Happy 8 years!

It's hard to believe it has been 8 years since we married! And only 8 1/2 since we first met. It seems like we have known each other forever and that our kids have been part of our lives forever. It's a wonderful feeling to be happy with your husband and your children and the beautiful life you have been blessed with. I feel so much gratitude to the Lord for how he has blessed my life.

To start the morning Jeff took the kids to basketball at 6:30. Ryan has been twice and talked about it for weeks after and Lily felt very sad she had never been. She must have reminded Jeff 20 times the night before about it. "Daddy, when you wake up, don't forget to say, "Lily, it's time to get up and go to basketball."Even in the middle of the night she reminded me to tell Daddy. Both kids got up at 6 a.m. all ready to go. We had put out their clothes the night before and they woke Jeff up. They were so eager to go that I wondered if Lily would actually like it, but the anticipation was still very exciting for her. They did okay for the most part, but on the second to last game Lily kept saying, "Daddy, daddy, daddy..." trying to get his attention to ask if it was time to go yet. And there was one game Jeff had to keep leaving to go help crying kids. But he was a good sport about the whole thing. 

I stayed with Max, exercised (it was so easy to do with only one child!), then headed over to the lake to do a Memorial walk for Tyler Mayle, a BYU college student who died while hiking. His family is in our ward and they started this walk last year. It was a good gathering of people and even the family of another man who was just killed in Windsor was there. Halfway through the walk we stopped at the church for a pancake breakfast put on by the bishopric which was really nice. We then walked the rest of the way back around the lake and Lily ran with Alexa Henry (she's 11 so Lily thought that was cool they ran together) and MaKenna (also 11) hung out with Ryan. It was pretty cute how good those girls were with the kids. Ryan got pretty tired though and I ended up carrying him a good part of the way. It was a long way to walk for little legs!

The kids had a lot of fun doing legos with Jeff. Ryan said, "I'm so happy that Granny Dot gave us these legos!" Lily taught me some ballet dances and wanted me to do it exactly as she did. But when I performed she said, "it wasn't just like I showed you, but I loved it! You are the best dancer!" It made me feel kind of good. She really acted like a teacher and Jeff and I kept stealing glances at each other and smiling. 

Throughout the week some funny comments from the kids: Ryan and I played with blocks and he put one block horizontal on a vertical block. "it's a T! It's my T. Look, now it's like the cross that Jesus died on." Lily emptied out much of the pantry and put all the food in the front room. I tried to limit how much she brought out, but she said, "Mom, I want this to be a store where you can get anything you want." 

I made some chicken nuggets for dinner with brussel sprouts. Lily said, "more brussel sprouts and ketchup please! I just love this dinner." I then asked Ryan what he was going to eat and he said, "a chair." Lily said, " A chair is not even food." Ryan replied, "you should try it, it's really good."

Lily found out that Mama Baer had bought a dress for her that she was going to wear for Lisa's wedding. She reminded Jeff at least 30 times to bring her wedding dress home and then Ryan would pipe in to remind him to bring his wedding clothes home. Since it's been home Lily often likes to get it out to look at it. 

We have discovered that Lily can buckle Ryan's bottom buckle, which is awesome! Ryan can do the top, but when she does it I don't have to go in the back, hooray! I gave baths tonight and forgot Max's towel in the dryer so Lily got that. And then when I was giving Max a bottle it turned out that Lily was giving herself a bath. That girl! She is the world's best help and little miss independent!

We went to two parks today and the kids played in the sprinklers. I couldn't even screw the sprinkler on right for some reason, but Lily knew where the hose was in the garage and then she screwed it on! She turns the hose on and off and they play in their swimsuits and have a great time. Max liked to just throw rocks in the window sill, a favorite pastime of his siblings when they were younger. And Ryan climbed up a big rock today, which he was very happy about. Lily was great at coaching him and giving encouragement.

Ryan had fun sliding down the rock. 

Ryan did most of this climb by himself.

Lily and Ryan used to love to do this same activity. Throwing rocks down the window well. 

