I am so grateful...

I am experiencing alot of emotions right now. I have a pit in my stomach after learning of the death of my friend's 19 month old son. Pat Young was a good friend of mine in Highschool. He has since moved to Sunnyvale, California. He and his wife have one child, a 19 month old named Cooper. Cooper passed away on January 29th of Meningitis. I just learned of this a few hours ago. Ever since, I have been...thoughtful.

I spend every day, rushing around and alot of times, wishing away some of the stress that family life brings. I think back on the time before I had any children...Joey and I had to go through alot before we were able to get Ethan. I remember feeling so helpless and sad, wondering if I would ever get the opportunity to be a mother. There were so many tears and despairing moments. I was finally blessed with Ethan. Then came Max, Owen and Audrey.

Life is hecktic and, yes...stressful. I yell or get upset every single day!!! All of that being said, how extremely blessed I am! Children and families are such a source of joy - if you let them be. Audrey is 16 months old and I...can't imagine what I would if I lost her or any of my children.

Pat has been blessed and comforted by the knowledge of the gospel through this trying time in his life. I think the trick is to know how blessed you are and know how precious all of life's moments are, so you can fully embrace them - and truly enjoy them. Not wish them away.

How grateful I am for my family. How grateful I am for the gospel...to know I will surely be with them again after this life. I will try to be a little more patient, a little more loving tomorrow and even more the next day. I want my children to know how grateful I am for them so that, if we were separated from each other in this life, I can be comforted knowing they knew how much I loved them. Life is so precious and fragile! It's so wonderful to be a mother - to care for our children, love them and laugh with them. I am grateful for Pat's example and outlook during this difficult time. It has allowed me to reflect on my blessings and know that I have many.

He's snotty!

Just a quick note: I asked Max if he wanted to play with one of his friends today and he said, "no...he's snotty!" I asked him if he knew what that word meant and he said, "yeah, he always has a runny nose!"

Max turns 5

Our Max turned 5 on a few days ago. We are so proud of him! He had a birthday party with water guns, water balloons, pin the tail, pizza, pinata and cupcakes. It was so much fun seeing him with his little buds! Of course, this year, announced that he wanted it to be "boys only." That was a welcome relief after having a son like Ethan who has never disliked girls in his young life. It's not that Max dislikes them, he is just acting like a 5 year old! He had a great time and mom and dad were exhausted and so happy when it was over!!!

Max's preschool graduation

We are so proud of Max! He has completed his second year of pre-school with "miss Wendy" as his teacher. He had such a great year!!! He loved his class and especially loved meeting his friends - Sawyear, Jack, Connor and Will. They had such a great year together and he's so excited for Kindergarten in August.

His graduation was so much fun and Max said his speaking part perfectly. He memorized it after practicing it just one time. We loved to hear all of the great songs they performed as well!

Audrey Jane

Audrey is growing so much! She is a "petite" girl right now. She has the smallest feet of any of the kids in the family so far! Lucky girl :) She is so much fun and just today started to play "peek-a-boo" with Owen. She is smiling, laughing, dancing, crawing and standing! She loves her brothers, but she knows when to watch out for them, too! She also loves the special time she spends with dad. When he gets home from work, she goes up to the room with him to play while he changes out of his work clothes.

She's a great eater and so far loves all of the fruits and vegetables that we can give her! Aboutr a month ago, she got her first tooth on the bottom and we're waiting for the second one to pop through any moment!

Baseball Dayz

We have been having lots of fun this past month going to Ethan's baseball games! It's his first year of machine pitch and he's doing great. He is one of the youngest on his team and he's very proud of that! Owen, Audrey, Max, mom and dad all love sitting on the sidelines. Max and Owen have loved the "snack shaft" (shack) as Max calls it. They ask to get a treat from there every time we go to a game. Audrey has been doing well...crawling around and grabbing grass whenever she can. It's lots of fun and I am planning on many, many, many more games to come...with the 3 boys. So far, Ethan hasn't found a sport he doesn't like :)

Guns!

Here are our two "muscle men" Ethan and Max. They love to flex their guns and I think they look so grown up when they do! Ethan loves to work out and has a whole routine outside that he'll do a couple times a week. Max likes it for a few minutes...but that's about it!

Honkey Tonk

Just a little note - as I was turning on the t.v. this morning, Owen came in with his "Wiggles" guitar, singing one of his favorite songs. This is what he sang: "Honkey tonk, b'donka donk! Sing along...slap your grandma!" I couldn't believe it - he was strumming and singing at the top of his lungs. These are the real words to a Trace Adkins song, but it sounds hillarious coming out of a 2-year-old's mouth!

Boys in Trees

Ethan is growing in so many ways this year! He's having a great time in Kindergarten. He is a fabulous artist and loves to draw - he will pause his favorite cartoon (Ben 10) and draw the picture that he sees on the screen..paying perfect attention to the details. He is also very into climbing the tree in our front yard - he gets up there pretty high!

Is that comfy?

Here's what we saw about a week ago as we walked past Owen's bedroom...

Audrey's growing up...

Audrey is almost 6 months old now and we can't believe it! She is a very happy girl and is already extremely attached to mom! She is sitting up and laughing and interacting with her brothers. Ethan has figured out a game to make her laugh - he puts a blanket over her and then pulls it off quickly. Max is very sweet and soft with her and Owen, well...he's still trying his best. He loves to say, "Audrey is a baby..." because it's his way of getting away with calling someone a "baby" without getting into trouble.

The other night, it was so fun to see how excited she was when Ethan and Max walked in the door after being gone for a long time. She started smiling and kicking her legs. Before long, they had her laughing. They just loved to see how much she missed them!

