Family

I feel so blessed to have so much family so close by to us. Josh's parents and mine but live anywhere from 20min-1hr20mim away from us and I love it.
Today I felt like seeing my mother in law so Riley called and invited us over for dinner :)
It's so nice just to pop over whenever we want and know that we have family who will visit with us, feed us, and entertain the kids.
I love our family and am so grateful for all the little and big things they do.

enjoying summer

I can't say enough how much I love summer and all the heat. I absolutely feel soooooo GOOD in the heat. (the cold weather does come with its fun holidays and foods but I can't stand how cold I get) I wait allllll winter long just dreaming about summer. So now that's it's here I try to live it up each day.
Just some random happy pictures {hopefully in order-can't work his blogger app too well}
*Riley spent a few days with grancy and she even got to have her first real manicure!
*My mom lives for sunflowers and posed Riley in front.
*folding laundry with mom in nice cool summer clothes
*splash pad, it's free and it's THE BEST. Riley was a little bored this year with no friends there, Braden and max are hooked.
*just hanging out with my kids
*movie in the park, kids had so much fun running around, playing in the bounce house and getting their faces painted. We bought slurpees and brought popcorn from home
*max having his first bath in the sink, he had so much fun. He kept putting his entire mouth over the faucet then choking on the water haha

Can I brag for a minute?

Of course I can, right? Doesn't that come along with having kids?
So a couple weeks ago the young women went to our public pool to go swimming and I took Riley and Maxer along with us. This pool is great! Beach entrance with fun water spouting trees and such and two fun water slides.
The only requirement for the slides is that you have to know how to swim.
Riley can swim pretty good now, she can get around a pool on her own but is working on (or I'm working on her) not doggy paddling so much.
So I asked Riley if she would do it and with just a little convincing she picked the short, red,enclosed one first and then tried the tall winding one.
She did great on both and had a little look of shock after each slide. she said she liked them-she only did them once each but I'm super proud of my swimmer!

Max

Maximus, maxer, maxy {do NOT care for this nickname}, chubby, bubba, max the axe {his wrestling name given by yours truly}... At this point the nicknames are endless especially as he is growing and changing so quickly and his personality is expanding.
I can't keep up with this boy. He is just growing up and nobody and nothing is going to stop him. I try so hard to soak him up every chance I get and if I get lazy about it and, oh I don't know-say, read my book or look at pinterest while I'm nursing him, he reaches around for my book or phone and once he gets a good grip, shoves it down and away. Out of there. All the while never stops nursing and closes his eyes and gets back to business. Oh and he will grab my cheeks, chin, lips, or eyes until I look directly at him.
Little stinker.
So he is sitting up now and thinks he is just hot stuff. He likes to sit up and I place his bin with the baby toys in front of him, one by one he pulls them out after giving them a good gummin'.
He can sit up in a grocery cart now too. I think that just makes your newborn a baby now, it's a whole new phase in life when you can leave the car seat behind in the car at the store.
He recently figured out how to splash so today was his first time sitting in the baby pool and he must of splashed constantly for 15min straight before he gave himself a 5sec rest and back to splashing he was!
Should I be totally worried that as soon as Braden started spitting pool water max cracked up laughing?! Oh boy!

6 Years Ago...

Josh and I were sealed in the Redlands temple. We have a great big {huge, really} family and many friends that all came to our wedding and made us feel so loved. I was overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. We received compliment after compliment and the gifts-oh the gifts, I really was blown away. Josh and I are so very blessed with our life and I try hard to not take things for granted, but I'm sure I do.
I remember not being nervous AT ALL that day-then it hit me "I'm not nervous on my wedding day! Shouldn't I be nervous? Does this mean that this isn't right?!" haha I was sooo determined to NOT be a bridezilla that all I needed was my soon to be husband and my dress. The rest was all just a bonus, I think thats why I stayed so calm. {looking back I wish I would've stressed a little more as I did not ABSOLUTELY love my makeup or hair. But whatever.
All that mattered was that I was lucky enough to meet josh, fall in love, realize quickly that we both wanted the same things and be sealed for eternity to him. I got so lucky with this guy.
I had great bridesmaids, they will all hopefully be lifelong friends, I haven't lost touch with any, some are closer than others but we all talk when we can. And anyone who can lift my husband like this rocks!
{see pictures 1,2 & 3}

