Bean Jar is FULL--time for a vacation and Lukes BIG #5

So....we have a bean jar we use with the kids.

When we notice them doing good things, ordinary stuff--like doing their chores without complaining, or sharing, or being nice to a friend, they get one bean.  I struggled for a bit cause we had a "Marble Tin" that we use for bad behavior  (starts full each week and if they are naughty they have to take one ,  and that determines how much money they get for the week.), but no positive reinforcement. ANYWAY--we got this idea from some awesome friends of ours (Bush's) and we love it!  So they finally filled it all the way to the top and we wanted to do something really great to show them how grateful we were for their awesomeness.

The timing was PERFECT.  The Atlanta Temple open house is going on and Kade has wanted to go inside a temple sooo badly since his cousin Gavin was able to in February (my Sister's family was sealed together with their adorable adopted baby boy-Emmett!).  So we made a family vacation out of it!

Lukes' favorite part of the trip, hands down, was staying in a hotel!  It's the T.V. in their room the most I think....okay, I know so.

We drove out Monday after school, brought tons of snacks...then realized we were only driving 2 hours...so, we're nerds..but prepared nerds at that.  Jess even bought some healthy snacks like cucumbers and grapes.  Grapes--awesome, but our kids still don't like anything vegetable like so the cucumber sticks bombed (even with us cause we didn't salt them..and there was frosted animal crackers in the car so, the cucumbers lost.)

The hotel was great, the area we stayed was adorable and the boys went crazy once we got there.

The Atlanta Temple open house was AWESOME.  They weren't busy at all the session we went and it was our family and an investigator. We watched an amazingly awesome video about temples with beautiful photography, great music and inspiring words from our prophets!  This was my favorite part of the whole tour.  A testimony builder for sure!  The kids were great and loved seeing the pictures.

Then we walked up to the temple.  I'd never seen the inside of this temple before, so I couldn't really compare anything but it was lovely! Temples always are.

I did think it was interesting to note the difference of feeling from being in a dedicated building to one that was not dedicated yet.  Yes, you could feel the Spirit because of the nature of the building, but it was just a taste, not the feast you receive after it's been given to the Lord.

The boys loved seeing the rooms, Kades favorite was the Celestial Room (he LOVED the chandelier!) and Luke says his favorite was the Baptismal Font with the oxen.  I loved how none of the doors were closed.

The whole tour was so open and stated so simply.   I love this gospel! I love how every time I visit the temple I'm sooooo motivated to be such a better person and try harder.  This was no exception.










After the tour they led you into this beautiful tent with chandeliers and people holding trays of cookies--AMAZING cookies. For REAL. I've never had a better ginger/molasses cookie in my life. So so so good.  So that was a nice topper to our experience :)

After we changed we hit the zoo (for free might I add--so that makes everything better). 

The boys love the zoo...although I wouldn't be surprised if they said getting special panda bear stamps on their hands was their favorite thing.  Stamps are pretty cool.

 Here's the boys sitting in a giant nest...you can't tell, but it was super cute to watch.

That night we celebrated little Luke's FIFTH birthday. 

We thought he would love love love to be surprised by balloons and all his presents....so Jess took Luke to the store to get his cake, while Kade and I set up the hotel with helium balloons and gifts and party cups and plates...when Luke came in we shouted, SURPRISE!!!  He looked at us for a bit with a little smile saying nothing...then, 'hey guys, we got ice cream at the store.' and walked away.

Fail.

Kade was SOOO excited to surprise Luke--look how happy his face is!  I love it!

And after I took this picture of luke I about died. Doesn't he look soooo old? He's 5 already!  CRAZY!

Speaking of crazy--I love his eye's in this picture. He picked a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. It was pretty gross--BUT, he got the cherry which was on top--I'm pretty sure that's why he picked it in the first place.

He was happy that he got RAD cowboy boots from Grandma Winn! He wore them that night, and everyday since then. We had to explain why he had to take them off for T-Ball Practice :)

We finished out our trip with a visit to the Georgia Aquarium....it's kinda expensive...and turns out if you go from 11-2, those are prime hours for a bajillion kids on field trips. So, Kade loved it, Jess was anxious, and the rest of us just tried to keep up with Rhett.

In the end we remembered how freaked fantastic family vacations can be. There's always a 

learning curve though....

