My Favorite Things

 1. This guy. Oscar, I love him so much.

 Seriously he is the best baby in the world. He is so chill. He is always the last one I get to because he is the most quiet. We get home from swimming and he just waits patiently while I get everyone else dressed, and then I will finally get to him, cold and wet.

 He chills quietly while I'm chasing around the girls at playgroup. He falls right to sleep when I lay him down for naps and bed. He eats everything I offer him. He lights up the second I look at him. And when we were at Disney On Ice, he clapped for the first time. Baby firsts, there is nothing better.

 2. This necklace. Juan got me this necklace for Mother's Day and I wear it every day. I love it so much. And I guess it's decided, we are done having kids, because I don't see myself parting with this necklace for the next 20 years.

 3. Splash pads. In particular, the smaller splash pad that isn't stressful or crowded (this one is Falcon Pointe). And it's just so fun to sit and talk with friends in the shade while the kids have the time of their lives. I love Texas.

 4. This picture of Amelia.

 5. Sleeping Babies. Maya saved my life last week. I crashed and burned, major meltdown style (more on that later) and it was right while I was being forced to transition Maya to the big girl bed because she started climbing out of the crib. Well if there ever was a prize for this transition, Maya wins the prize! She loves her bed. It is queen-sized, same one Amelia trained in, and she uses up the full space. She stays in the room, and hasn't once bothered Oscar (or maybe hasn't even noticed him?) sharing the room in the crib. She LOVES it. The first morning she woke up, she wouldn't get out of her bed and asked me to bring breakfast up to her. Ha! Tender mercy for sure.

 More sleeping babies. Yes sometimes Oscar uses pink things. Ha! Function over color in this case.

 6. This family picture. Maya resting on Juan. Amelia's smile. The beautiful scenery. I love it. Thanks Kasee, of course you took it, you take all our great family pics.

 7. My morning "runs". (I put that in quotes because I'm not actually running the whole time yet, but I run more than 50% of the time!) I've never been a runner. This all started with last week and just getting at my wit's end. Because Juan is working so much, I am always on mom duty, and even when it feels like I'm alone because they are napping, I am never alone. You know how it is. I have to carve out this time for me. Every morning after Oscar's first feeding, I escape out into the world on my own! Oh it is so wonderful. It is beautiful, and I listen to my music, and I challenge myself to work harder and then I'm sore all the time and it is just the most wonderful thing for me right now.

 8. This picture. Joy people. This is pure joy.

9. Reading Charlotte's Web to Amelia. I always claimed Charlotte's Web as my favorite book all growing up, and so for my birthday while Juan and I were dating, he got me a beautiful copy of Charlotte's Web. I have carried it around in my baby boxes for years and years, waiting to read it to my children. And now it is happening! Maya is infatuated with the physical book, she carries it around with her everywhere and likes to sleep with it. But she won't hold still (or zip her mouth) for a second while I'm reading it. So Amelia and I have to rip it from her sleeping grip to be able to read it every now and then :)

 10. Haircuts! My dear friend came and cute our hair this week! Amelia and Oscar got tiny trims. Maya got this cute bob that just makes her look so stylish. And I cut off 6 inches, (see below, only picture I've taken since). I love this length on me. Feels fresh and summery!

11. And this picture of the girls at Disney On Ice. More joy. More happiness. I lie in bed every night thinking how wonderful my kiddos are. They challenge me every day. And that is part of what makes them so wonderful.

Summertime!

The pictures in this post just scream Summer! to me. We had a visit from Ginger and Sam this last week and got to meet little Lottie. 

Oscar is 6 months and Lottie is 4 months old, sweet cousins.  

 On the train at the zoo!

 The pool!

 We share a cul de sac with the neighborhood pool and it is a dream. 

 Getting the kids dressed, sunblock on, pool toys, towels, floaties collected. That is enough work, thank goodness we just walk right across the street.

