April Fool's Day 2014

One of my main goals as a mother is to take every opportunity to make our children's lives magical. I try to make every holiday special and to make new traditions with our family as often as possible. And a small and silly holiday like April Fool's Day is no exception! Though, instead of playing mean pranks, we use this day as an opportunity to teach our girls how to play funny jokes on others, and that as long as BOTH sides think it is funny, then it is okay. We definitely want our kids to have a sense of humor, but not at the expense of others' feelings.

 We started off our day eating cereal with colored milk (the girls thought this was AMAZING) out of sand pails and shovels (which had been washed out first).

And for lunch we ate our food using their play kitchen dishes. They thought this was so funny and probably ate better than they have for lunch in a loooong time because they were so happy!

When Daddy came home from school, we had a couple of funny jokes ready for him. First, the girls colored some saran wrap with markers and we taped it to the front of the TV. As soon as Daddy walked in the front door, they started pretending to be sad, and that the had done something that they weren't supposed to, and showed Daddy the TV. Kyle pretended to be super surprised at what they had done, and they were so excited to tell him that they hadn't actually colored the TV, but they had played a trick on him! It was super funny and cute.

Then we used clear plastic pony beads and melted them in square molds (as seen here) in the oven and put them in a glass cup with warm water (they looked just like ice cubes, except that they didn't float), sprayed the outside of the glass with water so it looked like it was covered in condensation, and offered Daddy a cold drink of water. Boy, was he surprised when his water wasn't cold, but warm! He obviously knew something was up when we offered it to him, but he honestly had no idea that we had made the fake ice cubes. The girls thought it was SO funny. 

Did you get to play any funny jokes on anyone this year? We had so much fun together this year, and I already have more ideas planned for next year- I am so excited for the kids to all get older and for these silly April Fool's traditions of ours to grow, too!

Fishing at Vivian Park- Mar 2014

On one of the first beautiful days in March, we took advantage of a rare day-off for Kyle and headed with our crew up Provo Canyon to a nice park and play ground with a great little place for kids fishing (only kids aged 12 and under are allowed to fish there), and we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the grass together- something we had been dying to do all winter long! 

Our picnic from a distance (on the right):

While Mommy entertained the little two in the sand box, Daddy helped the older two try out some fishing.

Minnette gets a turn:

Then Aurelle:

Look at that water! So pretty.

Completely unrelated to our pictures, but an interesting story nonetheless:

This park is literally right off of the highway through Provo Canyon (you can see the cars as they drive past), and after we packed up and were heading back to our car to go home, we witnessed a really bad car crash as an SUV turning left out of the park was t-boned by another van going freeway speeds, and it flipped and slid across the highway upside down. 

Kyle dropped everything he was carrying and ran over to the scene and was the first person to call 911. He and several other witnesses were able to help several passengers out of their vehicles, but in the upside down vehicle a man had been knocked unconscious from a head injury and they couldn't even get his door open due to damage from the crash. Kyle and another an were able to administer a priesthood blessing to the man, but that was all that could be done for him until emergency help arrived. 

The girls were all a little freaked out, but mostly very interested in and curious about what had happened with the cars and the people in the cars. They were very disappointed that I wouldn't let them get closer for a better look. For weeks after the accident they would talk about hearing "the big crash" and about "the man covered in blood" and ask endless questions about why and how it happened and if everyone was alright. We left shortly after Kyle returned form helping as much as he could at the scene of the crash, and were very happy to hear a few days later that everyone involved in the accident had survived! 

Kyle and I have together witnessed several minor accidents, including two hit and runs (and thanks to my good eye sight and memory, we were able to call the cops and report the license plate numbers for both hit and runs!), but this was by far the most sever crash either of had ever witnessed, which left us both with mixed feelings of shock over having seen it, sadness for everyone involved and severe driving paranoia as we drove home!

 It was definitely an eventful Saturday afternoon for our family!

Baby #5 gender and name reveal- March 2014

St. Patrick's Day was a big day for our family this year. Not only did we have Lucky Charms for breakfast and Lamb stew for dinner (the first a big hit with the girls, the second, a big hit with Kyle), but we were also able to find out the gender of Baby Willman #5 (a big hit with Mama!). Through my doctor's office, I was able to schedule an early ultrasound at 16 weeks just for finding out the baby's gender. 

