Three Through and Through!

 My baby is three. Yikes. (pause for a few deep cleansing breaths...)

Jade loves to sing, loves to chat, really hates her curly hair (probably because so many people like to tug on her curls...), loves "Nastics-for-day" (gymnastic s day), and climbs like the craziest little monkey you've ever seen! She scales the outside of the stairs, tries to climb up door jambs, and loves to traverse around the low hand holds while Dawna and Lawrence are at climbing class.  And lately, she's been into My Little Ponies like crazy. Every day after the big kids go to school, she asks, "Wanna play ponies with me?" On one particularly busy day, I hadn't found time to play with her yet, and she informed me, "Mom, Jesus knows how to play ponies," in an accusatory tone.  Ok, Jade, I'll try to be more like Jesus.  ;)

We did most of the celebrating the day after her birthday... because on her birthday, a couple friends and I dragged the poor little thing into the city for...

The Hunger Game Exhibition!

 But really, what three-year-old wouldn't want to sit on the set and pretend to get interviewed by Caesar Flickerman for the third Quarter Quell??? Yeah, I know... all of them... I think she mostly had fun though. There were quite a few interactive exhibits. to play with...

Anyway, after school, it was crazy as usual getting homework done and getting to climbing and gymnastics, and in the middle of all that, I took Jade to Costco to pick out a birthday cake. She picked a cheesecake (yesssssss!!!) and enjoyed putting her very own candles in it!

 The next day, she actually got to open all her presents and have her favorite dinner--pepperoni pizza with the pepperonis taken off--NOT cheese pizza, mind you... and as a bonus, Alex came over to play!

All in all, a successful little birthday for my sweet little one! Can't wait to see what this new year brings to you, Jade!

Mom's Day Out!

Happy Mother's Day to me!
I know, it might seem late, but actually Jon planned his Mother's Day gift to me this weekend.  This year for Mother's Day, Jon gave me a wonderful gift: up to 72 hours all to myself! No kids, no cleaning, no cooking! So, Friday afternoon at 5pm, Jon packed up the van and took all the kids camping to Big Basin...

...and just like that, the house was empty.  Empty and quiet. I had nothing to do. Nothing at all... nobody asking for a drink or an apple or telling me about something smelly in their pants...

What to do, what to do?

So just how does a mom with no kids have fun? It took me a minute, but I think I figured it out...

Step 1: Try on clothes! I know it sounds a little silly, but really, being able to just try on clothes without anybody whining in the dressing room or outside the dressing room or saying, "Can we go now?" is just what a mom needs sometimes.  I went to RoadRunner to try on running clothes and I got to just leisurely try things, look in the mirror, weigh my options, and make my selection...  Ahhh....

Step 2: Grab a girlfriend for a night on the town!! Brooke was such a good sport about hanging out with me on Friday night!  We went out to see The Avengers (I know, not what you would expect from a girl's night out, but I really wanted to see it and Jon had already seen it twice without me!) and Brooke reserved a couple of those recliner couch luxury seats at the theater in Mountain View.  We ate a GIANT tub of buttery delicious popcorn and Brooke taught me how to take a selfie at the movie theater after the show.

(yeah, so it's a little blurry... whatever...)

Step 3: Stay out ridiculously late window shopping and eating out in downtown Mountain View! We had a great time perusing a store called "Therapy" with all kinds of fun stuff to look at, including rings made from old typewriter keys, way overpriced throw pillows, a picture book called "Crap Taxidermy," and of course, a sriracha sippy cup! After a lot of good laughs and thoughtful pauses, we continued on to the Crepevine for an almost midnight meal and more selfie lessons :)

Step 4: Sleep in!

Step 5: Go for a run! Not early, but still in the morning on Saturday, I headed over to Coyote Hills for my six mile run in my new running clothes! So relaxing and fun to just wander the trails and explore the ins and outs of a place. I may be close to admitting that running might be a little bit fun... just a little...

Step 6: Go the the temple! After a night of indulgence and a good morning workout, the next thing I needed was a good spiritual feeding. The temple never disappoints. And though this is one place that is better when enjoyed with your eternal companion, it's great on your own too. I got to do some initiatories and daughter sealings. Also, I ate lunch in the cafeteria! It's one of those little things that I'd never gotten to do before, so silly as it was, it was a big moment for me! Seeing part of the temple I've never seen before! And as you can see from the picture, I  need to invite Brooke back for a few more selfie lessons (what is that face saying??).

