lots of boys and girls from our church who go to BYU. When you go, you'll go on dates with some of them like mommy and daddy did. Daddy took me to a restaurant on our first date. (he also took me to shoot guns, but I didn't mention that).
Kaitlyn: You must have to really enjoy someone to marry them.
Amanda: Yes, yes you do.

I'm so glad I enjoy my hubby. I love our sweet Kaitlyn. She is such a great big sister. Kaitlyn is so good at whatever she puts her mind to. This summer she discovered her love of swimming. She's done swimming lessons the last two years, but would cry everyday. She didn't learn a thing. All of a sudden this year she took off. She swims the 25m freestyle and 25m backstroke so well. Her swim instructor was so impressed with Kaitlyn she convinced us to put her on the swim team this fall.

Kaitlyn is such an intuitive and thoughtful little girl. I'm always impressed by the things she asks me. She loves her baby brother so much and I can tell they will always have a special relationship. She LOVES science, music and art. She has mentioned to me several times that she wants to be a teacher.

Kaitlyn has been begging me all year for some light up sneakers. I finally gave in and told her she could pick out whatever pair of light up shoes she wanted. Big mistake. She picked the brightest, ugliest most expensive pair of light up shoes ever!!! But she will wear them proudly on the first day of school.

I love, love, love my sweet, innocent baby girl. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!!!

 Right before her dance recital.

Ugly sneakers in full light up. I have to find some way to return these.

I'm a barbie girl...

This year Kaitlyn wanted a barbie party. I was happy with that because it was so easy to do. She doesn't really play with barbies too much, but she loves the barbie movies, fashion accessories and coloring books. It was a lot of fun decorating for the party and Kaitlyn had a blast with all of her little friends.  Here are some pictures from her special day.

 They each had a party bag to decorate.

 

 She really is happy. We're working on smiling for the camera =) This was Barbie's salon where they got their nails painted and could pick out a tattoo (the tattoos were mostly for the boys).

 Kaitlyn's favorite barbie movie is Barbie Pegasus, so her Nana painted this banner for her.

 My two  cuties. I made these barbie silhouette shirts for them.

 Each kid got to put on dress up clothes and be a barbie doll.

 We did a barbie scavenger hunt and a pinata. Too bad it was raining or we would have done it outside!

All the kiddos eating pizza.

The only way the boys would take a picture in the barbie box! I told them there are boy barbies too...

Crawfish Boil...

First craw fish boil. I thought I'd never go to one. The idea of picking apart a craw fish and sucking out the meat has never seemed appetizing to me. Ever. But, when my lovely neighbor invited us over I could not say no. I have to say, it was absolutely delicious! I just had to put out of my mind what I was doing in order to get this little bit of divine meat. It tasted wonderful, I just wish I had someone else there to do all the work for me.

Kaitlyn LOVES craw fish, if you can't tell from the picture.

St. Patricks Day...

I read a quote the other day on Pinterest that said something like this:

Good moms have sticky floors, messy kitchens, laundry piles, dirty ovens, and happy kids.

Most of the time I feel the opposite of this. I'm always struggling to keep the house clean and run my errands and then the kids are grumpy. I felt like when I had one kid it was so easy to be super mom. Those days are so gone!

I usually don't do anything special for St. Patrick's day, but this year I did...because of this quote. My house was a mess, but I decided to ignore it and do some fun things with my kiddos. First, we made a leprechaun trap out of stuff we found around the house. The idea was that we would leave our trap out over night and a leprechaun would reach for the cup of gold beads inside the trap and knock over the pencil that was holding the lid up. The girls had a blast making the trap and couldn't wait to see if they caught a leprechaun in the morning. Kaitlyn talked all night about what she was going to do with her leprechaun friend.

It turns out the leprechaun was too sneaky for our trap, but he did leave a poem and some of his favorite St. Patrick's day treats! (I cannot believe I let that sneaky leprechaun leave lucky charms for my kids!)

Mardi Gras...

I never knew what Mardi Gras was until I moved here. I still can't believe my kids get off from school for 3 days either. This year we decided to be a little more festive. The girls helped me make a king cake, which looks ugly but oh so tasty. We didn't have a miniature plastic baby to hide inside of it so we used a plastic ballerina instead. Kaitlyn ended up getting that piece of course! Then we made masks, put on our beads and saw a parade. It's so funny because we've lived here for 3 years now, which is half of Kaitlyn's life, most of Lexie's life and all of Greyson's life. My children are becoming true Louisianians. Kaitlyn will come home from school and put her "book sack" on the counter. Yep that's right, it's not a "back pack", but a "book sack". She says "yes ma'am" all the time, even though I didn't teach her that. I'll ask her what she had for lunch at school and here are some of her favorites: gumbo, jambalaya, poboys and craw-fish. What ever happened to the traditional chicken nuggets or pasta! Too funny.

Lulu's first hair cut...

Lexie got her first hair cut today. I honestly didn't think she'd let a stranger with scissors get anywhere near her, but as soon as she saw the airplane chair she didn't care at all. We walked in and before the hairdresser even said hello Lexie ran up and climbed into the chair and said "can I have my treat now". Silly girl. She really didn't need a haircut, but I thought it was time to clean up the ends with a little trim. The name of the place I took her is called Pigtails and Crewcuts. I take Kaitlyn there sometimes too. First haircuts are always a big deal for me. It's kind of a right of passage.

Before the haircut

They took this picture after the haircut. They also gave me a lock of her hair in a cute bag.


All done!

Moments...

What a privilege and blessing it is to be a full time mom. I'm so thankful that I'm able to stay at home with my babies. I love that I'm the one who gets to comfort them when they fall, sing to them before nap time and cuddle up with them all day long. If I were working, I would have missed this...

