Museum of Natural Curiosity

The new children's museum is about to open at Thanksgiving point. Because we are members I was able to get us tickets to their members only event! We were able to reserve out tickets for the weekday and first thing in the morning. It worked out perfectly. We ALL had a blast and there was not two million people there! This table entertained us for a solid 20 minutes until we realized we needed to see the rest of the museum, Tim and I are seriously trying to figure out how to put one of these in our house...who needs a coffee table. You can see the colors change based on the elevation...it is snowing on Tim's mountain, and Ian is creating a lake in the middle of his mountain. The boys loved every minute! Like what would it feel like to stick your head out the window of a car going 80 mph? Well your skin would start flapping in places you didn't know could flap.   

Ava loved the baby table. She happy sat watching the other children splash and get completely soaked. She held onto her couple of toys and smiled at everyone.

When I say we ALL had fun I truly mean it. I came away with just as many silly pictures of Tim as I did the kids. 

The boys were able to easily escape jail. For Tim it took a little more effort ;)

This was another one of the boys favorites. They loved making hot air balloons and helicopters. 

That afternoon Tim and Ian did the ropes course. Ian was so excited to go did an amazing job. He got a little scared at one part but that was because he couldn't reach the ropes up above and had to rely on his harness more. The pictures do not do justice to how high they actually are. I took this picture from the second floor.

We headed back home that afternoon so that Ian could attend school. That evening Tim and I headed out for a date night. We had a babysitter and everything -it made us feel so old. The next day we met up with my parents. They were staying in Provo for a work conference my mom had. The boys had no problem joining them for swimming.

It was such a great weekend! We can't wait to return to the museum of natural curiosity just not sure how long it will take to die down (crowd wise) a little. I have a feeling it may never. It is definitely a must see and do no matter what age you are!

Ava Eleven months

This little cutie is now 11 months! I really don't believe it. I use my fingers to double check that is truly has been 11 months and unfortunately it has :( I can't believe how fast she is growing! We have way too much fun dressing her up and her Aunt Brittney sent some darling clothes just before she was born that she is now big enough to wear. So we have had even more fun! Does it get any cuter?!

We had little hope that she might actually grow up to be mellow and little quiet... she has confirmed that she too wants to be heard. She loves babbling but lately her babbling is making sense. She can say and understands mama, dada, baba, more, hi, bye, Ian and has just started saying Aaron. It is no surprise that she listens to us...she sounds just like me shouting for Ian.

The boys have been doing great! After heading back to school they have been a little exhausted but doing good. Oh the joys of the iPad! Since having their tonsils out (when they could be on the iPad 24/7 if it made them actually sit down and rest) we have been cutting back our electronic time trying to get back to our normal schedule. I am happy to report that we are finally back down to 0-30 minutes a day :) Unfortunately my house has also become much louder as a result.

If the boys bedroom door is open this little one can usually be found there. If she is alone she usually hollers for someone (Ian) to come and play with her. If she is quiet it means the boys have left their Legos out and she is attempting to shove them in her mouth...ahhhhh!

Nana sent us caterpillars. I have been pleasantly surprised how much fun these caterpillars have been. They are currently cocoons and should turn into painted lady butterflies in a few days :) 

With the warm weather approaching we have been loving spending time outside.

 Sibling love :)

In other news this little piggy is just that! She loves food. She is still not a fan of ground turkey but that is about it. As you can see she loves remotes, climbs onto anything, and loves to make a mess. If the pantry door is open she can be found pulling everything off the lower shelf.

Tim has been set on making sure she is no scaredy cat. She absolutely hated this for the longest time. Just recently she has decided it is hilarious. You can see that if she goes too high she is still a little unsure. 

She also loves her rocking chair. She can be found many times watching Baby Einstein or simply just chillin. 

 think we are getting pretty close to walking :) Ignore my frog/man voice I have a lame cold. Also that fact that she is kind of drowning in her clothes. She is just about out of 12 month clothes but not quite big enough for 18 month...so it is either too tight or too loose. At the rate she is growing the loose stage will not last long.

Tonsils and Adenoids

The time had come for both of the boys to have surgery to remove their tonsils and adenoids. Aaron had a horrible double ear infection in march that happen to cause both tubes in his ears to fall out. After another ear infection a couple weeks later the pediatrician recommended we go back to the ENT. While at the ENT he mentioned that it would be a good idea to have Aaron's tonsils removed. He asked if he had trouble sleeping at night, difficulty breathing, snoring, etc. I have always considered myself unlucky when it came to my children sleeping. Both boys have had horrible night terrors and snor like a trucker. Aaron wakes up usually 2-3 times a night. Tonsils are rated in stages one -four. One being normal size, four being so big they are touching. It was no surprise that both boys were a three and Aaron nearly a four. We had been thinking about have Ian's tonsils removed for a while due to the fact that he gets strep throat and tonsilitis constantly. So with our summer schedule filling up and not wanted to have the boys missed the last few weeks of school we decided the week after Easter would be the best. Tim had 8 days off and hopefully that would be enough time for them to recover. If only they would have given us a two for one pricing!

