Happy at Home

I made no secret of the fact that I didn't want to move to Utah. Anyone who has known me for even a little bit of time probably knows that. I really didn't want to move back to Utah. When it became apparent that a move back to Utah was in the cards for us, I admit, I prayed and said look, I don't want to do this, but apparently this is the plan, so just help me to like it. Please.

I confess-I am one happy girl in Utah. Things have gone well. That's not to say that I don't miss San Diego, because I really do. And I probably really will in January. But things have been better than I ever imagined here.

To start with, the ward is fantastic! Hugely overwhelming because there are a million people with new ones every week, but the young moms in particular have been so welcoming to me which really means a lot. I had a calling within a month of being here. I feel pretty well integrated already with obviously much more getting to know people to come.

We love having family close. My boys are over the moon about having Uncle Jason and Tims close and they think going to cousin Daniel's or Great Grandma's house is the greatest.

And, I love my house. For a looooong time I have wanted to be a home owner and I am so happy to be one and to own this house.

Here is why:
This is what I see from my backyard. Is that gorgeous or is that gorgeous? And just to clarify, that large building that looks like an English manor is the golf course club house-people always ask what it is.

Backyard view 2:

And the beautiful view of Mt. Timpanogas from the front yard. The front yard also features farm land not far away.

Here is the house. Really I was just taking this pictures as a "before" shot because we are about to put in a rock wall and tree and then next year we will add lots of flowers.

And I just thought a few pics of the inside now that we actually have some furniture and things in it might be nice. There is still much to be done-projects to do, things to buy, but all in due course. I love having stuff to work on around the house.

Love my kitchen! Love the island where the kids can sit while I cook and whatever:

Living room

And, my favorite (other than the kitchen). The Piano Room. This read couch is super comfy to lay on and read a book and the best part? My boys haven't figured out to look for me there yet. I can usually get at least 10 minutes of quiet time there.

Back to School

It was a little rough to go back to school this year. When you don't know anyone it can be pretty daunting. This hit Nathan just after we tucked him into bed the night before school started. And then he started to worry. I reassured him that both daddy and I had been in the same shoes at least once in our lives and that yes, it was going to be hard but that he could do it and that I would be praying for him. Little did he know that his mommy was probably even more worried for him than he was. It's hard to go to school and not know anyone! The thought of my baby boy wandering around the playground alone was heartbreaking.

Jack on the other hand was totally pumped. I don't know if it was the new backpack or what, but he had no fear.

Turns out that everything went really well. Jack made a new best friend the very first day. His name is Jackson and Jack says its like they are twins! :) Nathan, poor sweet thing, walked in the cafeteria and sat down near some random people. Then he spotted a girl he knew from church and went and sat down near her but she didn't notice him and then he noticed a boy from Cub Scouts and went to him and they clicked and have played together every day since! Oh how that makes my heart happy.

Anyway, here are some pictures from Day 1:

And this year's back to school cake. Every year I make some sort of cake for a celebration that night. This year I decided to simplify and instead of the grand idea I had for a pencil cake made with fondant, I stuck some school supplies on a basic 2 layer and I think it turned out really fun!

Goodbye Summer!

This summer was without a doubt the most insane summer of my life. Big move, new house, new job for Josh, new baby who arrived via emergency c-section followed by an apparently very serious illness, putting a yard in, trip to Denver, adjusting to 4 kids, visitors almost all summer long, trying to get to know new people and make friends, finding new doctors, etc.

Wow! In some ways I am not sad to move past that. But I am sad to say goodbye to spending long days with my 4 boys having fun, reading, eating popsicles on the porch, going on big outings, swimming, late bedtimes, ice cream cones, and relaxing. In fact all day today I have been missing them-Nathan and Jack are at school.

By the time we got settled after the move (well, semi settled I mean-we still aren't totally settled) and our last visitor left, I had 2 days with my boys before I had the unexpected arrival of Adam. After his birth and the weeks of going to the hospital to feed him, I was really mourning the fact that my summer seemed to be slipping away and I hadn't even had time to just be with my boys. It was really stressing me out to miss out on summer. So, a month after he was born and when our last helpers/visitors had left this time (we were quite needy this summer-thanks helpers), we hit the summer fun hard. Insanely hard.

Here is a run down of some of our summer activities, so we can look back and remember this summer in years to come:

Swimming lessons-6 weeks of them for all 3 boys, though I only attended 2 weeks worth. The grandmas did the other 4. They learned a ton this year. Lessons here are WAY better than in San Diego. And half the price.

