Perry is 8!

This sweet boy is eight!

Perry was so excited for his birthday this year. SO excited. We definitely celebrated his big day and I'm certain he felt a lot of love. 

I took treats into his class at school in the afternoon. He was a little shy when they sang to him, but I know he loved all of the attention (and the donuts).

Right after school, we took him to Build-a-Bear to get his present from Grammie and Papa. He picked out an Optimus prime bear (no surprises by that). He loves that bear!

With grandparents and cousins, we ate dinner and sang happy birthday over rice krispy treats (from a prepacked box from Costco—I needed some short cuts here). Perry was so excited to blow out the candles he got right to it before we even sang happy birthday. Haha.

Gifts are definitely his love language. He gets so excited for every present. And he definitely cherishes and uses each one. 

We had his birthday party with friends the next night. He invited friends from school and church for swimming and pizza. I’m always so busy during these things that I forget to take many pictures. But our pool was full and Perry was thrilled to have so many friends there. 

Layla and Kyler worked to decorate the porch.

There was some trampoline jumping between pizza and cupcakes. I love seeing Perry with his friends.

Blowing out that candle was serious business! Ha.

Perry is such a great eight year old. Yay for birthdays!

and a baby

I’m kind of missing my monthly pictures of little B. It was fun having those little photo shoots on the first of every month to document how much she was growing and changing. She is over 13 months now. And I did not do a photo shoot to document that, but I can do a little update on all she is doing these days.

She pulls herself up everywhere and will cruise along the couch. She loves to practice walking (while clutching our fingers) back and forth between E and I. She will walk to one of us and then ask for “more” and we will do it again and again.

Grammie bought her a bear from build a bear. She sleeps with it in her crib now. 

She is in size 12 month clothes, but with some 9 month and 18 month mixed in.

She is still the most easygoing baby ever. Which works out well on my sick weeks because she gets passed around each day to friends who care for her when I can’t and Eric is working. (I’m so grateful for friends who are so willing to do that and love my baby girl).

She climbed under her crib the other day while we were playing in her room. I thought she would get upset because she was struggling to get out, but eventually she un-trapped herself and crawled back out.




 She has quite a few words now—dada, mama, hi, more, da (dog), ba (ball), done. She will repeat words we tell her to. She does this cute little approving laugh when we ask her if she wants her bottle or to read a book or to go to her crib. She clearly understands and it is adorable. She folds her hands together when it is time for prayer and I even heard her say “amen” at the end of the prayer yesterday. 

She loves playing with her toys and our living room is usually scattered with them. She also has her favorite kitchen cupboards she likes to play in when I am in the kitchen. 

She’s pretty cautious about the stairs. She took a small tumble down a couple of steps once and that has made her wary of going down when we are upstairs. She will occasionally start the climb up the stairs, but she is cautious and deliberate and we stay with her and she does fine.

She loves to play in this couch. Mostly she just opens and closes the blinds, but she also has a blast crawling back and forth. She’s pretty good about getting down safely, but we do have to stay right there with her. 

We are finding more foods that she will eat, but she is a picky one when it comes to meals. She does do better when she gets to help feed herself with a fork. She still lifts that leg when she eats in her high chair.

B loves books! She gets so excited to read her board books before nap times and bed. Occasionally she will also join us when I’m reading to the other children, too. I feel like that will happen a bit more often now that she is older. She really does love books.

Having a baby in our home sure brings a lot of love and connection in our family. It’s so fun to watch all the things she is learning and picking up each day. Her smile is so bright and we love our baby B so much.

elementary school kids

Our two elementary school kiddos are blossoming this year. It’s an exciting age for both of them as they become readers and thinkers and problem solvers. Our conversations are getting deeper and more thoughtful. They are managing themselves and their responsibilities so much better than ever before. It’s a fun age. I love watching them learn and grow.

Here are just a few snippets from life with Layla and Perry lately.

Layla was sitting in sacrament meeting thinking about one of her friends who will be moving soon. She leaned over to Eric and told him she was sad her friend was moving. She asked Eric a few questions about their move. Then she asked if they were moving because Heavenly Father told them to. Eric explained that sure they probably prayed about it and felt like that’s what the Lord wanted them to do right now. So Layla announced that she was going to pray and ask Heavenly Father if we can move back to Washington. She folded her arms, bowed her head, and closed her eyes right then and there. Just a few seconds later she popped her head up, looked Eric in the eyes and proclaimed, “He said YES!”

