five on friday (12/28)

Happy Friday!!! The very LAST one of the year! I can’t even believe that another 365 days have come and gone, but here we are. I’m happy to sneak in one last “Five on Friday” before we ring in 2019!

ONE. We’ve had a lot going on over here lately… but our biggest adventure was taking a trip to SPAIN at the beginning of December! I have a whole lot to share about our travels, but for now, I’ll just leave this photo of one of my very favorite places on the Costa Brava! It was so refreshing to leave home and do something completely new, although I definitely missed my kids (minus Eve, who was lucky enough to tag along). TWO. After we got home from our trip, I was ready to do all the Christmas things, since we had already missed about half of the pre-holiday festivities. We baked and delivered cookies, watched several Christmas movies (which is definitely a good activity when you’re dealing with jet lag), and went out looking at Christmas lights. I missed these munchkins so much, so I was extra grateful for the special time we’ve had together. I can’t believe Christmas Day has already come and gone, but we’re still looking forward to some family time between now and the New Year.THREE. Grandma Gina and Grandpa Skip came up to visit for a couple of days this week! The girls enjoyed snuggling, watching Shaun the Sheep (as they always do with Grandpa), and showing off their Christmas presents. (Also, 3 out of 4 kid smiles is as good as we could get with this picture… Nella has a 1-minute tolerance level for picture-taking these days!)We also enjoyed some Sweet Frog! This might be the girls’ favorite place ever. Even Nella knows what the sign looks like now. She gets excited before we even go in!FOUR. Oh, these sisters. They’re always playing “babies”, and I just think it’s the funniest thing when they pretend to be pregnant and walk around with these fake baby bumps. My mama heart just loves these pictures, and I hope that one day, in 20 years or so, they can recreate this for me for REAL! Besties.FIVE. Nella. She’s as crazy as ever, but this flaxen-haired beauty got her first haircut a couple weeks ago!Because she’s so energetic and doesn’t want to sit still for a photo, the best picture I could get of her new ‘do was when she was lying down. It was so hard for me to cut it (I was obsessed with her absolutely wild curls), but she was eating her hair and having some digestive troubles, so it had to be done. Her tummy seems to be a lot better, and we think her hair-eating habit is broken. Don’t worry, her new hair can be completely unruly, too!SIX. Just because there needs to be a little more Evie in this post… 😉

Happy Friday!!!

five favorites (04/28)

I feel like I’m always saying this, but it’s been a crazy week, so I missed doing my “Five” yesterday! We’ve been having as relaxing a Saturday as possible, so I’m happy to have a little time to catch up on here.

ONE. We all missed our favorite guy this week, because he was in Chicago at the GOTO Conference! It was a little rough without him, even though he gets serious credit for helping me with as much as he could before he left. I was super sick the night before he had to go, so he did a lot, including grocery shopping and cleaning up the guinea pigs. He really is the best.A couple of photos from his trip… Of course, he gave a talk on Docker (what else?), so Molly and Moby (the whales) had to tag along with him. Michael had some fun sending pictures of them adventuring around Chicago to Kaya and Kaelyn!TWO. While Daddy was gone, we tried to enjoy being outside as much as we could. I was a little too optimistic about the first 60-degree day, so I filled up the water table (with warm water) for the girls. The water cooled off a little too fast, and the girls got a little too wet, so everyone ended up cold. They still loved it, though!
This was Nella’s first time really playing with it, now that she’s good at walking and standing for long periods of time. I think this will be one of her favorite summertime activities.We had some fun at the playground. Don’t let her sad puppy-dog eyes fool you, Scout loves walks (and always tries to tangle herself up around the picnic table…)I enjoyed some time reading out in the hammock! I love that Nella walked over to me and asked to come up in it too. (Also, check out her bedhead! She seriously has the wildest hair!)THREE. Our homeschool mornings have been pretty relaxed here lately, and honestly, I’m okay with that. It’s kind of a combination of parenting on my own for a week/pregnancy sickness/spring fever/being done with all our kindergarten work besides spelling that has had us taking our time and just doing what we can.

