Go To Church!!!

So this week was kind of a tough one for one reason or another.  I may have sort of kinda maybe went to church today feeling not too happy.  And maybe a little sorry for myself.  Its stupid, but we all have our moments, right?

After Jonas going from crazy smiley and happy in relief society to a tiny angry monster and I found myself doing laps around the church halls to keep him quiet, I ran into a sweet lady in our ward who somehow just said all the things I needed to hear.  Isn't that amazing?  Church is just where you are suppose to be every Sunday!  Blessings come from going to church, even when you go when you're all sorts of stressed and tired.  Anyway, this friend talked to me and sympathized with me and all the exhaustion that early motherhood brings and said all of the things that people always say to young mothers, like to enjoy it and remember how quickly this time passes, but in a way that made me hear it differently.

Later as I sat in an old rocking chair in a tiny mother's lounge, feeding Jonas, I thought back about the last week and all of the things I have to be so grateful for.

Although at times I feel that Jonas is secretly testing me to see how long one person can go without sleeping, I love him so much!  And oh how grateful I am that I have the means of soothing his late night/early morning tears.  It can get exhausting, but it would be so much worse if I couldn't calm him.   

I am so immensely grateful for medicine!  Its hard having Kal get sick so much and scare the crap out of us with his asthma, but it really isn't that big of deal when we can take him to the doctor and know whats wrong and that he's okay and that we can give him medicine and he can get better.  And so quickly!   

I am so grateful for our home!!!  Its not a perfect house and its not anything fancy, but the spirit and love in our home is something I treasure.   

I am so blessed to have Brad.  The other night my stupid washing machine wasn't working.  The dang door got stuck on lock and I couldnt get it to turn off and I couldn't open the door to get my clothes out.  I got frustrated and gave up and only a few minutes later found Brad in there on the floor, with the thing jacked up and he tinkered with it until he fixed it.  Thats a kind of love you don't find just anywhere ;) 

I am so grateful for heat!  Thats sounds dumb, but its cold!  I have it so easy.  I wake up to a warm fire and just sit in my warm chair and watch the cold happen right outside my window.  

I am so lucky to have such perfectly adorable children.  All my life I dreamed of having babies.  Of holding them and naming them and watching them grow and now by some miracle, I have 3. 

3 miracles that color on walls and take one bite out of every apple in the fridge and stay up late talking and laughing in their room and somehow have tears that can pierce you through the heart. 

I have a husband who does so much.  Like, so, so much.  He gets Clark up and ready for school everyday, he helps him with his homework, he makes dinners, he does chores, he goes grocery shopping, he does just about everything I ask and then some. 

He even took the boys all day on Saturday so that I could have a day all to myself in Reno to shop for some new, non-frumpy clothes.   

I am so lucky to have Brad work so close to home that he can come home everyday for lunch and so we can go visit him at work while he finishes paperwork.  A lot of days he can even leave work to pick Clark up from school and then go back.  Its amazing! 

I get to go to bed each night in the most comfortable bed in the world!!  Its seriously amazing!  And I get to hold my squishy boy as he falls asleep and talk to Brad and listen to my quiet house and know that my family is all safe and sleeping as I fall asleep. 

I have so much support and love coming at me from all over the place.  Seriously, so many friends, so much family.  I really need to remember how fortunate I am to have each and everyone of them. 

So many huge things that make my life easy like, a car, food, clean water, a phone, clean clothes to wear, coats and shoes for my babies, a school for my kids to attend, Brad has a job that takes care and provides for all of our needs and makes it possible for me to stay home with the kids, the gospel and my testimony and the testimonies of so many people around me that help build me up everyday.

And a thousand other little things like, music, my camera, books, my favorite pan to cook with, the babies bouncey seat, tv shows to watch, frozen peppermint patties (which I suddenly cant live without), a dog that seems like she was heaven sent to our family, the fact that tulips are coming up all over my yard, my slippers, my favorite shea butter lotion, and lets not forget the puzzles that keep my boys entertained for hours.

Theres really so much.  The list goes on and on and on.   

Anyway, today I remembered how much I have and that you should always go to church.  Even when you are so tired, you can barely get out of bed.   

Life Update

oh my gosh its been forever since I blogged!  I love it so much, but get so busy living life that I forget to document any of it.  And then I kick myself for having 2000 photos that I havent uploaded and a million little stories that I havent written down and no time to catch up.  So I will do my best at a quick update here. 