Perry and I still hang out in the foyer each Sunday after we take the sacrament and before primary. He is usually not sitting there with his arms folded like he is in this picture though. Ha! He actually just gets time on my phone. I sometimes think it’s time to break this routine, but it is working. This routine allows us to take the sacrament reverently and then he usually does well in primary because he’s had some downtime here.

Perry’s PT has been working with him in the water on some swimming. He is so much more confident now. He loves swimming even more now that he can dive down to the bottom and swim across the pool.

This picture totally captures our mornings at about 7:45am. That’s when we are shoveling food into Perry’s mouth, signing junior high papers, working on chores and homework, and reading scriptures before the elementary school bus comes.

At community helper day at school, Layla chose to dress up as a doctor.

Layla is always the helper and the friend when it comes to her baby sister.

We had some friends over for swimming. These kids were in heaven playing together in the pool for hours. We bought that flamingo float on clearance—the best ten dollars we’ve spent in a long time.

teenage boys

I am much more comfortable parenting the early childhood years, but having two teenage boys is a pretty spectacular experience, even if I feel inadequate most of the time. I love seeing who my boys are becoming. Sometimes time scares me when I realize things like we only have three more summers with Kyler before he is graduated from HS and on to other things. Three! 

Kyler and Kacin have such different personalities, but they both impress me with their resiliency, ability to forgive, confidence, love, and goodness. 

Eric and I make a lot of mistakes as their parents. Which is why I am grateful for inspiration from Heavenly Father when we ask for it. It is amazing to me that anytime I approach God with a problem, especially about how to address a challenge in our family, He totally answers. Ideas pop into my head or outside solutions arise. If only I was better about asking consistently then maybe I’d be a much better parent! I’ll keep trying though. But this weekend we had one of those instances. Without going into detail, it was a rough weekend for ALL of us. When we were kind of at our wits end and questioned the course of the weekend and our attitudes, Eric had a simple idea (that included a family hug) and it really truly helped us all reset ourselves. Then with those challenges still on my mind, I went to bed. I woke up with another simple idea in my head. Eric and I talked it over and carried it out Sunday morning and it was an answer to our prayers. 

Heavenly Father, also, gave us a solution when it came to soccer. Kacin decided this year that he wanted to give soccer a go again and he joined the same soccer club that Kyler was on last year. We knew that would make a busy year for us, but we committed to a year of soccer with two teams. Then my cancer came along. And the boys ended up having different practice times and it looked like tournaments would be opposite and I’m sure games would’ve been all over the place. We tried really, really hard to find a carpool, but no luck. With my cancer treatments, it would be extremely impossible/difficult to get the boys where they needed to be on time, etc. We were making do and finding temporary solutions, but nothing lasting. We prayed about it and really soon after we had an unexpected solution. The club needed to make some changes to some of the teams and their solution was to move some of the 04 players up to an 03 team. Kacin was moved onto Kyler’s team! We were a little concerned about how the boys would feel about that and if that was the best for each of them, but we talked it over and we now recognize that God gave us a solution to make things easier right now. Having the boys on the same team is a logistical blessing. And they both have had great attitudes about it and are truly making the best of the situation and I know this will be a blessing to them as brothers and soccer players. God helps us find solutions for all of the challenges life gives us.

Here’s just a snippet of the fun of raising our teenage boys...

We will start with a soccer practice sunset.

A studly teenage Kacin ready for soccer practice.

Kyler is awesome. My friend’s husband was out of town on their anniversary so he asked us to drop flowers off to her. We decided the flowers really should be delivered by her husband. So fun natured Kyler agreed to play Jon and surprised his “wife” at the door to say happy anniversary. Her surprise and reaction was the best. Kyler played his role well. It was so great!

On early out day, I took Kacin and a friend out to lunch and to partake of the biggest size of bahama bucks. It was a struggle for each of them to get it down and keep it down, but they did it!

Kyler received a calling in our ward as a family history specialist. He was pretty happy when he got to serve the YW in that capacity at a family history activity. 

Kacin had a great time on a camp out. They got to go canoeing.

They are starting to enter the world of football games and friends on the weekend, but they are still great about babysitting for date nights and spending time with their family. We love our teenage boys.