Cherish little moments

I often suffer little bouts with depression...it's an ongoing battle.  Today a was battling it again (starting yesterday) when I sat down to do my scripture study.  I've been doing a program that our R.S. put together called 28 days closer to Christ and today was a themed study on Hope.  It took me a while because I kept dwelling on how I was without hope.  Near the end I broke down crying and sought for help in Prayer.  I started journaling my thoughts and feelings when I realized that every day I have moments of Joy playing with my children, all I need to do is cherish the little moments and the rest will be easier to handle...
It's amazing how the Holy Spirit works, as soon as I had journal this I knew it was true.  God answered my prayer and brought hope again into my life...can I just say I love My Savior and I love his gospel.  I know it is true, and that God answers prayer.

From now on I cherish the little moments

Our Sweet 2 year old

Jacob turned 2 on wednesday, wow how the time flies.    Some might remember how we got Teancum some big gifts when he turned two and in hindsight it seemed like a lot and I thought we wouldn't go overboard again on gifts...So what did we get our overactive two year old?  A trampoline!  I guess some parents don't learn.  Anywho, here are some things that we love about our two year old.

Jacob loves to sing and dance and can often be found kicking up his heels or singing a familiar tune.

Jacob has a kind heart. He doesn't like seeing someone upset and often says sorry when he sees somebody sad.

Jacob likes sharing and taking turns. I've lost track of the times Teancum has asked for a turn or for some of something that Jacob loves and Jacob shrugs says "sure" and hands it over.

Jacob is all boy, sticks, cars, balls, guns, water, and being outdoors in general are all things he loves.  He's adventerous and quick to smile he has no fear, whether it be bugs or big dogs, or climbing and jumping from heights that make mom shudder Jacob tackles them all.

Jacob loves his brothers and will be quick to check on the baby when he cries, or try to give him his binkie or bear or a toy when Keith is sleeping.  He adores Teancum and wants to be just like him.

Jacob is self motivated.  If  he wants to go potty in the toilet, he'll strip down time and time again to sit by himself with no reward from me, of course his motivation backfires on me when he decides he wants to learn how to climb onto (and off of) the top bunk with out the ladder.

Jacob has an impish grin and a nack for making us laugh, especially when he is in trouble.  While this makes for lots of fun, it certianly makes it difficult to discipline him...Like when we send him to timeout and he'll fake cry for a few seconds then turn around and grin at you (over and over again) or like today when I asked if he wanted paddled and he said "paddle" and did the deed for me.  Aggravating and just too darn cute for his own good, Jacob we love you forever.

4 year old fun

Teancum turned 4 a little over a month ago (I know the post got lost in all the moving madness). But I wanted to post a few of the things I love about my four-year-old.

Teancum loves make believe...he loves dressing up in one costume or another and role playing and even more loves to try and get mom and dad involved by making them be pokemon trainers or just freezing them and taking away their powers.

Teancum loves to learn...I don't need to say lets do homework twice before he's sitting down and trying to write his letters, he's self movitivated and often asks us if we will do homework with him

Teancum loves to read and be read to...a boy after my own heart

Teancum loves his brothers, he can't help enough with the baby and is always asking what baby Keith's respose is to anything he tells him and even though he and Jacob can get at each other's throats sometimes it's a joy to see them chasing each other and playing while laughing and giggling, and the moments when they share or give something up to each other are priceless.

Teancum is as active as boys come

Teancum loves the gospel, he loves listening to the scriptures on tape, saying our prayers, and using the gospel art kit to give our family scripture...the other day he came up to me randomely and said "thou shalt not steal!" Even more important he loves the Lord and prays like he's talking to a friend.

Teancum, I know you're growing up and you can't wait until you're big like mommy and daddy, but no matter how big you get remember mom and dad will always love you as much as when you were little, thank you for always wanting me to cuddle you before you go to sleep, and for your hugs and kisses. One day you might not be big on them, but today you made my day with them.

