catching up

I have back posted pretty much our whole summer so if you want to catch up with us scroll down!  I still have a couple more posts to go but at least I'm almost completely through July.

A little perspective

I just love this boy so much!!  This picture is right before they let us leave the hospital on Monday night. I still can't believe we got to leave that night and the worst injury on the list was stitches.  Honestly this whole experience has just put everything into perspective for me.  When I was standing outside the CT scan room I was just praying and crying in the hallway and I just kept repenting for every cross word I had spoken to this boy and to all of my kids and promising that if I got to keep him that I would be so much more patient and loving.  Since we got home I have found that all his two-year old ways of getting intp trouble bug me much less than they did before.  Like getting in the dishwasher and unloading all the dirty dishes after I just loaded them or insisting that he open his yogurt himself and spilling it all over the carpet.  I just hold him and hug him and tell him I love him every chance I can get.  It is such an emotionally draining job to be a Mom but this experience has reminded me what a gift and a blessing each one of my healthy beautiful children are in my life.  I need to celebrate that more each day.  It also reminded me yet again how much my Heavenly Father loves me and helps me each day in this most important job.  He never asks me to do it alone.  He is always there.  I am so thankful he saved my son and let me continue to try each day to be a good Mom. 

This was when Beckett was strapped to the board and the hospital.  It was so sad to see him like this and I was so thankful when they finally unstrapped him and we could hold him again.  

Here he was all ready to go home.  

And here is the window he fell from.  The screen stayed broken and hanging there for a couple of days.  I still can't look out this window without reliving the whole scene.  All I can say is what a miracle!

Another Miracle

I know I have to update about two months worth of pictures and events on this blog but due to recent events I decided to just jump ahead to this news clip.  I will post more soon but I just wanted to get this up for my family to see.

http://www.khq.com/story/15312140/child-falls-from-third-story-window-in-liberty-lake?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6179551

The follow up story and my interview was on tonight so that will not be up for a little while.  We are just so thankful he is safe and we know this was truly a miracle.

http://www.khq.com/category/195686/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6183492

The above is the follow up interview.

Finally home!

We used the term "home" very loosely for a couple weeks after we got home but we were thankful for a place to be together again.  While staying at our friend's house we got to celebrate our little Beckett's birthday!

I still can't believe our little man is 2 already.  We love our Beckett boy so much.  While staying at Stacey's house Beckett became obsessed with nerf guns so we bought him his very own for his birthday and he was so excited!  

He loved his tractor from Nana and Papa too!

Beckett was so funny about his candles.  He was hiding his eyes and saying hot!  He was not so into the whole blowing out the fire idea so Rylynn helped him out.

He was all about the cake when the fire went away:)

In my family growing up we had a tradition that on our birthday we got to pick a junk cereal since we never ate junk cereal on regular days.  We have continued this tradition in our family and it is one of our kids favorite presents.

With Beckett there was no question which present was his favorite.  He is our cereal boy.  That kid could live on cereal alone if we would let him.  He calls it "mook" and typically averages about 4 bowls a day.  

He was not so excited about the delicious birthday dinner I made him but he drank every last drop of his birthday cereal.  Ever since he started eating solid foods I could tell Beckett was going to be my picky eater.  The Dr told me that is very common in babies with bad reflux and since he was on reflux medicine the whole first year of his life I just sort of expected it.  He is doing better now but he is still by far my pickiest eater.  Some of the things he loves besides cereal are cottage cheese which he calls "moo" because there is a picture of a cow on the container, yogurt which he calls "woguk" and any kind of fruit.  He has such an infectious personality and anyone who is around him for a couple minutes falls in love with him.  He is definitely strong willed and independant but he is also so polite and affectionate. He is such a cuddly boy and he is always my first baby to say thank you.  He adores his "sissy and Caca" and still cries most times when Daddy leaves.  His favorite book in the world is Goodnight Moon and he already counts and pretends to read his books.  He also loves his blankies more than anything and he always has to have both blankies to sleep.  His favorite show is bubble guppies which he says in the cutest voice ever and his favorite movie is Tangled which he calls"ga guys".  His favorite song is "baby oh" by Justin Beiber and he shakes his little booty ever time it comes on:)

