Aquarium of the Bay

Before we headed to San Francisco we grabbed some pizza and headed to a local park.  Nathan and I tried some crazy pizza (asparagus, peas, lemon vinaigrette,etc-not sure what was all on it) from the Cheese Board.  It was actually pretty good!  This pizza place only makes and serves one type of pizza everyday.  It changes daily but you can only get whatever the pizza of the day is.  We knew the kids wouldn't eat that type of pizza so we got them some cheese pizza from another pizzeria.

As we were leaving the park, Blair ran ahead of us towards a busy street!  I yelled for her to stop but of course she continued to do what she wanted to do.  When we caught up with her I gave her a nice swat on the butt and put her in a time out.  She threw a huge temper tantrum and wouldn't listen to anyone.  I told her I was going to tape her so she could see how ridiculous she looked.  It didn't help completely but it did calm her down enough for us to talk to her about listening and being safe.

Video of Blair:

Checking out the fish.

Video of Dyer:

Jellyfish

Easton

Video of Dyer:

Blair

Blair touching a starfish.

Easton and Blair touching a starfish.

Sealions at pier 39.

Children's Museum

Our local library was giving away free or discounted tickets online to some places in the San Francisco Bay area.  I don't know if they do this every year and if so I don't know for how long.  When I found out about it, it seemed like the tickets were only good for the last few days of March.  Each person could get up to two free or discounted family tickets.  I decided to get some to the Children's Museum in Berkeley and the Aquarium of the Bay.  We decided to make a day of it and go to both places.  Even though the places were free we easily spent over $70 for tolls, parking, and food!  We saved $46 for the Children's Museum and $50 for the aquarium.  I still can't believe how expensive these places are.  Thank goodness we got in for free!

Children's Museum:

We stayed there for 2 hours and the kids had a blast.  They probably could have easily stayed another 30-60 minutes but it was lunch time and Mamma Bear was hungry.  We had a little pee accident that happened right when we got there (we couldn't find a bathroom in time).  It put a little damper on things but once we got everything cleaned up we all had a great time.  Good thing Blair was wearing a dress that day!  It made it a lot easier to clean her up and you couldn't even notice she had wet but clean underwear on.

Train Table:  I think this was Dyer favorite with the water area as a close second.

Grocery/diner area:  I'm pretty sure its safe to say that this was Blair's favorite.  I basically had to drag her out of this area several times to make sure she got to most of the museum.  I knew she would throw a fit if we left the museum and she didn't get to go anywhere else even though she was having a blast here.

Blair would pack the grocery cart to the very top.

Dyer preferred to drive the cart around instead of filling it.

Easton liked the cash register and the money!

Even Nathan got in on the action and played with Blair.

Firefighter area:

Dyer driving the truck!

Easton all ready to put out a fire.

Cutie!

Blair had fun putting crayon paints on me.  Luckily she didn't put any blue on me because we couldn't get the blue crayon off of Easton for anything!

Easton painted his own face.  This was actually mellower than it ended up being.

Water area:

Blair

Easton and Dyer

Video of Dyer:

 Painting area:

Blair painting

 Blair's artwork!  I had her sign her name.  Yes, it is backwards but she got all the letters right!

Easton's artwork!

Easton and Dyer painting sea creatures.

Blair playing with playdough.

We didn't get to everything but the kids had a blast and want to go back again some other time!

Egg Hunt and April Fools

Right before the 2-3 year old egg hunt

I took the kids to an egg hunt on base.  They didn't have an egg hunt for Dyer's age so I just put him in with Blair's age group.  Blair and Dyer were afraid of the Easter Bunny so they were hesitant to go out and collect eggs when the hunt began.  Luckily the bunny started going to the other side of the field right after the hunt began so Blair was brave enough to go and get some and she made a killing too!  She was really smart.  Most kids work from the outside in (grabbing eggs as they come to them) which causes them to compete with each other.  Blair on the other hand raced to the center where no one was and had tons of eggs to herself.  

Dyer ended up with two eggs and that was because they were right next to where I was standing.  He wouldn't leave my side in fear the bunny might get him.  

Blair shared some of her eggs with Dyer and a friend that didn't make it there in time.  We tried giving some more away to another friend that only got one egg but her mom told me she would just share with her brother once he got some eggs.  Most of the eggs had candy in them but there were a good amount that had a paper in them to claim a prize.  Seriously I  think Blair had half the prizes in her eggs.  She got a bubble set, two squirt guns, a sand bucket, and a kitty key chain.    

Unfortunately I didn't get  a picture of Easton with his eggs.  That's probably a good thing since he was pretty upset after the hunt.  He ended up not getting any eggs.  He took it better than I thought he would have.  He didn't cry but I could tell he was holding back the tears.  Luckily, they had someone going around and gave eggs to those kids who didn't get any.  That cheered Easton up right away!  Easton definitely wasn't the only kid in that hunt that didn't get a single egg.  Looking at the amount of eggs they had on the field and the amount of kids in the hunt I would have been surprised if there would have been enough eggs for each kid to get even one.  I think they put way too many in the 2-3 year old hunt and didn't have enough for the 4-6 year old hunt.  If I would have known I probably would have saved some of Blair's eggs but after waiting over 30 minutes for Easton's hunt to start Blair and Dyer ate all the candy.  Oops!

Easter:

I totally forgot to take pictures of the kids on Easter!  I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but I didn't even think about it until later in the day.  I guess that is what happens when your pregnant and all on your own for church (Nathan had to work).  The kids looked cute all matching though.  Maybe I'll get a picture of them another Sunday.  I still haven't gotten a single picture of my baby belly yet and I'm 17 weeks!  I need to fix that!

