Mother's Day 2021

Being their mom is the hardest, BEST, most fulfilling gift I've ever been given. I can't believe next year there will be THREE babies in my arms! Liam's sweet hand on my tummy, I can already tell he will be such a care taker and helper with this new baby. You can't look at Lyla girl and not smile from ear to ear. I know she'll be the baby's constant entertainer!

My favorite gift of all, the homemade things they made me from school. I'm always in tears over their  keepsake pile of special gifts. Lyla made me a bouquet of handprint flowers from preschool and Liam made me a handprint butterfly. He also wrote "I love you" and made a heart note and put them in decorated envelopes to hide in his room until Mother's Day morning. I've never felt more loved and adored by these two!

Nic spoiled me too ... blueberry pancakes for breakfast and a prenatal massage I have to look forward to in June! I can't think of a more perfect person to do parenthood with than you! 

To all the mother's in my life ... my own mom, my stepmom, and my mother-in-law's ... I'm a better mom because of all of your examples and I cherish the role each of you play in my life. I'm so grateful to be loved by you and I love you right back!

Signs of Spring

 Warmer weather has done our hearts a lot of good lately! Time spent outside in the new playhouse ... endless giggles from a sea of bubbles streaming out of the bubble camera ...

My kind of girl wearing pink from head to toe. ;)

Feeling so grateful watching our yard come to life and having most everything we planted last summer survive! 

The blooms on these trees only lasted a coupe of weeks but they were so beautiful!

I lost one to pooling water on the other side but this bleeding heart in my front flower bed is thriving! I love the shape of their petals. <3 Also, all of the tulips bloomed from the bulbs we planted in the fall!

More doctor visits and ultrasounds for baby where the grandmas come to our rescue so Nic and I could go together! This day Grandma Edie came and brought cupcakes! She never arrives empty handed. <3

Lyla thought she was so funny when she dunked her lips in the frosting and had it all over her face ...

Another day with Sita trying on all of her jewelry! 

We go on daily walks at lunch time and in the evenings ... some of my very favorite times of the day. When the kids walk along side us they bring weapons and pretend they are on a dinosaur hunt. When they ride in the stroller they beg for a popsicle and when they are on their bikes, good luck to us keeping up with them. We are raising two speed demons!

the zoo with friends

 The zoo is still very much a mask mandated activity here which we've tried to avoid to give our kids a break from having to wear one but our good friends are in the process of looking for a new house and moving so we are trying to spend as much time with them as we can before they go. The zoo with friends is always a good time! We got an up close view of the tiger walking around her enclosure ... she is usually just lounging in the sun.

Perhaps the strangest yet cutest exhibit of them all was a baby anteater riding on its momma's back! 

Another fun moment was discovering this goose nest. She was sitting on top of 7 eggs!

Lyla loved playing in the hut and didn't want to leave it!

The safari jeep was open this time and is always a big hit! 

Those were the beautiful curated moments but there were definitely several tears in-between .. mostly from our poor bug terrified Liam. Since it is Spring, most flowers were in bloom around the zoo which meant there were quite a lot of bees. Really giant ones too that were totally harmless but looked really intimidating. Liam had multiple panic attacks anytime one was in his line of sight. No matter how many times we tried to reassure him that they wanted nothing to do with him, he just couldn't believe that. He was also very disappointed that he didn't get to see his two favorite animals ... the bat exhibit was still closed and the alligator was being kept inside due to colder weather. A little dose of reality that not every moment is fun but we can learn a lot from the hard moments too.

Crossing our fingers for that bat exhibit to open by our next visit and some more smiles to follow!

Easter 2021

 Easter was such a breath of fresh air! It came just as I hit 16 weeks and was beginning to feel more human. It ended up being a bit more of a whirlwind weekend than we expected between balancing General Conference for our church, assembling a surprise playhouse for our kids, and celebrating the holiday with lots of family but it made the whole thing so much fun!

Curating fun-filled color-coordinated Easter baskets might be my favorite thing ever!!! I had the best time collecting things that I knew would make them smile including the llama llama and Pokemon bandaids that they immediately covered themselves in. haha

My Easter cuties! 

Lyla was enamored with this hopping chick and Liam spent 72 hours frequently coming back to check on his hatching peep in a bowl of water in the kitchen ...

