School's Out --- Scream & Shout!!

This is a bit overdue, since the kids have been out of school for a week and some already. Every time I think about blogging, I get overwhelmed at the amount of catching up I need to do, so I'll do it by bits and pieces now.

These cute twinners kissed kindergarten GOODBYE!!!!! I can't believe my first babies will be in 1st grade in a couple months! Every morning when either Matt or I would drop them off, we'd get this - I love you signs. Love it! I'm hoping we can keep this up as the years go on.

B&B with their kindy teacher, Mrs. Ctibor.

She taught them so many cute, cute, cute songs to help remember how to skip count, spell colors and various seasonal tunes. It's so funny when I'd start singing along and Brooklyn says, "MOM, you KNOW this song???!???!" Haha! We loved having Mrs. Ctibor as our kindergarten teacher!

After school was out, we had to do a little celebrating of course. We ordered pizza, played a new game on the Wii (yes, we got one - early bday present for Matt), and made homemade pizzookies!




































I'm really sad that they won't be attending the same school again next year. I went to this elementary school (different campuses) and am familiar with everything that it's all about. Some of the teachers that I had still teach at the school! But we just can't do the drive every day. Matt used to take the kids every morning on his way to work, but when he got moved to a different office, he had to leave much earlier and then I got to make the 25 minute drive each way, TWICE a day, to and fro. That was just too much. It was two hours out of my day, including waiting time for pick up. Heck, *I* was counting down the days left of school!!!!

I will not lie, it has NOT been easy having Brooklyn and Blake back in the house with us all day long. They are used to a structured day, and normally, Gav and I just hang out and do as we please. There has been a lot of bickering and yelling (some of it from me, the shame) and I'm trying to arrange some sort of "quote-unquote" schedule for us to make things run more smoothly. Plus, I was so used to dropping B&B off and then running my errands - grocery store, Target, what have you - and it's MUCH different trying to accomplish an errand with FOUR kids vs only two. We've managed the grocery store and Costco this week, but I assure you, we got plenty of stares, with kids dangling off my cart left and right!!!! The plan is to hit the library once a week and participate in the summer reading program there. I also want to have a "fun" trip every couple weeks, just to mix things up a bit - the movie theater, perhaps Bounce U or a kids museum, some swimming, etc. I'm looking into dance class for Brooklyn and karate for the boys.

We'll see if we can survive each other this summer! ;) If you don't hear from me in awhile, check in on me, ok?

Last Mommy & Me Hurrah

Cute stripey swim shorts courtesy of The Children's Place - $9.37















Soft cuddly Wall*E towel from the Disney Store - $9.99

Playing in the water fountains on a hot day after enduring Mommy's shopping - PRICELE$$

Of course Gavin doesn't have me exclusively to himself, but I considered that our last little fun outing together before the twinners were done with school. I got my shopping done and told him he could play on the playground, but when he saw the splash pad, he wanted THAT one instead!! Of course. I had already planned on getting him a new swim suit, but we didn't have a towel so we ran inside the Disney store real quick. I asked the cashier if they get quite a bit of business (swim suits and towels) by having the splash pad right outside their door and she said, "YES!" Gav was a little shy about the fountains at first, but as you can see above, he finally became acquainted nicely. ;)

We saw these cool clouds on the way home from school ----^
Looks like a shark eating a dolphin to us!!! Poor dolphin. I love when my kids point out things like this....

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

How Does {YOUR} Garden Grow?

A little over a month ago, we got our supplies together and planted a garden in our backyard. We let the kids get in on the action and I'm afraid I've ruined them because they were complaining they'd get dirty if they dug in the garden with their hands. Of course they have no problem getting dirty of their own free will and choice!!!Please just ignore this most unflattering picture of me, psycho hair, g's hanging out and all!!! I didn't seem to get a pic of how the garden started out so this is as good as it gets!!

What are we GROWING in our garden you ask?

Cucumbers
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Tomatoes - both Early Girl and Cherry varieties
Green bell pepper
Green onions
Cantaloupe
Watermelon

This is the garden NOW!!! WOW!!

We've watched our plants grow and grow and GROW!! We're finally starting to see the FRUITS of our labor - pun intended! ;) Our garden officially overfloweth!! Literally! I think we planted a little more than our planter could handle. We'll be up to our eyeballs in veggies in a few weeks! And I know this is just the start of the melon vines, oh boy!

