Family Fun Day at Aladdin

It was so fun to get out as a family. We had Chinese. Liam loved eating broccoli and drinking water from a straw. He made a mess but seemed to really enjoy it

After an early dinner we headed to see Aladdin even though the picture is for Toy Story. It was super cute. Disney has done a great job remaking the movie with real people. 

I love my time spent with these fun people

Liam's 1st Food

We can all thank Hallie for capturing these pictures of Liam eating for the first time. It was about a week before Liam turns 6 months but he seemed completely ready. He had rice cereal mixed with breast milk. He seemed to really like it and was our first kid to actually eat it and not just push it back out. We have been doing a mix of baby led weaning and traditional food integration. So far he seems to like everything he has tried. 

Emery 4 Year Check Up

Emy is 4 yrs old! This little one has grown so much since Liam arrived. She is such a big helper. She can be intense in all parts of life. She has such a fun and full of life personality. She loves pizza, spaghetti, and anything sugar. She can be a handful or so helpful. Favorite color is pink, elsa blue, and purple. She loves Tinkerbell, Pinkalicious, Team Umizoomi, and Mickey Mouse. She loves all things girly...makeup, lip gloss, nail polish, ect.  She wants to be a ballerina. She starts her 2nd year of preschool this fall with Ms. Syrina and she couldn't be more excited. We had an incident a couple weeks ago at church where a member of the primary presidency came to get me and let me know they had lost Em between primary and class. I handed Liam off to some relief society sister and went to look for her. As we were searching the church other started helping to look and I had this calm feeling that everything would be ok. Ultimately we found her safe and sound in class with Gracie. I don't know what I would do without this sweetheart  and we're so glad she is part of our family.

36 1/2 pounds 55%

40 inches tall  50%

Gracie's Dance Recital

Gracie is so happy about switching back to dance from gymnastics. She has loved being back in dance and getting to see Brit on a weekly basis. She had a pretty big solo in the recital and never even acted nervous. She did such a great job and we are so proud of her.

Baking & Fun In The Sun

Emy has really grown to love cooking & baking and loves getting to help. I have been baking with her at least once a week for most of the year. Its fun to see how much she has changed and grown. She is a good little helper and although super great she is very messy. On this day she ended up covered in flour.

Now that the sun is finally out we have to be more careful about sunburns. This one is from Hallie's soccer game. She rarely sunburns and if she does it usually tans but this one peeled crazy

Van Christopher Brower

While in South Ogden running errands I got a text from Krissy saying she was having contractions that were so painful she couldn't breath through them and asked if she should be worried. As soon as I saw the text I called her for more info and to make sure she had called her Dr. She was still having contractions and Chris was in Provo at state track. I asked if I could come over and help and she said she was fine. She had put a call into her Dr and Joy was on her way to help with Eden. I hesitantly headed for home but just as I started up the canyon I felt strongly that I should turn around and go to her house to see if everything was ok. I called Joy and she was just getting out of the shower in Tremonton and would be a while before she got there. By the time I completed my phone call with her I was turned around and headed for Krissy's. Just before arriving Chris called me concerned about Krissy and looking for advice. I told him I was only a couple minutes from their house and I would go and make sure everything was ok. He seemed relieved which made me feel better because I didn't want them to feel like I was over stepping. When I arrived Krissy was Febreezing her house. I scowled her and asked if she had heard from her Dr. She siad yes and that he wanted her to come in. At that point I took the Febreeze and asked if she had packed anything. She hadn't so we headed upstairs to pack. She headed to the baby's room before I help remind her that if she had him now he wouldn't be coming home with her. She was 32 3/7wks. So after packing a few things for her and Chris we headed to the hospital. 2 adults and 3 kids under 4...lol. Luckily Hallie and Gracie were at school but we looked like quite the circus. I called a friend on the way to IMC to see if she could pick up the girls since I wasn't going to be there. I called Matt to update him and see if her could pick the older girls up after he got home form the airport. I dropped Krissy off so she could check in while I parked. Luckily I had brought Liam's carrier so I put him in that, carried Eden, and Emy walked. The girl at the desk was less than nice and told me we couldn't go in since I had kids that weren't siblings to Krissy's baby. So I text Krissy back and forth until Joy got there about an hour later. Then she stayed with the kids while I went to check on Krissy. Long story short I ended up taking the kids home with me and Joy stayed with Krissy. I picked up Krissy's mom from the Layton hospital(since her sister had a baby that morning)so I could leave Eden at home with her and head home to my family. Joy stayed with Krissy until Chris could get there later that night from state. The following day on the way to see Mindy I dropped off a gift basket for them full of snacks, treats, and other hospital fun. After a couple days of monitoring the Dr decided they needed to take the baby thinking he might have an infection. 

