a very spooky and belated Halloween post

We had a sweet little Ford sized elephant join us for Halloween.

 Along with a Porter sized mummy.

 He really got into character this year.

 And wait... what's that red mask that creeping up behind the mummy?

 It was a Bridger sized Spiderman.

 These two picked out their costumes... and I'm pretty sure they have it figured out as to what they will be next year.

 They also wanted to see who could win in a fight... in case you were wondering, it was a pretty even match. But I think the mummy ended up on top.

 Poised and ready to pounce.

It was a fun Halloween. These three boys are a riot and they make this holiday so much better.

funnies

I was walking down the stairs and there was a toy car on the bottom step. As I got close to the bottom step, Porter rushed towards me and grabbed the car as I stepped over the bottom step.
"Whew!! Mom, I just saved your life! You almost died! It's a good thing I got the car out of your way, huh Mom?"

Bridger. "Mom, you are beaubiful... that's Spanish for beautiful."

We sat down to play Hi-Ho Cherry-O  the other day and Bridger started giving me my options of what fruit I could be.
"Mom, I'm going to be cherries because I like red. Porter is going to be the blueberries cause he likes blue. So, you can be oranges or goobergobblers. What do you want to be?"
"What are goobergobblers?"
"The green ones... I don't know what they are, so they are goobergobblers."
"I'm pretty sure they're apples, buddy."
"Oh, right.  You can be oranges or apples."

Porter: "Dad, I think you're not going to like this... I swallowed some toilet paper... up my nose."
He had had such a stuffy nose and was trying to wipe out all the snot. Ended up shoving toilet paper up his nose to remove all the snot and accidentally shoved the toilet paper all the way up his nose until it could not be found or retrieved. Which then led to an Instacare visit to try and find the toilet paper wad (Porter has insisted that it was about the size of my thumb). When no wad could be found, we realized that perhaps he really did swallow it... I hope so... or maybe he's remembering it larger than it actually was. I really hope so.
And he learned his lesson not to shove things up his nose.

pumpkin patch

 Annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I was very happy to have someone ask if they could take our family picture... too often I get distracted and it's not until I'm going over photos later that I realize I should have asked someone to take a picture. And she did a great job... sometimes you never know what you're going to get when you pass your camera over.

 This little peanut was quite content while the boys went running back and forth to everything.

 There was a semi-petting zoo, big slides, the corn pit and hay rides. All of which we did and the boys finished up by playing on the big hay bales until it started getting cold. 

 

Then we went for a quick hayride and out to pick our pumpkins.

I shouted to the boys to hug.

Porter assumed that meant to hug himself... that's when Bridger jumped him

We wandered the patch until it was too dark to take pictures and finally these boys picked their pumpkins.
It was a great night... I think the cost of pumpkins has significantly increased, however... so perhaps next year we'll purchase one pumpkin here to commemorate the night, and head elsewhere to select the rest of our pumpkins.
But we'll definitely be back, these boys love the patch.

Ford

 This sweet little peanut is just over 3 months old now. And he's getting huge.

Big milestones so far... he received a name and a blessing just a little over a week ago. 

He had oral surgery just a little over a week ago as well. He had a lip tie and a tongue tie and now he's got a sore little mouth while he's recovering.

He may not look it in these pictures, cause he's got a little cold going on, but he is a happy, happy baby.

Ford smiles all the time. He's a very content and pleasant little boy. He loves his older brothers and I don't know of anyone that can get him to smile as big as Bridger and Porter can.

Every once in a while he'll let out some giggles. He's very ticklish, but he's not quite sure what to think of being tickled yet. He has a very hesitant laugh when you tickle him.

He loves light and ceiling fans and will crane his little neck to try and see either one as much as possible.

He consistently sleeps for 8-9 hours every night.

He's a chatterbox. He's found his little voice and he thinks it's pretty cool that he can make noises.

Ford has beautiful blue eyes. I get lost in them all the time.

I think at this point he looks mostly like Bridger, but when I've backed up and looked at baby pics of Porter, they look just the same... minus the red hair.

Man alive he's a cute boy. And he's got his Momma wrapped pretty tightly around those cute little fingers of his.

this kid...

 This little boy is just chock-full of personality. And he's got the energy to match it!
Bridger is a character and you are never sure of what's going to come out of him!

