Sleeping and Eating!

Porter fell asleep in the highchair while he was eating, before I could get the camera he was still chewing while he was asleep. It was so funny!

Then the other night I woke up to two kids in my bed and I couldn't believe what I saw when I rolled over. Jackson is practically laying on top of Porter.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Jackson is now 4 years old. I cannot believe it. It really has flown by. Jackson and I were watching videos from when he was born and when he was a baby and I cannot believe how quickly time has passed. He has been such a joy to have in our home. He is a character. He always keeps things interesting and is a good entertainer. The kid says the darnedest things, sometimes not very flattering things, but under all that feistiness is a really tender hearted kid. I can't imagine my life without him. He comes and crawls in bed with me almost every morning and snuggles right up and says, "I love you Mom!" So sweet! We love you Jackson!

Ward Christmas Party!

We had our ward Party this weekend and it was such a blast. I think it was the best one yet! They did a play called "The Brother of Grinch", and it was so cute. The costume was right on. All of the kids were chasing him after the play yelling "Get the Grinch!" We even got a visit from Santa - although I don't know if Santa will be visiting the little monsters in our house, ha, ha! I love this time of year when you can bribe them with Santa and Christmas presents. I love this time of year period! Did you catch the First Presidency Christmas message? It was perfect! I love those men. Pres. Monson encouraged us all to make room for Christ in our homes and in our life, I hope I can make my home a place were he could reside. I really want my kids to understand the real meaning of Christmas and what we are celebrating.

Thanksgiving a little late. . .

I have been horrible about updating, it has been a little busy around here. Anyhow, we do have a lot to be thankful for and we had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. We went to Thatcher to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. The weekend was full of golf, outdoor play, shopping (Ryan and I were at Walmart at 4:30 a.m. INSANE!), art projects, roasting marshmellows and lots and lots of eating. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for a great weekend, we are so thankful for family!

Twilight!

Who would be crazy enough to stay up half the night to be the first to see said movie? Well me and the girls above. We went to the midnight showing of Twilight last night and it was a blast. I cannot believe how many teenage girls were there! Where are these kids parents???? There were people waiting in line at 8 a.m. that morning. No thank you! We did have to sit in the fourth row, but it was not too bad. Another highlight of the night was that I ran into my childhood friend and neighbor Michelle (Slade) Connolly. It has been years! We reminisced and caught up, it was so good to see you Michelle - keep in touch. Oh, and the movie, I thought, was great! I am not much a critic though, I am easily entertained!

Amazing little spirits!

Have I mentioned recently how much I love this boy? He is so amazing and so sweet (most of the time). He was outside after church today watching the storm roll in and he comes inside and says to me, "Mom, come look."
I say, "What Brock?" (I was reading my new book that Ryan got me The Peacegiver and didn't want to come look.)
"Mom, come here, the Eternal Father is coming!"
At first I laughed a little, but then realized that it may not be that far off. I am so thankful for these amazing little spirits that he sent me that are so excited to see their Savior again!

Halloween!

It was a good one. Lots of food, fun and CANDY! We had a neighborhood block party that was a lot of fun. Brock came up to me at one point with his head down and when I asked him what was wrong, he said "I put alcohol in my bucket". What! I guess he went over to a neighbor's cooler and thought he would get himself a soda - they quickly informed him that he did not want alcohol. He was really embarrassed about the whole thing. When we got inside, he says, "Mom, what is alcohol?" It was a great time for a teaching moment. He is always so concerned about doing the right thing, he thought he was in trouble. I am so thankful for him.

I am looking forward now to my most favorite part of the year!

Cherished Friends!

We have been so happy and blessed to have our close friends The Macks back in Arizona. I guess it will be short lived, they will be moving Colorado in December :( We will miss them greatly, but we are really enjoying the time that we have right now. Brock and Brynley have been the best of friends since they were babies. They were only 10 days apart. They get along so well. He endulges her when she wants to do "Dancing with the Stars" (I wish I had video, it was so cute), and she is right there with him when they are building clubs, wrestling or exploring for bugs. I hope they will always stay close. We love you guys!

Clean boys!

I had just got Porter dressed and went to get Jackson some clothes when I came back to this. He was so proud of himself!

Catching up. . .

I have been meaning to load these pictures for weeks, but am just now getting around to it, so bear with me, this may be long.

This is the happy fam before Jackson split is head open at the football game.

Annual trip to Apple Annie's. This has become a family tradition to go get our pumpkins each year. I hope we always get to do this. This year it was really windy, so we didn't get to stay long, but we did manage to get some fresh kettle corn, yum!

Porter is such a cutie!

Finding the perfect pumpkin!

These are pictures from Porter's 2nd Birthday at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Thank you guys for everything, we had a great time!
Porter opening presents!

Porter's new ride. His brother's were very eager to give him some help.

He did not enjoy the help for very long!

Catching frogs in Grandma's back yard! It was great entertainment for the kids. Brock wanted to keep them as pets.

Brock lost his first tooth. He was so excited! The tooth fairy even let him keep his tooth and then he lost it, imagine that!

Staples?!!!

