We Love Our Little Ones!

Life is crazy and can get overwhelming but with one sweet or silly comment, my kids remind me what it is all about. As stressful or chaotic as things often get with four little ones, I am so grateful God has given me this opportunity to be their mom and I am so grateful my kids are quick to forgive.

Stake Conference

Our stake conference was held next to the temple so afterwards we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful grounds. Sienna said it perfectly, "this gave me the best feeling, mom." Me too! I am so grateful for this beautiful family God has given me and for the gospel in our lives. We are so blessed.

One Tough Cookie

We've always known Abby was one tough cookie but this last weekend she's proved it to us even more. Thursday afternoon we were at the park with some friends and my friend was taking Abby down the slide. I saw Abby's foot pinned between my friend's leg and the slide but thoughts didn't turn into words quick enough and down they went. Abby's leg got pinned the whole way down and I instantly knew it was going to be bad. I held her as she cried and kept asking for daddy and saying mommy in the saddest voice. She continued crying and didn't calm down much. In fact, she gagged herself from crying and threw up part of the apple she had eaten an hour previous. I decided we needed to get her home so we left the park and picked daddy up from work and headed home. Abby fell asleep in the car and was pretty much done with crying from that point. She would whine on and off and say, "owie, ouch" but didn't seem too bad. As the night went on though, we noticed she wouldn't put any weight on her left leg. She didn't try to stand, crawl or walk. We put her to bed and she slept great but in the morning when she was still refusing to put weight on her leg we knew we had to take her in. Sure enough, the doctor sent us to the hospital to get x-rays and they came back showing a break in her tibia. We were so sad for our baby girl. Matt took her to get her cast and they told us it would be about 4-6 weeks of trying to keep her from using her leg and keeping her in a cast. 

Before Abby got her cast, all she wanted to do was lay on the floor and read "stowies" with daddy. Matt is the most amazing daddy ever and the kids are so lucky to have him. It breaks my heart a little that she kept asking for him when mommy was also around but mostly, it just makes me so grateful to be married to such an amazing man. I came out of the shower to find Matt and Abby reading together on the floor and snuggling. When Matt had to get ready, Sadie stepped right in without being asked and started reading with Abby. It is going to be hard having Abby in a cast for so long but I have already seen it benefit our family as we are all working together and serving each other.

I am so amazed at Abby's pain tolerance. She will occasionally fuss or whine but for the most part it is because she wants to be up and running around with the kids and can't. She's a trooper and has handled this all so well.

Little Goofball

I didn't know when I took these pictures that they would be the last of her walking for a couple of months. I took them because she was being so hilarious and looked way too cute in this little outfit. She kept teasing us and started crawling around the house. We kept asking her, "why are you crawling?" and she would just laugh and laugh. She's a keeper. Love her personality and spunk.

Golden Dollar

Sadie was so excited to lose her first tooth. Well, it's the first tooth that came out the way it was supposed to. We had our little accident a year ago where she smashed her face on a coffee table and lost her top incisor tooth but this was her first experience with a wiggly tooth over several days that we finally pulled out. She was so excited and couldn't wait to see if she would get a gold dollar just like Sienna did when she would lose her teeth.

Memory Lane

We opened another box of clothes for Abby and so many of the outfits have specific memories tied to them with the other girls. This jacket was Sadie's. Sienna had a green one and they wore them all of the time. Can't believe how big Abigail is getting.

Too Noisy

Our neighbors below us complained that we were too loud in the mornings causing them to wake up before their alarm goes off almost daily. At first I felt really bad because I know that we can be very noisy so we wrote them an apology letter and took them yummy cookies. I think Matt and I took it too far though. We were shushing our kids every other second and telling them to "stop stomping" "no singing" "walk on your toes" etc. I know that we need to work on being quieter but I was so impatient and annoyed with the kids all week. I finally hit a breaking point and decided to let it go. We still need to work on being quieter in the mornings but we also need to live and the reality is that I have four young kids so there will be occasional noise. We're still doing our best to be respectful but it's just something we're all going to have to deal with while in our apartment living phase. It makes us both very anxious to rent a house next rotation if possible. Overall, living in an apartment hasn't been that bad. If I had to name two things I miss or wish I could change it wouldn't be hard to choose. 1. A simple backyard for the kids to play in. 2. A little more space/privacy from neighbors. Most of our neighbors are awesome and have kids that are just as loud as ours so it hasn't been a problem until three single girls moved in below us. Oh well, two of them seem pretty sweet. Lucky for them, this is just a temporary stay for us.