May 2019

For May I couldn't find a print that I liked, so I created my own. 

Peyton told me multiple times throughout the month that spring is not a color. 😂

I went with Peyton's class to the zoo for her one and only field trip of the year. Last year they didn't go to the zoo and it didn't go over well with the parents or students, so this year it was back to the zoo and we were so glad. There were many more parents who came than were needed to chaperone the kids, so I didn't have to watch anyone other than Peyton. We stayed with her friend, Ella, and her mom and her friend, Kaylin, and her dad the entire time we were there. 

The sea otters and the harbor seals gave us a great show as soon as we got there which was fun for me because otters are my favorite and in all the times I've been to the Oregon Zoo, I'd never gotten to really see them.

We ran into another group of kids and their parents at the lions. Peyton would have liked to have stayed with her other friend Peyton C (the redhead in this picture), as well as Ella. It didn't work out that way, but she was happy to see her for a few minutes.

These naked mole rats were surprisingly very fun to watch crawl around in their tunnels in a glass case.

Peyton was excited to see she is almost the same height as this flamingo.

This monkey was fun to see up close and personal.

It seemed we had to stop at every statue we passed to take a picture. 

Peyton was cracking me up when she posed herself like this on this bench.

We've always had good luck seeing the cougars at this zoo and that luck continued this time.

We got back to the front of the zoo at the specified time, but there was some misunderstanding with the bus driver and we ended up waiting for at least a half hour for our bus. I was at the beginning of a cold and not feeling very well, so I slept most of the bus ride home. Peyton must have been embarrassed because she kept trying to wake me up, but I just couldn't stay awake! Erin Martyn had watched Logan for me in the morning and then dropped him off at his preschool like normal. Because of the bus being late and my nap on the way home, I only had a few minutes before I had to pick him up and I think I spent most of that time trying to wake myself up! I rarely nap during the day for that reason.

I finished up the cornerstones for my Chamomile Quilt. I was a little nervous about making these, but with the nesting seams, they came together so nicely. 

I mentioned in my April post that I had a ton of lemon frosting left over from Peyton's birthday cake. The Dins had us over to watch the Blazers play in a playoff game and I made these White Chocolate Brownies to take to that. I topped them with the leftover lemon frosting and they were 👌despite me baking them a minute or two longer than I should have. 

I also made some simple cake mix cookies with a white cake mix and used the lemon frosting to turn them into sandwiches.

When I was planning our menu for the week, I knew we were having tacos with the Dins when we watched the Blazers game with them on Friday, so I didn't think we would want more Mexican food on Sunday. But then when Cinco de Mayo rolled around, it felt a little weird to be eating Indian food. 😂

I hosted my last joy school with the letter y. I had the kids wear their BYU shirts and we made cougar puppets.

28 weeks. Hello 3rd trimester! 

The kids had Wednesday the 8th off of school because the teachers in Oregon were striking for more funding for education. (I agree we need more funding for education, but I don't think striking for that one day actually made any difference and we have to make that day up which means instead of finishing up on Friday, June 14th, the kids have to go to school on Monday, June 17th - Corbyn's birthday.) The kids also had that Friday off, but they had school on Thursday, so that made for a weird week. It was teacher appreciation week and Mother's Day was coming up on Sunday, so I had Peyton help me dip an army of cinnamon bears. 

I designed these tags for the kids to give their teachers.

And these tags to send to my mom, Rog's mom, and my Grandma Afton who is our last living grandma.

Logan had the cutest little Mother's Day lunch for me at his preschool on Thursday. We ate lunch and then the kids sang a few songs for us. 

(Just a short clip from each song.)

We also got school pictures back. I was very pleasantly surprised with how Logan's turned out.

Some of his artwork and the props he made for the songs.

When we got home I asked him to take a picture with me and this was the pose he came up with. 😂

That night the kids had a track meet in Portland. They could have done a few before that one, but we missed them because they were always on Thursday nights at the same time as my tap. This was the last one, so I missed tap and we all went. They each ran a few different races and Peyton did the long jump.

We had been planning on going to Salt and Straw on Saturday for Mother's Day, but since we were already downtown we decided to go that night. The last time we were at Salt and Straw we had told Corbyn the next time we went he could get a single scoop instead of the kid scoop if he reminded us. He most definitely did not forget and was so pleased with his bigger scoop.

All the kids got the Skittles Rainbow Sherbet.

And Rog and I both got the Roasted Strawberry and Toasted White Chocolate.

On Friday we went to IKEA, so I could get a shelf for Easton's corner in our bedroom. Corbyn is too tall for the Småland now, so he had to walk around with me. We had time left at the end before we had to pick up Peyton and Logan, so I let him get a treat (if he promised not to tell the other kids). He thought that was the coolest thing and it totally made up for him not being able to play.

That night we went to Lowe's to get some plants and garden soil for the garden. My request for Mother's Day was that the kids and Rog plant my garden for me since I'm not supposed to garden while pregnant because of the risk of coming across cat pooh. (Just like how you're not supposed to change the kitty litter when you're pregnant.)

They planted on Saturday while I was at a baby shower for Krislyn Willes.

It was a warm day and the Lockers had them over to run through the sprinklers that afternoon.

Rog and Peyton made Lemon Cream Cheese Croissants for my Mother's Day breakfast on Saturday night. (I made the strawberry sauce to go on top of them.)

They had a huge sharing time (taught by Rog) instead of class time and then one of the men did singing time, so all the women could go to Relief Society. The air conditioner in the Relief Society room was broken (and blowing out heat instead of cool air), so it was unbearably hot in there, but it was nice not to have to teach. 

