Swim Lessons

The boys had swim lessons for the first time this summer. It was a blast and came at the perfect time.
I had just returned from the family reunion in MO and we had moved.  

I had signed the boys up with some of their best friends and it was awesome.  Since we were in the new house, it was a great way to still get to see our friends everyday and not feel SO removed from everyone.

Weston is a little fish, he LOVES the water:

West with his buddy Jaron.  

The last day of class = diving board and slide!!!  He loved it and went so over and over!

The boys went down this huge slide by themselves. So fun!

Tave was in class with his best buddy, Michael. Oh my, these two have so much fun!

He loved his teacher:

I had to post this series on the diving board...he was a little nervous, especially since his teacher was out of town :(

And he did awesome on the slide:

Ryder had a hard time not getting to swim. We hung out on the sidelines with all of my mommy friends. 

Ryder absolutely loves my friend, Geniel. She was awesome and helped with him a ton!!!

We loved our swim lessons and sure do miss our friends. 

We had a blast getting to see them every day for two weeks!

Grandma's Visit!!!

The first few weeks of Callen's life were pretty quiet. We hung out at home a lot and tried to get used to life with a fourth baby.  Shawn was our only family member around who came to see the baby and so it was kind of different. I've been really lucky with my other kiddos and had my mom there right away to help out. So it was a little tricky learning to balance everything.

Jeff's mom had scheduled her visit to be a few days after my mom left. Since my mom wasn't able to come, we were MORE than ready for some help by the time Jeanne got here!!!  

We had such an incredible week and a half with her here.  She spoiled ALL of us by playing with the boys constantly, letting me sleep in, and holding Callen in any of the downtime when she wasn't with the other boys.

It was so fun to have her here and to get to share our sweet Callen with family.  I didn't realize, until this time, how special it really is to have family around to hold and snuggle and show off our little man. 

We took Mom & the boys to 7peaks, it's always a blast. So fun, in fact, that I hardly took any photos:

We also took the boys to the Splash Pad while Mom was here to help out. And of course the splash pad fun always ends with time at the park:

Mom had come with some fun activities for the boys. They had lots of coloring and art/craft time with her:

On Weston's birthday we took him to get ice cream in the morning. (his party was later that afternoon)

Jeff had a full week in the daytime and then tried to spend some evenings with us:

We went to this darling little park in Provo that the boys LOVED:

And of course, Mom tried to get in as much snuggling and cuddling with this little guy that she could:

Thanks for the WONDERFUL week, mom!!!  We had so much fun!

August Moments

We had a whirlwind of a summer. It was just so FULL.  Because of that, I kind of chilled on the picture taking come August.   We really tried to enjoy our relaxing time with Jeff before he began the doctorate program in the fall.  And we had some really fun, everyday moments with the kids.

I just love each stage that the boys are in. 

Weston is my sensitive soul. He is constantly making sure everyone is okay and that his brothers are well taken care of. He sure is a great older brother and such a big help to me.

Tave has discovered his funny side. He used to not like being funny, now it is goal to make everyone laugh. (or so it would seem) He is my little snuggle bug and is so sweet.  And he absolutely LOVES pretend play and roleplay.

Ryder is our adventurous guy.  He wants to do what everyone else is doing and is SO curious about life. His laugh brings so much joy into our home, we all live to make him smile!!

I feel so incredibly lucky to be a mom to three sweet and wonderful boys. 

They make my life perfect.

Here's what our August looked like:

I taught the boys how to make their own beds.  Weston has been doing this for awhile but Tave has not. So we got him in on the action. He LOVES it and is so proud of himself.  

This was the first time he made his bed without ANY help from me. He wanted to make sure I got a picture of it:

And cute Weston has been so good at this chore:

Weston has been my stuffed animal guy from the beginning. He just loves snuggling with soft things and he adores each of his special stuffed animals:

 I thought this was too cute... since learning how to make his bed, Tave has really gotten into putting each of his animals in it's right spot:

and Weston just throws them all on wherever they land:

We called Grandpa one day to talk. They sure love their Grandpa:

West came running in the room one morning to show me how he got dressed:

Ryder's birthday was fun this year, every few weeks he'd get a little something in the mail from someone else. This gift was from my parents. All the boys love it and it's a huge hit when neighbors come to play:

Ryder's top four teeth started coming through:

Our little guy absolutely LOVES the bathroom (gross I KNOW!) It is his favorite place to sneak to when he thinks no one is looking:

And this is why - he pulls off ALL the toilet paper in the 10 seconds it takes for us to run in and grab him:

We spent a LOT of time outside playing, riding bikes, going on walks.  One night the boys thought it would be great to give Ryder a ride, despite his face, he LOVED it:

We've gotten in on a babysitting swap with some other families. It's AWESOME to go on dates regularly. Because of how busy the summer is, we've only had all the kids one time. This night was a fun night with Cooper & Noah. The boys all crashed in the lovesak to watch a movie. (Tave wasn't being left out, he insisted on the brown chair!) Oh these boys are so fun together!

It was an awesome August!!