Learning to Ride

Jared has been on a kick of teaching Grey new things. A couple weeks ago he decided Grey needed to know how to ride his bike without training wheels. So he walked him down the street to a parking lot, spent about half and hour and Grey was good to go. It has been wonderful!! We have been able to take family bike rides often. I put the two younger ones in my bike trailer while Jared & Grey ride their bikes. It has opened a whole new world to be able to do these things as a family again.

Grey

I am often so overwhelmed by Grey's sweet spirit. He is so sensitive and loving. And he makes me smile a lot. I try to soak up all the snuggles he gives me because I know someday he won't be so quick to jump on my lap and kiss my cheeks.

I took the kids to a pet shop to look at the animals for fun. Grey quickly found himself attached to this sweet little daschund. He had little tears in his eyes the whole way home and the rest of the day because he missed this puppy so much. He wanted me to take a picture for him to remember the puppy.

Grey & I were talking about the Holy Ghost on the way home from church and I asked him what helps him feel the Holy Ghost. His response: I feel the Holy Ghost when I go to Dairy Queen. I smiled, explained it and talked about it some more. His response: I feel the Holy Ghost when I go to bed. Hmmmm.... guess he was not quite getting it. Then he told me, "Mom, I feel the Holy Ghost when you are mad at me. When I am sad, He tries to make me happy."

Another time, he went to a birthday party. Here was the conversation when he got home:
Me: How was the party? Did you have a good time?
Grey: Yes. But, they didn't feed me lunch.
Me: Really? Didn't you have pizza?
Grey: Yes.
Me: That was your lunch.
Grey: REALLY?!! I thought that was just part of the treats.

hahahaha

And the last cute thing more recently was when I told him he could watch a show at 2:30. I left to change Cole's diaper and came out to find him waiting patiently.

A day at the zoo

I had been wanting to take the kids to the Colorado Springs Zoo for some time now and luckily I was able to meet up with my cousins and their kids. One of the best parts is feeding the giraffes. So cute.

 Grey, Brenna & Elise feeding the giraffe lettuce

 Grey & Elise love when daddy tells them BEAR stories at bedtime so they were excited about this bear

 Elise & Walker

 Brenna & Grey in a kayak

Grey learns to ski

I feel like we are entering a new phase of life where we can enjoy the same things as our kids and it feels AMAZING!! It gets me so excited for all the fun things we can do as a family that I enjoyed as a kid. Jared taught Grey to ski this winter and he loves it. He was skiing down blues by himself by day 2--possibly a little out of control--but he does it.

Eight Months

8 months old

Hard to believe we are 8 months into this third baby thing and I still feel totally out of control. I always feel like I should be back to normal faster than it actually takes me. Cole is still not sleeping at night. at all. I am exhausted. I love this kid more than anything during the day, but when night comes again I am convinced he will be our last child. I have been staying home during the day to get him napping in his crib. I let him cry, cry and cry day and night to go to sleep and stay asleep. White noise, blankets, heaters, large amounts of food at dinner, everything... not working yet. But then I looked back at my journal and learned neither Elise nor Grey slept through the night at this point yet. I know it will come someday!

But how could I not love this grin? He laughs and giggles at everything... especially his big brother and sister. Elise thinks Cole is her baby and tells me so often.

Cole still has no teeth, but the poor kid seems like he has been teething for months. They are all going to hit at once I'm sure. He really is a little trooper and loves getting toted around wherever we go. He is happy to be out and about or to be sitting at home playing with toys. He is a really easy-going child--by day. He is such a wonderful part of our family. We adore him!

It is really strange to think this could possibly be our last child and possibly the last time we go through these stages. Always bittersweet... But I will focus on today and soak it all up! Love, love, love this boy!!!

Hockey!

Jared got tickets to a DU hockey game and was excited to take Grey. He invited his friend and son to go and as soon as they walked in the door, the little boy threw up.... Luckily our neighbor was able to hurry over with his three boys to watch it with them. They had a blast eating nachos and hot dogs. Grey told me how scared he was when the puck hit the glass. It was a late game and he ended up passing out on Jared's lap. I love the daddy/son outings. These are all Jared's pics that he sent to me periodically through the night. I love getting the photo updates--makes me smile.

It looks like Grey is slashing Noah's throat here... hmmm.

Jump Street

Really I have to post this because Cole is just too cute. Grey has been begging to go to Jump Street, so finally we were able to go. They loved it as always. I may have even done a little jumping myself with Cole. And he may have even liked it a lot.

Aunt P comes to visit

My sister and sweet Baby Allie came to visit us for a whole week in February. It was wonderful and as always, makes me miss them even more if that is possible. Why can't Portland be closer???

She got here and we went straight up to the mountains with my mom for a girl/kids trip. As always, we spent some time at the rec center swimming. I was pretty excited to be a part of Allie's first time swimming--although I have no pictures of her because Heather needs to get them to me (hint, hint).

We also ate way too much, napped a little bit and talked, talked, talked.

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have my family. After we got back in town, we had a family party with a few aunts, uncles and extended family. Then another family dinner Sunday. We got to go visit my sweet grandma. My dad just recently moved her out to a home in Parker and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have her close!

Monday my mom & I surprised Heather with a facial and Jared took all of the kids. He did awesome and I was surprised he wanted to do it. Look how happy the babies are!

Tuesday (her last day-sad) we went to the aquarium. I knew Allie would love it and she did! Grey & Elise were so excited to get their faces painted--and Heather was excited (and kind of freaking out) about feeding the sting rays. We always love going to the play place afterwards and were lucky to have it to ourselves--since we had to feed our babies.

When Heather left, Grey snuck this note in her bag and then cried the rest of the day. We sure miss them. (translation: I don't want you to go because I love you. Bye Allie and Heather) The back of the note had a picture of a crying Greyden and an airplane.

Two months in two seconds

Can I just say that three young kids at home will knock your socks off! There rarely a moment that someone isn't arguing, crying or needing their nose or bottom wiped. Needless to say, I have gotten TWO months behind on my blog. Since this is my only family journal, I hate to miss anything. So enjoy the overload of terrible iphone pics from our last two months:

Valentine's chocolates and stuffed animals from Grandma Jo

Elise adores "her baby"

Lots and lots of hanging around at Grey's swim lessons

 Grey loves to set up and read to Cole

Elise's baby riding Porter--what a patient dog 

This is what Elise's hair looks like before I do it--poor girl takes after her mama

 Grey takes Cole for rides on his 4-wheeler

 Movie time in our bed

 Trying on daddy's hat and gloves

Sleepy Cole grocery shopping 

 Cole now crawls

And bear crawls 

And likes to sit in the bath now with Grey & Elise