 Step 7: Get a good pampering! After a lovely temple day, I went straight to Massage Envy Spa for a deep tissue massage. It was lovely. It was relaxing, and it was just what I needed before returning from my Mom's Day Out! After those seven steps, I was ready to jump back in to life feeling refreshed, relaxed, invigorated, and inspired! And I was really starting to miss my kids and my husband, which brings us to the final phase of Mom's Day Out...

Step 8: Cuddle up on the couch with your favorite people, big and small! One curly-headed toddler, one sassy kindergartner, one sweet miniature gentleman, one tall blonde beauty, and best of all, one loving good-looking guy as always, right by my side.

Happy Mother's Day to me! Yeah, I know, I've got it good!

Holy Halloween Countdown!

 What a year it has been for Halloween! We didn't want to miss any chance to party, so as a result, we were a part of 7 Halloween celebrations.  That might have been a bit overboard for one year... we are pretty "funned out" as they say.  But here's the countdown of activities we attended, spanning from October 24-31, in order of appearance...

7. Lincoln Spooktacular: The first chance for the kids to put their costumes on display! And here they are: It's Halloween 2014! Starring...

Dawna as Maid Marian from Robin Hood (This is a costume I wore as a kid... made by my mommy!)

Larry as Aren't-You-A-Little-Short-For-A-Storm-Trooper: You might THINK he's a storm trooper, but he's actually Luke Skywalker in disguise ;) You can tell because he likes to carry around a light saber...

Xochitl as Ariel (another costume I wore as a kid hand made by mom!)

Jade as a pony... or a bubble... or is it a bauble? It's a hard word to say, but she tries...

All the cuties together, ready to party hard!

6. Niles Carnival: We attended Henry's school carnival and had a great time with all the games and prizes! We had some last minute changes here...

Jade as a puppy... or a bubble... or a bauble... just as all friendly animals are called... She had a badly scabbed up nose that could almost pass for a puppy nose...

Xochitl declared the Ariel costume to be just too itchy... plus she kept stepping on the fin.  So she swapped it out for this blast from the past costume of mom's... an old Betty Gentry dance studio special I wore to tap dance to "Tiptoe through the Tulips." But if you ask Xochitl, she's going as the sunshine. Yeah... we have no shortage of girly things to dress up in around the hosue. 

The most creative part of the Niles carnival was this carnival game with three giant hula hoops on the ground and the kids had to throw poker chips into two to win the prize: their choice of donated stuffed animals! I am so recommending this one to our school for next year!  The kids thought it was awesome and the parents loved trading in 20 old stuffed animals for just one or two...

5. Family Halloween Evening: Nana and Papa put together a great family home evening party for us and the Pauleccas complete with favorite activities including...

...Donuts on a string...

Which is fun for all ages! From the mamas... 

... to the babies... 

...and everyone in between!

... Stirring and Stirring and Stirring the brew!!!! 

Other events not pictured from this night included a treasure hunt, candy corn drop, and Halloween themed dinner. Great times with cousins!

4. Google-ween: Always an enormous production!  This year was Alice in Wonderland themed event.  The kids enjoyed such things as...

...croquet in Disney A in W style with flamingo mallets, face card wickets and balls decorated like little hedgehogs!

... white rabbit petting zoo!

...giant chessboard!

... Giant Alice legs!  These were just outside a "rabbit hole" tunnel on the other side of a rose bush maze. Loads of fun, terrible traffic getting off the campus... note to future Google-ween visitors: just head south to get on 101. If you try to head north, you'll encounter nearly gridlocked traffic trying to get around buses and  illegally parked cars mixed with the regular traffic of the afternoon... not a pretty picture...

3. Lincoln parade and class parties: FINALLY got to the actual Halloween... Larry and Dawna had a parade first thing in the morning.  All the classes marched around the school to the cheers of the parents. Xochitl and Jade were my tag-alongs as we went to Larry's class to decorate pumpkins, make paper bag bats, and sing Halloween songs with the kids.  Then we went to Dawna's class and had sweets galore!  Dawna wanted to bring something to share with her class, but as we all know, Dawna is not a sweet-tooth kid. She asked me to make a veggie tray to take to her class.  I was impressed by the third graders.  They all wanted some vegetables and ranch and some kept coming back for more and more! Every last veggie was eaten up! One cute kid said to me while grabbing more carrots, "You make the best treats!" Thanks :) We were at the school for the entire day... When we got home, we had naps and recuperating time before our last events...

