Over the last 7 months........

Jeff, Jane, and I went to Washington DC to visit Jeff's parents before they came home from their mission. (We also got to spend a day walking around New York City.)

We celebrated Easter and Jane just kept getting cuter!

I ran the Dirty Dash with my brother, his fiance, my sister, and my mom.

My brother got married, and we are so excited to be able to officially claim Jessica as family!
(I made four flower girl dresses, and they turned out so beautiful.)

My Dad turned the big 60 and we had a very fun party for him at our house.

Jane turned one year old, and started walking two months later.

Max learned to ride a bike.

We went to Bear Lake with Jeff's family and had so much fun in spite of the mice and bat in our cabin. (Actually, Sherry's reaction to the mice was half of the fun!)

Max started kindergarten and has loved it from day one.
(I guess I didn't need to worry so much last year!)

And we carved pumpkins and celebrated Halloween, which involved more sewing.

Now we are getting excited for the holidays and LOVING the fact that my sister just moved back to Utah and is only minutes away instead of a 12 hour drive. Max is on the verge of loosing his first tooth and I am not so excited that he is growing up so fast! (Too many big milestones in too short of a time!) And I'm hoping that maybe I will finally be able to stick with blogging again, although I don't promise anything. Having three kids has limited what I can get done in a day, although we would take Jane over the extras any day, she brings so much love and joy into our home. I am constantly looking at my little brood of children and feel so happy and content with our little family right now. We are definitely blessed!!

Cousin Weekend

The weekend after we got back from California we had my sister's three kids for the weekend. Max and Emily had so much fun playing with Ellie, as always. I love to watch kids running around playing, playing, playing. Dress-ups, barbies, running, etc. We made funny face pancakes and personal pizzas and just had a fun time. The only times that felt kind of crazy were meal times. Three kids in high chairs is a lot of work, especially after the meal is over. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to hold and snuggle Brock and Isaac. Since they came to our family only three months before Jane was born I haven't had a lot of opportunities to hold them. I think you really bond with little ones when you have the chance to take care of them.

The Living Desert

Over the weekend we got date shakes, played outside, went to dinner at Chuck E. Cheese's (which was CRAZY busy), and played games. Monday was our last day of vacation and we decided to go to the Living Desert, which is the local zoo. We've been there before and always really enjoy it.

One of the favorite spots is all the miniature trains they have. They have so many and it's fun to watch them run through all of the different displays.

We always have to take pictures of the kids sitting on the wart hog statues. The statues are not nearly as ugly as the real live wart hog.

Emily loved petting the goats in the petting zoo. She kept talking about how all the goats liked her.

Malia and Max had so much fun playing together and got along so well. It's fun to watch them together and remember when Shannan and I were pregnant with them.

When we got to the camels, Shannan was pointing them out to Emily who responded, "Those aren't camels." Shannan told her that they were indeed camels to which Emily replied, "No they're not. They're dragons." There was no convincing her otherwise. To her they were dragons.

The next morning we left at around 5:30 am, California time, and headed back home. This trip felt faster, but was still pretty long. It is always so fun to get together with cousins and just hang out and play for a week. It was also so nice getting to spend so much time with my dad. It was so great to see all of the kids having so much fun with Grandpa.

Thanks for letting us come out to visit, Shannan. It's always so fun to go hang out in your nice warm weather in the middle of winter!

The Salton Sea

On our second day in California we headed out to the Salton Sea. We had heard about the Salton Sea before, and even though it is only about half an hour away from Shannan's house they had never actually been there before. It was a little stinky, especially by the visitors center, probably because of all the dead fish on the beach. The kids were fascinated and disgusted by all the dead fish and fish skeletons.

Even though it was stinky, it was really pretty. After we walked around the visitor's center/gift shop we found a less stinky spot to eat lunch. After lunch, my dad and Rachael ran down the beach scaring all the birds. It was fun to watch them all take off in the air.

