Everyday life

I absolutely LOVE spring in Oregon. It feels like it lasts forever! Utah springs seem to bloom quick, then freeze and snow again, then bloom a little more then bam it's 90 degrees for 4 months straight. It was such a mild winter here it really feels like it never happened.  I was at Goodwill a couple weeks ago and found a cute, new winter coat for $4 in Kate's size and was so excited to show Tyler that I, for some reason, didn't realize that winter is OVER and it probably won't fit her next year :/ In my mind it was still ahead of us! I'm not complaining. I can see clearly now why people who aren't Utah natives don't appreciate the harsh seasons. Having mild temperatures really makes you soft! :) 

I was so excited to go watch Women's Conference at our stake center last night. It was inspiring, strengthening, and uplifting. I am so grateful to feel appreciated and revered in my roles as mother, daughter, and wife. While I was out, Tyler put the kids to work in the yard. They weeded their little hearts out. Oh I mean Cole and Kate weeded. Let's just say Luke is not a big fan of work unless it's convenient for him. And that is usually never. It's a hard life being the third child. 

He may not be a fan of working right now but at least he cracks us up every hour of every day. Oh dear, I am picturing past friends in school that felt that getting a laugh was more important than school work. That's not my baby, right??!! This was after church today, we told him to go get his cozy clothes on and he comes sneaking out of his room with clothes on OVER his church clothes and pants around his knees. He just knows what will be funny and makes everything silly and fun.

I love it when my kids bring me flowers, I always make such a big deal out of it like they are giving me a hundred bucks. So sweet!

Car babies! Hadn't seen each other in a couple weeks, they were catching up and attached at the hip for an hour or so. I love watching them together. They are growing up too fast.

Tyler and Jackson shooting bows.

We did a fun hairdo for St Patricks day. This girl is up for anything!

Sweet Lucy. I thank my Heavenly Father every single day for such a good baby. The other ones were too, but I'm so grateful she is. Life could so easily be so much harder right now if she was a normal baby. She is such a dream.

We had a huge downpour and I was so happy to see the boys want go out and get drenched. I worry that my kids are becoming city kids sometimes. Things like this make me not worry so much.

Kate was in heaven, holding baby bunnies at preschool!

We had a special opportunity to visit a sweet little friend at Doernbecher Children's Hospital and bring her some fun things. It was a great day!

I've been thinking about surprising Kate with a special mommy date (she usually chooses home pedicure, going somewhere for something sweet, or shopping) to see Cinderella. I had heard it was a great movie and we finally had some time to catch a matinee. I decided to not tell her till we got there what we were doing. Here we are on our way! I know it's hard to tell in the picture, but she's really excited :) I think she may like surprises as much as I do, and that's a lot.

Another part of the surprise that I couldn't wait to tell her about was that we were meeting her cousin Austyn and Aunt Jolene there too. These two are great buddies and it makes my heart happy to see them growing up together.

It was a completely beautiful and inspiring film. I loved the colors, beautiful language, strong positive messages "Have courage and be kind!" and just everything about it. If you have a daughter, go see it with her. Half way through Kate came over and sat on my lap (mostly because the chair kept folding in on her :) and we watched and talked about it together. It was so easy to see in the movie how someone can be beautiful on the outside (Cinderella's stepsisters) and so mean on the inside, where Cinderella was beautiful inside and out. And even if others treat you wrongly, you can choose to be kind. So many great lessons that are important for girls today! Anyway, I asked her afterwards if she gave it one or two thumbs up and this is what she did:

Here's my 23rd pie for March - Strawberry Whipped Cream. Graham cracker crust with a strawberry glaze on the bottom, sliced strawberries in the middle, then a strawberry whipped cream on top. It was very tasty!! I love this tradition. And I know Tyler doesn't mind it.

Just caught her ready for bed. Thought it was cute. :)

I jumped out of the shower the other day and these were sitting on my bathroom counter. Some little one had snuck in and put them there while I wasn't looking, I found out it was Kate! These little surprises make days so much lighter.