As Ryan says, "We have been living on borrowed time." With three boys now we have finally had our first head split open, and for Jackson it was staples, not stitches. We were in Thatcher at the football game and they were letting off fireworks after the game. Jackson was looking up at the fireworks and must have lost his balance and fell back and hit his head on the bleacher behind him. Blood was going everywhere and Brock was freaking out, I think he thought Jackson was going to die. The paramedics looked him over and offered to take him to the hospital (yeah right, I am not paying for an ambulance ride), but Ryan spotted Aaron Allen in the stands and had him take a look and see if he could stitch him up. Aaron went for supplies and met us back at Ryan's parents house. He showed up with STAPLES! I did not like that idea, but he said by the time he numbed him to do stitches he would be just as upset. Well by that time Jackson was asleep, so he slept through the first two staples, but the stapler jammed and he woke up and was very upset when they put the third one in. It was quite an ordeal, he cried himself back to sleep and slept all night. Now I just have to worry about getting those staples out, that should be fun!

Family Movie Night!

We decided to take a week off on having a lesson and have a fun movie night for FHE. It was a lot of fun, the kids helped me make tickets and refreshments, we had a lot of fun. We watched "Nim's Island". It was a really cute show. My kids loved it because she had all these amazing pets. My boys would love a pet!

Brock has taken to bug collecting - so far this week we have found our first lady bug and preying mantis (I don't know if I spelled that right.)

Anyhow, it was a great night! (my baby looks so big in these pictures!)

Happy Birthday Poe!

My baby is 2! I cannot believe it. He is so amazing to me. He is smiling from the moment he wakes up. He calls from his crib, "Mom, I want out!" And the minute I put my head in the door he is grinning. He loves to give kisses and is usually very polite. He loves to talk to strangers, he says hello to everyone. Who wouldn't smile for this kid. He loves his big brothers and always wants to do everything that they do, but there are always those things that I really wish he would not pick up on - like hitting. He thinks it is a game, but if he thinks he has hurt you - he is instantly very sorry. He has such a sweet spirit. He loves to call me Misty and his dad is Rynan. At his little age of two he already says his ABC's and can count to 10. He picks up things very quickly, he has a super brain like his dad (hopefully he will have my love for school). We are so proud of our little Porter and are so grateful to have him in our family. Happy Birthday Porter!

We are going to wait and celebrate officially when we go to Grandma & Grandpa's this weekend, but me and the boys did decorate cupcakes and sang "Happy Birthday". It was a good day.

Happy Birthday to Cooper too - on the 30th!

Incomplete!

I am sitting here after another exhausting day of being a single parent. I have to say that I am a little proud of myself, I even made it to church with all three boys and didn't even cry once! (My boys take advantage when they know I can't catch them.) Jackson was the one I was worried about and he did so good. I have had my attention brought to the family proclamation several times in the last little while, so I have really started thinking about my role as mother and wife. With Ryan being gone a lot I have to say that I am a little more grouchy and impatient (with him and the kids). So I have really tried lately to take my role more seriously and really find joy in the now, to take the time to teach my kids and help their spirits grow. We were reading last night about Alma's analogy of faith being like a seed and Brock asked how he could plant his seed so he could have faith and I realized that I really need to try harder to bear testimony to my kids and share my faith with them to help them grow. I am so thankful for the gospel in my life and for my family. And I am so grateful to have a loving husband to share this journey with because even when he is not here, he is there to support me and listen to me go on, and on. He is so patient with me. I just want him to know how important he is to this family and we are not complete without him. We love you Dad and miss you tons!

Creating Memories!

I have been planning to go up and see my parents and get out of the heat all summer and it finally happened this last weekend. Ryan has been traveling a bunch for work, so he was not to thrilled to be in a car for 5 hours both ways, so he stayed home and my long lost buttsister (that is Ryan's name for Casey Ann) volunteered to come with me. So off we went, the two of us, with six kids packed in my van. Lets just say the drive up there was eventful. We were doing pretty good until we got to the canyon and I think Diesel got a little car sick and threw up. So we stopped at the bottom of the canyon to clean that up, then we got through Show Low and were on the home stretch, or so we thought. They were paving the road! So we had to wait for a while. After all that time in the car, we all wanted OUT! We stopped at Ramsey Park to let the kids play. All was well until Jackson comes running over saying he pooped his pants. "I'm sorry Mom, it was an accident!" he says. While I was trying to figure out what to do with him, he steps over to a tree and pulls his pants to his knees and goes pee. Don't you love boys! So by now there is poo everywhere, so it was a lot of fun to clean up. We finally made it to Nana's and Papa's, just in time to get some good grub. Papa even took the kids out spotlighting for elk.

Of course being at Nana's and Papa's, my kids were up at the crack of dawn (I'm not kidding). Nana eventually got up and made us all sourdough waffles with buttermilk syrup, to die for! Then Papa took all the older kids to get a load of wood, he was so brave. I don't know how much help they were, but they had a blast. They were driving us nuts in the house that afternoon so we sent them all outside on a scavenger hunt, it didn't last very long, but it was fun. We ended the day with a chicken fry at the church in Luna. My kids loved being able to run free. If only it didn't take so long to get there I would go more often. The ride home was about as much fun as the ride there, we had rain, lots of bathroom breaks and poor Diesel got sick again. Thank you Nana and Papa for everything, we had a blast and thank you to Casey Ann for coming along - love you girl! You are the best! It was exhausting, but I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. These are all the kinds of things I did as a kid that I want me kids to experience too. I do have to say also that I came home to a clean house (even bathrooms) and a happy husband. Thanks babe, I did miss you! (Bear with me, there are a lot of pictures, but I couldn't leave any of them out.)

Here are some pictures from the park.

Hauling wood with Papa!

Every single one of them crashed on the way home. I have no idea where Brock is in this picture.

Here are the kids on their scavenger hunt.

Brock was intent on finding something living - he really wants a pet!

Jackson thought he could spot a pet better from up here.

On the way home!

Doesn't this just say it all!