So for me, life is good.  Like really, really good.  Which is why I think I've been so bad at blogging.  I get so caught up in my day, that I just dont think about it.  To be honest, I dont even get on Pinterest anymore.  Not that Pinterest is a bad thing, but its for sure my form of daydreaming, and I just havent felt the need for it.  I have been loving decorating my house little by little and planning what I want to do in the future.  I have even started drawing floor plans again and I havent done that in a really long time.  I think about going back to school one day for architecture, but I dont know how involved I would ever want to be in it, so I dont know if it would be worth it.  Brad thinks I should take some writing classes, because I love to write so much.  Maybe.  Lately though all I really want to do is go to carpentry school.  Wouldnt that be amazing?!  I know its sorta weird, but I spend a lot of time thinking about wood furniture and designing cabinets and beautiful wood floors and wood trim.  Like a crazy amount.  I love it.  But for now, my main focus is these crazy babies I have hanging on me every second of the day and I love it.  They are my favorite people in the whole world!  I have been getting better at keeping on top of household chores with a baby in one hand and a 3 year old in tow.  Not great, but we are getting there.  Most days my family has clean clothes to wear and food to eat, so its working out.  I am super addicted to Mountain Dew and its terrible.  I go to bed at night and think "ohhh I cant wait to have a mountain dew with lunch tomorrow.'  Sooo yeah I think thats probably a good sign that its time to stop.  haha  Back to water for me :(  I am also addicted to TLC and that is an addiction thats not going anywhere.  I always get a little frustrated nursing this baby a million times a day, especially when I am in the middle of something and have to stop, but then I get to watch weird TLC shows while I do, so I get over it pretty fast.  There are some crazy people out there!  

Scout has been a pretty good dog.  She super freaks out if shes not with us like all the time.  She gets so stressed out when we are in the hot tub, because she wants to be with us, but cant get in the water, so she just paces right by it and pops her head up and whimpers every few minutes. She panics if we ever go anywhere without her.  She is slowly getting use to it and just waits by the back gate for us to get home and then tramples the kids as soon as they walk in the back yard.  She sleeps with the boys every night.  Usually with Clark and its pretty sweet.  We have to be careful about leaving bottles or binkies out anywhere, because those are her favorite to chew on.  Its weird to see your dog walking around with a pacifier in her mouth.

Kalvin loves playing pattycake with baby Jo's feet 

Its been crazy warm here lately.  I think this picture was the last time we used the fireplace and that was like 3 weeks ago.  Its been in the 50's and 60's and even got up to almost 70 the other day.  It feels like Spring and I am so ready for planting and swimming and all that fun stuff.  We will see if it lasts... 

This is my view most days and I love it.  Can't imagine my days without my boys. 

Crazy kids wrestling.  They love each other so much. 

Clark is getting better at going in the water.  He has always been terrified, but has been getting more and more comfortable and even put his whole head under water like 5 times the other day.   

I think Brad and I have a show that we are following for almost every night of the week.  And it rocks.  Why do I look forward to our shows so much?!  Walking Dead, The Middle, Modern Family, Brooklyn 99 and Big Bang are a few of our favorites. 

Jonas is growing up so fast.  He is up to 12 pounds of chub and perfect babyness.  He eats SO much.  He still the same when it comes to sleeping.  Will sleep for hours on end if hes being held, but lay him down and its over.  He sleeps in his cradle from about 10pm to anywhere from 1am to 4am.  And then after that I usually just hold him in bed and sleep til 6 or 7.  It works for now, but its getting old fast.  Hopefully when we start him on cereal next month, he will sleep longer.  And then I can kick him out of our bedroom and into his own.  I always love that feeling!  Its like we finally get our evenings back a little bit.  So other than the crappy sleeping patterns we've developed, hes doing great.  He LOVES watching his brothers so much, I cant stand it.  He gets so excited when he sees them or hears them and starts kicking and squealing.  He is trying so hard to figure out how to grab things and I love that.  Although, he is constantly trying to get my phone now when I am on it.  He started being interested in toys and the tv, if its a cartoon with music, and he has started grabbing at peoples food.  He wants to get stuff in his mouth so bad.  And the best is that he has started laughing and it makes me so happy.  Thats basically what we do all day -- try to make Jonas laugh.  If he laughs, I call the day a win.   

Oh my goodness babies are amazingly confusing.  You go from "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy" to "I have never been so happy in my entire life" in a matter of 30 seconds.  Seriously, I will be so tired and frustrated, but then he stretches or yawns or flexes his little toes and Im like, "oh he is so perfect I dont ever want this phase to end.'  In fact, last night, as he screamed because he wanted me to be standing up, not sitting down while I held him and as I complained to Brad as I paced back and forth in the livingroom and told him that I was never having another baby again, I looked over at the tv to see, on the show that we were watching, a brand new baby, and I instantly wanted another one.  What is wrong with me?!  Babies make you crazy, thats all there is to it!  CRAZY!!!  And I crazy love him!!! 

