A Pinkalicious Party

Karlee had a Pinkalicious party on Saturday for her 4th birthday.  It was all based off of the book Pinkalicious.  The girl in the book LOVES pink (fits Karlee perfectly) and eats too many pink cupcakes so she turns pink. The doctor tells her the only way to turn back to noraml is to eat green food.  She doesn't like green food but she finally does and turns back to normal.  So the party on Saturday was all about PINK! I read the book to the girls when they first got here.

We had all pink decorations.

Karlee and her friends (minus Kambree who was a little shy and a couple girls who couldn't make it.) They all wore pink!  Karlee said no boys allowed except for daddy and Karson.

We played Pinkalicious bingo.

We played pin on Pinkalicious.

We ate all pink food...pink donunts (Karlee's favorite), pink yogurt, pink cookies, pink marshmellows and pink kool-aid.

Karlee got to open lots of fun presents from her friends.

Then we brought out the pink cupcakes!

We sang to Karlee and she blew out her candles.

The girls eating their cupcakes.

Karson was happy the whole time watching everything going on and eating a lot of sugar. Jeff was at the party too but no pictures of him.

Right before it was time to go home some of the girls ate a few green grapes so they weren't pink when their parents picked them up. 

Karlee is FOUR!

Karlee turned 4 on Tuesday!  She has been waiting so long for her birthday and it finally came.  She seems so grown up now.  Karlee is smart, fun, loving, and a big helper.  She definitely has the personality of a first child and likes to be a little mommy. She LOVES her friends and asks everyday if she can play with one of them.  She loves wearing dresses (especially if they are pink), having her hair curly, and her nails painted. She likes learning new things and has a great memory.  We love Karlee! 

Karlee had a great birthday!  She got to go to the park with her friend Addy and play until it was just too hot.

She got to open presents. She got some new dresses, books, a game, and new bedding for her big girl bed. Then her friend Irelynn came by and brought her a balloon so she got to play with her for awhile.

She finally got a new big girl bike and asks to ride it all the time now.  

She got to pick what we had for dinner and she wanted pizza. The little boy Kolby, who I have been watching, stopped by and brought her a slip n slide.

Then we went to Yogurtland for dessert.  

I would say she had a pretty fun day.  Now we have more celebrating to do on Saturday when she has a little birthday party with her friends.

Salt Lake Trip

This last weekend we drove up to Salt Lake for a couple days.  I took a few pictures but hardly took out my camera.  We had so much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa Vocana, Kyle's family, Aubrey, and some friends.  The weekend went fast but we are glad we got to go see everyone.

The main reason for the trip was to go to Maya's baptism.

Karlee loved playing with her cousins.  Wish we lived closer:(

Aubrey and I went to lunch with 3 of my college friends, Carrie, Melissa, and Sheryl.  Love these girls and wish I could see them more! It is always fun getting together whenever we can.

Nick and Lindsi let us stay with them.  Thanks guys! We always have a good time with them.  The kids loved their dog and playing with their cute little boy Cashe!  Karlee also said she loved Nick's cooking:)

We also got to stop in St. George and see Grandma and Grandpa Mathis and Abby and Andrew.  The kids love visiting people and never want to leave where we are. 

 Now we have a little less than 2 months before the baby comes.  We will be hanging around here getting ready and trying to survive the heat while keeping the kids entertained.

Karson turns 2!

Our little guy turned 2 on May 24th! I can't believe it has been two years since we were driving back and forth to the hospital to visit him in the NICU for almost a week. We are so blessed to have Karson in our family.  He is such a good little boy that is so sweet and mild mannered.  He likes to cuddle and still be held (which we can do since he is not much over 20 1bs.)  He is a mamma's boy that is turning into a daddy's boy.  He loves Karlee (Kar Kar) and wants to do everything that she does. He is starting to talk a lot more and put words together.  He is an excellent sleeper at night and for naps! He loves to eat and anything that is sweet (he says MMM) is his favorite.  Sometimes I still think of him as a baby but in only 2 months he will be a big brother.  We just love our Karson!!

