April is 2

I can't believe my baby is no longer a Baby. 2 years old!!!!!

April is perfect.

 

She is sensitive to others feelings. She will try comfort anyone who is upset including myself. 

BEST hugger ever. She is very generous with her hugs and squeezes tight. It's my favorite and will cure any bad mood. At evening prayer and scripture study she makes her rounds hugging and kissing everyone sometimes multiple times.

She is a CLIMBER (thankfully not out of her crib yet crossing my fingers on that one... I started working on this blog post 4-17-17. On April 18th she climbed out of her crib and banged on the door. 

I think my life just got really hard :/... oh April)

She climbs ladders and chairs and loves to play on the kitchen table.

SNUGGLER she loves to cuddle and snuggle. If a movie is going she immediately finds someone to snuggle up with.

BINKY GIRL all the way. This is going to be hard to get rid of. I'm not looking forward to that. Although now that Ron can sit with us in church now that should help!

DANCER She loves dancing. Certain songs make her especially excited. If one of her favorite tunes comes on she will go and recruit dancing partners. It's so sweet she will run up to me or whoever, grab our hands and babble excitedly while pointing to the "dance floor" (family room by the speakers) She also dances to the blender. Every time it's on she comes running to the kitchen and does stationary squats and bounces. It's adorable.

"Cheeser" smile. She gives the best "cheese" smiles anytime a camera or phone is out.

Cookie. This is her favorite word and thing in the whole world. If you say this word you better have a cookie to share or you are in trouble.

Words that she says frequently that we can understand:

Love you

Cheese

Cookie

Please

Bink and Drink sound the same

Mommy and Daddy

Callie

"Good-night"

"Where go?"

"Don't know"

April is literally the glue that holds this family together. She is a popular topic in our family evening prayers. "we are grateful that we have April to cheer us up" -- Noah 

That's exactly what she does EVERY single day of our lives. Cheers us all up.

Easter Sunday

The Easter Bunny brought Beach towels and water toys for all the kids this year. He must have known we were planning a Beach trip soon.

Hopefully this is the last family picture with out Ron (He was in church meetings). I have mixed feelings on this wonderful Sabbath day. I love this time of year (not so much the sugar crazed kids or the bunny junk) I love the reminder of our Saviors atonement and resurrection. Church was absolutely beautiful today with musical numbers and talks that made me weep. Primary children sang one of my favorites Gethsemane. Ron has served as a member in our church bishopric for the past 4 1/2 years. It's gone by so fast. He has put a lot into his calling and I have happily (most of the time happily) supported him. He will be released this next week and while part of me is happy to have him around a little more, the other part is nervous. Nervous for the unknown and nervous for change. The OCD planner in me likes to have things mapped out. I KNOW I'm going to miss certain aspects of him serving. I have felt the Lords hand in my life many specific times in the past few years. I know my family has been watched over and I'm sure that won't stop but all the same I'm grateful for the Lords gentle pushes and my little guardian angels looking out for me. Guiding me shaping me and helping me to be better and do better. I'm grateful for my struggles. And I'm thankful for my forever family. Happy Easter all! I know he lives. And I know He loves us.

One of the BEST parts of Ron's calling (in my opinion) was his presence in primary. This is the closest we have ever come to having a calling together. As the bishopric member over Primary he would visit primary often and even taught sharing time once a month. It was really fun to watch him go out of his comfort zone and teach the children. It's sad to me that he won't be in there anymore but I look forward to having him around a little more. They better not change my calling because I'm convinced it's the greatest calling in the whole world. I LOVE primary. Not just because my kids are in it (that's an added bonus). I love the spirit that is there, I love primary music, I just love EVERYTHING about it.

Mason Missionary Moment

We fed the missionaries this week. I LOVE when our ward is assigned sister missionaries. I can sign up to feed them any day that is good for me because Ron doesn't have to be home. Missionaries in the home is such a great feeling and I want my kids exposed to that as often as possible. After dinner the sisters shared a short message about listening to the spirit and studying scriptures. They asked the children if they had any friends they could give a Book of Mormon to. Mason was really excited and immediately exclaimed "Blake and Xavier!" his 2 best friends. He was so happy to get 2 books and 2 invites to the Easter Pageant. The sisters also suggested Mason write his friend a note in the front of the book. And that was that. The next morning I was putting something away in the boys room and found this on Mason's dresser: 

Brought Happy Tears to my eyes. Such a sweetie. I didn't help him write this at all. So proud of my confident sweet boy. I can't believe in less than 2 years he will be getting the Priesthood. I hope his confidence and strength stay with him always.

