Our 1st Trip to Tennessee

We took a drive over to Tennessee so we could attend Devin's law school graduation and Oliver's baby blessing. It's only a 7 1/2 hour drive and the girls did amazingly well. We had to stop a few times on the way there for potty breaks but other than that they were great. Anna took a couple short naps and Macy ate a lot of candy.

I made some special treat bags for Macy to open every hour of the trip. My grandma Seymour used to do something similar for us when we would take trips up to Utah. I had this idea the night before our trip and could only stop at the grocery store so the bags mostly contained food. I was able to find a few activities which she really liked so I'll put more of those in next time.

We drove on a Wednesday so Ja could interview a customer on Thursday in Chattanooga. So the girls and I hung out with Papa, Granny Dot, Devin, Dee, Oliver and Dee's mom until the afternoon. We had a nice lunch at Devin and Dee's then went to see the house they were thinking of buying. Homes are so cheap in Knoxville!

The rest of the family (Greg & Holly, Trevor & Heather, Tiffany & kids) got in that night. Macy was so excited to see Lily. We had a few hours to spare before Lily got in so I asked Macy what she wanted to do. She told me she wanted to stay at the hotel so she wouldn't miss Lily coming. They were very excited when they first saw each other. It was like they were instant best friends again.

Friday morning/afternoon we took a little hike by a lake. It was beautiful and nice warm weather too. Thankfully there were no bugs we had to worry about. I ended up carrying Macy piggy back up the big hill at the end. She said her legs were tired. At the end of the trail there was a play area for the kids. It's so fun to see cousins playing together.

Part of our hike next to the river

My hiking buddy

Macy and Mark

Walking to the graduation

Friday night was the University of Tennessee Law School graduation. When Macy realized she was allowed to clap she was very excited. She kept saying,  "I want to see Uncle Devin! I want to clap for Uncle Devin!" Once they finally started reading the names for the graduates to get their hoods Macy said, "Mommy hold my candy. I'm busy clapping for Uncle Devin." It was very cute. We enjoyed a delicious bbq dinner afterwards.

Saturday we ventured down to the Knoxville farmers market. There is a charming little downtown area with a very cute park. Ja made a paper boat and the kids had fun watching it trying to float down the river. It kept getting stuck under the bridge and once it finally made it to the tiny waterfall it was capsized. Oh well, it kept the kids entertained for a while.

The babies enjoying a stroller ride.

After cleaning up a poopy mess from Anna we took a drive to Pigeon Forge. It's a tourist trap with a road full of go cart places, mini golf, and museums every where you look. It was a really fun tourist trap though. We stopped and did a great go cart track with a roller coaster track. It spirals up and down with a big hill at the end. There was also a place with little rides for the kids which they loved.

She was very happy on these rides

Papa looked at a few houses while he was in Knoxville and the relator asked if he would be on the local news. She wanted to do a story about people moving into Tennessee. He was a local celebrity for a night.

Sunday was Oliver's blessing which was nice and he didn't cry at all. It was also Mother's day- my first one that Macy would go up with the primary to sing to me. I was sad we weren't in our own ward that day but she still went up with Mark in Devin's ward. The family couldn't believe that out of all the kids Macy was the one to go up! She was so cute up there and even sang a few words of the song. It was so cute and very memorable.

Two beauties ready for church

After church we enjoyed a Cracker Barrel brunch before driving back home. I wanted to get a picture of Anna and Ryan together to show their dramatically different body types.They are only one month apart but you'd never know because Anna is so much smaller. While trying to do so big sisters Macy and Lily come in and start to wrestle the babies. I thought it was perfect because that's how life usually is for little siblings. 

We drove home in only 7 hours with only one potty break! Macy and Anna both napped for a long time and were amazing! Macy did not want to leave the hotel and had a break down because of it. She cried saying she didn't want to go home. I felt her anguish. I had a great time too and didn't want to come back to real life. Although it would only be for 4 days since we were leaving for Williamsburg soon.

Macy's Swim Class

On May 8th Macy started a swim class at Spring Hill Rec center. She is taking it with Mark and loves it. She finally got to the point where she isn't afraid of the water and would go in it without me so I knew she would be ok in a class.

The pool is great because it has a shallow beach entry so she was able to walk right in without having to immediately jump in.

Macy loves taking classes and loves having a teacher. She pays very close attention to everything Miss Lori says and always looks up at me with a huge smile she she accomplishes something. This class is helping her gain more confidence in the water. She will now put her mouth under water and touch her ear to the water.

Getting used to the water

Walking like crocodiles in the water.

Swimming through a hoop.

Now they are in slightly deeper water with floaties on. They swam under the noodles.

 I love this picture. Macy had the right area of holding onto the bar but it's a little too high.

This is her third class. She almost blew bubbles in the water. She's proud just to put her chin in the water.

Miss Lori gave them kick boards with a ball to keep safe. They were supposed to kick around with them but Macy cheated and walked around with it instead.

I love watching Macy learn and grow. She is so proud of herself and I am too!

In case you're wondering about Anna she is a great little girl and stays at home napping with daddy! The class is perfect timing for that.

Leesburg Animal Park

There was an online deal for a place called Leesburg Animal Park. We had never been before but it sounded fun and friends said they liked it. After going I can saw we really like it too. It's a low key place where the kids can actually feed the animals out of their hands and walk along side the animals. Macy was timid at first but soon warmed up. A little. She was much more open to the idea of animals eating food out of her hand the second time we went. Now she climbs into the crib and pretends to be different animals and I have to feed her with a flat palm.

