Thursday, December 27, 2012

Maxwell

Meet Maxwell Edison Blair. He decided to join our family today. Seven weeks ahead of schedule. It's a really long story and I truly intend to blog about it. Later. When I'm not falling asleep as I type it.
He came in weighing a whopping 4 lbs 2 oz and is 17 inches long. His lungs are slightly underdeveloped because he was so early, so for now, he's in the NICU so his lungs can get strong and stable. He's perfect. Teeny tiny perfection. 
I'm smitten.
Thank you to Brandon for taking these photos since I can't! :)

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

I have lots of Christmas festivities to post. Until I get to it, Merry Christmas, from our little family! We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

This year, due to 2 weddings surrounding Thanksgiving, both of which were in CA....we spent Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in 8 years. It was a crazy day! I felt..not amazing. Surprise. But still helped out as much as I could. I did the stuffing, a pie and the table. Becca and my mom covered the rest. Working with limited resources, Kade and I went leaf collecting around the neighborhood before dinner to help decorate the table and make it more festive. 

Dinner was so delicious. It was fun to spend the holiday with some family. 
Kade wanted the biggest leaf on his plate. 

After dinner, Kade practiced his photo skills. 


Our family on Turkey day. I look as good as I felt.

Pie time. My mom always goes way overboard. 
Tadd waited so patiently for his slice.
And then enjoyed it thoroughly.
This was the pie invention of the year. Daniels idea: s'more pie. Graham cracker crust, chocolate cream and roasted marshmallow. 
My pie. Delightful.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

It's Gone. Nearly.

Kade's hair is rapidly leaving his head. His bald spots were getting so bad that the long hair was just looking weird attempting to cover it. Plus the oils we've been putting on the spots made the long hair really greasy etc. It was time to say goodbye. Many tears were shed on his part. He was sobbing, "I miss my hair." It broke my heart. But we have some pretty awesome guys in our family that made it a "cool thing" to shave your head. Let's be honest...Grandpa's head is already mostly gone anyway....but it still helped Kade feel better about it all. Daniel, Aaron, Brock and Joey also joined in the fun. In fact Brock ended up having a mishap with his shaving of the head that he was quite upset about. Kade told him, "don't worry Brock, it will grow back." It was funny because the kid that needed comforting earlier ended up being the one to comfort....

I looked at the Alopecia hashtag on Instagram. Not a good idea with my pregnancy hormones. I'm just overwhelmed and impressed by how many people are so proud of their baldness. I hope Kade can get to that point eventually. Because the tears over missing his hair hurts my heart. I know it's only hair, but hair makes a big difference on a person's appearance. And yes he's a boy, which is great but he's also 4. He's too young to bic it. We're trying to teach him that it's not a big deal, that way when kids tease him...it hopefully won't affect him quite as much. 

Thanks boys for shaving your heads to make my little guy's life a little easier. 

My Boys

photo credit: Elisabeth Kate Studios


I love these two boys. More than I can put into words. I'm a pretty lucky mom. Today, I'm extra blessed. Tonight, I got to give them hugs and kisses and tuck them into their beds. They are here. With me. A lot of tears were shed today. Most of them were due to sadness and grief. The rest, were due to gratitude. I'm so lucky I get to be their mom. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

So Much To Catch Up On....

However, tonight I feel it's more important to write a few things down. Things I don't want to forget. Though, I don't know how I ever could. They're probably small and insignificant to most but to me, today, they meant the. world.

A little background info. I have not yet shared this on my blog. I don't know why, maybe denial, maybe thinking the people that would care, already know....? I don't know.

Here's the thing, we're moving to...


If you're not sure just how you feel about this...you're feeling a mere fraction of how Aaron and I have been feeling. Emotionally, we're a wreck. 

Now, let me clarify, I have nothing against Texas. Really. Well, two things...it's lack of snow caps and widespread adoration of country music. I'm not saying fields of wildflowers are ugly, nor am I saying that the kind folks that sing/listen/promote country music aren't people that deserve friends and loved ones...I just really, really REALLY love mountains (it might be a sickness)....and REALLY dislike country music. That's all.

Aaron and I have built a life here. It's only been 7.5 years. But all three of our kids have been/will be born here. We've made friends and memories and started traditions here. For both of us, this is home. (Aaron has said it himself, I'm not putting words in his mouth. Promise.) 
We've had personal experiences, that have led us to this decision to move. We're confident that it's the right decision for our family. We've felt an urge to move for a while, we just didn't know where. Now that we do and it's getting closer and more real. It's a hard pill to swallow. 
We are having a hard time focusing on the good that will come out of this move. We can't stop thinking of things we'll miss. For example:
*The MOUNTAINS! A lot of our traditions are mountain based, plus they're just pretty spectacular.
*Friends, family, our ward. This is the best ward we have ever been in. Ever. EVER.
*About a gazillion temples, within an hour of where we are.
*Kade's super duper best friend Christopher. (He keeps asking if Christopher can move with us.)
*Macey's. Not the department store.
*My business/clients. That we started from nothing and became successful. 

I know, I know, we'll be able to be happy wherever we go. We'll make new friends, new clients, new traditions, blah blah blah...  But the transition is still hard. 

