Seeing 2020

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years (almost to the day) since the last time I wrote a blog post. So much has happened during our time here in Arkansas. Job growth with Kyle, building a new house next to Nana and Papa, moving into that new house, 70 lb weight loss, becoming an IdealShape ambassador thanks to my weight loss using their products, taking 3rd place and winning $500 in their Ship Shape contest and the unforgettable trip to Utah to meet the wonderful people behind the products, serving in YW presidency and Kyle in the Bishopric, 3 half marathons, discovering a love for running, getting a dog, getting chickens, owning and teaching for my own small tumbling business,, going on a family Disney cruise, going on a 15 year anniversary couple cruise, getting called as primary president, trips to Idaho, and so many memories have been made in the past 5 years! It’s been a whirlwind, and here we are going into a New Year and I find myself feeling overwhelmed and slightly stressed. Chloe will be starting. kindergarten this year which means that for the first time in over 13 years I won’t have kids at home during the day. I never really thought this day would come, I would look at other moms in this stage of life and have mixed feelings of sadness and a little jealousy. I didn’t want that day to come in many ways. I love being a stay at home mom, I love my young, sweet children, and I’m not ready to be in that stage of life and say goodbye to their innocence and goodness. It makes me teary  just writing this and thinking that  I won’t have a baby in the home anymore, I won’t have diapers to change, raspberries to blow on baby soft bellies, soft downy hair to kiss on a sweet smelling baby head, and squishy warm small bodies to snuggle during the day. I know this stage of life had to end sometime, and some days I am so ready for it to be over but some days my stomach does flips and my heart aches and my eyes swell with tears thinking about how my babies are all growing up. This year is a little scary for me with a Chloe starting school. I have no excuse to not go back to school either and while I have always wanted to fulfill my dream of becoming a nurse, I’m so scared! I’ve been out of school for so long, I’m worried I have forgotten how to learn, I’m worried that I won’t be able to be present for my children and my family, that the 2 year sacrifice will cause long term detriment to my children. Mostly I’m worried I will fail. I’m worried it will be too hard and I won’t be able to do it. I have always had a massive fear of failure and this tops the chart on that meter. I definitely worry I won’t be able to juggle it all. I’ve already told Kyle that I will have to quit teaching tumbling. I need to take something off my list of responsibilities. I’m hoping that he will get a promotion before that time so that I won’t feel guilty not contributing that income. If he got a promotion, that would more than cover what I am bringing in  with tumbling so I’m really praying that will be something that will happen for us this year. I am really just grateful for Kyle’s job. I know it’s not really something he’s passionate about or loves doing, but Walmart/Sam’s Club has been an incredible company to work for. They’ve taken great care of us and we’ve been able to live beautifully over the past 7 years we’ve been here. I feel very blessed with where our life has been and how far we’ve come. We’ve learned some tough lessons on the way, but we are stronger than ever and truly happy. Here’s to big wonderful things happen wing in 2020 starting with a family reunion cruise to the western Caribbean in a week and a half!! So excited!!

Chloe Elizabeth White

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I last posted on here. As I was looking back at some of the last posts I wrote I was a little heart broken that I haven't kept up as well as I should have. I forget so many of our every day happenings and it was so fun to look back and read about it all again! I have posted the birth stories of all of our kids on here because it seems to be the easiest place journal it in a way that it can be shared with family and friends easily. So in keeping with that tradition here is Chloe's pregnancy and birth story!

