St. Patricks' Dinner

 This year Grandma and Boose came for our traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner. What's great about this tradition is that it's so easy to keep up with! I already cook dinner for my family s might as well make it green and call it a special holiday dinner! The girls look forward to little things like this. 

They were so excited to have Grandma Bleak and Boose come join us this year. We made our rainbow fruit kabobs and veggie rainbow and then a chicken asparagus pasta with green sauce. Then green smoothie and brownie and mint ice cream for dessert. Then the best part...put on a movie for the girls so I could talk and catch up with my mom and sister :). Good times!

Random Family Fun

 Just some random family memories. 

Sunday's we like to drive up the canyon sometimes. Didn't realize there is still that much snow in March but as Cade says, "sometimes Mom needs to drive up the canyon and sniff the air." Then Nora kept saying, "I don't want to drive just to sniff the air!!!" Hahaha. 

Girls night with my Mom and sisters! Man, I love them all! Especially during this past year with the pandemic...I have become closer to all of these wonderful women and I love them so much. We had a favorite things" party at my house and had amazing food and good talk. It was great! Faith was home recovering from covid-19 and we missed her terribly but we got to Face Time her in for a bit. 

I love listening to my girls and husband sing together and hope we create lots more memories doing it in the future!

Just some fun pictures with our fun LuLu. During a Daddy-daughter interview she wanted Daddy to put a "boop-boop" in his hair. Hahaha. She is doing swim lessons right now and loving it and doing really well at it. 

I try to change things up every once in a while and be spontaneous because I think children need that to keep life fun and interesting. These pics were after I picked up the girls from school and we did our after school snack at the pond near by. We had apples and popcorn and fed the ducks and geese. Jane LOVED it so much. She calls them "kack kacks." So cute. 

Ahhh. The end of skiing season. Cade created some awesome memories taking the 3 oldest on the slopes this season. I was kind of bummed I didn't get to do it with them but at the same time I can't be sad about growing another baby to join our family! It's so great that Sundance is 30 minutes from our home. It forced them to go about a dozen times this season. They have all absolutely LOVED it! And Cade feels like he can ski and not just fall down the mountain :). Next season we'll probably get them another couple lessons where the girls can learn to do more than just pizza the whole way down. But the important thing is they loved going and learning something new. 

Baby BOY Close!!!!

 What?? For real?! 

Cade and I weren't going to find out because it was so much fun waiting until sweet Jane was born. It was so fun waiting until the end. But I kept asking Cade, "Are you sure you don't want to find out? Especially if we feel this is our last baby, will you be disappointed if it's a girl and is it better to find out sooner?" So the week before the ultrasound we decided we would find out the gender together and tell the girls later. 

We went to get our ultrasound done and it was the same lady who did our last two ultrasounds (even the one with Lucy where we thought she was a boy at first). We reminded her of our past ultrasounds and that we have 5 girls at home and we indeed wanted to find our the gender after all. So half way through heart and organs she couldn't wait and said, "Okay! I have to show you guys now!" She found a good shot and wrote out "boy". Cade couldn't believe it. The ultrasound tech said, "I've known this whole time and I usually wait until the end but I just couldn't wait any longer!!" She was too excited for us. Cade was trying to hold back the tears :). Of course we'd be excited either way. Our girls are AMAZING!!! And we wouldn't have our family ANY OTHER WAY! And to be honest...I think we really aren't going to believe it until baby boy is here in our arms. 

Now for telling the girls...

My friend a few weeks earlier said, "If you want a gender reveal cake let me know and I'll make you one!" I told her that was so nice but we probably weren't going to find out. Then after we DID find out I texted her to ask if she would still be willing. We found out Monday and did the cake on Thursday after dinner. We told the girls we had a special dessert and when we brought that out they were SOOOO excited because they've had this amazing ice cream cake from our neighbor before. Then Cade said, "now there is something special about this cake. With the help from our doctor this cake will tell you whether our baby is a baby boy or a baby girl." The girls screamed, "WHAT?? Are you serious?" They were even MORE excited. Lots of screaming started :). Everyone made their guesses. Emma and Reese guessed girl and Nora and Lucy guessed boy. Jane just yelled "cake!" When I made the first cut into the cake, I pulled the knife out and there was a little bit of blue on the knife! Then I cut the other side and more blue came out. The girls were going CRAZY and screaming. I finally got out the piece and it indeed was blue inside. They couldn't believe it. They're reactions were so great. They are so fun and so animated and it makes anything like this so much fun. 

