Whoa! May?!? When Kyle said I should really update our blog he wasn't kidding that it'd been awhile. I didn't realize my last post was in May. Lot's of changes in the White household have occurred in the past few months and we keep asking ourselves and other more seasoned parents when or if life ever slows down/gets easier. Where do I even begin?

We are no longer Arizona White's for one. A change that has been REALLY hard for the whole family. I can't even put into words how in LOVE we are with Arizona. The state, the people, the wards we've been in there, the schools, THE PEOPLE, and yes, even the weather. I know what a shocker that must be for some people who think it's like living in a furnace...on the sun. If you can live through the 2-3 months of the year that are set to broil then the rest of the year is awesome! We just love that place and I'm pretty sure people here are getting tired of us using sentences like this , "well in Arizona...there's no tax on food," or "well in Arizona...you never have to worry about driving on ice or snow", or "well in Arizona road construction is almost always done at night..." OR "well in Arizona Landon had an amazingly awesome (totally free) preschool and Chase was having the Kindergarten experience of a life time!" You get the idea. We find ourselves sorely missing our friends quite often and we've come to the conclusion that people are just different in AZ. Both Chase and I have had our tears over missing our sweet friends there.

Anyhow! A few months ago we started thinking that we need to be closer to family though. We felt the need for our kids to live closer to some grandparents. We needed that, and the timing felt right. Kyle had just got yet another promotion at Apollo Group but as usual, compensation wasn't competitive enough for his position across the board and where he felt he should be with a Master's Degree. So we thought we'd send out some resumes! A few in Idaho, a few in Arkansas (both places where the grandparents are). We were in no hurry, but just thought we'd reach out and see what happens. Within a matter of a couple weeks we were off enjoying ourselves during a family reunion in Idaho when Kyle was called and asked to come in for a couple of interviews at Melaleuca while we were in town. We were so excited! Everything sounded absolutely amazing...but the job they really wanted him for was not currently open. A few days later Kyle got a call from Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, AR. He had a phone interview, then less than a week later had a web interview, then they flew him out for a face to face interview about 2 weeks after that. It seems like everything went so fast during that time and soon they were calling him with an offer and a start date for his employment. So just as we were getting into a picture perfect schedule with Chase being in Kindergarten and LOVING his friends and his amazing teacher; Landon being in a wonderful preschool and getting to ride the bus 4 days a week (the highlight of his life)...we moved!

We are now here still adjusting to life in Arkansas and falling in "like" with out new stomping grounds. There's no question that it is BEAUTIFUL here. I mean, really. The leaves are changing colors and there are so many trees for miles that as you drive all you can see is a thick canopy of reds oranges, yellows, and greens. When I drive Chase to preschool in the morning there is mist coming out of the forest of trees on either side of the road making it look like a scene straight out of a magazine. I've never seen anything like it! We've heard nothing but good about the Bentonville school district and we're excited for Chase to start Kindergarten (again) next fall. It's supposedly one of the top school districts in the nation because of the insane funding it receives from the Walton family (Wal-mart). The state however just set forth a new law that requires that a child needs to have turned 5 on or before August 1st which made Chase 7 days too short of making that deadline. He was a little confused to be going to preschool again, but has been really enjoying it. He makes friends SO easily and is such a good boy in class. He's the total opposite of Landon in personality and is quite a bit more dependent on us and others. So he tends to be a bit of a follower, but we've noticed that he is great at picking out good friends.

Landon goes to the same preschool as Chase but on alternating days and has been loving it. He was getting speech therapy at his preschool in Arizona and had qualified to go to school for free there. We tried to get him in the same situation here but they had to re-test him and he didn't qualify anymore. He went through a little developmental spurt during the time we made the move and his speech just took off! They said he had articulation and pronunciation at a 5-6 year old level and where he'd qualified in Arizona because of his expressive language (lacking certain vocabulary) he's now at a 4-5 yr old range for expressive. We're so proud of his independence! We had been holding off on toilet training him because he seemed so disinterested. I finally thought I'd just take him to the store and let him pick out a package of special underwear, a toilet, and some toilet treats. We got home and he was so excited to put on his new underwear and test out his Lightening McQueen toilet! He hasn't looked back ever since. He was seriously the easiest toilet training experience EVER. He has literally had maybe 5 accidents total in 5 months! Amazing!

Kellan started crawling about 3 weeks ago FINALLY! He didn't stop there though and has quickly picked up on pulling himself up on anything and everything and cruising around the house. He loves his new mobility! He is SO chubby and has the cutest little personality. We are all still under his adorable spell. He still makes us all melt with those chubby kissable cheeks of his, and pink pouty lips, and head full of BLONDE fluffy hair, and deep beautiful blue eyes. We can't get enough of this cutie!!! He's been babbling and talking more lately too. He says, "Momma", "Dadda", "Ni-Ni" (night night), "Babba" (bottle) and "Nana". He has 6 teeth with more coming in all the time now and is DROOLING like a fool! We've never had a drooler so this is a whole new experience for us.

I'm sorry I don't have time to post pictures right now. I know posts aren't half as fun without pictures but I'm just impressed that I'm even posting something right now period! Baby steps.

Back to Normal? Never.

