July 6th & 7th: Undedicated poolgoers

Monday morning the kids slept in and I was up for a solid 2 and half, maybe almost 3 hours before they were awake. 😱 It was nuts. Nolan kept me company though for most of that time, and unfortunately decided to be a little crankier than normal so I figured it was time to start feeding him some solids for breakfast. He got his first oatmeal and did great and it did seem to fix his crankiness. I also got my workout in, cleaned the house some, Luna and Bear got picked up, and I showered. When I went to shower, I found the kids sleeping so cutely in my bed, I had to take a picture (they weren't both in our bed all night, Maeve joined in the morning once I woke up). 

The kids woke up while I was getting ready and were being so funny - they love to play with my make up and ask for cologne and perfume, so of course they did that, but they also made up this game where they took turns squeezing my blush brush as hard as they could. Rowan was coaching Maeve on the proper sound effects that should be made while doing it, as if to show they were really putting every last ounce of strength into it. 😂 Silly kids! 

We went downstairs and I got a nice full uninterrupted hour of scripture study in while they had their screen time and then even though they had just had breakfast, after their hour was up they wanted lunch. 😆 Truth be told, since they woke up so late it was already 11 by then, so technically not too early for lunch, but sometimes I worry the only thing Maeve thinks about is food... And if that's true, she gets it from her Dad. That man is certainly in love with food. I am too, don't get me wrong, but he reeeeally knows how to eat. Hopefully I never struggle with her wanting to majorly overeat cause Adam certainly can. Anyway, I fed them lunch so we could get ready and go to the pool. I'm feeling super blessed because last summer we got a membership to the Smyrna Outdoor Adventure Center pool, but with Corona it's not open this year. We were there every single day almost, so the thought of having no pool to go to was pretty depressing for me - but then my friend saved the day. Her and her family will be in Florida for the month of July and she graciously decided to give me her complex pool pass so we could pretend to be them for the month and use her pool. 🙌🙌🙏 It's a pretty nice little pool area too!

Off we went to the pool and enjoyed ourselves. I managed to relax on the sidelines for some of the time and even got Nolan to sleep on me, so that was sweet cuddle time. After he woke up, I got him happy in the stroller so I could fully submerge myself in the water. As a member of the female population, I don't do this very often 😂😂, but there is nothing as refreshing as going fully under the water when you're super hot. It was great. The kids had a ball and I had to pull the plug on our fun so we could get home in time for me to make dinner.

We had the pool completely to ourselves for a while! 

All said and done, we had ourselves a nice little Monday. So it surprised me when the kids were asking me their traditional bedtime question (asked every single night and always the same question, yet Rowan still says it this way everytime: "my question is... hmmm... What are we gonna do tomorrow?" - not sure why he even has to think about it... 😂) and my answer was "go to the pool again!" and Maeve said she didn't want to. I'm sorry, what?! You'd rather be bored at home child?! I guess she wishes we could go with friends, but unfortunately I can't invite anyone else. I really hope I can convince her it's still the best option, because hanging at the pool is certainly my favorite way to spend the summer cause it usually keeps the kids happy and entertained and we all get some good summer tans. 

And yet, that brings us to Tuesday and we did not in fact go to the pool today. We just had a low key day at home doing preschool, some puzzles, playing Just Dance, and discovering that Alexa can make a lot of different farting noises. Yep. We're that cool. The things you never think you'll say to your kids... You can add "okay this is the last time we're going to do the farting noises..." to that list. 😂🤦

Two bummers of the day:

~Realizing I somehow made a goof and thought Rowan's next hematology appt was July 11th. When I looked on the calendar and saw that date was a Saturday I knew something was up and turns out his appt was for June 11th and we missed it. 🙄🙄 Maybe it's a blessing though because with our current insurance plan, the visit would cost around a few hundred bucks and I'm 95% positive his platelet count is completely back to normal now and he's totally fine. We're thinking we will see if the pediatrician will run some labs just to be safe so we can avoid such an expensive visit. Not sure if that will fly, but even if it doesn't, I'm not too worried about rescheduling it.