 Oscar loved his first pool trip! The water is still cool, but we get used to it real quick and we might as well live it up since by July it will be warm bath water, ha!

 This picture looks like all my babies^^ Take away the hair, they all look the same to me. 

We are so proud of Amelia. Last year she wouldn't go near the non-toddler area of the pool, even with her floatie. This year, she decided to be brave. She let me let go right away and then the 2nd time we took her she was jumping in all by herself, not letting us catch her, and took off swimming on her own. All with the puddle jumper on but it is just HUGE improvement from last year.

 Oscar and Lottie in matching unisex pjs that Maya and Bennett also wore. Cute!

 Girls!

 Sisters with all our kids. We have a lot of kids.

 Sorry these are out of order, another pool shot. Aren't the girls so cute in their suits? Can't resist.

 The older kids.

 

 And more zoo! I love this picture of Juan.

And finally, Mr Oscar has reached 6 months! It really just flew by. 

He just moved out of our closet to the crib, sharing a room with Maya for the time being.

He just lies on the floor waiting for someone to look at him, and the second he gets attention from the girls or Juan or me, he lights up and just kicks.

He scoots backwards when he is on his back, mostly from being hyper and bouncing his little bum.

He is really trying to scoot, but mostly ends up accidentally rolling over as he is reaching for something, and then gets distracted and forgets what he was reaching for.

He eats eats eats, it is the easiest thing in the world to feed him because he actually opens his mouth for bites.

He loves to reach out and touch people now. He touches my face when I get close enough and Maya's too (because she loves to get in his face).

But he also loves to pull hair, and hard. The best ever that Maya is already fighting with her 6 month old "Oscar hurting me mommy!"

He scans his hand across the pictures in books while I read to him.

And he gives kisses! The big, slobbery, open mouth coming at me, there is nothing better in this world.

We love this baby boy!

Our Easter weekend

We had a fabulous Easter weekend. We celebrated our Savior Jesus Christ and the Atonement and Resurrection. Even my 2 year old was saying, Jesus died for me mommy. I love to teach my children about Jesus Christ and I want them to always know there is a plan for them and all they have to do is trust in the Lord. Every single day I think of that scripture, Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5-6) and it literally gets me through anything. What a blessing. 

Funny story related to this. We were on the phone with my mom and dad and we asked Amelia to tell them what the real meaning of Easter is and Amelia said, Jesus sits on the lawn in front of people's houses... I have no idea where she got that from and it was so random. But then I started her off and reminded her that Jesus died for us and then she went on to say, Yeah and Mary went to His tomb and thought someone took His body, and then Jesus came to her and He was alive again! So she does know the story after all.

Along with teaching about the real meaning of Easter, we also celebrated with the Easter bunny and Easter egg hunts and I love all that fun stuff with the kids. We had a wonderful weekend filled with the best of friends, house stuff, lounging around, a picnic dinner in the park, basically the best weekend ever. 

 

 Hello there chubs.

 We started Oscar on rice cereal this week! And he is officially sleeping through the full night. Not a peep from him between 7:30 pm and 6:45 am. I hadn't been feeding him in the night, but I'd wake up a couple times to put his binky in and pat his back for a 12 counts, and that was killing me. So yes, rice cereal: I love you.

 You guys, how is that me surrounded by children, my children? Sometimes it is unreal to me. They are the best babies in the whole world.

 These pictures are so funny to me because Maya was obsessed with that bunny. They had an awkward good bye where she kept hugging him and then finally he walked off because she kept lingering.

 And our dearest friends. We had dinner at Kasee's for Easter. It was delicious and just so much fun. These are the kind of friends I LOVE to have. On Monday we had a girl's night and I had forgotten. Kasee texted me 4 minutes before they showed up to get me. I hadn't showered that day and I just wasn't pretty. The 4 minute warning was enough to brush my teeth and get in decent clothes and I was off. Those are the friends I love, when it's no big deal to pop out the door looking rough and just hang out.

