If you give a mom a muffin...

Rease made this darling book for me at school and it is so cute and clever!  And it's spot on!  I'm amazed at how observant she is and how well she knows me.  Sweet girl.  

Field Day

You know school is winding down when Field Day rolls around!  I got to help with Rhen and Liev's classes today and had such a fun time!  The kids are full of energy and ready for summer to be here!

Flower beds

For my birthday this year Josh took me to pick out plants to put in our flower beds in the front yard!  We picked out our favorite ones then spent the weekend planting, laying down mulch and getting drip lines hooked up to each plant.  It was a lot of work but we had a great time together and love how it turned out!  I'm so excited to have flowers in our yard!

Liev's Drawing

I love this cute picture Liev drew!

Breakfast in Bed

My boys are the sweetest.  They are usually the first ones up in the mornings and turn on cartoons before the rest of us roll out of bed.  Today, they decided to get my breakfast all ready for me and bring it to me on a tray.  They got all the essentials.  Oatmeal with almond milk: check.  Toast and butter: check.  Fruit: check.  Mom's drink of choice: check.  Love these 3 big boys of mine!

Memorial Day

The kids love going down to the Provo Cemetary and visiting Sarah's grave every Memorial Day.  They look forward to it and love finding it amongst all the other grave stones.  The boys and I went down this year and spent some time reflecting and talking about their Aunt Sarah.  Such a good time to remember how much we love our family.

Peeing

This is the reward for having 4 boys in a row.  No more holding them while they try and go pee on the side of the road or helping them squat.  Nope.  Just open the door and let them go.  Love it!

The boys

These boys keep us happy, excited and on our toes! Love every one of them!

Trip to the instacare

Liev hurt his hand today jumping on the trampoline and has been complaining about it ever since.  Josh decided to take him in to the instacare tonight just to get it checked out and make sure there were no broken bones.  They had a fun time while they waited and it turns out nothing is broken so that's an even bigger bonus!

Desh 1st Birthday

Our baby boy turned 1 today!  How did that happen?  He is the best and we were all excited to be able to celebrate his birthday today.  

 The baby cake is the best part of a 1st birthday.  Desh had no problem digging right in and going to town.  He did really good getting most of it all over himself.  I think some may have may it in his mouth!  We sure love this last boy of ours!

My favorite things about 1 year old Desh:

1) He is quite content to just be hauled around everywhere.  Whether it's in the stroller, the carseat or just being carried around, he just goes along for the ride and joins in on the chaos.  And for that matter, he doesn't care that he isn't walking yet.  He has no need to get anywhere on his own - he has 5 brothers and sisters to carry him around wherever he needs to go!

2) Desh is right up there with being one of my chubbiest babies.  I can't stop kissing his cheeks.  He has a round belly, round cheeks and thighs that have so much chub on them I can't even stand it.  Round babies are my favorite thing!

3) Desh is forever my birthday twin.  I love sharing this day with him and knowing that my favorite birthday gift I've even gotten was him.

1 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 2'7" - 87%

Weight: 23 lbs. 9 oz. - 83%

Head: 18.9 inches - 93%

Happy birthday Baby Desh!

Pit Stop

I love when Beck just drops his drawers and takes a quick pit stop no matter where he's at!  Doughy buns!

Ogden Marathon 2017

I have been training for the Ogden Marathon for the past few months.  I love to run and especially love running a marathon this time of year when the weather is getting so nice and the days keep getting longer and longer!  It's my favorite time of the year!  One of my favorite things I have used for training is my Apple Watch that Josh bought me a while ago.  It has a running app that tracks all my runs and shows me my distance and my times.  It has been awesome to train with!  These are just a few of the runs I've been on while training.  Josh has been super patient and helpful as I've taken so many of our Saturday's lately for my longer training runs.  He is a super dad and has been really supportive!  After lots of hours and miles on the road the day of the marathon finally arrived!  

 I went up Friday afternoon and checked in at the expo, got my bib number,  dropped my water bottles along the trail and tried to get all prepped for the next morning.  I was able to have a good dinner and get to bed early so that I could feel rested for the run.  Josh stayed home with the kids and was going to meet me up at the finish line the next day.  

My friends Shelly and Wan picked me up Saturday morning early and we headed up to the bus stop to load onto our bus!  So early, but so awesome to see all the runners with high energy and ready to go!

 Up at the starting line we had about an hour before the race started.  There were fire pits all over with people gathering around trying to stay warm and get ready to run.  It was really fun to sit and chat with people and know that everyone is about to embark on a 4 or more hour trek along with you!

 Our friend Stephanie got hurt during training and wasn't able to run with us today, so Wan was running with her in mind!

The starting line with thousands of runners waiting.  And then we were off!

A marathon is hard.  I think about it every time I start to train and wonder if I'm going to be able to do it again.  And it is hard every time.  But I love it and I love that I can make my body do something hard. 

By the time I am near the finish line, all I want to do is see my family and know that they are there cheering me on.  By then it's the only thing that keeps me running.  The last stretch toward the finish line seems like an eternity.  But I finally saw my kiddos and Josh and these three jumped out and ran the last 100 yards with me.  I couldn't keep the tears from running down my face.  It mixed in with the sweat so you couldn't tell!

