Kelsey's Birthday Party

I have put this blog off for so long that I almost have forgotten every detail about her party and that makes me sad. I just wanted to such a good job that I kept saying I didn't have time for it. Great life lesson I guess.
Anyway, on June 4th, we had a birthday party for Kelsey and her friends. Originally we were going to do a swimming party but there was a random heat wave that weekend and it spiked from 98 to 115 in two days. Although people do swim in that kind of weather we decided that we didn't want to do that with just a little kiddy pool and a whole gaggle of 4 year olds.  On Monday we decided to just do a beach/princess/fairy party (she did originally also have Daniel Tiger in there but I convinced her to throw that one out). Basically, all things girly and fun and it went swimmingly (see what I did there)
Kelsey helped me shop all week and on Friday we set things up. Saturday we all worked together to get things together and by 10 we were ready for the guest who were coming at 11. The longest hour of Kelsey's life.

I would LOVE to be a big party person. It looks adorable when you do it right. I have absolutely no qualms with my party. It was exactly the way I wanted it.  I will never apologize for the streamers and napkins not matching and I will never have confetti that matches the table clothes. I can live with that and isn't that the key. Being able to live with the things we can't do? Wow, RANDOM!! Anyway, the point is we had so much fun throwing a very Wing party! It was practically perfect in every way

These were the prizes but all our games ended so "horribly" that we pretty much started just giving them out for random things. It was awesome. 

We colored while Madison hugged all the guests and they totally hated it!

We sat on balloons to get the candy out. It was a disaster and they hated but Ethan and I thought it was hilarious!!

The best part of the whole week!! A MAGIC SHOW BY ETHAN!! It was AS cool as it sounds

Can we notice three things: 1 white gloves 2 the kids faces 3 Madison in the background trying on everyone's shoes :)

We got wrapped in Punzle's hair. Some hated it, some loved it, and all ended with it wrapped around their necks. whoops!

And of course the best part... presents!! Everyone was so excited. Some kids even opened the presents for Kelsey as they walked into the house.

After the presents we have a picnic, but I forgot to get pizza so they had cupcakes, chips, and Kool-Aid squeezits. I haven't seen a happier group of 4 year olds ever.

Kelsey got really nervous to be sung to

After the "picnic" we decorated crowns and made bracelets while we waited for parents. It was basically like a glorified preschool but it was so much fun. After the party, Kathryn and Jordyn stayed a bit longer which I was grateful for. We miss them.

Ethan and I had so much fun planning this party. I really hope we live in a place next year that allows us to have friends to do it again.
People who came:
Jordyn and Kathryn
Aliah Mallinger
Rowan Petersen
Parker Bunn
Will Madsen
Adysue Brown

We also did a cake walk thing where they had to stop on a color and if I called out their color they got to come pick a prize.
We also tried Bingo but that was a COMPLETE disaster. Way to advanced. Basically we just told them to come up one at a time and pick something from the bowl. Lesson learned.

After we cleaned and rest up, we drove up to Kay's dropped Kesley off for a slumber party where she got to have hot chocolate, watched a movie, and went to Build a Bear. We picked her up Sunday morning where she also got to go to church with Kay. And this is why her crash the next week was so hard! 

May/June randoms

Here I sit. Its July 15th and I am trying to remember the moments from May. I really need to do better at keeping up with the time. Either do better or stop trying. Those are the options. May seems years ago. It wasn't super hot yet so we were able to get out some but we were also getting really excited for our upcoming vacation.

Kelsey and Madison started playing this game were Kelsey would hand feed Madison and then they would both laugh and laugh. The pictures I got weren't the best, but I can still hear their giggles in my head.

90% of the time it ends with a hug

Kelsey hates water in her eyes. She hates it so much so that she literally wears goggles while she runs through the sprinklers.

We had a surprise visit from Xander and Adisue and things got crazy goggles and all.

Kelsey and Madison were coloring one afternoon and I noticed Madison was going back and forth from my bathroom to the coloring spot. I followed her and this is what I found. She was so proud of herself too.

Kelsey got so mad at me about a week after her birthday. I'm not really sure why other than the birthday crash hit her hard. She was exhausted, spent a week getting what she wants, not sleeping well, and having a diet of pure sugar and the first time I said no, she just couldn't handle it. It was  sad fit, but she cried so hard that she fell asleep. It was a needed break for both of us.

I caught this moment during family prayer. Definitely worth opening my eyes during the prayer

I cut my hair. Like it, don't love it. The dresser did EXACTLY what I asked for so she is not to blame. I just can't decide what to do with my hair, like ever, so I keep trying new things and finding that I don't love them. Good thing I didn't do anything crazy and that hair grows.

