Spring Break 2013

One of the best things about my job is the time off. I love that every 9 weeks or so I get at least two weeks (sometimes much more) off with my girls. This break was made extra special because not only did David take the entire first week off to be with us, but we got to head to Phoenix to spend the whole week with my family! My sister and her family flew in from TN and my other sister and her family were also on break. This would be the first time that my sister, Chrissy, would get to meet Makenzie and the first time the rest of us would get to meet my newest nephew.

We had the best time having one giant sleep over! We literally took over my dad's house. He and my stepmom moved into their casita for the week giving my sister and her family the master and David, the girls and I the guest bedroom. The kids were up bright and early each day eager to play with their cousins and bed times were practically non-existent. It was incredibly tiring, but well worth it. The kids built memories (at least the big ones) they will never forget.

Day 1:  We spent the whole first day doing nothing but hanging out and playing.

My adorable new nephew! He is 3 months!

Kenzie meeting her cousin. They are just about the same size!

Morgan of course wanted to snuggle.

I love this little man and miss him already!

Morgan learned how to play tennis on the Xbox.

Day 2: We spent most of the day hanging out again, but my sis and I found a few minutes of quiet time sneaking away with the two littlest ones to shop. 

Day 3: My dad plays on a softball team so we started the morning going to watch his game. 

Morgan was his biggest (and loudest) cheerleader.

Kenzie watching the game, while tugging on her ear.

Kenzie tugging on her ear lead us to end up in urgent care. She hadn't been sleeping well in days and seemed to really be pulling at her ears. Turned out her ears were perfectly fine, she was teething. Good times!

After our visit to urgent care and some lunch the kids convinced us all to head to the mall. The boys wanted to check out the Lego store and the little girls wanted to check out Build.-A.-Bear. 

Meet Chocolate Ice Cream.

 Day 4: On Wednesday we went to my sister Jen's house to spend most of the day. The girls really wanted to show off their giant trampoline. That almost cost us another visit to urgent care (and did eventually have us end up at the orthopedic surgeon, thankfully nothing was wrong....) I made the  bad decision of jumping with Morgan along with all her cousins (we never want her to be left out and she wouldn't have it any other way). Well, let's just say I am not quite as strong as David and Morgan came down a little funny on her left knee. She immediately burst into tears and wouldn't calm down for a while. After a bit she did stop crying although for the rest of that day and several to follow she complained if her leg was moved a certain way. We did wait until home to get it checked out (I know, you are thinking we are terrible parents and you should call CPS on us immediately) but we waited because Morgan's left knee is so unique that any doctor in PHX would have for sure thought something major was wrong when really it's just Morgan's knee. Anyway, we had an x-ray done and nothing was broken, fractured, etc... Most likely she pulled a muscle over stretching her ROM on the knee. She still complains here and there, but it seems to be getting better so fingers crossed that nothing real major is wrong and that time will heal this wound.

After the trampoline excitement that day the girls and I headed out with the rest of the girls (my sisters and their three girls) to watch the two oldest at dance practice. Once we had seen both girls practice their dances we headed back to my dad's for some girlie time.

Getting manicures.

The girls both got their hair done and even put on some make-up!

I love Morgan's sassy look!

They then insisted that their mommies needed to get made up too.

 Day 5: On Thursday my sisters and I arranged to have a photographer come out and take family photos for us. They came out amazing! There are some really great shots. My girls were of course super tired though so they had some meltdowns during picture time. Morgan also really struggled with looking at the camera. We didn't have her wear her glasses because they have transition lenses so they would be dark, but the poor kids HATES the sun. Even though we were never in direct sunlight she did not want to look up. Oh well, they still look really good.

I love my family!!!!!!

Little miss pouty-face. This is why we need naps.

Love this girl to pieces!

Right after the camera clicked Kenzie proceeded to break this necklace sending beads flying EVERYWHERE. Sorry Chris (it was her necklace). Oops.

One of my favorites!

Day 6:  On our final day we took a hike as a family to see a memorial trail that they had built  out near where my dad lives. The trail honors fallen soldiers and there is a plague on the trail honoring my mom's brother, George.

That last day we spent as much time together hanging out as we could. The kids put their finishing touches on their 'movie' and we all sat around to watch it. (Every time they are together they write their own movie and film it. This time they did it totally on their own).

Rehearsing their lines.

Morgan did a great job remembering her important line to close the show: GUILTY!

 Here are some other random photos from the week:

Morgan convinced her cousin to read to her and then he was stuck the rest of the trip:)

That is....until she convinced her aunt to read to her.

Kenzie learning to take steps.

She went further and further each day.

Dance party!

She was supposed to be napping.

Instead she decided checking out diapers would be more fun.

Morgan looking way too grown-up before pictures. I love how my sister did her hair.

All the girls!

Best friends and sisters forever! I miss them already!

 We had the best time! We are hoping it won't be two years again before we all see each other. However, we did realize that if we keep up the trend of getting together every two years the oldest kids will be driving the next time. SCARY! That is why we have said the next visit needs to be a destination vacation.

Thankfully our entire second week of break was very uneventful. We needed time to just relax and recover from our exciting first week.