So happy running through the sprinklers. 

These kids are too funny and love to make messes, but are great at cleaning them up (especially if it means they get to watch Chuggington on Netflix). I must say though I am definitely exhausted at the end of each night!

Lily was making a "store." I told her she could have a store but she could only put out 5 items. "But Mom, I want my store to have everything anyone would want!"

To celebrate our anniversary we didi Picasso and Wine. It was so much fun! We only had water, but you get your own canvas and you have a teacher that goes through all the steps with you and after 2 1/2 hours you get your own beautiful painting! Jeff's looks great and mine is okay, but we laughed because it showed our energy types played out on the canvas. I'm much more subdued and subtle and Jeff was more bold and random. I'm excited to frame them and put them up! It was just so amazing to me what you can accomplish when you do things in small steps.

Saturday was a busy, busy, fun day. We started out by cleaning the church at 8am. I had Max in the ergo and Ryan helped Jeff vacuum and Lily helped me wipe windows and door handles along with her friend Aubrey. After that the kids helped Jeff with yard work. My favorite quote is Ryan saying, "Dad, where's my weed killer?" They loved walking around spraying it on the weeds. Jeff studied for a few hours while I took Lily and Max to the park since Ryan was napping. Max loved crawling in the grass and trying to pick it up. Lily tried the exercise equipment and had to do each picture of instructions perfectly. She often didn't do the exercise, but had to mimic the poses.

Max always finds the rocks. 

After studying Jeff summoned up energy I didn't know he had and got the kiddie pools out, the Mickey sprinkler, and the slide. They had a fun water party and put the pools at the bottom of the slide. Max got really cold at first when he got wet, but then he crawled in the pool and tried to climb up the slide. Then at the top he tried to come down the slide. The kids had the best day and Jeff is so great with them. Even now while I'm writing this the kids are in bed, but he's downstairs working on the train set for Ryan to wake up to. He's the best!

Jeff is Super Dad!

Jeff is amazing! I'm blow away with all he got done this weekend! Friday night he had this spurt of energy and just decided to organize the downstairs with the kids (and then after they were in bed he did some more). They helped him break down boxes and Lily stacked them in a pile. He opened the space up and overall it looks great. I was extremely overwhelmed with the idea of doing anything down there, but he just got it done. It was so cute because the kids were telling him they were cleaning up for mommy so she can say, "I have the best kids!"

That night we made a list of things we wanted to get done on Saturday and even though he had a lot to do, he prioritized my "honey-do" list. He dropped the car off to get serviced and then rode his bike back, then he took a class online for Duke to see what it would be like. His major project for the day was figuring out how to fix our washing machine. I was just going to call a repairman because it had stopped doing the spin cycle so the clothes were really wet, but he wanted to look at it. So he looked online and went shopping with the kids and came back and did it! He worked so hard and I was just shocked that it got fixed because he didn't know anything about washing machines beforehand. Needless to say he saved the day and now we can do laundry again, hooray! He also replaced every light in our house (even several that he had to climb on furniture to get) and took the kids for ice cream.

On Sunday we were both teaching, but Ryan was sick so I stayed home with him until 3rd hour. He took Ryan with him to Elders Quorum (it turned out there was a mix up of who was teaching so he ended up not), and Jan Chadwick took Max during Relief Society. It was so nice and Jan was so thoughtful! Jeff said Ryan did some airplane magnets for a bit then just looked through his toy magazine/book of toys he wants to buy and was busy the entire time with that.

I stayed for a Young Women's meeting and Jeff brought the kids back, got them lunch and into bed by the time I got home. Both Ryan and Max had a lot of energy and weren't ready to sleep. I finally brought Max into our room in the crib there, but he got really distracted by the blinds.