We've arrived

Sorry to leave everyone on down note for so long. The rest of the move went great. My visiting teacher took the boys the next two days so i could be with the movers and clean. Ryan's company didn't do the presentation so he came home tuesday night and we were visiting our in-laws for the week after. we are pretty settled in GA now and finally got internet yesterday. more fun will be forthcoming. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
kirsten

Moving Day and venting

Today I just need an outlet. Tomorrow the movers are coming. I'm exhausted. The house needs some cleaning up. Oh,and Ryan is in Alabama until Thursday. I love that he has the opportunity to do a presentation and try to get a Job in Pheonix for the company, it's a great opportunity for him. I hate that I'm stuck with three kids, running on little sleep, getting sick (literally have had to run for the bathroom a few times today), while the movers pack us up tomorrow, load us wednesday, and then I get to clean until my husband comes back late thursday so we can leave friday. I am hoping that he doesn't get back until Thursday because that means that the company made the short list and he gets to present in Pheonix which if they get the job it will be amazing for his career. Just pray for me this week, kay...I'm going to bed.

Bad Week, Great Weekend

This last week I managed to get our digital camera stolen, crack our winsheild trying to squish a fly and lost my wallet. On top of that Ryan and I had activities all week long making our first family dinner on Friday...That said the weekend was great. Family dinner and movie onf Friday night, general conference with Friends Saturday morning (Ryan had to work). And lots of fun Sunday as a family enjoying our first and only day of the with no obligations and listening to living prophets of God. This week should be just as busy, so hopefully we get another great weekend.

Changes

It's the first snow of the season, I love the changing seasons. I sure will miss having snow and fall colors in Columbus, GA...did anyone catch that. Yup, we're headed to the south next...we'll be there sometime in November, at least we'll get to enjoy the yummy peaches. :)

Things I'll never see again

I recently got our camera stolen from the diaperbag I left at the playground. The sad thing is it had quite a few pictures of things I wanted to post, but have been putting off...like

The empty containers of spices that Jacob dumped into a pan. He was hosting one of his many cooking classes while I was helpless nursing...his concoction included: left over mac and cheese, nutmeg, vanilla, orange extract, almond extract, parsley flakes, and red pepper flakes.

The picture of Jacobs face after tasting said concoction

Jacob sitting on the potty fully dressed and reading

Pictures taken while my family was visiting for Keith's blessing!

These are a few of the things I won't see again:

Also my family's dog Budd E. who passed away last week.

Baby's first photo shoot

My mom and me with a camera, my bed, some blankets, a basket plus the darnest cutest baby ever and you get...

Welcome Home

Friday my brother stopped by our home with his family and they were there waiting for us when we brought our baby home. YAY! It was fun to see them again, and a blessing to have Gabe there when Teancum woke up with a high fever. Ryan and Gabe administered a blessing to him (a big blessing since we had just brought home a newbie).

Gabe and Becca didn't stay very long because they had to get to Colorado Springs, and after they took off our adventures really began. First off Teancum threw up. Then at bedtime Keith refused to sleep in the billibed (he has jaundice); in fact, he would scream himself red if he was set down at all! Danette stayed up rocking him all night long, waking me up when he needed to eat. Then at 4:00 Jacob woke up, when Danette tried to get him to go back to bed he threw up. Ryan got up and lay down with him, and he threw up again. So by 5:00am both boys were up, both with fevers watching a movie.
Later Ryan sanitized the bathroom for me and Breanne took Keith so Danette and I could rest some. Ryan watched Keith and Jacob so us girls could take Teancum garage sale shopping, Danette and Breanne watched the boys so Ryan and I could take Keith to get his billiruben tested. Ryan watched the (big) boys so we could all get naps. And the whole day went so much smoother with Danette and Brea and Ryan there to help out and take turns with the kids. I was definitly blessed by having my mother-in-law and Brea there to help all week! THANK YOU!
Oh, by this morning the boys were feeling so much better that we let them be close to the baby. Teancum has been excited about being a brother since before we brought the baby home so this was big for him. Enjoy some pictures of our increased family.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Ryan Keith Maxwell

Announcing the birth of Ryan Keith Maxwell! YES, he's here! :)

After a quick trip to see my brother Andrew and the rest of my family (pics can be found on my sisters blog) we decided to be induced on wednesday and made the trip to the hospital. So the day went like this

7:50 arrive at the hospital

8:00 get set up in our room

9:00 induced (I'm already a 3.5)

12:00 still waiting

4:00 Dr. Breaks my water (I'm a 5)

4:30 get my epidural

5:30 start pitocin (I'm a 7)

7:46 Ryan Keith makes his appearance

21.5 inches long...and so big that he broke his left clavicle on the way out :( But we are thrilled to have him here

1,000 words- sleeping babes

1,000 words about Jacob

A need for more dates.

