Let's Go Fly A Kite

We were sad to see the good weather go, but tried to make the most of the storm blowing in this weekend. We had a picnic dinner at the park on Saturday and then flew Emily's new kite. She loved chasing it around and was so excited to fly it. After a while the novelty wore off though and she headed over to the playground. I asked Jeff to get the kite down and come join us. After about 10 minutes Jeff still hadn't come over so I started looking for him. I found him lying on the ground in the middle of the park with the kite still up in the sky. He said the wind was finally perfect and that flying a kite is very relaxing. However he wasn't able to relax too much longer since shortly after that Emily realized she had to go to the bathroom. The bathroom at the park was locked so we had to pack up and head home.

E-I-E-I-O

Friday we met Marli and her boys at Wheeler Farm. Emily and Hayden were thrilled to see each other. They immediately held hands and started walking around. We saw plenty of animals - horses, cows, rabbits, chickens, sheep and turkeys. Not to mention all the ducks. The kids threw rocks and anything they could find in the creek, played in the playhouses, and climbed on everything they could. Emily especially loved the big box elder tree. I got to hold and snuggle little Xander. He is such a yummy baby. It's been a while since we got together and it was fun to see how much he's grown.

Thanks for coming up here Marli. Emily and I had a blast!

Giggly Girls

Last week Jenn called me and said she was in desperate need of some company/relief. She's been shut in for the past two weeks with Grace having RSV. So Emily and I headed up North for a playdate on Thursday. We LOVED the warm weather and took advantage of it. The girls played outside on the tramp, in the playhouse and with as many bikes as they could. We ended the afternoon with lunch and Mary Poppins. They are such silly girls and have so much fun together. I love seeing their faces light up when the other walks into the room.

St. Patrick's Day

We kicked of St. Patrick's Day with Lucky Charms for breakfast. Of course Emily was thrilled to be having cereal for breakfast and even more excited that she got to have "marshmallow's."
After getting ready for the day we went to the park for a picnic with Gma Newman. It was so nice to be outdoors. Emily enjoyed it so much that later that night, just before bed, she pulled her boots out and started putting them on. When I asked what she was doing she said she wanted to play outside. I realized then how long it had actually been since we'd gone to a park and had a chance to play outside. Hallelujah for spring and summer!

I Love To See The Temple

Saturday we went to the Draper temple open house with our families. We reserved tickets the week they were available and didn't realize that we'd scheduled to go on the last day. Bad idea. The wait was incredibly long. Emily entertained herself by climbing back and forth from us to gma & gpa Newman, to gma & gpa Holbrook and back again. I'm glad Ally was there to help entertain her as well.

Then after an hour long wait we were finally able to get on our way to the temple. Unfortunately Jenn had to go home to feed Grace and waited for nothing. She left Sam & Ally though and I'm so glad. Emily really enjoyed seeing the temple. She was so sweet. She was so excited to actually be in a temple. I wish I could have taken pictures or filmed just her inside. She held her brochure or Ally's hand the whole time and was just in awe of everything. When she saw the baptismal font in person and then the picture she excitedly told me, "They match!"

Of course Emily knew that if she was a good girl then she could have a cookie afterwards. Maybe that's why she was so good?

Emily is so smart and such a good girl. It's amazing how much she picks up and learns everyday. She LOVES singing primary songs, reading scriptures and going to church. I'm so grateful for her thirst to learn. She is such a sweetheart and we are so grateful to have her in our home.

Ice Ice Baby

I was able to get a discount on some Disney On Ice tickets so we decided to splurge and take Emily to see it on Thursday. Emily was excited for it - even if she didn't really understand what she was going to. She kept calling it "Disneyland." I was of course singing along with all the songs and Emily told me repeatedly to stop. Our favorites were of course The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan (the others were Lion King & Lilo & Stitch). Emily also liked Mickey & Minnie, etc. and asked me if they were going to come up and see us in our seats. The whole thing made me anxious to take Emily to the real Disneyland where she could see all her favorite princesses. Unfortunately that won't be for a few years. But I'm glad we were at least able to take her to see this.