I went to the temple one evening by myself. I was feeling especially down about the hardship that come with motherhood and still super confused about Luxembourg. Although I didn't receive any sort of pointed answer to my issues, I left feeling so at peace with the confusion that we were facing. I'm so grateful for temples. There is such a peace in our lives because of them.

One day I was making black bean brownies (delicious!!) and I spilled the mini chococihps everywhere when I opened the bag. IMMEDIATELY the girls ran to the kitchen and started eating them off the floor. It was hilarious.

I can't remember what Ethan was doing, but the point of this picture was Kelsey's face. I seriously can not express enough just how much she loves Ethan. Everything he does is perfect. She just watched him with wonder and awe. Its so cute to watch their relationship.

I saw Madison emptying out the book crate and wondered what she was doing. I came out of my room to find her reading her books in it.

I just love how old this picture makes her look. She still is so little but this picture is just priceless to me. Love the bun

Early morning cuteness before work

First time pigtails

Waiting for swimming lessons and it turned into story time. The Parker's also brought out watermelon. It was wonderful except it was already 107 outside. Swimming is at 9:15 AM.  Boo to AZ summers!

Fancy feet there kiddo

A maintenance crew came to clean up the yard next door and it created an unexpected exciting hour.

Laundry day!

For the most party the girls still play really well together, but this day was particularly awesome. They stayed outside for like 30 minutes just laughing and talking. It was so cute to listen to. This picture makes me so grateful for backyards and siblings.

Kelsey fell asleep while shopping! She hasn't done this in YEARS!!! It was so cute though. I tried to lift her and wake her up but she would not move for anything. I had to get stuff done so I just started piling everything on her and she STILL didn't wake up. It was so cute!

At our last zoo outing (before the weather got hot) Kelsey and I snapped this picture. It is now my favorite picture of us.

Sedona

Since we know a move is approaching, we are trying to finish our Arizona bucket list. We are doing a good job but one of the major check marks was a trip to Sedona. We didn't have anything over Father's Day weekend so we took the trip up.

I made a list of all the things I wanted to see and then prioritized them. The first priority was Slide Rock so that is where we headed first. It was crowded and the water was like liquid water, but it was amazing. Some of the most fun I have ever had in water. We tried to convince the girls that this was really cool, but they wouldn't buy it so Ethan and I took turns sitting with them, while the other went on the slides. Luckily for as crowded as it was, we still got to go down the slides a lot.

We didn't get a spot in the shade, so we couldn't sit in one spot too long. The girls had fun in the pools. Also, can we all notice that Kelsey has her googles!!! :)

 And here is the proof that we are terrible parents! Poor Kels

 Here are the videos of me and Ethan going down

And then this random nice old man helped Kels go down a slide and she actually liked it

 I tried to film what it looks like while you go down, but I started laughing so hard because it was freezing and this is the result. I don't see vblogging in my future

To get down to the slides, you have to walk through an old apple orchard. It was as beautiful as Slide Rock.

There's never a bad time to snap a "chaleader" pose

After we got back to the car we were going to take a few stops before our hike at Cathedral rock. Well Madison literally fell asleep as we were buckling her into her car seat, so we decided to can the hike and just do a picture tour of Sedona. To be honest, it was for the best. Sedona reached 103 on Saturday which is very unlike them.
We didn't get to hike, but we got to see some awesome sights including Oak Creek Canyon, Cathedral  Rock, Bell Rock, and the Chapel of the Cross.

Chapel of the Cross was very unusual. It was just a very basic chapel, but because it was built against this incredible red rock back ground, it has become a major tourist attraction. The views were very stunning but the parking lot only allows about 20 cars at a time. The line of cars to get to the parking lot was really long so Ethan stayed at the bottom with the girls and I just ran up to the top. I love how easy going Ethan is. He doesn't mind at all to just sit in the car while I check off all these crazy "must sees." I can't tell you how many times he has pulled over just so I can get a picture.

After chapel of the cross, we decided to call it a day and drive back. Before we hit the road, we thought it would be fun to get some ice cream. We stopped at Mikes Hot Dogs and Ice Cream. The place reminded me a TON of my dad's ice cream shop. It just has that new store smell, look, and feel. It has costumers, but it didn't have a flow or rhythm. You could just tell everyone there was learning. Anyway, as I was paying I asked the man helping us, "How long have you been open," and with a huge smile on his face he simply said, "Oh about an hour!" It was so cute. He was so excited that people actually stopped. I'd love to go back even in 6 months-12 months to see how it is doing. Go Mike. Good luck buddy