Are they going to hate me???

Maybe it is the twin in me but I LOVE to dress Nash and Gray alike. Joey thinks I am crazy but I think it is so cute to see them looking so much similar. I am going on the record, promising that this will not go on for much longer. And it is not like I am doing this on a daily basis. There is nothing wrong with the twinner look once or twice a week. So I will enjoy these cute "twin" boys until they have their own opinion about it.

New Do

I am officially letting go. Luke has wanted for a long time to wear his hair down daily as he puts it. I love it when he spikes his hair up. But truth is, he has the cutest face and so it does not matter how his hair is done. So yesterday after basketball pictures, I asked him if he wanted a buzz. He was super excited. I must admit, he looks super cute AND my mornings just got a little easier!

Luke's Great Report

Yesterday we had Luke's second parent teacher conference. He, like his siblings, had been sick all day. But we gave him some Motrin so he could make it to the conference. Mrs. Grimes had nothing but great things to say about our Luke. She said he is very smart and very caring. She said that if she is concerned about another student, she can put them at Luke's table and she knows he will take care of them. She said Luke is a great leader. She has taught Luke how to check for the next day's lunch and has him teach the other students how to do it. He is so far above in reading. He is at a 2nd grade level. They score according to number. For first grade at this point in the year, they should be at an 8 or 9. Luke is at an 18!! What a smart boy. She said that she feels so lucky that Luke is in her class. She said she would be so sad if one of the other teachers got to have him. Of course I teared up a bit when she was speaking so highly of him and of course Luke teased me about it as we left. After the great conference we let Luke go and choose a book from the book fair as a reward. He chose another Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We are so proud of Luke. What a great example he is to the other students in his class and what great example he is to us. We love you Lukie!!

Too much too soon

Either I am getting old or Gray is growing up way too fast. I think it is probably a little of both. I just do not remember any of the others moving as much as he does. He will find any little thing on the floor and it immediately goes in his mouth. The picture shows an Oreo that Nash dropped on the floor. Gray loved it not only in his mouth but all over his clothes. He is starting to climb too; stairs, fireplace, in the shower. He is not even 8 months old! Just feels like all this is a bit sooner than I expected or love! Gone are the days of getting things done. Now my days are spent chasing the little boy who loves to be on the move.

Siblings

I know that at first it seemed crazy to have all these kiddos so close together but I am really loving the blessings. They all play so well together and love to spend time together. Don't get me wrong, there are moments of fighting and biting by Nash but most of the time they love each other. It is so fun to watch them play. Here is how it normally goes: Luke comes up with an idea of what they are going to do. Harlee is so excited and will pretty much do whatever Luke says. Then Nash joins in and just follows them around mimicking their every move. I love to see the close relationships that they are forming. It makes me so excited to think of how they will look out for each other as they get older. What blessings come with the craziness of having 4 kids under 6!

Clockwork

It is fair to say that I do not have the best memory. I think that sometimes that is a blessing. I do not remember how hard the baby phase can be which allows me to keep having babies! Gray is a pretty good sleeper. He usually is asleep by 7:30 or 8pm. He gets up once in the night still which I would not be miss if he could sleep through the night. But he is very consistent with getting up in the morning. He is up every morning between 5:30 and 6am. Not so fun for a tired mom! Good thing he always pops up in his crib with the biggest smile and is so excited to see you. That makes the early mornings a little easier. I have to be honest and say that I do look forward to the days where I can sleep in past 7am!
PS- Such a cute pic. He is making a silly face. I was trying to get a pic while he was wrapped up in his favorite show the Wiggles! He turned for one quick second and smiled before returning to his show.

Luke the Pirate

I love it when teachers obviously do not have kids of their own. Yesterday was such an example of that. Luke came home with a black piece of paper telling me that he needed to make a pirate hat for school tomorrow. I had a RS meeting last night so Joey was going to help. Joey was struggling to get Gray to sleep so Luke tried to make it by himself. That did not go so well and we were so thankful that we had some black card stock. About an hour later I had the hat done and thought it looked pretty good. Luke was super concerned what everyone was going to think and was certain everyone would think he looked stupid. Oh course I reacted like anyone who just spent too much time on something stupid and told him not too worry about it. Too bad he got his mom's issue of worrying what everyone else thinks. So this morning we added corners and staples at Luke's request and a little elastic so it would stay on his head. He promised he liked it and that he would come home and tell me if everyone thought it was dumb! Here's hoping everyone is worried about themselves and don't worry about Luke's hat!