Porter started pinching his nose to speak the other day. Bridger looked at him and very boldy said, "I don't speak Nose, Porter"

Bridger calling to Kyle from his room
Bridger: "Dad!! Porter isn't saying his prayers!"
Kyle: "Bridger, are you Porter's dad?"
B: "No!"
K:"Then stop worrying about what he's doing."
B: "You have to say mom and teacher too!"(Meaning Kyle should have asked him if he was Porter's mom or teacher too)

"Yeah Mom, I have Grandmas and Grandpas and cousins and Uncles and Uncs."

B:"My teacher told me about Francis Scott Key. He was trapped on a ship and he saw the flag and he wrote the Star Spangled Banner."
Me: "That's awesome Bridger, so you learned all about Francis Scott Key today?"
B: "NO, Mom! I learned about pumpkins!"

Me: "Bridger, what's on your thumb?" (He had a nice little blood blister on it that I hadn't seen)
B: "Remember the black thing that has a yellow thing that holds a black thing with bumps on it that's yellow and has a black side and it has yellow on it? Do you remember that?"
Me: "No, I don't."
B: "That's what it's from mom."

My first date. 

My basketball coach.

My karate partner. 

My ski instructor.

My teacher. 

My fishing expert. 

My go-to-guy for all things home-improvement.

My encourager.

My camping guru.

My ice-cream connoisseur.

My prime example of a hard worker.

My friend.

My Daddy.

All this and so much, much, much more...

Love you Daddy, and a very happy birthday to you.

raising boys... a glimpse into my future.

We were coming home from a lovely drive and hike to the grotto. As Kyle backed into the driveway, I was scanning through photos from our hike when I looked up and I saw this at the end of our street.

 I could not stop laughing... do you want a closer view?

Here we have two of my neighbors sons. One is riding the bike which is connected to a wagon by a very long rope. The wagon contains a plastic trash can, pillows, blankets and his helmet-clad brother.
Believe it or not, the older boy is the one in the trash can.

Oh, and that's Porter running as fast as he can to see when he can have a turn.

As the boys slowly walked the bike towards me and I started to joke around with them about their brilliant idea, they informed me that I had missed the best part.

The street behind them there is a straight road that does not dead end, but turns into a U shape at the end and curves around to make another back street. They would start at the top of the U and the one on the bike would get going as fast as possible so that when he took the quick turn at the U bend, it would abruptly yank the wagon onto its side and throw the trash can (and his brother) hurtling through the air and across the asphalt.

As long as you wore a helmet (and packed the blankets tightly around you), "You can't get hurt!" they pronounced.

I praised them for the helmet part.

I laughed for a while until I realized that I was looking at my future boys. My boys are also creative little daredevils... so I'm betting it's only a matter of time before my boys come up with something like this.

The rest of the night all I could think of was Brian Regan shouting, "Get some leaves!"

slowing down

I feel like daily I'm making attempts to keep up.

Attempts to clean a house, be a good mom, read my scriptures, keep to a schedule, make dinner...etc. Sometimes my attempts work and some days I feel like I've failed. 

One of my recent attempts was to get some family photos. We were rushed, as we are most days, and we headed up to the mountains after Kyle got home from work to snap a few pictures.

I had it in my head of what I wanted. We had found this beautiful spot from one of our gorgeous Sunday drives and we knew the changing colors would be perfect at this time.

We had had a bit of a rough start and we were running a little late, so I was hurrying to try and get things set up before we lost light. At some point early on in the setting up process my shutter speed on my camera was accidentally changed and slowed down... a nice little metaphor for what I would learn from this whole experience.

It was slowed down so much that many of the shots I had wanted to get all turned out blurry and didn't work out. 

I know what I set my shutter speed to. 

I don't know how it got changed... or why it didn't ruin all the photos.

When I got home and started searching through the pictures I quickly found that I was disappointed with the majority of the family shots. I started going through the in between shots desperate to find something. I didn't want the whole night to have been in vain... and as I found out, this night had been more than worth it.

Not getting the shots I wanted made me focus on some of the photos that I didn't really intend on taking. Most of the following pics were taken to help me adjust my camera settings to the changing light of the setting sun and taking some practice shots while I posed the family members.

Here's what I found.

A picture where I was making sure that the remote would work and giving Porter a chance to try it ended up giving me one of my favorite shots of me and my redhead.

 Bridger and Porter taking a dancing break while I fed Ford and tried to decide the next beautiful back drop of our family pictures.

