Pumpkins

Whoever thought carving pumpkins with kids was a good idea is my kind of crazy. We've done this for two years now and my kids love it! Giving them sharp objects and letting them hack away? Awesomeness. Abby and Paul went all out this year with paint and bedazzling. Izzy just wanted to mess with the slop. 

I love this time of year so much. It seems to fly by though so I hope to be better at documenting it! Love this family of mine. The ages of the kids are so fun right now. Everything is so exciting and fun!

T-H-R-E-E

 Jared turned 3 a couple weeks ago! We had a Lightning McQueen birthday party at the park for him. He decided about two days before that he wanted a Thomas the Train party... Uh sorry fella.

 We had lots of family come by and a few friends . ^Babies! Dean was the only boy baby there. I'm sure he was loving it :)

Look at all his cousins and friends! And these weren't even all of the ones that were there. We are so lucky to live so close to most of our cousins. 

 Grandpa, Grandma and Nanna with the birthday boy

Biggest hit of the party? Balloons of course. 

We LOVE this boy so much. He tugs at my heart strings every day. Such a sweetie. He gives the best hugs and makes us laugh every day. He's blossomed these last couple months with his vocabulary and willingness to try new things. We are slowly adding in things to his diet, something I thought would never happen, and he is being a great brother to his two sisters. Love our Jared Paul!

See ya!

Pauls brother, Michael, his wife, Beth, and their two kids Caleb and Sarah come to visit Texas at least once a year. They usually come at thanksgiving, we go to Ikea and go camping with the Johnson Family and have a great time. This time they came in July to visit because Michael was assigned to deploy to Turkey with the family for at least two years. It was a super fun visit as always. We had a TON of fun and had a TON of blue bell. You can't get blue bell in Turkey ;) 

 We ditched the kids and headed to dinner one night at BJ's. Did you know you could order a pazookie bigger than anyone ever should order? Yeah, we got that.

We got to celebrate Beth's birthday! That hardly ever had happened before because they always lived so far away. 

 Charlie showed us his skills on the trombone and we tried to get a good picture of the grandkids.

This is Paul's mom and dad and 3 of his 5 siblings. It would have been so much fun to have all the siblings together, but sometimes the distance to travel is too great. We still had a lot of fun. 

Paul had to work the morning we took Michael and Beth to the airport. They sold their house, packed up all their belongings and put them on a ship to Turkey. It was a really sad goodbye and I'm really, really missing Beth right now because usually we'd be emailing and texting getting ready for the camping trip this month....
I know they are having tons of fun in Turkey and it's a really great adventure for them! Its so fun to hear from them and see pictures of a place so far away. Miss you guys!

3rd and 4th

The 3rd and 4th are big deals around these parts. In Midlothian, they celebrate the 4th on the 3rd. I love it! On the 3rd we had the usual get together with food, treats and fireworks. My family was there, Pauls parents were there and a few friends came to join in on the fun. This year the fireworks show was pretty lame for some reason. But the company was great and we had s'mores. All was well.

On the 4th, we went to the parade in town. The kids LOVED it. We had a great time. When we got home we realized we grabbed the wrong key for the car... We got the key with no house key on it... and we went out through the garage which locked on us on the way out. So we were locked out of the house. We called a locksmith who couldn't get the locks open.. so after sitting in the car with the kids for over an hour, he drilled through the locks. Paul ran to the store to get two new locks because both of them were ruined from the guy messing with them. It was such a mess. Needless to say, we bought the same brand of locks because OBVIOUSLY they work. We vetoed the rest of our plans and hung out for the rest of the evening. :)

Summer time 2014

TWENTY-SEVEN!

My pretty awesome husband turned 27 in June. I was so, so excited to celebrate this guys big day. Not only does it mean hes older than me and I can give him a lot of crap for it (for 6 months), but he is so deserving of a little spoilage every now and then. 

I told him the day before that we all needed to be ready and out the door by 10 am. He was so confused... And not very happy that he had to be up and ready so early :) 

So we got all ready and ventured off to Cedar Hill. Paul and I went to Ellen's Amusement a few times on dates so I thought it would be fun to take our kids there. It was a hit! The kids had a blast and it wasn't unbearably hot, so that was a major pro. 

When we got home, it was lunch time and the kids were spent but I'd promised them that daddy would open gifts when we got home. So Paul dug into gifts. This year he got ceiling speakers (to upgrade his surround sound), his driver re-gripped, and a new grill cover. He was pretty dang excited, mostly about the ceiling speakers :)

   

After gifts comes cake. Yep, we had cake and ice cream for lunch! Happy birthday, kiddos! 

Once we got down on some birthday cake, the kids went to bed and we cleaned up and got ready for a hot date...

Paul and I went to Cheesecake factory where we were seated ----> thisclose <---- a="" after="" and="" be="" but="" dinner.="" edge="" fun="" grapevine="" headed="" it="" mills="" movie="" next="" of="" out="" p="" people="" still="" the="" theater="" to="" tomorrow.="" turned="" watched="" we="">

Happy birthday to this great man of mine! I love you, Paul!

