We've been really busy!!!

So... where to begin! I have been really busy lately, hence the lack of postings for what, 8 weeks??? Well, in May we were extremely excited to welcome a new member of our family - no, not a baby, Jeff got married to an awesome girl who I am super excited to officially call my "sister"! Yay Jeff and Liz!! So I totally stole this pic off of their blog, sorry guys :), but I think it's really cute!



Their wedding was a great event, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time! It was fun to spend time with the family, even if it was only 2 days :) It was also a nice to get to know Liz's family, they are great and a lot of fun!



Here's all of us except the happy couple who were off getting their own pictures taken. I stole this one from Kelsi. Sorry. I didn't have a camera with me! Now that I think of it, I didn't take a single picture in this post. They are all taken off of other's blogs or facebook pages...

Memorial Day:

For Memorial day, we started off going for a family run, training for a 5k, which was a lot of fun! The boys really enjoy it and it's a thing we plan to keep up this summer! Then we went to a church picnic where we played 16 in softball!!! We had a great time, and it was fun to play a game with the adults and older kids! We then had a few families over to our place for a BBQ, but of course that is when it started to pour, so we had to pull it inside! I think we had about 22 people in our house - pretty cozy! But it worked out, and the kids all had a fun time!


Araleigh and her best little buddy, Claire! Such cute girls!



We then went up to our favorite little ice cream place, the Dairy Bar, for dessert:)



I think the kids were pretty excited that the rain had stopped and they could be outside! They played some weird, made-up game in the parking lot, and had a lot of fun!



Our group! (Except for Sarah, who took the picture, actually all the pictures!)

The Aquarium:

Thanks to an early birthday present for all the kids from grandma, we are members of the Shedd Aquarium in downtown Chicago. We LOVE the aquarium! I couldn't wait to take Araleigh and some friends to see it!

This is a little play area where the kids can touch fake sea life. Araleigh didn't want to touch this fake anemone...



Araleigh loved this little spotted turtle, she had to keep going back to see it!



Araleigh and Brady playing with the penguins. This is a new exhibit that is so cute - the kids can put on a penguin costume and slide down the "ice". Of course, Araleigh didn't want to do that, she just wanted to play with the puppets. The babies hatched out of little eggs, which was quite exciting!

Happy Easter~

We had a great Easter out here~ chilly, but still good! The kids had a fun time decorating the eggs, Araleigh would just plop them into the cups of coloring, but the boys were very creative and put a lot of effort into their decorating.

Our neighborhood had an egg hunt at the park which was a lot of fun. I think Araleigh probably only found 2 eggs on her own, the rest were given to her by other kids who had found their 12 eggs but didn't want to stop searching. Araleigh was happy to let them do the work for her!

And of course they had to survey the loot :)

Traeden was not able to attend the hunt because he had baseball practice, so Jaxon came home, refilled his eggs with candy and hid them in the backyard for him to find. What a nice brother!

The Easter bunny comes on Sat morning at our house, so we can preserve the true meaning of Easter on Sunday. The kids of course woke up way too early to search for their hidden baskets. Trae found his first,

Araleigh was next,

but poor Jax looked EVERYWHERE and just could not find his basket. He was very mad and convinced that the bunny forgot about him. (hence the mad and sad face...)

But, lo and behold, he found it! Phew!

Yes, it was a good Easter this year!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little princess decided to cut her hair. Not that I'm surprised, because she is CONSTANTLY getting into trouble, but I was really hoping this day would not come. And I really hope it doesn't come again!!!!

So, here's the story: one of the boys had used the scissors and left them sitting on the table, which I noticed were missing...then I hear a "snip, snip, snip".....hmmmm...."where's Araleigh? Where did the scissors go???" I look under the table, and there she is, happily snipping away. I of course freak out and moan "noooooo!!!!", grab the scissors, and the pile of hair neatly placed on the floor, and pull her out. I am literally about to cry, when she looks at me with those big blue eyes and says "relax! Mom, just relax! It's okay!" Well my 2 year old telling me to "relax" turned the tears into laughter of course, although I was still a little worried as I surveyed the damage. Luckily, her hair was half up, so I can hide it pretty well. I did have to get it cut though, so that it wasn't so noticable with the 8 inch difference... She's still cute, what can I say?

Before:

what she did:

what it looks like now:

Please ignore the fact that she's naked, she is pretty much always naked these days...

I know that it could have been a lot worse, and I am happy that it wasn't a scalp cut! Hopefully she got it out of her system!

San Francisco!!!

Just a warning: this is a LONG one!!!

We were very blessed to be able to head to San Francisco for spring break and stay with our awesome friends, Josh & Robynn, and also hang out with my great friend from forever, Laura!!! What a fabulous trip! It really could not have been more perfect!!! We had such a wonderful time and it was so nice to spend time with our friends who we miss so much!!! Our first day there, Dave and I took the boys to Alcatraz, one of my "bucket list" items :) We really enjoyed it!! We weren't sure how the boys would do on the audio tour, and worried about it keeping their attention, but it did and they LOVED it! It was really fun to see them move excitedly to wherever the voice told them to go! It was a very educational experience for them and I highly recommend it!

Arriving on the island - Jax had to be at the front of the boat for all the action, even though the wind was freezing! He was really excited to see the jail!

Welcome sign. The tour guide at the dock was very fun and friendly. Since our boys were of course at the front of the crowd, he was talking with them and when he found out they were from Chicago, he decided to share a "Chicago story" with all of us about Al Capone. The boys loved it! They want to learn more about him now, I think I'll make them wait a little longer... :)

Wondering what life would be like in jail... This was actually one of the solitary cells. Not fun, they decided!

