Firsts :)

First lost tooth, which took WAY too long to come out :)

First blue ribbon in track for Alex, first track meet for Lydia
First Mauger family reunion (that we attended), first Glenwood springs swim, first 'verbal warning' for speeding for Kendra :), and first time we were in 4 states in 4 days

We're gonna try to slow it down for a while here :)

SUMMER!!!!

I was waiting to post because Alex has a VERY lose tooth, and what's a better blog post than the first lost tooth? But, he still needs to wiggle it, and I decided I couldn't wait any longer :)

We are really enjoying summer this year. Dave decided to fix our gate, which meant build a whole new fence about 6 inches back. After lots of work and muscle power (mostly on Dave's part :), here is our before....

and after! Isn't it beautiful? That man is so handy!
Alex had his last day of kindergarten. Every kid went up and got their "diploma" and then said what they wanted to be when they grew up. Some kids said jet pilot, dolphin rider, dentist, doctor, one little girl said mommy (cute!), and then Alex got up there and said, "Mechanical engineer" I love that kid!
Here is his teacher, and a buddy named Magnus. We loved Mrs. Deignan! This was her last year so we're so lucky we got her, but sad that Lydia won't get the chance to have her as a teacher. She was amazing!
On another note, Alex and Lydia have been asking for a dog for a little while. I would love a dog, so I always say, "it's up to your dad". Dave isn't a fan of dogs, they are dirty and expensive... so he has valid points :) Anyway, Lydia said a prayer for dinner yesterday and said, "please bless daddy that he'll let us get a puppy". Man, the kids are pulling out the big guns now :)

night of fire and thunder!

I LOVE free activities :) So, when Alex's school did a reading race for free tickets to Bandimere speedway, we got on board. Unfortunately, it started during spring break. And we did absolutely NO WORK during that vacation.... so, we read for an hour every night for the next three weeks. I'm happy to say that it was worth it!

We had to wear earplugs, and Lydia liked to suck on hers (they went in smoother, ugh!)
Here was our favorite, these cars have jet engines on the back! They would blow out fire, but I could never take the picture fast enough. This red one here went 274 miles per hour! So fun!

Four years old!!!

She'll actually be 4 tomorrow... but wow! She's so big!

Most of the party goers :)
We had a yummy ice cream cake that I bought at a young women's auction
Lydia is wonderful. I can't believe she's so big, and I can't believe that she's my baby :)

Happy birthday Lydia... we love you!

happy mothers day :)

I used to want to be pampered and just lay around on mother's day... but I was always disappointed. A mother's work is NEVER done :) So, now I just play and enjoy my job.

Alex had field day, they all had to run with a swimming noodle, adding a person each lap. It was funny
Three legged race, they won :)
Some bean bag thing...
Finally, Alex's class published a book. We didn't buy it... oops. But, I did take a picture of Alex's page :)
I love being a mom and I love my mom. What a great day.

Lydia

Lydia is growing up fast, and you can tell by this picture that she loves candy (I think her teeth might be blue!) I wanted to write a couple things she's been doing lately that we can't help but laugh at...

*My favorite part in the movie 'Tangled' is when Rapunzel and Flynn are in the bar with all the ruffians. They walk in and her hair trails behind and one of the brutes says "wow, that's a lot of hair" and Flynn says "She's growing it out". I don't know WHY this is SO funny to me, but I'm laughing right now as I type it :) So, Lydia told me that she was going to grow her hair out and then scrunched her face up and closed her eyes and tried to "push" out her hair... it was hilarious :)

*She's been really into rhymes lately, but she's not so good at them. I keep telling her that it's the ENDING that sounds the same. So, she was rhyming with ACID today (Alex's new toy shoots acid.. not real of course). She said 'acid rhymes with gas', and I told her they didn't so she said, "I know! Gas rhymes with A--!". Good job Lydia, good job :)

*She's never gotten past sucking on a straw with her tongue out of her mouth. So, now Dave is trying to catch her tongue when he sees it out while she's drinking. Now she'll say "Dad, guess where my tongue is" and then drink. When he asks where, she proudly says "in my mouth!" Tricky girl

*The last thing, that we hope is a phase, is she's a big liar. I have to ask her if she's "pretending" like 20 times a day. I'm always really surprised when she's not. This is confusing since we're starting to talk about abuse and things like that with her... I hope she understands it all.

