Will on the move!

Will has been my baby that's crawled the earliest and that's been able to transition from crawling to sitting up the soonest. He's getting so big! He's 7 months :o)

Newest Addition

Meet Gracie! She's the newest addition to our family.
After trial and error with dogs, I've decided I'm just not a dog person. Think that's what growing up with cats will do to a girl.
Anyway, this sweet girl was bought on a whim and caused a little wave in the family as Steve is not a fan of cats....but he has a big heart for me and Tess and he said we could keep her.
She's been a doll. Loves to play and is a true lap cat. She'll talk back when you say her name or talk to her. And she'll even come looking for you when she needs some loves. We love her and are so happy to have her as part of our family :o)

SO FUN!!

Our anniversary was at the beginning of August. And I woke up to see my gift sitting on the kitchen counter, it was tickets to see The Dave Matthews Band. YAY!! I've loved them for years and have wanted to see them for so long! The only downer to all this was that Steve wasn't able to come with me, despite his best efforts to switch things around at work. So I took my wonderful friend Shaleen and we had a blast! Dave was AMAZING!! His new stuff is AMAZING! Loved every minute of it!

Our seats were great...even though the picture doesn't seem like it, haha. We weren't aloud to use cameras so all the pictures were taken with Shaleen's phone. This was the best one.

Shaleen and I havin' a good time!

Makes me laugh!

It's taken a while for Will to show his funny side. He's not been quick to laugh and talk, but now he's starting to open up and it's so fun to watch. Beckham is one of the few that can always get Will to laugh. It's fun to watch them play together already. It makes me laugh!

Daddy time

Will has been pretty grumpy lately and not much, besides me, makes him happy. However, we did figure out that he'll watch baseball. So, Sunday night was the first Red Sox/Yankees game and of course that's what we watched. Will sat with Steve through 5 innings! What a funny kid!

Thought this was a cute view. Will held onto Steve's arm the whole time

2 of my favorite guys!

(The sox lost this game, so Steve wasn't too thrilled....as you can see, haha!)

summer fun!

Over the 24th of the July (a Utah thing) we drove up to Bear Lake with our friends the Maxfields. It was so much fun! We had a prefect day....great weather, awesome company, yummy food and shakes, and good family time.

The kids love having Steve in the water with them

Beckham, Jake and Sydney

Miss Tess wasn't a fan of getting wet and sandy. So she hung out with me and Will on the towel

Bubs is Steve shadow, haha! Thought this was SO cute!

Will wasn't sure what to make of it all. But he was a good boy the whole day, so I couldn't ask for more!

Pool Time!

We're loving having a pool so close and more than a couple days out of the week we spend our afternoons there. Here are some of our fun pictures!

Will is often found sleeping while in the pool. Wouldn't that be the life!

Beck in full playing-mode! He's such a fish!

Silly girl!

Floatin' with my babes!

One of Beck's favorite things to do

Tess and her pool buddy, Koen

Spent a fun day at the pool with some of the Brown cousins...notice that all 3 babies are passed out, haha! It was such a fun time!

Buzz!

Will's hair was starting to fall out and then grow in a funny pattern, so we buzzed him. We buzzed Beck when he was little too and his hair grew back so nicely, so fingers crossed that we get the same results with Will. He didn't love it and cried the whole time, but he looks so cute now and his head is so soft...I love it!

He was not about to smile for me after what I just did to him, haha!

Will's buzz inspired all the guys to get their summer buzz on. Here are all 3 of my guys and their new dos. (not sure why none of them wanted to smile though, haha)

10k

During 4th of July weekend my good friend and I ran a 10k. It was fun and hard. Lots of hills and we only trained on flat roads, but it went great. Since we've already gone half the distance we're planning on running a half marathon in Sept and Oct. I'm very grateful to have a running buddy!!

They took these silly pictures on mile 5 of the race. Wasn't sure what to make of them, but kinda fun to have an action pic!

This was after the race in our front yard. We were so proud of ourselves :o)

True LOVE!

This little man has a hold of my heart! He truly makes me so happy and has been such a wonderful baby. He's not perfect, but every time I look at this cute face I can't help but forget sleepless nights and crying fits during the day.

As kids get older and mouthy and stubborn we tend to forget how perfect they come into our lives and how the simple smiles and first laughs can make pretty much any bad day better. It's been my goal to try and remember that every time I look at my kids and Will is a wonderful reminder of that to me.

I am grateful to be a mother and so grateful for my special babies that I and blessed to take care of.