~My Google search telling me that Target had disinfectant wipes in stock, when they in fact did not. So I drove all the way over there for nothing tonight. 🙄

Oooooh well. Life is still great as long as my 5 year old's not giving me attitude. She's really good at that these days... Send help.

Is it funny to anyone else that Nolan basically learned how to finally sit up on his own when he himself got himself into sitting position from laying down?! My other kids were sitting up by 5-6 months and learned that separate skill much later, but he has been so lazy about sitting up on his own and now he's finally doing it because he's getting himself into that position on his own. 😂🤷‍♀️ Also, all he needs is a package of wipes. Give him that to play with and he'll be happy for hours. I might as well go throw away all my baby toys! 😂😂

Peace and blessings. ✌️

July 4th & 5th: Let freedom ring etc.

Uh oh. I'm already slacking on this daily writing thing. In my defense, I have been doing my writing at night and on the 4th of July we got home from a friend's house late and I wouldn't have even been able to start writing until midnight. I just didn't have it in me. I have no good excuse for yesterday, other than once you've missed one night it's a lot easier to say "I've already missed, so... I can be lazy again" -- why is the all or nothing mentality SO strong?! I just listened to a podcast episode by Jody Moore about this actually. She talked about how it really is just human nature to often have an all or nothing mentality. It's something we have to acknowledge and purposely fight the urge to think that way. So interesting. I really like her podcast Better Than Happy. So many good nuggets to think about. Our thinking is really powerful and simply changing your thought process about something when it isn't serving you can go a long way! I'm excited to listen my way through all her episodes.

ANYWAY, we had a great 4th of July. Adam snapped this picture of Maeve and I before we woke up. The ultimate snuggling! 😍

We had a low key morning and other than cleaning and getting ready for the day, we did some preschool catch up. We read the Gingerbread Man story and the kids had fun making some cute play dough Gingerbread men. They also pretended to be the Gingerbread man by "_____ as fast as you can" (running, skipping, hopping, jumping, rolling, crawling, dancing etc.) based on the action that they drew from my hand (all written on popsicle sticks - and Maeve read all the words herself!). They especially loved this game and wanted to play it twice. It's so cute to watch Rowan follow Maeve's lead and excitedly do whatever she is excited about.

The real 4th of July fun started with some pictures of the kids in their 4th of July getup on our front porch. I am such a sucker for matching clothes and I was quite excited for the boys to be able to match for the first time. TOO much cuteness!!

The outtakes are always the best! What 95% of the pictures end up looking like... 🤦‍♀️😂

The winner of the bunch 🥰

😍😍😍

We went over to a friend's house at 3pm for the rest of the day to celebrate. The kids had a ball playing in their kiddie pool and jumping on their trampoline. They also had a fun new jungle gym dome to climb on and that was a hit too. It gave us adults some good time to chat and enjoy each other's company and make all the food! We had burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, chips and dip, and some bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers that were SO addicting I seriously wanted to eat them all. Gimme all the cream cheese and bacon!!! 🤤🤤 I will definitely have to make them again myself. We also did some daytime fireworks and nighttime fireworks and I quickly learned that both of my children now hate fireworks that go off too close to them but also are terrified of the sound in general. We had planned on going to watch a big fireworks show after doing our own, but ended up changing our minds and it's a good thing we did because I think Maeve would have had a nervous breakdown and never recovered. It was so odd because both of them actually loved the fireworks last year so I really thought they'd end up loving them even more this year, but nope. They hated them so much they both escaped back into the house after the first ones went off. Such a shame! We put on a movie for the kids and us adults enjoyed chatting outside for a while and then had a little jam session on the guitar (mostly Adam playing). We didn't end up leaving until like 11:30pm - it's been a long time since we've hung out with friends that late!! I blame Corona - once you get a taste of socializing after a long time of none, it's hard to let go haha. Here's some pics from our hanging:

Sunday was a nice relaxing day, as per usual. The kids did well for home church and Rowan is just getting better and better at singing all the songs. So cute to listen to! I got some ironing done, which has been piling up for longer than I care to admit. It's going to take a few ironing sessions to finish it all, but I'm just glad I finally forced myself to get started on it. As a mom to young kids, I feel like my to do list has about 20 items on it per day, 10 of which are always the same and then I only ever have time for about 15 of them total. Ironing was always between 15-20 soooo yeah. If only there were 1 million hours in a day. Surely I'm not the only one that feels this way and other moms can relate to never ending to do lists that never get finished all the way. 🙄 Other highlights of the day included:

~The kids playing in the playroom on their own accord for a solid hour and a half probably while Adam and I enjoyed a much quieter downstairs with Nolan. It was seriously a treat because that is rare for them to go that long without bugging us, and to top it all off I went upstairs later and found the playroom totally clean -- not only did they play, but they also completely cleaned up after themselves before leaving the room without being asked. I'm sorry, what?! 😲🤯 You'd think it was my birthday or Mother's Day. Proud mom moment for sure!

~Crispy sriracha "chicken" for dinner made with cauliflower. Our second time having it and it's SO good!

~I made some homemade vegan Challah bread. It was really good! I've decided Sundays are best spent making good food and baking.

~This one actually happened on Friday at Costco, but I forgot to write it and it dawned on me later -- I was trying to hold hands with Rowan walking through the store after taking him potty and he wouldn't take my hand and then said "Mommy, there are no cars coming". 😂 I replied, "Oh, so we only need to hold hands when cars are around?" to which he responded, "yes". Right after this, Maeve grabbed my hand, so then he decided to grab my other hand. Always gotta be like Maeve, no matter what!

I'll have to finish my catch up by blogging about today tomorrow. I'm about to turn into a pumpkin if I don't go to bed. Don't ever tell Maeve that though, she does not take jokes well (I know from experience...🤦‍♀️)

Oh and here's our dog's house that Adam made waaay back when she was a puppy, but never stained it. Finally just got that done. Should have prioritized it more than we did (she just turned 2....), but at least it looks great now!

Peace and blessings. ✌️

July 3rd, 2020: I wanna get the coronavirus

The tiny boys of the house and I were the first ones up this morning. The best kind of mornings are the mornings where my little people like to start things slowly by just sitting and chatting with me. This morning was one of those, where Rowan was happy to cuddle next to me on the rocking chair and just talk to me in his sweet little voice. I'm sad that his voice will not always sound like what it does right now. The sound itself puts a smile on my face (unless he turns into rage monster and then it's a lot louder and less cute 😂) and sometimes I put all my energy into just listening to him.

After our typical morning routine, we got ready and made the journey over to Costco. Eventually we'll have one here in Murfreesboro, but right now the closest one is 35 minutes away in Franklin. It's the same one we went to when we lived in Nashville. So for now, we go every couple of months and really stock up. When we got to Costco Rowan was not really going for his face mask and he said to me - - in that reassuring tone of voice where you're trying to make it clear the other person shouldn't worry about anything because everything is fine - - "I wanna get the coronavirus Mommy" - no mask, no problem. He's ready to be sick. 🙊😅 Ironically while in the store though, without his mask on (cause ya know, there's really no way to force that child), he said "Maybe I'll get coronavirus in my eyes" and then promptly put his sunglasses on to protect himself. 😂😂😂 He kills me! We got some Costco lunch for a whopping $6 and change for the family and did the math that if we chose to eat Costco food everyday for lunch and dinner we'd spend $70 a week. It's almost just as cheap to eat that food every single day as it would be to grocery shop for the week. So crazy! We also stopped at Academy Sports to get a new camping chair for Maeve since hers broke recently and then dropped into Walmart for a few items as well.

