Blessing Day

Our little sweetie pie was given a name and a blessing at church a few weeks ago. I was determined not to have a repeat of Lincoln's blessing day (horribly rushed morning, hilarious snafoos, almost missed it completely) so I made sure I was prepared to be there ON TIME. Without yelling. Or crying.

Jazz had to teach second hour, I had to teach Relief Society after that, so we prepped our lessons in advance. Saturday night I made sure I got out anything that needed to be ironed, and after I got Thatcher to bed I got the iron out to press Lincoln's white shirt. Of course, as soon as I touched the iron to the white, it was horribly stained from the dirty iron and I had to throw the shirt in the washer, dryer, clean the iron and THEN iron Lincoln's shirt. I had a terrible cold and a face headache and I just wanted the day to be over.

And then morning came. And Thatcher had slept so well. We got everyone ready. No one cried. I had time to wash my hair. And put lipstick on! We were there early, it was a blessing-day miracle. Jazz got the baby dressed while I did Isabelle's hair and lol I went to put the baby in the carseat and I noticed the outfit was on completely backwards. Love you honey. 

Anyway. We sat down and a lot of our family was there. The cousins were trying hard to be reverent but were sort of hopping between a couple of pews. Thatch was fussy and I took him to the back to shush him before handing him off to Jazz for the blessing. A few of the important men in our lives stood in a circle, and using the priesthood, laid their hands on this little miracle baby of ours and Jazz gave the most beautiful blessing. Sweet and thoughtful. Of course I just sat and cried. I could hardly keep from ugly sobbing, just SO THANKFUL for this day and for this baby and for this family I couldn't contain it. 

And I thought of my Max. Who never had a blessing day. We buried him in his white blessing outfit- a one piece long sleeved cable knit jump suit. It was the last time I saw him and held him, all dressed in white. 

I wasn't sure we would ever get a happy day like this again on this earth. But Thatch looked happy and warm and pink, so different but so similar. 

Thatcher James- we are so glad you are here. We love you SO much. Our hearts are full. We had such a good day celebrating your little life. 

his little face!

half smile!

Ghostbustin'

Isabelle and her little ballet pals had a fall dance review a couple weeks ago. It's just the best. You go and watch them do class and then they have a performance they have been working on for weeks and weeks. Maybe when I get more organized I'll upload the video, because it's SO CUTE slash funny. They were so proud of themselves, as they should be. It's 3+ minutes long, and they are 5-8 years old. 

Then we had spooky donuts and cookies. 

I think the girls love ballet because Grandma is there. She makes everything more fun- she picks them up on Thursdays... they go home and change, have a warm homemade cookie, then they go to dance class. It's a pretty sweet deal they have. Isabelle is so funny at class- she yawns, she hugs grandma, she chit chats. It's social hour for her.

best cousin friends

I believe Grandma told them to make a "stank face"

general odds and ends.

Here is the junk drawer of blog posts. Things you need, but don't necessarily require their own drawer.

End of season soccer pictures. Soccer was just so hilarious. Four on four, no goalie, just a pack of kids running amok. I think Linc had a good time? He scored one goal the whole year, and I'm serious when I say I'm pretty sure they didn't win a single game.

his "frophy"

Not to be left out, here is Isabelle's first grade picture. Love her. Just had her parent teacher conference today and it was excellent across the board. So proud of her! She has recently turned the corner on reading and loves to read chapter books and check things harder things out from the library.

Our standing Friday morning date at Target. He snoozes, I shop.

He refused to wash this off before bed.

And she insisted on washing this off before bed. 

Sunday best. I love their different skin colors.

his cheek all squished!

this happens a lot.

not enough dad pictures here

stretching

We voted! In the rain with two kids, but we did it.

Our neighborhood is full of these big trees with the best leaves. We took it upon ourselves to stomp around.

 That is all. We are happy.

Halloween n stuff

Halloween! It was on a Monday. Not ideal, but it worked. We actually crashed the trunk or treat across town on Saturday with our cousins which was really fun. The kids loved running from car to car getting all of their treats.

this is my favorite costume ever. the blow up pack was hilarious.

all about the sword.

They are the cutest.

A rare paci sighting at the trunk or treat
I am so happy to have a little baby this year for all the holidays. 

baby slimer

sabs photobomb. and baby chinssssss.

