*Points to the picture of Jesus we have hanging in our living room and says Jesus when we ask him where Jesus is.
*Loves buckling the buckles on his booster seat/stroller and insists he do it himself.
*Loves his daddy! He is most definitely his favorite person right now and the best part of his day is when daddy comes home from work.
*Loves the frog that Rog made for me at Build-a-Bear because it plays dad's voice. We need to open it up and have him record a message for Logan.
*Rubs our heads - usually Rog's, but he has rubbed mine before too.
*Calls any treat a cookie. I can't resist the cute little way he says cookie, so he gets one almost every time he asks.
*Gets into everything - especially the stuff in my craft room. We finally bought a doorknob that locks to keep him out of there which works great (as long as I keep it locked).
*Loves opening the oven door. (I watch him closely when it is on and we're in the kitchen.) One day he opened it when it wasn't on and put some trays of watercolors in there. The next time I turned it on to start preheating it for dinner, I started smelling melting plastic and opened it up to find a nice surprise!
*Repeats words that we say and has been using the words he knows a lot more frequently just in the past week.
*Got his right bottom canine and left top canine this month.
He had a couple horns come in just in time for Halloween. 👿 😂
He likes to sit up at the counter with Peyton while she is doing her workbook.
He pretty much always wants to be doing whatever Peyton is doing.
Including holding onto the cart at Costco. He is getting too big!
He has to do this puzzle every time we go to the library.
He loves putting on his shoes and taking Corbyn to the bus stop each morning.
He was the cutest little Buzz for Halloween! And he loves all the suckers he got trick-or-treating. Unfortunately we do not love the sticky fingerprints he leaves all over the house after eating a sucker.
He usually has to buckle up his booster after we take him out of it. (Blue fingers from eating Lucky Charms for breakfast.)
We took him on Toy Story Mania (rather than having someone wait with him and do the stroller swap). He loved having his own gun!
I thought I would be his favorite while we were at Disneyland since Rog had to stay home, but Grandma quickly took that spot.
He loved meeting the characters at Disneyland way more than any of the rides. Judy had him laughing so hard when we met her.
But I think Pluto was his favorite. I couldn't get him to turn around for a picture. He just wanted to give him a big, long hug!
He devoured the spaghetti we ordered him at Denny's and made the world's biggest mess.
He was so happy to see his most favorite person when we got home!
This might seem a little silly - posting about a closet - but when your closet is this big, it basically is a room. We've joked that we'll just have our next child sleep in this closet (in a full-size crib, not a pack 'n play) and while I don't think that will actually happen, it is big enough that it would be possible.
No, I did not decorate my master closet, but there are a few things I want to show off in here that I absolutely love! (I'll try to post about a more exciting room next week, but I can't make any promises with it being Thanksgiving!)
First a shout out to this hamper that has been with us since the very start of our marriage. The lid has a corner that got broken off, but it gets the job done and it doesn't look too bad, so it gets to stay.
When we were looking at this house, Rog pointed out that I would have a place for all of my decorations in the closet under the stairs (the one I turned into a toy room). That's where they were in our townhouse and it was a major pain to have to practically unload the whole closet every month to get to the box I needed. I decided to store them up here in the master closet instead and while I do have to carry them up and down the stairs, it has been a total game changer. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that this is one of my favorite things about this house.
Having them on shelves makes finding the right box so easy and it worked out so perfectly how January, February, and March fit on the top shelf, April (Easter) and May fit on the next shelf, June, July, August, and September fit on the shelf below that, October and November are below that...
And December gets the bottom two shelves. Clearly I need to get a life, but I just can't get over how much I love this.
In our townhouse I boxed up the kid clothes in whatever random box I could find at the moment and then we stored them wherever we could find room in the attic or the garage. As we unpacked I saved all the "pretty" boxes and then I spent an entire Saturday going through the boxes of kid clothes and organizing them into sizes in those "pretty" boxes. Having them so accessible has already come in handy as I'm switching out Logan's 18 month summer clothes for winter clothes in size 2.
