Little Man

We have a two-year old in the house!  You could have made the connection if you happened past our house the next day and overheard the massive meltdown when we tried to take off his pajamas.

Some things I don't want to forget about who he is right now: 

-the way he looks in his little old man sweaters with the elbow patches

-rolling his arms before saying any prayer and vaguely humming the song 'roll your hands, roll your hands, as quick, just as quick, just as quick can be.  then fold your arms like me, like me, then fold your arms like me'

-he has to have the humidifiers from his room and the girls' room filled and drags the heavy reservoirs into the bathroom every night

-when I say, "Where's your mouth?  Where are your fingers?  Where is your nose?" without fail, he will stick his finger up his nose, look at me out of the corner of his eye, and smile

-he has to stop at each door leading into the basketball courts every time we go to the gym; the staff has started to notice and comment on the obsession

-he hates when I sing his goodnight song

-he loses it the first 30 seconds I leave him anywhere, then is totally fine.  Still breaks my heart even though I know the drill.

-he runs to the hand sanitizer dispenser when I pick him up from the kid center and immediately puts it in his hair like gel.  And, now that I think about it, he likes to use the hair gel as hand soap...

-I purposefully place him and Hayden facing the window for lunchtime then sit across from them so I can get my daily fill of their beautiful, pale blue eyes.

-he (unfortunately) has a major thing for anything with a screen and can navigate the ipad with the best of them.  He loves to get on skype and call Grandma and Grandpa in the middle of their night!

 

-how excited I get when I go to pick him up from any place and the way his face lights up when we make eye contact.  And the little one-leg-hop dance he starts doing :)

-we have a routine we've fallen into for every naptime.  He insists on sleeping on the floor next to his big boy bed, so I started laying down next to him for a few minutes.  He would always get up and push the door closed, I think in an attempt to keep me in there or at least give him some more time to catch up when I get up to leave.  I get a kick out of it and purposefully leave it ajar when we go in.  Then he comes back and plops down, turns his head over, realizes he's too far away from me, and wiggle-worms his way closer to me.  I.  Love.  It.

Bennett is a low maintenance kid and I feel I have so much more energy to enjoy him.  Our weekdays require a lot of driving and he is so good to just roll with it.  He is such a sweet compliment to our family and I love what he brings to our home.  The girls are still enamored with him, although Hayden is starting to catch on to the things we let him get away with...  If you know my girls, you know they LOVE to bake, so got up first thing in the morning with a plan for his cake.  I'm pretty sure this will be the last year we can get away with giving him pink frosting, but they were very specific about their plans.  I love to do a big party when I have the time, but I just didn't have it in me this year.  It was a sweet day to have Abbey and Hayden plan it for him and play the day away with Bennett Boy.

Love, Love, Love

Abbey is a kid with big plans and the initiative to make it happen.  I can't let her 'pretend' to plan parties.  At least not without being prepared.  Because she will make invitations, deliver them, and people will show up.  Wednesday night she asked me if I could go to bed early and she would get Hayden and Bennett to bed.  I hung out in my room for a while and she came in with the biggest smile on her face.  She had put together a whole night of activities for me.  She had a platter full of ideas--treasure hunts, dancing games, clues to find my presents.  She talked J into running her to Target on the way home from the bus stop to grab me some Valentine's presents.  Some were spot on:

 (I still think her cross-eyed face is hilarious every time.)

 Others were suspiciously self serving:

 "Hey mom, you know, WE could put together the super sparkly bracelets with accompanying fish and butterfly stickers.  What's that?  Not your style?  Well...I guess we could keep them..."

In the meantime, the little dude kept himself busy bumping into stuff:

 Her cards were THE best:

 The girls woke up the next morning and were dressed head to toe in red and pink before I got out of bed.  I decorated the table the night before with a few little things I found on clearance last year, made some muffins, and stuck a bird on it.  They were ridiculously excited to see it in the morning.  I love that it is so easy to please them.  Although, to be fair, at first glance they thought they were getting cupcakes for breakfast...