Lydia's birthday is just a few weeks away, and she's already betrothed to 3 boys (we're keeping our options open :). We love this little pistol!

Easter

Happy easter! I'm sure I'm kids are confused, because when I tell them why we celebrate easter I can't help but cry... I'm hoping the feelings are at least sinking in.

We had our giant family easter egg hunt, we are so spoiled to live close to TWO grandmas and one grandpa (and a few cousins!). It's so awesome to share these kind of things with them, and Alex and Lydia are just starting to be at the age where they want grandparents to themselves, it's nice that we can switch between a few... although we still need one grandpa up here! (Gary :)

And, this was about one month earlier... at the kite festival. It's sad that it is warmer at the beginning of april than at the end, but that's how it goes :)

Going private...

I've decided to go private. I'd love to say I've been thinking about this a lot... but it was just a quick decision after listening to an amazing presentation by some police officers :) And, then I'll know how many people actually read this thing... because I'm sure it's like 2.

So, leave your email address so I can invite you to this "exclusive" party :). Thanks!

In other news, Alex taped this onto my door, I found it tonight after he went to bed...

So precious! (translation = I love the Savior). I love church :)

Just relax!

We just spend about two weeks in Mexico with this whole crew! (at Chichen Itza)

It was warm, breezy, and VERY laid back (at Tulum)
We swam/snorkeled almost everyday. Saw crabs, iguanas, scorpians, macaws, toucans, spider monkeys, fish, urchins, sea turtles, and millions of bugs that I don't know their names...

(here we're swimming in cenote azul, yes, it's really that blue... and almost 300 feet deep, even from the edge :)
The boys went deep sea fishing and caught some amazing (and tasty) barracudas
With a beach in our backyard we got pretty brown, and completely relaxed... awesome
We're all glad to be home and surprised at what we missed (carpet!). We were so lucky to get to go on this trip with our family, the cousins are best buds now :)

Bud Action

Lydia had a dress up birthday party the other day. She REALLY enjoyed dressing up. The only problem was that the party wasn't till 11:00, and this was at 8am :) So, she looked like this at the grocery store, walgreens, and target. She got a LOT of compliments, and I'm not sure how I'm going to convince her to wear normal clothes ever again!

(I promise that's not a slip... it's really a costume)
Sorry this photo is sideways, Alex brought home another cup with seeds in it. (Does everyone else get like 5 of these a year?) Anyway, it finally started growing, so Alex made a little ruler out of paper on the side... he wrote 'bud achin" (bud action) on the ruler so we'd know what we're measuring :)

cooky

Lydia is a sunbeam now, meaning she's actually in a class during church, instead of a room full of toys. Sunbeams are notorious for not sitting in their seats, so her teacher brought them paper eggs to sit on. If they sat on them the whole time their teacher gave them little paper 'chicks' to take home.

Lydia LOVED this idea, and the next week she made her own eggs with chicks in them for each kid in her class. Then she brought them to church and had her classmates sit on them. Her teacher said she was the only one that even cared... but she obviously cared a LOT!

She also has a stuffed pink kitty that has been a favorite for a while. She told me her name the other day was "licker". I guess she has the naming talent that Alex also had at this age. (He wanted to name our bunny soft-head or long ears) Apparently the kitty licks Lydia :)

I found these pictures on the kid camera we have. I go through periodically and make sure there's nothing too disturbing. I found this picture....
This is the best picture taken of me since I can remember. It was obviously sunday because I have makeup on... but it makes me think that I should start wearing makeup everyday. hmmm.

