Moving countdown

3 days till moving time!



Tomorrow is our closing day and we will get the keys to our new house. Still have a lot of packing to do before our big moving day Saturday. I have been trying to find time to pack during the day when Cami naps, but I've been busy. So far this week has included a trip to the Children's Museum as part of a preschool field trip, a trip to the Bouncy Place (part of our end of year preschool party), a visit to the doctor, and going visiting teaching.

Bryant has had to work late both nights this week so far and Cami has come down with a cold. This week I still have: a visit to the dentist, another visiting teaching visit, and a trip to the new house to paint Sean's room blue. Hectic week, but it'll all be worth it when we move into our new home! It's over double the square footage of our apartment, and we're excited to finally have a yard.

Our yard:



Living room:


Kitchen:


We are going to miss our old ward a lot though. Hopefully some of you will come visit us sometimes!

Fat legs and fun tricks

This morning, I was trying to fit Cami into a cute pair of hand me down boots my mom had given to her. They were the correct size for her, but apparently she has much fatter legs than most babies with the same shoe size. I could barely get them zipped up halfway!

Here is Cami wearing the boots:



I have also been catching her in some odd positions lately. Yesterday she somehow got her leg up on her highchair tray while eating.



And this is almost always what I see when I go in to get her from a nap:

Family visit

This week we had a visit from some of our favorite people: my parents and four of my siblings. Sean had been looking forward to the visit for weeks, and I'm pretty sure it lived up to his expectations. Cami was a little scared by having so many people in our living room at first, but once my siblings started feeding her tidbits of their food she warmed up to them quickly.

While they were here, we went to Chuck E Cheese, The Bouncy Place, and the Supermall.

This is Sean with his Uncle Ricky on the carousel at the Supermall:


Here is Cami at the Bouncy Place. She especially loved going down the slides. My arms were sore from lugging 25 pounds of baby up to the top of every slide multiple times.


As it turns out, Cami enjoys traveling in the car a lot more when there are 6 people trying to entertain her during the ride.



Amidst all the excitement, Sean and my sister Jessica found time for a bit of relaxation and video game playing:



And Sean enjoyed a picnic on the balcony with his little Aunt Amy:


Now they've left us to return to Utah. We miss you guys already!

Happy Easter!

This morning Sean got his eagerly awaited Easter basket, and Cami had her first encounter with her own Easter basket. It was a fun morning.



Sean looks slightly excited:



Cami got mostly baby snacks/food in her Easter basket, but she also received a bunny book and a bottle for her doll:



Sean got some candy, a bunny Pez dispenser, and a set of Legos, but that didn't stop him from swiping Cami's doll bottle the second she set it down.



We also had a small Easter egg hunt with Sean in our living room, which he really enjoyed. Fortunately amid all the candy and Easter paraphernalia, Sean has kept his priorities in order. He reminded me this morning that Jesus is the reason we have Easter. I'm proud to be the mom of such good kids! Everything is more fun with them around, but especially holidays.

One of my less brilliant moments

So earlier today, I noticed that I had only about half the amount of dishwasher detergent needed to run a full load. Coincidentally I had a LOT of dirty dishes that needed to be done. So I had the wonderful idea that I could use half dishwasher detergent, half regular dish soap. It's all soap used for washing dishes, right?

This is what I saw when I next entered the kitchen:



In other news, Cami has a new Easter dress:




And Sean has started soccer:



Anyway, to conclude this post, nobody use regular dish washing soap in their dishwasher, and have a Happy Easter/General Conference Weekend!

Mommy's little buddy

Yesterday as I was on my way home from visiting relatives in Chehalis (2 hours drive south of where I live), I realized that I had not yet done any preparation for preschool Monday morning and that it was my week to teach (Sean's friend birthday party was on Saturday, so I had been a little busy with other things). I started frantically trying to plan some activities, then realized I would need to go to the grocery store before preschool to pick up some things for the activities I had in mind.

Bryant told me that the store didn't open until 8 AM. Thich meant that I couldn't go before he had to leave for work, I would instead have to take both kids to the store sometime AFTER Cami woke up (sometimes as late as 9:30) and BEFORE preschool started (9: 30) I was feeling a little stressed. My little buddy Sean noticed and wanted to cheer me up. This was how he went about it:

Sean:
"Mommy, you're so beautiful."

Me:
"Thanks, Sean"

Sean:
"And you're so gorgeous!" (Can anyone tell he has been brainwashed by his dad?)

Me:
"Thanks, Sean. You're such a nice boy!"

Sean:
"And you're more beautiful than Daddy! You're more beautiful than all the mommies!"

As you may have guessed, it did make me feel better. And as it turned 0ut, my panic attack was for nothing. Cami woke up this morning at 8:15 and we were back from the store by 9 with our preschool supplies. The activities went well and the kids were well behaved today (well behaved for 4 and 5 year olds anyway). So all is well until Wednesday when I have to teach preschool again!

Here is a picture of my little stress reliever:



And here is a picture of my other little angel, although at the time she was crying and kind of contributing to raising my stress level, rather than the reverse:

A Very Birthday Month

During this month, Cami turned one and Sean turned five. We had a joint celebration for their birthdays with relatives, a family celebration for each of them on their respective birthdays with just our family, and a friend party for Sean. There were five cakes in all. I don't want to see another cake before next year!

This is the cake that Sean decorated himself:



This is Cami's birthday cake:



This is Cami eating her birthday cake. It is her first experience with sugar (not counting fruit).



Here are Sean and Cami's cakes for the relative party:





And here is Sean with his cake and decorations for his friend party:





The kids were cute, and had a lot of fun at the party. But I'm not sorry that birthdays only happen once a year!