4

Jackson turned 4 on Thursday! He was so excited for his birthday and loved pretty much everyone moment of it. My mom has told me many times that she and Ashlee hated my birthday when I was little because I would always say "it's my birthday so I can do what I want." Jackson has already started doing that. All day I kept hearing things like, "it's my birthday so I can choose what we have for lunch" and "it's my birthday so I can help you frost the cake" and "it's my birthday so I can stay up and not have quiet time." I don't mind too much though. It's still cute, since he's only 4. Here's how we spent his day:

Chuck E. Cheese

We went to Chuck E. Cheese after breakfast. That's what he said he wanted to do on his birthday a week or so ago when I asked him. There weren't very many people there. And since it hadn't been open very long there were a lot of tickets coming out of the machines so we got a lot free ones. The boys loved playing the games and riding the rides. Here's the pictures:

Jack riding in a car. Jack also did a car racing game for the first time. He had to sit on my lap since he can't push the pedal and drive at the same time. He love it. And was pretty good. I think he would have loved to do that for most of the time.

This was Jordan's favorite game.

Jack playing.

These boys do no cooperate when I want to take their picture together. This is how the pictures usually turn out.

Park

After Chuck E. Cheese we went home and had lunch and put Kenzie down for a nap. Doug was working from home because he was sick and so the boys and I went to the park to play for awhile before Jordan's nap.

On our way back from a potty break we saw some ducks get into a pond and swim around. There was a mama duck and 5 baby ducks. It reminded my of the 5 little ducks song.

Jordan and Jack with the ducks behind them.

Jack loves swinging. Jordan hates it. He refuses to get on a swing. So he gets bored when Jack swings. I tried to teach Jack how to pump, and he was kind of getting it. Hopefully he'll get it soon.

Jack climbing up a twisty ladder. He told me he could it now because he's 4. He'd done it before I think he forgot that he could.

Jordan sliding down the tunnel. This is one of his favorite things to do at the park. Then he jumps of the edge to me.

Whenever I ask Jordan to make a happy face he makes this face. He's confusing happy with silly.

I guess Jackson is more brave now that he's 4. He never used to go on this thing and if I ever suggested it he would refuse. But on his birthday he just went over and climbed on it. At first he didn't want to walk across it, but he ended up doing it with no problem.

Jackson also attempted and succeeded climbing up the rock wall for the first time. He was so proud of himself everytime he reached the top.

Decorating the Cake

At first Jackson said he wanted a pink cake. I don't know if I could have made my little boy a pink cake. So luckily he changed his mind and decided he wanted a colorful cake. I realized when I was about to start frosting the cake that I didn't have any frosting or powdered sugar. It was a good thing that Doug was home so I could go to the store with Jack while the babies slept. Jack was worried about making sure we bought enough colored frosting and was concerned about us only getting white. But he was pretty impressed when we added the food coloring.

This is what we ended up with. A striped colorful cake. He loved it.

A close up.

I had Jack make thank you cards for all his party guests.

Party

For Jack's party we had my parents and Ashlee and her girls over. We ate pizza for dinner. Jack came with me to pick up the pizza and he was really sad when we left the pizza place without him being able to tell the lady who worked there that it was his birthday. I didn't know he wanted to until we left. After we ate pizza Jack opened his presents. They played with presents for a little bit and then we had cake.

Opening presents. Can you tell what it is?

Happy Kenzie.

Jack with his cake and candle with "fire" on them.

Blowing out the candles. He told me earlier that day that he didn't want any help.

Licking the frosting off the candles.

This inside of his colorful cake.

Cruise!

Doug and I went on our cruise the first week of May. It was a lot of fun! The weather was pretty nice other than that it was a little windy sometimes. We were worried about how warm it would be because the forecast didn't look to great. But it ended up bring really nice. The boat was pretty big, but not as big as I had expected. I could feel it moving all the time, especially when we were in the front or back end of it. Here's some of what we did:

Catalina Island
Our first stop was Catalina Island. It was really nice there. We just walked around and looked at the houses and went up a huge hill to look at the view from up there. We also miniature golfed and shopped.

Doug with the boat in the background.

The view from the hill.

Another view from the hill.

Me and Doug on the beach.

