Photosynthesis

Oh the things that come out of Paiton's mouth.

Matt and I try hard to teach her things constantly. We try to be well educated and want the same for our kids. But it still cracks me up to hear some of these things come back out of her! 

On our car ride to school this morning: 

P: "Mom, do you know why the trees are here?"
Me: "Why?"
P: "For photosynthesis, to make oxygen." 

Me: "Very good P! That's exactly right!" 

P: "I know, my daddy taught me that yesterday on our way to school. Then we practiced saying 'photosynthesis.'" 

Me: "Well I'm very proud of you for remembering! That's very smart!"

P: (paused for a minute): "Are you going to put this story on the blog?" 

Me: "Haha! Probably, why?"
P: "Well, do you want a video of me saying 'photosynthesis' to upload with it?" 

Haha!! This girl just cracks me up, love her! :)

I had been thinking of changing her school days from Tues-Thurs to Mon-Wed. I told her teacher this and she said it was fine. This morning Matt said to me "Is Paiton going to school today?" and I told him no, that I had changed her days. Paiton got upset at the thought of not going to school and told me "But yesterday Miss Carolanne told me 'I'll see you tomorrow!', that means I have to go today so she can see me!"

Needless to say, she had a winning argument and I took her to school. ;) I told Miss Carolanne that story and she said "Well, she's right, I did say that! It's a good thing you brought her!" 

In Quinn news - he started calling Spencer "Abba" last night at my parents house! It was so cute. He's doing SO good at talking. He can mimic anything we say and is learning a new word daily. He will now point to the kitchen and say "apple!" and sign "please" if he wants apple juice! It's so cute to see him learning so much so quickly! Love this boy!!

Baby Gabe

There is a family I've been following on Facebook for awhile. To read the full story go here: https://www.facebook.com/HopeForGabesHeart

They are good friends and family of some of our close friends. They had a son who passed away last week. He would have turned 1 yesterday. He was diagnosed with heart problems in utero and had many open heart surgeries in his short life. He also had Downs Syndrome. He fought a tough battle and was in the hospital more than he was not. I can't imagine losing a child, and I don't want to. It broke a lot of people's hearts when he died. To top it off I know the family must have mounds and mounds of medical debt. They also have the cost of transferring his body from out of state, to back here to be buried. Though they have never mentioned the cost, we have some experience of medical bills, and I know it must be quite astounding. I felt compelled to help, so I set up a fundraiser for them. It's through my Scentsy business. I am donating 100% of my profits from everything sold to the family. I get 25% commission on everything and I will be giving it all to them in hopes it helps them a little bit.

If you can, please order through this link:
https://ashleylocke.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=100895134

I would really, really appreciate it. Although I don't know them in real life, I know the family will appreciate it as well. They are very kind and generous people. I have only seen posts about how thankful they are to have had almost a year with Gabe, instead of posts complaining. They don't need the added burden of medical bills from a child they no longer have.

Thanks.

Utah - Well That Was Interesting...

Last week we headed to Utah for Matt's tennis tournament.

Where to start...Well I guess at the beginning would be a good spot.

So that would be here:

This is one of the pictures we had to take for insurance when we were rear ended on our way out of town. I guess getting hit before even getting out of Boise should have been a sign. My bumper is all scratched up with an imprint of the lady's license plate and some holes poked in and the bumper is cracked. When the officer showed up and asked what happened her response was "Well I wasn't looking because I was trying to get something out of my purse." Only in Idaho can you say that and still NOT get a ticket for hitting someone, causing damage, and with their two kids in the car! 

After that we continued on our way! Quinn cried most of the 6 hours it took us to get to Salt Lake City. I think we must have the ONLY kids in the world that don't sleep in the car! By the time we got there it was about time for Matt to head to tennis practice. I took the kids to the pool to swim, and then we ordered the most expensive dinner of room service you can imagine. (Think $30 for cheese, crackers, chicken strips, and chocolate milk!) but it was totally fun and the kids thought it was pretty special. ;) Mom and Dad came down that night as well but the kids were asleep before they got in.

