Story time with Grandpa Willman

A sweet moment captured as Grandpa Willman reads the girls a story. Grandpa and story-time: two of their favorite things!

Pajama Dance Party

Because there's not much better to three little girls than putting off bedtime in order to dance in their PJ's!

They sure have some sweet moves!

Colors

I've been doing preschool activities for Minnette and Aurelle for well over a year now. Since around Christmas-time Jovi has been wanting to join in on the fun, but isn't quite ready for many of the writing, cutting or counting practice activities that the older two do. I've had to get creative in coming up with Jovi- appropriate activities for her to do while I'm working with Minnette and Aurelle. 

One idea that I came up with was a pinterest-inspired color sorting activity (just search "color sort" for dozens of color sorting ideas!) that went along with the magnet board activities I have been into lately. Our magnet boards are simply cookie sheets turned into activity boards. I have resorted to sticking magnets on the back of just about every preschool activity you can think of. It makes it easy to contain and the pieces don't slide around or fall off and get lost easily. Great for wiggly bodies with little hands, and great for laps- love them!

 I made pom-pom magnets (which we use for a plethora of magnet page activities including counting, letter tracing and color matching) and Jovi matches the different colored pom-poms to color circles on the page.

A great activity to keep her busy and help her learn her colors! She did so great at it and she loved doing it.

Grandma Murphy had a lot of fun helping Jovi do her pre-preschool activities:

I seriously love hearing her little voice saying all of the colors. So cute!

Meet Waitsey-Boy (Feb/Mar 2013)

We have absolutely loved having Waits as a part of our family. He is such a wonderful, mellow, sweet baby, and has definitely made our transition to parents-of-four as easy as it could have ever possibly been. He is such an easy baby! Other than a few fussy nights at the very beginning (which seems to be typical for my babies), these pictures are pretty representational of our first month with this little guy- lots of snuggles and sleeping!

Snoozing in a milk coma- 2 days old

                                        3 days old- a rare glimpse of those beautiful open eyes

It was so easy to get this little guy to sleep in the beginning. Just bundle him very loosely in a blanket and gently rock him while cradling him with one arm, either standing or sitting, he was out in minutes every time. After a few weeks, we could lay him down wide awake and he would put himself to sleep. He slept almost exclusively in his Boppy lounger, which was awesome, because anywhere we could set his pillow down, he would sleep. Seriously, a newborn baby must have...  I'm just sad that I didn't have this for any of the girls when they were babies, my life would have been so much easier! (Waits slept in this almost every nap/night for almost four months! I highly recommend it)

Such a beautiful little face- love those chubby cheeks! (five days old)

Six days old in footie pants

Making dreaming faces

I thought he looked like a grandpa with his sweat pants pulled up around his rib cage like this (one week):

Mommy and Daddy's first date after baby boy to one of Kyle's best friend's wedding- Waits came with!

All dressed up. That tie was sooo tiny- until it was actually on Waits. It looks so huge on him! (one week old)

Love this little-man outfit on him- can you believe these were preemie size?! It's hard to imagine that he was ever that little...(week and a half)

Looks like such a tiny little peanut in the middle of our huge (haha, right...) living room

L.O.V.E. footie PJ's

He loved to sleep on his side, which was great because I would often nurse him in bed (laying down) and he would end up snoozing away /snuggling next to me for most of the night- and I am so okay with that!

Waits loved to sleep in his swing and bouncer seat. He especially loved the cheesy synthesized marimba music they play. We would put the music playing as he fell asleep, and often when it stopped, he would start to wake up. As soon as we put it playing again, he would go right back to sleep. It would only loop for about 10 minutes, so we would end up re-starting it at least a handful of times for one nap. We found ourselves having those songs stuck in our heads and even singing them out loud for a few months... that was cool :) (one month)

Helping Daddy study (one and a half months old)

He was such a champ as a tummy-time beginner. He was so patient. He would usually lay there so quiet and calm and sometimes end up falling asleep. Definitely our one-and-only baby, so far, to do so. (month and a half)

Once he was a little older he liked to be bundled into a burrito to go to sleep. Didn't matter where we were, or what was happening around us, if he could be swaddled, he was out. I am telling you, he definitely made our lives easy- you will NOT be hearing me complain!! Here he is getting ready to go to sleep. Once he was out, just lay him in his lounger, and you wouldn't hear from him for at least an hour and a half. (month and a half)

Our first few months with our sweet little Waits have been nothing short of a parents' dream come true. He is so loved. Not just by Kyle and me, but by his big sisters as well. He is growing so fast, and we are just loving every single second with his sweet spirit around. We have been blessed with such an amazing little family. Trust me, we know!

Waits' Blessing Day- Feb 24th 2013

Since my mom was already in town helping out after Waits was born, and my in-laws often travel up here for Kyle's sister's gymnastics meets in the winter, we were able to plan Waits' baby blessing when he was just over two weeks old, and all of his grandparents were able to be here!

Waits with Daddy, Grandpa Murphy and Grandpa Willman. 

The four most amazing men in my life right here. Waits, you have some wonderful examples in your life!

The blessing circle (from L to R: Kyle's best friend from work: Mike Marshall, Raquel's fiance: Sam Hatch (it was his first opportunity to be in a blessing circle!), Grandpa Murphy, Kyle with Waits, Bishop McKay Platt, and Grandpa Willman). So grateful for all of the righteous men in our lives who worthily hold and honor the priesthood- we are so blessed.

Daddy with his baby boy

Our (half cooperating) family

All of our family that was able to come and be with us for the blessing!

Kyle's parents gifted his Grandma Munns (who lives in CA) a plane ticket to Provo to  see one of Raquel's gym meets for Christmas, and they were able to coordinate her trip for the weekend of Waits' blessing- he was able to have a great-Grandma travel all the way from California for his baby blessing! We were so grateful she could be there. We love you Grandma Munns (on the far left)!

Waits in his blessing outfit-tux. What a handsome little man!

We are so grateful for everyone who came out to participate with us in Kyle giving Waits a name and a blessing. It was such a wonderful day!