Ryan and I went out to eat tonight...we haven't been in a little while which was obvious when...

1. Ryan tried to share his glass of water with me
2. We were leaving and Ryan opened the kids doors first and didn't realize his mistake until I pointed it out.

I'm thinking we'll have to try another date before too long so we're not so out of practice next time around.

Silly Silly Boy

Jacob has a lot of silly little quirks that I love. For example he graduated from pulling books off the shelves to this:

Teancum and the Alien's

Teancum's been participating in the Summer Reading Program at the Library. One of the activities he had to do was write a short story that begins with "I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of..." I asked him questions like "what happened next" and wrote it down. This is the product of his imagination.

"I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of the moon. there was an astronaut on my house. An alien went in my room and opened my toy chest and he got my flashlight. I was going camping in the morning and went to get my flashlight. I opened my toychest and didn't see my flashlight. I looked at the alien. He opened his hand and he didn't see the flashlight. I had grabbed it back and went camping. The End"

Teancum, we love your imagination and creativity, thanks for keeping our lives fun and entertaining.

4 weeks and counting

I always think the last month lasts the longest, and it's the most uncomfortable; the baby constantly pushing on my stomach making me feel queesy and making my stomach sore, swollen hands and feet, carpel tunnel, too big to bend and pick things up comfortably... you get the point. This month seems to be worse since I'm completely wiped out from all the things that have made this pregnancy speed by:

2 major weddings/receptions to attend out of state
1 funeral
1 family vacation
2 trips just me and the boys to visit my parents
1 trip with Ryan and the boys to visit my parents
3 visits from friends and family
Temple trips
Stake conference in Rifle

And those are just the things that had us driving long distances..oh and our Christmas trip.
With all those trips I'm am more than ready for a boring weekend where there is nothing planned, and I want to stay put for my last month. (We'll see if that last one holds, since my brother comes home from his mission in 2 weeks).

Phrase of the week

Jacob's been getting into our Q-tips lately. He sticks one end up his nose pulls it out, looks at it and says..."buga gows" then throws it away. There's hope for boys after all :)

Our house- the final chapter

First off, our favorite feature of this home:

Here's the first thing you see when you go to the backyard, then you look right and see this:

Go around the corner (behind the tree on the right) and you see this:

back yard and garden space (although a lot of our garden hasn't done too well we have plenty of peas and zucchini)

Here is the missing room from inside the house, the master bedroom

Here's a shot from the door (sorry it's a tight fit to get pictures of the rooms so you're missing the closet: but you can see the blue bassinet I found at the garage sale)

Here's Ryan's workspace because every man needs somewhere he can get his hands dirty.

And Last, a shot of our home and front yard. Sure it could use a paint job, but it's what's inside that counts.

Bathrooms and Basement

Alright, here's our next installment of our home: First, the room that gets the most use (since we never use the bathroom in the basement)

Our lovely sink surrounded by the bathtub curtain and console over our toilet (not in picture).

The other end of our shower curtain, towels and art decorating our bathroom

This was the most exciting part of the house (for me), our HUGE laundry room/craft room. You only see half of the shelves in this picture and you miss out on our washer/dryer which are on the opposite end of the photo.

Here is the basement view as you leave the laundry room. (there's another bedroom behind me, that has the extra furniture that came with the home)

The storage area and stairs...the mess is all of Teancum's empty boxes he uses for tower building. The door is to the bathroom which is large but quite scary and so not pictured.

Up Next: the backyard, garage, and master bedroom, stay tuned.

Phrase of the week

(picture taken by Teancum)

Jacob's been talking for a while, but lately has progressed to two to three word phrases: My favorites:

1. Ta-Ta tum (Teancum come): this one is said the most often when he's playing and I love it!

2. Ta-Ta tum side: this was at the park

3. Peas Peas Peas Peas Peas- this was said to his grandpa in order to keep playing with the nintendo 64 controller, how could you say No to that even at bedtime.

4. 1-2-5-7-7-6-2-9-10 : this is how he counts to ten

Happy Birthday Honey

Today is Ryan's Birthday so in honor of my honey I thought I would post a few of the reasons I love this great man.

He is a wonderful father: I love wathing wrestle and play with his boys with chlidlike enthusiasm when he comes home from work and even more on the weekends, he is patient in teaching them and is a great example of a righteous priesthood holder always trying to fulfill and magnify his calling.

