Did I really let her do that?

MaKynzee has been asking for WEEKS if she could cut her hair. I kept saying no...I LOVE her hair. Well morning after morning of fighting it was weighing down on me and then a not so good but "little" incident happened. My sister was watching my kids- I am more than sure MaKynzee was in on it- my niece cut her hair. She cut off her little piggy tails. Now right after Kira did it MaKynzee ran and told my sister. So I am sure MaKynzee was there cheering her on and then when Kira actually did it she ran and tattled. Such drama queen and so naughty to boot! Anyway the results ended with some pretty cute hair cuts for my nieces.... So after listening to daily whining for her hair to get cut and a pretty bad morning of screaming hair drama...we went to the salon. Yep I cried and tears fell but I really didn't want to end up with her cutting her own hair. (Sorry sis, I know she was in on it.) I was too afraid to cut that much off myself...so you can say we copied Brookelyn and Kira (my nieces) or that mommy was scared into it or just flat out sick of her whining...it is done and here it is... When the lady was almost done MaKynzee pulled me over with her finger and whispered "I need bangs mom." Up till that point she didn't look very happy but once the bangs were cut she couldn't stop grinning! She loves it. She flips her hair over her shoulder and says "Like my hair?" Oh dear...the little princess we have. The really weird thing for me was that I never thought MaKynzee looked like me till now... Check out our "Spring"Break post below.

Happy "Winter" Break 2011

Ok so Spencer had this brilliant idea that we would go to Yellowstone, only the north entrance is open but hey we could still catch some animals right? So off we headed...what we (well I am beginning to think Spencer knew all along and just didn't tell me because I would have vetoed the trip) didn't know was that we had to drive 6.5 hrs to get over to the north entrance. The reason I think Spencer knew is because he pulled all of our bums out of bed at 0430am to leave at 0530am. Don't ask why or how...I don't know. Along the way we went through part of west Yellowstone around the outside and saw a pack a wolves. That's right a PACK, 5! The alpha male or female was hauling off with the rib cage of some poor animal and I must say it was AMAZING! Spencer was super happy after that of course. After getting to the park we saw over 500 buffalo, several big horn sheep, elk, antelope...it was great.

Who are you looking at?

Pit Stops...

At the river by the north entrance.

Beautiful and cold but the smiles are all warm!

So due to the fact that our favorite campground is under aprox 10 feet of snow we stayed in a hotel. The funny thing was the kids have never stayed in a hotel before. When we got in the room Lukas asked where we were going to set up the tent and MaKynzee kept asking whose house we were in. It was really funny so of course we let them brake it in...they jumped on the beds, took a bath, watched TV and oh the "cool" water cups...it was so cute!

Day 2 we set out on quite the adventure we were going all the way over to Cooke City (northeast entrance). So many animals to see but oh the snow! After a morning of driving we got to our favorite spot that always has lots of animals. The kids were sick of the car so we broke out their winter gear and while dad took pictures, mom played in the snow with the older two. We made a snow man...

MaKynzee "loved" Mr. Snowie as she affectionately named him.

and had a great snow fight....

That was all Lukas wanted to do was have a snow fight. Well with 3 elk, a handful of buffalo and about 7 big horn sheep to keep Dad busy...

(yep all on one mountain side... you can tell why it is our favorite spot) Lukas got his snowball fight. Then we headed off for Cooke City. First of all there was about five feet of snow on EVERYTHING, the local shops only had snowmobiles parked around and the gas station had 8 snow machines parked there. Crazy?? I think we only saw one other car on the road and was cut off by a maybe, 12 year old on a snow machine. Yep I wanted to get the heck out of there before we were snowed in. So we headed back home and out of the snow. It was a fun trip and successful for our photographer. Happy Spring Break right?

Happy 4th Birthday MaKynzee!