After Beckett's birthday party Garrett left for High Adventure for the week and the kids and I moved over to another friend's house for the week while we tried to find a rental house.  It was so fun for the kids to reconnect with their friends and get back to a normal routine.  One day we went to hang out with the Slacks while they ran a snow cone stand.  It was so much fun and the snow cones were yummy!  The ice cream truck came around while they were selling and he offered a trade of a free snow cone for free ice cream for all the kids!  I think he definitely got the losing end of that deal but he didn't seem to mind and the kids were thrilled.

After it was clear that the rental house was not in the cards at the moment I took the kids over and signed us up for an apartment.  Poor Carter was so worried about all his toys in storage and kept begging me to get them out for him.  I couldn't take living out of suitcases for one more day so off to the apartment we went.  One major plus to the apartment was that they had a pool!  We spent lots of time enjoying the pool over the next couple of weeks.

Things finally got a little bit back to normal as we settled into the apartment and then we got to do one of our favorite things we do each summer...get together with the Poyfairs!!  We started out the festivities with a trip to Silverwood.  It was so much fun!

    

I didn't take very many pictures at the actual park because we were having too much fun but here is s cute one of my boys flying in the helicopters.  This is one of the few rides Beckett could go on without a parent and he was loving riding all by himself with Caca!

We did a great job of wearing these babies out.  Mid-day Beckett was ready to crash, but he resisted the urge so he didn't miss out on any of the excitement.

The day after Silverwood we went to the lake for the day and played and then that night the parents got to go out and have fun while the kids stayed home with a babysitter.  This is what we came home to!  The babysitter said they were insisting that they all sleep together!

The day of goodbyes was a hard one.  Rylynn and Olivia were both crying.  These girls love each other so much and I can't believe they are so grown up now!  Olivia is going into 2nd grade and Rylynn is going into 1st.  When they met they were only 1 and barely 2.  

Carter and Jack didn't cry.  They love each other deep down but they still like to fight over toys and beat eachother up when they're together:)

These two had me cracking up!  I love these silly smiles.  It was so fun to get to know Madelynn's personality more on this trip.

We love you Poyfairs!!  Next time we will try to have a house for you to stay in:)

Aria's Baptism

After we left Provo my Mom and I drove the kids down to Portland to attend Aria's baptism.  It was a great few days playing with cousins and celebrating Aria's decision to be baptized.

 
 We got there a couple of days before the baptism so we could play around together.  One day we went to this really pretty beach.  I wish I could remember the name but it was somewhere just outside of Portland.  The weather was perfect and they had a beach as well as a big splash park, playground, and gardens.  The kids had a great time playing in the water.

After the beach we went to the spaghetti factory to celebrate Aria's birthday.  They had a balloon guy come around and make balloon animals for the kids. Nathan got a sword and sheath.  He was quite talented.

Beckett was a big fan of his balloon robot but nothing topped his very own cup of lemonade!

Marianne's friend is a photographer so we got some really beautiful pictures of Aria's special day.  

Aria's baptism was such a special day. We were so glad we got to be there for her.  The kids and I got to sing with Aria's other cousins and Nana and Marianne both gave wonderful talks.  Nana made an amazing baptism quilt for Aria that I wanted to steal.  I can't wait for Rylynn's baptism to see her quilt!

We are so proud of Aria and love her so much!

The day after the baptism Nana flew home to the cabin.  After church we went to a beautiful park with gardens and ponds.  The kids loved the frog/fish pond.  Rylynn brought a net so she could be fully prepared to catch a frog:)  The flowers were beautiful and along one of the paths we saw a giant banana slug.  Rylynn was so grossed out and tried to kill it but Marianne quickly explained that in Oregon they like banana slugs.  I had to laugh because it was such an Oregonian thing to say.

We stayed until it got dark and we had to drag the kids to the car.  I love being surrounded by God's beautiful creations on the Sabbath.