*The Pregnancy*
Everything about Chloe's coming into our lives was perfect (even though she did make us wait an awfully long time for her). My pregnancy with Chloe was awesome. Just awesome. I loved being pregnant the entire time. I felt great the ENTIRE time. I had no morning sickness, really no indication that I was even pregnant aside from feeling slightly tired some days. I had such a lack of symptoms that I was honestly a little shocked to see a baby on the monitor during our first ultrasound! Even at
the end when I was overdue the only thing that was hard was all the questions and the anticipation. I was SO ready to finally meet my little girl! I never got too uncomfortable though and was even still able to sleep well at the very end. Chloe was our little beautiful surprise. At the beginning of 2014 Kyle and I talked very briefly about the possibility of our family being complete. We were both somewhat leaning toward being done. Three boys all pretty close in age has definitely been a fun and challenging experience and we weren't sure we were up for more of a challenge. We decided we would make the official decision in October of 2014. We had planned on really praying about it and talking about it and attending the temple as frequently as possible during this time to prepare ourselves to reach an inspired decision. So life continued on and come March I was really late. I honestly didn't think anything of it since we were actively preventing. I thought maybe it was due to a more rigorous workout routine. I even had the fleeting thought that maybe, just maybe I was pre-menopausal (Ha!) I happened to have a conversation with my sister Cassandra who'd just delivered my little nephew Bennett. She asked when we were maybe going to have another baby and I told her we'd talk about it more come October. I also said, "I am a little worried though because my period is really weird lately and I'm thinking I may be pre-menopausal." I told her that I was like 20 days late. She asked if I had taken a pregnancy test and I just laughed and said no, but I really doubted that I was pregnant. That conversation was enough to get me thinking *maybe* I was pregnant. So I went out right after I got off the phone with her to pick up a pregnancy test so I could rule that out and be on my merry way. I tested when I got home and it immediately read a very clear and obvious POSITIVE! I sent Kyle a text and said, "I think I might be pregnant." he wrote back and said, "yeah but haven't you thought that before and it was a false alarm?" I sent him a picture of the test in response and he said, "give me a second. I'm going to call you."--and so began the beginning of Chloe coming into our lives. If I could have a pregnancy like that guaranteed every single time I might actually consider having more!

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! 

Recently...

At the Zoo with my little animals!

First and last belly picture for this pregnancy.

I think this was at 37 weeks large and in charge!


Our little chubby babe! Looking awfully cozy...

At the Zoo on the carousel!


Halloween! Ghost and Ghost Buster:)

and Fire Fighter and his rescued burn victim (yes, he's showcasing a dough hook)

I figured I'd better start posting something since I only have about 4 weeks give or take before life gets even more crazy around here! So here is a very condensed summary of what's new at the White's!

Kyle ran his second marathon in October and PR'd! He didn't do as well as he'd hoped (I think he's WAY too hard on himself) but not many people can say they hoofed 26.2 miles! So we think he's pretty stinking awesome!! Other than that he's just been busy with work and his church calling. Between the two we don't get to see much of him until the weekends if then. Luckily because of accumulated overtime he's been able to take a couple "Daddy" days recently. We've gone to the Bounz House and the Zoo on those days and we've had a grand old time!

I had my gymnastics recital at the beginning of this month and classes ended. The recital went really well. My little gymnasts did a superb job and I was really proud of them. It's been weird not having classes anymore but kind of nice to just be able to concentrate on having a baby now. The pregnancy is going well for the most part but I have definitely felt more aches and pains this time around though. Mainly just ligament and back pain but it's been enough to make me slow down a lot more then I did during Landon's pregnancy. I've shelved my running shoes for the time being and I just stick to lower impact exercise for now. The baby is growing marvelously though and we are getting more and more anxious to snuggle this little guy as the time gets closer.

Chase has been a HUGE help to me and I am so glad to have him around on those days that I just feel "broken". He has the most entertaining personality too. He is always saying the funniest things and he remembers EVERYTHING. He quotes movies all the time! We will say something like, "Whoa Chase! You did that by yourself" or something similar to which he'll reply while striking a super pose, "Yes I did! YOINK!" (quoting Rhino from Bolt).

Another funny Chase moment was at the zoo the other day we were looking at the Rhinos and the gazelles which share an exhibit. At first we couldn't see the rhinos so we were looking at the gazelles and Kyle saw a big pile of rhino droppings and knowingly misinformed Chase that this was the handy work of the gazelles. Chase stood there for a moment and pondered this while also looking at the gazelles then he said, "What big poo to come from such little bums!"

We have also started the process of moving Landon into Chase's room. We stacked their bunk beds and Chase sleeps on top. The first night went really well. Last night however was a huge fail! We ended up trying a suggestion that a friend gave us of putting a sheet up as a curtain around the lower bunk. I jokingly told Landon after doing this, "OK now you stay put behind your "curtain of shame" (ya know...Baljeet from Phineas and Ferb?) after which Chase yelled, "I want a curtain of shame!!"

