The Happiest Place On Earth

Oh sweet Disneyland. 

We can not WAIT to come visit. 

Paiton has been begging, begging (but in the cutest way) to go to Disneyland and meet and hug all the princesses. ALL of them. For her fourth birthday in the fall, we will be going. And we are ecstatic.

I have been there several times and am still sooo excited to go. I haven't been in years, though. Everyone who went with us the last time, when I was in....high school, I believe?....will remember the sugar packet that Uncle Derek and I hid back and forth through our whole trip, until the end when he had Tibido, leader of the Mardi Gras parade, deliver it to me while he marched through Disneyland with his band. I still to this day don't have a clue how he made that happen. My best was shoving it in a roll at lunch and making sure he got that one. :)

Anyway, I can't wait to have new memories of my little family (and then some!) at the happiest place on Earth. I hope Paiton loves all the princesses in real life, is able to go on some rides, and that it is the trip she is  hoping it will be! 

Can't wait.

Update!!

{I wrote this post a few weeks ago and forgot to post it! Whoops!}


QUINN 
Quinn's "magical therapy" is going really well. 

He's still army crawling and we need him to progress to a hands and knees crawl, which he will eventually. Right now they're working on building his stomach muscles so he can - that's what's keeping him from being able to. Our living room looks like an obstacle course most days. We're supposed to keep blankets, pillows, and stuff on the floors for him to have to climb and crawl over to get places to help him learn to do that and build muscle. He isn't pulling to a stand either, but both Matt and my mom have seen him pull himself up onto his knees. That alone is huge for him!! We're supposed to be teaching him to crawl the stairs (ironic that we'll teach him to and then put a gate up so he can't!) but that motion is REALLY hard for him and he hates it and screams and cries the whole time. :(

I found out during our last PT session that Low Muscle Tone affects all the muscles of the body. The Physical Therapist said that this is why he's had such a huge problem with constipation since he was born. We've struggled with this since he was a few months old and stopped the mustard newborn poops! We've had to do enemas, medicines, etc., and he has to drink prune juice daily. Weird to know it's related! 

Because hypotonia affects all the muscles of the body, most kids with it will end up getting speech therapy to build the muscles of their mouths and assist with their speech. We discussed this as well at his last appointment. On Thursday, when he had PT, the words in his vocabulary consisted of Mama, Dada, Uh Oh, and the newest one - Dog (Dah). She said that if in a few weeks he didn't get about 3-4 new words he'd probably need a speech evaluation - which she expected more than not. 

Since Thursday he has added quite a variety of words to his list!!! First added was dog, "Dah", as I mentioned before. We were at the park one night and he heard a dog bark and said "Dah!" and started pointing and looking around. Now he'll say "dah!" to the dogs out the sliding glass door at home. He also howls like our dogs do and says "Ah-ooooo!" It's so cute, I need to post the video. He also makes monkey noises when we say "Be a monkey!" He goes "Ooh ooh ahh ahh!" :) 

On Friday morning he started trying to say "truck" - we have road construction going on right behind our house and a favorite past time for the kids is to watch the trucks. While Matt fed him breakfast he heard him trying to say truck and making the "T" sound. Friday afternoon at my mom's he started saying "Iss" and pointing to things. We finally realized that we think he's trying to say "this" and pointing to what he wants, probably because we'll say "Oh you want this?" and give him things. Saturday while my mom babysat him he said "Titi" in regards to my sister (Titi is what Cami and I are called by Cadon and Ryan, and what Paiton calls Cami.) And of course on Sunday he added "Ash" to his vocabulary as well! Apparently he's just been holding it all in! We notice him trying to make so many new sounds, it's so fun to hear what comes out of his deep little voice next!