"Dear Blake, This is the book of Mormon. This is another testament of Jesus Christ. My family reads the book every day maybe your family can read it every day too. I hope when you read this book you will have the same warm feeling I do when I read the Book of Mormon. P.S. Nephi is pronounced nefi"

Callie's Birthday

Callie is 6 years old. Words I would use to describe her are:

Tenacious

Coordinated

Talented

Dramatic

Smart

Thoughtful

Tough

Daring

Musical

Competitive

She had a fun filled busy day/week. Started the day off at the park with some friends. Ate at Chik-Fil-A for dinner and Bahama Bucks for dessert. YUM. One of her birthday gifts was a horseback riding experience which we got to take advantage of the next morning. I wasn't sure exactly how she would act about being on an actual horse but she LOVED it. I got to ride behind her the entire hour and it was fun to catch her smile as she turned occasionally to make sure I was still there. Her horse's name was Bomber and I got to ride Wishbone. Occasionally she would ask me how you make the horse go faster. When the whole experience was over and as we walked away her first words were "Can we come back again? But this time with the brothers?" She is always thinking of her brothers and looks up to them so much. I love watching the strong love my children have for one another. It's one of the most rewarding parts of motherhood. Watching them interact/play and care for one another.

Happy Valentines Day!

I love that I get to spend most mornings with these two cute girls. Callie is in half day Kindergarten and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. She gets to be home all morning. Play with April, run errands with me and we have extra time to work on homework or practice let's play music. Then at 11:55am she's off to school for a couple hours while April naps. It's practically perfect.

Huber kids sleep habits

ALL of our children at one point or another have climbed in bed with Ron and I in the middle of the night (excluding April of course but the jury is still out for her. I'm sure once she is out of the crib she will follow after her older siblings). The kids ALWAYS start off in their own beds but waking up in the morning is another story. Mason and Noah haven't for quite some time now (they have each other) and always sleep by one another. Until recently their bedroom consisted of a bunk bed and a huge bean bag in their room. Guess what they never sleep in? Their actual beds. The beanbag has been their "bed" for years. Both Mason and Noah barely fit on it but insist on sleeping on it every single night. Until one day while they were at school I made the executive decision to remove it.
Callie has ALWAYS struggled with bedtime. Ron or I (usually Ron per Callie's request) have to lay by her every single night until she falls asleep. And every single night at some point Callie ends up in our bed (usually Ron's side of the bed). My bed is only queen size so you can imagine how small that gets when a "horizontally sleeping" 5 year old joins in. Some mornings we would wake up to all 3 children in bed with us. This didn't happen often and rarely is the case now but it was pretty comical. A few months ago Ron and I started strongly encouraging Callie to sleep with her brothers. While the boys openly oppose this idea most of the time they will agree. Well I moved the beanbag because all 3 of them really wouldn't fit with out grumbling and/or elbowing or kicking. So naturally with the beanbag gone they will FINALLY sleep in their beds! Right? WRONG! They now sleep on the floor. A couple times they have dragged their mattresses on the floor but mostly they just lay blankets down and go to sleep. They still grumble and fight over who gets to be in the middle but an incredible thing has happened. For almost a month now Callie hasn't come in our bed. While this does make me a tiny bit sad it's been pretty nice to have the whole bed to just Ron and I.
A few times the kids have even tried to get April to join in on the "sleep over". I love how much they love and dote on her. She is the topic of almost every conversation, the highlight of the day and at the top of the prayer list "Heavenly Father we are thank thee for April" Makes my heart happy seeing our our kids express and feel and show love for her.

Occasionally Noah will take one for the team and sleep by Callie in her bed. He is such a peacemaker in our crazy little home.

Christmas 2016

I love Christmas time. I really enjoy seeing the excitement literally light up in my kids eyes. I love how everywhere you go people seem to be a little more kinder and tolerant. I wish it could last all year round. Christmas was a little hectic with 9am church but we made it work. Our kids get up so early that it was too difficult to open presents before church.

April cracked me up. She was more into eating than opening presents. Although she did seem to really like this bear that Santa brought.

Probably my favorite moment Christmas morning was Callie handing Ron his present from me. She was handing him the box and simultaneously saying "It's a watch." LOL

Noah has been begging for a remote control car FOREVER. So glad that Santa finally granted his wish.

Mason begged for a "flip-a-zoo" It's a stuffed animal that flips into another stuffed animal. I'm really happy that my 10 yr. old isn't growing up too fast and still likes stuffed animals. Makes me smile.