grant turns 3

^^^grant trying to hold up "3" fingers^^^ 

^^^miss b didn't love hitting the piñata...funny girl^^^

^^^digging for those minions^^^

my little boy is 3!!!! 

this year was sooooo fun with my little man. we had quite a few birthdays in a row, first my dads in january, then mine and brecken's in february, grant knew what birthdays were all about..... and he was ready for it to be his turn. mostly for the cake and the song. he loooooooves singing that happy birthday song and blowing out the candles. this was the first year he really understood that it was his birthday. i mean... he doesn't know what a birthday is still, but he knew that this one was his and we were celebrating him. 

we celebrated a couple times in true birthday week fashion. my parents were going to be out of town for his birthday so they came up the sunday before and we had dinner, some mickey mouse brownies, and they gave him his present. (the lightening mcqueen chair which he loooooves)

then on his actual birthday i took him to ijump in the morning and we had so much fun playing!! then we came home for a nap and got ready to party!! he loves having his cousins over and his grandpas. he kept telling me all day "quinn and rian and grandpa and great grandpa are coming!!!" 

we had a minion themed birthday party and had a minion cake (courtesy of the fabulous grandma joy), and a minion piñata which the kids all enjoyed!

after the piñata was presents. now this year i made a rule that any present he got had to have some educational value, couldn't just get him a bunch of toys. so the first few presents of books and puzzles he wasn't super pumped about. hahaha. it was quite funny...he just didn't know what they were. he got a drill and a tool set from grandma and grandpa reece though and thought that was pretty fun to be like dad. 

so i had bought 3 little plush minions i was going to use for decoration but decided to just throw in with his gift instead. well once he got to our present and opened it up he must've  seen them at the bottom because he just started ripping everything out an handing it to me until he got to them. it was pretty funny. then afterward he noticed the lego duplos we had gotten him that he had handed off to me and wanted to open it and play with them.

we then sang to him and he blew out candles (his favorite part) if you saw my instragram video of us singing to him you can attest to how dang cute he was. he was so excited and it made my heart so happy. i just kept thinking how lucky i am to be a mom to this little boy. he made me a mother 3 years ago and i never knew i could love so deep and so hard until he came into my life.

so, happy birthday to my sweet little boy! we love you more than you know. and i'll never get over hearing you say "i love YOU, too!" it literally makes my heart want to burst. 

happy birthday grant!

be happy today

 so....everyone (besides brecken probably...) was sooooo grumpy during family pictures this year. it was freeeeezing cold, norman and i had argued about something right before (in true picture taking day fashion), grant literally cried in every picture.... you know...just normal things for family picture day... haha. but i wanted to share the rest of our pictures because at least brecken was cute!

but also i've been thinking.... gaining some perspective.... and wanted to write it down to remind myself of the important things in life. and i feel like i've talked about this before but i need the reminder time to time. so like i have mentioned before, we bought a house! and when you buy a house what do you want to do????? buy eeeeeeeeverything. i want to change this, and paint that, and get new couches here and new beds there and a dresser and a dining table, oh and since we have hardwood floors...gotta get some rugs, etc etc...the list LITERALLY never ends. so you go online to get inspiration for this new house and you see all these beautifully perfect homes. and you feel a little lame.... or start wishing you had something different... or more money to do what you wanted... or the creativity to make your home look "pinterest worthy" or "instagram worthy"... and sometimes i look at homes and the negative spiral starts.... and i'm like .. where is the reality here??? where is your garbage cans? and laundry baskets? or even stuff that your husband has and likes but is maybe not your taste and you can't get rid of it?? where is all that stuff? where is your mail? (is that just me that leaves mail laying around everywhere???) anyway... i just feel like it's not realistic!! and it angers me! and you know what?? it shouldn't. and that's what i have to remind myself. 

because you know what i have come to realize? i get just as clean in my older, not so modern shower as someone who does in a beautiful white subway tiled shower. and my food tastes just as good in my small little kitchen as it would in a big kitchen with a beautiful island. and i sleep just as good with my DIY wood headboard as i would with an expensive bedroom set. i have just as meaningful, inspiring, and memorable conversations on my old couches as i would on brand new west elm couches. my kids have just as much fun in their not perfectly put together toy room as they would in one that was. 

you get my point.

it's the experiences, the people, and the love in our homes that matter. and yes, i still want to make my home feel the way i want it to feel by decorating it the way i want to decorate... but it doesn't need to consume me or make me feel like a loser if i don't have everything i want all at once. and i'm cool with my house looking halfway put together until we can start getting those things i would like to have. but they aren't necessary to my happiness. my family is necessary to my happiness. dancing with grant to moana while brecken laughs at us in our living room with 4 different styles of furniture is what makes me happy, giving brecken and grant a bath and watching them splash and laugh and then drying them off with old bleach stained towels makes me happy, eating dinner at our TINY table on folding chairs with my family and listening to grant ask us funny questions and make funny faces while brecken literally eats his crumbs off the floor makes me happy, staying up late with my husband laughing at our favorite shows in our bedroom with clothes EVERYWHERE cause we don't yet have a dresser even makes me happy. 

those are what i need to hold onto when i feel that negative spiral start..... the envy.... the pride looking up..... i want those moments to be fewer between the good moments where i appreciate the truly great people i have in my life and our experiences together, until eventually, that envy and pride is gone and i am just truly happy with what i have and where i'm at. so here's to feeling happy today! and feeling grateful for what i DO have instead of coveting what i don't. 

a christmas of firsts

so my pictures kind of suck but i was preoccupied with my cute FAMILY OK????
anyway...

this christmas had a couple firsts for us!! it was brecken's first christmas and it was all of our first christmas in our new home!! and it was oh, so nice and simple and great.
we woke up to our kiddos talking in their room so we went in and grabbed them while filming, and walked them out to where santa had left them their presents. at first grant didn't see his and thought that santa had brought him a stuffed fox... which was cool ... but not near as cool as percy and james...the trains he has been asking every santa he saw this season for. so we showed him what santa brought and he was so excited! he could've cared less that we got him anything else. in fact it was hard to get him to open anything else up. i love how simple kids are. we could've just gotten him those two little trains and he would've been 100% satisfied. 

what i thought was cute was while we were playing with grant, i noticed brecken crawling over to where her santa stuff was... she crawled over, pulled her self right up and started grabbing the adorable stuffed fox that was waiting for her... she now sleeps with it every night..mostly using it for a pillow. santa also brought her a little toothbrush/teether that she looooves. she chewed on it all morning. she was so fun this christmas. i won't lie... grant was kind of boring at his first christmas... he couldn't care less about presents... but brecken is a lot more interested in toys and playing than grant was at her age. so it made her first christmas pretty fun.

after we opened presents and were relaxing in our living room, soaking in the moments with our kids... we got a call from our bishop telling us church had been cancelled due to the crazy snow. (seriously though...how crazy has the snow been this season????) so we got ready to head to pocatello to spend the christmas break with family. 

we went to normans parents and ate food, opened presents, and relaxed. then headed to my parents to have dinner. we weren't doing presents with my family until the next day when my sister and brother in law got here from boise. the day after christmas we opened presents with them and played our annual christmas game which was SOOOOO fun this year. i mean... it's fun every year, but this year we had to draw a name before the game and then we were to get our gifts as if we were that person (without telling anyone who we were)... it made the game a lot more fun and kept the giving spirit of christmas as part of the game. 

then we spent the rest of the week hanging out with family, sledding, four wheeling, going to star wars (of course), and partying with family while bringing in the new year! it was a great way to end 2016!! hope everyone else had a great season as well!