The next morning Matt had a tennis match before the kids were even awake, so Nana and Papa took us to breakfast at the cute little restaurant in the hotel. This is where Quinn went from sweet baby to complete and total terrorist. Osama Quinn Laden would be with us the rest of the weekend. He was throwing food, screaming, crying, refusing to eat, and trying to escape from his highchair. Mom, Dad, and I all took turns walking him around outside because he was way too out of control to be in the restaurant! 

After that we headed to Ikea - woohoo! We had lots of fun there, although Quinn continued with his screaming and very naughty behavior. We got some good stuff and then headed back to the hotel for more swimming. 

On the way back to the hotel Quinn stunk up the car so bad with a poopy diaper. Normally I wouldn't tell you this story, but it doesn't end there. We were talking about how bad he smelled when all of a sudden, from the back seat Paiton says, "Hey, what's that brown stuff that's all over Quinn? What's all over his fingers?" Mom and I just looked at each other and thought "Nooooo...." I said "Maybe he just threw up all over!" Mom very fearfully turned around and saw what we feared: Quinn was COVERED in poop.

There was nothing we could do until we got to the hotel. Once there we were scared to open the door and see how bad it was.

This picture does NOT do it justice. Like I told Matt, the only people who will truly ever know the horror of this is me, Paiton, my mom, and my dad! Poop was literally filling the carseat where he was sitting. It was terrible. We stood there for a good two solid minutes just staring at him trying to figure out what to do. We ended up taking the entire car seat out, using a whole package of wipes to try and clean him off enough to carry him inside, and then trying to keep him from putting his poop hands in his mouth (which he succeeded in doing a couple times.) Dad went and got us one of the towels from their room, I wrapped Quinn up in it, poop and all, and then I took him into our room and threw him in the bath. Mom took the carseat to her room, tore it apart, and started cleaning it. That's about the time Matt got back to the hotel. We couldn't drive anywhere now because Quinn's carseat was soaking wet after being washed, so we had to do things that didn't require driving, which was fine by us!

We swam and swam in the pool until we were hungry, then we decided to take the tram/trolley thing down to the mall. 

Paiton loved riding on the train! We got some food at the food court at the mall, where Quinn was still crying/screaming/not eating, and acting like a crazy baby in general. He hijacked my milkshake, which was the only thing that kept him quiet for a full 2 minutes.

After that we walked around the mall for a bit, then headed back to the hotel to swim some more. We bought Quinn some floaties in the hotel gift shop - he doesn't want to be in his float tube anymore, he wants to be out swimming, and we thought this might cheer him up. Well, it didn't, more screaming ensued and we took turns holding him in the pool trying to keep him happy. 

Then it was bed time for all! Quinn had a very rough night and spent the night in bed with me crying and laying on my chest while Paiton had a slumber party with Nana and Papa. He was really hot throughout the night, but I didn't take a thermometer so I couldn't check his temp.

Matt the rockstar managed to get Quinn to fall asleep in bed with him! 

Quinn is so NOT a snuggler, so this was a huge feat!

Saturday morning we went to Matt's tennis match:

The park it was at was really, really cool. It had a big aviary that you could walk through, lots of toys, tons of tennis courts, etc. There was also a little Diabetes Walk going on so we walked through some of the tents after Matt's match.

 Paiton got to do one of her all time favorite things and ride a pony! She named it Blackberry. :)

 During the match Paiton was collecting tons of rocks and these walnut shells. She would smash the walnut shells with the giant rocks caveman style. :)

  Quinn loved piling up these wood pieces at the park!

 Paiton on "Blackberry"

 There was also a cute little petting zoo there!

 Baby llamas!

