Weekend visitors, Elijah's baby blessing and the ZOO!

Last weekend was a blast with Trevor and Lashel's family in town and we loved having them as our guests!  

Tom took these pictures as he was setting up for them to arrive while I was at work.  Oh these girls!!

I love this picture of little Straton and that hunk Uncle Tom!

These girls look a little homeless, but at least they have adorable dresses!  Lashel gave it to Jade for her birthday

On Sunday, Jon and Kimi blessed their baby Elijah an amazing blessing and it was such a beautiful day spent with lots of family!
Lainey loves her Uncle Trevor!  She doesn't like many men so that's a big deal!  She loved calling his name and getting his attention around the house1 "Trev!  Trev!"
During Sacrament meeting, he tickled her arms and hands for probably 40 minutes and she couldn't get enough and just zoned out

Cute Maddie was entertaining Ella and  Lainey

Teaghann and Lainey were cute little buds too

We also gave Ella her birthday present!

It was so nice to spend the day at Jon and Kimi's and all the cousins had so much fun!

Later that day we went and played at the park

 These two have the best time together and they all play so well.  It's so fun to watch

That night around 11pm, something possessed Tom and he just started slaving away in the kitchen and about 30 minutes later he brings over artichoke dip, salsa and chips....AND homemade peanut butter bars!!! What?! It was the best midnight binge ever.  Love you babe!

Tom took the day off on Monday and we all went to the Hogle Zoo!   And minus the fact that Lainey randomly threw up all over as we were driving there from simply coughing weird (thankfully I brought extra clothes and none of the rest of us puked from the horrible smell)...it was a perfect day!
I think it's a law that you have to take a picture with your head in the lion's mouth when at the ZOO.  So for posterity, here it is

It was so cool to see this lion actually roar!!  You could tell it wasn't even trying and it was still powerful and loud!

Lainey was the most fun to watch!  She LOVED IT ALL!  When you would point out an animal for her to look at she would seriously search so hard and when she would finally spot it she would go crazy!  She bounced, laughed, pointed, and would say the name and/or sound it made!   It was probably the best day of her life so far!

Jade is still oddly afraid of sitting on a carousel animal and prefers to sit in "the carriage"

This is her excited but scared face..

These sea lions were awesome!

Shouldn't this be in a Hogle Zoo advertisement?!

You can barely see the snow leopard behind us

Tiger!

Riding the train around the Zoo!

Oh Lainey!:)

After the Zoo we stopped for lunch where Lainey slept on me the whole time!  Which never happens!  It was so cute, she was exhausted!
That evening Michelle came down to visit and we ordered in pizza and soaked up our last few hours before Trevor and Lashel went home

We're so happy you came up for the baby blessing and stayed with us!  It was the best!

On Tuesday it was back to reality.
My cute walking partner tearing up the trail!

That night the Fowlers invited us to come check out their new toy!  It's a One Wheel and it is pretty sweet!  Tom, of course, is awesome at it and I could at least stay on.  It was so fun and funny!

These two.... :)

Cole racing the entire neighborhood of kids in a race on the one wheel!

Random: 

Lainey is obsessed with loving on the dogs lately and they reluctantly oblige.

And Grandpa Kevin gave each of us kids at the baby blessing one of these Lifetime kids tables!  It is so cute and perfect!  I think the girls would willingly eat every meal if we kept this in the house every day!

April update

Some tids and bits of life update...

I thought this was so funny how Jade "needed" the neck pillow for story time

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we rode our bikes to the park

I don't have any pictures but I have a way cute video of Lainey going down the twisty slide all by herself!  She loved it!

I consider myself very lucky to have 2 girls that love to go shopping with me.  (As long as I have dum dum suckers in tow when they decide they're done)

Last week Brent and Jenni were out of town so we gave Swayzie a ride to dance class...
and here we are waiting for the teacher

And on the way home we stopped to look at baby chicks and get a treat

Playing so cute together

Life lesson being learned...she kept pulling and pulling on the Polly dolls leg and I kept saying, "No, no! You're going to break it"   And sure enough, she broke it and immediately tried handing it to me to fix it.  She was so sad and confused that it actually broke and I couldn't fix it.  She just kept saying, "Upps!! (oops) Uh-oh!  Oh no!"  Yep sweetie.

And then Jade and all her bug friends!  Worms and Potato bugs all day everyday.  It's actually pretty cute how gentle and sweet she is with them.

Cute little messy-face and half-hair- angel enjoying a cookie  ("Cook cook")

Random, but just one of those moments I was just looking at her in shock of how grown up she is getting so fast.

Lainey helping dad mow the lawn

       

Lainey also got her first real haircut!  She did so good!  Jade didn't have this much hair until closer to 2.5 years old when she got her first cut!

Jade's been pretending to be a cat a lot lately and requested cat ear hair.  And with a little eyeliner, I was suddenly the coolest mom of the day!

My little helper (with a mouth full of Reese's pieces) taking Jovi to the vet this morning.  Jovi needed a renewal of her seizure meds and we got her vaccines that we were only 5 years behind on hahaha

We also had a play date at the Bunkers today and Lainey wouldn't leave my lap for the first 40 minutes or so!   She has been so clingy to me lately.  Like I can't go upstairs to the bathroom without her crying, clingy.  It's sweet but exhausting!  Hopefully the cruise didn't traumatize her!

Other cute things:

Jade

She is starting to sound out and read words and its SO EXCITING!

She can also do an unassisted bridge and handstand against the wall for almost 10 seconds at tumbling class

She is so full of energy and always wanting to play pretend something or other

She hasn't had a fever episode for 2 months!  The doc said it's normal to skip months sometimes but you will see a pattern if tracked for a long time....so we still don't know what that crazy 6 months of fevers and back pain were/are about.  It still could be periodic fever syndrome....or nothing?

She says funny things that make us laugh all the time.  The only one that is coming to mind right now is:  her and Tom were racing and they both would take turns winning and she said, "Well we need someone to be the loser...let's ask mom to race!"  lol thanks Jade

She is a social butterfly and makes friends wherever we go.  She is not shy at all and will literally go up to a kid at the park and say, "Do you want to be my friend?"  and then the remainder of the time will call them "friend"... "oh friend, over here!  Friend come on!"

Lainey

She is talking all the time!  It is so fun!  One thing that she says that is so funny to me is she calls my mom "Bugguh" Instead of Gammy or Grandma.  So random.  My mom said while they watched the girls she would hear Lainey yelling for her, "Bugguh!  BUGGUH!"  and my dad is "Ga-bugguh"

She knows all her animals and what sounds they make

She is all the sudden a picky eater

Loves "shows" nursery rhyme song videos on youtube

She is in 2T clothes.  Her 18-24 months are getting to small.  Super convenient because I have tons of 2T summer clothes.

She loves being a big girl and having her own of everything

She is still obsessed with books and shoes...particularly her black church shoe that has a tiny heel.  She thinks its a tap shoe like Jades