Weddings, weddings, and more weddings

P.S.-
This post is just for fun!  I always enjoy putting pictures together like this and seeing how things change.  :)


We have gone to A LOT of weddings of our siblings in our short 5 1/2 years of marriage (that sounds wrong... our siblings weren't marrying each other.  Other people.  Ok you get it.  Moving on.)  McKay comes from a large family.  Since it is a blended family many of the kids ages over lap.  Some of them are only days apart in age from each other.  I have 3 sisters and we were all born in 6 years, so we are close too.  This is the season of marriages.  Since we got married in 2009 we have gone to 6 of our siblings weddings.  The most recent one being McKay's younger brother's wedding at the Jordan River Temple on May 23rd.

Each wedding brings a chance to be with family, wear matching outfits, and visit the temple together.  We have very fond memories from each one.  Here are a few pictures of us at their weddings through out the years.

Jesse and Natalie's Wedding July 2010

Ben and Leslie's Wedding June 2012

Diana's wedding July 2012

Larissa and Rusty's wedding August 2013

John and Sarah's Wedding June 2014

Corinne and Stu's wedding June 2014

Preston and Kaylie's wedding May 2015

Fun family times! We have 5 more siblings that aren't married yet.  So there are probably a few more weddings in our future. ;)

    

8 Months Old- Declin

Declin turned 8 months old on May 24th.  Yes I am behind... again.

Declin cut his first tooth this month and had some cranky days to prove it.  It was nice though to be able to see the tooth coming in.  So I knew the crankiness was because of the tooth.  So often I blame a fussy baby on "teething" although I am usually not really sure if they are actually teething.

Declin also got sick this month (we all did).  His little cold was sad, but it didn't slow him down too much.  The cough lasted forever, but he has been better for a few weeks now so hopefully we are done with colds until the fall.

He officially learned how to sit up and crawl.  He had been doing the tummy scoot thing for a few months, but this month he figured out how to crawl on his hands and knees.  He thinks he is pretty cool moving around the house with the big kids.  He also loves it when I am sitting on the floor and he can crawl over my legs.  He will just keep going back and forth and back and forth.  He also loves to try and crawl off the changing table when I am changing his diaper.  That is not so cool.

In my opinion these pictures make him look bigger and older then he looks in real life.  He still seems pretty itty bity to me.  He wears 6-9 month clothes and they still have a lot of growing room.

Food wise he tried lots of new foods and liked most of them.  He still loved having us spoon feed him during meal times, although he would start picking up graham crackers and cheerios on his own at snack time.  Also, he hates sitting in his high chair unless he has food in his hand.

Sleeping he didn't do amazing at this month and I thought we would have to have a few cry it out sessions to get things back to normal after he had been sick, but he figured things out and now only wakes up once a night like he has been doing for awhile.

His favorite toy is his Sofia the giraffe and balls.

He really likes it when we put him on the trampoline, give him a few balls, and then zip the enclosure shut.  He will play on there for a good 30 mins while we are all outside.  I love this little trick because it gives him some sun without him eating lots of dirt and rocks (although he has eaten plenty of dirt too when daddy takes him outside).

We celebrated mothers day this month and although he didn't get to go to church with me since Jensen was sick, it was still fun snuggling him at home.  He sure makes me a happy mama!

 

He and I race to the bathroom quite often, I think he is intrigued with why mommy freaks out every time he goes in there. :)

Happy 8 months Mr. Declin!

P.S. I predict that he is walking by 11 months... so by August 24th.  We will see if I am right!    

Quiet Time at Our House

Nap time: The time for projects, dishes, social media surfing, online shopping, and actual napping (especially if I am pregnant).  It is the time for me to regroup and get things done before our evening starts.  