We were hoping to hike along one of the nature trails, but as we were eating lunch we could see dark rain clouds heading our way across the water. The wind was picking up and all the kids were nervous about getting caught in the storm, so we decided to head home and play it safe. I was glad we did since it started raining before we got back to Shannan's house and rained for the rest of the day.

California

In February, the kids and I headed out to California to spend a week hanging out with my sister and her family and enjoying the warm desert weather. The week before we left my dad asked if he could come along with us, so the five of us made the long drive. I didn't realize that I had never made this trip before with a baby, even though this was our fourth trip in the last six years. It took us longer than we planned because every stop seemed to take at least 30 minutes, but we finally made it. I was very glad to have my dad along to help with the kids.

Our first day there we headed to a park to enjoy the nice weather. Meghan, Jay, and Jack came out from LA to join us. It was so nice to be able to play outside in the middle of February. We walked to the park and Emily started out the walk holding hands with Malia and by the time we were half way to the park Max and Kaitlyn had joined in.

Isn't Jack a cutie? Parks are the best entertainment when you have little children.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas and we were lucky enough to have half of my family over to spend the evening and day with us. I had Max and Emily pick out a small gift for each other because I wanted them to start thinking about giving at Christmas, not just about what Santa was going to bring them. It took a little convincing to talk Max out of giving Emily a truck, but we finally got him to think of something SHE would like. They opened their gifts from each other on Christmas Eve, which was nice because they're gifts got a lot of attention instead of getting lost in the pile of presents the next morning.

Max picked out a Polly Pocket mermaid for Emily. She spent the rest of the evening "swimming" and singing for her little mermaid. Emily picked out a monster truck for Max. It's one of those cars that you can pull back and it will then propel itself forward. It was fun to see how excited they were to give their presents to each other.

And here's the reason I stopped blogging again last month:

I was spending all of me free time building this play kitchen for the kids for Christmas. It's hard to work on stuff like this with three kids, one of them a nursing baby. It turned out so cute, and I'm trying really hard to not nitpick about all the little imperfections. I got the plans from this website. She has free plans to build practically everything. I made the kids beds this spring from her site, that I never blogged about because I was lazy. Next on our plans is the play house with attached swing set. Oh, and a bed for our room. And some shelves to hold my fabric.

The kids played with their kitchen for a while and enjoyed their stockings while Jeff got breakfast in the oven and we waited for Seth and Jessica to arrive. The kids also got hooded bath towels that my wonderful friend engraved their names on, matching dresses for Emily and Jane, and Max got a piggy bank and his own soccer ball. He was trying to drag his dad and uncles outside all day to play soccer with him.

It was such a nice relaxing day, especially since I was finally done with my Christmas crafts. I've got to scale back next year because the holidays are not very fun when I have too much on my plate. Now I'm just trying to summon enough energy to take down the Christmas decorations.

Forever Family

Last Saturday we were able to be with my sister and her family in the Logan Temple as they had their ten month old twin boys sealed to them. It was such a wonderful day and one that many people have been praying and hoping for for several years, especially my sister and her husband and daughter. I can't even describe the feelings of being there in the temple with them and how special a day it was. I know that my children are sealed to me, but their is something very special about actually getting to witness a sealing happening. We are so happy for Erin and Brian that they were able to add more children to their family! Brock and Isaac are the cutest little boys and as different from each other as can be. They are both so cute is such different ways. It has been so fun to have them in our family! Congratulations, Erin and Brian! We are so happy for you and your wonderful little family!!

Brock, Brian, Ellie, Erin, and Isaac coming out of the temple after the sealing

I love Isaac's little face in this picture with that cute little smile and finger at his mouth. He always gives such shy, sweet smiles!

Brock was being a little fussy about having to be still for so many pictures, so Brian tried a few with him upside down. He still wasn't very happy.

I have to brag a little about Ellie's dress that I made for the temple because it turned out so beautiful. I am always so happy when something turns out like I envision it, and this dress definitely turned out great. Now I'm trying to find an excuse to make one for Emily.

