All the Spring Stuff

 Ever since we got back from London life has been crazy! Really, I love it this way. But man I need to catch my breath for a minute! We went to the Jordan River Temple Openhouse. It was lovely. Also, Hudson tried every. single. drinking fountain.

One Friday afternoon I just spontaneously threw the kids in the car and we headed to the zoo. It ended up being the best afternoon! The weather was perfectly pleasant, it wasn't crowded at all and I had such a great time with my boys! Davis is starting to really love the animals. Hudson checked in on all his animal friends. And I frequently had to remind Chase to look at the real live animals in front of him, and not just read in the informational displays. It was a truly perfect afternoon!

 Davis's tornado nature has lead to us finally doing some baby proofing of cabinets! As Ben started installing, Hudson ran to grab his own tools and help. And he did- sat there the whole time and worked with his own tools!

 Baseball started! Ben is coaching Chase's team (along with our friends Dan Bacciocco and Jesse Joseph, whose sons are also on the team! We seriously lucked out on that one!). We are having the best time at his games! Chase is seriously so good- he can really hit that ball! And he's learning a lot and really loves that his dad is the coach. The weather this month has been just dreamy, so our evenings at the ball park have been just lovely. Also, Davis really wants to be part of the fun so much!

 Speaking of sports, Chase is also now really into basketball! He has been out practicing every chance he gets and loves it when Ben can take a few minutes to go out and play with him. (Ben loves it too!)

 We had a random Wednesday morning with not much to do, so we went to the park to feed the ducks. Hudson always loves doing this. Davis was super confused by it and refused to throw any bread (ironic, since he habitually throws food off his high chair). We played at the park for a little bit afterward, but Davis is so fast and has no fear- it's pretty stressful for me! He can scale right to the top of play structures but has no concept of the drop off that will happen at the edge. And the boy loves slides!

 This is so Davis right now. He loves hats. He turns all kinds of things into hats (mixing bowls, helmets, etc.) but when he gets into the tub he always puts this bucket on his head and it stays there his whole bath! I think it's the cutest thing ever.

 We had a lovely Mothers Day! Ben and the boys spoiled me with some pretty new bowls and a pretty lavender serving tray. The boys made me the cutest little cards at school that were so precious and special. At church the primary kids sang so sweetly, and Hudson clapped a weird rhythm through the whole thing. He came back down to us and said, "Did I get the beat right?!" We had both our parents over for dinner that night and it was just a wonderful day.

We attempted to get a group picture of the fab 5 for my mom. It didn't go nearly as well as last year. Mostly Anna did not want to cooperate at all (and the rest of the kids weren't super cooperative either). The results turned out cute, even if they aren't perfect. It does show what it's like when all five of them get together though!

We wrapped up the soccer season! Chase had such a great season. He probably scored 15 goals this season and improved so much in his skills. Mostly, he had a great time. He loved having his buddy Luca on his team and getting to know the other kids as well. It was a super cute group of boys! We loved watching "the Green Grass" play!

 We made it through Hudson's soccer season! He was such a character out there! This spring we had way less meltdowns on the field, but no real interest in actually playing. His coach was the best, so kind and patient with him. Hudson mostly was just in his own little world out there on the field- which was the best case scenario (when the other possibility was his yelling, screaming, hitting other kids, etc.) When the games ended and we packed up the car that last Saturday Ben and I high-fived in the parking lot. We made it through the season! As much as we've loved watching our boys, we are ready to have our Saturdays be a little more free.

Spring Update on the Boys!

CHASE:

• He had "leadership day" at school- their whole school did a big assembly and then tours of the school using their skills from the "Leader in Me" program they've been doing this year. It was awesome! Chase was so excited for me to come and worked hard to prepare his part (he gave the welcome to his classroom). This has been such a great program for Chase and I love that they are working on real life skills at school, along with the academic stuff.
• Soccer is in full swing and he's come a long way! He's scored a goal in every game this spring so far and he's getting much more aggressive at attacking the ball. Mostly, he has a lot of fun and really enjoys the games and practices.
• Sometimes he'll sneak downstairs in the morning before the rest of us are up and makes us all breakfast (usually toast, sometimes cereal). He told me one morning "I just woke up and wanted to do service!" It's the sweetest!
• He wants to play with friends at every opportunity. He's still a very social child. 7 hours at school isn't enough, when he gets home he's chomping at the bit to go back out and play with his friends. Sometimes it makes me feel like I never see him! 

