Bye Bye Coach Lynn!

For the past year, Sydney has been taking gymnastics at the Youth Center on base. Her coach, Lynn, was so positive, fun, and encouraging. I saw such a huge difference in Sydney's confidence on playgrounds and stuff after having been in the class for only a few months.

About a month ago, Coach Lynn told us that her husband's orders were being changed and he was going on a remote assignment in Saudi Arabia for a year. Since they couldn't be on his orders, she and her daughter had to move back to the states. We were so bummed that she had to go, but so grateful to have had a wonderful year with her!

Shortly after Coach Lynn left, Sydney decided she didn't like the bar because it hurt her hips. This turned into lots of whining on her part and coaxing on mine to get her to go to gymnastics, and she finally said she wanted to be done. Now she is totally excited to be on the waiting list for ballet!

Photo Op with Daddy

After Spencer did his PRT (fitness test), he came home to clean up and had some time to spare before having to head into work in uniform. He loves these Superman pj's Grandma B. gave Shawn and thought they would make for a cute photo shoot.

This boy is soooooo attached to his Daddy.

And we can't forget a cute picture with our fancy little Syd. Notice her headband "belt," which I think was inspired by my wearing skinny belts with some of my outfits :)

Watching Conference

Every six months when General Conference rolls around, we relish in the fact that we get to spend Sunday morning (ok, let's be honest... all day Sunday) hanging out in our pj's while we listen to messages from our church leaders on TV. Granted, the kids were being crazy and it was a little difficult to pay attention. Sydney got the brilliant idea of making us a special bed for watching Conference, and I think he helped them be a little more quiet for a solid 10 minutes. 

Not sure what it is about Shawn, but he loves to just chill in his diaper. Sydney never really did that, so it kind of cracks me up.

When it was all over I asked Spencer what percent of Conference he actually got to listen to, and he said something along the lines of, "I think a good 25%."

Easter 2013

Our Easter celebrating started a few days beforehand with coloring eggs with friends. Aside from the usual crayons and stinky vinegar coloring method, we also attempted a marbled effect using shaving cream that I found on Pinterest. That was a total fail. But my kids sure seemed to enjoy decorating their eggs!

Shawn was completely enthralled in this process. I was a nervous wreck hovering over him so he wouldn't spill all over the floor (and my favorite rug). Luckily my friend Kathy was there to snap photos! I love these pictures she captured of him:

The day before Easter, I told Sydney she and I could go on a mommy-daughter date and get our toes done. Although I had planned on doing it a week before, I naively thought we could easily walk in to one of the places on base without an appointment. Boy was I wrong! After getting turned down at Kadena, we went over to Foster and were told by two more places that they were totally booked. We finally tried a place off base and I asked if they could just squeeze in Sydney. By that point I was desperate and didn't want to totally disappoint her for not delivering on my promise. Thank goodness they said yes, and I sat and flipped through nail art pictures for like an hour while my 4 year old was pampered.

The final product was super cute Hello Kitty toes and flowers on her fingers. She loved it!

On Easter morning we woke to a major downpour. All the drains and ditches on Lester were almost full, and there were even spots on the road that were flooded. Luckily I chose to wear my rain boots and carry my dress shoes, cause we there was a good 6 inches of standing water in the parking spot we pulled into at church. It was all dried up by the time we were done.

 

When we got home, the kids went through their Easter baskets and immediately cracked open every glow stick they got. So much for thinking the Easter bunny gave them a solid three day supply...

Showing off her fancy nails again.

In the afternoon, we joined in the annual Lester Heights Easter egg hunt. Shawn was sleeping and missed out on the fun.

Back: Ben, Maddy, Rain
Middle: Sydney, Hazel, Ford, Hailey
Front: Owen, Larkin, Seth

Sydney loves acting like she's Hazel Mae's big sister.

When Ashley gave the go ahead for the kids to start searching, Sydney was the only kid that went to this section of the yard. Let's just say she made out like a bandit, and I let her collect extra eggs since Shawn wasn't out there to get his due.

Afterwards I saw her snitching lots of candy at the top of the stairs, and grabbed my camera to catch her in the act. I told her to say "cheese" and about died laughing when her smile revealed chocolate covered teeth. Looks like I married a man in the right profession!

The Perks of Working for the Navy

Man I'm behind on my posts! Near the end of March, Spencer's work had a command-wide day at the Aquarium. It was basically a Friday that he could either spend the day at the clinic doing nothing (which he actually considered since he could have used the time to study for the GRE), but he agreed to do a fun day at the aquarium with us and then study that night.

Before making our way to the entrance, the kids burned some energy on the play area outside.

Then we made our way down the escalator to take in the view.

We took very few picture inside, and instead just tried to enjoy our kids excitement at seeing all the cool  sea life. That and we were running all over the place trying to keep up with Shawn.

"Yeah right, Mom. I'm not sticking around for a picture."

Checking out the sea turtles.

Shawn was imitating a little Japanese boy who had just had his picture taken. He was making two peace signs with his fingers and holding them close to his face, and that's what Shawn tried to mimic when I told him to smile. 

My favorite sea turtle area moment happened with Sydney. She was checking out some sea turtles with a dental assistant's little 6 year old boy (coincidentally also named Sean), and I walked over to talked to them. After a few minutes she said, "Mom, go back over there by Daddy," essentially telling me to get lost. That girls sure loves the attention of boys, and apparently I was stealing too much of it!

After seeing pretty much everything there was to see, we made our way back to the play area before calling it a day. 

In other news: Spencer flew to Osaka to take the GRE a few weeks later and totally met his goal for the score he wanted!

Pure Entertainment

Every Wednesday night Spencer goes to Young Men right after dinner, leaving me and the kiddos with an evening together. Most nights I help our bedtime routine along with a tub, but on this particular night we went with an episode of Backyardigans and some popcorn. 

They were happy, and I was happy. It was a win-win.

My 30th Birthday

My birthday was pretty much just a regular day, but we decided we would go out to eat that night. We attempted to go to one of our favorite places, a Thai restaurant called Sum Chai, but it ended up being closed. Instead of trying to search for a different option off base, we just jumped on over to Kadena and ate at Chili's. We totally felt obese eating so much fried food, but it was yummy. Our kids came of of the restaurant with stains of chocolate milk down the front of their shirts. Sweet.

Then we came home to enjoy some carrot cake. Sydney did the honors of placing the candles, and loved every minute of it.

Do we look excited or what?

Cake. Hooorrraaaayyyy!

The highlight of this part of celebrating was Shawn's attempt to sing "Happy Birthday." After Spencer and Sydney starting singing, he wholeheartedly chimed in with his nonsense words. I made them sing it twice so I could hear him do it again. He does the same thing when we sing songs at church, and it totally cracks us up!

I have to say, I am quite content with being 30. Aside from having more wrinkles and a few gray hairs (thank goodness for highlights that can easily cover those up!), I feel like this decade will be spent enjoying the fruits of our labors. It feels good to be in the place we only dreamed about when we were 24 and poor dental students. Now here we are on a tropical island with a good job and two cute kids. Life is good!