March 2016

March started off with a bang as we surprised the kids with tickets to Disney on Ice.  I had purchased the tickets last year when we went knowing it was Frozen on Ice this year.  We had a great time and although my kids don't like dressing up outside of the house much, I was glad they wore their costumes to the performance.  We got quite a few comments and stares at Jaron's costume especially.



Yes they are still obsessed with Paw Patrol and we have soo many Paw Patrol toys.  But they get played with a lot so I guess that's good.



The girls had their half birthday and the night before kept talking about how excited they were for presents...uh, yeah, no presents for a half birthday, just a celebration.  But I decided to run and grab them each a balloon and some Frozen cereal they had been begging for at the grocery store.  They were pretty excited when they woke up the next morning.  And of course I had to get Jaron one since I kind of forgot his half birthday (3rd child syndrome...and his half birthday isn't 3 days after my half birthday...poor guy.)



Jaron's favorite Elmo stuffed animal went missing quite a while ago.  Seriously I think it's been over 6 months.  We have looked everywhere for that thing.  So many nights Jaron would be so sad asking for Elmo. I couldn't imagine where he had gone.  Well low and behold we found him.  Somehow he got stuck under our eliptical and no one saw him.  Such a happy day!!



The Secret leprechaun that shows up at our house each St Patrick's day is a big deal here.  It's about as big and exciting as Christmas for sure.  They talked about it all month.  They looked out windows and opened doors multiple times a day in the weeks leading up to it.  And they were not disappointed.  The Secret Leprechaun really loves us!



Shane and Jaron ran a few errands one Saturday and randomly walked into this Harmons that had Olaf visiting just wandering around the store.  Pretty exciting grocery store visit.



Aria has been eating a ton lately. She's been out eating both her siblings and obviously it shows cuz she seems to just be getting taller and taller and is obviously taller then her sister now.



Our cute little niece Annie was born.  Look at all her hair.  She's adorable and such a cutie and it was fun to go meet her.



Shane and I were given tickets to the Jazz vs. Laker game.  We had 3rd row seats and it just happened to be Kobe's last game in Utah.  They did a big tribute for him and it was fun to watch him play, even though he was horrible that night and the Jazz killed the Lakers for the worst loss in Laker history.  Yeah, I'm still a Jazz fan.



Jaron was a little distraught one morning after dropping the girls off at preschool.  He really really wants to go to Preschool.  So we had our own little preschool.  He wore his backpack around all morning.  We sang songs, read some stories, colored and practiced our letters.  He was pretty excited about the whole thing.




PS I know I skipped Easter, but I feel like it deserves it's own post.

February 2016

The girls have been taking swim lessons at the rec center for most of this year.  Siena has taken off and Aria is so much better but still needs some encouraging.  They're both in the yellow level at the rec center.  Rec center swim lessons are much slower paced then summer private lessons but I like that they have kept up on their skills and improved.  It keeps Aria less afraid to be in the water more consistently.



After nap shenanigans. The girls love to 'wake Jaron up' after his nap.  And this is how I usually find them.


Our electricity went out for about 6 hours one afternoon.  It was all fun and games until they realized that the TV didn't work and there would be no show for them to watch that afternoon.  I think I gave in and found one I had saved on my ipad.



We went to the Provo City Center temple open house.  It was so beautiful.  I asked the kids to count how many pictures of Jesus they saw.  It kept them focused and interested which was perfect.  As soon as we got in the car Aria started complaining that her mouth hurt.  By the time we got to dinner she was writhing in pain and Shane had to take her out to car.  I couldn't see anything wrong with her mouth.  Only when we had driven all the way to her hysterically crying did I realize it wasn't her mouth that hurt like she said, it was her ear.  She had her first ear ache ever.  So to instacare we went and by the next morning the anti biotics had already started working and she was happy again.  Siena got an ear ache almost exactly 7 days after Aria.  Luckily Jaron skipped out on that one.



Jaron finally is tall enough to ride the ferris wheel at Scheels.  We hadn't been in a while cuz he wasn't quite tall enough, so he was so happy to finally be able to ride.




These kids are the custest.  Whenever we get together with Holland and Tagg these cute kids insist on group hugs before we leave.  It's now a tradition and I love it!



Cute Quinnten was born in February!  He came quick and fast and luckily Brigitte didn't have him in the car because he came 7 minutes after getting the hospital.  It is quite the story but he's the cutest little thing!




The girls discovered that while they're at preschool, many days Jaron and I are at the aquarium.  Since we don't have passes for them, I never take them (to be fair, they had passes when they were Jaron's age)  So one day I agreed to take them.  It was actually a fun day and they were so happy to go back to the aquarium and enjoy the play ground that they keep hearing Jaron talk about but had never been to.



Riverton hospital opened a new building and so we went.  They had Anna and Elsa there, Sven, they got to play some fun games and enjoy a freezing hay ride.



