Thursday, April 1st:
After our typical morning routine and getting ready for the day, I surprised the kids by driving them to Nashville. Maeve had no idea what we were doing until we got close enough and she started to see the city skyline. She was SOOO excited. It was a pretty chilly day and SO windy, which made it way worse at first, so once we got to the playground we were gonna play at first I started to wonder if we were crazy for doing it and thought we might only last 30 minutes before going home. 😅 The second surprise was Adam showing up to the playground 5 minutes after we got there with Chick-fil-A for lunch! 🙌 So we all got a picnic with Daddy, which was another major treat for a weekday. It was so windy and we froze and nearly lost a bunch of food while we ate, but survived and thank heavens the wind started to die down after that and it warmed up a little bit, so it wasn't bad at all the rest of the day. And! Nolan discovered that slides actually are fun and was able to ease into it by going down on Maeve first. Super cute to watch. Before long he was sliding down on his own and loving every minute. It was great to see him involved in the fun since he's usually a spectator from the sidelines!! He may have torn up his shoes from all the climbing he did to get back up to the top of the slide every time, but you only live once, right? We hit up a second playground that looked legit and the kids also loved that one. Then, we headed over to Broadway and Fifth and got mini donuts from the Donut Distillery. After trying those out a few weeks ago, I knew the kids would love them and so perfect for them since they're mini. They were not disappointed! We immersed ourselves in the hustle and bustle of the city and decided to walk down Broadway for a little bit just for fun too before leaving. I didn't think we would, but we ended up spending the whole day there and left in time to get home to make dinner. What I didn't think about is that leaving at that time meant being stuck in rush hour traffic just like Adam. Oooops! So we actually ended up getting home about the same time. It was a day for the books and I'm glad we could do something like that that we do not normally do during Spring Break since we stayed put at home. At least we got a mini day trip in! 🙌
Friday, April 2nd:
Friday morning started off with a bang when we went to the Discovery Center to meet up with Diane and her kids (an old Nashville friend). It had been months since we'd seen each other and even longer since the kids had seen each other because the last time I saw her was for a girls night. I think Diane is awesome, so I'm kinda mad at myself that we let so much time pass before getting together again. Her oldest daughter Amelia had really been wanting to go to the Discovery Center, so they decided to make the trek to Murfreesboro and she texted me to see if we wanted to join. It was way fun to catch up, although it can get a little chaotic at times at a place like that with the kids wanting to do different things, so there were times that we ended up separated unfortunately, but what can you do. We stopped at the library on our way home to pick up some books and then spent some time reading once we got home. I had to laugh over this conversation between Maeve and Rowan...
Rowan: "I can read this book myself because it has no words and books have words." 🤔😂
Maeve: "Yes, it does have words Rowan. I can read them!"
Rowan: "No Maeve! You're not supposed to read them..."
Maeve: "Yes, you are! If only it had directions so you'd know that you are supposed to read them!" 😂😂😂
Can you imagine if books had directions at the front that said "How to read this book: Read every word on every page, and once you've done that you will have completed the book" 😂 Maybe for a 3 year old it's necessary, I dunno... 🤷♀️. The only other highlight about Friday was when my ministering sister showed up with an Easter basket for me with some candy in it, saying "You probably never get our own one of these" which yes, so true - I do not assemble my own Easter basket. 😂 Moms just assemble the fun for every one else. Such a sweet idea for her to bring me one! Friday night I slaved away in the kitchen starting some homemade cinnamon rolls in preparation for Conference. I got them all rolled up so they'd be ready to go in the oven in the morning. 🙌
Saturday, April 3rd:
After Maeve's dance class, I made homemade maple buttercream frosting to go on the cinnamon rolls and then we enjoyed those while watching the first session of conference. That frosting literally tasted like angels. Cinnamon rolls should only ever be made that way - I don't think I'll ever make them the normal way again. Sooooo freaking good. Bring me back to the days of going to Provo Bakery with their maple cinnamon rolls that we loved. The frosting I made was just as good as that frosting was, if not better!! So smooth, whipped, and creamy! 😋😋🙌 We enjoyed watching conference all day, ya know, as much as you can with a 1 and 3 year old around. 😏 It didn't help that Rowan was EXTRA naughty the day before and was told by Adam that he lost candy for Saturday and Sunday. Which was actually probably a poor consequence, considering we had a candy bowl out for Maeve that she could pick M&Ms out of anytime she heard certain words. Rowan certainly ended up sneaking some here and there, the little stink, but I guess it's hard to avoid that when it's out in the open. 🙄🤷♀️ And then of course Saturday night we got everything ready to go for Easter the next day. The anticipation was UNREAL from the kids!! Oh, and our laugh of the day for Saturday was when Rowan saw a can of tomato sauce in the pantry and called it "bean salad" 😂😂🤔 - I literally have no idea why he thought it was that, but I couldn't stop laughing. The rest of the weekend I'd randomly remember and start laughing again! Good times.