  April Fools Day:

I played a little trick on Easton and Blair for April Fools Day.  I made them ostrich eggs (vanilla pudding and peaches) for breakfast.  I took videos of the kids but they are too long to post on the blog.  Easton wouldn't try it which wasn't a surprise since he doesn't like eggs but his expressions were pretty good!  He was totally grossed out just looking at it.  Blair was a little skeptical at first but eventually tried it and liked it!  Once I told Easton what the egg was made up of he wanted just the peaches.  Easton didn't like the fact that I "lied" to him.  He definitely gave me a lecture about lying.  We've been having problems with Easton and Blair telling the truth recently so I got an ear full of my own medicine.  On the plus side at least I know the kids are listening to what I'm saying even if they aren't putting it into practice.

Child Family Visit

My sister and her family came to visit for a few days.  It was great to see them and the trip definitely went by way too fast.

 Friday: Girls Shopping Trip/Park

We went shopping at the outlets for a few hours before we had to pick Easton up from school.  Bradyn was nice enough to watch Kadyn, Dyer, and Adisyn so we didn't have to bring everyone shopping.

We also went to the park until we left because of a bunch of crazy teenagers.

Dyer and I riding a tandem trike.

 Saturday: Day at the Zoo!

The boys!

The girls!

Posing with the lion.

Looking at some monkeys (Dyer's favorite!)

I like how everyone in jac's fam (minus Ashlyn) is kissing? a goose.

Easton crawling through meerkat hole.

Adisyn and I

Dyer hitching a ride on the tortoise.

Video of the kids at the petting zoo:

Blair giving Ashlyn a ride on the tractor.

Video of Blair pushing Easton around on the tractor:

Easton and Dyer

Blair

Videos of the kangaroos:

Polar Bear

Uncle Brandyn giving Dyer a shoulder ride.

Lion

Auntie Jacqui's turn to give Dyer a shoulder ride.

Brandyn watched all the kids so Jac and I could go and get a pedicure.  Thanks Brandyn!

Sunday we had a "special" stake conference (we already had stake conference earlier this year) where we got to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook.  

Monday: Egg Hunt

Jac and Brandyn went to 6 flags while I watched all the kids.  I thought it might be fun for them to have something to do so I did an egg hunt for them.  They were all pretty excited!

The door bell rang and this is what they found!

Kadyn and Ashlyn with their eggs.

Blair and her eggs.

Dyer found an egg!

Easton got a couple!  He wasn't in any hurry to get outside so he only got a couple.

 I think Kadyn was the most excited about the egg hunt!  

I hope you all had fun!  Come back and visit again!

Update

We celebrated Nathan's birthday on the 10th!  This was the only picture I got since he opened all his gifts before his actual birthday.  I guess I'm rubbing off on him.  I made a new turtle cheesecake since I couldn't find my original recipe and it turned out pretty good.  Eventually I found the recipe and I think we might combine the two and hopefully have the best turtle cheesecake ever!  We had the Wards come over for cake and ice cream.

Nathan blowing out his only candle.  I forgot to pick up candles but I found one!

Video of Easton and Blair helping Dyer out of his crib:

Dyer is now in a toddler bed!  It was only a matter of time before Dyer finally figured out how to climb out of his crib on his own.  In the mean time he got plenty of help from Blair and Easton the last two weeks.  Blair really doesn't like it when people are sleeping and she really doesn't like it when people take naps.  Lately when Dyer goes down for his nap and he starts crying (usually doesn't last that long) Blair feels it is her duty to go and rescue him.  She opens his door and somehow helps him out of his crib.  I get so mad at her because Dyer still needs to take naps!  She reassures me every time, "Don't worry mommy, I catcheded Dyer so he didn't falled!"  Thank you Blair!

Dyer finally climbed out of his crib on his own Monday morning and started knocking on the door while yelling my name.  My sister and her family were in town so I didn't want to transition him yet in case he had a hard time with it.  We started yesterday for his nap and bedtime and he was basically perfect.  Hopefully he takes after Easton (not Blair) and it will be a smooth transition.

One of Blair's favorite things to do right now is to give people noogies.  She likes to say it while she is doing it, but unfortunately she doesn't say it right and it comes out as if she is saying the "N" word.  It was really embarrassing when she was doing this at the store a couple weeks ago.  Blair does not have a quite voice and so it basically sounded like she was yelling the "N" word all around the store.  I kept correcting her but it only lasted once or twice before she reverted back to her original word.

Easton finally got to meet the principal last week.  He went there in the morning to get a band bracelet for having perfect attendance.  He must have liked the principal and wanted to get to know her a little better because about an hour later he got sent down there for punching a girl in his class in the nose.  I called Nathan to let him know.  One of Nathan's co workers was joking around asking if it was because the girl stole his blue crayon!  Unfortunately that wasn't too far from the truth.  Easton apparently couldn't find his basket of crayons/markers and asked the girl if she had it.  She told him no but I guess Easton thought she said yes.  When she wouldn't give it to him he punched her in the nose.  SERIOUSLY!!!  He definitely got in trouble for that.

I went in and got another ultrasound at almost 14 weeks and as far as they can tell they are thinking baby #4 is a girl!  I guess we will find out for sure in about 4 1/2 - 5 weeks.  We haven't really told the kids yet just in case baby #4 turns out to be a boy.  I've been sick free for about 10 days now!  I still get nauseous here and there but I feel so much better now!