Friday Five

1- I love these sweet boys. David is always (and has always been) wonderful. But the other day I was thinking about how he's really picked things up to the next level. He's kind, patient, and loving. He works incredibly hard, and although busy season technically is over - he still has some heavy projects he's trying to push through at work. But even though he's still putting in a lot of hours and energy at work, he still gives us 100% at home. I'm amazed by him every day and can't say enough how lucky we are to have him. He knows how to make each one of us feel special and loved and we are blessed by that.

2-I've taken a HUGE step back with Red Ladder Design because I've found that if I take on too much it gets incredibly stressful for me and my kids suffer for it. I have done a handful of wedding announcements over the past few months and I'm glad to say that I was able to keep things pretty balanced. I just finished up my last set of wedding announcements and I'm in love with them. Look at these gorgeous envelopes! 

3-We went to the farm with some friends and had such a nice time. It snowed last week (!?!) and had been a little rainy in the morning but the weather was perfect when we went and there were almost NO other people there. The peacock had splayed his feathers all out, which the kids loved, and we rode the horses 4 times in a row. Austin really wanted to ride the horses, but then got nervous and didn't want to ride the first time, but then he decided to try it and after that I couldn't get him off! He really loved it.

4- On Tuesday Caleb just would not nurse. He'd cry and cry and so I'd rock him until he fell asleep thinking that he'd nurse when he woke up and wasn't so tired - but then he wouldn't nurse again and would just fall back asleep. Finally after about 7 hours of him sleeping and/or not nursing - I held my crying baby in my lap while I pumped about 3 oz of milk for him. Pumping is hard for me and I'm not usually very successful at it so I was grateful I was able to get some milk for him. I started feeding him and he took the bottle right away. It was a stressful thing for me, but it was SO sweet because Lydia asked if she could feed him and she sat and fed him the whole thing. By that night he was nursing fine again, so I'm not sure what the deal was... but look how sweet these kids are. 

5-I hadn't mopped my floor since Caleb was born. (Over 2 months.) Don't judge. Spot cleaning was getting us through, but I finally decided to bite the bullet and do it. At our house, mopping is a family affair. :) 

6-These boys are cute. It won't be too long before Caleb starts catching up to Austin in size! (Also, we're hoping to potty train Austin this summer. He's definitely interested and probably ready but I've been putting it off.)

6-My cousin, Trey Knowles, is getting married tomorrow and my Grandma and Grandpa Knowles were in town from Boise for the wedding. We had them over for dinner and to hang out tonight and it was such a nice time. I love my Grandparents so much and am so glad it worked out that we could spend so much time with them. I'm glad that even though they live far away, my kids are growing up knowing and loving them, too. 

Happy Friday!

Friday Five

This post should probably be titled: "Random things from the past two weeks" because there are more than five things and they are all really random, but...

1-Target had a sale on baby things (Spend $100 get $25) and thanks to their RedCard Free shipping we got all these diapers/wipes delivered right to our door. 

2- Austin loves looking at the fish when we go shopping at Walmart.

3- My not-so-little brother Matthew and his sweet wife Brooklyn are spending the summer in Rhode Island for an Internship Brooklyn has with Hasbro (cool!). We had them over for dinner and gave them this little care package for their road trip out there. We are going to miss them!!

4-This little guy just keeps getting cuter and cuter. The kids just love him. 

5-We had Stake Conference at the Alpine Tabernacle for the last time. (tears!) I love this building so much and have loved being able to attend our Stake Conferences here. It's so beautiful and so full of rich history. One of the speakers said that every Prophet has spoken at this tabernacle since Brigham Young (whether as an apostle or a prophet). Wouldn't it be incredible to hear those words resonating throughout those walls? I wish that I could say that our last Stake Conference here has wonderful and uplifting, but I've honestly never felt so tempted to just call it a failure and leave halfway though. The kids were crazy.  Caleb, by far, was the best behaved. He slept in his carseat most of the time, but even so - we could barely contain Lydia and Austin. With about 20 minutes left in the meeting I took them down to the bathroom to let them go potty and then refused to let them go back to their seats. We sat in the hall (trying to hear the Stake President, without  much success) until the closing song started. *sigh* The kids weren't being bad, not on purpose. They just could. not. sit. still. They couldn't sit at all. *double sigh*. Regardless, I still love this building and wish we could have all of our Stake Conferences here. 

