Beckett at 7 months

Beckett began to sit really well a few weeks before turning 7 months old.  He sat well and on his own for the first time on June 18th.  I was taking off his pajamas to change him when I realized I didn't have a diaper.  While I was upstairs, Mia sat him up and I came down stairs and he was sitting like a pro!  Beckett also started eating more "real" food and prefers it over baby food.  He is trying really hard to crawl.  He loves to play a game where he grunts and waits for you to grunt back, then he echoes with his grunt over and over and over again!  He also got his first tooth on the bottom right on June 17th and the next one came in a few weeks after that.  He still likes to cuddle and sit still in laps and I'm soaking it up because I know it won't last much longer!  

One last comment:  Beckett gets mistaken for a girl OFTEN!  It's usually older women who tell me how adorable she is and when I tell them it's a HE they are shocked and tell me what a beautiful baby he is, HA!  He looks manly to me, but I'll take beautiful baby.

Father's Day

For father's day we used our smoker again and tried out a new salmon recipe.  It was delicious and a fun way to celebrate.  I bought a nothing bundt cake which was AMAZING and we opened a few presents.  Paul is super busy in life right now with a very demanding job, church calling, and family.  We don't get to see him all the time, but boy do we love when he is with us!

 Beckett's 1st Father's Day

Big Boy Bed

Transitioning Reid to the big boy bed was not as easy as we were hoping!  Hayden transferred to her bed no problem.  Reid decided to come out of his bed throughout the night for the first few nights and stay awake from about 2am to 5am!  We were not excited.  The main reason we decided to switch him is because we knew we would be traveling to Utah and needed him to sleep in a bed in hotels and grandparents houses.  He is way to big for a pack and play and slept horrible in it in Kansas City right before Beckett was born.  Now 2 months out and he still tries to escape his bed.  He often sneaks into Hayden's room and sleeps with her.  They slept great together in Utah and he had the hardest time transitioning back to his bed when we got back.  It's been a process for sure.  The most fun thing about this whole experience is that every morning when he comes in my room he says, "big boy bed" with a big smile across his face.  We sure love this boy despite his shenanigans.

4-H Embryology Project

My good friend Cathy Borders told me about an awesome Embryology program she did last summer with her kids through 4-H so we decided to try it out for the month of June.  On June 6th I took the kids to pick up our incubator and fertilized eggs!  We marked the eggs with Xs and Os and turned them 3 times a day for several weeks.  Each day we got to learn about what was developing inside the egg.  We also had to fill the incubator with water to keep it humid.

Hayden was so excited when we first brought them home and set everything up, she wouldn't even look at me for a picture!

After about 3 weeks of waiting one Sunday morning Paul sent me a text from his early meetings at church and said he heard chirping and one of them was trying to break through. I woke up Hayden and took Hayden down and one had hatched through! Hayden was so happy to see a yellow chick. Last year our friends had brown chicks which didn't sound very cute to Hayden!

Reid was pretty excited to see the chick as well.  He kept saying "a chick"

This was a good lesson about life and death.  Two of our chicks died during hatching and it was really sad, even for Paul and I!  Then once they were born we were so worried about keeping them warm enough and making sure they had everything they needed in the brooding box. The first night after transporting our 4 chicks Paul and I were so worried we each woke up a few times through the night to check on them!  It was worse than having a new born baby!

First time holding the chicks, their feathers puffed up quick!

Hayden got really brave about picking them up and handling them and Reid got a little to bold as well.  We could tell when he went in with the chicks because they'd start chirping a little frantically and we had to come to their rescue!  

Taking a few fun pictures before returning them to the farmer

This picture kills us every time we look at it!  Apparently Beckett is not that impressed!

Hayden still asks 2 months later if we can do it again next summer.  We really enjoyed it and hope next year we can have a few more eggs hatch.

Mother's Day

I forgot to include Mother's Day.  And I am actually excited to post about the day because, 1.  Paul made me the most amazing ice cream cake dessert and 2.  I actually love this picture of Beckett and I on our first Mother's Day together.  

