Update on Chase

All photos in this post are courtesy of Carly Thornock

• Chase is the friendliest kid I've ever met. He'll see a new kid and immediately run up to them with a huge smile on his face and ask their name! It kind of freaks out most little kids, but it doesn't even phase Chase. He's eager to join in a game with anyone! 
• Chase has always loved the temple, so when we were hanging pictures in our new house I put this huge temple picture in his room. Then for Primary this year they gave all the kids a smaller picture of the Bountiful temple so he talks about his "two temples" all the time. Last week he told me he was excited to go to the temple someday because "they have really good toys in there." He couldn't be convinced otherwise.

•  Story time has always been my favorite time of the day with him. He's always loved it. If Ben's around he'd always rather have Ben read to him instead of me.

•  Last fall he started insisting that you "count" (meaning point to the words while you read them) every. single. time. we read together. I could tell he was trying to figure it all out. He'd ask frequently what a certain word said. He knew all his alphabet sounds so I decided to start teaching him to read. He picked it up so fast! My just-barely-3 year old is reading! We were going to surprise Ben and show him for his birthday, so in the meantime Chase and I kept practicing while he was at work. Then one night Chase surprised Ben by reading a random flyer from the mail that day! So Ben got his birthday present a little early, but he was totally thrilled and surprised anyway. He's doing really well and is learning new words and rules all the time! (I didn't realize how many words in the English language break the rules until I started teaching them to someone else!) We are so proud of our smart little guy!

•  Chase has always had a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. And he loves to make us laugh. His latest thing is that he whips out this imaginary cell phone he has (it's just his hand) and makes phone calls on it all the time! He usually uses it as a way to tattle on his dad or to try to justify something he wants.

•  He's getting so much better at imaginative play! For awhile when he was younger we worried that he'd have no imagination because he could never entertain himself. Now he can play with his toys (or other random objects like kitchen spoons) for hours! He will make roads and tunnels and cars out of whatever is available. 

Hudson the Adorable

All photos in this post are courtesy of Carly Thornock Photography

These pictures perfectly capture the cuteness of my one-year-old (who is now 13 months old, but I might be in denial- he was 12 months in these pictures). I think Hudson is going through the frustration of wanting to be big and be able to do everything Chase does, but having this limitations of his tiny body. He has opinions, but can't vocalize them. And he really really wants me to let him rifle through the refrigerator every day. So he's been a little grumpier than normal happy Hudson. Even when he's grumpy, he's adorable. I'm glad Carly captured both sides of him.

Our average Thursday afternoon

About a month ago I was just having a rough little day. No big reason, just frustrated with several small things that all put together felt like one big thing. That day I got an email from my sweet friend Carly Cowser Thornock (who took our Smith family pics last fall) wondering if she could practice lifestyle photography on our little family. Of course I jumped at the chance, and immediately my rough day felt so much better! With the boys just having their birthdays I wanted some pictures to document our new 3 and 1 year olds. So for basically free (I paid her one whole dollar so that technically I'm a "paying client"), we got some really wonderful new pictures of our family. We were the first family she did this with they turned out amazing! Carly is an old friend- I've known her pretty much my whole life- so we all felt super comfortable and it was easy to just do our normal thing as she snapped away. I love that she took all these pictures of our everyday normal life.

There are too many pictures to post at once, so I'll be breaking them in pieces. We were planning on making sugar cookies this day anyway. I love that she captured the process: Ben and Chase messing around before hand, making the frosting with my little helper, Chase layering on the sprinkles, Hudson looking longingly at the cookies and then devouring several that Chase snuck him under the guise of being a "good big brother", Ben attacking me with frosting, which is pretty much how it goes down every single time we frost sugar cookies. Thank you so much Carly! These are priceless!

Enjoying Life

One of my new years resolutions was to make sure I'm taking time every day to just enjoy my kids. I almost have a little panic-attack when I realize how fast they are growing up and I want to savor every minute. I've always been a very task oriented check-it-off-the-list type person, so sometimes I can forget to just enjoy the moment, and I don't want these precious little moments to be wasted. 

So yes, there are moments throughout the day of frustration when I just want a minute to myself, but overall I really truly enjoy my boys. I feel so lucky to stay at home with these sweet little blue-eyed beauties every day. I love being part of every minute of their little lives. In the past month I've been playing more hide-and-seek and ring-around-the-rosie and savoring every minute of it. These sweet ones grow up so fast.

I took these pictures of the boys the other morning when we were just hanging out at home. We didn't have anywhere we had to be or any chores that needed to be done. There are toys strewn throughout the house (as usual) and I had two happy kids. I love being busy, but I'm also grateful for mornings like this.

This Guy

This guy turned 29 last week!