They each got a new book ... Lyla's was one where you got to choose everything you wanted to do in a day from what to wear, breakfast foods, hair styles, where to go, how to get there, etc. It has been a favorite! Liam has been our timid one who doesn't always communicate his needs so we got him an amazing book called Speak Up that teaches how to stand up for both himself and others in doing the right thing. They also got a bubble camera, a few new summer outfits, and sandals for the water park to finish off their baskets! How cute are these bunny ears?!

Nic's dad sent them each a really cool egg spinner last year where you just use markers on paper mache eggs and it has been such a hit! I love the colorful designs they created. Those egg spinners kept them so entertained on Saturday morning. 

I bought myself some of my favorite tulips for Easter weekend and we had cinnamon rolls for Easter breakfast before our egg hunt. 

These three (plus baby!) are my biggest blessings in life and holidays with them are so special ...

16 weeks growing this baby ... 

The moment they both woke up they flew to the window to see if the Easter bunny came. Sure enough, our yard looked like a rainbow! They were SO ready for their egg hunt! ;)

The Easter bunny is having to get trickier and higher each year for this one. ;)

Lyla was in my favorite stage where she ran past 5 eggs just to get to the one pink one she spotted clear across the yard!

We lucked out with beautiful weather! Perfect for the summery Easter outfits I hesitantly picked for them weeks before. So sunny in fact that the squint made its appearance again for the first time of the season. ;)

A hilarious moment where he tried to use his floppy pool shark from his Easter basket to knock down this egg that was just a little TOO high. 

That tippy toe reach!

On to the stage where they each try to hold 5 in their arms at once. Well, she accidentally dropped an egg in the rocks and it had COINS! Couldn't let those spill everywhere! 

Easter was super early in the month this year so not a lot of things were blooming yet but these tiny little buds on our backyard trees were so beautiful! 

We didn't have just any old egg hunt this year ... it was a hunt with a special surprise at the end! After renovating our yard last summer there wasn't a ton of fun kid things to do out there so we decided to surprise them with a playhouse! Liam loved it the first day but Lyla has loved it the most every day since! My mom worked her tail off painting it for me which I was so incredibly grateful for!! We just bought pots and seeds to plant their own flowers for the front of the house!

They both love the latching door, the doorbell, and the play phone!

Such a cute moment when she discovered the phone ... she begged me to take it with her in the car the other day because she loves it so much. haha

You should have seen Nic and I building this thing together, we were quite the pair! haha It made for an afternoon date filled with giggles as we felt like giants in a tiny home attempting to build this thing from the inside out. I was in charge of reading the directions and handing the parts to him while he assembled. There was a moment near the end where I thought I'd read ahead enough that he could finally get out of there, so he practically breaks his back crawling out the side window just as I say, "Wait, hold on, there are 6 more screws that go in there!!" hahaha This will certainly be the last time I fit in there for a while too. haha

There's a darling little kitchen inside and we've had some fun mornings bringing out play food and the ice cream set to have an outside restaurant turned picnic together!

Being goofy and serving me shark for lunch ...

After the egg hunt they both emptied their baskets on the living room floor, The Easter bunny brought all of their favorite things ... jelly beans, reeces eggs, chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. But there was one moment I'll never forget ... when Lyla flung an egg open and a handful of coins dropped into her lap as she exclaims, "COINS FROM JESUS CHRIST!" haha We do owe everything we have to Him so she isn't wrong. ;) It was hysterical! 

A few Eastery things on my entry table ...

We had brunch at my mom's house and an Easter egg hunt round 2! She has the most magical backyard for an egg hunt with fun ground cover and blooming well-established plants and trees to find eggs in. Brunch was delicious ... a quiche, eggs benedict, and fruit!

She spoiled them with dollar bills in their eggs and gave them each a new fishing pole for the summer! They spent the rest of the day practicing their casting in our yard.

Then we were invited to my dad and Edie's for dinner! They too spoiled all the grandkids with a tricky egg hunt in their backyard to find a special egg with their name on it. Best of all, it had money and candy inside! They made an incredible dinner as usual and it was fun to catch up with everyone! 

I can't believe how big my nephews are getting! They'll be TWO this summer, how?! 

Over the last year my little family has shared some of the sweetest moments filled with the spirit as we have gathered around our piano together singing hymns about Jesus. Even though we spent most of that year not going to church in person, our connection to the Savior grew as we shared our love for Him with each other. I know that Jesus came to Earth and even if I was the only person in the whole world, He still would have died for me. I know He lives and that He is always there in our hardest darkest times and the ones filled with so much joy we feel like we could burst too.

Happy Easter! XO