Another Honor Bee

 I have started my 4th year as our wards Young Women President and this is the first year that we've had 2 of our girls get their medallions! Us leaders were so proud. Every year our Stake Leaders do a special recognition night where every girl and leader that has earned an award gets to come to a dinner and program and receives a special present for all our hard work. This year Lizzie (in the middle of picture, I've been her teacher/leader since she was in Primary!) earned her medallion as a Mia Maid. Marissa Howard earned hers as well but couldn't make it to the dinner. As leaders, Nikki earned her first Honor Bee while Hollie and I earned our second bees. I love the Young Women program! It truly is an inspired program to help us all (even leaders) continually progress personally and strengthen our testimonies. Since I don't see a release in the near future, I am thinking of working on my second medallion (or at least another honor bee!). Wish me luck!

Stache-tober

 

Nate and a few guys from Nate's work had a competition known as "Stache-Tober". This is the "AFTER" picture of Nate's month long of growing out his beard only to see who could shave the best "stache". Nate was the big winner of office bragging rights. So proud! Just glad it came off that same day for family pictures.

Halloween is so much more fun with Jacks in school. It gives us another reason to get the kids dressed up in their costumes rather than just for trick or treating. I am thinking my kiddos looked pretty dang cute this year all dressed up. The boys were so excited for their superhero costumes and thank goodness my Grandma was able to alter Maelyn's skirt or she would have had nothing to wear. Our neighbor gave her this cute Halloween outfit but with her in Newborn clothes STILL the 3 month size was drowning her only by 5 inches in the waist.

  To start our day we stopped at Jackson's kindergarten parade. Nate left work for a bit to meet us there. After the kids paraded through the gym to model their costumes they performed their "thriller" dance they have been learning so far this year. It was SO cute! I have never seen Jack's do a choreographed dance like this and I loved every second of it. Of course with Jackson being the tallest in the grade he was in the very back but we still got some good shots of him shaking it.

After Jackson's school activities, we came home for some lunch and then ran a few errands (see previous post about getting Maelyn's SSN) before it was time to go to Nate's work trick or treat. We got there at 3 and stayed for a good hour and half. The boys left with a huge grocery sack of candy!! and were so excited about it too! Then just a few hours later and after dinner it was my turn to take the kiddos trick or treating. We made a quick round of our neighbors and then followed Jackson's buddy Will over to his side of the neighborhood to do some more. Andersen wasn't too excited at that point, so we finished a few friends houses and came back home.

I think we lasted maybe an hour. Jack's was ready for more but Andersen did pretty good I think for being 3. Check out all their candy! In years past I have usually taken their candy away from them but this year I let them have free reins to it all. I figured the faster it was gone the better. They played with it all day and at night conveniently hung it up on their dresser knobs. It was probably 3 days later that Andersen had unwrapped every piece of candy he had and would leave it on the floor. Eventually I got sick of cleaning up smarties and dots off my floor that I gave him one more chance to pick it up (granted his candy had been totally picked through) or I was going to throw it away. Those are hard moments as a Mom to follow through but I picked it all up and tossed it out. I think I was more sad than Andersen was. He didn't care one bit and hasn't mentioned it since! Jacks on the other hand still has a bag full that will probably get thrown away due to it being old.

Sad to think Halloween came and went so fast because I was preoccupied with Maelyn being just a few weeks old. We had lots of fun though and we can't wait for more fun that comes with the Holidays.

Carving Pumpkins

This was a first for our family! Nate and I haven't carved pumpkins since we were younger and we forgot how long carving took, but it was worth it for the kids. With Nate having school Monday nights and Halloween on a Wednesday that left us carving them on Sunday night. As soon as we got done with dinner the boys went to the porch to grab their pumpkins to start carving and we instantly had tears before we even started. Just earlier in the day we noticed someone had gone through our neighborhood and smashed pumpkins on the road during the night. Little did we know we were one of the victims until Andersen's pumpkin was missing! Thank goodness for a quick FB shout out for an extra pumpkin and nice neighbors that were willing to share a pumpkin with a sad 3 year old. Within just minutes we were back to our carving plans. I opened up the pumpkins and cleaned them out the best I could and traced the faces on the pumpkins. I then carved Andersen's pumpkin while Nate carved Jackson's. The boys were so grossed out by the pumpkin innards... so was I, but I guess someone had to do it! After 30 minutes the boys were sick of waiting so that left Nate and I to finish. Eventually we were done and the boys got to do the traditional porch picture for the first time next to their carved pumpkins. Good thing we picked easy patterns or these boys would have had to wait FOREVER for their pumpkins!

