Thankful

Grateful for my family.

Grateful for the gospel.

Grateful for the spirit.

Grateful we followed the prompting of the spirit.

Grateful to be in Idaho. 

Life is good. And Thanksgiving was a great day to remember all the things I am grateful for. This year I am especially thankful for my family. As long as I am with my husband and boys, my heart is full and happy. And there is nothing better than that. 

Milestones

This week has been a good week. Everyone had some sort of milestone or celebration. In order from oldest to youngest. 

Scott. 

Scott turned the big 3-1. We celebrated by taking taking a day trip to Idaho Falls. We went out to lunch, hit sportsman warehouse, took the kids to the toy store and checked out a few different neighborhoods (since we'll be moving there in a couple months). It was pretty low key, but so fun to spend the day as a family. 

Stacey. 

Stacey, A week short of a the halfway mark in this pregnancy and it's really starting to hit me that I'm going to have FOUR boys. I'm so excited to welcome this new sweet child into our crazy circus family. When I was sure we were done having kids, I gave all our baby clothes and other stuff away. So I'm a little stressed that we don't have much for new baby boy, but I'm sure it will work out fine. He is getting bigger by the week and his movement are becoming more and more distinct. I can't wait to have a newborn again.

Tayden. 

Tayden had his first day of Idaho kindergarten!! He goes full day every Wednesday and Friday and every other Monday. I was concerned about this schedule, but so far so good. He loves it. He loves eating in the cafeteria and playing at recess. I picked him up the first day and before we could even get to th car he grabbed my hand and with a huge smile said, "Mom! My first day was so great." It was the cutest thing. He got a little lost the first day going to the recess from lunch. He told me he explained the situation to a teacher and asked for help. I am so proud of this brave boy. He took a hard scary situation and did the right thing. Makes my heart burst with pride. 

Beckett. 

It's no secret that Beckett wants nothing to do with school work. Or any sort of fine motor skill learning. He's quite opposite from his older brother in that department. Every spare moment he has had has gone towards speech. So school work, coloring, drawing etc has taken back seat. I started to recognize his need for extra help a few weeks ago, and now that things have finally settled down a bit, I have started to work with him more. I tried everything I could to make it fun, but he wasn't responding. Finally, I cracked down and was a little mean about it. He actually responded fairly well. When we work on speech he has to do something right so many times before he gets a reward. I tried the same approach with writing and he's done well. He's got a long way to go, but is getting better everyday. This picture was taken about a week ago, but it was the first thing he worked really hard on and put effort into. He drew his friend Paige a rainbow and again, my heart beamed with pride. 

Cache.

Cache is potty trained!! Well, mostly. He's only had about 2 accidents over the course of a week. It's quite remarkable really. But he is still working on the poo part. I'm not sure what the deal is, but he hasn't taken that quite on as quickly. Which is weird, because he was pooping in the potty without issue a few weeks ago. Either way, I'm so incredible proud of him and am sure he'll get the hang of the rest of it soon enough. 

Happy for such a positive week!! 

Lovers of snow

The boys have a new love. Snow. It has been such a pleasure watching them experience snow, for basically the first time. Tayden and Beckett played in it two years ago, but B didn't remember much and Cache hasn't had real experience with it. So it's been fun. The first day it barely snowed they couldn't wait to get out in it. So we put coats on and went to play. 

They were a little (and by little I mean a lot) bummed they didn't have their full snow gear yet and got wet and cold faster than they would have liked. Beckett cried and cried because he, "Missed the snow". He thought that was all the snow we'd get to play in all year and he didn't even have the right kind of clothes to make a snowman or play. The few minutes in the skiff was super fun though and enough to start the obsession.  I was able to round up some good yard sale deals over the next two days and have all three boys fully loaded with coats, snow bibs, hats, gloves and boots. They could not be happier. Especially since the snow really started coming down. 

Beckett was thrilled he didn't miss the snow. All day they looked out the window watching the snow accumulate. And every morning, they wake up and get their snow clothes on. They hate taking their snow pants off and would sleep in them if we let them. They are 100% fully enamored by the snow. 

Which is fun, because I am 100% enamored by them. 

It's going to be a great winter. 

We made it

We're finally in Idaho. What an exhausting week, both emotionally and physically. Saying goodbye to my friends was much much harder than I anticipated. It was gut wrenching. And true to my exhausted form as of late...I'm keeping this short. 

The last night in Las Vegas was rough. I drown all my sorrows in chips and salsa. Of course without furniture or bowls, I got comfy on the floor and ate straight from the jar. 

I was super nervous for the drive. Turns out I was worried for no reason. The boys were awesome and did remarkably well on the drive. They each had a notebook and pen, a mcdonalds toy and two suckers. We told lots of stories, played games, laughed and just talked to pass the time. It was wonderfully unexpected. Tayden was my designated helper and handed out everything. I couldn't have done it without him. 

After a few days in the car and a lot of chaos, I decided it would be good for the kids to get out and do something fun. My mom and I took the kids to Lowes to a building workshop. They built a science lab. They loved hammering the nails. And even though it was much harder than it should have been, we got it done. And the boys looked adorable while doing it 

We're all glad to be here and are ready to get settled in. Hopefully as we do, we'll get back into a grove and I'll fall into a better routine. As hard and tiring as things have been, my heart knows this is the right move. And that helps make everything worth it. 

