48 Pound Baby and 'Tude

Today's moments that I always want to remember and that help me forget the less then stellar ones ...

After laying Rylee down for her nap I found Garrett looking at his books on the couch. I picked up my book and joined him. After a few minutes he looked at me with droopy eyes and said, "Momma, I'm so tired". He crawled over and laid on top of me just like he used to when he was a baby and fell asleep. The only difference is that my baby now weighs 48 pounds. Needless to say, I took a little nap with him and relished every moment.

Rylee's new "bit"
Me: "What do you have Rylee?"
Her: "A-TTI-TUDE"!
And she means it.

Last but not least, I laid next to Rylee in her new big girl bed while she was falling asleep. She asks for a story which I begin, as always, with..."Once upon a time there was a princess named Princess...(Rylee cuts in) TOOTSIE!!!" And then she giggles - she got me again! After her story she grabbed my hand and held on tight and then rubbed my cheek with her other soft, chubby hand. Baby hands, which by my definition are still "baby" until the dimples finally fade away and then I cry, are one of my favorite things about kids. She left her hand on my cheek while I watched her slowly fall to sleep. Yes, she is an angel!

Yes, my day was as lazy as it sounds!

What are the odds...

that on the second "self timer shot" you might actually get all four adults and seven children looking at the camera with no weird faces or closed eyes (Garrett refused to be in the picture - which, let's be honest, is the only reason why this one turned out)? My guess is 1 in 178,426 so I suppose Tuesday was our lucky day!

Amanda, Ashleigh, Kris and I ventured out on our 2nd annual Tulip Festival tradition with 8 our our 10 children (plus two mommies are expecting-NOT me)! It's hard to believe that just 10 short years ago we were all in college, single and having a fabulous time. Now we'll have 12 kids amongst us by the end of September, all married and still having a fabulous time! What would I do without my girlfriends?

So I love the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and I believe yesterday was my first of about 30 visits for this season! It is such a beautiful, quiet (as long as my kids aren't screaming), majestic place to be in for several hours. The great thing is that my kids never seem to tire of the place - hooray for me! So here's to another great season of enjoying another person's gorgeous flowers and hard work.

Easter Fun!

Easter Saturday we ventured over to my mom and dad's house for our annual Easter Egg Hunt and brunch. My kids definitely got into it this year (we practiced finding eggs at our house all morning). They were so cute and love spending time with family. This year my mom gave each kid a certain color egg to look for which was nice so everyone got the same amount of goods. That afternoon Shellie invited the kids to her house for a little one on one. They made popcorn and watched Bolt, had another hunt and made rice krispie nests. It was a great day...especially because both grandmas did a good job at not overdosing the wee ones with sugar. Good work Grandma Sue and Nana!

Sunday we had another lesson on the true meaning of Easter. I had cut out a tomb, stone and picture of Christ so they could visually see that He was laid in the tomb and then was alive again. I think it was one of Garrett's favorite things. He insisted on taking it to church and played with

it all day.

We had my parents, Jon's mom and brother Jordan and our friend Cheri over for dinner that night. How blessed we were to be surrounded by family and friends....and yummy food too!

Same old story...

I started blogging thinking what a great alternative to writing in my journal since I so rarely cracked it open and put pen to paper. Now, my journal has reinvented itself with technology and I realized old habits are just hard to break. Finally after a month and a half I'm putting fingers to keyboard. So here is March in review...luckily we weren't too busy - or too interesting.

We started the month off on a sad note with the passing of Jon's grandpa. Grandpa Jacobs was an incredible person and is dearly missed. We were lucky to have been able to visit him so much over the last few months since Jon's mom was living with him. One of my favorite recent memories was Rylee crawling up in his lap (if you know Rylee you know she hardly "goes" to anyone other than me, Jon, and her grandmas) and falling asleep in his arms. It was such a sweet and tender moment. I think it meant a lot to him and definitely meant a lot to Jon and myself. This picture was taken four years ago with Grandpa, Shellie, Jon and Garrett (4 generations)!

On the 6th we celebrated "Tootsie's" 2nd Birthday!!! It's hard to believe our little princess has gotten so big. We had a great day! We took Garrett, cousin Kaisa and Grandma Sue with us to Chuck E. Cheese and then had family over that evening for cake and ice cream. She was thrilled with all of her dress ups! Although she is happy to play dinosaurs with her brother - she is definitely a girly girl and wants everything pink or purple.

Next came our on/off relationship with illness. I got a flu bug that sent me on a water and saltine cracker diet for 4 days. The benefit was that for those 4 days I didn't drink any Dr. Pepper and actually left me with a slight aversion to my once loved beverage of choice. I'm hoping it continues and gives me a little extra incentive to get in shape. The kids have also had their share of coughs, runny noses, fevers, etc. So much of our month has consisted of this.....

laying around in p.j.'s, reading books and watching movies. However, the bright spot is that our March left little to be desired in terms of weather so being sick gave us an excuse to lay around all day.

Some better days were ahead and I got to enjoy a great night out with Amanda and Kristie at one of my local favorites...Flour Girls and Dough Boys. After being cooped up in a house for days on end it really makes you appreciate these little moments in life where you can sit back with good friends and talk about everything and nothing! Jon and I finally went on a date and met my old roomies Alli and Tristin and their hubbies for dinner at Tucci's. I've never been there before but thought the food with really good. We were laughing at old times and reminiscing about some of our other strange roommates when Paul, Alli's husband, says "didn't you have a roommate that would put plastic baggies over her hands to eat Cheetos". That's about the time that I gave him a dirty look...it was me, I admit it. Ha ha! Good times, people, good CLEAN times.

To round the month out I got to watch my dear friend Amanda's children while she went to the doctors. It's been really nice that she lives in Riverton but her Dr. is in AF because I actually get to see her and her CUTE kids. They all got along so well and are just fun to watch. I think our little girls are going to grow up to be BFF's too! Aren't they sweet. We took them to McDonald's and got to visit - intermittently (that's why we do girls nights). What a month!