 A perfect picture of my indescribably handsome husband holding our sweet Ford and trying to make him happy. I was waiting for the sun to go down so there wouldn't be that stark line in the background.

 Two little boys trying to make my third happy... and what I believe to be the first picture of all three boys together.

Everyone trying to give tickles and hugs and smiles to Ford while I was changing settings ended up giving me the first picture of my four boys together.

Too often I'm not focused on the important things... just like these pictures. I have it in my head what I want my days to look like and when they don't turn out the way I had planned I feel like I'm running behind. I get frustrated and feel like the world is moving 1000 times too fast and that there is no way to possibly catch up. 

What I've realized is that it's not about catching up, it's about slowing down.

I'm going to slow it down. I'm going to watch for all those little moments each day that I normally let pass on by without so much as a glance because I'm too busy planning for the next item on the agenda.

I'm really grateful that I didn't get the photos I was hoping for. I never would have noticed the ones that did work out, and that would have been the real tragedy.

Plus, I realized that blurriness can't completely ruin a photo... at least not when you've got my four handsome boys in front of the camera.

two months

 He's getting big. 

11 lbs. 12 oz. of big to be exact.

He is such a sweet baby.

Ford is a good eater and a good sleeper. 

He averages about 7-8 hours of sleep every night.

He loves to smile, and he gives them away like crazy.

He holds up his head really well.

He's got beautiful steel blue eyes.

He is finding his little voice and is starting to talk to us more and more each day.

He'll sleep through any noise. Vacuums, yelling kids, noise at the grocery store... he's following Porter's example (Porter didn't even wake up once during the crazy night we had last week).

Ford loves to be swaddled. It calms him down when he's fussy.

He loves being the car. In fact he likes being in his car seat, and he rarely fusses in it 

(whether it's in the car or not). The only time he fusses in the car is if he's late for a feeding.

I think Ford looks more and more like Bridger every day. 

I can see the brotherly resemblance.

Speaking of brothers, his brothers adore him.

Briggs has early morning preschool and Porter has afternoon kindergarten which makes it perfect for these boys to share their little brother. They each have their own time alone with him each day.

It's been an adjustment here in our house to be sure...an adjustment of the best kind. 

This little boy brings out the best in all of us and I'm just so happy he's ours.

I love you, mister Ford.

kindergarten

That's right, he's done it. He's gone and entered Kindergarten.

Porter's doing awesome. His teacher has been quite impressed with his ability to read. He's such a smart kid who loves books and recess and books and making friends... and a few more books.

I figured I would have my boys write what school year they are entering into and I'll take another picture on the last day of the school year to compare their writing. Forgive the spelling... that was his momma's fault... I do know how to spell kindergarten, but a lack of sleep will change your ability to spell properly. I realized too late my mistake because he was already coloring his rainbow...and with how meticulous this boy is, I wasn't about to make him start over!

Porter's teacher is so sweet and so patient. She's a great fit for Porter. She's also been doing this for years and years and she has come highly recommended.

I walked him into class and helped him find his name badge and his chair.
He sat down and suddenly he looked huge.
I couldn't believe how quickly he had grown.
I held it together pretty well until I waved goodbye. He turned, waved, and with a slight quiver in his voice he said, "I love you, Mom" I told him I loved him too and that he would have so much fun. I told him I would be back to pick him up.

And I turned around and cried.

At the end of the day I went to pick him up. I poked my head in his classroom and he was standing by his teacher. He caught my eye, but pretended not to see me. I tried to call to him to come on out, but he kept looking out the corner of his eye at me and then I heard him asking his teacher, "When is the bus coming to get me? Where's my bus?"

I finally had to go into class to get him, he was determined that he was going to ride a bus home. We talked about it and I explained that if he climbed on a bus that it wouldn't take him anywhere near our home, and he would be lost. He seemed okay with that answer. Then my sweet neighbor (who was there picking up her kids) told Porter that he would ride buses when he went on field trips. He was ecstatic.

When he had finally come to grips with the bus thing, he sat down and told me all about his day.
He did great.
He loved it.
I knew he would.
It was a good first day, and he's loving school. I'm so proud of this little guy.

The very long day... and night.