The beach. I've learned that "beach" means 2 different things to Doug and me. To him, the beach is a place where the ocean meets the sand and the sand goes on forever along the water. So he thinks of beaches a huge places. I just think of a beach as a place where water and sand meet. So a beach can be on a lake or a river or a pond. So Doug didn't really think of this beach as an actual beach, but I did.

Ensenada
The next day we stopped in Ensenada, Mexico. We went to a resort. We thought it was a beach resort, but there's wasn't too much of the beach you could actually get to. But it was still really nice. We were able to sit in the sun by the pool. I read my book and Doug swam for awhile. It wasn't quite warm enough for me to want to swim. We also had a Mexican buffet lunch, which was pretty good. We also played ping pong. After the resort we went into the town and shopped. After buying some souvenirs we walked back to the ship. We didn't really like shopping there because the people all wanted us to buy something from their shops and we didn't like saying no so much. We did get Mackenzie a really cute dress that she'll be able to wear in a year or 2. And we got the boys a flute and maraca, which they seemed to love.

Doug swimming at the resort.

A picture at the resort. The resort is in all the palm trees. You can kind of see it.

The beach. The sand was really good sand. It was not rocky.

Across from us there were a ton of seals laying in the sun.

Doug and me and the resort.

My view when I looked up from my book.

My other view when I looked up from my book :)

After we got back Doug participated in the free throw shooting contest. He did really good, although he didn't win first place.

But he did win 2nd! And I thought this medal was much cooler than the plastic gold boat that the first place guys got.

Day at Sea

The next day was our Fun Day at Sea day. So we were on the ship all day as we sailed back to Long Beach. We walked around the boat and looked out at the ocean. We watched the Game of Love (like the newly wed game), took a 70s dance class. We also watched karaoke most of the nights on the boat.

Doug at karaoke. He liked karaoke because the NBA playoffs were being shown on TVs in there.

Long Beach
The next day we got off the ship in Long Beach and stayed in a really nice hotel there. After checking in we had pizza for lunch at Bostons' Gourmet Pizza (I think that's what it's called.) It was really good. I'd go back if I ever come across another one. Then we just walked around and went in some shops. Then we went back to the hotel and laid in the sun and swam a little on the hotel's pool on the roof. After eating dinner, and an incredibly good white chocolate lava cake from Chili's (seriously soooo good), we saw Ironman. The emergency alarms went off about 20 mintues before it ended so we had to all exit the building. After following a bunch of people out the emergency exit and back into the theater through the normal entrance we had to wait in for awhile before they let us it. But once we got into our theater the movie was already started and there were a ton of people back in there and our seats were gone so we had to steal other people's seats. I think we missed about 5 minutes. But it was a kind of important 5 minutes. Oh well, I think we'll survive without knowing what happened then :)

Doug at the pizza place.

Our kids did good without us, other than all of them being sick. Kenzie went to urgent care because she was wheezing and she got an inhaler to help it. She had bronculatitus (or something like that), which is bronchitis for babies and little kids. She was happy though all week. She stayed with Michelle. Jordan threw up once and Jack's tummy hurt. But they didn't mind being away from us too. Although they were all happy when we were together again and so were we:)

25

It was my birthday a few weeks ago. I turned 25. A quarter of a century. Yep, I'm getting old... It was a great birthday though. Doug worked from home so I woke up to 2/3 of my children already up and fed. And they held up signs that said Happy Birthday Mommy for me to see when I came down. I got to open my presents right after breakfast. My visiting teachers came over and visited for awhile. My sister Michelle and her kids spent the day with us. We played Just Dance a lot (our very fun new Wii game that my cousin recommended). Then we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner with my family. We ate a yummy dinner and a delicious dessert. Then after the kids were in bed Doug and I played Donkey Kong all night and stayed up too late.

Me with the kiddos.

Jordan is very excited by my new container that keeps my fruit and vegetables fresh.

This is what I cam downstairs to. Aren't they cute? When I came down Jordan wasn't cooperating though. He was trying to walk away. I thought it made it all cuter...

Jack and Kenzie.

Jack and Kenna wanted to help Doug frost the cake. Kenna helped first and she stuck out her tongue while she was doing it.

Next, Jack help. He also stuck out his tongue.

Doug finished up the frosting and he also stuck out his tongue. I guess that must be the best way to frost a cake :)

The kids loved licking the spatula.

Kenna's turn.