Quinn is so different from Paiton - they are night and day. It's so funny and crazy. It's hard to compare him to Paiton because she's just been such a little genius from birth. Quinn is a mastermind at getting into things. Paiton was (and still isn't) adventurous or into things. Quinn is constantly getting into cabinets, pulling all the DVD's out, getting himself stuck in places he can't get out of, and causing chaos. :) It's so different from when P was a baby. Sunday was spent with Matt putting cabinet locks on every cabinet in the kitchen, and putting these magnetic locks on the entertainment center that you have to use a key to open to keep Quinn out of the DVD's. I must pick up all of our DVD's at least 6 times a day. Time outs don't phase this kid, but I'm trying to stay strong and keep doing them anyway. I know he'll get the hang of it and we don't want a monster child like we see all too often out and about! He still loves to throw his food and his cups full of liquid all over the kitchen. Not sure when that game will stop being fun but definitely looking forward to that day! He's still just a silly boy, very ticklish, very sweet and loving. Will often pat my back, rub my face, and give me kisses. LOVES his sister to pieces. LOVES his tennis racquet to pieces - it's still his favorite toy. He likes books too. He's a speedy little man with his army crawl and into EVERYTHING.
He is still a fantastic sleeper. He takes two good naps a day. All the books and research shows that they need two naps a day until at least 15 months and so far he's right on track that way. He's still sleeping at least 12 hours straight at night. The only ONLY downside to having him so well sleep trained is that he doesn't like to snuggle when he's tired unless he's not feeling well or gets scared. He much prefers to be put in his bed in the dark with his sound machine and his monkey and left alone!
He is a FISH in the water. He splashes, dunks his head, and basically spends the time trying to get you to let him free in the water. He LOVES Roaring Springs and will point to where he wants you to take him. He loves all of it. He also still LOVES food and is a good eater. He's still pretty rolly which I love!

PAITON 
Paiton is just Paiton! She is missing dance and school this summer, but excited to start both up in the fall again. She is just a smarty pants and is constantly dancing, singing, and making up stories. I wish I could be constantly video taping her and the things she says. She's too smart and has waaay too big a vocabulary. She has an amazing imagination. She is still so itty bitty and petite, just perfect. She loves to go to Roaring Springs and swimming, she's a fish too!
She's still just hilarious as all get out, she's SO funny and SO smart. I don't have too much more to update on her since she is out of the changing-ever-day-phase! :)

Here's some random pictures from the last few weeks from my phone.
Three of my favorite little people!

Silly Paiton wearing Daddy's glasses.

Water park time with the cousins!

All 4 kids shared an Icee!

Park time! This was when Quinn first said "dog".

Baby shadow!

Quinn really wanted to follow Paiton and climb through this tunnel. I let him...begrudgingly since I can only imagine how many dirty and disgusting kids have left their dirty and disgusting germs in it! Bleh!

My princess!

We took these 6 hooligans to the theaters one day. Twice a week the theaters show $1 kids movies. We saw Happy Feet Two, one of Paiton's favorites! All the kids were sooooo good and had so much fun! Quinn spent a good portion of the movie sitting on Cadon's lap, he loves Cadon so much, he kept kissing him on the face during the movie!

The kids all wanted a picture under the giant spider!

Paiton and Quinn sharing a peach at Titi's first tennis match!

"Ash!"

I'm a little amused and a little horrified today. 

This morning as I was cleaning the kitchen and Quinn was eating breakfast I kind of, in the back of my head, heard him yelling something, but didn't think it was direct AT me. When I realized he was yelling something AT me, and what it was, I about died laughing. Lately he hasn't really been saying "Mama" much. He much prefers Dada. Well this morning, my sweet little one year old boy was screaming at me and calling me "Ash!" It was one of the most hilarious things ever. I had to run upstairs and get Matt. He'd scream "Ash!" and point to his blueberries, or "Ash! Iss! (this)" and point to his milk. Matt couldn't believe it either! SO funny! 

It was even funnier when we drove through Dutch this morning on our way to run errands. They put whipped cream on his straw on accident (usually only Paiton gets that) and when I handed it to him he let out this semi-panicked "Ash!?" like he didn't know what to do!! Haha, it was really funny!!

