That one week...

Oh the first week of April...Such a fun/stressful/exhausting week. Luckily Easter is later in the month this year otherwise I might have had a nervous breakdown.

We celebrated Tanner's birthday early with the Daugherty's on Saturday so Levi could be there. I made Hawaiian Haystacks and Strawberry Shortcake.

 Conducting everyone for his birthday song. 

Our Eight year anniversary was on the first. I began the morning telling our children that my zookeeper friend asked if we could keep a baby elephant in our backyard for a little while. I immediately regretted it when I saw the excitement on their faces. Mariah was practically squealing. I tried to let them down gently by telling them that they would have to clean up a lot of elephant poop but it didn't phase them one bit. After I told them it was all a trick and explained April Fools to them Chet asked, "But do you really have a friend that is a zookeeper?". I don't know whether he was more disappointed about the elephant not being real or the fact that I don't have a zookeeper friend. Honesty is the best policy friends.

The next day was Tanner's actual birthday and we got to go on the first date that we have been on in over a year. It was glorious! I am so grateful for my sweet Young Woman Jordan who was willing to come watch all four of my kids. We went to a little Japanese restaurant for Ramen and Sushi and then went to a cafe and got Gelato. The day before, the boys and I had picked out fancy cheeses for Tanner's birthday so after we got home and put the kids to bed we tried out our cheese. Thats as close as we're going to get to traveling the world right now.

You can see how excited I am about that Gelato...and it totally met my expectations. 

Mariah and Chet gave Tanner birthday cards and they are so adorable. 

 Tanner had everyone fill out brackets for March Madness so Mariah's picture showed Tanner winning the tournament. 

 Tanner was a jockey and a soccer player in Chet's drawing.

Chet apparently thinks Tanner's hands are massive.

Leading up to her Birthday Mariah kept talking about how excited she was to see the house all decorated first thing in the morning. So I stayed up way too late but her happy face made up for the lack of sleep.

Chet made this popsicle stick unicorn and girl for Mariah. He was super excited to show her that the legs could move. 

Mariah was super excited about having a Spa Party with friends. She decided that it needed to be an all girls party and made sure to let some of her boy friends know that she was so sorry but she wasn't having any boys at her party...bless her heart. We decided to not have anyone bring gifts but Mariah still wanted to give them gifts. Chet and Austin stayed downstairs during the spa part of the party and watched a movie but made me promise to come and get them before we ate the pigs in a blanket, cake and ice cream; because food is everything to those two.

I gave the girls hand treatments and then some of the girls did face masks and relaxed for a while, maybe sixty seconds. After their masks were washed off they painted nails, put streaks and glitter in their hair and put on some makeup. Then they all dressed up in princess dresses and danced around the house. 

 These girls were way more excited about the yogurt face masks and cucumbers than I thought they would be. 

 Party girls

Mariah requested a spa cake and when I looked up ideas on Pinterest I almost had a panic attack and had to close out of there fast before Mariah had her heart set on some complicated cake. But she had her own idea of what she wanted and was super happy with how it turned out.

After Tanner got home from work she opened her presents. She got a bunch of books, some more clothes for her doll Chelsea and a pretty nightgown.

That night we got pizza and wings and watched the new Mary Poppins. I love celebrating my children on their birthdays; their joy and excitement makes me so happy. 

We finished off the crazy week with General Conference and Mariah's dance recital. Mariah and I spent the whole day at the theater where she got to perform her dance in two performances. Her little hair piece fell out the first performance but she handled it like a champ and kept dancing. She was so excited to wear her costume and get to wear makeup. We are sad to leave Artistry House. 

 Once she got that costume on, she was twirling all over the place. She could barely handle herself when she stood in front of the bathroom mirror waiting for a stall. She definitely doesn't have self esteem issues. 

 The kiss was completely her idea

Who knew Don Knotts was such a little guy? He was born in Morgantown, WV; now you know. 

