Matthew's Blessing

November 1st, 2015.  

One year ago this day I found out I was pregnant. I was so scared. John and I both felt strong impressions that we needed to have another baby, but it was a big leap of faith. At the time our future was a complete blur of unkown. Not to mention, we had no idea how we would rise up to the challenge of four kids under six.  Our nerves soon turned to excitement as we began to anticipate all the special feelings a new baby would bring.  

One year later, I would have never guessed I would be where we are right now. Many of the uncertain aspects of our life are even more uncertain than they were when we decided to bring Matthew in this world. But one thing has remained a light and a joy in our life, and that is this little baby sent to us from Heaven.  I know, that sounds cheesy, but really- Matthew has been such a precious gift in our home.  Because of him, we have been able to focus in on what is most important in our lives: our family and our faith.  It is remarkable to me how God blesses us as we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  A year ago, it was subtle, but it was sure. Our family needed Matthew. I thought I knew what that meant at the time, but a year later I realize I only understood a glimpse of what God had in store.  Matthew has been a beacon of hope and binding force in our family.

God's plan for his children is remarkable.

I am so glad we got bless this smiley baby yesterday!

He wore John's blessing outfit, which was special. He was particularly pleasant all day, it was as if he knew it was his special day.  

Typically, babies are held by all the men in the circle in a laying-down position, Matthew sat up the whole time, haha. I guess that is what happens when you wait until they are three months? He was just so curious!  My favorite part of his blessing was when John talked about how his happiness and faith will be a light to others. I hope I can provide a home that will foster his cheerful disposition. 

Here's our growing family!

Both mine and John's family came up for the blessing. It was so wonderful to have them all there to support us. I am grateful for the extended family my kids have to turn to for guidance and role models.

 After the blessing we headed back to our cinderblock paradise for some taco soup and pumpkin bars.

Johnny and my dad playing rock,paper, scissors.

The grandmas and Matthew.

Shaylee, Brittany, Becca

Becca and Matt

 It was such a beautiful day, and a perfect way to start a month dedicated to gratitude. 

I am so grateful to be this boy's mother.

Halloween 2015

This year's Halloween was another one to add to the books! 

October was a bit of a crazy month for us, but we still managed to have a lot fun together and enjoy the Halloween season. I think some of my highlights as I look back are making sugar cookies at my mom's house, visiting the This is the Place Heritage Park in Utah (so much festive decor), going to the pumpkin patch with my brother, Matt, and singing all the fun Halloween songs/reading Halloweeen books with my kids.  

Here is a couple of pictures of my kids riding the train at Heritage park

Johnny and Caity were so cute in the little caboose, they loved it. William's face expression was pretty unsure about the whole experience.  

(And can we take a minute to check out Matthew's chunky little arm? Dying.)

Our first weekend in Rexburg we went on a double-ish date with Matt and his friend, Kylie. It was the cutest pumpkin patch and a perfect fall day. Some day I am going to have acres of land and a pumpkin patch because gosh, wouldn't it be wonderful to wake up to a field of pumpkins every October??

Caity and Johnny were quite the pumpkin pickin' team.  Johnny would march after Caity, Caity would choose the pumpkin, Johnny would say, "Yeah, that one. Now you have to carry it because you chosed-ed it." I'm raising a little gentleman.

William rode this little pumpkin train about five times (with the same face as the train ride the whole time...he gets excited on the inside.)

It looks like I captured William finding his pumpkin here...nope, it was a rock. He was so excited about his rock.  Through out the rest of the day, the kids would talk about their pumpkins and how much fun they had and William would pipe in all excited, "My ROCK!"

Caity and our loot.

Our family. :)

Matt, the kids and Kylie. They love him.

Matthew basically slept through the whole thing like a good two month old.

Oh, it was so much fun! I have a special place in my heart for Eastern Idaho, it has been fun being back here for a short time.

Although Halloween was on Saturday, festivities started on Friday for us. 

