Garage Sale = Emotional Breakdown

Our neighborhood puts on an annual garage sale every two years. : ) I think it's supposed to be annual, but it didn't happen last year, so we jumped at the chance to get rid of some stuff when this years came around. Actually, I jumped at the chance, Bud didn't want much to do with it, he kept saying something about "a lot of work", and "I didn't realize what I was getting myself into". Over a couple weeks, I started a pile of stuff to sell. I had been struggling with including all the baby stuff, but finally came to the conclusion that it was time. Getting rid of the the clothes was heartbreaking for me. Luckily, some of the boy stuff went to friends in our ward who will have an 18-month old when she delivers her twins! Then a lot of other stuff went to a good friend of mine who lives just around the corner, so we joked that I could just buy it back if I needed to (but hopefully not). The day was long and hot and we didn't sell near as much as I would've liked to. So then the charity trucks came around to pick up anything left over. I had a big pile, including three boxes of baby girl clothes. It was a Safe Nest truck, so I gave him the baby clothes first, figuring they would go to families that needed it. Well, as the guy is chucking my precious baby clothes into his truck (literally throwing them and they're flying all over the place), he tells me that the clothes actually go to Savers to sell. Suddenly, I couldn't take it and had to run into the house to bawl like a baby. It was horrible. I feel good and right about being done, but the reality is hard to swallow. Babies have been a huge part of my life, it makes up so much of who I am and to have that chapter in my life close, is hard to accept. But I know I have to accept it sometime (I'm not that Dugger lady for heavens sake), so here's to the next chapter... By the way, it was NOT worth all the work and time. Bud was right. This time. Here are some happier pics from that day:

The kids had a lemonade and snack stand and I think made more money than we did. : )

We Have a Walker!

On April 15th, I took a video of Caroline's first step. Over the next month, she got more and more confident, and by her birthday was walking everywhere. She's my earliest walker, but it doesn't surprise me at all they way she tries to keep up with her brothers and sisters! I can't post my videos of her walking, but here are some pictures I took of her the day before her birthday (May 10th).

Field Trips

In late April, Mae had back to back field trips. The kids have all had pretty fun field trips this year, but I couldn't go on any as a chaperone because of the baby. But I could go to Mae's preschool ones, so I did! First, she had a trip to Gilcrease Ranch where they had a ton of birds, goats, peacocks, alpacas, etc. The typical Vegas "zoo". The kids had a great time though. It's been the best year of school ever. Mrs. Purcell is a phenomenal teacher and she's had the cutest kids in her class, whose mom's I'm all friends with. The very next week we headed to the Natural History Museum. We unfortunately went the day before we were supposed to which really stunk, but got there the next day and had Mae had a blast.

Quick Girls Trip

The annual girls trip with my besties from Phoenix was cut short this year since we opted for a big family vacation together in June (more on that later!). But Dana had yet to meet Caroline and see Megan's home, so she flew in for a super quick weekend. I picked her up from the airport, had a delicious lunch at Settebello, then headed up to St. George when Bud got home. We had less then 24-hours in St. George, but packed in the fun! We had Thai for dinner, then Kneaders for dessert. The next morning we ran a 5k (where Dana left me and Megan in the dust), then went to a Zumba class (my first one, and REALLY fun). By then, we were STARVING so we hit Kneaders again for some breakfast and didn't feel at all bad about the all-you-can-eat french toast. We got great massages, and had a fun dinner. Dana wore this fantastic red lipstick and our waiter (who we think was gay) could not get enough of her! Then we headed home to Vegas that night so we could make sure Dana made her flight in the morning. Love these girls and even though it's tough to get together, it's so worth it!

Jacob and Jonah's Golden Birthday

The twins turned 10 on April 10th this year. I wanted to do something pretty big for them, and came up with a couple of pretty good ideas. First, back on April 6, a friend of mine returned from her Spring Break trip to Round Rock, TX, bringing with her some very precious cargo. We all know about the Stoddard's love affair with donuts, especially the twins. Years ago, I had seen on the Food Network a donut place in TX that sold huge donuts that were supposed to be some of the best in the country. About a month before the twins birthday, I posted a total long shot question on Facebook to see if anyone would be around Austin or Round Rock during Spring Break and would be willing to ship me the donuts . Well, I was shocked to find quite a few people willing to help and it just so happened my friend Leah was within a couple miles of the Round Rock Donuts and she carried on two huge donuts and a dozen regulars all the way back for me! It was so much fun to surprise the boys with them!