That morning before conference Tanner took the boys to a gun show and then picked Eliza up at the theater and they all went home and then came back a few hours later to watch Mariah's second performance. She couldn't wait to show the boys her costume and Chet couldn't wait to show her the gun lock he got at the gun show and tell her about the fun snacks they had during the first session of conference. It was pretty cute. 

On Sunday we went to the Daughertys to have crepes and waffles and watch the morning session and went on a walk at the Botanical gardens and then went home and finished the afternoon session. Thank goodness we can listen to the talks later. It was just what my soul needed. 

Mariah is 7

Seven years! I'm so grateful for this sweet girl and the joy that she brings to us. It's crazy how I can still see that little baby in her even as she grows. Here's her interview:

Mom: What is your favorite color?

Mariah: Blue and white

Mom: What is your favorite food?
Mariah: Pizza (while we rarely have meltdowns about food anymore, if Mariah were able to pick her food it would mainly be pizza, mac and cheese, and hotdogs)

Mom: What is your favorite animal?
Mariah: Horse (She now pretends to be a horse and it takes me back whenever I watch her. The tossing of the "mane", pawing her "hoofs". It's me as a child all over again.)

Mom: What is your favorite book?
Mariah: The Black Stallion. For now thats my favorite book, but the Hobbit might be my favorite. (A few weeks later while reading the Chronicles of Narnia series again, she let us know that those are actually her favorite books. She has read all the books at least twice now. There are days where I have to tell Mariah that it's time to get up and do something else besides reading.)

Mariah really wanted to go to the library one day and when I told her we couldn't she said, "But new books are my life!" 

Mom: What is your favorite movie?
Mariah: The Swan Princess 

Mom: What is your favorite song?

Mariah: Thunder, Hello, This Girl is on Fire (Mariah loves any song "with a beat". I love watching her belt out songs. She also creates her own original lyrics and those are my favorites.)

Mom: Who is your scripture hero
Mariah: Esther because I like how she is brave

Mom: What is your favorite dessert?
Mariah: Ice Cream

Mom: What do you like to do for fun? 
Mariah: Read, play outside, make up songs (Mariah loves to create scenarios on paper. She makes creatures and their homes and the process takes way longer than the actual playing.)

 

Here she is decorating for a spa day. She had so many cute pictures for hair, makeup, and nails.

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Mariah: Snuggle

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Mariah: Wrestle

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Chet?
Mariah: Play monkeys

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Austin?
Mariah: Pretend he is my baby

These kids play hard all day and for the most part, get along so well.

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Eliza? 
Mariah: Hold her

Mom: Who is your best friend?
Mariah: Savannah (This is a girl who moved into the ward a while ago. Mariah has made it her duty to take her to primary every Sunday. As soon as the prayer is over, she jumps up, grabs her hand and off they go.)

Mom: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Mariah: A Rodeo Queen/singer/scientist 

Mariah is girly, as long as it is comfortable. She never wants me to fix her hair and she usually is in sweat pants and a t shirt. But she loves wearing makeup and pretending that she is a princess. Although one day she was telling me how much she loved playing outside and said, "I'm so glad I don't live in a castle. What would I do? Just stare at jewels all day? That's boring." 

Here she is with her doll Chelsea after a makeover session. 

Mariah is such a wonderful little girl (I'm not biased in the least). She is a light to so many people. She loves to leave notes in our neighbors mailboxes and the cute elderly lady across the street has written her notes back and even put her pictures up in their window. She will talk to anyone and wants to be everyone's friend. She is still happiest when she is giving gifts to others. She is a wonderful big sister and tries her best to keep her siblings (and her mom) happy. I don't know what we would do without this girl. 

Life Lately

Looking through the blog I realized that the last four posts have been about Eliza. More things have happened in the past four months than Eliza growing, although that has probably been the most exciting thing.