I woke up way early to get all the cooking done for the parties MaKynzee had on Wednesday. We celebrated a day early. She was able to take these "cupcake" green rice krispies to preschool. She was all decked out in green, complete with crown.
Our Irish Princess

Fun "cupcakes"

After preschool she got to go shopping with Aunt Melanie and Grandma Bowen and pick out her birthday presents while mommy finished the cakes and decorating.

The Cakes...MaKynzee wanted a princess cake and tiara cake. I did my best...

Then we all loaded up and went to Blackfoot to swim. That was all MaKynzee kept talking about was a swim party and mom did not want to disappoint.

The entire gang...we were so happy that the Texas clan could make it for MaKynzee's big day! Thanks!

The Princess with her "Prince" Grandpa Bowen

Our little family.

So funny...Bowen's first time swimming...

Looks happy right? It got a lot better, he never did cry just gave the greatest faces.

After swimming we went to Golden Corral for dinner so everyone could eat what they wanted. It was great there was a animal balloon maker. He was brilliant! He made everyone a special animal of their choice and MaKynzee's was made out of Happy Birthday balloons.

Left to right: Brookelyn/unicorn, Alex/TRex, Lukas/Flying Fish, Kira/Lady Bug, Ivy/Butterfly, MaKynzee/Birthday butterfly and Lily/Unicorn. It was so cool.

MaKynzee opening presents...

Our little Irish baby on St Patty's, MaKynzee even gave him the crown to "keep safe".

Happy Birthday Princess, we really hope that you had a great day we love you!

Oh, sweet Daisy.

So our cute little teddy bear hamster died. She has been going for a while. I noticed because when I cleaned her cage the running wheel wasn't being used and when I put her in her ball she just sat there. Right before I left for Texas I noticed she had a limp and wasn't eating much. I have made it a habit to say goodnight and check on her. I said good night to her Friday night and then Saturday morning she was gone. I was really shocked with the kids reaction. I sat them down in a circle and told them Daisy went to heaven. MaKynzee burst into full force tears with heaving screaming sobs. Lukas looked lost and started to cry. I guess I didn't think it would hurt them that bad. It was so sad. I started to cry too, for my kids and for her. We made her a special box as a family and then said nice things about her. Lukas really wanted to write her a note, he said through tears "Sorry Daisy, your dead." Spencer and I only smiled and I wrote the note. We all signed it.

Lukas painted the bottom and walls and put the daisies in for a pillow. MaKynzee put stickers around the sides and added this cute little heart right on top of her. Lukas wanted to add food so she would have it when she was resurrected. It was amazing how much they understand about death, life and the resurrection.

Then Spencer closed the box and took her away the kids just kept crying...actually we all were even Daddy. I don't know why but it seemed to make us stronger as a family, I just felt so close as our little family said good-bye, such love and understanding. MaKynzee will start crying out of the blue every now and then and say she misses Daisy. I miss her too.

SWEET DAISY-WE LOVE YOU!

Lukas and MaKynzee hope you have a lot of cheese in heaven

(Daisy's favorite food was this cheese shaped/flavored snack)

Growing Leaps and Bounds

Bowen

Our little Bowen has been growing so fast! I can't believe we just had his 4 month check! He is 14lbs 3oz and 25.75 in long at 4 months!!! In the last month, February he has learned a lot and really impressed us.

He holds his head up 90 degrees.

He has rolled over from belly to back.

He found his fingers and hand. He just sat there staring at his hand for the longest time and then when he would move his hand he would jump and his eyes got wide. I love this time, it is too dang cute.

He found his tongue! He plays with it ALOT and loves to giggle!

MaKynzee has been making sure he stays nice and warm...didn't know we had a Russian baby eh?

This is my favorite expression that he has.

MaKynzee

MaKynzee is such a sweet heart. She is totally into clothes and school. She wants to read like Lukas. She always grabs a book and "reads" the picture. She has always loved her books.

