February Visitors!!

Shar & my Mom drove out with the girls!!  

We had so much fun playing with them and soaking up all the cousin time. We definitely miss our family!

We had such a fun week with them and didn't want it to end!!

I had already put the boys to bed, but as soon as the girls got here Weston & Tave bounced down the stairs. They couldn't wait to see them:

I love this pic of Jeff reading stories to the girls while we got their sleeping arrangements taken care of:

One of our many walks outside:

the girls were excited about the little bit of snow!

It was mine and Jeff's turn for babysitting swap while they were here. 7 kids ages 5 and under. It was awesome!

We did a lot of fun indoor activities since it was still so cold. These cute water color books were a hit:

Ryder LOVED it too and really worked hard on his picture. SO cute:

We had tons of fun and loved every second of their visit. SO much so that I didn't take a ton of photos.

We sure love our cousins, thanks Mom & Shar for making the trip!

January's Everyday Moments

I love catching the kids doing those silly, every day things that make me smile.  They are each at such fun stages and make being their mom the best job ever. I feel so lucky to have them.  Seriously, who wants to go to work when I can be home with these crazy, fun kids?!  I love what I do. (most of the time!!)

disclaimer: West really dislikes getting his pic taken lately. That's why he's not in a lot. He's still very loved. ;)

They love helping vacuum:

Tave is SO silly. Really, he makes us laugh constantly with the crazy things he says and does. Everyone needs some comic relief in their day, we're so lucky ours is Tave. 

He made his own eye patch out of a broken goggle and tape:

He was super proud of this 'helmet' he made all by himself!!  (don't worry, it wasn't used!):

Ryder LOVES to help clean and is so good about doing it with or without being asked. 

Here he was using a wipe to clean up the garage:

Weston requested a pic with Pikachu, so I had to hop on that!!  Pikachu is his favorite Christmas gift, he still sleeps with him every night and stores all of his best toys inside (since it's a backpack). West already has plans to be Ash for Halloween just so he can wear this backpack!!  I sure love this sweet, sweet boy!

Ryder loves my hair. LOVES it.  Whenever I am holding him, he reaches behind me to grab my hair. And he just runs his hand through it. Sometimes he'll take it and rub it on his face, like here:

And then I tickle him with it, which he thinks is so funny:

Ryder is OBSESSED with the computer.  It's a little frustrating. So I decided to actually let him do something fun on it instead of just saying NO all the time.   I set him up with a preschool  game that he can totally do on his own, he pretty much LOVED it!!

Enjoying a jamba juice treat, our very favorite drinks:

Jeff's grandparents sent us a bulb with directions for Christmas. I'll be honest, I usually kill plants. Not because I don't love them, I really really do!  But I am busy and forget about watering them. Lame excuse, but it's true.  So I wasn't overly thrilled to get another thing I would eventually kill.  But Jeff really wanted to try and the boys were pretty excited about it. 

Guess what-- it was THE coolest gift. 

We have truly truly enjoyed watching it grow and wondering what color it would be when it bloomed. 

And bloom it did!

It was stunning and we loved having something so bright and beautiful on our table. 

It'll be fun to see if we can get it to bloom again next winter!

I just had to post this adorable 'T' we did for Preschool.  Tave is absolutely loving getting to go to his own school with his friends.  It is the highlight of his week. And when it comes around to my turn to teach, we are both pretty darn excited for everyone to come to our house. They are such a fun bunch of kids.  I usually forget about the letter until the last minute...and then am scrambling to find a fun idea. Well, that happened this time, but I found the idea lickety-split and just about died at how cute it was. So I had to show off our version, because it really is better than the one I found online:

T is for Tiger!!

And that's all, folks.
We have had a wonderful, fun-filled January!!

Digging for Dinosaurs!

I found these cool dinosaur eggs awhile ago. Weston has been dying to 'dig in' (haha, I'm so funny)

so we finally got them out when Ryder was napping AND Jeff was home to help.

The boys with their eggs:

Starting the dig:

First bone found:

It's a good thing we waited to do it when we would both be there, these eggs were TOUGH. You really had to dig and dig and dig. Which the boys thought was cool at first but they were happy to let Jeff and I work at it while they played in the ensuing mess.  When we'd get close to a bone, we'd let the boys brush off the dirt and do the last bit to actually get it out:

The body of the dino:

All of Weston's Dimetredon:

Tave's Triceratops:

We cleaned off the bones and then glued them together. It even came with this cute stand to put it on... I'll try to get a picture soon!!  

