{2.11.19 - 2.17.19}

Eli was so funny when I got him all bundled up so I could go shovel the driveway. He did not like the idea of having so many layers on until we got outside. I put him on the ground and he just sat in one spot watching everything that was going on with a smile on his face almost the whole time! 

My little blue eyed boy is too cute! // Alya was so cute helping me shovel! She helped me with my driveway, the sidewalk in front of my house and then she helped Matthew with our neighbor's driveway and sidewalk (and he has a lot of sidewalk!)  

We made a couple of snow dinos! This is the girls' triceratops.  

They added all the little "frills" behind his horns and after this picture was taken they gave him chocolate chip eyes. He was pretty cute!  

Bullet is starting to want to explore more than just our yard so he doesn't like that he has to be on his leash and confined to one area while the rest of us get to play. He is getting so big, though and I think he's pretty. // I love snow days when it's nice outside. When it's just bitter cold it's no fun for me. I'm glad we've had some nice weather that let's us all get out and play!  

This is Axel's Euoplocephalus. (You-pho-caf-alus)  He built this little dinsosaur's tail and did such a good job! It was so cute! // I didn't have the energy to make valentine sugar cookies so we settled for valentine no bake cookies instead. This might be our new tradition! It was pretty fun and so easy!   

Axel thinks that he needs to come up in the middle of the night every night to snuggle mom and dad. I wish I enjoyed it more because he is so sweet, but it's so hard to get a good night's sleep with a little boy pushing his bum and feet in my back all night. I woke up one morning to Matthew having left for work and Axel on my side of the bed with his favorite show turned on my phone. He's a little Mr. Independent!  

This cutest little baby LOVES the bath! Everytime I turn the tub on for him or any of his siblings he goes crawling straight to the bathroom and pulls himself up on the tub, jabbering with excitement the entire time! // Our neighbor's pine tree is so pretty flocked with snow!  

Eli loves the guitar. He crawls into the corner we keep the guitars in to strum on it all the time and when Dad pulls it out to play it's even better!  

I love these kiddos and I'm so glad they are mine! (I loved the way the boys were looking at each other in this one!)

{2.4.19 - 2.10.19}

2.4.19     Eli has just been cruising around the house like a little pro, crawling everywhere! It's so fun for me that he can follow me out of one room and into another, or that when he is done nursing I can just put him on the floor and he crawls around entertaining himself! He loves to walk with us holding his hands and he tries to pull himself up onto everything! Sometimes he can't quite figure out how to get his feet under him but other times he does so good! He has even pulled himself up to standing and let go completely to sit himself down. He doesn't like to be left in a room by himself and he thinks Axel is hilarious! He bonks his head on everything but he's pretty tough and rarely cries about it. Axel is getting very impatient for Eli to get big enough for them to wrestle around with each other. He is 19 lbs 13.5 oz and is 2ft 5 inches. He has four teeth for now and he is kind of taking a bottle for one of his feedings. He only likes his purees for breakfast, otherwise he wants very little to do with them. He is so easily distracted while he eats so it's an adventure for sure! We love him dearly and I hope May isn't in any hurry to get here!

Matthew and I brought the kids back these little M&M blankets from Las Vegas! The kids were excited about them and I loved that they were all wrapped up in them watching Alya do school. // I love this boy! He has lots of Spiderman swag but he really doesn't even know who Spiderman is...he keeps telling me he's a "scary guy." Haha!  

Eli was trying to eat his snack one day but couldn't focus facing the kitchen, all the fun stuff was outside! // I keep finding pictures like this that Axel takes on my phone.  

He's just showing off some of his new skills! 

The girls are learning so much with their school and I'm grateful because I know they wouldn't learn this well from me. They are becoming beginning readers and it has been so fun! They are doing so good! (This is a video of Lyla)

{1.28.19 - 2.3.19}

My little sidekick follows me around asking me to "hold you" all the time and he comes upstairs in the middle of the night and asks if he can snuggle me and he doesn't like to let anyone else help him do anything. (He gets mad if his dad brings him his water when he asked me to do it.) It's hard and tiring but I love that he needs me and loves me. I hope he always will! // It seems like all the kids have pulled themselves to standing for the first time...or at least one of the first times...on the tub. Why the tub!? I get so nervous that their little hands are going to slip on the wet porcelain and I imagine stitches. 

