(No photos yet) Trip to Utah and Idaho (with Easter Sprinkled in)

 We love our trips to see Grandparents and this trip we were able to see both pairs! It was a long trip, but it was so nice to have time to see everyone. Britt travelled out to Utah with me and the kiddos and then Ben met us in Utah halfway through the trip when we was done with his rotation at Fort Bragg. 

Our trip to Utah was pretty uneventful except for the crazy tetris we had to do to get all our stuff to fit in the Uber. I'm sure we couldn't have gotten a good review from that guy. As we were leaving he said maybe next time we should book a bigger car. I would've felt bad if when booking the uber with a carseat it didn't specifically say that the cars will typically be larger cars. I was lied to! And it's not an easy fix because I needed a car with a carseat for Riley so we just had to make it work. Britt hopped out of her SUV uber to be crunched into our tiny Honda uber. We had learned from our last Frontier flight and instead were flying a direct Delta flight so we felt like we were living in style. Also, I'm never going back from TSA precheck. It's the best thing ever. 

The first days of our trip were all about cousin time and playing at grandma and grandpa's house. Riley loved playing with her cousins, but with little kids things are never quite picture perfect. The first day they all had such a good time. Elena read a book aloud to all the younger ones. Elena and Riley seemed to play together perfectly. At one point I heard Elena start a conversation with Riley by saying, "Have I ever told you..." Which was just the cutest adult thing to hear in a little kid conversation. It seemed like they had a wonderful time together. After playing together for a while Elena came up to me and said, "She (Riley) should be a narrator." Haha Elena noticed Riley's habit of talking like a book when playing (Phrases like: "Oh no," he gasped. "Don't do that," she exclaimed)

The next day when a cousin arrived Riley whined, "Not again!" Haha I figured she'd be thrilled because of the fun they had the day before, but I guess I still should've let her know to expect company. They ended up having a great time again after Riley got in the right mood to play with others. 

Riley and I also went over to the Coopers house a few times to play over there. Then it was Andrew's turn to not be so sure how he felt about the visitors. At one point Riley sat down and played on his little Vtech table. When she was done he went over to take his turn, but clearly still distraught that his cousin had been using his toy he stood back up immediately, tossed the stool aside, and declared, "It's too hot!" 

An example of simple moments you just don't capture in zoom calls with kids, Riley sits next to Matt and asks, "What'd you do at work today Matt?" Matt replies, "Thanks for asking Riley! No one around here ever asks me about that!" 

We got to celebrate Easter with the Utah fam. Mom, of course, put together a wonderful egg hunt for the Cooper and Jack cousins. Knowing the importance of fairness to kids she had a specific big egg, one gold egg, and four or five normal eggs. During the hunt Riley got a little discouraged when she couldn't find her last few eggs, but she had great older cousins that helped her not get too upset. In a more controlled environment Riley probably would've just been allowed a few of her eggs, but she went right to it and had basically eaten it all before I even registered when was happening.  

My favorite part of Easter was the darling outfits Mom and Dad had gifted the kids. They all look so darn cute! I loved all the photos we got. And it's hard work taking pictures of that many kids while also in church clothes. My favorite quote from Ana while we were taking pictures, "I feel like I need to gird up my loins." 

Oh, I almost forgot that we also performed at church. Ana, Elena, Dad, Riley and I sang a primary song together and it was so sweet. I was so proud of Riley learning all the words, and singing her part in front of everyone. It was 50/50 if she was gonna be in the mood to actually do it the day of, but to my memory she did actually sing her part and did really well! 

After lots of fun in Utah we got to pick up Ben in Salt Lake and drive up to Rexburg to spend some time with his family. Riley always has a great time with her Grandma and Grandpa Jack, but she is always equally as excited to see their dog Dobby. I don't know what we will do when that dog's time comes, she'll be so distraught. She just loves having a little dog to constantly keep track of. 

Riley was pretty adorable playing with the kitchen and dolls at her grandparent's house. She had put on this cute little apron to work in the kitchen. At one point she decided work in the kitchen was done and in her words, "It's time for me to take off my apron and show them (her dolls) some moves." 

Our favorite stop near Rexburg is always the aquarium. It's a very small aquarium, but it has a lot of hands on options for kids with the animals, so it's usually a lot of fun. This time when we walked through one section there was a bird being VERY noisy. Riley was not happy about that and wanted to get out of there quick. Once we'd passed through that room she exclaimed, "That scarlet macaw was too loud!" Haha always impressed by her animal knowledge. 