Landon is just a little man now. He is super stubborn and independent and still oh so mischievous! The only way he goes into nursery without a fight is if we let him walk down to the room on his own and open the door then shut it in our faces before we can say another word. He likes to do everything by himself and if you help him out with something he felt he could do on his own, he'll lay down a wrath like none other. He likes to talk our ears off and tell us about all the naughty things his brother and Dodger do. He wants to go to preschool like Chase SO bad. I'll let him put on a little backpack when we take Chase to preschool and today I came into the room to check on him while he was napping and found that he'd fallen asleep wearing his backpack! He loves to wrestle Chase and Kyle and pretty much any other child hes sees. It doesn't matter if knows them or not, and whether or not they are willing to wrestle with him he will take them down! Fortunately he's pretty gentle on me for the most part although I do get tackled with a big bear hug every so often:)

That's about it for now! Hopefully my next post will have pictures of our soon to be new addition and not just scanned ultrasound pics!

Happenings...

Baby boy #3! You can see his little hand resting under his chin while he snuggles up to the placenta. Both of our boys and myself sleep with our hands under their chins like this when we sleep on our stomachs. It was fun to see that this little guys already fits right in! So cute!

Birthday pictures!

Landon 2 years old

Chase 4 years old!

Cute boys!

The family with our new Master's Graduate!

Future graduate Parker Daniel! His talented mom CREATED this graduation outfit! It was super impressive and he looked oh so adorable rocking it!

Panda! He made faces and woo'ed the people behind us for the majority of the graduation. The guy behind me kept saying how much more entertaining a grauduation is when he's sitting behind such a cute little boy:)

Keynote speaker

Chase being a good boy during a loooooong graudation.

Our graduate!

I really have to get better at this updating business...We've had so much going on and I feel like I've missed being able to post about a lot of it. In a mad effort to do some catching up here are some recent happenings in the White family!

Kyle finally graduated from his Master's program in August!!! This was big for us. It's seemed like it has been a looooong journey but he finally finished with flying colors. He's been able to get a lot more done with that off his plate and we're glad to be able to see him a little more often now:) He's also training like a mad mad for his fast approaching marathon. He'll be running in the St George Marathon this year on October 1st. His 2nd marathon! His training is going well and he hasn't had any injuries. I know he'll be amazing come October! We're so proud of our marathon running master's grad!

I am loving my calling in YW's more and more. My girls are beyond amazing! They are such genuinely good girls. They make making right choices and standing up for what you believe in look easy. I don't know if all the youth in the church are like this or if I just lucked out but we've got a great group of girls that is ever expanding. I now have 5 Mia Maids (I started with only 3 and only 2 of those were active)! One of which is getting baptized this Saturday. So exciting! When I first was called in we had maybe 10 girls total we now have about 25 most of which are active. I've also started teaching gymnastics out of our home recently. This week was our second week. I love it so far! I have great classes and the kids seem to be catching on really well. I'm really looking forward to the fun things I have planned for this session! I am only doing the preschool age group this session of 3-5 year olds and it's been perfect for me while I'm pregnant. Depending on how things go with baby and how crazy things are with three boys I might do a spring session and take on the 5-8 year olds also at that time. We'll have to see! I love teaching gymnastics though. It's nice to be able to bring in a little extra while doing something that I really enjoy and look forward to.

This pregnancy has been great! I have had such a lack of any pregnancy symptoms and the ones I have had have been the good ones, healthier skin and nails and such. The only complaint I've had is that I have the appetite of 3 UFC fighters. It's been HORRIBLE! As a result I have already gained 15 pounds and I'm only half way through! I don't like where this is heading...I seriously feel like my stomach is bottomless. I almost never feel full or satisfied after eating. I hate that! Still we are so excited to welcome yet another little boy into our family in January! I LOVE that! I've slowed down a bit on my workouts since I became pregnant and I only run 11 miles each week total. It feels great to stay active and hopefully that's counteracting my rampant eating escapades.

Chase started his second semester of preschool in August and he is just growing up so stinking fast! His teacher said that during one of the first classes this semester that they were cutting and pasting some pictures they'd colored and Chase had remembered doing a similar activity from his previous semester. When the teacher had finished explaining what they kids would be doing Chase chimed in and said, "let me know if anyone needs help. I can help you when I'm done with mine." Hahaha! He is SO SO SO much like Kyle. He says the funniest things and he reminds me so much of his daddy with the way he acts. He loves to help me out during the day and keep Landon in line. He's always asking if he can help me clean and he jumps to do little favors for me. Again, Kyle. I have a feeling this little guy will be a GREAT help to me after the baby comes. He's found an insane passion for the Wii and asks to play it the moment he wakes up! I don't know how I feel about this. Seeing as I didn't grow up with video games, I've never been a big fan and I don't like the addiction it can cause. We allow him an hour of Wii play each day and he's usually really good at respecting the rules. He loves to sword fight and do bowling on it and looks pretty darn cute when he's concentrating so hard.

