What we did in April. Picture Style.

I took so many pictures in April but besides Evan's birthday I didn't blog any. So hold on to your pants. It's picture overload time!

Batman! (Max)

They love these Superhero capes Dan brought back from guatemala

Evan thought it was awesome too. hah

take advantage of the church gym one chilly day

Met up with Aiden and Aunt Cass at the train park and went hunting for craw dad shells

snuggles with my Max!

These boys love taking group pictures!

a brief venture down into the coulees

on our first family bike ride

Worm hunting

At Emery and Wren's for their birthday!

Bowling date night!

I love this girl!

Double date fun. It was our first group date in a long while! gotta make them more frequent!

My evan! 

having Aunty Nix around is the best!

Morning shenanigans

FOOD MONSTER!

Dierks Bentley concert!

another bike ride

Sean had my phone in church... at least it shows us being reverent...

My handsome boys

Sean started up soccer and LOVES it

More Aunty Nix fun!

Almost made it! You're a trooper!

evan loving on cousin Ben

helping Dad install a new toilet

discovering the joy of jumping off Grandma and Grandpas deck.

Max enjoyed it a lot....

He loves this chair now

he has no idea...

My early morning running buddy

Congrats! You made it!

Easter is coming up in its own post!

Sean boy

This last Sunday was quite hilarious and super cute for me just to see Sean and his little personality.

It all started before church. We were all in the kitchen and Dan pulled out his Ipad and started playing on it leaning up against the kitchen counter. Sean sees this and says "Dad, go lay on the couch"

Dan "I'm good here buddy"
Sean "But Dad go lay on the couch."
Dan, "It's okay bud. i'm stayin here"
Sean "Go lay on the couch Dad."
Dan "You go lay on the couch"
Sean," I'm not the one on my Ipad"

He said it with such sass that I DIED! oh my goodness. It was hilarious. Dan was laughing too but that might have been at me.


Our ward had fast and testimony meeting on Sunday because we have Stake Conference the first week in May.
So kids and adults start getting up and bearing their testimonies. Seans watching and listening. He eventually says to me Mom I wanna go up there. So I told him to go ask Dad for help. I was feeding Evan and covered in his food. So Sean walks over to Dan and repeats his statement.  Dan says okay bud. Do you wanna go yourself? Sean said YA! Dan asked him what he was going to say and gave him a few suggestions and then sent him on his way at the next moment he could. Sean just about ran up to the pulpit but another kid got there first so Sean stood about 5 feet away and slowly inched closer. When the other kid was done Sean jumped right up and bore his sweet little testimony.
"I love to bear my testimony. I know the church is true. I love my family. We come to church. uhhh my family...uhh... we do things.... and we be true.... uhh.... and do things... AMEN." and proceeded to jump down and run back to us and say in a loud voice. WOW that was a huge talk! High Five! and gave all of us high fives. everyone around us was enjoying him and his cuteness!

I do love him and his joy in sharing his testimony. Its so sweet and pure and makes me feel wonderful seeing that I am raising him alright. I make mistakes but he still knows he has a Savior and Heavenly Parents who love him and that church is the place to be. Never lose that buddy!

Another Monster Bash

As always when my kiddos turn one we have a Monster Party. We invite our families to come and join us.
This time around we did it the Sunday before Evans birthday because Dan would be gone the week of Evan's birthday. It worked out alright.
Lots of food and fun.

 I may go a bit crazy on the cakes but they are so fun. The cakes are what I do best. haha THe banner is the only other decoration. I don't so much plan parties as just plan on eating cake and icecream, haha

It was a good party and Evan sure enjoyed his cake.

What a way to ring in his first year! Love you baby boy!

A Whole Year!

Well, we did it. We made it to another first birthday!

This one seemed like a long time coming. Now looking back though it wasn't as long as it felt. Bittersweet day today as we say goodbye to his first year of life. Many more to look forward too.
As I tucked him into bed last night I was more emotional than I have been with any other of my babies. I am not sure why. I am grateful (not always) that he still likes to cuddle. He is a really good snuggler.

This year has been the hardest first year yet. Juggling three really little kids. One who was a baby and one who thought he still should be a baby and one who was trying to be so independent and helpful.
I'm glad to say we all made it through. Hopefully with few traumatic memories.

Though the first three months were the absolute worst with all the crying and screaming Evan did I am glad he is over that now and is really a super happy (clingy) baby. He is defintely a momma's boy. He's gotta be in my arms if he is at all near me. He doesn't like it if I hold Max. Sean he's alright with but man oh man. If I hold Max he LOSES it. Good ole brotherly rivarly. Probably from all the times Max has sat on him or drug him around the house or whatever else Max has done to him. Though they are much better friends now. I love it.
The three of them are starting to play so well now. Makes my momma heart just melt.

Evan is walking. More so than crawling. If he falls down he gets right back up and at it. Zombie walk and all.

Still only two bottom teeth. I don't know where those other ones are hiding but I really hope they all pop through together on the next teething round. This little boy and teething SUCK! He gets mild fevers, needs snuggles 24/7, doesn't sleep well, and just cries. and then pops one tooth. So the next time he goes through all that if he could just pop 6 teeth that would be great.

Food monster. He's my little vacuum. crawls under the table and looks in his chair for any leftovers. Lets face it.. he finds them. haha.

Now that the Spring weather is here we've been able to get outside more. He loves it. The stroller not so much. Probably because it means he has to sit by Max and not be in my arms. That two strikes againest me. haha. But once we get going he Loves it. Especially now that he can wander the parks we go to. When his big brothers go out to the back yard he makes a break for it as well. haha Oh He's going to love this Summer.

