Just for the Record

Sometimes I flip through the pictures on my iPhone and think, "Thank heavens for this iPhone!"  While my foggy mommy-brain sometimes forgets that the events of our family life extend beyond doing chores, tempering tantrums, fixing meals, and nursing a baby, at least I have the pictures on my phone to document that we do get out and do fun things together and that my children aren't always cooped up and bored.  We enjoy our life and love living it, I just need to remember to document it!
 So just for the record, here is a little of what we've been up to in past 3-ish or so months:

Cousin time!  Bret, Jenny, and their two boys came up at the end of March and we got to have all sorts of fun with them.

Sledding up at Hatcher Pass:

Taking a trip to the zoo:

Man, I wish little Benny lived closer by so that he and Kenadie could be constant buddies.  They get along so well (and I can't say that very often about Kenadie and her friends!) and that little Dallin is a nugget of LOVE. 

I took all three kiddos to the Anchorage Imaginarium in April.  We had a blast and I felt it was a pretty good mommy victory to make it through the day without too many snaffoos. 

Once the weather was nice and warm in May, I took all the kids back to the zoo.

Notice how Kenadie has to be the one pushing the stroller?!  Such a big helper! :)

Even though it takes quite a bit of work and planning/preparing to go anywhere with 3 kids ages 4 and under, I love getting out and doing things with my little loves and watching them learn, grow, and discover life together.  It is the most fun. :)

My husband and kids spoiled me rotten for Mother's Day with flowers, chocolate, a foot rub, a steak dinner, and a ginormous ice cream sundae:

And then again for my birthday: flowers, presents, an ice cream cake, clothes shopping with my mom, and a ticket to go see Les Miserables in Anchorage this October!

 (My husband is such a keeper he even promised to not make one derogatory comment about the musical until 2 weeks after the show is over--progress!).

We celebrated Lila's birthday with a "Frozen" themed party.  I had made plans to have all sorts of fun "Frozen" themed games and food, but in the end, all I managed to squeak out were two Elsa and Anna dress cupcake cakes and some "Frozen floats":

  

But Lila was one happy girl!

And my mom and I had fun sampling the frosting! 

Kenadie had a ROUGH time seeing Lila get so many presents that she, too, would love to have:

Total meltdown.
Good thing her birthday is right around the corner....

We took our little family to our community's "Colony Days" breakfast, parade, and fair.  

 

We had a blast and Grandma even treated the girls to their dream-come-true of getting to ride a pony.

Kenadie was especially in heaven.
"Look!  No hands!!"

A few weeks ago we splurged and went to Red Robin as a family for dinner.  It's a rare thing for us to go out to eat and the girls were so excited.

 

Water from a cup with a straw never tasted so good!

And you'd think that the girls had never colored in their life!

And you'd have thought that they are never fed edible food by the way they devoured their pizza and mac and cheese!

Kenadie keeps asking when we can go back there to eat. :)

The rest of life has been pretty uneventful, but sweet nonetheless.

I love finally having a sunggly baby and getting some use out of my Moby Wrap:

I love watching my kids play and grow:

I love finding random evidence of their play around the house:

Someone apparently got into my stash of (unused) ear plugs in my nightstand drawer and thought they ought to line them up! 

I especially love when my kids play so hard that they crash mid-play (though I don't love the late nights that follow!). 

I could and should always do more for my family and for others, but at least these pictures are reminders that although I'm a work in progress, at least we do get out, have fun, and from these pictures my kids seem to be relatively happy, normal, well-adjusted little people.
They are my everything.