Since this has been a post about visiting family I'm just gonna also squeeze in the trip from the Thompsons. While we were in Utah the Thompson family arrived in DC and broke into our house. We came home from our trip at like 1 am to find a little preteen asleep on our couch. They only had a few days left of their trip when we got back, but it was still fun to see them for a bit. That first morning Riley was amazed as cousins started appearing. When Calvin came up the stairs she said, "Who's that?" I answered, "Calvin." She responded, "But he's supposed to be the small one." She loved to comment on their comings and goings saying, "There goes the tall one," as Brady walked by. She also told me, "Brady is like a grown up." 

There was a really cute part of the day when the boys and Riley somehow got into a dance party. Riley excitedly called over to me, "Mom it's a party over here! It really is!"

One of the best parts of their quick visit was that Mel and I went to a barre class at my gym. We wore matching outfits, at one point the teacher found out we were sisters and realized we meant to dress the same, she just thought it was coincidence. It's so fun that whenever Mel, Ana, or I are together we can share our love of workout classes and have fun working out together. 

Before they left we had to take more pictures in front of our beautiful flowering bushes! 

Cherry Blossoms (no pictures)

 Another wonderful, unique thing about living in DC is Cherry Blossom season. We saw the blossoms in at least some capacity every year we were in DC. We almost missed them this year because Ben was gone from midMarch to midApril and that's right when they bloom. I didn't know if I had it in me to go downtown with the kiddos with him, but I really wanted some cute sibling pictures with those beautiful trees if it was going to be our last spring in DC. Well I knew there was a nearby neighborhood that also has a ton of cherry blossoms where people go to take pictures, so I figured I could handle that. I was so glad I ended up doing it! The kids were very well behaved and sweet Riley was smiling and hugging her little brother in all the pictures. I didn't get anything picture perfect, but I absolutely love these two little kids so these pictures are precious all the same. 

Jingle Jingle Jingle!

 Christmas time! Christmas time! This Christmas season was one of the most fun, but probably one of the most difficult as well. Our little 3 yr old was SO excited for Christmas, but SO emotional at every turn. I did the togetherness advent calendar again this year, but by December 3rd I was fighting the urge to grab the whole thing and dramatically throw it into the trash. I tried and tried to emphasize these would be small activities, nothing too exciting, but even when I was sure she would enjoy the activity I would tell her what the paper said and she'd immediately burst into tears. After talking to her about what her expectations were it seems she basically just wanted toys. Or desserts. So there were definitely ups and downs, but once she would actually do the activity she'd have a lot of fun. I should also remember that with Riley's bedtime and Ben's arrival time "togetherness" activities usually just turn into an extra activity for me to do with Riley. 

One of our favorite activities was putting up the Christmas tree. Riley was able to actually help put the ornaments on the tree this year and it was so fun to see her so excited to help. I told myself I would just rearrange the ornaments later, but that never actually happened. Even a little skewampus our tree brought a lot of cheer to the house. Riley would randomly declare, "I LOVE our Christmas tree!" We had a few dance parties around the tree. While dancing around the tree she said, "I'm just filled with joy!" 

A little "snow" science experiment.

 

The closest Ben has come to breast feeding 😆. Nelson was really going for Ben's zipper.

We got to go see the Christmas lights at the temple for the first time. They didn't do any light last year and the year before was just a drive through. Being totally transparent this was one of our activities that had me in a bad mood the whole time. Riley was happy when we were allowing her to run around like a crazy person in the open area, but trying to to her to look at the other lights was just a mess. It had me being very grumpy. 

At least our sweet little boy was in good spirits the whole trip. 

Our second round of lights was much more enjoyable. This happened late enough in the month that Riley knew a little bit more what to expect the activity advent and didn't have a meltdown every time it wasn't watch a show or make some treats. This was a light show at the zoo, but we were VERY careful to never mention we were at the zoo because I was sure not seeing real animals would make Riley sad. As we were getting ready to go to the event she looked in her room and noticed her blue light (which signals that she's supposed to be in bed) was on. Incredulously she said, "But my light's blue and we are going somewhere?!"

Riley was SO excited to have her first experience on a carousel, but trying to get a picture when it was time to come off was less than successful. She just thought she was going to be allowed to ride until she decided she was done. 