He is a even better husband: I don't think I could have married a harder worker or one more diligent in providing for his family the necessities in life along with a few of the fun things. He is teasing and playful, understanding and supportive, loving and strong, he cares for me in all things and is everything that defines a helpmeet. Thank you Ryan for all that you do for me and our children.

Big Boys and Bedrooms

Ryan and I recently redid the boys room and Jacob graduated to a BIG boy bed. So here are some pics from the boys room...Sorry I could only get a small section at a time because the room is a little crowded.

Here is Jacobs bed (with dad resting on it) His name is above the dresser, but you can't see it here and there is a border near the cieling of different animals scenes that you can't see either.

Here is Teancum's side the room and Ryan's old Toy chest. Once again you can't see the border near the cieling (The alphabet extends from the corner shown to the corner above Jacob's bed). You can see a little of the animal scene and Teancum's name over his dresser.

Here is the closet where their toys are mainly stashed there's a bookshelf on the other side, and more animals in the corners. Jacob's transition has gone decent. Sometimes it takes him forever to fall asleep at naptime because he gets out of bed and plays. But he HAS slept through the night every night since making the switch, and has stopped waking Teancum up in the mornings. Yay for happy kids.

Our House- Part 1

I've been reminded a few times lately that I never posted pictures of what our new place looks like. Even though we will only be here for a few more months here are some pictures of our new abode for family and friends who will not be able to come visit us soon.

This is the view when you walk in the door and look right. On the left is the hallway that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom...tbp later

This is the living room, what you see when you come through the front door and look left.

Another view of the living room

If you walk straight when you come through the front door you make it to the kitchen. Here is the table on the left...



And on the right is the rest of the kitchen. Sorry it's a mess I decided to take pictures while I was in the middle of cooking dinner (taquitos de papa)And there you have the main living spaces. I'll post the bedrooms and bathroom later, we also have an unfinished basement with shelves for food storage and a HUGE laundry room that doubles as storage area for my craft room (yes there's room for me to do my stuff down there, but I always bring upstairs anyways). We also have a garage, a good size backyard and front yard with a section on the side of the house for a garden. All in all we've been blessed.

I love my boys

Can I just say that I L-O-V-E having two boys close in age that are such good friends.

Today Teancum was pretending he was going to the zoo, he got on his navy blue jacket and his blue sunglasses. Of course Jacob wanted in on the fun and brought me his navy blue jacket (how he picked it out from among his four jackets beats me) after he had it on he went to the toys and came back with Mr. Potato Head's blue glasses on.

Right now it's 9:00 (an hour past bedtime) and I can hear them giggling. I love my boys, can't wait to have a third one to join in the fun.

This week at the Hive

This last week or so has been pretty busy. Take a look at some of the fun things, and not so fun things that have been happening in our family. Teancum has gotten lots of practice in riding his "new" bike (I love garage sales!)

We took my three favorite bums to the park early on Father's Day. I love seeing Ryan interacting with his boys. They have so much fun together, he really is a wonderful father. Jacob was cute and wanted to cuddle with me.

Teancum's Favorite thing at the park were these bars he could slide down.

And Jacob loved going down the slide

________________________________________________________

Last friday I found out my Grandma Black passed away. I don't think I can describe the mix of emotions I've gone through this last week. I have always felt a special bond with my Grandma because I was named after her, my middle name Nicol (prounounced nickle) is her maiden name, a name she was very proud of. I grew even closer to her while I was at BYU and able to visit her regularly to talk, and play. She had the best laugh; a big and jolly cackle that was so infectious. She was generous and loving and intelligent. We'll miss her greatly but I'm grateful to know she is happy with her 6 siblings that preceded her, her daughter, and her parents and that she is probably busy teaching...she loved to teach.

My family spent the night on the way to Provo for the funeral. Jacob was thrilled to see his Grandpa

The boys were great during the 5 hour drive to Provo, we stopped at fed the ducks at BYU before the funeral to let the boys get some energy out before subjecting them to having to be quiet and still.

Teancum felt like he needed to herd all the sleeping ducks into the pond.

