March 2019

After the wet, snowy February we had, we were more than ready for some sunshine. It was NOT warm, but we did get some sunshine the first weekend in March. Logan and I packed a lunch to eat at the park after story time at the library.

Look at those blue skies!

Saturday morning I took Logan to a birthday party for Addison Madsen. It was a half an hour away, but I wanted to take him and support Addison's mom, who I minister to. He had a blast jumping in the bounce house.

We left just in time to make it back for Corbyn's basketball game. We had planned to go directly from the game to Portland to go on a hike, but walking from the car to the gym I realized I was going to freeze if I wore what I was wearing. So we stopped at home, grabbed some warmer clothes, and then headed to Mt. Tabor. It's a big park on a little mountain in the middle of Portland. We did a hike around the perimeter of the mountain. For part of it the wind was blowing at us and it was pretty chilly, but the sun sure felt nice on our faces.

We were sure glad we bundled up!

We stopped at Salt and Straw on our way home.

They had just released their flavors for March and one of them seemed like a personal birthday present to me.

Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie. 😍 This picture doesn't do it justice because it doesn't really show all the berries in there.

I had planned to make dinner when we got home, but Rog didn't want to do dishes, so we ordered pizza from Papa Johns. We had just finished listening to Holes in the car, so we turned the movie version on and let the kids watch that while we ate dinner and I finally got around to decorating for March. New Poster.

And new letter board quote for the month.

On Monday Logan had joy school at Shannah Tanner's house.

Shannah was so sweet and invited the moms to come back a little early for a lunch of soup and salad since they had done the letter S that day. It was my birthday the next day and Kristen's on Friday, so it ended up being a birthday lunch for us.

It was Peyton's turn to pick our FHE treat. Since it was my birthday week I gave her a couple options and let her pick from those. She picked these lemon bars that were the Baking Challenge on Sally's Baking Addiction for March. 

This was my first time entering the contest and I didn't win, but it was fun seeing my picture among some of the entires for the month. (Mine is in the top left corner.)

My birthday was on a Tuesday. We had Costco muffins for breakfast.

I opened my presents before the kids left for school. I got two ThermoFlask water bottles with vinyl stickers from Just Add Sunshine (want), a Mickey Mouse wallet (need - my old wallet was older than Corbyn and falling apart), a Dream Suite Castle necklace from Make it Minnie (wear), and the Black Thumb Garden Club Workbook (read). I used money from my parents to get a pizza stone and a pizza peel as well as some magnets and an enamel pin from Just Add Sunshine. 

Our friend, Mariah Petrosino, co-wrote this book, so we were excited to get it.

I dropped Logan off for preschool and then Rog and I went to Pine State Biscuits for lunch. I finally tried the Reggie Deluxe and it was good, but oh so filling!

It was Mardi Gras, so I kept with our traditional Jambalaya for dinner.

Rog took Peyton to tumbling while I started making beignets.

He sent me a text telling me the sky was wishing me a happy birthday while he was gone. I was glad he did because I hadn't noticed and then I was able to step out on our back porch and enjoy it.

We delivered beignets with beads to some of our neighbors and friends.

I didn't think my birthday had ever been on Mardi Gras before, but I didn't really know because we didn't celebrate it growing up. I started taking notice and celebrating a few years after Rog and I got married. I did some research and found out that it was the first time in my life that Mardi Gras was on my birthday, but it will happen again in 2030, 2041, and 2052. 

I was blown away by all the texts, messages, calls, and gifts I received throughout the day. I was especially surprised by all the gifts from sweet friends!

After the beignets and getting the kids to bed, I relaxed and watched Princess and the Frog before going to bed. 

The next day I picked up my free donut from Krispy Kreme. (I also picked up my free bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes at some point that week, but I didn't get a picture before I devoured it.)

The Friday after my birthday the kids didn't have school. All on their own Corbyn and Peyton came up with this Mickey Mouse parade.

There had been a baby sale at Walmart in February, so I ordered a new crib mattress and car seat for Easton. The mattress arrived that day (in a very large box). The kids had hours of fun playing with it!

Since on my birthday I had beignets instead of an actual cake, I made myself Orange Cupcakes. Peyton helped me put the sprinkles on them. 

These cupcakes are pretty magical and they were definitely worth the wait!

That night Corbyn had his last basketball practice, but it ended up being cancelled halfway through because we were getting some snow. It was Kristen's birthday. She grew up here and said that it was the first time in her life that it snowed on her birthday (in Oregon). Thankfully that was the last snow of the season because we were all SO DONE with the snow and everything being cancelled!