 I put Ryan in his crib since he wasn't going down and for awhile he just jumped on the mattress until I got his toy magazine for him to read. But with all the commotion Jeff couldn't sleep so he got up, played games with Lily, folded laundry, and organized some kitchen cupboards (while I took a nap). He took a little break once the boys woke up while I made some pizza with Lily and Ryan, then came back up, ate, then played downstairs with them for a long time. The kids favorite game was "hot/cold" with hiding a ball. Max liked to hold on to the train and walk while Lily sat on it and went around the room. He did a great job walking and is much improved since we tried in the past. Max was so busy and kind of kept himself entertained going from one toy to another. When Jeff came down the stairs all three of the kids were sitting in the tent with toys and just playing. Max likes when you peek in the window or open up the front flap and say "peek-a-boo."

I don't even know how to take in all the service he did for me and the kids this weekend, but I was extremely grateful and feel like the start of this new week will be much easier with having the house more in order. Our anniversary is tomorrow and this is the best present I could have ever hoped for! Jeff also helped me out tremendously by finding a mayonnaise recipe I can actually make. For some reason I haven't been able to make mayo when I have made it fine for a couple years, but he found the easiest recipe and it changed my life.

And here are some cute pictures of Max, what a cute smile!

Some happenings

Ryan enjoys having playdates with Blake Smith. They paint together, play cars together, or kick or throw balls. Jeff set up a marble run and the kids loved it and it kept Blake entertained for awhile too. 

Day 6 of Whole 30 and I'm still going strong, hooray! Though today I was very tempted to give in and eat some cereal, but I remained strong so I proved I can have self-control, which is always empowering.

Grand Opening at Dunkin Donuts. Driving the fire truck.

A sewing day at Kelly's. These kids all played pretty well while we sewed, and they were especially happy this day when they got juice. It's the little things in life. 

Ryan brushing my hair. 

Lily decorated an apron and hat for her kiwi crate and had a great tie helping me make lots of meals. 

Last night I had Kelly Huff and Cara Mason over to sew. Kelly showed us how to quilt with our walking foot on our machine and it was fun to just chat. I realized I like getting together, but I like getting together for a purpose and getting something done in the meantime. So quilting has been great for that because I have made new friends and I will have a quilt to show for it.

Right after they left though Ryan started coughing really bad and having trouble breathing: croup. I didn't know what to do and Jeff was gone so I called him and woke him from a dead sleep and he said to just try and make it through the night. So I looked online for some information and looked in my essential oil book. I put frankincense on his chest, lavender on his back to help cool and calm him, and then we sat in the bathroom to let the shower steam us. I helped him to calm down and take deep breaths then put some marjoram in the humidifier for his room and he slept three hours! He woke up coughing, we repeated the same thing and he slept another three hours until it was morning. He was happy today and still coughing and raspy, but he also napped well too. I was so grateful for prayer and finding out answers in books and online for suggestions and that I did get some sleep. So while it was a hard night, I was definitely blessed.

Today we had some plans but had to cancel due to Ryan, but by staying home we were around when the plumber had to come back to fix a leak and he replaced the garbage disposal very quickly. When he was done it was nap time and again I was so grateful for the timing of everything and that things could be resolved so quickly. All in all, I felt really blessed.

One funny thing I have to write about is the other night Jeff and I heard crying in the boys' room. I walk in there and don't see Ryan anywhere on his bed, or his room for that matter, but I hear him crying. I finally find him standing on the window ledge, behind the curtain and blinds, sad because he couldn't get down.

Lily was excited to have Jeff roll her up.

Jeff found out one of the girls he home teaches was playing in an band concert so he took Lily with him. They picked up flowers before and when they presented them to the girl she was so excited. She was happy they came and gave Jeff a couple hugs. When she walked back to her family she looked like she was trying to show off the flowers. Jeff heard her family ask who they were from and she proudly said, "Brother Baer." Lily was happy to go and be part of it and especially to give such pretty flowers. I thought it was so nice and supportive of Jeff to go and it meant a lot to the family. 

One of Ryan's favorite activities is looking through his toy magazine. There's one page he loves in particular because of the cars it has on it. And he's always very distressed if he can't find that page fast enough. 

Lily likes pouring over toys she wants too.