Mother's Day!

In our family we have lots of mothers and the kids have lots of grandmas and we feel so blessed to know and love and be loved by all of them. These wonderful ladies make up such a huge part of our lives and we wouldn't want to spend it without them. Thank you so much Grandma Debra, Grandma Shannie, Grandma Lucinda, Grandma Heather, and Grandma Patsy (not pictured) for all that you do and for being such wonderful mothers/grandmas to us. We love you so much.

I am so thankful for the chance I have to be a mother to 3 beautiful kids. I think if you asked my kids they would say I was a mean mom and I probably am, but I love my kids and could not imagine my life without them. I want to give them the world. I love Javan for giving them to me. Families are forever! I love you guys.

Camping

Earlier this month we went on our first camping trip of the year with Javan's sister Bayley and her family. As always we had tons of fun. I love the summer and I am so happy that it is finally getting warm outside.

Since Bayley was coming from Moab and we were coming from Blanding we met about halfway and camped near Monticello. It did get a bit chilly in the evenings, but it was nice and warm during the day.

Javan is getting Ryan started off early on the riding. He had a good time. He didn't like the sound of Javan's motorcycle. Every time Javan fired it up Ryan's bottom lip started to quiver and he would cry. He's going to have to get over that or it's going to be a long summer.


Carter, Willy and Ryan playing with the toys. I tried to keep him clean and contained to one area, this worked out pretty well.


Kamron and Ally enjoying some mid-afternoon coloring while the boys were off doing something destructive I'm sure.


Bayley had to run back to Moab on Saturday morning so Javan and I loaded up most of the kids and went for a little road trip. We took the kids to Newspaper Rock. They thought it was pretty cool at first, looking at the petroglyphs and trying to figure out what story they were trying to tell. Then they were hungry and ready to go eat lunch. I hadn't been to Newspaper Rock since I was a little girl when my Grandma Halls took us there, I love remembering our little trips she took us on.


We stopped by the river to have a picnic and the boys tried to build a dam across the river. Ethan was trying to fill in the little tiny holes so no water at all was coming through. It kept them busy for a long time.


Ally spent most of her time throwing rocks into the river. Is she a plumber's daughter or what?


The kids after lunch, dam building, rock throwing, water skeeter catching and ready to head back to camp. Daniel, Ryan, Max, Kamron, Ally, Reed and Ethan.

The "big" boys rolling the ice cream ball down the hill. We made some delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream in this cool ball. I am quite impressed with it.


In an attempt to keep Ryan out of the dirt he played a lot in his walker. Javan couldn't believe I was making him pack the walker to go camping but it worked out pretty good.


Thanks Bayley and fam for yet another fun weekend. Can't wait for the next time.

Sweet Baby Laughter

I wanted to include this video on Ryan's 8 Month post but I couldn't get it to load. I tried about 10 times. Anyway, I thought about just leaving it out but it's too cute. You have to see it.

Bricks and mortar make a house, but the laughter of children makes a home.

Irish Proverb

8 Months Old

It's that time again, Ryan is another month older. It's weird how it's taking so long for him to get big but at the same time he is growing up way too fast. I'm so excited for him to start crawling, but I'll miss the days of my little baby boy snuggled up in my arms. Ryan is so busy, he doesn't sit still for one second. He is always grabbing and trying to eat whatever I am holding. So getting my monthly growth pictures are getting harder because he wants to hold the camera. On the last post he had just gotten his two bottom teeth. He has worked really hard this last month and now has 3 more on top. They are coming in pretty quick and he looks kind of funny with them. He does a cute little smile where he scrunches up his nose and shows off his new teeth. I need to try and get a picture of it. He is such a funny little boy. He jabbers all the time and blows out spit with his tongue (I can't think of how to describe that). Javan and I teach Sunday School in our ward and when he hears us talking he starts talking, the louder we get to talk over him, the louder he gets. This kids in our class think it's pretty funny. He's quite a distraction. He is trying really hard to learn how to crawl. He is really good at rolling around to get to where he wants to go. He is doing this kind of army crawl/face plant maneuver that only moves him a few inches, but it's fun to watch him try and figure it out. While I was using the restroom the other day Ryan was playing on the floor in my room, when I came out I could hear him talking and the bed skirt was moving rapidly. He had rolled under the bed and was playing with the cord to the electric blanket. (Safe, I know!) He wasn't crying though, under the dark bed. This poor kid, he can't get a break from his brother and sister. If they aren't laying on top of him and making him scream, they are combing his hair, swinging him in the bouncer, racing him around the kitchen in the walker or taking him for a ride in the doll stroller. At least he looks like he is having fun. I think Ryan has been having a little separation anxiety from me lately. He wants me to hold him at all times. Sometimes I can get him to play on his own for awhile so I can get things done around the house but if I leave his sight he screams instantly. And I am talking about a blood curdling scream. The second I come back and pick him up, it stops. He is a stinker. Well, needless to say, we can't do that all day, so sometimes he gets to scream. And as you can see it wears him right out, but he's going to have to learn, I can't hold him ALL of the time. Every kid has to have the "fall asleep while they are eating" picture. Meal times are one of Ryan's favorite things, so it's pretty rare that he would fall asleep during it, causing him to miss out. Ethan started T-ball this week. I had to work so Javan took all the kids to his game. I guess he forgot to bring Ryan any toys or snacks and he was eating the grass instead. One of the other moms felt bad for him and gave him this delicious piece of licorice. Ryan loved it (a lot more than I did when I saw that shirt). He was so happy to have it though, it kept him entertained for a long time. Right before bed is one of my favorite times with Ryan. After he has had his bottle and is just winding down and getting ready for bed. He is so cute, he rolls around on the bed and plays with my face and gives me loves. I love getting to spend a few minutes of alone time with him after Ethan and Ally have gone to bed.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

