This and That

Nathan Michael with his namesake.

• My parents headed back to Utah yesterday. No matter how many times I say goodbye to them, it never seems to get easier. I still get all choked up and teary-eyed. We had so much fun with them here. {Sigh}. I wish we lived closer. 
• Ryan and I had a conversation this weekend about being the parents of young children and how, often times, we make our lives more difficult by putting ourselves and our family and our children in situations that are recipes for disaster. Why do we do this? Case in point: taking all the kids out to eat at a sit-down restaurant when ordering take-out would be more pleasant for everyone in the family and everyone in the restaurant. Of course, if we never take them anywhere, then they'll never learn how to act in certain public situations, right? 

I was able to chaperone a field trip with Maddie's class to the apple orchard last week. 

• Have you heard of the "Who was..." series of early readers? They are fantastic biographies of all sorts of people from Amelia Earhart to Neil Armstrong to Michelle Obama. Written for young readers, they are simple biographical chapter books. Maddie received Amelia Earhart and Helen Keller for Christmas this past year. When she found them in her stocking she was less than thrilled, but recently decided to read them and she has loved them. It turns out our library has a collection of them, so Who was Anne Frank? and Who was George Washington? are on hold right now. I highly recommend introducing them to your budding reader. 
• The leaves are just starting to change here in New England. It's my favorite time of year here! Bring on the pumpkin desserts, caramel apples, and walks through the leaves. I can't wait.
• With Davis in preschool for a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, me and Nate are on our own. Today was our first morning alone. I must admit that it felt glorious to clean the house all by myself while Nater slept. And it stayed clean for a whole hour instead of just a couple of minutes. Of course, it's already dirty again, but such is life. 
• Ryan is busy busy busy right now. Thinking about it makes me really excited that this phase of our life is (hopefully) drawing to a close.  
• A young kid from our church died in a horrible car accident this past weekend. I didn't know him too well (I taught him in Sunday school for a few months), but my thoughts have been consumed with grief for his family. Everything can change in an instant and no one is guaranteed a life free from sorrows and trouble. I hope it has made me cherish my family a little bit more. 

While I haven't met Ike's teacher yet, I am confident that she's super awesome since she had the kids celebrate "Talk like a Pirate" day last week, complete with their own eye patch and parrot.

Girl's got Heart

Retro Fun Day

For as long as I can remember, my dad  has been a delivery truck driver. This has meant that he works every Saturday but has Wednesdays off during the week. As a little kid, Wednesdays were always known as "fun days" because my dad was home. He would take us to school that morning (which usually meant stopping at the convenience store on the way and stocking up on candy), he always cooked dinner that night, and, if we were really lucky, he would check us out of school early so we could hang out together. 

This past Wednesday I got my chance at a retro fun day. It was awesome. I can't remember ever spending the entire day with just my dad. It's not likely to ever happen again, so I tried to live it up as much as possible. 

My angel mother took all four kids for the day while my dad and I woke up before the sun and headed to the big city. 

We started off at the Top of the Rock. I'm always amazed by this aerial view of the city. After Rockefeller Center we walked down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. Such a beautiful building and one of my favorite places to visit in NYC. After the cathedral, we hit up the Museum of Modern Art. I have always wanted to see Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night in person. It did not disappoint

After looking at a bunch of modern art at the MOMA,  we  headed toward Central Park to eat at Sarabeth's, since, you know, my name is Sara Beth and all. They serve breakfast until late in the afternoon there so we both took advantage of that. It was delicious. 

After eating breakfast for lunch, we rented bikes and explored Central Park. 

My dad really wanted to see the tribute to John Lennon while we were in Central Park and luckily we stumbled upon it.  As we were walking our bikes back to the rental store we spotted none other than comedian Jim Gaffigan walking with his daughter to their hotel. Now I can say I've seen someone famous in NYC.

After our bike ride we were pretty worn out, so we took a quick subway to Times Square and then visited Grand Central Station. It was such a memorable day. I'm so glad I got to spend it with my dad.

Davis' First Day of Preschool

Davis had his first day of preschool today. His teacher said he loved it. He said he learned how to paint, sing, and play outside. Sounds pretty good to me. We celebrated by meeting Ryan for lunch at his work. There are tons of food carts right outside the hospital with every kind of food you can think of. As you can see, Davis went with the pizza and topped it off with a root beer.

Nathan's Blessing Day

Isn't he handsome in his sewn-on tie? 

Eating Dad's hair. Ryan was brave to hold him up above his head like this...given that one of Nate's nicknames is Chuck. 

Yesterday was a pretty special day. 

He took no time at all bonding with Grandma.

Yesterday was Big Nate's blessing day. My parents came into town on Saturday night and were able to be there. Ryan gave him a really nice blessing and we were able to celebrate with friends and peach pie in the afternoon. It was a great day. I love my sweet baby boy and am so grateful he is a part of our family.

This Week...