Pumpkin Patch

I love this time of year! Even though it starts getting colder and the days get shorter, there is something so fun about all the holidays. Fun traditions and good family time. The Pumpkin Patch has become a family favorite. Jackson LOVES going every year to pick out pumpkins and this year Andersen enjoyed it more too! We tried a different "patch" this year and we definitely will go back. They had a couple goats the kids could feed, a huge pile of hay to climb on and of course the traditional tractors. We even took Maelyn for her first time. Because the sun sets so soon, me and the kids headed over first and Nate met us there right after work. We took maybe 10 minutes to pick out pumpkins and the rest of the time was spent watching the boys climb up and down the haystack until the sun set. Andersen loved it as much as Jackson until he got a stash of hay in his pants. He spent the rest of the night with his hands in his pants itching away. Maelyn just slept right through it all!

Where'd my baby go?

I snagged this picture the other day while Jackson and I were laying in my bed. His foot was right next to mine and I couldn't believe the difference is size was only the length of my big toe. Having a newborn around again and then seeing Jackson next to her, I just can't believe how fast the time has gone. I always tell myself the days are long but the years are short so try to enjoy the little things. I can't believe the little boy that made me a mommy for the first time is already 5 1/2 years old! 

A little update on Jackson... He survived, or maybe I should say I survived, his first off track break for kindergarten. Not sure if it was the new addition and change with sister being in our family now or just pure boredom, but it was a long 3 weeks. All Jack's wanted to do was go to school and once it was time to go back it was a rough first week getting back on schedule. We had our first parent/teacher conferences. So far Jack's is doing great in school. He got great scores all around but needs some added help with reading. He is about to start his first season of Jr. Jazz and he is so proud that he's finally old enough to play! He has already had his long list of Christmas wish items and we had to make a Christmas countdown already because the boys are beyond excited. Jack's is obsessed with his guns and Legos and loves to be Mr. Independent by brushing his own teeth, making his own PB&J sandwich, and walking to and from school with his friends...if I let him!

She's OFFICIAL!!

Only 6 weeks later is Maelyn finally officially named. When Maelyn was born, Nate and I left for the hospital with no names discussed. I had a few I liked, including Maelyn, but Nate never wanted to play the name game with me. This wasn't a big shocker for me because it was the same story with the boys too. With the boys it still took us a couple days but we never left the hospital without naming them. Maelyn on the other hand was a different story. Once she was born I instantly wanted to name her Maelyn. I have always loved this name. I had an advisor at Weber State name her little girl that and loved it and it had stuck with me all these years later especially because I hadn't heard it since. Nate on the other hand had a list of a couple names (Kendyl and Taylor) he liked because he felt like our little girl didn't look like a Maelyn. After taking every last minute of our hospital time we could and after talking with the medical records specialist, we left the hospital without naming our baby because we were told we had 10 days before we had to go through the state vital records to name her. For all ten days at home Maelyn was called baby girl or sister! Nate and I just couldn't agree. I REALLY wanted to name her Maelyn and he didn't. We both were being stubborn and staying strong to our names. It took me begging for it on day ten that Nate finally gave in and let me have the name I wanted. Originally I had wanted to spell it Maelynne after my sister, but Nate didn't like the spelling because it made people pronounce it different than what we wanted. So we agreed on the name if Nate could change the spelling. I quickly agreed to that deal and even offered to let him pick the middle name. I waited all day to get her middle name and spelling which ended up being Maelyn Grace. At first I wasn't too excited about this middle name. I like middle names to have some family meaning, but Nate did some searching and liked Grace because of how it sounded with Maelyn and the meaning of it "Simple elegance". Once I had the final name I called the hospital to pass it along for our paperwork. Sure enough, she had mailed it out a day earlier than expected and we were out of luck! Now I had to work with vital records...ugh! Now Maelyn is 3 weeks old and I have to make my trip downtown to Vital Records to request her birth certificate. Little did I know I needed Nate there too. I started the paperwork and had to bring it home to have Nate sign it with a notary. Next step was mailing it back to them.  Surprisingly a week later her corrected birth certificate came in the mail. With having a birth certificate that said her name rather than "baby girl rothe" I could go to the Social Security office for her SSN. On Halloween, before going to Nate's work trick or treat, I figured I would stop and the Social Security office thinking it wouldn't be very busy because of the holiday. Good call on my part! I walked right in and they immediately helped me. I was in and out with her SSN request within just 20 minutes or less. Now it was the waiting game. On Maelyn's 6 week birthday I got her SSN and she was official! Even though all this work and run around was worth it because I got to name my baby girl the name I really wanted, I don't think I would ever suggest leaving the hospital without naming your baby first! After all this work, lets just hope our baby girl likes her name when she is older!

