March Insta catch up

So it's about time for another photo dump! ha ha
I think what my new plan will be is that at the end of each month I just do one big photo dump.  We'll see how that works and if I can keep up with that!

One of our many visits to the zoo!  We love that Grandpa Steve gives us an annual pass for Christmas and we try to go as often as possible.  The kiddos never seem bored by it even though it's the same thing over and over again.  I just like that we get out of the house and walk around for a bit!  The $1.50 refills on our zoo cups as a special treat isn't too shabby either.  ;) 

Little brother turned 1 year old this month!!  Look how teeny tiny he was!!

And of course had to still do our photo shoot with him at home.  I LOVE that bottom corner picture and you can almost see his little dimples forming!

Took the girls to see Marbella my hair stylist.  She was seriously the BEST with them.  They got a special drink, a wash/trim, and she styled their hair and added sparkles.  The girls LOVED it and ask to go back.  I really want to teach them that ONLY Marbella cuts our hair so that hopefully we don't have any other scissor incident again.  ;) She was so kind and only charged me $16 for both!!  The last time I took Natalia in for a trim at a walk in place the guy charged me $12 and she didn't get the special wash/style/drink etc.  So worth it! 

March brought us to our spring track break for Natalia.  Our first day home we took it easy and had a pajama day.  My grandma usually comes Monday mornings to watch Lydia/Quinton so that I can go volunteer at Natalias class.  So I had her come even though Natalia was home and she gave me a cooking lesson.  ;)  My favorite thing that she makes is called Chimole and you serve it with steak and rice.  So I wanted her to teach me how to make the chimole and then what she uses to marinate the steak.  It was so very tasty!!!  Next up is to learn how to make papusas!

We had a bond election for the school districts to get more money, and it finally passed!!  I took all three with  me to go vote, and the girls got lots of compliments on how well they behaved! I actually laughed and said I was shocked, but thanked them.  They each got stickers and we had to take pictures with them of course.

Every other Wednesday we do dinner with my dad and we take turns (my brother and I) with hosting.  This was our dinner at their house and the girls were watching Oliver playing on his DS.  What got me was how Lydia snuggled right in with Natalia to watch and Natalia had her arm around her.  It was seriously the sweetest sister moment and I was almost in tears over it.  They bicker and fight like crazy, but these little sweet unintentional moments mean the world to me. 

Natalia got her report card for second trimester.  We are so so proud of her!!  Not only did she bring up her score in her math/number section where she struggled last trimester, she got ABOVE grave average for her arts and cpal classes! (cpal is keyboarding and one of her additional music classes they offer at school)  I wanted Pioneer for the year round schedule, and it was a bonus that it was an arts and music school.  It's a good thing it's where she is because this school is a perfect fit for her and it shows already in her grades.  We've worked really hard here at home and it just made it all worth it to see her report card.  As a reward we bought her the Big Hero 6 blu-ray that she'd been wanting.  

This one wasn't on instagram, but it's blog worthy! The girls had their first cousin sleep over at their cousin Cypress's house.  They'd only ever stayed with Grandma before, so it was kind of a big deal.  They had so much fun, stayed up way too late, and didn't stop talking about it for days after.  We also went to Jumptime the following day to play for a bit, I just don't have any pictures from there.  I need to bug Steph for them. 

Charlie had to go back to Boston... wah wah.  Thankfully this is the trip that was supposed to happen a week after he got home from the last trip and they postponed it.  And also thankfully as HARD as it was again, I think I was more mentally prepared for it this time and we did much better here at home.  I was still oh so exhausted, sad, frustrated, and just done by the time he got back... but we managed a lot better and we kept soo soo busy the whole week.  The night before he left we went on a family date to Togos for delicious sandwiches and then went to Uswirl for frozen yogurt. 

Technically this could be part of Quintons birthday post, but I'll leave it with the instagram pics.  Cheryl has given each of our kiddos their own personalized piggie bank for their first birthdays.  Quinton's came late, so she brought it over when she came to hang out with me while Charlie was gone.  Now our set is complete!  SO STINKING CUTE!