I celebrated a birthday this week--35 big ones--and some friends and I headed to Sugar, a nearby bakery with amazing cupcakes. I had a really hard time choosing just six, but I finally narrowed it down to Lemon Drop, 'Smores, Peanut Butter Cup, Black Bottom Cheesecake, Hostess, and Apple Pie. I shared with my family but since it was mabirthday, I made them cut all the cupcakes up so I could sample each and every one. I highly recommend doing the same exact thing on your birthday. I had a great day and was spoiled all day long.

The crew outside the bakery. Sugar is owned by a mother/daughter duo. They won cupcake wars and have a booming business but it still has a small-town-bakery feel to it. They loved doting on all our blonde kids and even gave each of them their own cupcake. 

Could those thighs get any more squeezable? It was no easy task getting his thighs in that thing.

The kids are in the full swing of school and I am getting used rushed mornings, calmer days, and crazy afternoons. They are usually happy to see me in the afternoon but even happier to see one another, running off to play and fight and ignore any pleas I send their way to put their backpacks/shoes/jackets away. Both Isaac and Maddie seem to love school and Davis loves picking them up from the bus stop in the afternoon, so that makes me really happy.

Just this afternoon the kids were playing "Costume Party" when Maddie came up to me after putting on one of her princess dresses and asked, "Would you be a darling and help me button this dress, please?"

Family Pictures in Cape Cod

While we were in Cape Cod for Ryan's family reunion, my sister-in-law took a few pictures of our family on the beach.

This one is my favorite.

Sometimes I still can't believe I have four kids---four freakin' kids!

Thanks, Becky! We love them!

Nathan @ 3 Months Old

• Weighs 16+ lbs.
• Loves inspecting his hands and putting them in his mouth.
• Gives the biggest smiles, especially first thing in the morning when we get him out of his bassinet.
• Still loves to be swaddled.
• Still sleeps like a champ.
• Drools like crazy.
• Recently figured out how to pick up a rattle and shake it around.
• Has fat rolls all over his body. My favorite rolls are the ones on his shoulders. So stinkin' cute.
• Hates his car seat. 
• Fits comfortably in size 6-9 month clothes.
• Is beloved by all three of his older siblings. Sometimes he and I both wish they would just back off a little.
• Loves to sleep in his bassinet, but hates to sleep while we're out and about (read above about loathing his car seat).
• Loves to be outside. 

Labor Day Weekend in Upstate New York

When we moved to New England, Ryan and I made a bucket list of sorts, places that we wanted to visit while living on the East Coast. Palmyra and Niagara Falls have been on that list for the past two years, so we took advantage of Ryan's three-day weekend and headed out of town. 

 Don't the kids look thrilled to go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride? It was especially humid and crowded while we waited in line, and the plastic ponchos didn't help cool us off, but the boat ride through the mist felt great It was definitely worth the wait and the heat.

 It is hard to do the Falls justice in a picture. We were all blown away by the sheer size of these babies and the amount of mist they created.

 American Falls and Bridal Veil falls. Horseshoe falls was so big and created so much mist that I couldn't even get a picture of it!

Standing at the top of American Falls.

The Sacred Grove.

 I know I have too many pictures of these two holding hands, but before I know it they will grow out of it and I'll wish I had more. Davis got tired in the Sacred Grove and would only walk if Maddie held his hand.

Ryan pretty much carried Nate around like this all weekend long. 

The kids at the Palmyra Temple. It's not very often that I attend a session at the temple but thanks to Ryan watching all the kids I was able to do so on Saturday.

A few things I want to remember about the trip:

• Isaac came home from school on Friday before we left and exclaimed incredulously, "Mom! Vikram (his buddy at school) has never even heard of Palmyra! or the Hill Cumorah, or Joseph Smith!" "Well, did you tell him about them?" I asked. "Yeah I did!"
• Traveling with kids (at least our kids) is always a lot of work, but this was one of my most favorite trips we have been on together. We stayed in a charming little house right across the street from the Sacred Grove. It was called "The Palmyra White House" and it was the perfect size for our family. Davis has been asking since we left, "Mommy, can we go back to our white house?"
• While we were visiting the Printing Press where the Book of Mormon was first published, Maddie leaned over to me as the sister missionary was giving her tour and whispered, "Mom! Now I get it! It's called The Book of Mormon because Mormon helped write it!"
• The night before we headed out of town, Isaac asked me if we were going to be able to stay in a hotel. I told him that it was like a hotel, but it was a white house. Gasping, he excitedly replied, "The White House!! You mean the place where that Bishop man lives that we've seen on TV? The man who takes care of the whole valley?" Realizing that he was referring to President Obama, I explained that it was a white house, but not THE White House. Maddie, who had been listening to our conversation, chimed in, "The White House?? I thought we were going to New York, not Washington D.C.!"
• I went for a Monday morning run right through the Sacred Grove. How cool is that?
• We missed the pageant but were still able to climb to the top of the Hill Cumorah. 
• Even though the ride home was a little rough (let's just say Nater wasn't the only one who messed his pants), I loved having that time with Ryan to talk and just be together. I can't wait to cross more destinations off our East Coast bucket list!