Out and About

We are finally getting out of the house again. It's a new adventure with a baby and an always wandering 2 year old. I try to get the older girls to take charge of Tyler, but they don't always want to do that. When they do, things work out pretty well. When I need to feed Camden, things usually get a little tricky. The Lehi Library hosted a petting zoo last week. I didn't expect it to be much, but there were actually quite a few animals there.

The girls each took a turn holding one of the ferrets.

They even had this mama and baby goat and a pony. They all loved the animals and we even got to try out the new play equipment at the park(it was super crowded, so we have plans to go back another time).

 I also took them to the Children's Museum that we have annual passes for. Here is Ashley dressed up in her African attire.

Alyssa spent a good amount of time building this Castle/House. She managed to get a few helpers along the way. Even with the help it still took her at least 30 minutes.

It's funny, but the greatest challenge this summer in going anywhere has been getting out the door before friends come knocking. As a result, we have brought a friend along on a few of our outings.

Tyler's 2nd Birthday

It has been almost a month now, but Tyler turned 2. We celebrated by doing one of his favorite things--playing at the park.

Later that night, we had cake and ice cream and he opened his presents.

Tyler is so much fun to have around. he is so full of energy and says the cutest things. Some of his favorite things are balls and cars. He also loves to play outside, especially when it involves water. He loves doing whatever his big sisters are doing, as well. 

We had to take him to the ER the day before his birthday(a Sunday) which fortunately ended up being an ear infection rather than something more serious. Sometimes he loves to hold Camden. On Tyler's Birthday, Camden was 1 month old. Here are the two brothers together.

We love having Tyler as part of our family. Here are his stats:

Weight: 24.8 lbs

Height: 34 inches

Myrna Ginos-Beloved Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother

 

I've been trying to find some quiet time at the computer for the past two weeks in order to do this post. On June 6th, we lost someone very dear to our little family. First of all, Danny had the opportunity to grow up near her. He has told me many stories of going to her house throughout his childhood and the wonderful grandmother that she was. 

I had the opportunity to get to know her well while Danny and I lived with her and grandpa during our second year of marriage. I have many fond memories of coming home from student teaching and sitting with her in their living room and talking until Danny got home. We also played a lot of "Mexican Train" during those 8 months.

We moved to the Midwest after that and soon welcomed our first child. That was when the ice cream money and handwritten notes started arriving each month for Alyssa.We saw Grandma and Grandpa Ginos when we visited Utah, but that only happened once or twice a year. 

Here is a picture of the first time Grandma held Alyssa. Alyssa obviously had yet to learn what a wonderful lady she was.

 

 We also took this 4 generation shot during that trip.

 

When Ashley joined our family, the handwritten notes were addressed to her as well along with enough ice cream money for both girls.

We were so excited to move back to Utah again and be closer to family. Our kids have had the chance to get to know Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Ginos very well as we have spent holidays, birthdays, and Sunday dinners with them. They have even made it to a few of the girls special events, including this play that Alyssa was in.

 Tyler joined our family and Great Grandma was so excited to meet him and hold him. She also started to include him in the monthly ice cream envelopes. We took this picture about a month after he was born.

 When Camden was born, Grandma and Grandpa were living in their second home down in Arizona. She came to visit me the day before they left for Arizona and gave us a gift for the new baby boy. It was nice to sit and talk with her again and for the kids to all see her before she left. We had no idea that that would be the last time we would hear her sweet voice.
She came home from Arizona the day after Tyler's birthday. We hadn't yet had the chance to go over and visit her and introduce her to Camden when we heard that she wasn't doing well. We went to see her on the afternoon of the 6th. We knew at that point that she would not live much longer. We introduced her to Camden and placed him in her lap. She was unconscious, but from the moment Camden got in her lap, he calmed down and just stared at her face. We like to think that she was talking to him spirit to spirit. It was a very special moment for all of us present. We all said our goodbyes to her before leaving that afternoon, which was very difficult, but we feel honored to have had the opportunity to do that. She passed away a couple of hours later.
Her memorial service was the following Saturday. It was a very nice service and it was nice to reconnect with some of Danny's aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Grandma Ginos loved her family. She was always thinking of her great grandchildren and things she could do to brighten their days. She also loved music. She was a wonderful cook and taught me that the best meatloaf included everything but the kitchen sink. It was also much better the second day. We will miss her dearly but are grateful to know that we will see her again someday.