There's a "contact area" where you can walk around with the sheep, goats, donkey, lamas, and pig. The animals are all very friendly, with the lamas being the most friendly. They walk right up to you and since they are taller they are pretty much face to face with me. As you can tell from this picture Macy wasn't too thrilled with the animals coming close. She's holding her legs up so the animals don't touch her.

The animal she was okay touching was the horse Quinn. She loved riding this little horse in a circle. She was so happy and cute too.

Then it was off to the playground area. It has a wooden train and Macy and Ja took turns being the engineer and announcing where the train was going.

This place also had a bounce house and wagon ride. We did the wagon ride to see the zebras but Macy was too scared to jump in the bounce house.

 This is the second trip we made to the park. Macy was a lot more open to petting the animals. Here she is petting the baby goat named Little Debbie.

Macy loved riding the horsey so much we had to do it again. She was so funny and called her Quinn. I love that they are on a first name basis now.

In the contact area this donkey was pretty forceful. He would walk into Ja with his nose and keep nudging him until Ja would give him food.

Macy wanted to feed the duck. She sat here saying, "Here ducky! Come get some food ducky!"

She was great at feeding the little goats. I had to distract the big goat because it scared her a little bit.

And here is Anna having a staring contest with the mama goat. The goat tried to eat Anna's sock but was luckily too far away to get it.

April Wrap Up

My little Anna got sick. She had a really high fever (got up to 103.7) and she threw up three times. I couldn't believe how hot her little body felt. She got a lot of baths for those few days of fever in attempt to cool her down. I took pictures of how rosy her cheeks were and of course Macy had to jump in. They are so darn cute!

I love this one so much. I feel like Anna is saying, "Do you see what I have to deal with?!" Anna's cheeks are really that red, I didn't change anything about this photo.

Rosy cheeks

 This snot sucker saved our lives. Anna was not sleeping (by not sleeping I really mean not sleeping!) at night because she couldn't breathe very well. Heather let us borrow this and I was amazed by how much snot we could get out of her nose! Thick green mucus-y snot too. It's not wonder why she couldn't breathe. We enjoyed a much better sleep that night. I can't believe we waited two nights to try this!

Macy's flower that she planted from seed started to sprout.

I caught Macy reading books to Anna- who seems to really enjoy it.

I love my two girls so much. I love that they became instant best friends.

Towards the end of the month we had a few warm days so we walked to Safeway.

Daddy bought Macy a tricycle. She didn't know how to pedal a bike so he bought this for her so she could get used to that motion. She enjoys it for a few minutes then makes me carry it home because her "legs are sore."

We took a preschool field trip to Meadowlark Gardens. It drizzled the whole time and the kids were having a ball running around so this was the only picture I got. 

30 things my kids should about know about me Series

Second question: Name three legitimate fears and how they became so.

Ja
1. Sound of nails on a chalkboard. It makes me fingers hurt just thinking about it. And it gets me all antsy. I don't know where it came from, I just hate it.

2. A fear of water (water that is not clear). This became a fear after watching the movie Jaws.

3. Afraid if insects biting me. I don't know which ones are poisonous so they all scare me. This comes from watching tv shows and movies with people having holes in their legs from bites.


Laura
1. Dying during my children's childhood. This came to be after my aunt Karen dying when her kids were still young. After having my own kids and feeling so much love for them I would hate to leave them.

2. Falling off a roller coaster. I have visions of the car going off the track or my shoulder harness opening while I'm upside down.

3. I'm afraid of Macy or Anna being bullied or made fun of a lot in school. I love them so much and don't want kids to be mean to them.

We both have fears but that doesn't stop us from living and still going in the ocean or riding a roller coaster.

Anna in the bath

I had Anna in the bath yesterday and Macy started taking pictures of Anna with her pretend camera. I'm glad she did because it reminded me that I need to take more pictures of Anna. I could only capture a few before the memory card was full then the moment was past. I'll have to try again soon. Here are my favorites:

She's getting so big and grown up! She can sit up really well now. Thankfully we are getting our happy Anna back after a week battle with fever, runny nose, and a cough. We are all ready to get some sleep now!

Here is a picture of Macy when she was almost one. I think she and Anna have the same chin and cheeks! 

My last day teaching Macy's co-op Preschool

Here's the email I sent to the other moms:

We had a fun time on Tuesday. I can't believe I'm done teaching! It was a bitter sweet day. They are ver cute and I'll miss this little group! Each child has his or her own personality and it was fun to watch them interact. 

We did all the circle time things and I had each child pick a book we were going to read later. I'm still impressed with how well they all attentively listen to a story! One time I was having a hard time getting them to be quiet so I experimented. I started whispering asking them to be quiet because I was going to read. Then I started reading in a quiet voice and they all got really quiet! That was so much easier than trying to talk over them. 

We did a letter hunt then put the letters A-M all in order. They love singing the ABC song! 

We talked about our oval shape and colored in their Oval Book. I had them work on their fine motor skills by having them cut the outside lines of their book.

We did the letter matching worksheet and Emma is very good with her letters. She finished very quickly. I know Owen also knows his letters but he kept saying he needed help. Probably because I was helping James out. Hallie made sure everyone had an H for Hallie. They did really well with this.

We painted and once again the kids were very neat. No spilled paint or big messes.

We enjoyed some playing time and the kids are helpful with putting toys away. Although I didn't have them put stuff away when you guys arrived to the huge mess :)

Before our final play time I wanted to get a few group shots. They are all the same pose on the couch because it was hard enough to get them all on there so I didn't want to lose them while changing locations.  I had them make different faces:

Happy:

Silly

Mad

Surprised