6- Lydia has been loving playing with all of the gifts she was given for her birthday. Every day she wants to play with something new and they've been welcome distractions and entertainments! 

7- We've had our super-awesome van for just over a year and think week I realized that you could copy your CDs to the Hard Drive of the van and then favorite different tracks to create your own playlist. So cool! Austin has his favorite songs on different CDs and frequently requests that I change the CD to listen to a particular song. Now I can have them all together and we can listen to them on repeat. Here's to 5 little monkeys, Shoo Fly, and Animal Fair! 

8-Lydia doesn't dress up in her princess dresses much, and it's almost always initiated by a friend who has come over to play, but look how darling these girls are. Sarah came over in her Rapunzel dress and Lydia wanted to match her. In even more exciting news, we're starting up our babysitting swap again and are so excited! This babysitting swap is the best thing to ever happen to our date nights and I can't recommend it enough. Yay! 

9-There's something special about watching your children while they sleep. When you walk into their room and hear them breathing deeply, safe and sprawled out in their beds. 

--David took the Friday before Lydias birthday off andwhile Lydia was at preschool we took Austin to Krispy Kreme to get a donut. Then David took Lydia out to lunch as a special birthday treat.

--Kevin Haderlie graduated with his Masters, so Jenna threw him a party. It was the last time all of us siblings will be together for a while (Matt & Brooklyn are headed to Rhode Island for the summer), we took a sibling picture of the 5 of us. I've been blessed with wonderful siblings and I love them so much. They truly are some of my best friends. Lydia loved playing with her new remote controlled car in the Haderlies basement.  And we all loved that Jenna and Kevin now live close enough to my mom and dad that we could just pop over there before we left so that we could see their new rocking horse! 

--Cal and Sue came down to visit for a minute one night. It was time for Austin to go to bed, so Cal took him upstairs, read him books, and put him to bed. We're lucky to have such a good grandpa for our children. 

 

--David took Lydia mother's day shopping. She really wanted to get me this skateboard. Cute.

Friday Five

Some highlights of this week: 

1- The weather was warm, so one afternoon while we were out running errands I took the kids to the park. Caleb had fallen asleep in his carseat so I pulled up and parallel parked next to Bandwagon Park and let the kids get out and play. I sat in the open area of the van with the door open and my legs out in the sun while the kids played and I finished writing all my Thank You notes to the many people who generously brought us dinner/gifts after Caleb was born. Caleb slept soundly the whole time and it was wonderful! The sun was SO nice, the kids played so well, and I felt like I accomplished a huge task without ignoring my kids or letting them watch TV while I did it. I'm so excited for summer! 

2- Cal was out of town this week, and one of the days Sue came down to visit and stay with us. The kids loved having her, and Lydia was SO excited when she asked if grandma was staying overnight and the answer was yes. Sue made us a delicious dinner and held Caleb while I put the kids to bed (so helpful!). And she brought a darling outfit for caleb and four packages of diapers. She's amazing. I'm grateful for such a wonderful mother-in-law. We've been surrounded by love and support ever since Caleb was born and it's such a blessing to have such a great net of support. I'm feeling so blessed. (And again, can I say how much I love my mother in law? She's an angel.) 

3. Our good friend, Carson, fell off the playground at school and broke his arm. Lydia wrote him a card and begged to put a treat inside and we left it on their porch. Lydia's been writing cards for lots of her friends lately. She loves cards and envelopes, and she's been doing so good at writing the notes all by herself! She asks me how to spell the things and then writes each letter out. She knows how to write them all, but sometimes she says "S? Is that the slithery snake?" or "T? Is that like an I but with only the line on top not on the bottom?" etc... She knows, but it's cute to hear her ask and to glimpse how her brain is working. 

4. My Dad stopped by on the way home from the research station in Ephraim one day. He brought a big truck and trailer and the kids loved playing on it. Almost as much as they loved the ding-bumps that he gave them. They sure love this guy. (And so do I. I love when he stops as he's passing by.) 

5. My sweetest sister Jenna had Lydia and Austin stay for a sleepover last weekend. I dropped the kids off on Saturday and then we picked them up Sunday evening. They had such a fun time, and it was SO nice to be able to sleep in on Sunday morning. (I pulled Caleb into our bed to nurse him and all three of us slept until almost nine o'clock. It was heavenly.)