eating issues *sigh*

most of you know lex has major eating issues.  he's not only picky but he gags on food and throws up.  well...  when allison was born she looked a lot like lex.  i was hoping that she wouldn't have his same eating issues....i mean...what are the chances??  well....  it doesn't look good everyone.....

allison started throwing up.  i thought she was just sick.  but after a lot of times her throwing up i figured out it was the baby cereal.  i would feed her and about a hour later it would come back up.  then i would only nurse her and she would be fine.  but when i would feed her cereal again...  same thing...throwing up again.  so we'll see what happens in the next 6 months.  everyone cross your fingers.

allison "da da da da"

uncle rick and aunt jane

uncle rick and aunt jane came to our house for a visit.  it was great having them here.  we did some cool stuff while they were with us...

we first went to antelope island for the day to check things out there.  here's some pictures of that.

                                   lex watching a buffalo.  they're all over the island.  it's pretty cool.

          this is lex, elaina, and aunt jane come back from going out to see the great salt lake.  i was feeding allison in the car so it's not a very close picture.

the whole time we were on the island lex said he wanted to climb "a big pile of rocks".  so just before we left he finally got to do it.....and he did it bare foot.

then we roasted marshmellows in the backyard and hung out for the evening. 

                                 for some reason this is the only good picture i took of uncle rick  :(

allison and aunt jane. 

the next day we went to the ogden train museum and while we were there decided to go out and see the golden stake.  cory met us in ogden and we all drove out there.  it was really cool to see.  cory and i have wanted to go there for a long time.

                                        didn't really pose.....just took it before we lost elaina out of the shot

i'm hardly ever in pictures so that means allison is hardly in any pictures.  so i decided to take this one so allison could have one of her with the trains too.  i took it in a window mirror.

after we saw the golden spike we saw a sign about a rocket display.  so we followed it and saw these.  in the middle of nowhere.  it was really cool seeing them.  the rockets are in front of a bunch of buildings.  it's headquarters of a company that makes parts for NASA.

it was great to be with rick and jane again and really get to know them.  i know lex and elaina were very sad to see them go...and cory and i were too.  we had a good time with them.

Elaina's 4th birthday

we had a 3 day long birthday party this year.  we went to the princess festival the day before her birthday.  then the day of we were just going to be hanging around the house.  but i felt like we needed to do something.  so lex woke me up at 6:30am and whispered "mom...wake up...it's elaina's birthday!  we have to put up decorations!!"   so the day started with decorations.  

then for breakfast elaina got to eat as many strawberries as she wanted.  :)  she was in heaven.

then i decided to do something fun.  so we invited her friends over to swim.  she wanted to invite everyone to the princess festival...and that gets pretty expensive. :P  so....swim party.  :)    that evening cory's aunt jane and uncle rick flew in for a visit for the weekend!  more to come on other posts.   so the next day as part of the celebrations i made elaina a cake.  she said she wanted a princess cake then it changed into a castle birthday princess cake.  daddy was going to make one for her.  but he was nice enough to let me do the honor.  :)  so here's her and her cake.

2011 princess festival!!

well it's that time of year again!!  the princess festival!!!  elaina talks about it all year and so does lex.  for her birthday again this year we took her and this year she got to bring a friend too.  i didn't want to bring lex so he went to the cousin's house for a fun day (thanks kirsten!) so Aubrey and her mom got to come.  again...it was so cute!  the girls had such a great time.  here's some highlights:

we also had lots of princesses sing to elaina. it was such a great day!!! this is one of the groups that sang to her.

baby for sale

one very cute baby for sale....  very happy, smiles, laughs, and comes with a surprise.......

SURPRISE!!! :P

aunt cherie's house

after camille's (again lots of tears...fun, cousin's, very sad to leave) we went to aunt cherie's house!  they have 2 hamsters.  they got them out and they were walking all over cherie's lap top.  so cute.  :)

we also played the chocolate game.  this was the first time lex and elaina had played it.  and they loved it!

i hardly saw elaina while we were here.  natalie and the other girls took good care of her.  when elaina got home she had a hard time getting herself dressed, picking up toys, playing games that other ppl wanted to play, all because she had her every need met while she was there.  she was the queen.  she loved it.   lex was interduced to "angry birds"  it's a game you can play on the computer.  he's REALLY into it now.    they also hada trampoline they jumped on and again...lots of toys.  and also cherie has a dog.  lex was in heaven.

this is cherie and i at the "Shakespeare in the park" preformance.  it was very well done.  all these california ppl were freezing that night...  it was just right for me.  :)  the kids stayed at cherie's house and watched a movie and ate popcorn.

camille came up to cherie's and we all went swimming.  this is camille and allison.  it was hot that day!!

lex with his floaties on.  very excited to finally be swimming again.

elaina in her floaty.

