Maddie's 2nd Birthday!

We had a fun little birthday party for her. She got lots of fun dress-up tutus, bracelets, rings, her own mitt, princess ball and bat, a tricycle and a dora mermaid for the bathtub. She is a very loved little girl! She was so sweet and happy opening her presents and loved running from person to person to tell them thank you.

Blast from the Past

My cousin dug up this picture for me... this is Brittany and I covered in nail polish, rocking out. Pretty cute, huh?

Like Mother Like Daughter

Saturday Eric's wife Katie and I left all the kids with Jared and Eric and ran to do some shopping for an hour or so. When we got home we saw that Emma and Aubrey were in our car playing. We stuck our heads in the car to say hi and saw them like this! They found some mascara and were putting their own make-up on. They even got some of their eyelashes.

My favorite part about this story is that I have a picture with my cousin Brittany SO close to this. Only we used fingernail polish. And we didn't actually do it to ourselves. :)

Super Birthday Bash

Ok, so that makes is sound pretty fancy. In actuality, it was one of the most enjoyable, laid back get togethers with my family on Saturday. We have several April and May birthdays that we were celebrating all together(6!). We kept it really simple and had a little Easter egg hunt, grilled some hot dogs and played. The kids played t-ball/baseball with us, rode bikes, wrestled Clint, played in the bounce house and had some good cousin time. I wish I had more pictures but my SD card was full!

Clint reading to Maddie.

The grandchildren! (Minus baby Kynlee, who was napping)

Watermelon!

I think my Mom was just in heaven having all her grandchildren to cuddle!

Mountains to Climb

Yesterday we had a great speaker in Sacrament Meeting who spoke about gratitude. It was one of those talks that I felt was for me, I listened to every word, and I really thought the speaker was cute. Ok, so it was Jared, and I am more than biased, but I really enjoy his talks.

One thing he talked about was that gratitude isn't just making a list of our blessings(which is good, too!), but it is having an "attitude of gratitude" and being grateful for everything we have in our lives. It is looking at the obstacles and difficulties as opportunities. They are "mountains to climb" that make us stronger, that have beautiful views from the top.

So I'm working on cultivating an "attitude of gratitude" in my daily life. I've been thinking about this a lot, and these are a couple of things I'm grateful for lately.

#1: Jared's trip to the Emergency Room last week. He was moving some things around in a little storage room we have, and bumped a square, glass light fixture. It fell down and slashed his nose and below his eye on the way down. He tried to downplay it. He just said, "Mel, I think I might need some stitches." I went and looked at it and I could see the bone on the bridge of his nose! The bleeding was pretty intense. The kids were in bed, so I called his sister and she came over within ten minutes to watch them. It only took 3 stitches, and we were in and out of the ER in less than an hour.

I went to bed that night grateful for 1)Amazing family who live close by and are so willing to help us; 2)That Jared still has an eye- it was SO close to hitting it; 3)The health of my family. It is something that I take for granted too much. We are incredibly blessed.

#2: Maddie's underwear. She turns 2 on Saturday, and rarely has accidents. However, last week she struggled, and had several accidents. I was so frustrated. Funny how quickly I forgot that 3 months ago, she always went potty in her pants. She is not even 2 and fully potty trained- I think it is ok that she has an accident every once in a while. So I'm grateful that she is wearing underwear all day everyday.

#3: Our own little mountain to climb. This pile of dirt is a little less than half of what it started out as. We think it is the dirt from digging the basement, if that gives you an idea of how much is there. Jared started moving it Friday night. We spent a couple of hours on it Saturday morning. The girls even got their little shovels and buckets and helped. Then we went to Emma's t-ball game. We got back and Jared was out there again, in the hot sun(getting burnt!) until 3:30. No breaks other than that. His dad and nephews came over to help for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon.

He hauled the dirt to other places in our yard where we are preparing to plant grass.

I'm so grateful for projects that make us work, and teach our kids how to work. I'm so excited to see the end result, and a lot of that is because it has required so much effort! I'm not sure we would appreciate it so much if we paid someone else to do it. I'm also SO grateful for Jared's parents, who taught him how to work. If you know his dad, you know that a project like this on a Saturday is very normal.

Decisions, decisions!

I love that Briggs is a boy, and I can do his hair without hair elastic and brushes and combs. I'm also enjoying the different ways to do his hair. What do you think? What is your favorite?

This is his super fuzzy, baby chick hair when we don't do anything with it.

The faux hawk.

The missionary-do.

The messy/spiky look.

I really like the faux hawk, but I kinda think he can pull any of them off. But I'm a little biased.

Miss Madelyn

At Maddie's check-up this week, she weighed 27 lbs(58th percentile) and was 34.25 inches tall(67th percentile). The Dr. said that 2 year olds are the hardest patients for him to see, and he was surprised by how accomadating she was. She was pretty upset by her shots, but recovered pretty fast.

We love this sweet girl.
She is busy, busy, busy!
She is quick to giggle, smile and give hugs.
Oh the teasing! She tortures Emma(and me!) when she can.
But she is quite the cuddler.

