Vegas & Gymnastics

As is evidenced by some of the recent Alli pictures, she has become quite the "poser." Last week (as this was written in May) at her final gymnastics class (right before going to get her tooth checked for the second time!) they were handing out medals and as she stood on the podium Ryan and I were trying so hard to keep straight faces but she was busting out all sorts of poses and I have no clue where she got them-they were pretty good though! She had a lot of fun going to gymnastics. She loved the big long trampoline and the balance beam the most, but she really enjoyed all the different parts.

At the end of April we went to Las Vegas when Ryan was on a work trip because he was only doing some small expos and would have a little more time and let's be honest I just wanted a break! So we got a really good deal on the Trump towers hotel (which I HIGHLY recommend!!) and away we went. It was such a fun trip, we were definitely not ready to come back to real life when it was time to leave! We took advantage of the free late check-out and stayed til late Thursday afternoon and then the girls did really well on the ride back :). The place was ridiculously nice and so so clean-no smell of smoke anywhere inside and no casino. My favorite thing about the hotel aside from the cleanliness and amazing service (being called by name whenever you drop off/pick up your car since they only do valet parking and it is complimentary) were these giant Lily bouquets on the entry tables throughout the lobby. They were so gorgeous and fragrant!! I will definitely stay here again, it was so nice! We really just hung out, did naps, and played at the pool the first day while Ryan was gone. Then we did some shopping and went to a bbq at my "cousin's" house. Alli loved playing with Brad and Lori's kids and playing in their pool. The second day we got breakfast, played at the pool, took naps, and went to the restaurant at our hotel-delicious food!! Then we took Alli to Circus Circus and played some of the games there before making a quick stop at our favorite outlet mall. Thursday we went to the Aquarium at Mandalay Bay and it was just okay, nothing great though so we were headed back to our hotel to pack up when we saw the gondolas at the Venetian and decided to stop-especially after finding out they were "20.00" We walk through, which I love also I definitely want to stay there sometime- and get to the ticket area only to find it is 20.00 per person and we had to pay for Alli so it was obviously not worth 60.00 to go on the gondolas so we got some gelato and headed out for real. We stopped in Cedar City and ate dinner because the girls actually slept for a long time in the car so the drive back went really well. Now as I am finishing writing this-2 months later... our girls do not do well on car trips :(. Ilene does not love her carseat so I think our days of trips are over for a while until she is big enough to "enjoy" them more.

Fishing

A few weeks ago-Mother's Day weekend I was going to buy flowers/plants for the garden so Ryan took Alli fishing with her Barbie fishing pole from Easter. Well they had a great time and found a little "friend" that Alli wanted to bring home to play with and apparently she wanted to eat it. Alli caught the fish and they made a little pond for it to swim in while they finished up. On the way home the poor fish died. So since Alli had wanted to eat it, Ryan gutted it and cut the head off to barbecue it and when she came inside and saw it she had a *small* conniption. She was super concerned because the fish wouldn't be able to see. And she was sad because she had wanted to play with it. However, when it was cooked she ate it and liked it. Because of this wanting fish thing we decided we would try our hand with a few 25cent goldfish from Walmart. Well the 3 didn't even make it 24 hours so we took them back after her dentish appointment the next day and traded them for 4 new ones. Those made it slightly longer and we tried every trick we had heard of or could think of with the second batch to no avail. The first one didn't make it home with another one following pretty quickly after. The 3rd and 4th ones made it a day or two before they started "sleeping." After that we decided that apparently fish aren't our thing and that it is good kids are easier to keep alive!!!

Easter 2011

Easter was so much fun this year, and I am pretty sure this is only the beginning because Alli is more excited and more "into it" now that she is a little older. The easter egg hunt (s) were so fun for her, coloring eggs was exciting because it was with some friends and she was pretty thrilled with the sparkles, and the Easter basket was fantastic. We decorated cupcakes like I did when I was little and yes I loved that so much I may have done it when I was in college :). Alli loved helping put the Easter decorations up.

