Thursday, July 14, 2016

Cousins in Colorado

We are so glad that Shannon and her family have moved to Colorado.  In their moving process we were happy to have them here for a few days and then were lucky to keep a few kids for a few weeks to help me out.  It's going to be so fun for me to have family "next door."  Shannon and I keep joking about that because we talk like we are next door neighbors when it's more like a 3 hour drive.  Whatever!


Shannon helped Nora climb the slide.  Nora mostly climbs it herself and Shannon just kept close watch.  Nora is CRAZY!  She also loves going down the slide with anyone who will help her.


The boys enjoyed having some older playmates.  Nothing like airplane rides and people to play games with.



Hannah LOVES the littles.  She wants to hold and take care of all of them. It's cute.


And Shannon was patient enough to play marble works with the kids on our Sunday afternoon.

We also took the opportunity to walk around the temple.  So excited for another few months when we get to go inside!






Shannon was there without Jeremiah who was in Utah working.  But we got a pictures of her 3 girls and my 3 kids.



Aubrey would be all over that baby too if she got a chance with Hannah around.  It was the cause of a few little sisterly squabbles.  But mostly they were able to take turns "helping" with Nora.



We had a s'mores family home evening.










And a few more shots from the temple.  Not sure why these are all out of order...but there you go.



Tuesday, June 14, 2016

10 months - where does the time go

Seems I really can't keep up on adding pictures.  To be fair it's been a rough stretch for our little family.  We all caught a stomach bug within hours of each other and were out for the count one weekend, then I had my tooth pulled, then I recently caught C-diff due to the lovely antibiotics I had to take for said tooth.  I've not been at my best for about a month all in all.  

But our boys are loving ice cream sundaes on a Sunday - or any day of the week.






These cuties were so cute all lined up to look out the window at something.  I don't even remember what they were looking at.  I wish I could have gotten a little further back for the composition of this photo but I was limited by the wall and the couch.  Too bad their feet are cut off....still cute.  I hope I never forget them at this adorable age and stage.


And Nora is 10 months old!  How can that be? She is walking like crazy and chatters up a storm.  I think she says Da Da, Mama, and all done.  But it's so hard to tell if they really mean it at this stage.


She is recently returned to sleeping through the night, which Jacob and I are very much appreciating.  I guess it won't last long as more teeth are due...




I took these pictures and then decided I wanted to try some more another day outside so...those are coming up soon.  And I tried to get pictures standing but she just toddled off too quickly.


And then I attempted to update pictures of my big boys and that turned out about like this:


Okay, so Ben can kind of be bribed.


See...look at that cuteness.


What about Isaac?  Can he be bribed....



Sort of.  With some limits.


He is looking so big to me lately.  Just such a kid.  No more pre-schooler about him.  His teeth are coming in kind of crazy.  It just doesn't look like his little mouth is big enough for those bigger teeth.  I kind of love it.


He was so proud about his tooth pick and marshmallow creation he wanted a picture.  I'm happy to oblige any time he requests a photo.  He's usually so reluctant.


And, on to round two of pictures of Nora.  I do like the way they turned out much better.  She is just  too adorable.


She's not a huge fan of the grass on her legs.  So she wasn't too keen on smiling but there are lots of adorable scrunchy faces going on.



Nora is such a cuddler.  She wants hugs from mom all the time and it's so cute.  I love that she is a little more affectionate like that.  She's also a big fan of wrestling with dad and the boys and L.O.V.E.S to be walking.  She is also very alert and observant and knows so much.  I pulled out a shape sorter activity and she immediately knew how to do it.  She has mastered her stacking toy.  And she picked up on "popcorn popping" actions super fast.  She loves that song.


She loves to be outside and loved the splash pad we recently took her too.  No surprise she also loves her bath.  I also took her swimming and she loved that too.


I kind of love this "out take" photo.  She started falling and then caught herself...but then she wouldn't put her one leg back down on the grass.  Super funny.



This girl is pure joy and happiness.  She still gets the most comments on how happy she is.  People love her.  We take her to the store and she just waves and smiles to everyone.



And then I tried again for a cute picture of the boys and mostly failed.




The other day we made "lollipops."  They weren't really lollipops because they were made out of white chocolate and chocolate.  But the kids loved it.  



Isaac was pointing out which one he'd like to eat first.


And Nora just wants to be a part of it all but was asleep during sucker making.  But she was thrilled to play cards with Ben.

I am loving this summer this past week.  Swimming lessons, sun, and too many treats and late nights for sure.  But, I hope we are making lasting memories inspite of some of the less good moments where I lose my cool and succumb to yelling yet again.  I try so hard to not raise my voice...I've got more work though.  One day at a time I guess.

Happy summer to you!