Week with Mom!!

We had SO MUCH FUN with my mom here this week. Sweet Claire was able to spend lots of snuggle time with Granny. The following pictures are from the week leading up to Mom getting here (Mothers Day, etc) and then when Mom was here.

We discovered that the ice cream truck comes through our neighborhood! I loved the ice cream truck when I was younger. I would always run outside in whatever I was wearing (pajamas,swimsuit, etc) with money to buy some ice cream.  Well, this time as a mom of three kids it was no different. I was putting Claire to bed and I heard that familiar high pitched music. I was in an oversized pajama shirt and pants, but I grabbed my cash and ran outside to flag him down. The kids and Jon pulled up from an outing right in time to see their crazy mom buying ice cream. The kids thought it was fantastic. They ended up with Sponge bob popsicles!

When Jon was watching the kids during week 1, he took the kids to the zoo. I couldn't believe the orangutans walk above the visitors like this!  

This zoo also had a playground for the goats! 

The next few pictures are just fun ones of the kids

Mothers Day pancakes!

Mothers day flowers

I also got a brand new car on Mother's Day!  We made the big step and upgraded to an SUV. And no, it wasn't really a mother's day gift. It just so happened that the new car was shipped from Utah and arrived Mother's day morning. It still felt like the dream any 16 year old has that she will wake up to her dad holding keys to a brand new car!

The kids have gotten so close to Jon over the past couple of weeks. They love their "dada"

Thanks for the darling bow Rach and the flamingo onsie mom!

Cute outfit from Rachael. We love it!

Emmie loves my tie dye shirt. You have probably seen it already in a few blog posts

Movie night with Granny

Luke still wants to be the baby.  He requested to be wrapped in a burrito. We loved our giant baby with the bruise on his head!!

It was so wonderful to have my mom here.  She is the BEST GRANDMA ever.  She is so sweet with the kids and just loved Claire so much.  I learn from her every time I am with her.  I appreciate her advice and help so much.

After much debate, we decided to give Claire the bink!

Doing "tricks" with granny

There is a neat lake 10 min. from where we live. The kids like to walk in the water and skip rocks.

Claire slept in her carseat for our whole lake outing

A goose started to swim over by us. The kids were excited.

When he started swimming more aggressively toward us and wouldn't stop, my mom grabbed a stick to protect her grandkids!  The goose knew she meant business and immediately changed directions and swam away!

By the end of our outing, Luke was in a saggy diaper and Em was trying hard to keep her skirt dry. 

Kids helping me with Claire's bath

I love bathing baby Claire in our kitchen sink!  It is the perfect size and she loves it. My mom took the following pics and they are so great!  (She is always saying she is not a photographer)

Em was so excited when she sang Claire to sleep in her bed.

She is just SO SWEET!  We love our Claire

We took a Sunday drive to DC and took some family pictures...

Rach made this cute bowtie for Lukie. I thought Lukie was so cute this day. He is all boy and jumps, runs and often trips and falls from one place to the next!

Mom did an awesome job taking our family pic!  Emmie made sure all the girls wore pink. 

This girl is my biggest helper. She is the best "babysitter" for little Claire and absolutely adores her. Claire is very lucky.

While in DC we were able to walk to the new Martin Luther King memorial.

It was really neat. I appreciate what this man did for our country! He truly spoke up about the equality of all men.  I am grateful for the love he possessed and the courage to act. Luke loved this statue and kept talking about it afterward. He kept saying "the man with his legs cut off"  We thought this was hilarious because the statue only depicted his top half and Luke noticed this and thought he was legless!

The Martin Luther King memorial was right next to the Potomac river. It was also a very cool view of the Washington Monument.

I will miss my mom more than words can say.  Besides being my good friend, she has been my "Mary Poppins" while here. When I walk into a room, "snap", the dishes are done, laundry clean and folded, kids fed and happy.  She worked so hard for me this week and it has truly rejuvenated me.  By the end of the week, I felt good enough to get out and do some things. Mom watched all the kids so Jon and I could go out for ice cream. Then on Saturday, Jon watched all three kids (this is no easy task so way to go) while Mom and I went out for Mexican food. It was so fun to sit down and chat with my mom. She is such a good friend to me and listens to all I have to ramble about!  It has been hard to live away from her for the past 4 months. Being with her also made me miss my sis Rach and her kids.  Wish I had $$ to fly everyone out here!  Luckily Jon's mom Marianne is coming in a couple weeks and Shelby will be back this summer. I can't wait to see both of them. I really don't want to say goodbye to my mom tomorrow.   Thanks for everything Mom. I love you! 

Making chocolate chip cookies with Granny today. Right after Luke's nap...

We love you Granny!