{Janie Woo}

Being a mother of three has opened my eyes to something.

I now understand more about something I discovered while I was helping my mom organize her pictures a couple of years ago.  We were making stacks of pictures for each of the 5 children. 

I have two older sisters, and their stacks were fairing quite nicely.  By the end, there were two large ziplock bags full of pictures of my oldest sister, the first born.

Erika, my second sister had a nice pile as well, filling one large ziplock.

Then I looked at my pile, truly, there must have been a box of picture that was lost in my parents move.

I had one pint sized stack of pictures.  At least there were some, right?

I laughed about it and thought it was a little funny and sad that my pile was so small.

Well, I completely understand now!  My picture taking days have decreased drastically, not by choice, but by necessity.  I have toted the camera to so many events and not taken one shot, there is just not a free moment.

The time I spend staring in awe over Jane is no less than our other two girls.  I may even spend more time peeking in at her.  I have slowed my bustling days down so much just so we can enjoy her simple sweetness.  I know in a moment, she will be five and on the bus to kindergarten.

There may be fewer pictures, but my enjoyment of being a mother has only increased with little Janie Woo (as Olive calls her).

I am going to try to bulk up her stack of pictures as the months go by, but if it is still yet smaller than her sister's stacks, I hope she knows that the size of the stack, is no where close to the size of the love!

Here are a few from Jane's stack:

I know sleeping with daddy pictures a given with most newborns, but the added bonus here is Caroline tucked in her wuggle pet "Lover" the unicorn next to Jane.

This shows just a morsel of the love C has for Jane because Lover is one of her favorite treasures.  She had no trouble sharing it with that little zonked out peanut.

Peaceful sleep and luscious cheeks

First UTAH game that she was an absolute doll for.  

All cuddled up in St. George watching the Olympics.  

This was when she was still sleeping in the bassinet that my late Grandpa Winegar made.

It's kind of a sad day for me when we move them to the crib.

We'll keep more pics coming from her stack and the family stack!

A Bees Birthday

I realize after this post that I must not use my phone for all my pictures, they are starting to make me nauseated!

The night celebrating our nephew Liam's birthday was the ultimate summer night, so I just want to document it!

We had the most tasty and adorable barbeque at my sister's home.

She had the hot dogs on an old fashioned hot dog roller machine, ice cream in little plastic baseball hats, and even cracker jacks!  We were excited to see there are still prizes inside but they are pretty lame, like a paper pencil topper.

We all headed to the Bees game after and were excited to be entertained by fireworks after.

Well, it rained and rained and poured some more.

That didn't stop us from having a wonderful time, especially all of the kids.

corinne. nicholas. me. andrew

The girls splashed, ran, and rolled down the wet grassy hill.  They were beside themselves with how much fun they had.  

I love seeing little Jane in other peoples arms, she just looks beensy.  Her calm temperament has us pretty smitten.  

We didn't see any baseballs thrown, but I have seen many baseball games.  I have never enjoyed watching   all of the kids play in such a storm.

It was a perfect celebration for adorable Liam!

We have an announcement!

We are pregnant!

Ok, just kidding, was anyone very scared for us, cause I would be!

(Although I would like to note that I have seen prego people and had pregnancy envy, go figure.)

The REAL announcement is that Adam PASSED the BAR!!!!

Wahoo!!!  Wahoo!

He found out on Saturday and we were all beyond giddy.  What a relief for Adam to have all of the hard work from the summer pay off!  We are so proud of how he juggled studied such grueling hours throughout the beautiful summer, helped us move and get the house ready, and was an amazing husband and father when little Jane came, even though it was getting close to testing day.

WE LOVE YOU ADAM!!

And since we are announcing things and need some pictures to feast our eyes on, Caroline started Kindergarten and she wishes that the weekend was filled with school too.  She has made lots of friends and has an obsession with one, Olivia.  It is the most innocent and carefree bond, I adore watching them.  They seriously almost hyperventilate when they spy each other at the bus stop.

Her favorite thing about going to school is riding the bus.  

We were going to wait a week and just drop her off at school ourselves, but she insisted on the second day that she ride the bus.  Adam rode with her just to make sure she was ok and wasn't too nervous (I just love how sweet you are babe!)

I am so glad he rode just so he could report how hilarious it was. 