Sunday, April 4th:
The long awaited Easter Sunday!! The kids were overjoyed when it was time to go downstairs and follow their strings that Adam strung through the downstairs to find their Easter baskets. Poor Rowan got to find his, only to then be told that he would not be allowed to eat any of the candy from it at all that day. Luckily there were a few other surprises besides candy in each of their baskets, which kept him excited. Nolan got a cute, super soft stuffed bunny that Rowan actually loves more than he does, so there's that. Maeve and Rowan both got jumbo pencils, and then Maeve also got a wind up plastic bunny that walks and poops out jelly beans (I knew that would be a hit 😂) and a pack of Yo-yos. Bring me back to my childhood! Then Rowan also got some Batman tattoos and a kaleidoscope. Also a blast from the past for me. Had to introduce my kids to some classic toys I had. Turns out though that yo-yos are not easy enough for 5 year olds to use, even though the packaging said ages 3+. 🤦♀️🤷♀️ It was a bit of struggle for Maeve, but she still had fun trying and eventually found her own way to sort of do it. We used the rest of the morning hours to make cute egg crowns for Maeve and Rowan to wear the rest of the day and those were a hit! Gotta love a good craft on holidays. I must say, I wish that Conference and Easter never collided though because although I got to watch the first session, I was unable to really pay attention at all for the second session because of everything I needed to make for our Easter dinner! I was stuck in the kitchen just hoping and praying that I could come up with a way for all of it to be ready on time, not thinking through how 3 of the items needed to go in the oven at different temperatures. 🤦♀️🙈😭 I may or may not have had a nervous breakdown at one point thinking that we weren't going to be able to eat until 7pm due to my failure to think it all through ahead of time, but somehow it all worked out once I realized I could use our toaster oven for the pork roast and I could just put the rolls in the oven once we sat down to eat. It ended up working out that the first batch was done while we were still eating everything else, so all my tears were for nothing. BUT I didn't get to hear any of conference and that wasn't the original plan, but it was either that or eat super late! Luckily I can read the talks later, so that's what I'm telling myself. We had a delicious spread of pork roast, funeral potatoes, sauteed veggies, fruit salad, and homemade lion house rolls (that turned out AMAZING, after my failed attempt on Thanksgiving when I forgot to put the salt in... had to redeem myself, and I sure did!! 👊 Boom.). We also did our cotton candy Sprite concoction, which is always fun for the kids. Or should I say Maeve, since Rowan doesn't like soda. 🤯 He chose to just have some cotton candy by itself instead. I have been one happy lady eating off of all our leftovers for the last few days. YUM! We finished off the night by doing our Resurrection egg hunt, to focus on the real reason for all the celebrating. Luckily the kids look just as forward to that part too and I hope they always love and understand the importance of the Easter story. The icing on the cake Sunday night was when Adam tickled the pee out of Rowan and he started peeing all over the carpet in his room, while also conveniently aiming the last of it perfectly into one of Maeve's nearby shoes. 😱😳 I never thought I'd have to pour pee out of a shoe, but here we are. I'm sure I'll have ALL the pee stories to tell thanks to Rowan before his childhood is over. Might as well keep 'em coming. 😂😏
Monday, April 5th:
Back to school for Maeve! She was not so thrilled to be woken up bright and early, but she survived and had a good first day back. We ran out of time on Easter to make and eat our Easter dessert before the kids needed to go to bed (oops), so Maeve and Rowan helped me make it on Monday while dinner was cooking. I thought I'd try out mini Cadbury egg Blondie's that I'd seen circulating around social media a bit, and they were pretty tasty! Monday was also my mom's birthday, so we did a little family Zoom call including all the kiddies that night, which was a real party. I had a number of laughs on Monday and those are really the only other highlights, so here are those...
~In talking about our five senses, we were discussing all the things we hear in our house and I said to Rowan, "What does Zoey do that we hear?" expecting him to say "Bark" but instead he said, "Say ruff!" 😂
~Then we talked about smells and he decided he wanted to go over and smell my birthday flowers on our kitchen table and after doing so, he said "Mmmm! Smells like lemonade" 😂🤔
~While I was getting ready in my bathroom, Rowan was sitting with me and noticed our orchid had flowers again (it was bare for a long time, but finally bloomed a few new flowers!) and he said, "Mom look! You have flowers!" I said, "I know! Aren't they fun?!" Smiling, he shook his head and said, "Nope! Playing with toys is fun!" 😂🤷♀️ I must say, he has a point there. Fun was probably not the best word to use there, so I don't blame him for the response. Definitely made me laugh out loud though!
