Pics of this past week

Beckem stole Kyson's new shades and these two were playing in them.  Beckem loved them, looks like we will have to get him some of his own now : ) 

 I was so excited we got to tend Jake and Addilyn the other day.  I love both of them so much!!  Look how freakin cute Jake looks in his new hat : ) 

 Pretty in pink!!

 Of course Kyson had  to hold her.  He LOVES babies!! 

 Boden rolled over for the first time!!  He went from his back to his tummy and his tummy to his back, but of course he hasn't done it since that day.  He is growing up so FAST!!

 Teg and Ky unplug one of the remote controllers and let Beckem hold it.  He loves it, he wants to be just like his big brothers. 

 Beckem found a baby at Nana and Papa's and got the bottle and kept sitting on the little chair to feed the baby.  It was so cute.  He would get so mad if the other kids would try to play with his baby.  He is a natural : ) 

Monster Jam 2013

And so our family tradition continues. . . This is our fourth year in a row going to Monster Jam.  The boys look forward to this every year.  We ride the train down, eat dinner and go to Monster Jam.  My mom and dad watched the babies while the four of us went.  Next year Beckem will be old enough to go.  It will be fun when all four boys can enjoy this family tradition with us. 

 

The tracks train was broken so we had to wait for the next train to come get us.  It was freezing but the boys never complained.  It was such a fun night and I can't waint until the next Monster Jam : ) 

100 days of school. . .

On Friday it was the 100th day of school.  The kindergarteners were invited to dress up like they were 100 years old.  Tegan was so excited to look "like a grandpa"  We painted his hair and tried the best to make him look like a grandpa.  I some of these pictures he just looks like a cute nerd, but whatever, he had fun.  It was funny because he kept making funny faces and I asked what he was doing and he said, I am trying to make faces like a grandpa.  Ha ha.  He is so dang cute!!

Happy Valentines Day

I love that kids make every holiday so much more fun.  Zac and I celebrated Valentines the Saturday after Valentines so on Valentines night I talked Bethany and Colt to go out and let us play with the girls.  I felt bad Ry slept almost the whole time, but the boys had so much fun with Liv.  We frosted cookies and played.  Tegan got tatoos from school from one of the kids and a couple of them were barbie and hearts.  When he saw them he said, these are girl tatoos I better give these to Livi and Rylan.  So cute that he thought of them automatically.  We love those girls so much!!  Happy Valentine's Day. 

 

Mothers

I came across this blog tonight and I love it.  She put it into words so perfectly.  When I get down about not feeling like I am a good enough mother I need to remember this post and remember that in my boys eyes I am perfect and that's all that matters.  I wanted this for my blog book when I print it so instead of putting the link I copied and pasted it.  .  . 

I love what she says and like her, I couldn't have asked for a better mother.  She is the BEST and in my eyes she is perfect!!  

There’s this crazy phenomenon going on right now. Good, devoted mothers get on Pinterest . . . and blogs . . . and Facebook . . . and Twitter . . . and then they flip through parenting magazines and TV channels (full of advertisements and media hype) . . . and they’re convinced they’re not enough.  They’re convinced that everyone else has magnetic, alphabetized spice containers,and unless their garden parties are thematically accessorized with butterfly lanterns, and they’re wearing the latest fashions (in a size two, of course), there’s no point in even showing up for the day.

My daughter Grace loves me to sing “Baby Mine” to her each night before bed. When I go to our Power of Moms Retreats, she misses that special ritual. We have recordings of Michael Crawford and Allison Krauss singing their versions, but Grace doesn’t want those. She wants me. So I recorded myself singing “Baby Mine” and emailed the audio file to her and to my husband so Grace can hear “her song” before she sleeps. As far as she’s concerned, my untrained voice belongs at the top of the charts.

A few months ago, I was practicing sideways dutch braids on my two daughters. They had found these great “how-to” videos online, and we set up our comb, brush, and hair bands in front of the computer so I could become an expert.

Half-way through the braid, my fingers got all tangled up, the hair was too loose, and one of my daughters had been sitting with her head to the side for several minutes.

Feeling extremely frustrated, I said, “That little girl in the video is so lucky to have a mom who knows how to do hair.”  My daughter stopped me in my tracks when she responded, “But I have a mom who is trying.”

