It's been a while!

Wow I haven't written in FOREVER!  Seriously I can't remember the last time I sat down and wrote in here.  I guess you could say that I've really been trying to just deal with life...my kids can be really demanding.  But pictures say a thousand words so I think I'll just try and let them tell the story as much as possible. Here are a bunch of pictures from just before we left to AZ and then in AZ. 

 Yes our tree is real, and yes it's amazing!

 COUSINS~!

 swing!

New exciting things!

First is all about Elsie.  She has a tooth!  She hasn't been too happy about it either!  I think she has another one that wants to come through but she hasn't been very happy about any of it!  It doesn't help that she has a cold.  She is also CRAWLING!  Seriously at 6 months!  Well she will be 7 months tomorrow but she has been moving for a couple weeks, just a few days ago I declared it true crawling.  I know she will just get faster and faster!  OH and this....

 I just looked over and she was standing up, so I had to take a picture.  It's hard to believe she can do that at 6 months!  She really is as happy as she looks!  As long as she has Mom or Dad she is happy, well at least Mom.  Most of the time she is okay with Dad unless she wants Mom.

Kali officially knows all her colors and shapes.  I bought this game that has shapes and colors and we play go fish with it.  It is awesome because it helps them learn there colors. 




Anna and Kali have officially started soccer! These two are on the same team and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.  We also have the same coach that we had last year with Anna which is awesome!  He is so good with the kids yet chill and who needs a super serious coach when they are 3 right? 

 Anna can ride her bike WITHOUT training wheels.  It's super exciting!  She does such a great job!  It only took her one afternoon and then she was a pro!  I was too busy in the middle of the video watching her I didn't do a very good job of recording, oops but at least I got this recorded.  Such a fun thing to learn, no training wheels! 

Fun with friends

We had some friends come over and play and I thought I'd take some pictures.  It was a lot of fun.  Aren't all these girls SO cute!

 The last 2 pictures are almost the same but I LOVE Kali's face in the 2nd one so I kept in on here. 

 She is sitting up!  Well sorta...she can hold herself up with her hands for a moment. 

Friends

Father's day tribute

 My girls have such a great Dad!  How many guys do you know would wear there baby like this?  Yes, you can be jealous it's okay.  For the past couple months I've been the primary chorister and he has worn her like this to class so that I could do Primary.  To be perfectly honest I think he really likes holding her like this too!

 We played mini golf one morning for fun.  Zach is always so patient and kind at teaching our kids how to do things. 

 This paint stain seems so little right?  Well I didn't get a picture of the blanket that Kali also got paint on but let me just say my amazing husband spent hours cleaning it with me! 

 Elsie's blessing.  What a special day!  I'm so thankful for Zach and his ability to give my children blessings.  What a huge blessing it is to be married to a man who honors his Priesthood. His Dad did a great job teaching him and helping him become the man he is today.  My girls are lucky to call him Grandpa. 

 I don't have very many pictures of my Dad so this is one I found.  I'm so grateful for my Dad.  He taught me that supporting your kids is more important than any worldly thing. 

 Yup this picture pretty much sums up how much my kids LOVE this amazing man they call their DAD! 

 This is another fun picture of my girls with their Dad.  He really is such a great example to them and I'm so thankful for all that he does!  I'm so blessed to get to stay home with our children because he works so hard to provide for our family! 

3 kids...

Okay so I think I'm getting the hang of thing when...I just feel like crying for no reason and I just wish that I could change things that I have no control over!  But that being said today I cleaned for about 2 hours while baby was sleeping and it felt great, the only problem is now I look around I realize I have many more hours of work that needs to be done.  The life of a Mom, there is always work that can or should be done.  For now I feel like the most important things are the memories I'm making with my kids.  Today we went for a walk/jog and it felt great!  I then let the girls play at the park until Elsie needed to eat and we went home and had a picnic in the back yard on a blanket.  We then cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and the reward..."Frozen", anyone else's kids want to watch it like all the time?  At least it's one I can stand watching a million times.  Tonight Zach had mutual so us girls made lacation cookies and painted tin cans to make Easter baskets.  Hopefully I can take a picture when they are done to show you.  ps You did hear my right lactation cookies.  The only thing that is different about these cookies is that they have flax seed and brewers yeast.  If anyone is interested I can get you the recipe.  Well now it's time to feed baby again, hope you enjoyed my five minutes of sanity to write this....lol

3 kids! What!

Everyone says that having 3 is the hardest.  Well I can honestly say that this has been really difficult!  The first few weeks I thought things were going really well until we went to the Doctor and Elsie wasn't gaining weight.  Ever since then life has been really hard!  Then pushed formula in my face and people said just give her a bottle after every feeding.  Well after like 2 days she completely refused to latch onto me at all.  That has resulted in pumping and supplementing with formula.  Because she will NOT latch onto me it is super hard!  Do you know how much work pumping is?  Like this morning Elsie was sleeping on me in the rocking chair and I started pumping when she woke up and decided she was hungry.  So I had to stop pumping to get a bottle ready and then go back to pumping while feeding her.  She also decided she was still hunger after the bottle was empty so I tried to give her some of what I was pumping and then pump again...what a process!  Some days I just want to do formula!  It would make life so much simpler and I wouldn't worry about my milk supply so much yet I know the benefits of breastfeeding and feel like I should try to pump as long as I can.  I also think it would be nice if she would latch onto me again...but until I try to conquer that full force I've been trying to get rid of thrush...all I've eaten the last few days is veggies and protein and a few corn tortillas.  I want carbs again but thrush is so so so painful!  So for now my intake of carbs will be very minimal.  Just being able to nurse her would be a dream come true!  I honestly wouldn't even mind waking up every 2-3 hours at night to feed her because it would be so much easier than what I am doing now.  It's amazing the simple things we take for granted when they come so easy to us.  I will never take for granted nursing a baby ever again and I hope that someday I will be able to nurse another baby...but for now I'm grateful for the beautiful daughter of God we have been blessed with and I look forward to watching her learn and grow. 

Just some fun pictures...

Fun pictures...I have a lot to learn about taking pictures but hope you enjoy them non the less. 

 My Mom is the only family that came to help with Elsie after she was born.  What a life safer she really was!  I'm so grateful for the sacrifice she made to come here!  Our girls really enjoyed their time with her! 

 These pictures are my 1st attempt at taking new born pictures.  I have a lot to learn and Elsie wasn't super cooperative with the picture thing.  She just kept waking up it was hard to get her to do anything I wanted her to do.