Millie's 2nd Birthday and Camping

Millie turned two on Saturday!  We were camping, so we had Peach cobbler and Snickerdoodle Ice Cream and then we had Coconut Lime cupcakes on Sunday at home.  We love this girl so much!  She is so funny and happy and determined!

We had fun camping with Reid's parents and brother and some of his friends.  Brooke and Owen really liked practicing with their bows, and playing with their cousins.  Millie just had fun running around and playing, and Everett slept better than I expected so that was awesome!  On Saturday morning Reid took Brooke to a 3D archery shoot, where they walk around and shoot different targets. So, while camping with a baby and a 2 year old was not my favorite thing it was better than I expected and the kids all had so much fun it was worth it.

Millie liked the tissue paper in the bag more than the Ladybug tutu I made for her!

Brooke's Baptism & Everett's Blessing

This was such a special day for our family.  In the morning Reid blessed Everett in church and then in the afternoon, Brooke was baptized.  It was so great to have so much family here.  My mom and sister Elizabeth came down from Utah and Reid's parents and sister Amber and grandparents came down from La Plata, NM. 

During the blessing I felt such a deep gratitude for Everett for the spirit that he has brought to our home and for the special part he has to play in our family.  I am so grateful that he came to our family and that I get to be his mother.

Brooke's baptism was really special all of her grandparents spoke and bore their testimonies of the gospel to her and Amber sang "When I am Baptized".  Brooke is such a special girl, she has a great understanding of the gospel and was so excited to make the choice to be baptized.  She has such a strong spirit and I am so grateful for her and the influence that she has in our family. 

I am so grateful for our family and for  the gospel and how it strengthens our family and helps us to become the people and the family that we can be.  I love watching my kids testimonies and understanding of the gospel grow.  I know that my life has been so blessed by the gospel, and by striving to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and I want my kids to have those same blessings, to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ planted deep in their hearts.

Everett

Everett Dwight James was born on March 14, 2014.  He weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 1/4 in. long.  His birth was the most exciting of any of my kids, so I am going to share a brief birth story. I woke up that morning around 6:30 and felt nauseous and kind of different, but I wasn't really having contractions.  By 8 I thought something might be going on and I was having sporadic contractions.  I called my sister to ask how you know if your in labor, and she said "I don't know it is always different".  By 10 I was having consistent contractions every few minutes and Reid decided to come home from work.  I already had a Dr. appointment scheduled at 11:30 so we found someone to watch our kids and went to the appointment.  When the Dr. checked me I was dilated to a 5, so she sent me to check in to the hospital.  I got in to the hospital a little before 1.  They sent down the anesthesiologist and I was about to get an epidural when I mentioned that I take baby aspirin.  I think there was a misunderstanding about why I take it, but anyways the anesthesiologist said I shouldn't have an epidural because of the baby aspirin ( For the record I took baby aspirin when I was pregnant with Millie and had an epidural, everything was fine).  So by the time the doctor got back to the room, she said I was already too far along for any other drugs to really take affect so we should just go ahead and get that baby out.  So that is what we did.  It was really hard, and intense, but then I saw that little baby boy and it was amazing.  The nurses handed him to me and I held him up and snuggled him.  The doctor and the nurses all left the room and we had a couple hours for just the three of us to be together and it was so special. 

Everett is such a sweet baby.  He LOVES to eat and sleep and is not particularly happy when he is not doing one of those things.  His sisters and brother absolutely love him.  Owen is particularly smitten with him and keeps getting him out of his crib if he is crying and I'm not getting to him in a timely manner, that is encouraging me to not let him cry very often.  He has added so much to our family already and I feel that he belongs here with us.  We just love this sweet little boy.

Goodbye Tennessee!

In February we moved from Tennessee to New Mexico.  It was kind of a crazy time.  The opportunity to move hadn't come up until January and it was unexpected.  Also, I was 8 months pregnant, so that was a little crazy.  We had always planned on moving back West at some point so I was surprised how hard and sad it was to leave Tennessee.  This was really the place that we became a family, we lived here for 6 years, 2 of our kids were born here, we built our house here, and we made some really good friends.  We really loved our time here and are so grateful we were able to live here for the time that we did.

One of my favorite people ever is my friend Natalie, she is seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met.  I loved hanging out with her, and knowing if I ever needed anything she would always be willing to help.  Our kids also really loved each other.

Owen and Sam.  They had a rough go of it at first, but these last few months these boys were having so much fun together.

Brooke and Jackson.  These two were only two years old when we met.  It's crazy how much they've grown.

Millie and Eva.  These two mostly just stole toys from each other and screamed a lot at each other, but I had high hopes for their friendship.

Natalie, I'm going to miss that girl and her cute family.

Another family we've known for a while and loved we're the Perkins.  Vanessa, Harris, Jillian, and Evan.

Brooke's friend and our next door neighbor, Bethany.  We are sure going to miss her.

Our family away from family was the Dahl's.  We had Christmas with them and Sunday dinners, we loved these guys.  The night we took this picture my kids hid in their upstairs hoping they could just stay with them.  Their boys Ty, Alex, Luke, and Brooks are some of the nicest boys ever.

Our furniture got packed up a few days before we left, so we had a few days of camping out in our house.

Owen's pre-school teacher, Mrs. Burkhalter.

Brooke's friends at school, Aaliyah, Haruna, and Mia.

Brooke's teacher Mrs. Lawson.

Goodbye Tennessee, it's been great!