At this stage in my life with no job (for me) and no kids in school yet my schedule is pretty much open for whatever I choose to fill it with.  We can go places whenever we want to or plan activities at pretty much anytime of the day.  Although to keep my kids in some semblance of a happy mood we do try and maintain a basic schedule so that life stays fairly predicable.  Kids like predictable.  Heck! I like predictable.  So we have a schedule and follow it most days.  Nothing too intense, just your regular stuff...

 Breakfast

chore time

baby nap time 

activity time

run errands

Lunch 

Outside or story time

Quiet time

Movie time

Dinner

Family activity

Bedtime

It changes a little with the seasons or our stage of life (for example movie time used to be in the morning, but we just switched it last week to help make dinner prep easier), but there is one thing that has always stayed and that is quiet time.  

Like many moms, I NEED quiet time.  I don't schedule ANYTHING during that time.  We make sure it happens everyday otherwise there might be a meltdown... by me.  :) 

Ok that sounds dramatic, we would survive without it, but it sure is nice when all three kids are sleeping... at the same time.  

Our quiet time used to be at 12:00 pm when Addie was a toddler and has slowly moved back to 1:30-2.  I like it where it is now because it makes the late afternoon early evening before dad comes home go by faster.  

Jensen and Declin are both still in the full blown nap stage.  They both sleep for 2- 3 hrs.  Jensen sleeps in his room in his crib.  Declin sleeps in his room in his crib.  

Addie is a part time napper.  She stopped taking naps everyday in February.  She now only falls asleep a couple times a week.  The other days she has quiet time.  

For quiet time she lays on either the couch or my bed so that she doesn't disturb Jensen in their room.  I set a timer for her for 1 hour on the stove.  She gets her blanket, a stack of books, a cup of milk, and a graham cracker.  She has to stay on the couch or bed until her timer goes off.  Sometimes she falls asleep before it goes off and other times she is still awake.  During the hour she "reads", looks at pictures, sings songs, and rests.  She really does very well and stays on the couch or bed most of the time (although sometimes I do have to remind her to go back).  Occasionally she gets another quiet activity like pen and paper, this magnetic doll, file folder games, or her baby doll but the majority of the time it is just books.  Someday I would like to make some "all by myself boxes" with little activities that they can do alone, but ya know... those cost money and take time.  So we will see if they ever happen.  

I really hope this quiet time method continues to work with Adalyn (and then in the future with Jensen and Declin).  Addie has 1 more year until she goes to kindergarten.  We plan to do afternoon kindergarten so that she can be at school while the others have their quiet time.  Yes I have plans (haha!) to keep quiet time in my life!  

I do worry that my boys wont do quiet time as well as Addie has. #firstworldproblems Crossing my fingers that they do!! 

Ok I will stop!  If you made it this far, good job!  #mommyramblings Hope you have a good day!             

7 Months Old- Declin

Oh boy, I am WAY behind on this one.  Declin turned 7 months old on April 24th.  I want to continue doing these monthly posts so here I am, but man sometimes I have to talk myself into writing them (hence the reason this one is so late being posted).

BUT we DO love our little Declin (even if I don't like writing his monthly posts).  He is my mover and loves to be on the go.  He has never been one to sit still.  In fact he learned to scoot his way all over the house this month, yet he still couldn't sit up on his own.  He loved being on his tummy so that he could use his hands to pull himself around.  We made sure to put the gate on the stairs because he was getting pretty fast at rolling, scooting and pushing his way around.  He did push ups and would lift his legs in the air, but he was still unstable when you would put him in the sitting up position.  I just find it so interesting how each child is unique on how they learn new skills.  Each child has their quirks and funny things that they do in the learning process.  Declin's quirk was definitely the fact that he loves being on his stomach so much.  Both of my other kids hated tummy time.

This month he struggled going to sleep on his own so McKay and I took turns rocking him in his crib.  We would lay him down and then gently shake/rock his little body until he fell asleep and then we would sneak out.

He is tiny as always and wore 3-6 month clothes this month.