I was so happy to see these girls snuggle and start reading as soon as they woke up one morning. They are obsessed with the American Girl books right now, and although I typically use them as read-alouds, Kaya can actually read a little of them on her own. I’m so grateful that they love learning, and that we all get extra time to spend together because of our choice to homeschool.FOUR. I guess the girls have been doing too much yoga with me lately, because Kaya wanted to make her own workout video (she even told me to “put it on Facebook”)! She came up with all her own exercises, and the theme of the video became “Exercises You Can Do with Your Cat”. Haha! I love her creativity.She wrote out every move before we could start recording…Some moves included planks/pushups with your cat on your back (I definitely would not recommend doing this with a real cat. Ouch!)……and lifting your cat high above your head while doing squats. Yup, pretty sure a real cat would have nothing to do with any of this…I didn’t post the whole video, but hearing her say “Namaste” at the end was just too dang cute, so here’s that.

FIVE. If you tell Nella to “say CHEESE!”, this is the face she makes now. Cutest little smile ever!Seriously, what’s more adorable than a smiling Dalmatian puppy?

Happy weekend!

Linking up here and here today!

five on friday (04/13)

Happy Friday! The sun is shining, and it’s finally feeling like SPRING! I’m so excited for the weekend and some family time!

ONE. We’ve had a few good walks this week! There is nothing like having the warm sun on your face after what has seemed like an extremely long winter. Lately, the girls are obsessed with all going down the slide together. I think Nella isn’t as big a fan of this activity as the older girls are, but she at least tolerates it.Kaelyn and her sunglasses… she just cracks me up. She was also extremely excited that Kaya’s old polka dot hat is now hers!And no, I will never have enough pictures of Nella in the swing. She laughs and laughs the entire time she’s in it!TWO. Michael had a work trip to DC this week! He attended the Docker GovSummit conference and even got to give a talk. He had about 150 people attend his presentation. I may not understand any of his “nerd” stuff, but I am still so so proud of him.The conference building was right down the street from the Capitol. So cool!He was able to walk around for a bit and see the memorials and monuments. Maybe one day we’ll all get to go with him on one of these trips and enjoy seeing the sites, too.THREE. While Daddy was walking around DC, we were bouncing around at Kangaroo Kids! The teachers brought out this new little bounce house, and the older girls were obsessed with climbing over the wall.Nella loves climbing into this big donut-like structure and just hiding. She also collects all the balls she sees!
FOUR. Whenever Michael gets home from a trip, we always try to do something a little extra special (if the girls have been well-behaved while he was gone). This time, we went out for Chinese food. These were some very happy kids!Her “cheese” face just cracks me up.We also enjoyed some family time at the library. It’s always so quiet and refreshing when we go in the evening.FIVE. This isn’t exciting… or at all glamorous… but just a friendly reminder that it’s not a bad idea to have regular skin checks with your dermatologist. This week, I had the tiniest little biopsy (and one single stitch) on a spot that looked like it could have been a basal cell carcinoma on my face, but thankfully, it came back clear. Here’s to using sunscreen and taking precautions against skin cancer.Happy weekend everyone!

Linking up here and here today!

five favorites (10/21)

We’ve had a fun and exciting week (and I’m only a day late on this)!

ONE. Michael had his first-ever international flight this week… to DENMARK! Our nerdy guy went over there for the Docker Con event in Copenhagen, and of course, he had a blast. I was really wishing I could have gone with him, but I don’t think the kids would have done so well with both of their parents gone (despite having awesome grandparents who definitely would’ve taken great care of them). Maybe when they are a little older!

And yes, I totally made him pose for a picture with his passport. (He took the suitcase that I used on my study abroad trip, so I also insisted that he keep my pink bow on it. I’m sure it made it easy to spot!)

We’re so happy to have him back Stateside!

