Father's Day

On Saturday night I realized that I would be the only non-dad adult for Father's Day. We celebrated early with Paul's family because his mom and sis are gone this week. But I still wanted to do something since his dad was home alone.

So I went to the store saturday night to figure something out for dinner. We had Tomato Basil Soup and fresh baked bread, jell-o and cherries, a (gourmet- if I do say so myself) salad bar, complete with several dressing options, lots of toppings, and applesauce barbecue chicken and sweet chili glaze chicken, and hummus with pita and rice crackers. It all tasted so fresh and yummy. 

The kids painted mini flower pots for dad, Bapa an poppy. I think they turned out really cute!

It was a nice low-key evening with the kids and three generations of dads. 

Addie's my little wild child, and I love every bit of her. But she's also got this gentle, caring, concerned side, too. I love this picture below because it captures Addie's patients and attempts to comfort her crying sister, instead of just sticking the binky back in. I often hear her 'checking' on Charlie. "Do you need a blanket?" "Are you tired?" And then her little two-year-old sarcasm kicks in, "Do you want to eat some pancakes?...just kidding! You don't got some teef!" And she reports to me often, "Charlie's cold mom." "Charlie's okay mom." 

Charlie now grabs and pulls on things. She was getting frustrated here because her binky kept popping out and she wasn't realizing that it was her pulling it out. 

Bapa got her laughing. She's come really close a few times, but this was official baby laughs. I'm so glad that all these little milestones stay so fun and exciting even on the third child. 

I'm so thankful for these four and that our littles love their daddy so much. 

projects, ideas, the never ending to-do list

We celebrates Father's Day with Paul's family early because of some travel schedules. We planned to go to the beach but it was during the time Garrett was sick and I didn't want him in the sun. Instead we just went to the in-laws for a bit to get out of the house. Paul made a scarecrow for his dad's garden and the kids and I made this sign.

I'm obsessed with Charlie's little foot print. It came out perfect and I'm jealous this sign isn't mine. 

Paul's parents gave him a new shelf for our playroom for Father's Day. It's just what I -I mean he wanted. Our playroom was in much need of an organization makeover so he ended up being happy about it. But all my little house projects got put on hold while Garrett wasn't feeling well so we lived in a jumbled mess for several days. But it's finally coming back together. 

I tried to take Garrett outside whenever he felt up to it because we were all going a little stir crazy. This fever was the worst because it broke once in a while and nothing else seemed wrong so G would want to play but he'd quickly get drained and then sleep for four hours and wake up with a fever again. Maybe I let him do too much but it got old after 5 days. And try telling a cooped up three year old no when he wants to go on a walk. 

Oh Charlie... No matter what the day or week is like she makes me smile. I tell Paul she's my living, breathing antidepressant. 

A week of sick.

Garrett and Addie had never in their lives had fevers. Until Charlie was born. Now they've each had week long mystery fevers. Addie's was when Charlie was about a week old and it was followed by all of us except Paul getting colds. And Garrett's was two weeks ago. In a week he spiked to 104 several times and stayed around 101 most of the time. We were at the pediatrician once and the ER twice. After about 5 days of high fever he started getting a rash that eventually covered him from head to toe (Roseola.) Poor little dude. He starts school at the end of August and I'm nervous about all the germs he'll be bringing home with him! Thankfully no one else in the family got it this time.

He's such a trooper when he's sick. He doesn't want anyone to worry about him and he tries really hard to act okay. I can't tell you how many times I heard him cheerfully say, "I'm feeling better!" As his weak, warm, red spotted little body would wake up from a nap. It broke my heart. 

"Mom, what's this? What's this? What's this?" About a million times... I came up with some pretty creative uses for all the stuff hanging on that wall. 

I told him not to step on the gray floor and he kept pretending to escape. 

He had to have a chest X-ray in the ER. The man doing it was so impressed with how well Garrett followed every instruction and how still he sat. He told him he'd never had a kid that young listen so well and not cry and/or need mom or dad to hold them in place. He was so shy as he was being complimented. I was so proud of him. 

We had a lot of time to kill so we took a lot of pictures. 

Even under hard circumstances, I love one on one time with this kid. He's a pretty cool dude. 

Glad we're done with that and I'm hoping for a healthy summer! 

Great Strides 2014

Charlie's first road trip! She did awesome. All of the kids did great. This was probably our smoothest drive to Utah yet.

Addie did a lot of singing on the drive. Here she is passionately singing Let It Go from Frozen.

We stopped in St. George for a couple of hours for a break. We had lunch with baby will. And then played at the local splash pad and river for a while.

Garrett and Addie are trying to remember to not call him Baby Will anymore, because he's not a baby anymore! It's so cute listening to them emphasize his whole name 'Willlll-YUM!' He is pretty yummy.

The trip was our annual May trip to Utah for the Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser. We are four for four now and plan to attend every year and support our little buddy J until there's a cure for CF.

We planned to attend as 5K walkers this year. But a few weeks before the walk, when Charlie was almost 2 weeks old, I got a phone call from the head of the Salt Lake chapter. She was asking if I planned to do a sweets booth again this year to help raise more money. I immediately said no because I had a brand-new baby and we weren't 100% sure that we would make it to Utah. But as the event got closer, and we became more sure that we would make it, I decided I could probably pull it off again this year. We did a bit smaller scale booth, but we did it and had lots of fun! 

That evening we went to Matt and Dana's house (the parents of Garrett's little buddy who has CF.) This is the first time in the boys' lives that they've actually been able to play together. Garrett gets sick almost every time we go to Utah and so we have to keep him away from other kids. It was so fun watching them together.

Dana and I joked that we wish they wouldn't have had such a great time because then it wouldn't be so hard to think that it only happens once in a great while that we can all get together. 

On this trip we also got to see my grandpa and a couple aunts and uncles. As well as my Auntie and Uncle John. My Auntie is Charlie Raelene's namesake. They seem to have a special bond already. 

We barbecued for my moms birthday. 

Caught in mid-sneeze.

Seems like the only time these kids napped was in the car. We had a busy week! 

We got to go boating with uncle Dave. 

My childhood best friends (twins) own shops right next to each other. A tanning salon and a hair salon. Mandi did mine and Paul's hair and Brandi came over and visited. So great to see them both. 

And we got to see uncle Scott and aunt Laura's new home they are having built. 

The drive home was much quieter because we left Garrett and Addie there for another week! Paul and I had a pretty calm week, just us and Charlie. 

Addie wanted to feed Charlie before saying good-bye. 

I was nervous about leaving them, but they seemed happy to see us go. 

A little blowout break on the road. 

We had a lot of uninterrupted snuggle time with this little lady all week. 

I joked that the left is her morning 'oh no, the toddlers are coming' face. And the right is her face after I told her she was an only child for the week. 

And after a fun week in Utah, my mom flew these two home. I missed them!