Happy Easter!

Person by person

Oscar

Are you kidding me with this top picture? It makes me want to go wake him up right now so I can just stare at his cuteness. Oscar is 5 months old now! 5 months sounds way too old, I feel like I was just saying he is 4 months. At 5 months this is what we hear a lot about Oscar from Amelia: "Oscar just staring at me mom" and "Oscar just gave me a happy mile (smile)!" And from Maya: "Oxer really like me!"

 Oscar and his friend Trey

 Having fun with the flash. Amelia said about this bottom picture: "I don't like that one. Oscar look like a ocopus just staring."

 The best smile. And Maya's beautiful eyes. I love my baby boy.

Okay these next pictures are pretty cool:

Here we are pregnant, all of us due within 2 1/2 months of each other.

And here we are with our babies 6ish months later! (Miss you Steph!) Isn't that so fun? Such fun ladies to go through the baby adventure with!

Babies! Oscar was obviously thrilled with the photo shoot.

  Maya

My favorite Maya stuff these days: She and Amelia acting out the opening sister scene in Frozen (or Freezing as we call it in our house). Maya will try to wake Amelia up and word for word they do the scene, complete with Maya laying on Amelia and Amelia bucking her off onto the floor, followed by Maya climbing back up and whispering in her ear, do you want to build a snowman? And then they switch roles and repeat. I die. These girls are the perfect age for this cute movie.

A conversation I had with Maya one morning, when I finally went in and got her after she'd been calling my name for 20 min.

Maya: Do you like me?

Me: Of course I like you, I love you!

Maya: Well... I been waiting for you all day.

Best ever. And she says Well at the beginning of everything (so does Amelia, and I have since noticed I do it too, which is where they got it.) And Maya has a southern accent spin to it. The other day I asked if she was done with her yogurt. She said, "Well... you can have it mommy." Really? She thinks every time I ask if she's done it's because I want to eat her food.

Doing her "Following the leader" march. I can get them to do anything or go anywhere by singing "We're following the leader" from Peter Pan.

 Amelia

Four is a hard age. But it is also wonderful, rewarding, sweet, awesome, heart-warming. Amelia is all of those things. She makes me so happy. 

Yesterday we were at church and I am in the big Primary room with her (where all the kids age 3-7 meet). I just got called into the Primary Presidency so they called me up to the front of the room to introduce me. I stood awkwardly, waved a greeting to all the kids, then sat back down in the back with my class. Amelia was in the front and turned around to give me a big thumbs up and say, "Good job Mom!" It was the cutest thing ever and I cry every time I tell the story because Amelia is just my little buddy and as my sister said, my biggest fan. 

Another funny thing Amelia said. I asked her to explain to Maya what it feels like when you know you need to go potty. She said, "Well right when you feel the poopies (she means pee) dripping out, you run to the potty." No. That means you've waited too long!

 We're working on phasing out this under-bite "smile" she does for pictures.

Me

Five months postpartum. My hair is falling out in chunks. I'm feeling like I should be back on a normal exercise/eating healthy schedule and I'm just not there yet. These 3 kids really exhaust me. And they are too much to exercise with them all awake and with me, and the times they are all asleep, I am sleeping too! Or sitting around doing nothing because it feels good, and I deserve it! So we're working on it, we're getting there. In the mean time I feel down or bad about myself and I don't get in many pictures. And it's silly because that's just not like me so I just need to snap out of it. Getting there.

Juan

Work work work. Working from home a lot so we see him, but busy busy. Our weekends are vital, filled with fun and family memories. Last weekend we ordered pizza at 11 pm and just ate and talked until 2 am. Best date ever. I miss having him by my side every evening. But I do love missing him. I love that I get butterflies as I anticipate the next time I'll get to spend time with him. And I love that we both can buck it up and just work when we need to. It feels good to work hard.