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Happy Easter!!

"Did you have a good Easter, like me?"

We packed a lot into one weekend. At one point, I looked in our trunk and saw golf clubs, a fishing pole, a dutch oven and assorted other items. It's nice that St. George is now only an hour and a half away, instead of almost five. We enjoyed renewing our relationships with family members, and remembering, on Easter weekend, who makes the renewing of life possible.

Never too early to prepare for retirement by playing golf in St. George.

Rori got in some of her own practice at the "driving" range.

After golf, we tried our hand at a little fishing. Not much success, but still had fun.

Zion's National Park: The hike to the first emerald pool was fun. We rode the tram up the canyon as far as it would go (and back).

Rori was getting a little grouchy until we stopped at this place along the way:

Grandma's hat was a big hit.

Tram ride back to the car. Pictures of or annual trip to the Bit n' Spur in Springdale do not exist, but we did go, and had a great time, and ate too much, as usual.

St. George Kiwanis Club Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday:

The St. George temple glistens in the sunlight: Thanks to mom and dad for watching the kids while Ashleigh and I went to the temple early Saturday morning.

St. George Arts festival: Ashleigh and I go mainly for the food, but the kids seem to enjoy the face painting and balloons. Oh, and they have art there, too.

Happy campers: Our annual Saturday night dutch oven dinner at Red Cliffs. It spills over to Easter morning.

Horsing around with (second) cousins: (Red mud and red hair go well together)

Flynn family dutch oven cook-off: Good variety this year. My traditional enchiladas went down well, but the real hits were the curry dinner dish and the peach crepes breakfast. Kai hunting:

Rori's successful hunt:

My grandparents and their five children:

We had a wonderful time. Thanks so much to mom and dad for having us!

Kai at the bat

T-ball is in full swing. Kai's team, the Bandits, wear all black. This will be fun as the temps start pushing past 90. Kai's having a great time. His loudest cheerleader, Rori, insists on wearing her baseball cap to all the practices and games.

Sorenson's 4 (and 8/9) at the Bellagio

We, of course, want our kids to have the perfect "Vegas" experience while we live here. We took a trip to the Bellagio. I can't tell you everything we did; what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, after all. But here is a glimpse. In addition to the fountains, they had an impressive botanical garden.

Rock Star/Crazy Hair Day in Kindergarten

Guys' Trip to Seattle

Two weeks ago, Kai's cousin Jake was baptized. Jake lives in Seattle. Kai and I made a quick weekend trip to the great northwest while Ashleigh stayed home and worked with Rori on potty awareness. Unfortunately, no photos of the man of the hour, Jake, made it back with us. Also, no photos of swimming or a couple hours worth of (Microsoft) Kinect competition. But here is a flavor.

Waiting for our flight:

Breakfast at the hotel with uncle Tyler and cousin Kennedy before the baptism:

Kai's photo of cousins Kennedy and Emme:
Kai's photo of uncle Tyler:

Celebratory lunch after at Hawaiian bbq:

Ride back to the airport:


Thanks to Kirsten and Dave for having us. We had a fun spending time with them and their kids, Tyler and Kennedy, Grandma and Grandpa, and many of Dave's family.

Girls Weekend

Rori and I had a girls weekend this past weekend. The boys flew to Seattle to help cousin Jake celebrate his 8th birthday and baptism. I'll let them post more about their weekend later. Rori and I were super sad to miss it, but tickets to Seattle at Spring Break time were super pricey so it was decided that just the boys would get to go on this trip. It sounds like they had a great time and we are happy that they are back home again safe and sound. I'm also grateful that the baby decided to stay put and not create any issues while they were gone. It is still way too early, but in the back of my brain I didn't want to think of Rori being the only one around on the trip to the hospital.

So, on our girls weekend we decided that we would celebrate "Potty Awareness". On one of Lance's calls home to check on us he asked me how potty training was going and I quickly reminded him that we weren't potty training. We were simply doing potty awareness. Apparently my MIL and SIL overheard this and thought it was quite funny. My logic was that my end goal for the weekend wasn't to have Rori potty trained (although that would be wonderful), but rather to have her more willing to use and be observant of the potty.

