date night!

michael and i finally found a girl in the ward to babysit

and finally planned a date for last night

here's the note michael wrote me in the morning

(he writes me notes every morning and it's my favorite thing)

he didn't have time to leave it in the morning so he texted it to me instead

 on our way out!

we drove michael's little car instead of the van so we could feel young and carefree :)

 we went to the sweet outdoor mall near our house called the village

and sat in the VIP section of the movie theater 

where you can order food from a real sit down restaurant and eat it while you watch the movie

we saw The Giver (it was so good!)

and ate mac & cheese, pulled pork sliders with fries,

 a salad and a slice of chocolate cake

it was super fun

we loved it

it was so nice to go out on a date

we even left henry with the sitter so it was just us 

i love spending time with michael

and not having to juggle five children at the same time

the sitter did great

so we'll definitely be going out again soon!

henry is five months!

our sweet little bear is five months old today!

that means i've kept five kids alive for five months! 

henry is a doll

we finally bought him a white dress shirt/onesie 

and he looked so cute on sunday

 eleanor had to be in the picture

and put her arm around him all on her own :) 

while i took pictures of him today, eleanor was right there again

she's such a sweet little mommy

 this one is blurry but i love the face he is making!

 it was hard to get smiles out of him today, i think his teeth are bothering him

 it's not like him to be so serious

 so far, henry has done really well on elecare formula

he's eaten rice cereal a bit and really enjoyed it

he tried watermelon once and liked it

and a few days ago he tried applesauce...i think he liked it

he seems to like to eat a lot and not be too picky so far

 henry found his toes this last month and i love watching him grab them

 we have to keep a close eye on him now

he rolls under furniture all the time and makes his way all across rooms 

he's even starting to get his bum up like he's trying to crawl!

henry is the sweetest baby

he is very smiley and happy

he is trying to talk to us a lot

and gives his big brother and sisters lots of laughs

it doesn't hurt that they do anything it takes to make him laugh

henry is very loved by all of our family

i only wish he would stop growing so fast!

olive's first day of preschool

it was a very big day for olive

first she had her four year check up

where we learned she's in the 0% for height which is weird 

(the doctor is requesting her old records to see how it compares)

and she has fluid in her left ear so she's being referred to the ENT

not great, but we're anxious to get it taken care of 

....

olive also had her first day of preschool today! 

she was sooo excited

she was accepted into the early intervention preschool through the school district

based on her need for speech therapy

but only for 2 days a week

i considered sending her to the other preschool we'd registered her for, too

but decided it would be too much

we'll supplement at home on her off days and try to get her kindergarten ready

look at our cute big girl!

 i told her i was going to miss her and she said, "not me"

and she didn't! she was too excited to miss me.

 she loved that they had snacks and puzzles

she drew the cutest pictures of noah and hazel while she was there

it was pretty weird to have olive gone

she's been pretty attached to me since she was born

this is her first time really being away 

and i'm so glad she did so well and loved it so much

it was an amazing break to have three kids at school

and the other two napping

amazing

i ate lunch, drank some dr pepper, did the laundry

(without anyone threatening to jump on my piles)

it was so quiet

it was pretty great

the first day of school and it is my birthday!

noah and hazel started school today! 

hazel started first grade

 and noah started 3rd

 when did they get so big?

 we live close enough this year that i get to drive them every day

i'm kind of glad, i don't think riding the bus is that pleasant for them

 noah wanted me to leave him and got pretty embarrassed when he thought i was coming in for a kiss

i wasn't :) 

 i stayed with hazel until the bell rang

 such a big girl

she was hardly nervous (maybe a little about lunch since she's picky...)

she was way excited

 and i turned 29 today!

michael surprised me with a sweet new phone

it's the s5 in gold and i love it!

my phone has been hard to hear out of and cracked for a long time

it's nice to have a brand new shiny one

 i didn't really have any plans today other than taking the kids to school,

cleaning the house for a showing and taking olive to her preschool open house

not very exciting

so i ordered myself some lunch

and a cookie for olive

that we enjoyed while henry and eleanor napped

 michael surprised me by showing up to olive's preschool open house

which was really nice and helpful

then after we picked the kids up from school

they dropped me off for a pedicure

while they picked up doughnuts

 and pizza

(this pizza was sooo good! thanks natalie for the rec!!)

 here's my pedicure

i got gel polish so hopefully it'll last a little longer

 we came home and they sang to me

and we ate ice cream cake (my fave) 

and pizza

 seriously my new fave pizza

it was a big exciting day around here!

here's to 29!!

saturday

yesterday morning henry woke up in the 5:00 hour

and didn't want to go back to sleep

but then he did, once michael nuzzled in to him

such an angel

once we got up, we said our goodbyes to tami

and went to boise

to go to breakfast

on our way to the restaurant we got some mini-doughnuts

and eleanor was not a fan of sharing

we went to a restaurant named moon's

it was super good

and they were really nice and accommodating of our huge family

here's my veggie omelet 

then we met up with the schofields

it was so fun to see them

and we're so excited for them to move here!!

i love this girl!

then we went shopping

henry was the cutest trying on this hat at the gap

we waited in the car while michael got an eye exam

since the day before he was river rafting and tipped the raft, which made him lose his glasses...

silly michael

we ate a late lunch (or early dinner) at chipotle

and we got fro-yo, too

it was a super fun day

celebrating my birthday early!!

life

aren't these the cutest boys you've ever seen?

 michael is super handy

i kind of broke our lawn mower

and michael totally fixed it

he's the best

olive told me to buy a sword (very seriously) if a bad guy tries to break her pillow

this is her very favorite pillow that she sleeps with every night

noah got a little back to school trim

he's so cute!

 this is a picture of our future living room

it is beyond ugly and makes me laugh

don't worry, they're leaving the pool table

and hopefully that bull pen sign ;) 

(it makes me laugh every time i look at it) 

the before and after pictures are going to be amazing!

hazel wanted to rock henry before bed the other night

eleanor loves to pretend to give henry his medicine all day long

luckily he likes his medicine and doesn't mind her doing it

  we went and had lunch with michael the other day

isn't he the cutest?

 then we went to wal-mart and henry sat in the cart for the first time

(we were out and about while our house was being shown to potential renters)

  yesterday i took the kids swimming and eleanor put herself in time out

which is funny because the only other kid who does that is hazel

they are so similar, in a lot of ways

  i might be a bad mom

or maybe utah rubbed off on me

(people are very lax about seat belts)

but i let the kids ride home from the pool un-bucked (it's only a few blocks away)

they LOVE it!

and i like that we get home quickly without any whining

i love their happy faces

normally they sit but this time they stood

little crazies 

  i ran a couple miles on the treadmill yesterday

and then saw that eleanor had colored her entire body with these markers

(and later realized a few walls) 

so i confiscated her markers

and heard henry crying

so i was dripping sweat and took a picture

why not? 

 i let henry suck on a piece of watermelon during dinner last night

he loved it of course :) 

today we went and met the kids' teachers

they both seem nice

then tonight tami and ellie came to stay on their way to washington 

tami and i guessed olive and ellie would be great friends

and they are two peas in a pod

 plus they look like they could be sisters

such cute girls

it was so fun to have them here

thanks for visiting, tami!