Life lately.

Eliza learned to do this... over and over and over again.

This cute little face is about to graduate Kindergarten.

We spend almost every afternoon, here. Although it's never as peaceful as this picture makes it seems.

This is a better idea of what it's like.

And I love Pilates. Am I spelling that right? Anyway I take a class 2x a week at the Y, and I really love it. It's challenging, but relaxing, and I feel so good afterwards. I'm also training for my first half marathon in October! Bring it 30, I'm ready for you.

And that's about it. Not much going on.  Next week is Kindergarten and preschool graduation. T-Ball awards ceremony. Children's choir recital... Getting ready to take a vacation to CA in a couple of weeks. Then in July is the Opie Family Reunion. And then in August we are heading to NJ? Possibly? Most likely?

Cute baby 4 months old.

I love this baby so much!!

Really what's not to love? She lights up every time she sees me, she sleeps all night, and is just everything you could ever want in a baby. We all love her so much, and she makes me want a million more!.... Quite the difference from two months ago!

Life is so good right now. Not much to write about when things are going so well, huh? Aaron works a lot, but we play a lot too. Tonight my big girls are sleeping in a tent they made in the living room. Things like that make me happy.

Nathan is a funny little guy. Tonight I asked him, "What's your favorite color?" And he said, "Uhm... dinner?" And I cracked up. He also says "4" if you ask him what his name is. He thinks he's four years old. Oh and the cutest thing ever... he wanted me to paint his nails with my new Jamberry stuff. I told him no it was just for Mommy.. and he stood up and stretched as tall as he could and said, "See Mommy! Bigger now! I'm bigger now." As in, he's bigger now so I can do his nails. I'm laughing as I type this. The cuteness just kills me.

Olivia was the ringmaster of her KinderCircus. She did a great job and was so confident and adorable.

Abigail is loving preschool and we will be so sad when it's over.

And that's about all we've been up to lately.

Mexico 2014

Little Liza hanging out.. she liked her cousin's toy.

But mostly she liked napping on the beach.

And can ya blame her? Cool ocean breeze, the calming sound of crashing waves, and a cuddly towel... She was so awesome the entire trip. 

The best part of going to Mexico is having a private beach. It's beautiful and no one around to have to share it with just adds so much to the experience!

I took this picture because I think it looks like a music note. This was just a random assortment of shells and seaweed and whatever... crazy, huh?

A sailboat. Just thought it was pretty.

Nathan wasn't so sure about the water. He liked it, but was scared at the same time. The first day the water was very calm and he really liked that. The second day the waves were a little bigger and noisier and he was happy just to watch.

Olivia saved my headband and sunglasses while I was doing flips in the ocean.

This girl spent every minute she could floating around in that tube, or collecting sea creatures.

I found a starfish!! My entire life of spending summers at the beach and I have never found anything other than ordinary shells... This trip I found a starfish... or as my husband would correct me, a sea star. It was really cool. It was alive and everything... until we accidentally killed it by keeping it in this bucket for hours. 

Here is it, dead. Poor sea star.

We also found a living octopus! It was so cool.... but we also killed that too. Apparently sea creatures don't do so well in buckets for long periods of time. Ooops.

 I was SO glad I got this non-alcoholic Pina Colada... It was delicious!! And served in a pineapple. 

It was an amazing relaxing weekend. So much fun and so rejuvenating. And at least when our car wouldn't start right before we left, all we needed was a jump. And at least when we got stopped at the scary military check point in Mexico they only made me and Aaron get out of the car, and let our kids stay in and then let us go without any trouble. And at least when we accidentally cut some people in line and they decided they needed to call the police on us, the police let us "pay them" in cash instead of whatever else could have happened. And at least the border patrol agent just gave us a warning for not having all the documentation for our dumb dog, even if she didn't do it very nicely it could have been worse.

So yes our drive home was quite eventful, but overall worth it for the amazing time we had on the beach!

Lots of pictures!