So to prepare the boys for their surgery I pulled out the old Huggy Bear Video that Logan Regional Hospital used to us when teaching children about having their tonsils and adenoids removed. The boys could not believe that I was the little girl in the video and that Grandma was in it too. I also completely forgot until my mom reminded me that I taught the class at the hospital for a few years (again no idea how I forgot about that). After watching the video the boys were so excited to have their tonsils removed -they could not wait to have ice cream and popsicles all day and night.

The morning of the surgery the boys were filling great! The hospital completely spoiled them with stickers, new pillow, beautiful quilt, and teddy bear for each of them.

The boys did great in surgery. Aaron headed back first and enjoyed racing the doctor down the hallway in the rolling bed. Then it was Ian's turn -apparently he took out a nurse he was rolling so fast ;) The staff was amazing. The boys of course had to bring their favorite stuffed animals with them which meant they each had about 4 stuffed animals. The doctors let them bring back all of their patients and made sure they were well taken care of too.

 Sorry gross...top is Aaron's tonsils and the bottom are Ian's. They are definitely big -considered that is the doctors fingers and Aaron's are a even a little bigger than Ian's being a couple years younger. As you can see Ian has one that is much bigger than the other -this one had a lot of stones from reoccurring infection.  The boys were in surgery at 8:30 and 9:00 and we were home with the boys laying in bed by 11:00 am! 

We moved Aaron's bed into the family room so the boys had a comfortable place to lay down and rest. Ava thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately by day 2 she figured out how to climb up the bed, which led to her climbing up the couch, and us quickly grabbing her before she climbed over the back of the couch.  

The next 3-5 days were spent making sure the boys received their medicine every 3 hours morning and night. The boys each slept in our room for the next couple of weeks. We pulled out the camping cots and one boys slept on each side of us. Occasionally we would all sleep a little longer then we should have at night -which meant the boys would wake up and were due for medicine a hour ago. Oh the nightmare! It would take us hours to get them to take the medicine. The refused to take it because it hurt to swallow but wanted the medicine because they were hurting. It was a constant battle. After about 5 days Aaron decided he absolutely hated medicine but he really still needed it or we couldn't get him to eat. We would give him medicine and he would throw it up. Then it was guessing if he actually got any or not. Finally we ended up with a system. He would count to three and we would squirt a little medicine in his mouth then he took two drinks of ice cold water. Yes, it had to have a lot of ice! Each dose of medicine took a half hour to get down if we were lucky but usually about an hour. As long as we kept the boys caught up on their medicine they were great! 

We had so many wonderful friends and neighbors stop by to visit the boys and bring ice cream, popsicles, snow cones, even ice cream in the form of a cupcake. They loved it! Aaron wanted to eat Smokin Apple mac n cheese all the time. Ian loved baby oatmeal with brown sugar. I would usually always make oatmeal for the boys in the morning. One morning Tim made them oatmeal and they refused to let me make it again. Then I watched as Tim dumped a Tablespoon or more of brown sugar in their tiny bowl of oatmeal...problem solved! They also loved toast. I realize that sounds insane since it is toast...crunchy hard toast. But when you slather it in butter with a little cinnamon and sugar they were in heaven. We also made a few batches of banana muffins that the boys inhaled. 

After 10 days of constantly alternating Ibuprofen and Tylenol, waking up to popsicles melting everywhere,

being awake for hours upon hours during the night and not realizing that by the time you roll out of bed it was nearly noon.

These boys are finally feeling great and back to normal! We are eating normal foods...hello meat! The boys are sleeping so so much better. We have seen the most significant difference with Ian. He is like a whole new child. Ian wakes up feeling refreshed, is sleeping normal hours 8:30 - 8:00, and not so over emotional during the day. Aaron is waking up occasionally at night but usually only once and he has not been having night terrors. Those of you that have had children who have night terrors understand what a wonderful blessing it is to not have to deal with those! We are both hoping that things continue to get better :) Love Aaron's scary spider picture (his drawings are really beginning to make sense). 

Family Pictures

 The second week of April we met up with my family and the wonderful Lindsay for our annual family pictures! The weather was perfect and the location was beautiful! The kids were so not in the mood for pictures thankfully Grandma and Grandpa picked them up some drinks before we arrived and that definitely helped cheer up the boys. I clustered many of the photos together to spare you from 20 pages of pictures :)

This little cutie was so good! She even left her bow on :) Which my friend Alexa at The Posh Frippery made for her. I made her little shoes just as we were running out the door.