Rori is a funny little girl. She's so sweet and cuddly at times and sassy as can be at other times. She's the kind of kid that you could have a huge battle of the wills with if you allow yourself to get in to the battle. I know with potty training that if I force her it isn't going to go well- it needs to be on her terms. So this weekend I attempted to help her realize that it is something she wants to do and I think we did fairly well.

On a side note- After Christmas we laid down the law with Rori letting her only have her binky (pacifier) at night. The kid had a serious addiction and since she wasn't talking up a storm we knew it had to be done. But as I said before she has her sassy moments where a binky made life so much more pleasant for the rest of us. Then when we made our trip to CA/ Disneyland I realized that I had forgotten to bring a binky. We debated what to do but decided to just try to go without. Well she never looked back. It didn't even come up at the hotel and when we got back home she asked for it at bedtime and we told her it had gone to the babies and it was over. I was shocked and knew that I hadn't given her enough credit. *For the record Kai had a binky at night about 3 or 4 months longer and has always been a huge talker. We traded him a binky for a 3-wheel scooter and he had one 1/2 hour of crying before never looking back.

So getting this girl potty trained is probably more like that. We've put it off because of my dread- not wanting to battle her, having to find every bathroom everywhere you go, carrying around extra clothes, dealing with messes, and on and on.

So Saturday we got up and put on mini mouse and sesame street big girl pants instead of diapers or pull-ups. I had gathered salty foods, new drinks (our kids drink water and milk 99% of the time at home), and some treat and game incentives to try and make things more exciting. The salty food was to make her thirsty with the idea that that would make her want to drink, which in turn would make her have to go. I figured the more she had to go the more opportunities to learn. In the end mini marshmallows, and mini slow drip Popsicles seemed to have been the best motivators. I don't tell her to go but I do remind her every now that if she would like a Popsicle, marshmallow etc. she needs to go. Letting it be her choice seems to be working much better. I've been also keeping the marshmallows visible.



For quite some time now Rori has told us after she goes, found places to hide when working on her business, applauded others on their successes etc. but refused to sit herself for more than 10 seconds at a time without a battle. We have had successes but they have been hit or miss and mostly only when I caught them. This weekend she was choosing to sit (granted with hope for the prize) which in my opinion was great steps forward. Over the weekend we only had 2 1/2 accidents and many successes. We are using a diaper for naps and night still so I don't count that.



So far so good this morning as well. The challenge is taking the show on the road out of the house and getting her to continue going. Anyone have any great tips on how to make that transition? Kai with his easy going demeanor was never one to battle about such things, but his struggle was remembering to stop playing and go before it was too late at this stage.

So our girls weekend wasn't really all that exciting but I think it was fairly productive. It did feel a little like house arrest. Now if we can only keep things moving in the right direction. Meaning if only I can stay motivated to keep her motivated. So seriously any tips out there?

33

Last week I turned 33. Mom, Dad, and Whit made a quick trip to visit us and it was nice to have them. Mom was on Spring Break but Kai wasn't yet, so it was great that they were able to come. Rori had a doctor appointment on my birthday morning so Kai was thrilled to have them take and pick him up from school. We hit some of our favorite restaurants here, played with new toys, and enjoyed just hanging out. Grandma and grandpa are very good at building things, giving horse rides to your baby doll, playing at the park, reading books etc.













Kai was very excited about my birthday. He put up homemade signs for me all around the house, gave Lance guidance on my gift, and planned party games- like home drawn pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, find the hidden bandana etc. He also made very sure that the server knew it was my birthday at dinner. Kids do make birthdays more fun as you get older.









So, I'm pretty excited about my 33 year of life. 3 has always been my favorite number and double 3 is even better. Growing up I always picked 3 or 33 for my sports jersey numbers when possible. 33 was my basketball number which has lots of great memories associated with it. So this year it turns out I'll be 33 and having my 3rd kid. Today also happens to mark week 33 in the pregnancy and we just got word that if this baby cooperates its scheduled birthday will be May 23. Do you think I am crazy yet? So here is hoping for a year of good things- maybe in 3's. :)