Happenings

It's been a while.... Here are some random pictures to get you all updated on our happenings

This was during our move from the condo to the house. The kids sat like this and watched movies while I cleaned. Funny thing that I couldn't get Beck to take that silly bike helmet off, haha! It must be one of his comforts or something, seeing as a helmet made his cute little head what it is today, haha!

We are one of the lucky ones that got to move next door to our best friends! These 3 kids go everywhere and do everything together! It's been so fun for us all!

We've also been lucky that our neighborhood has a small HOA fee and we have access to a great pool and club house. My sister lives really close to us know and they often join us for some fun in the sun. This tends to be what Beckham and Izzy do....sit by the pool and eat :o)

Here are the other cousins...Ethan, Liv, and Tess. So nice that they are great buds!

And this is what little man Will does at the pool, haha! Kinda makes it nice for me cause I'm able to soak in a little more sun during his naps....love Utah summers!

He (we) did it!!!

Well, after 3 long years of hard work we are so proud to announce that Steve has received his doctorate of pharmacy!! I'm so proud of all of his hard work and dedication.
It was a great day and one I will always remember. I was brought to tears, tears of joy and pride, as Steve walked with his graduating class....it surprised me that I did that, but I couldn't help my feeling of complete happiness and gratitude for all that Steve has done and for all that we accomplished as a family. We had a great trip back to good old Erie, PA and will truly miss all of our good times and great friends out there. That will forever be a place and time we hold dear to our hearts.
YAY Steve! You (we) did it!!!

Lookin' sharp in his cap and gown......though I did tease him about being a character out of Harry Potter, haha!

On stage receiving his diploma

So proud of him!

Steve's parents, David and Irene, and Steve's brother, Wayne, were able to make the trip out with us. We were so happy to have them their and had a great time :o)

Steve's study buddies and some of our best friends! Skip, Jason, Steve and Aaron


The whole group! Skip and Brook, Me and Steve, Jason, and Aaron and Nikki

As for Steve's future as a pharmacist....He's been given a great job at Harmon's Grocery store where he'll work as a graduate pharmacist until he takes his boards sometime in the next couple of months and will then be bumped to a legit pharmacist once all his test are done.

Together Forever!

My cute little brother, Evan, was married on May 21st. His sweet new wife, Jessica, has been a wonderful part of our family for several years... but now it's official and we couldn't be happier for them. Love you guys!!

First picture as husband and wife

Love this one....I think they look like cake-toppers, haha!

Both sets of parents

Cute girls in their matching dresses....Izzy, Tessa and Olivia

Our little family at the temple. The boys weren't too happy about taking pictures.

It was a wonderful day! I love being reminded of promises made and having a renewed gratitude for the blessing of a wonderful marriage and life with an eternal family.

New House!

Here's our new place! We LOVE it! We close on June 1st. We've already been able to meet a lot of people from the neighborhood (thanks to the Olsen's :o) and we can't wait to get moved in!

First Video

This is a video for Will's great-grandma Pat :o) And for all family and friends that can't be here with us. Hope you enjoy the happy little man!

A Few of my Favorite things...

Just a few pictures that make me smile or laugh every time I look at them :o)

Tessa loves to sit with Will and read to him or sing to him or explain what she's drawing. It's cute because if Will's fussy he'll calm down as soon as she starts talking to him. She's a great helper!

On Thursday nights I have my "mommy time-out" time. A couple weeks a go I came home to find Beckham like this. Steve said he hadn't realized Beck had fallen asleep, but that he must have ended up like that because he had a yucky diaper and didn't want to sit on it, haha!

One Sunday I was very much in need of extra sleep, so Steve got up with the kids. When I came out of the room, this is what I found. Guess everyone needed dad to be around that morning :o)

This makes me laugh every time! He looks like a little old man! Love him!!!

New Pictures of kids

We did a newborn photo session for Will a couple weeks a go as well as some pictures of all 3 kids together and some individual pics of the older kids too. The girl that took them was great! If anyone is looking to get some pictures done, I highly recommend her :o) There are too many good pictures to put all of them on here. These are just some of my favorites. I did however leave out the pics that will be going to family, so they can still have a little surprise when they see them. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

This is one of my favorites because Will pulls this face all the time. He's a very happy, but serious baby.

Here's the happy side :o)

He loves his pacifier!

Snuggle bug

My favorite little feet

Love them!

Isn't she getting so big and so pretty?

Sweet boy Bubs!