Happy Easter

As a mom you learn that things don't always go as planned when you have kids.  I had visions of all the cute pictures I was going to take of my little girls today in their matching Easter dresses.  All four of our kids for that matter.  The little girls hunting for eggs in the grassy courtyard.  However on our way to church Harper had other ideas.  You see Delaney had been sick with a stomach bug since last Tuesday.  She was finally better and I was thanking my lucky stars that no one else ended up sick for Easter weekend.  Phew!  We were in the clear....  Then about 5 minutes away from church this morning, Harper threw up all over her pretty dress.  Ugh.  Rob took her home and the rest of us stayed at church to celebrate Easter.

Someone was happy to be feeling better and really enjoyed hunting for eggs!

Jordan and I.  He's not so little anymore.  Makes a momma sad, but he's becoming oh so handsome.

A picture of my girl while she was on the hunt.  There's a benefit in being 3 at this hunt.  You get a two minute head start before the big kids invade.  She's becoming quite good at her egg hunting skills.

I'm backing up to this morning, before we headed to church.  The Easter Bunny left a note for the kids and sent them on a little scavenger hunt to find their baskets.

There was an egg with a clue inside, in several hidden places in the house.  The kids loved it!

Harper tagged along for all the clues too.  This was before she got sick.  She was in a great mood this morning.  Rockin' her crazy hair.

Delaney had to "read" all the clues first.

They found their treasure!!

The Easter Bunny had hidden their baskets inside our dryer.  Silly rabbit.  Oh and he forgot that Jordan and Kierstin can't have gum because of the braces and spacers in their mouths.  Oops.

This picture is from yesterday.  You see occasionally they DO like each other and they had a good time coloring some eggs.  Delaney wanted nothing to do with it.  She was too tired and cranky.

Here's my baby girl yesterday when we hunted eggs with the grandparents.  I'm bummed that she missed out on church festivities, but I'm glad there were some parts of the Easter weekend that she was able to enjoy.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!!

Spring Photos

Here are our new spring family photos.  Love them all!

Harper - 14 months old

My Love

Jordan - 12 years old

Delaney - 3 years old

Kierstin - 9 years old

Survivor Mud Run

About two months ago I found a Groupon deal for a mud race.  I've wanted to try one and the price was great.  I really didn't want to do it alone so I forced encouraged my husband to do it with me.  He's a good man.  Anything to make me happy.

On Friday it rained all day and then Saturday morning at 1:00am it was pouring rain with thunder, lightning and hail.  Oh my!  So we knew this was going to be one muddy race.  

Yesterday morning we drove an hour away with my official photographer aka sister, and her man.  It was great having family with us for support.  Plus they held all our crap.  Thanks Liz and Mike!  When we got there the parking lot was a nightmare.  This was a dirt lot which means that because of the storm it was a mess.  I really thought my little Nissan was going to get stuck in the mud.  Plus they were so unorganized.  The only good thing was that we didn't end up having to pay for parking.  They were supposed to charge $10.

Anyways, here we are before the race.  It was cold.  Like low 50's.  That's cold for this AZ native.  Add in the freezing cold mud and water and I was worried. 

This was one of the obstacles that we had to do.  Rob and I are at the top right hand side of the structure.  This wasn't hard, but my hands hurt because they were frozen.

Another obstacle... We were climbing through ropes.  Kind of hard to see.  I'm towards the front and Rob isn't in this picture.  I was trying my best to keep my shoes on.  People were losing their shoes in the mud right and left.  I saw several people finish this race barefoot.  I just can't imagine.

Here's one of the many hills that we went up and over.  I'm at the top and Rob is sliding down.  I had a blast sliding down those muddy hills.  Who knew this prissy girl would enjoy this much dirt!?

We did all the obstacles together and Rob was great at helping me up hills and such.  I had so much mud in my shoes that it was hurting the arch of my foot.  But we kept on going....

We found our peeps!  Hi Liz!  It's hard to run when your feet keep getting stuck in the mud.  Uh common sense would tell you this, but this was my first mud race and I did not know what to expect.

We are knee deep in water in the above picture.  Climbing over these barrel things.  You could go under them if you wanted, but I wasn't interested in dunking my head in ice cold muddy water.  No thanks!

We were not cold because we were moving so much, but man my hands hurt!  Did I mention that they were frozen!?

In the picture above we were crawling under wires through the muddy water.  You can see the top of Rob's head towards the left of the picture.

Here I am crawling through the muddy water.  This was actually one of my favorite obstacles and I'm not sure why.  You can see my blonde head towards the right side of the picture.  When we got out of that water we climbed up a hill and slid down a big mud slide.  Fun!

We were almost done at this point.  It doesn't look like it, but we are jogging.  You can see the showers behind us with people who had already finished that were washing off mud.

We crossed the finish line together.  Aren't we cute!?  That was a long 3.17 miles.  It seemed so much further.  I'm still waiting on our official race times, but Liz and Mike said it took us just over an hour.  We took our time and enjoyed ourselves.

Here we are after the race with our Survivor medals.  We were each supposed to get a free beer, but we were too cold to stand in line.

Rob's already talking about doing this again with a group of friends.  Any volunteers?  This was even more fun than I expected.  The storm the night before made this muddy mess even more awesome.  Dare I say that I can't wait until we can do this again?  Yep, I'm a crazy person.