Our impromptu Easter egg hunt (with our real eggs) after we decorated eggs with our friends Saturday afternoon. It was kind of rainy, but that definitely didn't stop them!

Decorating our cupcakes.

Some of the "fancy" eggs

The first Easter egg hunt Saturday morning. Alli had so much fun with BrynLynne, Blake, Tanner, and Dustin.

Later Saturday we had another egg hunt with our neighbors since some of their grandkids were in town. Alli loves when Claire and Dottie come to visit, and luckily Dottie comes to visit quite often so they play together a lot!

Alli was pretty thrilled with her Easter basket and her new Easter dress that matched Ilene's.



Even though I have camera issues and can't get a good picture of the two of them together, I thought they looked adorable in their dresses.

My favorite thing was Alli telling us the Easter story, she loved that Jesus came out of the tomb. Her favorite primary song since then has been "Did Jesus Really Live Again" and she would request it everyday for a while. She knows most of the words so I need to video her singing it. We had a yummy Easter dinner at my mom's house with my oldest brother's family, and of course another fun Easter egg hunt with eggs labeled for each child so they had to hunt for their specific eggs and then plenty that were for anyone. :)

Sidenote: Our next door (and across the street) neighbors are seriously the best, Alli loves to go visit all of them. The funny thing is that one is an 80 year old couple. She will sit on the front porch for literally hours if we would let her. She loves to go talk with them and visit Shea their dog. Then the back neighbors and side neighbors are both empty-nester couples she loves going to visit and playing in their yards. We will go outside and work in the yard and she will sit right by Lamar and Julie or Dave and Karen while they weed etc. I love that she has so many people who love her and would truly do anything for her in addition to her blood-family. The last few weeks and particularly this last weekend our neighbors were so helpful when Alli got hurt. Both of them called later in the day and came to visit to check on her and see if there was anything we needed help with.

More Teeth Drama

While Ryan was gone on his last trip we were at a neighbors house and Alli was playing outside-she had been out for less than 1 minute when I hear her screaming. So obviously I hand off Ilene, run out and scoop her up. Her mouth is streaming blood all down her chin. Fortunately her lip was cut, but not bad enough for stitches-we find this out after the kind neighbor and I (her husband and kids have Ilene) go over to yet another kind neighbor's house while she calls her husband who is an ER doc to check and see what he recommends-and since it is cut, but not into the "skin" around the lip it will heal fine without stitches. . Unfortunately her tooth is disgusting looking. When she fell she smashed her mouth on a metal bar and her front tooth got knocked backwards (as in pretty well flat), twisted, and because it was pushed so far back it had cut the gum between her teeth so it was pushed at an angle away from the other center tooth. Yikes! My friend was super concerned-and so was I, but somehow I was able to stay really calm through the whole thing. . My friend asked her friend’s husband who is a dentist who told me the bone above her tooth may have been partially crushed-awesome :(L , but that most likely it will just heal on its own without fixing it. Both people told me to just try to pull it back forward into place which wasn’t happening because although I tried, it was completely stuck. So after getting a blessing from two friends’ husbands in which she was told it would heal as if it never happened we went home to relax and get her to have some popsicles. We make a run to Smiths and get some special popsicles and call and tell Ryan he missed quite the exciting hour :). He has no clue how bad it really is even as I try to describe it and I try to keep Alli knowing that everything will be okay even when I am truly not completely sure myself. Well I call the dentist first thing the next morning and get her in right away only to be told it would have been better for her to come in the night before-failure of a mom!! But I was told by EVERYONE either to just follow up in the morning or not even worry about going in, I felt so bad! So the dentist numbs her mouth (as I am holding her down) and when he gave her the shot to numb so much blood spurted out of the gigantic blood pocket that went across her entire front upper gums and the back of her upper lip- no wonder it was super swollen and she had woken up moaning in the night before she got ibuprofen. Then he proceeded to do the grossest part of the whole thing while we are holding her still because I am sure it hurt like nothing she has (hopefully) ever experienced. He had to pull it back forward so it was straight down and then straighten it all out. When he was finished it was back in place, but much shorter because of how it was positioned in the socket. He wasn't real optimistic that it had "taken" so he told me what to watch for. The most heartbreaking part of that?? She peed while he was positioning, but because she had the block in her mouth holding it open she couldn't tell us she needed to go :(. She was soo sad about that. She is such a brave, strong little girl. And fortunately she tooth "took. However when Ryan got home a few days later, he was sickened by how it looked and that was when it looked soo much better from before. She had really looked like the Simpsons with the swollen upper lip out over the bottom jaw. I am so thankful for the priesthood blessing she received, it was such a calming thing for her. I am also so very thankful for wonderful caring helpful neighbors!! My family was wonderful to help when they found out what was going on, but they were all gone/unreachable when it happened. I am also thankful for a Heavenly Father who is there for us and "gets us through things." I know He is who was keeping me calm because Alli needed me to be calm. I know that He was there with me the whole way through strengthening me and enabling me to make it through everything that needed to be done.

