Weekenders

Hey, Britt, it's been awhile and you've gotten behind on your family updates...

I know, I know, it's a bit daunting.  You have a gazillion pictures to post.  Yes, gazillion.  Possibly an exaggeration.  But you'll be so glad you did it someday....

So whaddaya say, should we do it?  Ready?  Ready....

Sometimes you just have to relish in your crazy self!  These pics were actually from Our California Weekend in April.  We headed to California to hear our dear friends speak in Sacrament upon returning from their mission to Africa.  So we loaded up in the van the early evening of April 18th and headed on our way.  Yep, April 18th.  My 33rd birthday.  We know how to par-tay!  I spent the morning cleaning and packing.  Of course every birthday is not complete without birthday dinner at KFC in Mesquite, Nevada!  That's just how it goes when you're traveling with hungry tots.  We drove as far as Barstow the first night.  Thanks to Miss Tippy Toes for getting all our bags to the room:

The next morning we packed up and headed the final 2 hours to Huntington Beach, Califor-ni-a. 

Here is the girls' preferred method of traveling:  DVD under a blanket.

Ty man would spend hours on the ipad if we let him:

 And Lexi gets left out on the travel picture it looks like.

But don't forget this handsome hunk of van-drivin' love!  I need this picture to have actual, solid proof Jacob does in fact drive the van.  Perhaps only once or twice a year.  He avoids being in the van if at all possible.  Where is his sense of adventure?  Trucks and tractors are overrated.  The minivan is where it's at.

We stayed in Seal Beach with the daughter of our good friends.  She and her husband were so incredibly kind to give up their master bedroom for us!  They have the cutest little twins you ever did see who are just a few months younger than Ty.  The kids were in heaven having toys and fellow munchkins to play with.  When the twinners and Lexi went down for their afternoon nap, we decided to walk up the street to the beach.  Ya, you read that correctly.  We walked....up the street...to the beach.  Heaven!  On our way:

We had just a bit of time before dinner to get acquainted with life in the OC:

The waves caught Ty once or twice and he wasn't so sure about them.  They all loved running around in the sand.  It was no surprise our plan to not get wet quickly went out the window.












Another photo for the record books here:  Jacob with his shoes and socks off.  It is a very rare occasion.  I think he takes his shoes off about as often as he drives the minivan.....

Needless to say this guy doesn't own a pair of sandals or flip-flops.  It's very alluring though, I had to chase quite a few bikini-laden ladies off the beach. 











We made our way back from the beach in time to clean up and head out for dinner.  It was a big family gathering where we celebrated 3 April birthdays.  So fun!  Here is Ty on our way in to dinner with the twins.  So. darn. cute!

After dinner, we decided to head for a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway.  It was so beautiful as the sun was going down:

And apparently Lexi didn't come on this trip with us....poor little lady didn't get any pictures this day!

The next day was dedicated to spending some quality time in the sun.  This time we went to a place called Mother's Beach where there weren't the huge waves to worry about.  It also had a playground, so it was perfect.  The kids let loose and loved it!  Sand, sun, seaweed, boogie boards...what more is there, really?

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Needless to say, some members of the company were pooped:

We had to revive and get our second wind so we could spend some time at (drumroll please) ChuckECheese!  Ty found the basketballs and that little dude was in heaven:

The girls have been talking about ChuckECheese ever since our last visit to California, so they were excited to go back.  What more is there to life than to get your picture taken with good ol' Chuck himself?  Not much.  And really I have no idea who the random little chap is next to them.  Guess we just have that sort of appeal.

The next day was Sunday where we enjoyed a beautiful Sacrament meeting and heard about an amazing humanitarian mission experience in Africa.  How often we forget how truly we are blessed.  We followed it up with lunch over at their house.  Looks as though I was all photo'd out because from here on out the camera is MIA.  Yep, the whole reason for our trip and it's the day I didn't get any pictures.  Some days I'm doing good just to brush my teeth, you know? 

Sunday evening we headed back to Barstow, then finished the ride home on Monday.  And seeing as though I wasn't quite ready to let go of the birthday celebrations, I may or may not have drug my little family through Caesar's Palace in Vegas searching for the Cheesecake Factory.  It may or may not have been delicious.

A great weekend for sure.  Insert contented little smiley face here.   

Something to Share....

So I happened upon a post that I thoroughly enjoyed reading so wanted to pass it on.  It's a blog post written by one of the daughters of the newly sustained General Young Women's President, Sister Oscarson.  I loved reading what she wrote about her Mother and some brief bits of her perspective of her "Mo's" new calling.  I especially love the picture she posted at the end with the fairies.  Oh, just go read it and see what I'm talking about.  I'm sure you'll enjoy!

http://unlimitedtatertots.blogspot.com/2013/04/moments.html

Good News

Hearing news of a new temple being built is always so exciting.  But to hear a temple will be built within 10 minutes of you?  Now THAT is beyond amazing!  We are getting a temple in Cedar City!!  You can be assured the homes down in Southern Utah were filled with many tears and shouts of joy when President Monson made the announcement Saturday morning.  I was in the living room with my two girls and as soon as it was said, we jumped up and down and shouted!  Then right after I immediately said, "Where's my phone?!"  Such good news has to be shared!  Of course pretty much everyone heard it too, but I just wanted to shout out to the world!  It has been the big "rumor" down here but now we know for sure.  We can't wait!  The work rolls forth.  How awesome to be part of it.  So until we have a picture of our new temple, I'll just post a picture of my favorite temple that will always be home:
 

This Is How We Roll

Why would you want to do the same old boring routine all the time?  Get in the car.  Buckle up.  Be on your way.