My mom is in her 70s, and her memory is starting to go. Her sweetness and love are as strong as ever, but when we talk on the phone, she can’t remember the last time we spoke or the last time we saw each other.

At the end of one phone call a few weeks ago, I whispered, “I miss you, Mom.”

She said, “Oh, I miss you, too! But we’ll get together soon. You can come down to the park, and we’ll get an ice cream cone at McDonald’s.”

I replied, “Yes, that will be fun.” But then the tears started, and I had to use every ounce of control to keep my voice even so she wouldn’t know I was crying.

What I really meant was, “I miss being able to talk to you, Mom. I miss laying on the grass while my children make a hopscotch and savoring our long phone conversations. I miss you remembering all those secrets I used to tell you. I miss you asking me if I’m okay. I miss seeing you read books and hearing you sing while you do the dishes and having you drive out to my house without getting lost. I miss you remembering how much I need you.”

My mother didn’t specialize in home decor or gourmet cooking, and she didn’t lift weights or run marathons. But she makes me feel like I am the most important, wonderful person ever born. If I could pick any mother in the whole world, it would be my mom.

There’s something deeper going on in family life than can ever be expressed on a social network. Whatever it is we feel we are lacking, can we collectively decide–as deliberate mothers–that we are not going to sit around feeling discouraged about all the things we’re not?

Can we remind each other that it is our uniqueness and love that our children long for? It is our voices. Our smiles. Our jiggly tummies. Of course we want to learn, improve, exercise, cook better, make our homes lovelier, and provide beautiful experiences for our children, but at the end of the day, our children don’t want a discouraged, stressed-out mom who is wishing she were someone else.

If you ever find yourself looking in the mirror at a woman who feels badly that she hasn’t yet made flower-shaped soap, please offer her this helpful reminder: “Your children want you!”

Happy 30th Birthday!!

 On Saturday Zac turned 30. We celebrated the weekend up at our condo in Bear Lake.  It was a fun getaway.  I now remember why we don't travel as much with two babies.  The first night was HORRIBLE since we decided we would just let Beckem pass out instead of bringing a pack-n-play.  It didn't take him very long to cry himself to sleep in our bed, but then every time one of us moved he would wake up and cry (I NEVER let our kids sleep in our bed so it was hard for me to sleep good with him next to me).  The next night we got smart and built a little fort behind the couch and it only took him about five minutes of crying and he was fast asleep for the whole night.  It was so much better!! 

 

The boys were so excited to go swimming and when we weren't swimming they were asking to go back to the pool. 

 

 The boys were so excited about their new goggles we bought for them.  When they weren't swimming they wore them around the condo because they said it made them look like scary guys.

 

 

 

 They took their shirts off and were whipping them on the water and pretending they were sharks.

 Boden was such a good baby and just went with the flow.  He hardly ever makes a peep and sometimes it's pretty easy to forget he is even around because he is so chill.  I can't believe how fast he is growing up!!

 These two are so cute to watch.  They giggle and smile at each other all the time.  It's almost like they are already best friends. 

 We are so blessed to have four fun boys!!

 Thanks to Justin and Nicole for letting us borrow Jake's snow suit, Beckem was able to go play in the snow with the boys. 

 There was a group of people sledding that had snowmobiles and they told the boys that they were welcome to get a ride up the hill instead of having to walk all the way up the hill.  The boys were SO EXCITED!!  On the way back to the condo that's all Kyson would talk about is how much we should get a snowmobile because it was SO FUN to ride on it.  That kid loves anything with an engine and goes fast!!

 

 Zac loves Walmart's white cake with buttercream frosting.  I stopped on our way up there to get him one, but this was the only cake they had that was white.  Good thing we love monster trucks.  The boys were so excited and couldn't wait to play with the truck on the cake.  We are going next weekend to see the monster trucks so this made the boys even more excited for Monter Jam too.   

 These three were hanging out watching a movie in our bed.

 Beckem LOVED these boots.  He cried when we got home from sledding and we took them off.  So we put them back on him and he wore them for two days straight.  It was so cute to watch him walk in them.  I think we need to get him some cowboy boots, I think he would love them!!

Beckem fell asleep on the way home and when he woke up I just heard a giggle.  I looked back and these two were grabing each other's hand and Beckem was just smiling and giggling.  It was so sweet!! 

 

I hope you had a HAPPY BIRTHDAY Babe, we love you so much!!