He ended up being born at 32 6/7 weeks

Bigger than anyone thought at

5lbs

18inches

Oh the crazy adventure it was for him to get here but it is something we definitely laugh about now

Happy Birthday Griff

After our date night out we were able to celebrate with Nic and her family for Griff's 2nd birthday. He was so cute and so excited to have all the attention

I love that Nic and her family are so close and we can celebrate with them

Date Night

We went on a Botanical Garden scavenger hunt. The weather was not cooperative and we ended up soaking wet and didn't finish the scavenger hunt. So we bailed early and grabbed dinner. So grateful to Nic for watching the kids so Matt and I could get out and have some time just the two of us. We have really enjoyed the USU date nights and are looking forward to more in the coming months. The conversations they bring about are so great for our relationship and thought provoking

Emy's Preschool Graduation

This "sweet tart" graduated from preschool tonight. I'm having a hard time processing how much Emy has grown up since Liam has arrived. She is such a spunky and full of life kid. She will probably be the 1st one to give us gray hairs but that remains to be seen. She can be so sweet and also so terrible in a matter of minutes. Which is why Ms Syrina gave her the "sweet tart" award. She regularly tries to bully Gracie and at any one time is both Grace and Hallie's best friend. We love this girl something fierce. She is going to do great things if she stays focused in the right direction.

She is already looking forward to her 2nd year with Ms Syrina at Preschool and doing Upstart

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was super awesome. It was the perfect amount of chill and family fun. We ventured to church and they gave out some yummy chocolates.

Matt smoked brisket and we invited his family over to have dinner with us and when Matt cooks we don't have to do much convincing

We all went together and got Joy a message and a gift certificate for dinner

Even though its mother'd day I really like baking especially if others will eat it. These trifles were a huge hit. Strawberry brownie and cream cheese oreo

Then we even played some cards it been a while since that happened

Van will be here before we know it but the buys are doing their best to keep up with Krissy's growing belly

One of my friends posted this quote and I loved it. Happy mother's day

As a side note I worried a lot about what to get my mom. She already buys herself everything that she wants and I'm not a very good gift giver unless I really have something in mind to get them. So this year I decided to just not do anything. I just did nothing. I have no desire to even write a card so I called her and that was it. I don't know how happy she was about that but I hope someday my kids don't feel pressured to buy me a gift I would rather have them want to spend time with Matt and I. Because in the end that's what really matters

Productive & Exhaustion

With the girls at school I try to get all of our errands run. With more time being spent outside in the sun, later bedtimes, and end of year programs it means everyone is more tired and lately we have been wearing Emy particularly out to the point of exhaustion.

The girls love IFA in the spring when they have all the baby chicks. We always need to make a few trips to get plants for the garden and see the chickies

Sweet Liam still struggles with the car seat but every once in a while we get lucky and he will sleep or just "enjoy" the car seat. I love his sweet face and squishy self

Em went down to change out of a dress up and when she didn't come back I went looking for her and this is what I found. I covered her with a blankie and let her tire self keep sleeping. This girl is full of energy until she crashes.

This girl loves treats so if she's good we usually stop for something and she ends up wearing part of it.

I love getting things done but sometimes it's exhausting. Looking forward to summer and a laid back kinda schedule