And the rest of Aspen's birthday...

Happy 6th birthday, buddy!

So excited to eat our traditional birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls.

I brought in treats to Aspen's class for his birthday. Here they are singing one of two birthday songs for him. He LOVED being in the center of the circle, and having them sing to him :)

I brought in super hero popcicles and ice cream bars for the class.

His table.

Celebrating his birthday at Grammy and Papa's house.

And the birthday trip. Seriously, his birthday went forever this year!

Mark decided to take Aspen on a surprise birthday trip, just the two of them. He was SO excited (as you can tell!). The took off on a Friday afternoon. Drove to Salem and checked in at their hotel. Aspen called me from the hotel all excited to tell me about the room. "There's two beds! There's a TV in our room! We get to have breakfast for free in the morning!"

The spent the evening eating dinner at Pietro's Pizza, playing in the arcade, spending his money at Toys R'US on a Lego Star Wars X-Wing fighter, putting together the X-Wing and watching TV.


The next day was spent at Enchanted Forest.

Let's just say the roller coaster and haunted house were not his favorite parts of the day.

Favorite quote of the day, "I didn't know you were gonna spoil me like this, Dad!"

Our Willow-Baby

Journey at 10 months.



Willow 8 1/2 months

I'm not sure how it's possible, but Willow is now 8 1/2 months old. Aspen and Journey call her
"Willow-baby". They really love her. The older she gets, the more she looks like Aspen, except for the blue eyes. Anyone have a guess what color they will be?

She is pretty much Journey's opposite. Where Journey was laid back, content and pretty low maintenance, she's definitely more demanding and well......needy. I spend much of the day holding her while she's awake. She loves the camera and even if she's fussy, she immediately smiles when I bring it out. Journey, even to this day, is very hard to get a good picture of. She rarely looks at the camera or gives a real smile.

She's been teething on and off for the last month, and when it's bad, life with her is rough! She's been waking 4-6 times a night and not sleeping much for her naps. I'm so thankful for my mother-in-law who comes every other Tuesday to give me a break so that I can go help out in Aspen's class or do some shopping (I don't usually leave Willow at my mom's on Wednesday morning since she won't sleep at her house). I'm also beyond thankful for our neighbor girl who is also our babysitter. We are able to go out most weekends because of her, and that goes a long way to me keeping my sanity :)

Even with the last month being so rough, I love her so much. She has the brightest smile and loves to laugh. She squeals when Mark gets home and makes sure that he comes over to give her love. She's far more interested in him than Journey was at this age.

We always laugh because one or both of her legs are constantly kicking. Literally, not even joking. They are constantly moving. If there's music, like at church, she waves her arms and legs as fast and hard as she can. It's hilarious to watch and hard to hold on to her!

She loves to swing at the park. Is starting to not like the Bjorn and jumparoo so much. Four thirty to six thirty is the hardest time of day with her (and for me). She's sitting up really well and loves to take showers with Journey and I. She loves cats and dogs, doesn't mind sitting in the grass (Aspen & Journey hated sitting in grass at this age), likes long walks on the beach and cuddling. Oh wait, scratch the last two :)

Cruising with Papa

The day after Aspen's birthday, Papa (my dad) called to see if he could pick up Aspen from school in his mustang to "go cruising". I love that he goes out of his way to make memories with him. Here are the pictures he took (and the commentary) of their time together.

Sooo I asked Aspen if he was full after eating his Happy Meal at what we call the happiest place on earth, to my surprise he said he could eat another one. In my weakness I could not resist to grant his wish as he told me he eats 9 sandwiches for lunch! The fact that he would get another happy meal toy probably did not come into play... Hmmmm what do you think?? I hope I was not scammed.. LOL

Aspen's haul after two Happy Meals.

Two cool dudes at the airport (watching planes).

As per Aspen "My Mom never takes me to McDonalds, she thinks it's junk" LOL .... ;)

Happy 6th Birthday Aspen!

Aspen, this is a couple days late, but this has been a busy birthday week for you!

I love you more than words can express. You seem to have grown up and matured so much just in the last month. I am SO proud of how you learn from your mistakes, take responsibility for your actions and move on. I have no doubt in my mind that no matter what you face or what mistakes you make in life, you will succeed.

I never imagined how much I would love having an oldest son. You are incredibly helpful, compassionate and protective with your sisters and Peyton and Lilly. You are great with giving them the attention they want from you, even when they bug you.

I love you so much. Love Mommy

Dinner Time

I have a confession to make. I don't like family dinner time. THERE. I said it.