So my sister/brother in-law found this amazing doll house at Goodwill. They didn't need it but text me a picture of it to see if maybe we'd want it.  I said heck yes, and then hid it in the garage waiting for an opportunity to use it.  It was right before Valentines and I had already finished their gifts.  So there it sat... then I had the idea to have Charlie do a treasure hunt
(when he left for Boston) for the girls and this could be their prize.  They LOVED it.  We ran around following the clues and then ended up in the toy room where the doll house was hidden.  They seriously played with it non-stop for two days.  Which worked out perfectly since daddy was gone and mommy needed help in the keeping-them-busy department.  

When Charlie goes out of town it's all about meal prep and food prep.  One of our ideas was to make our own pizzas at home.  I rolled out the crust and it kept tearing, so then we had the idea to cut shapes out of it using our cookie cutters.  It was a huge hit! The girls had fun making them and they actually ate them too.  Steph, John, and Cypress came over and made pizza too and hung out for a while so the girls got to play.  It was a super fun night.  I love that they are wearing their Elsa and Anna dresses here.  

One of my projects for this track break was to go through the girls' closets and clean/organize.  I took everything that wasn't 5/6 out of Natalia's closet and everything that wasn't 3/4 out of Lydia's.  Got summer clothes hung up and then started sorting through everything that was left.  I was seriously in tears while I separated what I wanted to keep for sentimental purposes and what should just be sold/donated.  I also went through all my bins in the garage and did the same thing.  Granted I did a huge purge when I first found out Quinton was a boy  and managed to get rid of a lot of stuff, but I still had a lot left too.  I took everything I had (about 6 middle size bins and 4 big bins) down to just two big bins and one small one with some shoes.  I know I should get rid of more, but that's the best I can do right now ha ha ha. I then sorted what I had taken out into age groups and posted on Facebook I was selling it all for $1 a piece.  I've had quite a few friends come by and get some stuff but still have TONS left.  I'll take it to KidsAgain here soon to see if they will buy any of it but thought I'd try this way out first.  (I still have tons of 12/18/24/month and 2T stuff left if anyone out there wants to come over.)  Next is to work on Quinton's closet! 

A fun project we worked on while daddy was gone.  I had him help me cut out tissue paper ahead of time because I managed to give myself tennis elbow the weekend of Q's birthday and so my arm hurt and my tendinitis was acting up.  But we got it all cut up and then the girls got to make these fun things! 

Like I said on Instagram, as overboard as I go for holidays, St. Patricks day is just not one of them.  Usually we wear green and that's the extent of it.  I actually almost forgot until Natalia reminded me.  So our idea for dinner that night was just to make pancakes, and I thought hey I've got green food dye, why not?  ha ha ha.  I always pour my batter into an old cleaned out ketchup bottle to help me squirt it onto the skillet (that's how we get awesome mickey and heart shaped pancakes) so I was able to attempt to make shamrocks, which turned out looking more like trees.  Oh well, they tasted yummy as usual! 

I was dying to go see the new Cinderella movie and really wanted to take the girls.  I didn't know how they would do but Steph convinced me that we can do it.  My grandma was sick with the flu and couldn't watch Quinton so he had to come with us.   They all did amazing and the movie was awesome.  Quinton stared at the screen at first almost in shock since it was so huge.  Then he got a little squirmy.  Before he could get loud I went and stood with him in the aisle and rocked him.  once my arms got tired I put him in the Ergo where he fell asleep!  Out of fear that he would wake if I sat, I just stood the whole rest of the movie rocking him.  I still got to enjoy the movie and he slept so it was win win in my book.  Natalia starred at the movie in awe the whole time.  Lydia got bored towards the end I think and wouldn't sit in her seat.  But otherwise I think it was a huge success.  It was only $5 each since we went on a Tuesday which was another big bonus! 

After the movie the girls wanted to play and Steph had a meeting so we took Cypress home with us.  They had their princess tea party and I cut up snacks super small to serve with it.  

A rare occasion, i got all three to not only look at the camera but smile!!  We almost always do baths at night before bed, but when I'm alone and it's track break, mornings baths are pretty common just for fun. 