So I started this post a few weeks ago, but didn't finish it so I am adding more! Two weeks after the first incident my dear, sweet Alli was running outside to go take her neighbor/friend a card and she fell on our front porch. I was in getting Ilene ready for bed and Ryan was on the porch with her. He brings her in and sure enough she had pushed that same tooth-which was almost back down to normal and looking GREAT- back up in the socket. I thought for sure they would have to pull it :(. But when I took her for x-rays the next day (I called her dentist and he told me she would be okay with how the tooth was) the tooth was still in the correct spot and the dentist again told me what to watch for and told me that most likely she would need it pulled in the next few months. Well luckilly now-2 months later! it still looks great, hasn't given her pain, and is hopefully still healing so hopefully her teeth are going to all stay in! I am truly grateful for priesthood blessings that give comfort and healing. In the blessing she received the second time she was promised that her tooth would continue to heal. I know that is the reason her tooth is healthy and still in her mouth.
I wish I would have taken some pictures of everything, but I only took some on my phone after Ryan asked me to and they didn't turn out very well and didn't really show much.

Discombobulated

These updates really are so completely random so I just put them all together in a super disjointed post :). Basically these are the things I should have taken more pictures, but didn't...
Ryan won a month at work and part of the "prize" was a really cool remote control car that goes 40-50 miles per hour. So the first few days he had it I saw a lot of this view when he was home from work. It is pretty crazy how fast it goes, pretty cool. It is really funny when there is a car coming and his little remote control car come zooming up way faster.
We have been to the Provo Beach Resort a few times, it is a really fun place. Our favorite has to be the carousel!
My brother and his family have some lambs and Alli was loving feeding one a bottle!
Grandpa and Grandma Bowler came for Stirling's baptism and while they were here we went to Trafalga. Alli got super lucky with one game and got like 50 tickets on one try. :)

We started feeding Ilene cereal and some solids-green peas, green beans, squash, pears, bananas and apple juice. She likes the cereal, apple juice, and squash. peas are okay, but the bananas and pears she surprisingly didn't really like, and let's be honest I was not surprised she wasn't a fan of the pureed green beans and peas.

Ilene has a little "bestie." One of my good friends has a baby who is 6 days older than Ilene and they were here helping me get some things ready for a bridal shower last week and we look over to see these two just holding hands. So stinkin' cute!

And some random night at the beginning of May I was talking to Ilene and she was just busting up.

Yes the pictures are slightly cut off-that is because I am not a good photographer and I was getting her to laugh while shooting a bazillion pictures because it was so cute so I was not looking in my viewfinder thing :). And there are multiple pictures because I loved the sequence.

Alli gets her to laugh the best, it is my favorite thing during the day because whenever Ilene is awake she looks around for Alli and if you say Alli then instantly she is looking to find her. She watches whatever Alli is doing and the most random things-today it was Alli jumping off a bench, Sunday it was Alli saying "neigh" result in HUGE smiles and laughter! Sometimes she is just too much, too cute! I want to squish her cute little pudgy body or maybe just smother her with kisses???

