I'm dying from all the cuteness!!

Technology is amazing. I think sometimes I tend to take for granted all that my phone can do. I know I used to take for granted my camera and all that it could do. And the Internet? Don't even get me started on how amazing I think the Internet can be. The other day I was perusing my Shutterfly account in search of the perfect pictures to go on my collage wall and I came across these videos. Easton watched them with me and together we had a good giggle. And then the ache set in. The ache of realizing that that part of my life, having babies and toddlers is over. And I cried. Seriously, I cried. I can't believe how blessed I have been to have such gorgeous, precious, funny and smart little kids come into my life. They are growing up WAY too fast and it is killing me. Why does life seem to speed up once you become an adult? My life since I met Kendrick has felt like it's in fast forward. I wish I could go back and bottle up all this cuteness and unleash it on days when I am having a hard time. But then, I guess that is the point of home videos and pictures huh? I am so grateful that I stumbled across these. I am so grateful that they are saved forever. I wish I had the ability to take these memories off of Shutterfly and post them on my blog in a normal format, but I don't. So you'll just have to take this crappy phone recorded version and I'll have to hope that it does these videos justice.

When I was pregnant with Easton, Lisa told me I should record the twin's voices because they were so cute. I remember thinking that I would never forget how cute they were. But I did. I am so glad I took her advice and recorded them talking to each other!

The Halloween of 2009 we dressed all the kids as Super Heroes. The twins wore their costumes every day leading up to and after Halloween. They practiced getting into character by fighting each other. I remember that Clint and Nicole used to come over and we'd have the twins wrestle for them because it was so entertaining to watch.

Myles singing, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" at 3

Baby Easton talking to Aunt Amanda. His cute face kills me. It's not just me, right? He really was too cute for words?!

Proof that our kids were the cutest

The only perk to me having to reactivate my original FB account in order to prove to Pinterest that I am who I say I am is that I found these home videos that I thought I had lost forever. I could have cried when I rediscovered them. Especially the first one. I mourned the loss of that video for awhile. FB is lame and won't let me email them to myself so I just used my phone to record them off my computer and upload them to YouTube. So the quality is poor, and I apologize for that.
My kids really were the cutest kids ever. They still are cute, just a different, more grown up cute. I miss these good old days...
Notice how short the twins are, how cute Tay's toothless grin was and how tiny baby E looked!

A LONG overdue visit

9 years ago next month I met two of the KINDEST people on the planet. I was 6 months pregnant with Taylor and we were on our way to live in St. Petersburg, Florida when we stopped in St. Augustine to have dinner at Outback with Kendrick's Uncle Jess and Aunt Linda. From the first moment I met them I was in love. They are two of the most down to earth and warmest people I have ever met. 8 months after that we had one of our best Thanksgivings at their house in Amelia Island. We thought at the time that we would be living in Florida for awhile so we thought we had many more Thanksgivings with them in our future. Sadly, we moved back to Utah the next year and were not able to spend anymore holidays with them. When I think of my time in Florida, I think of Jess and Linda. Which is odd since we didn't spend THAT much time with them while we lived there (we are kicking ourselves for that now). But I think the fact that they were the first friendly faces to welcome us to Florida and that while we lived there we knew they were our only family in the state makes me think of Florida and them as going hand in hand.

After we moved back to Utah our life got crazy; and between the birth of the twins, buying and selling homes, Easton's arrival and Kendrick's spinal surgeries we just sort of lost touch. Occasionaly we would email or Facebook back and forth but it just wasn't the same. And through all of that time I still missed my friend, Linda. So you can imagine how excited I was when last month she emailed to tell us that her and Jess would be coming to town! FINALLY, after 7 1/2 years I was going to get to see Linda again. She had never met any of my boys so I was beyond excited for her to see them.

Last night we were able to spend some time with Jess and Linda and their cute grand kids and it was so nice. The amount of time that went by between our visits with them is just sad. I hope we never let that much time go by between visits again. Our kids fell in love with both Jess and Linda after being around them for just 10 minutes. We were truly sad when the night ended and we had to drive home.

Here are some of the pictures from our fun filled evening...

Jess and Linda, 
Please come see us again soon. We loved visiting with you and we appreciate you guys so much. Thanks for making time to see us!

Mental Pictures

The kids and I have this joke that when I am too lazy to get my camera and not near my phone that we should take "mental pictures" of things. We hold up our hands like we are holding a camera and we make a fun click noise with our tongue. I learned it from The Office. I started it so I could be like Jim and Pam. But lately I have been doing it as a way to create a memory bank in my head of things I don't want to forget.

I am currently reading a book, a novel, about a family in London who is "in transition". The last of their adult children has moved out, the husband wants his wife back to himself, the wife is struggling with not having anyone to take care of, and the children don't want to admit that they need help. It was a 25 cent book that I bought from the Library thinking that it would be a good "bathtub read". And it is, but it totally has me thinking about things I am not ready to think about, namely: my kids growing up and leaving home. I don't want to go there.

It makes me almost cry to think about it. Yesterday my visiting teachers were here and were talking about how they hate that they don't trust anyone to watch their kids because they are dying to get out and have some time away, and I couldn't help but think to myself, "I don't really want to go out that often..." Because I feel like there will be plenty of time for that soon enough. Now don't get me wrong: I would love it if Kendrick and I could jet off to Mexico for our 10 year Anniversary or even just spend a night or two in Park City over Valentine's Day. Heck, sometimes eating our Chinese food AT the restaurant sounds like a dream. But I know our time for that will come. Right now we are busy taking care of kids and entertaining kids, and keeping kids from getting sick and disciplining kids and hoping our kids learn the value of learning so they can be better off than we are. We are trying to be spiritual examples to our kids and are praying for them and being exasperated by them and laughing with them. All the things I feel like we SHOULD be doing right now in this phase of parenthood. And one day it will end. Sure, we will always worry about them and will forever pray for them. But at some point they will not rely on us for EVERYTHING (I hope...) and I have a feeling that there will be a small void in my life when that finally happens. A void that is now filled with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, deciding whether or not to sign them up for soccer or baseball, learning how to style an 8 year old's hair or shopping around for the best place to find bulk, quality underwear.

So when that void finally gets here, to get me through it, I have these mental pictures stored away...

Myles' chapstick, spare change and random action figures constantly spilling out of his jean's pockets when I sort the clothes.

Taylor's bobby pins and elastics all over the house

Legos stuffed under my pillow at night

Drawings taped up on the laundry room door

A whole page on my iphone dedicated to kid friendly games

Library books about animals constantly filling up our living room book baskets

Video games piled up next to the TV on a daily basis no matter how often I try to keep them put away

Sparkly Lip Smackers stuffed under couch cushions, in my purse, in the pencil drawer and stuffed in shoes.

Barbie jeans mixed in with the human jeans I have to fold.

Empty containers of Super Hero bubble bath used as bath "fart makers"

Multi colored water bottles lining the fridge door (so that we don't go through a thousand and one cups a day)

Alphabet magnets scattered throughout the house

Dead sticks used as Harry Potter wands kept with all the other toys

Hand drawn interpretations of Darth Vader mixed in with bills and magazines and other important papers

A pile of my "missing" scarfs at the bottom of Tay's closet

Granola Bar crumbs on Easton's pillow at night

And here is one image I don't want to remember because it drives me CrAzY: