Change

Change is a good thing, even if it is unexpected or not necessarily something you are seeking after. And the wonderful part about our church is that you are constantly given opportunities to stretch yourself and to grow. Jake just got released from working with the young men in our ward after about 4 years of service. He loved this calling and really loved working with the boys. He might be embarrassed for me to say that he even got a little teary eyed. But we have faith and know that we are placed where we are supposed to be at certain times and so we gladly accepted his new calling in Elders Quorum. It will definitely be a change. Jake's a little sad that he won't be "cool" anymore and is definitely sad that he has to miss out on the high adventure trip that he has spent so much time planning- river rafting in Moab. Guess he'll have to vacation with us this summer! I find it fitting to now share my favorite story from his service with the youth. One Sunday the boys were being particularly rowdy during a lesson. They were meeting up on the stage at our church building, and also up on the stage happened to be a cupcake. A really old cupcake. It had been there for some time. So Jake told the boys that if they were good for the rest of the lesson, he would eat the cupcake. Well of course the boys were then on their best behavior the rest of the lesson. And Jake had to eat the cupcake. One of his boys offered to eat half with him and I think it is safe to say it was a treat they will never forget- in a not so yummy way! So we now move on from the world of Wednesday night activities, lawn aeration fund raisers, Eagle projects, youth sports, Round Table, etc. and make way for all things EQ! Should be challenging and fun and a great learning opportunity!
Anyways, moving on... Our zoo pass expires at the end of the month so we made one last kind of cold trip this Saturday.

Afterwards we stopped by Jake's office so he could show us where he works. Cole found it so fun he could hardly keep his eyes open. I'm sure Jake can relate!

The girls had a western dress-up day just in time for the rodeo to start. Can't wait to go this weekend!

The older two started swim practice once a week to get geared up for the season. Don't ask about the poses. I offer no good explanation...

And this little boy will be 4 months old on Friday! Cute little, old baby who sadly decided to stop being quite as consistent sleeping through the night. Sad, sad! And he's become not quite as content to just lay and play these days. He wants interaction and someone to play with him. Can't say I blame him- I'm kind of a people person too. And I'm sure it doesn't help matters that he has some older sissies who pick him up when he cries, whether I want them to or not.

We also traded in our old double stroller for a nice, new jogging beauty! I love it and have put it to good use since we bought it. And even though our old stroller had seen better days, I kind of had a hard time letting it go. It had been with us for over 7 years and had carried many of my babies.

I do like the new double wide and find it so much easier to maneuver than my old long stroller.

I've had a little bit of fun matching these boys lately...

Handsome little guys!

And we thankfully made it through Cole being sick. Only took two antibiotics and his inhaler, along with his usual allergy meds to get us there, but he is doing better. Which is good because those steroids he was on made him quite cranky.

Illness has been my biggest fear since the baby has arrived. I think we got off on the wrong foot when I had to bring the baby home to a house with two sick kids. I have prayed so many times that Eli will stay healthy. With 4 older siblings and it being sick season he has gotten plenty of exposure. I feel so blessed that he has stayed healthy during these months. He has a little stuffy nose right now but that is as bad as it has gotten. Crossing my fingers that we can get to springtime!

This is what I do when he says, "Wrap me up like King Cole!" And meet Ann Frank, the soda bottle version...

I think we did a pretty good job copying the picture. I had fun reading up about Ann Frank to help Elle with this project.

Got a burn from the crockpot, or "crocodile" according to Cole. Jada told me that it looks like I could put a CD through my arm. Hmmm, it actually does. And unfortunately the Tooth Fairy missed our house last week. She more than made up for herself the next night, even with the missing tooth. When the tooth was found, she came again. More than redeemed herself if you ask me.

And lastly some cute artwork from Jada...

Happy Heart Day!

Our Valentine's Day was filled with lots of love! The fun started on Saturday when some nice friends gave us a little "heart attack"...

We then had a babysitter for the night and went out for some dinner, did a little shopping, and came home and watched a movie. Love date night!

