A Fun Week

Yes, it was a fun couple of days that we got to spend with Jill and family. No one showed you our glamour shot after Jill did our makeup. So I'll include it here. I know....we are beautiful!

Saturday night we went to "The Music Man" at Hunter's school. During intermission an older lady standing right next to dad passed out and dad called 911. The paramedics came and administered CPR and eventually took her away. It caused quite the drama and a 1/2 hr delay to the play. We learned yesterday that she died. So dad was the last one to say something to her before she left this earth (he asked if he could help her up the isle). Very sad. But the play was good.

My good friend, Joan Argyle, her parents passed away last Sunday. I attended their funeral today. They died within 4 hrs of each other in the care center that they were living in. Quite a miracle. Hope dad and I can go like that.

I got to meet up with some of my college roommates for lunch a week ago or so. It was so fun to see them and see that they're still the great girls they were back in the day. I'm grateful for good friendships.

Becky Webb, Michele Law, Mary Jane Helms, and Me

Dad said to say he's been going to work every day (when I asked what he wanted to contribute). Hunter is done watching the Andy Griffith series and has moved on to Agents of Shield. 

St. George Trip and Birthdays

Joshua and I both celebrated birthdays this month and Clara's is next week! It's kind of fun having them all close together. We both had super fun b-days with a party at moms house for mine and a trip to st. George for Joshua's.

My birthday party was the bomb! Heather and Josh spent hours helping with my piñata, which was filled with the coolest toys you ever did see in a piñata, namely flower and tomato grow pots, chicken poop chapstick, st. patrick's day socks, and grow your own crystal/hatch your own dinosaur kits.

Josh's Aunt lives in Ivins, so we stayed with them Friday and Saturday night. Josh was super excited because he got to shoot some really cool guns with his cousin's Elders Quorum.  He shot a Sniper Rifle, Fully automatic AR-15, AK-47 and a combat shotgun (if that means anything to you).

 Then we ate at the new Peruvian restaurant "Viva Chicken" -which was very yummy!! After that we "hiked" to the top of Dixie rock. Clara was loving being outside. She would just laugh randomly as we walked around in the rocks.

 Then we checked out the brand new "all abilities park" next to the Tonaquint Nature Center.  It is quite the park!! All of your kiddos would LOVE it. We also did a small walk/hike to the petroglyphs which were pretty neat too! Really scratching my head over some of them--I'm sure there's something online that would tell me what they all represent. 

We watched La La Land that evening, which we both really liked, while Josh's Aunt watched Clara for us. (yes, I skipped the Women's Meeting, but I will be watching today :-) We left St. George at 7:30 in the morning and joined mom and dad for church and dinner.
Clara is so fun. She is so busy, and so happy. She loves to say “hi” and says it several times throughout the day. Sometimes she waves, too. She was greeting everyone at church yesterday and last grocery store trip she was drawing lots of attention with her smiles and her waves and a few “hi’s”. :) 

One more fun thing from this month-we did a St. Patrick's Day dinner with Josh’s friends from WA. I made corned beef and cabbage for the first time. I went crockpot style and I cooked it with red potatoes and carrots also. It was very delicious!  My first time ever eating corned beef that wasn’t out of a can. Someone else made soda bread. :)

The Latest from the DeLongs

We took a fun road trip to visit the Claytons this week! Besides a few toddler tantrums and several emergency side-of-the-road potty breaks on the ride back, it was a success. Aaaaalso, we MAY have shared our cold with the Claytons and broke their blender. So... they may never want us to come back, but at least we got in ONE visit before forfeiting all future invitations.

Love these cute kiddos! ... Mom, I will have to print this one for your kitchen.

Kaden was so cute to Ayla... and she adores him. Clearly.

In other news...

After a day full of rain, the view out our back window was stunning this evening. Pictures don't do it justice. But still, I had to try.

Evan and I had a fun day-date in Ogden today to use up some coupons and gift certificates we've acquired. Mom & Dad were saints to watch the girls all day. We saw Beauty and the Beast and give it a positive review. Not raving, but positive. Then we had lunch with Evan's brother and our friends, the Gidleys at Applebees. We did some shopping at the At Home store before rushing home for the Women's Conference. It was a good day! :)

We Welcome Warm Weather

The past week has been quite warm for March, and we have been loving it. Katie especially loves being able to send the kids outside to play. I'm sure the cold weather will return again soon, but in the meantime, we will enjoy the warmth.

A couple of houses down the street there is another family with twins. Their twins are a few years older than ours and seem to be growing out of their bikes just at the right time. The boys got their tricycles from this family, and now just got real peddle bikes from them as well.

Today the boys got to participate in the primary opening exercises. Bennett gave a short talk and Cooper said the 4th article of faith. They both did a good job with Dad and Mom whispering in their ear.

This beautiful woman also gave a talk in church today (Katie, not Tessa). She did a fantastic job and is glad to have it over with. She was called to speak on Wednesday, so she only had to stress over it for a few days.

Love, the Webre's

We're Not Irish... But Still...