Since it was my birthday week I did what I wanted to do any free second I had and that ended up being finishing this quilt (other than the borders).

Saturday morning Rog and the kids made me my birthday breakfast - stuffed French toast (with a Dreamsicle Smoothie because it's not a special occasion breakfast without that smoothie).

Like I said in his 4 year post, the rest of the family was eating stuffed French toast and all Logan wanted was a banana!

Corbyn had his last basketball game of the season. His team was really not very good this year and that game was the closest they came to winning a game this season (other than a snow makeup game they had on a Sunday, but we didn't go to that game). It was fun to see the progress he made from last year though.

After the game his team went to EZ Freezy for some frozen yogurt.

Then we dropped the kids off with the Yates and took our turn going out for date night swap. I had been wanting to try Little Big Burger, so we went there. The burgers were very good, but after going we understood their name a little better. They are little burgers (a little bigger than slider size), but they are pretty big (as in thick). We both had gone pretty hungry and ended up not getting quite full from our little big burger and the fries we shared. I think it would have been fine if we weren't quite so hungry to start out with. My favorite part may have been the fry sauce. That's not something you see very often outside of Utah!

We debated about going somewhere for dessert, but decided to just eat some of the cupcakes at home while we worked on our puzzle.

Monday morning it was Tracy's turn to host joy school. They made blow rockets for the letter R. (Shannah and Tracy had switched weeks, but they didn't switch letters.)

Almost every week I take the boys to Costco while Peyton is at ballet on Monday afternoon. Corbyn had buckled Logan into the car for me when we were leaving and I didn't realize he wasn't wearing shoes until we got there. So I threw him in the cart and hoped no one would say anything.

This pregnancy I have been feeling like I am not getting as big as fast as I remember getting with my other pregnancies. I look down and think, "Oh, wow I'm getting big!"...

But then I turn to the side and there's really not much to show. I hadn't wanted to hear from people that oh you're so tiny because it was already kind of freaking me out and I had worries that maybe he wasn't growing like he should be. I took these pictures at 20 weeks, but didn't post them on Instagram.

The next day I had my 20 week ultrasound and Easton was measuring just about right on where he should be at 20 weeks, so that helped reassure me that he's growing fine and maybe I just don't remember how big I was at this point with my other pregnancies.

The ultrasound tech said he was being so good and that he was one of the faster ultrasounds she's done because he was giving her all the pictures she needed without any trouble. The tech isn't allowed to say if everything looks good or not, but from what we could tell everything was there. We had to wait a few days to hear the official report from my doctor and he confirmed that everything is 👌. 

Much to Peyton's dismay, he is definitely still a boy.

The blue and gold ice cream social had been cancelled 2 weeks in a row (the first time unnecessarily, the second time more legitimately), so we were all very excited when we finally got to have it! Corbyn finally received his Bobcat that he had earned months earlier!

I was in full birthday party prep mode that week. I think I went on errands every single day to various stores to get what I needed and by the end of the week I was so tired! It was a relief when I could just sit down and do something to get ready for the party. We were having a Yoshi egg hunt as part of Logan's party, so I found some plain white eggs at Hobby Lobby and drew green circles on them while watching an episode of This is Us.

I always almost forget Pi day with it being so close to Logan's birthday, but then I remember at the last minute and don't want to miss out on it, so I end up making a quick and easy pie. That was definitely the case this year. I made this quick S'mores Chocolate Pie. In my rush to serve it, I forgot to take a picture before cutting into it. Just know that it was prettier before. I made it with all milk chocolate even though she warned that it might be too sweet that way. I thought it was perfect and no one complained while eating it, so I'd say the rest of my family agreed.

Friday morning I got to go to Morning with Mom with Corbyn and Peyton. Rog stayed home with Logan, so I could go with just the big kids.

That week Janssen from Everyday Reading was hosting a 5x5 Reading Challenge where you were supposed to read 5 books a day for 5 days with your kids. I had planned to do it with Logan during the day, but with the busy week I had, I usually ended up reading to him right before bed (often with the big kids). We pretty much do that every night anyway, but it was fun to check out some new books and read those.

We had Logan's birthday party the Saturday before his birthday. I reused the invitation (with a few modifications) from when Corbyn turned 7.

I made Mario and Luigi visors for the boys and had enough princess hats leftover from Corbyn's party for the girls who were coming. The morning of the party Logan wanted to wear his Luigi hat from his Halloween costume a few years ago. He prefers Luigi over Mario because Luigi starts with an L like Logan.