The service was beautiful. I learned more about my Grandma then I knew. My dad gave the Eulogy and my Uncles Lance and Dal spoke too. Here they are by the casket. Besides learning more about my Grandma another plus about atending the funeral was that I was able to see a lot of my cousins that I hadn't seen in a long while: Derek, Christi, Tami, Leanne, Aryn, Courtney, and Autumn to name a few. I was also able to see Jolena and her parents. Thank you, Ryan for getting the day off, driving us up for the funeral and watching the kids then entire time we were in Provo so that I could concentrate too, then driving us back the same day; I appreciate your love and support more than words can say, it meant the world to be able to attend my Grandma's funeral.

Our Serenading Son

I have to say my favorite Father's Day memory for today will have to be when the primary went to sing the father's day songs during sacrament meeting. Ryan had been saying that he wanted Teancum to sing to him at church so Teancum could hardly wait for his turn to get up and sing. He even declared that he was going to sing into the microphone so we could hear. Finally the speaker that was scheduled before the primary finished speaking. We encouraged him to go up and "Sing to Daddy." Without further ado he beat the primary up onto the stage moved the stand up to the podium adjusted the microphone and started to sing "Happy Father's Day to you!" He made it through the entire song while the rest of the primary made their way up to the stage, Ryan and I were laughing so hard that tears formed in our eyes. Then when he finished he walked off the stage to come back to us, we had to send him back up to sing Daddy's Homecoming with the rest of the primary. We had a lot of people come up and tell us what a wonderful job he did, most of them didn't realize that it wasn't part of the program. Ryan definitely felt like his son sang the most for him. Thank you Teancum for making this father's day so memorable.

Kids cutest saying award.

Ryan and I were watching the CMT awards online last night. Our favorite award goes to Teancum for his performance during Taylor Swift's "You belong with me" performance. Soon after Taylor started our cute little pumpkin piped up with enthusiasm and excitement "Look IT THE OLD MAID, it's the old maid, she has glasses just like the old maid." we laughed for the rest of the performance.

Also check out the intro for the awards...our favorite is Swift's Rap Video dream, we found it hilarious.

Shake your Booboo

This is what Teancum told me to do the other day. Confused I told him I didn't have a booboo, but he had one on his knee. He pointed to my chest insisting that I had a booboo, I laughed and told him that a booboo was another name for an owie, and that I didn't have one. After that he started shaking his knee around. Maybe I should worry about his interest in my anatomy, but for now he just makes me laugh.

Vacation Pics are Here!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Family Vacation means Family Fun

We just got back from a week of family fun in Denver...Here are some of the highlights and things we most loved about the trip.
1. Having Ryan around 24/7 for 5+ days
2. Playing 500 with my grandma and seeing my family briefly
3. Hearing Teancum say "We're gonna die" before going on his rollercoaster then grinning and going on it over and over again.
4. Splashing at the kiddie pool section
5. The lazy river
6. Ryan saying the vacation helped him realize how beautiful I look pregnant
7. The ball war zone- give boys some soft balls and guns that shoot them and they'll be happy for hours on end.
8. The sea lion show- lots of fun and lots of laughs
9. The Denver zoo
10. Getting my hubby hooked on listening to the Twilight series
11. A very inexpensive and roomy hotel room- The hotel is what Teancum was most excited for about going on vacation.

Other memorable things:
Jacob running off twice on the first day- first at Elitch Gardens (I found him in the women's bathroom) and then later at the hotel (he went out the door and was down the hall and around the corner before we realized he was gone).

Pictures are forthcoming

Birthday fun

Today I'm 26 and have been having just the best birthday. It started early with Jolena and Bill driving into to town last night. Then this morning Ryan made my favorite breakfast of walnut pancakes and we spent the morning playing games in the backyard. After lunch Jolena took some family photos for us, and I was once again reminded how lucky I am to have such cute kids. During naps it was more games with our friends then a date thanks to Teesha for some last minute babysitting. Dinner was delicious (BBQ ribs) with Bocce Ball in the park following. After we picked up the boys there was Tres Leches cake and presents, most of which I had picked out previously. Ryan was sweet and bought me some cute ruby earings (he remembered that when we were ring shopping almost five years ago I had toyed with the idea of rubies on my wedding ring, so thoughtful). Anywho hear are some of the pics Jo took for me, I love love love them.

Yay for couple pics...Our Growing FamilyJacob was very happy as long as he could reach some nature Teancum with his new best friends

Strong little boy

My favorite boys.