Landon is my little momma's boy. He is attached at the hip to his mommy. He doesn't like me to leave the house without him, he likes to know where I am at all times, and my favorite...he still loves his snuggle time with me. Kyle likes to do his bedtime routine sometimes for some bonding time with him and when he brings him over to give me a kiss goodnight Landon will dive to me from Kyle and wrap his little arms around my neck like a tree monkey to ensure that I am the one that puts him in his bed. Chase was and still is such a daddy's boy, so it's been nice to feel more appreciated by one of our children and it allows Kyle to see how it feels on the other side too:) He would always say I was overreacting or being silly when I would talk about Chase's preference for him. Now he knows I wasn't! I just adore my momma's boy! He is mischievous though...he is much more laid back then Chase ever was. He likes bugs, mud, and germs. His favorite things to do lately though is watch movies. He could do it all day long if I let him. He goes to our movie cupboard and tries to open and says, "Watch Mooovie!!" in the cutest little voice ever! He keeps talking more and more and uses a lot of phrases and copies a lot of our words. He can say the prayer (just repeating) and he likes that he's understood more now. He had a really hard time during that frustrating stage when they want so bad to voice their little opinions but their parents just don't understand a word. So glad that's coming to an end...

We just love these little guys and we are really really excited for a third one! We can't wait to see the difference in personalities and see what a third boy will look like for us. He's looking very healthy and growing right on target and we're getting anxious to meet him!

Catching up

The two biggest fish that were caught. One of the King Mackerels and on of the Red Snappers.

Buried Landon at the beach...

and then Chase

At the swimming pool on Landon's birthday

Pregnant!

Trip to Idaho

The infamous zhu zhu pet

Landon's 2nd birthday celebration

a couple of the party guests:)

I can't believe I haven't posted since May! Did I read that right? I think I can only be consistent with one type of record keeping medium and that's been my good 'ol journal recently. A lot has been going on with our family though so it's time to share.

In May we went to Idaho for a couple weeks to attend Grandma Diann's final Tavaci concert. It's the end of an era that I think she was happy to see end. She has touched so many lives with that program and won't be easily replaced or forgotten. We spent the week just soaking in Rexburg and being around family and friends during that time. It was a really great and relaxing vacation. We got to go the BYUI center and saw all the changes that have been made to the campus and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous that we never had a lot of the stuff the students now have. It is AMAZING up there! I kind of want to go back but it was a sad realization to think we'll probably never be students at BYUI again. Too bad ambassadors don't get any of those student perks (cough cough, a nice gym to work out in while visiting your old stomping grounds!) The boys had SO much fun playing with there cousins and still ask for them to come over for a play date almost daily.

We came back and I had a few weeks to to accomplish a whole lot before we left to Arkansas for our next vacation. We flew into Arkansas on a Saturday and a few days later my entire side of the family left for Alabama and the Gulf Shores. If you think like I did when I heard Alabama and Gulf Shore you might think tar covered beaches and tar ball infested water. We were extremely surprised when we walked into our BEAUTIFUL beach house to see a view of GORGEOUS white, pristine, sand leading up to the ocean. It was breath taking really. We spent the whole week at these beach houses and our days were something like this wake up go the beach, play for hours, go to the pool at the beach house, play for another hour, have lunch, take naps, and sometimes repeat. The Wednesday we were in Alabama the boys decided they wanted to do some deep sea fishing. There were only 5 men and they needed a 6th person. Surprisingly none of the girls wanted to go, and I really do mean surprisingly because I thought it sounded super fun! Since I was the only one that thought that, I got the last seat on the boat. We went out for 4 hours and came back with a great catch. The captain said he goes out for a 12 hour trip with a group and they won't catch as much as we did. We definitely worked hard to get our money's worth in fish and experience! It was a blast! We came back to Arkansas after our week in Alabama was done and my grandfather from Brazil came in the next day. Kyle and I haven't seen my grandparents since our wedding and our kids have never met either of them before so it was a real treat having him there even though we were sad we didn't get to see my grandma also. The kids ADORED him! We all went hiking to the beautiful falls in Bentonville and just relaxed and did some mini golfing and playing at the park. It was awesome. We definitely realized with these two vacations how much we REALLY miss being closer to family.

