Mr. Krabs turns 6!

This is Will's usual routine every morning:
Wake-up
Eat breakfast
Watch Cartoons for a bit
Ask for his "money bag"
Play with his money, stack his money, look at his money, count his money
Ask every question you can think of about his money
After an hour, put his money back in his money bag.

Will. Loves. Money. He's like Mr. Krabs (from Spongebob). Except, he doesn't love it because he can buy stuff. He has quite a stash of money and he doesn't want to spend any of it. He wants to just keep saving it so he can have more and more. He knows the value of every coin and dollar bill, and he can add and count his money better than Sam and Millie. It's totally crazy!

2 months ago, Will says to me, "Mom, I want to have a money birthday party. I want to have a money cake, I want to play money games, and I want everyone to give me money for my birthday. At my party we can give my friends little bags with some pennies in them!"

I wasn't too sure about that, but then I decided that I should go along with what he wants. We had his birthday party on St. Patrick's Day. I played-up the whole money theme to go along with gold and money being "green."

We had 14 little leprecauns come to Will's party! First we ate all green food.

We played games to earn "money." We whacked a rainbow pinata filled with money. We threw darts at green balloons that held papers saying how much money we won. We found a hidden pot of gold (chocolate coins). We guessed how much money was in a jar filled with coins.

Then the boys went shopping at our "store" and used their hard earned cash to buy a prize! (It's amazing how much kids love toys from the dollar store). They were so happy! They even had a stash of extra dollar bills and coins to take home in their "gold" bags.

Then of course we opened presents and ate birthday cake. His friends gave him some cool stuff - some were fun toys and some were cash! He got $40.00 total from some of his friends. Check out this awesome money tree:


For his cake, I did green cupcakes topped with rainbows made out of "Airheads" candy and a chocolate coin.




This party was way crazy with 14 little monsters at our house, but well worth the effort! Will said it was the best party he's ever been to :)

Weekend Away

2 weekends ago we spent the weekend at the cabin with some friends. The kids were out of school on Friday, so our original plan was to head up to Island Park. But, we decided that it was too far to drive for 2 1/2 days, among other reasons. I love that whenever we want to get away, we can drive 1 hour to the cabin and suddenly we are in vacation mode.

Friday night after dinner we all went skiing at a tiny ski resort up Ogden Canyon called Wolf Creek or something (formerly Nordic Valley). They have cheap night skiing and good hills/jumps for the kids. The kids had a great time skiing with their friends (Addison, Tristan, and Jack). My poor friend Allison had to sit in the tiny A-frame lodge holding her baby for 2 hours while the rest of us skied, but she is a trooper.

Then we drove to the cabin and sacked out. Saturday we had a yummy brunch then took the snowmobiles out. We made some sack lunches, and Jack and Will wanted to write who's name the sandwich belonged to on the baggie. When it came time to write Sam's name, Will did not know what to do because he had already written Sam's name on a different baggie (because it was Sambo's). Soon he yelled out, "I know, I'll write B.S." We laughed and thought that was a perfect name for him...B.S. for Big Sam. I think I'll call him that when I have both Sams in the room :)
Since the snow was almost gone, we drove 10 min to the bottom of Big Mountain road which is closed in the winter and not plowed. We pulled the kids on the sleds all of the way up the mtn. trail. They had a blast! At the top we had a picnic in the snow and we talked about how this is where the Mormon pioneers first had a glimpse of the Salt Lake Valley. By the time we reached the top, Quincy had fallen asleep so she had a nice little nap on the sled!

Allison, who is from California, did great driving a snowmobile for the first time. The rest of the day was spent fishing in the fish pond (each kid caught a HUGE trout) , target shooting with BB guns, sledding in the field, eating, and playing games. Uncle Shad joined us for the fun too!

I was horrible at taking pictures, hardly pulled out my camera. Another super fun weekend at the cabin with some great new friends.

Clarks at the Cabin and a Jazz Game

I just barely realized that I never posted about this weekend at the cabin with the Clarks. We went in January (on Uncle Adam's birthday to be exact).

