Peyton's 4th Birthday

 Peyton began planning her birthday in her mind a good 6 months before her birthday arrived.  She bragged to her friends of the many princesses that would be in attendance and gave strict dress code instructions as to how her guests hair and makeup should look with their beautiful ball gowns. We many or may not have convinced her that a cupcake party would just be the funnest thing ever...

 When the time came all she really cared about was the magic of a party just for her.  With all of her friends in their matching chefs hats with their matching aprons they decorated cookies, played games, had cupcakes to eat and laughed and played like the silly little girls they are.

 All but one of the 10 girls on her invite list were able to attend the party and Peyton was on cloud nine. She was spoiled with many gifts and smiles from her friends. Lucky little one. 

Beginning of Summer

 On the last day of school (way back in May) our neighborhood moms had gotten together and had a first day of summer party waiting for the kids when school let out. With water weenies, train rides, a dunk tank, face painting, and treats these kids were very spoiled. We have wonderful neighbors that we are surrounded by and feel very privileged to have the influences of them on our children and for the friendships that we all share.  It was the perfect way to begin summer!

Family Vacation

 Between Facebook and Instagram I can get a bit of anxiety when I see everyone taking fun family vacations repeatedly throughout the year. I get extra jealous when I see the many Disneyland trips people take.  We used to go to Disneyland quite frequently but decided a few years ago that if we cut down on our smaller vacations and saved up for bigger ones that we could do some more extravagant vacations with the family. We have our vacation jar that we put money in all year to save up to take one big vacations and since we went on a Disney Cruise last year we were saving up to take the kids to the Disney resort in Hawaii this December. Then, Disney released a price on a Caribbean cruise that we really couldn't pass up.  The cruise sailed out of Galveston, Texas and we considered driving to save on airfare.  We put the trip in to the GPS and it said it would be 26 hours.  That didn't include potty stops, or eating, or rest for the weary drivers for that matter so we opted to fly. We had enough sky miles to send Bailey with the Edwards family who was flying on Delta so she took a separate flight than we did and go to fly directly out of St. George.  Mat and I drove the boys and Peyton to Las Vegas and met them in Galveston the morning of the cruise.  What we didn't tell the kids was that the transportation that we had waiting for them at the airport was a stretched SUV Limousine.  They've done their share of walking on vacation to avoid the cost of transportation and they've riden on their fair share of suspect buses when we've been out of the country so they easily believed us when we said we had an hour drive to the cruise port and they'd be sitting by chickens. They were certainly pumped for our trip when they saw the limo parked outside for us.  

 It was surprisingly chilly in Galveston and I was quite worried we'd be freezing the entire trip since I only brought shorts. It was the week of Halloween and it was still fairly warm In Santa Clara so I figured it would be HOT in Galveston.  What I didn't realize until a few days in to the cruise when I turned on the tv in our room and watched the news was that New York was hit by a hurricane and was flooding and a mess. Here we were just thinking...hmmmm...it's a little bit choppy water but not bad. 

 When we ported in Grand Cayman (our first stop) the weather was heavenly.  The water was choppy which made for a trickier time snorkeling but every other port was calm and WARM! 

 In Grand Cayman we rode out to swim with the stingrays. I realized my kids get their timidness from their momma.  I'm not a huge fan of fish to say the least and made it into the water but once the stingrays swam towards me I decided I just needed to cling to the ladder by the boat. Not the best example for timid children.  Bailey did swim quite a bit with them and kissed the stingrays for good luck. 

 We stopped in Costa Maya and Cozumel as well on the trip.  In Costa Maya we went to a private resort and the kids got their fill of swimming, kayaking, and finding conch shells.  I spent most of the time there getting a massage on the beach.  Not a bad day.

 In Cozumel we shopped for half of the day and spent the other half at another private resort.  THe resort had water trampolines and slides galore. As well as a large swimming pool that was perfect for the little girls. The kids said that was their favorite part of the trip. The boys were amazed at how clear the water was every where.  This was their first time to the Caribbean and they were loving it.

 Halloween fell midweek of our trip so the boys filled their sacks before breakfast trick or treating to the different shops on board and I don't think the girls even ventured out in their costumes other than to dinner. Still fun to get to spend another holiday on a cruise ship.

 Of course the staff of the cruise ship was AMAZING and my kids were overjoyed with all of the things the ship provides.  Peyton once again loved the kids club.  Bailey spent a little more time hanging around mom and dad which I have to admit was pretty nice.  We weren't nearly as crazy as we were on the last cruise. We had one other family with us and since we'd already experienced much of the Disney cruise magic we spent more time relaxing, playing shuffle board, and just enjoying our vacation for the year. 

I will admit, I'm ready to take my kids back to Disneyland and I really hope it will be soon. However, next trip will only include Mat and I.

My Latest Addiction

 Ok, so it's really two addictions in one. I'm certainly no photographer yet I love taking pictures. I have become an instagram fan and have in truth been using it as a journal of what we've been up to. (Clearly more than blogging.)  One very expensive addiction I have is clothes for Peyton.  I've always liked dressing my kids up cute.  Bailey is old enough that she has her own style now so I don't get as much influence there and the boys, well, they're boys. There's really only so much you can do to style them. Adding to that they really only like "sporty" clothes as it is so even if I try to style them up a bit they only wear their sporty items.