Just a few randoms....

For Mother's Day, Paul got me a fun new toy! A Cannon PowerShot SX50. I absolutely love it! Here are a few random pictures from the first few days. It's been fun to get to know my new lady friend. 

^The ones of the kids outside was a fun time. Paul had to work super late unexpectedly and I was pretty annoyed because I had plans to go out. The kids were super bummed, too, so we went to the store and got some push pops. They had so much fun eating and laughing and playing. It turned out to be a pretty good night!

 These are from Urban Air in Mansfield. We LOVE this place. They have "Jumperoo" time for kids 6 and under and its way discounted and cheap. It seems like they only do it during the school year, so we're looking forward to going back in a month or so. The kids were thoroughly exhausted after we were done. Win-win!

Mommy of Three

In May my brother, Beau, came for a visit. It's always a good time when he comes. We never get to see enough of him. 

This time I asked a favor of him... See this guy (along with my sister and other brother) can do great things with a camera. So somehow I bribed him and he took these AMAZING pictures of my kids. It was quite the task.. and he was hilarious trying to get good pictures. I love how they turned out. I hate how big Abby and Jared look though.. Wah wah. 

These are just a few of the ones he sent me. Thanks Buncle Beau! 

Blessing Day

Isabelle was blessed on May 4, 2014 by Her Daddy :)

Lets be honest.. the day itself was insane. Trying to get up and out the door by 8:30 am so you can be to church before it starts and get a decent seat with 2 kids and a newborn? It was crazy. It was one of those days where I wish I could go back and do it over. but you live and learn, huh?

Anyway. 

We got to church in time and got everyone settled. It was so nice to have so much family there. In our church, we don't baptize babies. Why? Because we feel like baptism should be saved for when a child/adult is old enough to make the decision themselves (the earliest time being 8 years of age). Once you are baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you are then accountable for you actions. Of course there is always the Atonement.  

So our babies are blessed. 

In that blessing Paul was able to listen to the spirit and bless Izzy with some beautiful things. It was so wonderful! There is a lady in our ward who has decided to write down the blessings, frame them and give them to the parents as a gift. It's really just wonderful. When I was a baby, I was in this same ward and she did that when I was blessed! Back then she just wrote it on a program and handed it to you though ;) I love to look at it!

 Like I said, the day was crazy.. and the craziness didn't end until late that evening. Then I realized I didn't even get a picture of Izzy in her blessing dress... So the next day I dressed her in it again and got to see her personality shine through. I also got to reflect and think about how blessed I am to have 3 beautiful, healthy babies. I love them so very much. Izzy has been such a blessing in our lives. I'm so grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the knowledge that I have. As long as we are faithful to our covenants we have made with our Heavenly Father, we will be together forever. I LOVE that. It's why I live the way I do and try to be the best I can be. I'm also so thankful for the Atonement to make up for my shortcomings, because I have plenty. 

I'm also so thankful for Paul. He works so hard to be the best father to our kiddos and he does a fantastic job at it. 

Izzy Claire, we love you!

1 Month

 Isabelle Claire at 1 month. 

Izzy had a 6 day visit to the doctor where she weighed in a 7 lbs 11 oz (1 oz away from her birth weight) (55%)

Her height was 20 1/2 in (90%) and her head was 14" (90%) 

Then she had a 2 week visit where she was 8 lbs 10 oz. (75%)

The first month was a roller coaster. I was trying so hard to nurse her but he little gal was just hard. What is it with my girls being so hard to nurse? So I nursed her for about 3 weeks and gave up. I'm still no so happy that I gave up... mostly because formula is so. dang. expensive. I know Izzy will be just as healthy and strong as any other nursed baby so I don't worry about that at all. 

Izzy slept so much the first month of her life. And her big sister, Abby, was (and is) completely obsessed with her. Izzy was never ever laid down. Everyone wanted to hold her all the time ::)

 Izzy and Abby. They are going to be quite the pair when they grow up. Abby, like I mentioned earlier, loves to hold, feed and help Izzy in any way. One day I was cooking dinner and Izzy just wasn't having it. She was screaming her little head off. Abby was holding her and then all the sudden Izzy stopped crying. I walked over to find this....

Abby had thrown Izzy up on her shoulder and Izzy calmed right down (and maybe fell asleep? I can't remember). It was so incredibly sweet/scary. I couldn't believe my 4 year old knew just what to do to calm my 3 week old down. Such a sweet little mommy.

And here are Izzy and Dean! Born one week apart. I LOVE that my kids have cousins so close together. I wish these two were a little bit further apart just because I wasn't able to help out Chelsea like she's always helped out me. Dean is her sweet little #5 and so incredibly sweet. 

The first month wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was a HUGE relief to not nurse anymore and I really truly think that that's why it was an easier transition. Nursing has never been an easy thing for me and to take that huge stress away when I had two very young kids still needing so much for me was a great relief. 

Up next? Month #2 :)