TWO. We had a couple of awesome visitors while Daddy was gone… Grandma Gina and Uncle Jeff! Grandma stayed all week long and helped us out with anything and everything. We’re so glad she could come and make the week a lot easier! Before she left, Kaya served us all some pretend pink cake. Love this one! Nellbells adores her Grandma! Uncle Jeff had planned to attend his former scout’s Eagle Court of Honor ceremony in town, so he came up and spent Sunday with us. He was a big help too, especially when the dog decided to throw up 2 minutes before we were supposed to leave for church and I completely messed up the brownies I was planning to take to a dinner we were invited to that evening. Hopefully Lelia and Bryce can come next time, too!

THREE. Kangaroo Kids is still the highlight of my week. How can you not smile when you see the joy on Kaya’s face? All three girls are really into trying to pop the million bubbles that come out at the end of class! I’m really soaking in these days while the kids are so little and these simple outings are everything to them. Grandma had a really fun time tagging along! She sat Nella up on the corner of the inflatable slide so she could watch her sisters come down, and then everyone would giggle like crazy. One of the teachers told me I could take Nella down the slide if I wanted to (she’s technically not enrolled in the class because she’s really too little), so she got to do it for the very first time, and she laughed and laughed, even before we started sliding. I love this happy little girl (and oh, that tiny ponytail)!FOUR. We also spent some time at the library this week! The craft of the month was a spider, so the girls enjoyed putting as many eyes and legs as they could fit on their spiders’ bodies. While they worked on gluing, I read them some facts about spiders. I’m all for squeezing in learning opportunities any place we can! Grandma loved reading and playing Legos with us!

FIVE. The girls love to play “doctor” and give each other pretend vaccines. Whoever wears the glasses gets to be the doctor. Don’t tell Uncle Jeff that he could have forgone med school and just gotten some plastic spectacles instead. Happy weekend!

the columbus zoo

While we were in Ohio, we visited the Columbus zoo! Kaya has been asking to go to a zoo for over a year now, so she was so excited to finally see the animals! We saw some flamingos… _MG_4308 … some real penguins at feeding time…_MG_4310 … and some kangaroos! I think they were my personal favorite (and probably Kaelyn’s too), because you could actually walk right through their exhibit and get quite close!_MG_4314 It was fun to see them hopping around (this one was named Alice)!_MG_4317 We also took the kids on the zoo carousel, which has been another dream of Kaya’s ever since she saw a picture of one in a library book. It was the best $2 I’ve spent in a long time._MG_4325 _MG_4326 _MG_4329 _MG_4328 The zoo had an awesome aquarium section (which was also great for getting out of the heat!), which included manatees and a sea turtle. My girls really loved seeing the big fish!_MG_4332 There were also some 5-month-old baby tigers. They were so much smaller than I was expecting, but so cute!_MG_4336These best friends held hands for a good distance through the park. I loved hearing their conversations and seeing them fall right back into being pals after being separated for a couple of months.
_MG_4347 _MG_4349 They also loved climbing on all the bronze animal statues together!_MG_4342 We ended up walking around as much of the zoo as we could for about 4 hours or so. After that, the kids were exhausted and the day was really starting to heat up, so we ended our visit with one of my all-time favorite animals- the giraffe!_MG_4353Somehow, our very tired kids still didn’t take an afternoon nap, and instead spent more time out in the yard and baby pool. We had some amazing Chinese food, and then everyone was more than ready for an early bedtime (with a story first, of course)!_MG_4354

a visit to ohio

A week and a half ago, we went to visit our friends, the Allens, for the first time since they moved away. It was my very first trip to Ohio!

Kaya had been saying for weeks on end that she was so excited to see Mia, so I was really anticipating watching them meet again. They were a little shy around each other at first, but their reservedness turned to pure joy very quickly. I loved seeing my little girl so very happy.

Katherine made some delicious homemade pizza!