Oregon was the last stop on our month long trip.  As we headed home to the unknown I felt a mix of relief to have our family back together and to be back in our own town with our own things but we still had no place to live.  I was completely shocked that Garret wasn't able to secure a rental for us while we were gone but I knew something would work out.  The day after we got home we went and walked through a rental house right by Rylynn's elementary school.  As soon as we left we started preparing the application.  I called the management company to ask a question and was informed that they had just received an application on that property.  Seriously!  That house had been sitting there for like 3 weeks and no one had applied and then the day we apply someone barely beat us.  At that point we were staying with Garrett's cousin and then we moved over to our friend's house who were out of town for a week.  After staying at friend's houses for two weeks and nothing was working out with rental houses I decided to just get an apartment(Garrett was gone for a week with the YM on high adventure).  I was not thrilled about the idea but it was an immediate solution and at that point I had been living out of a suitcase with my kids and moving from one house to the next for 6 weeks straight!  The week before I signed up for the apt Garrett got an interview with a firm that he had wanted to work for straight out of law school but the interview wasn't going to be for another three weeks.  We were completely in limbo...

Pioneer Day in Provo

This year for Pioneer Day we were in Provo and Danielle and I were flying solo with 5 kids so we were trying really hard to keep them busy and entertained.  We found out about a little festival in the park with all kinds of fun things for the kids to do in celebration of pioneer day and the best part was it was all free!

The girls and Skyler got their faces painted.  It was really cute because all the booths were run by volunteers from BYU and by missionaries.  Everyone was so nice.  Gotta love Provo!

They had a pretty cool collection of old cars and this one was an old firetruck.  The kids loved sitting in the seat and Skyler kept winding the siren.  Carter was in heaven with all the cars.

They even got free firemen hats!

There were also some booths for the farmer's market and this one was for a race for the cure campaign.  Thais decorated this bag for two of her family members who are battling cancer right now.  Then they were going to put candles in the bags and line the track with them the evening of the race.

This cracks me up!  There was a booth where you could make bonnets and mustaches.  Of course the girls got to work on their bonnets right away and Skyler ran for the mustache station so what does my son do?  Exactly what his big sister does of course and decorated a blue bonnet!  He was very proud of his work and he is displaying it for the camera to see.

They also had a petting zoo that Beckett and Skyler loved.  Then they had pony rides too.  Beckett was so excited to ride the pony!  He kept saying "neigh, more neighs!" So I put him on the pony and he walked about two steps and then started bawling and wanted to get off.  Oh well, maybe next year.

The big kids however, loved every second of it!

Skylee wasn't scared for a second either.  He's proudly displaying the indian war paint.

Next was the tomahawk throw!  I have to admit our kids almost took out the poor volunteers running this booth but they all got to give it a go minus Beckett who had no interest in the activity.

They loved the wax candle making station where they got to roll beeswax around a candle and then put glitter on it and make a little stand for it.

They worked so hard on them as Danielle and I tried to distract Skyler from the root beer chugging booth:)

Thais was very thorough on her candle.  Beckett was leaning out to remind me that he was tired and ready to go at that point:)

But of course we couldn't leave before we got some duck hunting and sling shot action in first!  Those were some of Carter's favorite spots of the day.  It was so much fun and it wore the kids out.  We all went home and crashed.

While we were in Provo Abby found a sitter for our kids and we all got to go out for a girl's night on the town!  It was so much fun.  We got mocktails and went to Harry Potter 3D.  

While we were in Provo Rylynn lost her 2nd front tooth and became "toothless" as she called herself.  She was excited that the tooth fairy travelled all the way to UT just for her!  We had such a great trip with cousins and were so sad to leave.  Especially since Danielle's new baby Gracie came along only a few days after we left!  While we were there I also got a call from Garrett saying he had just applied for a job posting for an in house counsel position that sounded amazing.  After the trial he had been feeling a little burned out with the firm and entertaining the possibility of going a different direction in his career.  The jury trial was such an amazing experience for him and really began to open doors for him.  I was so thankful for that news because we still didn't have any good options for housing and I was really starting to get discouraged.  The Lord never abandoned us during this stressful, crazy time in our lives.  The hope of a new start was all I needed to keep going.