Our Pet Fin

Luke was begging Santa for a dog this year but with four little ones it is just not the time. So Santa brought Luke a fish on Christmas morning. By the afternoon poor "Fin" as Luke had named him had died. We promised to go get more fish right as the stomach flu hit. So on Wed. Dec 29 we went to Walmart and purchased five little $.29 goldfish. They all died pretty quickly but one of them is still thriving! He is "Fin the 2nd" and from the beginning it was obvious he was the strong one. Luke is doing such a great job taking care of him and making sure he gets fed. So he has been with us for 3 weeks now. That has to be some kind of goldfish record! He is becoming a part of the family. Harlee even told me this morning that Fin thinks she is his owner! The kids love him and it is fun to have a little pet in our family.

Gray's Ongoing Journey

This morning I took Gray to have a chest x-ray. Depending on the results they would move forward with the feeding tube. I was so nervous especially since he has been sick. Also there was a mess up with his medicine. I guess that the pharmacy accidentally gave him double the dose last time. Good thing it was not a narcotic or something that might harm him in such a high dose. So this week he has been fighting to adjust to less medicine and we have been enjoying getting up with him a few times a night. So with the sickness and the medicine adjustment, I did not have the highest hopes for a good xray. But prayers have truly been answered and his xray looked normal. I was so excited to hear the news. So he will go in another month or so for another swallow study. Those results will determine the next step. As for now we are just so happy that the medicine seems to be helping and he is doing so much better.

Anniversary Getaway

It's that time again. I cannot believe we have been married nine years! Our actually anniversary is on Tuesday but we celebrated last night. We went first to see a movie called Country Strong. It was different than I thought it would be but it was really good. We had free movie tickets so anything is better when it is free! Then we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It was so good and so nice to sit and talk uninterrupted through dinner. Then we made the long drive to Zermatt where we were going to stay the night. I seriously just love being with Joey. We talked the whole way there and really enjoyed the time together. After relaxing at the hotel for a while, we went to Dairy Keen for some fries and shakes to go. We slept in until 7:30am. It was so nice to not have to get up in the middle of the night. We so appreciate Joey's parents being willing to stay with the kiddos so we could enjoy this much needed time together. I seriously lucked out when it come to a husband. Joey is the best man I know. He works so hard for all of us. He is so fun and makes me laugh all the time. I am truly grateful for him and look forward to blogging about many anniversaries to come.

Harlee's Preschool Spotlight

On Tuesday Harlee was spotlighted in her preschool class for her birthday. What this means is that it is her special day and they focus a little bit of the class time on her. What this also means is that mom gets to spend hours making a cute poster and treats for the class! That's OK, I will do it for her! So we asked Harlee some of her favorites and here is what she said:

Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Treat: Candy canes and chocolate
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Princess: Belle
Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite things to do: Hold Gray, Dance and Paint

I love her answers. It is so funny because I would have never guessed she liked candy canes. She is such a beautiful and sweet girl. I hope she had a great birthday and that she enjoys a great year. Love you Har!

Here are her two teachers with her!

Into Everything!

Gray has reached the phase where he is into everything. He is almost crawling but he can scoot anywhere he needs to get to. He finds every little crumb or piece of paper on the floor. He also is very interested in eating what the big kids are eating. Yesterday Harlee gave him a sucker and he was in heaven. He is keeping me super busy but with that cute face he can get away with anything!

Harlee's 4 year old check-up

Today Harlee had her four year old checkup. Four years old- can you believe it?? She is doing really good. Here are her stats:

Weight- 37.5 lbs- 50%
Height- 39 1/4 in- 95%

She is our string bean. Tall and skinny. She is right on developmentally. She counted and could get to 13 without a mistake. Dr. D said that is right where she is suppose to be. Her eyes were tested and she has 20/30 vision. She is healthy and we love her!

Harlee's Four!!

Today is Harlee's real birthday. I cannot believe that she is four years old. It is scary to think of how quickly the time is going by. She was excited to open her presents this morning. She got a new leotard for dance class and a radio flyer big wheel. Ever since Nash got his big wheel from Santa he has had to share with Harlee. She is super excited to have one of her own. After presents this morning we went to Cory's homecoming. He started his talk by giving a shout out to Harlee over the pulpit wishing her a Happy Birthday. She was so excited. Then we went over to Mimi and GP's where she was given a cute princess bag my Mom made full of princess goodies. Grandma and Grandpa are going to take her to lunch on Wednesday to round out the birthday celebrations. What a lucky girl.

Harlee is truly the best little girl. She is so caring and so sweet. She is so loving to her brothers and almost always happy. We are so grateful for her and feel so blessed to have her in our family. We love you Harlee and hope you have the best year!