It's Snow Time!

(I am skipping ahead of all my other posts for this one)

 Only in Utah does it go from low 70's at the beginning of the week to 6+ inches of snow at the end of the week. With all this snow, as the parent I see long days inside or a dozen times getting dressed and undressed with wet and dirty floors from the snow tracked in. Jackson and Andersen on the other hand see a whole new adventure. Jacks's was begging to play in the snow all day yesterday. Thank goodness Cannon and Will invited him over to play. He was the happiest. The only other thing Jack's wanted to do was have a snow ball fight with Nate. So this morning the 3 boys got all geared up and satisfied Jackson's craving. After their snowball fight, they made their first snowman named "snowy". After "snowy" was built Jackson came inside for stuff for his face. He only asked for a carrot. I asked what he was doing for eyes and a mouth? Jacks told me they were just using rocks for the rest. Then I suggested he use two Oreo's for the eyes and licorice for the mouth. He thought I was crazy. After the tantrum as Nate was putting on the licorice smile, Jack's said "Don't waste the treats!". Of course, waste the carrot but heaven forbid we use any of the junk! Later they moved to the backyard to jump on the tramp and the traditional snow angels. Not sure if I am ready for the 6 months of cold winter usually brings around here, but for now it is getting me in the Christmas spirit so I will enjoy the white stuff for now!

Our Special Visitor

Just a couple weeks after Maelyn was born I got a text from my sister Lynne asking if she could come visit. I was so excited!! This is who Maelyn is kind of named after (Another story for another post coming soon). She knows her and her family are ALWAYS welcome but when flying from Minnesota I get that you want to make sure we will be around before you jump on a plane. She got in on a Thursday night and left the following Monday morning bright and early. It was a few short days visiting but it was nice to just get some one on one time with my sister and my family without all the other distractions she would have had to do if her kids were with her. I am not the only one that enjoyed Lynne's company. My kids got spoiled by all their one on one time with her too. She got drawing /coloring lessons from Jackson, read probably every book we have to Andersen, and hours (and even a night time feeding) of cuddle time with Maelyn. Anyone that knows my sister knows she is the most giving and selfless person you will ever meet. She is always thinking of others before herself and never once complains about it. A HUGE thanks to her husband Mike for taking one for the team while Lynne was away from the house because we LOVED having her here and that she got to meet Maelyn. Too bad it went by too fast! Hope we get to see you sooner than next Thanksgiving!

