Maverick: 10 months old

The Mav is just getting so big. He thinks he is one of the big kids and he is anxious to tag along and be involved wherever he can. He is still very smiley and social and the cutest little thing. He has lots of energy and is busy but usually in a good way.

Eats: We are starting to explore with a wider variety of foods but it seems he prefers things in their pureed form. Fruits that he will eat as baby food he wont eat when they are just cut up. He likes blueberries and he loves any sort of chip/cracker/cheetos. He still eats the best for me (by far). He loves chocolate.

Sleeps: We started out the month sunburned, teething, sleep deprived and clingy. Not our best combination. sleep was scarce and he was waking up throughout the night... whether from sunburn or teeth or both. And now he wont take a binky at all, so he needs a bottle to go back to bed. He LOVES his baba.

Plays: He has stood a few times on his own. He's working on his balance and making a lot of progress. He usually stands the best when he doesn't realize he's doing it. He loves playing with Nolan's cars or chasing balls around. Otherwise he doesn't have too much interest in toys.. he just likes to raid the pantry or drawers. He LOVES the dishwasher and makes a B-line for it whenever it is open. He has no fear of the water and he likes bathtime (except for being sprayed off) and he will crawl face first into the water at the pool.

Also: People comment on him being chunky and a big boy but based on his stats from last month, he's actually only in the 30% and below average .. and nothing compared to how his older brother was! I think its his excellent cheeks and solid build that give that impression. He got two more teeth this month on top, making 6 total. He doesn't say much... he will say "mama" or "baba" occasionally and lots of "goos" and "gaas" but not very consistently. He is expressive though in his face and behavior and my favorite thing is when he gets excited about something he kicks his legs really hard!

Firsts: First time up to the Gottfredson cabin, First long RZR ride in the back seat: he loved sitting in the forward facing car seat, he slept a lot of it and was happy for the rest! First 4th of July: he watched the parade some, got his first taste of cotton candy and loved it and didn't mind the fireworks!

 June 5- July 5 2015

niether here nor there

june instagrams

joys of motherhood: june

These kids live a good life. They are super spoiled but still mostly sweet. We are having a really fun summer and basically just taking things easy and doing whatever we want! 

Classic cases of my kids:

We went to the grocery store and I gave the kids each a dollar bill and told them if they were really good they could pick out a prize for $1 to bring home. Caitlin was of super dedicated and kept her dollar bill safe and earned her prize but took FOREVER picking something out. She thought she wanted glitter but changed her mind in the check out line to a 50 cent ring pop. Nolan ended up ripping his dollar in half, losing one of the pieces, throwing a fit and got no prize.

Another day we went to the dollar store and I  told them they could choose anything they wanted. Nolan knew he wanted a car right away and once he saw the monster truck he was positive and never wavered. Caitlin chose about 5 different things and then last minute going through the check out line she changed to a huge lollipop. 

Nolan will tell you exactly how he feels or what he thinks about something. He will tell you with whatever force or volume he deems necessary, no matter who you are, if he feels like something needs to be said to you he will say it. Caitlin will show you. She's the most expressive little girl and she wears her heart on her sleeve. 

So my kids escaped.... Nolan and Caitlin were playing in the backyard and I was inside putting Maverick down. When I went outside to get them they were no where to be found. I never let them play in the front yard alone but the back is safe and completely fenced in and they cant open the fence. I was so confused when they weren't there so I was yelling their names and no answer. I went to check the front yard and there were a few kids out there that hadn't seen them and again no answer. I came inside and looked through the house and nothing. Then I got nervous. Where could they have gone?! And with whom?! I went back outside and looked again and noticed their little car was up against the back fence, by the neighbor's yard behind us. We aren't super close to those neighbors and they have older kids that my kids have never played with but something told me that they were over there. I looked over the fence and didn't see anything. I tried to go inside and call the neighbor but didn't even have her number so i got in my car and drove to the street behind us and went and knocked on their door. She answered and said, "Hey! Are you looking for your kids?" UMMM YES. Apparently their daughter had helped my kids climb the fence and they told her they had my permission and went inside to play. Give me a heart attack. 