I also crazy love these two monsters 

They play Power Rangers constantly.  Its a never-ending game.  And they are always talking about what kind of powers things give you.  Like, milk gives you strong powers, sleep gives you smart powers, rain gives you slippery powers, shoes give you fast powers, cars give you cool powers.  So now evrytime I ask them to do anything or eat anything, they want to know what powers it will give them.  So just in case you were wondering, broccoli gives you "stronger than Dad' powers. 

Is there anything cuter than a boy and his dog?!  I could die looking at this.

So a little while ago we were lucky enough to have our sis-in-law, Christy come stay with us with the two cutest kids in the entire world.  She planned on being here one night, but I think we talked her into like 4 or 5.  It was so fun!!!  The kids got to just play, I got a bunch of baby cousin pics of Jonas and Parker and I had a friends to hang out with like all week.

Yeah, I think I am ready for them to come back and stay again.

We watched the Superbowl and I totally already forgot who won... or who was playing, but I do remember it was a fun game to watch.  We had Christy there and our friends Josh and Kim came over with their girls.  It was a fun Sunday!

We have been exploring the area a little bit.  We drove out last weekend to the hills and to a place called grass valley and had a picnic and went shooting.  Also, we found out that Scout gets carsick.

It was a perfect day for it, I just wish that we had had more time out there!

Everything has been going really well for Brad.  He has been so busy at work lately, but luckily he loves his job.  His boss called him not too long ago to tell him what a good job he is doing and gave him a raise :)  I am such a proud wife, I know it must embarrass him sometimes, but I dont care.  I love when total strangers come up to me and say "you're married to the new Physical Therapist, right?  He is amazing!  He has helped me so much!"  Its awesome.  He is awesome.  So, on behalf of his awesomeness, I convinced him he needed to spend a little bit of his Amazon gift card that he got from his bosses for Christmas, on himself.  It only took me two months, but he agreed to it.  So he got a sleeping bag with legs and a smoker.  Yep.  Thats what my man wanted.  haha  He says that he cant wait to shoot a deer so he can make some good smoked jerky in his new smoker.

Clark has been busy being Clark.  He is the sweetest little munchkin in the world. He has been such a big helper with his little brothers!  Watching Jonas and feeding him a bottle, playing with Kalvin, reminding him to go potty, getting him drinks or snacks, reading to him while he has to do breathing treatments.  He is amazing.  And he has started being so helpful around the house.  Some days he comes up and asks me if I need help with any chores.  He vacuums and picks up trash and washes windows.  And he lets Scout out in the morning if he is the first one up.  He is the most wonderful son.  I always told Brad that I wanted a boy first, because I love having an older brother like Austin and I really think thats what I got.  A tiny little Austin.  So serious and so helpful and sweet.  Kalvin and Jonas will always have him looking after them and that melts my heart.  

Kalvin has been keeping me oh so busy.  The boy knows what he wants and when he wants it.  He is pretty much potty trained (thanks to Clark), but still has accidents, because he gets busy and doesnt want to stop to go potty and then cant make it in time.  I always know because I can hear him from the other room go, "Ummm Mom, well.... ummmm... I ....uhhhh I.... Ummmm wellll....." Yeah, he knows Mom isn't going to be happy.  He likes to help with everything.  He likes to help load the dishwasher and make sandwiches and wash the baby and make the bed and I have to remind myslef that that is a good thing.  haha  He is one who doesnt mind playing on his own.  And with anything.  He loves finding feathers in the yard and then he plays with them for hours.  He has the most active imagination, it surprises us everyday what he thinks of or the stories that he tells us or even just the things that keep him entertained.  The other day, he spent like an hour just talking to his fingers.  I am not even kidding.  He named each finger and then talked to them and got mad at them and thought it was so funny to hide them in his pocket.  He is totally and completely insane and I love it so much.  He is the best 3 year old ever.  He got sick again last week, so we took him to the dcotor and got some meds for his asthma and decided to put him back on Montelukast everyday to help control his asthma so he doesnt have anymore attacks and we also found out that his tubes fell out.  So heres hoping that doesnt mean he is going to start having tons of ear infections again.  Like I said, he is keeping me busy.

So that is pretty much our life these days

We are busy and happy and trying to get all these boys healthy at the same time

And now that I am caught up on our family journal, that means I need to go do chores.

Hopefully I will remember to do this every week again instead of every month.  I take way too many pictures to only update once a month :)

Hope you are all doing well!!

That you are as sweet as my Clarky, as crazy as my Kalvin and as chubby as my Jonas!

And that you are living somewhere as cool as Lovelock ;) haha