Choose the Right Charlie

This year in Primary (non-LDS people this where kids ages 3-11 go during church) they are sending Choose the Right Charlie home with a new kid each week.  During the week you have to take a picture of your kid choosing the right with Choose the Right Charlie.  Then on Sunday, they share with the other kids how they chose the right that past week.  They also get put their picture on the bulletin board.  Carlie was SO excited that she got to take him home.  Carlie's Choose the Right moment was when her mom was super tired and Berkeley was hungry she decided to go make Berkeley & herself some dinner.  What a super sweet girl - LOVE HER!!!

I Heart Seattle

 One VERY cool thing about Corey's new job is I can tag along with him on some of his business trips.  He travels all over Washington state for various conferences & meetings.   My mother-in-law even comes to my house and watches my kiddos for me.  Back in February I went to Seattle with Corey for 4 days.  We stayed in downtown Seattle at the Hotel 1000 - a super beautiful hotel.

 This pic doesn't do the amazing bathroom justice.  The big tub filled from above - so cool.  There was a glass wall separating the bathroom from the bedroom part of the hotel room that had an electronic shade you could lower for privacy.  It was so nifty.

 While Corey was in his exciting business meetings I wandered around Seattle.  Our hotel was only a few short blocks to Pikes Market.  I would go down there everyday and wander around the funky shops and booths & eat yummy treats.  We would also meet up for his lunch break - so many cool choices for food in Seattle!!!  I was also really close to lots of shopping.  It was so much fun to shop by myself without any kiddos.

 Every night we would meet up and go to some yummy restaurant.  This night we were seated on the 2nd floor balcony of an Asian fusion restaurant called Wild Ginger.  It was so delish.  They had such wonderful vegetarian choices for me, in fact they had a separate menu for vegetarians - how cool!!

Another evening we ate in the hotel restaurant - Boka Kitchen.  Below is a pic of my ridiculously good - gourmet veggie burger & truffle fries......oh I want to eat there again!!!

One of the best parts of the trip is my cousin Gavin & his fantastic wife & daughter came and picked me up & we went to breakfast at this dive diner.  I got the strawberry waffles...yum.  Gavin got this ridiculous 6 egg omelet - GOOO Gavin - it was ginormous!  It was really fun to meet up with them - they are amazing people & I love them.

Another evening we went to a gourmet pizza joint called Serious Pie.  Here is a pic of one of our pizzas I ordered.  Their pizzas were crazy good.

I wish I had took better pictures.  I am kinda random. 

I wish I had taken a picture of my hubby & I...oh well.

I am really looking forward to the Walla Walla trip this summer - I am taking the kids with me on this one.  AND best of all we are all going with him to his Newport Beach trip in October.  We are going to go early and visit Disneyland first - HOORAY!!!!!!!!



Berkeley the FOUR Year Old...oh my

Today was Berkeley's Well-Child Check-Up for his 4th birthday. 

 Here is a picture I took of him in the waiting room when he was being

 sweet, quiet, and obedient (this definitely changed - stay tuned).

OK, so I uploaded three pictures...I couldn't decide which one was better,

 he is just that good looking :) 

 He INSISTED on wearing his Batman shirt today, but it was filthy

 so he settled on his

 Captain America shirt AND underwear (this will become important later).

Height: 40 inches (43rd percentile)

Weight: 35 lbs (42nd percentile)

WHAT???  Who is this kid??  I have a child that is smaller than the average 4 year old!  Have any of you met me or my daughter who is 7 years old and 5 foot tall and has NEVER even been on the growth charts!!!

It was wonderful to have the doctor tell me that he was a happy and healthy child.  Just as I was thinking, "Wow, Berkeley is being soooooo well behaved today.", he decided to dart out the door in his Captain America underwear & nothing else and proceed to run all throughout the pediatric clinic laughing LOUDLY.  He made it all the way to the waiting room and after chasing him in a few circles I caught up with him.  What a proud parenting moment. 

 We returned to the room and he was a maniac -  loud and crazy.  I finally settled him down while we were waiting for the nurse to come give him his shots by singing songs with him.

Then the sad part where he shrieked in pain from the shots...after the shots he limped out to the car - how sad.

Here is a glimpse into Berkeley's life:

He LOVES..

- fruit and hot dogs

- to say the word poop, poopy, and pee - OVER and OVER again.  He loves to replace nice words with these potty words.  For example, he loves to sing, "It's raining, it's pouring the old man is pooping on the roof."

-  to pick out his clothes.  Lately he has really been into basketball shorts, short sleeve "COOL" shirts, and his cowboy boots

-  to sing "I'm a boy,  I'm boy I'm proud to be me, yeah" (this is from Signing Times)

- to ride his bike & motorcycle (three wheeler that he insists is his motorcycle) & play with all the kids in the neighborhood

- to steal candy from mommy & daddy's stash

-to jump & climb - he is a little daredevil and he has the bumps and bruises to prove it

 -to have his mom fix his hair into his mo-hawk

-  when his dad calls him by the wrong name. When his dad does this he yells. "NO!!  I am BERK-E-LEY!!!!"

