Sooo Close!

Taysom is getting so close to crawling! He is trying so hard! I love watching him scoot and try and move around! 

A little bribery may or may not have been used to get him to motivate him to go forward!

He is almost 8 months and still not crawling. He is taking longer than his older siblings. They were crawling by six months at the latest, but since he is my last one, I am completely ok with it! I am enjoying him taking his time!

A Typical Spring Saturday

Once Spring hits our Saturdays are usually pretty busy. With getting the house clean, to getting the garden ready for planting to playing soccer games. Our weekends just go by way too quickly! 

Yesterday morning I noticed Sam was playing with toys before coming out of her room. I love finding little glimpses into her mind! She cracks me up!

I don't know where Mickey is, but I don't think he would be too happy to see what Minnie was up too!

We soon headed out the door to Mason's soccer game. This was supposed to be the last game, but one was cancelled due to rain, so there will be one next week. Not sure why, but Mason has been taking it really easy in soccer lately. He isn't as willing to get into the thick of things to get the ball or to stay right up there by it. Maybe getting kicked in the head at his last game, put a little bit of apprehension in him. It's too bad. He was a super good player and now he tends to back off and just let others take control.

This kid is such a book worm! I love it!! He is reading books that are on 5th grade level and comprehending them! In all of his tests that he has taken for the chapter books he scores 100%! 

This kid loves being outside and sitting on the grass. As usual he was so smiley! 

Once we got home Taysom was so patient with me. While I was running around trying to do things, he sat on the floor patiently waiting for me to feed him! 

While I was working inside, Vaughn was working outside.Vaughn had a very good helper that helped him the entire time!!

Mason was working up quite the sweat out there! I came out to tell Vaughn I needed to go to the store and Mason said, "ok mom. You go to the store. We've got this." I hope he continues to be a hard worker like his dad. It will serve him well! 

Now he just needs to get some compost and till the garden boxes. I am so excited for our garden this year! I can't wait to start canning and eating our own fresh food! Yum!!

Taysom in his new swing! Now he can be out there with the bigger kids and feel like he isn't missing out!

Taysom

I just can't stop taking pictures of this kid. I feel like his baby days are just flying by and I can't get enough of him! All of my babies have been happy and smiley and I love it! Technology these days make it so easy to capture even the littlest moments. And for that I am so grateful!

Taysom now has three teeth and has handled teething like a champ! He has had no of the usual signs of teething! I noticed his first tooth on 4/17 and the next one just a few days after that. Then just today I noticed one on top. 

End of an Era

I finally did it. I have now given away all of my baby clothes. I wanted to keep Sam's baby clothes until I knew what our last baby was going to be and when I found out that our last one was a boy, I think I was in denial and just wasn't ready to give them away. 

So after Taysom was born I still kept Sam's clothes and I even boxed up Taysom's clothes. I knew we were done, but I just didn't have the heart to give them up. I have so many memories of the kids in each of the clothes, especially the boy clothes that all three have worn. 

I must have a caught a bug or something, because I just wanted to get rid of as much clutter and baby stuff as I possibly could. So I took a deep breath and headed to the garage. I condensed all of Sam's cute, tiny clothes from four or five plastic containers to one!! I saved the ones that I loved the most and gave the rest to Vaughn's assistant that is having her first baby! 

As for the boy clothes I couldn't do as much because Tays is only in 9 month clothes, but I still gave away the majority of it. There were so many cute clothes that were just purchased or given to us for Taysom and I wanted to make sure they went to a good home (sounds silly, I know). Thankfully, I have a bff that is due pretty soon with a baby boy and her other boy is almost 8, so I thought she could use some next to new baby boy outfits! She'll probably just throw them away, but as long as I don't have to do it, then it doesn't matter to me! 

Anyway that was a long story just to say I have given away my baby stuff and it feels great! I feel like it was what I needed to do to feel like that chapter of our lives had really ended. 

Visit with Grandma Linkenhoker & Great Grandma Bingham

Friday morning Sam woke up with a cold. It hit her fast and furious. She ran a high fever and just was miserable. 