Although it does crack us up, I do wish he'd go back to calling me Mama!!

Special Day

Paiton got to have SUCH a special day yesterday. 

First, like usual, her, Quinn, and I headed to Roaring Springs with Nana and Papa, and Carissa, Cadon, and Ryan. After a few hours of fun there we came home so Quinn could take a nap. While he napped Paiton and I headed out for a girls date to get mani/pedi's! It was SO fun and Paiton was in awe the whole time! 

She got her very own massage chair! She liked to go "ahhhhh" while it massaged her back because it sounded funny!

 Getting her manicure

 Pedicure time!

 Our toes! Didn't get a picture of her fingers - but they are hot pink with lime green polka dots. :) She had a lot of fun picking out the colors!!

 Last week our friends Jake and Kassy had invited us to go see Brave with them! After our nails were done we went and got Daddy and Quinn. We dropped Quinn off with Nana and Papa and we took Grandpa's Mustang (top down of course) to dinner at Chili's and to see Brave! We ate yummy food and of course Paiton had to get the kids pack at the movies! She very patiently sat with her box of popcorn on her lap waiting for the movie and said "I'm saving my popcorn until the movie starts!" When we got back to Nana's house she told her "I saved my popcorn for the movie to start....well, maybe I ate one piece before." Haha! 

{Sidenote: Brave was ok. Pretty cute, Paiton liked it a lot. Definitely not one of Matt and I's favorite Disney/Pixar movies. There were very few funny parts, and the movie as a whole was just eh. I think Jake and Kassy felt the same way. But all that matters is that Paiton liked it! Oh and I will say, the Short in front of it was really cute!!}

 After awhile she got tired of "all the wind". 

 I was trying to get Paiton in the picture, but failed. But I do love the sky in the mirror :)

 Back home after our SUPER fun day!!!

One day Quinn will be big enough to enjoy special time with just Mommy and Daddy!!

Half a Decade!

This might be a long post - but remember - I'm printing my blog into books for us and our kids to be able to go back through in the future. :)

Matt and I celebrated our FIVE year anniversary on Saturday, June 23. 

I can't believe it's been that long since we had our (mostly) dream wedding. 

That day was so fun (besides the Plague that struck the week before, week of, day of, and week after our wedding. Sigh.). We had a blast though - 

Earlier in that week Matt and I rented a white 300 limo and took some of our good friends and family out for a night on the town - SUCH a blast!!

The day before our wedding was Matt's birthday, our rehearsal, and our rehearsal dinner with our ENTIRE families at The Milky Way downtown. We are still so sad that this restaurant closed because it was one of our favorites. We ate delicious food, delicious cake, drank too much wine, and hung out with our best friends and our extended families and had a blast. 

The day of our wedding my cousin and Maid of Honor, Amy, and I headed out bright and early and did all the normal wedding things with my wedding party - drank Mimosas, got our hair and make up done, and set up things for the wedding! 

Just some fun little facts about our wedding - 

-It took place on the roof of the CW Moore Plaza. It was a beautiful location over looking downtown Boise. It's urban, hip, and awesome - just like us. ;)  

-Kanak Attack catered and we still track them down at Art in the Park every year to eat their food! DELISH! 

-Takes the Cake made our cake - and we still find several reasons every year to have her do cakes for us! :) Our flavors were mint chocolate chip, Oreo, and lemon poppy seed with raspberry filling. 

-The bridal party walked down the aisle to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Hawaiin version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, I walked down to the instrumental version of You are Beautiful by James Blunt. Our first dance was to  and Matt took my garter off to Pour Some Sugar On Me. :) 

-We danced and danced and danced the night away and had SO much fun. 

-We spent our wedding night at the Anniversary Inn. The next day we went to my parents house and opened all our gifts with our families! The day after that we headed to Riviera Maya, Mexico for the absolute, most amazingly perfect honeymoon ever where we relaxed, swam with dolphins, got tans, ate way too much food, and drank just as many delicious drinks! 

