Merry Christmas

First Christmas Day miracle. Callie slept in her bed ALL night long and until 7:45am! Santa needs to come to our house every night.

 Mason's Christmas Gifts 2015

Harry Potter Book Series

Kindle Fire Tablet

Ninjago Lego set

Skateboard

Bike Accessories (night lights)

Noah Christmas Gifts 2015

Treasure Chest

Chapter Books

Lego Movie Lego set

Kindle Fire Tablet

Bike Accessories (night lights)

Callie Christmas Gifts 2015

Kitchen

Kitchen Accessories

Princess Puzzle

Personalized Doll

Gift card to Build-A-Bear (I can't wait to take her there)

 April Christmas Gifts 2015

Baby Book

Baby Lullaby Doll

Counting Bears

Stacking toy

  

Ron and I were up until 4am Christmas Eve putting this together. (Mostly Ron, I was awake for moral support and "parts organizer".) I wasn't sure if she would even like it. She didn't have very many things on her list for Santa. All she told me all she wanted for Christmas was a teddy bear, a doll, and girl legos (which PS I'm so sad I FORGOT to wrap those, bought them a month ago and just spaced it!!!!! I guess I'll save that one for her birthday) I think she really likes it. Now if we can only figure out where to put it...

We also fixed the Trampoline!!!!! New mat bounces great!

The Holidays are always packed with family events and family time. Sometimes dividing time between 2 families can be exhausting. But I'm so grateful that we live close enough to family that visiting is easy and happens frequently. I know my kids love it! Christmas Morning my mom caught the neighbors kitty outside. Too cute!

Sabbath Day

Sundays are a little difficult for me. Don't get me wrong, it is still my favorite day of the week but I look at them a little differently now. I still feel like it is a day for me to recharge and get energized (even though often times it sucks the energy right out of me). I like that I have very little "extras" planned on the Sabbath Day, just church and family time. I sometime struggle with feeling my spirit renewed on Sunday's. My kids are the most amazing and wonderful part of my life (besides Ron of course) but that doesn't mean they make my life very easy. LOL Not sure exactly how to say this but I come home plenty of days after church feeling exhausted, with a throbbing headache, and just a hot mess. I remember when I was pregnant with April one particularly exhausting Sunday in the foyer after church one of Mason's primary teachers came up and talked to me. I honestly have no idea what she said I completely blacked out for a moment and almost passed out. I'm not trying to be dramatic but the struggle is real sometimes. Ron is in the bishopric and I KNOW that has blessed our family immensely so I wouldn't change that. For now the "morning person" that I am is trying to enjoy 1pm church. Soon we will have 9am church and I'm sure I will have new struggles with that. I'm so very thankful for my struggles and my challenges. One of my single friends reminded me the other day in a text that I'm "living the dream". I know I am and I thank Heavenly Father daily for my dream life and family. Because of Ron's meeting schedule and our church time he is able to come home for a few mins before church and help with the craziness of pre-church chaos. I'm so grateful for that. 9am church will not be so luxurious. 

Sunday's with April are actually a little less stressful. I know how adorable April is but it's nice to see and feel that love from others towards her. I'm her mother, I HAVE to feel that way. There have been a few Sundays lately where I haven't even held April for more than 20 mins in the 3 hour time block. When I walk into church I'm immediately ambushed by young women begging and wanting to hold her. One family in particular has taken her quite a few sacrament meetings the entire hour! Ron usually comes and gets her the 2nd hour of church and when I'm teaching primary if Ron doesn't have her the last hour my team teacher holds her or other women in the ward ask for her. I've even had young women come up and ask me after church if they can have April the following Sunday during Sacrament meeting. Too cute! I think I need to get a sign up sheet, April has a waiting list. I definitely feel the love from those in my ward wanting to help me and doting on my perfect baby. I'm not sure how long this will last but I'll take it. Hopefully it last until she is like 4 years old. I can dream right? Something tells me the novelty will wear off when she isn't so sweet and a little feisty in church. Time will tell.

When my kids misbehave during church I have them "practice" being reverent at home. 

Christmas Tradition

We started a new tradition in our family this year. My Aunt Kelli gave us the idea a few years ago. Since Christmas is really about Christ and thinking about the Savior's birth we are trying to stress "Christlike" actions this month. The idea is you add a piece of hay to Jesus' manger every time you perform a good deed or a small act of kindness. I don't have a manger so what do I do? I turn to my Dad. I asked him to help me make a simple manger to have under my tree. Well, I had no idea that my dad would take the idea and run with it! He is so sweet! He designed and made the manger all on his own (he even let Mason help). I think it turned out pretty fabulous!

My kids have been really cute about doing small acts of kindness. One day last week Callie got particularly excited and did ALL of her brothers (aka "the brothers" as she calls them) chores. She vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, took out garbage and recycle bins and even cleaned their room for them and made their beds. She was so excited to just be serving her brothers. They of course were thrilled to get home from school with chores all finished. Service really holds a special place in my heart. I got that from my mom. The Savior spent his whole life serving others so why can't we? I love this time of year how easy it is to be a little kinder, more thoughtful and just all around better. I'm really grateful for perfect moments like this in my incredibly imperfect life. Times when I witness my kids have that "ah-ha!" moment and really enjoy emulating the Savior.

April is 7 months old!

I'm a little late with this post but whatever!