Maelyn {1 Month}

 I can't believe this little lady is already one month old! The time has gone so fast... or maybe it just seems like that due to the lack of sleep. Just like any other  newborn you forget how much you get woken up in the middle of the night but its definitely worth the early morning snuggles I get with her. This picture isn't the best quality because it was taken with my phone but this is one of my favorite pictures of Maelyn so far. She just looks so sweet and calm to me. It was right after her bath with the smell of baby lotion and fresh jammies. Nothing sweeter I think! I love how she is holding her hands too. Man she has already stolen our hearts, can you tell? Especially Andersen. That brother of hers can't get enough. I always catch him cuddled up next to her either kissing her or rubbing noses with her. Jackson on the other hand isn't involved as much. Even though he's not cuddling her all the time like Andersen, he is always the first one to say hi, goodbye, goodnight and good morning to her and its always followed by a kiss. A couple things Maelyn is loving is her baths, her binky and blankies from Grandma Kay, and any fingers she can find to replace the binky that keeps falling out of her mouth. She is getting much better at keeping the binky in on her own but we still catch it smashed to her cheeks every once in awhile. She still sleeps with her mouth wide open and she has officially broken us in... I celebrated her 1 month with her first blow out! Maelyn is STILL wearing her newborn clothes which is crazy to me because her brothers wore newborn clothes for 2 days! Lets hope she starts filling out soon so she can wear some of her other new clothes.

This cutie just turned 3! On October 11th (Andersen finally knows his birthday and its the cutest when he says it!) Andersen turned 3! He has been looking forward to this day for a while now and has had a mental countdown for days. Andersen kept asking how many more sleeps until his birthday. Finally Andersen's birthday was here and we had "no more sleeps" and he was so excited. To celebrate I started with a friend party during the day while Nate was at work. We tossed around a bunch of ideas but a Halloween party was the final decision. We have so many kids his age in our neighborhood so I let Andersen invite a few over to play in their Halloween costumes. Jaden Christiansen, Josh Jenkins, Parker Christensen and Bronco Osness were his special guests. We played a couple games including pin the smile on the pumkin (Thanks to Josh's mom!) and read some fun Halloween books. The kids had mummy hotdogs for lunch and spider cup cakes for dessert. Later was Andersen's favorite... PRESENTS!

After his friends went home, Andersen had a quick quiet time and then he was back celebrating. Nana came to pick him up around 4:30 for their date. They went to Target and of course he got spoiled. Some of his many presents he picked out were a "Cars... Mac tow truck", Lightning McQueen stuffed car, some electronic spiders, new shoes and socks, and I am sure I missed a few more things. 

After their date, Nate and I and the other two kids met them at Chili's for some dinner. Andersen didn't want the workers to come sing to him but they did anyways and Jack's was very appreciative of the free treat! When we were done with dinner we came back home to open presents and do Andersen's birthday cake. Once we got "Grandma and Grandpa Colorado" on Skype it was go time on all his other presents from us. He got a soccer ball and cones, some coloring stuff, some small Lego sets and his favorite (and Jack's too) 3 super hero action figures... He got Hulk, Captain America, and Spider-Man. Another favorite of his was his $$ from his grandparents in Colorado. This boy loves his money so he was so excited as you can tell from the picture. We were all so full from dinner still so after presents we sang Happy Birthday to him so he could blow out his candles on his cake, but no one was even interested in eating it. I think Andersen was the only one that had a piece and that didn't happen until the next day and the rest got thrown away. I think by his smile in this last picture of the night with Nate and I tells me he had a fun day celebrating so that is all that matters to me. Happy Birthday little booger! You have brought so much fun into our family by your silly personality these past 3 years. We love you like crazy!

First Smiles

I don't remember my boys being so smiley, but Maelyn is always flashing this cute little grin at us. Maelyn started smiling at us just after being a few days old but she was 3 weeks old in this picture. They come and go so quickly so this was the first one I could capture on camera. Nothing better than your child recognizing your face and voice!

Maelyn's 2 weeks

I know its only been a few weeks with this little lady in our home but it seems like she's been here forever. Her first two weeks were spent pretty much sleeping away her time in between all our guests coming to meet her. One of our favorite guests was Grandpa Dave. He came to visit us the Sunday after Maelyn was born. It was a short visit, but we take whatever time we can get. My favorite part of newborns is catching them in all their silly sleeping positions. Her first two weeks we also had our first outing with just me and the 3 kids. We made a trip to Dr. Boud's office for Maelyn's 2 week check up. She had a great check up weighing in at 6lbs 3oz (Just an ounce bigger than birth weight) and 20 1/2 inches long (1/2 inch longer than birth). It is definitely an adjustment having such a tiny baby but she is SO much fun.. now if we can only find some clothes that fit this little noodle.