Valentine's Week

I'm just going to sum up the week.  A week full of family love.  And I'm just now realizing that there are no pictures of Jordan in this post.  Big time mommy fail.

Wednesday was the 4th Daddy-Daughter dance that Rob and Kierstin have attended together.  I took these pictures before they left.

Rob has many, MANY more Daddy-Daughter dances in his future.  Lucky guy.  Why isn't there a Mother-Son dance?  I'm feeling a bit left out.  No fair.

I was off on Valentine's Day so I got to spend the day with my kids.  Jordan only had a half day at school too.  So while it doesn't look like he was around, I assure you he was!

I surprised Jordan with the Hotel Transylvania DVD and Delaney got a Valentine's book.  I forgot to take a picture of their gifts.  Whoops!  The movie is actually pretty good.  I was surprised.  And it was on sale at Target so it was a good purchase.

Harper wore her LOVE shirt which was a gift from her Grandma Fisch.  Thanks Grandma!

Delaney was not going to look at the camera.  My stubborn girl.  She's going to be a heartbreaker.  Watch out boys.

Rob and I were engaged 6 years ago on Valentine's Day, so it's an extra special day for us.  He brought me home a piece of OREO Cheesecake (my favorite) and we got take out from Pei Wei.  We kept it low key with the kids.  Plus crowded restaurants aren't really my thing.

The girls being silly.  Rob took this picture while I was at work and sent it to me.

Harper has discovered Jordan's old rocking chair and loves it.  She also loves to stand on it and give me a heart attack!

The girls were playing on Kierstin's old Futon bed.  She got a new bed so we're in the process of selling it.  Therefore it's hanging out in the livingroom and the girls think it's a fun toy.

Delaney tends to be too rough with Harper as you can see above.  Harper is holding on for dear life.

This girl loves her Mommy, but if Daddy is in the room I take second place.  We're also having a hard time breaking the bottle habit.  This girl loves that thing and so far has refused every sippy cup I've given her.  We're still trying though...

That sums up our week.  A nice quiet Valentine's with all my loves.  

Delaney vs. Dentist

I'm gonna be real honest here.  I was dreading taking Delaney to the dentist for the first time.  She is just a drama queen and I figured that it would be as traumatic for me as it would be for her.

I left work early so that I could take her.  This was a few weeks ago.  When I got home this girl REFUSED to get dressed.  There was no amount of bribery that was going to get those clothes on.  She was kicking and screaming.  I'm talking full on tantrum.  I have no idea why she was even scared to go.  Where did she get it in her head that the dentist was so scary?

It took Rob and I both, working together holding her down to get her dressed.  Un-freaking-believable!!

She and I got to the office and she refused to get out of the car.  So I carried her in.  Once we were inside and she saw how much fun this place looked, something clicked.  Tears to smiles in 1 point 2 seconds.

I fully understand how people claim to get gray hair from their children.  Holy cow does this girl stress me out!

She happily played games while waiting to be taken back.  Their whole set up is pretty cool.  Jordan's been coming to this dentist for years and Kierstin goes there now too.

She listened and sat while they did her x-rays.  She took directions well and without any tears or fear got her teeth cleaned.  An extremely cooperative little angel.  Who is this kid?

The bad news is they found two teeny tiny cavities.  The dentist showed them to me.  They are literally tiny specs on two of her molars and they cost us $124 to fill!!  What the heck insurance?!

It figures that my 3 year old has 2 cavities at her first appointment and then there's my 12 year old that has never had a single cavity.  What gives?  It looks like Delaney may have inherited her mommy's bad teeth.  Poor girl.

When it was time to leave she proceeded to throw another crying fit!  The girl who didn't want to go to the dentist now didn't want to leave!!  Ugh.

The picture above was taken on Thursday after getting her cavities filled.  I wasn't allowed to go back with her to get them filled.  When they called her name to go back and she realized that I wasn't going with her, she looked so pitiful.  But then the dental assistant mentioned the Popsicle she'd get at the end and she darted back there.  See ya Mom!!  That's my big girl!

When she was finished she was very happy to see me.  They proceeded to give her a 2nd Popsicle (gotta stay in business ya know) and told me what a great job she did at only 3 years old!  That's right, I'm a proud mommy.

And without fail we left the dentist office in tears because she didn't want to leave.

On the bright side I'm so glad that she likes the dentist and I hope it stays that way forever!

Jordan Lately

I write so much about my little girls, but I do have a very special son.  He's in the sixth grade and kicking butt in school.  All A's and B's on his report cards.  He also reminds me often that he'll be a teenager soon.  Me?  The mother of a teenager?  Impossible!!

This is one of the pictures we had taken in November.  I'm shocked at how grown up he looks.

He'll always be my baby no matter how old he gets.

I think he looks great in braces.  He's going to have one hell of a killer smile when those bad boys come off.  You're welcome Jordan.  

He is the BEST big brother to his little sisters.  I always wanted a big brother so I consider my girls extremely lucky.  I know he'll always look out for them.

 He plays the guitar.  He's currently taking lessons every Thursday evening.  He also sings in the choir at school.  His musical side comes from my side of the family.  Sports aren't really his thing.

He was recently Student of the Month at his school.

I love this kid!  He makes this Mama proud!

Love you Jordan