Uncle Sean came home from his mission right before Christmas. His mission Homecoming was in January so all of Sam's siblings were in town for the weekend. I planned a little get-together at the cabin and it was awesome because everybody could come (except Adam who had foot surgery)!

We spent all day doing the usual cabin activities...snowmobiling, eating, playing, fishing, shooting, napping, a bonfire, relaxing, and eating.

We also celebrated the January birthdays: Sean, Millie, and Sambo. Quincy too because she is the only February birthday in this huge family.

We're lucky to have such a great family - It was so fun being all together and I hope we can all go up again soon.

Hotch Potch on TV

Hotch Potch was on TV {again}
Heidi and I were invited to be on Channel 5 last Friday. We were on a segment of Studio 5 showing some of our baby stuff. We have had an awesome response, lots of orders! It was way fun and we felt way stupid :) See it here.
We kept laughing at ourselves before the show because we were trying to act normal but the producers kept saying "don't look at the cameras" and we felt awkward not knowing where to look. Good times. Check out the blog www.hotchpotchgirls.blogspot.com. I really need to get it updated with pictures of all the stuff we've been doing lately.

Quincess Cuteness

She's my little sidekick and she LOVES playing hide and seek in the house. I hide, she counts to 12 then yells "Marco" and I say "Polo" until she finds me. Then vice versa. Today, she discovered hiding in the dryer. But my favorite hiding place she has is when she climbs completely inside my empty pillowcase and lays on my bed. It's so cute when I say "Marco" and I hear her little voice coming from her hiding spot saying "Polo!"

Sunny St. George

2 weeks ago we took a nice trip to St. George for President's Day weekend. We almost didn't come home. It's no secret that we LOVE that place and it seems like this time every year, we contemplate moving there (not like we would).
The weather was soooo nice with 65 degree temps and sunny, while it was super foggy and freezing here. Oh how we welcomed the warm sunshine and being outside! We're not turning into Snowbirds, we just wish it would either dump some major snow or else get warm and springy.

We left Friday after the kids' Valentine's parties at school.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were stoked to find out that the outside pool was heated and ready to go. We stayed up late watching the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Vancouver.
Saturday morning Sam went on a bike ride while I took the kids swimming. Then we grabbed some Cafe Rio and had a picnic at our favorite water park. Of course, we had to grab a yummy from Judd's mercantile store. Millie loves to get old fashioned candy while the boys love to get these weird soda drinks in glass bottles with a marble inside.
We spent all afternoon soaking in the sun at the park and on the "Dixie rocks" which is our new favorite thing to do there. We might be the last ones in Utah to know about this place, but I cannot believe we have never taken our kids there before, especially when we go to St. George so much!
It is this huge red-rock playground with lava tubes, narrows, arches, tunnels, caves, and climbing rocks. It only takes 2 minutes to get there. Wow is all I can say. We started out with Quin in the backpack, but even she could handle all of the running and climbing "by myself" as she always says. Everything is "I do it myself" these days with her.
Anyway, after that Sam took the kids swimming while I spent some time at the Parade of Homes. It was nice to have some alone time and admire the incredible new homes with the latest and greatest. Then I snuck in a little shopping where I found darling flip flops and swim suits to give the kids for Valentine's Day.
We ended the near perfect day with dinner at The Brick Oven (new). We used to go there all of the time when we lived in Provo and we are so happy to have one there now too. Again, we ended the day with the olympics - we are addicted.

Sunday morning we woke up to discover that Cupid had come!
We spent some time at Snow Canyon. We hooked-up with my Uncle Denny and Aunt Marcia, along with my cousins and their kids. They took us on a cool hike called Johnson's Arch or something. Afterward we were treated to a festive and fantastic dinner at their place, complete with chocolate hearts and chocolate dipped strawberries. So yummy. Then again, the olympics. Thanks guys!

Monday Sam worked then I took a nice bike ride to Hurricane and back. I had to dust off the cobwebs for sure. Then we met up with our friends, the Banks family (they were headed home from Califoronia). We took the kids to see "The Lightning Thief." Millie and Brayden had read the book so they were anxious to see it. It was a great show, but they said the book was better. At that point, the plan was to get on the road to drive home, but our kids were begging us to take our friends back to the Dixie rocks. So we did. We decided there was no rush in getting home and back to the crummy weather. Once again they had a great time. After that we headed for home.

