The big PARTY!

First things first: Luke is potty trained! I waited until he actually wanted to, and he seriously figured it out (and has been perfect since) in like 2 days. It is amazing. I hope all my kids potty train like him :)

Be prepared for a lot of pictures from their party, because I couldn't just pick a few! I am seriously flabbergasted that my baby is 1 and my toddler is 3! I am to the point where, I really just need time to slow down because I can feel it starting to slip away quickly through my fingers. I guess I am just recognizing more and more what is important to me and how I want to spend my time. Of course, I am always trying to find that perfect balance too, which is unachievable, because I will always have mom guilt for not spending enough time with my kids, but needing a little bit of me time too. And I have pretty much learned how to keep a house in ok shape without cleaning much :) Maybe that sounds gross, but I do the minimalist amount just to make sure everything looks clean. It drives me nuts that I can't have a clean house, but I try to remember that when I am older and our kids are out of our house, I will miss all the fingerprints, laundry, and crumbs. 

Anyway, their party was fun, I thought. Luke did not really agree with me. He was pretty grumpy up until it was time to open presents. As you can see in the pictures! June was her usual mellow self, and just enjoyed the party (having no clue of course about what was going on). I would highly recommend getting someone else to take pictures at your own kids parties. I loved that I am in the pictures too!

Updates!!

Since January, we've pretty much just partied. Besides all the maintenance of having young kids, I seriously have a lot of fun with my kiddos. I am in a phase of life that I am really enjoying, hopefully I can keep a positive attitude even when things won't always be bright and sunny like they have been for us. Here is a visit to the zoo:

I made June a quilt that I never got a proper picture of, but its a chevron pattern, flowery, and very girly! I love how it turned out. For the backing, I used a vintage sheet that I actually used as a kid, so it is really soft and pretty. 

We had to make our semi-annual appearance at a wildcat basketball game, and it was another great one! We seem to get lucky by going to the best games. 

Playing legos :)

I love this sweet moment I caught of my boys, because this is typically not like them, to sit still together for too long.

We put Isaac in soccer, I think he mostly loves the attention he gets from us :) But it is fun to watch him get better and better at something he likes.

My sweet June baby is already 10 months old as of yesterday. I just can't believe it. A big part of me just wants her to stay like this forever! She is so sweet-tempered and happy and loves our little family so much. She is so excited to see everyone when she wakes up in the morning, and laughs so hard at all the funny boys in her life. She is very aware of strangers and not super friendly unless she knows you. She just barely started crawling and eating solid food about a month ago, and now she is already walking along the furniture and playing at our little water table outside. I love her little raspy voice when she says 'mama'. The tantrums have not begun yet, and I think that adds to her sweetness that I don't want to let go of. :)

My mom came over to play the other day and the boys had so much fun! We made cookies and played in the new sprinkler outside. My mom and I also made chili rellenos for the first time, which are the long skinny chilis (I forgot what they're called) grilled, with the skins gone - then you roll them in egg whites, and fry them. And they were amazing. 

Porch

So, I don't know why it is even an option for home builders Arizona to not include a porch covering. Our backyard also has no big trees, so when we first moved in 2.5 years ago up until a couple months ago, we had no shade! If you count a 7ft wide umbrella for two summers then I guess we had about that much shade, but it was not much, and we had no patio furniture because we wanted to wait until after we built a porch. The sun goes across the back of the house for most of the day until late afternoon, and then it's shaded by our neighbors house. And it gets hot. My dad is a super handy DIY kind of guy and he put the idea in our heads that we could do it ourselves. So, we did! It was actually a super fun project and although we were burnt out by the end, I would definitely do it all over again! We did most of it ourselves, just Nate and I, but had a TON of help from Nate's family too. We couldn't have done it without them. Here are all of our progress pictures. 

I found this awesome patio set on craigslist for $75!!! I was ecstatic! It's a big long table, 4 chairs, and then two chairs that swivel and rock that are not in the pictures. We also put up two fans, and I have yet to put up the pretty lights that we'll string across the porch. But we are done! And have been enjoying the shade like every day. 

Nate's Party

So, I threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Nate this year! It was super stressful because of bad planning on my part, I planned for his party to be on a Saturday on a week that Nate took off of work! It was so hard to be sneaking around getting stuff ready for the party when he was home all week. With the help of others, I got it done and he was completely surprised. I'm not sure I'll be throwing a surprise party again for a while though. He went golfing on the day of the party, and then we had to stall them when they were done (it's a long story). So then I had to call him and tell him a LIE (I am really bad at lying, especially to someone who knows me best) I told him that the van wouldn't start. He started asking me questions about the van, like "do the lights turn on when you try to start it?" "does it make any noise?" etc. and I made stuff up that didn't make any sense but I tried to sound stressed so he would come home. I guess it worked! 

I am so mad at myself for not getting pictures. I need to designate someone to be the photographer because I always forget! At least this time I got some beforehand (But none of Nate!). We did a trivia from the year he was born, and we had questions up around the house asking funny things about him - the prizes were Nate's drink of choice - IBC Cream Soda :) We had a slideshow of some old pictures and we sang him happy birthday. And I surprised him with the golf clubs that he really wanted, too. You only turn 30 once right?

My friend Megan over at snaphappymom.com told me about the Knoala app for iPhones. I really like it because you plug your kids ages into the app and it has tons of age appropriate ideas for crafts, activities, games, etc. But the best part about it is that usually the activity takes 2 minutes to set up, using stuff that you probably already have at your house, and my kids play for a while. It makes me feel like a good mom, and I have less mom guilt about not spending enough time with each of my kids :) Oh, and the app is free! So we have been getting a little more crafty as of late. 

 We loved seeing the new Gilbert Temple, it is so so beautiful. I can't wait visit again!

This guy usually doesn't nap anymore, but sometimes, if I make him a fox hole, he does :)