Lola Turns Two

It's so weird to think that my baby is two. I remember the day she was born and how worried I was about having 3 kids under the age of 4. I thought I would be stuck at home forever. I thought I might go crazy with a newborn baby and a very busy 20 month old and worried that my oldest would get lost in the shuffle.



Then as her little personality emerged, I thanked the Lord everyday for sending her to me. She was all sweetness. . . something that our home needed. Life was chaotic with 3 little ones, but I wondered every day what I ever did without her around.



We've come so far since those early days. Now with 2 kids in school, I find time to enjoy just her for a few hours each day. I no longer get afraid when I have to venture into public with my little crew and we even find ourselves surviving an entire Sacrament meeting here and there!

I'm so grateful for my little Lola and the absolute joy she brings into my everyday.

Happy birthday to my littlest one!

Birthday Extravaganza!

Here are a few pictures from our family birthday party for Jacks and Lola on Sunday. We had a BBQ and enjoyed being together. The kids got spoiled as usual with gifts and had such a great time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and good friends.





We have such a great family that loves and supports our kids so much!

Jackson's Birthday

Jackson turned 6 on Friday. It's so hard for me to believe that this little, tiny, helpless ball of hair has grown into such a big, independent boy!

He had such a fun birthday and had been counting down anxiously for days. He was so excited to take brownies to school and came home with a fabulous paper birthday hat that he wore for every minute of the rest of that day! We had a Transformers party after school with all his cute friends. His friends were all so good and they all had a great time celebrating together!





That night, Nate and I took just Jacks out for his birthday. He loves breakfast food, so we took him to Angie's for some pancakes. It was so much fun having time with just him. He kept saying over and over, "Thanks mom and dad for taking me to dinner. I've had a really great time with you!" He is growing up!



I'm so glad to have this kid in my world! I love his energy and his passion for things. I'm grateful for his responsible nature and the little buddy he is to me. Happy birthday crazy Jacks!

A Day in the Life of Miles

This afternoon while Miles was supposed to be sitting quietly on his bed, reading books for a little "quiet time," I suddenly heard his very panicked voice calling to me from his room. I run in there to find him hanging by his fingertips from the TOP shelf of his closet, feet just a-flailing! How he managed to hold on until I arrived to save the day is beyond me. "Miles," I say, "How many times have I told you to not scale your closet shelves???"

Then tonight, several minutes after tucking the boys in bed Jacks calls to me. I wander back, thinking it's just another one of their stall tactics. I instead find Miles, naked from the waist down, trying to pee in Jacks' stuffed kitty bed.

The joys of raising cute little Miles, all in a days time.

Side note: I am awake right now (at 1am) because of the cows I can hear mooing out my window. Something has apparently upset them. Now how many people can say that about their life? How lucky I am to be raising a family in such a quaint little part of the world!

Gardens

I grew up in Farmington, Utah. We had a pretty big lot, a third of which was devoted to a garden. In my mind, that garden was huge. . . it seemed the many, many rows stretched on forever. Every summer morning, for what seemed like hours at a time, my mom would gather all of us kids and haul us down to the garden to weed. We'd have to either get up early in the morning, or sleep in and find ourselves roasting in the hot sun. I was never pleased to be out there, breaking my back and sweating like crazy all for more zucchini, crookneck, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and peas than I thought was necessary for one family of 7.

I would vow, morning after morning, that I would never plant a garden when I grew up and that I would never subject my poor children to such slave labor.

Okay so growing up does a lot for one's perspective. It's hard to believe the amount of joy I get by bringing this in from my own personal, grown-up garden:


Granted my garden isn't 1/4 as big or beautiful as my talented mother. Just a few tomato and squash plants, some pumpkins for the kids and my beloved basil. But the older I got, I did realize the things I learned from working in the garden, the relationships formed with my sisters, the talks with my mom, and the extremely important value of teaching your kids to work hard. Oh, and there's nothing quite like a freshly picked tomato, rubbed clean by the bottom of a shirt and eaten. . . straight out of the garden.

Catching Up On California

In all the chaos of the last weeks of summer, I haven't found a second to write about our trip to California. At the beginning of August we piled into our very packed car and journeyed south with my entire family. The drive, although long, went much better than I expected with 3 kids. . . minus the ear-splitting screams from my dear Lola anytime she didn't get what she needed!

We spent the first 2 days in Anaheim visiting the very magical Disneyland. Miles was so excited to go. He was in HEAVEN at Disneyland with his little smile never leaving his face. At one point he said to me, "Mom, Disneyland SOOOO awesome!" Lola was horrified of every single ride there but was such a good sport to cling to me monkey style during them without crying. The kids held up great and we ended up staying there until they closed at 12:30 am. The next day Jacks and Nate went with the rest of the guys to the Angels/Yankees game. Jacks had fun being with the boys and eating hot dogs through his very first professional baseball game.

After Disneyland, we headed down to San Diego and spent the rest of the week there. We spent one day at La Jolla Beach and visited Coronado Beach twice. We had so much fun relaxing on the beach. Jacks loved figuring out the body boards and got pretty good at riding them. He was so brave about the ocean. . . scaring his mom to death by going out as deep as his neck to "tackle" the waves. Lola loved swimming in the ocean and running around on the sand. Miles loved the beach, staying out of the water most of the time, but having tons of fun playing in the sand.

We had so much fun with my family, playing games in the condo, sitting in the hot tub, watching many late-night hours of Olympics, eating good food, shopping and being together.