We got back from Arkansas on a Wednesday afternoon and I spent the remainder of the day finalizing preparations for YW's camp. We loaded the trucks later that evening and left early the next morning. A couple of angelic sisters in the ward watched our boys during the day and I cannot even begin to say how good I felt knowing they were in great hands while I was away. I didn't worry about them for a second even though I missed all three of my boys almost every second. YW's camp was incredible. My highlight was testimony meeting hands down. Every single girl bore their testimony including two girls that are not even members and one girl who has been really inactive for most of her life. It was absolutely the best YW's camp I've ever been to and we even got rained on the first day! We have amazing youth in the world at this time. I just look at my young women and think they are so much better, so much stronger, and so much wiser than I ever was at their age and they are growing up in a much harder world than I did! I just love each of those girls so much!

We got back from camp and we've just been trying to catch up to reality this past week. Kyle got offered a new position at work which he accepted and has already started to train in. His new job title is Business Analyst II. Sounds exciting! He is pretty excited though due to the experience he'll gain through working in this position, plus it's a promotion so we'll take it! His boss said that everyone who's worked in that position has gone on to a position in General Ledger within a short time which is where he'd like to end up at some point. So we're very grateful for the new opportunity.

Lastly Landon has had some changes brewing in his life recently as he was informed not too long ago that come January 14th he will no longer be the baby of the family. That's right! We're expecting baby #3!!! I am about 15 weeks along. This pregnancy has been totally low key. I don't have bad pregnancies to begin with but I have had NO symptoms this time around unless you count cravings for comfort food which I don't because I get those regardless of whether or not I'm pregnant. Seriously, I forget that I'm even pregnant sometimes.

So I think that covers the most recent for our family. Someday I'll be better at updating the blog and commenting on other people's blogs. I DO read other's blog though, very often. I am just horrible lately at commenting so I apologize for that but we love hearing what's new in our family and friend's lives.

These are all the pictures for now. I can't get our beach pictures to dowload so those will have to come on a different day. Enjoy!

Mother's Day card from Landon...

and this one's from Chase...

I know I have a lot of other things I need to catch up on blogging about but I'm just doing this quick post today. I have NO time lately! Who does, right? The boys gave me THE cutest Mother's Day gifts yesterday. I told Kyle that the only thing I really wanted was for Chase to sing for me during sacrament meeting with the primary kids. This is his first Mother's Day in primary and I had been waiting for this day to come. Luckily his cute preschool teacher is in our ward's Primary Presidency otherwise I don't think he would've gone up there without her motioning for him. He was a little hesitant, but once he got up there and started singing "I am a Child of God" with the other children, it was everything I'd dreamed it would be. I laughed, I cried, I loved every second of it and would've taken a picture if I could. They both made me cute Mother's Day cards and showered me with lots of hugs and kisses and loving words. Not to mention they were REALLY sweet yesterday! Minimal mischief, no attitude, just tender, snuggly, loving boys. It was the perfect gift. I'm grateful to be a mom to these two precious ones.

If I try to think of a title for this post it will never get written. Same with pictures. Unfortunately those will have to come at a much later time. A lot has been going on with our family lately and we've been pretty busy. Here's an effort to play a bit of catch up. Kyle ran his Spartan race and got an excellent time in my opinion. The obstacles and challenges were HARD but he did all of them and didn't get any penalties. (For example if you couldn't climb over the rope wall they made you do 100 push ups instead.) Basically, he rocked it! No surprise there. He's been busy with school and if I haven't said it already we are THRILLED that he will have his Master's Degree completed in about a month! It's been a long hard road mostly for him, but it has definitely been hard on us all to not have him around as often due to studying or his class nights. Glad to have it over and done with soon. He's been busy with his new calling and life has gotten a little more hectic there, but all around we can't complain. We are doing well. Not too much new with me...busy with my calling also, but loving every minute of being involved in the lives of these amazing youth. I think about them often and just love each one of them to pieces. Other than that I just spend my days finding new ways to entertain the two (and sometimes a third adopted) little men in my life. I love planning our days and getting Chase excited about going or doing different things. We've gone to the zoo a lot lately, and our favorite public pool. Their favorite lately is going to the park and playing hide and seek with a football (kind of like an Easter Egg hunt). Chase is still loving pre-school. I love hearing about his day when I pick him up, he just chatters non stop about all the things he learned and I really enjoy doing his homework with him and watching his little mind in action. He has a wonderful teacher whom he adores and he's learning a lot. When we're driving over to preschool he likes to sing the Sid the Science kid song that goes, "I love me mom (uh huh) my mom is cool (uh huh) but now it's time for having fun at school!" He starts soccer league this week. His first practice is on Wednesday and first game on Saturday. He also has the father and son's camp out this weekend which he is uncontrollably excited about. Landon is talking more and more clearly every week. He will repeat pretty much everything we ask him to and says an array of words on his own. His favorite words right now are: no, amen, ball, thank you, Dodger, no no Dodger, Chase, Landon, ni-night, please, look, and mommy and daddy. He is the ultimate in mischief. I have to keep a CONSTANT eye on him and there is not much that will keep him interested while I get other things done. So when I get ready in the morning Landon goes either in the empty bath tub with some toys where he's always right there with me or in the sink right in front of me while I get ready. I've learned that it's much easier to be proactive like this than it is to come out after getting dressed to find his "surprises". He is tons of fun though and our family really would not be the same without him. He definitely adds a lot of spice and variety. We are also new Honda Odyssey owners (yay)! I LOVE it despite the mini van aspect. That's about it for our family! We're doing pretty well and looking forward to summer! We can't wait for some fun adventures...