2. Bayside Trunk or Treat: Tradition... As always, a trunk or treat at the church building on Halloween evening.  We try to keep it short and sweet. Hot dog barbecue, walk around with candy, the end. The fun part was that Jon and I finally got to dress up :)

So here we are! I am being Tasha Yar and Jon is Capitan Jean-Luc Picard! He even let me shave his head for the occasion! He looked awesome! 

Sparring practice... use the force!

Wait... What movie are we from again???  We embrace all Sci-Fi. 

1. Trick or treat! And finally! What Halloween is actually for! Trick or Treating! After all that, the kids didn't last too long outside... basically we made it down our street and back... but the fun part was that we got to actually tag along with a neighbor girl who is in Larry's school class! The kids ran along from house to house and we old moms had to struggle to keep up with their enthusiasm for the candy... My kids took tips on which houses hand out full size candy bars... They scored a LOT of goodies... After the trick or treating, Brooke and Jon and Alex joined us to watch the Lego Movie and relax.  I love it when Halloween is on a Friday! No guilt for staying up late!

And to conclude the post, here's our little artist Dawna's rendition of Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween Fun!

Happy Halloween!! Here's how we celebrated our scary week:

This girl  is growing so fast, it's scary! She had her first "solid" food on the 25th of October! (and as you moms know, "solid" is used in the loosest possible form... rice cereal soup is a more appropriate name). Dad is getting sentimental, mom is getting excited about longer nights asleep... or longer nights out :)

This boy is learning so quickly, it's scary! He's a great reader and loves to entertain Jade with colorful stories about sharks trying to eat cars... 

And tradition never dies... Nana and Papa came over for pumpkin soup dinner and "witch's brew" the day before Halloween... scary how garbage boiled in a plastic cauldron can taste like hot chocolate ;) 

This year's creative alternative to carving: finishing nails and strings woven into shapes and patterns. Larry HAD to incorporate his scary scorpion and tarantula.

 

Xochitl's heart pumpkin

All dressed up and ready to go: Dawna as Alice in Wonderland; Xochitl as Rapunzel; Jade as our tiger cub, and Larry as Spiderman!  

At the ward Trunk or Treat: Such Awesome costumes! Brooke and Jon Evans  go All Out--EVEN unto the shaping of facial hair --for their costumes... no wonder they look so good!  Jon and I had no such costuming.... so we earn no photo of our Halloween Humbug.

And as an afterthought, a scary skeletal science project: First you eat the Rotisserie chicken, then you pick the bones clean, then you reconstruct the chicken sans meat and skin and fat. We got to learn words like femur and tibia and ulna and phalanges, to name a few... 

Happy Halloween time! We had so much fun, it was scary.

Top 10 Memories from Easter in Utah.

10. Moses and Kaylee!

I havn't had many opportunities in my life to meet celebrities, so when I saw Moses and Kaylee at the reception... woah... I became totally star-struck! Completely incoherent, googly-eyed, and silly... yes, that's how I met Moses and Kaylee... I adore them. But in spite of my goofy behavior, Moses was very gracious and Kaylee very sweet and I have even more admiration for them after meeting them in person than I did before, which is something that I don't think I could say about many super-stars. But here it is, a picture with me and MOSES and KAYLEE!!! WooHoo!

9. Lehi Legacy Center

On Monday, Heather took me down to the Lehi Legacy center, which is a lovely community place complete with pool, track, weight room, and yoga class! I paid $5 for me and Dawna (thanks for a BoGo coupon) for a whole day of exercise and fun! Heather and I ran a 5k on the track in the morning, then Mom and Dad met up with us and the kids for a swim. We had a couple minutes in the weight room, and then in the evening, Rob volunteered to put the kids in bed so Heather and I could go to the 8pm Yoga class. And that was AWESOME! I discovered I really like Yoga... and may find a way to get into a class around home...

8. Old friends, new places
Throughout the week, Sarah Jean, Edwin, and Leeland accompanied us on several outings, including the Lehi Legacy Center, BYU campus, and she even invited us to the Easter egg hunt she was putting on for her "music-makers"-like class in her ward. As always, she added life, energy, and fun to our trip, not to mention beauty :) But Sarah wasn't the only old friend we found in Utah... We also got to hang out with Stephanie, Kora, and Brighton! We were quite the sight at the swimming pool... all these California girls swimming in the middle of snowy a Utah spring... it was almost a full joyschool reunion, but unfortunately, we missed seeing Angela and Talmage :( darn kindergarten got in the way! Next time though... because there will always be another trip to Utah... there's just too many things to do and too many people to see for one week... this one was the "friend" trip... in July we're coming out for the "family" trip...