Because we homeschool I decided that we should throw a Valentines day party with our other homeschool friends. We decorated cookies and then the kids ran around and had fun. 

 This is where we found Austin and Alice later...

 Jen and Ally are some of my dearest friends. I'm so grateful for these women! 

One of Tanner's friends from high school invited us up to Pittsburgh for dinner. Several of his friends were there and it was fun for him to reconnect. 

We celebrated the 100th day of school. The kids got 100 fun snacks and later they got animal faces because they didn't think getting their faces painted like an old person sounded very exciting. Or maybe they are just extremely politically correct and wouldn't want to be promoting ageism.

One week our Co-op had a book club for the book Poppy. We had themed snacks and Tanner helped me make a porcupine cheese ball. And then they dissected owl pellets; Mariah and Chet loved it. On the way home Chet told me "I still want to be a cowboy but instead of a jet flyer I want to be a mouse bones scientist when I grow up." May he always dream that big...Later a woman from a bird society came with an owl and falcon and taught the kids about birds. 

When we had dinner with Tanner's friend MJ she had told me that we could come up to the Natural History Museum and she could get us in with her pass. That was one of the museums that I wanted to go to so I had to take her up on the offer. 

 I asked Austin if he wanted to be in this picture and he declined. Chet wore his fossils shirt specifically for this museum. 

I told Chet to sit on the shell and pretend like he was riding a turtle and he excitedly replied, "No, how about I get under the shell and be the turtle!"  

Mariah decided she wanted to see the jewelry exhibit and we had to walk through the Geology exhibit to get there. It totally brought me back to my Fourth Grade self when I had a rock collection. There were so many amazing and beautiful rocks there. Just another testament to me that God is an artist. The rocks were way cooler than the jewelry. 

 The bone digging was their favorite place in the museum. At the end I told them they could go to one more place and they decided that they wanted to dig for bones again. 

 At the end of the day we went to the art museum. A few weeks ago we watched an episode of Mr. Rogers where he goes to the museum and they show this painting. All the security guards looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them where that painting was. I was probably the most excited when we found it but it really was breathtaking! 

 I had to take a picture of this painting as well because that boy is Tanner's doppleganger. Tanner refuses to admit that he posed for a painting over one hundred years ago, but I know the truth...

Also, is it appropriate to take pictures of paintings in art galleries? I'm pretty uncultured so if anyone knows please fill me in. Even if it is, I probably would have still taken these two pictures. It was important. I love the culture that comes with living in a big city, but I hate traffic and love the mountains and nature. So we take day trips to culture ourselves. 

Once Tanner's back was starting to feel better we took a trip to Columbus to go to the temple. I went on Friday night while Tanner stayed at the hotel with the kids. It would be the longest Eliza had gone without nursing. Tanner took them all swimming and as I drove back from the temple I envisioned a screaming baby and wired kids with a frazzled husband on the side. But I walked in to all kids asleep with Tanner relaxing on the bed. He had bathed them all and they were so exhausted they fell asleep with no trouble. That was the best night we have ever had in a hotel with children. 

Tanner went to the temple first thing in the morning while the kids and I hit up the pool again. Once Tanner got back we went to the zoo. The kids got to touch some sea stars and a snake and we had a lot of fun watching the Gorillas and Bonobos. It started out pretty chilly but by the end of the day I looked like a homeless lady with jackets all over me. 

Our Co-op group met at Chestnut Ridge for a pond study. As we got ready to leave for the co-op, my kids asked if they could wear swimming suits. It was about 40 degrees so I laughed and said it was way too cold for that. But once they started catching salamanders I realized swimming suits wouldn't have been a bad idea.

 By the end Mariah's bottom half was drenched. She probably caught at least a dozen salamanders. 

 I knew it was time to go when Austin fell all the way in the pond. My oldest three rode home in their underwear and we cranked up the heat. 

We lost count of the salamanders that they caught. Chet "forgot" to wear pants but in the end he was the driest of them all.