We spent most of the time we were at their house out in the yard. My girls thought that sliding down into a baby pool was pretty much the most fun idea ever!_MG_429508042016collage1 _MG_4290

Popsicles on the porch at the end of the night made for some happy girls!_MG_4307 We went to the zoo (which will be another post, since I took too many pictures to include here), played some Blokus, laughed over the oddness of the Olympic opening ceremonies, had Chinese food, and made amazingly-huge brownie sundaes when the kids were asleep. It was so refreshing to see our good friends, just relax, and spend time together.

On Saturday morning, Katherine and Matt watched our kids so we could visit the Columbus LDS temple. We haven’t been to the temple since last October, so this was a treat for us. I love the temple and the peace I feel there. Somehow, when I’m inside, most of the things I spend my time worrying about on a normal basis don’t seem to matter all that much._MG_4361 It doesn’t hurt to have a pretty studly date, either. 😉_MG_4363 IMG_20160806_111408It was a very small temple (maybe even tinier than our chapel building back home), but it was, of course, perfect._MG_4364The gardens seemed extra beautiful, too._MG_4365 _MG_4371

We headed back to their home and stayed until just after lunchtime. I’m learning that my kids just don’t seem to do well with traveling- they seem to have an exponential increase in meltdowns and tantrums when we’re not at home, so they were more than ready for some naps on the drive back.

The only cool way to drive home is with pink sunglasses. Obviously.

We had such a great time. It’s not easy having friends move away, but I guess the silver lining is that eventually, you have friends in all different places to go and visit!

five on friday (06/24)

ONE. We experienced a first this week- an entire four days away from Michael! I know that four days isn’t that long, but it’s definitely the greatest amount of time that I’ve been with the kids all on my own. He went to “DockerCon” out in Seattle for work, so he was all the way across the country! I was nervous about being alone, but we did alright. We even managed to have some fun! 😉

Of course, everyone was ecstatic to see him walking up to the front door on Wednesday afternoon when he returned._MG_3219

TWO. We kicked off the first official day of summer in the best way possible- at the pool! I actually remembered to bring their sunhats and toys (two crucial elements of a good time), and they were having so much fun that they basically never wanted to leave.IMG_20160620_122620-01 IMG_20160620_113105-01 (1) We picnicked and people-watched. Kaya kept watching the older kids in the big pool and saying (multiple times) “WOW! They are having SO much fun!” Haha.IMG_20160620_123102

THREE. This was actually last week, but we went to the coolest dinosaur activity at the library. The event was advertised as meeting “real dinosaurs”, so I knew it would probably be very fun, or very disappointing. We lucked out, because the group that put on the presentation was awesome. They had a guy in a huge, realistic-looking raptor costume, baby dinosaurs hatching from eggs that the kids could pet, and then these animatronic triceratops that the kids could ride if they read a story out loud. Kaelyn kept saying “ROAR!” all throughout the activity, and Kaya was eager to kiss and pet every dinosaur she got close to. I love how magical these simple events are for them.

FOUR. “Take our picture!!!” was Kaya’s request just before I snapped this. They were pretending that Kaelyn was a baby named “Baby Gaga” (not to be confused with a certain celebrity) and were playing so sweetly together. I love these cute sisters._MG_3218

FIVE. We did it- we picked a paint color for the family room! I guess I’m going to keep everyone in suspense and wait until it’s finished to reveal it- hopefully next week sometime! I’m so excited to work on our house to improve it and truly make it our own.IMG_20160623_201419

Happy Friday!!!

Linking up here!

temple trip weekend

I’m definitely writing about our weekend on a Wednesday… whoops. Our past few days have been jam-packed, so that’s just how it goes sometimes!

This weekend was our stake temple trip. We’ve been talking about this for weeks, and I always get excited to visit the temple, but I think Kaya had me beat this time. Her excitement was through the roof, and she couldn’t wait to take our “long ride in the car” (about 4.5 hours) to get there.