Matthew has been out of town *mostly* working since what feels like April. I'm so grateful that I get to be home with my babies but HOLY MOLY I'm ready for a break. I feel bad saying that because I feel like I've been given so many opportunities to have a "break." People have taken my big kids for a couple hours or for a couple days, but between Matthew being gone and not having a car I felt like I could go far in it was just really a long summer! Haha! Matthew came home one day and I was done! So, shortly after that day he told me he was surprising me with a weekend away!  

We spent a weekend in Las Vegas with some friends and it was so nice!!! It was a great break and I feel pretty refreshed! 

{1.21.19 - 1.27.19}

He loves to get himself to anything that he can sit up at and play with anything he can get his hands on!  

I keep trying to feed him purees but he'd much rather have what everyone else is having. He loved the burritos and rice - notice the rice on top of his head!  

Here are two of my three little dino explorers. They are trying to lure a dinosaur into our yard so they can study it and learn everything there is to know about it. They came in one day and asked me if we had any fish they could cut open and use the blood for a trail to attract the dinosaurs. 

My little man is crawling! He went from not crawling at all to being a little pro! I'm so glad I caught his first crawl on video! I definitely think crawling is much more of a means to an end for Eli. He is already trying to pull himself up onto things. He likes to crawl over to me and have me help him stand up. I can't decide if he is going to be perfectly content to crawl for a while or if he is going to be in a big hurry to start walking. I guess we shall see!

{1.14.19 - 1.20.19}

Lyla tried to get to the stairs via the railing and got stuck. It was hilarious! She surprisingly handled it really well and I got a pretty good chuckle out of it. And it still makes me chuckle just to look at this picture! 

Peek-a-Boo!! This baby is just too cute! 

He is so happy when he's walking around!! // Good morning Lyla! I'm not even sure she was completely awake before she crawled out of bed and up the stairs. I loved it! 

Axel inherited the puzzling gene! He always wants someone to help him with a puzzle and he's getting so good at finding where the pieces go!  

Matthew is so excited that he one of our kids will finally do this with him! He has tried it with all of them and Eli is the only one who has figured it out! He's just so big!!! // Axel has decided that napping is for the birds so we've tried to at least have him rest for an hour or so. It usually only lasts about 30 minutes but he needs it and I'll take what I can get. He loves his resting time because he gets to hang out on Mom's bed reading books. I walked in while he was resting one day and he just looked so cute with his book propped up on his knees flipping through the pages!

I have a couple of little dino geniuses. My sister said it best when she said the good news is that I can stop putting money in their college fund because obviously they are getting scholarships! Haha!

Seriously, though, Axel will come ask me what the name of a dinosaur is and my response is always "You'll have to ask the girls." Lyla can tell you the name of any dinosaur and they can both tell you all about them. They know which dinos are carnivores and if they prefer red meat or fish, herbivores, omnivores, land dinos, water dinos, if they have feathers and how many claws they have. They know how many kinds of triceratops there are and they are trying to convince me that there is no such thing as a pterodactyl -- apparently that's changed since I was little, much like Pluto!

They are so smart and their ability to retain information (as long as it's interesting to them) is amazing!

{1.7.19 - 1.13.19}

I think that compared to my other kids, it has taken Eli quite a while to decide that he could do big boy stuff like this. I am glad that he hasn't been in a big hurry to do these things but I also love that he is starting to meet some of these milestones. // Axel got these cute new overalls for Christmas and I thought he looked so cute walking around with his hands in his pockets, but he kept scowling at me! It was so funny! 

I got this little mask with my Christmas jammies and Lyla couldn't wait to try it! She desperately needed a nap one day so I told her she could wear my mask if she would go to bed and she jumped at the opportunity! When I went down to wake her up it was just so funny! She sat right up and pushed the mask up on top of her head and looked like she had no idea what was going on. By the time I got back with my camera she looked much less confused! Haha! 

This kid is such a character!! // Our little crab apples looked so pretty all frosted over! 

Might we have a little child prodigy on our hands?!

{12.31.18 - 1.6.19}

1.4.19    My little man is getting so big!! He is so happy always!! He is so content to sit and play as long as he's not alone. I usually put him down in the front room with the girls while they are playing or watching a show and he sits and plays happily until they all leave the room. He definitely likes to be where all the action is. He is mostly a great sleeper! He's had a rough couple nights, but for good reason - he's got two new bottom teeth and I think the top two teeth aren't far behind. They are adorable! Except for when he bites me while he's nursing. He gets so offended when I flinch and surprise him when he bites me! Haha! 

