.spring things.

It seems the farther behind I get on this the less time I want to put into it, but I want to keep up with just a few of the things if just for a memory.  Spring is in full force here and we are enjoying all the sunshine and vitamin D we can handle.    E is mustering up more courage to hit the slides and enjoying the thrill of it all.

 We had a picnic in the park one night with some friends and E ate her weight in ranch...her condiment of choice.

 Finn and Meg continue to pick at each other.  There are rare moments when the planets align and they get along, but usually it looks somethings like this...Meg with a dollop of yogurt on her face.  It's very exhausting!

 St. Patrick's day we played it up as much as we could missing mom and dad, and Kay's family.  We wore our green, had a grand scavenger hunt, and had an all out good time.  We snagged a picture of Great G-ma Tiede and most of her great Grandkids.

 Roy has continued to stay busy with work as always, and has started helping my sister with their renovation projects at their house.  His main assistant in the projects ahead is my nephew Noble, who is a lot of help! We have started calling it Reno with Roy.

 While daddy & Noble are busy working...Finn can be found inside lounging.

 We purchased our first pet mainly for the kids.  Darby the cat is adjusting to life in a busy house of three little humans, and seems to be pretty happy.  I'm more of a dog person, but cat's are just easier to take care of at this point in our family.

 We are getting closer to the end of Finn's preschool days, and it's making me a bit sad.  I went and helped out at their Easter party and had a wonderful time watching him play and see how much he has learned these past 2 years.  I don't know how I'll be when he starts Kindergarten this fall.

Easter was totally great with the littles this year.  E had know idea there were treats in the eggs, but had a handle on the whole getting eggs in the basket thing.  Once it was revealed to her that there was candy IN the eggs well, she made quick work of that too.

 Finn spent the afternoon flying his kite with daddy and was content as could be!

 We had a wonderful Easter Sunday with family and remembering the resurrection of Savior Jesus Christ.  Because He lives, we can live with our families forever...that is the greatest blessing their is!

.pool or germs.

We made it though most of the winter without much sickies...a blessed relief from last year.  But this past week we finally got knocked down by all kinds of good germs.  Finn started it out with a cold, Meg followed suite with the flu (influenza-the real deal), and after a few days, E brought it all home with a wicked case of hand, foot, & mouth.  E being the youngest, and the one that seems to get the worst of the germs, has been miserable for three days straight.  Only drinking (when forced), and not eating a single bite.  She is constantly dripping drool, and looking the hot mess that she is.  We've had bad nights sleeping as well and consequently, I'm running on low.  This to shall pass, but for the time being we are just getting by.

.finn turns 5.

Sometimes it's hard for me to imagine that I have a child that is half a decade old because there are things I remember about my life before kids.  And then I look at his baby pictures and I remember how that little man completely changed my life the day I found out I was pregnant.   I love that he is all boy and is creative mind who likes to build and knows everything about tractors.  He is usually a big help around the house, but LOVES to tease his sisters...typical big brother right?!?!  He is curious and is starting to ask very thoughtful questions about the world around him, including what do radio towers do and how do bones move.  He has an amazing memory and can recall things that I have even forgotten.  He has started reading, and knows all of the letters and sounds.  He is also very sensitive and doesn't like new invornments with a lot of new people, but once he gets used to it, he adapts very well.
WE love that Little mr!

 Birthday breakfast

 He insisted on a friend party with a construction theme...easy enough

 playing with his buddies and building...two of his favorite things

 It feels good to be 5! (and yes I realize there are 6 candles)

.closing.

December was another busy, but beautiful month filled with only the things that December brings.  Which namely for us is birthdays and holidays.  The kids were excited about all things Christmas and we made sure to do a lot of activities just for them.
We started with Christmas cookies.  We have never really decorated cookies, but Finn insisted that we do it this year.  There was mostly frosting and candy by the end, but they loved it!

Our friend invited us up to the zoo lights this year, and of course the night we went it ended up raining on us.  Finn's spirit couldn't be dampened, as you can see in this picture.  He kept running around screaming "look at these lights!"  Meg, as you can clearly see, was less then impressed and was soaked cold.  Poor girl was miserable and crying by the end.  I think she was sorely disappointed that she didn't get to see any actual animals.

December brought my 34th.  I was spoiled with presents from friends, lunch with family, and a slice of cake from the Chocolate with my little family!  All in all a most pleasant birthday.

the littles running amok at the Chocolate while we waited for our sugar.