 

I wanted to do a nice dinner but didn't expect Justin home so bagged the idea.  Just as I was headed out with all three kids, pumping myself up to handle them at diving practice, he pulled in the driveway.  He whisked all of them away to conquer diving practice so I could make the dinner I wanted.  It is such a pleasure to cook uninterrupted.  I was down one ingredient and our friend, Jim, happened to be at the store and saved the day.  I got a kick out of answering the door to him saying, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and handing me my green onions like a flower delivery man. 

 

My hero and kiddos walked in the door just as everything was coming together and we had a beautiful, lovely meal together.  Just kidding.  The kids were ridiculous.  But I was so happy to share the evening with my family and my wonderful hubby who knows that I honestly don't need or want flowers or chocolates today (for some reason I found Valentine gifts and advertisements particularly obnoxious this year).  Just a good Dad and husband who happily and seemingly effortlessly helps make this family run.  He and Abbey were totally talking my love language this year.

Christmas 2012

Collin's wedding gave us the chance to spend the Christmas with Justin's family.  We haven't all been together since 2006!  There were three nieces and nephews I had yet to meet and I was completely charmed by all the kids this trip.  Everyone had a buddy and I found myself hanging out with the oldest ones much of the day.  Sadie can totally take my brand of teasing (and dish it right back) and Lena still has the sweetest, kindest heart I've ever seen.  The only downside was Bennett was so sick the whole trip--more sick than any of my kids have been.  One evening, we left him sleeping with my father-in-law and took the girls down to see the Lights at Temple Square.  I expected to see him awake when we got back since he had slept almost all day but when I walked in, he was totally passed out on the couch. My stomach dropped as soon as I saw him.  Poor baby--I am so grateful it didn't head down a road it was looking likely to head.  It was nice to have the extra hands to always hold him this week and the extra eyes to constantly monitor him.

{ryan's son, devan}

{tahna's oldest, mason, and hayden}

{andi, cade, and amber's thea}

{amber's daughter, izzy; grandma pace, justin lee, & rosie}

{ryan's william, eli's ashton & cameron, & amber's boston}

The pack of 4 year olds ran the roost.  Rosie and Hayden were attached at the hip and Izzy would jump in the fun wearing this hilarious zebra costume Justin had as a kid.  At some point they just helped themselves to rolls and an entire cube of butter: 

{Lena reading the girls stories on Christmas Eve}

Christmas morning was pretty low key and pretty perfect.  Tahna and Justin had done Christmas the week before so they didn't have to pack presents from Colorado, so her kids were prepared for no gifts. I don't think anyone knew Kathy had picked up a present or two for each grandchild.  Benson (Tahna's son who is 6) sleepily wandered down to watch the other kids open theirs and noticed a small pile for him.  My heart melted into a puddle on the floor when his face lit up, looking around, quietly asking "Are these for me?!??"  Perfect.  Christmas.  Nobody spent a lot of money this year, but the kids were so happy with the little treasures they received and so happy to play with and enjoy each other.  And the adults may have had a few hours of perfect volleyball time Christmas afternoon against the Richins Family down the road...

Cade called up one afternoon and said to load the kids and meet him at a hill.  They had a blast being pulled behind the 4-wheeler.  He went gentle on the young ones but let loose on the older ones.  Abbey would die laughing every time they toppled over.

Justin's buddies from high school put together a dinner night in Park City so we could meet up and see everyone.  So glad they did.  Those Coalville boys have the best stories!

Then it was back to Ogden to help my family get ready for the reception.  We ended up going to a church so Justin could get in his volleyball fix before flying back home.  We called up my cousin, Justin Barlow, who played with J in college, and they had a great time playing together.  Until we realized nobody stood a chance against them and had to split them up :)  My forever friend, Erica, stopped by with her kiddos and helped my mom dip chocolates.  So.  Many.  Chocolates.

