Routines and Traditions

This past weekend we did not have a single plan set on our schedule.  No trips, hikes, or parties.  I had been specifically guarding that weekend for weeks before hand.  I wanted it to be open as my last weekend before school started.  I wanted to be able to relax and use the time to prep myself and Adalyn for the big transition to school that happens this week (tomorrow!!).
 

In the end it was a very nice and slow weekend.  We did go school shoe shopping, out for ice cream with passes from the Library reading program, and to see the movie Finding Dory (Work party with McKay's work), but other then that the rest of Saturday I was free to prep my fall schedule and take a wonderfully long nap.  So nice!

I really love the idea of schedules and think that they really can be helpful, but I usually fail to follow through with mine for more then a couple weeks.  I REALLY hope this one is different.  I have been thinking about it and planning it mentally all summer long and I think we have found a winner.  I tried to keep things spaced out and very low key so hopefully we can follow through with it most days.  I really believe that kids and babies crave routine and rhythm in their lives and while I personally like to mix things up now and then I am going to try and be a little more consistent for their sakes.  

Some things that I added to our schedule that I am excited about are our rotating lunch schedule, grocery shopping at night, and the new rule that Daddy puts the kids to bed.

Lunch time is hard and I was tired of pb&j everyday.  So I wrote out all of our favorite lunch ideas and divided them into two weeks of lunches.  Now I just switch off which menu I am using each week.  Then I take the list for the current week with me to the grocery store and make sure I have all of the ingriedents for that week's lunchs.  I have been using this system for about a month and it is going great.

I also finally gave up on trying to take the kids with me to the grocery store each week.  This was my last week dragging them with me and I will now start grocery shopping on Tuesday nights when McKay is home.  I am grateful that we had some evening time available for me to go instead of stressing myself out each week by trying to take them with me.  Everyone is different on what they can handle and 4 kids was my limit at the grocery store. haha!  I am sure I will still take them to the store every now and then, but I will be nice to not have to do it every week.

My favorite addition to our routine is the new rule that Daddy does bedtime.  Before we started this routine in July we would switch off putting the kids to bed, but whenever McKay was the one to put them to bed they would all cry for mommy.  By bedtime my patience is so thin and I really had a hard time not being a super grochy mama during the bedtime routine.  McKay wanted to help, but whenever he took over the kids would just be super whinny and it ended up stressing us both out.  So after talking with my aunt about it we decided to just make bedtime "special daddy time" every. single, night (unless he had a church meeting).  The first few nights I had to go in my bedroom and lock my door to help them understand that it was daddy's turn to be in charge.  They cried a bit for mommy to come, but now it is completely normal and they have accepted that Daddy puts them to bed.  They have a fun routine that they came up with complete with bedtime exercises and then daddy usually reads to them from a chapter book (currently they are reading the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe).  I am SO grateful that we came up with this solution and that McKay is so willing to step up and help out.  I am enjoying my little bit of down time in the evenings and have even started working out a bit more while he puts them to bed.

Hoping we can last more then a few weeks with our new routine/schedule!  I even added in baby feeding times into our day to be prepared for when baby #4 finally makes her debute, but that was probably wishful thinking!  haha!

We also added in two new family traditions this past summer that I wanted to write about because they are both fun little things that our family is enjoying.  I am always on the look out for more family traditions to add in, but they have to be simple and easy otherwise they probably wont last.  The first one is waffles on saturdays.  SO simple, but I love that my kids know this tradition.  They expect it and it is so fun to sit down as a family for waffles on Saturday mornings.  We use this recipe and it feels semi-healthy even if we do cover them in syrup.  The last tradition is truely just for my sanity, but the kids love it.  It is cold cereal on sunday mornings.  We never used to buy cold cereal unless it was a special occasion.  But a few months ago I was talking to my neighbor and she told me that they do cold cereal sundays for breakfast.  Guys, sundays are hard days for me.  It is sad to say this, but it might be the longest day of my week.  We have 1:00 church.  McKay has meetings all morning and then usually something in the evenings too.  So I am alone with the kids all day.  It is hard figuring out stuff for them to do all morning and then they skip their naps because of church so we are all a little cranky in the evenings before bed.  Cereal for breakfast just sounded too easy to pass up.  The kids take turns picking out the one box of cereal each week and then they save it until Sunday morning.  We buy one small box of cereal each week and it is usually gone in a couple days since they snack on it after we eat it for breakfast sunday morning.  They really have loved this tradition and it is working well for me too.

It is so fun to have my kids getting older and starting to show an interest in family traditions and activites.  I feel very grateful for my sweet little family and hope that they know how much I love living life with them!    





           

Adalyn Turns 5

Oh Addie girl you are 5 years old and we all can't believe it.  5 just feels so big.

I have so many mixed feelings with her turning 5 and heading off to kindergarten all in the same month.  I think it is a little overwhelming to her too (she has been a bit emotional).  Add in the new baby coming soon and everyone we talk to is constantly telling her how big she needs to be and how much she needs to be a big helper for me.  So lots of new things happening in this little girl's life.  But even with all of my nerves and hers about heading off to school I know she will do great and is up for the challenge.

She is a really great big sister.  This summer she has really stepped up and taken the lead with her little brothers.  She entertains them well and trys to keep the peace between Jensen and Declin.  She also does her chores with  A LOT less complaining and is quite the little helper now.