I love that we were able to be at the Logan Temple for a sealing right around our anniversary. It's so neat to remember that seven years ago Jeff and I were sealed in this same beautiful temple.

We had some problems with Emily "wandering" into the pictures. I guess she really wants to be a part of Erin and Brian's family.

And of course, Jeff with our own sweet Baby Jane. I'm so grateful for my own little Forever Family!

Ward Camp Out

This was our version of the ward camp out this year. We were planning on going until it started pouring rain as Jeff was heading home from work. I didn't want the kids to be to disappointed that we didn't end up going camping, so we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in our fireplace for dinner. Max especially enjoyed roasting hot dogs in our living room and wanted to do it again for dinner tonight. Hopefully next year we will have some nicer weather for camping.

Brimming with Baby Boys

We finally got to meet my new nephew, Jack, a couple of weeks ago when Meghan and Jay came out to visit for a couple of weeks. He is just as cute as I was expecting and I was so sad when it was time for them to go home. After they left, Max told me he wanted to name our baby Jack. He sure loves babies right now.

I love how Emily is oblivious to the fact that Jack is screaming in this picture. She thought they were both just having a grand time.

I had to steel these photos off of Meghan's blog so you can actually see what a cutie baby Jack is. It makes me so sad that they live so far away.

Then we found out right after Meghan left that Erin and Brian were adopting three month old twin boys! We have all been praying and hoping for them to be able to add to their family and now they have beat us to three children. They found out on Monday night, flew back east Tuesday morning, and then did the adoption on Wednesday. We are so excited and can't wait to meet these two cuties when they get back. They have named them Brock and Isaac and they are about a month older than Jack. Now our baby girl will have a whole passel of boy cousins to run and play with.

Jeff and I have decided we like to zig when everyone else zags since Max came in a group of girls (and was the only boy on my side until these three came along) and now we will have a girl with a bunch of boy cousins. Emily, on the other hand, is right in the middle of a four year dry spell with no cousins closer than two years on my side of the family. (She does have one cousin 9 months older than her on Jeff's side.) Good thing she's a tough little sassy pants.

Christmas! (and only one month late.)

We usually spend Christmas Eve with my family, but ended up doing our own thing this year since Max spent all of Christmas Eve throwing up. I felt so bad that he was sick on Christmas Eve, especially since he has been so excited this year, telling me "Merry Christmas, Mommy!" at random times and talking about Santa Claus coming. Luckily, he stopped throwing up that night and was able to eat dinner with us and enjoy some Christmas Eve fun. I made pajamas for the family that we all opened Christmas Eve. We read about the birth of Jesus and sang some Christmas songs and then Max and Emily danced around the living room to Christmas music, which has been a favorite evening activity all month.

Santa brought the kids dress up clothes for Christmas this year. (I think he might have gone a little overboard!) They got dresses, lots of super heros, and a bunch of animals, not to mention purses, necklaces, wands, wings, swords, all kids of hats, etc. They don't really play with the dress up clothes yet, but are constantly playing with all the accessories.

Max also got a doctor kit and some playdough, while Emily got a doll stroller and a cabbage patch baby I got at the DI, along with a diaper bag, blanket, and two outfits that I made to go with her. The stroller was actually the hot item Christmas morning and caused a few fights. Who knew?

Since Max was feeling better we headed up to my sister's to spend the rest of the day with my family. We spent the night there and headed over to Tremonton the next day to see Jeff's family. Since Jeff's parent's left on their mission in November we decided to set aside the 26th for Jeff's family so it wouldn't conflict with other Christmas plans. It was so fun to spend the whole day hanging out and playing games and rock band.

It turned out to be such a nice Christmas, after Max felt better. I have to admit a shed a few tears when we decided we couldn't spend Christmas Eve with my family, but it ended up being so nice to stay home with just our little family that we ended up being glad at how things had worked out.