After the reception, Megan dodged a bullet by hitching a ride down to Koryn's house with the Knudsens.  It saved her a good extra two hours of driving she would have had with us.  One of my little ones had...some digestive issues.  We had to stop at every little freezing rest stop along the way.  Throw in some missed turns and you have yourself a car full of grouchy, grouchy travelers.  But we made it and had some good R&R in the tiny town of Monticello (it's like you drive as far into the middle of nowhere as you think you can go and you're halfway there). 

Koryn can whip together a meal like it's nobody's business.  My mom has endless energy and patience with my kids.  Megan is the most pleasant human being in the history of mankind.  My girls disappeared into Whitney's room for most of the trip and my baby was feeling much better.  Life is good, I love that I got to see 38 out of 39 members of my family this week (yup.  that's you, dad.  see you this summer!).

(I need to keep this picture in my bag for the dozen times I hear each week, "How did you and Justin end up with such BLONDE kids?!"  Isn't my mom the cutest?)

Wedding Bells

 Justin and I made our way across the country to see my little brother get married a few weeks ago.  Kasey joined our family in kind-of a funny time--we are spread out across the world and I personally met her the morning of the wedding in the hotel lobby.  And I may have thought she was her sister when I ran into them.

I'm so happy to have her in our family.  I imagine there's a lot of pressure to marry a boy with four older sisters!  During the ceremony, the officiator said something about them becoming a family today and Kasey looked over at Collin with the sweetest, kindest, happy smile.  My heart totally melted and I was so glad he found someone who adores him. 

We dropped the kids off in Salt Lake (literally...we flew in, J grabbed the kids and ran towards baggage claim, then pushed a stroller through security to Justin's mom and hauled back to the gate to catch our flight to Portland.  And by 'pushed' I mean Justin handed it off to a nice stranger and told them to take Bennett to the lady waving down the hall so he wouldn't have to go through security again,) so we had these folks all to ourselves.  Those kids tend to steal the show.  After the ceremony and lunch, we headed out to find a batting cage.  Apparently this is tradition for Noah and Justin???  Allison and I were unaware.  But it was very important, so we took off.  It was closed for the winter so the backup plan was to take a trip to Voo Doo Doughnuts.  Two major highlights: my sisters struggling to order anything because they were embarrassed to say the names to my mom and Justin purposefully picking things that my mom would have to order by name.  Then my cousin, Aaron, being kicked by a homeless lady as we walked under an enormous painted wall that said, "Keep Portland Weird."  Mission accomplished.

 They had their reception at an awesome barn that night.  I loved the setting and wished I had better camera equipment to capture it.  Lucky for us, they had my cousin's wife, Shonda, clicking away.  I've admired her blog and photography for years so it was fun to meet her and see her work.  I loved getting to know Kasey's family as well.  I was trying to pull info out of her dad about what she was like as a kid, but he wasn't spilling too much. :)  I'm excited to get to know her more over the years.

Then it was off to Utah for the holidays and another party for Collin's family and friends there.

My mom decided to hold it in the Eccles Mansion, an awesome old house in Ogden with a lot of history for our family.  Koryn had piano recitals there, I took ballet and art classes there as a kid, and we all performed the violin there for different events and receptions.  I forgot how beautiful it was, though.  We had a great night seeing old friends.

(Kasey's parents, Scott and Heather, meeting my Aunt Marilyn)

Sometimes this girl just can't take a normal picture...

(My mom and nephew, Spencer.  Either Spencer or his brother, Parker, were by my mom's side most of the night.  My dad was unable to leave his mission to come for the celebration and these sweet boys must have sensed a need to stick by Grandma :) )

Kasey wore right through her awesome red pumps!

(Parker, Spencer, Collin, Abbey, Whitney, Hayden, & Kasey)