A Baptism and a Blessing

Taylor's big day arrived on November 2, 2013.  She made the decision to be baptized and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She had been looking forward to this day for months and was excited to have family there to support her.  My parents as well as my brothers Adam and Cameron and their families were there to support her along with Curtis parents and brother Chad's family.

 Traditional picture in front of Christ being baptized. I could tell she was a little nervous but so excited at the same time.

 I was able to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and barely made it through without falling apart. I can't believe she is finally old enough and it was such a beautiful, special day.

Because Curtis was leaving for Denver the following morning, we decided to bless Piper immediately after the baptism in the High Council room. This was the only picture I though to get of her, but she look beautiful in her big sisters blessing dress. Taylor was more than willing and happy to share her special day with her little sister.

 She also managed to roll over for the first time that day. She's growing so fast and I'm having a hard time soaking it in enough to enjoy each second.

It was an emotional, spiritual day and I'm so blessed to be the mom of these two beautiful daughters.  

Halloween 2013

Halloween came fast this year and thankfully my kids are still easy to please when it comes to costumes.  Maddox was Spider-man which we already had from Boston, we borrowed Pipers tootsie roll costume from a neighbor, Boston chose to be a skeleton and Taylor was CiCi, a hip hop dancer from the show, Shake it up. 

Our neighborhood/ward hosted a fun block party complete with lots of yummy soups, games and candy for the kids.

Maddox is our candy pro. This kid can smell it out from anywhere and had a blast taking any candy he could find.

 Our friends insisted we get festive and provided us these awesome costumes for the night. Im pretty sure this is the only time we have ever dressed up for Halloween.

 Our cute Tootsie Roll, and its true that I could just eat her up!

 School Parades!

 Halloween night, Maddox opted for a ninja costume and took off running to get some candy!

 It was so fun to have cousin Emma and her parents come trick or treating with us for the night@

 Nothing was going to stop this kid from getting candy!

 Boston opted to go around with a friend so this is the only picture I managed to get of him the entire night.

We had the best Halloween this year and have grown to love our neighborhood so much. It truly was bitter sweet knowing it would be our last time taking our kids around that neighborhood so we tried to soak up every minute that we could.

Piper @ 3 months

Piper has become our smiley easy going baby. This girl came with such a sweet spirit and has truly been such a tender mercy in our lives.  I can't help but want to take pictures of her constantly to try and remember every bit of her babyhood.

 Watching her sleep is truly something I will never tire of doing.  This picture is probably one of my all time favorites of her. I love how she can sleep so peacefully the minute she hits our bed.

 Every morning we are greeted with the worlds largest smile. No matter how she slept of what kind of day I had, this smile always melts everything away.

 Maddox absolutely adores his baby sister. The minute he gets home from school he rushes to find where she is and lays a big kiss on her.  He's such a good protector.

 A few pictures taken by my good friend Kourtney of Piper in her blessing dress which was also the dress Taylor was blessed in.

 There are no words for how much I love this baby….

 All ready for the chilly weather. 

At 3 months, Piper is still my best sleeper.  She usually goes down around 8 and wakes up once around 4 to eat and then goes back down for a few more hours. She is mild mannered and rarely cries and even when she does, its the sweetest cry! She still nurses and will take a bottle great, but does not like formula. She has started rolling but doesn't do it often just yet. She is such a blessing and gift and I'm so happy to be her mommy.

It's Great to be 8!

This year was a major birthday for miss Taylor! I can not believe she is already 8 years old! How did that happen!?  She was all smiles the entire day feeling pretty great about finally being 8 years old.

 I somehow failed at taking very many pictures for some reason but I took her lunch at school and we were able to go out to dinner and have her favorite treat of brownies along with presents and singing! She got some long awaited for roller blades that she has become quite good at mastering!

 Taylor is such a huge help to me and such a smart and talented girl.  I had my good friend Kourtney take some pictures of her in her baptism dress and I couldn't have been more pleased with how they turned out!

 She is growing into such a beautiful young lady and I'm so grateful of the chance to be her momma!

 Its also no secret that she's been dreaming of having a sister for the longest time.  And when Piper came along she was nothing but thrilled.  She's so helpful to me and loves her sister so much.  We took some pictures of them together because Piper will be blessed the same weekend that Taylor will be baptized. How special for these two sisters to share such milestones in their lives together. Piper is even wearing the same dress that Taylor was blessed in.

 This last picture brings me great joy.  She truly loves her brothers and sisters and they really do look up to her and adore her.  

So happy that she came first into our family!

Color Me Rad-Family Style

Last year I did the Color Me Rad race with some of my friends and realizing how laid back and family oriented the race was, we decided to do it together as a family this year!  The kids were super excited about getting sprayed with all sorts of color….well, except for Maddox, he kinda hated it but put on a brave face for the sake of the family.

At the starting line waiting for the signal!

 Maddox was too concerned with the color that was already flying to take a break to look at the camera! It worked out well to have the 2 youngest in strollers and the 2 older ones did a great job at keeping up. Boston loves the sprint…he would run as fast as he could ahead of us and then slow down and wait, and he would repeat over and over. He even went through some color stations twice if he felt he didn't have enough color thrown on him!

 Piper was an angel as usual and just hung out and enjoyed the ride.  I made sure to cover her up while running through the stations and thankfully they took it easy on me so she wasn't covered.

 And here we are after all colored up! It was obvious Boston made it his mission to get the most color on him and I think he succeeded in doing so! We had so much fun together and it is definitely a race that we want to continue to do if we have the chance.

Piper @ 2 months

Time definitely goes by much faster the more kids you have.  I'm trying to savor every minute of this precious girl before she's up and walking around! Its been 2 months and she has been the absolute best baby ever.

 She finally started smiling a lot more this past month and we love the early morning smiles we get from her now.

 This sweet smile came as such a tender mercy after a particularly rough day.  Her sweetness immediately melted away all the stress and anxiety I had been feeling.

 This was the first smile I was actually able to catch on camera…she was about 6 weeks in this picture.

 The girl loves her fingers and if a binki isn't in her reach then she improvises.  

 The sweetest baby smiles ever.  

 She has also been an amazing sleeper from the beginning. She usually only wakes up once to eat and is going 7-8 hours at night…I have never had that happen with a baby this young and I am loving it!

 We are all so smitten with her. She has brought such a peace and sweetness into our home and we can't imagine life any other way than with her in it.

Boston turns 6

This kid turned 6 this year and was so excited for his birthday to come…but that's the case every year! He has really gotten into Lego's this year and finally started to get creative with building things on his own rather than having dad build the sets for him to play with. He was pretty proud of this creation and took great pride in it! I think he kept it by his bed for a week until his little brother disassembled it for him.

We kept his birthday pretty simple this year which is the way I tend to like them! No stress of friend parties and just a chance to spend time together as a family having fun!  Curtis and I took his favorite treat of donuts into his class and I read one of his favorite books to them.

 Later after Curtis got off work, we hit up a family favorite, Chic fil A, for dinner and some play time. This kid can really put away those nuggets and since it was his birthday, we let him go to town!

 We came home to presents and some toy playing time and just had a fun time celebrating our Boston!

He has really taken off in school and done so much better than I could have ever hoped for. His handwriting and math skills are amazing and he's really starting to come out of his shell more around other people!

Happy 6th Birthday Boston!