A whole four weeks earlier.  I know. I am obviously a perfect specimen of patience during pregnancy. 

As a brief explanation: I have a hard time really connecting with my pregnancies- especially early on. It is hard for me to fully realize the whole thing is real and that we are actually having another baby. Even when Waits was born (you would think that by baby #4 I would have a better grasp of the whole concept, but no...) I was still completely in awe as they handed him to me, I couldn't believe there had actually been a real little person in there the whole time!

Finding out the gender and having a name picked out as soon as possible really helps me to feel connected to our baby, to feel like they are already a member of our family, and not just some imaginary person that will eventually exist. Something that I find really funny is that with our first three pregnancies we only ever had a girl name picked out before finding out the gender. Boy names were just tough for us for some reason- which ended up not even mattering since they were all girls. Pregnancy #4 comes around and for the first time we finally had a boy name picked out before the gender reveal, which ended up coming in pretty handy when they announced it was, in fact, a boy.

This time around, we still had our girl name that we had picked out if #4 had been a girl, but were yet again struggling to decide on a boy name. We just couldn't find a name that we both liked. I will never admit to having any kind of mother's intuition when it comes to predicting the gender of our babies, but considering the previous four coincidences, I thought it likely that this baby was going to be a girl, based on that alone.

When we went in for the ultrasound (and when I say we, I mean the whooole gang! We like to include our other kids to help them feel more involved with everything, plus they are always so excited to find out), we were slightly disappointed to find out that the baby was sitting straight up and down, with their little bottom right up against my cervix, which made for a difficult time getting a look at the goods. As the ultrasound dragged on, our little posse began to get squirmy, so Kyle headed out to the waiting room (where a kids movie was playing) while the ultrasound tech decided to do a vaginal ultrasound to get a better view. I sure do love a persistent ultrasound tech! :) Literally, within a few seconds of having the wand in place, we had a perfect view of the baby's gender:

Baby Willman #5 is a baby BOY! We are so excited that Waits is going to be having a little brother!!!

In the first picture below, you can see the unmistakable evidence. :) In the second one, you can see a front view of his sweet little face (on the right), and the last picture says that it is another picture of his face, though I don't see it...

When it comes to gender, we have absolutely no preference at all. Honestly. We love all of our kids, they are each individually special, they have all been so sweet, and boy or girl has made no difference to us. That being said, we were really excited to find out that we were having a boy this time around knowing that Waits will have a brother so close in age. We can only hope that they will be little buddies and lifelong friends and a great support for one another as they grow up.

Knowing this new dynamic in our family, it has been really fun to start making plans about things like eventually having a girl room for the big girls and a boy room for at least our two little boys to share. We have packed away our girl clothes, because we won't be needing them for a little while, and I have started stocking up on newborn summer clothes since Waits was born in February... in Provo... so everything we have in newborn size is sweat pants and fleece and hoodie jackets... not very August-baby friendly.

It was a long two weeks (for me, at least) before we could finally decide on a name for our little guy. Kyle was right in the middle of a very time-consuming school semester, which left very little time for talking about baby names, and those few minutes where we could squeeze it in, we found ourselves at an impasse. Kyle had a list of names that he liked, and I had a list of names that I liked, and it seemed that neither of us was willing to budge.

After two weeks of referring to the baby as the-baby-boy-in-Mommy's-tummy at least twenty times a day- both with the girls and with Kyle- I couldn't take another day of not having a name picked out! As I gave a name-choosing-ultimatum, Kyle actually resorted to looking through baby name books (which we actually own, but haven't pulled off the shelf since before Minnette was born!), while I pretty much shot them all down. Then finally Kyle found a name that he loved, which I didn't love,  but I didn't hate, either (this was huge!). It was very similar to a name that I had already been thinking of, so I asked Kyle for a compromise. I'm usually super anti- nick names. And by that I mean that I pretty much hate them. In my opinion, if you are going to call your child something, just name them that! Here's where I throw that rule right out the window (well, sort of...). We decided to name the baby the name that I liked, and Kyle can call him the name he liked, since he just liked how it sounded. Does that not sound like a real compromise? I guess it's really not, but it worked for us. We tweaked the spelling to what Kyle and I both agreed was a little more masculine than the name I was originally wanting, Kyle picked out the middle name and there you have it... our little guy FINALLY had a name:

Locklan Barrett Willman

(can also be called "Lock" or "Bear")

Whew! (bet you had no idea it would take so long just to say a gender and name, did you?) I am so, so glad to have a name picked out, not mention one that Kyle and I both love (though, for different reasons), and I feel really fits with our other kids names. Nothing like having a Minnette, Aurelle, Jovi, Waits and BOB.  Haha.

So excited to meet our sweet baby boy  Locklan in just a few months!

St. Patrick's Day 2014

We decided to combine our St. Patrick's Day goodies with our annual spring baskets this year- mostly because I was too impatient to wait for them to get all of their fun outside toys for the spring/summer, and didn't want to miss out on one non-freezing day outside having fun.

They got quite the haul this year, though it was mostly replacement sand toys (toys that other kids from our quad play with while we're outside unfortunately don't last very long around here) and coloring books from the dollar store thanks to Grandma Murphy (and thanks to this new information I will never buy them anywhere else ever again- so cheap!), and our traditional and very authentically Irish St. Patrick's Day breakfast: Lucky Charms!

I found these awesome green mustaches at Old Navy the week before St. Patrick's Day for $5... especially for so cheap, how could I possibly pass up something this funny?:

(These outfits were the most green each of them had to wear!)

Mommy got one, too!

No mustache- but plenty of green- for Waits!

Books

One morning Minnette woke up much earlier than everyone else, so I came out and laid on the couch while she read and played quietly. She decided she wanted to re-organize the entire contents of our book cabinet by size and shape. All I could think while she was doing this is that she would sure make her Grandma Murphy proud! Here are all of the books very carefully sorted by size and shape- can't have those square books next to the rectangle ones, now can we? :)

And why read books when there are so many other ways they can be used?

Such as pretend groceries or luggage (our girls often like to pretend that our couch is their van, and they will load up 'the back' [one side of the couch] with books and other random toys, as their 'stuff' and pretend to drive on the other side.) This must have been a Costco trip! ;)

They also make a great pillow:

Who knew?

Love our silly, creative girls!

Sleeping Jovi

Before we finally took the plunge and decided to switch our kids sleeping arrangements around, Jovi had free-reign of both a crib and a toddler bed in her room (one of the reasons we needed to switch things around: we didn't want Jovi climbing ion the crib once Waits was in it!), but even with two logical (and comfortable) options available to her, she would often choose other- more creative- places to fall asleep. Most nights Kyle or I would wait until we knew she was deep asleep to check on her, and would often have to relocate her to her bed for the rest of the night. These were some of her favorite places to fall asleep:

Behind the door. We would literally have to move her body with the door just to get in! And she would always still be asleep:

This one has to be my favorite:

How is she able to sleep this way??

Ice Skating- Feb 2014

Our ward had a family ice skating night back in February. None of our kids have ever been ice skating, and it has been years since Kyle or I have gone. We were so excited for the opportunity to be able to go with our whole family.

Two adults and four kids 5 and under ice skating?? No big deal, right? Bring it on!

One of the biggest challenges was that we had three young and inexperienced but independent ice skaters, but for most of the evening, only ever had access to one ice skating aid since there were so many other families with kids there. We usually had all three girls and a parent piled up on one. It was quite the experience, but, hey, it (mostly) worked, and they were still happy!

The other challenge: ice skating while holding an infant. I am not a super experienced ice skater myself. It always takes me a while to get used to it, and trying to hold Waits while also trying not to slip and fall was nerve wracking, to say the least. 

Kyle had a much better solution that everyone, especially Waits, was thrilled about:

He loved it so much! How stinkin' cute is that???

