Mother's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day, we all slept in and then we went to see my mom. We spent most of the day at my parents' house doing nothing in particular. We went out to an early dinner, and at the end of dinner the waitress brought my mom and I each a chocolate covered strawberry. It was a nice surprise. And I actually got my Mother's Day presents from Carissa and Gabe during the week before Mother's Day, the ones that they made at school and couldn't wait to give me. Carissa made me a necklace, bracelet, and card.
I love Carissa's signature.
Gabe painted a little flower pot and colored some paper flowers for me.

Party

So about a week a half ago I had my second night ever of no children. I invited some friends over to celebrate the end of my first semester back in college. Which I ended up getting a 3.85 GPA for the semester and I was very happy to see that I can handle being a single mom, working part time, and going to school full time. So, I really enjoyed having a night with friends, but in the morning I was really excited to get the kids. Ben and I didn't get to my parents house until almost noon, and my mom told me that my little sister took Carissa and Gabe to the park. We got in the car to drive to the park and give them a ride back to the house when we saw them walking down my parents' street. When Carissa and Gabe saw us they told us that they didn't want to go home with us, and Gabe took off running all the way to my parents' house. Carissa followed him a minute later, and she even went in the house and took off her shoes in protest of going home with us before we caught up with her. We stayed there for a little bit, and then they came home with us willingly. It makes me happy to see Carissa and Gabe are so happy staying with my family, but it still makes me sad that they weren't as excited as I was to see them.

Gabe's first night without mommy

So Friday night Carissa took it upon herself to organize a sleepover for Saturday night. I dialed the phone for her, but she called grandma and grandpa and talked to both of them asking if she could spend the night at their house and then she asked if Gabe could too. My parents said yes to her and then she just had to ask Aunt Alyssa, so she called Alyssa and asked her about a sleepover and she also said yes. So, before I knew it my daughter had arranged for me to have one night with no kids, for the first time ever. I was shocked and excited, but as it turns out I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought, because I still had so much homework to do. But, Ben and I went out to a movie, and I got to sleep through the night without being woke up at all. Then in the morning my house was too quiet and lonely and all I could think about was going to see how Gabe did on his first night without me. Gabe did okay, but my mom said that she did get up a couple of times with him. His first two year molar is finally breaking through, so he isn't sleeping as well right now. He will have fits while sleeping, so it sounds like he is awake and upset, but usually he stays asleep.

Easter

I have been busy and didn't get a chance to put up the Easter pictures earlier, so here they are now. We had a good Easter morning, although we didn't do much more for Easter other than Easter baskets.

Skiing

Last weekend we took the kids up to Snowbird with my family and spent most of the weekend up there. The kids both had a great time, and they both tried skiing for the first time. Carissa did pretty much what I thought she would and even though she was so excited to try skiing she just cried and said it was too scary and that she will try skiing again when she is a mommy.

Gabriel on the other hand loved it, and he took to it right away. He is able to catch his own balance and turn when he needs to. My dad ended up buying a harness for Gabe, which I think made it easier to ski for both my dad and Gabe. I can't believe that my 2 1/2 year old can ski. My dad went skiing with Gabe until they closed the lift on Sunday evening.
My dad said that when the lady told them that this was their last run Gabe said, "NO." Gabe really enjoyed skiing, so we are plannig on making the time for him to go again next ski season.

Drive to Cheyenne

Well we got off to a bit of a late start on on drive to Cheyenne, because it took longer to pack than I thought. But, we picked got all packed up and picked the kids up at school and had a quick lunch and got some gas and then we were off. We got started on our drive a little before 2 pm. And Carissa and Gabe crashed within 15 minutes, they both slept for about 2 hours so the drive was quiet and uneventful for that part. Once awake they played with toys and then colored with crayons. Which coloring is evidently something that Carissa shouldn't do in the car, we already know that she gets car sick and that she can't look at books in the car but she had been ok coloring before. Anyway, she said that she didn't feel good in enough time that I could get out a bag for her and we saved her clothes and the car. Ben and I were both very proud of her for not making a mess in the car.

We stopped for dinner, which went really slowly, and we made it to the hotel just before 10 pm. Then we got changed and all went swimming. Swimming was a lot of fun, we haven't taken the kids swimming at a big pool for quite a while and they both had a lot of fun jumping in to us and swimming laps (while being held) and racing each other. Then we all put our legs in the hot tub to warm up before headig up for baths and bed. Overall, the kids did great with the drive, but I guess we have hit the "are we there yet" stage. Only Carissa mostly asked if we were still going to go swimming and how much longer until we get there.

Sweet and Sassy Party

Last Saturday Carissa went to her first birthday party and she had a blast. I wasn't sure if I needed to stay with her for the party or what it would be like for sure so I left Gabe at my parents house and planned on being there if I needed to. Within minutes of showing up for the party Jade's parents told me that it would be a couple hours long and it was up to me if I wanted to stay or not. I wanted to stay with Carissa just to be there with her but I also had a lot of homework to get done, so I debated in my head a little. Then I decided I would just see what Carissa wanted me to do, and she just told me to "leave." So, I felt a little sad that she didn't want me to stay but I was happy that she was comfortable enough that she didn't need me to stay. I left and came back a little bit before it was over, and Carissa told me all about it. She got to put her feet "in a little bathtub," and she got her toe nails and finger nails painted. And they did her hair and put a glitter shape on her face, and she got a ring, a toe ring, a bracelet, bubble bath and some lip gloss. I took a few pitures of her once we got back to my parents house before she had a nap.