We got home just when the dogs we watch every weekend showed up - a favor I'm doing for a friend in my ward that is recently divorced and now works doubles on the weekends a bit far from her house and the dogs need some loving and attention. They're sweet and the kids love it. Maeve is always ready to unload their food and such and get it all set up where it needs to be all on her own. Nolan and Bear even had a special moment today. 😍

We did preschool after getting everything situated and all our groceries put away and then had potstickers for dinner - it may come as a shock to some, but if my kids could only eat one thing for the rest of their lives that is more filling than candy, it would be potstickers. So random to me, but it all started when at the beginning of quarantine Adam decided to buy some bags for the freezer thinking it'd be an easy dinner option. I assumed picky Rowan would never even touch a potsticker, but he was curious enough to try one and is HOOKED just like Maeve. It kinda turned into a thing to eat them every Friday for a little while and if we have them in the house there's no way around it - the kids will go crazy for them and insist we eat them EVERY Friday. We certainly will not always have them in the house, but we had gotten more of them for both of their birthdays knowing it's what they'd want for their birthday dinner. I really can't complain because I do love potstickers too and it's an easy way to cheat and have meat, which is normally not in our house. 

A couple other noteworthy things to mention from today:  

~Rowan was drawing a picture for me at the table today during preschool and he said "It's gonna be kinda scary, but I like scary things. You close your eyes though cause it's scary." -- apparently, I am more of a wimp than him and also it should be noted that when I opened my eyes, he said "there it is! A circle!" News flash: circles are scary. 😂

~Maeve and I got sidetracked during her reading lessons tonight and she started asking me questions about the dogs we were watching and why we watch them every single weekend. She was confused on why their mom would have to work because she doesn't see me go to work so in her little brain only men work. We ended up having quite the intellectual conversation and then she caught herself before she asked another question and said "Mmm. Okay, I'm good now, I wanna learn again" and buried her little head back in her book of reading lessons. I just love her so much. Which is exactly what I said to her after giving her a little squeeze when she said that. As of today, we are halfway through the book - she's cruising and loving every second. 

Enough is enough - time to go get some Crumbl cookies and watch Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. My happy place for sure. 

I'll leave you with this picture of Nolan, because it's how you'll find him most of the time now. His favorite position for sure. For a minute there, I thought he was going to start crawling before he could even sit up on his own (he's been kinda lazy with that one) but today he finally did sit up for a good while before toppling over. He'll be crawling before we know it!

Aaaand it should be mentioned that it's 10pm and Maeve is still awake laying in her bed singing songs from Zombies. 🤦‍♀️😂 My sister told her about it and we watched it at her house and she is OBSESSED. 

Peace and blessings. 

July 2nd, 2020: When the day takes a turn...

This morning I overslept. It's happened a few times since I made my commitment to wake up at 5:30 every morning that my baby will wake up to eat at 5am. It's kinda the worst cause I feed him and get him back settled in bed by 5:20am and who wants to wake up 10 minutes earlier than they have to at that early hour?! But tasting 10 more minutes of sleep is never a good idea for me or realistic. I should have known to not let myself shut my eyes again cause before I knew it it was 6:45 and Adam was getting ready for work. Too often I'm all or nothing, so even though I was mad at myself and should have just gotten out of bed then, I decided to go back to sleep again and just enjoy sleep. 😂 The kids woke up at 7:45am and I still managed to do a shorter, yet effective workout and get scripture study in by the time their screen time finished so that made me feel better! Not all was lost.

My plan for the rest of the day was to eat breakfast, do a little bit of cleaning, get preschool done, and then hit up the splashpad, but then out of nowhere Adam showed up home from work at 11:45am while I was cleaning out our guest bathroom trash can. The plot thickens! His boss let him off early since no companies were really answering their phones and it seemed pointless to continue. Bring on the long weekend hours earlier than expected! He wanted to make a rolling shelf for his weights to sit on so they could easily be pulled in and out of our downstairs closet, so I changed gears and we went to Home Depot. We also stopped at Old Navy and I finally scored some new flip flops for Rowan who desperately needed new summer sandals to replace the ones from last summer that were not quite cutting it anymore. AND we decided to eat lunch at Culver's which the kids were thrilled about and so was I because I took my chances and indulged in the custard to see if Nolan might be okay with dairy again in my diet at this point. We had gotten crumbl cookies and donuts on different occasions over the last few weeks and neither messed with him at all, so I thought what the heck! Might as well really get a lot of dairy in me and really know what my limits should be. Their custard is just the best and so far he has not ended up a cranky mess so 🤞🤞.