allison with grandma penner playing at the water park.  it was so cute watching her play.     that evening grandma stayed with all 8 kids and had an ice cream/ movie party while the adults went to leatherby's so i could get my whipped cream fix.  ohhhhhh.....  i was too busy soaking it all in to get a picture of it.  but here's a picture i took a couple years ago of the same thing.   totally worth the drive.....   mmmmmmm

we had a great trip to california!!!  it was very hard leaving.  but it was time to get back to my life and my husband.  i cried most of the way home.  one of the hardest things i've ever had to do was drive away from my 2 brothers and my 2 sisters when we moved to washington.  this was harder.  i drove away from my parents and all of my brothers and sisters.  because i knew my brother that lives in utah would be moving to california too.  that was very hard and still is.  i feel very lonely.  but i have my kids and husband.  and that's worth it.  :)

aunt camille's house

after uncle joel's house (my kids were very sad to leave their house....really cool toys, fun cousin's...lots of tears leaving) we went to aunt camille's house.  my kids found happiness again.  :)  my sister cherie and her kids came over and we played on the slip n slide.   

kate, natalie, elaina, rachel, elizabeth, ben, and nick.  elaina decided that natalie was her mom and i didn't have ot do anything when natalie was around.  they were fast friends.  lex wouldn't be in this picture because he was having a moment by himself.  but later he joined us.

here's lex almost going.  but he tried again when they were out of the way.  he hada  hard time sharing and wanted everyone to move out of his way before he would go.  *roll of the eyes*

here's ben falling on his head and elaina almost sliding. they were racing.

camille lives right acrossed the street from a park so her hose can reach acrossed.  it was awesome.  lots of room to run.  after that we got dressed and went to see camille give her R.S.  lesson for enrichment night.  we also played a lot of games while we were there while the kids played.  awwww....got my game fix.  we played monopoly deal mostly.  good times at camille's.

chuck e cheese....and screams

lex has been asking for go to chuck e cheese for about 2 years now.  my sister in law nicole had tokens left over from my nephews ethan's birthday so she took us there.  ohhhh man.  both kids were very excited and had a great time.  lex couldn't spend his tokens fast enough....while elaina took her time spending them.  then lex asked elaina for more.  elaina being the sharing person she is did give into lex...but only one.  she guarded the others with her life.

elaina's favorite at chuck e cheese.

lex really liked the ski-ball.

lex, ethan, sam, and elaina in front of chuck.

not a very good picture of allison but she had a great time seeing all the lights and watching the kids.


joel took me to great america amusment park for a couple of hours earlier that day. it was so dang fun!!!  my sister in laws were nice enough to watch the kids so we could go in between feedings of allison.  we ran from ride to ride.  it was so fun.  here's some pictures my brother took.

me on the demon.  my first upside down ride when i was a teenager.  still way fun.  :)

since i'm too cheep to buy it joel snuck a picture of us that was takin on top gun rollercoster.  i'm on the far right of 08401.  joel's next to me.  thanks joel....that was way fun.

cousin girl power!!!!

this is hannah and allison meeting for the first time.  :)

Boots and blessing

My mom and dad moved to california and i drove over there with the kids to help move some of there things. so while we were there my brother was blessing his baby.  so these are the pictures we took the day of the baby blessing.

my sister camille and i were talking about hating our boots that we had and camille said she liked mine better.  i was like.....well i like your better.  so we decided to switch our boots.  very happy girls  :)  i got the better end of the deal.  thanks camille!

everyone at joel's apartment.  that was a really fun day.  all of my brothers and sisters got to come and most of their spouses were there too.

todd, kirsten, and kevin.  kevin flew up from san diego.  tood and kirsten weren't planning on coming but todd had an interview in san jose which is where the blessing was, so kirsten came too.  it just all worked out that we were all there.  i wasn't planning on coming either but the day before i decided to drive out.  

mom and dad with allison.

we sat outside and talked while the kids climbed trees and played hide and go seek. 

uncle kevin and baby hannah.

Joy School Graduation

well...elaina made it through joy school.  she loved it!!  i put on the graduation for this year.  it was so cute to see them in their hats.  :)

Allison's 1st bites

this is allison eating baby cereal for the first time!!

she ate a couple of bites!!  very hard to eat while smiling the whole time.  :)

mary had a little lex

this is lex with his preschool teacher miss mary.  she's been lex's teacher for the last 2 years and we will miss her greatly!!!  she's been so great for lex.  

this is a video of lex at his final preschool preformance.  i was a helper mom and cory had his hand's full with the girls so that's why i'm videotaping the back of everyone's heads.  this year they learned all about animals and they made puppets to go with it. lex was holding up a dog puppet because it's his fav. animal.  if you can't tell what he's saying he says...  "the dog because i can walk them and play with them.  and my fav song is......"  you can hear they rest on the video.  :) 

fishing with joy

went went fishing at a trout farm with elaina's joy school.  it was so much fun!!  we caught fish and heard lots of screaming mom's.  :)