Now the hard part -trying to decide what to hang on our wall!

Sunny April

The month of April has been busy and we have loved it! With everyone on spring break a different week the visitors have been endless :) It is great! Grandpa and Grandpa arrived and as you can see the boys were so excited.

Ian and Aaron love to draw and color pictures for people. Ian colored these for Geromu, Ajrou, hunter, and Geropo :) My favorite spelling is Andrew -you can totally she how he would come up with that!

The next week the Thompson's came to visit! Clearly I do not take enough pictures anymore :( I can't believe I do not have one of Ian and Ellie together. The conversation the two of them had was hilarious. They were in their own little make believe world and having a blast. Below is Brock, Issac, Ava, Gunner (Ian's friend we watch a couple days a week) and Ian. It was so much fun having them here I can't believe how old all of our kids are getting. But clearly we haven't changed!

I am also an Activity Day's leader in our ward. The girls that I have are wonderful! They are so smart and always see the bright side of things. I love this picture below because the girls always laugh at my old granny chair but fight over who gets to sit in it. I may or may not have been slightly freaking out that they were going to break my chair...they begged me to quickly take a picture, so I did. Then I immediately told them to get off my chair. In a loving way of course :)

We have loved having visitors and April has been great! Ava is still as happy as ever :) She prefers toys that are not actually her toys. She still loves to eat everything...we can add spaghetti to her list.

It feels that summer has already begun!

We try and do a little cleaning here and there :)

Bring on the barbecues! Ava was loving the hotdog bun with ketchup :) Seriously her mouth is watering.

Love the boys with their kool-aid stained faces. Although I am not sure how these two didn't set the entire neighborhood on fire. Ahhh

While the outdoors have been great we need a little downtime inside too.

 

After a little catnap we usually head back outside.

 Tim was unfortunately working all of easter weekend. So my family was able to come down and spend the weekend with us! We went to the Easter Eggtraveganza  at Thanksgiving Point and the boys had a good time finding eggs. Pictures to come. The next morning the Easter bunny had left each child different colored eggs around the house. I am not sure why the Easter Bunny has not done this before? It was heavenly. There was no arguing over who go what and it lasted much longer. Smart bunny ;)

When then headed to church to enjoy a wonderful Easter sunday. Ava enjoyed trying to giving baby Owen "hugs." They were so cute!

We came home and enjoyed making band bracelets. The boys call them transformer bracelets because they have magical powers that allow them to transform into anything. Got to love their imagination!

It has been a wonderful month! Now we get to prepare the boys and get ready for them both to have a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy....more information to come :)

Grandma Kathy

Kathleen Layne Foster(1940 - 2014)

On March 30, 2014 Kathy Foster was 73 years old when complications from a stroke took her from this life to join the angels awaiting her in heaven. She was born August 15, 1940 to Ben and Gwen Layne in Lewiston, Utah. Two years later they welcomed her brother, Jerry Layne into the family. 

At 12 years of age Kathy lost her father due to an automobile accident. She became very close to her Uncle Ken and Aunt Audene Porters' family who were strength to her during these difficult times. She spent many summers with them and will always be grateful for their care. After graduating from West High school in Salt Lake City, Utah, she attended BYU for a short time and then later graduated from beauty school. She married Davis Foster of Preston, Idaho on September 21, 1961 in the Logan LDS Temple. They lived in Whitney, Idaho where they ran a dairy farm, and she did hair in their home while raising their family. Later on she worked as the office manager for Dr. Rodney Grover for many years. She continued to work in the medical field until she retired. In 1989 Kathy and Davis divorced and she lived in Logan, Utah for a few years and then moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. She loved reading, painting, self-improvement, teaching, spending time with her close friends and most of all going to dinner with her friend Karen.

Kathy's greatest joy was her family. She is survived by her daughter, Cindy Diamond (Bruce) of Providence, Utah, Todd Foster (Lisa) of Houston, Texas, Shane Foster (Carrie) of Afton, Wyoming and her niece Marlo Layne Vivenzio of Park City, Utah. She especially loved her grandchildren, Ashley (Tim), Andrew, Hunter, Shyla, Audrey, Jace, Tate, Josie, Samantha, Makell, Addison, and her great grandchildren Ian, Aaron, Ava and Trace. Kathy is loved and will be greatly missed. Kathy was preceded in death by her father Ben Layne, her mother Gwen Crossland, her brother Jerry Layne and her grand-daughter Reesie Foster.

The family would like to thank all the many friends, relatives and caregivers that were there to help her in her later years. According to Kathy's wishes a graveside service will be held in the summer where her ashes will be placed along with her brother's. 

Go Ian!

