Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!!

My "baby" has turned 7!

What a fun day it was for her!! I found someone to watch my younger 2 kids and dashed off to my friend Dee Dee's cake shop for a special cupcake and then to Chick-fil-a for a lunch treat. The manager at Chick-fil-a found out it was your birthday and then sent me to her school with a new stuffed cow with a fireman suit on. Then, because it was her birthday I arranged to stay a bit after lunch and read a story to her class. Her latest favorite book is lately is this really cute story called "Stephanies Ponytail". And of course I donned my hair in a funny looking ponytail just for the occasion. The kids REALLY enjoyed it!

Then later that evening we got talked into having a "simple" birthday celebration with a few friends. We decided to take advantage of the new "movie room" we have upstairs and got a Strawberry Shortcake movie to watch. We ate pizza for dinner, colored a strawberry shortcake picture, and had what else--strawberry shortcakes for dessert. It was fun!

Kaitlyn has had a full year, she's lost a bunch of teeth, learned how to ride her bike without training wheels has started taking piano lessons and is playing soccer. She is bright and loves to read. She loves school and loves to play with her siblings. She is passionate and emotional and a total girl. She stretches me to be a better mom and to develop patience. I am so grateful for who I am because she is in my life! I love you Kaitlyn!! Happy Birthday my sweetheart!

My husband calls me babe....

So the other morning we were reading the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon during family scripture study. This is pretty deep stuff and so when Stephen was helping Sam to read his verse it referred to "babes". Sam's eyes lighted up and he said, "I know what that means! MOMMIES!!!"

And a couple weeks ago I took the kids to Chick-fil-a for lunch (during spring break) and Kaitlyn was noticing the sign that said they were closed on Sundays, she asked why and I explained that it was because they were a Christian owned company and like us they keep the Sabbath Day holy and choose not to make their employees work. THEN later on she was telling me how much she liked their food. I told her I really preferred Chick-fil-a over MacDonalds food "any day of the week!" She was quick to reply, "Except for Sundays Mom!" Nothing gets past her!!

And Lindsey--well she's just a crack up a minute, but I love listening to her recite the scripture that it's her turn to read in morning scripture study. She doesn't pronounce her "r's" and she struggles properly pronouncing any sound made with the front of her mouth (dr, tr, ch, j) so listening to her talk takes a bit of time to get used to. But the latest thing she says a lot is calling me "silly" when I don't do something quite how she thinks it should be done. It was cute at first but it's starting to get old!

The quickest year of my life

I just cannot believe that this little guy has turned ONE! But he did just last Friday!

(this is a photo taken just a few days prior to his birthday where he's demonstrating his new talent of climbing ALL THE WAY up the stairs--I cringed the whole time but he's only fallen a couple times, he's really quite careful and adept at this!)

We spent most of the day on the road to College Station for Rachel's second reception. We were so pleasantly surprised when we arrived and found that Grandma McKneely (who was up to her eyeballs in the most beautiful and delicious wedding cake for the reception) found the time to make this SUPER CUTE Stegosaurus Cake for our Matthew!!

Then it was time to open the presents. It was a late night so this little guy who is usually an easy smiler wasn't giving us many smiles at all.

He really got hooked up at his birthday. A favorite toy was a zhu zhu pet that he loves to watch and chase, new larger sippy cups, a big boy tooth brush and paste (good thing too because he broke tooth #7 this weekend) a toy truck and of course a much anticipated SAND BOX (another post is forthcoming). It was really a family gift but because you will use it more than any other kid we decided we could get it for you around your birthday.

Eating your cake was interesting. It was really your first experience with something so sweet. you LOVED the cake part but the frosting was a bit overwhelming for you--and you didn't make a huge mess of it. But having all that
sugar sure made it hard for you to fall asleep that night, you just couldn't relax enough.



At one year Matthew has just transitioned to one nap a day, which is early for a baby your age but it's really what our family routine requires because his twice a day napping was always interrupted when siblings had to be places. Matthew is a fabulous eater and is transitioning beautifully to table food. He never took a pacifier so there is no bad habit to break. We're working on weaning you still, at this point it's more of a comfort to go to sleep than anything else. And frankly because you're very likely my last kid and I enjoy nursing too I'm not rushing you out of it....You're not walking yet, not really even close. You're a very proficient crawler and very good at getting where you want to that I don't know when you'll walk. You love to empty my pantry and get into my other cabinets in the kitchen. You just keep me running all day long but you're so happy and so "go with the flow" I just feel so blessed that you're part of our family! Happy Birthday Matthew!