Alex has also started talking with air quotes. He doesn't know how to use them, for example... "I think you need to start giving me 'cookies'. " He literally means cookies, but he'll air quote it for effect (or is it affect?). Anyway, it's really funny.
He's also into Indiana Jones. He's never seen the movies, but there is animated lego versions of basically the whole movie. So, he and Dave will pretend that they're running from huge boulders and jumping over pits of snakes. I tell him that Indiana Jones is so good at exploring because he learned everything he could in school (let the brainwashing start :)

Life is going good here, and we're SO excited for spring. We've even planned our garden :)

Sunny

Colorado has had WEIRD weather this winter. It didn't snow till after christmas, and now it feels like spring! We have had about 3 days of 60 degree weather, and we still have snow. So, today we were out barefoot.

Alex and I avoided the snow and just sat in the sun, but Lydia...
YUP, she's barefoot. I took a picture so she could prove that she walked barefoot in the snow to her grandkids :) And then I made her get out...

the Big 30

Dave turned 30 yesterday! And before I started this post I realized that I never posted about my birthday :) So... I'm also 30 now :) 30 and 3 months, and I'm feeling it! Here is how I look at 30 (I had to black and white it because I'm super sickly pale right now, ugh!)

For Dave's birthday God gave him snow, the stake president canceled church for him, and tv land gave him the superbowl! (yes, all tv shows come from a magical place called tv land :) He is so loved! I only gave him slippers and cookie balls!It was very nice to have him home all day for such a special day. We did shovel my mom's driveway, but it's not work when you don't have to do it :)
So, happy birthday Dave!

You read what???

I forgot so many pictures! My sister came into town for Christmas, and stayed two weeks! Here she is with her new little guy, Gideon. He has the best smile, his whole face changes :)

Dave's whole family came into town too. Weston is the only cousin on that side, but not for long... Michelle is due in April. It was fun to get to know this cute little kid.
Lydia got into Hello Kitty for Christmas... she never poses normal anymore...
And finally... every night Alex is supposed to read a book with me and then write a little review of the book on a slip of paper. All that is required is his name, the book title, and then he circles how he felt about the book. Tonight I helped Lydia read books while Alex was filling out the card, and I noticed he made a MINOR spelling mistake while copying the title off the book. You think the teacher will notice ???
He gave it a good review :)

our week...

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day we went to a rally and march in Boulder. When I was telling Alex the night before about why he wouldn't have school I realized that this is a REALLY hard topic for a 6 year old to grasp. After I thought I did a good job explaining what MLK did Alex asked "what's a protest?" and "White people like us did that?" and "you mean black like Jack Ernstrom?" (who is the little latino boy in his class..) Yes, we are quite sheltered here in west arvada. So, we went to boulder (just because the denver parade was too early in the morning) and marched in the war protest, saw some actual black people, and listened to the famous speech. It turned out well, and very peaceful... which was what I was trying to convey to Alex.

We also went to the Denver Firefighter's Museum with some awesome free tickets from the library. It was so much fun! I was really surprised...

I am also now a soccer mom (a minor dream come true for me :). My kids are in the indoor soccer league and they LOVE it! I love it too, it's once a week (practice and game combined) and it's warm :) We'll see if they're interested in continuing for fall.

On a side note, Alex now calls me "m-o-m". Spells it out. It's kind of cute, kind of weird.

8 years

On the 27th we celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary! We haven't run out of things to say to each other yet (that was one of my worries with marriage :) I'll even go so far as to say that I bet Dave sometimes wishes I WOULD run out of things to say...

I'm so glad we're family, I love this guy!

Six years...

December 19, six years ago, Alex joined our family. (Dave looks sickly pale here because of the horrible delivery...)

We love having this guy in our house. He has embarrassed me in public places so many times I can't keep track. He likes the rules and likes to enforce them... and he has this AMAZING vocabulary, probably from Dave. He never gets stage fright when he sings or talks in front of a whole bunch of people, he's actually quite a little thespian. Watching movies with Alex is always an adventure, he's so completely involved in the movie that he literally cannot watch while sitting... he's in on the action. Sometimes he'll just scream out at scary parts (in the theaters too). He loves to play with Lydia until she puts too many princess stories in the pretend play, and then he must go on kill mode...
He loves legos and star wars, but since another little boy had a star wars birthday not too long ago we chose lego theme. Dave made the cake because I was too afraid :)
We love you Alex! Happy Birthday!