Once the pizza arrived and most of the families made their way over to where dinner was, a few more skating aids freed up and our girls could each have their own. We were basically the only family left on the ice, and even when we told out girls there was pizza, they didn't want to leave, they were having so much fun. Check out their skating skills. You can see Minnette and Aurelle in the background:

By the end, all three were much more confident and would venture out skating completely on their own, and they did awesome! But by the end, Jovi was a little tired of falling, I think:

We had so much fun ice skating and will be doing this as a family or daddy/mommy-daughter date this summer, for sure!

Waits first hair cut- Feb 2014

Just after our sweet little Waits turned one, it was finally time to take care of that sweet little mullet he was groeing. Being my first boy, I was a little nervous about giving my very first little boy hair cut with scissors (you won't see me buzzing any of my boys' hair... EVER! Unless it is really what they want when they are older, I guess. Then, I will be eating my words :/ ). I watched a couple youtube videos, gave him some toys to keep him occupied and still and went for it!

Here is the before:

And all of the hair I trimmed off of his little head::

And there you have it... after holding still for an entire hair cut, Waits was not wanting to sit still for a decent 'after' picture:

It was much easier than I anticipated, and though I am definitely no professional, I was quite proud of myself! Here's to many more little boy hair cuts in my future!

Waits' FIRST birthday! Feb 2014

Our sweet little man celebrated one whole year of life outside the womb early in February. And, boy, has it been a great one! This is an absolute first for me, but since my mom was in town for his actual birthday, which included lots of plans to get out and have fun while Kyle was plugging through a very challenging semester, we never got around to having his birthday breakfast OR birthday party! I. KNOW! No breakfast or cake to even speak of. So sad. At least he is young enough that other than the lack of pictures, he will have no memory of this Mama's major fail.

We did, however, sneak out for a mom-and-son date to get some birthday pictures taken. So there's that. One check in the win column! Feel free to check out our handsome little guy:

 The baseball was used to try and get him to smile... it sooooort of worked, but ended up looking like a super random prop in these pictures, I think.

His shoes are little raccoons. I seriously love baby clothes!

Such a lady killer...

And that tongue! 

And it was out to stay...

Cutest little boy ever.

Waits' one year stats:

Height: 29.2 in (24th %)

Weight: 20.68 lbs (39th %)

Head: 18 in. (39th %)

Waits at one year old:

•Waits is our very first thumb-sucker. Anytime he is tired, that thumb is in his mouth. I remember being super anti-thumb sucking with Minnette and Aurelle, and now I'm sort of wondering why... though, I do know that it can cause dental problems (like overbite) down the road,  it is still pretty much the cutest thing ever. Right thumb goes in his mouth and left hand goes in his (or MY) hair. Which is pretty funny when he's eating and his hands are all messy because he puts that left hand right in his hair no matter what is all over it! 

•He is super ticklish on his neck. He laughs and curls up like a potato bug every time you tickle him there.

•His favorite game of all time: peek-a-boo. It could be across the room, or while you are changing his diaper. If you can find a way to play any form of peek-a-boo, he cracks up every time.

•His favorite thing to eat: a bowl of oatmeal with Mommy. He will seriously eat more oatmeal than I do!

• Waits is in the cruising stage. He will walk along furniture and even stand up in the middle of the room, but hasn't really taken any steps (and as of 15 months, he takes steps, but still isn't walking. All of our other babies walked right at 12 months, so this is a change for us!)

• Doesn't say any words yet. No doubt he prefers not to add the the joyful (and sometimes tragic and chaotic) noise around him just yet.

•Is still the sweetest, calmest, most chill and relaxed baby you've ever known! He is so content all the time. He pretty much only cries when he gets hurt or is suuuuuuper tired.

•Is a great sleeper. Sleeps through the night and takes 2-3 naps a day, though being the fourth means we don't always get to stay at home for 2-3 naps a day, and Waits takes it right in stride and is still a pretty happy camper while we're out and about and he's missing a much needed nap.

•I almost forget about his sweet chubby cheeks, but I am reminded almost every time we go out, because someone will comment on how cute his sweet little cheeks are. Love those chubby cheeks- so kissable!

Waitsey- boy! We love you so much! I love seeing you grow, and can't wait to see you become a big brother, you are going to be such a sweet older brother! We are so grateful for this year we've had with you in our family! Happy Birthday and I promise never to miss your birthday breakfast again!! :)