My little "son"shines

*Just a warning. This is definitely a journal entry and is probably going to get pretty gushy and long.* It really is incredible how much you can grow to love your children more and more with time. I know that sounds super corny, but I think back when Chase was born holding that brand newborn baby and being absolutely head over heels in love. The momma bear in me was born and I swore I would never let a single thing or person harm my beautiful baby. I didn't think I could possibly love TWO kids the same amount. I thought for sure I'd have a favorite and in fact I was very afraid I would. But then Landon came along and proved me more than wrong. Sometimes I feel that indeed my heart just might explode and sometimes I think it does a little when those uncontrollable tears come streaming out of my eyes just thinking about my precious boys. I.love.these.boys. I hope they know it. Chase is growing up so fast in such a short amount of time. He is like a miniature version of Kyle. So responsible, worried, and striving for perfection. I often have to say to him, "Hey! Who's the mommy?" He says back authoritatively, "You are!" to which I say, "OK then let me be." He is my biggest helper and will jump at the chance to do anything I ask him to do just saying, "OK mommy". He's always impressing me. He loves drawing, writing, and coloring and I often come into the garage to find the floor covered in Chase originals, or a variety of alphabet letters, or stick figures of our family. He's intuitive and has a memory like nothing I've ever seen. He's always reminding me of things I told him or something he saw on TV or learned in school. Landon is full of energy and love. He is curious and likes to watch people, observe, and try the world on for size. He likes being independent, but is by far much more dependent than Chase ever was. He makes me feel very needed:) He can snuggle for a good hour or more and there are times when I will do just that with him. I know there will come a day when I would give anything to hold that sweet smelling, fluffy dark haired, little toddler close just one more time. More than anything though, they are such great examples to me. They make me want to try harder, learn more, and be better in everything I do. I loved Sister Jean A Stevens talk in General Conference about children and following their examples and developing the divine attributes they exemplify daily. I loved when she said, "These precious children of God come to us with believing hearts. They are full of faith and receptive to feelings of the Spirit. They exemplify humility, obedience, and love. They are often the first to love and the first to forgive." I just thought of my sweet children when I heard that and how I could pin point examples from our day to day events of them exemplifying each of those qualities. These children coming into the world today are incredible. I feel blessed beyond belief to have the two precious princes that were sent to our family.It makes those hard days seem not so bad when I see these two sweet boys for who they really are, how Heavenly Father sees them.

Suns Game

Landon cheering on the Suns!

The boys jumping on Kyle while we watched the warm up

Chase and me

The warm up

In front of US airways arena by the giant basketball

Last night we took the boys to their very first Phoenix Suns game! The Suns played the Utah Jazz in a really close game. It was neck and neck the entire time. I don't think either team led by more than 5 or 6 points during the entire game. I will admit that I really am not much of a sports fanatic, much to Kyle's great disappointment. I DO really, honestly ENJOY watching live basketball games though. I can watch it on tv and not be completely bored out of my mind, but live baskeball is probably the only sport that I would pay more to watch live. I (shamefully) become a whole other person when I'm watching a live NBA game. Let's just say Kyle couldn't stop staring at me and just smiling or laughing. I don't know what was wrong with him! The game was SO close and he was as calm as...a Hindu cow (I don't know?)??? He was calm! At any rate, we had a great time. The boys had a blast and we (the Suns) WON! Yes!! Go Suns!!! Final score 101 to 102 SUNS! Here are some of our pictures from the night.