-  cartoons (I know - shocker)

- to play with and try to be like his friend Jake and his cousin Adan

- his mom - he follows me around all day.  He has started recently trying to "help" me do my chores.  It is pretty cute - usually :)

- to be tickled, to wrestle & play rough

- books!!  He loves to look at them, loves when mom & dad read to him, and especially when his big sister reads to him.  That is the coolest.

- trains, trucks, cars, helicopters, planes, dinosaurs, and basically any toy he can get a hold of.

- to play dress-up with his sister

- to dance around with his family 

- to be LOUD!! (I wonder where he gets that trait from?)

- to be silly

- to make people laugh (he is a clown - we are in trouble)

- his primary teacher Sister Drolette

- jump off everything

- playing on mommy and daddy's I-Phones or I-Pad

- when mommy works and he can play at the Poulsen's home

- juice boxes and fruit snacks

Berkeley is such an energetic little boy and I love him to pieces.  He brings such joy and happiness to my life.  Even though many days I have a hard time keeping up with him and being patient with him I wouldn't trade him for all the $$$ in the world.  He has my heart and soul...

My Little Monster is FOUR!!

DISCLAIMER:  This post is LONG and I had  major camera problems so the pics are not very high quality.  BUT, my boy is the cutest and I think the party was wild, fun, and super cute!  (good thing since I worked my butt off)

Here is the invite with my personal info covered with gray boxes.  Aren't those monsters so adorable?

Here is a perfect example of the energy that was at Berk's Party.  I asked them to roar like monsters and oh boy did they ever.

I made a monster pinata. 

First time I have ever attempted, but I think it turned out super cute

and I saved a ton of $$

Monster gift bags

I painted this monster for Pin the Eye on the Monster

I also made this Monster Bean Bag Toss (thank you pinterest for most of my ideas)

It says, "BEWARE - Little Monsters Inside"

Doesn't the monster door look amazing?? 

It was soooo easy and I am going to do it again for Halloween.

Streamer curtain - thank goodness my mother in law Diane came up Friday afternoon to help me.  She made this curtain, made me some bean bags, did tons of laundry, entertained my kids, washed dishes, glued eyes on cups and napkins, and so much more.  She saved me.  I was wiped out from subbing on Friday (how stupid to take a elementary sub job the day before a major party - what was I thinking - plus it was the most challenging sub job ever).

Love the monster cake I stayed up until 2 am making.

Monster headbands

One-eyed monster cupcakes

monster napkins...forgot to take pics of the cups too

balloon streamer...Corey made this - this picture doesn't do it justice.

little monsters waiting in line for the monster bean bag toss

the chaos of 12 kids ages 2-7....yikes, what was I thinking??

my little man pinning the eye on the monster

Berk with his little cousin Max & his buddy Nathan

Carlie pinning the eye

Max escaped with Berk on the side of the house for a minute and got drenched in mud...his mommy was not too happy, but I was happy it was him and not the birthday boy :)

little, scary monsters

how cute is that??  I LOVE that me -

 a very NOT artistic person was able to make this all by myself

love these monsters

****OK - here should be some AWESOME pics of the monster slime we made (borax & glue), but NO ONE took pics because we were so busy helping all the kiddos.  Oh well!!

missed the singing part for some reason

He LOVED his cake

he blew out his four candles one by one - so funny

"Oh man, my mom is crazy, how embarrassing!"

I am so popular - look at all my fun friends!!!!!

the crazy present opening time - he got so many amazing presents - what nice friends and family

getting excited for pinata time!!!!!!!!!!

what cuties

Max is up wearing some clean clothes of Berk's -

good thing they are pretty close in size because he was filthy

let's look at how amazing my pinata is again before it is DESTROYED

Aubry...we love her. 

Chelsea was scared to hit the pinata for some reason

Matthew was super strong

We discovered that Berk had NO idea what to do with a bat...get with the program COREY and teach your son how to play baseball (your favorite sport)...how embarrasing

Jake the stud

I thought Adan was going to break it he is soooo strong, but Carlie was the last to hit and she broke it.

CANDY!!!!!!

such great buddies

ROAR!!!!!!!!!

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!

Oh boy is Chelsea cute

We love Sam....what a great kid, friend, & neighbor

Nathan is in Berk's primary class at church.  He is soooo quiet at church - at the party he was a super cute wild man!!!

Brian was also a funny wild man....love him!

Matthew is one big ball of energy...so nice that Berk has so many friend with as much energy as he does!!

What a great poser!!!!

All in all it was a great party and Berk had a BLAST!!!  Thanks to Corey, Diane, Kim, & Kelsey for their help in keeping the party moving and the chaos to a minimum.  I REALLY appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my little boy more than I could every explain. 

He is sunshine to my soul!!!