Why not shake it up a bit?

First, get on the gargantuan trailer.  Next, climb up on the Ranger.  Always buckle up (with your Easter candy, of course).  Now you're ready for a real ride!  (Many thanks to their father.  Their mother would have never conceived such a plan.)

We had a beautiful Easter weekend.  We started off by spending the last day of the girls' Spring Break down in St. George.  It must have been the last day of Spring Break for the entire world, because it was a ca-ra-zay day down there.  But we had fun nonetheless.  The weather was gorgeous.  I had a little shopping to do, then we had a delicious and healthy (read: less-than-palatable and instant-cardiac-arrest) lunch at Del Taco.  We attempted In-N-Out Burger but it was a madhouse, so we went next door to Del Death.  Bad choice.  (Okay, okay, I admit, it's not like In-N-Out is a more health-conscious choice.  Don't judge.  It was Spring Break!)  We caved to Kenna's insistence but should have stayed at our original location.  But we at least found some redemption at a park where we soaked up the sunshine and the kids loved every minute getting soaked in a little stream.  Of course I left my camera in the car.  The only picture I got was when we were actually home.  I call this "Chocolate Ice Cream Induced Coma."  Not a bad state to be in!

Saturday is the day we spend celebrating all the fluffy fun of Easter.  The girls would just DYE if they didn't get to color some eggs.  (Pathetic pun intended).  Take note the two youngest children are not enjoying the egg dye event.  They were napping.  That also was intended.  I wanted to color the eggs, not my children and the whole entire house in the process!

Lexi and Ty woke up just in time to start the Easter egg hunt.  This sweet little lady is quite proud of her rapidly expanding large motor skills:

This year the Easter bunny set up a scavenger hunt for the kids to go on.  Granted, Kenna spent a good portion of the weekend imploring to see if I was the Easter bunny.  The verdict hasn't been reached yet.  She never got a clear answer on that one (wink wink).  Either way, they absolutely loved it and it was so fun to hear their little squeals of delight every time they found a new stash of treats:

The scavenger hunt culminated down at the ranch house where the California Easter bunny paid us a little visit (huge THANK YOU to Bob and Wendy for their eggstra special treats!)  I know, I know, enough of the ridiculous puns!  I just couldn't help my pitiful self.

Sunday was another beautiful day where we enjoyed taking time to remember how grateful we are to have a Savior who died for us making it possible to live with Him again.  It truly is all incomprehensible, but we loved being able to take time to learn a little more and recommit to do a little better.  Our wonderful neighbor Kathy joined us for dinner, then a bit later we met over at her house along with the Lovell family to enjoy some strawberry shortcake.  Such a nice day!

Just for the record, I attempted a picture of the kiddos all decked out in their Easter church duds, but ended up calling it quits.  Should have just ended up with a skeewompus attempt of a picture rather than nothing.  Oh well!  'Til next year-

Almost April

Yep.  Almost April.  I'll just skip on past a comment about how long (or rather how seemingly short) it's been since I last posted.  We'll jump right on in to the good stuff.  Such as....

....Kenna and her new contact lenses!  Yay for Kenna!  It will be weird getting used to seeing her without her glasses on.  Another new page to turn in the book of Kenna.  She is growing up so fast.  These little milestones are so enjoyable for me.  Still waiting for her top teeth to come in, but hey, no rush.  Maybe she can sing "All I Want For Christmas Are My Two Front Teeth" two years in a row.  

Another little lady around here who is growing fast is Miss Lexi Lou.  She quickly graduated from her army crawl to a full hand-and-knee crawl.  She's growing so quickly, in fact, that we aren't doing well at keeping up with her new found independence.  She snuck into the kitchen the other night while we were visiting with a neighbor and managed to roll down the entire staircase.  Fortunately, she was just fine.  If there is one thing I am absolutely certain about, it's that there are angels who keep watch over my little flock.  I have seen it many times, and I often find myself offering prayers of gratitude that we are not alone in our parenting endeavors.  Lexi continues to be an absolute joy.  She wins the best baby award for our family!  She is at such a fun age.  Her top teeth are working their way down and her toothy little smile gets me every time.  She's starting to pull herself up to things, so chances are her first steps aren't too far away. 

Ty.  Oh Ty.  Where would the Israelsen family be without Ty?  He's a 2-year-old for sure.  He loves to exert his independence, but still flashes us his handsome little smile and makes us melt.  He is the ultimate copycat of his sisters.  Whatever they do, he is right there next to them doing the exact same thing (as well as his 2-year-old self can imitate).  He has few inhibitions.  Obviously here in this picture, he is uninhibited by markers.  His face is simply a blank canvas, I suppose.