So we had a fun little afternoon that I had no idea was in store when I woke up this morning - always a win! We managed to get preschool done before the kids needed to get ready for bed and Rowan turned into a wild animal and basically had a food fight with himself with spaghetti noodles. They were even all over his head at one point! 🤦🤣 The noodles were used for an activity where they had to dig through them to find hidden shapes - we had read the fairy tale Strega Nona where there's a mishap with a bunch of pasta so it fit the theme. Never a dull moment!

Maeve cracked me up because as things were getting a little out of hand with the pasta, she was getting sticky and said "ugh, I'm exhausting!" but clearly meant to use the word disgusting and just got her words mixed up. 😂😂

Three final notes:

1. I just love that so often I find Zoey near the baby. She was always so glued to him as a tiny baby and now that he's more mobile, I still find her kinda following him around on the floor. 😂😍 The tiniest ones of the house gotta stick together.

2. Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is getting pretty juicy in the love department! Glad I decided to watch it. I'd for sure recommend it. It's cute - those musical shows always rope me in.

3. Rowan's new thing is to say "I guess" very begrudgingly when he decides to give in and follow directions from me or listen to me about anything really. 🤣 It's kinda hard not to laugh under my breath. It's a tough life when you're 3 boyfriend, I know.

Peace and blessings. ✌️

July 1st, 2020: Dog Birthdays

Are dog birthdays really supposed to be celebrated? Today our dog Zoey turned 2. Maeve really was hoping I'd wrap some presents for her, just so she (Maeve) could unwrap them. 😂 Part of me wanted to let it be fun for her even though Zoey is clueless, but at the end of the day I didn't end up getting out to get her any new treats or toys or anything in time for today, so nothing special really happened. But again, Zoey has no idea so she's not missing anything - so I guess I shouldn't feel bad per se.

I'm totally a creature of routine. Recently I've decided to suck it up and attempt to be a morning person by waking up earlier than my kids to workout and shower and be ready for the day before they're needing me. Surprisingly it's gone pretty well and I actually kinda love it. I really enjoy my morning work outs and previously I would do them first thing in the morning while the kids had screen time on their tablets. This worked okay, except for the times I'd end up being interrupted a million times because the kids were thirsty, or hungry, or Rowan needed help going potty or they for some reason started trying to kill each other etc. etc. - and then a 45 min workout ended up taking 2 hours. 🙄🙄 It has been really nice to work out in total peace and quiet and I've also now been able to devote the kids hour of screen time to scripture study instead. So now the first few hours of my morning are mostly me time and it sets up the day well! Today was no different and I also made my go to healthy pancakes and listened to some Come Follow Me podcasts. Totally my jam! I love Don't Miss This and Come Follow Me For Us.

Other things that got done today:
➡️ Haircut for Rowan - painful, but not AS painful as the last one. He normally acts like I'm killing him and hurting him the entire time, whereas this time he was somewhat relaxed for part of it. Also I'm so over blonde boy hair. His hair is really hard to cut well even when he is still! 🙄 I always see spots that need fixing later when the sun hits it just right.

➡️ Preschool - more for Maeve than Rowan, but since he's with us he often participates. Today they were building with blocks and the entire time he built this he chanted "I will build it! I will build it!" repeat x 1000. 😂 He also said at one point when his tower was small "It isn't much big. I need it to be much big, so I need much blocks!" - I can't even correct grammar misused so cutely! 😍

Working on spelling G words

➡️ Made pumpkin muffins with the kids - I usually stick to the Fall for all things pumpkin but I came across a healthier recipe and wanted to try it out. They were good!!