She's such a busy girl, she never falls asleep on the couch!

Half Marathon...

I ran the Baton Rouge Beach Half Marathon this last weekend. I hadn't done a big race for 6 years and thought it would be fun to see if I could still do it. My sister happened to be in town that weekend so it was fun to have her and my family cheering me on at the finish line. My realistic goal was 2 hours and 10 minutes (about a 10 minute mile). My dream goal was 2 hours flat. I ran it in 2 hours 3 minutes and 15 seconds (about a 9 minute 25 second mile). Dang it. Now I have to run another one since I was so close to what I thought was an unrealistic goal. Anyway here are the highlights from my race...

Miles 1 - 3 I feel like I'm running in a herd of cows because there are so many people
Mile 4 I look at my running app on my iPhone and realize I'm running way faster than usual
Mile 5 I passed a man who was running in a full sized trash bag. Really weird. I made sure I passed him up real fast.
Mile 7 Accidentally swallowed my gum and started hyperventilating
Miles 9-13 Wanted to die!
Finish Line Seeing the Family
Post Race They had free beer and jambalaya for the runners. Does anyone else think that's weird?

It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do another one so I can beat my 2 hour goal! This time I might try to do some speed training.

Greyson Brock...

My sweet little man is one today. Where has the time gone? My little buddy is the sweetest guy ever and loves to cuddle with his mamma. He's so low key, at least compared to my girls. I love coming in his room in the morning to find him standing in his crib with a grin from ear to ear. He recently fell in love with one of Lexie's many stuffed animals and loves to cuddle with this little puppy every night. Greyson loves to clap, give high fives, play in his big sisters' room, pull ornaments off the Christmas tree, walk while holding our hands and play. He's awesome. If I could clone him I would seriously have another child. Unfortunately, I can't. That sums up how much I love this kiddo =)

Play Dirty...

I ran in the Play Dirty 5K this weekend in Baton Rouge. It was so much fun! I love to run, but I don't love getting dirty. Luckily, I did it with a bunch of girls, otherwise I would probably have never signed up for this. It was basically a 5K with about 12 obstacles throughout the course. It really was a blast.

This was our team - We were called the "Run Amucks"

That huge guy in the overalls was shaking the rope the whole time which made it really difficult to climb!

This was so disgusting! My shoes were so squishy the rest of the run.

These two cuties watched the whole thing! I can't believe Lexie is only 5 pounds more than Greyson when they're two years apart!

A Rapunzel party...

Our sweet Kaitlyn is now 5! The day she turned 5 she kept asking "do I look bigger" or "do I look like I'm 5 now"? Katy loves art, music, dance, books and bugs. Every teacher she's had so far has commented on what a good artist she is and how good she is for her age. Maybe this will be her talent (she's about as talented at sports as I am). She also loves picking out her clothes and telling me how to fix her hair. I really need to learn some cool hair styles, because she's getting bored with the 3 hair do's I know. This year Kaitlyn requested a Rapunzel birthday party. We're just a little obsessed with the movie over here =) Here are some pics from her party.

Rapunzel's braid was hanging on our front door (I had to crop the picture so it wouldn't show our address)

Each kid got to take a picture in Rapunzel's tower. Nana painted it just for the party =)

Lexie just got up from her nap and wasn't quite ready to smile yet

We made Pascal party blowers. This is the best picture I have of the finished product.

Here's one of the sun banners I made.

Katy and I made the cupcake toppers. It was so easy and the kids liked picking out who they got to eat.We played pin the nose on Flynn Rider. Jared made a whole bunch of funny noses so each kid had a different silly nose to "pin" on Flynn.

Florida...

We spent a wonderful week at the beach in Florida. It was our first time to Destin and it was BEAUTIFUL! They definitely call it the Emerald Coast for a reason. Kaitlyn and Alexis loved playing in the sand and jumping in the waves. Greyson pretty much chilled under the umbrella and took naps. He was a trooper though. On Sunday we decided to go to church and eat all of our meals at the hotel and maybe play at the beach for a bit. Well, we all got up early, showered, put on our nice clothes and headed to 9:00 am church. When we got there nobody was in sight and there was a sign on the door saying it was stake conference. There was no reference to where conference was or what time. Jared and I looked at each other, smiled and headed straight to the beach! At least we tried, right?

The girls loved playing in the white, powdery sand

Greyson taking a little snooze

Jared, Katy and Lulu are in the middle of the picture

We also went to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. It was AWESOME!

I have a horrible fear of bridges and had a panic attack walking across this bridge with my kids. I think it's gotten worse with age, considering I once jumped out of a plane, but now cannot walk across a two story bridge =)

He's such a smiler.

The kiddos...

I haven't blogged in forever! We just got back from vacation a few days ago (more on that to come), but here's what's new with the kiddos!

Greyson is exactly 6 months old in this picture. He's always smiling =)

At his 6 month checkup he weighed 18 pounds 5 ounces and was 27.5 inches long. He's rolling and scooting all over the place. He is a champ at eating solids. By far the best appetite of all my children. He'll sit on his own for a minute or so before toppling over.

Lexie is so stinkin cute she gets away with everything. Definitely a mama's girl. She's speaking a lot more clearly and really learning a lot. She starts mother's day out in the fall - we'll see how that goes!

Kaitlyn finished out the school year with her dance recital. She took tap and ballet lessons all year and liked it okay, but when she found out she got to wear this cute outfit and dance on a stage she suddenly fell in love with dance. My oh my was she adorable to watch!

I can't believe my little Katy will start Kindergarten in the Fall. She's definitely ready for it, but I don't know if I am. There's just something more official about Kindergarten then pre-k. I guess they have to grow up sometime =(

Pictures...

We had pictures done a few weeks ago. Here are some of my faves...