Like, don't eat lunch at the Aquarium cafeteria.  Just because they call it a 'cafeteria' doesn't mean the gross food is cheap, it's just gross food.

Always take the kids to the bathroom before you leave to go anywhere...

other wise you'll have to hold on to that shred of hope that you're child will be able to hold it a tiny bit longer, then find a gas station only to find out their closed, then get trapped on a street with no parking, lots of traffic, giant buildings and one way streets, and end up driving forever just to drag the kids out of the car down giant hills, to use a port-a-potty at a park that's under construction on the side of the road.  

Turns out, it doesn't take fancy things to impress our kids, they just want to get a few hours of free t.v. time and automatically you're the best parents ever.  

We also learned (a little too late) that if it's your birthday--you can get in free to said aquarium.

We learned that 1 year olds don't particularly love being strapped into a carseats and strollers for very long--and when they walk, they don't so much go where you want them to go.

I see this face a lot.  Jess' giant heart is so so beautiful! This is the face he gets when he watches his little men.  I think he likes them a little bit.

Our trip was awesome and I can't wait to have a ton more just like it.  (but first..I think we'll go on a cruise! YAY!  T-10 days!)

Rhetts B-DAY!!! Big #1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHETT!!!

I can't believe how fast it happens.  You know how old people stop you in the grocery store, at the pharmacy, at the doctors and remind you not to take the little ones for granted because it ends so fast?  Well I am recognizing this more and more everyday.  I get so anxious when I hit these mile posts and realize that  an entire year has gone by in a weeks time.....but it's all okay. Cause i'm always surprised by how great the next year is and so even though it goes by fast, new great stuff is coming up.  Just sad to say goodbye to baby Rhett--but YAY for TODDLER RHETT!!!

Rhett LOVES banana's. In fact he was pointing to a banana several months ago and said the sound na-na, (not meaning to of course) which is now what he says sweetly every time he's hungry, or less sweetly when you're eating a brownie and he wants it.

He says Da-da, only when Jess is home, so I'm going to count it, but that's it so far.

He hits himself on the  head as a joke--looks around--and then laughs

When I vacuum, although he's very wary of it, he gets his mini vacuum and holds it while I do it.  He loves to dance, which is really just a shake of the bum originating from the knees, but he loves it.  He likes to roughhouse with his brothers and dad when they're all on the floor together.  He tries to pillow fight when he finds them laying around in the house.

He takes people with him wherever he goes.  He likes to walk over and find someone, take their finger, then pull them to wherever his objective lies.  He doesn't usually care what they do once they're at the goal, unless the goal was to get some food, in which case we get more of the "na, na, na!"

He loves to put things into other things, doesn't matter what, just so long as a thing goes into another thing.  He points to what he wants, or if I'm carrying him, where he wants to go.  He throws things, and sometimes kicks.  He likes to hit things with his head to test their stubbornness against his.  He lifts his arms over his head to indicate he wants to get out of his highchair, crib, car seat, etc.

Rhett has a fake laugh already--he does it mostly in the car to himself, but I can't help but join along.  He has eight teeth.  Six on top and two lonely chompers down on the bottom.  (Bottom of his mouth, not his bottom...)

He smiles with his eyes.  Lots of times he'll have his binki in his mouth, and you can't really see his expression, but his eyes shine so bright when he smiles that it's unmistakable.

He likes to get pushed around on his 'racer.'  (he's only mastered going backwards by himself :)  He also likes to push Luke and Kade on the racer, though the weight issue makes for a pretty lame experience for the older boys.  It's impressive that he can push either of them, though, right?!  He like to be chased around, and sometimes he'll even do the chasing.  It's sometimes hard to tell if you're being chased, though.  He's only got two speeds, walking and quickly falling...so if he's quickly falling toward you, that might be getting chased.


He uses his hair as a napkin almost 100% of the time.  The past few weeks have been a fairly consistent contest to see how much food he can store on the top of his head versus how badly I want to bathe him.

 For his party this year we combined it with our good friends the Lindquists since Penny is 4 days younger.  (Jessica even made the cute little shirts they were wearing--thanks! LOVED IT!)  They were a bit of a mess at the days end, hence the bath picture (and the guarantee of future awkward conversations between a teenage Rhett and Penny...)

So we love his little face off! He is such a blessing to our family!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!