We spent our anniversary with plans to go to the Griffith observatory (a trip planned by me as a gift to josh-you know learn about the stars and what not since we are married for eternity-I'm a girl and it's in my nature to turn any trip into something more romantic, sentimental, etc than it is) buuutty josh had driven a ton for work that week and wasn't up for it do we plan on doing it soon. Josh surprised me with a new pair of rainbows since mine are in beyond sad shape (my toes touch the ground-thru the leather). We spent the day relaxing, getting a few things done around the house, did a little school shopping for Riley and by the. I has a killlleeerrr headache so going out to dinner was out of the question. We got chilli's take out and enjoyed dinner at home.
It's been an interesting 6years, full of learning, playing, growing, changing but always loving one another.
I love my man, my supporter, father to my kids, my friend, Josh. Here's to 6more years!

Date Night

The kids got a ticket for a date night with me and josh from the Easter bunny this year (they are too young to figure out the logistics of that one). I got off easy and took Braden to fresh and easy for our date night. He loved it being just us two. On the way there he said "it's just you in the car and me in he car. And no one else is in here" I told him that I loved that it was just us two and he said "I love that too". My sweet boy took a ride on front the grocery cart and then finally settled underneath it-didn't have to fight over a spot, he helped me decide on the things to buy and I let him pick a treat. He picked dried mangos. His absolute FAVORITE! I need to find a way to take them to do simple errands one on one more often.

4th of July

We had a great independence day. We kicked it off by eating a pancake breakfast at Josh's parents ward to support the boy scouts then off we went for a full day of swimming. Riley and Braden had a blast at aunt Vickie's pool and even max got in and splashed around-he's at the stage where he can splash and it normally splashes his own face haha
Afterward we went back to Josh's parents and bbq'd. All the kids played out front on scooters and I sat on a nice blanket in the grass and just enjoyed relaxing and watching them.
I wanted to start a new tradition this year of having a little parade for the the kids so we decorated scooters in red white and blue and when all the family got there they circled the Cul-de-sac all decked out!
Then we all made our traditional homemade icecreame -so fun and good.
The highlight of the night had to be sparklers!!!One of Josh's cousins brought a ton and it was a first for my kids-they were terrified but did about ten of them! They like it once they were holding them but scared to see that lit sparkler coming at them!
We all loved the u of r fireworks, max could care less, he looked at some but didn't seem to mind either way.
My kids sat with us for a bit but mostly wanted to sit in the back of the truck with all the other kids, when did they get so big?!
Happy 4th!

Being Mommy

I don't know when I'll have the chance to use my computer and the pictures on it to update all that I've missed in the last 5months but I'm so sad to not be documenting my life from day to day. So I decided to get the blogger app and try this from my phone!
Being a mother and wife has been my dream job as long as I can remember and I want to write our stories, experiences and special moments down so that I can look back later in life and remember the small things.
My days lately have been full of joyous hot summer activities, playing out back on the swing set, going swimming, playing in the sprinklers, riding bikes and scooters, going on lots of walks in the morning and evening.
It's been full of trying to spend time with my first born -not so little girl -before she heads off to kindergarten. Of trying to teach Braden patience and how not to be so whiny-but also enjoying endless cuddles with him.
Of watching my baby boy Max grow up so incredibly fast it's unreal. {6months already?! Are you kidding me?}.
I cannot say enough about being a mommy. All to soon i will be their "mom". I feel so blessed that I was entrusted these 3 children to watch and to raise, I often feel like the luckiest person in the world.
Of course there are days when NONONE will stop crying, when EVERYONE is bored and playing with toys seems to be a chore. Days I wish we didn't need to eat to survive-{really? You want lunch and dinner??}. Days I wish we made double, triple, quadruple $$$ so I could have all the "mom kind of toys"
But at the end of the day, I always know I am so lucky to be where I am at in life. I'm trying hard to learn to love each stage. And to make the most of it, so that when I look back I don't think "I wish I would've...."
I love my life and I'm happy to start documenting it again!