I've got a lot of things to post. Many pictures and many events that I would like to update the blog with, but first I must put in writing what occurred the other day and night so that I do not forget. I've been stressed out for the past several weeks with attempting to keep a clean home and figure out a little bit of a schedule for our family so that we don't go crazy since I've now headed back to work.
At Kyle's suggestion and in an attempt to simplify things I went and chopped my hair all off last Wednesday... and I love it. Short hair is always so much easier to manage and I had no idea when I grew my hair out how long it would actually take to dry it and style it. When Kyle mentioned that maybe I should cut it all back off, I agreed.
And it was a good choice because when I woke up the next day all I had to do was run a comb through it, spray some hairspray and head out the door... little did I know how nice it would be to have my hair done all day, and night...

We started out the morning with Ford's 2 month Dr. appointment where he received his 2 month shots. His pediatrician to another look at this boys tongue tie and suggested we clip it. We had been thinking the same thing, so Ford got his tongue clipped as well as his 2 month shots... I may have cried... poor little guy.

So from the get-go I knew I would have a fussy little baby throughout the day, and I was correct. Unless he was being held he would only sleep for about 10 minutes at a time before he would wake screaming. Which he doesn't normally do, he'll fuss a bit as he wakes up, but he doesn't normally just scream. Poor boy hurt whenever he moved his legs, or his legs got bumped, so he would want to suck... but that hurt him too. So I held him and cuddled with him all day (the best part of the day).

Around noon I had to go give a presentation at Porter's kindergarten about being a nurse and what I do for work and why I became a nurse.

I don't think kindergarten teachers should ask new moms to do presentations.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's a good idea for someone who is trying to get kids excited about becoming a nurse to start crying in the middle of her speech about why she became a nurse. I've been a little weepy lately and had to try really hard to control myself when I started in on that story... which, by the way, has never made me cry before.

I left Porter's kindergarten (after apologizing to Porter's teacher for the little breakdown) and headed home. I got to chat with my friend, Maria, who had come over to watch Ford and Bridger while I was with Porter's class.

It was a busy afternoon and evening... driving carpool with a fussy baby, soccer games with a fussy baby, soccer practice with a fussy baby and soccer group pictures with a fussy baby. Load kids in the car, out of the car... and repeat.

We got home, got the boys to bed and set out to make Ford more comfortable. Gave him a bath, which he loved, and snuggled and cuddled some more. (Just to let you know that since this particular day, Ford has been averaging 8 hours of sleep nightly, he's a really good baby when you stop poking him and stuff.)

Around 10:30 I went downstairs to wash my breast-pump. I like to run it through the dishwasher or boil the parts at least once a day. Since my dishes were done, I put the parts in a saucepan and put it on the stove and left them to boil for a bit. Ford was supposed to eat at 11 o'clock but he had finally fallen asleep and was snoozing away on his daddy's chest, so I decided to let him wake up on his own. I got caught up in watching a show and I was desperately trying to stay awake when I started to get really nauseous. Really nauseous. And I started getting a headache. I couldn't sleep anymore, at any moment I was sure that I was going to throw up.

And then I smelled it. I walked out of our bedroom and into a smoke filled house. I had left the plastic boiling in the water so long that the water was now gone... and so were the plastic parts to my pump. Instead of boiling the parts for 5 minutes, as is recommended, I boiled them for over an hour and the whole house smelled horrific.

I got the pan off the stove and doused it in water and opened up the windows. I went to wake up Kyle to get his help in airing out the house. We ended up having all the doors and windows open with an industrial fan blowing the air out of our house at midnight. But, even that wasn't enough. I was still sick to my stomach and couldn't handle the smell any longer. So, Ford and I headed outside to walk around while the house continued to air out.

After an hour or so we came back inside and the house was much better. Around 2:00 I went to close the doors and all the windows that didn't have screens on them. The rest I left open to air out the rest of the house.

I headed to bed holding a somewhat subdued Ford and fell asleep very quickly.

About 4:30 in the morning I was startled awake to Bridger screaming at the top of his lungs, "Get out!! Go away!! Get out!!!" Kyle was up and out of bed so fast and into the boys room.

Kyle started yelling, "Charlie get out! Go home!"

The dog was in the house. Our outside dog, was in the house.

I didn't know a few important details when I headed to bed that night.
I didn't know the dog was still out of his pen.
I didn't know that the windows in the basement had been opened to air out the house.
And I didn't know that one of those windows did not have  a screen on it.