Rewind 9 years ago...

.........

Matt and I met in the Albertson's in Caldwell near my college. He was there with his friend and I was there with mine. We didn't know each other, but I knew his friend (Andrew) and we decided to all hang out later that night. From then on we were mostly inseparable. Matt "wooed" me for a few months - he would come over to my apartment, hang out, etc. We had Trashy Date Night Tuesdays where we'd eat fast food and watch trashy reality TV. Too fun. We officially started dating on December 19, 2003. We moved in together 6 months later and the rest is history. :) He proposed on December 17, 2005. We were married on June 23, 2007. 

In our time together we've lived with his parents, in two apartments in the North End, owned a house, and rented two other houses. We have added two dogs and two babies to the family. We now have 3 nephews and a niece. Matt will have watched every one of my siblings graduate high school when Cami graduates next year and has watched them all grow up. I was at his sisters wedding 8 years ago. His family was at my college graduation, and mine at his. We've been through jobs, friends, and so many changes together. It's kind of crazy to type it out and wonder what I would have done through all of that without him. I'm glad to have him to share all those memories with and there's no one I'd rather it be. We still joke about our first Christmas together when a very young Spencer spied on us and caught us kissing goodbye. :)

I tried finding pictures from the night we met, and I can see the box they're in, but it would be a nightmare to get it out! So just trust that we were cute, and YOUNG.

Thanks Matt, for a fun, crazy, unpredictable, and zany 5 married years, and here's to 50 more. 

I freaking love us. 

Some of my favorite pictures from our wedding:

 This is our fish dance - Matt catches me, and is clearly very proud of it.

 I have always loved this picture, but right now can't get over how much Cadon looks like Quinn here!

 Knew my Daddy would be a ball of emotion during the Father/Daughter dance - so as soon as What A Wonderful World ended, Baby Got Back blasted and we got down! 

 It's a good thing we found each other - not many people are quite as amazing at dancing as we are. Don't be too jealous. We know we're fabulous. ;)

 Mom and Dad dancing to Usher's "Yeah" - my mom's favorite song at the time!

 Still one of my favorite pictures - Jake (who married us), Matt, and Andrew - such good friends since their teenage years.

THEN: 

NOW: 

Again - my twist tie ring, promise ring, engagement ring, and family ring :)

We had a really fun anniversary this year!

Saturday morning we packed up the kids and headed to the Farmers Market for the first time this year. (We're slackers!)

We ate lunch at Brick Oven with our two favorite people - P and Q!

 On our way back to trying to track down the car we passed CW Moore - where we got married! Someone else will be sharing our anniversary as a wedding was all set up up there!

 After naps, etc., we took the kids to Nana and Papa's and headed out on our date night! 

We went to dinner at Murphy's which was SO good. We hadn't been there since before I was pregnant with Paiton, and it was just as delicious as we remembered! Then we really wanted to go see Rock of Ages but it was only playing at 6 and 10 pm! :( So instead we went to Pinz and had a drink and then played around at Boondocks! 

 As were leaving dinner Matt got these pictures from Papa on his phone:

The kids were having fun and eating whipped cream! 

At Boondocks We played a game that we've been playing together for years because it's just so cheesy and fun (and childishly easy - which is what I need, and yet I still manage to die first!)

 Then we did batting cages! It was so fun, I LOVE batting cages!

 My left handed husband can switch hit!! Such a stud!

                               

Then it was time for mini golf!! Let's just say I lost. By a lot.

 Fireball at the end! We both missed this shot, so I had to take a picture of the kid in front of us making it go off, haha!

Thanks for a super fun anniversary Matt, and thanks for watching the kids so we could go out Mom and Dad (and thanks for letting P have a slumber party!) Thanks to everyone for the anniversary wishes, cards, and presents! We feel so loved!! It's so nice to hear family members remember our special day, and so many friends comment on facebook to wish a happy anniversary and just say nice things! It's such a good reminder of who our good and true friends are that care about us and our family! :)