March 2013

We celebrated another birthday the first of this month.  Trey turned 12 on the 1st.  It is crazy to think that we now have another kid going to mutual and another boy passing the sacrament.  No more primary for Trey...he is pretty happy about that!  Both sets of grandparents came to support Trey when he was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic preisthood.

The day after Trey's birthday Chase, Trey, Layton, and dad went to Magic Reservoir for some ice fishing with Grandpa Yearsley.  They had a great time!

This sweet little girl turned 6 months...

Because of mom's surgery hair cuts weren't done for a while.  Declan's before and after... (side note--as I am compiling this post the boys have all looked at the "before" pic of Declan and have asked me who it is)

 Dad and his little princess

Crazy Hair Day

 Mustache Day--McKay wanted to have a mustache like Zander and Layton (the face paint stained their skin so there was a mustache on their faces for at least day past washing)

We ordered 80 pounds of chicken to freeze...it was quite the job to trim it all and bag it into meal-size portions.  

Dad was so excited when the weather warmed up a bit because he was able to go out and till the garden.  Zander and McKay had fun following him with their big John Deere dump trucks (can I say those have been the best presents ever!  They have played with them more than any other toy.)

Over spring break we went up to Hamer for a couple days.  The littles (Z, M, D, K) and I hung out with grandma while dad and the bigs (C, T, L) went steel head fishing with Grandpa Yearsley.  Trey was so thrilled because he caught his first steel head.  Dad was a little envious seeing how he hasn't caught one of his own yet.

Here are just a couple fun pictures of the kids......

February 2013

Declan celebrated his second birthday at the beginning of this month.

One morning we had fun taking pictures in bed with dad

Mom showed Declan how great baby feet are....they smell good and are so soft.  I am so going to miss having baby feet at our house.

5 months...crazy to think she is already that old.

Story time!  Declan loves to be read to.  His favorite books were "Ten Little Fish" and "Go, Go, Go"

On February 13th mom drove to Pocatello to have a procedure done to her face to take care of some small pre-cancerous spots.  It was awful.  They rubbed acetone all over the face, then put some sort of cream all over it and let it sit for an hour or so.  Then they washed the cream off and put a bright blue light on the face for 15 minutes.  It was so hot that they had a high powered fan blowing on the face.  My face was bright red for over a week and it peeled at least 3 times...even my lips peeled.  Two days after that little procedure I went in for surgery to reattach the outer ligaments on my right ankle.  The day after surgery Chase, Dad, and mom had a redneck BB-shooting contest off the front porch.  It was nice to get out and get some fresh air (notice my bright red face).

One night dad and mom went somewhere and came home to Declan with a bloody lip.  After a day of healing his lip had a weird flap that was poking out.  The part that poked out was turning black and looked as though it might be dying.  We took him to our family DR and he referred us to the local ENT who does some plastic work.  After looking at his lip that DR said we could either wait and let it heal and see how it looked or we could go into surgery the next morning.  Mom asked him what he would do if it was his child and his response was "I would have come in and had it looked at when it happened."  We were quite frustrated with his rudeness.  We later decided against the surgery. (We are so glad we did as it has healed beautifully.  One can hardly tell.)

 This is the picture of mom's ankle after 13 days in the splint before the stitches were taken out.

This is our new goat Billy (left) and the baby goat.  Billy is quite fun because his back legs freeze up when he gets scared.  Even feeding him causes him to freeze up.

Layton made a turtle person out of a stuffed turtle.  He is was proud of his little friend. :)

Some random pictures of the kids!  Watch out....Trey loves to take selfies!! :)

Puddle Sucker

Declan is OBSESSED with water and it doesn't matter if it is muddy, full of fish, or whatever.  As long as there is water around we know where we can find Declan.  He has earned himself the nickname 'Puddle Sucker' because he does just that . . . sucks water out of puddles.  He drinks water out of the flower beds, off the cement, out of the hose, out of the pool, E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!!!  We have multiple videos of him sucking the water off the rubber dividers between the yard and the garden--they were more mud than water.  Here are just a few pictures of our little puddle sucker doing what he does best!

