Some silly/cute things the boys have said

Jack hit his eye with a toy...he says to me "I broke my eye kiss it better!"

Sam will come up and to me and say "I just want to see how you are cause I love you"

Sam asks me all the time......"Is Ava okay?" He is such a caring person!

Jack took a bath, when he got out he says to me "I want to get out and and be warm and cozy!"

Sam says to Jack are you going to eat your crackers or should I take them away?

We driving in the car, Samuel was trying to lean towards Jack, I told him to just sit back....he says to me "come on I was just joking mom."

Jack hurt himself on the stairs and says oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, and then he says om my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I guess I need to watch what I say!

We had put the boys in bed, Jack gets out of bed and comes in our room, he says he wants to cuddle with dad......then he says he wants to tell dad a story and sing him a song instead of us singing one to him. So he starts singing we have been born.....army of helamen. He then comes to me and starts singing it to me. He sung it once to me, once to Jake and told me a story about a horse and a dragon.....it was really sweet!

We were taking a drive by the Bountiful Temple, Jake told they boys that is where Heavenly Father lives. Jack said, "I want to say hello to my Jesus."

Sam came into our room and says I'm just sad because I don't have any friends in my stomach.....sometimes I wonder where they come up with these things!

Jack was throwing a tantrum screaming oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh while he was hitting his hands into his face! I really need to watch what I say....he seems to pick up everything!!

Silly Boys!

The other night Jake went to check on the boys and this is what they were doing



Jack was riding along in a small wagon which is supposed to hold blocks and Sam was pulling him with his teeth! Where do they come up with things like this?? Silly boys!!

Ava Lynne

Your favorite place to be....in the sling all scrunched up next to mommy!

Last but not least is our sweet baby Ava as Jack would say. Ava is now 11 weeks old and is definalitly showing us her personality. She loves to hold conservations with us....especially at the changing table. She is smiling and cooing all the time and gets so excited when she gets attention. I realized the other day when we had our stake conference that she no longer looks like a newborn. I went into the mothers room to feed Ava and there was a women in there feeding her little baby boy. I asked how old he was a she told me he was 4 days old. I realized then that Ava is no longer a newborn newborn and for a moment it made me feel sad. They lose that newborn look way too fast!!

Ava has been a wonderful baby. She eats well and sleeps well. The only thing I wish she would do was take a pacifier. The only time I can get her to take it is in the sling and SOMETIMES at night. We love having our baby Ava in our family! It is nice to have another female in the house! You are truly loved by all of us....especially your brothers. They are always watching out for you, telling me when you are crying and letting me know when you spit up. I know that they will always watch out and protect you. We are so overjoyed you joined our family!

Samuel Jacob!

Samuel is our serious, very compassionate, almost four year old. He is very caring and is always checking to make sure that we are taken care of. Sometimes he will just come up to me and ask if I am doing okay. If he sees me cry or upset he comes up to me and says " mommy I just want to give you a hug and a kiss." He loves to learn and is a very curious little boy always wanting to know how things work. I cannot believe that Samuel is almost four! He is our cute little redhead! We love him despite his picky picky eating habits. These pictures are so true to Samuel's personality! He loves his picture being taken which is great for me......he is such a trooper and lets me take picture after picture! We are so blessed to you in our family! From the time we found out we were pregnant with you, to thinking we were going to lose you, to finding out you were a footling breech, to coming unexpecdtly into this world four weeks early.....you are truly a miracle Samuel Jacob!

All about Jack!

Here is how I found Jack on my bed....... he says to me "look mom I'm playing the guitar." He was strumming along on his pretend guitar....it was so cute!


Here is how I found Jack watching a movie in his chair




This is what he was doing at dinner tonight.....playing with his food, he does this a lot!




Jack is our very aggressive, fun loving boy. Jake always says he is going to be his wrestler someday because he is very physical. There is never a dull moment with Jack around. He brings a lot of laughter and joy into our home. He can be really aggressive but he can be very sweet and caring too. He loves to get into anything he can.....I have had to call poison control before because of him trying to get into vitamins and neosporian. He has gotten into the toilet water and tried to spread the water out all over the bathroom. I always know when he is getting into something because it is usually really quiet. It is so fun to watch him learn and grow.....we love his fun personality!

Stay tuned for pictures of Samuel and Ava!

My two boys!!

Here are my two wonderful boys who let me practice taking pictures on them. Actually Samuel lets me take pictures while most of the time Jack just tells me to leave him alone! Sam just loves having his picture taken. He will always pose for me and if I do dare to take the camera off of him to take pictures of Jack and Ava, he is stepping in front of it so I don't miss anything of him!

Even though I really wanted to have a baby girl while I was pregnant with Samuel and Jack I would not change a thing now. I love having my boys......they keep everyday interesting and exciting!

Family Pictures!

The Butlers came over on Saturday to take some family pictures for me. I really wanted some of all of us together and Ashleigh did a great job considering all my boys wanted to do was run around and play. Sam told me he was done taking pictures even before we started! Then after starting he kept telling Ashleigh he wanted her to take 10 pictures.....it was so cute. Samuel usually does great with pictures and loves having his picture taken but Jack just doesn't want to cooperate at all. He was so upset one time he threw his head back and hit it on the wall.....so then he had tears flowing and wouldn't stop until he got his bear (his comfort toy) Then Sam started crying because he wanted his dog (his Comfort toy) because Jack had his bear! I think Ava was the most cooperative.....she was pretty much content the whole time. Ashleigh and I both thought she must have liked all the commotion going on from my boys! Thanks for taking our pictures.....we will have to try more when it gets a little warmer outside and maybe they will cooperate more....yeah right!

After picture taking we went out to dinner at Cafe Rio. It was pretty darn crazy with 4 boys having a great time playing and screaming! They were all so good but noisy......they were just doing what boys do! We love playing with your family Ashleigh and can't wait to do it again!

Our week!

We haven't been doing too much this week because our poor little Jack had the stomach flu/cold.....now that he is doing better Samuel seems to be getting a little cold! Does it ever end?! Here are some sweet pictures of Jack sleeping in our bed. He actually had fallen asleep on his little chair so I tried to put him in his bed but he woke up and told me to get him out of his bed. So I took him out of his bed and he laid right down on the floor so I picked him up and took him to our bed where he fell right asleep. I guess when you're sick you just need some good sleep in mommys and daddys bed!

Sweet litle Angel!

This is what I think of my little sweet Ava girl!

Samuel's first day in Primary!

Today was the first day we made it to all of church this year......which also meant it was Samuel's first day in Primary and Jack's first day in nursery without Sam. All morning we told him he gets to go to primary now....he has been so excited to go....although the first little while he called primary preschool, probably because his friend Mason is in preschool.

After Sacrament meeting Sam's teachers came up to him to walk him to opening exercises. He went right up and held their hand. He gave me a hug and a kiss and said "bye mom." I guess my little Samuel is not as little as I sometimes think he is. Samuel did great all throughout his class and sharing time. He told us all about coloring, eating snacks and even making a new friend named Kevin. He even told us that he didn't cry.....probably because Jack did not want to go to nursery and was crying. He even walked to class with his arms folded! There are four other boys in his primary class and no girls which is interesting because in nursery Jack is the only boy with three other girls. Sam had a great first day in Primary.

Now it was time to take Jack to nursey. He didn't want to go to nursey without Sam. He kept telling me that he wanted to go to primary with Sam. I felt bad that he had to leave his brother but we headed to the nursery anyways. I thought for sure that Jack wouldn't leave my side in nursey. But to my surprise the teachers got him playing with zoo animals right away. I stepped out about 10 minutes after it started and he didn't even notice that I left. I was able to watch him as they have one way mirrors on the doors. He did great although he did try to escape a few times and the last time he tried het got the door open and saw me. I realized I had ruined it for him as he started crying for me so we went back in and got him busy putting stickers on paper. I stayed with him the rest of the time which was only about 15 minutes.

All in all the boys did great.......I was a little worried. I think I have a much harder time letting go than they do. I know they will be fine but I guess I just forget that I have to let them grow up!

I love these boys!!

I wanted to write down some of the things the boys have said lately that are so cute.

On Monday Jack came to me and told me he wanted to build his horse bed again with his daddy (the boys helped Jake put the bunk beds together the day before) Jack told me he wanted daddy to break his horse bed so that he could build it again.

The boys like the movie Sleeping Beauty and they especially like to sing and dance to the song "I know you I walked with you once upon a dream." They hold hands, dance around in circles while singing the song. I think it is sooo cute to watch them play together all the while using their imagination. (Jake tells me I can't let them watch all the girl movies anymore like sleeping beauty, little mermaid, beauty and the beast.)

Yesterday I was listening to the boys and they were pretending to go camping. They had all of their pillows and blankets out on the floor in the hall pretending to be camping. They were roasting marshmallows on their pretend fire and eating them. Jack even was nice enough to share his marshmallows with me!

Sometimes Sam will just come up to me and say "you're smart mom" I am sure he has heard us tell him he is a smart kid so he then tells it to us!

I'm sure all of you know now that Jack has a fascination with horses. We have little horse figures, horse books, horse movies, 2 stick riding horses and a rocking horse! We just about have it all except for the real thing! Jack will run around the house pretending to be a horse. He has gotten good at making horse noises! Jake tells me we are going to have to buy horse property and a horse someday!

Samuel loves to make up songs and stories.....He usually does this when he is happy and excited about something. He starts singing and dancing as he is making up the words to his own songs! He gets this from his dad as Jake makes up songs about anything and sings them aloud.

It is so fun to just sit back and watch/listen to your kids. They are actually pretty intelligent. I love that I get to be their mom and watch them play and grow everyday!

Love those eyes!

I just wanted to post a picture of Ava I took today. I was trying to get her to smile as I have yet to get a great picture of her smiling. She is just so adorable and we feel so blessed to have her in our family!

Ava's stats at 2 months

For my personal journal here are Ava's stats at 2 months:

Weight: 9lbs 10th%
Height : 23 inches 50th%
Head Circumference: 37 cm 10th%

I was surprised that she was actually 9lbs.......our kids are just so petite!

No more Crib!!

We decided it was time to take Jack out of the crib and put him in a big boy bed. We wanted to get bunk beds for the boys.......we found a great bunk bed at Costco that you can use as two twin beds. We decided to use them as twin beds for now while Sam is still too young to sleep on the top bunk. The boys love there new beds and Jack is enjoying being out of the crib and in a bed! Jack has now been in his big boy bed for two days and is doing great. He has only gotten out of bed when it is time to get up! Sam is also doing great.......no more rails on the side of his bed.....and so far he has not fallen out!

Can she really be two months?!!

I can't believe my sweet Ava turned two months old on Saturday! Time just goes by way too fast.....does anyone know how I can stop my children from growing up?! Ava has been a wonderful addition to our family. She just absolutely loves her brothers and they just adore her!

Here is what Ava has been up to the past month. Ava has found her hands and loves to stare at them and try to stuff them in her mouth. She is smiling all the time now and loves to have conversations with us. She still sleeps great and is only waking up once or twice a night. Her reflux is starting to get under control with the medicines.......it breaks my heart to see her in such pain. She loves to be carried around in the sling.....I never had one with the boys and I don't know what I did without it. She calms down almost immediately when you put her in the sling. She can sleep in there for hours and it is one of the only times we can get her to take a pacifier. She is starting to get into a napping and eating routine which helps her and me! She still loves to sleep in her swing swaddled up tight. She isn't very fond of her tummy and can only be on it a few minutes before she starts to cry to be picked up. She is a pretty strong girl and is getting better at holding her head up. She is still wearing newborn diapers but I'm sure not too much longer and she will outgrow them. She is finally starting to fit into her 3 month clothes. We go to the doctor tomorrow for her 2 month well visit and to begin immunizations......it always makes me sad to see them get shots!

I feel so blessed to be a mother to this very special daughter of our Heavenly Father. I remember a blessing Jake gave me when I was pregnant with Ava. In the blessing I was told that my Heavenly Father wanted to send Ava to me and that he trusted me with one of his precious daughters. At that moment I knew how truly special Ava was going to be. We love you Ava!

Christmas Pictures.......Finally!

Samuel opening up food for their new kitchen

Jack and his new rocking horse.......this kid loves horses!!

Jack discovers a new horse in his stocking......we now have about 20 horses in our house!

Samuel and his dragon.....he has been into dragons and dinosaurs lately

Sam and Jack playing with their new kitchen Santa brought them......Jake had a hard time letting the boys play with a kitchen but he couldn't say no when they told him over and over thats what they wanted for Christmas!

Coming down the stairs checking out what Santa brought them!

Making cookies for Santa

Testing out the cookies to see if they are just right for Santa!

I wanted to put Christmas pictures up for the longest time but due to not being in our own home......we don't have the computer set up or the internet. So I use Jake's laptop and someones unsecured wireless internet while I can! We had a great Christmas.....the boys enjoyed every minute of it. We spent Christmas Eve morning making cookies for Santa.......Christmas Eve with my family.......spent Christmas morning at home and that afternoon we went to Jake's family. Here are some pictures of our Christmas!