These are THE days

I think the advice I hear the most as a mom has something to do with "enjoy them while they are little, it goes by so fast". And some days it does, you turn around and your baby you just brought home from the hospital is ready for kindergarten and now you have other babies too. Then some days nevvvvver end and you can't wait for bedtime. But 90% of the time I just LOVE this phase of our life, with little ones saying and doing funny things all day, learning things for the first time, and just bringing so much joy, light, and innocence in our home. I will love the more time for me and Tyler that we will get as they grow up and won't be so dependent on me (what, I can go to the bathroom by myself or say a whole sentence to Tyler without being interrupted??) but I know for sure I will look back on these busy busy days with happiness and fulfillment. I can truly say I am enjoying the journey and not waiting for a destination. 

I think I'm thinking about this because this past week Cole graduated from preschool, Kate turned 3, and Luke learned to say "Boo!" and stood on his own. I am really excited for this summer which will be full of field trips, hiking, learning to do regular chores (other than dinner jobs), playing in the sun, gardening, math, reading, writing, and lots of free time. It will be great!

I have loved coaching Kate's tball team this year, we've had adorable kids and really helpful parents. Although she hasn't been as self-driven as Cole was his first year of t-ball, she's really enjoyed it and has improved a lot. I love it when she brings me dandelions in the middle of a game.

Cole moved up to Shetland league this year which is a machine pitch division. He is a great little batter and has liked learning the rules more.

Luke is 11 months old now! On top of all the milk, he loves to eat "real" food and snacks, although we still offer baby food to him it's just not his favorite. This is one of our favorite snack games.

He fell asleep on a walk to the grocery store one day, I thought he looked cute.

Grandma and grandpa had a hotel room in Salt Lake one night so we took advantage of the swimming pool! I love how they all love the water.

This was something pretty amazing, I was so proud of Cole. For his man date with daddy, he wanted to take his new big bike (with no training wheels) on Legacy Trail for a ride with Tyler. They ended up going 8 miles round trip! He had heard us talk about this bridge which we run by some days, so that was his goal and he did it. This bike isn't the easiest to ride, it was Tyler's when he was little so a little old and rusty but he doesn't notice. He loves his new freedom and flies around the cul-de-sac on that thing, asking us to time him.

Our ward had a father-sons campout that the boys were able to go to. Cole even spotted a moose not too far from their camp! He really looks forward to it and counts down the days. Next year Luke will join them :)

He was excited about getting asked to ring the triangle for dinnertime.

Here's last month's pie, lemon meringue! We loved the lemon and the crust part, but the meringue was not the greatest. So we just scooped it off. I think it's because I didn't have the superfine sugar I was supposed to and just used normal. Try again another year!

What? I'm just texting my ladies.

These kids love dress up! Kate even stuck a bow in Luke's hair so he wasn't left out.

Don't let that sweet face fool you. She is a firecracker this one. :) Sugar and spice, and everything nice.

He is awesome at pulling himself up and has started cruising a little lately. Just a matter of time...

That hair! Can you believe it?

Best friends.

We made lots of strawberry jam! It turned out great. It always amazes me how much sugar goes in there. But man it's yummy.

We also made pie with our strawberries. This delicious white chocolate one was super good.

The best part of tball - treats!

Watching "The Love Bug" for movie night.

Kate wanted a friend beach party for her birthday so we invited a few of her little neighborhood pals and had a blast. Here we are eating lunch...

Then jumping in the pool and playing in the water. It was a little breezy and warm, but overall a beautiful day. So glad it wasn't raining.

Here's our Cole on his last day of preschool. I'm sad this chapter of his life is ending but grateful he had such a positive experience there the past two years. Kate will start at the same place in August.

This just melted my heart, Tyler was resting on the bed and Luke woke up from his nap and wanted to lay with him. He just laid there so still like that looking at his daddy for a good minute. It was precious.

Sweet Kate on her bday again!

We were planting our garden and had Luke over on a blanket several feet away from the beds. He usually doesn't like the feel of the grass on his legs so he normally won't leave the blanket, but the fresh dirt must have been too tempting for him because next thing I know he's crawled over and climbed on in! We let him play there while we planted the other box then just moved him to the sandbox when we got to this one. He was a happy, dirty boy.

I am so grateful for my beautiful children, my blessed life, and my sweetheart that I get to share it all with. I am one happy girl.

Birthdays, snow days, last minute get-aways

I love routine and schedule, but every once in a while our predictable little life gets a little more exciting :) And it amazes me how just a few thoughts said out loud can put in motion something big. A couple weeks ago, Tyler and I were just having a normal conversation about our Oregon family and how much we miss them and wish we could see them. I realized Tyler had some time off around his birthday and said what if we go, just us and Luke? Next thing we know, Tyler found some SUPER cheap buddy passes from a friend that works for Delta, my mom so sweetly agreed to take Cole and Kate for a few days, and we were on our way to surprise our family! It was a much needed breather and I came home feeling recharged and so blessed.

But of course, because I blog so much (ha) I have tons of other pictures to show you as well! And when I uploaded pics this time, they decided to put themselves in really random places throughout the post and I am definitely too lazy to spend time dragging them all in chronological order. So get ready for some bouncing around :)

Luke is almost 9 months old and could not be any more sweet. I still think he's too good to be true. He likes being in his walker but mostly just because of all the fun buttons and things he can push. He still is not interested in moving around, crawling and even rolling over are just not important. Which I am totally fine with, I love that I can sit him down with some toys and not have to stress yet about where he's going and what's going in his mouth. 