I am so grateful that this spunky little boy came into our lives so quickly. Yes it has been rough and I've lost more marbles than I can count but I can't imagine life without him. He brightens my day with his toothy, gummy smile. It makes me so happy to hear him laugh and his brothers making him Life.

I love being a Mom. I would choose to do it all again exaclty how I've done it. I wouldn't want to change a thing.

Happy Birthday my Evan!

Moonlight Run 2017

GUYS! This post is a very rare one. It's not about my kids. It's about ME! and DAN! WOW!

Last summer was a fun and very hard summer. I had 3 kids under 3. I didn't fit any of my clothes. We did so much going to the parks and playing and enjoying summer but not having any fun clothes that fit and still looking and feeling 7 months pregnant just didn't have me in the greatest of moods.

In September I randomly started working out. Nothing consistent. Then in October I joined together with some friends and we started working out at the church 3x a week in the mornings. It was great. It lifted my mood and helped get me wanting to workout.  Then we started a 6 week Health challenge and $$$ was involved. I was all over that. I ended up getting second. Not to shabby.

During this Healthy Challenege I started running again. I mean I have a treadmill in my house. Had I really used it though.. no. But I did during this Challenge and I started remembering how much I liked running. after a couple weeks though I really had to push through because it wasn't so fun. haha Passed that and all was good.

The 6 week challenge ended just before Christmas and even though I got 2nd place I was still pretty dang proud of myself. I was even more proud when I realized I lost 11.5 inches on my body. The scale didn't change a whole heck but losing those inches made me feel good. And so I kept working out and running.

Somewhere in all this I remembered this Run people did once a year at night. So I did some googling and boom Moonlight Run.

I convinced Dan to do it with me because I really didn't want to do this alone. He's great and agreed even though he told me time and time again he was going to die.
So now I had another end goal to work towards. And I even convinced my sister Phoenix to run with me.

So I kept working out and running and juggling these three crazy boys.

Well the day of this Race finally arrived and I couldn't believe I was actually going to do this. 6km. Down and up a HUGE hill. oh man.

We got there though and it was kinda exciting to see how many people were there. I had no illusions I was going to win or anything. I was just doing this for me. And honestly my goal was to finish it in 45 or less. But no longer than 45. At home I only ever really ran 3 miles and this was all on a treadmill. So I knew i wasn't as prepared as I could have been but I was more prepared than Dan. (Love you babe!)

The air horn went off and it took us just over 2 mins to finally cross the start line  and then maybe another 2 before I could actually pick up the pace and get moving. Phoenix kicked off and left us in the dark and well... Yup I took off and left Dan. (had to try my best right?)

Gotta say it was pretty exhilarating. Especially because I was constantly passing people. haha boosted my mood. Once I got to the downhill part a lot of people were pulling back and slowly down not me. I sped up a bit and let gravity help me out. Zoom zoom.

Once we got into Indian battle park the crowd had thinned some and I had some space to run. All along this run they had drummers and bagpipes and people cheering everyone on. It was really a positive thing. I felt so good! Before I knew it people on the sidelines were shouting you're half way! you're half way! (I found out later they had KM markers, lol I only saw the 5 KM marker on my way up the hill.) It was'nt even as dark as I thought it would be. Everyone had headlamps (so did I) and that helped a lot. Before I really knew it I was at the base of the hill ready to go up.

That hill does ya in though man. It is WAYY bigger than it seems to be. and brutal!

There were two people who would pass me and get up just far enough pass me and they would stop and walk.. and so then I'd start running until i was just enough passed them and I would walk. and back and forth until I was finally at the top of the hill. My friend even passed me at the top (she's amazing and did the 10K) and my goal was to just keep pace with her. but the dang cramp in my side wouldn't let me. but I still kept moving. and then at the end I mustered up the last bit of strength I had and just let it fly! :) Yet again another mood boost when I passed 8-10 people before crossing the finish line!

Seriously. What a High! It felt so good. I found my sister. and Then we found Dan who also did amazing and crossed 4ish minutes after me. Not to shabby considering he did not practice or prep for this in anyway.

It was so fun. Such a positive thing. I amazed myself and finished this 6K in 39 mins and 29 seconds! (thats my chiptime. the actual time from the air horn was 41:27. But I count it for me from when I crossed the startline. :)

So fun! I can't wait to do this again next year(Dan even said he would do it again!) and even some others throughout the spring and summer! Ladies Fest anyone?

11 months

I can't believe I almost missed posting this post. I mean he's closer to being 1 now... gulp. and I know as soon as I post this He will be one. That just seems to be how times flies.

My baby...

He is crawling obviously. and super fast. Like lightening. He has also surprised me by taking his first steps and loving it. He hasn't fully caught on yet. Which has surprised me. I thought for sure he'd be fully walking by his birthday. Just goes to show he does things how he likes them.

 Fully weened from me. bittersweet. Though I do love the freedom I get and I don't feel so overwhelemed now.

 Food Monster. Anything and Everything anyone else is eating he must have.

 LOVES LOVES LOVES his brothers. Especially Sean. He loves when Sean gives him attention and the two of them just laugh and laugh. He has good times With Max too but they are shorter periods normally resulting in Max hitting him or sitting on him or even biting him.

 Is a total momma's boy. Can't leave my side. He just got to spend the weekend with his dad and brothers when I went away for a few days. When i walked back into the house the smile and joy on his face was crazy! Made my heart happy though too. :)

Sleeping way better! only gets up once now between 3-5. and then easily goes back to sleep till 7;30-8;00.

 Only has his two bottom teeth but I did think I saw a top one trying to come through the other day.

 He is the best little boy. I love him so much and am so grateful he snuck into our family so quickly. I couldn't imagine life any other way now.

 And I can't believe that next month he is going to be 1.
The first birthday. Another toddler. No more baby. wow.