Whitney comes to visit!

My lovely and wonderful sister decided to marry an awesome man-- the only downfall-- they have to live in Australia :( for a few years.  That means we won't get to see her or Adam very much.  BUT, she had to come back to the states one last time for a visa issue-- so, she got to come visit us!  Yay!  We had a lot of fun, and the time went way too quickly.

As always, she gets some awesomely cute pictures of my kids. I love it when Whit comes to visit for tons of reasons, this just happens to be one of them :)

Look at that chub scout :)

We love you, Whit!!  Can't wait till you live closer again-- and until then, Grant will continue to ask me often, "Mommy, where Winty?" ;)  Love ya!

July 4th-- Loving the Fireworks!

We had another awesome Independence Day-- we've got some great friends who always have us over for a BBQ, and then the Beloit Firework show is always outstanding!  Little Mack slept right through the whole thing, and the two olders loved the display :)

Getting everyone {read: the boys} to smile for the camera should be considered a full-time job :)

THREE

Three kids is kicking my behind!! :)  I have never been so busy all day long, and still by the end of it have nothing to show for all my work (i.e. the house is still a mess and there is no dinner made). 

I go from getting a drink for Grant to rocking a newborn to helping Drew with his legos to putting away a few dishes to holding a newborn to taking Grant potty to feeding a newborn to getting Drew something to eat for lunch to getting Grant a drink to changing Mack's diaper to..... it could go on and on! 

I keep asking myself how anyone does this with more kids!?!  Wow.  My appreciation and awe for so many family members and friends with multiple children has grown exponentially in the last few weeks :)  I feel pretty proud of myself if by the end of the day I've taken a shower and maybe have gotten the beds made.  I'm hoping I can get into a groove of actually accomplishing something once this sweet little Mack gets on a better schedule/sleeps better during the day.  Hopefully.  Maybe then my eyes will stay open past 7:30 pm, too.  Wouldn't that be awesome?!?  :)

That all being said, I wouldn't trade taking care of these three little angels for anything in the world!!!  I am very blessed with good kids (they are really good!) and healthy kids and the opportunity to stay home with them.  I know that these are huge blessings to our family from our loving Heavenly Father.    I sure love my three sons  :)

Biker

Drew has learned how to ride a bike without training wheels, and boy-- is he in heaven!!  That's all he wants to do 24/7.  Seriously.  He woke up at 6 am this morning, begging to go out and ride his bike..... :)  (wishful thinking, bud :)

Mack's Blessing Day

On Sunday, June 5th was Mack's blessing.  We were so happy to have my parents here for the special day-- family is awesome, and we wish we lived closer to some!!

Anyway, the morning of was crazy (and I'm realizing it's that way any time I try to get out the door with myself and three children dressed and ready... :)-- we forgot a pacifier, and was sure that Mack would scream through his blessing.  BUT, that wasn't the case!  He did so great, just layed there nice and calm.  Having the Priesthood in our home is a huge blessing, we are so grateful for Andy and the Priesthood that he holds!  Mack recieved a special blessing-- we are so blessed to have him in our family!!!

One Month

I can't believe our little Mack is already 6 weeks old!  The last six weeks of pregnancy felt like six months... then the first six weeks of his life felt like six days-- isn't that how it always is?
Anyway, we're loving life with Mack here in our family-- although I'm soooo much busier than before :)  Mack is a sweet little boy, who sleeps awesome at night, not so great during the day, loves to be held, burps like a teenaged boy (my personal favorite :), and is starting to smile and coo a lot more.  We sure love him!!!

He's also following in his brother's footsteps in the sense that he's chunkin' it out already!  Here are the one month stats:  (Drew at 1 mo was 10lbs 12 oz; Grant at 1 mo was 10lbs 10 oz)

Mack at 1 month:

10 lbs 11.5 oz

23" long

Graduation

We can officially say we made at least one graduation this spring-- DREW'S!!! (we missed Andy's because we were in the hospital having a baby :)

Last week was preschool graduation, and it was so fun!  The kids all looked so adorable in their caps, and they all did a great job with their program.  My favorite part was hearing them all recite a poem that they had worked on.  Drew recited "Hey Diddle Diddle", but for some reason I can't upload the video....

Miss Karrie had interviewed each child prior to gradutaion, and she told us all of their answers. 

According to Drew:

Favorite part of preschool:  Playing outside and snack

Thing most excited about for KG: Making new friends

What he wants to be when he grows up:  A Missionary

We sure loved preschool-- I know Drew already misses it, and I'm just wishing that he wasn't growing up so fast-- Kindergarten?!  I'm totally not ready.  (and Drew totally is-- right when graduation was over, he said, "Mom, does this mean I can go to kindergarten tomorrow?"  Cute.)

Drew and his class (minus Blakely who moved the week prior) with Miss Karrie-- way to go, Guys!!!!