~As always happens, the kids were trying to sneak some food right before dinner time and I told them they could only have said item if they still ate all their dinner. First Maeve chimed in, "I will!" followed by Rowan, "I will!" and without skipping a beat, Nolan with a garbled version of "I will!" 😂👌Adam and I couldn't help but laugh, because it really did sound like he was trying to follow suit and copy them. It was too good!
Tuesday, April 6th:
Adam worked from home and we took his car to the shop to FINALLY fix the door. That car looked janky for waaaay too long and I personally wouldn't have been willing to drive it like that if it were my car - Adam, on the other hand, doesn't really get embarrassed by anything so he wasn't feeling too rushed. I'm feeling pretty happy though that it's fixed now, it was certainly past time. We also ran some errands before I needed to go to Young Women's, so we ended up getting Culver's for dinner on the go, which is always a good thing, for our taste buds anyway. 🙌
Wednesday, April 7th:
After my usual morning routine on Wednesday, I made a couple phone calls to take care of some matters of business. While on the phone, Rowan started throwing all the cards to a game we were playing before I got on the phone, and despite my asking him to stop, he laughed and kept doing it. 🙄 I tried to physically stop him from reaching for more and his hand ended up knocking into my bowl of cereal that I had finished, which knocked it over and spilled the milk all over the rest of the cards and game boards. 🤬🤬 I managed to stay quiet since I was on the phone, but I certainly reacted as angrily as I could while maintaining silence... 😅. Seriously so annoying when that kinda junk happens while you're in the middle of a phone call!
A few new developments as of Wednesday are:
1. Nolan learning how to say "beep beep" and saying it on repeat for a while. Seriously so cute!
2. Rowan making great strides in the potty department, by not only going to the bathroom without even telling me he needed to and doing it all on his own, but also trying it standing up, which was successful. 🙌🙌 Music to my ears!!
3. Rowan decided he wanted to try out showering, so he took a shower with Maeve. He actually also did this on Easter, so it was second time. It might be the craziest shower party you've ever seen, but they sure had fun together and with a little bit of help from me he got himself all clean that way. I imagine he'll be the in the 50/50 shower/bath club so that he can party with Maeve half the time and party with Nolan the other half of the time.
You know how sometimes adults will put their mouths on babies bellies and blow and make what kinda sounds like a fart noise? I don't know what you actually call that, but Maeve and Rowan got going on doing that to me all over my legs and arms before bedtime and they thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world - cause of course - fart noises!! They decided to call it "mouthtoots", which I thought was pretty good! 😂😂 Too funny.
Thursday, April 8th:
Well, you know just 1 day before I said that Rowan was making great strides in the potty department? Don't worry, he couldn't keep my hopes up for too long, and decided it would be fun to pee his pants THREE times that day. And considering he's really into getting himself dressed right now, that means he cycled through 3 pairs of pants in one day. Having a hard time keeping enough clean pants/shorts around for this kid and he has had to go out in jammie pants recently, so that's cool. 🙈 I'll call one of his accidents an almost win, because I was in the shower when it happened, and he came to me after I got out with new undies in his hand and said "Is this the right way?". (he rocked them backwards for a number of days and has since been convinced that it's better to put them on the right way so now he always confirms) I said, "uh oh, why are you putting on new undies?". His response: "Because I peed on the floor, but I cleaned it up" and minus using cleaner, he totally did wipe it all up, and he even said there was "a LOT". 😂👏 I'm doing something right around here when my 3 year old cleans up his own pee, because I'm not around. Guess that means he should be cleaning it up himself every time. 😏 And speaking of being in the shower, he started screaming Mommy over and over while I was in there, so of course I eventually turned off the water to make sure he wasn't dying, and turns out he so critically needed to tell me that "popsicle starts with P!" 😑😂🤦♀️. If only his pee getting in the potty was as critical, but as I tell this story, now it has me wondering if I just thought he said that, but really he said something like "I need to pee" or "I just peed"... 🤔. I'm 80% sure though that I heard the word popsicle. Maybe I'll have to ask him tomorrow to see if he remembers what he was trying to tell me to see if I can confirm.