We are excited to have Close baby boy come join us this summer! What a special little guy to join a family with 6 mommies!!! He is going to be extremely loved. 

Trip to AZ and Great Grandpa's Funeral

We love going down to Prescott, Arizona to see the Close cousins! I mean, the 10 hour drive with Jane is not my favorite but all the other girls did awesome. They have so much fun exploring and getting dirty and enjoying their awesome property. One of the funniest things was seeing Reese and Taft "herding" chickens for hours. They would get long sticks and make the chickens go where they wanted them to. Emma and Ashur's favorite memory was making a well near the stream. They dug and dug and used stones and rocks to make the wall of it. Great times on a great property!

We are glad we got to go down because Tara is expecting a baby the end of March and I am expecting the middle of July so we didn't know when the next time would be that we could visit them again. 

Grandpa Edward Jones passed away just a few days before we were planning on heading down to AZ to visit the family. Timing wise everything worked out better than planned. But the Sunday before he passed, we had a family fast that he could return home to God. He has suffered for a few years with dimensia but the last 3 months or so were becoming pretty rough. They think he maybe had a stroke that ultimately made him immobile for the last week and a half of life. 

Tammy and Dale took care of him until the end. They did everything they could to give him a comfortable home and life and we will forever be grateful for that. 

Grandpa Jones was a wonderful man. Pretty quiet, but still loved to tease and pinch and poke :). He was a hard worker and loved to garden and earlier on in life built homes and worked on construction. He ultimately was the person who really encouraged Cade to get a college degree and go into accounting and know how to deal with money and learn about businesses. We will miss him but are grateful he is in a better place with our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Cousin Casey and her two daughters Morgan and Cali. 

Lucy's 5th Birthday!

Out of Lucy's mouth...."Mom! Now that I am 5 I can do everything by myself! Like set the table, start the bath, make my own sandwich and play by myself!" She is growing up and doing so much by herself. We are so proud of the strides she has made in just the last year. 

Lucy has been making goals of things she wants to learn to do and is doing awesome! She is becoming a great swimmer and just this last week learned to swim the whole length of the pool without the assistance of her teacher. She gets so excited when I tell her she can make her own lunch. She usually makes a PB and jelly sandwich, veggies and hummus and fruit. Lucy is also learning to not need someone next to her playing with her every second which is definitely new for her. She also looks very much forward to preschool every single time. She is so social and loves being around people. Some of her friends right now are Sophie Bleak (of course), Sadie Swan, Alice Stonebreaker, Evie Folker and Olive Kingsford. 

We love our spunky, fun-loving, energetic Lucy! She adds so much excitement and patience learning in our home and we would't have it any other way. Lucy is growing into a beautiful, sweet girl. 

Lucy got her beloved play date with Sophie on her birthday. Nothing is better than playing with her best friend on her special day. They wore swimsuits and played in the bathtub, had a tea party for lunch and ended with ice cream cones. Fun day!

Our Close Baby #6!

 Announcing baby #6! I finally had my 13 weeks appointment with my doctor and everything looked good so we could start telling everyone. We had told Emma and Reese at 6-7 weeks along because I was SO sick and didn't feel like I could fake it 24/7 around them. From the day I found our I was pregnant at 4 weeks I was SO sick until about 8 weeks and then things got tons better. Then I was just normal nauseous until 13 weeks. This baby is due July 15th- right after Daddy's birthday. We are not going to find out the gender until the baby is born. It was way too much fun last time to not find out. 

I am now in my 2nd trimester and 16 1/2 weeks along. I have my second doctor appointment this Thursday and keeping praying for our little baby to grow and develop properly. We are excited to have this little one join us in July!

Nora Boo Turns 7

 

Our Sweet Nora is 7 years old and becoming such a fun little lady! For birthdays we revolve all the food around the birthday girl. So for breakfast we had pancakes, lunch was a taco picnic at the park (tacos from Taco Amigo), and dinner was meatball soup and rolls. She loved having ice cream Sundaes for dessert and then inviting Lucy Swan over for movie night. 

We love our sweet girl. She loves coloring and making notes for other people. Nora does this all the time for our family, her teachers and friends- one way she shows other people she loves them. 

She started violin lessons last September and still loves it. She is getting better and better all the time. Nora also LOVES skiing and has gotten really into it now that she had 2 lessons. She can even ski backwards and told Daddy and her sisters that she can teach them how :). Nora loves to learn Spanish and has a goal of counting to 100 in Spanish and she loves to do hair. She even got a mannequin for her birthday so she can practice. 

We love our Nora Lee!!!