By the middle of December we had received our first really good snow storm that dumped 6" of wet heavy snow.  The kids sat mesmerized watching it fall outside all morning.  I of course spent a good few hours shoveling the drive, which I concluded was an excellent workout.

E is getting a lot of personality lately.  She still doesn't say much of anything, but she certainly communicates her will.  I found her under the table one day enjoying her advent calendar treat.  I suppose she was hiding from intrusive siblings who like to take advantage of her.

We didn't have a chance to make it down to Temple Square this year, but we made it out to the tree of life in Draper on a frigid cold night.  Again Finn was ecstatic to see all the lights!  Meg was sure to remind us often that she was quite miserable and didn't want to be out in the cold tromping through snow (she's the life of the party...just not when she's cold.)

We had a ward Christmas breakfast where the kids were able to tell Santa their hearts desire.  Meg froze and merely muttered out she wanted candy.  Finn laid out his toy wish like a well oiled machine.  And E,...well you can clearly see she wanted nothing to do with him.

A few days before Christmas, Finn and I spent a good hour outside constructing snowmen in the remnants of the snow.  The snow was so wet that it made for easy rolling, but not so easy lifting.  Finn enjoyed it so much that he made 3 additional ones by himself.  I sure love that kid!

We started Christmas Eve off with a little wrestling match on the bed in the morning.  These kiddos love playing with their daddy!

That night, we had traditional family nativity, but this year our numbers had grown so much, that we had to make a last minute move to a near by church.  It actually turned out pretty great with enough room for us all, a stage, good food, and warmth to boot.

E was a sweet little angel

the girls were eager to help uncle Bruce sweep up

Christmas with magical!  We were all healthy this year, and the kids are the perfect age where everything is exciting.  With Meg as our alarm clock, we were up at 5:30 and I had to hold in off in our room while I roused the other two.  It was pure joy watching their faces light up with every gift they received!  Of course the best gift for me was being warm and safe inside my cozy house watching the snow drift outside.  What Bliss!

We took advantage of all the fresh snow and took the kids sledding for the first time.  After spending about 45 min getting everyone suited up, we were both a little worried that it would be a bust (especially with Meg's history of whine).  But it was an absolute success.  Finn couldn't get enough per usual and was such a trooper hauling his sled up the hill over and over again.

Daddy and mommy had the arduous task of hauling the girls up after every run, but it was so much fun!

Even in the bitter wind at the top of the hill these girls were smiling!

Miss M's birthday fall's a mere 2 days after Christmas, so we are in constant celebration mode.  We took Meg out for a birthday lunch with just Mom and Dad, and then took her shopping.  She picked out a sparkly purple crown and wore it proudly.  She is very much a pleasure and joy in our family!

getting comfy cozy in her mermaid tail blanket

Lucky for me, Christmas brings people home so I get to see old friends.  This two sisters will always be some of my dearest friends!  As a bonus, I got to snuggle on both of their babies!

New Years we spent the evening with the Bachands eating Chinese, watching Star Wars, and throwing poppers.  We were of course all in bed by 10, but that's just how we roll.

New year day, Roy and I had our first overnight away from the kids since before we had kids.  5 years folks...oh my.  It was perfect way to start our New Year!

Like most years, 2015 had it up and downs.  Through our struggles though, we learned to lean on our Heavenly Father even more.  He has continued to teach me who is really in charge and where to put my trust and faith.  We are truly blessed, and look forward to what the next year will bring for us!

.thankful.

Since we are already nearing the end of December (Christmas is in a mere week), I realized I needed to update again from our happenings of last month.  We stay pretty busy with three littles, even though it seems we spend the majority of our time at home.  As you can imagine there is usually a wake of chaos wherever we go...including church.  Roy and I have become increasingly more frustrated with our children's behavior during sacrament meeting, and sat down one night in an attempt to come up with a plan to help them out.  We finally decided we needed to practice reverence everyday at home, so they knew what was expected when we came to church.  We started out with five minutes and have worked our way up to 15.  It's still hit or miss most days, but then we have rays of hope too.  As you can see in this picture, E is clearly not having any of it.

Since my parents are in Nauvoo serving a mission, all the siblings pitch in once a month to do a big yard clean up and maintenance day.  November brought with it fall clean up in the largest way.  We raked and picked up wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full.  To keep the young ones engaged we had the boys jumping on the piles of leaves as they were dumped in order to fit as many loads as we could.  These boys throughly enjoyed their task!

The week before Thanksgiving Miss M came down with her first stomach bug.  As you can imagine it was quite traumatic for a two year old.  But within a day she was on the mend and back to her usual cute (and dramatic) self!