It warmed up just enough for one day to take a trip to the park.  You would've thought I had taken Jaron to Disneyland he was so excited to ride on the swings.



For some reason I don't have a picture of this but one of my favorite things about Valentine's day is that each member in our family have little mailboxes we put out.  Then we get to leave little notes and treats in the mailboxes for each other.  This year was super fun since the girls are learning to write and to see the cute drawings they made for us and each other.

January 2016

In order to get caught up I need to start doing monthly posts of what we've been up to.  So here it goes.

January 2016

Just a typical Saturday morning tea party...of course the horses and stuffed animals were invited as well.

The girls were invited to their friend Kate's birthday party at Jungle Jims.  These kids LOVE Jungle Jims.  The boys got to join in on the fun as well.

Just some fun selfies with mom

Jaron decided that having the girls go to preschool is about the best thing ever. We go to the aquarium and even invited Owen one time.  We play his cars without interruptions.  And even went to the mall to ride the train.  Although he still asks weekly when can he go to preschool.

When the girls realized that the beanie babies that they were given as infants had a tag on them that said what their bears birthday was, it was non stop talking about it.  So when 'Funky's' birthday happened in January we had a birthday party.  The kids wrapped up some toys and we had chocolate chip cookies to celebrate.  We even had to hang the birthday banner up.  And don't worry Aria still hasn't stopped talking about 'Groovy's' birthday coming up in July!

Jaron had his first dentist appointment.  It was pretty uneventful but I think he looks so cute with his little sunglasses and earphones on in that big chair.



The kids were obsessed with the show Super Why this month.  And they insisted on dressing up as a character.  This was the best I could come up.



Playing their tablets they got for Christmas...and of course we need our helmet on while we play!

Siena and Aria - 4 1/2

I think it's time to give an update on the girls.

We started teaching the girls to read around Christmas time.  I have not been pushing it much and just do it here and there but they're catching on and doing pretty good.  They can probably read about 30 words right now.  Considering they still have another year before they start kindergarten I just let them go at their own pace.

The girls favorite game to play at the beginning of the year was 'guess what song this is' and then they would hum something...to which I never had a clue.  It made for some interesting guessing.

They are obsessed with 'print off pages' or coloring pages I print from the computer. We've had to limit how many they can have cuz it's pretty much never ending.  Aria could color for hours.  She's gotten really good and loves to use lots of colors.  Siena is more into one or 2 colors and would rather write letters then actually color.  Now they cut them out as well and then hang them up.  I'm not exaggerating when I saw we have pictures hung all over our house and in every room.  Each week when we take the trash out Shane or I will go around the house and take a few off the walls as to not be obvious but get some cleaned up.

Both girls are still in dance and are getting excited for the recital coming up which will be The Little Mermaid.

Both girls have gotten really good at writing all their letters and often are asking me how to spell words so they can write notes for various reasons. This note was written to Jaron.

We've had them in swim lessons at the rec center the last few months and they're really improving.  Aria is still more hesitant but isn't afraid.  Siena has just taken off and loves to swim back and forth to me and the wall.  She can also float on her back really well and will float for about 20 seconds or longer if I would keep counting.

This year the theme in primary is "I know the Scriptures are true"  We challenged all the kids in primary to read every day, even just for one minute.  We had been debating when to start reading the actual scriptures with the kids and not just tell them the stories so we decided now was a good time.  I've been so surprised how well the remember what we are reading and how much they understand.  Of course there is lots of skimming and even some summarizing but overall I've been happy how it's been going.  One day we were driving out of our neighborhood when we saw our neighbor walking her dog.  Aria asked if she goes to our church.  I told her no she doesn't, and that some people choose not to go to church or go to different churches.  Aria all matter of fact said 'Oh, she must be a lamanite.'  At least we were in our car but seriously it cracked me up.  Now Aria is insistent that Alma is the same character that they watch on Scooby Doo (fyi, the Scooby doo character is named Velma)

Aria has seemed so grown up to me lately.  I don't know why exactly but she just do.  She insists on wearing her hair down like mom does.  She's more agreeable to things and does a lot less whining.  Yay!  She's the more outgoing on the 2 right now and will say hi to people and when Siena gets nervous about something, Aria just takes her hands and helps her out. 

Siena is in the testing her limits phase...again.  She argues with most things I ask her to do and then throws a tantrum when I hold firm.  She fights with Jaron quite a bit and those 2 love to yell.  She does love to learn and loves to read, write and is always wanting to make up games and create things.  We checked out an Easter craft book and she insisted on doing a craft from the book each day.  It was cute to watch how excited she got to make her little things.  Sometimes when I'm in my office working, I'll get little notes slipped under my door that she has colored and written 'I love Mom.'  Siena is also obsessed with my old iPhone and loves to take pictures and text her dad.