Jonah 2 Months

Jonah is 2 months old! He is a dream baby! Here's his latest:

• Consistently sleeps 8-10 hours at night and goes right back to sleep after he's fed.
• Is most fussy in the morning right after he wakes up until his first morning nap. 
• Loves being outside.
• Smiles the biggest when I'm getting mad at his brothers. I am often holding Jonah while yelling at the boys to stop doing something naughty. Every time I look down to assess whether my shouts are scaring Jonah, he always looks contently entertained that his older brothers are getting into trouble. 
• He doesn't cry. He just doesn't. He'll squawk or grunt every once in a while, but rarely, rarely, rarely does he go into a full blown cry. 
• He loves it when you pet his head. Huge smile every time.

He's just the best. He is everything I needed to stay sane with 4 kids. He gives me sleep, he's content, he doesn't demand to be held all the time. He just goes with the 4-boy flow and is very accommodating to all the things we throw at him (sometimes literally). We love our little Joney Jone!

From Stressed to Blessed

Who ever had the cruel idea to encourage a new, exhausted mom of 4 boys to host a gathering in her home where she had to feed everyone and clean her house spotless mere weeks after giving birth? Much of the reasons I hate parties (especially at my house) is because I have this insane drive to make everything so absolutely perfect (think clean down to dusting the blinds) that I lose my mind in the process. And as you can guess, 4 little boys are not too compatible with a spotless house so the week leading up to the blessing was a constant stream of me pointing out all the ways everyone had just messed up the house I had just attempted to clean for the umpteenth time. 

And although Jeff tried to convince me people cared very little about the state of the house, I ignored his logic and instead had irrational visions of my grandma showing up to inspect every dusty corner with a white glove and magnifying glass.

I got probs. 

Anyway, thanks to my sister who was in tune enough to sense my stress from across the city and offered to take my kids so I could finish up the complete sterilization of our house, I managed to get the house in order, the food prepped, and the sanity levels back to a somewhat normal range. 

And then when the blessing day rolled around, I realized how little everything really mattered and giggled a little bit at all the anxiety-ridden cleaning my poor family had to endure (sorry, boys)!

Not only did the house HAVE to be in perfect condition, we HAD to get the perfect blessing day family pictures with matching ties, smiles, and the traditional back drop of the front porch. Check, check (mostly), and check!

Jonah refused to smile for his close up, but he was a happy-go-lucky boy all day long even though he wasn't willing to prove it to the camera.

The only decorating I did. I was too busy cleaning, okay?!? Look at those cabinets shine!

Though you can't see my grandma's hands, she had neither a white glove nor a magnifying glass. Again reminding me my hurried scrubbing might have been a bit of an overreaction.

My parents refused to prioritize the baby blessing over their however many hundred missionaries (huff), so we had them there in spirit with a white blanket they brought back for us from their trip to Bethlehem a couple years ago.

I guess he did smile for me after all.

In all my cleaning, the one thing I totally forgot to think about was Jonah's outfit! I knew I had one for him and I knew where it was, so that was as much thought as I had given it. It wasn't until an hour before church as I was about to get it out that the thought occurred to me it might have yellow spit up stains all over it from blessings past.

With my breath held, I unmasked the outfit and found it was white and crisp without any evidence that Jonah wasn't the first to wear it. Whew!

We can thank Becky for the cute outfit that sure beats the little white tux thing Eli and Carson had to endure on their blessing days. 

And we can thank David and Mary for the 2-hour nap Jonah had through the whole party, giving me time to relax, visit, and enjoy all the yummy food people brought. 

After our last guest left we all had a much needed post blessing crash.

Which gave us just enough energy for one more photo shoot with mommy and baby in the backyard.

We sure love our newest little dude. Though at times I feel like the love might be one-sided?

We survived another baby stressing...er blessing. The blessing was beautiful. The friends and family surrounded us in love. The food was divine. The house was clean enough. The day was a dream. Thanks to everyone who came to support us and had the courtesy to show up without a home inspection kit. :)

Swimming, S'moring, and Soccer Momming

Let's blame the ease and safety of splash pads for getting us this far making my kids believe we were "swimming" every time they donned their swimsuits and frolicked through a few fountains. 

But frolicking through fountains does little to actually teach your kid how to stay afloat in a body of standing water, so we were starting to have a real problem as we found ourselves with a 7-year-old who still had no concept of how to do more than hold his breath and hope for the best when faced with any body of water larger than a puddle. 

To swim lessons we did go. 

The trouble with swim lessons is they don't accept kids younger than 3. That means I'm sidelined with this dude, desperately trying to convince him to stay on dry land while he sees everyone else splashing around in the pool. I was overwhelmingly under prepared to keep Lincoln at bay during the first lesson, leaving me eternally grateful the lessons are no more than 30 minutes a day. 

Lessons end with a jump off the diving board!

Day 2 I came prepared with cars, trucks, trains, and snacks for this little two-ligan. It worked. All it took was one police car that he clutched just like this for the full 30 minutes to occupy him through the whole lesson. Mom win!

After Eli's first lesson, he was a little self conscious that he was the oldest swimmer, but the least experienced. He took it upon himself to practice while he waits for his turn with the teacher. I've been so impressed with his self determination to improve! Way to be a go-getter, Eli!

Carson loves the water and is right on track with the rest of his class. 

Day 3 with Lincoln and I had to resort to pulling out a little magnetic book I had bought for Lincoln to take on our upcoming trip to California. 

This little sweets has slept through every swim lesson so far, bless his soul.

Here's Lincoln trying to convince me to start calling him Sweets again.

Jeff's parents came for the weekend in anticipation of Jonah's blessing on Sunday. Mary brought us all t-shirts from their travels home.