More of Caitlin:
-she calls hand sanitizer = "hanitizer" and it's applied very liberally.
-The kids had a lesson about feeling the spirit and were asked to bare their testimonies in primary sharing time. Caitlin got her hand up the quickest to volunteer and was asked to come bare her testimony. She was happy to be picked and on her way up to the pulpit said to me, "Mom what's a testimony?" I love her confidence and willingness to just go do whatever is asked and I wondered what she would have done had I not been there. I came up to the pulpit and coached her through a few things to say and she did a great job expressing some of her feelings about the gospel.
-No questions about the human anatomy over here with two little brothers: We were at some stores the other day and went by a Calvin Klein store. In one of their windows they had male mannequins in just their underwear. Both kids got all giggly that they were just wearing underwear and then Caitlin says "They aren't real people but they just have underwear on and they even have the little bumps in them!" I couldn't believe she had said that so i asked her "What little bumps?" and she said "See? Those-- they look like weenies." Oh my heavens.
-Caitlin has an amazing attention to detail, one example is that I taught her what pearls are and how they come from inside seashells in the ocean. She was loving this and has brought it up several times. When it was "pirate day" at Summer Club I told her she should wear her mermaid shirt and then she was trying to decide what shorts to wear and said "Oooh Mom! I'll wear my white polka dot shorts because the polka dots look like pearls! And there are pearls in the sea under the mermaids!" I was pretty impressed with that one.

Nolan Man:
-At the mall they have these little pods of about 6 massage chairs that you can pay to sit in and get a massage. Nolan ran up and plopped in one and was climbing around yelling "This time machine is mine!"
-I took Nolan to the Nike store for new shoes and he only calls them "my nikes" not shoes, or tenneshoes, he's specific.
-In Nolan's prayer the other night: "please bless that Maverick won't choke on my Legos, Please bless mom and dad will be proud of me."
-I have so many stories I could tell about Nolan wandering and getting lost. I probably don't record most of them because they aren't funny to me for a few months, mostly just frustrating and scary. He went through a phase where he literally got lost  I lost him (because he never thought he was lost) every single public place we went to... the kids museum, the aquarium (twice) the store. He just wanders and he has no fear so he never feels like he needs to come find me, or even really notices that I'm not with him.

-The other day at the store a large black guy was our cashier. He was really nice and friendly with the kids and as we were leaving (luckily I THINK out of ear shot) Nolan asked "Mom why are some people painted like that??" 

-We had gymnastics and then a long day of errands and right after gymnastics Nolan had gone to the bathroom and gotten his undies a little wet. He refused to put them back on so I told him he'd have to go without. He said ok but wanted to get home as soon as possible to put new underwear on. He said "If i don't have underwear everyone will laugh at me!" I said ok but we have to go a few places first. He reminded me avery 10 minutes or so that we needed to get home so he could get new undies. But then we got invited to lunch with the cousins... and so he decided he could wait. Then we went to a couple stores. As we were loading back in the car he reminded me as soon as we got home he'd put new undies on. There were a couple guys standing outside about 10 feet or so from the car talking and one started laughing about their own conversation. Nolan noticed them and said, "Mom, why were those guys laughing?" I said "I dunno they are just talking and laughing." He said "Are they laughing because I have no underwear on?" I have never seen him be so self conscious!
-Nolan has a thing with white visors. I have no idea where this came from but he really wants me to get one. He has pointed them out several times if we've ever seen on in the store or on other people and whenever he sees one he says "Mom, I wish you had one of those hats. You should get that hat."

The Mav:

-Maverick really just thinks he is one of the big kids. He loves playing with whoever is around and I think he was a little bored with just me while the older two were at summer club! I however loved just running errands with one and kept thinking how quiet it was!

-I heard this quote in a Sunday lesson a few weeks ago and it has really stuck with me:

"The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life." -Julie B Beck

I'm so thankful that Paul is a worthy priesthood holder and that blesses our family each day, but I also think that being a mom without having the spirit with me would be impossible. There is great power and happiness that comes with listening to that still small voice and I'm incredibly grateful for that and for the opportunity that I have to work on this skill each day.

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We are enjoying summer! It's been a HOT and flying by fast so far!

Caitlin learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels this month! She still needs help getting started but she has done great and is enjoying this new mode of transportation!

We went to "melody makers" at the Museum of Curiosity with some friends and had fun playing instruments and making ribbon wands and then playing inside the museum.

We have been swimming a lot. Caitlin is a great swimmer and never uses floaties any more. Nolan likes to use his floaties when he doesn't have a parent by him to keep up with the big kids, but has still proved he knows what to do if he finds himself without floaties in deep water (thank goodness) So all in all I feel good about our swim lessons and the progress we made this year! We love the pool and Maverick is fearless in the water as well! He crawls face first into the water in the shallow end.

In between the pool we also go to the splash pad which the kids love. Maverick hasn't discovered the "splash" part yet... he chills with the moms in the shade.

June 12 we had a fun ward party at the park: food, friends, playing and an outdoor movie.

Caitlin started going to cooking class at the Pleasant Grove Rec Center and loves it. Once a week for an hour and she goes with her friend London Barnes. They usually make two things and she is so happy to tell us how she made things and that she did it completely by herself.

June 16th A big group of Paul's friends all took their girls on a Daddy Daughter Date up to the Alpine Slides. The girls all had a blast being together and having their daddies. I took the boys to the Lego store while they were on their date and we had a lot of fun too!

June 18th Caitlin and I went to see the "Mary Poppins" play at the Scera outdoor theater wit some friends. It was a fun night. Caitlin is starting to understand the idea of characters and people playing a part and was asking all kind of questions about if that was the real Mary Poppins or not or who the kids were really and what were they really like. It's so interesting to see her little mind figure things out.

My parents came on the 18th and stayed for about a week. They went to a wedding, we celebrated Fathers Day and different things in between.

June 20th we went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo and had a blast. The kids loved watching all the animals and cowboys and at the end there was a dirt bike and 4 wheeler doing tricks, followed by fireworks. And of course we loved eating the strawberries and cream!

{Father's Day} was June 21st. I was lucky enough to get to celebrate it with the father of my children and my own father! Paul is the best dad that these kids could ask for, He knows exactly how to handle them and interact with them and they are completely obsessed with Daddy.


June 25-30 Stewart and Lorraine came into town for about 5 days with the race in the middle and we had fun with them.

June 25 We went up to the Gottfredson cabin for the day with some other extended family members. We fished, floated the river, made tie dye shirts, did the zip line, had burgers and made s'mores. That night we had a HUGE firework display by Paul, Stewart and Chris and it was awesome. Great day at the ranch.

June 27th we ran the American Fork Half Marathon! Runners were: Paul and I, Derk, Stewart and Lorraine, and also Jeff and Nan Lemmon. The Meads and Jenna and her dad ran the 5k. The race course was beautiful and set up really well. It started at Tibble Fork in the canyon and ended at American Fork High School. Paul got a Personal Record of 1:42 and did amazing. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours... I finished at 2:02 and had a little bit of a rough race. My headphones lost battery and stopped working at mile 2. So I had to listen to my music coming out of my front pouch (for everyone else to hear, but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it without any music) and it just wasn't the same. I started out really fast and by mile 10 I was spent. Between my music problems, the heat and feeling a little dehydrated I didn't quite have the gumption I would have wanted to push myself through the last 3 miles. Definitely room for improvement but still proud of myself for the accomplishment, especially since I've had other health issues that have impeded my training leading up to this. I was proud of our whole group for not only completing our races but a great performance from each individual.

After we had completed our race, the kids participated in the kid's 1/2 mile run, two loops around the track. They did great! They were super excited and took it very seriously. Caitlin did the whole thing by herself, never stopped and was happy as can be, She loved being cheered for and she was very proud of herself. Nolan started with the best of intentions but when the bell rung to start the race there was some jostling and he got pushed back a little and did not like it. Paul grabbed his hand and ran with him and he was happy to do that. He ran holding Paul's hand for the whole race but also never stopped and did great!

(also on) June 27th Paul competed in the Spartan Race. Yes, on the same day. Paul is a super-human. He had a 7 minute power nap then went up to to the 9 mile (up and down mountains) plus cross fit obstacles in the heat of the day. Lorraine and I were able to go watch him and he made every obstacle seem so easy. He's amazing.


Summer Club was the last week of June. Our neighbor puts this on every summer and we have loved it. This year she set it up as a week long thing instead of once a week throughout the summer and this year Nolan was old enough to go to! Each day was a different theme: Pirate Day, Superhero Day, Mighty Kingdom Day, Wild West Day, Profession Day. The kids (mostly Caitlin) liked dressing to the theme and they both made lots of fun projects and had a great time each day,