Poor sleepy baby... I don't think I even want to talk about the nightmare that was this day!

Take 50 million pictures in an attempt to get one good one, on Mother's Day.

They were much happier than they look in this picture.

"Mom, I'm pretty sure that sign says not to touch it." Oops. My six year old is better at following directions than I am!

We've been kind of halfheartedly potty training this kid for months, and decided it was time to kick into high gear. After three days with no accidents, this is him admiring his reward.

Front yard picnics.

Working on decorating Eliza's room.

Our front room is coming along

Aaron made that bench and I painted it!

And this picture is very random... but I'm pretty sure that field is the reason for my sudden allergies! #yumaproblems

Murphy's Laws of Parenting

If you brag, or even really utter the words to anyone, that your baby is sleeping through the night, the next few nights will be a living hell, waking every two hours.

Same goes for potty training. Once you start telling people your kid is potty trained, prepare yourself for a crap fest, because the kid who never pooped in their pants ever will start, right then.

Your baby who always takes short naps, will decide to take nice beautiful long naps at the most inconvenient times. For example, you make an appointment at 3:00, because your baby is always awake by 3... guaranteed he/she'll be sound asleep that day and you'll have to wake him/her up to make it to your appointment on time.

The cutest outfits, the ones you spent the most money on, or treasure the most for whatever reason, will end up covered in poo. Somehow they sense these things.

The moment you close your eyes and kid yourself that you will get to take a nap today, your baby will cry. Even if they just fell asleep 10 minutes ago!

If all the kids are playing nicely and quietly, and the phone rings, do not answer it. It will completely end all sense of peace, the moment you try to have an adult conversation.

I have more, just can't think of them now. I'll have to add a part two one of these days.

Carpe'd the heck out of that Diem

So as soon as I saw the weather report for Saturday I immediately began making plans for an epic day of outside adventure. It gets so unbearably hot here in Yuma, and a Saturday in the 70's in April was like a gift. And I wanted to make sure we made the most of it.

So I planned a hike around the Painted Desert Trail. It's about an hour away and it's an "easy" one mile hike. I don't know if those ratings take into consideration a mom, alone with a 6, 4, 2 year old and a newborn... but I wanted to try it. So we start trying to get ready at like 8:30 in the morning. Finally have everything packed, and ready to go.... and I can't find my phone. I use the "Where's my cell phone" website and I can hear it vibrating, and I'm certain it's in the couch. I literally tear apart our sectional trying to find it. I am basically in tears because we were all so excited, but I just don't feel comfortable going without my phone. 

At 10:30... so two hours later.... we decide to go to a park instead. And we had a fantastic time. We found a little trail to explore, and it lead to the Colorado River and a little beach, so we had fun throwing rocks into the water, and climbing up piles of sand, and collecting sticks. I really wish I had remembered my camera, because there were some fantastic photo opportunities. One cute moment was Abigail and Nathan running off to climb up hills and explore, and they kept holding hands. Just standing behind them, holding my baby and watching these two little kids holding hands running ahead of me makes my heart swell. 

Then we came home and cleaned up a bit, took very short naps, and then it was back outside. We played in our backyard and made a fire in the fire pit. We roasted hot dogs for dinner and marshmallows for dessert. I don't recommend making a fire by yourself when your only assistants are under the age of 7. I almost had a heart attack several times, and I'm sure the neighbors heard my screaming and were slightly concerned. But it was fun and worth it for the memories.

Then we got cleaned up, put on a movie and the babysitter came over right around the time Aaron got home. We left for our date, to celebrate our 9 year engagement anniversary. I can't believe all that craziness was 9 years ago! We were babies, and it's really a miracle we love each other as much as we do. I hope that doesn't insult my husband, but seriously there was no way I could have known after 4 weeks how perfect he was for me. But it was right :) 

And that was how we carpe'd the heck out of that Diem. Now to get ready for the heat, because I'm pretty sure it's here to stay until next year.