HAPPY BIRTHDAY

LAYLA-DARLING

Layla we are so excited you are 5!

You are growing up so fast.

 I'm dying that you are going to ALL DAY kindergarten in the fall!

I'm going to miss you so much!

You are still a sweetie, but you have some silly little character traits that all fall under the category of

LAZY LAYS

"I don't like walking!"

"My feet/ankle/legs/back hurt, I need you to carry me up the stairs!"

"I don't know how to clean my room!"

"I can't eat that! It takes too much chewing!"

"I'm too tired to wake up!"

You like to use the phrase- "You betcha!" We love it!

You still say good morning Mommy, if I let you wake up on your own.

If I don't stop him, you can still get whatever you want from your Daddy.

You miss your friends a lot.

You talk about them all the time.

I don't know what we'd do if your cousin Grace didn't live down the street!

6:30AM

We surprised her with a little table and chairs.

She has been wanting one forever!





She requested

pink

princess

pancakes

 This shot is when she opened her "Tangled"

DRESS!!!!!!!

 She may not look excited about the Popsicle molds, but she loves them!

We had to immediately make some for her Birthday dinner tonight!

 She was soooooo excited about everything!

We played Tea Party all morning!

Yep, all this happened before most of you were awake!

Sometimes I'm jealous you're sleeping, and sometimes I like thinking "I'm already done with all my morning chores when you haven't even started!"



We Love You Lays!

P.S. The other day we went to LUNCH with Tom for the kids Birthdays.

  

Are you a good "HOP SCOTCHER?"

 It snowed yesterday, but last week it looked like this!

While Henry was sleeping "Just us girls"

(counting Zepp)

went on a walk around the streets by our house,

and then we played in the front yard forever! We played read the letters, Lays usually did stuff like this-

Y-A-E-B

R-T-E-P

&

B-U-B-R.

We played under the sea, and eye-spy,

but the thing we liked doing the most was playing,

HOP SCOTCH!

 Lays decided that I don't know how to play hop scotch! 

She broke the news like this, 

Lays- "Mom, I need to teach you how to play,

because you aren't a very good

HOP SCOTCHER!"

 She apparently learned from "Special Agent Oso"

with "Three Special Steps!"

So that pretty much makes her "The best

HOP SCOTCHER ever!"

To be fair, I actually didn't know all the rules that she knew!

Behind again! After this really big post, I'm going to be more consistent. At least I want to be!

Lays was so happy when I finally got the computer hooked up.

I have finally started waking up(@6:30) and making breakfast for my family.

Missy gave me this recipe, and we all love it.
Can't tell ya what it is cause if I try to spell it you will laugh at me.

This is Henry's favourite place to be in the morning cause it pumps out tonz of heat!
Through that door is the garage, and the other day Henry tried to walk down the three stairs, and fell.

He discovered that he isn't ready to walk down the stairs,

and the rest of my kids discovered that if you use the jets, the bubbles keep coming!

I just had to put these pics of Henry in Lays "Hello Kitty" robe!

HeHeHE. I love that he is probably going to be mad at me in like 4 years.

Speaking of, wait I can't think of a good transitional sentence, except to say that I miss all of you, and I'd love you to come visit. Since we found out we were moving, Tom and I have been wondering which one of you would come first so we could take you around Washington,

AND

THE

WINNER

 IS......

MIKE AND SHANNON'S FAMILY!!!!!!!

We are so excited!!!! They came for their spring break, and we had tonz of fun!!!!

The first day we ditched the kids, and went with Tom on a private tour of the Capitol Building.

It was so cool. We even got to tour the House, and Senate.

This is a cast of the statue on the top of the Capitol Building, and the other statue is of Brigham Young!

The top pic is from the top of Tom's office, and the bottom one is when we were on the underground trolley in the Capitol Building. We saw 4 Senators when we were there. We were about 10 feet from them, and I made eye contact with Senator Lieberman, but didn't know what to say, so I just kept following the guide who told us we shouldn't snap pictures, so I don't even have any proof.

Senator Lieberman 

 Senator Kerry

Senator Udall

This is Senator Jim Risch. Tom has worked with him since he was Idaho's Governor, so when we saw him we stopped and Tom talked to him for a bit. Tom introduced me to him and he said "Nice to see you again." Which was really nice of him to think he remembered me, because I actually hadn't met him before.

Senator Jim Risch

This is the mural at the top of the dome. If you laid it flat it would stretch out to be the length of three acres!

Right when I started filming this video the guide was telling us that only V.I.P.'s can get you up to the catwalk to go up into the dome, so that's what you hear me joking about on the clip.

The next day we took the kids to the museums.

 Ruby Slippers

Michael Jackson's hat.

Hope Diamond

It was a long, fun , and busy day. Lays, and Jacob had to be carried A LOT and I wished Tom had been there to lend a hand, but he had to work. I don't know if you know this, but Tom takes the train to work every day, and I drive him. on this day I still had my camera with me so I decided to snap some pics of him.

 Tom(Harry Potter),

 hated that I was all touristy. So he wouldn't smile for the camera.

The next day we did the monuments. Tom had to work again, so we went and bought 2 strollers.

One for Jake, and one for Lays.

After I took this video Logan discovered that he was stuck!
I was pretending to be all calm b/c we had about 30 people watching us,
 but I was freaking out!
It took 20 minutes,
me climbing up after him,
and Mike talking him into taking the first backwards step,
 till things started getting better!
I wish I had a video of that, but hindsight's 20/20 right?
When Logan got down he said "I think that has ruined me for tree climbing!"
Now there's the silver lining right?
Oh, and Logan was getting so much attention that right after we got down Jay started yelling,
"Mom!!! My HAND IS GETTING INFECTED!!!!!"
Translation, he needed a band-aid. It was really funny, but you probably would have to hear him yell it.

The WW2 Memorial is beautiful.

Henry munching some oreo's. He is so loud, and happy when he is eating. You should see him eat a banana!

I think this is my favourite monument. Honest!

This was after lunch, and Jay was running out of steam, so I carried Lays for a while, but when I ran out of steam she did this...

She hadn't even walked past one of the museums yet when she did that.

But when she was in the museum she thought it was fun to do this!

We were all little sad to see that "Night At The Museum 2" Is not accurate!

Nerdo's

This is the back of the White House!

We went to the Temple for my Birthday.

Thanks for all the calls, gifts, cards, and messages!

I had such a great Birthday, even though I was way over here!

We had a yummy dinner with my cousin Jessica, and her Husband Kyle and Kids.

Mike and Shannon, and their kids were so much fun, and so helpful. I wish they didn't have to go!

But I did fall asleep on Sunday for a 3hr nap.

Touring Washington is a lot of walking.

Just had to add this for your viewing pleasure!