He loves all of his toys still which is nice that he is still entertained by them and he also loved his exersaucer, especially if the other two kids were around when he was in it.  They always help keep him more entertained.  I have been rotating the baby toys this time around which I think helps keep his interest in them as well as keep down on the clutter in the living room.  He gets about 5 toys out at a time and then I rotate them weekly.

Feeding him solids.  Every child is different right?  Well baby led weaning worked great with Jensen, but did not go so well with Declin.  Declin did not like eating anything with chunks or a firmer texture.  So we are doing baby food with him and he is doing ok.  So far he has had rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and avocados.  He loves applesauce and hates avocados.  Hopefully we will work up to him feeding himself soon.  We have not bought any store bought jars of baby food for him like we did with Adalyn.  Instead we just buy things raw and then blend them up.  Pears and applesauce we just buy in larger jars.  I have been really lazy and have not frozen anything yet.  Hopefully I will get around to doing some frozen baby food soon.

7 months just feels old to me.  He is getting big, yet didn't I just have him!?  Sometimes I just get so caught up into life, our plans, and my check lists that I forget to enjoy the moment.  So this month I reminded myself that I had a sweet little baby who was growing up fast and that I really needed to enjoy him and sit down and snuggle him more.  We love you Declin!

  

 

  



  

Addie and Jensen's Bedroom

In our house we have 2 kids bedrooms (someday we will have more, but we will have to finish the basement off first).  From day one after buying our house I planned on having a girls room and a boys room.  Then whenever we had another baby they would just share with their respective gender.

That idea sounded great in theory, but in all honesty having a baby share a room with anyone is not an easy thing.  SO after Declin was born we quickly changed plans and decided to have Adalyn and Jensen share one room and Declin got his own room.  This situation works out great right now and surprisingly love having Adalyn and Jensen share a room.  

Of course when we moved Jensen into Adalyn's room her room was pretty girly and needed some little boy love brought into it.  So over the past few months I have slowly changed things around and updated things here and there.  I am happy with the progress and glad that we didn't have to do anything too major, like paint the walls or get new furniture.  It is far from perfect and I still have a few more ideas that I would like to add, but here is the progress that we have made-

The quilts were made by a sweet friend who I worked with when we lived in Logan.  Her quilts are super affordable and so nice.  The puppy picture is from Ross along with the basket at the end of the crib that holds all of their blankets.  The wooden ruler was bought off of Facebook from someone who makes them.  Someday I would like to get a rug, picture frames for over their beds, and a crib skirt for Jensen's bed (I may have to learn to sew first because I am not finding they right thing at any stores).  Little by little we will get there.    

I may not be perfect at decorating our home, but I really enjoy it and it sure makes it a nicer place to spend my days.  

   

Corinne the Nurse

Both of my younger sisters are going to be nurses.  I think this is so cool!  They are both so smart and sweet that I think it is awesome they are doing something that can help others around them.  Last week Corinne graduated from Weber State with her associates and became a registered nurse.

She plans to continue on and get her Bachelors in nursing, but still wanted to walk at graduation now so that she could be there to celebrate with all of her friends.  We are so happy that we were able to be there to celebrate with her.  Graduating college is huge!  Congratulations Corinne!

After the graduation ceremony we went and took a tour of the house that they are going to move into soon.  They already owned it, but previously it had renters so now they are going to live in it themselves.  It is a darling little house that I am sure Corinne will have fun decorating :)    Then we headed to dinner at old ol' Texas Roadhouse.  Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day Corinne.

    

My Childhood Home

This is kind of a bitter sweet post to write for me, but I am trying to look on the bright side of things and look forward to new adventures in the future.  A few months ago my parents decided to sell the home that I grew up in and move into a new house.  They wanted a house with less yard work and maintenance.  After a couple months and (what seemed like) a 100 showings later their house sold and so the official move has begun.  We have spent the last few weekends in Draper with them at their house sorting their belongings and moving boxes to a storage unit.  They are planning on moving to their new house in the next few weeks.

