3 Months Old

This little cutey is 3 months old and couldn't be sweeter! Rocky is a dreamy little baby and my heart is just smitten with this boy.

Birthday Girl

Besides Christmas, Hank and Max think birthdays are the best day of the year. They spend the entire year talking about their plans for their upcoming birthday...even when it's months and months away. And who wouldn't love birthdays? Junk food, parties, presents, and lots of attention? Here is the thing: as much as I enjoy the celebrations, my fear is that I have peaked. Can life really get better than it is right now? Is it all downhill from here? I am so in love with my place in life right now, that it feels like this may be the pinnacle. And I don't want this to be over yet! I want to stay right here, in this climax of life, forever.

My birthday kicked off with a trip to the bakery for donuts.

After breakfast, we dropped off Hank, Max, Ben, and Joey with a sweet friend and took Rocky with us to get pedicures.

That afternoon, Aaron treated me to a shopping spree! Five minutes into browsing around the first shop and Aaron hands me his credit card and heads out to the car to wait for me and listen to the Seahawks play on the radio. So much for our together time on my birthday! It was probably for the best...I enjoyed shopping a lot more without Aaron hovering over me and breathing down my neck anyways :)

My birthday was capped off with this delicious treat! At the risk of having my wish not come true, per the superstition, I wished that the coming year would bring as much happiness as this year has brought.

My Team

As I sit here and type this post, Aaron is watching the recap from a very intense Seattle Seahawks playoff game. I didn't follow the game, but I could tell what was happening just based off of Aaron's reactions as he sat on the edge of his seat. He's shout "come on!" or "no way!" and I knew the other team must have caught an interception or scored. He'd yell at the referee and I knew he was unhappy about a call that had been made. And when his team scored, I didn't need to watch the play on TV, I could tell that I touchdown had occurred by the rowdy yelling, clapping, and whooping. I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little bit as my grown-man husband got so wrapped up in a silly football game. And then I uploaded these photos of Hank at his basketball game....and I suddenly understood. Hank may well be playing in a professional league during a play-off game because when I watch him play, I feel that same nail-biting, sit-on-the-edge-of-my-seat feeling. Silly as it may be, I get such a thrill watching Hank play basketball each week. At this level of competition they don't keep score and it appears that dribbling the ball is optional, but it still makes my heart beat a little faster every time Hank takes a shot. Who cares about the Seahawks, or any team for that matter, the only team that I like to root for is my own. Go Hank!

Sunbeam

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who love Ben to bits and bits, and weirdos. When Ben started Sunbeams in primary at church a few weeks ago, I was really nervous about the transition. Specifically, I wasn't confident that Ben's new teachers, nice as they may be, would be as sensitive to Ben's needs as I felt like they should be. After church (Ben loved Sunbeams!), I asked Aaron how he thought Ben was doing in his new class with his new teachers. Aaron answered with a question: "who doesn't love Ben?" It's the truth! I was foolish to worry--Ben has a gift for working his way into peoples' hearts! He is just irresistible. I love this little Sunbeam!

Poopy-butt

The first few (hundred) times I heard my doll-faced little Joey call naughty names at Ben using his sing-song baby voice, "poopy-butt, Benny," followed by Benny's retort, "poopy-butt, Joey!" I admit I thought it was kind of cute. But, after the millionth time (per hour) I heard these two go at it calling each other names back and forth, it started to get (really) old. They may call each other not-so-nice names, but they really do love each other. See?

Ringing in the New!

Who's idea was it anyway to invent a holiday that involved staying up until midnight?! Clearly, who ever thought up the idea didn't have five young kids. When the clock hits 8:31, it's like working overtime, but without the pay. No gracias. After a stressful day of closely monitoring Ben's oxygen levels and running him into the urgent care when his nebulizer treatments failed to provide any relief, I wasn't feeling much like partying, and neither was Ben:

When he fell asleep in his chair at 5:30, I carried the poor tired boy up to his room. Just as we neared his bedroom door, his eyes peaked open, and he said, "Ryan. Mindy. Pizza. Excited." Tired as we were, we both decided to shake it off and enjoy our family party with Ryan and Mindy.

We partied Mormon-style: the rootbeer was flowing, the noise level hit near-deafening levels (thank-you dollar store noise makers!), fun was had by all in a marshmallow launching competition and nerf-gun fight, wishes for a Happy New Year were made upon the flight of sky lanterns (until the wind created a fire hazard) and toasted with glasses of sparkling cider, and it was called a night by 9:30!

I have high hopes for 2014. Here's to a great year!

Mini Missionary

Not a day goes by that the boys don't bombard me with requests to buy them silly things...gum, toys, pop, candy, something they saw at a friends' house, something they saw on a commercial....you name it, the boys want it. Usually I'll either respond to their requests with a flat "no" or else just ignore it and before long they'll have forgotten what it was they had to have and move on to the next silly thing. So, when Max asked me if he could have a suit (just like dad's), I just dismissed it and waited for him to forget about it. Several weeks went by, and Max never forgot about the suit. He asked me everyday. "Can we get my suit today, Mommy?" His persistence finally paid off and we bought Max his suit. He was just beaming with pride when he got to wear his new suit to church on Sunday:

One of the Boys

Ben and Joey were so amused when I set Rocky in the bumbo between them. They both looked and Rocky, and then looked at each other, and then looked at me....just as surprised as I was to see Rocky looking so big and acting like one of the boys. Then, without any coaching or anything, Ben and Joey both leaned over and gave Rocky a kiss. The kisses were a little too rough for Rocky's liking, but the gesture was still very sweet.

Before long (and it couldn't be long enough for me), Rocky will be tagging along with these two:

Romantical

This, my friends, is what a "hot" 11 year anniversary date looks like when you have five kids:

Nothing more romantic than a family date to Cold Stone for icecream, right? Our attempt at an anniversary date was a bit of a fail--I watched bits and pieces of a movie between rocking Rocky in the hallway and, due to time constraints with our babysitters, we opted for a local restaurant that was just average. But you know what? Such is life. It seems kind of a fitting way to celebrate this crazy life that we've created together by sharing it with the five boys who make it so crazy! I'm taking a rain check on our romantic date night, but overall feeling pretty lucky to have spent my anniversary with not just one handsome man, but five handsome little men, too! 

When I think back on my 20 year old self, I laugh to think how little we really knew about each other then and how young our love for each other was at that time. I couldn't have imagined then how great our life together would be now. I love this life that we've built together and feel so lucky to get to spend it with my best friend.