Around 4 in the morning, Charlie came in through the basement window, ate one of the boys stuffed animals and left it's guts all over the basement floor. He then headed upstairs and retrieved a new loaf of bread from off of the kitchen table and took it back out to his pen. Then he returned and set out to find the boys, and at the time that Kyle found him, he was licking Bridger like a popsicle.

Apparently Bridger doesn't like to be woken up that way.

It was a long night.

By the time we got Bridger settled down and Charlie put away it was nearing 5:30. Kyle and I climbed into bed and just started laughing. It could have all ended so much worse.

The house could have lit on fire, who knows who could have broken into the house (luckily it was only our own dog)... we felt very blessed.

At about 7 am Ford was ready to eat again, and that meant that I was up for the day. 

I also worked that night, which meant that I didn't go to bed until the following morning. I was awake from Thursday morning until Saturday morning. It was a long 48 hours with only a 2 hour nap in the middle... but my hair looked awesome.

he's six.

Porter turned 6. 
I can't believe it. He's getting too big, too quick.

Here is my birthday interview with him.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A doctor, because I'd love to be a doctor and I've never been a doctor
What is your favorite food? Oatmeal, cereal and sandwiches. Which kind of sandwich? Peanut butter and Jelly and when I get older I'll love red tomatoes
What's your favorite dessert? Candy. What about cookies or cake or cupcakes?
Oh! I love all of those things.
What is your favorite animal? A horse Why? I love riding horses
What is your favorite movie? Turbo. You've never seen that movie. I know but I saw the picture of that movie when I went to see Despicable Me 2. What's your favorite movie that you've seen? The Croods
What's your favorite color? Blue. Not green? Yeah, not green anymore. Why ? Because my favorite color has changed, but my favorite flavor is still chocolate. So your favorite flavor hasn't changed? Yep, not yet... my favorite flavor never ever changes.
What is your favorite toy? Turbo
Who is your best friend? Courtney. What about Bridger?... nope, cause he's my brother. He can't be my best friend. But you love to play with Bridger right? Yes, but he can't be my best friend, he's my brother.
What is your favorite number? 9 Why is 9 your favorite? Because my favorite number has changed. It used to be 100
What is your favorite game? Chutes and Ladders
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my new scooter
What is your favorite song? Umm... I'll sing it for you... I'm thinking...Book of Mormon Stories that my teacher tells to me...
What is your favorite book? My new Curious George book. I love all books.
Where do you want to go on your mission? Madagascar. That didn't change? No, cause that's my mission.
What can you do now that you are six? I can still like mashed potatoes. But is there something new that you can do now that you're six? I can go to kindergarten, but I have to wait until August.
Tell me five things that you are good at.
1. Not hitting and kicking
2. I'm good at asking you if I can go around the block... but sometimes I don't listen to you.
3. I'm good at reading.
4. I'm good at helping you with all sorts of stuff and helping dad too.
5. I'm good at running. Yeah, I'm faster than Bridger. 

Things that I want to remember about Porter now that he's six.

Porter is such a sweetie. He takes good care of his brothers and of me. He helps me out with everything that he can. 

He is very detail oriented and focuses on the little details in everything.

He's a little obsessed with bugs and catching them. He's really good at catching bugs without hurting them. He gets grasshoppers, flies and the most impressive that I've seen was a big butterfly down in Moab. He caught it and it was able to fly away when he let it go. He's very gentle with them.

He  loves to read. It calms him down. If he's getting frustrated by anything all I have ti tell him is to go take some time and read. Sometimes he'll be gone for 10 minutes...most of the time he'll go read for a couple hours. He loves it when I read him chapter books and the favorites so far are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. We are in the middle of The BFG right now and he's loving it... big Roald Dahl fans over here...

He doesn't like teasing or "joking" around. H gets very serious about this and doesn't like it when people tease him. He especially doesn't like it when someone says that they want to keep Ford. Ford is his brother and he is coming home with us... don't even pretend that you want to take Ford home with you.

He loves to tell stories and he'll tell Bridger at least one story every night. Most of the time it's a TV show he's watched and he will tell the entire episode, verbatim, to Bridger.

Porter's memory is scary... he can remember everything (except where he put his shoes :) He will rival his mom and dad in our ability to quote movies. We've cycled through all the Scooby Doo episodes on Netflix once (we've had to watch a few shows since the baby was born). There are 26 episodes. After about the first 10 seconds, Porter can tell you what happens during the entire episode, what the following episode will be and what happens in it and what the episode after that will be. He can tell you the order of all the episodes... it boggles my mind. 

