Blake Eating Licorice

I was sitting here in the kitchen enjoying some "me" time and reading everyone's blogs when I looked over and noticed Blake stuffing his mouth with licorice. We had been to Target earlier to buy a birthday present for one of my Beehives and bought this rainbow licorice. I fed some to Taylor and Luke in the car on the way home to keep them content and quiet. I guess the bag didn't get put away on the counter and was left where Blake could get to it.
As you can tell, he is really enjoying himself. Oooohhhh, I'm so sure it tasted so yummy. He hardly ever gets to enjoy treats such as this. He wasn't too happy when I took it away either.

Utah Came to Visit

This weekend Devon's parents came into town for the blessing of their newest grand baby, Gweniveve Lynn Yaden (Darci's baby girl). As usual, most holiday weekends end up being less restful than we would like, but fun. We spent Saturday doing chores, attending the ward picnic, and then I took Taylor and Luke to see "Shrek the Third." This was quite a milestone for Luke. The last time we took Luke to see a movie, in the Theatre, he only lasted about 45 minutes. Devon was a little nervous for me to take the two kids by myself, but I really felt confident that it would be fine. They both sat through the entire movie!!! It was so cute to hear them laugh out loud to certain parts that they thought were funny and to hear them talk about it on the drive home. Devon was amazed that I survived the experience and didn't spend the majority of the movie chasing Luke around the Theatre. Sunday, we attended the blessing and visited with family. It is always good to see family, but the visits are always too short! Monday, Devon's parents drove down from Darci's house to spend the day with us. We met up with them at the beach. As you can tell, Blake LOVES the beach!
Devon built his Kiddie Tidepool in the sand and the kids had a blast climbing in and out of it and dumping sand and rocks inside. People kept stopping to see what the kids were playing in and to compliment Devon on his clever idea.
The Day started out really overcast and cold, but around 10:30 the haziness burned away and it turned out to be the most beautiful day at the beach. It is always so much work to go to the beach, but once we're there I really enjoy it! This picture is of me with Devon's mom, Helen.
I thought his picture was so cute because Taylor is trying to make Luke pose for the picture and Luke is just laughing at her.
It is always sad to say good-bye to family when they leave. I think both Devon and I were both a little emotional after his parents left, but also a little rejuvenated from having them there as well. Life is good when Utah visits California.

Our Pre-Blaker Days!

I just couldn't resist posting these adorable pictures of Taylor and Luke. These were before our little Blaker Boy! I know that Taylor and Luke are still small, but looking back at these pictures makes me realize how much smaller they once were and how they are growing too fast! This picture was taken on Taylor's first day of pre-school. I crimped her hair with the waiver. I wanted her to look her best for her first day of school.
This is Luke in the bath. He was such a cute, happy baby. He had the most kissable cheeks, chubby thighs, and adorable smile!

Everyone always comments on Luke's beautiful blue eyes...as you can tell they are amazing! I also really love this picture of Taylor kissing Luke. The photographer kept trying to get Taylor to look at the camera, but she really wanted to kiss Luke. It was so cute!

This is our beautiful Taylor. How can you not love this girl? She is just so sweet!

Lemonade For Sale

Today, at Taylor's pre-school, they had a lemonade stand. Earlier in the week they washed and juiced lemons. Each of them had the chance to taste the lemon juice without any added water or sugar, but very few liked it. I wonder why?
Taylor was very specific when she left for school this morning, that it was my job to bring 25cents and containers to buy and take lemonade home. When we arrived, they were eagerly waiting at the front gate to collect our money and pour us a glass of lemonade.
Luke loved the Lemonade! He kept saying over and over "Mom, I really like sour lemonade." It was a little sour and had a lot of kick to it! I guess that's what happens when pre-schoolers make their own lemonade . Overall, the girls did a good job mixing it.
They made sure to tell me that the secret recipe called for 5 cups of water and as much sugar as you wanted! Taylor and Abbie made this sign that they are standing in front of. They were all so proud and happy to take home their containers of home made lemonade!

A Mother's Day Tribute

This blog has my name in it's title, but I have yet added a word....until now! I believe I have boycotted the blog, because my name comes after Kimberly's. That is so silly, who has ever seen a blog title with the women's name before the man's, it's unnatural. But I got to thinking, it's Mother's Day, and she did take DowDell as a last name! So in the spirit of Mother's Day, I concede my name to second, and dedicate this blog as a tribute to my lovely wife Kimberly on Mother's Day.

Let's start with the below image... Kimberly's first Mother's Day card on the left, as well as the 4Th, and now the 5Th Mother's Day card. Now the last card is so cute. Taylor made it herself for Kimberly.
Now most people know that Kimberly is a wonderful Mother. Below are my 10 reasons I think she is the best.

