March Madness

March has been a busy, fun month so far!

Parker went back to school and is thrilled to be reunited with his friends and being active all day. The school work itself is very simple for Parker so I try and remind him that half of success is just showing up, being on time, and actually turning IN your work. Sure, the assignments may be boring because to you they are super easy. But if the work doesn't get turned in at all or is late the teacher has no choice but to give you a lower grade- which, in turn, makes you look like you don't know the material. Anyhoo, he's stellar at getting his work done. And he's learned to forge my signature when he's done! Ah, Parker!

Rayleigh and I have enjoyed our nice, quiet mornings together. We snuggle and read books and play with toys and work in the yard. She's the best. Our backyard is perpetually muddy so I have to strip her down when she plays back there and then promptly give her a bath after I bring her inside.

This was us playing in the playroom. My choice position is laying down on the floor. She has absolutely no clue there is a little brother in my belly. She just crawls all over me.

Speaking of bellies, It's getting increasingly harder for me to bend over and pick up messes and spills. The other day, Rayleigh got into the pantry and was bringing me this container of cereal when she dropped it and the little buggers went everywhere. Immediately the primary song, "My life is a gift. My life has a plan. My life has a purpose, in Heaven it began...." popped into my head. Hopefully, the purpose of my life is NOT to pick up messes forever. 

Which brings me to my little helper! We've had MANY chore charts/incentive devices over the years. It seems to me that you can't ever stick with just one. As kids grow up and evolve so do their abilities to  help. Our latest invention is this "point" system. Every morning Parker is responsible for 5 things which are written on his wall. 1) Make your bed 2) Get dressed 3) Pick up your room 4) Eat breakfast and 5) Brush your teeth. He is extremely good about doing these things most of the time. The goal  is to have them become habits so I don't have to remind him. If he fails to do one of those responsibilities he loses 5 points. Also, if he is mean to his sister, is sassy, leaves dishes out.... he loses 5 points. If he complains about dinner, which happens WAY too often, he loses 15 points. Contrarily, if he does certain chores he can earn points. This has become invaluable to me and he is all too willing to help out and earn points. By Saturday he has the opportunity to earn a ton more points or get himself back to 0 if it's been a "losing" week. (Which hasn't happened so far) Sunday is a free day. For ever 50 points he earns he receives a dollar. He typically earns about a dollar or 2 a week. So far so good! And man, when my activity day girls left behind a HUGE popcorn mess Parker jumped in and saved the day! Plus, he's learning how to recognize when things need to be done, like put a liner in the trash can. He is becoming aware of his accountability which is another lesson we are currently trying to teach him in preparation for his upcoming baptism!

Rayleigh tries to help.... and by "tries" I mean makes messes everywhere she goes.

Speaking of making messes, she sure made a mess of her face the other day. She was playing in the yard and slipped and fell (she's a climber) and busted her nose and got a black eye. Poor princess!

Dress up and showing off her battle wound.

Climber.

We've also been passing around a cold which is weird for us because we NEVER get sick. I'm convinced Tanner is one of the 3 Nephites. Whenever I point out the fact that he's NEVER taken a sick day or NEVER been to the doctor and I've NEVER had to nurse him back to health in the 12 years we've known each other he fakes a "sore throat" or something and pretends he is stuffed up. Parker too! Sheesh boys! But Rayleigh DID get a little stuffy nose which was very confusing to her. She was pretty sleepy one day and I had to wake her up to get Parker from school. I HATE waking up sleeping babies!

She was full of drama when she was sick and this day refused to get into her car seat so I had her sit next to Parker on the way to school. Don't worry, it's just a 2 minute drive through the neighborhood.

Boogies! I gave her like 2 baths a day with lots of steam and oils to sooth her poor little nose.

But I can't complain about a sick girl when I get all these extra snuggles.

35 weeks!

I had a doctor's appointment and so we had a little lunch/playdate with my mom afterwards. Rayleigh is so cute in the playroom!

And she absolutely LOVES to try on everyone's shoes!

Here is the princess wearing Queen Nanny's shoes!

And Bebo's too!

Aaaaaand brother's....

We had our very good friends from Vegas stay with us for about a week! Spence and Mona Kay have been hanging out with us since they only had 1 baby. Now they have 5 and we have 2 and a half! Crazy how time flies and life progresses. But we were so excited to have them come and they were the PERFECT guests! We got the guest room all ready for them and tried to have as many amenities as we could on hand for them to enjoy. We wanted their vacation to truly be enjoyable! When you have 5 kids it's hard to be away from home- how do you sleep 5 kids with you in one hotel room? And talk about expensive! We are soooo blessed to be able to provide a nice place for people to stay when they come to SoCal! 

The night they arrived our stake was hosting a Chinese New Year celebration with food and entertainment. Slam dunk. Spence speaks Chinese and travels to China frequently so this was a fun opportunity. Unfortunately the party was a hit and the stake center was PACKED. Not the best situation for 7 little kids and 4 tired parents. We ate in a quiet Sunday school room and then went home for a movie. ha ha 

The next day the kids had a blast playing together all morning. I had to babysit for Cami but Tanner took the kids to the LH3 ward to hear Cecily's homecoming. (she just got back from a mission to Idaho!) and the Allred's took the kids to the beach. It was a nice day!

They planned their vacation perfectly with alternating beach/Disney days. So, Monday they were at Disneyland ALL day but Tuesday I pulled Parker out of school and we all went to 3 Arch! It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a blast! It took us 2.5 hours to get home which was a total bummer but we owned it and the kids were so trashed that they didn't mind. When we got home we had a fun outdoor lasagna dinner and the kids swam in the hot tub. We fed them all ice cream and chatted for a while. So fun!

My cute little churro!

She can't help but get completely dirty. My little nature loving child.

It was so cute seeing these 2 amazing parents snap pictures of their 5 awesome kiddos.

Out like a light in 3.5 seconds.

They did California Adventure on Wednesday and Ikea on Thursday and then hit the road. We were sad to see them leave but in honor of Spence and Mona Kay, Parker and I got Slurpees and chips on Friday after school. This was the things we did every time we hung out back in the day. Tanner and I would go to their house and we'd watch Survivor and eat 7-11 stuff. Nothing beats this guilty pleasure! 

It had been SOOOO hot. Like, my car said it was 104 yesterday. I'm so glad we have this hot tub. The heating mechanism isn't hooked up but the filter and pump is. Since it's been so incredibly hot the water heats up to about 85-90 degrees which is perfect. When we get home from school we are all sweating and enjoy a nice dip in the Jacuzzi!

This last weekend Kari threw together a small celebration for Tavian's 9th birthday. He wanted Parker to spend the night again so she asked if we could drop him off around 10am on Saturday and they were going to go to the beach and out to lunch before heading home for the slumber party. He had a blast and I'm so lucky to live so close to family and cousins! Tanner and I ran some errands, went back to Riptide Sushi for lunch, strolled the mall and then Tanner took one for the team and let me go to dinner and a movie with my mom and dad. All of our babysitters were going to the same movie at the same time. Thanks honey!!!!

When I was super young, like 4 or 5, my parents put me to bed and a few minutes later I was curious to see why Josi wasn't coming to bed. To my horror she was dressed in her "going out" clothes and was holding my Dad's hand. They were going to see Cinderella!!!!! I was SOOOO MADDDDD! ha ha Picture a dramatic/tired 4 year old Chandra. For some strange reason this memory popped into my head at the prospect of going to see the NEW Cinderella with my Dad. My Dad used to have special one on one dates with us when we were growing up and I was pretty much ruining Josi's good time. SORRY JOS! But, none the less, it was so fun having a night out with just me and my parents. We went to Panera Bread for dinner and then saw Cinderella and to our pleasant surprise we ran into Mike Cooper in the foyer. He said they had 3 seats up by them so we were able to see the movie with the entire Cooper clan PLUS a TON of mom's and daughters from the ward like Lisa B. and Beth Warner. The movie was excellent and we had a great time.

Baby Jack is getting bigger! I'm really starting to feel done and ready for him to come out. I wake up some nights with painful contractions which is just plain annoying because I'm having a C section. None the less we are preparing for delivery whenever it may happen. We've got our new double stroller and all the car seats we need. We just need to purchase a dresser for the little dude. Next stop: Ikea!