Mom is the skeleton from Hocus Pocus - I Put a Spell on You. 

can you see how soft his skin is. it is so soft.

best one we got. blurry, half looking, and we'll take it.

Me and thatcher lasted about twenty minutes outside and then it started raining so we abandoned ship for Mom's house. She always does a big sloppy joe dinner and people come by and take pictures with her and it's so fun. Halloween is her favorite holiday and you can just tell. Her house is bedazzled, she has skeletons on her roof, and she always comes up with a great costume. My favorite part of Halloween is after it's over and the kids sit down and sort their candy. That was for sure my favorite part as a kid. Prioritize, trade away nuts, eat the peanut butter.

Morgan snapped this and I stole it because LOLOL. Morgan as Esmerelda from Hunchback, possible the worst disney movie ever created. Sean as a woman? Scott as the phantom? The 90's were so cool. Of course you can't miss me as the cowardly lion (some friends went as the wizard of oz peeps), pretty sure I won that medal from some sort of dork event such as odyssey of the mind or DARE camp... and Sabrina as a witch. Does Isabelle not look exactly like Sabrina? Just me?

pumpkin patching and other halloween activities.

I AM SO BEHIND. Ugh it's my favorite season and all the festivities happening and I just can't keep up. Thatcher is a EATER. And despite my best efforts, he doesn't really take a paci. And I wish he did because I am feeling a little bit like a human pacifier these days. Super glad he is nursing well but dude take it down a notch. (Totally accepting suggestions on getting him to take a pacifier. Except "Try a different kind!" cause oh really please tell me more.)

Alright let's cover Halloween really quickly before it's Christmas. Pumpkin Patch slash Lincoln's preschool harvest festival. Isabelle's harvest festival was rainy so we skipped and she had a movie night at her cousins. Win/win.

We hit the pumpkin patch with the whole fam first thing on a Saturday morning. The nice thing about having kids is they get up early, and you can beat the crowds. This was one of our first outings with Thatcher and I wasn't sure how it would go, but he did great. You sort of have to lower your expectations a little bit... there was no time for a perfect little pumpkin photo shoot. It was hot, kids got hungry, Thatcher got hungry. Picked some pumpkins, rode the train, did a couple activities and done. I laugh at myself because a few years ago I would have lugged my big camera all around that farm trying to get good pictures of all three kids together. Now I'm just glad I don't lose them.

8, 7, 6, 4.5, 3.5, 1

Lazy kids

At the cornmaze

The one! Lol actually she switched it like five times after this.

really done having his picture taken

okay okay there's a good one 

The kids were really cute, they each picked their own pumpkins and then picked little ones for Thatcher and Maxwell. They are still out on my front porch and they make me happy. I like our pumpkin patch tradition and I hope we keep doing it. Farms are fun. I am so tired right now I am making none sense. Farms are fun? Yikes.

Lincoln had a little harvest festival at his preschool. They set up all these activities and you win prizes and then we had a little parade with all the kids in their costumes. Lincoln wanted to be a ninja turtle, not just any but the blue one obviously. There is no way to make a ninja turtle not cheesy so we just embraced it and shelled out cash at target for this beauty. The mask makes me laugh because Linc didn't have to smile at all he just wore that thing everywhere.

proof I still exist. And there is Thatcher's head. and Linc has the best smile ever.

AND THEN EVEN MORE HALLOWEEN. We carved pumpkins, because it isn't halloween without gourd guts crusted to my kitchen floor. Not that the kids touch the guts because POISON but it's still fun. I observed from the other room with Thatcher constantly eating.

seriously, gloves?

That tiny bit of goo on Lincoln's hand caused major tears. GET IT OFF. 

I put this on instagram because remember when we were kids? And we had like a rusty jankity kitchen knife and an old measuring cup with no handle and we just made it work? Our kids are pansys.

It felt like a busy two weeks, and I know it's because we have a million things to do and I have an adorable yet needy newborn and some day we will carve pumpkins all together and it will be peaceful. That was not this year. Okay, coming soon: Halloween, Isabelle's dance review and Thatcher's blessing day. I told you it's been busy!

I'm not even gonna spell check this, rollin' the dice! Livin' on the edge! Ugh go to sleep Micci.