January-March

(Picture Overload.)

Over the holidays we had all been so sick and we just needed to get out of the house. 

Curiosity Museum was just the break we needed.

Documenting rare moments where they get along for 2 seconds.

Rock Canyon, before Elijah discovered he could throw rocks off the cliff and I could actually get him to walk somewhere.

Teamwork for these two. Building a dinosaur.

Bean Museum.

This was soaking our entire bathroom but I couldn't bring myself to stop it.

Copilots.

Play Bill. 

One of the best shows I have ever seen. A marionette show of sound of music from the most renowned puppeteers.

My heart.

Alice in Wonderland ballet. 

We took cute little Amelia along with us.

Olive "skis" 2016.

Grandma and Grandpa.

Best Friends.

Tour of the Lehi Natural History Museum.

Special Treats after our library visit. 

We will try all the new bakeries, thanks Mom.

A "we were here" picture after touring the provo temple.

Decorating cookies and making valentines. 

Olive would get such a high when I pulled out the sprinkles, her cookies were more sprinkles than cookie. 

Olive has THE BEST sunbeams teacher. 

Look at this adorable tea party!!! 

Olive loved it.

Neon lights imitating our feelings.

Then I made KC does this while the dog watched and Olive cheered us on from the couch in the back round.

Girlfriend Ski at Sundance. 

This girl can ski, she doesn't mess around.

Callie's princess birthday party. 

It only took an hour to get that thing to open.

Our Yearly Ski Day.

 We had some good chats on the ski lift.

Boys and their toys. 

We call this the "secret path" up at rock canyon.

Happiness is here.

I have to entertain this guy while Olive is in Preschool time at the library. 

He ditches story time right after they quit singing, sometimes I can get him to come back for the puppet show. If I'm lucky.

Olive took a tumbling class. It was so cute.

Crazies at the Zoo.

Frozen on ice with cousins.

Chasing these two everywhere we go.

Paddle board yoga in the Crater.

Providing and serving food at this shelter in honor of Bryant.

It was a great experience.

Throwing rocks and sticks.

It's hard for me to stop Olive from doing things that I secretly want to do myself.

Teaching this little how to climb.

Elijah was having a hard time this week and was crying and fussing all the time. He had some teeth cutting through. Those types of days feel like they will never end. I remember snapping this picture and thinking this may be the only time he had smiled that whole week! It only lasted a second. Those scratches on his face are from a face plant running at the park.

This photo embodies childhood to me. 

I was teaching Olive how to ride her bike.

Dance party for a friend's birthday.

This day was full of GREEN GREEN GREEN. It was pretty fun.

Hiked the Y for the first time in I don't know how long! Elijah was good on the way up, but screamed the entire way down.... so that was fun haha. It actually really was fun though.

Easter Egg Hunt for these littles. 

I let Olive color some eggs with markers and she loved that.

She dyed some with her grandma so I decided to skip the mess, which is a little unlike me :) 

Easter snuck up on us this year in March and I didn't like it! I need more time to enjoy all the cute little eggs scattered around my house. I may or may not still have my knitted eggs up on my piano, I just can't take them down! They are so cute!

In these moments I love her the most.

This kid can dribble a ball better than his older sister! 

I am starting to bring a ball with me everywhere I go, he loves them so.

On Bryant's birthday we went down to Utah Lake and let off some lanterns. It was beautiful and a really cool experience. Elijah immediately started to run straight for the water and would have just kept going right on in had I not caught him last minute. 

I love this last picture of Bryant's friend Jesse letting off a lantern filled with notes and love. There was such emotion and intention. 

Bryant you are missed.

I snapped this picture of Elijah at the Zoo to document the one single moment he stopped moving the whole day! I spent most my time chasing him around, the little bugger.

I took Olive along on a Mutual Activity ice skating. She was so unsure when she first got on the ice and I thought she was going to quit after only a few minutes, but I was slowly able to get her more and more comfortable until she was running around by herself with the help of this walker and even venturing out on the ice without it a few times. 

My sister and I realized we had never tried the "duck face." 

We still don't get why people do it haha. 

This was the most fun day, my sister is so funny and adventurous she keeps you laughing every second you are with her.

More drone chasing.

All parties involved enjoy this immensely. 

Home again, home again.

My younger sister was returning from her mission in California right after Christmas. She was dying for all her sibling to be there, but my mom had told her that was just too hard especially with the holidays. We siblings talked it over and decided it was really something we would love to do. I booked a ticket that would go straight from Florida to Washington. After a long trip that had been hard in some ways I really just wanted to go and be with my children, and honestly I was sobbing on my way to the airport after kissing my babies goodbye, but in the end I was really happy that I did it because it was a really special and fun experience for my family. 

My older sisters were coming from Utah and saw that my little sister had a layover in Utah on her way home to Washington and a little light bulb went off in my sister's head and a planned was hatched. They were not only able to book the same flight, but also secured seats right next to my sister returning from her mission. Once the tickets were purchased my mom was beside herself was excitement, but there were still a lot of "what ifs" in the plan, the major one being if Kaylee missed her layover flight. My sisters got little disguises; big hats, wigs, and unique clothing. They didn't know exactly what they would do because they weren't sure what they would be able to pull off, but it was going to be a special surprise no matter what they did!  On the morning of the flight my mom had such high anxiety as the plane that Kaylee was supposed to fly on was running a little delayed. She called my cousin who worked in the traffic controller tower and he directed her to a website that followed the plane back and forth to and from California and gave her some assurance that all would be fine, but my mom was not calming down until they were all on that plane together. She watched that plane fly back and forth all morning until Kaylee was on it and it had landed in Utah. We knew my other sisters were going to make it onto the flight since we had contact with them. We all held our breath. 

Success! Kaylee made her flight connection and my other sisters pulled off their disguises to the point that she had no idea that she was sitting next to both of them! Kaylee couldn't believe it, and the passengers on the plane were excited as well and asked how they had pulled that off! It was really fun, and needless to say made my mom giddy with excitement and joy. I was already in Washington so I was a witness to all the emotions taking place in my house that day. I love writing this because it makes me remember it and how fun it was to be able to do that. The rest of us surprised her at the airport because she still didn't know that the rest of her siblings would be there, especially because she knew that I had been in Florida. The only one missing was my sister Ellen who had just had a baby weeks before and so was not able to travel. 

It is such a rare thing in your adult life when you are all married and have children to get to be together as just siblings. My mom relished in it, and my Dad treated us like we were queens. We had a big sushi dinner and spent time gabbing in the hot tub during which my dad brought us root beer floats and started a  big fire to keep us warm after we got out. We saw a movie and shopped and just had fun really. It's good when you can get out of this "mommy" element and just be silly and do whatever. I love my sisters. And I love my husband who as always said he would take the kids with out any hesitation, even having to fly across the country with them by himself. He's one in a million.

We are not the most photogenic people, but we don't care.

We can't do anything "normal" in this household. These are ideas that spawn naturally. 

If you knew my Dad you would understand. 

This might be my favorite picture of all time.

 Look at my parents.

Cheers.