Alyssa's Choir Performance

Alyssa finished up her choir semester last week with a performance night. This choir is run by a lady in our neighborhood and mostly consists of kids from our neighborhood. Usuallyh there are a couple of boys, but no boys signed up this time so it was only girls ranging in age from about 5 to 12. The theme was strong female roles and included songs from Snow White, Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, Frozen, and Annie. Alyssa's Solo was in the Annie song, so she got to dress up as Annie for the show. We didn't bother with the red wig. I did attempt to curl her hair, but it was driving her crazy, so we brushed them out before the show. She obviously takes after me because she really doesnt like to get dolled up. Here are a few shots of the group.

I really wanted to upload the video of her solo, but it was too long. This one is "Do Re Me."

She really did a great job with her solo. Really loud and right on pitch. Very confident. I was glad to have grandma in town to stay with the baby so I could go.

Introducing Camden Sean Wheeler

Camden Sean Wheeler joined our family on the morning of May 1st. We went in early that morning for a scheduled C-section, which was a good thing since Camden weighed 10 lbs 9 oz and was 22 inches long. Here are some of the first pictures of our not-so-little guy.

I took this picture when he was 1 day old. It was the first time I saw him with open eyes.

Tyler has taken to his baby brother well. One of his favorite things to do is hold him and kiss him.

Grandma flew into town on the 3rd to help us out for a couple of weeks while Laura recovered from her c-section. Her main job has been to keep the house running(cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc) and keep Tyler off of Mommy. He was not happy with the fact that Mommy could not pick him up or put him to bed.

Camden has been the perfect baby, so far. Definitely our easiest. He sleeps well, eats well, and hardly cries. 

The girls just love holding their new baby brother. Whenever they came to visit us in the hospital, it was always a fight about who got to hold him first and who had him longer.

Almost every day, Tyler asks to hold Camden and wants me to take a picture of them. I have 6 or 7 pictures similar to this one with the boys in different clothes and different poses.

I have healed remarkably well this time and I'm pretty much back to normal activity. I'm getting enough rest at night because Camden sleeps really well. The girls finish up school on Friday and then the lazy summer days begin.

Spring Break

I felt like we were the only family in the neighborhood staying home for spring break this year. I have a pretty good reason for not being able to leave, but I still felt bad that the kids didn't have any friends around to play with. As a result, I loaded the week up with tons of fun activities. Monday was our appointment day. I had a Doctors appointment, Alyssa had a hair appointment, and Ashley had a dentist appointment. We grabbed lunch at Arctic Circle afterwards so they could play.
On Tuesday, I took them to a Family Fun Center (Boondocks). I intended to only stay until about 1, but with their unlimited passes and the price we paid for them convinced me that they should get to do everything at least once. As a result, we left closer to 3 and were all very tired and hungry.
Wednesday was gloomy and rainy and Ashley wasn't feeling well, so we stayed home. Alyssa did manage to find one friend at home that afternoon and headed off to her house to play in the afternoon.
On Thursday I took them to Kangaroo Zoo(one of those warehouses full of inflatables). They were worn out after a couple of hours there.
On Friday, we said goodbye to Daddy and sent him off on a plane to California to enjoy a couple of days with his brothers. After dropping him off at the airport, we went to the zoo. I actually took pictures at the zoo(unlike all of the other places we went during the week). The weather was perfect that day so most of Salt Lake and Utah County had the same idea as us. It made for long lines at the train and the carousel. It also made it hard sometimes to get close up to a great view of the animals. The kids all had fun though.

 

We left the zoo around 4 and went over to the "This is the Place Monument." It is across the street from the zoo and I have never been there. They had a big sign out advertising that it was their baby animal season so Alyssa really wanted to go and see the baby animals. I had no idea that the monument had a whole little pioneer village behind it with tons of things to look at and do. I was a little bugged that we had to pay admission and almost passed on it, until the lady told me she would give it to us for half price since it was so late in the day. This was probably the favorite thing that the girls did all week, so it made it worth it. They got to hold a bunch of these baby chicks/ducklings.

 

Ashley also loved the two puppies she found in the same barn as the chicks. Alyssa loved the baby goat and lamb that were in the barn. They also got to ride on these horses.

They also did a craft in one of the pioneer homes and played on a little children's playground. I wish I had gotten a picture of it because it had little miniature houses and a little wooden train that they could climb on. After the Monument, we stopped at Aunt Shannon's house for dinner and some play time with cousins.
On Saturday, I took them to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. This was more for me than for them, so I purposely didn't tell them too much about it. It was another beautiful day, so the festival was packed. I was pretty tempted to rent a golf cart instead of walk it, but was nervous to attempt that without Danny. I got some nice pictures of the kids.

  

Fortunately, since it was a Saturday, they had this kids area set up with crafts, inflatables, face painting, and games. Ashley and Tyler also got to feed some really big, orange fish. That kids area made it a little more fun for them. Ashley also loved rolling down one of the big grassy hills. It was quite the task getting a very worn out Ashley out of the the gardens, but we finally made it to the car, went home and crashed for the rest of the day. Tyler came down with a fever after his nap that day and I spent the evening holding a sick boy.

He recovered long enough on Sunday for me to get through church and then had the fever come back again that afternoon. We picked Danny up shortly after church got out and we were all so happy to have him home with us again. However, we were glad that he was able to get away and spend some quality time with his brothers. 

Spring Break was a week packed with fun stuff and I'm not sure how I had the energy to do it all. But I felt like it was my last chance to do some of these fun things with the kids before I am tied down with a newborn again. Baby's Birth Date is set for May 1st which is less than 2 weeks away now. We are so excited to meet our new little guy.

School Happenings

The girls have had a couple of things going on at the school that I have failed to post until now. The first thing was Alyssa's 3rd Grade Devotional. She got to be Helen Keller, which she was very excited about. She had a pretty long speaking part and also got to thank everyone for coming at the end. She especially loved her bright costume and front-and-center seat that made her stand out on stage. The children all did a really great job and it was fun to go and support her. I also helped out with their "We did a Great Job" Party after the devotional was over.

Ashley's class finished reading a book about Abigail Adams and they had a tea party to celebrate. She got to wear a fancy church dress(which is always a treat since they usually wear uniforms) and dance with a BOY. She wasn't so excited about the dancing part and wanted to stay home because of it. However, I promised her that Tyler and I would come and that somehow made it okay. She said afterwards that the dancing part was actually kind of fun. But she switched partners after about a minute and had a chance to dance with her teacher and with her favorite friend in the class(a girl named Kaci).

Ashley's class also had a field trip to the aquarium that I was able to chaperone. We had 3 of Ashley's favorite friends in our group, but the only boy spent most of the day with his Mom who had met the class there. The three girls were easy to keep together and they had a lot of fun. I was glad that I was able to go.

The boy did join up with us again for the last hour of the day and he was also pretty easy.

 

I just wish I could figure out how to get to know these kids' parents so that I could arrange a play date for Ashely. She has been asking for one all year.

Easter Festivities

We had a nice Easter. The kids got new Sunday clothes, including shoes. We let them wear them the week before Easter, since we didn't go to church on Easter this year because of General Conference.

The girls got to dye Easter Eggs, while Tyler took a nap. We didn't think he was old enough to attempt doing his own eggs yet. Although, he loved the pretty, colorful eggs when they were all done(probably because he thought they were full of candy).

The kids got to hunt for eggs three times this year. The first time was with Lehi City. It was kind of a flop though and we almost missed it altogether. They basically had a rectangle roped off for each of the age groups (0-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12) and inside of the rectangle, the eggs were just all over the ground. The girls made it to their section just as the whistle was blown for the kids to start grabbing eggs. We didn't manage to get Tyler to his section on time so he didn't get any.  The girls were nice enough to share a few of their eggs with him.
They got to also hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny left on Easter morning all around the house. Tyler was able to collect eggs this time.
The final hunt was at Gawbie and Grandpa's later that day. It took a little bit of coaching from Danny, but Tyler eventually grabbed his share of eggs. The girls had no problem finding their share of eggs.

After hunting for eggs, Gawbie read these little activity/story books with the kids about Jesus Christ and the reason we celebrate Easter.

We also enjoyed a delicious dinner, celebrated Gawbie's birthday, and enjoyed watching Conference together. I love this time of year.