Audrey looks just like dad (of course) and we're so glad she's in our family!

Nacho - CHEESE

The boys love the movie "Nacho Libre". They went through a faze about 2 years ago where they were obsessed with it...in fact, many a neighbor saw both Max and Ethan running outside in their turqoise "nacho tights". Last Christmas, my mom made them some red capes and they got Nacho tights from Santa. This Christmas, Max decided to bring it back and the ONLY thing he wanted from Santa were "Nacho tights." We thought it was strange, because he hadn't talked about Nacho for a long time. Well...they're back and he's put his own twist on 'em. Owen joins in the fun wearing his own pair of tights - but he prefers to go without the underwear (under or over).

scrub-a-dub-dub...3 kidds in the tub

Here are the boys in the tub...this is probably one of the last times Eth will let me take a pic of them in the tub :) They have so much fun together and Ethan is a good example to his younger brothers. They love to play sharks, spiderman, Ben 10 and squirt each other. It goes about like this: 1 minute of playing, 1 minute of fighting, 1 minute of crying, 1 minute of playing, .... and on like that for about 20minutes!

I'm flattered

The other day...I was asking Max if he wanted to play soccer this next year and he said, "I'd be flattered!" Max is so smart and I was surprised that he actually knew when and how to use the word. He's the wild card - always saying something funny!

Potty Potty Potty trained!

Here's O-dawg writing a letter to his Aunt Melissa on her mission! He is officially potty trained now and the way we did it is by letting him run around naked for awhile. So, for all you neighbors and friends who were sick of seeing him naked...it's OK! We're done now. We're so proud of him and we are happy to only have 1 set of diapers to change now.

Owen is such a fun boy - we went to watch dad's church regional play-off basketball game the other day. He kept saying "hi" to dad and was constantly acting annoyed at the other team saying; "awww...come on peeps!"

Sumo Princess

Here's Audrey in all her chubbiness! It's funny, because this picture makes her look twice as fat as she actually is...but I love it. She has learned to sit-up with little or no assistance now! She is laughing and especially loves to be entertained by her brothers. She loves to watch them and I can tell she really feels like she's part of the family now. What a joy she is!

He kicked me...

As I was cleaning the kitchen the other day, I heard Owen and Ethan get into a little scuffle in the family room. Shortly thereafter, Owen came up to me (crying) and said, "Ethan kicked me in the weiner!" Not knowing if he knew what and where that was...I asked him where "the weiner" is? He looked up at me through his tears and pointed to his knee. As I thought about this, I realized he said that because he knew getting kicked in the "weiner" is a very painful thing! So...naturally, if it hurt when Ethan kicked him, it must have been in the "weiner!"

We're not together anymore

Well - I don't really know where to begin on this one. Ethan has never - ever gone through a period in his young life when he hasn't liked girls. I mean liked girls in the sense that he is attracted to them!

When he was in nursery, he used to try and kiss a little red head named Lauren. Why? Because he thought she was Mary Jane, from Spiderman! I would get so embarrased when I would go in to pick him up and they would tell me he was trying to kiss her again! What? An 18 month old?

Fast-forward 5 years and Ethan is now in Kindergarten at Woods Cross Elementary. He came home on the first day of school and said he liked a girl - Allie. Since then, he has continually given me updates on the Allie situation. He has kissed her on the cheek in "stations". He said the teacher didn't see it, so it was OK.

He told me that he has held her hand at recess. Aparently, some of the other girls are "jealous" and want him to like them. He has fluctuated between Allie and Lauren. He came home from his first day back after Christmas break and when I asked him how school was, he said, "me and Allie aren't together anymore!" I told him that he doesn't even know what "together" means...but I am starting to worry he actually does!

When I'm a grown-up

The other night, Joey walked into the family room to find Max sitting by himself. He asked him what he was thinking about and Max replied "I'm thinking about what it would be like to be a grown up." "What would that be like?" Joey asked. "I could be the boss of myself and stay up late," said Max "and I would eat all of my food - even my carrots!"

Good things, indeed!

Ethan and Max had a fun opportunity in early December. Sharon Smith (now Miles) is a woman in our ward with her own line of dress-up clothes. She designed a Nativity set and asked Ethan and Max to model them for her on Good Things Utah. This was especially fun, because the other "models" were a few kids in our neighborhood that they are good friends with.

They were so excited when they found out they were going to be on TV! On the morning of, I got everyone ready and we headed to the studio (Owen stayed with his favorite girl...Amber Ressel!) Joey met us there (he works 1/2mile away!) They went into the green room and started getting ready. It was so much fun - especially to be with our friends and neighbors.

They sat us in the audience (we were a little nervous, because Audrey was asleep in her carrier and we didn't know how long that would last!) The "warm up" guy let us know everything we could and couldn't do. The most important thing was just to clap really loud (since there were only about 15 of us there!)

Our segment was at the very beginning...which was perfect. The kids hammed it up (especially Ethan) who made sure he was smiling the whole time and evey waving. Max was definitely smiling, too. Another exciting thing was that for some reason, people dressed up as Star Wars characters were there. I was feeding Audrey during their segment, so I still don't know why they were there. Anyway - the boys thought that was great!

The hosts were super nice...much nicer than I thought they would be in person. Regan wasn't there and she's myh favorite. Nicea, Angi and Marni were, however. It was so much fun and something I hope they'll remember for a long time! It was fun to see the "behind the scenes" of a show like that. Ethan's picture is also on the cover of the nativity package - and it was sold in Deseret Book! He's kind of embarassed, but deep down, he loves it!