I finally updated my blog. I don't even have a good excuse. But I decided the other day, I just might want a blog book since I have become awful at scrapbooking. So, if you have a day, there are quite a few posts. But don't worry, if you only look at the first post, I understand, there's a lot there and a bit of a bore. And I only updated through August! :)
No surprise, a Lighting McQueen race track for Parker's birthday. He loved his b-day. He thinks every birthday is now his birthday. Livvy had a fun summer outdoor party with a tie-dye cake, water fun, and tie-dye shirts.
Kayla started the day before Livvy. Kayla is now a big 4th grader and Livvy is an August birthday, so she is one of the oldest kids in the kindergartner class. The bus comes at 7:23 so they are up and at it early. Miss Livvy has always needed more sleep so this has been a struggle. I think we have only missed the bus twice, but I pretty much dress her in her sleep.
This is Livvy's first little best friend, Jacey. We spent a weekend with them at Bear Lake before they packed up and moved across the country. Livvy was so sad to see her leave. It was so sad to watch. One Sunday after she left, Livvy came in crying that she didn't want to go to church. She missed Jacey. We sat down and said a little prayer to help her and to help Jacey find new friends. Luckily school started and she has stayed so busy. But just the other afternoon we were going to watch a barbie movie and Livvy said, "I miss Jacey." I was thinking the same thing. Barbie movies were their favorite. They were such a great little pair together.
Jared and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year. We went camping, I know, almost as good as an exotic vacation. But we did leave our little 4 month old baby home with Grandma and planned on leaving for a few days. We went up to Lava area. On our first day of camping we floated the river. We sat and watched people for awhile and it seemed like people were barely getting wet. So...don't let a 100 lbs of weight difference go down first on a double tube on a big rapid. I of course, popped out. The river was less than a foot deep in that spot, and I got dragged across the rocks. Jared spun around to try to help me and he really twisted his neck. He got hurt much worse than I, I only had the evidence of being hurt. I was scraped and bloody from my shoulders to my toes. And to top it off, I was wearing my favorite, most comfortable (notice I didn't say cute here), no longer made Smith sunglasses. I am still sad about this as I write about it. And of course Jared enjoyed the show of watching me angrily look through the water saying my favorite cuss phrase (which he says doesn't make sense) and glaring at every person that I saw afterward because I knew they swiped my sunglasses out of the water. So anyway, that night we went back to our trailer, didn't have any desire to make dinner, Jared thought we better have a fire and a marshmallow because that is what you should do, we both took some Tylenol, and then on the night of our 10 years, we went to bed (and to sleep) very early.
Bring on another 10 years!! I can't wait to spend it with him. As those who know us 10 years ago, you know we were a very unmatchable pair. Everyone we ran into would tell Jared how lucky he was. He was a wild child. But somehow 10 years later, I am the lucky one. I don't think anyone else could put up with me. I'm demanding, I'm a slave driver, I always have some great plan on some new tedious project. And he puts up with me. All the time. He cans peaches with me at 1 AM, he makes me laugh, he tries so hard to be good enough, as he would say, for me and the kids. He is wonderful. I'm by far, the lucky one.
Here's some adorable summer t-ball. This is Livvy's first year. It included drawing in the sand, all the kids racing for the ball, running the wrong way, but actually, Livvy has a little bit of a competitive bone in her. She did pretty good. This was her last game. At first base she had told her coach she needed to go. By the time she was running to third she was running with wet pants and straight legs right into the dug out. Ahhh...t-ball. So cute, even if she peed her pants!
In the spring I signed Kayla up for baseball just like I normally do. In April we received a phone call letting me know when practice was. For all of you who think competitive sports are extremely important, what the heck are you thinking? What competitive sports meant for me was, practice or a game every single week day. I wasn't ready for this. In fact, 2-3 hours of practice, a coach that yelled at the kids, and not to mention her team didn't win one game and she was the littlest, petitest (I think I might have made that word up there) thing in the outfield.
Paxton update: He has been such a sweetie. He has the biggest eyes and biggest smiles. He also has cried more than any of my other babies. At 10 months old he doesn't sleep through the night, this is a first for me. He has 8 teeth. He is a mover and a crawler. He has mastered getting to the top of the stairs, which I had no clue he could even climb one stair. He is not cuddly. He loves to look around constantly. He doesn't want to lay right next to me. He wants to be bouncing and seeing what everyone else is doing. I've included a few older pics (I actually have this folder that I have had for a long, long time that says blog). After I get updated I'll put some newer pics up of him. When he wants me to pick him up he crawls over to me and bangs his head into my legs. He is adorable. And he is so lucky to have a big brother, it's been fun to have two little boys. Well, I hope he is so lucky, Parker still isn't quite so sure about him. According to Parker, I am only his mommy, not Paxton's.