Caity got to dress up for her school's Halloween parade and the boys and I got to dress up for story time and trick or treating at the library.  I decided to make our traditional jack-o-lantern pancakes for breakfast (and a bat and witch hat in honor of Cate and Johnny.)

Here's Caity right before school in her witch costume.

Here are the boys right before the library. Matthew was a pumpkin but he decided to spit up all over that costume good thing we had a back up!

 JOHNNY THE BAT (BOY)

I don't where this obsession started. Maybe in one of our Halloween movies or books? But this boy is obsessed with bats this year.  When I go to tuck him in at night, he is hanging off his bunk bed upside down, when I get up at four to homework, he is wide away and whispers, "Except I can't sleep at night...cause I'm a bat."  Then when I told him I was his Bat mom so he also had to listen to me when he is bat he responded, "Well, then we aren't alike because girl bats like light and boy bats don't...sooooo, sorry about that." "What's for dinner? Do bats eat that?" Those are just a couple of examples, but he has seriously been cracking us up with this Bat obsession. Oh one more- at church when he introduces himself he says, "Yeah, I'm friends with sharks, bats and lions." all matter of fact, nodding his head. After watching Rugrats Halloween, he was pretty disappointed to find out he didn't actually turn into a bat at midnight like the show made him hope.

WILLIAM the SKELETON (DEM BONES)

We weren't sure if would be able to get William to dress up this year, he is our wild card that keeps us on our feet.  It wasn't until Matthew spit up on his first costume and changed into these skeleton pajamas that William would get into his costume. Then, he didn't take it off for two straight days. He thought it was so amazing that him and "BeeBee" matched. Whenever John would see William he would holler, "Ah! Dem bones!" and William would chase him growling. (And then they would wrestle...and then someone would get hurt...but we'll leave that part out!)

MATTHEW THE PUMPKIN/SKELETON/COWBOY

This chunky little stinker needed multiple wardrobe changes!  Lucky for him he looked so dang cute every time.  While we were trick or treating and engaging in all the festivities, he was all wide eyed, smiling at me in his car seat. He just makes me smile, that Matthew!

CAITY THE WITCH

 

Caity wanted to be a witch SO, SO badly. I tried to talk her into a million other costumes that we had access to that were so cute (especially since she was a witch a couple years ago), but she just wanted to be a "Cute and Scary WITCH!)  My mom sent my old costume and Caity loved it.  And I just want to point out how cute that girl is with four missing front teeth! :) 

We went to Caity's costume parade at school, then to the library, then to various trick or treats around Rexburg. We came home completely exhausted. OK, so I was exhausted, the kids were hyper. John was out working on a cattle ranch for a couple of days and these kids know how to work me to the bone! 

We came home and sorted our candy into piles (one of my favorite things to do) and got comfy on the couch to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

I love those kids!

Then MATT CAME OVER! The kids were so excited to carve pumpkins with Matt (OK, so was I.)

Matt kept teasing Caity and mixing up the shapes, it was driving her crazy but Matt and I couldn't stop laughing about it.

Here's the whole crew. I am glad we had time to do that together, and grateful Matt makes time to hang out with us!

After Matt left, John's parents, Brittany and Spencer came up to visit.  And our chaotic, crazy night got crazier as the kids started bouncing off our cinderblock walls with excitement. Did I mention that John brought home a bloody cow horn from the ranch? He did. I should also note that he talked Johnny into bring it close to Eden multiple times when gave Shaylee a heart attack. It was gross, but also kind of funny. Shaylee is a trooper to put up with her big brother's teasing. 

Halloween morning, after eating Boo Berry cereal, we made our way to the ice caves. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this adventure, but everyone had a great, wet and cold time. Except me. Poor me stayed in the warm, cozy car kissing chunky baby cheeks. :)

On our way home from the caves we stopped by the St. Anthony sand dunes and played for about thirty minutes. This was my favorite part of the day

I love getting chances to play with John and we always have such a good time wrestling and pushing eachother off the dunes.