Ilene is now 6 months old and we are thinking she is getting some teeth? She had a high fever and was miserable for about 5 days and then it was pretty much over, but no tooth through yet. We could feel one, but the spot is now smooth again instead of sharp :(. She rolls over great when she wants to, holds herself up really high when on her tummy so I think she may try to move soon, but thankfully she is still pretty immobile-I love it!

Happy Birthday!!!

Alli and Ryan both have their birthdays in March. Alli was loving the whole birthday deal. She will tell you even now if you ask that she was not 3 before her "cake" but when she had her cake then she was 3 and she knows what day her birthday is-March 10th. And obviously she thought the present idea was pretty awesome. She wanted to "practice" blowing out candles so the day before I think she blew candles out on her pancakes and then 2 or 3 times on her birthday. It was a great day and we milked it for all we could. She even had a "birthday date" with grandma Palmer while I was setting things up for her party-not sure who benefitted more me by having the quiet time or her by going :). The best part of the day was when she got her violin because we had been so sneaky so she didn't know it was coming or that she was getting one, but when we handed her the present she said "it's my violin." So apparently she had a little too much faith in us getting her what she was wanting?? She had been asking to play the violin since August when she saw a little girl on a movie playing it, and we kept telling her maybe she could get one for her birthday. She had so much fun playing it and all the kids were dancing around and singing.
At Red Robin with her birthday cupcake.
Modeling her new sunglasses and flip flops in her birthday pajamas-and a random dress up skirt :). .
Playing her violin
Her "princess cake"- I am (obviously) NOT any sort of cake decorator, but she was happy with it so it worked.
Her surprise balloons from Ilene-we put some bracelets and rings to hold the balloons down and whenever she wears them she is sure to tell us-these are from Ilene for my birthday :).

And Ryan's birthday seemed to be a little "anti-climactic" after a child's birthday, but it was still a fun day. We went to Ruby River for lunch and had a little birthday par-tay complete with leftover princess napkins and cups from Alli's birthday-what 28 year old man doesn't want Ariel and Aurora napkins??? But obviously Ryan does not care about the details and when asked what kind of cake her wanted-he said I didn't need to make a cake :). He had ice cream cake at work so we went with Funfetti from a box-his favorite boxed cake flavor. And showcasing my less than impressive cake decorating skills we did a basketball cake. The lucky birthday boy did get a cool underwater camera/videocamera (that he picked out himself and double score we got a great deal at Sam's Club!) that has been fun to use. And he was fortunate enough to get special birthday balloons picked out by Alli :). Doesn't he look thrilled having his picture taken with his cake??? The highlight of the evening was most likely playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii-so fun!

5 years!

I have been meaning to post so many updates for the last few months and now I am finally going to start. So first up in the chronological order of things is our ANNIVERSARY! It is so crazy to think that our 5 year wedding anniversary was March 3rd. Sadly Ryan was leaving out of town that day for work, but he did surprise me with 5 dozen roses (I wish I would have taken a picture before they were a week old because they were so gorgeous when I got them and by the time I finally took a picture they were starting to wilt :(.) and a new Willowtree figurine (he has been giving me different figurines since we got engaged, I am in love with them!) an hour or so before he left for the airport. Love him and his thoughtfulness! The craziest thing is how 1-how YOUNG we were-seriously I look at 19 year olds in our ward and wonder what I thought I was doing :) and 2-how we thought we had fun together then-and we did-but it truly has gotten better with every day that has gone by. Every fight we have had has taught us something new about each other and how to communicate better, we have both become better people by being married to each other. I am so happy I married someone who motivates me to be better and become more than I thought I could be. We have been able to do so many amazing things together and together we have created a life that we love. It is so funny how much my tastes have changed-it would be great if I could do it all over-keep the same person, but design everything again!