Harlee's 4th Birthday Party

Since Harlee's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we had her first big party on Saturday. Harlee invited 10 little kids 3 of which were boys. She invited Audrey, Boston, Sidney, Reese, Lydia, Blake, Dane, Brooke, Vanessa, Aubrey, and Carolanne. Everyone she invited came to the party. It was quite the crazy scene but thankfully Cami, Reese's Mom, offered to stay and help. This allowed Joey to keep the little boys upstairs. We started the party by reading the story of Tangled, which is the theme that Harlee chose for her party. Then we pinned long hair on Rapunzel, colored pictures from the movie, had tangled cupcakes, opened presents and then had castle pinata. The kids all seemed to have a great time. Harlee got so many nice presents and I am so grateful for all of the cute friends she has.

Gray's New Fun

Gray is such an active kid. He is always on the move. So last night Joey brought up the Jumperoo from the basement. Gray is loving it. Last night he played in it for almost an hour. So fun for him and so nice for Mom to be able to have her hands free for a while. Hopefully the novelty does not wear off!

Another Year- 2011

So I decided to do the blog from January through December. Last year's book will be a little larger since it includes December of 2009 but it seems to make more sense to do it this way. So here is to another year and another book. I love these blog books more than anything. So fun to go back and remember the things you would have so easily forgotten had you not written them down. I am hoping that one day my kiddos will treasure them as much as I do. Here's to many more years of writing down the moments...

Wrap it Up!

What a year this has been. We have been blessed beyond belief. One of our biggest blessings being Gray coming to our family. Here is just a little bit about each of our little ones.

Luke

Luke is 6 1/2 and growing up too fast. Just like Joey said today, Luke is 6 going on 20! He is very smart. He is the best reader and is already reading chapter books. He definitely got his father's brain. In true six year old form, Luke loves to be silly. He has mastered the arm farts and has several variations he loves to show off. He loves to spend time with his bff Riley. Luke is playing basketball right now and is loving it. He is the best older brother to the others. Luke and Harlee play so good together. Nash loves to follow Luke around and Gray's face just lights up when he sees Luke. Luke is has the biggest heart and people are drawn to him because of his kind nature. We love Luke and are so grateful he is part of our family.

Harlee
Harlee is almost four and growing up so fast too! She is such a sweetheart and loves to help, especially if it means entertaining her little brothers. She is in preschool and is loving it. She is also doing dance again this year and seems to just get any step that is thrown at her. She is a natural! She is doing very well in speech and progressing quickly. She loves to play with her barbies and to play shopping. She loves to play with friends and whenever her little girlfriends come over they play house. It is so cute to watch them take turns being the mommy. Harlee loves to be one of the boys with her brothers. In fact, she is currently sharing a room with Luke and Nash so she can be part of the mix! She is very talkative and loves to ask tons of questions. Harlee is so sweet and sensitive and a joy to be around.

Nash
Nash turned two this year but for some reason seems so much older. Hard to believe that he has only been in our family for 2 years. He is the funniest kid. He is always a mess and always into something. He is so quiet about the mischief he gets into, rumor has it that Joey was just like that when he was a little guy. Nash is our gentle giant. He loves to snuggle and lay his head on your leg. He loves the camera and would pose on demand. He is obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and can spot him anywhere. When we are in the store he will even find him on a small fruit snack box at the end of an aisle! He loves to do anything that Luke and Harlee does and I think he feels he is their age. Nash loves to eat snacks all the time. Nash is our gentle giant and we just love him.

Gray
Gray is 7 months and seriously the best baby. I have never seen a baby smile as much as he does. Gray is growing like a weed. He sits alone now and is already starting to army crawl. Way too soon if you ask me! He has three teeth now and loves to bite anything that comes near his mouth. He is a smart baby and has now learned that if he cries we will quickly pick him up. So funny because he will be screaming hysterically but as soon as you pick him up he is smiling so big. He loves to watch wiggles and backyardigans just like his older brother Nash. He loves his big brother Luke and his face lights up whenever Luke pays attention to him. Gray is always moving and does not stop unless he is sleeping. He is truly such a blessing and I cannot imagine our family without him.

What a great year this has been for our family. Joey continues to work so hard for our family. He never complains even though his workload has dramatically increased this year. He is truly the best husband and example to me. I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude to Heavenly Father for all that we have been given. I am so grateful for all that has happened this year and look forward to a great 2011!

Uncle Cory Comes Home

My brother Cory has been serving in the Los Angeles, California mission and came home on Wednesday. It was so good to see him. He looks great and is so normal! He is truly a great example to me and to our kiddos. We went to the airport to pick him up and the kids wanted to make him a poster. So we printed off some old pics from his mission and they decorated around it. It is so nice to have him home. He also got to meet Nash and Gray for the first time. What a fun day and I cannot wait to sit down and hear all about the past two years.