To celebrate her birthday this year she got to have her first friend birthday party.  If you know Adalyn then you know that she is very social.  Friends have always meant a lot to her and she loves playing with them any chance she gets.  She was SO excited about inviting her friends over for a party and loved listening to me talk about all of the plans for it for weeks before.  We decided to have a Little Mermaid water party since she has a summer birthday.  I always had winter birthday parties with a Feburary birthday so I also had fun planning a summer party.

We had her party on Friday, August 5th since we were going to be out of town on her actual birthday.  McKay took the day off of work to help me with the party which was definitely needed.  She had 7 friends come plus her and Jensen which ended up being perfect.  Her party was simple and not quite up to pinterest standards, but she loved it.

We started the party off with playing in sensory bins with water beads and little toy fish and water animals.  The water beads were a big hit.  Once everyone had arrived we played 2 games.  Our first game was a relay game.  Each team had to transfer the water beads from one container to another with a cup.  The first team to transfer all of their beads first won.

After the relay game we did a cake walk with princess music.  Everyone won bubbles in the cake walk so not too competitive.  haha!

After the games we had a pinata.  The pinata was the only thing that Addie had requested for her party and I was happy that we were able to find a little mermaid one.  Luckily everyone got a turn to hit it before it broke apart.

After games we did presents and cupcakes and ice cream.  

The last activity of the party was a water fight.  We have learned this summer that little kids don't always do well with actual water fights since they don't all love to be sprayed with water by their friends.  So we changed the rules a bit and had everyone just chase McKay and spray him.  They loved it and had a ton of fun running around the yard chasing daddy.  And who are we kidding, Daddy loved it too.  

  

I think it is safe to say that our first "friend" birthday party was a success.  We love you sweet Addie!  

Later the next week on Addie's actual birthday we did a little bit of celebrating while we were at a family reunion at Lava Hot Springs.  

We started off her birthday morning by letting her open her presents from Mom and Dad.  We got her some new dresses for her baby dolls and a new twin stroller.  She seems to be liking them! 

After presents and breakfast we played around the cabin for a while and she even rode the zipline.  

In the afternoon we headed to the pool and had a fun picnic and swimming with the cousins.  I was terrible and barely took any photos at the pool since keeping track of little ones in the water is not an easy task.  Safety first I guess! 

After swimming we walked over to Grandma Liz's campsite next to the pool and had dinner and grandma treated Adalyn to cake and ice cream (mommy was lame and just brought cookies since they were easier).  Adalyn often celebrates her birthday with Grandma Liz since it is usually over the Smith Family reunion and grandma is always so sweet to buy Addie girl a birthday cake.  Thanks grandma!

 Kenzie was so sweet to make Addie a cute matching bracelet.  

All of us in our post swimming glory!  Don't we clean up well?! lol 

We love you Addie girl and we hope you had a wonderful birthday!  

5 year old post coming soon!  

   

 

First Trip to Jackson Hole

On July 30th we made a one day trip to Jackson Hole.  I have been wanting to go there for a couple years and was happy to finally make it work.  We headed up semi early in the morning after a quick stop for some donuts at our favorite bakery here in Idaho Falls.

I thoroughly enjoyed the view on our way there and was amazed by just how many trees there were.  Once we got to town we set up camp in the center of town and did some quick people watching while munching on our donuts.  I had to laugh because there was a farmers market going on around us with little booths.  All of the booths were organic this, or local that.. you know healthy stuff.  And there we were with our very unhealthy donuts in the middle of it all.

After donuts this pregnant mama needed a quick bathroom break before heading out on the trail.  We looked around and found the closest store that we could find that had a bathroom.  After going in the store we realized that there was a toy store in the basement and decided to check it out.  It eneded up being the perfect little pit stop for the kids.  They had several toys set up that the kids could play with.  They had a blast getting some wiggles out and playing with the toys.  Honestly I think they would have been happy to stay there all day.

Eventually we headed out to Jenny's lake, which is about 30 mins from Jackson Hole.  It was crowded parking, but not too crowded on the trail.  We had an enjoyable time hiking around, stopping and putting our feet in the water, and eating our sack lunch.

All along the trail I really wanted to reach some sort of destination, but we quickly realized that the kids were not going to make it to Hidden falls like we had hoped so we started looking for closer destinations.  We soon heard from other hikers around us about Moose Ponds and guess what there were actual moose there at the moment.  So we hiked on over to the pond.  The pond itself wasn't that amazing, but we did get to see some moose.  Actually a whole moose family.  There were 2 adults and 3 baby moose.  It was so awesome!  Jensen even had his "lookers" aka binoculars so that he could see them a little better.  While we were watching the moose we kept getting closer and closer on the trail and then we soon realized that we were a little too close for comfort.  As we tried to hurry the kids back up the trail Addie got mad at us for some reason and ended up screaming a bit (ahh!)  Her scream ended up scaring the moose off and we felt bad the rest of the way down the trail that we had ruined the moose sighting for the rest of the hikers after us.  Oops!   

The little black dots behind us are the moose.

After hiking around Jenny's lake the kids really wanted to get there swimsuits on and actually go swimming in a lake.  So we headed to String lake that is just down the road.  It is smaller and felt easier to swim in with little kids then trying to swim in Jenny's lake.  

The view was beautiful!  I loved it!

28 weeks with baby #4

After a little swim at String Lake we packed up and headed home.  The day ended up working out perfectly.  Niether McKay or I had ever visited this area and we were a little worried about how everything would go since we didn't have any amazing plans.  But thankfully everything fell into place and we were able to have a fun day exploring.  So happy we finally got to see the other side of the Tetons.