Beside the normal organized chaos of life. This little boy has had a rough month. When Ian gets home from school I always ask him what is something he learned, something that was his least favorite and favorite part of the day. On this particular day (the bus was a little late) Ian came home so excited to tell me about what they did in class. In the middle of his conversation I missed a call from the principle of his school. The call was to inform me that Ian had punched another child in the face on the bus. Ian would be suspended from recess for the week and if it happened again he would be suspended from school.  The principle said that Ian would not tell them what happened and did not tell him the other boy involved.

Clearly this raised multiple questions because it did not sound like my Ian. Ian told us his story and I had multiple mothers call me after school that also verified what Ian had told me. Apparently an older boy got on the bus and was acting crazy hyper. He cornered Ian in his seat and started hitting him in the stomach.....so Ian punched him in the face and the boy ran away crying to the bus driver. Go Ian! After having multiple mothers call me to let me know that there children were all upset that Ian got in trouble you can imagine how frustrated I was. I will give the school the benefit that Ian refused to tell them anything. He did not want the other boy to get into trouble. However telling a Kindergartner he is not allowed to go to recess! Seriously he did not even want to go to school. Not only that then threatening him that he is going to be suspended from school without knowing the story -come on! We did discuss with Ian that next time you just push the kid away. However, he did not start it and was simply defending himself. Why I am having to deal with this in Kindergarten is scary!

I went into school with Ian the next day. The administration informed me that they felt the situation had been dealt with appropriately and they were not allowed to disclose any other information about the other student involved. What??? I don't think they even knew who the other student was. Words can't express my frustration. After sharing my opinions on the other student, bus driver, and how the administration "dealt" with the situation I think my point was made and heard. We then went and talked with his teacher. His teacher was wonderful and refused to actually suspend him from recess. She got down and told him -I would have done the same thing! As of now we only have three weeks left of school and we have not had a problem.

To add to Ian's rough month of March.... he was playing soccer downstairs by himself (I was downstairs vacuuming) tripped and hit the chair with his chin. This caused his bottom teeth to go through his lip :( Being the paranoid mother I am we rushed him to his pediatrician where they decided it would heal better without stitches. Thankfully they were right! I don't think he even has a scar.

Let's hope that the next few month go better!

End of March

I was doing so good with blogging. I finally caught up and was sure I would not get behind again. But three kids, two dogs, and a husband ....I am a little behind again :(

This is Ryder (our dog on the left) and Daisy (my friends dog on the right).

Daisy's family went on a cruise for a couple weeks so Daisy came to stay with us. The first night for her was a little rough but after that she was great! Her and Ryder got along well. They mostly just did care about each other. It was not until Daisy left that we discovered how much Ryder loved having her around. You could not say Daisy's name without him frantically looking throughout the house. They were great together. Ryder would steal Daisy's toys and then Daisy would bounce around in circles not knowing what to do. Eventually Daisy would chew on Ryder's bones and Ryder would just sit there and wait for her to leave so he could take it back. 

Daisy is used to having food out all the time. Ryder would seriously eat an entire bag of dog food if I left him. He has discovered how to pop the lid on his food container and sometimes helps himself to a few extra helpings. While he would really like to eat Daisy's food he knows he can't have it (as you can see in the picture below). Smart doggie! Daisy loves sitting on my lap -so Tim let Ryder jump up on his lap. 

Tim has tried making a few dog toys for Ryder. We have discovered that their is no such thing as a solid toy for him. He can cut or rip through anything in seconds. Felt is supposed to be extremely difficult for dogs to chew through so Tim made him this nice toy. He spent a could 20-30 minutes perfecting it. Which Ryder chewed through and destroyed in a matter of minutes. So it is just bones for him.

The weather in Utah has been all over the place, which is typical. One day it is snowing and the next it is sunny. Ava loves putting everything in her mouth. I am not sure why but she is obsessed with all things dog related. Her she is trying to chew on his leash. She also loves his Kong toy. So much that we joke about getting her one for her birthday ;)

She also loves food! She will eat everything but for some reason ground turkey doesn't seem to settle well.  Her current favorite is mac n cheese and mash potato. 

We also celebrated Daddy's birthday this month! He turned 29 :) As birthday present his work even put him on-call for the night. Although I think he got called in at about midnight.

Ian's elementary school puts on a wonderful play every year. We have gone to them since we moved here and Ian was 3. This year they performed Robin Hood. The boys were completely engaged and loved every minute :) We always go for the dress rehearsal. I load my bag up with snacks and drinks we sit right in the front and enjoy the performance. It is super kid friendly and what makes it even better is there is hardly anyone there. The boys don't have to worry about sitting behind anyone. We don't have to worry about getting their hours before it begins to get a good seat! I love it!