It's been a year

I guess after a year, it is time to do a little updating.  I'm not even sure if anyone looks at our blog anymore, which is actually fine by me-- but I was just looking back a little, and realized what a great journal this has been in years past.  I'd like to keep it up so I don't forget the small awesome little things every day :)

I love my family- while my boys may drive me batty sometimes ;) I absolutely and completely adore them.  Seriously, though.. a lot of days end with me wondering what on earth I'm doing wrong and how I can be a better mother... and then I usually fall asleep from exhaustion before I can really even begin to think of a solution.  It's hard.  So fun to be a mother, but hard.

I love how Grant is a sweet tender little boy.  He is so smart, and can remember details like no one's business.  It's so funny to hear him tell a story in perfect detail- that happened months ago!  He asks to 'cuddle' with me just about every day, and sometimes ends up falling asleep oh so sweetly on me:

I love how Mack sings songs almost non-stop.  I am continually amazed at how well he picks up the tunes and a lot of the words.  Some of his favorites are: Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (he calls this 'Jesus'), I Am a Child of God (he calls it the 'nigh nigh' song), Follow the Prophet ('pofet'), and Book of Mormon Stories (he doesn't know any of the words to this one, but will sing every tune right on and end with da, da, CHEE!- translation: 'righteously' :), and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star ('dar').  We usually can't even get through an entire song before he's excited to move on to the next one:

I love watching Drew grow up-- man, I can't believe I have a 7 year old!  For some reason that seems so much older than 6 to me.  He is loving school (for the most part... :) and recently had to do a big dino report/diorama box.  His excitement for this fun project was contagious.  It was so sweet.  This is him with his 100 Day shirt... he had fun with that too.

I love my Andy man.  We had such a fun time on our cruise over Christmas- it was more than relaxing to have five whole days with just us.  I have to admit, though-- by about Wednesday I was really missing my boysies.

Andy is still loving his job, and traveling a lot lately.  He had a long time home... from November-February.  But of the last 5 weeks he was gone for three of them.  In those last 5 weeks, we bought a house, secured renters for the old house, moved, got the old house cleaned and ready for the renters to move in, and unpacked at the new house.  (and some of that was done while Andy was out of the country...)  It's been crazy, but I finally feel like things aren't super up in the air and we can settle a little.  We are loving the new house- with a big farm right behind us and just over an acre of property, we really feel like we're in the 'country', but we're still so close to anything we'd need.  We love it.

There's a little snippet of life as of today.  It is good.

Boys oh Boys...

These boys are crazy!  One of their favorite games (Andy included :) is "hide from mommy".  They'll be all sneaky around me and do crazy things all the while trying to not be seen by me.  I love it because they usually end up laughing so hard together. 
Anyway, yesterday was another round of this game.  I came into our bedroom to grab something, and this is what I saw:

They were all hiding in their "fort" so I couldn't see them.

I whipped off the sheet to find this pile of cuties:

Silly kids (and yes, I'm including my husband in that description ;)  Oh how I love them all!

It's Been Forever

I have not posted in so long, I don't even know where to start... My sister Whitney got on my case about a lack of posts, so this is mostly for her :)  Love you Whit! But here goes a quick run-down of what we have been up to the last few months:

MACK:

Sweet Baby :)

Drew is super sweet with Mack all the time- here they are watching the garbage truck

My little Mack attack is 10 1/2 months old now, and getting so big! He is a happy, happy baby who loves people and action. He loves to be held and loves to have someone's attention- preferably someone who will make him laugh and giggle. He is pulling up on everything and finds a way to get anywhere he wants to and into anything he wants to. Definitely my most curious and busy baby :)  He is so squishy and adorable- I can't get enough of him!!

GRANT:

Playing 'ninja something or other' with Daddy and Drew :)

This is the cake he decorated himself at Drew's birthday party

Watching the BYU Cougars at Christmas time

Grant-man is a happy-go-lucky kid. He's pretty easy going, and loves to be home. It's funny how much of a home-body he is. We will just go grocery shopping, even, and he'll ask when we can go back home. I'm kind of that way, so I guess he's like me in that sense. Grant loves movies/tv (we're working on cutting some of it out :) and he LOVES cars- still.  I have to be careful to keep track of his Finn McMissile car, or he has a little meltdown if he can't find it.  He'll sit and play with his Cars legos, re-enacting all the Mater's Tall Tales stories, which is so cute.  He also has a little voice to die for.  Oh, we love him!




DREW:

Sleepy, still waking up eyes ;)

At his 6th Birthday Party, my handsome Drew

These boys take after their mother in their love for ice cream! Mmm...

DrewB is still loving kindergarten- although every day he reports that his favorite part of the day was recess.  He has made some really good friends, who he loves to play with and that makes me happy.  Kindergarten is so fun- I'm already starting to think it will be sad for him to move on to older grades with more work.  There is just so much fun going on every day, and it's fun for me to live it all again thru him.  Drew just lost his first tooth, with another loose tooth that's close to coming out.  He was so excited to see that the tooth fairy really came :)  (although, his friend recently got a big nice game from the tooth fairy and so we had to lower his expectations so that some coins wouldn't be a huge let down ;) Drew loves to be outside on his bike, scooter, rollerblades, or just running around with friends.  He is pretty independent and is just a good kid.  He's the perfect oldest brother for our family!

ANDY & KIMRA:

Well, I guess it's pretty much a lot of the same for the two of us :)  Andy continues to enjoy his new job.  He recently got to travel to Dubai for an international food expo, and got to do some pretty cool things in the evenings (i.e. ski on the only indoor mntn in the world, go up the world's tallest building, etc :)  He coached Drew's YMCA bball team this year, and is now gearing up to coach his soccer team next month.  I am just trying to keep it all together with the three kiddos.  Life stays busy, but it's hard to put a finger on an exact thing that makes it that way.  The boys are adorable and I'm so grateful for them in my life (even though the house is a mess, there's lots of crying, tantrums, I have to force them to eat anything, and I'm exhausted :) A lot of the time I do feel like it's all worth it, and I know it is!

Wishing You a Very Mery Christmas!

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Almost 6 months old!

My little truck is growing, growing, growing.  He loves to move, loves to interact with people, loves to be held, loves to jump, loves to be entertained by big brother Drew (no one else can get him to laugh as hard as D can :), loves to sleep, and We Love Him!!!

Love the rolls :)

He loves to roll around the house :) He got himself stuck under the piano bench

Got the high chair set up- he's loving his baby cereal so far!

Starting to sit up better... still have a ways to go, but he's getting there :)

We Love You Mack!

Heros! ..... or dancers... whatever, really :)

Here are the little super heros in action:

Trying to get Grant to look like a super-hero rather than a disco dancer was more work than it was worth... :)  Love these boys!

Happy Birthday Grant!

This little guy is three years old today.  Wow- it feels like he all of a sudden turned into a big boy.  He has spent his day saying repeatedly, "Happy Birthday Grant!" to himself.  Such a cutie/crack-up :)

His love for Thomas the Tank Engine is every so slowly fading-- but the love for Lightning McQueen and anything Cars related is still holding strong... as evidenced by his birthday loot:

See the Mater shirt in that pile?  I have a feeling it will become the new Thomas shirt-- hope it's made really sturdy!!

This sweet little Grant is so adorable, sweet, and silly.  We love him more every day! 

Happy Birthday Big Guy!!!