There's so much more that I want to remember about this boy. He is so sweet and kind and smart. I know that there is more that I wanted to write, but this post has been a month in the making and I need to get it up! I'll post more when I get his birthday photos posted.

I love my Porter and I'm so glad he's part of our family.
Happy Birthday buddy!
 

one month

Ford is such a sweet baby. At one month...

He sleeps really well all day long. 

He can sleep through just about anything, noise doesn't bother him in the least.

Struggles with tummy problems a little bit at night, but it seems to be getting better.

Loves to be swaddled.

Smells divine.

Will suck his thumb if he can find it.

Takes a pacifier really well, unless he's hungry and then he wants the real deal.

Is very content until 11 at night when his little tummy starts to cause trouble, again, hopefully getting better.

Possibly has allergies like his Daddy. The last few days Kyle's been congested and so has Ford.

Has a really strong grip and is making his mommy consider chopping her hair.

Smiles all the time when he's asleep and is starting to smile when awake.

He's starting to get some chubby little cheeks; he's a good eater!

He's just growing out of newborn clothes and newborn diapers.

His brothers adore him... sometimes a little too much...

 and his mommy and daddy adore him too.

This is the first smile to be caught on camera. Ford is such a sweet baby and we're so excited that he's here and a part of our family.

 I can't believe how quickly time flies, and how much this little guy has changed in the past month.
I don't remember which blog it was (or else I would reference it... I'll have to find it again) but I remember the mother took a picture every month of her little one next to the same stuffed animal to show how much he grew over the year. I love the idea and since my mom got this adorable little stuffed terrier for Ford, that's what we'll do!

tidbits of my day

-I took Charlie into the groomers today (his hair has gotten quite long and I wanted it trimmed all off). The cute girl who checked us in asked if it was okay that she spelled Charlie "Charley" instead of with an 'ie'. I told her that was just fine, didn't make a difference to me. He'll respond to Charlie no matter how it's spelled.
She responded that she now spells Charlie with an 'ey' because she got yelled at one day by some lady that she had spelled her dogs name incorrectly. So now she spells all 'Charlie's' the same way, just in case the woman comes back.
People can be so sensitive about the silliest things.

-While talking to the groomer about how I wanted Charlie's hair cut (short, all of it short) two men, with matching schnauzers and matching shirts (each of their shirts matched the shirts on their dogs) came in and wanted to talk to the groomer...apparently they were not satisfied with the style of cut that 'Snuggles' had received.

I laughed a little bit.

- My card was declined today. I had the cashier run it 4 times because that couldn't be possible. She had been overly chatty with me and doting over Ford and as soon as it was declined she was very short with me.
I have never had that happen. And I don't know if I've ever been so embarrassed.
Kyle and I use a cash system most of the time. But with the baby, things have been thrown off the past few weeks. But I always pay the card off each week, we don't carry a balance so there's no way we were maxed out.
So I called my bank, and apparently on Monday at a Best Buy in Minnesota, someone tried to use my card. Then tried to use it this morning at 1:30am at a gas station in California. The lady at the bank asked if that could have been my husband using the card... but I'm certain I know where Kyle was at 1:30 last night ;) Kyle and I both still have our cards in our wallets...how does that happen?

Oh and I care enough about what other people think of me, that I was very tempted to go back into the store and tell the cashier why my card was declined. Having to haul all 3 kids back into the store was my only deterrent, but it was a good one.

-I heard "Put your hands in the air or I will shoot!" and I turned around to see this...

 I shot back, but it was just with my camera... how is a girl supposed to defend herself when faced with a pop gun, a light-saber, a bow and arrow and those baby blues? A girl doesn't stand a chance.

-I have found that organizing your day is paramount when you have a newborn. I forgot how that worked. Porter and Bridger are big enough now that timing errands around feedings hasn't been a problem for years...
I didn't plan so well today and so we found ourselves at Walmart at the time that Ford was supposed to eat again. I had him in a wrap (don't know how I would tackle this whole thing of having 3 kids without it) so I was able to keep him content, finish my shopping and get out to the car before he started crying.
On our way home, in the midst of the crying, I hear Bridger pipe up. "Ford, there will be no whining in this car!"... I wonder where he's heard that before.
As we made it a little further, and Ford didn't stop crying, Bridger tried to troubleshoot what was going on and why he was crying so much. "Maybe he had something sour to eat. I cry when I have something sour to eat!"