➡️ Reading lessons with Maeve. She's getting so good so quickly! She's my little sponge and I just love her love for learning. Like she loves it so much that sometimes I hold it over her head if she's misbehaving (ie. "if you don't stop, we won't do preschool later!" 😂🙈 - call me crazy, but it gets her to cooperate usually).

And now it's time to wind down a bit and watch Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.

Peace and blessings. ✌️

June 30th, 2020: I owe you what?

Today I went to the dentist to get a permanent crown put on. The dentist is my home away from home and before I die I suspect they'll have most of my husband's hard earned money in their pockets. Within the last couple of months I have taken care of a root canal plus crown in addition to replacing another crown - and today, at the end of my visit they laid it on me that they mistakenly overlooked that I had maxed out on benefits before doing that second crown. So in addition to the near $600 I had already paid them for that, they said "whoops, now you also owe us $1100 because insurance couldn't actually cover any of that at all..." - not the best news to hear at 10am to put you in a happy mood on your way home. They gave me a fancy tooth brush to say sorry, but really I just want to keep my money. I ended up paying half of it and Adam will try and fight paying the rest since it was their mistake. Hopefully they will see that they should have to eat it. As my dad put it, I was nice to pay half of it. 😂

That was a major low point of the day, but luckily there were other highlights, such as:

➡️ Rowan reminding me that the baby drinks milk from my "boobies" but also eats baby food 😂

➡️ Maeve telling Rowan she needed to stop playing with him so she could "take care of some birthday stuff" to which he responded "Okay. Is it my birthday?" - mind you, his birthday was 2 weeks ago but that has already left him apparently 🤣

➡️ Rowan eating pretzels off the floor of the van that he had previously crushed up by spilling them and then walking on them. I told him not to do it and that that's gross and he said "I'm just eating them because it's messy Mommy" 🙈 - note taken dude, I need to vacuum it up. Probably a better approach than to just eat them to make them go away, haha.

➡️ Stopping by a friend's house to deliver a birthday gift and homemade card by Maeve for her son John who turned 4 today. On the way there, Maeve said "Mom, I don't LOOOVE John, I just love him a little bit" 😂🤦

➡️ As we passed another friend's complex, Maeve said "hey that's where we would go if we were going to Addie's house!" - we've only been over there a handful of times and it always surprises me that she pays attention so well while in the car and remembers stuff like that after only going a few times. I must say, I pay zero attention in the car when I am not the driver so she has certainly one-upped me!

➡️ My friend putting some feathers in my hair while I was at her house. A new subtle and fun look for the summer! And not to mention it's always fun to chat with another mom. 🤗

➡️ I ordered the pony-o and it came in the mail today. I do think it makes for a fuller pony tail and leaves no dents, so I'm excited about it!

I think that's all she wrote for today. BUT even though I wrote yesterday, I didn't really talk about the day specifically and I just have one thing that needs to go in the books cause it's so dang cute. Rowan and Maeve were playing doctor on each other for a while being all cute and happy together while I was treating some stained clothes on the stove (cooking the clothes as Adam calls it 😂), but eventually they wanted me as a patient. Rowan went to take my temperature with a thermometer made out of felt and said "Open up Mommy, but don't actually close because it's grossie!" 😂😂 - I just love that boy and that that's how he chooses to say gross. Thanks for the recommendation bud, cause feeling felt on my tongue would in fact be pretty grossie.

Peace and blessings.

Records

It's been a long time. I have been so spotty with this blog since Rowan was born and sadly he's 3 now with a little brother. Shame on me.

We rounded out 2019 with the birth of another son, our sweet Nolan. He was born on December 2nd, 2019. Lucky for us, he's the sweetest, most mellow little boy that we needed (thank you Heavenly Father 🙏🙏), but the hours leading up to his grand entrance were not so sweet. Maybe just a little sweet, in the hard-stretch you-spiritual kinda way, but I will not get into the full story now. Soon enough it will show up on this blog.