Summer: Month One

I have been having a hard time keeping up with blog posts lately . . . slacker, I know.  In order to get caught up and hopefully stay that way this will be a general post of things that went on in June, month ONE of summer.  Which amazingly is already a week behind us as we are already into month TWO, where does the time go? 

FHE treats--chocolate lip and moustache suckers!

Chase off to NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training) for a week at Camp Bradley. 

  Closet cubbies in the little boys' room that Trey built for one of his projects for his Family Life merit badge.  He did such an awesome job!  I love the shelves!

Mmmmm....summer's first S'MORES!

  

Spray plane . . . they love to watch it fly over

  

Swimming in the flooded field

  

Sneak peek at baby K

  

Cuddle time with mom 

Fun shower gifts for baby K

We also had reunions, trips to both Boise and Hamer, and baby room projects, but pictures are yet to come of the room . . . still a work in progress!

Declan turns ONE!

I know I say this all the time, but where the does the time go?  It really does NOT seem like it was a year ago that we were rushing to the hospital to have baby Declan.  The memory of it all is still fresh in my mind like it happened last week and here my baby is now ONE year old.  Declan has brought so much joy to our family.  He has the cutest laugh and such a bright smile.  He has grown up so much in just the last little while.  He can go up and down the stairs on his own, he now walks more than he crawls, eats everything and anything we eat, and wants to be right in the thick of things with his brothers. 

His birthday was a pretty low-key day since he really had no clue what was even going on.  We ordered a free birthday cake from Albertsons, which was perfect because there was just enough for our family with no leftovers--therefore, no temptation!  Declan dove right into his slice of cake.  He shows signs of being a cake lover (like his dad & mom), unlike his brothers.  He had no interest in opening his gifts, but was excited to play with them once they were open.

His one year stats--he weighs 24.2 pounds (75%) and is 30 inches long (60%). 

We are so grateful that Declan is a part of our family.  Happy Birthday Declan! 
We love you!

Growing up

This is what little Declan was up to on his 9 month "birthday" (11-1-11). . . definitely taking after his older brothers.  I should mention that he got himself up unto the dishwasher all by his lonesome.   He measured in at 28.5 inches tall and 21 lbs 7 oz. He is such a fun, happy little guy.  We are so happy that he came to our family....he brings so much joy into our home!   

7 Months!

Hard to believe that Declan is already 7 months old.  Seriously, wasn't it just last week that I was trying not to push as we waited for the train to pass on the way to the hospital?  It is fun to see him grow and learning new things, but sad at the same time . . .Why can't they stay babies a little bit longer?

Declan is such a fun little guy.  He laughs so easily and hard....it is contagious!  He is sitting on his own and crawling E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E!!  (truth be told--somedays I wish he were still immobile).  He likes to be out on the grass which is so NOT normal for babies.  He sleeps through the night!  He has also cut his first tooth (as of Sept. 15).  He is about 28 inches long and weighs almost 20 pounds--time to pull out the 12 month clothes. 

Check out those eyes  .  .  .  . don't ya just love them!

Breaking News!!!

We interrupt our regular blog postings to let you know that Declan is now crawling at 6 1/2 months!

The progression of these pictures is so fun--first plank position and finally onto hands and knees rocking.

I love the determination on his face as he is trying to get to the toy (I kept trying to get a picture of him on his hands and knees but the darn camera is just to slow and kept getting him as he fell forward--oh well).

Now back to our regular postings . . .

5 months

It is crazy to think that I was two months pregnant this time last summer and that now my baby is already 5 months old! Time is seriously flying by in a hurry! Declan is now a rolling machine which can be a bit of a pain when he rolls next to something and gets stuck. He jabbers and blows raspberries all the time. He prefers to sleep on his tummy. He has already had his second hair cut and it is still pretty dark compared to the rest of his brothers. Declan is such a content little guy.

Cereal...YUM?!?!

My baby is growing up . . . time for real food if you can call rice cereal "real food".