For Those Of You Who Didn't Read The Comics Yesterday

Random Weekly Happenings

Monday night for FHE Jeff and Emily made rice krispie treats. Jeff let Emily help a lot more than I usually do - and she of course loved it. Now she keeps wanting to help me with whatever I'm cooking. Thankfully she has her own kitchen upstairs and I can usually use that as a decoy.

Emily is very into silly faces now. It used to be that I would pull out the camera and a smile would break across her face. Now as soon as she notices I have a camera her tongue immediately finds its way out of her mouth. Sunday night we had dinner at my parents house. There were no other cousins there that week so Emily ended up roping all of us adults into playing hide-and-seek... again.

Chris's clever hiding spot

Emily's new favorite spot - the top of Gma & Gpa's closet

And there's that tongue...

I came up the stairs the other night to find this:

This And That

Monday my older sister, mom and I went to help my sister-in-law move into her new house. While Jenn and I assembled Stacy's kitchen, my mom was kind enough to watch all the kids. Emily had a blast playing with Jackson, Sara & Lucy two days in a row. They of course spent a good chunk of their time outdoors (Ahh! I am SO ready for spring!). When we first visited Nick & Stacy's new place and Emily saw the red play house out back she turned to Jeff and said, "Jackson has a farm!"

It's automatically a barn if it's red, right?

To fill some of our time this week when it was snowy and rainy I decided to pull out some finger paints. Emily loved it. Since she had such a good time I decided to take my sister up on her offer of borrowing their art easel. Since retrieving the new play item Emily has become quite the artist. She's colored all kinds of pictures with chalk and crayons and keeps asking to paint too. I've yet to attempt that one again.

Since it's been the down season for weddings I decided to start offering my services to the church. Actually, my little sister is the Stake Relief Society President and was in charge of getting an arrangement for the meetings. I actually am NOT a big fan of arrangements - especially big ones. I prefer wedding bouquets because I have more control over the flowers. Of course when you have a florist in the family, you automatically turn to them in such a situation right? And of course you can't turn down family. Lisa said to just do something bright and fun. Since spring is knocking on the door I decided I had to have tulips. I ended up with pinks and oranges and was happy with how this one turned out. I actually enjoyed myself this time around.
As I sat through my own stake conference this weekend I'd wished I'd had something bright and springy to look at.

This past week was Jenny's birthday and instead of doing the traditional girl's lunch she wanted to have a date night - no kids. So my parents, siblings and spouses all went to dinner at the old standby - Olive Garden. It was a lot of fun. I'm so glad we all get along so well and enjoy spending time together. I'm also glad that I have sisters! I don't know what I'd do without them. Lisa made a comment the other day that I totally agree with - "It doesn't matter how many kids I have to have, my daughter has to have a sister."

Happy Birthday Jenn!

Grace Katherine Layton

Sunday my sister blessed her baby. On our way up to the blessing I had the thought, "What would happen if when it was time for the blessing Jenny & Grace were no where to be found?" I wonder if my thought jinxed them because when we showed up 20 minutes early to drop off our food, we found Jenny in her pajamas and thinking she had a whole hour to get ready. Grace was quickly pulled out of bed and fed. Then I got her dressed while Jenny got herself ready. We were able to get there on time and didn't miss anything - despite the frantic dashing around Jenny's house. I'm sure glad we decided to stop by instead of going straight to the church!
During Sacrament Meeting somehow Jeff and I ended up on the end with all the kids - Sam, Ally, Sara, Emily, Jackson & Lucy. And we had squished so much so we could all sit together Emily, Jackson, Sara, & Lucy didn't have seats. They had to sit on our laps or stand/sit on the floor in front of us. At first Lisa & Spencer pitched in because they were right next to us. But after the sacrament when the snacks were pulled out they all congregated in front of Jeff and me. Jeff made a comment after the meeting that summed the hour up pretty well, "I hope someone got something out of this meeting, cause I sure didn't."