Lexi's preschool graduation

On June 4th Lexi graduated from preschool! 

My mom was out of town and my dad was at work, but Shane's parents were able to make it.

Cute, cute girl

She has been so patient going to all of Kaden and Lexi's events.

Kaden, Rod, and Karen

Doing sign language

Lexi's whole class with Mrs. Hedges

Silly songs

Lexi can rock whatever she's wearing. haha

Announcing her piano song

She played "Happy Birthday"

I have a video of it, but Blogger and I don't get along with videos. We barely get along with pictures.

Her group did a cute poem about a kitty.

Silly face

Getting her medal and portfolio.

My preschool grad!

Lexi is THRILLED to be in kindergarten, but kept saying how much she will miss the other two girls in her class. Their teacher had said all year how close those girls had gotten. What she doesn't know is that we moms knew all about how much they love each other and exchanged numbers so that we can do some splash pad get togethers this summer. ;)

Newest nephew

My youngest (and only) brother and his wife had their baby on May 30th at 1:54 pm weighing in at 6 lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches long. They named him Dewey Nelson Currie and he's adorable. I found out through Facebook that he'd been born, which shows you how much my brother loves his sisters (not at all). They forbid anyone from coming to see them at the hospital, but I made sure to weasel my way in as soon as they were home. :D

They posted this on Facebook.

I took this pic Monday morning when I got to see him.

He is darling and I loved giving him back after getting my baby fill. ;) Dewey was sleeping when Angela (sis-in-law) handed him off to me and I made sure to keep him that way. Christopher (brother) was surprised and said that I was the first person out of everyone who had visited them who had been able to do the pass off and keep him asleep. I've got the magic touch, I tell ya. 

Kaden didn't care about the baby, Ari wanted to hold him for .3 seconds, and Lexi wanted to take him home. haha AND I kept him asleep while going from me to Ari to me to Lexi and back to me. I know, I'm awesome. ;) Anyway it's fun to have another baby in the family!

Weekend of dread

Shane had a four day weekend over Memorial weekend last month, so I had set those days aside a couple of months ago to finally potty train Ari. I knew I had to suck it up because it was time. Shane and I spent the week before preparing. The house was clean and laundry caught up, we had large amounts of clean underwear for Ari, a sticker chart, treats, and plenty of drinks for her. Shane rolled the rug up the day before (cleaning pee off of a hardwood floor is much easier than carpet!) and we were ready to go. We also had Clorox wipes, paper towels, and regular towels stacked on the couch for when we'd need them. After Kaden and Lexi, we're pros with potty training. I had to take Kaden to school that Friday, but I told Shane we'd start when I got back. 

I got home with Kaden around 10:45 and Ari was already in a t-shirt and underwear. Shane had started already and had her "throw away" her diapers (in a bin where we still have them in case we need them). He said it had been an hour and nothing had happened, but I checked and all he gave her was water. LAME. I got her some juice AND chocolate milk and she started chugging. 

Maybe 30 minutes later, Ari's eyes got really wide and she urgently said, "I NEED TO GO POTTY!" As I excitedly squealed, "RUN TO THE BATHROOM!" I looked down at the floor under her and it was still dry, much to my (and Shane's) surprise. Well, it turned out that not only did she make it to the toilet, she had time to move the step stool over and lift the lid up. What the? Shane and I were shocked at her bladder control and cheered for her and did the sticker chart thing, but we were still expecting accidents to start any minute.

As the day progressed, she did AMAZING. Not one accident (even during naptime)! Ari kept saying, "I'm so pwoud I can do dat!" It was adorable. Nighttime came, though, and I knew what I had to do. I woke her up an hour after she fell asleep and had her sit on the toilet. She kept sleepily saying, "I don't need to go potty." And she didn't. The next morning, I woke up early to wake her up early to go and, again, she kept saying that she didn't need to go. She sat on the toilet a little longer than normal, but she eventually went (she could have held it, though), then went back to bed.

Saturday we were feeling so confident about her being accident free that we went to RC Willey for hot dogs and soda for lunch.

Our big girl!

Playing with the chairs in electronics while Daddy window-shops.

 She was still doing amazing, so we decided to go to the Sprint store to get new phones. We were there for a couple of hours and she only needed to go potty once. There's not a public restroom, but the employees saw her "dancing" and quickly opened up their restroom for her use. It was hilarious because she held it the whole time and, again, still had time to spare, but when she sat down and started going she sighed and said, "Whew! That was close!" hahaha

She was bawling when we left the store because we didn't buy her a new cell phone.

Sunday went just as smoothly, even with going to church. I made sure her teachers came and got me in between their classes, though, so I could take her to the bathroom just in case. Anyway, by Sunday afternoon Shane and I had stopped waiting for the accidents to start and started realizing all of our kids were now potty trained! 

If I could do it over with the other two and wait until they were 3 1/2 to potty train them, I totally would. SOOO worth it! Not one accident and no headaches on mom's part! LOVED it! She made it so easy for us! Now it's been almost a month since I've had to change a diaper!! WOO!!!!