Basketball camp for Nathan and Jack for 1 week. They LOVED it. Dal was SO sad he couldn't do it too.

Owlz Games-Dal's favorite activity this summer were the 2 Orem Owlz baseball games we attended. Mine...not so much. Well, I enjoyed the games, but it was from the first game that I left for the hospital and ultimately Adam's birth. Crazy.

Bingham Copper Mine-Nathan's highlight of the summer. A big, big, very big hole in the side of the mountain from which copper has been mined for years. All three boys were enthralled by the whole experience. Both Nathan and Jack have decided to be miners when they grow up.

Children's Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point-we did it twice. Once with Aunt Natalie and cousin Daniel, once by ourselves. There is a splash park, a hedge maze, a river to play in, dirt to dig in, etc. A little boy's dream.

Krispy Kreme-I've never been there so I took my boys. Bummer-the machine was broken that makes the doughnuts so there were no hot ones to try.

Taffy Town-Somehow I have grown a serious addiction for Salt Water Taffy ever since moving here. 7 lbs of taffy from Taffy Town in Salt Lake did nothing to help that addiction. Yum.

Bean Musuem and Creamery-We explored the Life Science Museum at BYU and then walked to the creamery. This was actually my first outing alone with all 4 boys and it went really well. Felt so good to be out and about with them.

Cougareat at BYU with Daddy-Met him for lunch.

We raised our own butterflies-from caterpillars to butterflies, then we released them.

 

We took a week long trip to Denver which was HEAVEN. We got to spend time with my sister in law Natalie and her kids, my cutie granny and gramps, a couple of my brothers, of course my mom and dad and lots of my cousins:

We went swimming in Denver twice. Here is Uncle Doug with lots of boys: (there are 7 cousins-all boys)

Adam got to meet two friends. His cousin William who is just 3 weeks younger and my cousin's son Noah who is um, maybe 5 weeks younger or so? Here he is snuggling Noah:

  We also went up to the cabin in the mountains of Colorado for 2 days and had fun. Here are the boys cooking s'mores.

We tie dyed shirts because Jack has been dying to do that for a while. They turned out awesome. I will have to take a picture and add that at some point.

We took quite a few trips to 7 peaks water park because we have season passes. Only I couldn't swim for 6 weeks post c-section, so I mostly got to watch.

Speaking of that though, I took a weekly trip to the Dr. every single week for 6 weeks postpartum. My incision had some serious issues. I know my Dr. really well now.

We went to Trafalga to mini golf, play laser tag, ride go carts, etc. quite a few times because we also have season passes there.

Dallen has been desperate for a "super suit" so that he could be Dash. He asked me every day to make him one during the week that I came home from the hospital. He couldn't understand why mom wouldn't do it. It's hard to explain a c-section and baby in the NICU to a 3 year old. Finally I did it. Now I am a hero:

South Fork Park-We went on a picnic up the Provo Canyon to South Fork Park. We had a cold foot contest and threw rocks in the river. My boys were in heaven.

We went to lots of food places here for our Summer Coupon books made by me: Purple Turtle, Sonic, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, Smart Cookie, Little Caesar's, and several more.

Summer reading program and trips to the library including meeting Brandon Mull, author of Fablehaven. We always ended up with WAY too many books to carry.

Fireworks for the 4th at our house and again for American Fork Steel Days at Great Grandma's house.

I am sure I am forgetting quite a few more things, but that about sums up our wild and crazy summer. Summer, I will miss you, but it will be nice to maybe finally get some things finished up around this house.

It's All About Adam

Why is it that 2 months with a baby on the outside of your body goes SO much faster than 2 months the baby inside your body?

Adam is 2 months old today. Two wonderful months. We love this kid. His brothers just can't get enough (I hope they remember that a few months down the line when he starts breaking their lego creations and such), I just can't stop holding him and loving him and daddy thinks he's something special.

I haven't posted pictures in a while-frankly my life has seemed sort of completely out of control for oh, say, the last 2 and a half months. I have no idea why. But here are some pictures to catch up. Also, a run down of what he is up to:

Adam started smiling for us at about 5 weeks. I wasn't sure whether to expect him to hit milestones at regular times or later since he was a preemie, but the smiling happened nice and on time, which is great! I haven't really caught a great picture of it yet, but he is sort of smiling here. My heart melts when he smiles at me just because I am me, not because I have done anything to make him smile.

He is trying to "talk" when he smiles too. The last few days he is working so hard on cooing but nothing has come out yet.

