I hate coming up with titles

You know when you have two or three or four little kids at home all day and life gets pretty taxing and exhausting? But you also know those two or three moments each day that melt your heart make you think how much you love your kiddies and it is so worth the pain? I just had one of those with Kinsey, and I just had to write about it. For some odd reason both of the boys fell asleep early tonight so Kinsey and I got to spend some one on one time, and she was so delightful. She helped me wash the dishes, clean the floor, make brownies (and eat them and the batter, so yummy), take them to a neighbor, and she was so happy the whole time just chatting away. She kept asking, "What else can I help with mom?" I just love that she is growing up and when it is just us we have really fun "girl time". Then, we went and got ready for bed and she said the sweetest prayer I have ever heard. "Dear Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for my mom, dad, Connor, and Gage. I am thankful for this beautiful life. I am grateful for this home. I am grateful for the spirit. Please help me be a good girl and be helpful. And to always choose the right. Please help my family to be true. (not quite sure what this means but she likes to say this in her prayers and it's pretty dang cute). Help us to have the spirit..." Her prayers are always very sweet and she always prays for someone outside of our immediate family. She hasn't gotten into the repetition thing too much yet, so it's fun to hear what she says each night as she prays to her Father in Heaven. This is definitely one of the moments I look forward to each day that melts my heart and gives me the strength to keep on trucking. Sometimes I think I'm totally failing my kids, but then there are little times when I get a small glimpse of what they are learning and it gives me so much hope. Hope that all of this hard work will eventually pay off and my kids will turn into actual decent adults. Hopefully. : )

Mother's Day

So I realize this isn't a great picture, but Connor looked so sweet when he brought me this flower after church. It melted my heart and I had to capture it the best I could.

This is small, but funny if you can actually read it.

And... I did my first sprint triathlon last Saturday with Marianne!! It was really fun, can't wait to do it again when I'm in better shape!!

RaNdOm Pictures

Kinsey and Connor "helping" feed Gage his first bowl of rice cereal!! YAY!!

Connor LOVES fruit, and I always find him like this- he has to have one in each hand. I find half eaten apples all over my house. Pretty gross.

I found Kinsey with her first very own lemonade stand

Dylon

Easter Pics

Jail Break

A few days ago I had Travis put a new kind of door knob on Kinsey's door because she knew how to unlock the other one from the inside, even though the door knob is turned around. It was really hard to do time-out's and such if she can break out and think she's pulling a fast one on me.

Today, she did NOT want to go to school. So, I told her if she didn't go to school she would have to be locked in her room the whole time. I mean 2 and a half hours is a long time for a kid, so I thought it might scare her into submission. Wrong. I guess time tables are still hard for a four year old to grasp. She went into her room pretty easily, and I thought I was being all sneaky because she wouldn't be able to break out this time. Wrong again. It took her about thirty minutes, but all of a sudden I hear, " I did it!" and then she came running down the hall.

In Love

I'm so in love with this baby. I especially LOVE morning time Gage!! He wakes up so so stinking happy! Melts my heart every morning!!

Is it weird that I think it's funny when he cries? I used to stress when my first two cried, and now I think it's funny. He just gets so mad and red, but he looks so cute!!

Gage's Blessing

Gage was blessed on the 7th of March by daddy. It was a very sweet blessing, and I feel so lucky to have this sweet baby in my life and family. He has been such a good baby and is a comfort to me already. I am so grateful for a wonderful husband who is worthy to hold the priesthood and bless my children. It is a huge blessing and comfort in my life, sometimes I wonder how I ended up with such a great guy. It must have been divine intervention b/c I definitely wasn't smart enough to really know what a great man I was given the chance to marry. Lucky me. Even luckier me with all of these cute kiddos I've got : ). Stupid me forgot to get a family picture. Thank goodness dad was here to remind to at least get a few good shots.

ignore the crazy looking paint in this pic (and my fat cheeks)... it doesn't look like that in person (but my cheeks do!!)- it's that candlelight stuff so in real life it's only shiny from some angles, but in pictures it looks crazy!!

This is not that great of a picture, but I didn't get many of everyone so this is all we got.

Cute Brielle!!

Grandpa was definitely the life of the party, he helped the kids build the biggest tower ever (as Kinsey would say)!!