Spencer taught Cate "Double Double This That" in the car on the way home. 

We got home and got warm and in costumes then headed over to Shaylee and Kevin's for chili and trick or treating. It was so much fun. Eden (ahem...Kevin) even went to the door for candy, we had a blast.  We also stopped by my Aunt Natalie's house- it was so wonderful seeing them and my cousins. They are some of my favorite people whom I admire.  Their house was decorated so beautifully for Halloween and they were watching the Nightmare before Christmas and eating stew. I'm sad we couldn't stay longer.

After trick or treating we drove back over to Shaylee's and celebrated Miss Brit's birthday (who is more elusive than I like when it comes to pictures so I don't have one of her! haha.) She was dressed up as the kid from ET, it was so cute. 

Here are John's parents with Eden and Matthew...I wish Maria was here! It is so fun having two cousins Matthew's age. 

Everyone went to the Haunted Mill while John and I took the kids home and put them to bed. We all crashed right away from a long, fun day. 

I just love Halloween!

Caity, the FIRST grader

Caity has been so excited to go to school ALL day and eat her lunch AT SCHOOL, she has talked about it all summer. Then a week before school she started saying things like "Oh man, my last Tuesday of freeeeedoooomm!" as if she was dreading it, but you could tell by her face she didn't mean it  but was likely imitating something she had seen somewhere as a right of passage as child.  I have learned this about Caity: the days she looks forward to are first, Christmas; second, the first day of school; and third her birthday.  At least so far. I like that girl.

We walked her to school

If you can zoom on this picture you can see two little bodies holding hands on the to school. Dear Caity and Johnny: PLEASE always be this sweet to eachother.

William Bradley Turns TWO!

Mr. Wills, Master William, Will the Pill, Willy-Boy...We love our William Bradley.

William's birthday fell right before our move to Rexburg, it was so nice to take a break and just enjoy that little boy of ours! 

I love that he just knew it was his special day and he was particularly happy and excited the whole day.

His smile just melts my heart. His favorite color is red (maybe because of his red blankteria?) His Mamaw Brassell got him an Elmo as an early birthday present that he would take eeeeevvveeeryyywheeerree with him. So, it seemed only natural to give him an Elmo cake! He was so excited and by the time we blew out candles there were quite a few finger pokes. It was a banana cake with cream cheese frosting, so yummy!

We went to the zoo and he must have grown since the last time because it seemed like for the first time he could actually see the animals.

He also got to go on a few motorcycle rides with his dad (he LOVES motorcycles.) 

We made sure to visit our friends, the Jensens so he could see Kayden (aka- fight, hug, chase, bite, hug, laugh, jump on the trampoline....we miss that sweet, forgiving boy!) The Jensens got him a Ninja Turtle shirt (that he literally wears every day) some cars, and they hooked me up with a hand-me-down race track that William plays with ALL the time.  

After visiting them, we played outside with the McFarlenes, and their dog, S'mores- whom Wills loves.  Leah made William a puzzle that she painted just for him, it was priceless.

Again, his favorite part of the birthday was the balloons!

Here's to two years to my crazy, stubborn, strong-willed, passionate, particular, high-pain-tolerant, growlly, would-rather-to-be-naked, sweet-loving, sand-playing, innovative, joking, awesome-play-wrestling, big splashing, defending, sweetest kiss giving little boy.

I love you Mr. William,

I love watching you learn and grow and "become" every day. I am excited for the world that you are in it.  You are our wild card child and every gray hair you have given me is totally worth it. I love when you rub my arm and smile and tell me you love me, I love how you are always so concerned about your siblings and I love how you can smell treats from two blocks down- you are my kind of kid! It cracks me up that no matter who it is, as soon as you hear their bath water running, you are stripped down in seconds- yet you hate taking baths on your own.  I admire your determination to do things your own way and once you set your mind to it, you make sure it happens! You are joy and an infinite part of our family.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Master Wills.