THE BAR!!

Larry finished taking the California State BAR today! WHOOT WHOOT!!!

 4 years of law school

12 weeks non stop studying 

1 massive test

3 days

27 hours of testing

HE IS DONE!! 

Now we have to wait...4 long months 

 I met up with him just as he finished and summited his work for the day and we celebrated at our favorite place. He felt good, he worked and studied hard and he hopes he never has to take the test again. We prayed hard and we hope that those prayers were heard. I sent about 50 emails out to all our family and friends asking them to keep Larry in their thoughts and prayers as he took the test. 

I kept reading him the responses we got back all from people who support and love our family. It made my heart swell thinking of what a great support system we have. I know he felt those prayers as he was able to stay calm and recall all he had studied. This test is nasty and the pass rate is low, even if he felt super confident he could not pass so we are being cautiously optimistic. I am practicing the principle of faith probably more then I ever have in my life. But for now we wait, and move on with our lives. He started back to work and is busy as ever putting countless hours in, almost no different then school :) We hope we get to recreate this picture come November! 

Scout Turns ONE!!!

My perfect baby girl turned one year old today. My heart aches for the fact that this has been the fasted year of my life. I mean seriously I blinked and she turned one. I love her so much, my heart can't handle it sometimes, if feels like it will burst with pride when she smiles or does something cute. We had a rough start those first 4 months with the colic and the constant crying but then suddenly she changed and this sweet beautiful calm baby appeared. She is so sweet and loving, she has the best little spirit and she is loved and adored by all. I am sad to see her grow out of babyhood and into toddlerhood but the days pass by and I have to embrace it!

She is now walking everywhere with a funny little buddha stance with wide legs it's the best. She claps her hands and cheers for everything. She can say mama, dada, hi, bye, baby, and uh-oh! She waves her little hand when she says hi, makes me want to die it's so cute. She loves babies, and to poke their eyes...why do they always do that? She climbs up stairs but now down and she climbs everything!! The other day I put her on the couch turned my back and she climbed up onto the table behind the couch, she thought it was the best thing ever. She sleeps like a champ taking 2 naps a day and sleeps all night long still with her beloved boppy pillow! She gets super excited in the morning when you come to grab her, screaming, kicking and laughing. She loves playing with her brothers, or being in the room with them and she loves to eat legos. She loves to put things in something then pull them out again, over and over again.

Her favorite thing to do is be held :) She loves to cuddle and put her head on my shoulder. Every time she gets a blanket she pulls it closer to her face and sighs, I love it. She eats vanilla yogurt everyday and loves yogurt bites. She also loves licking peanut butter off a spoon and when she is done eating she throws all her food off her tray.

We threw a sweet ice cream party for her to celebrate her mile stone. It was a fun party to plan and I love having people come over who love her just as much. It takes a village to raise a family and I have such a good village!

Loved all the little ice cream things around the table, made it feel just like summer and her pink cake! It was tiny but I love getting to decorate with pink now! 

We did ice cream sundaes with lots of toppings and cones for those like Max who like nice plain things! It was simple but very festive! 

 

 

My favorite part of the whole thing was putting her gold S on this wall and then decorating it with pictures from the last year. It brought back lots of memories and made my heart swell seeing her grow over the year. She was the most beautiful newborn baby ever! Those cheeks of hers have been kissed a million times. 

Her classic and new tradition of taking their picture with the Birthday sign! Love her outfit with ice cream cones all over it and that little profile of hers is just the best thing ever!! 

 

We had lots of friends over and at the end sang to her and let her go at her cake. She was timid but slowly she started to eat the frosting and got to the cake. Max was concerned she would get burned with the flame but he protected her...good brother. 

She really started to go at it, love that fat little fist stuffed into her mouth. Oh I just lover her so much!So much sugar! 

 

 

Happy Birthday dear girl. You are so special and so loved! You have made our family so much better and have brought a lot of love too. You make everyday better with your bright smile and I feel so blessed and privileged to be your mom. I hope you have the best life and I want so much for you! My baby Scout I love you so! 

