Family | Chelsea's 7-year interview

She's 7! This year, we decided to take all of our kids to Disneyland to celebrate, but I'll talk more about that in another post. This post is all about Chelsea's interview!

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Family | Alexa's 5-year interview

I love making these interview videos every year for the kid's birthdays and seeing the ways they've changed and grown from year to year, although many times I listen to little Alexa and am reminded of the little 3-year-old naming Rollie Pollies and then squishing them (click here to watch that interview).

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Chelsea's 5-year interview

It's a month late, but here it is! Chelsea's 5-year interview! I love doing these interviews because I feel like you really get a feel for Chelsea's personality, and you get some pretty good blackmailing material for the future! ;)

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The Stange Family Magic Show + WE MOVED!

Okay, it has been WAY too quiet around here recently. Well, not around my house, definitely not. Quiet is not something that ever really happens here, but on the blog? too quiet...

SO!
Let me tell you what's been going on! We MOVED! Our lovely old house was just starting to feel a little cramped + Andrew was getting really tired of scraping off his windows in the morning and freezing his patootie off! It was time for an upgrade.

We didn't move too far away, just about 10 minutes from where we were before, but we love our new home!

Everything happened SO FAST! We listed it on Monday, two days later we were under contract, and about a month after that, we were gone! I hardly even had time to process what was going on. In fact, it didn't really hit me that we were moving until I did the dishes in that home for the last time!

I felt like I was prepared for most everything you expect when you move. What I didn't expect was not feeling at home in the new home, ya know? We loved the new house so much, I thought that homey feeling would just be there. But it wasn't, and that was kinda hard.

I decided to share how I was feeling with my wonderful friend, Mariasha, and she gave me some great adivce...

Get out your camera!

Take some pictures! Make some home videos! Make memories! Until there are memories, a house just isn't a home.

So that's what I did! I made a few home videos and took some pictures and I really do feel like this new house is our home now. Sure, there are still things to get used to, but we've already begun filling our home with memories, and that feels good.

I'll always love and be grateful for our first house. We brought home two babies to that house and watched our oldest baby grow into toddler and little girl-hood. We made cookies (remember those cookie cups?) and celebrated birthdays and Christmas. We even made Magic Shows!

I used to make these magic shows with my brothers and sisters when I was little and loved it! I'm happy that it was one more happy memory we got to make in our dear little house!

Thanks for stopping by today! See you next time!

Question: What games or traditions do you have with your siblings that you want to pass down? Leave a comment!

And don't forget to follow along on Instagram and Snapchat! That's probably where I'll post my home tour, first. In fact, I've already posted one!

handle: suesnews

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Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Chandler, Arizona and surrounding cities. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

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Play time + Half a Year?!

I think you know what I'm going to say. But I'm going to say it anyway.

HOW HAS IT ALREADY BEEN HALF A YEAR?!

I don't know what the big rush is, Little Cub. Why don't you slow down a bit? Stay little just a bit longer. There's plenty of time for you to learn how to crawl and get mobile, although I do understand the sense of urgency you feel when Alexa tries to sit on you or Chelsea is carrying you all around the house in a less than comfortable manner.

Oftentimes I feel like you're the one thing that your sisters can agree on. They love you so much. Alexa is ALWAYS getting into trouble opening your bedroom door while you're napping and waking you up, and Chelsea prides herself on her ability to make you laugh.

I wish I could secretly capture the look in your camera-shy Daddy's eyes on camera when he plays with you. He is so proud of you! As am I.

I hope I never forget the way your eyes grow wide when you're presented with a colorful toy, or that big smile you greet me with every morning, even though you're hungry. It starts my day off on the right foot. I love the way you giggle when I tease you and even your boyish cries!

I hope you keep that wide-eyed-wonder and patience. You are the peace-keeper in our home. Even when you're the one with the most reason to be crying and throwing a fit because you haven't eaten in hours, you somehow remain the only cool and composed person in the house! (sometimes)

You still spit-up more than your sisters did COMBINED! You wake up one or two times in the night to eat still, and I can probably start you on solids now, but I'm resisting time. It just doesn't feel like it's really been 6 months already!

You make me feel so special, Little Cub. You look at me with those big brown eyes (Daddy's eyes) like I'm the most beautiful creature you've ever seen and your dimpled smile (only in the right cheek!) melts my heart. Every. Time.

You are a very special person, Barrett. Before you were born, I was praying one night and telling our Heavenly Father about my concerns about raising a son. I didn't know what to expect. Boys just seemed so foreign to me. As I prayed, I had the impression that the baby boy that Heavenly Father was sending me was a very special one. From that moment on, I knew that you were going to change, and bless my life.