-She is such a daddy's girl and cries every time he leaves.
-She loves Emma, and wants to be "big" like her.
-She likes to go climb in Briggs' crib when he starts crying.
-She loves cottage cheese.
-She likes to wave and shut the front door when people leave.
-She is shy and shows her shyness by glaring at people when she is uncomfortable.
-She is a GOOD eater, eating almost everything we give her, and then some. She once ate 5 hot dogs for lunch!
-She has such dry, sensitive skin. Eczema is very common on her, as well as rashes. Poor girl.
-She knows her colors pretty well, but especially recognizes the color blue everywhere.
-She counts to six.
-She loves to dance. We recently discovered that she can really move her hips!
-She loves to sing, especially Popcorn Popping.
-She sings louder than all the other kids in nursery combined.
-She is potty trained!! We occasionally have accidents, but overall she's there!
-She can't give a kiss without making the "MUUUUUUUUAAHHHHH!" sound.
-She loves to do anything mechanical.
-She waits patiently during Emma's practices and games.

Emma-licious

At Emma's check-up this week, she weighed 37 lbs(87th percentile) and was 39.5 inches tall(91st percentile). The Dr. was very impressed with how patient and sweet she was. They took her blood pressure at this appointment, and she thought that was pretty cool. Her immunizations were devastating to her. She kept saying, "Mom, they hurt-a me. That make me so sad." It made me sad, too. Over til Kindergarten!!

Oh how I love this girl.
She has more patience than any person I know.
She is so sweet and kind.
She worries about others and wants to help and make them happy.
But she also loves to tease.
Because she teases so innocently, it tricks me more than the others.

-She still sucks on her index finger. (It makes me a little crazy!)
-She dresses herself. And usually matches pretty well!
-She doesn't like to put her shoes and especially her socks on herself.
-She HATES getting her hair done. I bribe her by doing "Cinderella" hair.
-She can sit and talk/read/play with Briggs for hours.
-She loves singing her ABCs and the theme song from Wonder Pets.
-She loves nursery and sings really well in there.
-She doesn't really like getting dirty, we're working on that.
-She has a hard time playing outside without encouragement/structure(see what I did to my poor 1st child!)
-She loves her cousins, and particularly idolizes Paige.
-She has "quiet hour" when the other two are napping after lunch.
-She is very helpful at wiping off the table, chairs and cupboards.
-She is doing really well with her colors, and can really remember the color orange.
-She can count to eighteen
-She loves to spin, jump and do somersaults
-She loves to go to baseball with Jared
-She sleeps on the top bunk very well
-She still has her blankie, and every night we have to do a search for it because she hides it in random places(drawers, pockets, pans, cupboards, etc.)
-She loves shoes. Seriously, shoe stores are so exciting to her. Cracks me up because I am NOT into shoes.
-She asks me to wear certain earrings, necklaces, bracelets or shoes. It is good to have someone helping me. :)

Me Neither!

Had to get a bath picture with the socks on... long-standing family joke. Maddie was happy to oblige!

Where I Come From

Jared had to go to Boise for a couple of days so the kids and I went to Howe to visit my parents and little brother. I LOVE it. I know that it will always be "home" to me and it feels good to be there with my family, but there is so much more than that. The fresh air, open fields, silence, beautiful sunsets/sunrises, blue skies, snow-capped mountains and warm sunshine completely rejuvenate me.

And the people! They are like family. With very little notice, TEN women dropped everything to help me with a project while I was there. Most of the people in Howe have helped raise me in some way or another and I know they would do anything for me.

I'm so glad I get to have my children experience Howe, and hope they grow to love it as I do.

That time of year

It is cold and windy, then sunny and windy, then snowy and windy... must be East Idaho and BASEBALL season! :)

We signed Emma up for T-ball this year. Believe me, I had LISTS of things I would or would not do with my kids... like never letting them sleep in my bed, or go to the store looking like a homeless child, watch TV to entertain them, etc. I decided long ago that age 3 was WAY too young for pre-school or lessons or teams of any kind.

And yes, I'm eating my words on ALL of those things, and so many more.

Jared and I were trying to come up with something to help build her confidence, something to give her a "separate" thing from Maddie, and ways to allow her to have one on one time with us, especially with Jared. The opportunity presented itself, so we ran with it.

I was struggling deciding what to put her in. Jared said, "Why don't you ask her?" The options we gave her were tumbling, soccer and baseball... there was not even a SECOND of hesitation. "BAS-A-BALL!"

When I signed her up they asked if I would coach. I just laughed. I consider myself capable in nearly every sport, but baseball is just not my thing. Funny, since Jared's family loves it the most. So I signed Jared up to coach. He loves to coach and has coached several times before. Maybe not 3 year olds, though. :)

Anyway, he had his coach's meeting the other night and came home with all of the equipment. The girls couldn't wait to get outside and try it out.



Oh, and THEN I showed her the team shirt! He just hugged it and said, "I love it, Mommy!"


Honestly, I'm really nervous to see how this goes. Attention span is something we don't have a lot of around here! I hope it is a good experience for her and that she has fun.

Brilliant Invention!

I got rid of my high chair! I think they're a pain and just one more mess to clean up. Last year I bought one of these chairs for Maddie to take with us to grandparents, etc. Briggs LOVES sitting at the table with everyone else.

He still has no teeth, but they are close so he has been gnawing on his bottom lip a lot to work on them. That's what he is doing in this picture.

Every night at dinnertime, the sun comes through the window at the perfect angle for Briggs to have it on his hands. And he loves playing with the sunlight. We realized that he has started chasing the shadow of his right hand with his left. So cute! (Do you love his FUZZY hair? He's like a little baby chick!)

Yay for a boy!

Whose head we can BUZZ!! I LOVE my girls and I'm even enjoying doing fun hair-dos, but it is also a nice break to not have to do MORE hair. :) This was his first haircut! He was not sure what to think about the clippers.

I feel like I blinked

And THIS


Went to THIS
LOVE HIM!!