Have you ever held a hummingbird in your hand? I actually haven't. But my kids have. My good friend called one day and said, "you have to take Kayla to this, she would love it." So we took a little drive out to the mountains by American Falls where a hummingbird study opened up to the public for a few days. They catch the hummingbirds and do their tests on them. The hummingbirds are basically in a little shock and then they wake up on the kids hands and fly away.
Kayla has been clogging now for the past two years. I couldn't decide whether she actually liked it or if she was just doing it because I was a clogger and she was just appeasing me. So this year we took a break from it. But this was a fun competition at Lagoon. Except none of us wanted to leave the rides and actually get on stage when it was her turn.
Kayla entered into a little dog show at our local pet store this spring. But there were many more entries than I had expected. She was so cute and shy. She walked in front of the judging panel as fast as she could. She had to come back and do it again. They got 4th place, which of course I would say this, she should have gotten first. The other dogs were dressed up in these silly costumes. But Kayla and her puppy were adorable without any costumes.
Once again I have slacked again on updating my blog. Our little Paxton will be three weeks tomorrow. Time goes by too fast. So I have put some pictures down below and here is a little update of how we are doing.
- The first week he was pretty much awake from midnight until morning. Now he is waking up about twice a night and last night he only woke up once - at 4 AM!!!
- I have never had a kid that needs a complete change of clothes as often as he does. He wets through everything several times a day. I have tried different diapers and it doesn't help. It's quite the task to keep enough onsies clean for this little guy.
- If only babies came at exactly perfect timing - tax season is not perfect timing. During the week following his birth, I had to work in Idaho Falls three times to finish up my tax clients plus try to keep up on my bookkeeping job from home. I know, I'm really whining here. But luckily I was able to just bring him to work with me.
- At his 5 day check up he weighed 5 lbs 10 oz. and at his two week check up he was 6 lbs. 10 ounces. What a growing kid, he has already gained a pound!
- Parker has done better than I thought he would. He likes to open Paxton's eyes for him. He kicked him in the head when we had been home from the hospital all of about 10 minutes (but that was accidental). But other than that - oh ya, and pushing Paxton's car seat off the bed (he was buckled safely in, luckily) - he's done pretty good. On the second day that we were home, Parker put his head under my blanket, said "I'm hungry" and made a monstrous silly fake bite towards me. Then a few days later the meltdowns started and at one point he threw himself on the ground and just cried. I picked him up and was hugging him, he pulled at the neck of my shirt, and started licking my neck area. I started to laugh, which made him furious so he pinched me. Poor little guy, he's having to adjust to someone embarking on his territory.
- The girls adore him. Livvy loves to sit and hold him, but it doesn't take long before her arm is feeling too tingly. However, the warm weather has definitely made Paxton less appealing.
- Okay, I have to brag about Jared for a second. He is SO, SO helpful. He has always been great at helping around the house when he is home, but he has gone out of his way to do whatever he can to let me get a little more rest and help keep the house tidy. Thanks sweetie.
- It's so great to have a baby in our house again. We are thinking this might be the last so I wish I could slow it down a bit. I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby that has been all lotioned up, and the newborn baby cry, and the cute little smiles while they are sleeping. I have mixed feelings as we are making this decision to be done having children. I'm a bit excited to get on with the next phase of raising kids, but I sure will miss this.
Easter weekend started out with painting eggs on Friday night. I worked this day and on my drive home from work I was having to tell myself to go home, put a smile on my face, and paint Easter eggs. I was exhausted, I hadn't finished everyone's tax return which meant I would have to go back on Monday, and a bit on the grumpy side. Then Saturday morning we had our egg hunt, Jared took the kids to the "big" national rodeo, and I had some time to sit around with Paxton. Sunday we were able to go to church with Grandpa and Grandma Hoy and then head over to Gramsie's for Easter dinner and another egg hunt. The picture in the old truck is Parker with his accomplice in crime, Gavin (a.k.a cousin so close in age that they are completely naughty together) and Gavin's big brother Brogan.