Then came the Monday night before their birthday. We met over at Nana and Pogger's around 5pm. Bud met us over there, because we told the boys we were going to go shopping for their big present, Bibi guns! They were really excited. We got in the car to drive to the store. We drove and drove. I thought surely they'd notice something was up when we were pretty much out of the city. Then I thought they'd notice when we crossed over the state line, but I finally ended up asking them where they thought we were. They said they didn't know and I told them we were in California. We asked why they'd be in California and then told them we were on our way to Rancho Cucamonga California to stay at a hotel that night before heading to Knotts Berry Farm the next day for their birthday! They were quite stunned and didn't really give me the freak out I'd expected, but once I prompted it with "you don't seem too excited, should we just head home?", they got really excited. We got to Rancho Cucamonga pretty quickly and before even checking into the hotel, stopped at Ferrels Ice Cream Parlor to embarrass the heck out of them. And get WAY too much ice cream! The servers made them dance and rapped for them. Jake was all embarrassed, but a good sport. Jonah had no problem dancing around. It was hilarious. Then we headed to the hotel (so easy to travel with just two kids!).

The next morning, Tuesday, the 10th, was their actual birthday. We got up, ate some breakfast, checked out, and got on the road. When they got in the car, we had some presents for them (including their Bibi guns!). Then we headed down to Anaheim for a pretty nearly perfect day. Even though it was spring break for CA, the crowds were minimal and the park was so well-kept. We started off strong with three roller coasters back to back to back. Then I had to slow down as my extremely sensitive motion sickness set in. I only threw up once at the park though. But then the heavy lunch at the Knotts Country Kitchen pretty much did me in and I only had one or two more rides left in me. Our last ride was on the Ghost Rider. It has one of those cameras that takes a pic of you as you drop. The pic it took of the four of us was so hilarious, we had to buy it. It still makes me laugh every time I look at it:

We left the park around 4pm for our drive back to Vegas. For some reason, about 20 minutes after we left, my stomach had just had it. We had to pull over at a gas station to throw away Jonah's hoodie which was the only thing I could grab in time as my lunch decided not to stay down. RIP Jonah's blue hoodie (pictured above). : ) Unfortunately, that wasn't the last time we had to pull over either. Did you ever see the Modern Family episode where they go to Disneyland and Phil thinks he's too old to handle rides, but turns out he had the flu? Well, I didn't have the flu, so maybe I'm getting too old for amusement parks. : (

The drive home was very quiet as we had finally worn the boys out. I look at how big these boys are, and I cannot believe it! They've grown up so quickly, but I'm really proud of the people they are becoming. I"m so grateful they're a part of our family! They really deserved such an awesome birthday! A huge thank you to the grandparents for watching the girls and making it all possible! Best birthday ever!

Easter

Easter was really spread out this year. The annual Summerlin Egg Hunt was on March 31 and all the cousins got to go. It was really cute!

Then we went to Salt Lake, and since Kim had to leave the Saturday before Easter, we moved our annual Easter traditions up a couple days. My parents were out of town, so that made judging the beauty contest a little tricky, but we sent a pic to them and they called us back with their top picks. What would we do without technology? :)

April 7 we had our ward egg hunt and breakfast, so good! Then finally, Easter was on the 8th. The kids had a great morning and after finding their original eggs, kept making their own egg hunts all morning. Then it was off to church. I had a REALLY hard time getting a decent shot of the kids for some reason, but LOVED Elle's and Mae's dresses! We headed down to Nana and Pogger's for dinner and some birthday cake for the twins, since their birthday was in 2 days!

Spring Break

Traci and I had been trying to get to Denver to see Kim and we thought Spring Break would be a good time to do it. However, after considering that March-April was the snowiest time in Denver and fearing Caroline could be a total wreck in the car for 12 hours, we decided against it and Kim flew out to Vegas with her kids. Traci was still itching to get out of town though, so we headed up to SLC to spend some time with family and see some sights. Glad we didn't drive to Denver, because our "Spring Break" trip started like this:

Luckily, the weather got better as the trip progressed. We went to museums, saw lots of church sites, hung out with cousins and second cousins and ate! We had a great time and a big thank you to Aunt Barb and Uncle Dave for hosting us and to Eric and Emilee for showing us around town!

 Children's Museum

Downtown/Temple Square:

This was our guide at the Conference Center. He was so cute, but had the hardest time getting my phone to take a pic and took some of himself instead, so I had to include him!

He finally got it though!

"This is the Place" Park

There was a guy and his daughter feeding all the animals and they let us come inside the barn to see all the babies. There were dozens of chicks, ducks, some bunnies, the cutest little pig named Bisodi, and lot of lambs. They let us play with all of them and bottle-feed the lambs! It was a definite highlight of the trip!

                 

Jack may look like he's to cool for this, but he loved it! And he was the best oldest cousin to everyone the whole trip!

More Cousin Time