Peyton wanted to wear my Toad costume and Corbyn wanted to wear the Bowser costume from that Halloween, so we got those down for them.

We kept it simple and ordered pizza for lunch. We found a deal on medium pizzas from Papa Johns and used some points we had accumulated to get 5 medium pizzas for like $10 total. Some of the kids who we thought were coming didn't come and we thought that even though we had said, drop-offs welcome, we'd have more parents stay (only one mom did and she didn't eat any pizza). The biggest problem though was we had grossly overestimated how much pizza those kids would eat. Most only ate one piece (and didn't even finish that piece), so we had a TON leftover! I made some lemonade to go with the pizza.

Owen Benzinger and Bree Twitchell. (We also had Riley Bond with her brother Preston, Connor and Quinn White with their mom, and Sydney Tanner come.)

We played Mario Bingo. (Purchased from here.)

Logan loves playing Bingo and is very good at it. Most of the kids were right there with him, but a few just sat and ate their M&Ms which was totally fine.

We did the Yoshi egg hunt and then we just let them play with a bunch of balloons we had blown up.

Next Logan opened his presents.

He got some fun stuff. I think his favorite has been the 2 Transformers he got. The Bop-it has been very popular with the big kids, but he's a little too young for it.

Then we did cupcakes. I kept it simple and just baked a chocolate cake mix in various colors of cupcake liners. I made a simple Vanilla Buttercream for the frosting, sprinkled them with rainbow sprinkles, and topped them with toppers printed from here.

For the favor bags I cut out block question marks on my Silhouette and glued them to yellow bags. I made a little tag with Mario on it that said, "Game over! Thanks for playing!" For the favors I cut out some more of the cupcake toppers and stuck them on the top of jars of Play-doh. I also included a Mario fruit snack and they got to take home the eggs they found during the Yoshi egg hunt (filled with Starburst candies) as well as their Mario or Luigi hat (or their crown for the girls).

After the party the kids helped Rog wash the cars while I cleaned up from the party. Then Rog took the kids to the library and the park while I got started on cooking for the party we were having the next day.

The next day (Sunday) was St. Patrick's Day. I had made Whole Grain Green Hulk Muffins for breakfast the night before and was planning on making a green smoothie, but I was out of frozen pineapple (a key ingredient in my green smoothie), so I made our go-to Orangesicle smoothie instead.

A few weeks before St. Patrick's Day one of my friends (who I minister to) had posted a picture of a leprechaun she had drawn on her art page on Instagram. I try to comment pretty frequently to support her and said something like, "Yay for St. Patty's Day coming up!" Someone who I don't know commented back to me rather rudely saying, "It's St. Paddy's Day not St. Patty's Day." Her comment had bugged me since I've seen people use both and I think that although technically St. Paddy's Day may be the Irish way of saying it, plenty of people say St. Patty's Day. St. Patty's Day makes more sense to me since there is a t in St. Patrick's Day. I posted a little poll on my InstaStories and felt vindicated when St. Patty's was the clear winner among my friends.

Corbyn and Logan had green shirts that they wore to church on the Sunday before Christmas, so they wore those to church. Peyton didn't have any green dresses, so she wore her dress I got her in Greece with a green bow in her hair.

After church they changed into their green shirts. Corbyn and Peyton still fit into the shirts I bought them last year and Logan wore the shirt Corbyn wore when he was 4.

For dinner I made Guiltless Alfredo Sauce with penne, peas, and shamrock ravioli that had been in the freezer since St. Patrick's Day last year.

After dinner we had a March Birthday Celebration with the Yates, Martyns, and Sullivans. I went a little crazy and made a tiny cake for each of the March birthdays - mine on March 5th, Hudson Yates on March 10th, Logan Sullivan on March 15th, Logan on March 18th, Erin Martyn on March 29th, and Kellen Martyn on April 2nd (not March, but pretty dang close). I wanted to do the cakes in the order of our birthdays, but I was at the mercy of Winco and the color candles they had in stock.

It ended up that I had pink for my 33, Kellen orange for his 37, Logan yellow for his 6, Logan green for his 4, Hudson blue for his 2, and Erin purple for her 37.

I also made cake pops with a rainbow of sprinkles...

Rainbow Jello...

And we had a rainbow of Torani syrups to mix into our drinks.

One fun thing about doing a rainbow party is I was able to just use leftover napkins and straws from other parties in a rainbow of colors.

Erin brought this highly impressive rainbow fruit tray and Lindsey brought ice cream.

Our friends were so generous and brought lots of fun presents for Logan.