HUDSON

• He still loves preschool and he's tolerating UPSTART. He's learning so much (mostly through upstart, it's got him reading so well!) but he gets easily frustrated with the software. Even if you answer all the questions correctly, it usually makes them do the same activity three times before they can move on. He gets so mad about that (I don't really blame him, I'd find it irritating too).
• He's the best little helper with Davis. Before any nap or bedtime he has to give him a hug, kiss and "knuckleheads" (he rubs their foreheads together while scrunching up his nose, it's darling and Davis loves it).
• He gives out the cutest compliments and tells me I look cute frequently (also, whenever we visit my grandma he compliments her on whatever she's wearing, which is usually a nightgown).
• He has the best imagination. I just heard him playing downstairs with his friends saying, "Do you want to pretend we are astronauts or ninjas?"
• He isn't a big fan of soccer still, but at least this spring we've had significantly less meltdowns at games. We'll take it! We are just trying to get through the season at this point.

DAVIS

• He's a full-fledged walker! He started taking a few steps right around his first birthday, but this past month has really taken off and will walk all the way across a room.
• He is so busy, he gets into everything. He delights in making messes and chaos and he moves so fast! He also loves playing with his toys and paging through his books.
• Davis will finally sit in my lap while I read to him, but only if we read his favorite books (Piggies, Mr. Brown Can Moo, I Ruff You, Tickle Time, Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, The Foot Book). If I try another book (which I do frequently) he reaches out, shuts it and throws it. If I pull out on of his favorites he'll sit contently and loves it!
• His favorite song is definitely "Let's Go Fly a Kite". I first noticed this months ago, that when I sang that particular song he calms down, and when I'd switch to another song he'd start crying again. It's held up! I was changing his diaper in the family room one night while watching "Saving Mr. Banks". He was being so squirmy and then that song started and he immediately froze and intently watched the TV the whole song until it was over. He just loves it! That song will always be Davis's song to me.

London- Celebrating 10 years of marriage!

10 years! Ben and I love to travel and we've been planning on doing a fun trip together to celebrate 10 years of marriage (with the plan that we'll do the same thing at 20,30,40 years etc.) since we'd been married for like a year or something. It just seems like the perfect way to celebrate! We ended up going a little early (our anniversary isn't until July) because we had some airline credit that was expiring soon. After weighing a bunch of different options we landed on LONDON as our destination! I'm so glad we did- it was amazing!

We left the boys in the loving care of Nana and Papa and headed to London on March 30. Our flights were smooth and uneventful, just super super long! I was glad during those flights that we didn't have the kids with us, even though I missed them a lot! We landed in London at 7 am (midnight Utah time) after getting basically no sleep on the planes we were exhausted. We couldn't check into our hotel until later in the day, so we dropped our bags and started walking! We headed right to Kensington Gardens since we were staying nearby. It was raining and cold, the gardens we beautiful, and we were just so exhausted! I walked Ben clear over to Palace Court and showed him the BYU London Centre that I love so much! We grabbed a croissant at Pret (my fav) and walked around the gardens some more. By noon we were so cold and SO SO tired, and Ben was able to pay convince them to let us in to our hotel a few hours early and we crashed for a little bit! 

 We got up and walked around some more that evening, seeing St. Pauls, the millennium bridge, a tiny bit of that Tate Modern (just because we needed to use the bathrooms) and headed back towards our hotel. Speaking of which, we stayed in South Kensington and I loved it so much! The streets there were so beautiful and charming. There were so many amazing and diverse restaurants in our neighborhood, and it was a little less busy than central London. It was so great! Our room itself was laughably small, like 12 inches around the bed and that's it, but it was just fine for the two of us!

Sunday morning we headed to the Tower of London. I was so excited to take Ben here and do the Beefeater tour, which didn't disappoint. It was crowded, but we still enjoyed seeing it and learning so much about London's history.

 We saw the Tower Bridge, which is one of my favorite sites ever. Hudson really wanted us to "find" this super unique bridge and was so proud of us when we sent this picture. We went back the next night to see it lit up at night, which I actually prefer. It was quiet in this area and we just sat and enjoyed the view for a while.

Sunday afternoon, after a stop at the National Gallery to see some of my favorite paintings, we stumbled upon this pub and decided to grab some fish and chips for dinner. Since we love Sherlock Holmes, we decided to give it a try and it ended up being one of our favorite meals of the trip. The ambiance was so fun and the food was good (well, Ben really liked it, I'm not a huge fish and chips fan in general, but I thought it was okay).