Finn's preschool did a big thanksgiving feast and I was able to go and help.  It was a great time watching these kids play and learn.  Finn is energetic and fun loving, and he makes my heart happy!

Thanksgiving day we spent the morning being lazy.  The girls colored away, we watched the parade, and I cooked.  We spent the rest of the day with our small family group, there were only 14 of us.  This was a big change from years past when 40 is our usual number.  Even though we were few in numbers, it was still special to be there together!

 As we were getting ready to leave on Thanksgiving night, my phone was knocked off the table and crashed to it's death.  I was really depressed about the whole thing.  I'm not someone who particularly needs the latest tech.  All I need is a phone that works really, but my old phone was so old that it was barely functioning with the latest OS update.  So we decided to forgo fixing it and just buy a new one.  Ughhhh, not how I wanted to end the month, but that is just how life goes.

Since the holiday break the kids have gotten into a very bad habit of getting up early...like 4 o'clock early.  Even for Roy who is a morning person this is unacceptable.  Here is Meg on one such morning telling daddy all the news.  

 Needless to say we are making changes and enforcing some new rules about what is an acceptable wake up time.  Because we all need more of this!

.getting away from me.

How is it already November?  October completely got away from me, so it should be an epic post seeing as we had a very busy month.

It has seriously been a magical month for the little dudes.  They got to see their first circus, when we scored on VIP tickets from a friend.  It was a late evening so we left E with my nieces, and rode the train down town.  They would have been totally satisfied with that...the circus was just the icing on the cake.
There was a lot of open mouthed stares the whole night.

 And we seriously had the best seats in the house.

 It was a mind blowing experience for these two (pay no attention to Finn's googly eyes in the picture).

Finn and I stayed up late one night and watched the blood moon rise.  We have some much fun with him now that he is older and understands somewhat the goings on around him.  And he is silly as all get out!

Of course we ventured out to a pumpkin patch to grab a cookie, some hot cider, and of course some gourds.  Since we had grown some warty ones in our garden, we only selected two for carving this year, but with Finn and Roy picking of course they were giant.
It didn't feel much like fall as it was nearly 80 degrees outside, but E didn't seem to mind.

We made it up to the mountains to see some of the fall leaves, and hiked one of my favorite hikes.  Hiking with three young kids takes a bit of work, but Finn managed pretty well, and miss M got a ride most of the way up and down on me so all in all not bad.

 I love this place and except for the ducks that we fed, we had it all to ourselves.

 trying to take a selfie with three littles...not really easy to do.

 This is the best way I know to get into fall.

E had her 18 month check up and finally made onto the charts in height and weight.  We are also excited to see what a daily dose of miralax will do for our babe with a slow track!

 She discovered the tomato patch in the garden and decided that the little red fruit was actually to her liking.  YAY, one of my kids will eat tomatoes!!!

I could be wrong, but I like to think that E makes this kissy lips because she has such big teeth.

 On another very warm Autumn day, we made a trip over to Gardener Village with our cousins to see the witches...along with the rest of the valley it seemed like.  Mostly, the kids liked the ducks, fish, and the carmel apple we split.

 October also welcomed our newest family member.  Little Maven (Mae) Sullivan is wonderful chubby addition, and Meg keeps asking when we can go see "baby Maben" again!

Of course our month ended with all the magic that Halloween can bring.  Finn was stoked about his Wall-E costume (which was an absolute labor of love), and was all smiles at his preschool parade.

 We carved our pumpkins a couple of nights before.  Finn really enjoyed using daddy's drill to his hearts content on his giant gourd.

 The night of Halloween we got together with family for a Halloween feast before we embarked on trick-or-treating.
We had poisened apple fondu, deviled eggs, bats wings, mummy dogs, mildew balls, eyeball grapes, and all sorts of other yummy goodies.

E was being a bit of a stinker that night so I didn't get a chance to get all the kids in their costumes, but here are the girls in all their glory.  Pumpkin fairy, and Belle (of course)

 Trick-or-Treating was pretty much as good as we could have hoped for.  Meg and Finn were full of candy motivation, and ran from door to door with their buddies in eager haste to get more.  As we were moving along, I noticed Meg was being burdened down by her treat bucket.  I asked her if she would like me to hold it for her.  She just kept running as said, "no mom, I need to get more!"  She most definitely has Halloween figured out.  Having children makes holidays awesome!
After our epic haul of trick-or-treating goodies, we spent Sunday recovering and relaxing.  The girls especially love watching videos with daddy.