Today I want to share the story behind the house.  Their home was built around 1980ish by my grandparents.  My dad is the youngest in his family and he was still living at home when his parents moved in.  Eventually my dad went on his mission and then got married.  My parents lived in the basement of the house for 10 months while my older sister was a baby.  I have many fond memories of going and visiting grandma and grandpa at their house.  With having an apartment in the basement they seemed to always have someone extra living with them.  Grandpa always had bubble gum for us too.

Then in 2000 my grandparents health was rapidly declining and the house maintenance was getting too much for them to handle so my parents and my grandparents came up with the plan for my parents to buy the house from my grandparents.  Then they would move into the apartment downstairs and my family would live upstairs.  I was 10 years old at the time and I still remember that first conversation that started it all.  It was an inspired conversation that led us to move in only a few weeks later.  It was a blessing that we were able to move in so quickly because my sweet grandma, who had always been the caretaker for my grandpa, lived for only 6 weeks after we moved in and then she passed away.  Grandpa continued to live downstairs for another 2 years before passing away.  I have good memories from having grandpa living with us.  He was always so pleasant to be around and never seemed too bothered by us crazy kids.

My sisters and I grew up in that house.  We went to Elementary school, middle school, and high school.  We left on our first dates from there and we left for college from there.  McKay came to that house every weekend during the summer of 2009 while we were dating and we later got married there in Draper.  To my kids that is grandma and grandpa's house and they get so excited every time we pulled into the driveway. My family has known many of the people in the ward for a very long time.  Awesome friendships and experiences have been made in that house.  Our family kind of thought that my parents would live in that house for many more years.

But then about a year and a half ago my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  I haven't talked about it much on here but this diagnoses has caused us to see the future a little differently.   So this past fall my mom started to just look at houses, kind of for fun, and mostly to just see what was out there.  She thought that moving to a less maintenance house and one with a smaller yard might make sense given their new situation.  In the beginning she couldn't imagine actually moving from my grandparents home and the neighborhood that they loved, but slowly over time heavenly father showed her that it was the right decision for them even if it was hard.

So at Christmas we all knew that it was probably our last one in that house.  After Christmas was over my parents dejunked 15 years of their stuff and some of my grandparents stuff that had been hanging around and gave the house a fresh coat of paint.  Then the house went on the market.  My parents had TONS of showings.  They were such troopers and would often have 2-3 showings a day.  It was pretty crazy, but their house showed well and soon the offer came.  Two offers in one day to be exact.  They accepted the first one and they will officially be moving soon.

I think it was when my mom told me that they had sold it that reality finally set in that they were actually going to move.  I was pretty emotional and sad.  I wish McKay and I had been in a situation that we could have bought it from them and continued having family living in it.  We LOVE that yard and would have also loved to raise our family there.  But it was not our time and I have accepted it now.  The family that is moving in seems like a really sweet family and they are really excited to have their kids grow up in it.  It helps knowing that the new family will love it just as much as we did.

A couple weekends ago we had a special Family home Evening at my parents house.  We skyped with my sisters who were away and we all shared our favorite memories of living there.  We all had similar favorite memories some of them being...

-Leaf Houses in the backyard
-The neighborhood and ward members
- Cutie my grandparents dog
-Night games with cousins and my dad
-Family parties
-Painting the front door :)
- the old hot tub off of the garage
-My dad's homecomings from Iraq and Afghanistan when the house was all decked out in flags and yellow ribbons

Our kids will miss feeding the Goats next door.

Such a fun place to grow up!  We will miss that house and Draper.  Our trips to Utah will just not be the same anymore, but like I said before we will adjust and make new memories.  My parents new house will be just that, brand new, and that will be so nice for them to have a break from the fixing up and lawn care that they have had before.  We will still LOVE visiting grandma and grandpas house and are so grateful for all that they do for our little family.  Too bad we couldn't convince them to move to Idaho ;)