-We spent our evening playing soccer. Kyle, Bridger and Ford vs Porter and myself. It was quite entertaining, I wish there could have been someone videotaping it. I like being a family of 5.

Nine

It's been 9 years since we sealed the deal.

9 fantastic years.

I really can't believe how fast it's gone by.

That day was quite a blur... but there are some specific things that I remember about our wedding day.
-I remember that the only thing that went wrong was the guys shirts with their tuxes. The shirts that they got had collars that were supposed to be for bow ties and I wanted them to have regular shirts with regular collars. But I also figured that if one thing was going to go wrong, that one was okay.
-I didn't have my bouquet for my bridals/groomals. They weren't going to have it ready until the actual day of the wedding. When we showed up at the temple for pictures, and Kyle was waiting, he had that bouquet of 2 dozen red roses ready for me, so we used them for the photos.
Such a sweet and thoughtful man.
-After the ceremony I remember rushing to get ready in the brides room. I needed to have the back of my dress completely re-laced after the ceremony and I knew it would take a while and I didn't want to keep people or Kyle waiting. I came out of the brides room and waited for Kyle to come out of his dressing room. I was waiting in the foyer of the temple for quite some time before a sweet little temple worker came up to me and patted me on the shoulder saying "It's alright dear, I'm sure he'll show up."
I looked at her and said, "I certainly hope so, cause he already married me... it's a little late to run away now!" Kyle showed up a while later... apparently cummerbunds and ties take a while to get on... longer than a laced up wedding gown. The little temple worker winked at me as Kyle and I walked out of the temple together.
-I wasn't nervous about marrying Kyle the entire time we were engaged.  It felt right that we were supposed to be getting married. I do remember, however, being a little nervous right before we were walked into the sealing room cause it hit me that I was really getting married. But, when I sat down next to Kyle and he held my hand, all my fears left.
-I was nervous that during the ceremony I would miss my part and that I wouldn't say yes when I was supposed to. So I was very intent on listening to the sealer and to the ceremony. I'm not sure which one of Kyle's aunts mentioned it to me afterward (I think it was Ellen) but while I was so focused on the sealer, Kyle apparently never took his eyes off me. I feel bad that I missed it.

There are many more great memories about that day, and so many that we've had since. I'm just grateful for my sweet husband and our family. And I'm really grateful that that day happened 9 years ago.

I love you, sweets.

Happy Anniversary.

Ford's birth day

Almost two weeks ago this little guy decided to make his appearance. He was a lucky little guy, the cord was wrapped around his neck three times and then around his body as well. He was all tangled up when he came out, but he started crying immediately. 

7 lbs. 1 oz. makes him the smallest of my babies. Neither one of my boys was able to fit into newborn clothes longer than a week... this little guy is a little small for newborn clothes, so we're having fun playing dress up.

I'm amazed by how big my kids look when they are holding a new baby. I remember thinking that Porter had gotten enormous, overnight when we had Bridger. Now they are both just ridiculously large in comparison to Ford.
I am so grateful for Kyle. He is truly an amazing husband and father and he has taken such good care of me and the boys throughout this entire pregnancy.
I'm grateful for my mom who waited up all night to see this little guy arrive at 4 am.  And grateful for the help she has given me this past week with having a new baby in the house. And to my dad for letting me borrow his wife all week. And to both of them for watching the boys while Kyle and I were at the hospital.
I'm so grateful to all my friends (ie. coworkers, nurses, Dr., techs, respiratory) who were all there to make sure that Ford had a safe arrival.
I'm so grateful for my mother-in-law for taking Porter and Bridger for a whole week while I re-learned what it means to have a newborn in the house and to have some precious time alone with Ford.
Thank you to everyone.
This little boy and our family can feel the love.

Ford

Bradford "Ford" Larry Cozzens

 July 11th, 2013

4:09 am

7 lbs. 1 oz.

19 inches long

He's perfect. 

And sweet. 

A good sound sleeper. 

A hearty eater,

and a really pleasant little baby.

Ford has only been here for a week and we are captivated by him.

up the canyon

 I love that we live next to a beautiful little canyon and we take advantage of it as often as we can.
This particular evening we decided to head up the canyon for FHE. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and let the dog and the boys run wild.

Every Monday night since, the boys have asked if we can head back up the canyon. It's an evening we'll definitely have to repeat.