Cole is such a Lego addict and creates so many new things, I've started documenting them by taking pictures when he's done before he takes them apart for something new. He'll run to me and say "Mom, look, this is......" and go into this long elaborate detailed story about this new creation and what all the different functions are, and he's always super excited about it. I've learned to drop whatever I'm doing to listen and ask questions about it because it's important to him. I love his imagination, it is amazing to me.

Cute Lucy waiting for her 2 mo. dr appointment. We found out she now weighs 11 lb 12 oz (55%) and is 22.5 in long (30%).  Head is in the 88th percentile. We were so happy to hear she is healthy and growing on target.

These guys are getting good at waiting and being more patient.

Thought this was cute, Cole's view in the dr. room. That's Luke's cowboy boot next to him.

This pretty little view is what lines our walking path to the park by our house, and there were two beautiful ducks in it yesterday. One of the many reasons why I love where we live is because of this little slough (sp?) next to us. It brings frogs, turkeys, guinea hens, ducks, and all kinds of birds. At night the frogs are so loud but I love how they sound, it makes it feel a little like we're in the country.

We love our park! Had a picnic here this day.

For Cole's mommy date he chose a bike ride to McDonalds for ice cream and a cheeseburger. It was so much fun! He loved feeling big about riding his bike through town.

Just thought this was funny today, I was feeding Lucy before church and the others were just standing in front of me playing and I noticed out funny their heights were, all evenly spaced with each other. So I staged this picture. Don't mind the messy room behind them!

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

This last video is so priceless to me. I found it on my phone a couple days ago, I didn't know she had taken it. I think she was enjoying watching herself on the phone so she kept going, but it still is special to me :) Love it. 

This week I am SO excited for general conference and Easter! It will be a great week!!

Happy Being Born Day Joshua Tyler!

We went all out for Tyler's birthday this year, it was so much fun. I've always loved celebrating birthdays big (by big I don't mean expensive, more like celebrating the whole day in fun ways and lots of surprises) because it's the ONE day a year you have just to yourself. Christmas is for all Christians, Mother's Day is for all moms, etc., but your birthday is YOURS and it should be all about you. So I really wanted to make it extra special for Tyler this year because things around here have been a lot about me lately and my needs as I've been pregnant and needy and now post-baby and less needy but more tired :) He's been a husband/dad of the year and I wanted him to know how much he means to me.

SO I found this great idea to make a video of him of clips from all our family members and his close friends. I asked all my family and his family plus his closest 3 friends to send me a short video of themselves telling Tyler the three words that best describe him. As the videos started coming in I knew this was going to be really meaningful and I started getting so excited to give it to him. I had no idea how I was going to edit it together, but thanks be to YouTube and their amazing tutorials on how to do iMovie :) Sidenote - I sure love our MAC!! Even I with no video editing experience eventually figured it out. Everyone I asked to do it turned one in, plus the kids and I did it also. I could only work on it when everyone was asleep, so it meant 3 nights in a row of going to bed around 3/4 am, plus on his birthday I went to bed at 12 and woke up at 3 just because I was so excited. All worth it!

Here's a link if you'd like to watch:
http://youtu.be/AWyNgJ27ZNs

Ok baby fix first, is she changing or what!? Such a chunky monkey!

Ok Birthday time! So glad he was able to get the day off. Morning started with him sleeping in then french toast, strawberries and whipped cream, and of course BACON and Dari Mart chocolate milk. He's a I'd-rather-not-eat-breakfast-in-bed-because-it-might-be-messy guy. Haha!

The night before his birthday, the kids and I went to the dollar store and bought 33 balloons to line the hallway with and surprise him when he woke up! It was a really fun surprise and the kids have been loving it.

 I had his presents in the alcove above the mantle, I wish I would have taken a picture before he opened them :)

He then got to take a nap (his only request for the day) and went and picked up his mom to do a little shopping. I got dinner ready - he picked pork chops and oven fries this year - we opened presents and then we ate with Rod and Lisa over. Finally I stole him away at bedtime to give him his video gift. I was so excited to show him the video I could hardly stand it. I drove him down by the river and brought the dvd player and some blackberry pie for us to eat, we watched it and talked about how great everyone in our life is. It was such a perfect day. 