10. She is a great cook (just look how fat I am getting!!!)
9. She's one of the most friendly & Kind people you will ever meet
8. Loves & honors her Parents, and brother and sister
7. Always willing to help others, and finds time to do so with three little kids
6. Beautiful as the day I first saw her
5. She has a warm smile that makes people happy when they are around her
4. Patience of a Saint (have you ever taken Luke to a restaurant?)
3. A loving and nurturing mother to four kids (She counts me as one of them!)
2. Great mother, and my best friend
1. Loves her Family, and Sacrifices for them everyday
Above is a picture of Luke from our Mother's Day at the beach. He fell into a deep crevice in the rock, of course I had to rock climb with no safety gear to save him.
OK, well here is the real story, Luke actually showed me the way out, before I could jump down and save him. He was in no trouble, but a very brave explorer. Of course Taylor was a little less likely to explore the depths of the dark cave on the beach. Luke had to coax Taylor into the entrance for the below picture, that's as far as she would go.
Below we have the family on the beach. We ran into a guy from my work, and asked him to take this picture below. The kids were so distracted by the waves crashing around us. I like the way Kimberly, Blake, and myself look in this picture. The back or Taylor and Luke's head makes it an interesting picture of the family though.
It was a beautiful Mother's Day in San Diego. Though Kimberly held tears back from being away from her Mother on Mothers Day, it was a perfect day to celebrate a wonderful Mother.

Eating Sand!

Blake loves being outside playing in the sandbox with Luke! Of course, he loves to touch and taste EVERYTHING! So, I thought I would take a few pictures to try and show the sand all over his face and mouth!

MMMmmmm! Yummy!
He just thinks playing outside in the sandbox is the best. Nothing seems to bother him out here! I even caught him trying to climb up on our retaining wall. The only thing I'm worried about is all the snails! OOhhh, I would just die if he put one in his mouth!
Our other big adventure today was Taylor getting her 5-year old Kindergarten shots! I went to register her for Kindergarten last week and was turned away because she didn't have all of her required shots yet. Luckily, her appointment was a week later so I wasn't too stressed about it. Her friend Abbie had her shots a while ago and told Taylor how awful it was. The physical went fine until the nurse came in to do the shots. Taylor kept saying, "mom, Abbie said it hurt really bad and that she cried." I kept trying to put her at ease so she wouldn't worry, but she took one look at the needles and began to scream! She screamed before, during, and after crying, "No, no, no, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, aaaaaaaaah, aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!" over and over and over again. It really was kind of funny. Poor girl. She really is doing much better now. The good news is that she can be registered for Kindergarten now! Yahoo!

Caterpillar

One of our friends in the ward commented that she really thought Blake looked like the Caterpillar on "A Bug's Life." Word got around and now many of our other friends call him the caterpillar. It's his cute fat cheeks and eyes when he smiles that gives him the resemblance. Devon and I thought it would be cute to put them side by side and morph Blake's face onto the caterpillar to test it out. I laughed so hard when Devon first showed me these pictures. I thought they would be fun to share!

I love to see the Temple!

On Saturday we went to the mall to make an exchange and stopped by the Temple on the way there. I've been trying to remember to take our camera with us everywhere we go. It was a fun family togetherness day!

The weather was so beautiful, warm, and sunny. Just a reminder of why we live in San diego. Everyone commented on how cute and smiley Blake was.

We were trying to take a picture of the kids without the wedding party in the background. Blake sat there so good. The grass didn't seem to bother him one bit.

Every time we pass the Temple in the car we all sing "I love to see the Temple." Nothing would please me more than to see my children go to the Temple someday. I love that they know what the Temple is and get so excited to see it!

We love the San Diego Temple!

Life is Good!

Life is good, again! All of the kids are finally feeling well and excited to get back into life and play outside! When Luke wakes up in the morning he can hardly wait to go in the backyard and play. I am a little embarrassed to show this picture because it emphasizes how messy our yard is and how dead our grass is, but the kids seem to love it the same. When Luke was sick, last week, his eyes were really sensitive to the sun and he complained a lot about the sun being too bright, so I finally bought him some sunglasses. He loves them and insists on wearing them whenever he is outside or in the car. Oh, yeah, he still loves to wear his "I love my Uncle Michael" shirt as a jammie shirt at night.

The day started out with a trip to the park, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of that, but the kids had fun being in the sun. Blake loved eating the sand. When we got home, he had sand in his nostrils, down his shirt, in his diaper--everywhere! After lunch, Taylor and Luke entertained themselves with other activities.

Taylor drew a beautiful picture of a rainbow over the ocean. Not that you can tell, but you can tell how proud she was!

Luke was just having fun drawing over Taylor's masterpieces. Of course, it made her upset, but that's what was so fun!

What would the day be without an art project. Taylor is the Queen of art projects and Luke is the King of glue! I finally had to take the glue away because he was pouring gigantic drops all over his sheet of paper without gluing anything on top of it!

We also went for a walk to the grocery store to buy something to make for dinner. At one time, I had all three of them in the double stroller together. Blake loves to sit on Taylor's lap! Pushing around 100 lbs. gets very tiring and heavy!

As you can see, Blake is feeling better too! He finished his antibiotics yesterday and Devon and I are praying that he doesn't get another ear infection within the next week. He visits the ENT on Wednesday--yahoo! Also, as you can see, we have balloons still floating around the house from the birthday party! Blake just has the best smile!

I think the kids are worn out from our day! Devon rented Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the old 1980's episodes on DVD, from Netflix. We've been trying to expose Luke to more "boy" shows. Poor guy has to watch so many princess movies that we thought he deserved to get to watch something else. He really likes it, but Taylor loves it! Who would have ever thought our little princess would love to watch karate chops and sword fighting! It is so nice to have everyone feeling better! Now maybe Devon and I can sleep through the night and wake up feeling rested!