We had a fun Family Home Evening on V-day Eve where we ate a delicious cookie cake (that I had to pick up from the mall that day, in the rain, with Cole and Eli. Good times! Good thing Cole can hold an umbrella!) that the kids had to find hidden in the house, and we spread the "heart attack" love onto some ladies in our ward at church.

The girls left us some notes on our bed that night and Grammie had sent a card and $ for a treat...

Mya got real creative with her Valentine poems...

And a discussion about the existence of the Valentine's Day Bear (a tradition from my childhood) brought about this note that I found on Elle and Mya's floor...

A sad day that we no longer have a believer. I knew this day was coming and can't say I'm surprised. I honestly wondered this Christmas. Feels kind of monumental in a way. Anyways, the Valentine's Day Bear didn't miss us this year and brought a fun little gift for each kid...

Jake got some shirts and Jada gave us a pocket full of kisses! Jake got the kids donuts for the morning. He said he didn't make me breakfast in bed, but he got breakfast for the kids (which honestly I appreciate much more!)...

He also got me some yummy licorice and attempted a note on the mirror, along with a drawing of "Heart Man". Sadly when he showered much of the note smeared leaving it looking more like we were celebrating Halloween than the day of love.

Flowers for me, movie for the kids...

Jake may buy me gifts and such and think he's my real Valentine, but he's got some stiff competition with these two here...

These two handsome boys just might take his place!

He gets most of my hugs and kisses these days!

The girls wore matching shirts from Grammie to celebrate the day...

And somehow I forgot to include the pic of us at the school parties. Oh well- next post. We did visit Elle and Mya up at school for their parties. I honestly haven't been very involved at the school this year due to the baby so it was fun to have a reason to see them in their classes.

Love these kids and I think they love each other. At least most of the time. They are funny. The older two love wearing my high heels around the house, especially when they are playing teacher. The crazy thing is that Elle and I aren't that far off from wearing the same size. They love the trampoline. Today Elle, Jada, and Cole were out for awhile jumping and playing Red Riding Hood. Mya got that story from the school library and we had a good time reading it and laughing about the whole thing where they get eaten, and then the wolf gets killed, and out comes grandma and little Red. Apparently it makes for a good game on the trampoline, and the girls keep talking about a play version that they want to do. Love the classics!

The night ended a little differently than planned. We got take-out from our favorite place...

They were way backed up and late with all the to-go orders, and then an accident caused some major traffic on the way home. We ended up not sitting down to eat until after 9 p.m. only to have our dinner interupted by Cole waking up really upset. Things went downhill from there, with Cole up on and off until we went to bed. As the night progressed, croup set in and I slept very little. Poor kid sounded awful, but luckily we got some meds the next day and he is now doing a lot better. I was so, so tired. Croup is no good!

I love this little silly boy, although he is proving to be quite demanding these days. His anti-napping causes him to be a bit cranky making for some long afternoons. Most nights I am so ready for bedtime. He is funny though and quite a chatterbox. I love when he says, "Can you reach me high?" when he wants you to pick him up to reach something he can't get. The other night when Jake was reading him a bedtime story, he wanted Jake to stop reading so he could come and tell me something so he asked Jake, "Can you pause that?" (Can you tell he knows his DVR?) He still loves Mickey Mouse and watched about seven thousand episodes yesterday when he was sick and quarantined to my room. And when Eli was sitting in his bumbo today, he asked, "Is Eli going pee-pee?" Gotta love potty training! And speaking of Eli...

This little boy is sleeping through the night! Only took 5 kids to finally get one who decides all by himself to sleep all night. None of our other kids have done this! It is awesome! Where did he come from?! Such a cute baby boy. He still needs to strengthen that neck a little. Must need more tummy time- we were so diligent with Elle. Guess we've kind of dropped the ball over time. Oh well!

And lastly some pics from my date with Jada...