I promised the girls that while daddy was gone we would do a slumber party in the toy room and watch movies.  I had yet to see Big Hero 6, so we put Quinton to bed and then set up the toy room.  Natalia's mattress fit perfectly in between the sectional so that's where the girls slept and I just slept on the couch.  They were pretty squirmy at first and wouldn't lay still or be quiet... so I really didn't' get to enjoy the first part of the movie ha ha.  Then all the sudden Natalia fell asleep sideways.  Lydia was still squirming and inched her way to the top of the mattress, at first she was bugging her sister and I told her to let her sleep.  Then she rolled over and passed out, in this most uncomfortable looking position.  ha ha ha.  I covered Lydia up and finished the movie myself.  I woke up with Quinton around 2am and they had both moved to their original spots and then when I got up with him around 7am they were both wedged into a corner with Natalia all snuggled up on Lydia.  It was pretty cute. 

We of course had a zoo day too.  Loving our spring weather! 

Charlie got home after midnight on Friday night, I tried to stay up but ended up falling asleep.  The next day he took care of kiddos so I could run off and get a pedicure and enjoy an hour to myself after a long week of taking care of everyone but myself.  It was a great to get a little bit of time to myself!

Getting our gear gathered to go camping, I wanted to see how Quinton would respond to being in the hiking backpack.  Last time I stuck him in it he was still teeny and could barely hold up his head.  Now he's huge!  He seemed to like it, especially when Daddy was the one carrying him around.  He sure was happy to have Daddy home again!

While we were on our track break and Crystal and the boys were on Spring break we made sure to take advantage and hang out.  There's this awesome little park over by her mother in law's house that's quiet and secluded, so it's usually empty.  It was awesome and so fun to be able to hang out again.  We got these fun pictures of the boys the day before Cade turned one.  The bottom one was when I went to go see Crystal in the hospital after Cade was born and Quinton was three weeks old.  Such a fun fast year! 

I've had bad vision since like the fifth grade probably, I wore glasses for a lot of the sixth grade on, but usually just in school because I hated wearing them full time.  In high school I became super self conscious (hello low self esteem) and really tried to avoid wearing them at all costs, even if I had to sit in the front row to see the board.  Anyway, I finally got contacts and have worn them since.  I wear the night and days and only take them out about once a week to two weeks to rest my eyes.  I really should take them out more often but hated my glasses.  The frames were too small for my face and the prescription was really old.  So I found a site that for the same cost as ordering through the doctors office the would send me a bunch of pairs in the mail to try on at home.  The very first pair I tired on was these and they were the winners.  I'm kind of hoping that I'll feel a little less self conscious in them and wear them more often.  We shall see!

Camping at the sand dunes with the Craycrofts, Grandma Dinorah and Papa.  I'm hopefully going to actually blog about this one.  ;)    

Check out how dirty her face got within just a few minutes! 

Once we got back from camping Quinton didn't feel so great.  He ended up puking a lot that afternoon and it was no bueno.  He was however super snuggly and ended up falling asleep on my while we watched TV.  I do love that.  ;) 

Natalia has seriously been counting down the days until we could go see the movie Home.  She saw a preview for it and was sold just from the little alien saying something about his hands in the air.  So my mom took Quinton for us and we invited along Charlie's family.  Cute movie, the girls loved it and it was fun watching them watch it.  

 

Charlie turned 34!  We had taco night with the family here at home because that's all he wanted!  We did get to go out to eat the two of us on Wednesday after his birthday while my mom watched kiddos.  Man are we getting old! 

We had Cypress over for the evening so the girls got to take a bath together, they did pj's stories and songs together too.  They are so fun and cute together!

Wooooo.... and there goes our March!  Holy cow did this month fly by!!  We were talking on our way up to camping how busy the next few months are going to be.  Meaning we've got stuff booked through July now.  We bought tickets to go to Texas in July and I'm super excited to take the kids to see Grandpa and Grandma Hodges at least once more.  April brings, a baby shower, Mr. Alpha Chi, Jocelyn's birthday and more.  May brings my mom's family coming to town and doing a mini reunion for my grandma's bday, my bday/mothers day, my Vegas trip, Charlie's Vegas trip.  June we've got Natalia's bday, father's day, school ending.  In July not only are we going to Texas, but we are going to the Oregon Coast for the 4th.  We rented out a house with Charlie's family and it's going to be so fun!  Seriously we are going to be so busy.  So anyway, I think I'll be able to better keep up with my photo dumps if I do them at the end of each month and then just try to keep blogging about the big stuff.