I also made a box for boy shoes and a box for girl shoes which turned out to be pretty genius of me if I do say so myself. No more going through all the boxes to find which size I stored a particular shoe with. If I need bigger shoes for Logan I just have to pull down the boy shoe box and see if I saved shoes in the size I need. (Not all shoes made the cut as some were too worn out after Corbyn used them to save.)
One of our neighbors came over while I was in the process of organizing the kid clothes and saw all my boxes of girl clothes. She had assumed we were done having kids and couldn't understand why I was saving them. I told her we are planning on having one more kid and all my fingers and toes are crossed that it will be a girl (when that time comes). If not, we'll hand them down to Peyton's girl cousins and I'm sure our siblings will love us for saving them.
The rest is just your average closet and nothing really exciting other than my necklace organizer. I made it to match the master bath in our townhouse which of course ended up being the upstairs bath in this house. But it didn't matter because the closet doesn't have a color scheme!
In between the Provo City Half Marathon and jumping at the Kangaroo Zoo the day after Rog's graduation, we had an appointment to have the kids' birthday pictures taken at CheapShots Photography. Corbyn seemed to be doing better and the other two weren't sick (yet), so we decided to go. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, we got some good pictures of the kids.
Love this Corbyn kid.
Our pretty Peyton girl.
And the one year old!
A couple Saturdays later we had family pictures done by Mar Del Photography. We had them taken at Hidden Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was quite the adventure getting to the falls and boy, oh boy, was that water cold!
But it was all completely worth it for these two perfect pictures.
I finally finished binding this quilt Grandma Dixie made for Peyton. She was a little excited.
Rog took Peyton for her 4 year appointment and her Kindergarten shots. He got her an ice cream cone on the way home. (Lucky girl!)
We went to a dinner for the MHA graduates where Rog got his stole.
Peyton was so excited to sit in the back seat of the car with Corbyn in her new booster seat.
Grandma Dixie came for a visit and took Peyton to pick a few toys for her birthday. Somehow I never got a picture of them. (She got Rapunzel's Styling Tower and Lego Juniors Cinderella's Carriage.) But I did get a picture of Corbyn and Logan with the toys they got. (Lucky Boys!) A Lego Ninjago set for Corbyn.
And got together with the Goodrich family, the Howard family, and the Wood family one last time before we all moved onto our next adventures.
The guys went golfing and then the moms and kids met them at the Godrich's house for dinner. They have an amazing backyard with a dandelion field for picking...
A zip line...
And a fire pit for roasting s'mores...
Logan would not be left out of the s'mores fun.
These ladies are seriously the best. Leaving them was the hardest part of moving. Good thing we have Instagram and blogs to keep in touch.
These guys were great friends for Rog too.
And of course so many cute little friendships among this group of kids. 14 kids between the 4 families!
The next morning was Rog's graduation. This is Scott Parker, former president of Intermountain Healthcare and one of Rog's favorite professors.
Grandma Dixie, Kenzie, Jaxon, and Mason were the only family able to make it for graduation. Corbyn and Peyton had a lot of fun with Jaxon. We were sure grateful for technology to keep them entertained during the actual graduation.
So proud of my grad - red stole and all!
We had lunch at Kneaders and then hurried home, so Corbyn could go to Kindergarten that afternoon. He had a Mother's Day picnic that he (and I) didn't want to miss. He was so excited to show me this book he made me.
That night we had a little dinner to celebrate the grad.
And we had Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars for dessert. Corbyn polished off his bar and then moved right onto the one Peyton had rejected.
The next morning was the Provo City Half Marathon and Kids Marathon. My goal was to finish under 1:45, so I found that pacer and stuck to her like glue. She ran the first 10 miles below an 8:00 pace, so we could slow down the last 3 miles. But by the time we got to the last 3 miles I found I was in the rhythm running at that pace and couldn't slow down. I was thrilled to finish in 1:43:22 and was so happy to see these cuties cheering me on at the end.
We tried to get Logan to wear my sweatshirt because we didn't have his and it was a rather chilly morning, but he wouldn't keep it on.