Playdough

We have been on a play dough kick lately around our house. I found this AWESOME recipe for play dough a couple weeks ago on one of my favorite sites, HowDoesShe. It makes the softest, squishiest play dough that lasts forever! Seriously. The boys left one of the bags out and opened for almost the whole day one time and it's still super squishy! The boys love that they can actually help me make it too. I let them dump in the ingredients and help stir then we all knead it together when the dough cools.Chase was so proud of his play dough that he asked to take it to pre-school for show and tell. His teacher said he was so excited telling all his friends how he helped make it and letting them all squish it. So here's the recipe for those who are interested:

Super Soft Play Dough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tarter

1 Tb vegetable oil

4 drops of your favorite food coloring

Dump all ingredients into a med. pot and stir constantly over med. heat until it forms one big glob. Take off heat and put the glob on some wax paper. When cool knead the dough until it's nice and soft. Enjoy!!!

Kudos to Kyle

My.husband.rocks. I'm not going to lie...he's pretty amazing. Whatever job he does, he does it WELL. So I have to brag him up a little bit because, well, that's what I do! His boss recently got a letter from one of the VP's in the company whom Kyle had assisted and this is what it read:

Description of your achievement
Kyle White recently was assigned to assist with an employee expense reimbursement issue. He exceeded all expectations – quick to respond, thorough in his follow-up, and set the appropriate expectations so that we could handle our situation with ease. I was extremely impressed by Kyle’s ownership spirit. When we asked him a question that was out of scope, he did a little research and went beyond offering a blanket response that may have missed the mark.

The end result of Kyle’s judgment and professionalism – our employees were able to resolve important reimbursement issues in a timely, efficient manner. This is critical to all employees and their leaders, and your team’s support in delivering is appreciated.

I’m not blown away often but really was by Kyle’s customer service.

Pretty impressive. They even gave him a Wii fit bundle for his recognition! We are so proud to call him ours around this house, and we love him for all the hard work he does to support our family. But really we're mostly just grateful he has a job! Good job honey!!!

Half Marathon

at mile 7 these cute faces greeted me with smiles!

They had fun while they waited for me to finish. I hear they bounced and played and got to pet a live alligator and boa constrictor! Landon was anxious to be the alligator's mid morning snack and he kept trying to pry the electrical tape off with all his might!

I finally participated in my first half marathon (hopefully) of many. Honestly...I really enjoyed it. There was a time around mile 10 that I bonked and I was hating myself that lasted until about mile 12 when a lady ran up next to me and said, "don't stop now! I've been following you for the last 10 miles and you've been keeping me going!" I started up with her again and we discussed our aches and pains and how my iPod died around the time I bonked (probably could have contributed to that). Then she said she had to walk again and I thanked her profusely for the extra boost that I NEEDED desperately at that moment. I ran in strong the rest of the way and finished with a time of 2:21. I met my goal of finishing under 2:30 and felt pretty good. This race was really special. They created it in memory of a sweet little girl named London who passed away after a long battle with Leukemia. All the proceeds from the race go to children that are currently battling cancer. The route is strewn with pictures of children who have either passed or are currently fighting cancer. They have sayings on the signs from the children, to motivate you and many that just say, "do it for her..." above a picture of London. It brought me to tears many times but made me think how trivial and insignificant my aches or pains at that moment truly were compared to the real pain and sorrow these children and their families have gone through and are still going through in many cases. It was very special. It was even more special because one of the two beneficiaries this year was a YW in our stake who is currently undergoing treatment for her battle with cancer. It was definitely a very extraordinary and rewarding experience that I hope to participate in again.

Next race on my schedule is my second go at Pat's Run in April. Next up for Kyle is the Spartan 8 mile race. His race is an urbanathlon type of thing. It sounds like it'll be fun. For those who aren't familiar with urbanathlons, it's a city course set up with obstacles and such. You run climb, slide, and army crawl through mud and other obstacles and in the Spartan race there are volunteers that hit you and trip you with those big gladiator sticks as your running through the course. Well at least I hear they're fun. Not my cup of tea, but definitely something I think Kyle will enjoy. I don't do mud.