He isn't crawling yet, but he seems to do just fine to get himself around! I honestly am not sure how exactly he does it, because it's like he waits until I'm not looking to wiggle himself around and he is so fast! He lunges forward and props himself up on his hands and sometimes he gets over his little feet so he's on his hands and knees, but then he just pushes himself back up to sitting - which is impressive to me - it took my other kids quite a while to figure out how to get from crawling position and back to sitting. I can't decide if he is actually going to crawl though, or if he'll just be happy scootin' around until he figures out how to walk. He's getting to where he wants to pull himself up to standing, and he loves when I hold under his arms and help him walk around and chase the big kids around.  Oh, we sure love you Mr. Eli!!!!

Taking down Christmas is as good a time as any to get a cute picture of a cute baby wrapped up in Christmas lights, right?  

One of the girls got some Play-Doh at one of our Christmas parties and the kids played together again!!! The girls have actually been so good about including Axel in their play lately! They even let him play in their room! For the longest time the girls would throw a huge fit if Axel tried to follow them into their room and I kept threatening to take their door off if they couldn't be nice to him (or if they kept slamming their door shut). Well one day, the door got slammed once again and I finally followed through on my threat and took their door off. I hoped it would help encourage them to let Axel play in their room, but instead, they just stopped going downstairs to play. The little stinks!! But seriously, I am loving how well these three have been playing together lately!!

I even caught them cuddling!!! One of the best things about this moment, other than the cuddling part, is that the TV is behind them!! They aren't even watching a show! 

I wish I could remember what dinosaur he made out of his lunch! Haha! 

Daddy - daughter fishing trip!! 

I think this trip started out a little rough, but I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun!  

They made quite the haul!  

{12.24.18 - 12.30.18}

I really failed at taking pictures over the holidays this year! But we had a great Christmas! Eli just loves to be wherever I am, which is hard when I'm trying to cook dinner. It's kind of nice that I can distract him with some finger foods these days! // The kids were given some coloring pages with some little stick-on tattoos. They were so excited about those little tattoos and I thought Axel was adorable trying to show me his muscles and tattoos!  

My mom came down and spent a couple of days with us! I'm so glad she's willing to come down and spend time at our house! We loved having her here for Christmas!  

My baby burrito! I love him!  

Grandma and Grandpa got the girls these adorable little birdhouses for Christmas and Grandpa took them to pick out their paint colors and they spend a couple days painting. To say they love their birdhouses would be an understatement. I am excited for them to have some birds in them this spring! 

{12.17.18 - 12.23.18}

I'm so glad my kids have fun aunts who want to spend time with them! Jeni and Crystal asked if they could take the kids for a bit and they had something fun planned everyday! They went ice-skating and downtown and played hard!  

The girls loved that they got to buy a goat and some water at the Light The World station. // I love this picture of Axel! He looks so happy!  

"I Love To See The Temple"  

We had my family Christmas party this week! It was a lot of fun! I didn't see much of my kids...they were too busy playing with Nana and Tia! 

I love this picture of my mom and Eli! 

Eli loves to share a piece of my toast every morning! I can't believe how big he's getting! // I also can't believe how fast this puppy of ours is growing! I think he's doubled his size in the last week!  

On our way up to our Christmas party we stopped at Cabelas and I just had to take a picture of Eli in front of their beautiful tree! // I tried for a really long time to keep Bullet in my lap while on our way home, but he wanted nothing to do with me!  

Eli seems like he wants to be on the move, but he just lunges forward onto his hands and pushes himself back up. Despite the fact that he's not crawling, he gets himself around. He just scoots and twists and maneuvers his little body around to where he's never in the same place that I put him down in. I love it when he wiggles around and Axel comes in and says "how did you get there!?" // Look at his little crossed feet!!  

I love having pictures of my sleeping babies! They look so peaceful and I just can't get over how beautiful they are!

I honestly don't remember what our little family home evening lesson was about, but we had Dad doing some pushups, and the kids wanted to get in on the action. I was dying!!! So funny!

Jeni and Crystal sent me this video while they had the kids and I thought it was so darn funny! I love how Lyla tries to shoo the ducks away and Alya's little panic attack is hilarious!!