3! 3! 3?!

3. That's right- Quinn is officially 3 years old. SOOOOOoooo OLD! Seriously, this girl is 3, going on 13. But I digress.... We celebrated her birthday early because we wanted her to actually ENJOY her birthday since she was scheduled to get her tonsils out 4 days before her real birthday. So we invited the Hep's and got our party on!

It was "Tangled" themed...

 Please don't laugh at my first attempt with fondant. Emily tried to help me the best she could, but our tower was still leaning to the left BIG TIME by the time the party got underway....

 My gorgeous little birthday girl!

 I think she confused, "show me your biggest smile!" with "show me your deer-in-the-headlights look!"

 LOVE this one...

 blowing out the candles...

 Big smiles.... it's presents time!

 She got her first Book of Mormon. Yesterday, I put her down for a nap and came back 5 minutes later and found her sitting in bed reading from this little book, "Word of God. Jesus loves me."

 She was actually VERY excited for this princess dress-up set.... her face just didn't get that memo....

 And here's Mac, trying to recreate "UP!"

 The three amigos, or is it stooges? I can't decide....

 Bonnie and Miss Emmalee...

 You'll notice the cat could not escape the earrings...

 After presents we got out the socker boppers and all the kids went a few rounds, this one had months of aggression behind it and it was a doozy! :)

 So did Cooper and Emily's, if Emily's hair is any indication....

 Emily came back strong after the first bell and whooped Cooper pretty good. So he decided to pump some iron.....

 before his next fight. Not that it did him much good. I think there was some pent-up aggression here as well.....

And then the Hep's left us. All too early, in my opinion. And then Quinn slept-- with most of her gifts clutched tightly in her little fists.....

Proud mama moment

Can I take a minute and just be an incredibly proud mama? Thanks.

Quinn, that ever-feiry girl, memorized the first Article of Faith. She loved doing this. We just recited it before her bedtime prayers every night for about a month and now, she is finally to where she will say it all by herself (which she loves to do!). You can watch a video of it by clicking here

So, because of this, she was allowed to go to the store and pick out a small toy. She chose Cinderella and Prince Charming (anybody else find it odd that Cinderelly's man doesn't have an actual name?), and has not let them out of her sight yet. (okay, except for when "man" broke in half because Quinn wanted him to sit with his "grill" and it turns out he doesn't bend that way. Man, that girl can be forceful sometimes...but he was back in her loving care after a little bit of R&R and a whole lot of super glue.)

I love this girl!

PS- Quinn refers to "girls" as "grills," could be a tad confusing come barbecue season....

WoW- what the hay?

This last little while has been a tornado. A good tornado. Is that possible? Meh...

We spent three weeks living in one room in my sister's basement. Those were dark days for me. (Literally-- I mean it is a basement.) We had so many ups and downs, as we waited for "our" house to actually be our's, but the day did finally come. Although we love Bonnie and Shawn, and had a lot of good times while we were there, it was so nice to finally get into our own house. Quinn hated it for the first couple weeks. There was only Momma and Macadoo to play with and mom was usually unpacking and trying to get things organized. She was constantly asking when we were going to go back to "our old house," meaning-- Bonnie and Shawn's house. But eventually (just last week), she came up to me and said, "I love our new house, mom." Me too honey, me too.

Our weekends have been filled with unpacking and organizing and power-raking our lawn. Let me tell you- that is a workout. We are beginning to feel like that one room in B&S's house was heaven. All the heavy labor and decisions were someone else's responsibility. Sometimes I long for those days. But most of the time, we are so so so happy. Easter weekend, we also had a new arrival to our home. Not the delicious-smelling kind that come with lots of snuggles and cuddles.... a much different kind. This kind, to be exact....

Yep, the Emily kind. She is going to be staying with us all summer, which means that Tyson and I get weekly date nights-- part of the bargain. Although, I have to say I am way more excited about those date nights than Tyson seems to be. Saturday was supposed to be one of those such nights, and when I asked Tyson what he wanted to do, He just said, "Oh. I am tired. So so so tired." And the remainder of the night was spent on the couch watching Eli Stone. Oh well, C'est la vie.

As for news on our children, Mac started out the weekend with a double ear infection, and we are praying that the buck stops there and one ear infection doesn't turn into 6 in the next 6 months like it did with Quinn. But he is now on antibiotics and doing much better. Quinn has had 5 bouts of tonsilitis in the last year and is therefore scheduled to get her tonsils out next wednesday. I am downright, not-afraid-to-admit-it, SCARED. I am worried about how she will do with this surgery and how I will do with taking care of her needs AND Macadoo. We are just praying that all will work out. 