The Dino Dig was a huge success. What a fun afternoon!

Jeff's Birthday Celebration!!

The boys were pretty insistent that Daddy have a cake & party. And since we had done the big part of Jeff's birthday as a date with the two of us, we figured they deserved to be in on some celebrating too! 

I made a cake that Jeff likes better than others (spice cake) and we did the whole singing she-bang.

It was simple and sweet and just right. (according to Jeff!!)

Singing to daddy:

I love how you can see West helping in the corner:

Ryder was SO funny, he didn't know what to think of the candles: 

Then we gave Jeff his gift from the boys:

We made a cars track t-shirt**!! Then the boys each picked out their own car that goes with Daddy's shirt-  so the cars only come out with the shirt!! (that way they'll be excited about using it on the track)  I did the drawing and the boys picked the colors. Then they helped draw the lines on the road. It turned out really cute:

Giving daddy his car massage:

Ryder has discovered the joys of wrestling and rough housing. So seeing daddy on the floor pretty  much meant the car massage was over... 

and it quickly turned into a 'get daddy' session!

It was a hit, though, and next time maybe we'll try it when this crazy little man is sleeping. ;)

**idea via pinterest, found here.

Happy 30th Birthday Jeff!!!

My fabulous hubby turned the big 3-0!!  

I wanted to really make this birthday special...but let's face it, he's in school and working all day, every day and I'm pregnant with three kiddos at home. 

Life is busy.

So the week long trip to Hawaii will have to wait until an anniversary after he has graduated!  :)

In the meantime, we tried to do a bunch of fun things to let Jeff know just how much we love him.

He came down the stairs in the morning to 30 balloons attached to 10 of his favorite treats and 20 notes of things we love about him.  It was a fun little surprise:

The boys and I brought  him lunch at work. J-Dawgs for Jeff & I (his request, mmmm) and Mcdonalds for the boys. Perfect. It is always so fun to see him in the middle of the day!! 

Ryder parked himself in a desk and was so cute sitting there:

Jeff helped the boys put together their toys, they were pretty thrilled:

Playing in Dad's classroom is always fun. Ryder decided this ball was the best seat:

And West & Tave's favorite activity is always drawing on the board:

We brought the 20 balloons with notes so Jeff could read them throughout the day:

I made Jeff's favorite dinner for when he got home. And I told him I would make ANY dessert he wanted.

Since he's not a fan of cake, he just wanted ice cream. 

Easy-peasy. We took the kiddos with us to Cold Stone to celebrate in style:

And of course he had to blow out at least one candle for those 30 years!

His gift from me was a long (8 hour!!) date on Saturday. 

(Thanks to Shawn & Abby for watching the kiddos in the day 

and Steph & Brett for the evening babysitter swap!)

I let Jeff pick what he wanted. So we:

Went to the temple, out to eat, and to a movie. We really wanted to pick up his present but it won't get to Costco until Feb. 3rd. So you know where we'll be that weekend, Jeff can't wait! :)

Happy Happy Birthday, Babe. 

You know how much I love you. 

23/40

Hey Baby,
You've grown quite a bit these last few weeks!
You are moving a lot and have definite 'awake' and 'asleep' moments.
Since you are most likely our last little bitty one, I'm trying to treasure every second of how this feels...having you inside of me. Every kick is a little reminder that you are here and you are already a part of our family.
We are working on picking a name for you.  We have it narrowed down to two, but just can't decide until we see your cute little face.  You want to know what they are?  Here you go:  Callen or Canon.  What do you think? I really wish you could tell us since we're kind of stuck. :) Oh well, we'll know soon enough, won't we?
I am feeling pretty good. You started out pretty rough on your mama, but now we're in the good stage.  Just growing and moving. I'm a little tired, but I've been trying to drink lots and lots of water for you and have decided you and I need to cut back on the sugar. We don't want you being a little sugar addict right from the beginning...so we're loading up on the leafy greens and trying to get in all our food groups.  We just want you healthy. :)
Your brothers are so excited to meet you and see what you look like.  They have definitely been noticing how you're poking out your mommy's tummy now and making your appearance. They really want to feel you kick, so if you could give some great big ones when I let you know the bros are around, we would appreciate it!!  :)
We love you, little man. And Daddy & I  can't wait to see how you fit into our family of boys!!
Love,
Your mama