A quiet night in December. The best kind of night. Christmas lights and hot chocolate. 

Another very fun thing about this Christmas season was getting to be part of a Christmas party at Riley's school! I volunteered to help with treats which Riley loved helping with, then on the day of the party Nelson and I got to go and see Riley sing along with the cute little program they put together. 

Something that's always hard to decide whether it's going to happen or not it get out Christmas cards. I went back and forth about it this year because when you factor in the cost of stamps it adds up! I finally decided that it was important to do this year because we actually did have a major update. (And I know for a fact that Uncle Ariel appreciates my material which makes me feel great). So we ordered the cards and the stamps and I was so glad I did! I had printed out labels for the addresses this year which meant the whole process was very Riley friendly. It was just sticking stickers in the right place and if you don't mind them being a little crooked it worked out great! She found so much joy from a task most people dread. She helped stuff each envelope, put on the stamps, and put on the address labels. The only problem was the envelopes all had the right to consent or not consent, but luckily all of them eventually consented to the whole process. She especially loved that the stamps had elves on them and whenever we received a card with the same elf stamp it did not go unnoticed. 

Christmas morning was so much fun. We celebrated a few days early because Ben worked nights the 23rd, 24th, and 25th, but I never mind an early celebration. For the second year in a row we had breakfast in Mom and Dad's room before we are allowed to go out and look at presents. I really enjoy this little breakfast full of happy anticipation and want to make it a tradition. It was created out of a need to delay Riley so Britt could be awake for the morning festivities, but I want it to stick around. When Riley was allowed to come out of the room she was overwhelmed with excitement as you can see in the video below. We had such a fun morning and I was really excited for the amount of free play I was going to get out of Riley and her new toys. That ended up not happening right away. For whatever reason these new toys made her MORE likely to ask me to play with her. Some because she did need help with the toy, but most of the toys were just little figurines that she wanted to have my company. That has kind of leveled out now, but I've learned to be careful just assuming a fun toy means I'm off duty. 😅

And now...attempting to get a family Christmas picture!

Having our Christmas morning early made actual Christmas being on a Sunday much less stressful. We were able to get to church on time and enjoy a full hour of a Christmas hymn sing-a-long. Then we stopped by the temple to visit the Giving Machine one last time before it was taken away. Man those machines are a really good idea, especially if you get the kids involved! It's hard to say no to giving to those in need when your child begs for just one more! 

Another plus of not worrying about presents this day was getting a little photo shoot in when they were still in their Sunday best. 

I love this time of year, even more now that I have sweet little kiddos to be so excited for the fun crafts, treats, lights, songs, and presents. 

Halloween and Thanksgiving

 Halloween and Thanksgiving! That's right, neither of those holidays had enough going on to warrant their own post. All the lead up to Halloween mom was here for, but she left just a few days before the holiday actually came. Riley had been talking about who she was going to be for this Halloween since October 30th of 2021. After she'd worn her Branch costume once she was already on to who she wanted to be next time. Needless to say I was a bit worried about getting her to actually nail down a final choice. I was giving her ideas back in September trying to feel out which ones she seemed most excited about. Eventually I'd say okay are you sure you want to be this? I'm going to start getting it ready, if you still want to be this tomorrow morning then we will order it. In the end she landed on a different Troll named Harper. I liked this idea because she is an artist Troll so I thought the outfit could look pretty cute. Surprisingly, after deciding on Harper she never went back. There were no tearful discussions about you've already made your choice. She was totally on board. 

I was able to create her Harper costume without too much trouble since we already had the hair, I just had to throw a bit of paint on it. Then I bought a pair of pants the color of Harper's skin (we already had a shirt I didn't care about in that color) and splattered them with paint. Lastly, I bought her a little artist smock and made a leaf shaped paint pallet using the left over felt from her Branch costume. I was real happy with how it turned out!

I remembered last year that after wearing her Branch costume at the trunk or treat she had wanted a new costume for the day of Halloween. Although Ben warned me I was setting a dangerous president I told him we weren't getting anything special, I'd just offer to let her choose a dress up outfit we already had to wear on actual Halloween. I did this because that face paint took some time and since Halloween was a Monday I was going to be doing all the prep on my own to get out the door before it got too dark. Thank goodness she decided she did want to be Aurora for actual Halloween. That meant just throw her in a dress and we were ready! The only downside ended up being it was a rainy night and her dress was just a touch too long so we ended up using hair-ties to tie it up the wet/dirty dress in little balls. She looked like a princess who had fallen on some hard times. 

For Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of Ben's time off and travel to see his Aunt and Uncle who live in Ohio. They are about 6 hrs away, so not a super easy trip with kids, but doable enough we felt like we needed to visit before our 3 years here were up! I had thought in the past that Thanksgiving would possibly be a good time to visit, but I didn't think we should invite ourselves to their Thanksgiving. Well, luckily for us we didn't have to! At the reunion in Mesa Aunt Lynn invited us for Thanksgiving and we said we are there! They have a fun group of people that come over every year so it didn't feel like we were intruding on an intimate family gathering.

It's wasn't the easiest thing ever to travel that long with two kiddos, but definitely not as hard as it could've been. On the way there I thought it would be good to be traveling in the evening so after a few hours it would be bed time and the kids would just fall asleep in their carseats. Welll turns out Nelson does not like sleeping in his carseat anymore. I guess the trade off of getting a baby to sleep really well in their crib is that they expect their crib when they go to sleep. He had a bit of a rough patch, but finally gave up and went to sleep. After driving for a few hours we gave in to letting Riley have the ipad. She was so excited about getting to watch a show she kept herself up way later than she wanted. When the ipad was finally taken from her a little later than normal bedtime she said in a groggy voice, "I think I'm gonna take a nap," and promptly passed out. For the rest of the drive it was just a game of let's not let Ben fall asleep. So, we played a few rounds of a rousing alphabet game...by the end of our travels I think we'd played maybe 10 rounds of that dang alphabet game and I swear I won maybe one or two. He's a competitive man. 😅 I was looking for letters everywhere after that trip. On a stop on the way home I was looking around and said, "I can see every letter except an X from where I'm sitting right now!" It became a sickness. 

We snuck the kids upstairs immediately upon arriving in Ohio, but the next day Riley discovered something that made the trip all worth it. They have a dog! Riley was immediately in love with Tornado. (Pronouced Tor-nah-do.) She brought him every chewed up dog toy he had (which was a lot) wherever he went. 

Random Moments from 2022 Part 2

 Watching me scrubbing stains out of laundry. "You sure are working hard!" It's nice to get a little recognition. :) 

Riley can be a stickler for the rules (when it suits her.) There is a road near our house that closes it's gates on the weekends to allow bikes to use it freely. One day when the gate was open she saw a bike driving down the road. Getting very upset she says to me, "But you said the bikes go on the road when the gates are closed!" Took me a minute to figure it out, but then I explained bikes are allowed any day, they just have to share with cars when the gates are open. 

Riley loves to hear about Ben's patients. She says she wants to become an ophthalmologist for kids and adults. Whenever he comes home she requests to hear about some illness he saw that day. Preferably one from a girl patient. One day when she asked to hear about his patients he said, "My patients were all fine today." Riley replied, "Then why were they there??" Haha well visits are too boring for her. 

Sad seeing her Dada heading to work she tried to convince him to stay by saying, "But it's kind of hard to take care of two kids if there's only one grown-up." Hahaha she's not lying. 

Very excited to be sharing a milkshake with me. She says with glee, "We are gonna have to brush teeth really good today!" 

Riley requested I play a hymn that she chose. It happened to be "Count Your Many Blessings" so I explained to her what the song was talking about. She sweetly says, "You know what I'm grateful for? You! And Nelson!" Every mom's dream come true. :) 

*Tapping at her temple.* This is what I do when I'm thinking. 

The word we use for your gluteal area is usually your bottom. One day Riley was obsessed with using the word butt. She said it over and over with happiness in her voice. I can only imagine she heard it at preschool and was excited to show me this new word she learned. Part way through the day she sat in some water. She said. "My botto-...my BUTT'S wet." Surprisingly, this fad ended after just a few days. Even though it was just a silly thing it was a hard reminder that the more I send her out in the world the more other people will influence her choices. 

Riley asked Ben to play doctor with her so he told her his ankle was hurting. He said it hurt when he walked or stood on it. While demonstrating very sweetly Riley asked, "Have you tried tip-toeing?"

One day I was very frustrated that Nelson wasn't falling asleep. I had already gone in 3 times to try and calm him down. Riley helpfully said, "Maybe if you just do it 100 times he'll stop being fussy." 

"This is a catastrophe!" Said whenever anything goes slightly awry.