Zucchini

SquashThe tiniest little cucumber you ever did see!Our lone red tomato so far!Green onion hairsBell peppers, fighting to survive. Not sure these are gonna turn out. :-/Cantaloupe vine, creeping over the edgeWatermelon vines going everywhere!Oops!!!! What else is that I see????
Our very own Cabbage Patch Kid perhaps??!??! ;)

And on the citrus front.....

Look at my BIGGEST grapefruit!!!!And we have LOTS of little oranges between the three trees! Yipee!

I can't WAIT to taste the first of the food from our garden! It always tastes SO much better than what you get at the grocery store! I'm sure we'll have plenty to go around, so just stop by Palmer's Farmers Market for produce home-grown with love!! ♥

Oops, I did it again!!!

What I've been working on allllllllllllll week long!!! Took me FIVE blasted days to catch up! Someone please remind me not to let two weeks go by without doing laundry again!!!! This time I'm showing the finished product! 'Tis all hung up and tucked away neatly now. :)

Nothing {quieter} than this....

TWO sleeping boys!!! At the SAME time!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

just pics for now, more narrative to come after I get some sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep

My {quick} breakfast (we have 8am church and Matt had a 6am meeting) -

MOM⁴

Me & my skeedle-deets!!

Me & my Brooklyn

Me & my Blakey

Me & my Gavin

Me & my PrestonOne more because he's so cute, barf and all!!Me & my mom

My sis Becky and her two littlest ones

Happy Mother's Day to all my family & friends!! :)

For record keeping purposes - 4 month stats

Preston had his 4 month well baby check a week ago. He's perfectly healthy and doing great with everything! Such a BIG boy already and it's hard to believe in a few short months we'll be starting real food!!! He got four vaccines plus the Rotateq drink thingie. It's so hard to listen to my baby cry!! Thank heavens for chunky thighs (his, not mine) to help lessen the blow!

Weight: 16 lbs. 8 oz. (82nd %ile)
Length: 27 1/4 in. (97th %ile)
Head Circ: 17 1/2 in. (95th %ile)

Preston STILL has to be swaddled in order for him to sleep for any decent length of time. I'm loving those SwaddleMe blankets and just went out and bought 5 size large ones!! He's only slept through the night (~ 10 hours) twice now, but is doing a good 6 hour stretch on a regular basis. I'm starting to see more of a routine emerge, which I love. He nurses upon waking (15 minutes on one side and he's good to go!!!) and then about 1.5-2 hours later, he's ready to go back down for a nap.

This kid is still a fountain, barfing all the time. He gets drenched, I get drenched, we go through 5 or 6 burp rags and multiple outfits a day and I find it amazing he's still managed to gain good weight!! Preston has rolled from front to back several times and is doing much better with tolerating tummy time. He loves to stand stiff-legged on my lap now or grab his own toes/feet while on his back. He's constantly licking/licking/gnawing on his fingers/hands/fists and gags himself frequently. LOL! Preston is definitely a vocal one with all his "talking," "singing," and other delightful baby noises. He's incredibly ticklish and it's not hard to get a giggle out of him! He can spot me from a mile away and gets rather upset if I set him down and walk the other direction.

I'm so in love with this little boy!!!

Gavin is all about his baby brother these days. He loves to be right in Preston's face and pile ample toys around Pres, just in case he gets bored. Some funny things Gav has said recently:

"I think Preston has cheese neck. Let's check." (referring to curdled milk stuck in the folds of his neck)

"Do you hear Presty's voice? He's sayin' he wants some of your milk!"

Notice anything different??

About these eyes???????*
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NO GLASSES!!!!!

Matt FINALLY had LASIK back at the beginning of April. It's been less than a month and it's already weird when I look back at pictures and see him with glasses! I love being able to see right into those baby blues!!

ANYTHING else? Does he look more RIGHTEOUS to you??

(OK, maybe not more righteous, but definitely rather bald!!)

You're staring into the face of the brand new
YOUNG MEN'S PRESIDENT
of our ward!!!!

I'm pretty sure this is Matt's dream calling in the church (is that allowed? picking out your own "dream" calling???) but I'll let you know how DREAMY it's working out for ME in a couple months. ;)

Should I be worried that the whole bishopric has been extra kind to me lately and are offering their wives as resources for support? Perhaps they know I'm about to be blindsided by this!! LOL!