So that is that. If you are not feeling thoroughly updated, there is something wrong with you. Becca out.

Just some sweet pics...

Sunday morning, my kids were happy and oh-so-sweet, so we took advantage and had a mini photo shoot..... I'm sure you will appreciate it!

Charlie bit me....

And drooled all over my finger...

Ahhhh...... love.......

Some naked baby...... I just want to smooch all over my chubby little man whenever I look at this pic!

So sweet...

And so flexible.... yes, those are his toes...

And this pic, I love! It reminds me of his namesake, My brother Cam.

I think this last one was Quinn's way of signing off. "Okay mom, it's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun." Quinn out.

Easter DAYZE

The Saturday before Easter was spent at B&S's house with all the Heppy kids (get it, like happy?), Grandma and Grandpa Bray, and of course Emily. We had an amazing brunch (complete with Bonnie's buns-- ha ha ha!) and then the annual easter egg hunt. These are the triplets, just gearing up for some hunting...

And then the hunting craziness began. Anna loves to help Quinn....

And when it was all over, we made them line up for their mugshots-- I think you can tell that there was a clear winner here. Emma has to have some serious muscles to carry her basket of eggs. I wonder if she pumps iron in preparation for Easter? :)

Afterwards, Quinn and Anna disappeared into the playhouse for about 45 minutes. During which time they unwrapped every single piece of candy they had found and proceeded to eat half of it. The other half was left on the "stove" to simmer for later. It was a very "closed door" kind of meeting and this is the only picture I was allowed to take...

Then Sunday morning, we celebrated as a family, and opened up what the Easter bunny brought. This is Quinn realizing that she really did get mermaids!

And Mac dove right in with his usual amount of gusto....

And here's my cute little bunnies....

By the end of the day, we were all tired and cranky. Once safely in bed, we all slept like rocks. Here's to rocks. *clink*

Guess what?!.... It's been a while. AGAIN.

Oh, so much to tell you all about... But let's start with something fun-- like Mac's first motorcycle ride. He loved it, in a perfectly contented kind of way. Like he'd been there before and was just happy to be there and have daddy holding on to him. No fear, but no excitement either. Just contentment. Exactly what I would expect from a son of a Tyson. :)

A Season of Love...

I've been thinking about this post for a long time. I've written and rewritten it a million times in my head. And it's nowhere near where I want it to be. BUT this post inspired me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, I guess).

Valentine's Day means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Day of love, Hallmark Holiday, Cheesey poems day, Single-awareness day, etc. But for me, Valentine's Day will always remind me of my sweet baby girl, Zoe. She was born on February 9th and we said goodbye on February 11th. On February 14th, my mother-in-law (who was staying with us at the time) was the only one to mark the holiday, by giving me a small white teddy bear and I think some chocolate. But the bear is what sticks in my memory. It was exactly the size of my precious baby girl, and Valentine's Day is VERY vivid in my mind, as I lay on my bed, broken and unable to stop the tears flowing from my eyes, I held onto that bear for dear life. For the past three days, my arms had felt so EMPTY. At night, when I would cry on Tyson shoulder as we lay side-by-side in bed, I would find myself repeating over and over, "I just want to hold my baby. I just want to hold my baby." That small bear, took away some of the ache, by giving me a little life-line. Something to tangibly take the place of the one whose loss I felt so keenly. That bear has never, ever been left behind through the last 4 years. It has gone with us on every overnight trip we have taken. Although (most of the time) it is no longer used to calm the ache in my heart. It is always there as a physical reminder that our family is not whole. We are missing one. And because of that, we are different. So very different. In so many ways (most of them good).

Especially during this season, I take stock and look at my life and how I show love to those that I love the most. Does Quinn know without a doubt that even though I am the voice of discipline, I would lay down my life for her? Does Mac understand that although I sometimes curse his name when he wakes up at 5:30 ready to play, I would not trade him for a million extra hours of sleep? And Tyson- Does he realize that under my thick sarcasm, I could not go ONE DAY without him? I hope so. And most of all, does Zoe understand that I am doing everything in my power to live the right way, so that someday our family will be complete? Does she understand that even when I have a terrible day, and yell a lot, I love her and I love our family enough to ask for forgiveness and make things right? I hope so.

During this Season of Love, I hope that all of you take stock of those relationships that mean the most to you. And make sure that those people know how much they mean to you, and not just on Valentine's Day-- EVERY day. Because that's why we're here. To learn how to love- as the Savior loves. I hope I'm making some progress.

PS- Mom Allen, thank you for my "Zoe bear." I don't think I've ever told you what that meant to me. Thank you.