7. Attached at the hip...
This would describe Larry and Isaac most of the time, but Hannah and Dawna every waking second of the day... and even some of the sleeping seconds of the day as well. From dress-up to restaurant to Queen and servant even unto trips to the potty, they didn't ever leave each other. Side by side they vacationed, up to the last night, when the two of them amazingly slept in the same twin size bed, side by side. They were the best of playmates and incredibly cute! The boys echoed the fun with their twin "I dig dirt"s in the yard, wrestling on the trampoline, and casting their new fishing poles (courtesy of Papa Severson) over the back lawn and down the stairs to the basement.

6. Down by the river side
For FHE, we all trekked down to the river to throw rocks and try out the new fishing poles. We had a really fun time, even though we nearly lost several of the plastic fish that were tied to the poles... all were recovered though, thanks to the fine efforts of Abbie, Emma, and Heather, who braved getting wet to save the items floating downstream. Only one unlucky person had wet feet by the end of the evening... and we will leave his identity undisclosed.

NOTE: No Emmas were harmed in the making of this picture :)

5. 11 Years ago...
On Sunday we celebrated Abbie's 11th birthday... 11... Really, Abbie? I mean REALLY?????? sheesh... her birthday was complete with angel food cake, roller blades and a new CD player. I got to reflect on my sophomore year of high school, when I was visiting Utah during spring break and Abbie was born. At the beginning of the week, Rob was talking to a tummy and by the end of the week, we were talking to the baby... it was crazy how quickly things changed, I thought. Abbie was the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen (I am partial, however, since she was my sister's baby). But she's never ceased bringing a quiet dignified beauty to her home, her friends, and her whole life! Love you, Abbie girl!

4. That was Emma?
And just like that, Emma grew up. "That was Emma?" was my comment upon hearing her practice piano. She plays the piano extremely well, she plays with her little cousins extremely well, and does pretty much everything extremely well. Emma let me do her hair almost every day for school and I had a great time with that! Her hair reminds me of mine-- I love it long and braided. I'll probably be begging to play with her hair once my goes all gray and frizzy... it will make me feel young again... wait a second... I think I just saw a movie about that! Aaahhhh!!!

Anyway, look out world, Emma is coming!

3. Old companions, new babies!
Oh good old Sis. Boren... or Groneman... or whoever... I'm so glad she had her baby early so I could come see little miss Lindy and her new mama! I must admit that I was a little nervous driving up to her place; it's been a long time since I've seen Katie and I can be a little socially inept sometimes... but as soon as I walked in, I remembered why I love Sis. Boren so much: she just makes everyone feel good about themselves, no matter what! Such an amazing example to me! I had a wonderful visit and got to hold the baby and everything! Such a cute little strawberry blondie! So So So good to see them both!

2. Quilting marathon with my sister

Can you believe I kept Heather -- HEATHER -- up till one in the morning, TWO nights in a row, working on a beautiful quilt! This was a serious quilting marathon, which included two days of piecing the top and one day where we borrowed quilting frames, mounted the quilt, tied the quilt, took it off the frame and did the binding... WHEW! It was a piece of work... and it generated a piece of art, containing the pants of Rob, Abbie, Emma, Danielle, Jon... and various unknown others...

Yes... Heather was up veeeeerry late... (that was at the Discovery Gateway, by the way... yet another fun stop along the way... ) but she was a master on the sewing machine by the time we were done! No project too big to take on!

1. Bro. and Sis. Evans!!

Of course the best part of the trip was what we came there to do: see Brooke and Jon sealed for time and eternity in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We have been the lucky observers of this relationship from day one-- literally-- when Brooke came home and said, "I met this guy, Jon, actually.. .haha! He was pretty cool... maybe he has some cute friends he can introduce me to..." to the "We're in a relationship on Facebook" to the "I love you" to the "Will you marry me?" and right up to the sealing room! (and hopefully we'll continue to be the close followers for many years to come!)

Being re-united with all our Riviera 15 roommates is of course the fortunate side effect of such a wedding. Brooke faithfully attended all of our weddings, and now was the time to return the favor! Sydney and Dawna had a lot of fun, too :) Thanks for getting married, Brooke and Jonny, so we could have such a fun trip!

Brooke and Jon Dance Party!

We've got an engaged child living at our house... so in the wake of wedding planning, we reap certain benefits, such as participating in dance lessons :)

Here's the Koberstein/Evans Living room dance party:

I particularly love Larry's little booty shake! Brooke said we had to get that on film before he grows out of it--here we have success!