She walked into my closet grabbed my hat and came out wearing it. When I asked her where she was going, she told me, "nowhere, I 'ave a cold." Even when she is sick she is funny! A few minutes later she came up and said, "I play on the iPad? Peez, mommy? It make me happy!" I just can't believe how far her speech has come in the last few months. There is still so much that she has to learn, but you can somewhat understand her now, at least sometimes!

A few hours later my mom got here from Salt Lake. We always love when she comes to town! It actually worked out perfectly that she was coming, because my Aunt Ilene, who takes care of my grandma, needed someone to watch my grandma for a while. Since my mom was here, we got to have her visit us! 

We ordered salads from Burnt Lemon and just enjoyed our visit together! Taysom and Max ended up being most of our entertainment! Taysom loves Max. 

Max licking Taysom's face. When he stopped Taysom just started laughing and laughing. He loves the Max kisses!!

Max is so great to let Taysom pull and yank on him. He just sits there and lets Taysom harass him! 

Sam continued to get worse and worse. Poor girl. She spent most of the weekend wrapped up with grandma!

On Saturday Grandma came over again for a little bit and we had another nice visit! Taysom looked so cute cuddled up with Great Grandma Bingham! 

Typical Idaho Spring

It wouldn't be the typical spring in Idaho if we didn't get snow in the middle of April!

The kids wanted to go outside and build snowmen. Luckily, it didn't snow enough for that or stay around for very long!

Play Time with the Mirror!

While Sam was playing in the tub Tays kept himself entertained! He was laughing and giggling, so I grabbed my phone. He is so stinkin' adorable!

Oh, I could just nibble on these toes all day long!!

When we finally got dressed we went for a walk. Tays looked so stylin' in Mason's hat!

It's Time for Soccer!

The soccer season has officially begun! Mason was SOO excited for this! From the day I signed him up he was asking multiple times a day if that was the day that it would start. And everyday for about a month I had to tell him no. He was so happy when I finally answered yes, it was time for him to start! 

Mason had so much fun being goalie! He didn't let one ball past him! He loves playing soccer and did such a great job! He has so much enthusiasm and energy!

Sammie loves Nicea! 

Our friend Crystal and her two kids came up to visit and we had so much fun with them. My kids absolutely loved Crystal's kids and the weekend went by way too fast! 

We went to the drive in movies and the kids had so much fun! Sam was all over the place most the time but all the boys did great!

On the way home the kids all crashed. Going to the drive-ins has become such a fun tradition for our family. 

We had so much fun with Crystal and her family. They definitely need to come up more often.

Change

So. . . I have been wanting to cut my hair for a long time. It has been such a long time since I have had short hair and Tays was ALWAYS pulling it and putting it in his mouth and getting it stuck in his fingers (yuck!), so I did it. And I felt like I needed a major change! I cut my hair right before I had Drew and I felt it was only fitting that I cut it after our last baby. Maybe to mark the end of an era or something. I don't know. I just needed a change!

This is my "crap, Vaughn is going to kill me" face!

He knew it was coming, but he didn't know how short I was going to go. He had two requests. No bangs and no A-line. Easy enough! All I can say is. . . I love it! So many people look at me like I'm crazy when I say it is easier, but it really is. I actually do my hair (most days) now and it isn't being used as Taysom's chew toy any longer! 

After I cut it Sam came up and started stroking my hair and said something about me being beautiful! Oh melt my heart right then and there! She is an angel (at least in that moment!). Mason heard her say it and told me that he loved my hair too. Awwww! 

I'm sorry and I know I say it all the time, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this kid! He is always smiling and just brings so much joy to all of us! 

Easter 2013

Happy Easter!

Our annual Easter picture!

The kids were excited to get outside and find all the eggs from the Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny stumped Drew and Mason on a few eggs. It took them a while to find the tricky ones!

The boys in their new spring outfits. They all looked so handsome! Even Drew with the horns!

We had a great Easter and enjoyed having my mom here. We all took naps after the egg hunt and when we woke up it was time for my mom to go. We had our Easter dinner and enjoyed time being together. The weekend just went way too fast!