It’s always a good idea to burn off some energy before a road trip, though, so we were sure to get some exercise on Friday morning. 🙂

Both girls really behaved fantastically in the car. Kaelyn napped for most of the ride, and we stopped for dinner at Kaya’s favorite place (Wendy’s). When their crankiness could no longer be assuaged by snacks and books, we brought out the tablet. This Daniel Tiger app kept Kaya entertained in the car when we otherwise would have had a huge meltdown.

She was almost as excited about sleeping in a hotel as she was about visiting the temple. Haha. Both girls were more than ready to get out of their car seats (and yes, she’s singing “one little monkey, jumping on the bed”)!

We (barely) made it to the temple in time for the 9 am session with our stake. It was so wonderful to be there with my sweetheart. I always feel our Heavenly Father’s love so strongly in the temple, and this time was no different. The temple president spoke to our stake for a few moments, and referred to the temple as our “home away from [a heavenly] home”. I couldn’t agree more with that simple statement.

_MG_9654The whole reason we were able to go into the temple together as a couple is my amazing mom-in-law. I had casually mentioned to her that we would be at the temple that day, and I had hoped she would be able to come up and spend time with us and her grandbabies._MG_9680 She stayed with our kids for hours while we were inside and while I did some family photos for the stake. She took them to the bookstore, fed them the yummiest snacks, and walked them around until they fell asleep. Basically, she’s amazing._MG_9679_MG_9702 The only letdown of the day was that Kaya absolutely did not want her picture taken. Oh well._MG_9687 _MG_9686We also goofed around with my DSLR and ultra-wide lens, seeing if we could take our own picture with it. That guy in the background pulled off the perfect photobomb!
_MG_9700We drove straight home with no stops. By Sunday night, I think we all felt a lot like this…_MG_9704

runners tell all: how and why I started running

Today I’m linking up with Amanda and Beka to talk a little bit about running! Running is a big part of who I am, so I am pretty pumped about this series.

I started running in January 2009, when I left to study abroad for a semester in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.

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Before I began my adventures abroad, I dedicated a lot of time to going to the gym. I knew that I wouldn’t have gym access in Riva, so I decided I was going to run to stay fit. (Not to mention that our wedding was just two weeks after my return to the States, and I had to be in shape!)

I started out by going a distance that felt “far” to me, which was probably about 2.5 miles at the time. I increased my mileage a little over the semester and started to feel healthier and see a change in my level of fitness. I started to lose weight, and realized that going to the gym all those years really wasn’t helping me the way I thought it was.2052_651510700233_3279_n

(my roommate, Katherine, and I about to go run. Photo credit to our roommate Amanda!)

If I hadn’t studied abroad, I’m not sure I would’ve become such a dedicated runner. It’s just one more reason I’m glad I went to Europe 🙂

utah randomness

We did a whole bunch of fun things on our trip, but some of them aren’t big enough to dedicate an entire post to, so I’m just going to mash them all together right here!

My in-laws watched Kaya so that Michael and I could go work in the temple together. I LOVE the Jordan River temple, and it was such a blessing to be there with my best friend. We finished up pretty late (it was nearly 11pm), but it was so peaceful to sit together outside in the cool night air and gaze at the temple.
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Here we are in front of the temple together (it was the best we could do to take a photo ourselves), and here’s Baby Bird at dinner just before that. She’d rather eat the table than the food! (Although we did let her try a little Chinese food, and she seemed to like it!)08092013photogrid1

My dad in-law found the best way to spend $6. That’s right. The shirt. Spongebob swag all the way!

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We had a fun dinner with one of Michael’s friends/coworkers, and then we met up with some of his old mission buddies at the Provo temple. He finally had a mini “mission reunion”, which he’s been longing for for a few years now. Kaya was cranky and more than ready for bed, so I just walked her around temple grounds while Michael chatted.

_MG_8777We ended our trip with a visit to our former Institute teacher, Brother Bowman! It was so good to see him and his family and have them meet Kaya. We left for the airport straight from their house, and it really was the perfect way to finish our adventure in Utah._MG_8787