Kaylie's Blessing

We blessed Kaylie Rae on October 13th in Marysville, WA. We decided that the wedding weekend would be a great time since Paul's family could all be there and the Grossarths live 40 minutes away. My parents and Cassidy flew there to join us and we had such a perfect day with our perfect baby. She was so good all day and we enjoyed the time to spend with so many loved ones. The blessing Paul gave was beautiful- the part that stood out to me was how many times he said something about joy- he blessed her with joy in this life, joy in the journey, joy in the service of others. I can already see that- Kaylie is such a content little girl, I feel that she already feels joy each day even in her simple life. She brings such joy to our family and I couldn't love her more. 

Lyla was mad about something when we took a family picture...

Grandparent pictures: 

Paul's Grandpa Laws was there- he was so sweet with the kids during our visit and loved playing with them and taking pictures of them.

Here is everyone who was at the blessing. Paul's Rumsey Grandparents, Grandpa Laws, Areta Peterson, my cousin Justin Baron, Grossarths, Paul's parents and brothers Jared & Ben, my parents and sister Cassidy. Kevin- thanks for making sure darling Abby was in the picture! :)

 We got another cousin picture. And yes we were very worried about the safety of our babies, we were all standing ready to catch them.

After church we all went to Paul's parents' house to hang out and eat together. The kids loved having more play time together. 

3 generation picture- I'm so grateful for the influence my mom has had on me and all she has taught me on how to be the best mother I can be.

 

I am so grateful for our growing, sweet family. I love each day I get to spend with our energetic, fun, darling children. Although life is constantly chaotic, I am so happy and I feel my love for them grow each day even though that doesn't seem possible. I think I'm learning not to stress quite as much as I used to and to just enjoy moments even if the house is a mess and I have a long to-do list. It's felt easier to get a few things done throughout the day because most of the day I've spent just playing with my kids- so then when I do have to focus on something else they aren't as needy and are able to entertain themselves for a few minutes. Life is good and I can't imagine it being any better. 

Justin & Cheyenne's Wedding

We were able to go to Justin & Cheyenne's wedding in Marysville on October 12th. I'm so excited to have another girl in the family! They are so sweet together and seem so happy. The wedding and reception went really well- other than our sweet kiddos running around the whole time. :)  

Cheyenne asked Lyla to be her flower girl- and Lyla was SO excited. She talked for weeks about what she would wear and all of the other details. 

Right after the ceremony ended, Trevor spotted the light switch and sprinted over to turn the lights off. Luckily I could tell what he was doing so I stopped him but it became a game where he tried turning them off whenever I wasn't looking. 

The kids loved the bubble send off.

Sue worked so hard on the event and everything looked amazing. Such supportive parents.

My handsome guys:

In between pictures, the kids had to get their energy out. It was a long day for them but they did really well.

Nana & Papa were in town for Kaylie's blessing the next day so they were able to come to the wedding. It was fun to spend that time with them and to have help with the kids. The Grossarths came as well so that was fun for the kids to have their cousins to play with. 

We managed to get a picture of all of the kids- we're missing Ruthie!  Dinner with all 7 kids was extremely messy and quite humorous.

Right after we got the picture above, the two year olds both turned around and refused to cooperate for any other pictures.

Poor Kaylie didn't get much sleep that day but as usual, she was happy and mellow most of the time.

Jeanne and I loved having some time together and we had to get a picture with our babies. Abby is about 3 months older than Kaylie.

One of my many attempts to get a picture of my kids- Trevor seriously makes it impossible. Oh well- Lyla loves having pictures taken especially with Kaylie so I get lots of those two.

Kaylie Rae - 2 Months

My sweet, happy baby is now over 2 months old! (She's actually almost 3 months but better late than never). Her stats a few weeks ago were:

 Length: 23 in (75%)

                                                              Weight: 11 lbs 4 oz (50%)
She has honestly been the best baby I could ever imagine. She rarely fusses- just talks a bit when she is hungry or tired or left alone too long. She has had several periods where she'll sleep from 10 pm-6 am which is so nice!!! Sleep makes such a difference at least for this mama! The only time Kaylie really gets upset is in the carseat- which is no fun to listen to her scream but at least we haven't had too many long trips yet. We just flew up to Washington and she didn't cause any trouble during the 3 hour flight. She is my sweet little angel and I want her to stop growing so quickly!  Some of these pictures are from the week she was born but I just found them:

 Lyla loves to help Kaylie and take pictures together. They'll definitely be best buds, as long as Kaylie does everything that Lyla says :)

 Poor girl has to spend most of her time high on the counter in her bouncer so Trevor can't reach her.

 Can't wait to have girls nights with my sweet daughters.

 This was my attempt at a sibling picture- Definitely didn't work out so well.

Trevor turned 2

Trevor turned 2 on Tuesday, Oct 1st. I can't believe my sweet little boy is so grown up!! We started talking about his party weeks before. I was going to do Mickey Mouse because it sounded pretty easy, but Trevor is obsessed with Peter Pan and it soon became clear that I needed to go with that for the theme! We celebrated on Sunday with Jared & Allison and Kjerstin- they all live in Glendale which is about an hour away and it was so sweet of them to come down. Paul helped me make a Neverland Cake- I searched for any Peter Pan characters but couldn't find any, so I just printed off a picture and they were flying over Neverland. 

I had to laugh because both kids were extremely grumpy right before we started the little party. It made me wonder for a second why I go to so much effort for events like this, but I quickly forgot that thought and enjoyed their excitement when they were a little happier. 

 Trevor was pretty excited to open his presents but we managed to snap one family picture. Trevor got a little basketball hoop and race car track from Nana & Papa and he has been playing with both constantly all week.

 The group shot:

Sweet Kjerstin made Trevor a road out of felt that he can put together and then drive cars on. There are also little stops like a car wash, hospital, house. So darling!!

 For dinner we had blue jello (water) with cantaloupe boats on top, rice with meatballs (clouds with cannon balls- like when Captain Hook tries to shoot Peter and the cannon ball goes thru the cloud), and squash (gold pirate coins).

 Trevor had a hard time blowing out his candles so he tried to grab the fire with his hands- silly boy.

 Paul and the kids made a "Feed the crocodile" game. We invited a family from our ward over and all of the kids loved throwing the balls in his mouth.

A few days before the party it was talk like a pirate day so we did pirate things all day- we had pirate food for lunch and dinner, went on a treasure hunt, danced to pirate music. I love when my kids get so excited about something- it makes all of the effort worth it.

 They found the treasure chest with chocolate coins- Lyla's showing us her hook and pirate face.

Trevor is such a sweet little boy and I love his frequent snuggles. He says more and more words each day, loves using his imagination with Lyla to run away from the wolves and bad guys, or "sneak" up to Paul while saying "tiptoe...tiptoe" and tickle him, or run around the house with Woody on his shoulders like Andy carries him in the movie. He is still an awesome sleeper- he takes 2-3 hour naps and then sleeps 12 hours at night. He's a fairly picky eater but loves a few things like lasagna. His stats are:

Weight: 26 lbs (25%)

Height: 34 in (50%)

I love my sweet boy and can't wait to see what another year brings for him!