After seeing the British Museum on Monday we had afternoon tea at the Ham Yard Hotel. It was so fun! We loved the scones and were surprised how delicious the passionfruit-mango macaron was! It was fun to sample all these decadent treats while sipping hot chocolate in a fancy setting!

 That night as we were out and about we stopped to see Buckingham Palace. Ben was unimpressed, but I made him take a picture anyway. It is huge, but I guess it does look fairly basic.

 Tuesday we went to the Churchill War Rooms, which was a highlight of the trip for us! So well preserved and so interesting. It's amazing to learn about the history surrounding Britain's role in WWII and specifically Churchill. Although he really wasn't a great guy on a personal level, his leadership and commitment to fighting Hitler (opposed to appeasement like his predecessor) probably changed the whole scope of history. We were discussing how the outcome of WWII might have been different had Churchill not been there- would Hitler have been defeated? Could the USA have done it without Britain's help? Interesting (and scary) to think about.  We followed this up with a fun trip to Borough Market, which was awesome!

 This little place was right outside our tube stop- and we had to stop since they were called Ben's cookies!

 One night we didn't have anything planned so Ben suggested we go find 221B (Sherlock Holme's home). We did! It was a fun little adventure.

 Wednesday we went to the Imperial War Museum. They have a really special Holocaust museum here that we spent a lot of time at. It was so heartbreaking, and we learned a lot. It sparked a lot of interesting discussions for us about history and the correlation to what is going on in our world now. We also talked a lot about how we want to teach our children to be loving, kind and accepting- nothing like this to remind us about the devastation of discrimination.

 Our last day we really chill- we didn't have much planned. We wandered around the V and A museum a little, poked around Harrods, bought some presents for the boys (not at Harrod's- too expensive!), and then grabbed some favorite pastries and headed back to Kensington Gardens. The sun was out (a rarity this week) and we sat on a bench and ate and enjoyed our last day in London.

 This trip was really amazing! We loved having so much uninterrupted time together! It was also amazing to me how easy and carefree traveling is without children! I love traveling with our kids, but it was also amazing to go just the two of us. We got to reflect a lot on the last (almost) ten years of marriage how crazy life has been to us. There have been some serious twists and turns in our road, but it's still taken us somewhere amazing, even if it's not what we'd planned or pictured when we were first married. I love this man and love the life we've built together!

A little sidenote about traveling- mostly for my boys if they ever read this when they are older- One of the keys I've learned to successful traveling is that you just have to know that some things will go wrong and you have to decide not to let anything ruin your trip. This trip was amazing, but of course there were a few little things that weren't quite what we'd hoped. Big Ben is completely covered in scaffolding, making this iconic site and view quite anticlimactic. Our hotel room so much tinier than expected. Crowds were crazy in London this week, so we had to wait in some unexpected lines. And it rained and was a little chilly most of the time we were here. None of this ruined our trip! We were just able to say "oh well!" and enjoy all the beauty and fun around us, and on being together. 

Motherhood these days

 I have had so many thoughts swirling around my head lately, mostly about motherhood. I am deep in the trenches of it. These kids consume almost every minute of my day, every thought in my head, and definitely use up almost all my energy. The thing is, I LOVE this stage of life. It is a stage I always looked forward to, daydreamed about, and now that it's here it's even better than I hoped. It's also much harder and more exhausting, but still the very best thing I've ever done.

 Our life is crazy, and I've actually found that the busier moments are some of my favorite. Once we wake up in the morning (usually in the 6:30 region) it's go-go-go for the next few hours. I usually spend a solid hour in the kitchen, making breakfast, feeding everyone, making lunches, cleaning up breakfast. It's a lot of mess and dishes, and still I just love it. Then we get everyone dressed and ready, hopefully with their hair done (sometimes that doesn't happen), beds made, laundry started. We leave the house at 8:30 am- with usually happy, dressed, well-fed kids, a dishwasher humming away in my clean kitchen, the washing machine doing it's thing, and I weirdly just feel so accomplished. We are doing this! It sounds kind of lame that I get so much satisfaction out of our mornings, but I really do.

