Happy birthday Dallin!

Today my little dallin is one! His walking is impressive- falls a lot but never seems to get frustrated. He has brought so much peace to my life. Ever since he has been little, I can not hold him and be upset. He just calms me down.  He still doesn't always sleep through the night, and hates laying in his bed when he's awake. That leads to lots of rocking and snuggling, but I love him anyways. Some how we ended up with a pink cake for his birthday! I let Jackson convince me to get strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. And not once did I stop and think that it would be pink. :) Ha ha. But, who cares. No one really likes cake in this house anyways. We always throw 2/3 of it away. 

Another hot pregnant week down! I finished painting the front room- thanks to Becca's help. She was so sweet to come spend the whole day with me. She brought bread from the bakery, lunch (spinach salad with grilled chicken), and a whole pan of enchiladas for dinner. Wow! Not only that, but she spent the whole day painting my walls, and just talking to me. SO wonderful! I really did need her help to get up on the ladder, do the edges, etc. It took that day and another afternoon and I am finally done. I was sure tired afterwards with weird back pain, but I really love the way front room turned out. And so nice that the reminder of the moldy walls is now completely gone! :)

Jackson has discovered that the phonograms combine to make words this week. He is so into writing and reading, and figuring out what makes the words. I am impressed he is so smart and will lay in bed thinking of how to combine words.

A neighbor let Tommie borrow a little balance bike this week. He is loving walking that thing around. Even through the house. Been fun to watch him just be so excited about it. He hasn't been sleeping good because he coughs a lot. It gets so hard to have him up wandering around the house, waking up Dallin, etc. We have had some long nights lately, but oh well- preparation for what's coming.

Dallin is trying to take off walking. He took his first steps and now is trying to walk off anything. So cute to see him clapping for every time he finishes. I can't believe he turns one this week. What a sweet boy.

James had the busiest weekend. He took on a little side job of cleaning out a parking lot from the flooding (last week's crazy storm). Nice little bit of cash but sure took a whole entire weekend with his lawns too. I was impressed that he still came home so late friday night and mowed our lawns. Then, after getting home late saturday, he wanted to make swords for the boys out of palm frond sticks and then took me out to dinner and bahama bucks. He was so tired yesterday. Poor guy. He works so hard. I am so lucky he takes his role to provide seriously.

Drunk Tommie

This week little Tommie managed to drink a whole bottle of Benadryl. I had just gone into my room to make my bed, came out, and discovered that a bottle of benadryl was gone and his face was covered in the stuff. At the time, I had no clue where it came from or how much he had actually had. Turns out, Adam Brown had left the bottle on the counter, lid not on all the way, when he had been over the night before. (I finally figured this out when he came to get the bottle back for his sick daughter!) But, I called poison control and they agreed to monitor his symptoms with me, even though they suggested I just take him to the emergency room. I tried to explain he poor kid has kind of had a lot going on lately and they agreed to call back every 45 minutes or so. Well, normally, benadryl doesn't really affect Tommie. It sure doesn't help him go to sleep, but doesn't make him wired either. Sure enough, he started acting way weird. Crying, running into walls, and eyes open so wide. We decided just to let it work its way out of his system. But, he couldn't sleep all day. He looked so tired, but just sat glazed all day. My normally way hyper, talk-non-stop kid said NOTHING all day. Not even no. It was so strange. Luckily he finally went to bed that night and woke up incredible hyper the next day, yelling over and over- so we decided he was feeling better. Ha! what a crazy thing. 

Dallin is cutting his other front tooth and not sleeping well. That's making me a little more tired lately. But, he can officially climb out of his crib, up on the fireplace, and out of the bathtub now. Guess that means i need to watch him a little more carefully. :) 

I had another doctor's appointment. I can't believe it's time for every 2 week appointments all ready. The good news is- my iron levels are finally high. That's helped a lot with the fatigue I used to feel. I'm lucky I have been so healthy this pregnancy. Huge- but healthy.

James is especially happy that we have cable this year to watch the BYU football games. Somehow he gets the boys excited to dress up in "sports" clothes and sit around for 4 hours. AMAZING. :) But, Nate and Andrea's family joined us for this last game and we had a good time just talking and eating salsa con queso. :) 

Today it is pouring rain. Our back yard is totally flooded. Supposedly it's the most rain the state of AZ has ever gotten in one day. Even the 60 closed down for flooding. crazy. But, that didn't stop the boys from spending the morning in the back yard. Our tiny plastic pool would float like a boat- even with them in it, and they thought that was just so awesome. Dallin couldn't crawl well on the wet cement and kept falling face first into the puddles. Luckily he thought that was funny and laughed and laughed for the first hour. 