Alas, I was in Florida on my girls trip during his birthday,

but overall he had a great day anyway :)

(Wrangling two little boys at church- sounds exciting no?)

I did send him this pic from Florida so he knew I was thinking of him.

Since I missed his actual birthday we had a few alternate celebrations this month-

both of our favorite was the night in early February when I surprised him

with a night away in Salt Lake!

My brother babysat the boys and we had a lovely dinner at Tucanos,

spent a lovely night at the Sheraton downtown and went to IHOP in the morning.

Then I dropped him back off at work and headed home to our two little sweeties.

We had never left the boys like that before,

and it was wonderful.

Then a few days after his birthday we had a little family celebration.

Nothing super fancy. 

Cinnamon rolls (instead of cake- because I have the world's worst 

track record at making my husband birthday cakes) and a few presents.

We shopped a week before and Chase did so well at keeping his presents a secret...

up until the moment he handed Ben the present and said, 

"We got you a new tie daddy! You like your new tie?"

(Also- while picking out said tie Chase kept pulling them off the rack

and saying, "We buy this one, it's $4.95"

The saleslady thought he was so cute,

but not cute enough to let me buy the tie for just $4.95)

And as soon as Chase handed Ben the chocolate we picked out for him

he said, "You can share it with me dad!"

Ben's not a hard guy to please.

Apparently, my dad and brother (who had dinner with him on his actual birthday)

totally forgot about his birthday until my mom called them late that night.

So my dad had Will break the Sabbath and run to the store to get cupcakes 

and ice cream. And then they showed up back at our house at like 9:30

to eat them with Ben, who was very grateful.

As was Chase, who was being a stinker about going to bed and had failed to eat any dinner,

and I'm told he literally licked his plate clean.

The boys and I love Ben a lot.

He's a hard worker, a problem-solver, honest and loving.

And he makes the best biscuits and gravy.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Girls Trip 2014: Amelia Island

We are back from our bi-annual White family girls trip! My mom was in charge this year, which means she picked the destination and did all the planning. She couldn't have done any better- every detail was perfect! We went to Amelia Island this year- a place that no one had ever been before. We stayed in a beautiful resort there and had a blast! Here are my top ten favorite memories of the trip:

#1 The relaxing and smooth flights-sounds a little ridiculous, but every other time I've flown in the last few years it's been with a crazy baby/toddler Chase and usually by myself with Chase, which means it was very stressful. It was so nice to hand the reigns over to someone else and just enjoy chatting and sipping ginger ale.

 #2 Our crazy adventure trying to find Townies Pizza where we ordered takeout the first night.

Kate and I were laughing so hard in the backseat when Heidi had to call Townies for the third time to get more instructions:

"Hi! Is this Patrick? Oh hi Patrick! This is Heidi again!

So we are still lost. We are kind of by a health food store?

Did we already talk about the health food store?...."

Finally we found it, and got to play connect 4 while we waited for the pizzas to be ready.

 #3 Team cheers (or "paws in") that Heidi had us do daily I think this cheer was "best hotel ever" upon getting to our villa and loving how big and nice it was.

 #4 Hanging out at our resort with my beautiful cousins! We had pretty big villas so the first two nights we all stayed in a had dinner together there, which was awesome! And Saturday morning we walked around the resort, checked out the little shops and farmers market and just enjoyed a little sunshine! Plus I love my cousins and anything I do with them is always fun.

 #5 Mini Golf Tournament. Since it wasn't quite warm enough for the pool and beach (although the little girls were brave enough to swim) we challenged everyone to a mini golf tournament right there at the resort. We drew names out of a bag and split up into teams of 4 (or 3 in Kate's team's case). Somehow I didn't get a pick of my mom with her team. I think my team finished 3rd (of 5). Heidi's team finished last and got the loser award of packets of spam.

 #6 The beach. Even though we didn't go in the ocean, on Sunday after church we walked along the beach and sat and enjoyed the sights and smell of the ocean.

#7 A chance to be with all these amazing women that I love so much! We have such a great time when we are all together! We live all over the country now so sometimes we hardly see each other between trips, but these trips have kept us all close over the years.

#8 Getting to catch up with my best cousin-friend Kelly! We've been close since birth and I love her a lot. (She's holding up her prize from winning at mini-golf, girl scout cookies!)

#9 Just getting to spend time with my mom and sisters. I love them all dearly! My mom makes it possible for us to always go by graciously paying for the whole trip. And she's just amazing to be around. Heidi made us all laugh pretty much the whole trip. And we were so happy to have Katie with us this year! I'm glad we got this amazing new sister! Plus we were all pretty thrilled to have the newest Smith girl with us this year- my little niece who is still in Kate's belly! I can't wait until June!

#10- Matching Sweatshirts.