Kaden's graduation

Kaden's school does an unofficial graduation (which is fine with me because I've always thought the preschool and kindergarten graduation is a bit uncalled for), but they called it a "Celebration of Learning" where the kids get to show the parents what they've been learning all year.

Killing time coloring

Shane took work off to be there. :)

Kaden is on the back row.

I couldn't get a good picture for the life of me.

 Since the pictures suck, here's what's going on: the kids spent two months learning everything about bees. Because of the type of charter they are, they learned, saw, tasted (bee bread - it's a thing), and had an all-encompassing learning experience. For their program, they did little skits showing what bees do. One group did the waggle dance (it's a thing, too), but Kaden was really happy about being in the group where he got to run/fly around like crazy while workers tried to "smoke" the bees to get their honey. He cracked me up because he was darting around so fast going, "YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!!" hahaha

I helped with the hats.

This group got to show how bees get pollen from flowers and because I volunteered so much this past year, one of the days I got to help make the flower hats. They are made from giant sized coffee filters that the kids colored with syringe-type things (no needles!). It was fun and I loved seeing the finished product.

After the program, the kids got to show off their portfolios of work. Shane's parents and my dad were all there and Kaden showed us his work from the last year. The teacher kept art, tests, Kaden's bee book, and his report cards. So fun seeing how far he's come!

Showing off his folder.

He got to keep his bee shirt!

Lexi wanted in on the picture, so I told her to kiss him at the last second. This was the result. I love his face.

I love my cute kiddos!

Shane's 31!

I know I'm behind on blogging, but my reasons are good, I assure you. Anyway, Shane turned 31 on May 18th! Since it was a Sunday this year, we made it a birthday weekend. We started out with a soccer game on Saturday morning.

After naps, we went to Red Robin (of course).

Sunday the kids helped me put Shane's present together while he was showering.

Movie bucket!

After dinner we went to my grandparent's house for our monthly extended family home evening with all of my Utah relatives. I made sure that Shane was sung to in primary (he the pianist, but someone else played so he could stand up front) and at my grandparent's house. It was a good day. :)

Mother's Day

I always feel cheated on Mother's Day because I don't get to sleep in and I don't get a nap. That's gonna change next year, mark my words.

We went to church from 9 to noon, came home and changed, then went to Shane's parent's house for lunch.

Lexi, Ryley, Kaden, and Ari.

After that, we headed to my mom's house for dinner. I helped (maybe a lot) with dinner because it was my suggestion and recipe, but it was a big hit. (Cheesy potato soup on a rainy day makes me happy.) For reasons I'll explain later, my two sisters who were there took some sister selfies. Again, I'll explain later because it's hilarious why. Most of the pics were silly faces, but we got one good one.

Suzanna (15 months older than me), Me, and Jacquelyn (2 years younger than me)

 After dinner, we got to Skype with my baby sister, Natalie, who is on her mission.

Baby Jared didn't know what to think.

We actually ended up talking for a total of two hours, although about 15 minutes of that was on the phone because our Skype session was interrupted by an unwanted update. Anyway, it was really good to see her even though we saw her a month ago. Seven months 'til Christmas is going to be a looong wait for us!

Another Long Saturday

Actually it was a long weekend, but we'll start with Saturday.

I was forced convinced to do another 5k, this time with my friend, Kenzie. If you weren't around for the last 5k 6-ish years ago, let me summarize: I pushed myself waaay too hard and because of my exercise-induced asthma, coughed so hard I tore my esophagus and coughed up blood for the next two days. It hurt SO BAD. Needless to say, I was more than nervous about this one. But I'm typing this so, *SPOILER ALERT*, I survived.

Before the race. Yes, Kenzie is wearing makeup. No, I'm definitely not.

It was COLD, but the rain hadn't started yet, so we were good to go. Just after the two mile mark, though, it started hailing. Hard. It really was like a thousand little stings everywhere skin was showing (I had idiotically left my jacket in the car). That didn't last too long, then it just sprinkled for a bit. I jogged a little, not as much as I wanted to, but I wasn't hacking up a lung at the finish line, so I guess that's good.

We got our swag bags!

It was really fun just chatting with Kenzie the whole time. We so rarely get to talk without kids present, so that was nice. As we were leaving, the stinging sideways rain started so I'm glad we got out of there when we did.

 After I got back home, I grabbed Kaden and left right away for his soccer game (no time to shower). :(  I left Shane and the girls at home because it was still cold and sprinkly.

That kid in the blue shorts was really good - to the point that parents started to question his age.

 After the game, I dropped Kaden off and headed to my sister-in-law's baby shower at a park in Layton. (Still no time to shower.) It was outside and I was just absolutely shivering the entire time. When I got home, I layed in bed under my comforter for an hour just trying to warm up. I finally got in a very hot shower and was warm again for the first time all day.

For dinner, Shane suggested we go out for an early Mother's Day dinner. I chose Texas Roadhouse because rolls.

 

We've been there a lot and have always loved it, but our server was crap this time around. Seriously. I've worked as a server so I have a LOT more patience with them than other people usually do, and even I was mad by the time we left. But the food was still good.