All I could think after I was done is "I made it!"  And not just that but I made it under 4 hours which has been my goal all along.  3:56:07!

 My kids made these awesome posters for me and cheered their little hearts out!  Thanks to the whole family for sacrificing to let me do this!

New Haircut

Rease decided that she was ready for a new do for the summer.  Something shorter and lighter.  I was all for it since we've been struggling with long, tangly hair for a long time.  So off to Great Clips we went!  Her hair was long enough that she could donate it if she decided to cut off enough so that's what she did.  12 inches are gone and she is so cute with her new, shorter hairdo! 

Rhen's Seed Journal

Rhen has been learning a lot about plants and the plant cycle this year in school.  They have grown their own seeds and watched how they develop into a plant.  This seed journal is a wrap up of their plant learning.  I love it and she did a a great time getting all the steps down!

Lasagna Night

Josh's teachers were in charge of the combined activity this month and they put on a lasagna bake.  They split everyone up into 5 groups and had them go to five different houses to assemble a lasagna.  The lasagnas were then donated to the relief society to freeze and give to anyone that would be in need of a quick meal.  It was such a good idea and the kids had a blast!  The winning team won this stack of oreo cookies - totally worth winning!

Golum

Josh always laughs at how skinny Liev is these days.  And he also likes to sit with his knees up by his chest so the knobby knees are really visible.  Josh has started calling him Golum - said with lots of love of course!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with all my cute kiddos and my sweet husband.  They are always so nice to make me breakfast in bed and let me sleep in just a little bit. 

And always my favorite things to get are the homemade cards and art projects they make.  Seriously the cutest and nicest things a mom could hope for!  I love my family and wouldn't want my life any other way! (And do I seriously have 6 kids?! We can all barely fit on the bed!)

Beanie Boos

My kids are OBSESSED with these little stuffed animals.  I used to hate stuffed animals and say we would never collect them in our house.  Well...

In the grass

This cute boy loves being outside, especially now that the weather is so nice!  He is also realizing that the grass isn't so bad.  Summer here we come!

Breakfast time

When we were building our house and deciding what type of kitchen island we wanted to have, this is the exact scenario I pictured in my mind.  A place big enough for lots of kids to gather around and have plenty of space for a yummy breakfast.  Top that off with a dad that makes a killer egg sandwich and you have the makings of a perfect saturday morning!

Helping with the dishes

Keen has become a pretty helpful boy around the house.  He'll pick up the windex and paper towels and clean the mirrors, wash of the toilet seat with the 409 and help me load up the dishes.  It's not always this way, there are definitely moments of whining and crying when it's chore time.  But when these brief moments come around, I take advantage of it!  Thanks for your help Keen!

Schoolhouse Rock

Rease has been part of the play at school called School House Rock.  She has been on the stage crew and has loved making all the sets and helping out with lights and the cast.  She has worked really hard and they have been practicing twice a week after school all year.  They really did an amazing job!  The very last song the stage crew was able to come out in their black shirts and perform with the rest of the cast.  I love seeing her put her heart into something and loving it!

Get Out Games

We had an office party at the Alcatraz Get Out Games.  I have never done this before but it was SO SO fun!  We split into different groups and were all in separate rooms doing different games.  We were assigned to the bus and were actually on a bus trying to get out.  We started out handcuffed to our seats and had to use the tools that were around to get out and open up locks throughout the bus.  It is timed and we had this prisoner locked up in the bus with us that was trying to get out and get us.  It was intense but really fun!  And we actually got out too which was a bonus!  

Jazz/Warriors

The Warriors are back in town playing the Jazz in the playoffs.  Josh knew I wanted to try and catch one of the games so he bought be some tickets for Mother's Day.  Love him.  We tried really hard to blend in as Jazz fans instead of Warriors fans and we cheered hard under our breath! The Warriors ended up winning so we were happy about that but the Jazz did give it a good run and stayed pretty close.  We love watching basketball and were so glad to make it to the game!

My uncle Chris works in the camera booth and let us up top to look around before the game started.  He took us on a tour of his office and all that goes into filming the game then took us down to the lower levels and showed us where the locker rooms for both teams are.  It was awesome to be able to see that part of the arena!  Thanks for taking time to show us around!

Swinging

I love to see babies swing for the first time and love it!  Desh could not get enough of this swing tonight at the park.  He was having a ball.

Grammie's Dogs

Grammie just got two new puppies and ooh Baby Desh hates them!  They love to jump and kiss on him and he can't get away from them.  He just sits and cries while they continue to lick him in his wide open mouth!

Teacher's Quorum Hike

Josh took his teacher's on a hike up to step mountain tonight.  He said it was rough on a few of them but they all made it.  And it looks like they are all in good spirits!

Liev's field trip to the petting zoo

I went with Liev on his field trip to the petting zoo today.  It was such a fun and cute little zoo right here in Herriman.  I had no idea!  We had such a fun time seeing all the animals and learning about how to run a farm.  The kids had a blast and it was a beautiful day!  

Tired

Baby Desh couldn't wait any longer for his nap.  He finished his bottle and fell asleep while waiting for me to take him up to his bed.  Cute baby boy!