Sleep-wise he was doing great! Then we went on a vacation to Denver and everything completely fell apart. We have been back a week now and we are getting back to regular. He is up about 2 times a night. Josh does one of those feedings with a bottle usually which I have never had him do with any of the other kids and it is heavenly!

I think he is in the 9 pound range now. Keep in mind he started out at 4 pounds 12 ounces, so he is almost double now. I am sort of loving that my two month old still feels tiny like a newborn. He is starting to chub out though. Someone even commented on his cheeks at church today.

I have taken some comparison pictures and plan to continue this each month for the first year. Unfortunately I couldn't start until he came home, so he is 2 weeks in the first ones instead of brand new and he was up a full pound by then.

Here he is in the carseat the day we brought him home:

At 1 month:

At 2 months:

Here he is in the laundry basket at 1 month: (notice the male pattern baldness)

And 2 months:

 And a couple of other random pictures. Here is "Adam's Territory" which Nathan created for him just tonight:

 Here he is on his blessing day. He was lucky to have both grandpas and one great grandpa as well as 4 out of 5 uncles there to help bless him.

 Here he is sporting a blanket on his head care of his loving brother Dallen who thought he just might like to be warm:

And just for fun, here is a picture of Adam on the top and Jack on the bottom wearing the same outfit at about the same age (though of course Jack wasn't a preemie). Not the same, but brothers for sure. I love Jack's cheeks. Maybe Adam's will catch up too!

Take Me Out...

Dallen has a talent. It's quite a talent. He has a mean vibrato. :) He loves to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game and it is adorable, but the best part is the way he finishes it off. My dad managed to catch him on video. The quality is not good and it is sideways but what matters is that you can hear the talent. :)

 A couple of funny Dallen sayings lately:

"When 2 was done being the age I was, I had a birthday and turned 3."

He and Jack were sitting on the floor playing. Jack was holding a toy squirrel and said "you stupid squirrel" to which Dallen immediately responded "I am not a squirrel Jack." Just funny to me that he automatically assumed that if Jack was saying something mean he was referring to him. And that it wasn't the "stupid" part that bothered him, but the squirrel.

Mr. Jack

Now it's time for a post about Jack-the post that I would have written back on his birthday if I hadn't been in the middle of a million and fifty other things.

First of all, Jack is finally toothless! I love toothless kids. In this case though, his teeth never got loose. I had to take him to the dentist to get them pulled because the ones behind were growing in. I hope that doesn't happen with all his teeth. But you can't beat a toothless smile: (or almost toothless since those adult ones are already growing in)

(And by the way-that's fudgesicle around his mouth. That's what summers all about right?)

On Jack's birthday we had only lived here for less than 48 hours and we also baptized Nathan that day. I was worried because I didn't want Nathan's birthday to overshadow Jack's birthday but Jack was unconcerned and still had a great day. After the baptism we went to a park nearby and had a party with both sets of great grandparents, both sets of grandparents and all sorts of uncles and one of the Aunt Natalies and cousin Daniel. Jack was a happy camper.

I love this kid so much. Jack was such a challenge from the age of 1 until he turned 5. Then something happened and all of a sudden he was much more agreeable. Still strong willed and knows what he wants, but willing to express it or deal with it in a more reasonable way.

Jack's obsession right now (and when I say obsession with Jack-I do mean obsession) is Legos. I love it because it is the first toy or activity that has been able to fully capture Jack's attention. He has never been one to play by himself contentedly-until now. And he is a master at coming up with cool creations (and leaving them all over the house and underfoot). :)

Jack is passionate-when he loves something he loves it. When he hates something he hates it.

Jack is tender. He is my most sensitive and emotional child. He is in love with baby Adam and wants to hold him and snuggle him all the time. Leaving San Diego was hard on him-we had a lot of crying and night terrors. Happily he has totally adjusted to Utah and loves it here.

Jack did wonderfully in Kindergarten this year. He is very smart, good at math and reading and made some wonderful friends. Honestly, if I could have hand picked his friends I would have picked the same ones he did. Great choices. He is quiet in class-I hope he gets a teacher this year who will draw him out a little more-but always follows instructions and is a good friend to others. Every time I was in his classroom helping I was proud to see how good he was in class.

What more can I say? Jack is a wonderful kid who I love!

My New Mantra

Lately when we ask Dallen to do something like pick up his toys before bedtime his response has been "I'm just tired of doing everything."

Me too Dallen. Me too. You have no idea how tired mommy is of doing EVERYthing. :)