 Here he is just a couple days ago, notice the haircut??!! Here's pre-blueberries...

And post-blueberries. 

 Here's some more of those berries, just in pie form. This was my 23rd pie for February, I'd never made blueberry before and thought we'd try it. It was ok. Cooked blueberries are not my favorite.

 Doing some tummy time. He can rotate a complete 360 degrees in this position however!

Here's what Kate's been up to, my little troublemaker :) She was putting on makeup, once again (I thought we were past this? It has been a few months).

Helping with the laundry! He's great at pulling things out of the basket, now I just need to show him how to fold. Look how long his hair was!

 This girl. One minute I'm so frustrated with her because she's doing something she knows she shouldn't be, and the next she's being miss adorable. She makes me so happy!

I never get over how happy I am when I see my kids voluntarily sitting down and looking through books.

Kate took this one of Luke after she gave him the toy knife. He loved the bouncer for the first 7 months and now it's just too restricting for him. Time to put some baby things away!

These two have been pretending together so cute. Kate is finally old enough to keep up with Cole's crazy role-plays and pretend worlds, which is a credit to her smartness because sometimes I struggle. One day Cole had the idea to create a power-pack like Ironman's and tape it to his chest, then wear it all day and people wouldn't even know that he really was Ironman. He brought me the tupperware lid and I convinced him taping it to his shirt would be more comfortable. Then of course Kate wants in on the action. So here are my normal kids...

 And here's my superhero, power-packed kids! Those faces crack me up.

 For Valentine's day, I made my sweetie a bouquet of bacon roses! So easy and a fun surprise.

 Kate loves painting.

 Luke loves daddy. Whenever Luke sees him, he'll look at him with this anticipatory smile like he knows he's going to do something loud or funny or crazy, and he always delivers. It's so cute.

My Valentine's day present: a working fridge! We were fridgeless for 8 days, thank goodness it was cold outside and we could keep some things out on the back porch. My wonderful handyman husband did some research and figured out the part that was broken and then fixed it. But then he went a step farther and fixed the water/ice dispenser while he was at it! Which hasn't worked the whole time we've had the fridge, 8 years. I'm so grateful for him and all his handi-ness. It has saved our family so much money.

This was the pie I made for February, Chocolate Walnut. It tasted like a yummy brownie in a crust, we loved this one! Looking at it though reminded me of the pie from the book/movie The Help. I am happy to say mine had no special ingredients, other than lots of love.

Another blueberry-eating shot of Luke. This is his favorite face to make!

Brother love.

Cole discovering what happens when wet lips meet a dry ice cube. Don't worry, Tyler is right there to help him, I knew it was a one man job so I thought I'd do something productive.

While we were in OR, Janale took some great pictures of the kids (of course, she is so gifted). This was Luke's first time seeing a real kitty!

That hair was so out of control!

 What beautiful weather we had!

 So great to see Jolene and meet sweet little Quade.

The boys had fun making a huge bonfire, and Luke was happy to share Eva's wagon while we were there, they loved riding around in it.

 Little Quade.

 It doesn't get much better than bathtime with babies.

 The first cut of hair! Goodbye mullet. No going back.

 More bonfire.

Car cousins at 9/8 months. How cute are those matching outfits? Thanks grandma!

Beautiful baby boy!

This was on our flight to OR, he did so great. I was a little worried, it was way past bedtime but he fell right asleep no problem. What a champ.

Taking a break from OR pics, this is what my kitchen looked like for a few days around V-day. So glad it's all put back together.

He was just having an awesome curly hair day and I had to document it.

Another one of Kate's!

We had a great time playing at the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum, Kate could not get enough of the grocery store area. I love how she loaded up her cart, there was zero room left. Wonder where she's seen that done before...

 At the real grocery store getting groceries, I walked there with three 4 year olds, one 2 year old and Luke. It was awesome!

Making cookies with our gal pal Ellie bellie.

TP took the older kids hiking one day, they have no idea how lucky they are to have him as their dad.

 This is in the middle of February. It was quite sunny and beautiful, so Kate wanted to have a pretend picnic of course! And our buddy Bennett decided to mow the snow. Spring fever!

 Love her.

 Helping grandpa feed the horses while visiting.

 For Tyler's birthday, the kids decided to get him each a game from DI that they could play with him. They found this fishing game and it's earned its $2 already.

 We also went hiking for TP's birthday week. Fun!

Birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

 Steak! Yum!

 Ok, back to Oregon. I loved seeing Eva and Luke play together, I could have watched them for hours.

We went for a little ride while we were there. These two boys have too much fun together, it's great.

TP's birthday breakfast. Thank you Dari-Mart and Janale!

 Getting ready for his big elk hunting trip this fall! So excited.

 On the plane ride home. Such a good little traveler. I loved all the comments on the plane, "Oh your little girl is so good! She's so beautiful!" You totally get used to it after 8 months.

Super grandma! She's in heaven.

How cool is this! Right after our plane took off, we could look down and find Rod and Lisa's place! Neat.

 Such a proud moment in my life - when my baby can sit up in the Costco carts and I don't have to bring the car seat in! Good job Luke!

I don't know if I can fit one more picture on here! See you next month.