We got a surprise visit from the Cook girls today, dressed head-to-toe in green! Jenny brought green grapes and ingredients for a Shamrock Shake. Yum! I also just happened to have green party hats from the Relief Society birthday party I attended last night, so we thought we'd better snag a picture of us being all festive...

We also reminisced about that one time Mom went all out and decorated the house all in green :D Do we have pictures of that somewhere?? Good times.

Clayton Month in Review

This month I was in charge of the RS birthday dinner. We did a Retro throw back theme to the 50's and invited everyone to don their pearls and aprons. This hair do took me way too long, but it was a hit. I had about 4 of the older women in the ward tell me I looked just like the very first barbie ever made. Haha, I am fairly sure that is the only time anyone will ever tell me I look like a barbie. The dinner went well and I was glad to have it done with.

This little Ollie is the cutest saddest baby I know. He is sad A LOT of the time, but when he is happy he is such little ray of sunshine. He is definitely hot or cold there is no in between with this little man. And sometimes he goes from happy and giggling to large tears and screaming in a matter of seconds. My hip is his residence for 80% of the day and I am building really strong arms.

Taycee is truly the worlds best big sister. She helps me SO MUCH and really enjoys mothering. She has a really tender heart and can't stand to hear Beckham cry. She is always eager to change a diaper or feed a bottle. I was working on painting the bathroom last week and it was bedtime for the kids. Little Mr. still needed to eat cereal so I asked Taycee if she would feed him while I finished up painting. I could tell she was tired but she willingly agreed. I found this scene about 10 minutes later. I felt pretty bad and wrapped up my paint roller so I could finish the job and get all the kids in bed.

Brielle... Oh Brielle.... I am convinced she is THE MOST independent (and quite capable) 3 year old on the planet. She wants to do everything by herself and I am always amazed that she usually can. She really isn't naughty at all she just tries to do things that grown ups do and that tends to get her in trouble.
She got a police escort home a few weeks ago from the park. It's a REALLY long story but the short version is this. I thought she was upstairs with Chris, he thought she was with me, really she had snuck out the back fence to go to the park. She walked herself all the way there BY HERSELF with NO SHOES ON. I have no even the slightest idea how she knew how to get to the park it is not close, you can not see it from our house and you have to cross several streets and take a few short cut paths to get there. BUT apparently she knew just what to do because she walked herself there and was happily playing on the toys when she was picked up by a couple of police cars. I was a total wreck about the whole situation for days. In fact my heart still pounds and my stomach feels sick when I think about it.
She also makes herself toast, and melts cheese on it in the microwave. I had to actually teach her the right buttons to push because she kept attempting it on her own and I was afraid she would burn the house down. So she can now successfully make herself a melted cheese sandwich.
She is pretty hilarious and I am entertained all day long by her antics. She has a big personality and she really is a sweetheart when she isn't being dropped off by police cars or microwaving sandwiches for 99 minutes.

She got some gum in her hair here. I used a product called "Lift Off" that I picked up at Home Depot to degrease our cupboards and that gum came right out!

I dislike 8:30 church. It is a really hard time with 5 kids, one of them being a nursing baby. This is a really common after church scene. Only 10 more months!

The kids love watching Beckham in the Otteroo, he is great entertainment.

Little dude fell asleep in his bouncer... but that arm wedged against his leg looked mighty uncomfortable so I pulled him out and of course he woke up and cried for the next 40 minutes. Next time I will let his arm just fall asleep. 

A few pics from my birthday. Chris was/is amazing and spoiled me all day.  I woke up to 12 balloons attached to 12 flowers each with a little love note. We had a couples massage, did a little shopping and ate dinner at Olive Garden. It was a great day.

I have no idea what is happening in this picture. BUT Chris made a fabulous lemon raspberry bunt cake and it was delicious.

I finally got around to putting Beckham's birth video together. If anyone is interested in that the link is
https://vimeo.com/205968119
and the password is Beckham

No Phone

Hey Family, just a heads up, I have turned off my phone for the week. I'm doing it as a little experiment in hopes of boosting my productivity. So if you need to get a hold of me you can email me or just call Evan.

In other news... we watched "The Secret Life of Pets" with the girls and wouldn't recommend it. It was pretty obnoxious.

Also, Ayla is getting to be quite the little stinker. She's taken the whole "consequences" idea and turned it against me. Whenever she doesn't get her way she formulates some kind of punishment for me. Like yesterday... "If you don't give me some chocolate chips, I'm going to punch you in the face!"  ... Um, what do you even say to that? I told her we don't talk like that and that she needed to apologize, and she said "I won't." so... yeah, that is just one example of what we're dealing with here.

4 months til baby. Evan's parents are coming July 11-18 so we'll be blessing him on July 16th if you want to mark it on your calendar. Still on the hunt for a perfect boy name.

That's all, folks.

Happy Birthday Dear Tessa

I hope you guys aren't getting sick of seeing/hearing my girls sing Happy Birthday. Ayla was in a bad mood so all you get is Vera this time. Happy birthday to the cutest little Webre, #theamazingtessarose