Another day.
Another no.
And life rolls on.

Things That Made Me Smile Today:

Natalie fell asleep in my lap during church. One of her arms was peeking out of her blanket and her hand was curled into a little fist. Justin saw it, reached over, and gave her a fist bump.

Ethan gave his first talk in Primary. He talked about how when we serve others, we serve God.

Wally, our Christmas Elf, is back. The boys get so excited to look for him every morning when they wake up.

Realizing that our new church building is the exact same layout as our church building in Layton. Sitting in the Mother's room and rocking Natalie brought back lots of memories of rocking Ethan, and then Justin while bonding with the other new moms. It made me really nostalgic.

Watching Hallmark's movie "November Christmas" and remembering that I can do hard things. And that sometimes it's more important to forget about my own sadness (which can be a little debilitating), and concentrate on bringing happiness into the lives of my children.

My children laughing and making me laugh.

Our Baby is One!!!!!!!!

That's right, Natalie turned one, and this is quite possibly my favorite picture ever. The look on her face? Priceless. It almost looks as though she doesn't like the beautiful crown that I made her and forced her to wear. But that couldn't be...right?


She fell asleep during dinner, which may account for the deer-in-the-headlights look she's sporting in most of her pictures. And, it obviously explains her temporary insanity over not liking the beautiful crown I made her and forced her to wear.

First, she opened presents (money from Grandma and Grandpa Hatch and Great Grandma Moseley, a bag full of clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Hays, and an awesome pink carseat from us). Our kids always get a new carseat from us on their first birthday (and only a new carseat...nothing else). We're nice like that.
Although, it's worth mentioning that on Matthew's first birthday, we bought him a forward-facing carseat. On Ethan's first birthday, we bought him a booster seat, but gave it to Matthew and made Ethan ride in Matthew's hand-me-down carseat. On Justin's first birthday, we bought him a forward-facing carseat/booster seat, and gave it to Ethan (because it was bigger than the one Ethan was currently in), and handed down the first forward-facing carseat to Justin. Are you still with me? Well, for Natalie's birthday, we actually bought two carseats (I know, how uncharacteristically generous of us). One for Natalie, and a smaller booster for Matthew. Which means that Ethan is now in the booster that we bought on his first birthday, but gave to Matthew. And Justin is now in the forward-facing carseat/booster that we bought on his first birthday but gave to Ethan, and all is now right in the world. The original forward-facing carseat that we bought on Matthew's first birthday is now in our local dump...and probably should have been there about three years ago. Anyways...

The cake. Ta-da!! My mom made a cake like this for my younger sister (way back in the day) and I loved it. I've been waiting patiently for years and years to be able to do this cake, and I love how it turned out. Simple. Girly. Delicious.


Is it just me, or does it look like Natalie's scared/confused/bored?


Oh, there's a smile! Give her some chocolate, and this girl's good to go :)

Natalie is such a joy to have in our home. She is a crack-up with a cute, budding little personality. She loves to laugh and to make others (especially her brothers) laugh. She does have a streak of naughty in her, though. She knows when she's doing something she's not supposed to, and has perfected ignoring us, and running away from us with contraband in hand.

She loves fruits and vegetables, her blankies, shoes, bracelets, sippys of warm milk, cuddling, taking showers, climbing on anything and everything and wrestling with her brothers.

She doen't like beautiful hairbows that I make for her and force her to wear, and getting her diaper changed.

We love her, and are so happy that she's in our family. Happy Birthday Natalie!!

Our Halloween, In Pictures...Because I'm Lazy Like That

In Other News...

I caught the soldiers taking a joyride in Polly Pocket's jeep.

Lua Nova

Thanks everyone for the love and support :) For the most part, I'm doing well. It's gotten to the point where I'm thankful for this trial because it's helped me to refine my focus on life, given me more empathy, boosted my spirituality, and helped me to develop a deeper relationship with the Lord. But, on days where we get a "no", it's still hard.

Anyways...

I've posted about a great service opportunity helping out some under-privileged teenage moms in Brazil over on my other blog. The story behind it has really inspired me to want to help, and I hope you'll feel the same way too. You can check it out by clicking HERE.

So...

We've applied for 100's of jobs. We've interviewed with 14 companies and gotten 14 no's. I know that it will all work out in the end, but the journey is grueling. I've been trying my best to stay positive, but some days are hard.

Playing Football

He missed. Hehe.

She Walks!!

After about two months of flirting with the whole walking thing, this week, she decided to be a walker! She's different than her brothers in two ways: 1) She's walking at about the same age that they were crawling (Well, not really. They started crawling at about 8 or 9 months, and she's 10 months, but she's still about 3 or 4 months ahead of them) 2) She's really careful on her feet. She makes sure she's set before she takes another step. Her brothers tended to take their first step and then RUN!
Yay Doolies!!

Funny Talk

Mom: Hey Justin, can I change your stinky diaper?

Justin: Um, no. I'll pass. (And then he walked away)

The Carousel

Do you ever out-grow carousels? I haven't. Even now, at 28 - wife and mother of four, I'm still enchanted by them. They still seem magical to me. And when I ride one, I'm eight again, and don't have a care in the world. :)

On Thurdsay, we headed to the carousel. It's probably the best carousel I've ever ridden on.
It's indoors, so while it doesn't make for great, natural light photos, it means it's open year-round. The story of how this carousel came to be is really quite amazing. You can read about it HERE.
It's a fully hand-carved carousel, one of only a few in existence since the Great Depression. It's also super fast, which makes it even more fun.
Another cool feature is that just like carousels of old, you can pull rings from a dispenser each time you go around. My sister, Brooke, pulled the brass ring and was awarded enough tokens for the boys to all ride again. Oh yeah, and it's only $0.50 for kids to ride. How sweet is that?
If you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth checking out. There's also a park called Dragon Hollow right next to it. It's the most amazing park my kids have ever been to, and fun for the grown-ups, too.

The Fair

On Friday, we went to my hometown fair. I love the fair. Growing up, my siblings and I were part of 4-H, so the fair was a big deal for us. We prepared all year for the fair. I did sewing, cooking, photography, and my brothers did rockets. We also raised animals. My first two years, I raised sheep. It was cool, but my older brother raised pigs, and pigs are awesome. I raised pigs for three years after that. We would buy our baby animals in the spring, take care of them all summer, and then enter them in the fair in the fall. They would be judged, and then sold at an auction. It was how we earned money before we were old enough to get jobs. And, by the way, pigs are totally cool. Despite what most people think, they're incredibly clean animals. Not to mention smart, and full of personality. Awesome.
The boys had fun riding rides and eating fair food. Natalie had fun spilling giant iced rootbeers in my lap, and looking at the rabbits. Apparently she ♥'s bunnies.


Natalie also slept while we carried her around :)

Later that night, we hit the rodeo at the fair. James had never been, so I was excited for him to see one. It was really fun, but I think the cowboys were tired from the bull-a-rama the night before. Only two bull riders lasted eight seconds, the ropers were having an off night, and half the bulldoggers didn't jump from their horses at all. But like I said, still fun. I love small towns where the citizens are fiercely patriotic, god-fearing people. :)

The Alien Grasshopper and The Rocket

One of the highlights of visiting Grandma and Grandpa is shooting off a rocket or two.

3, 2, 1...

Blastoff!!!

And this rocket was extra special. It had a compartment to send up an astronaut. They chose a grasshopper, but decided it looked more like an alien than an astronaut.

When he came back from his little trip, he was knocked out from the shock, but he was okay. :)

Fishin' and Stuff

(I love that Ethan looks like he's picking his nose. Because he's not really. But it looks like he is. And it's funny.)

On Saturday, my Dad took the boys fishing in the creek up our road. But first, they caught grasshoppers to use as live bait. Yummy.

Ethan really doesn't care for animals. Not dogs. Not cats. Not pigs. Not ducks. And apparently not fish either. :)

Justin's fish slipped off the hook before we could get a picture. Instead, we told him to hold out his hands to show how big "the one that got away" was. Try as we might to get him to hold his hands waaaaaay out, he wouldn't do it. Gotta love honesty. :)

After fishing, we decided to let the kids play in the creek. My dad caught this frog for the kids to touch. We tried to get Natalie to kiss it, but no dice.

Wow, it was cold!!

The cold didn't seem to bother Natalie, though. I stripped her down to her onesie, and held her so she could dip her feet in. But that wasn't enough for her. She kept doing the "dead weight drag" so I would drop her all the way in.

I gave in and sat her by the edge of the creek. Here she is trying to dive all the way in. :)

The Pond

My parents have the greatest piece of property. The back half is wooded, and the front half is pasture with a good sized pond. Growing up there, I think I took for granted just how awesome it is. Seeing my kids enjoy it so much, and do some of the same things that my brothers and sister and I did during our summers was really fun. Grandpa towed the boys down to the pond in the four-wheeler trailer.

Then they took turns while he rowed them around the pond.



What a great way to spend the afternoon!