Spring Break 2013

 We got to visit sunny St. George for Spring Break. Here are pictures from half of our trip. The other pics are on Cory's computer. We went down on a Wednesday and got to stay until Sunday. It was so, so nice! The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed seeing my cute sister and her family as well as my brother and his crew!

 This girl is a doll! Her and Mataya had a good time.

 Benson, my little hiking buddy.

 Benson, Parker, Spencer, Beau, Zoe, Mataya, and Luke.

 Cory helped the girls up into the rock. It was the perfect little nook.

 We roasted some hot dogs and had smores.

 This looks innocent enough, but the boys wanted to walk in the water which turned into wet clothes, muddy butts, and just overall filthiness....they loved it! The parents, not so much...lol!

 "I'm just holding this hot dog here."

 We got to go to Beau's baseball game. And he hit a home run, it was so fun to watch him run the bases! And here are 3 of those dirty little bums!

 Splash Pad!

 We hit up the splash pad in between sessions of conference! It was a busy little place. We made the kids peanut butter sandwiches and chips for lunch. Cory ran to Benja's and got us Pad Thai and a spicy tuna roll....Heaven!!

We were so fortunate to be able to stay at our Grammy and Papa's/Grandpa and Grandma's condo! Grammy and Papa are living at my parent's house right now while my parents serve a mission in New Zealand. Mataya was a little confused as to why we were going to Grandma's house, but Grandma wasn't actually there. She kept acting like we were strangers. The condo is right by the temple and I loved pulling in each night and seeing the temple basking in bright lights!

Happy Easter

We have had lots of fun with Grandpa and Grandma Jones this week! And the weather has been beautiful, so it made celebrating Easter so nice. We did fun stuff like eat at Burger Bar, go shopping, and had 3 Easter egg hunts over the weekend. We got to spend Saturday with our Utah County cousins that we love so much. Lots of pictures on here, I really could just take pictures of Benson and Mataya all day! They just melt my heart with their cute little faces and beautiful blue eyes.

 This is pretty good of everyone! Uncle Justin laughed a few times throughout the day and poor Benson just couldn't handle it and would cry and cry.

 My little sweet pea sucking her thumb and holding my hand!

 Mataya fell asleep on Grandma two days in a row. Grandma's just hate it when that happens;-)

 Seriously, those rosy cheeks and blue eyes! 

 Benson came home from church and quickly took off his pants, he fits right in around here.

 I love this kid! And those freckles are the stuff of dreams.

 Lil' egg snatcher!

 This girl can be a real sass monster! She was saying, "Don't take my picture!"...yes your majesty! 

 This face!

 Parker is the cutest kid and he has the best laugh around!

 First time in the grass....not impressed!

 Weeee!

 This is fun Mom......

.....and you took it too far lady!!!

We love Easter......the end!

Benson Oliver

On the morning of September 5, 2012 we welcomed the most perfect little baby boy into our family. Here I am outside of the hospital. I was huge and pretty much miserable. I really thought I could handle it, I had after all ran a marathon. But this truly was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced!  It was the longest summer of my life! 

Four cute kids and two lucky parents.

Benson Oliver was born. We are so grateful to have this little guy in our family!

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!