Jack helped me blow out the candles.

Random Stuff

It's been kind of awhile since I blogged. I have a lot of posts I'm planning on doing today to catch up on what we've been doing, but here's a random update of things not worthy of their own post. Mostly it will be pictures of the kids and husband, and stories of this kids and maybe husband.

Cute Kenzie. She can sit up now. She's almost 8 months old now and wishes she could crawl. She's been my only kids who hasn't been scooting by now. Both Jack and Jordan did by 6 or 7 months.

Doug with his kind of fro-y hair. It's not even as close to as bad as it once was, back in the days I call Pre-Stephanie. He had some crazy hair. Maybe someday I'll post pictures of it.

Jordan sharing his puzzle with Kenzie.

Kenzie looking adorable. As always.

Jordan's curly hair. Isn't it cute? I love it.

Jack and Jordan giving Mackenzie kisses.

Cute Jordan...

And another of cute Kenzie.

And so I remember them, here's some cute things they do (mostly of Jordan because at the everything-I-say-is-cute phase. And even if what he says doesn't seem the cute, how he says it is really cute)...

* Jordan says "Jackson Dance, no, no, no!" and "Jackson Dance, come here!
*In the car Jordan hates the windows down, even a little bit. He stares at the window and says "stop doing that" over and over and over again, until I roll up the windows.
*Jordan will repeat things over and over and over again, even after you respond to him. My sister Ashlee said that when she was watching him her husband was mowing the lawn and Jordan stood at the window the entire time he was out there and repeated "Konrad doing?"
*Jordan loves swimming lessons. He's not taking them. But he loves watching them. Ashlee took him to them when she watching him and Jack and he just sat there the whole time watching the kids and looking for his cousins. He still gets excited when I mention swimming lessons.
* This isn't a funny or cute thing, but it's important so I thought I would mention it. I'm going to try to potty train Jordan this week. I tried awhile ago and that didn't work out well, so we're going again. Hopefully he'll overcome his fear of the big potty soon. He used to not be afraid of it, but once he fell in so now he is.
*Jackson has picked out the clothes he's going to try to wear everyday this summer. He got them on his birthday on Thursday, wore them Friday, Saturday, and just put them on again. Thanks grandma Dance :) Hopefully, though, he'll realize that his other clothes are cute too.
*Jackson sang in Sacrament last week for Mother's Day with the primary. He was really cute up there. You could barely see his head above the wall-thing he was standing behind. He was singing and smiling and waved to us a couple times. And he told me the walk was really long on the way back and he didn't know where we were because it was so long.
*Jordan says super duper duper duper duper duper to describe things.
*In the car either Jackson and Jordan will ask me turn the music up sometimes then one of them will often say "It's too loud." So then I turn it down. Then sometimes the other one gets sad and wants me to turn it up again. Once Jordan asked me to turn it up and after I did he immediately said "It's too loud."
*Another non-funny, non-cute update: I'm doing a Zumba class every Monday afternoon at the church. The ladies who teach it are real Zumba teachers that are offering their time and talents to teach me and others. I really love Zumba. It's incredibly fun. Doug even comes home early every week so I can go without the kids. A few kids the first few weeks but since then there haven't been any.

Spring Fair

We went to the Spring Fair in Puyallup about a month ago with some of our friends. We saw animals, did crafts, ate lunch, enjoyed the nice weather, and just had fun.

Jordan with the chickens. He loved the fair and looking at animals. He still asks if we can go to the fair sometimes.

Mackenzie actually got to sit in the stroller and not in her car seat for the first time. I'm sure she was very excited.

We watched a dog show where the dogs jumped into a big pool. Jackson even got splashed a little bit. The kids loved it.

Jackson and Jordan got their face painted. Jordan got a dragon. He didn't like getting it done and tried to move away at the end.

Jackson got a horse.

Jordan and Jack with the tortoise.

Jack the Bug crawling through the bug tunnel.

Jordan the Bug. He didn't want to crawl through the tunnel.

Jack decorating his potato head. It was interesting how different he was this year than last year and the fair. This year he could do things much more on his own with only a little help from me whereas last year I had to help him with pretty much everything.

Jack with his finished potato head.

Jordan with his 4-eyed potato head.

Jack with his friend in front of a fountain.

Jack fell asleep on the way home. He must have had a fun day.