It's A Boy!

Baby Pace #3 is here, and it's a boy!  

Declin Dwayne Pace was born on September 24th at 9:51 am.  Delivery was an adventure for this mama, but all is well and we are recovering wonderfully.

Declin weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long.  Oh and he has the *cutest* dark hair.

  

Welcome to the world little one, we love you already!

Two Kids

Having 2 children has been really fun for me.  I said it before, but I can totally see why people think 2 kids is the "perfect" number.  And while I obviously don't fully agree with them, I can see where they are coming from.

One child for me was tough, way harder than two children.  I struggled with it a lot and finding a good balence.

But two children has fit my personality perfectly.  They had enough "needs" that I wasn't getting too bored with life, yet not too many needs that I was completely overwhelmed (just some of the time haha).  Ofcourse the first few weeks were a transition, but after that things were doable.  I still had an arm for each and they were close enough in age that things flowed really well.

I adore watching my children interact and am so grateful that they have each other to experience this life with.  What a fun and busy 21 months it has been!

So there is my ode to having two children!  Good good times and I am so grateful that I have it documented on the blog so I can go back and remember the little things for years to come.  :)

And while I will miss having two kids, we are SO excited to add another little spirit into our home.  I feel ready for the challenge and ready to get on with our new normal lives as parents to 3 children.  Hopefully we wont have to wait too much longer!

These two are SO thrilled to be big brother and sister!

Preston's Mission Homecoming

Wow my brain is everywhere these days and I am forgetting all sorts of things... this post included.  This past week I kept thinking that I was all caught up on my blogging and was even considering writing a post for "fun" just to write a post since I enjoy it.  But this evening I realized that I had forgotten to write about Preston's homecoming.  McKay took a million pictures at it so I figured I had better document on the ol' blog.  :)

By the way, McKay can be an awesome photographer when he remembers/wants to be.  The trick is getting him to remember to take the camera in the first place.  Many times he will come home from an event (scout camp, a hike, etc.) and will have taken TONS of pictures.  Which is so cool.  I just wish I could channel some of that picture taking desire into our everyday lives.  :)  I think I would love to blog even more if I didn't have to remember to take the pictures in the first place.  I am just not the best photographer out there.  ok, random side note over...

Preston, McKay's younger brother returned home from his mission to the Lansing, Michigan mission on July 30th (forever ago, I know).  He arrived at the Salt Lake airport.  Originally niether McKay nor I were going to go to the airport to pick him up.  We had a lot of family events those weeks that we would already be travelling to Salt Lake for and we were trying to save some money for the other fun events.  I also do not like traveling to AND from Idaho Falls on the same day (too stressful with toddlers, they just don't handle that much car time very well).  So we had agreed to skip this event and just see him when he gave his homecoming talk on Adalyn's birthday.  But the morning of the 30th came and McKay randomly slept in and missed his bus for work (he was up way late the night before doing family history).  He rarely does this (like once a year) and so usually when he does he just takes the day off work instead of trying to put in a 1/2 day or something (it is an hour drive to his work one way and they get quite a bit of personal days so it isn't too bad to miss every now and then).  So we got up and started getting ready for the day.  At this point McKay was not even remembering that it was the day that Preston got home, but I was.  So a plan started forming in my mind and I decided to at least offer the idea to him in case he still wanted to go to see Preston at the airport.

So I just reminded him of what the day was and said that if HE (by himself, I still wasn't willing to take the kids) wanted to go to the airport and see Preston that I was ok with him going and I thought it might be a good thing since he already had the day off work anyways.  He jumped at the idea and was off to Salt Lake within an hour.

Of course he had a blast seeing his baby brother coming home and chatting with all of his siblings.  Such a happy occasion and I was so glad that he got to spend it with his family.  He also got to stop by his uncle's house and talk family history with him which pretty much made that day "the best day" in his book.  The man is OBSESSED with family history right now.  We/he talks and thinks about it ALL the time.  Sadly, I just tolerate our family history talks right now and say that I am working on our current family history ;)

I am so happy it worked out for McKay to go and spend time with family and welcome home to Elder Pace!

Here are a few of the pictures that McKay took.  Preston grew up quite a bit on his mission literally and figuratively.  lol McKay kept commenting on how different he looked.  Preston seemed really excited to see everyone and could not stop crying. haha  Especially when he saw Grandma Pace (who he had lived with before his mission, and hadn't been sure if he would see her after his mission).  Lots of emotions to deal with all at once I am sure!  

Everyone waiting...

Elder Pace right off the plane...

Greeting everyone...

Elder Pace with his mom...

Elder Pace with Grandma Pace...

Elder Pace with his dad...

After the airport they all headed out to eat and chat up

And even when he gets a "break" from his kids, McKay just goes and holds more babies.  :)  That man sure adores the little ones. :)

Welcome Home Elder Pace!

Labor Day Weekend 2014- Relaxation Style

Labor day weekend was so fun for us this year.  My parents came up to our house and stayed the WHOLE weekend (Friday night to Monday night) with us.  They lead some pretty busy lives, so we feel pretty lucky that we got to spend their only down time with them.  Thanks mom and dad!

It was also a very nice break/distraction for us from our usual projects and routines.  I enjoyed the company and help from my mom and McKay enjoyed having someone to play tennis with.

While we didn't do anything too extraordinary, it was still perfect, because honestly their isn't too many exciting things that you can do when you are pregnant and have 2 very young toddlers.  Oh and half way through the weekend McKay spranged his ankle playing tennis and then we REALLY couldn't do much.

Here are a few glimpses into our weekend...

Tennis
No pics, but McKay spranged his ankle... ouch!

The Eastern Idaho State Fair (yummy food)
The kids enjoyed the animals and kiddie area
This was our first experience with the fair and we really enjoyed it, except for the fact that it was SUPER crowded!  Next time I think we will go on a less busy evening/day.

The kids even got to try their hand at milking a cow.  Jensen loved it (and was pretty good at it too) and Adalyn just wanted the sticker.  Oh and thank you to the kind lady who helped my children with this experience so that their mom didn't have to. :)

Sunday we went to church and napped, and made some yummy yummy rolls.  I think we all ate 6 each.  

Monday, Labor Day, we went to the Rexburg splash pad (it was FREEZING), and played at the park and rode the carousel.  Adalyn only braved the water for a few minutes, but Jensen hung out for a good 35 minutes.  He was shaking by the end.  He was one of two kids playing in the water.  lol

These kids LOVE the carousel.  It is so cute to watch them on it.  

Big Jud's Restaurant. 

We love small town places like this

This one has huge hamburgers

And extra grease. :)

The kids loved the fries and I don't think we heard one word from Adalyn once our food arrived (ok maybe she said "more ketchup please?") and then she was the last one eating.  We don't have chicken nuggets and fries very much at our house.  lol 

don't mind my random piece of hair.  

Such a fun weekend!  Now we just need to have a baby so they can come again :)