Bryce's Blessing

Bryce's was the first in a long line of baby blessings in our ward on Sunday. First of five actually. There is no shortage of young children in our ward (about 230 in primary) and it looks like Bryce will have plenty of friends to grow up with.Bryce decided to wear his "I Rock" onesie made for him by his Aunt Andrea under his blessing outfit.

He was such a good sweet boy for his blessing (the only baby who didn't cry).

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with family.

We also took a few pictures of the kids. This one is pretty probably the best we got. And we got quite a few that look like this:

But what more could you expect? It is really hard to sit next to your sister, look at your mother, and be happy all at the same time when you are 2 or 3.

Alan's First Jazz Game

I cant believe Alan will be turning 4 this next week!! Well yes I can. I would believe it if you told me he was turning 5. As part of the celebration Scott took him to his first Jazz game on Saturday. As you can see he was very excited. When they got home a little after 9pm Alan had many fun stories to tell about the seats, chasing the jazz bear, eating ice cream, seeing a race car, and he has now decided that he wants to be a doctor, Daddy, basketball player when he grows up. He wanted to tell Logan all about it right away and was disappointed that he had to wait until morning, because Logan was asleep.

My Happy Little Boy

If you have met Bryce you know that when it comes to babies he is about as happy and relaxed as they get. He seems to get more and more smiley everyday.

I know this picture is out of focus, but seriously look at that bright happy little face
!Oh and those big blue eyes...

and sweet cherub cheeks.

He just seems to fit right into our family. :) I was cleaning in the kitchen when Scott called my attention to the family room. We had left Bryce there laying on his pillow, so his brothers decided to grab a blanket and cuddle up to watch a movie. These 3 are so much fun and Alan and Logan are awesome big brothers.

Celebrating the End of February

February has been a bit of a blah month. It has had its good moments, like Valentine's Day and seeing friends, but all in all it was a pretty blah month. So to celebrate it coming to an end and cheer us up I made cake for dinner. Well I actually made chicken enchiladas for dinner, but as soon as the kids ate their little enchiladas and pears they got to start in on their cake.

I know what you are thinking...what Laura took the time to take pictures of this cute, yummy, fluffy looking little cake? But there is more to this little cutie than meets the eye. First of all it is cherry almond flavor...one of my favs and second when you cut into it you are greeted by this:

I think it would be impossible not to smile while eating something so cheery looking. I first came across the cake at The Idea Room and was bummed that I didn't have any reason to make it. So I just made it anyway.

I also finally got Bryce's name up on his wall.

And we took a family picture. We will still be wanting to get a nice one in a few months (and hopefully Emma will be a little less excited by then), but this will do for now. At least we are all in it and mostly looking at the camera.

Well here's look forward to March. It will be filled with Bryce's Blessing, Alan's Birthday, Our Anniversary, Jazz games, yard work, crafts and hopefully SPRING!

Look What I Did Today

Lately I have been feeling like our home is a little barren. When we first moved in I really enjoyed the lack of stuff everywhere, especially after years of tiny, tight, crowded apartments, but now I am over it and I want our home to have a more cozy feel. I have decided it will take years to accumulate the furniture and accessories needed to properly fill this home. Anyway, today I made this to help fill the emptiness:It is a wreath made out of pages from a book. Originally I was going to hang it over the door to our pantry in the kitchen, but it turned out a little bigger than I thought it would. I love it (it looks even better in person) and Scott thinks it looks like I hung trash on our wall. So what do you think? No worries I won't cry if you think it is ugly or weird and it won't change my love for its awesomeness. I am still undecided on its location. I think that is one of the hardest things about our new home, I never know where to hang stuff.

Here are a few more shots to help you decide. The chair is not usually there, but Logan wanted to be on it since he helped me hang all the stuff up. I really wish I had some kind of black entry bench or table there, but it will all have to be one step at a time.

What a cute little helper

Just now I was sitting in the family room feeding Bryce, when I looked over into the kitchen and there was Logan standing on his chair with it pushed up to the sink. So I ask "Buddy what are you doing?" Then Logan called back "I'm doing the dishes, " in his cute baby voice. Sadly I had to tell him to get down, after all when you are two doing the dishes by yourself just makes a big mess. I did make sure to thank him for trying to help. Logan really has embraced being a big boy. He is always insisting that he can doing things himself or "me do it" as he likes to say. He likes to brush his own teeth, get himself dressed, put on his own shoes, buckle his carseat and he has even insisted on trying to change his own diaper (that one proved more difficult than he thought and he finally agreed to let me do it.)

We have started potty training a little, but I am kinda busy so really I just introduced the idea and I am going to wait until he decides to do it himself. That approach work well with Alan and it seems a lot easier for me.

Logan also really likes to help. It is funny because Emma and Alan have never really showed much interest in helping me pick up messes, or do the laundry, or get me things, but Logan is alway right there willing to keep picking up until the mess is gone.

Not that Logan is a prefect angel child all the time. He is plenty crazy and wild, usually jumping off, over, or on things and he throws a really good fit when thing aren't going his way. But he is a fun blend of sweet and sour if you know what I mean.

He has his sword down the back of his shirt so he could be a Samurai.

In Case You Didn't Know

having four kids is a lot of work!!! Man I feel like everyday from the moment I get up (at about 6:30) until the moment I go to bed (that time depends on Bryce) I am just constantly doing. Doing something... and yet I never get it all done. (not even close) And I am going to admit that not being able to just get things done (especially crafty things) is really hard for me. BUT I wouldn't change it for anything. I just wanted to admit to the world that four little kids is hard.

And now just for fun here are some pictures of Bryce since that seems to be the new theme of our blog. I can't help it he is just so cute.

6 weeks old

7 weeks old

Happily hanging with his big bro - 8 weeks old

In the past few weeks Bryce had few new firsts:
2/12 He used is bumbo for the first time.
2/20 He got his first hair cut
He now loves to "watch TV" and look at the ceiling fan (not moving)
He talks to us and makes big happy faces when we talk to him.
He has eliminated his 2 am feeding and usually sleeps from 10:30/11pm until about 6 am, although some nights he insists on sleeping in bed cuddled up next to me instead of his bassinet.

Bryce's First Day at Church

Although I had been told to keep Bryce out of the public eye until March, this morning I decided that today Bryce and I were going to go to church. It was so nice to be back in church and Bryce was such a good boy. He almost made it the whole 3 hours, but with about 20 minutes left he woke up, pooped, and wanted to eat, so I decided it would probably be easier to just take him home. By the time we walked all the way home (we live across the street from the church) Bryce was all smiles so I just had to snap a few pictures. I didn't get any good pictures of his cute smile, but these are still cute. Can you believe he will be 6 weeks on Tuesday.


On a side note Bryce looks so much like Alan did. What do you think? Here is a picture of Alan on Easter morning 2006, almost 6 weeks old.

I love saving money

You are looking at about $180 worth of groceries... but I paid about $70 for them. According to my receipt I saved 62%. It was my first time saving that much. Now I know there are plenty of you who have saved even more and save 60% all the time. But this was a first for me (it was very exciting) and I hope to do even better it the future.

4 Kids

I feel like there really hasn't been much to post lately. We have settled into a nice routine here at home. There is nothing really new or exciting, but it is nice. On Sunday I decided to once again attempt to get a picture that had all 4 kids in it. This is much easier said than done. Logan was really not interested in sitting anywhere near the other kids. So this is the best shot we got.