8 Wonderful Years of the Married Life

Updates on Clifton -
He had his 5 year old check up this week.  And his weight and height are the best we have ever seen it (in the 50%th percentile).  It is hard to believe he was ever my little man who hardly ate.  Now he is my big healthy 5 year old who doesn't stop eating :)  He did a hearing and vision test and passed with flying colors.

Updates on McKay -
Nothing new... sassy as ever!

Updates on Stanley -
He had a rough week of recovering but we are getting there.  By Sunday he was a happy baby just still trying to figure out his eating and sleeping.  He is still eating less but more often like every hour or two.

Since the hospital visit this is how Stanley sleeps.  His hand needs to be on his head.  Silly boy.

He is 4 months old! And wicked cute!

This week has been a rough week.  It has been like bringing a newborn home again.  Stanley needed a ton of attention and love while the other kids were feeling neglected.  Also Stanley is pretty much starting over again with sleeping.  He is waking up every hour or two for food.  So... I am exhausted.  But my mother in law came back up Monday to help out, which I greatly appreciate.

And Kathryn came and played with my kids one afternoon to give me a break which was so nice of her to do and my kids really enjoyed it.

As soon as I realized that I need to step up my game no matter how tired I was and give my attention to all three of my kids things got better.  Still tired but at least we were happy.  So I had to learn to not snuggle and hold Stanley all day (which is so so so hard) and get creative again.

 Dart gun shooting with Grandma!

 Sprinkler and water fun.

Taking turns face painting each others faces.

 Getting messy with shaving cream and cars.

Painting murals outside.
If I gave them one big activity to do each day they didn't feel as neglected and started acting better.

Monday was Alex and my 8 year anniversary.  Due to Stanley being in the hospital our plans changed drastically and we didn't get to celebrate quite like we wanted.  However we tried to make it as special as we could.
I have been planning to cut my hair and donate it for some time.  Alex really like short hair so I decided to surprise him with a cut.

I cut off 10 inches and donated it to Pantene.  I love how it turned out and am very glad to have short hair.

Alex picked up Olive Garden (my favorite) on his way home from work to celebrate.

And there was sparkling cider of course (not many people know this is a weakness for me - I love this stuff and probably drank the whole bottle by myself).  Yes we had crying and grumpy children in the back ground but it was still nice to celebrate a little.  And there will be more to celebrate in the future.

You know we are meant to be when we buy each other the exact same gift.  GO SOUNDERS!
I cannot imagine my life without Alex and have had the best 8 years ever.  I am excited for the many more to come.  He is my best friend, the best father, and the best husband a girl could ask for.  I am the luckiest!

By Friday Stanley was doing better and we were able to get out a little.  It happened to be Baylee's birthday and Clifton insisted on decorating her door.  He colored signs for her all week.

Kathryn made it so they were gone for a little so we could decorate her door.  Clifton said we needed to get her flowers too.  I am pretty sure he is in love :)  It was a great day!

Saturday we got to go to our friends birthday party.  It was so cute.  The kids made cowgirl/cowboy vests and raced horses around a track.

An awesome morning with friends!

Sunday we were all healthy enough to go to church.  Oh how I have missed it.

And what a fun day to be back.  Our wonderful chorister had the kids practice the mothers day songs and if they sang well they got to choose accessories to dress us up with.  Don't we look FABULOUS! Oh how I love serving in primary with wonderful people!

We as a family finished reading the Book of Mormon this week.

Our kids were so excited to finish.  It is not always easy to read with them but it is totally worth it.  I know that the book is true and hope they will get an answer to their prayers about whether or not it is true too.