A wedding

We had a special occasion in our family a few weeks ago, on Friday March 11th Stephen's sister Rachel married Kodie Bennion in the Dallas Temple!

It was a beautiful ceremony and just a gorgeous day! It was a bit windy but it was just a lovely weekend.
Our children looked BEAUTIFUL in dresses made by Grandma McKneely, and REAL pearls that are now carefully guarded by Mom. Sam and Matthew wore bow ties! Sam's wanted one for awhile and he loves it (even though it's pink and Stephen thinks it's a shot at his manhood!)

What's more, this weekend was just full of family. Because we live in the area we were BLESSED (and I really mean that) to have our home just full of cousins and uncles and aunts. We just love spending time together--here are some of the kids waiting outside the temple for the happy couple! They had a great day and weekend and were so well behaved and danced the night away at the reception!And I just have to share how excited our Lindsey was to have Kodie join our family. She knew very well that 1: Aunt Rachel and Uncle Kodie were going to be married in the Temple and that 2: then Kodie will become her UNCLE Kodie! I'll never forget at the family luncheon after the sealing taking Lindsey up to Kodie to give him a hug and call him "Uncle Kodie" and just smile--she was probably one of the most excited for this wedding.

I ran another 5K

Because this blog is part of our family's history I just wanted to document that I ran another 5K race. The Allen Eagle Run was on March 5th. It was super cold that morning and so my time wasn't any better than it was in December even though it could have been.

It happened to fall on the same Saturday as the first week of soccer games and of course it was at the SAME TIME as Kaitlyn's FIRST ever soccer game. I felt awful about missing it.

But I had talked my mom into doing the 5K with me. She walked it along with my dad and I ran it and when I finished I walked back to find them and finished the race with them.

I'm new to this whole running thing and have really found it to be wonderful, and therapeutic and something I'm really proud of. I wanted my mom to find it equally fulfilling, I really don't think she has but I'm so proud of her for finishing it!

I've become a soccer MOM!

And I drive the mini van to prove it!!

Things are REALLY crazy busy at our house. One of the biggest reasons is due to SOCCER!

Both Kaitlyn AND Samuel have begun playing (And I'm ashamed that I still have not taken any photos of Kaitlyn playing--BAD MOMMY, BAD MOMMY!) and for a few weeks I was in limbo trying to adjust to the way their weekly practices changed our family routine. I soon realized that dinner had to be earlier on the nights that they practiced (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and since those were normally "bath nights" we had to find different nights for baths AND be completely ready for bed before their 6:00 practice times because when we all get home from a practice it's time for bed.

This is further compounded as Stephen has a new assignment at church working with the 12 and 13 year old boys as a scoutmaster and he's gone on Wednesdays so our weeks look like this:

Mondays: FHE
Tuesdays: KP Soccer
Wednesdays: Stephen scouts
Thursdays: Sam Soccer
Friday: Date night

But I do have to say that having done this for a few weeks, this has been really nice for our family because while one child has practice it has allowed our other children to play outside and just run around and they LOVE IT!

February Wrap up

AHHHH! I'm sooooo behind, but it's party due to how busy this little guy keeps me--sheesh he's QUICK and into EVERYTHING! But I need to do a little catch up!

February had some fun things for Kaitlyn, she celebrated her 100th day of school! They got to dress up like they were sick and decorate a poster of 100 things. Due to the ice storms that kept hitting our area, that 100th day of school kept getting pushed back and back but the day did happen and here it is!
And then her class got the chance to do the program at her morning assembly at school. They did a lesson on patience (P A T I E N C E--you gotta wait for it!) and as part of their little performance they each had to bring a hat and some sunglasses and she decided to go all out and do this:

AND she has become a bit more of a helper with baby Matthew and is learning how to feed him his food when I'm a bit too busy and he's not willing to wait! Matthew is such a great eater and this time around I've opted to make my own baby food which has been a bit more work but not so much more. And I'm really glad I've taken the time to do it because as we're starting to transition him to table food it's been a lot easier!







And while we're talking about Matthew I just had to share a few cute pics like this one--my sweet boys getting ready for church one morning: Matthew just continues to be a joy and he finds probably the most joy when he's playing with his big brother. Now Sam is a bit rough sometimes with Matthew but he never seems to complain about it. I happened to capture this precious moment of Stephen helping Matthew and Sam box it was too cute!!