Our lives have been turned wildly upside down with the arrival of our third little man, Kellan! He is deliciously soft, sweet, smells like heaven, and has completely captured all of our hearts! We are absolutely smitten by this little kitten! Chase tells me almost daily that he has "big heart" or "big love" for Kellan. Landon is constantly greeting Kellan in the morning with a sing songy, "Cute Baby!!" They shower him with kisses hugs and affection and he reciprocates with the most heart melting smiles imaginable. Nothing about having a third child has been easy from pregnancy to labor to life after baby. I was warned that the 3rd child was the hardest for many of my friends and family so I thought if I imagined it being really really hard it couldn't possibly be as hard as I had imagined. It is...and some. I've had to throw schedules, planning, and naps out the window. I've had to realize that some days I just won't be able to keep the house clean, or get in a workout, or even cook dinner, and definitely not all three! We would not trade in our newly hectic lives with baby Kellan for anything though. When he smiles and coos at us it makes all the hard work totally worth it! Also, he's growing up way too fast. I had my first break down yesterday when I was looking at how long he is and how fast he's growing. We've talked about making him our third and final babe and looking at how fast he's moving through these precious infant days is tearing me apart!

I'm not even going to try to catch up on everything I've missed blogging about because, let's face it, I can barely remember what happened yesterday! So, I'll just try and recap the bigger events we've had occur in the past few months.

Kellan was born January 1st just 12 minutes shy of having his birthday on January 2nd and dangerously close to being delivered via c-section. I was induced 2 weeks early according to my due date and MUCH too early according to my body. I was only 25% effaced and maybe 1 cm dilated. During my pregnancy I had excess amniotic fluid (there can be too much of a good thing) the term for such a condition is called polyhydramnios. I have had like a gallon too much of amniotic fluid during all of my pregnancies and it's never concerned my doctors before. I had a new doctor (regrettably) with Kellan however and they jumped all over this and could care less about my previous medical history. They ran multiple tests, sent me to specialists, and ordered high risk ultrasounds to try and figure out what was causing my polyhydramnios only to find out what I had been telling them all along was in fact true (shocker). My wee little water babes like very cushioned homes during their 9 month residency, in fact, they demand it! They induced me early because there was no cause to be found (????) and they just said, "well, you're full term, we might as well just get that baby out!" Who wouldn't want that, right? Me. I was perfectly happy waiting out the rest of my pregnancy and being able to deliver naturally again. I pictured it being just as enjoyable as Landon's delivery and thought I'd even go without an epidural this time. In the end we agreed to induction. It was a long, hard, and painful day and the only thing that kept me happy was that at the end of it all we would finally get to meet our sweet boy.

My mom was able to come out for a week after we brought Kellan home and she spoiled us and pampered us the entire time. Chase and Landon loved their long outings to the park giving Kellan and I a chance to sleep, we had a constantly sparkling house, stocked fridge and cupboards, and hot, delicious meals 24/7. I seriously have the best mom I could ever ask for. She made life SO easy for us while she was here!

A couple weeks later luck struck again and we had more visitors! Kyle's parents came for Kellan's baby blessing as well as the Mackey's. We has so much fun catching up and playing games and staying up late just enjoying the full house. Chase still talks about what a dream come true it was to have his beloved cousin Payton to play with all day long.

Here's a recap of some of the things that have happened since Kellan's arrival...

Chase and Landon took swim lessons and both did wonderfully!! Chase can swim a good distance on his own and Landon is doing great with his kicks and arms he just can't keep himself afloat for very long and sinks like a rock!

We are doing a program called Parents as Teachers that we LOVE!!! I will have to go into depth more about that in a different post. It's a free program provided to families (made possible by cigarette tax dollars) where our "Parent Educator", Pam, comes out 2x a month and does fun developmental activities with the kids and me. Today we made Ziploc bag books. Chase chose a letter and looked through magazines to cut out things he found that started with the letter "C" and put them in the Ziploc bags we'd taped together. After he was done he told us a story with the items he'd put in his book. Landon did the same thing but with things that make sounds, he found a dog, cat, car, etc. and he told us about the sounds they make when he read us his Ziploc book. Pam even brought something for Kellan! She brought me a bunch of information on baby massages and different techniques and strokes and the importance of baby massage and attachment formation for babies. Very interesting stuff! I'm excited to make that part of our daily routine.

Kyle started another position at Apollo Group. Another step in the right direction to where he'd like to end up and he really likes the work he's doing.

I got released from YW's, a very bittersweet experience. I was relieved of the burden that the calling had become but I knew I'd really miss the girls. They were SO sweet and put together the most thoughtful and sweet thank you card. I got released, officially, the week before New Beginnings and I wasn't planning on attending, but a few of the girls insisted that I come to it so I gave in. I just LOVE those girls to pieces! They surprised me (and embarrassed me) by taking some time at the end of the program in front of family, the bishopric, old leaders and new leaders (none of which had any idea what they were doing) and called me up to present the card and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I got to give each of them a hug and tell them how much I'd miss them. And I still miss them a ton!

I got to relax for no more than 3 days before I was given a new calling as the CTR 5 teacher. It had been almost a year since they'd had a reliable teacher for this class and people kept asking to be released or not accepting the calling at all. Sad. I absolutely LOVE serving in the primary and I adore my 9 little 5 year olds. They are so smart and say the most profound things sometimes! They make me realize just how incredible this young generation really is.

                                         Chase and Landon at swim lessons!

That's all I can think of for now...I can't guarantee I will be more consistent about updating, but I'll try. Three kids are no joke!! At least I'm a little caught up now!