I had my dad put together Easton's crib while they were visiting us in April (since Rog was complaining about having to do it twice). I finished painting Easton's letters and Rog put up the shelf for me, so I decided to also take a picture with my 4th baby. Almost 29 weeks - 10 weeks to go!

Rog and Corbyn made the pork for Smothered Pork Burritos, Rog and I assembled them, and I made S'mores Bars for dessert. 

I got the new Salt and Straw Cookbook and the kids made me some fun things at school.

I got one row of my Chamomile Quilt sewn together.

Shannah took her last turn to host joy school with the letter z.

I had some extra bananas that needed to be used up and Mel posted the perfect recipe for that, so I made them on a lazy, rainy Thursday morning. Logan was a huge fan. I'm pretty sure he ate 6 of the 12 muffins.

I went with Logan on a field trip to the North Clackamas Land Lab. It is probably only a mile away from our house, but I had never been before. He got to pet a calf that was only 4 days old and we saw some piglets that were only an hour or so old.

His favorite part was definitely the tractors.

Most of his class and Teacher Kay. The kid sitting on the tractor with the blue hood on was the high schooler who took us around the farm. Teacher Kay had warned us that some are better than others and this kid was definitely not very good.

The kids were supposed to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. Peyton dressed as a dance teacher (in her tumble clothes) and Corbyn dressed as a video game designer.

I took some pictures of our new plants from last summer when they were in full bloom. 😍

Rog went to Sandy to help his uncle with a project on a Saturday that we didn't have much going on. I took the kids to a park for a picnic and then worked on binding Easton's quilt while they played.

I think this was the first time Corbyn and Logan played together and left Peyton out. Usually it's Corbyn and Peyton playing together leaving Logan out. The gap between Corbyn and Logan is roughly the same as the gap will be between Logan and Easton, so it gave me some hope that maybe someday Logan and Easton will be buds.

I happened to be matching the quilt I was binding, so I had Peyton take my picture.

The Disneyland castle had been under construction for a few months and it was fun to see people posting pictures of the new version on Instagram as it got finished.

I finished up two more rows on my Chamomile Quilt.

I had been listening to a talk from conference each morning as I got ready for the day. This talk really stood out to me. It's one of the last talks and not by an apostle, so I doubt it will be one that receives a lot of attention, but I really enjoyed it and think it will be one I go back to later on.

I had a coupon for a free bundtlet, so I treated myself to one while Logan was at one of his last days of preschool.

You can't tell in this picture, but it was raining here while the most beautiful sunset was going on somewhere.

I finished binding Easton's quilt. 💛💛💛

This was my May project for my Project a Month in 2019. I had originally planned on doing it in spring colors (the obvious choice), but wasn't feeling inspired until I came up with the idea to do it in patriotic colors.

I'm RH negative, but so is Rog, so I don't need a Rhogam shot when I am pregnant. Rog had to have his blood drawn to prove he is also RH negative and then I had to have my blood drawn for a reason that isn't clear to me. The first time I went in they tested my hCG level instead of whatever they were supposed to be testing it for, so I had to go have it drawn again. With all the hoops we had to jump through, it probably would have been easier to just have the Rhogam shot. 

On Logan's last day of preschool, they had a party with a blow-up house. They were playing when we got there and he was all sweaty and his face was red, but he didn't seem to mind one bit! He had the best time!

They also had ice cream sundaes and his teacher gave us some artwork she had saved from throughout the year.

We loved his preschool and his teacher so much. I signed him up for the same teacher next year in the 4-year-old class and I'm glad he gets another year with her.

Logan and I went to have lunch with Peyton for the real grandparent's day. I'm pretty sure Logan was the youngest grandpa there and the only one playing on the playground. 😂 

We went to see the live-action Aladdin opening weekend. We used reward points from our Disney Visa, so it was free. I grew up watching Aladdin, so I was particularly excited to see this one. It was pretty magical.

Rog started building a small shed for our backyard and spent most of that Saturday working on it. The kids helped. 

Saturday night we went on a date to Waffle Window and then IKEA where we got patio furniture for our back deck. The kids helped Rog assemble it on Sunday since it was pretty easy and we had our first meal out there. I always felt like our deck was such a waste since we couldn't eat out there, so having this makes me so happy.

We always have pancakes for breakfast on Memorial Day to make up for missing the Ririe Memorial Day pancake breakfast. 

More shed building on Memorial Day.

I pulled together a quick and easy BBQ for dinner that night with all the summer foods - lemonade (I added strawberry sauce to make mine strawberry), hamburgers, watermelon, corn on the cob, and BBQ chips.

I finished up Easton's corner (other than touching up the crib - Rog's job) and took pictures. This corner has terrible lighting, so these pictures had to be heavily brightened and filtered (and I cringe when I look at them).

Of course I prayed for all of my children, but this one took a little extra prayer, so I put together this print for this corner.

Every year the best part of our Memorial Day is helping take down the flags at the Willamette National Cemetery the day after. 

A beautiful day for playgroup at the park.

The kids had their last day of track. The Franklin High coach had ordered the wrong sizes for the middle school track team, so they gave the jerseys to the Runner 2 Runner runners.

Saw this cloud while driving and had to take a picture while I was stopped at a stop light. Totally a Toy Story cloud.

@woodberry_way is hosting a quilt along for her Rise quilt in June and July. I kept telling myself I couldn't join since I'm going to be having a baby in July, but that didn't stop me from pulling fabric, buying backing fabric, and making the first two blocks (before the quilt along even officially started).

Spoiler alert: I've made two more blocks and it looks like I'm going to be quilting along until Easton is born. Who knows when I'll finish, but quilting has been such a good way for me to destress this pregnancy and I couldn't resist.

And that was our May!