favorite moments on a regular wednesday

Lyla- just lots and lots of snuggles-as long as i'm standing and walking her around. She also kept biting my right shoulder and then laying her head on my left shoulder and saying "ahhhhh" to say sorry. She thought this on repeat was a pretty funny joke. She also ran around naked for an hour while the kids swim, crawling up the slide and stairs laughing at me along the way. watching her cottage cheese dimples on her cute tush as she runs by melts me.

Winston- watching him line up his animals in 2 new places today made them seem new to him. 1- out on the edge of the garden...complete with beets pulled out as props. 2- by the kiddie craft table where  a bunch of his animals got dumped in an effort to clean up family room. I also loved staring into his face while cupping his cheeks and thinking about how much i love him while he lay on his pillow at bedtime listening to me make up more "animal songs!", (tonight was about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.)

Eleanor- organizing her summer clothes with her and how she got so excited to have a drawer full of just swimsuits. Also, I got 3 new swaddle blankies- which her and Lyla both use as lovies (and which all 3 babies call "mays" because that happens to be what Didi called his blankie when he started talking),anyhow, she loved the new blankies so much. There was nothing else on amazon that would have made her happier to open. We also sat on the kitchen floor for a half hour today, with her my lap, while I cut and painted (and repainted and repainted when she touched them and then asked me to fix them) her finger and toenails. I loved burying me face in her freshly washed, and still barely dampened curls, and breathing her up.

Miles-teaching PE to his class (I do PE with his class every wednesday and park's every other monday) and how hard he tried at our "circuit training" in the theater and mostly how he jumped up on me and hugged me with both arms and both legs and clung to me to say good-bye in his happy/goofy/slightly show-offy way when it was over. I also loved reading a book in his bed about the gifts of the Holy Ghost and talking about his baptism coming up this summer and realizing how much more he already understands then I think he does. Then he launched into a classic miles tale that started with "Do you want the news, the bad news or the bad new?" and was all told with a twinkle in his eye, so much expression, and a realization there was actually "2 good newes". (All of the news involved "town", an upcoming 1st grade event at school.)

Parker- Listening to him play the piano, well after he finished his assigned pieces, just because he's starting to get good and because he enjoys it. The little grin he gave me when I put my ragnar tattoos on his and his buddy's calves. (that's where ragnar peeps wear them-promise.) He helped me so much today with the babies and got all of his responsibilities done, then stayed up late watching playoffs with Craig and then reading in our room. Writing this is making me realize just how old he's getting and also that i never had solid one-on-one with him today. It kills me how fast he's growing up, but kills me more I may be missing it. I read today that we spend 75% of the time we are going to spend with our kids in their lifetime before they turn 12 :(

So here's to tomorrow and makings these long days, but short years count. :)

*also...these pics!!! By @kaitlynrayphotography are everything! and I'm sure they will continue to show up everywhere

Hecho en Mexico

This past weekend my parents and Bekah came to town and brought Andrew and Allie with them so we could all go to the Tijuana Temple open house together. We decided to make a day of it, so we all piled in our minivan and left the babes behind.

 it only took us about 45 mins to get to the temple grounds and it was so beautiful. There was a gorgeous courtyard out front and the tour was perfect.

 

After stopping to see this Catholic church with the huge Jesus statue that is off the freeway in Tijuana, we headed to Rosarito where Craig had lunch all planned out. We ate at Tacos "Manuel"...find address here.

 While driving south from the taco shop through Rosarito, we saw mini pony rides and they had camels. The kids were SO excited about the camels so Craig flipped around and they all got to ride.

 From the camels, we continued south, through the beach town of Rosarito about 3-4 miles to a tiny little fishing village called Papotla.  (The turn off is on the right side of the road, just after the old FOx Studios where they filmed Titanic. You drive through these 2 old cement arches and follow the dirt road.) We drove down through all the little restaurants and shops and came out right on the beach. It was so crazy to drive right on the sand. We drove all the way to the end and it was so nice to have our car with all of our towels, snacks and beach stuff RIGHT there. No need to unload.

After boogie boarding and catching crabs for an hour we went exploring in all the tide pools and rocks and the kids got some of the coolest shells we've ever found.

 As the sun started setting, we went to explore the tiny village. It wasn't really a tourist town (in fact- we were the only tourist i saw there the whole day). There were a ton of locals that lookied like they came to eat out on a Saturday night and get their fish for the week. It was their version of Pike's Fish market. :) They did have a few stands selling trinkets and our FAVORITE by far was this glass sculptor. He would take a rod of glass and make anything you wanted out of in in a few minutes. I got a glass elephant for Winston. All of the kids ended up getting things made....a scorpion, dragon, pony, etc. They were a few dollars each but watching him make them was the best.

 a tamale stand guy asked if I wanted to come cook with them. YES!! I learned how they fold the husk around the corn meal mixture ( all with different meats, etc added in). then we put them upright in these huge steamer pots with lids on to steam them. DElish.

Not delicious was the raw sea urchin that craig and parker ate. 

Goodbye Mexico. You treated us well.

 (Right up to that 3 hour line of cars to get out on a Saturday night;)

Jane & Michael.....Banks -Wedding time!!

My youngest brother married his sweetheart last week in the Salt Lake City Temple. The ceremony was so sweet and I loved being in that sealing room in that gorgeous, peaceful temple with (almost) my entire family. My parents hosted a luncheon at the Grand America after the ceremony and then that night we celebrated at the Alpine Art Center. I love weddings, especially family weddings because I love getting so see everyone and for such a happy occasion.

The weekend after the wedding we all went to Phoenix to celebrate the life of my Grandpa Case at his funeral on Friday, followed by an Open House to celebrate the newlyweds on Saturday. Talk about efficient. :)

 Lizzy and I made that flower arch about 30 minutes before the party started. we were pretty proud of it. (I should add that we decided to do it about 5 minutes before that.....we just clipped a bunch of small branches from my parents citrus tree and used leftover flowers.)