7 months ago this little angel blessed our family with her presence. Life will never be the same. She is perfect in every way. Even when she is really sick she's happy. Her ONLY flaw is she is not the greatest sleeper. (Probably only slept through the night about 6 times in her life.) I love her sweet, smiling and curious personality. She is tolerant (a necessity in our household), so so loving and snuggly. Everyone in this house dotes on her and rightly so. She is sitting up, laughing, loves to make noise and slowly figuring out the whole crawling thing. She also has an obsession with textures. She loves "scratching" any and everything she can get her hands on.

Oh and she does not like wearing shoes. She squirms her feet out of them constantly. I can't keep them on her!

Family Picture Day

This year I'm so happy I scheduled our family pictures early in the year. It's super stressful but it's so worth it in the end. There is plenty that I would change if I could go back. For example Noah's shirt was supposed to be rolled on the sleeves (little stinker unrolled them and I didn't notice til after we took pics), Callie and I had matching bracelets that got left in the bathroom when she took it off to wash her hands, Callie's necklace was off center for quite a few of her pics, and I really wanted Ron or Noah to wear a dark gray shirt... oh well. It's DONE and I don't have to think about it anymore. I used the same photographer that did my maternity pics and April's newborn pics, Trisha Shelley. She was amazing and found exactly what I wanted for our background/scenery. Our photo session was scheduled for early morning. We needed to be up early to get the sunrise and good lighting for our pictures. This really wasn't that big of a deal considering my kids are total early birds. I got up at 4:30am got myself ready first, then woke the kids up around 5:30am and we rushed out the door around 6:10am.

 

Callie refused to put on her under shorts that I set out. It cracks me up that you can see her navy blue/stars Pajama bottoms in a couple of these pics. LOL

Trisha has a blog and she posted all about our photo shoot. I just love her and it's fun to read her perspective on how things went:
I moved to Gilbert, Arizona soon after getting my first DSLR camera and having just decided I wanted to be a photographer. But when you move to a new place, and don't know anyone, where do you start?

Lucky for me, I had one friend here. One friend who let me photograph her beautiful family for free in exchange for posting the pictures to a yardsale group and saying I was offering a deal. I was offering killer deals back then! I said--Valentines Special $25 for a session. Two people jumped on that deal. And Shelly was one of them. I'm sure she knew I was a newbie. What photographer in their right mind would charge $25 for a session? But she gave me a shot--for which I am so grateful.

Well, she must have liked me, because a few months after her maternity session, she called me to take pictures of her new little one! And since then has sent a couple friends my way. She has been one of my greatest supporters and advocates! I'm so grateful for her and I love the friendship we've built through this medium. 

About a month ago, Shelly told me she really wanted a rustic barn for her photos. If you're from Mesa or Gilbert then you might get this. It's REALLY hard to find a rustic barn around here! It's the city for one, and two, everything is pretty new. I was a little nervous we weren't going to make it happen. Thank goodness for friends because google wasn't getting me anywhere! If you ask enough people, you're bound to find something! 

We found this old pink barn that happens to belong to a friend of mine in my church! And, it happens to be less than a mile from my apartment. It was well hidden! When I heard pink, I was a little nervous. But Shelly trusted me and we made it work! Needless to say, it went wonderfully. We even got ambushed by some cows towards the end. With the beautiful morning light (my favorite!) and this gorgeous location, it made for a pretty magical session.

Hope you felt a little of the magic too!
xoxo,

She talked about getting ambushed by cows and she wasn't joking. The cows seemed to appear out of nowhere. They made Trisha nervous and she asked that we move out of the area. I declined and said they were fine and just minding their own business. I did notice that they kept inching their way closer and closer towards us. Mason of course thought this was really cool and he kept making eye contact with one of the cows. This particular black cow (bull) did NOT like when Mason looked at him. He started charging Mason 2 or 3 different times. When Ron stepped in between to intervene he was surprised that the cow continued to challenge us. So we quickly left the pasture. 

I'm really pleased with how pictures went. Sadly I felt like April didn't smile as much as her normal self. SHOCKING I know. I needed to go nurse her halfway through our session which really made my shirt wrinkly. Oh well, life of a mother.

I love this face that she makes. It's kind of "her thing"

Halloween

This is my favorite Holiday. I honestly just LOVE Halloween. I really miss the days when my kids would let me coordinate costumes as a family. Sad, sad sad. But I still really love dressing up and dressing them up. Too much fun!


Callie was dressed as Anna from the movie Frozen. (I had 4 other costumes for this girl. All of which she claimed were too "bunchy or itchy" or didn't feel right) So, I busted out a Christmas present I was saving, her Anna dress. Oh well. I'm glad I had it handy.

Noah was a Pirate. Arrrrrrrg Such a handsome pirate.

Mason was Harry Potter AGAIN. But doesn't he totally look like Harry Potter?

April got to wear Callie's costume when she was that age. Wonder Woman! Love it! I think they look so much alike.

Sadly, I couldn't talk Ron into dressing up this year. Oh well. Next year I'll have to plan more ahead and get him excited about something.

Us at our ward Trunk or Treat.

On actual Halloween I wasn't going to dress up but my friend Lindsey had an Elsa Dress and said I could borrow it. How could I pass up the opportunity to dress up as Callie's Sister?!?! Too much fun! I think she loved it, I know I did.