Zoey at 6 months (almost)

Zoey is almost 6 months old already!! She just keeps getting cuter and cuter! She eats rice cereal now (or plays with it) and is super close to sitting up on her own. Her bottom teeth are coming in and she sticks everything in her mouth. She makes cute sounds like she is talking and smiles whenever Pat or I come in the room or get her attention. The boys are so cute with her. They love her and want to hold and carry her all around the house. They kiss her and give her toys when she drops them or they try making her smile when she's crying. Her hair is out of control. It won't lay flat. I sometimes put it in pig tails or just one tail on top. I don't know how to do girls hair?!! She rolls over in her crib and there have been several times I've gone to check on her where she's rolled over and fallen asleep on her tummy. She loves Wolfie. She watches him and when he comes to sit close to her she'll grab his beard and he just lets her. It's cute to watch. He'll lick her hand and she'll grab onto his beard. She doesn't mind her car seat as much and rarely cries anymore when I put her in. Thankfully she is still a great sleeper and I can just lay her down and she'll go right to sleep. I am excited for this fun stage ahead and...can you tell I just love her to pieces! Lukas said to me the other day, "Mom, you love Zoey more than me or Max!" I had to explain to him that I love them all the same, but Zoey is so easy to love right now b/c she doesn't talk back to me or disobey and she is still so little. Max will say, "I love Zoey so much I want to just eat her." And I've heard both of them copy me and say, "I can barely stand it she's so cute!"

Max Soccer- Take 2

This will be Max's second time playing soccer. I had high hopes for him since he's done it once before and now his brother isn't on his team to steal the show. This could be HIS thing while Lukas sits on the sideline. Well...there are 12 other kids in our neighborhood that are on his team. It's a bit chaotic with thirteen 3 & 4 year old's running around the field and he tends to get distracted or bored. He gets lost in the crowd sometimes. He is excited to go to the game and get his uniform on. Then by the time we make it to the field he wants to just go play on the playground with Lukas. Darn kid!! But he sure looks cute in his uniform even if he isn't the best soccer player. I'm proud of him for trying and want him to just have fun. It is a struggle to get him to participate and he shy's away when it's his turn (or he gets mad b/c it didn't go the way he wanted it to). We had to leave the last game early and after I felt bad that he was so miserable. He has so many good qualities and is such a sweet boy, that it breaks my heart to have everyone around him see only the naughty side of him. Pat saves the day, and helps Max kick and run with the ball. He has fun with his daddy and that counts for something.

Welcome FALL

We decided it would be fun to make leaf-shaped cookies to start autumn off right. {My favorite season!} It was so fun to just hang out as a family. The boys really got into it...Pat included. In fact, he wins the "prettiest cookie award"!! (Notice how he used all the colors of frosting to make it look so real!) We made fun shades of frosting and the boys got to roll out he dough and cut the shapes. I love that Lukas and Max want to make cookies and decorate them with me. Who knows how long that will last?! I want them to have fun memories and I think this was one of them. Hooray for family time!!

The Lion King

For mine & Pat's birthday (March & December), my parents gave us tickets to see the Lion King@ the Capitol Theater. It has been a long awaited event and we FINALLY got to enjoy it this weekend. I was afraid to bring my camera in b/c I thought they'd check my bag and make me take it back to my car, so all we had was Pat's i Phone. It was an incredible show and so much fun! We had amazing seats that were up in the mezzanine and we could see everything. Pat was a cute date...he kept bringing me drinks and treats and a cushion. I loved every minute of it!! My favorite was Rafiki. It reminded me of my time in Africa, hearing the African accent, singing and dancing. THANK YOU mom & dad for providing a wonderful night of babysitting and entertainment.

The Herriman Fire

We went out for a walk on Sunday afternoon. The winds were so strong, it was not very enjoyable. I looked over at the Herriman hill and saw a large dust cloud (or so I thought). It was hurting my eyes, so we headed home. A few hours later I was getting the boys in the bath and Lukas said he saw a dark cloud. I went to the window and told him that wasn't a cloud, but smoke. Then I looked further and saw the flames. It was unreal. We all went outside and couldn't believe our eyes. It was just miles away coming down that hill fast. Our neighbors were outside and we tried to find out how it got started and where it was. After an hour or so we could actually smell the smoke in our house. I got the kids to bed and couldn't stop checking facebook & watching the news to find out what was going on. Some machine gun fire at Camp Williams started the fire and due to the strong winds, it came over that hill towards Herriman. It went from 700 homes being evacuated to 1200 to 1600. The evacuation zone wasn't past 134th or even close to 126th, so I felt okay. I did check to make sure I knew where our 72 hour kits were and our binder of important documents were just in case. I couldn't sit there anymore so me and a friend drove to Maverick to see what we could see. I recorded a few minutes of the fire on the hill and then we went home. All this time Pat was sleeping (he had to work early in the morning). Finally he woke up and realized how close the fire was so he started calling his family. It was hard to go to sleep, but we did. In the morning the fire was still not contained, and 3 homes were burned. After another day the fire was finally contained and the people that were evacuated were able to go home again. Crazy that my little town of Herriman was on the news and in the spotlight. We felt so blessed to be safe and that the fire didn't do more damage. We also felt grateful for all those firefighters and police officers that worked so hard to contain the fire. Here are some pictures that I stole from other peoples blogs and from ksl.com

Three's Company

I secretly used to love that show when I was little, but my mom didn't like for me to watch it. If I ever catch a rerun on TV, I laugh at how silly it was and how much worse shows are today. Anyway, I have 3 little monkeys that keep me entertained and I couldn't love them more. I'm so grateful every single day for them and feel so blessed that they are in my life. Doesn't this look like a picture we'll look back on and say, "I remember when you were that little." And then compare baby pictures to their babies to see how similar they look. How time flies and how grateful I am for memories and blogs to keep them vivid.

Picture of the week:

Does this hair get any crazier??? Probably not, and they don't come any cuter either!

Lukas Another Year Older

Lukas turned 6 last week!!! I can still remember going into labor with him (on labor day). I can't believe how time flies. We had a great time and many celebrations for his special day! One friend party, 2 different family dinners, and taking treats to school. He did not understand why we celebrated early (on Friday instead of Monday since it was a holiday and most people were gone). But he loved having all his friends at the park. And he wanted to invite girls this year even though it was a "Transformer" party. I'm so glad he did b/c the girls his age are so cute. Pat was home and he helped me out so much by playing games with the kids (which the LOVED) and just being there. Lukas is so grown up and getting to be so big. He got a bigger bike and a pillow pet (it's a pillow...it's a pet...it's a pillow pet)! And of course lots of presents from his friends and family. We're so happy to have this little guy in our life and had fun celebrating him. {Party #1 with friends in the park} {Party/Dinner #2 with Pat's family @ the same fun park} {Party #3 at Papa & Nana's house}