My kids have said some pretty comical things the last few days that I didn't want to forget, and that I thought some of you might enjoy hearing as well.

Yesterday I went to pick Ally up from primary and her Sunbeam teacher said she had to tell me something that Ally said during class. I was immediately worried about what inappropriate thing my daughter had said in church. But it turned out to be really cute, thank heavens.

Her teacher, Sister Black, said they were talking about the Garden of Eden and she told them that the first man and woman on earth was Adam and Eve. They continued talking about other things during the lesson and then at the end of class Sister Black asked, "Now who was the first man and woman?" Ally confidently replied, "Amber and Steve!"

For those of you who don't know, Amber and Steve are my sister and brother-in-law, whose names bear a striking resemblance to Adam and Eve. So there you go Amber and Steve, you should be proud.


Whenever my kids fight or hurt each other I always make them say they are sorry for what they did and give the other one a hug. Well today Ally was playing with Ethan's remote control Ninja Turtle car (his prized possession) and she forgot to turn it off when she was done. Later Ethan went to put it away and found that it had been left on. He was immediately upset and came into yell at Ally.

Ethan: "Ally, now the battery is dead, it's all your fault."

Ally: "I'm sorry Ethan, I'll give you a hug."

Ethan: huffing and puffing and stomping around

Ally: "Come here Ethan and I'll give you a hug."


The other day while bathing Ethan he looked up at me and said "Mom, what's a uvula?" Thank you Spongebob for teaching my child oral anatomy. I guess I'd rather him know uvula than some other words.

Ally's Preschool Graduation

Ally has been attending preschool at CEU this year. It's taught by the students that are doing the early childhood education degree. She still has two more years of preschool before starting kindergarten so I thought we would start off easy this year. Every morning she would ask if she had school and I would say "yes or no" depending on what day of the week it was. Every time I said "yes" she would say she didn't want to go to school, and every time I said "no" she was mad because she couldn't go. (Typical girl, I guess.) Sometimes I left her crying with her teachers but each time I went to pick her up she was so happy and excited to show me what they had done that day. Most days she had her shoes off and had just made herself right at home.

Anyway, they had their little graduation this week. They had these cute little hats and gowns for the kids to wear, I only had to take Ally's up about 8 inches, she is such a little peanut. She was being a stinker and didn't want her picture taken but she looked so cute I made her do it anyway.


Ally with the preschool supervisor Mrs. Stubbs. Mrs. Stubbs told me that Ally was her little assistant. She said Ally followed her around everyday or made sure she was close by when they were working on projects.


Walking down the isle. She got to be first because she had to hold Mrs. Stubbs hand.


With her fancy diploma after graduation.


Group shot after graduation. Javan was too embarrassed to get in the picture with us. It was a big day for Ally and she was so proud to have a few of her grandma's come to see her graduation.


Good job Ally! I love you!

Happy Easter!

We had a pretty fun Easter weekend this year even though it was freezing and we didn't go on an actual picnic.
We started off on Friday evening coloring our Easter eggs. Ethan and Ally love to do this. We tried to include Ryan but he wasn't very happy sitting in the highchair.


Here's the finished eggs. On Saturday morning we actually got the kids to eat them too. I let Ethan try to warm up his own egg in the microwave. I told him which buttons to push. He obviously pushed a few extra cause it went way too long and the egg blew up in the microwave. It wasn't very fun to clean up.


Since it was so cold and windy and rainy and snowy we spent most of the day up and my mom and dad's house with Michael and Michele's family. Here's all the kids ready to go hunt some Easter eggs. There's Davis, Ally, Ethan, Ryan, Carson, and Payton.


We had the Easter egg hunt in the basement of my parents house. It was too cold and muddy inside. The kids still had a good time. Of course they did, there was candy involved.


Here's Ethan finding some eggs in the bathtub.


Ryan didn't participate in the egg hunt but loved watching all the kids run around.


