Spring is here!

This weekend we went up to the Coxes for Sunday dinner. It was such nice weather, we went for a walk. Sophie fell asleep right away!

Aunt Tricia is visiting from Palmyra, so the kids loved playing with her!

Mommy and Bella - this girl sure is getting good at riding her scooter!

Looking over the fence at a neighbor's chickens and bunny.

Soph and her long eyelashes

Cute babies

Aw, sweet sisters

Mommy and Dude

Love this chunky guy's smiles!

What's the fun of having 2 babies if I can't squeeze them into places meant for 1?!

I love this one because you can see Jar's face smiling at Jace on the other side!

Sophie and Trish getting to know each other

Kenzie turns 2! She "blew out" her candles (it was too windy to really light them).

No, she is not smoking the candle, just licking off the frosting!

Cupcakes are serious business!

Ethan and Kenzie enjoying their cupcakes

Kaley and Ethan are cute little cousins! Kaley loves that Ethan just adores her!

The girls sat around visiting

Jarilyn and Porter

The boys played basketball.

The kids jumped on the tramp. (I am surprised how well they all played with each other!)

Thomas loves to play basketball! He wanted the hoop up really high, so they moved it up. Then he had to move the little tramp over so that he could reach the basket. You'll also note that his pants are unbuttoned. He can't button them by himself (mostly because of his chubby tummy), so it usually just hangs open. :)

Bells would have swung there all afternoon, as long as her grandpa was pushing her!

Thanks for the party! Let's do it again soon!

LUCKY

Lucky because of my new stroller

Lucky because of my view on walks

Lucky because of Jace

Lucky because of Sophie

Lucky because of sweet Bella luvs

Lucky because the sun was shining and we could go play at the park yesterday

Lucky because Kaley is my right hand girl and biggest helper

Lucky because Bella can chat my leg off, leaving me with never a quiet moment

Lucky because Thomas is so silly and Mom can't keep a straight face in front of him

Lucky because my kids play so nice together

Lucky because they pose for my pictures

Lucky because Bella is big enough to follow the kids around, and do what they do

Lucky, once again for this great new stroller that will let us take walks all Spring/Summer long

Lucky that people stop an stare at my circus walking by! :) (we do look like quite the sight!)

Lucky that we all had GREEN to wear today!

Lucky that we all fit (barely) in this picture!

Lucky because we are all getting healthy! And Lucky that we have a Dad that works so hard (we were sad we took these after he left for work, although I don't think he would have thought they were as fun as the kids did!)

Why are you LUCKY?!

For a "Soul Sister"

Today is one of my "besties" birthday! I would be a bad friend if I didn't post something for her today! :) I was looking through pictures to try to find one of the two of us. Um, I don't know why we don't have any!!! This picture is from July 4th 2008 - those are our babies Jake and Bella! Yeah, I'll get right on that. We should have more pictures of us girl friends!

Lacie is one of those friends that every girl needs! She is one of the reasons I am sane! I look forward to our sunny day chats outside, rainy day chats on the phone, and nap time chats where we "abandon" our sleeping children to visit! :) We have so much in common that people are constantly getting us mixed up - still, almost 3 years after moving into this ward! I take it as a compliment! She has helped me relax as a mother and enjoy it more!

She is always there when I need her and more importantly, when I don't. I am glad she is just there every day - rain or shine! (Though I think we both prefer the shine!) I am looking forward to a night out with the girls this week to celebrate her!

Happy Birthday Lacie!

Illness update

Amidst all the sickness, Jace has learned how to sit up on his own!

The kids have played many hours of Wii. They love golf, tennis, and bowling!

We have read many books.

And, now that we are on the mend, we have started getting dressed every day! :) Jace and Sophie are doing much better! Thank you so much for all your kind words and prayers on our behalf! They both still have that nasty cough that could take forever to go away, but I am no longer worried about their breathing. Jace sometimes wheezes every now and again, but he is doing SO much better! They are both sleeping through the night again, so we are grateful for that! Sophie had a rough weekend and hardly ate anything. I took her into the InstaCare, and everything was fine - no ear infections or anything like that. So we waited for her to eat on her time. She is now eating better. We are so glad to have made it through this RSV without major setbacks! Thanks again for all your prayers! We appreciate it!!!

Prayers Please

Hey family and friends,
I just wanted to ask for a little extra special help from you. We, like almost everyone I know, are battling a Winter full of sickness. This week, we learned that Jace has RSV. He has been doing well compared to what I know can happen, but we are still nervous. The Dr. has told us to basically keep him in sight at all times. He could be fine one minute, and blue the next. Needless to say, we are having a hard time even sleeping. Josh and I are taking turns sleeping on the couch with him next to us on the floor in a chair with the humidifier right by him. We have been taking him in to be suctioned at the hospital 2 times a day. He seems to be improving slowly. Sophie now has the same bug. We are praying that she will be able to fight it off easier than Jace. So far, she just seems to have a really sore throat with the same nasty cough as Jace. We are blessed that we haven't had to be admitted to the hospital yet. Jace has been doing well enough to keep him out, but I still worry that we haven't hit the worst with Sophie. I know the power of prayer, and would just like to ask for you to include us in yours. Thank you! We will of course keep everyone updated if anything changes. :) We are glad to have such a great support group!

Love,
Crystal

Flashback Friday

So, Josh took pictures off his phone the other day, and these are a few of what we found! I realized that Kaley takes alot of pictures! :) Most of these are her work! Since this blog is now our family scrapbook, and I print it, her work will be documented! I love this picture of Thomas - what a stud! Taken 10/25/09

Bella playing with her "computer" 10/25/09

Bella helping feed "Jace-Face" 10/28/09

Mommy's escape 11/15/09

Kaley's silly face - Can you see the sass in those eyes? 11/27/09
Babies 12/19/09

In our ward, they let the nursery kids go to Primary during the month of December so they can get used to sitting still and get excited for Primary! Thomas just loved it! He is sitting all by himself on the front row on the far side, blue shirt. 12/20/09

I love this one of T. What a handsome boy! 12/20/09

Bella's ambulance ride. Josh followed behind us. I was in with Bella. (Boy I'm glad that is over! I hope I never have to do that again!) 12/24/09

Playing in the hot tub at Grandma's. 1/23/10

Kaley loves to stage her own photo shoot with the twins. Here's their morning faces! 1/31/10

This must have been one Sunday during church. It looks like it was taken on accident, but I LOVE Bella's face in it! You can tell she *adores* her Dad! 1/31/10

Josh had to go out of town on business a few weeks ago, and the kids wanted to see the airplane that he flew on, so he sent us a picture! The kids got a kick out of that email! 2/10/10

The kids wanted to send Josh a picture back, of course! So we used our camera on the Mac, and sent one to him! It is now one of my favorites! :) 2/10/10