This and that

The past few days have been full of emotions and ups and downs. This move is going to be hard to swallow. But today, I am only focusing on happy memories and pictures. 

Halloween was great. Per tradition, we went trick or treating with our clan. The kids had a blast and came home with a boat load of candy. The adults enjoyed the nice evening and spending much of it laughing the night away. 

The next morning my friends and I enjoyed breakfast and a pedicure. It was so wonderful to spend the morning with them chatting and just being in their presence. They gave me the most thoughtful gift I have ever received. A beautiful Nevada necklace to always remind me that there are people here who love me. And to show everyone that I have left a piece of my heart in Nevada. I am going to miss these girls with a fierceness I can not explain. But as I said before, today is for happy memories and pictures. 

After breakfast was over, we hit the park for Taydens t-ball party. It was cold, but that didn't stop the kids from having fun. Tayden had such a great year and had a really great couch. He was so excited to get his first trophy ever and promised to keep it the rest of his life. He also received his baseball plaque and a game ball. 

It has been a fun few days. Time is winding down and we'll be leaving in just four short days. It breaks my heart, but....today is for happy memories and pictures. So I'll leave it at that. 

Jack o'lighters

Tayden and Beckett were so excited to carve "jack o'lighters" this year. I'm normally pretty bahumbug about Halloween, but since we're moving, I decided to be fun. First we had pumpkin pancakes with exploding brains and watched a Halloween flick. Then to the pumpkins. I was shocked by how much they hated scooping out the guts. It was way too slimy and stinky for them. I ended up doing all the dirty work. But boy oh boy did they enjoy carving them. Cache could have poked holes in that pumpkin all night. Lighting them was the best, though. They loved putting the fire inside and watching them glow. 

It was such a fun night and possibly the start of new a tradition. 

A little Boy

It's time to come clean. There is another reason I've been so behind at life as of late. It's this little boy. 

Yes, the one in my belly. He has been making me so incredibly tired. So with this pregnancy, the move and all the decisions that have come with it, I've been a bundle of emotions and stress. It's been a long and bumpy road, but I feel extremely blessed to be carrying this baby boy. 

It's no secret that Scott and I were on different pages when it came to having another child. I wanted one more than anything, Scott was convinced we were done. But I always missed this child and knew he was missing. It caused a lot of heartache and pain. We finally came to a mutual agreement that we would let it go for a time and revisit the matter later.  

After months of taking substantial precautions that we wouldn't get pregnant... Let's just say when Heavenly Father wants something to happen, it happens. And much to my surprise, I found out I was pregnant. I was ecstatic but terrified to share the news with Scott. 

I kept the news between my best friend and I. She finally convinced me to tell my husband, so I thought long and hard how to break the news to him. One afternoon as I was getting ready to print my lesson for Gospel Doctorine off lds.org, I noticed a video on the home page. It was titled, "Having Children in Faith." It talked about letting the number of children be decided between you, your spouse and The Lord. I was flabbergasted. This was my perfect segway to tell Scott about the new addition. He came home and I played the video for him. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but his reaction was less than desirable. He commented that he agreed, but we still weren't ready. My heart sunk I and ran for the shower to cry it out before he would notice. He caught on quick and stopped me asking what was wrong. I lost it and sunk to the floor, blurting out, "I'm pregnant! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And being true to the great man he is, he sat on the floor with me and wrapped his arms around me. He told me it was okay and comforted me like only a husband can. It took some time to calm me down, but after he did, we had a good talk and in the end we were both excited to receive this child into our family. 

We know this baby is meant for our family. Beckett has been very intuitive during this whole pregancy. Before we even knew about the baby Beckett made mention about him. As we were sitting down to eat he noticed we had one extra spot. He said, "We have an extra chair. That one must be for our new baby." He has also talked about his new baby brother periodically over the past few weeks, without ever knowing I was pregnant. Today when we went to the ultrasound, the technician asked what the kids thought it was, without skipping a beat and with full assurance declared it was a baby boy. He was right. 

Tayden was a little disappointed it was a boy. He really wanted to have a little sister. But after telling him wrestling matches would be four boys against one dad, he warmed up to the idea. Then after thinking about the lack of princess toys we would have around the house and how he'd get to have 3 brothers to show how to play ball and teach how to do boy things, he was okay. He even has a name for him, Zane. I told him we'd think about it. 

Cache is as excited as he can be. He knows there's a baby like our friends baby, Baby Sam and is excited. But that's about as much as he can wrap his head around. 

We are thrilled to have this baby boy. I know everyone is wondering how I'm doing welcoming another boy instead of a girl. And honestly, I'm thrilled. As soon as I saw that little boy on that screen I felt a strong connection to him. And the prospect of four boys made my heart sing. Yes, there are things I won't get to do. But there are many more I can do. And that is what I choose to focus on. I get to be the mother of four boys. I get to be the loudest mom in the stands. I get to help with boy scouts and watch pinewood derbys. I'll watch them play in the mud, ride four wheelers, climb trees, go hunting and shoot guns. I'll teach them how to treat girls.  I'll have the opportunity to watch them grow into hard working men like their father. I'll watch 8 years of consecutive missions. I watch them marry and have their own kids. I'll be their mom. I'm just so excited and blessed. 

Now, if April 15th would hurry up and get here so I can hold my little boy.