We had a train birthday party for him the Sunday before his birthday since Aubrey was still in town.  How cute is this invite my friend made?

Aubrey and I made this train banner.

We tried making train tracks on the table cloth and made the little bowls of food into trains.

We had train cupcakes!

This is the picture of the guest (minus Alec)! You can see how much they wanted their picture taken:) I didn't even try for anything better.

We sang to Karson and he blew out the 2 candles.  We practiced earlier so he actually knew what to do. It was cute!

We didn't do much on his real birthday but he got to open more presents from grandparents,Ashley and us. 

Karlee wanted to help because it has been so hard that her birthday comes last of everyone in our family.

Most of his gifts were train stuff. He got this table, lots of tracks, and several trains to play with.

He loves the trains but his favorite gift is this toy vacuum!  He loves the real vacuum and wants to use it all the time.  He usually cries when we turn it off so this was the perfect gift for him:)

I would say for someone that didn't even know he was having a birthday Karson is one spoiled little boy.

Dance Recital

Karlee also finished her first year of dance last week.  Since she had a big recital in December they just did a little performance for the parents and showed off all the things they have been learning for the last few months.  It was great because she still got to go on stage but I didn't have to buy an overpriced costume that she would wear once. 

Karlee has loved going to dance because she gets to take with two of her friends, Addy and Hailey. We started carpooling and she really loved when one of their moms picked her up and she got to ride with her friends to dance.

The three girls were in a beginner ballet/tap class in January and they were doing so well that the teacher moved them to the intermediate class a couple months later.  That class didn't have as many kids but they have loved it.  They got to do more bar work and learn some technique. Dance has been such a fun thing for Karlee to look forward to once a week. 

Karlee graduates!

Ha ha, not really! She just finished 3 year old preschool on Monday.  The last day was at my house so I tried to make it feel like a little graduation.  They didn't really get it because they don't know what graduation caps or diplomas are but they still had fun. Karlee has loved doing preschool this year and going to her friend's houses each week.  Now she is all ready for 4 year old preschool:)

Aubrey made these cute graduation treats for them. They didn't turn out like we wanted because the chocolate was melting and the cookies were sticking together but the kids didn't complain.

SeaWorld 2012

My friend Meesha went to SeaWorld a little while ago and came back and said how much fun they had. We decided it would be fun for us to take a little family vacation before the baby comes and drive to San Diego for a couple of days. We made the plans and then Aubrey decided to join us.  We got to go to SeaWorld two days and we had a great time.  We went last Thursday and Friday.  Thursday was not busy at all so it was nice walking around and having hardly any lines. The weather was really nice too which is always good. Here are a ton of pictures from the trip.

at the Shamu show

the Shamu show was really cool so we went both days

a sea lion

They had a little area called Sesame Street Bay of Play.  This was Karlee's favorite place to hang out.  There were a few rides and other fun things for kids to do.

Abby's Sea Star Spin

There was a little play area for Karson that he loved.

Karson wasn't sure about Elmo's Flying Fish but I think he liked it.

We got to see dolphins up close.

Karson didn't nap the first day but the second day he was so tired he just fell alseep walking in the stroller.

Blue Horizon Show with dolphins and birds

The kids got to see Elmo and Cookie Monster

Karson cooling off and getting wet



We had plans to stay another day and go to the beach but the temperature was only supposed to be high 60's.  We decided to just stop at the beach on our way home since 60's is not laying out weather.  Karson was a little nervous with the sand and cold water but then he cried when we had to leave. 

Karlee wanted to stay and play in the sand but we only stayed about 15 minutes because we had a long drive home. I'm so glad we had a chance to go.  It is always nice to get away for a few days and just enjoy each other and not think about everyday life.