A Summer Evening.

For family home evening tonight we took the kids to get ice cream then went on a walk around town center. We try to do a real lesson every other week then an activity in between. We also have been working hard on reading scriptures every night, we are doing well and are falling into a good routine. Anyways we walked around the kids were happy and the weather was very beautiful, unnaturally cool especially for the hot streak we had last week. 

As I was putting the kids to bed later in the night I was getting so frustrated, I usually put the boys down separate as to give them each their own time and hopefully help them fall asleep better, it is time consuming but it works. Anyways tonight they ended up going to bed together and it took me an hour to get them to finally fall asleep in the same bed. I was frustrated and mad and I thought, geez how do I go from super happy and content in motherhood to super cranky and over it just in a few hours time? Earlier I had been thinking how great things were then the pendulum swings and I want to pull my hair out! 

I know that is why I document the good and the bad, but mostly the good so I can remember when I am at my breaking point wanting to scratch my eye balls because this motherhood gig is hard I can remember nice summer nights were things were great, and everyone was so happy. I do love this family of mine so much even when it seems to hard to continue on! 

 

Happy 4th of July!!

We had the best 4th of July, the kids were in a great mood and we had lots of fun celebrating! Larry only studied 2 hours (typically does 10-12) so it was nice to have him around! We started the morning off with our annual pancake breakfast and parade. 

 

 The kids ate up all the food, especially Noah who has been recovering from the awful mouth virus. He finally ate and ate after days of starving!  Love this blue eyed girl of mine! Can't believe a year ago I was pregnant waiting to have her at this same breakfast! 

 

Max loved doing down this water slide. He cracks me up making sure that I had brought his goggles! He is getting so brave, I can't believe sometimes this is the same boy! 

 

Max even got brave and did the dunk tank. As we were walking over he said "Mom I am a little bit excited and a little bit nervous!" haha so funny. He did it over and over and loved it, It was a proud mom moment for me! I kept screaming a say yay Max!! 

Later in the Afternoon we went to the Martins and had BBQ and swam all afternoon. Max did not get out of the pool for 4 hours straight. The kids made up water slides and Max walked the plank over and over. He is getting SO good at swimming he kept walking then jumping into the deep end and swimming all around without his floaties. He is even better then last year, I am so impressed at how strong of a swimmer he is becoming. I love watching him bob around, do cannon balls and flips into the pool. 

Here is sweet scout who was grumpy from no nap but still loving being in the pool. She loves water, and she loves eating popcorn! Poor girl has been fighting a virus but I know that she will get better soon. 

 

Here is me trying to be good a document as we were cleaning up. This is only a portion of our cousins and friends the Bright Family who played with us too. The kids were getting cranky but I snagged a few of them! We all went home exhausted and full! Such a fun day, we didn't do fireworks because it is illegal in our county and the kids crashed so we didn't have to deal with it! Max had gone with Larry the night before to see the big fire works show in town center and so it was good enough for all! Happy 4th everyone!! 

VIRUS!!!

So we got back from Texas last week, and it has been a crazy week since that. I watched my sister in laws 5 kids for 3 days, had Max's 5th birthday party. and then Sunday both Noah and Scout got hit my an awful mouth virus. I am kinda dying about it. I tried to suck it up and be a good mom but man this one is bad. Their mouths are filled with sores and it's just a common (apparently) childhood virus that will have to run its course. That being said they are miserable, especially Noah who hasn't eaten or slept in almost 5 days. He cries loud ALOT and while my mom heart broke for his pain for a little while now I am just tired and angry and my patience is running thin. Larry of course is gone a good 12 hours a day so there is little time for me to get even 10 minutes to sit an regain some energy. Thank goodness Max is at art camp for a good part of the day, playing away so I only have to deal with 2 screaming kids. It's been a bad week and I am ready for them to feel better and go back to normalcy. I feel like crying right along with them.