A cool but kinda creepy old corridor...

The library.

The visitors window.

The view of San Francisco from the island.

The wall of fame...or shame?? I think they are looked at more as legends and historical figures than criminals...Interesting.

Day 2: Exploring Fisherman's Reef and Ghiradelli Square :)

On our second day we headed back into the city with Robynn and Laura and kids to see the sights! The first main attraction of the day: giant boat cleats! The kids had so much fun playing on these, and we probably could have stayed here all day! But after a little photo shoot, we moved on!

Our oh-so-cool Jax :)

Araleigh's nervous laugh as she sat on the edge.

Next stop: the stinky sea lions!!

The sea lions were so much fun to watch! They were very active, pushing each other off the docks and making a lot of noise! The kids had a lot of fun watching them and captioning what they were probably saying to each other in 'sea lion language' :)

They really didn't mind the smell, which means we hung out there for a while!! It was fun though!

So at Fisherman's warf we watched a magician for a while and then headed to IN N OUT BURGER!!! for lunch! Mmmmmmm........ I love that place! My boys both pounded double-doubles with ease! So good! Then we headed to Ghiradelli Square and had some fantastic ice cream and let the kids play in the fountain.

It was the end of the afternoon so we only got the kids to pose for a picture if it was a "funny face" pose. They love that :)

That evening Josh and Robynn took us up to the Oakland Temple, which is so beautiful! It is up on the mountain and the view is amazing! It was really nice to enjoy the peace and beauty of the temple grounds.

This temple was really neat - you can actually go onto the roof which is a beautiful garden.

The girls had such a great time together smelling every flower! It is amazing how alike these 2 are! They were instant friends! I think Ellie is absolutely beautiful in this pic!

Of course we had to do a family shot!

And then our last day there, we went to the real Jelly Belly Factory! The kids love the small one up in Wisconsin, but this one was so much better! It was really fun to watch the candy being made and of course the kids took full advantage of the "tasting counter". They also had a blast daring each other to try all the disgusting flavors, like skunk spray, rotten egg, vomit, pencil shavings, etc. My favorite part was the clearance room where I got tons of good stuff for super cheap :)

Whew! That was a long one! What a great trip! Thank you thank you thank you to Josh and Robynn for letting us stay! You were fantastic hosts! We felt so comfortable and welcome! We love you guys so much! And thank you Laura for taking so much time for us! It was so fun to see you and your cute kids! I love you tons! See you again soon (hopefully in Chicago this time!)

Easter Preview...

The kids have some new fancy clothes for Easter, and they couldn't wait that long to wear them (neither could I!) so here are some pics of my handsome boys and beautiful princess!!

Traeden - I love his shy little smile, he feels good in this suit but doesn't want us to know it!

Jaxon - He feels good in this suit and wants EVERYBODY to know it!!

Araleigh - well, she always knows she's pretty so what makes this any different??? :)

I sure love my kids! They rock :)

St. Patty's Day in the City!

I finally saw it!!! After all these years, wanting to see the Chicago river when it was dyed green for St. Patrick's Day, we finally saw it! I convinced our friends, Chris & Kim and cute kids to ditch chores and join us too! I have a talent for convincing people that stuff like that can wait until later :) It was a beautiful Saturday (we don't see many of those around here yet) so we just had to get out and see it. It was really neat! Of course, the pictures don't really capture the green as well as I wish it did, but you can tell that it is unnaturally greener than usual.

So then it turns out our friends hadn't been to Millenium Park, so of course we had to show them the "bean" sculpture, which the boys had fun doing unique poses under - these are some of my favorites:

And then what would a trip to the city be without topping it off with what is, in my opinion, the best deep-dish pizza at Giordano's!?! Mmmmmmm...... Yep, great day!

A Family of Snowboarders - FINALLY!!!

So one of my life's goals has come true - learn how to snowboard as a family!!! And with a giant THANK YOU!!!! to my brothers, Jeff and Danny, and Jeff's awesome wife-to-be Liz, we now know how! The kids had a few days off of school so we took a VERY quick (we're talking 2 day) trip to SLC to hit the slopes! What a perfect day, too! Fresh snow, not too cold, and not crowded at all! Our fantastic teachers were very patient with us and they all did such a great job! It was the best day! So much fun! I can't wait to do it again!

Traeden was definitely the most natural, doing jumps by the end of the day! Now if only he could stop as well as he jumps, we'd be in good shape :) He did great, of course, he's always had a natural talent at everything...definitely gets it from his father:

Dave did awesome as well, picked it up a lot faster than me, and I have done it before (well if you could actually call it "snowboarding"...mostly we just tumbled down the mountain all day...but we had fun! Right, Wendy???) Of course Dave is a really good skier, and he has no fear which helps! I am such a wimp and too scared to go anything even resembling not slow!

Liz was awesome and literally held Jax's hand for his first few runs. She was so good with him and such a great teacher! I wish I had a picture of Jeff helping him up the tow rope - I must say those things are impossible on snowboards! Jeff would hold onto him and put his foot on Jax's board and they'd ride up together - it's amazing to me that they didn't fall. Dave and I fell several times, and Traeden just ended up taking his board off and walking up the practice hill.

Finally done practicing, and ready to try out a real slope! Jax rode up with Jeff and Liz, Danny took Trae, and Dave and I braved it out together - and amazingly did not tumble on top of eachother!!!

So after a long day and a lot of practicing, we ended up doing pretty good! The boys had a lot of fun and are anxious to go again! Jax's first comment as we were leaving was "can we come back tomorrow??" What a fun trip!