Corbyn was not feeling well that morning (he threw up on the way to the race and then again after running), but still wanted to finish his marathon. He had run 25 miles with his class, so he had 1.2 miles to do that morning. We ran with his friend, Austin, and his dad, Toren. Their family moved into our ward at the start of the school year and we had become pretty close friends with them. They had lived in SE Portland, so they were a huge help in deciding where we should move and they are just a really great family. Toren became the new bishop of the Willows Ward after we moved.
It was so fun to do this race with Corbyn and we were very proud of his accomplishment.
Corbyn was feeling better by that afternoon, so we went with the Phillips to the Kangaroo Zoo where they have a ton of bounce houses and inflatable slides.
They also have this fun room where you can shoot balls at each other.
Even Grandma Dixie got in on the fun!
After the Kangaroo Zoo we went to dinner at Applebees, but unfortunately we ended up leaving early because Logan threw up right as our food got there.
The next day we got to have Mother's Day dinner with the Phillips before they headed home.
We gave Grandma Dixie this cute heart whisk with a printable from Our Best Bites and sent her home with one for Grandma Lori.
Logan was not cooperating for a Mother's Day picture.
My Mother's Day loot.
Our good friend, Zack, had cancer a few years ago and learned soon after Emily gave birth to their twin girls that it was back. He had to do chemo and I was feeling bad I didn't live closer, so I could somehow help out. I decided to make a "Box of Sunshine" for them. If it weren't for the sad reason I was putting it together, I'd say it was really fun.
Fortunately the chemo did its job and Zack is doing much better.
While I was at it, I sent a little gift for their twins.
Rog spent a lot of time working on his car fixing/replacing the CV axle.
Rog took Peyton on a date to climb at the Quarry before he canceled his membership.
He also took Corbyn on a date to Nickel Mania.
And then to get an ice cream cone at Burger King.
We watched Mae for a couple days to pay Tay and Martha back for watching Corbyn and Peyton for us when we went house hunting. At the same time we watched Rocky while McKae went to the temple. Rog took the older 4 to the park while Logan took a nap and I made dinner.
He also took them to Costco although McKae had finished up at the temple and joined him by that point.
I think Peyton enjoyed having a "little sister" for a couple days. They both loved it when I did their hair the same way and painted their nails for church.
Peyton learned to ride her bike.
She also learned to do the monkey bars. At this point, Corbyn couldn't even do them. (He can now.)
After we sold our townhouse, we brought all the stuff from the storage unit back and emptied the attic to start packing. The kids enjoyed playing with the toys that had been up in the attic.
And they cracked us up by riding their tricycles around the neighborhood.
Peyton had her last day of Preschool at Rees Elementary. She didn't have any sort of a program or graduation because she still had another year before Kindergarten.
Corbyn had a Kindergarten graduation program. He was an elephant and did a cute dance.
He had a slight wardrobe malfunction and was totally cracking us up with his ears!
Getting his diploma from Mr. Pitcher, the Principal.
With his diploma.
Mrs. Chidester was a great teacher for him.
My parents came into town to watch our kids while we went to Hawaii for Rog's graduation. They of course took great care of them. It seemed like every time we did FaceTime with them they were eating ice cream (and Logan was attacking Corbyn), so I'm pretty sure they never wanted us to come home! We loved all the pictures they sent us while we were gone. (These are just a few of my favorites from the ones they sent.)
I think they wore them out!
We got home just in time for Memorial Day. We started our day at the Ririe pancake breakfast up Millcreek Canyon...
Visited my Grandma and Grandpa Ford's graves...
Ate at Waffle Love...
Visited my Grandma Joan's grave...
And finished the day with an impromptu swim party with our neighbors.
Then it was really time to get serious about packing our house. I was trying to use up all the food which resulted in a few interesting meals. I often mix different types of noodles, but not usually lasagna noodles (broken up) or large shells.
And that, in a nutshell, was our May. (I'll post about Hawaii separately.)
I am a BYU Grad, an accountant, a champion sleeper, a crafter, a (retired) dancer, a mother, a perfectionist, a quilter, a runner, a reader, and sometimes a nerd!