Peyton on the other hand ADORES getting dressed up and there is just a CRAZY amount of darling girl clothes on the market right now. Her closet and dresser may or may not be bursting at the seams... 

With instagram I have our family account but I thought it would be fun to document what Peyton wears  everyday.  Ok, so I don't post a pic everyday because who wants to see two outfits twice right?  I post probably once a week pictures of my baby girl on her "peytonspockets" account and I rarely struggle with getting her to pose.  Most of the time I'm trying to tone down her animated posing.

I adore this baby girl.

It's been a while...

 Apparently it's been since EASTER that I posted! I think my amount of posting is indicative towards what type of year 2012 has been.  Let's just say, I'm ready to kick it to the curb and never look back!

 With every struggle this year that we've faced we are still continually blessed. We have been blessed with four amazing children who are the light in both Mat and my lives. 

Christmas was bittersweet this year. It was difficult to get into the spirit of Christmas with the sour attitude I've had lately.  Lucky for me I have my kids to remind me of all of the little wonderful things around us. We LOVE Christmas and the season of giving.  No matter how old the kids get, they still want Christmas stories read, gingerbread houses, looking at lights, and every bit of Christmas spirit they can find.  

I wanted my kids to have an amazing Christmas this year and I admittedly spoiled them. They were very sweet opening their Santa gifts and kept saying "thank you" to us and then saying "oh yeah, Santa".  Perhaps the boys don't believe in Santa anymore but they certainly won't come out and say it so they play along and we play along as if we don't know that they know. 

Easter 2012

 Easter 2012 has come and gone. With it is the boy's belief in the Easter bunny and letting me dress them up for egg hunting pics.  Thankfully I still have one little girl who thinks the Easter bunny is pretty amazing for bringing her candy and is all to happy to let me dress her up in any bright, frilly outfit I choose.

 We of course went to our ward Easter hunt.  Bailey was at cheer tryouts and the boys wouldn't stop from being boys for long enough for me to take a picture but we sure had fun watching Peyton get after those eggs. The boys commented that she should no longer receive a head start in our backyard egg hunt because she was just as fast as they are now.

 We made our way to the Vernon Worthern egg hunt as well.  Every year we wonder why we such to get  down there by 10:00 for 3 eggs.  I suppose tradition keeps us going.

 This was the first year Bailey was to old for any public egg hunts but I believe she had just as fun watching the little kids as we do.

 That old Easter bunny did in fact litter our backyard with eggs and toys and since my kids decided that they needed to get up at 6:00am to find their hidden baskets and hunt I opted to stay in bed while Mat played cameraman.

 In retrospect I've decided it's ok that Peyton had many Easter outfits as well as a fancy new dress for church. By the time we pulled into the driveway from church the boys were stripped down to their undies and Bailey was headed up the stairs faster than I could get to her. So I got a few lonely shots of Peyton on her Easter Sunday dress while the kids I imagine ate salsa or something. It's quite sad for me to have one last believer...

Zion

 Thankfully our family has been blessed with plenty of work for Mat over the years.  It does hinder family time here and there. Of course sometimes we can benefit by tagging along on jobs.  Mat remodeled his mom's kitchen this past spring and he used a day of delivering a few items as an excuse to take the kids hiking in Zion. Zion happens to be one of my favorite places and sadly we haven't been in years.  I was far too excited to see what the kids thought and I should had remembered that they were kids.  Not just any kids even.  Kids who have zip lined through canyons and parasailed over the ocean.  They thought Zion was cool, that was about it.

 We hiked quickly up to weeping rock and they weren't impressed. Really? A crying rock? How could they not think it was cool??? We gained some interest on a hike to see court of the patriarchs only to hear halfway into it "what day is it?" Seriously, we were walking for about 20 minutes.

All I can say is they better get used to it! The Holt's have a year pass for 2012 and I plan on taking full advantage of it!

2012 Cheer Season

 Bailey's cheer team had an amazing season! While we weren't able to attend their first competition in December we had heard they did awesome and should have won first place.  They certainly proved that since they took first at every competition following including NATIONALS!

 They were up against some pretty tough competition this year.  After watching her teams performance at nationals I knew it would be close. Last year we thought her team had first place in the bag to end up taking second. This year all the teams in her category were within a point of another and despite the fact that her team had zero deductions (which was great) and the other teams took deductions, they were still ahead! They worked incredibly hard and earned their title as national champions!

 We've enjoyed Bailey's years of cheer more than we would have thought. It's incredible to see her progress and the friendships she has formed are priceless.  Bailey was able to make not only the level three team this year (up until know it was the highest level available to compete on in Southern Utah) but she also made her gym's new level four team! Unfortunately, at her second practice for the level four team she was dropped doing a stunt and fell on her arm breaking her humerus bone as well as her shoulder blade. Truthfully, we think with cheer there's bound to be injuries and we knew it was a matter of time. We're so very grateful that it happened when it did and that it was fairly minor considering what it could have been.  She has been wearing a sling for the past few weeks and will return to cheer (to stunt only) in June.  Luckily her team takes the month of July off anyhow so she will be good to go for tumbling again in August.  It's been a challenge for her to pace herself and take it easy but she can't wait to get back up in a stunt.