Happy Happy Birthday Ryder!

 We had a fun and simple birthday celebration for Ryder's big day!! 

It was a little strange not having ANY family around for it, but we had so much fun.

We did things Ryder liked all day long:  played outside, watched his favorite show, wrestled, Mcdonalds for lunch, and had so much fun together!  

Then we had fun little party once Daddy got home from work. 

It was just perfect for our little guy, he loved every minute!

 Lunch with the bros:

Ryder LOVES holding Callen, so I had to make sure he got to for as long as he wanted:

I found these awesome figures at the Dollar store and knew they HAD to be for Ryder's cake. He doesn't have a lot of action figures of his own and he LOVES super heroes so it was perfect!

I adore his expressions in the next two:

Jeff and I spent the night before his b-day setting up his gift. I was like a kid at christmas...I just COULDN'T wait to give it to him!!!

He LOOOOOVED it!!! and didn't want to get out to open the rest!

Cute Callen slept through it all:

Of course we had to bring him outside for a ride in his new truck:

Happy Happy Birthday cute boy!  We sure LOVE you!

Callen: 2 months

This month has been so fun with our sweet Callen.

He still sleeps a ton in the day time  but has started to be awake a little more. 

He typically wakes up every 3-4  hours at night but has started doing a longer 5-6 hour stretch at night. wahoo...we'll get there eventually!  

He is such a sweet, calm baby and is just so happy. He gives the most adorable grins and loves to be snuggled and loved.

He started cooing at us this month and we are just eating up our little conversations with him!

He is definitely the biggest of all of our boys at this age:

12 lbs (75%)

25 inches (90%)

                          

Dear Sweet Callen,

This second month with you has been such a joy. We are getting into the routine of having another little one around.  We all absolutely adore you and the sweet, gently spirit you bring into our home.  Callen, you have such a special gift-  amidst the craziness of so many boys running around, you bring a beautiful peace with you from heaven.  You are so good with your brothers and let them hug and snuggle on you as much as they want. (which is a LOT)  We feel so honored to have you as part of our family and to get to experience this wonderful life with you.

 You love to be held and snuggled and you sleep, sleep, sleep the day away. You have started being awake a little bit more, but mostly you just snooze!  You like being awake in the evenings when it's quiet and you have Mommy & Daddy all to yourself!  

You already love the outdoors, it calms you right down if you are a tad bit grumpy and you quickly fall asleep.  When you are awake, you've started giving us these absolutely heart-stopping grins that we have all  fallen in love with!  You have started cooing and talking with us and have even laughed a teeny bit when I tickle you.  It is the sweetest sound and we can't wait to hear it again.

Callen, we love you baby boy. 

More than ever.

Love, 

Mommy

Saying Goodbye to Uncle Wash

The month before my brother moved we were able to hang out quite a bit. 

It was so fun to have him around and to get to spend some extra time with him before he left.
He is so great with kids and my boys just love him. 

Ryder, especially, developed a strong bond with Uncle 'Wash'  (he says a lot of things kind of backwards and Shawn backwards is apparently Wash...don't know where the 'n' went. haha)

We have definitely missed having him around these last couple of months. I didn't realize, until we had NO family around, how nice it was to be able to call him if baby sitters didn't work out, or just to come down for dinner. He was so willing to watch the kids for lots of my dr. appointments and I just appreciate him so much. I miss him tons and wish we had hung out more (and hit the gym together for sure!) but I am very happy and excited for his next adventure in med school. He will be amazing!!

The weekend before he left, my dad and Trav came out to help him pack up and move. It was a bitter sweet weekend, but we are so happy we got to hang out with some of ours (especially the boys!) very favorite people:

 Callen met Grandpa Dan & Uncle Trav for the first time:

 We had a fun goodbye dinner at Ihop:

We sure love you, bud. Good luck at Med School!!!

Independence Day!

 We had such a fun 4th of July! 

My dad & Trav were here helping Shawn move (he was moving to CA and then on to TX for med school).

It was a relaxing day and we didn't do a ton, but what we did was just right.
We passed on our tradition of early morning hot air balloons in Provo because of the baby. Best decision. Mornings are a little slow over here due to middle of the night feedings!

My dad said he wanted to go up to his uncle's for the day and we were invited. Perfect, we were so thrilled!

So we joined my dad at  Joanne & Earl's and a bunch of  (extended) family we rarely see for a delicious bbq and some running around:  

The kids were in outdoor heaven. Dirt, sandbox, swingset, toys, and kids. Perfect day!

This is a really horrible picture of me (blame it on the angle/late nights/post baby body?!) but we're all in it, so  here it is:

My dad got to meet Callen for the first time this trip:

Callen loves being held and being outside.

Ryder thought this chair was awesome:

I love this man:

After dinner we headed back to our city to meet up with our wonderful friends for our own fireworks show. Our kids have only ever stayed up for fireworks once, so this was totally new and exciting for them.

Will & Geniel are AWESOME and we had so much fun hanging out with them:

 I love Ryder's face...he did NOT want to touch it!

Our kids are such great friends, it makes it so fun to get together!