Dear Crayola, thank you.  Thank you for inventing markers that wash easily. 

Of course there is something oddly familiar about that picture......oh yes, I know why.  It reminds me of this:

Kenna when she was 3 1/2.  Must be genetic.  Or just a childhood rite of passage.  I especially love Kenna's hairdo.

Speaking of some great hairdo's, we'll add these ones to our collection:

A perfect princess lunch.

And since we like to get up to all sorts of random adventures around these here parts, we'll end with a good one of Jacob, aka The Bull Whisperer:

  Just another day in paradise.
 

This -n- That

Let's see...what have we been up to?  I'll go through some pics from the last little while to bring us up to speed....

Grandma and Grandpa Israelsen came down for a visit the end of January.  We LOVE having Grandparents come!  Grandpa had meetings down in St. George for a few days and Grandma decided to be the ultimate trooper and stay with us.  That is true love, really.  An opportunity to escape from the underworld (aka Cache Valley in January) to 60 degrees and sunny in St. George, and she decides to stay with us?  Sainthood right there!  We certainly didn't complain.  The kiddos loved the extra attention and I was in heaven with some adult conversation.  Of course I just enjoyed the company and let my camera collect dust, but I did manage to snag just two pictures.  This one is blurry, but it was so darn funny!  Grandma brought down a game called "Don't Wake Daddy."  The main piece of the game is a "daddy" who you can lay down into a bed to "sleep."  Basically throughout the game each player takes turns pushing a little button on the bed that eventually makes the daddy pop up and sit right up in the bed.  It's kind of like a jack-in-the-box, and you never know how many pushes it will take to make the daddy pop up.  Well, before Ty had really had a chance to see how the game worked, he got hold of the daddy in the bed and managed to make him pop up.  It scared to poor kid half to death and he screamed and threw a fit as though someone cut off one of his fingers!  He was absolutely terrified of it!  After watching the girls play it for a while, he became really intrigued with watching it, but still wouldn't get very close to it.  So he would have Grandma sit on the couch with the bed, then he would go over to the other side of the room and sit in the rocking chair.  Grandma would push the button, and Ty would wait anxiously for the daddy to pop up.  Every time it popped it scared him, but then he would smile and holler, "Daddy wake up!"  Pretty soon he decided he would brave enough to carefully slide out of the rocking chair, walk over to Grandma's lap and push the daddy back down in the bed.  Then he would hurry and run back to the rocking chair so Grandma could push the button until daddy woke up again.  He did this over and over and over.  Every single time the daddy popped up, he cheered and smiled and hollered.  It was hilarious.  And well, you probably had to be there to really enjoy it like we did, but it's a fun memory.  Here is a picture of Ty just after he pushed the daddy back down in the bed and he's hurrying to get back to his chair before it pops up again.  And thank heavens he has on his snow boots.  Extra protection, you know.

 

While Grandma and Grandpa were down, we decided last minute that they would stay with the kids Friday night while Jacob and I had a little getaway down to St. George for the Young Farmer and Rancher Conference.  It was SO fun to have a little overnighter!  Jacob and I haven't done that in a loooooongg time.  We were so incredibly grateful to Mom and Dad for doing that for us.  It meant so much.  The conference was excellent, and we had a great time.  While we were sitting waiting for the conference to start Jacob leaned over to me with a smile and said, "Brittney Otte: voted most likely to attend a Young Farmer and Rancher Conference in high school."  I just smiled and leaned over to him and said, "Jacob Israelsen:  voted most likely to attend the Utah Shakespeare Festival in high school."  He he he.  Yep, I had him there.  But, I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and he thoroughly enjoys seeing a good musical with me at the Shakespeare Festival every year.  I also learned that I wasn't the only lady there who didn't grow up on a farm and ended up marrying a farm boy.  I'm sure Jacob isn't the only farm boy who has had a bit of marital refinement, either.

Here are the kiddos enjoying a little "sleepover" on the bedroom floor.  Ty loves being right in the middle of everything his sisters are doing.  Quite literally, as this picture shows:

It's been a fairly interesting project having him share a room with the girls, but he's slowly doing better.  We finally got him his own "big boy bed" and he loves it.

Ty also loves Lexi.  Quite often he loves her a little too much and she's not especially appreciative of his love.  He always asks for his picture to be taken with her.

And here we have the romantic Israelsen Valentine dinner.  Complete with a heart pizza, as per the girls' request.  The ladies really look forward to this and it's fun to spend together as a family.  Having small kids requires redefining romance.



Here is Kenna with her cute little Valentine box she made at school.  Oh the things you can do with a cereal box.
 


What do you do on a sunny Saturday in February?  Well, first you have to feed the farm help:

Then you have to entertain the farm help:

You need to introduce your baby to the fine equine:

You have to just smile and endure while mom takes a bazillion pictures (and get creative in the process, thank you Kenna):

And lastly, it's important to take time to just stop and discuss the finer things in life:

 And then go home and do a giant load of muddy, stinky, horse-smelling laundry.

Yep, the finer things in life I suppose.