This is her favortite page, She ran up to me and said, "Mom I can read this WHOLE book and look this is my favoite page. It has me AND hippo!" It was too cute for words.

This is my favorite project that has ever come home from the kids. It is our snowman family by MaKynzee.

Lukas

Lukas is reading now and LOVES dinosaur and animal books. Lukas is also obsessed with Wii. He has started to write alot at school and at home. I find papers all over the place that say "I love Wii. -Lukas" He brought home a paper that he had written this is what it said...

I am happy when I play Wii.

I am sad when Mom says I can't play Wii.

I am excited when I play Wii.

I am going to go play Wii.

The bold is what the teacher had them write and the rest is what Lukas wrote. Do we see a problem? He woke up yesterday and ran in..."Mom, I had a really bad dream."

"I'm sorry what happened?"

"Dad played Wii without me."

Oh! For heaven's sake the boy even dreams about it!!!

Lukas has become quite the daddy's boy. He finds his dad's stuff and puts in on or if he wants to do something he'll say "But Daddy does." I am so glad to see their relationship grow so much.

Lukas in Daddy's work shoes. Lukas said he was going to go out and fix the car when I asked him why he had them on. The look on his face is because I told him no more Wii that day! LOL.

We are just so dang happy with our kiddos around here. They are growing up so big and strong.

A True Mexican Wedding

So some of you know that I have a cousin Tyrel. He happens to be only 3 weeks older than me so growing up Christina (my sister), Tyrel and I were all inseparable. We just stayed close. Well most of you know the name Tyrel because I have been trying for the last 5 years to get this guy married! Well he did! I had NOTHING to do with it. It was all about "chemistry" (she was his chemistry class TA at BYU). Anyway I was SO super excited and had the opportunity to go to the wedding. Now he married Linda a muy bonita, caliente mama from Mexico. She actually just became a citizen in November. GO LINDA! Anyway the festivities were amazing and we had so much fun, that is Bowen and I. It was in Texas and I had some family business I needed to attend to so it worked out perfect!

The "Bachelor" Party-

We waited until 1130pm one night for the bachelor! So we gave presents one night and then went to Red Robin the next night.

Our presents were...and there accompanying notes.

Hot Tamales...To heat things up.

Some "Party Pack" rubbers... To keep things interesting.

KY- To help smooth things along.

"Winter"fresh mints- To cool things down if it gets too hot.

2 Handtowels- Thought you could use a "towel" to dry off after a nice steamy shower. (those towels are half the size of my hand towels, he couldn't stop laughing. Those were his favorite present.)

At Red Robin- Tyrel, Me, My cousin Scott and his wife Sonya

The Wedding DAY

Mr and Mrs Tyrel D. Fitzpatrick- SO in Love


The Fitzpatrick (Bowen) side at the temple

Tyrel and I


Mommy, Bowen, Grandpa Bowen, Grandma Bowen

in front of the temple

Now Spencer and I have a tradition to take our own close up when we go places or do something different. Since my man wasn't there I used my newest little man!

He looks happy huh?

THE PARTY/ Reception

Tyrel kept telling us that this was going to be a true Mexican party/ Wedding reception and BOY was it.

The "band" serenading the bride and groom as dinner was served.

One tradition at a Mexican reception is they play some music while the bride and groom stand on a chair like this...

Now the groom holds up the veil and the guests form two lines...one male and one female. These two lines run around the room going around the tables with the beat and going under the veil as you passed from one side to the other. With the fast beat we were literally running! It was so much fun! I love Mexican weddings!

Cutting the cake..this is one of my most favorite pictures! Just so dang happy!

While we were down there I got to see my family including my two nieces and nephew who are so dang cute, I couldn't leave them out.

The trip was draining from the real reason I went down...family business but it was good to have a break with the wedding and we also went to an arcade/pizza place one night. It was fun, fast and hard! I love my family! I hope that we can just be happy, we are together for eternity ya know.