I LOVE YOU MY LITTLE CUB!

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Father's Day (finally!)

Unfortunately, Andrew was out of town on father's day this year. :( And I'm a stinky wife and didn't end up doing that special music video I was going to do for him. :(  :(

^^favorite recent pic of andrew, even if he is a little blurry! oh, how i love that smile!^^

I am so grateful to have this guy as my partner in life and parenthood. We ALWAYS even each other out! When I'm frustrated or upset, he's calm and collected. When he's frazzled and stressed, I've got it all under control. He's the provider and I take great pride in his accomplishments and abilities! He's a man of many talents, not the least of which being a GREAT listener. I know our children will especially appreciate that about him as they grow. I definitely appreciate it!

He teaches our children, leads them, is a great example, plays with them, and gives mama a break! He's my confident and my advisor, my teammate and coach, and I could not do as good a job without him.

We all have things about our husbands that drive us crazy but we secretly love (Andrew, don't read this part!) Here's a couple:

1 - Every time Andrew says "It will be fine," I know I'm in for a difficult time. It normally has to do with whether or not to bring a stroller, or another diaper, or another set of clothes.

2 - Whenever it's time for Andrew to get a hair cut, he always, ALWAYS asks for a buzz. I always say no.

Drives me crazy, but I love it! Guess I was conditioned as the youngest of 12 kids to love being teased!

Although I didn't end up doing that video,  I did make a video of the time I spent with my dad and some of my brothers that Sunday, who are among the best dads I know! Man, am I lucky to have them!

Thank you fathers!

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Olivia + Ocean

This post has been compensated by Olivia + Ocean. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
*discount code at the end!

You guys. Last week was CA-RAAAAAA-ZAY! Andrew was gone. all. week. long. It was a very long week, but it was still a good one!

The weather has been nice and warm recently and since their isn't an ocean anywhere nearby in Utah, we decided on the next best thing that was nearby (and that I could handle all on my own!) The splash pad!

Chelsea LOVES the splash pad! It's so fun to watch her run up the stairs and down the slide, press the button to make the water start again when it stops, and make new friends.

The thing I love about splash pads is that your kids can kind of just run wild while you sit back and watch. You don't have to worry about them getting sucked out to sea or forgetting their life jackets. Our main worry was re-applying our sunscreen every hour or so.

i told her to give me a thumbs up and say "cool dude!"

Anyway, let me tell you about these suits, though, because I love them. A lot.

I can't remember how I discovered Danielle and Olivia + Ocean, just that we "met" on instagram and I fell in love with their baby girl swimsuits immediately! When I found out that their size 3T suits fit up to a 4 or 5T, I was like, "Yaaaaaaaassssss..."

Olivia and Ocean is a swimming suit company based out of LA. It was named after Danielle's daughter, Olivia, who works overtime as a beach babe and swimsuit model.

One thing I LOVE about Olivia and Ocean is that they are American-based with American manufacturers and printing partners, plus they use high-quality fabric that is the perfect blend of polyester and lycra so that the suits maintain their color, size, shape, and quality. I definitely noticed this when I first opened my package from O+O and notice it still 4 or 5 uses later.

It is really soft and gives a good stretch, which is pretty apparent from the fact that Chelsea's suit is a size 3T and she's nearing size 5T. I'm confident this suit will last until Chelsea and Alexa grow out of it.

But enough about the quality, it's the style we can't get enough of! I love that these suits give my girls full range of motion but keep them fully covered! Nothing riding up in the wrong places on these babes! And I loved watching my two matching girls run around with each other all over the splash pad, bows and ruffles bouncing up and down as they went!

And they offer so much more than the solid colors! They have the funnest prints! This Flamingo swimsuit is definitely one of my favorites, but the ice cream cone suit is to die for, too!

I have loved getting to know Danielle through our correspondence together and she is planning so much more! Like boy's swimsuits? YES! I'll definitely be stopping by when those hit the shop!

Anyway, guys. You need these suits for your baby girls. They're my favorite, and forget 4th of July outfits. We're wearing our Olivia and Ocean suits instead.

P.S. Danielle is offering 10% off of your total purchase with the discount code OLIVIAANDSUE so make sure you stop by and tell her I sent you! ;)

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My camera takes video.

Do you wanna hear a really good joke? I've owned my Canon Rebel T3 for over 3 years now, and I JUST figured out that I can take video on it. Insert monkey-covering-eyes emoji here. It really is embarrassing because I've looked at the knob on top of my camera before, and seen the movie film sign but for some reason, I just didn't think it could take video! I wish I had discovered this two weeks earlier, then I could have gotten some stellar video up at Yosemite! Ugh! Oh well. At least I know about it now!