While I feel it is very important and we actually have a family dinner every night unless we go out, at this point, I really don't enjoy it.

Let's take tonight as an example. We had blackened tuna tacos with mango salsa, black beans on the side and quesadillas for the kids. I love this dinner and it takes a lot of prep work to make the mango salsa from scratch, prepare the tuna, etc. Which means I started dinner during nap time.

Around 4:45, Willow woke up from her 3rd nap and Aspen and Journey started asking me when dinner would be ready. I took a quick break to attempt to feed Willow (not going so well since she's teething), and then work hard to finish dinner. With Willow on one hip most of the time. We sit down for dinner around 5:30. Everything is looking good. Willow is at a stage where she wants to be where I am at all times. I usually eat dinner with her in one arm, but tonight I pulled the high chair up to the table with hopes that I could eat in semi peace. Ugh, you don't get peace with an almost 6 year old who brings the conversation around to "poop or pee" every chance he gets and talks non-stop about minute details of Star Wars. Or with Journey who also talks non-stop over the top of Aspen, and Willow screeching, grabbing at her bowl of applesauce, and being generally frustrated and fussy.

I ALWAYS END UP INHALING MY FOOD. I really hate that. Especially after working so hard on the dinner! So that's my confession. I hate family dinners right now. I know they won't always be like this. I fact, I'm counting on that, and looking forward to that day.

I am blessed

It's amazing how you can look backwards in life and see how there were definite crossroads, forks in the road, decisions made that directly affect life today. As I look through pictures I've taken of our normal life, I can't help but be reminded of just how blessed I am.

Yes, life with three young kids isn't always easy. It's hard to keep the house as clean as I'd like. The noise level and bickering gets to me by dinner time and I'm often short and stressed out with them. There are days where I'd like to just be able to go shopping without having to schedule it around nap times or worry about each call I get on the phone while I'm out. But the truth is, this is the life I chose and would choose again. I love it, as hectic and crazy as it is.

Celebrating Valentines Day at school. It was a very exciting day, and Aspen brought home tons of cards and candy. Also, just last week, the girl that Aspen has liked at school (I think I've talked about her before?) sent home a picture she drew for him of a heart. I found it when I was going through his backpack, and he was beyond embarrassed when I asked him about it. Being the awesome mom that I am, I got the whole thing on video, haha! Let me tell ya, it's priceless. I'm so happy with myself for recording it, and I know he will be too.....someday :)

Beyond the bickering that is now standard here, they truely love each other. Both Aspen and Journey tell Willow multiple times a day that they love her, and every day that we drop Aspen off at school, Journey will remind him not to "have problems today". When we pick him up, she will check in with him and say, "did you have problems today?". Taking over my job! Way to go, Journey!

Yep, I love him. Almost 11 years of marriage now. It's hard to believe!

Journey. My little sweetheart. She's got a sneaky side to her, is pretty much impossible to completely potty train, but she makes me smile every day.

My little bright eyes. She's happy, sweet and laid back. Except for the last four days. Teething is torture.

Spring Break at the Beach

Spring Break couldn't have come at a better time for us this year. Aspen was having some problems at school in the days before the break, and I was happy for life to slow down a bit for a week. We were able to end the week at the beach with our friends Bryce and Amy and their kids.

It was a blast. The kids played so well together, slept great and we had some awesome weather. Pretty amazing for Spring Break :) Getting away from home and spending time with friends was just what I was needing too. I'm not sure why, but I was feeling stressed and bogged down with daily life. Aspen and Journey have been fighting and bickering a lot lately, and honestly, it's been driving me crazy. Journey has figured out that she is able to annoy Aspen. Now they go out of their way to annoy and argue with each other. Fun times. Never realized I would miss the days when Aspen was the only one doing that...

Anyways, here are some pictures from our weekend. Wish I would have taken more, but at least there are a few!

Charity and Justin were at the other beach house, so we met up with them on the beach one day. Lilly's crawling everywhere now and enjoyed eating sand. She's such a cutie.

Journey and Liza playing in the sand. Their imaginations crack me up.

Justin dug Liza, Journey and Peyton their own holes in the sand. What a hit! They were like little gophers in their holes. So cute.

Willow (7 mo.) is just starting to sit on her own. She's wobbly still, but getting better every day. She liked sitting by the window with Journey to watch Baker pace back and forth - missing Bryce :)

The guys pretty much spent the weekend obsessing about fishing. Yep, we're heading back into that time of year...

Aspen and Isaac watching an Indian Jones movie for the first time. I just enjoyed watching them watch if for the first time. They were so into it - especially the action scenes.