Now, on to my main point. You thought that was it, but it wasn't! 
There's been stress. Aaron moves on Sunday. Yes, the Sunday that's three days away. I will be left alone, pregnant with two rather rambunctious boys. Don't feel bad for me, we chose it. I didn't want to find a new doctor just weeks before having a baby. So we chose for me to stay behind to have the baby. We feel good about the choice. 
The stress is finding somewhere to live, without being there. Finding an area with good schools, good neighbors, etc. We've had lots of welcomed help with this stuff though, so that's been very nice! 
We've also had a lot to get done around our house/yard before he goes. 

Today, I decided to tackle the leaves in our yard. Kade was being helpful, trying to at least. Once Aaron finished a project he was working on in the house, he joined us too. My body was hurting. Everywhere. This hasn't been the easiest of my pregnancies. I'm more exhausted, more worn out, still sick....blah. But, knowing what little time we have left before Aaron moves I was determined to continue working. If you've seen our yard, you know, we have a lot of trees. We also have a lot of yard. This equals hours upon hours of raking. About an hour and a half into the job, two missionaries walked past our house on the opposite side of the street. We waved, said hello, and they continued on their way. I thought to myself, "I wish they'd have stopped to help. Can't they see I'm huge?" But then kept thinking..."Don't be selfish. They're busy, they have much more important work to do. 

A half hour later, they pulled up to the curb. Dressed in more appropriate yard work clothing, rakes in hand. It took everything in me, not to burst into tears. They introduced themselves and got to work. I excused myself. I was in full blown tears before I got to the door. 
I can count on one FINGER, how often we've seen the missionaries walking down our street, since we've lived here. Heavenly Father knew. He knew I needed help. I couldn't have been more grateful....or emotional. Geez. 
We of course fed them, we're not savages. They shared a message with us and then they were on their way. Not only were those elders a huge help, they were a much needed break from our schedule and to-do lists. And a huge answer to lots of prayers! 



Sunday, November 25, 2012

Halloween

My clever titles must be killing you lately. Don't be jealous. They just come to me. 
I've been dying to post Thanksgiving but I just can't post anything out of natural sequence. So here's Halloween. My least favorite of all holidays. However, it is much more fun with little kids. Kade was so into Halloween this year! Also, the best part of my kids....once trick-or-treating was over, they were over their candy. Well Kade was. Tadd could eat only candy and be happy. Their buckets still have candy in them and they haven't asked for it in weeks! Again, try not to be jealous. 


Tuesday night was our ward Halloween party. The kids all lined up for a costume parade. 
Can we talk about their holding of hands here? Their cuteness kills me. But I'm their mom, so that's a given.
I must say, Tadd's costume was a hit. He was Carl from "UP". Then Kade is obviously Captain America.
Two of my super heroes. Aaron is Kade's hero for dressing up like this. He thought it was the best thing in the world. 
Tadd and I teamed up this year. We were "UP". The whole family was going to do this but we had problems finding costumes and I just didn't have energy to be more creative and fashion them out of what we had. So we settled for two different themes. Super Heroes and a Disney movie.
Tadd didn't quite get the concept at first. Once he did though, we couldn't stop him. He kept running back and forth. Even if it meant repeating houses...over...and over. Their babysitter Lindsay found Aaron and the boys after I had gone back to the house to hand out candy. She then ditched her family and hung out with the boys for a little bit. They LOVE her! She was Polly Pocket.
The weather was pretty nice and the trick or treaters were out in the masses. I am going to miss this neighborhood next year. We have the most amazing neighbors! 

Friday, November 16, 2012

Tadd Turned 2!

While we were in California in October, we thought we'd take advantage of having so much of our family in one spot. We had an early birthday party for Tadd. We were lucky enough to have all of our family there. We had Brandon, Jeanessa, Melody, Nathan, Hudson, Nana, Grandpa, Kelsey, Daniel, Jordan, Tawnie, Kylee, Becca, Brock and Joe there. (Joe is Brock's very best friend and he's basically just another brother at this point.) We loved having everyone there. We just ate pizza, hung out and did the presents and cake thing. It was so much fun having everyone there!

He wasn't in the greatest mood apparently. When it came time for opening presents, he was not having any of it. He opened one present and then threw a fit when we tried to get him to open more. What? He's crazy. He eventually warmed up to the idea. 


We sang happy birthday and did the candle thing. Don't worry though, Uncle Brock got trick candles...that kept lighting back up...over. and. over. Good job Brock. You tricked a 2 year old. 
Then we ate ice cream cake. Delightful.

Hudson preferred to eat the table.
 He enjoyed the cupcakes and ice cream.
They're vain.
To end the night Uncle Daniel got Tadd his first tattoo. Classy right?


On his actual birthday, we celebrated in a smaller fashion. When he woke up, he was treated with some chocolate chip birthday pancakes. He loved them.
 I promise he loved them.

Then we spent the morning normally. Kade went to school. Tadd napped. When we picked Kade up from school, we went up to the zoo to spend the rest of the evening there. The weather was amazing and the zoo was near empty. We almost felt like we had the place to ourselves! It was absolutely perfect! We took our time going from exhibit to exhibit and the boys were in heaven!
We are so glad Tadd is part of our family. He's always giving kisses and asking to "hold you". His little smile melts me. He absolutely adores Kade and tries to be just like him. He is constantly surprising us by the things he picks up on. He sure brings lots of laughter (and insanity) into our home.

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