I feel a little bad for this girl lately. With Cole not napping and the baby requiring so much of my time, I feel like she doesn't get much of my attention anymore. So we had a date night for fancy cupcakes and shopping at Target. She's a funny girly too. I did start to wonder when the other day she asked me "Do you know who my Valentine is?" Luckily her answer was "Whitney". And when I was trying to get her to listen to me and get dressed and ready for the day today, she told me something like "I did yesterday so I don't have to today. I'm doing a pattern." Silly girl!

Big Boys

I love my boys. It's funny to talk about "the boys" after spending so much time enveloped in pink and princess and dress-ups. Boys are funny and I am loving learning all there is to know about these little guys.

We've put little Coley through a lot of transitioning this past little bit, turning him into a big boy basically overnight. He's all but given up conventional napping (meaning he refuses to "go down for a nap") but often makes up for this lack of sleep by catching some shut eye while watching a movie or taking a car ride. I've just decided to embrace it and not worry about it. It's not worth the stress to force the boy to sleep. He'll sleep when he sleeps and that's that.

Two things have happened that have caused Cole to seem old... switching to his big boy bed in Jada's room and potty training! I honestly had no intention of potty training him any time soon. I really don't enjoy arguing with and fighting a two year old on the issue of pee/poop. And I really don't feel like cleaning pee off our new floors. But, he was waking up dry and was willing to go a little in his "froggy potty" so I thought, "What the heck- let's just give this a try!" And you know what? It's actually been so easy! Too easy really. I just keep thinking that we've got to encounter a setback at some point, but so far he has been my easiest to train by a landslide!

We've loaded up on boy undies and potty treats and Cars pull-ups. Jake had a little too much fun at the dollar store buying incentives and came home with all the cars, army men, lizards, Mickey characters, etc. that we could ever need! We've had some accidents, and there was one time where we had pee/poop in the undies and the baby was crying and I was about to quit. But then I thought to myself, "What, you're going to quit just because it's hard?" and I decided to press on. Well I am glad I did, because we have been accident-free for days as well as dry at night. Really, it can't be this easy. My favorite phrase from him that has come from all this is when stuff isn't quite coming out like it should he would say "My bum is locked!"

I'm glad we've figured out how to unlock his bum. Moving on from bathroom talk...

And back to our discussion about boys and how I'm learning to care for these little creatures. They must be born with a natural love for trucks, balls, and now I'm discovering weapons. They make fighting/shooting noises and can turn basically any object into a weapon. Quite funny considering he is surrounded by sisters and is no where near any type of combat (unless catfights between the girls count. What you thought my girls never fought? Ha. Ha. I only wish.) He's a manly boy stuck behind lots of girls, but still maintains his boyishness by calling his purple hat a "cowboy hat". Gotta love it!

Such a big boy! I love when he walks on his tippy toes while flossing his teeth to show that he is really big enough to be flossing. And when he says things like "It's so tasty!" or "It's delicious!" He loves being outside and would stay out forever if he could just get his sissies to stay with him. Girls don't last quite as long outdoors.

I really can't wait for these two to be old enough to play together. I am so glad they will have each other!

And now for the other cute little boy we have around here...

He saves some of his best smiles for his little light-up sunshine friend...

And he is also growing up! He's three months old already! It's been a fast, but long/sometimes difficult three months, but we are so so happy to have him in our family.

He's discovered his hands and loves to eat them. His hands must have gotten a little rowdy because he scratched himself pretty good a couple of times last week. He loves to lay on his back and kick and stretch. He's really reaching a fun age where he's still tiny enough to cuddle, but is also interactive and so cute! He's losing that newborn look and his legs are chubbing up. I love it!

Besides having to get out the 3 to 6 month clothes, we also officially moved him to his new bed...

He's done really well the past couple of nights. The first night wasn't great, but since then I've been waking up during the night only to find him still sleeping. It's actually really wonderful if he keeps it up. Now we just need to work on getting him to nap more consistently, but I have a feeling that will be a long time coming.

I might be biased but I find him pretty cute!