Happy, Happy Birthday, Quincy Dear...

My little girl is three today! It amazes me that three years has gone by since we added a little sugar, and a little more spice, to our family. Quincy has us (especially her dad) wrapped pretty tightly around her finger. She has brothers that adore her and will give her anything she wants (she mastered the pouty eyes and lips pretty dang early). She's my little shopping buddy, who loves to carry a purse and her baby. She enjoys bling on anything and everything and has quite the collection of shoes (I guess she has a little bit of an advantage being the only girl of a mom who really likes to shop.). She loves playing dress-ups and pretending that she's a "prinpess". She LOVES to sing and amazes me how many songs she knows. She loves to wrestle with her dad and brothers, and doesn't mind getting dirty and spending time at the baseball field. I love that she can go from tu-tu to Red Sox hat within minutes. I absolutely adore this girl. She can make me want to scream multiple times a day, but when she wraps her arms around me and says "I love you, Mom," I can't help but be so in love with her. Happy birthday, Quincy. We love you forever and ever and are so grateful that you can be our one and only girl.

Road Trip

Last weekend, my mom, Max, Quincy and I had the chance to go up north to visit my sister and brother and their families. Alayna had to speak at a stake relief society activity, so we hauled the kids up to Ogden to go and listen to her. Can I just say, that girl is amazing. She has such a talent for speaking. She spoke on having a Christ centered home and she did incredible! Quincy and Dawson were able to spend the day together playing and laughing with each other. We just let the kids run and didn't really have an agenda. It was nice just to hang out and talk and laugh. Nate was quite impressed that we spent time in the Ogden mall (letting the kids play in the play area) and didn't even go in one store. I have to say that I'm quite impressed with myself as well. Thanks Alayna for giving us a good excuse to come visit!

After playing in Ogden for the day, we drove down to Provo and met up with my brother, Cameron, and his cute family. We had a yummy dinner together and had fun catching up. He has the cutest kids-two boys, Carter and Cooper, and one sweet little girl, Halle. Carter and Tanner are close in age and always have so much fun together. They're both into sports and the WII, so usually when they get together, they're doing those things. Cam's family are avid BYU fans and always get dressed in their blue for game day. We love his family and wish we could see them more often. Thanks guys for letting us do dinner with you!
In the solo shots, Cooper is on the top. He's 4 1/2 and personality plus! Carter is the lower picture. He just turned seven and is such a sweet, tender-hearted boy. Hey boys, go Cougs!

Max is six months!

I know I start each of Max's month milestone blogs the same way, but seriously, where has the time gone? I'm absolutely amazed that half of a year has flown by since he was born. Before I know it, he'll be smearing his first birthday cake all over his face. This little man has brought so much joy and happiness into our home. I've been so lucky to have four happy babies, but this last one is the winner. Maybe it's because we're constantly on the go and he's just learned to go with the flow and make the best of things. He's so easy going. Two weeks ago, he got his first two teeth and I didn't even know that they were coming in. There was no swelling, no middle of the night screaming because of the pain, no daytime crankiness. Just my happy Max with two new teeth to show off. He's finally decided that food is ok and he loves any fruit. Nate's been testing my limits and has offered him lemons and pickles to suck on. The kids are good at tattling though, so he usually can't get away with it. Max has started to sit up a little bit, but could care less about his stomach. I'm just fine postponing crawling as long as possible. He's discovered his toes. I love watching him grab them and stare at them trying to figure out what the heck they are. We love this little guy (ok, chunky guy. He's nearly 20 pounds!) and look forward to the next six months.

This is for you Teri

For anyone that doesn't get this picture, check out my sister-in-laws (Teri Esplin) blog. The post dated April 15th, 2008 will explain these pictures. Let's just say that it happens in Ogden, Utah too.

Mother Goose Live

Over the last couple of months, Quincy has loved to listen to nursery rhymes as she's getting ready to go to bed. She totally took me by surprise a few weeks ago when she started reciting them to me. I finally got her to say a couple of them for me on the camera. She was watching Alvin and the Chipmunks at the same time, so she was a little distracted and wouldn't look at me, but at least I got a few of them recorded. Too stinkin' cute. (Turn off the music at the bottom by clicking on the pause button.)

Yeah for the Marriotts!

I just had to give a little shout out and a huge congrats to my sister, Alayna, and her husband, Tim. They found out yesterday that they're having a baby GIRL! I am so absolutely thrilled for them. They've had a rough year trying to get this baby here. Two miscarriages later, they're getting their wish. She's due the first part of October, so there's still plenty of time to go buy dresses, shoes, bracelets, and headbands that mothers of girls just can't refuse.

Alayna's the best mom ever. She's such an example to me of how to be a good mom. She's constantly playing with Dawson. I honestly don't know how she get's all of her other stuff done. Dawson's a smart little thing, and I know a lot of it is because she spends so much time with him teaching and playing with him. She's one of the most talented people I know! Check out her blog (link on the right is 'Marriott Family').

We're so excited for you, Alayna and Tim. We can't wait to meet this bundle of pink!

Back to the grind

Well, we're home and back to real life of fighting kids, laundry, and chauffeuring. We had such a great time in Hilton Head, South Carolina. There was good friends, good food, good relaxation, and good scenery. Max travelled amazingly well, which made the trip that much better. For those of you that don't know about Hilton Head, it's a golfer's paradise. There are around 40 golf courses in the near vicinity. The reason we travelled out there was because the guys scored some Master's (major golf tournament) tickets on e-bay. The Master's is played in Augusta, Georgia, but because it's so crazy right there during the tournament, we stayed in H.H., and the guys made the drive down. We were able to tour the area of Hilton Head, as well as drive to Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina. In Beaufort, we took a carriage ride through the town and heard the history of the pre-civil war homes and community. What an amazing history these towns have!

The beach home we rented was incredible. It had five bedrooms, each with a private bathroom, plus a kitchen, living room, ect. We had a private pool and jacuzzi, and the best part: we were about 100 yards from the beach! The water was still cool (plus the weather wasn't super cooperative), but we were able to walk or ride our bikes down there every day.

The guys had a blast at the Master's. They were able to watch Tiger at a few holes, as well as Phil Mickelson and Trevor Immelman (the guy that ended up winning the tourney)and about everyone else. They said the course was absolutely amazing. Nate had left the camera with me that day, so I'll post pictures of the course as soon as we get copies from the others.

The only mishap we had during the trip was our cancelled flight on the way there. We were on the plane in Atlanta to fly into H.H., when the pilot decided it was too foggy to land in H.H. (we think he was just too tired). We ended up renting a car and making the five hour drive, arriving in H.H. at 3:00 a.m.. Because of the cancelled flight, our luggage didn't get to us until early evening the next day (well, except for our friend Brad's. His didn't come for three days, but that's a whole other story!).

We're so grateful for our parents' help with the kids while we were gone. We're so glad that the kids adore both sets of grandparents. We were starting to wonder if the kids even wanted us to come home because no one would ever talk to us when we'd call. We finally had to tell them that they wouldn't get a surprise unless they got on the phone.

As I said at the first of the post, now we're back to real life. The relaxing week geared me up to be a mom again. That doesn't mean I'm not counting down until the next vacation.

I know we're kind of crazy, but we saw an alligator on the side of a golf course, so we made Nate stop driving so that we could get a picture. We got about 20 feet from it. We later found out how fast they can run! Not too bright of us.

This is the crew on the right. Nate, me and Max, Katherine and Todd Seamons, Brad and Tressa Seamons, and Amy and Mike Barrick.

On the beach the first day. Notice our lovely Delta shirts provided for us by the airline since we didn't have any luggage.