Marc generously gifted to me (and himself) smart phones for Christmas.  It has been fun to learn to use it and to have apps to entertain the kids when I need to.  Mary has recently learned how to use the camera on my phone.  As I looked over the pictures, I realized a few things.

1.  She has taken ALOT of pictures.  

2.  I must hand her my phone very frequently.

3.  She has done a great job documenting what we have been up to!

Here are pictures she has taken as we have been out and about...

This is her view from the inside of my car.  No idea where we were or what we were doing but we do seems to spend a lot of time in the car!

We stopped at Marc's office one day to drop something off.  So she took a picture of daddy.  This picture is actually pretty good.  Most of the ones she takes of me are of my chest or belly! 

My feet and my mom's feet when we were out for our weekly lunch date.

Cousin Megan at that same lunch date.

 While shopping for a couch for the basement.

On a side note, I have been wondering whose genius idea it was to build a big open basement like we have and then put a 29 inch door at the top?  It is hard to find a comfortable couch that will fit.   We ordered one that we think (hope, pray) will barely squeeze through.  I'll let you know when they try to deliver it.

The girls had dress rehearsal for their dance recital.  Mary was done long before Sarah so she took pictures. Sarah is the last on the left in this picture.

I actually took this one.  She is giving me a hug while we wait in line at King's Island.

Tanner playing his DS on the way home from his football game.  For those of you who live in the midwest, you know what last Saturday was like.  The game was supposed to start at 4 pm.  We had to be there 45 minutes early.  It was 45 minutes away.  It didn't actually start until 4:45.  It had to have been 95 degrees at that time and humid.  Tanner's hair is wet from sweating.  It was miserable.  

Waiting forever at the Health and Human Services office working on some disability applications for Rylee.  I came home that day and thanked Marc for being such a good provider.

BTW, did you know food stamps make America stronger.  Me neither, but that is what the sign on the wall said.

Ella's music program.  I think I had at least 25 pictures of that zigzaggy shirt in front of us.

So that's what we've been up to, from Mary's perspective.

Three more days of school and we are ready for summer around here!!

Special Olympics

Rylee participated in her first Special Olympics a couple of weekends ago.

Here she is at the opening ceremony.

Here she is holding on for dear life as she took gold in the wheelchair race!

Next off to take bronze in the softball throw.

Enjoying the sweet taste of victory.

It was a beautiful day of positive energy and inspiring athletes.

The next picture has nothing to do with the special olympics.

I am posting it because it is funny.

Mary's reaction one morning when I told her she had to have oatmeal for breakfast.

Home improvement

It has been a couple of years since we painted the girls room and lost all motivation to paint.  A few weeks ago I finally gave in to Tanner's begging to have his room painted.  It has been beige chiffon (builder's beige) for nearly four years.  I chose a gray to go with his camo bedspread and he chose cougar blue for the fourth wall.  I think it turned out great.  I got the big vinyl 'Y' on Etsy and used magnetic paint under the blue (I don't recommend that) so we can put up some more posters wherever he wants.

We are trying really hard to convince all the kids that BYU is it.  So far I think Tanner is a believer!

And so it begins...

We have started to orthodontic process with Tanner.  His first appointment was uneventful but yesterday he had to have impressions done.  The only improvement in that process since I had it done is that it only takes 20 seconds and they flavor the play dough that they stick in the tray.  Otherwise it appeared just as I remembered!  Poor kid gagged and had watery eyes it was so bad!  He said he hopes he doesn't have to do that again!  Me, too.

Careful what you ask for

For I while I have been super frustrated by the state of my children's bedrooms.  The majority of our toys are in the basement but they each had a few in their rooms.  We have a rule that the kids can't have breakfast until they are dressed, bed made and room picked up, but their rooms always seemed to get messy enough that I would have to help them clean it really well every couple of weeks.  So I had the brilliant idea that we should move all the toys to the basement thinking that if there are not toys in their rooms there can be no mess.

So one Saturday I left to go grocery shopping.  I go on Saturday and fight the crowds because then I can go solo!  I asked Marc before I left to have the kids take ALL their toys down to the basement and told him my plan.  When I came home I was happy to hear that all the toys had been moved to the basement.  When I went down there however, I was no longer happy.  They had all thrown everything in a pile at the bottom of the stairs and called it good.  Here is what it looked like!

Clearly it was time for a good purge, so I decided to tackle it myself while the kids were at school.  That way there would be no, "but mom, I love that toy" from anyone as I tried to throw it away!  It took me more than a week to get it done, but it did get done.  I threw away three big lawn bags of trash and made a big pile for a garage sale.

It has been a few weeks and except for some minor messes the kids have done a good job of keeping it clean.  I think (hope) they are starting to realize that it is more fun to play with toys when all the pieces are together.

Whatever works!