The kids were chanting "Parent on the bus!  Parent on the bus!"  They thought it was the funniest thing.

Caroline sat by Olivia and they had a lot to say..or Caroline did anyway:

C: I can't believe we are riding on the bus!  Whoa, this bus driver drives crazy!   I hope he is careful.  Can you believe they don't have carseats on the bus?  That's crazy!

I can't believe you lost a tooth Olivia, that's crazy!

You have an Olivia backpack and I have an owl backpack.  Don't worry, it's not real, you can

touch it.

Adam said she used the word Crazy about 20 times. 

 The next day when Adam walked Caroline across the street to the bus stop, some boys were eyeing him up and down and said, "There's that parent."

He caused quite a commotion.

She has been giddy about everything, as you can see.  And Olivia and Caroline can't even get on the bus without holding hands.  

I knew she would be confident and thrilled to start school.  We were actually late the first day, (parent of the year, I know) which maybe was good because I didn't really have time to think too much.  

But when I quickly rushed her into her classroom where all the little innocent faced children were sitting, I started to lose it.

I had to steal a kiss from her, and poof, she was off and loving life.

I am so happy that she is comfortable and has a zest for life and learning.

Knock 'em dead sweetheart!  xoxo

The Great Outdoors

Nothing compares to being out in the open air!  We have had a lot of fun adventures this summer out in the beauty of Utah.  Nature does something magical for children.  The vast amount of space and countless new textures lures them into a state of endless awe.  

While we were down in St. George we went looking for petrified wood.  The place where we explored was right outside of Zion's National Park.  It was a perfect cloud cover day to keep the southern temps reasonable for being outside without a pool.

We found lots of great pieces and one is in our garden at our home!

Not only did we bring home lots of petrified wood, but Olive made sure we had all of the pinecones and other treasures she scooped up.

Another incredible day was spent in the Uinta's at Trial Lake.  Adam and his dad camped overnight, and the girls and I met them in the morning.  It was invigorating to be up in the mountains with the crisp morning air.  We fished most of the morning and then had some lunch before we headed out on the canoe.

We knew it was a day well spent because the girls were completely covered in mud.  I love filthy little kids because it means a day of complete fun!

Olive and Caroline both caught fish and reeled them in with the help of Daddy and Grandpa B.  Olive had a love hate relationship with the fish that she caught.

She is so disgusted here that she just had to spit at the fish.

She was also overjoyed that it was her very own fish!

"It's fo me!?"

Ahhh, nasty, get that scaly, slimy thing away from me!  

These are the only fish that I caught that day.  I think I will keep them and be entertained forever by watching them attempt to make fish faces.

I really wanted to go up every weekend after that, but life kind of got in the way of my plan.  

It was the perfect little getaway for our family with new sweet baby Jane.

Daddy is pretty lucky to have two little fisherkin.  They had a ball and were proud of their catch of the day!

It you are ever having a bad day and are close to the mountains, just take a drive and spend the morning or the day up there and I promise you will feel 100% blissful!

(sorry for the fuzz, it's a phone pic)

And just because she was not well represented in this post and she is such a love, here is pleasant Jane, who even has a sweet cry that melts my heart.

Celebrating the 4th

It was just the 4th of July right?  Well it sure seems like that!  Summer has flown by and school started for big Kindergartener Caroline today!  I love the feeling of a routine that is settling in our home, I am ready for a bit of routine.

We had a great fly by the seat of your pants summer though and I have lots to catch up on!

Little Jane is only a week old here, ah what a pure delight!  

The kids took a little spin on the bikes and scooter across the street.  The girls love riding their bikes, they never really rode the bike we had in Virginia, I was too lazy to get it out of the storage room every time.

We had divine sandwiches for lunch and then we enjoyed watching the kids throw water balloons.  They also all tried to fit in our teeny tiny kiddie pool (see it in the background below).  

Water (no matter how little) and kids = bliss to them!

Corinne made this incredible punch that was actually red, white, and blue!  

Filling up the ammo was half the fun of enjoying the water balloons!  They whipped through about 100 in less than a half hour.

That evening, our little family of FIVE! enjoyed lighting sparklers at home before the girls were off to sleep.

It exceeded all of my expectations for a fantastic 4th!