motherhood. it's not for sissies.

With the birth of my fourth, beautiful child I realized quickly that I am elbow deep in motherhood. I panic at least once a day about how cluttered and messy my house is. I have a hard enough time wiping the kitchen table off after each meal. Mataya has started to let me do her hair for church on Sundays. It brings me much joy to roll her hair is pink sponge rollers on Saturday night just like my mom did when I was a little girl. It's funny how you experience things as a mother and you are completely stopped in your tracks and realize just how much your mother did for you for so many years. And did it will love and goodness. I know that those moments will keep coming in life because here I am a 31 year old woman and I still need my mom's kind words and encouragement.
Spencer lost his second tooth last night and he put his tiny tooth in a treasure box and placed it on his dresser for the tooth fairy to find. I went to check on the boys before I went to bed and as I watched them sleep I was overcome with joy. And, at the same time, I was so sad. I love every stage and age my kids are at, but I find myself not wanting it to ever change.
When our house is crazy and loud and messy and we are trying to get out the door for church AND poor Benson has been crying for 30 straight minutes that Sunday mornings are the most intense, stressful two and a half hours of my life!
But, honestly, I know that these days are so fleeting and I can feel it. It's so hard, but it is so wonderful. And like my own mother always says...these are the best days of your life! I couldn't agree more.

busy doing laundry.

I've been informed by my husband that I need to blog. He's a little passive aggressive about it really. This is a picture of me last year in front of the Mesa Arizona Temple. I will get back on the bandwagon of blogging soon. We have had a baby and such, so life is real crazy. We have 4 kids now, and whoever said having 3 kids is the same as having 4 kids is a down right liar. It's way harder! I mean who am I kidding there's a lot of laundry happening in this house. I do laundry everyday out of fear that I will wake up one day and find myself buried in dirty clothes with no way to escape. And don't even get me started on the smell in the kid's bathroom. My mother-in-law asked me why there was no rugs in the bathroom and I told her they always smelled of urine and I got tired of washing them so I gave up altogether on the rug thing.

We blessed Benson on Sunday and I had a near breakdown trying to get to church and I had my mother-in-law here to help get us there. I'm already panicking about 9 o'clock church starting in January and having no husband to help me out the door each Sunday. Maybe we can shower on Saturdays and just sleep in our church clothes?! 

That probably won't work, we better just get to bed early and hope for the best!

Layton Triathlon!

The Layton Triathlon 2012. These pictures aren't in order, but there are lots of good ones. Since I'm very pregnant I couldn't participate in any races this summer. I really encouraged the boys to do the kids triathlon. Parker did it last summer and loved it and we had to push really hard for Spencer to ride his bike without training wheels so he could race as well. Honestly, Cory and I were worried that Spencer wouldn't have a good experience, but he proved us wrong. Spencer is showing on his arm that they marked with his number.

Spencer had to wear a life jacket and he was so darn cute swimming and tried so hard. He did great!

Spencer in the transition area going from the swim to the bike.

Parker got done first and was chilling with his medal around his neck and a cold drink.

Here is Parker telling Spencer where to go for the run.

Go, Spencer, Go! He ran the whole half a mile without stopping. We were so surprised he ran the whole way.

Crossing the finish line.

He said that he LOVED it! And that it was 100 percent fun!

I just love his cute face, he is just beaming with pride!

I'm so proud of my cute boys!

Celebrating at Winger's for lunch!

 Cute little sister.

 We were so glad Melissa and Lexi came to cheer the boys on. We were waiting for them to start and the girls decided to test out the water. Lexi had a swimming suit on and Mataya was fully dressed and they both were soaking wet. It's all good, it was a hot day anyways.

 Parker was right in front waiting for his age category to start.

 Jumping in!

 The little backstroke champ!

Coming back in from the biking and taking off to do the run.

This was so much fun. It was a little tricky for me to get all the pictures I wanted, but we really enjoyed watching them race. Cory rode his bike with Spencer and then biked along as Spencer ran to encourage him. I ran with Spencer from the pool to the transition area, which was probably a delightful scene in all my prego glory!

Cory deserves a lot of credit for making this all happen. He really worked with Spencer to get him riding his bike without training wheels. And then loading and unloading all the bikes and gear and just being a fun, great  dad at pushing the boys and encouraging them all along the way!

WICKED!

 All my favorite ladies and me got to have a fun night out complete with yummy Thai food and seeing Wicked at The Capitol Theater.

 My cute little nieces.

 Heather, me, Melissa, and Emilee. All the sisters!

 Whoa! Maybe big preggers should have stood in the back...LOL!

Pioneer Day!

 Happy Pioneer Day! We can't let a year go by without being in the annual parade. We did a patriotic theme this year complete with the Statue of Liberty. Go Abbi!

 Aunt Emilee hooked up all the kids with cool blue hair gel to make it extra special. And it worked because our float won $25 in the Most Patriotic category!

 Waiting for the fish rodeo to start. It was a very exciting event indeed!

 Spencer sporting his little blue mohawk and his fish. He was so proud!

 And a big thank you to Allison for helping Mataya get her fish. I don't think she actually caught it, but it was given to them by a nice boy.

We LOVE spending Pioneer Day in Marysvale with Grandpa and Grandma Blackwell!