 I feel the same way about dinner time and bedtime. Those last few hours of the day are so chaotic, but also kind of the stuff motherhood is all about. Making nutritious food for my family, talking about their day at dinner. We usually do "highs and lows" or "happy and sads" and everyone shares their best and worst parts of their days. I love hearing about how their perceived their life and their day. Sometimes it leads to great discussions. Sometimes we just prod the kids to eat their vegetables for a solid twenty minutes. Either way, I'm still glad we do it. I also love bedtime. I love bathing kids, getting them all comfy in jammies and ending our day with prayers and scripture study. My very favorite part is when I go lay on their bed with them, read them stories and sing to them. They are usually calm and cuddly. I love doing those things. It's just happy.

 There are so many other moments throughout the day that just bring delight to my heart and soul. I love watching my kids interact with each other. I love seeing their creations with legos and lincoln logs. I love the funny things they say that make me laugh. I love seeing the big kids purposely "serve"- like making us all toast for breakfast (Chase) or insisting on opening and closing my car door for me (Huds). I love watching Davis explored and learn and giggle. I love watching Chase play soccer and Hudson play in his imaginary world. I love watching as the whole family cheers while Davis takes a few, wobbly steps. Every single hug, kiss and "i love you" from my boys means the world to me.

 Davis has been, by far, the worst sleeper of the bunch. He's still not sleeping through the night 100% of the time, although he's come a long way. Teething has been rough for this kid. It has given me so many opportunities to sit and rock him in the middle of the night. During those dark, quiet moments in his nursery, when he's in my arms I feel so happy and content. Sure, I'd rather be sleeping, but also not. I know how fleeting this time with him truly is, and I really just enjoy the quiet cuddles. I don't ever want to feel like I wished away this stage of motherhood- so far I really haven't. I have really, truly enjoyed every stage and almost every moment with my sweet, wonderful boys.

I know I'm far from a perfect mother. I lose my patience with my boys too often. I'm sure I've let teaching moments pass by because I was too busy or lazy. But I'm so thankful that my kids are forgiving of my shortcomings. I'm so thankful that I get to be their mom. I know so many women that haven't had the chance to be mothers that so dearly want this chance. I do not take these kids for granted. This stage of life is so precious and so wonderful and I'm so thankful that I'm right in the thick of it. 

Some March Fun

We have filled March with a bunch of fun activities! We had a fun little party at Grandma and Papa Ray's new house in Layton to celebrate Davis and Jordyn's recent birthdays! Davis loved having cupcakes again!

 This is just a picture of the biggest and littlest before church one Sunday. I think Hudson was still getting ready. I can't even express how much we are loving 9:00 church- Sundays are back to being a little more restful and our kids are so much better behaved at church. And as a fun bonus, Davis has been sweetly drifting off to sleep in my lap in Sunday School every week and I get to snuggle him, which is basically heaven for me!

 Classic March weather here- snow some days, beautiful sunshine some days! Whenever we get a sunny day we take full advantage of it! We've been to a few different parks, usually with friends, and had a great time! This fun park across from the library really makes for a good combo (library first, then we play). It's designed for kids ages 5-12, and we've been to it many times since the boys were 1-3 years old. Now that they are older they really can enjoy the full range of fun activities this park offers! Chase was so pleased with himself that he can now climb this whole rock wall.

 We had a Pi day party! It was a rainy Wednesday night and I spent a good portion of that day making pies. I made four! (Lemon sour cream, key-lime, apple and chocolate) We had the Booyses, Baccioccos, Josephs and Rohbocks over (which is so many little kids running around our house!) and everyone had a great time! We love a good excuse to eat pie.

 Then it was St. Patrick's Day! The boys really wanted to make leprechaun traps this year and they all met up at Baccioccos one day and put these simple little traps together. I love them because they were 100% their own ideas and creations. I just sent them with some supplies and they did the rest! They set them out Friday night and found the gold coin they used as bait was gone in the morning, and Lucky the Leprechaun left them a little note.

I heard Chase get up early on Saturday morning and go check out the scene downstairs. He was very disappointed that he didn't catch a leprechaun and also declared "Everything is boring down there! He didn't turn the milk green or make a mess or ANYTHING!" (Oops...) Once he discovered Lucky's note he felt better. Also, green pancakes were a hit with all three boys! 

 Also we told them that we did catch a little leprechaun....DAVIS!

 We've been to the discovery museum a few times this month and it's always such a hit with all three kids! I'm so glad we have so many fun things to do around here, which makes winter and dreary weather so much easier for us to handle!

I had my nieces here one day and I snapped a few pictures of Davis and Anna. They really didn't cooperate very well and got fairly distracted by the crackers I was trying to use to bribe them to sit still and be happy. But we got a few candid shots that I love. These two! I think they'll be great friends as they grow up!