The weather was GLORIOUS so after school we rode bikes/scooters through the neighborhood to Bella's house and she rode back with us to play at our house for a bit. In honor of Grandpa's birthday (Adam's dad), that night we also decided to redeem our free custard from Culver's that we didn't get on Tuesday since the kids didn't deserve it then. 😅 We ate it outside and I am loooooving this great weather right now. Can't wait for pool season and neither can Maeve!! She actually just told me in her words: "I love Summer because we go to the pool and get snow cones. I love Fall because the leaves are pretty. I love Spring because there are lots of flowers. And I kind of like Winter because sometimes there's snow, but I don't like that it's cold and I have to bundle up... soooo, I'd say I like 3 1/2 seasons" 😂👌. She kills me.
Alright, I realize at this point I am finishing this post on a Sunday and now I have the weekend to still write about too, but I will do that tomorrow and then I might start writing once a week on Sunday or Monday nights after that. We shall see if I can stay committed doing it that way instead.
Here are pics and videos from the week!
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| The first bunch are from our day in Nashville! 👆👇 |
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| 😍😍 Nolan is figuring out how to keep up with his older sibs! |
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| This tunnel was pretty cool and for some reason I love tunnel pics 😍 |
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| This park was pretty dang cool with this big dragon sculpture! |
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| She's sooo pretty! 😍 |
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| Passed out hard! He did so good all day and eventually wore himself out. |
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| This little stink wouldn't take a pic with us so he got his own, which also was real successful 🤦♀️😏 |
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| Donut Distillery mini donuts! 😍 |
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| We saw a bunch of cool walls so naturally Maeve had to pose! 👆👇 |
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| Cool flower display! |
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| Maple cinnamon rolls! Get in my belly! 🤤 |
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| Maeve paid attention real well at times during conference as her selfies will show you... 👆👇🤦♀️ |
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| This one is kinda cute to me that she wanted to capture her feet up there like mine 😂😍 |
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| Easter!! |
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| Nolan just got this bunny in his basket and getting a pic of him with it and the kids was unrealistic cause he will not cooperate for that and is crawling away in 2 seconds! 😂😏 |
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| Action shot throwing his bunny 😂 |
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| He was actually pretty sad he couldn't have all the goodies in their baskets so I guess I did him wrong by only getting him a bunny... 😂🤷♀️ |
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| Rowan had to show off his cute drawing 😂 |
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| 😍👇👆 |
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| Rowan was not feeling this dinner spread being documented... 😏 |
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| Resurrection egg hunt! |
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| She had to pose like this acting more excited once she noticed I was snapping pics 😂😂 |
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| Matching Easter leggings since 2017. Might be the last time we get to match cause I think they'll be too short for her next year! 🥺 |
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| Before I got the smiling pics from above, these are the pics I got when I first asked them to smile. 😂😂👌👆👇 |
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| They are so crazy! |
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| My dynamic duo! |
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| 😂😂 |
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| Then you've got this cutest little dude that ever lived!! That smile! 😍😍😍 |
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| Rowan's birthday card to me that I forgot to snap a pic of 👆👇 |
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| It is funny that it says "shy" because those are letters that Maeve wrote down for Rowan so he would know how to write an S, H, and Y. Ironically he needed to know those letters in order so it happens to spell shy and Maeve didn't bother to write them on a different piece of paper 😂 |
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| Gotta love the Christmas tree 😂 |
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| This little boy knows to cheese it now when he sees the camera! 😂😍😍 |
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| Oh my goodness 😍😍 I just can't handle this photo. Little Nolan is not nearly as shafted these days and the love is starting to become real between him and Rowan and him and Maeve! Warms my mama heart cause it's been a long time coming. ♥️ |
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| He fell in this basket by stepping backwards and not realizing it was in his way 😂😂 |
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| Some playground fun! 👆👇 |
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| He no longer hates swings, but despite this smile I managed to get I would say it's more like he tolerated it. He wasn't so sure but decided he didn't need to cry and was pretty straight faced most of the time. 😂 |
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| Oh man. I looooved when Rowan wore this lion romper and now it's Nolan's turn and I'm soooo happy I get to see it again! Cutest little romper that ever existed. 😍😍😍 |
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| Someone didn't love this one 😂😏 |
Maeve was paying attention real well during Conference 😂🤦♀️: https://youtube.com/shorts/vovonbenVrM?feature=share
Maeve explaining how she planned on spreading out the reading of her chapter books everyday 😂: https://youtube.com/shorts/iuxSFlsQL2Y?feature=share
Nolan warming up to the slide by going down with Maeve and eventually doing it like a pro climbing up himself and everything! 😍:
https://youtube.com/shorts/tfajcQJyrLI?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/QXLkt2mY8FU?feature=share
Peace and blessings. ✌️
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