We spent Saturday afternoon at City Creek because what better way to welcome them back home than the same way we sent them off...

Saturday evening we went up to the mountains for a campfire.

Lincoln buddied right up to David.

While Jonah buddied up to Grandma.

Lincoln preferred his marshmallows "raw" and eaten in one bite.

Carson and Eli were surprisingly skilled roasters. I didn't see a single mallow on fire out of either of them!

Notice the hand on the leg. So sweet!

 Here's a happy baby practicing his smiles for his big upcoming day.

Remember how when you last heard from me I was repeatedly chanting "I will survive 4 kids?" We made a big purchase to make that survival plan a little easier for me. 

We had been peeking into the mini van market for quite some time, but we just couldn't justify the purchase when we had the Yukon that was suiting us just fine.

Well, we have a trip to California planned and the Yukon had a fuel pump issue. I mean, I guess you can say the Yukon has a fuel pump issue because after Jeff made a very valiant attempt to try to fix the fuel pump himself, what remained of the car was large portions of the underbelly of the car strewn about our garage, and an unavoidable tow to the car shop.

As we weighed the costs of fixing the Yukon versus instead dumping our money into a new car, we chose new car. We found just the van we wanted in just the color we wanted at just the price we wanted on KSL so we went for it!

It has luxuries like doors the open and close themselves, a back up camera, and I'm convinced it can pretty much drive itself leaving me to call it a robot and trusting it with a little more responsibility than it probably deserves like I sometimes find myself thinking it will park itself or stop me if I get too close to hitting something, or drive me all the way to California while I take a nap in the backseat.

While it may not have all those robotic features, it is definitely a lot more computerized than any vehicle I've ever owned. We're trying to come up with a name for it and my top pick is "BatVan" but for some reason the boys are unconvinced? We've recently become obsessed with the Lego Batman Movie so I think BatVan is a good fit. Especially with the Rav4 we could have BatVan and Ravvin'. Good, right?!? Help me convince the children how clever I am. And help me convince Jeff we need to add a Batman logo to the back window of the car to really solidify the naming process.

I love our new van! I had approximately 1 minute of buyer's remorse, which is less than what I had for a swimsuit I recently purchased so that's a pretty good indication I'm satisfied with the purchase. It was much needed and has made all of us that much more excited for our upcoming road trip!

With 4 kids and a van to haul them around in, I've happily joined the ranks of soccer mom!

Emoj-Eli the Jedi

The trouble with first grade is you start getting invited to birthday parties. Like everybody's birthday party who was ever born. And when you're in first grade, that starts giving you ideas. Ideas like, "Hey, why don't I have a birthday party?" And then the week before your birthday, you start voicing those ideas. And then your mom might realize that although she hates actual parties, she's a sucker for party planning and will agree to host an event in your honor, young Jedi. 

My mom encouraged me not to spend too much money or go all out because the kids wouldn't get it. I reminded my mom that it wasn't for the kids, it was for Instagram. Duh, mom. 

So when I asked Eli if he knew what a Padawan was (after googling it I learned it is a Jedi in training), or if he understood R2D2 H2O, or if he had heard the quote, "The force is strong with this one," the answer was repeatedly no. Sigh.

And then when he said, "Mom. Why does this say Yoda Soda?" I stared at him in exhausted disbelief, "You don't get Yoda Soda?!?" 

"No." 

"What do you not get about it?!?" I practically shouted. Upon further questioning I realized the misunderstanding came from him not knowing what soda is. SODA! We need to get out more. 

As the young Jedis began to show up, one of them sat down and said, "Oh cute! This water looks like R2D2!" (I might have added the cute part in my head, but I've learned to translate boy talk into girl talk, so I'm sure that's at least what he meant to say.) That was all the validation I needed.

Well that and this cute little boy completely thrilled to be having his very own party whilst slurping down some soda.

The theme was Star Wars, the games were masked as Jedi Training. First up was Lightsaber Lessons...otherwise known as my sneaky way to get a group picture. Mom win!

Next up was what ended up being my favorite part of the party, Storm the Troopers.

We hung balloons from trees and the minute I said they were Storm Troopers, the young Padawans went full "force."

I only meant for them to hit the balloons (to give them a target other than each other), but shortly after their attack, one of the balloons popped. Everyone looked at me with a hint of horror and someone asked, "Are we supposed to pop the balloons?"

That seemed like a more fun version of the game, so I said go for it!

One by one the Storm Troopers were picked off.

Until there was just one left.

They never did pop that last balloon so I guess the dark side won?

Next up was Leapin' Lasers. 

This event was Eli's favorite.

I thought the boys would want to do this one over and over again, but they were totally content to only give it one try.

Next up was Trooper Trouble. 

Essentially bowling with a water gun.

Finally they had to destroy the Death Star. 

As I was preparing for this party, I kept thinking back to those high school essays they make you write senior year about what you're going to be doing in 5 years, 10 years, and so on. Well I'm about 10 years out of high school and I can confidently say planning a Star Wars party was not in my 10-year plan. But here we are. And I'm glad my boys have opened my eyes to new worlds I would have never discovered on my own.

Eli Lightsaber swooshed as he blew out his candles showing off all the things his training had taught him.

To answer your question, no. Eli did not get this pun. But you will?

And of course Eli's real birthday was on a Sunday, so if the Saturday party wasn't enough, he earned himself a 2 days of birthday celebrating. Sunday started with "Christmas breakfast."

And a picture taken only after I bribed him with presents.

Have I told you my family often says Eli's facial expressions look like emojis? Coincidentally, he loves emojis, wanted an emoji cake, and made a classic emoji face for his birthday.

Here's a baby.

Happy 7th Birthday Emoj-Eli! We sure love you!