And I got a few things as well.

It was a fun party for me to prepare for although I was a little stressed out the entire party because Corbyn had started feeling sick literally minutes before our friends arrived. He ended up throwing up at the end of the party. (I was worried it was the year-old shamrock ravioli, but then Logan threw up in the middle of the night and he didn't eat any of the ravioli.) Both boys were totally fine the next day which was good because it was Logan's birthday! (None of the rest of our family got it and as far as I know none of our guests got it either.)

When Logan threw up just before midnight, Rog decided he'd work from home the next day because we were thinking both boys would be sick and throwing up all day (and this pregnant lady doesn't do well with throw up even when I'm not pregnant and it's worse when I am pregnant). Thankfully that wasn't the case. Corbyn said he felt fine, so he went to school and Logan was fine too. I spent the morning cleaning up from the party, washing Logan's sheets, and cleaning up from the throw up incidents. 

Mid-morning Rog took a break from work and came with us on a walk to the park. I walked laps around the park while the boys played.

Then we came home and had lunch. Later Rog took another break and played Paper Mario with Logan while I went grocery shopping.

We had Sweet and Sour Meatballs for dinner and some ice cream for Logan's birthday treat.

Logan opened a few presents throughout the day and then opened up the rest of his presents that night. He got Monkey Bingo (want), a booster seat (need), a Mario shirt (that he wore for his birthday party) and Mario underwear (wear), and Disney Baby First Colors, Shapes, Numbers (read). From the Riries he got Count Your Chickens!, a Mario Coloring Book, 3 Water Wow books, and 3 books (First Stories: The Jungle Book, Wreck-it Ralph Little Golden Book, and Wreck-it Ralph 2 Little Golden Book). From the Phillips he got an Ontel Magic Track.

The next day they celebrated his birthday at preschool. His teacher had me come a few minutes before the end of school and bring some of his baby clothes to show the other kids how much he's grown.

His teacher took these pictures of him holding up the baby clothes. 😍

She also had me bring in some baby pictures of him. It was so fun looking through pictures from 4 years ago and picking a few favorites out.

He loved this hat she gave him so much that he fell asleep wearing it that night. (And look how big he is in that booster seat!)

On Wednesday we had playgroup at the park because it was gorgeous.

Still a little chilly, but yay for blue skies!

Then Logan had his 4 year well child visit. Dad was there and that helped him do well for the shots. 

And he rocked his eye exam. I didn't know how that would go because of his speech, but he had names for all the shapes (not necessarily the "correct" names, but it worked).

Since it was the first day of spring they were giving away free ice cream cones at Dairy Queen, so we went there after his visit.

My sister-in-law, McKae, had done a clean-up challenge on her Instagram account and since I basically do a quick clean-up every morning anyway, I entered. It was only me and my other sister-in-law, Martha, who entered and I ended up winning an eye shadow from Maskcara Beauty. 

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day, so the kids were supposed to rock their socks for school. (3-21 represents Trisomy 21 and socks look like chromosomes.) Peyton wore 2 different crazy socks and Corbyn wore one Spider-Man sock and one normal sock. 

The next day they had rainbow day at their school. Each grade was supposed to wear a different color and they took this picture of a rainbow heart. Peyton is wearing orange and Corbyn is wearing purple, but it's pretty much impossible to find them in the photo.

It seemed like overnight the flowers started to bloom.

My Forsythia bushes are still pretty small and a little crazy looking, but those yellow flowers always bring me so much joy in the spring. We had a huge bush in my front yard growing up and it makes me so happy to have a few bushes in my own yard. Hopefully someday they will grow to be big and awesome too!

That Saturday Rog had the kids help him vacuum out the car.

And clean the mats. It had gotten really bad in there and it looked amazing when they were done. 

That night the Martyns watched our kids and we took our turn for a date night. We did initiatories in the temple and then went to Salt and Straw for one last taste of the Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie.

I finished up my project for March. I made these 4 Enamel Pin Hoop Displays using this tutorial and the hoops I had from making the chandelier for Peyton's Beauty and the Beast Party. I hung them in my corner of our master bedroom. And now I just need some more pins to fill them.

I also sewed the borders on Easton's quilt and mailed it off to Just in Time Quilts to have it quilted. It turned out to be the perfect size quilt for 1.5 yards of backing fabric. One of the most annoying parts of making a quilt is sewing the backing fabric together, so that was a pleasant surprise!

And then we flew to Chicago to spend Spring Break (the last week of March) with my sister and her family in St. Louis. I'll do a separate blog about that.