 Then we headed back to the hotel for more swimming while Matt went to another match. This was one of the pools - it was half inside the building and half outside! If you swam under this little bridge you'd be outside! Paiton is right under there swimming towards Papa:

During swimming Quinn was still very fussy and just NOT happy. Dad ordered us room service to be delivered to the pool - which was DELICIOUS, yum! He ate the best he had all weekend, but still wasn't acting like himself. After so many days and nights of this I thought I better just bite the bullet and get his ears checked. Papa watched Paiton while Mom and I drove around trying to find a Primary Health - easier said than done! We finally found one and the really nice doctor checked Quinn's ears. He said one looked a little red, but not infected enough to be treated, but that his throat was pretty raw looking and was probably hurting him. Basically we just needed to power through! I knew he was exhausted, he hadn't had a single nap since we'd been there and hadn't been sleeping well at all at night, and he really loves his sleep, so not having it throws him off!

 That night we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. I LOVE Souplantation so was happy they had a Sweet Tomatoes! Quinn was more of his super fussy self so my dad spent most of dinner walking Quinn around so I could eat. He got Quinn his own special plate of cool foods for his throat!

 That night Matt took Quinn to bed and tried to calm him down while Paiton and I went to play games with Nana! 

Sunday morning Matt had his last match at 8 am. He won! Dad got up early and took Matt and went to watch - Matt was happy to have a supporter and cheerleader! Mom and I stayed back and got the kids up, packed, etc., so we could leave after tennis. 

We got in the car and hit up In N Out on our way home - of course!!

Both kids love it!

 Paiton and Papa in their hats!

 Quinn's ketchup face!

 Paiton went a little crazy with her stickers! (It's so funny that at 3 1/2 and not having an In N Out anywhere near us, she still knows what it is! And when Matt asked her what she wanted she said "cheeseburger, french fries, chocolate milkshake, and a hat, please!" Haha!) 

 She even decorated her carseat with In N Out stickers!

 We attempted to stop by Tai Pan on our way home, which Mom and I were SO excited for, but it was closed! Stupid Sundays in Utah! Gr! :( So we just headed home instead! Cami invited us over for a dinner she had made, so I didn't even have to worry about making dinner! Woohoo!! 

The World's biggest THANKS to my parents for going on the trip with us! I seriously have NO idea how I would have survived that trip without them!! They were a huge help, and although they probably will never want to go on "vacation" with us again, we really, really enjoyed having them! Sorry it wasn't relaxing at all!! :/ 

Now, here are a few pictures from before our trip!

(Ok this first one is actually from after)

 Quinn playing with their awesome new easel - chalkboard on one side, whiteboard on the other!

Think Quinn knows what cameras are? Haha! He was taking pictures with Paiton's camera. He loves to pretend anything is a camera and hold it up to his face to take your picture!

 Hahaha!! Elton Quinn!

 One of our typical early morning park trips!

 Paiton and Quinn got haircuts before our trip! Angie took a couple of inches off of Paitons hair!

 After:

 I was holding Quinn during his so I don't have any before or after pictures of his hair, but it looks so cute now! He did NOT enjoy his haircut this time! Last time he was perfectly happy during it. This time he was just bawling! He was crying so hard he couldn't even eat his sucker she gave him! :( Anytime she came near him with the scissors he'd yell "Oww! Oww Mama!" Hahaha! The older man sitting next to us had a good laugh!

In other Quinn news: he has added three new words to his vocabulary since we went to Utah - "apple" - which he usually says when he sees apple juice or wants apple juice, "bird", and "Papa" - which he just said for the first time last night, and made his Papa VERY happy!

Back To School

My good friend Liz contacted me a couple weeks ago. She had a photoshoot idea, as her oldest started Kindergarten this year. She had an old desk and wanted pictures taken of Auni with it. I found a location and snagged some pictures of my own kids as well! :)

Here they are!!

Quinn was less than thrilled that I made him wear shoes!

There is no cuter boy!

I love these curls! (He had a haircut this same day! :))

And these eyelashes!

This is the outfit Paiton picked out for her first day of school this year :) She wanted to wear it for pictures!

Agh she's just so cute!!

And Quinn practiced his standing! This is so big for him! He did great!! This was the first time he had been able to stand holding just on to someone's (Matt's) hands!

Auni, Paiton, and Shelby walking to feed the ducks.

Love these girls!