Riley likes to play a game when I pretend to be sick and she takes care of me like a mom. She wanted it to be clear that I wasn't sick with covid so as we played she'd call me "negative girl". 

Riley has some real rockstar energy sometimes. The other day I asked her to not take a toy away from Nelson. To express her discontent she burst into song, singing about how she's upset at mom for not letting her take that toy, all while playing her inflatable guitar. 

If you are a Paw Patrol fan you will appreciate this comment by Riley. "Marshall always has something going on with him." Haha we feel the same way about Marshall apparently. Why can't he ever get into the Lookout without tripping and falling over everything? 

Things I didn't expect my toddler to say (in tears), "Did you vacuum up my Canadian Lynx??" Haha no dear, I moved your beloved magnet before I started vacuuming. 

"I'm doing a Korean braid in your hair." I mean there is a French braid and a Dutch braid, why not Korean? 

"But how will Nelson not be allergic to chips?!?" Hahah oh Riley. I explained that you are supposed to feed babies peanut butter, eggs, and shellfish when they are young to reduce the chance they will be allergic to them later in life. Now whenever I tell her Nelson isn't allowed to have a certain food she gets very worried he will become allergic to that thing. 

The idea of moving is brand new to this little 4 year old and it's created a lot of funny moments. She's often asking me if specific items will come with us. "Will we move our toys?" "Will we move our pillows?" "We will have to get a REALLY big box for the couch!" 

On our ride home from preschool one day Riley said, "You chose a cute name for me!" :)

Driving home we were talking about someone who wasn't alive anymore and Riley says, "Like King Martin." I'm wracking me brain for what King she could be talking about. She's starting to get upset saying I know who she's talking about, that we were talking about him just the other day. Finally it hits me...Martin Luther King! 

Ben was gone for a week in January. When he came home we had an outing to the park. In the car on the way home Riley says, "It's fun being a family again!"

Riley took a very unflattering picture of Ben. Proud of her work she says, "He's so cute!" She sat there with her finger poised on the button and I asked if she was going to take another picture. She said, "I'm waiting for him to be cute again." 

Ben gave a little talk/testimony the other day and Riley had everyone around us laughing and she declared, "Good job Dad!" "You're doing great Dad!" "You're doing awesome with your loud voice Dad!" When he was finished and was walking towards us she ran up to meet him and said, "You did awesome!" 

Oh fall, we won't miss these GIANT piles of leaves, but Riley probably will. 

Our little boy LOVES food.

I can't get over these BLUE EYES. 

Riley went through a horrible stage of asking to do my hair every day. I can't stand a child touching my hair, but it brings her so much joy. Luckily, it hasn't happened for a bit now so I'm hoping the phase is over.

A few months ago Riley finally painted a recognizable picture and I was so impressed! 

My handsome men! 

Riley wanted to breastfeed one of the babies in the library. 

When you unpack a bunch of new shirts from Mel, Riley must wear them all at once. 

Riley loves taking pictures with my phone, they used to always be pictures of her forehead or the floor, but recently she's gotten better and now there is some "evidence of mom" in my photo roll! 

"I'm a lamp!" :)

Our new gym location has a splash pad. Not sure we will ever return because we discovered a splash pad is very LOUD when it's inside, but we had a good time this day. Ironically, it worked out because we accidentally went when they had a water fitness class happening. So they had to turn off the water basically the moment we arrived. We were sad at first, but then discovered it was ideal! The slide was still wet from the water, but it wasn't super loud and annoying. Riley had a great time running up the stairs and down the slide. 

My heart! 

I love seeing her creating with her legos. This was the first time she was using legos without a guide to tell her how to build them.

This video is a bit long and wacky, but Riley was just cracking me up. This day she'd fallen asleep around 4 pm...so that meant at bedtime she was FULL of energy. Ben and I were sitting in our room and all the sudden we hear Riley say, "My puppy luggage!" She burst in our room declaring she needs her puppy luggage because we need to start packing for our move. Then she decides that she'll just start making a pile instead. It was just so silly. I love capturing these day to day moments.

Nel trying to grab Mama during church. 

Riley's fun time at the gym splash pad.

This is another long video, but Riley was just being so cute. We got these paw patrol costumes for free and she just about died from happiness when she saw them. 

Nelson finally started babbling! Using his ba and da sounds. I love seeing even the tiniest milestones!