Times are crazy right now in this world. We are in the middle of a pandemic due to the Coronavirus which has been spreading like wildfire through the nation. In March and April we were in strict quarantine with a stay at home order and since we have no major reason to be out and about, we've mostly stayed hunkered down since then aside from a trip to my Aunt's house for a day and my sister's house for a week at the end of May/beginning of June. Luckily, the weather was pleasant through March and April and we were able to get out on lots of walks and scooter/bike rides for Maeve and Rowan around the neighborhood. That fresh air plus baking fun goodies certainly saved my sanity! My feelings have been all over the place about it - - from feeling not too affected since my life as a stay at home mom didn't change a whole lot despite no more play dates and no church on Sunday, to feeling nervous that I'd never be able to buy toilet paper or paper towels ever again and eventually the shelves might be totally bare. Thanks be to God that neither of those things happened, but at this point we have reopened things up and cases are going up again. It's settling in that this virus is never really going to go away and life as we know it will be different for a while. Who knows how long. Maeve is starting (or supposed to be starting anyway) Kindergarten in about a month and I have no idea if that will really happen or what it will look like. It's already tough knowing that she will be leaving me for hours each day for the first time ever, but even more tough sending her off in such strange circumstances.

Anyway, one major blessing of this pandemic has been home church. I am embarrassed to admit that prior to this, we were never good about doing Family Home Evening or talking about the scriptures with our children. Once church was cancelled for the foreseeable future, it became up to us to give our children spiritual nourishment and do our own church meeting each Sunday. Somewhat forced into it though we may have been, I now realize what a sweet blessing it has been to have the spirit in our home during these meetings and how simple it can be to teach them what they need to know right now, yet still very powerful. The first Sunday (and every Sunday since) Rowan was dead silent with his arms folded for the entirety of both sacrament prayers and this is coming from the boy who is very rowdy during normal Sacrament meeting at church. I really believe in our more intimate family setting, he is able to better grasp the importance of what is going on and that has been heartwarming to witness. I myself have been staying on track with Come Follow Me this year and studying the Book of Mormon has been really amazing this year. It is truly a remarkable book and thanks to some podcasts I listen to that cover the material each week as well as the Come Follow Me manual, I'm really getting so much more out of it than I ever have before. Consistent scripture study has always been hard for me, but everything has come to life so much more this time around that now it feels like something I would greatly miss if I were to stop reading and studying. It is changing my life and I'm so grateful.

In some of my recent study, the importance of family records was mentioned and the Book of Mormon itself is really a big family record passed down from generation to generation. It is scripture to us, but the accounts are really just the happenings among these ancient prophets in their lives with their families. I kept feeling nudged that I should get back into this blogging and it always seems so daunting to get truly devoted to this, but the thought popped into my mind if I could just do 1 quick post a day highlighting the good, bad, ugly and memorable moments of that day I would end up with a pretty solid family record that doesn't feel as overwhelming. So that's why I'm back here now, and that is the plan! Aside from sharing Nolan's birth story, that is my plan moving forward. Let's hope I can stay committed and make this happen. These years with little children are fleeting and someday I won't remember hardly any of the funny/heartwarming stuff that these kids are doing and saying right now, unless I write it down. So here's my journal, really for me, and no one else - unless you're interested in our life too.

Until tomorrow, here's some pics from our sweaty Sunday 16 mile bike ride and lunch at the park yesterday - I always end up laughing at all the outtakes because it's so rare to get one that is good of everyone, but then sometimes we really nail it and everyone looks crazy and that usually ends up being my favorite one. 😂

And also a pic of Nolan from today that is so cute of him but also cute because Zoey is licking his hand in the corner of the picture. 🥰😂

I don't think my older two could be any more expressive than they are 😂

Could Adam possibly be showing anymore teeth?? And Maeve and Rowan just look so thrilled! 😂😂

Passed out on the way back!