That evening the kids were all going crazy from being in the house all day and talked the adults into playing an exciting game of freeze tag. That's right. I didn't think I'd be playing that game at this stage in my life. If you don't recall how to play, one person is "it" and they run around and tag the other players, if you get tagged you are frozen. The only way to get unfrozen is for one of the "thawed" players to crawl under your legs. So imagine a bunch of adults trying to run real fast and crawl under the kids little legs before we got tagged. There were a lot of carpet burns at the end of the night, but we had a good time. Here Carson is "it", all the player behind him are frozen and he is trying not to let Grandpa get over there and unfreeze them.


On Easter morning the kids found their Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny left. Ally told me in the morning that she thinks she heard the Easter bunny hopping around the house during the night. Once Ethan was excited about that her story progressed to her seeing the Easter bunny, and it was blue and pink.


Ryan loved his chocolate bunny.


After church we went over to Monticello to have an Easter dinner with Javan's mom. Which included a delicious feast and another Easter egg hunt. Here's Daniel, Max, Carter, Ashlynn, Reed, Ethan, Ally, and Kamron ready to hunt for eggs.


Look at this cute Easter bunny! I think Ryan loves Easter.


We made one more stop at Javan's Dad's house for a visit. The girls (Kamron, Ally, and Ashlynn) had a little tea party with their babies.


And the boys (Reed, Ethan, and Max (Max helped even though he wasn't in this picture.)) planted a stick garden out in the back yard. I think Grandma Lucinda will love that.


Our Easter weekend was pretty busy, but we got to see lots of family and had a great time visiting.

7 Months Old

Well another month has cruised by already and Ryan is now 7 months old. Javan and I were gone for a good chunk of the month on a couple of trips and he seems to have changed a lot.
Here's my chubby fat man, his hair has already grown so much since his haircut last month. He is about ready for another one.


Last month Ryan was just barely starting to sit up, he was still really wobbly when we left for Jamaica. Since we've been home he can sit up by himself really well and hardly ever falls over.


Ethan and Ally can not get enough of him. I thought this would have worn off by now. It's nice that they love him so much but he is getting big enough that he doesn't want them to come around. Sometimes he just yells when they get near him. He does love to watch them play from a distance though, and they know how to make him laugh. He was a pretty good sport on this day and let Ethan and Ally drench him with the spray bottle while the combed his hair.


Ryan is pretty happy most of the time. Since we got home from Jamaica I decided it was time for him to sleep in his big crib. He was way to big for the bassinet, but I loved having him next to me. So he had a few rough nights crying himself to sleep in the crib, but he is, for the most part sleeping through the night now. Isn't he cute?


He absolutely loves his bouncy chair. He sit in it and bounce for an hour or more while I fix dinner, or clean the house. On this day I had gotten in the shower and was getting ready when he fell asleep in the bouncer. Ethan and Ally were playing in my room and whenever they would make a loud noise his head would pop up and he would start jumping really fast and then his eyes would close again and his head would slowly lay back down. It was pretty funny. I tried to get a video but Ethan and Ally thought it was too funny also and ended up waking him up.


This is a good way to keep Ryan busy for a while so I can get a blog post in, or fold some laundry. He's does pretty good now that he can sit up and reach and pick the toys he wants to play with.


While we were in Jamaica Ryan got his first tooth. I could feel it under the gums and I knew it was going to come in while we were gone. Still when I called Shan to check in and she told me his tooth had come in I was pretty sad that I missed it. Some of the other Moms on the trip sympathized with me, most of the other Dads, like Javan laughed, and thought I was silly. Come on, it's my baby's first tooth. I like to be there for these milestones. A few days after we got home the next tooth came in as well. If you look close in this picture you can see his little teeth there on the bottom.


When we got home from Jamaica the kids were at Becky's. When we picked them up Ryan just stared at Javan and I with a kind of scared look. He wouldn't smile or show any emotion towards us. But by the time we got home he had warmed up and was happy to see us. And we were happy to kiss on his chubby little cheeks.

Shed Hunting

This is Javan's favorite (and my least favorite) time of year. Shed hunting is when you go out and look for the antlers that deer and elk have "shed" from their heads, and you collect the antlers and bring them home and store them in your "shed", until your wife is fed up with the amount of sheds piling up and then you sell them for a small profit. Javan absolutely loves this. He would go every day, or weekend if I and work would allow. But alas, we do not, so Javan cherishes the time he gets to spend doing it. Ethan has also picked up a liking for the sport. So one afternoon when we got home from church Ethan started packing up his backpack and telling us we were all going shed hunting. We decided that since we were all going we couldn't really do much hiking and that a little walk out in the woods would be a good family activity.

Ethan and Ally were soon distracted by all the rocks and cool places to jump off and climb on that they stopped to have a rest, or play in the dirt, or lift this giant rock.


Ally making a nice pile of sand.


Ethan loved to climb up this hill.


Ryan got a free ride in the carrier.


Ryan and I, he did pretty good as long as we were moving, the strings on my sweatshirt were also a highlight for him.


Javan, the mighty shed hunter, did not find any sheds on this trip.


A little video of Ethan and Ally's "slide"