New family picture, Matt already gone, labor day

There it is- the most recent picture of our family of 5. This was with all of James' family at the cabin. I asked the photographer to just snap a few of just our little family. Honestly, I hate pregnant pictures, and first thought, what's the point? the new baby will be here in a few months anyways. But, then, it hit me, why wouldn't I want to capture just this moment in time? This year of my life has been crazy- and stressful- but I am the happiest I have ever been. And, I love this picture of all the boys. They are so sweet- each one- including James.  Life changes REALLY fast. 

Well, 24 hours after Matt got here, he was already headed back to Columbia. It turns out his cysts weren't as bad as the Columbian doctor thought, and he was given medical approval to go back. So, we had a monday night homecoming party- hamburgers and swimming. Then, a Tuesday night farewell party- columbian restaurant and celebrate Macey's birthday at Shaela's. And, then he was back on his mission. Ha! What a crazy thing for him. But, it was fun to see him and realize how much we miss him. 

Jackson fell of the slide at school and hit his head on the metal bars on the way down. He spent a good hour at the nurse's office and had a pretty big bump on his head. It made me smile as he told me how nice the nurse was, with the ice pack - made me realize I should be better at paying attention to my kids wounds :). I suspect there will be many more injuries at school. 

James spoke in church on sunday, with Mansi. His talk was on gratitude and it was the first talk he didn't read off the paper. I was impressed he shared so many personal experiences and said that he has learned he can't really love or feel charity - if he doesn't feel grateful. He even spent a good minute or so on all the things he's grateful for that I have done for him lately. So sweet.  Jackson also had a talk in primary, on family recreation, and didn't want any help. He is so confident in front of people and makes everyone laugh with his little jokes he comes up with. So proud of him too! 

James has been extra busy lately. He worked all day saturday and with a few night meetings last week, the kids were totally wanting just him. Luckily, yesterday was Labor day and we had him all to ourselves. He was so patient as all the boys wanted to do was just follow him around. :) We had brad and julie and Thomas and Carrie Brown over for some smoked chicken and "just dance" on the Wii. Brad of course entertained us all. 

There was no dancing for me. I have some lower back pain lately that really hurts my hips. I feel like an old lady. I always wondered why some pregnant ladies walked so weird- and now i know! :) I actually fell in the pool trying to catch Dallin who fell in. I landed on the steps pretty hard and hit my head on the deck. I think that may have thrown some things out of alignment. But, it sure has bothered me lately. I really feel like this 3rd pregnancy in a row is actually REALLY hard. I try to joke it off as I'm just getting old and fat- but really- I have never been so uncomfortable at just 30 weeks.

Going back to weekly posts with phone pics

James has been writing in his journal, so I realized I needed to do the same. :) I will go back to weekly posts. It is SO much easier that way! So, what's new?

I snapped this picture of my Dad on Friday night. My mom has been in Utah all week and as I was dropping off Brianna from babysitting. He was outside on the porch swing waiting for her. Way cute huh? He knew she was about to be driving up soon and was sick of being lonely. James and I had gone to do a temple session. We've gone 3 months in a row. It seems so hard to get it all arranged and actually have it happen, but I am glad we are trying harder. At least before this baby comes.

My parents got a phone call from my brother Matt's mission president in Columbia. It turns out he has some cysts that need removed urgently and he needed to come to America for surgery. Poor guy, he's been gone a year and was loving everything. Nothing sounds worse than needing to come home for "medical reasons". He's just sure it sounds like depression- but I guess the plan is not to release him as a missionary and just let him have surgery, recover, and then go right back to Columbia. Crazy! So, he flies in tonight at 5:30 and we are all going to the airport and then a cook out out my mom's pool. I am excited to see him again!

Tommie got eaten alive by mosquitos at the first of this week. Poor guy, couldn't sleep at all- he was miserable! BUT, Dallin AND Tommie AND have Jackson have officially slept 3 nights in a row, without waking me up once. That means, I have gotten at least 7 hours of sleep for 3 nights. Man, it makes such a difference! Here's to hoping it stays that way!

I ordered a big 32 pound box of peaches from Utah this week. I had every intention to can them- but we ate them all! It has been my favorite meal, snack, dessert this week. We haven't even had smoothies or anything- just eaten them plain! Somehow they cured my heart burn for the week! :)


James worked every night this week, so we were on our own for dinners and through the evenings. I loved going to riverview's splash pad to let the kids "calm down".

I taught relief society on Sunday on kindness and love in the home. I loved being reminded the importance of not blaming others for our frustrations, and just eliminating a lot of contention in our lives. I know that I am a big mood setter in the house and sometimes exhaustion just sets in and I am quick to be cranky. But, I am trying harder to just be pleasant and it's working! :) I needed those reminders.

BE KIND- AND BE GRATEFUL THAT GOD IS KIND. IT IS A HAPPY WAY TO LIVE. ~ Elder Holland