Leo's Baby Blessing

It took us a while to get organized, so Leo was blessed on June.3, 2018. He was almost 3 months old, but better late than never! We decided to do the blessing in our own home with all our extended family. I thought it was a really nice way to do it - more intimate and less stressful. Jeff gave him a wonderful blessing! Afterwards, we had a Cafe Rio style dinner, which was so delicious I'm still thinking about it. Thanks to my amazing family, they all helped bring parts of it so I didn't have too much work to do. It was a really great day and I just felt really grateful to be a part of such an amazing family on both my side and Jeff's, and also to be raising the kids that I have. I am so beyond blessed!

Leo is so adorable, but so much work! I have really struggled to get into any kind of routine with him, which is probably because I have two other little ones I am trying to entertain and meet the needs of. This chapter of my life is most definitely the most exhausted I have EVER been, and it's really hard when I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Like when will I ever get a good night's sleep again?? Not to mention any time for myself doing something I actually want to do. I love these kids so much and I do enjoy doing things with them, but the first year of a baby's life is always so hard for me, and number 3 has definitely proven to be the hardest. Luckily, I have family and friends who are so willing to help, and whenever I get too overwhelmed, I pray to my Heavenly Father and somehow he blesses me with little tiny pieces of hope (like Leo giving me a longer nap or something). I have truly seen these blessings and it's the only way I've been getting through. Jeff has also been amazing in helping me and doing all he can to contribute. I don't know what I would do without him. 
With all that being said, I am also SO happy to be the mom of three amazing little kids. I absolutely adore each of them and their separate personalities. Bentley is an amazing sister and I can tell will be such a good mom one day. She is very organized, very social, such a good conversationalist, and very smart. She always has a set way of how things should be. She finds the joy in life and can often be found laughing. 
Deacon loves to make people laugh and have fun. He's got such a fun loving personality, everyone loves to be around him. He is the easiest person to make laugh, and you won't want to stop making him laugh because his giggles are the cutest! He love to play, and especially loves water. He's a little climber and loves to wrestle. He's a tough kid and a quick learner when it comes to physical stuff. He also has a cuddly, sweet side, which I just adore. 
Leo is a little tougher to get a smile or laugh from, but when he gives them out he will make you melt. He is growing so fast and seems to just want to be grown up already. He loves to move, and no longer loves to snuggle. 
I just love these kiddos so much!

 

Spring and School End

With my life being as crazy as it is right now, I'm going to attempt to catch up on all the things we've been up to! Spring was really good to us. It brought Easter, one of Bentley's favorite holidays! She is pretty obsessed with hunting for eggs, and will even hide them at home and get Deacon to find them. She loves it. So, of course we did our usual egg hunt over at Grandma Ady's house with Scott and Kellie and family. We also died eggs with them. Deacon was a pretty adorable age for the egg hunting this year. Not to mention he is always excited about everything anyway! He sure does have a positive, fun personality and I could just watch and giggle at him all day. It was a very cold Easter this year, as Winter just didn't want to leave, so we did all the activities indoor. We also did an egg hunt for Play School with all the little kiddos! 

 For Jeff's birthday I decided to invite a bunch of his friends over for a BBQ in our backyard. Chilling outside with friends and food is one of his favorite things to do. It turned out to be really fun! Bentley and Deacon made him some very special cards and wrapped up some random candies for him. They are always thrilled to give presents!

We drove down to the cabin for May long weekend. We were a little worried about traveling for the first time with 3 kids. Luckily, Leo slept most of the time and the kids did so well! We enjoyed a fun weekend with my parents and Jordan and Melanie's family. Deacon was obsessed with their dog, Charlie, and Bentley was scared of it. She stayed away from it at all times at first, but towards the end started to warm up to him a bit. It was a work weekend of course, with some fun fit into it. Jeff was a little sick so we may not have been the most help.

 I also took a road trip to Edmonton to visit the grandparents. Grandpa wasn't doing so well, so I thought I better get a visit in, and it also worked out that I could see Nicole and her new baby Vann at the same time. So I went with my parents while Jeff was on a work trip. It turned out to be a really good visit, and baby Vann is only 6 days apart from Leo. They are so cute! The kids had fun visiting and, even now they sometimes ask me if they can go back to Edmonton. Grandpa is doing a lot better lately, which is really amazing as we thought he may have been on his last leg. I sure love my grandparents!

 For my mom's 60th birthday we went out for dinner at The Keg. It was delicious and such a fun time! Leo was the only kid allowed, and he slept most the time.

Preschool ended for Bentley, which was a sad day for me! She has absolutely loved going, especially with such a great teacher Christina Parker and her cousin Emri there with her. She has become a great self learner. She knows all of her letters and can write most of them. She will find things around the house to copy onto another paper, and she is always asking me to teach her how to read. She is also very social, and most of her life revolves around which friend she can play with today. For Mother's day I got to come and watch her perform a little Hawaiian dance and then she gave me a candy lei she had made for me. It was very sweet!

I took the kids for dental check-ups and learned that Bentley has quite a few cavities! So we have completed 2 out of 4 visits to get them all done. But she has been so amazing! Even with freezing, she still loves the dentist! Deacon even got his teeth polished and looked at. He was very wiggly in the chair of course. Deacon also had his orchiopexy surgery, which was really scary. He had to be put under and I was pretty worried about it. But he did great and recovered well, so I'm glad that's over with!

Playschool also ended so we had a pizza popsicle pool party in our backyard! I have loved hanging out with this group of friends and we will continue this next year as well.

We are beyond excited we made it through the long winter and summer is here! Having nice weather means so many more fun things to do!!