It's always nice to be back home, but it took great will power not to stay longer. Sam had more work to do there but we had to get the kids back to school. Darn.

But I also realize I only have a little while left to get in some good ski days before it warms up here.

Three!

It's official. Our baby girl is 3. Such a roller coaster of emotions. At this age, she couldn't get any funner; but, today I wish I could go back to the moment when my nurse handed her to me after her first bath at the hospital. Then I could live the last 3 years over again. I'll be honest - After having 4 babies in 7 yrs, it's a little hard to accept that there will be no more babies in our home. I.Love.Babies.
But we are so happy with our 2 girls and 2 boys and it's perfect for us. Quinny is the perfect ending. When I had her I knew this would be our last kid so I have really tried to take-in and enjoy as many moments as I can with her. I could go on and on about this little girl. I'm still in denial and I might cry if I keep thinking about it. Not only because she is growing up - but also because this is a giant milestone for me. I'm no longer a mother of toddlers and babies. The phase where you have 3 car seats, double strollers, a huge diaper bag packed with the whole house, and really defined biceps from carrying 2 children at once (infant car seat in one, 2 year old in the other).
Heaven knows there were some hard days during that phase. Exhausting. But I loved it. And I will miss it.
BUT, I am also loving this next phase we are transitioning into. The kid's homework, activities, and such keep us busy. Being the youngest child, Quin spends lots of time in the car, has learned to be patient, and is good at "going with the flow." There are times when indeed she is the "spoiled baby" of the family, getting so much attention and most things she wants. But with that, also comes the opposite. Because she is the 4th, I spend far less time making sure she looks all done up just right every day, I haven't taken video of her nearly as much as I did the 1st and 2nd, and I found myself completely unprepared for her 3rd birthday.
I had a little meltdown on her birthday, feeling guilty that I hadn't planned a big themed birthday party with her friends and family. I felt guilty I hadn't baked and decorated a fabulous cake. And I felt guilty I hadn't even bought her a present yet. This was not the case with the other 3 kids. I was feeling so insufficient.
I had intentions of doing all of these things, but it came down to these 2 things:
1) I need more time. Period. And unforeseen events occurred Friday that I couldn't control.
2) I finally realize that she is only 2 (well 3) and that she really doesn't care if she has a party, what kind of cake she has, and that she won't even remember!
But still. I care. I enjoy doing these things for my kids and I felt bad.
So we did the best we could scramble together at the last minute and it turned out just great.

Friday was a crazy day so in the evening we rushed out the door and drove up to Ogden (Sambo had a TNT comp. early the next morning in Roy so we decided to sleep at Grandma Cindy's). We let the kids choose where we ate dinner. They chose a Greek Restaurant. It tasted yummy, but I couldn't help myself from thinking, "It's Quinny's big day, and here we are at some random restaurant and she doesn't even have her hair done."
I know it's so dumb to even think those things.
Afterward we went to Toys R Us and let Quincy pick-out her present. She found a cute little 4-wheeler and a Zhu Zhu pet hamster named Nugget. Then we went to Grandma's where she was prepared with balloons and decorations! Aunt Heidi was there with a birthday treat ready! She made one of our faves, a "P'zookie" which is a huge doughy cookie with ice cream, caramel, and hot fudge. We stuck some candles in and Voila, we had a birthday cake!
I wrapped her presents, and it turned out to be a great party. Even Grandpa Tom who just had knee surgery enjoyed it.
The next day, after Sambo's competition, we took the kids to "Surf N Swim" in Layton for one last bit of birthday fun. That place was as fun as I remember from my childhood. The kids loved the huge waves and Quincy loved having her very own tube.
Things worked out great after all!

Here she is ready for church in her Hotch Potch cupcake skirt which is perfect for birthdays:This is how she shows that she's 3. She has to hold her thumb and pointer finger together with her other hand :)