It has been quite the transition to 3.  My friend sent me the following quote which I really relate to now:

"When you find yourself locked in the bathroom sobbing on the floor because you've just had enough, that does mean you have failed as a mother.  Being a mother is hard, that is not failure, that is fact. Remind yourself of that."  

I have definitely had a few melt downs and days where I wonder what happened to my simpler, cleaner life.  My mantra has become, "This is not my life forever."  While there are things I love about the baby phase, it is a hard year in general for me.  Sometimes I find myself wishing away these days with little ones.  I'm sure I'll miss certain aspects of these days, but man are they exhausting at times.  I am pretty grateful we lucked out and got these 3 cute kids and that I am lucky enough to be called Mom.  

10 Year Anniversary

10 YEARS!!!  We knew that our big anniversary would be hard to celebrate because we'd have a little baby, so last year we did a bigger trip to Chicago to celebrate.  I was kind of feeling sad that we couldn't do more to celebrate this year, but unbeknownst to me, Paul made it an AMAZING day!  All throughout the day he brought up gifts, 10 to be exact.  With each gift there was a song attached for me to listen to while I read his letter and opened the gift.  He themed each gift with the traditional yearly anniversary gifts.

Year One: Paper-stationary
Year Two: Cotton-bath robe
Year Three: Leather-Key Chain
Year Four: Fruit/Flowers-Floweral jewelry travel case
Year Five: Wood-breakfast tray
Year Six: Candy-fancy dark chocolate
Year Seven: Wool-Smart Wool Socks
Year Eight: Bronze-Bronze colored water proof iPod to swim with
Year Nine: Pottery-gift card to pottery place
Year Ten: Tin-Tin Wallet Insert

Are you impressed?  I sure was!  He hot-glued a clip on to each package that attached the song title, a quote and card that all fit the theme of the gift or year.  He put a lot of thought into it and I loved reading his words.  That night we went out for Sushi and had I brought a bunch of fun questions to ask your spouse so we did that and talked.  Zach Houser was kind enough to watch the kids and get them in bed for us!  

I wasn't nearly as cool, but I did print off pictures from the past 10 years and attached them to balloons with notes on the back and filled his office.  I got him a consultation for laser hair removal which he was really excited about.

I should also mention that our anniversary falls on National Donut Day!  So we went to Lamar's and got free donuts to start the day.

Marriage has definitely had it's ups and downs.  But I am pretty glad I waited for Paul all those years and that we have created this amazing little family that I love so much.  Happy 10 years Paul, I love you know!

The Nielsons Come Over Memorial Day

My sister Shannon and her husband Marcus came out to visit us for the first time and we had such a wonderful visit with them over Memorial Day Weekend. They arrived late Friday night, so Saturday we let them sleep in a bit and then headed to our favorite breakfast place, Leo's out in Benson, NE.  They were also impressed with the delicious spread.

After a late breakfast we took them to Old Market where we went down the slides and then walked around the market and took them to Ted and Wally's ice cream.  

Sunday we kind of hung out and played games at home we also took them to Lake Zorinksy and let the kids play.  Shannon and Marcus are always so good about playing with our kids.  I am pretty sure they are the top favorite aunt and uncle because they always make time to play. Hayden enjoyed doing Aunt Shannon's hair and also playing American Girl Dolls with her. 

Monday we took them to our World Famous Zoo and had fun showing them around.  I was impressed with their amazing knowledge of several zoo animals.  Seriously, these guys know their stuff.

Of course no trip to the zoo is complete without a train ride.  Here is Reid "patiently" waiting for the train to come back.  He would get so sad and panicked when the train would depart and we were still waiting in line.

Still waiting...

After getting home and resting we got started on our Memorial Day BBQ.  We had burgers that Paul smoked in our smoker and lots of sides.  Each night we also played fun adult games.  Paul and I used to do this all the time, but it's been awhile!  It was fun to visit with them and can't wait for them to come again.