Have I mentioned that I got a new camera lens? Yeah! I love it so much! It's a 1.4 f-stop, 50 mm, and it is AMAZING! The pictures are so crisp, clear, and full of color! I love it so much, though it does take some getting used to! So glad I get to learn new things day to day!

Anyway, this isn't my first few videos on my camera because the first one is me being totally floored that I spent over three years missing out on video worthy experiences, and the second will probably be a bit longer. This third video is just a 1 minute vid of my sweet Baby Barrett sleeping. I decided to record because he fell asleep with his two feet sticking out between the bars of the crib and it was just too dang cute! Watch.

I love my little Bear Bear! And speaking of bears, don't forget about Desert Twig's discount code! If you haven't stopped by her instagram feed or her shop yet, repent, and go. Haha! I couldn't be happier about my wooden bear cutout!

There's so much more available than just the bear, too. Stop on by and leave a comment here telling me which of her items you like best!

Talk to you soon!

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Friday Fun Day!

I remember making A TON of home videos with my brothers and sisters as a little girl and I loved it! We would do magic shows, write plays and act them out, do commercials, and our specialty were lip syncs!

That's definitely a tradition I'd love to carry on with my kids so I'm glad we got the chance to spend the morning acting this play out that Chelsea made up! It took me WAY longer to compile together than it should have, but I'm still learning.

Enjoy!

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FAMILY | CHELSEA'S 4-YEAR INTERVIEW

if you're gonna make a funny face when I take pictures, Andrew, you'd better be prepared to let the world see it! i love my goof-ball husband!

Probably about time I post about Chelsea's birthday from about a week and a half ago!

It seriously was SO MUCH FUN! I stayed up the night before wrapping her presents and decorating here and there. The birthday girl requested breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast and none of us complained about that!

Chelsea improved on my decorating methods after breakfast and we had a lot of fun making the house look just the way she wanted for her special day!

My kind neighbor, Debbie, was so sweet and watched Alexa and Barrett for me for about an hour and a half while Chelsea and I went on a little date to Station Park. The plan was to buy her new tennis shoes, but we didn't find any that we really loved. We did find some pretty darn cute converse that looked just like mine (that we BOTH loved), but I'm pretty sure Chelsea would trash those things within weeks, so we left them on the shelf.

On the way back from Station Park, we stopped at Lisa's Passion for Popcorn in Kaysville (YUM!) and bought some DE-LICIOUS popcorn! We are definitely popcorn lovers in this house!

During quiet time/nap time, I made Chelsea's birthday cake with some help a lot of help from one of the darling neighborhood girls in my 16/17 year old Sunday School class (I seriously love teaching those guys!). I really am THE WORST at decorating cakes and cupcakes so I'm REALLY glad that she was available and willing to help a momma out! It turned out beautifully and tasted SO yummy! Wish we had more. Now I'm hungry.

I made taco soup for dinner, once again, at the request of the birthday girl, and then, once Aunt Kara arrived, it was party time!

There was a little bit of a Star Wars theme this year with Chelsea's gifts! She got this totally rad book with stories from all the Star Wars movies (thus far) and we have loved reading them all together at night! She also got some tiny Star Wars action figures. I'm always finding General Grievous in out-of-the-way places (Chelsea always puts the bad guys far away from the good ones).

This marble runner toy is so much fun! We spent at least a half hour making things with it before we moved on to any other birthday activities! I love finding toys that parents and kids can enjoy, don't you?

I legitimately forgot that Chelsea was turning four and put three candles on the cake instead of four. Oops! Luckily, Andrew caught me.

Chelsea had so many people show that they loved her on her special day! Her best little friend, Kenna came by to give her a gift and it was EXACTLY what she wanted. It was so sweet to see that Kenna knew Chelsea so well! What a blessing it is to have such close, good friends!

Our adopted ward Nana brought Chelsea such a fun toy, too! It had little doll girls and puppies, even leashes for the doll girls to walk their dogs and little skirts for the puppies! Chelsea said that she had always dreamed of getting a gift like that! Haha!

When Nana Wright left, I could hardly get Chelsea to say goodbye because the moment those dolls were out of the box, Chelsea went into her own imaginary world. I love that beautiful, colorful mind of hers! Her pure spirit is exactly what our family needs! She reminds us to be passionate, to love unconditionally, and to forgive freely. I know that the Lord sent Chelsea to us as our first child because she is so strong and quite obedient, actually.

We love having you in our family, Chelsea! You are such a joy to us and we can't imagine life without you. Happy birthday, princess! We love you!

I am, by no means, a videographer, but I wanted to document Chelsea during this time of her life, so I recorded this one-on-one interview I had with her! I loved her answers!

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