Of our five children, Sarah is by far the most active.  She really struggles to be still.  She doesn't walk anywhere.  She hops, runs, skips, and bounces.  It is amazing how much energy she has.  It hasn't really been a problem.  Even at school she seems to be able to keep it under control. 

Every evening when we sit down for scriptures and family prayer, though, she has a hard time.  We tell her to choose a spot and stay there while we read (usually about 5 minutes) and she just cannot do it.   One night she started doing this pose and somehow it seems to work!

Spring Break, Part 2

We spent a couple of days at Tybee Island, Georgia.  Marc had been wanting to check out a different oceanside beach and somehow settled on this one.  I was a bit nervous as some of the online reviews labeled it a 'redneck' beach.  I wasn't sure what to expect.

Marc took this picture of the sunrise the first morning we were there.   The beach was great.

I mentioned in the last post that all of our children were sunburned after our day on the Gulf.  I asked Marc if it was irresponsible to let them go back to the beach still pink.  I think he thought I was completely crazy to even consider not going to the beach!

It was only about 78 degrees and the last week of March so the water was a little chilly.  When the week was over and we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, the middle three still said playing in the waves with dad. 

 Mary and I mostly hung out on the beach.

A little message for grandma Wahlquist.  Marc tried to email it but I never heard if they got it.

Speaking of emailing, Tanner wanted me to take this picture and email it to his cousins who were still in school that week.  I guess he wanted to taunt them a bit.  I reminded him that they would be having fun the following week while he was in school but it didn't seem to matter.

For dinner we went to a seafood place in walking distance from our condo.  Tanner had shrimp for the first time and loved it.  We have made it twice since we came home.  

We went for a walk on the pier.  It was super windy and almost cold!

On our way off the island we stopped to see the lighthouse and the Civil War era fort that is there.

The kids climbed to the top with Marc while Rylee and I watched from below.  Ella was nice enough to do it again with me.  I don't remember exactly how many stairs it was.  Just a lot.

  

Tybee sits just across the Savannah river from Hilton Head, SC.  Notice how Tanner is staying as far from the rail as possible!

We had lunch in Savannah.  Marc and I agreed it would be fun to go back there without the kids.  There were tons of restaurants we wanted to try.

That famous spanish moss was super creepy as we were driving in at night!

On the way to our hotel in Knoxville the last night we decided to stop at IHOP (to appease the children) and stumbled upon a party complete with face painting, balloons and a movie.

We had a great spring break.  It was so fun to see Erin and her family.  The kids traveled like champs.  We didn't drive more than 6 or 7 hours any day that we were driving and I think that made it easier on everyone.

Spring Break 2012

Yes, Spring Break was at the end of March but at least it will be documented!

We toyed with the idea of finally taking our kids to Florida for the whole Disney experience but decided we didn't want to do that with all the spring break crowds.  Since Marc had already taken the week off when we made that decision, we decided to go to Florida anyway.  

We took a page from our parents' playbook and had everyone in the car by 6 am and were on the road shortly after.  It was great.  We took a little half hour detour in Lexington, KY and got a cinnamon roll for breakfast at the Great Harvest Bread Co.  I miss that place.

Because we left so early, we were at our hotel in Atlanta by 3 and had time to find a park to let the kids get some wiggles out.  

Marc had to take a picture of this.  The  picture does not accurately depict the excessive grade of this hill.   Rylee is no lightweight any more!

 There was a sand pit where Sarah and Mary passed most of the time.  Sarah thought it would be fun to bury her brand-new-mom-just-bought-them-for-this-trip flip flops in the sand and then forget where she hid them.  I spent about 10 minutes dragging my feet through the sand (and ruining my pedicure!) before I found them.

 Rylee enjoyed the swing.

 And Marc enjoyed trying to spin the kids off of this swing.  I figured when they fell and broke any limbs, he could take care of that.  They LOVED it.

 Our hotel was around the corner from the temple and after we went to church on Sunday morning, we stopped for a little photo shoot.

 Can't ever get a pic where someone isn't being silly!

 After the temple, we headed back to the hotel and loaded up the van.  Next stop, Tampa and a couple of days with my sister, Erin and her family.

We spent a day on the Gulf coast.  Our kids had only been to the beach on the ocean and were a little confused by the lack of waves, but we still had a great time playing in the sand.

 Sarah got buried.

 We made sand portraits.

 I love how Ella added a flower.

 Before we left, I bought three cans of Aveeno sunblock SPF 85 thinking the kids would be grumpy enough about driving.  I did not want to deal with sunburns.  I covered everyone before we went out on the beach and then again about half way through the day.  Everyone was as red as a lobster after that day.  Erin shared a great tip with me though.  She keeps her aloe in the refrigerator so it is cold when you put it on and feels so good.

We saw Erin and Alex's new house and spent some time helping them clean before we headed to our next destination, Tybee Island, GA.

Me, Erin and her cute-as-can-be-baby Miles.