Moving on to other non birthday things, I just want to say how lucky I feel to be a mom to these two beautiful girls. I keep telling Kate over and over (she gets a lot of compliments on her pretty long hair) that having pretty hair is nice but what is most important is how you treat people. And being beautiful on the inside. She is an amazing girl, so strong, smart, and sweet. She will leave me in August for full day kindergarten and I just about get sick thinking about it, so I just don't. I will miss her so much!  

Lucy has started smiling! And it's the cutest thing. It's like her face doesn't know what it's doing and it makes all these funny contortions before getting the smile out. She continues to bless us with her sweet temperament and heavenly baby head smell.

Tyler went to a fancy award dinner and wore his sharp suit and cufflinks. 11 years later and I still think he's the best looking guy on the planet.

This was family time this week - both Kate and Cole wanted to give the lesson. I asked if they wanted any help and they both wanted to do it on their own. It was such a proud moment for me to see them think of a topic, use their scriptures, do an object lesson and apply it to real life, then close with their testimony. They are awesome! Luke was just interested in being Kate's puppy, he even eventually went and grabbed a "cage" to be in.

This week is Tyler's start of his new schedule - 4:30 am - 2:00 pm every day with days off Tuesday and Sunday! Whew that's going to be an adjustment. I'm excited for him being home now for dinner and bedtime consistently but a little worried for him to drive that far that early (he'll leave our house around 3:30). We'll see how it goes!

The dreaded week

Like the last post said, I've been dreading this week of Tyler returning to work for the last month so when Monday rolled around I was the least excited I'd been in a long time :) But I also knew it was time to move on to reality and be a big girl so with that attitude in mind we made it through the week with not many tears! 

The first day he went back was actually amazing, newborn or not. I was doing laundry, yoga, playing with and nurturing little ones, staying on top of cleaning even vacuuming and scrubbing things that needed some attention, keeping Lucy on schedule, just felt like a superstar. Then Tuesday came and I felt just like Jim Gaffigan says it's like to have four kids, "imagine you're drowning, and then someone throws you a baby." I don't know why it was so much harder it just was awful. Kids were whiny and needy, Lucy's tummy was a little grumbly so I was holding her most of the day which was totally fine, just limited my ability to help with one hand. Cole tried my patience to it's end by bedtime, house was a wreck, no yoga, etc. etc. So it's been up and down but mostly good. Still so grateful for my little ones and to be home with them. I never take that for granted, it's one of my greatest blessings. 

Here's the morning we said bye to daddy and gave him back to Costco. 

Lucy is still growing so so much. Happy baby!

Here's the 6 loads of laundry I am constantly doing, I do this much about twice a week. I will never complain about laundry though because I chose it! We're the ones that wanted 4 kids, so here is a consequence of that decision right?! And I love and am grateful for the sweet people that create this job for me. How nice of them. I wouldn't trade them for all the laundry and dishes and messes!

Luke getting in some Lucy time.

I loved teaching preschool this week, we did a Dr Seuss day on Tuesday to celebrate his Bday. We read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and made our own Oobleck, it was fun!

Just look at that hair! And Luke, he's been carrying that blanket (his favorite that he sleeps with and usually only gets at sleep times) around all hours of the day along with the thumbsuck. He's been sleepier and just wiped out, plus eating about double his normal helpings. Growth spurt!

Happy 6 weeks darlin!

This babe loves bathtime. Doesn't cry, just loves to be taken care of!

Tyler got home from a scout campout and let the kiddos try on his 40 lb backpack. Cole and Kate were actually able to wear it by themselves for a few seconds.

These two were so cute, Kate took the book The Little Mermaid and Luke and went out to the gazebo at Rod and Lisa's for some private reading time. She is reading incredibly well for her age, she is blessed with a great memory and after she sounds out or learns a new word she'll remember it the next time she sees it in text. I'm so proud of her! I hope her kindergarten teacher will be able to keep her moving forward next year.

 Here's the latest barn pic! They spent all of yesterday working on a side roof, which is now 1/3 of the way done. I'm so proud of them and amazed that they are doing this by themselves. It's quite the task and it's incredible to me what they can do.

This week we've got friend's birthday parties, meetings, and of course my favorite day of the year - Tyler's BIRTHDAY!!! I love to go a little overboard with it and make it special. And I'm so excited to give him his presents I can hardly stand it! :) :) :)