Daddy/Daughter

I'm pretty sure I could hear Abigail's sheer excitement all the way from the pool to my house, which is several miles away. It is nearly impossible to say no to this girl. You just have to say yes to her because, well, she's adorable! So when she asked her daddy if he would take her swimming, boy did he ever! And who wouldn't want to take this munchkin swimming? Even I might venture my post baby body into a suit for her! Thankfully, she hasn't asked me.

Babies

There's always a baby to hold at the Eyre house.

The Progression of the Pickle

FHE (family home evening)

It's usually a production when he teaches the kids.

Teaching them about commandments and the importance of keeping those commandments.

Abby chose our activity of play-do. And Hannah made the dessert (with some help from me of course).

Fun night. Fun family.

Ladies must dress up sometimes

These two were bored. So I dolled them up with a titch of makeup, fancy hairdo's, and gave them hot chocolate and cookies. Boredom solved!

Squishy Bum

Valentines Day

I was low key this year. The kids made their own valentines to give to friends at school.

We sent a silly picture to dad at work to show him we love him and are always thinking of him.

We spent the day at Dance lessons and Hapkido lessons.  Fun stuff!

She was sure a happy little valentine to have us come watch her.

And I'm not sure who was more in heaven; Aaron or Nathan, that they could do Hapkido together.

We celebrated our love for each other the next night with our traditional heart pizza and chocolate fondue!

It was a horribly delicious mess!

I love this group to pieces and would run with this gang anytime, anywhere, any day! Not pictured is my love! Boy, do I love him though. So thankful for his love and friendship.

A little of this. A little of that.

Nathan is LOVING his Hapkido class. Loving!

His sisters are pretty darn impressed with the class too.

Some pictures of the crazy snow we got a couple weeks ago.

When the kids scream inside, we put them outside. We might have gone a little over board this night since it was so cold. (Don't worry, they were only out there for a second and got the message real quick that we DON'T scream inside. Don't report us).

He drives me crazy. But he also makes me laugh. And I'm partial to his crazy side.

She is the cutest ballerina.

She is getting sooo good at this reading stuff.

Hannah brought me breakfast in bed one morning. I'm a lucky girl.

A Really Fun Date

It's not often that we can escape for a whole day together. We were offered tickets to go skiing though, and we did all we could to make it possible. Oh it was so good for the heart. I love being with Aaron. It's so fun to laugh. So fun to flirt and tease each other. He kicks my bootie on the slopes and I think enjoys showing off a tad too. I don't mind. It's pretty fun to see him wiz right past me.

Wish we didn't have these lame-o sunglasses on.

I had an AWESOME fall. And by awesome, I mean scary. Could have been so bad, but thankfully it wasn't. I fell right off a small cliff and headed for a grove of trees. Don't worry, Aaron came just in time to pull his camera out to get a picture of me stuck in the snow. Sweet huh? Laughing all the way. Love him.

I'm just so thankful I didn't hit those trees.
It was a gorgeous day with little to no crowds. Heaven!

Love Affair

These two have a love affair. I've never seen Aaron so hands on with any of his babies. (not to say he loves Joe anymore than the others. I think he's finally just figured out babies is all).

Aaron showing Joe how it's done.

Joe copying to a "t".

It is so fun to see these two together.

8 Months old

My littlest stinker is growing fast! At 8 months, he's found his vocals can be quite handy when he wants something. He eats everything in sight. He's teething like crazy, but nothing has broken through yet. He's still not sleeping through the night. He's pretty attached to his mama. He's obsessed with his siblings. He stares at people a lot. He's messy. He's perfect.

Drops of Awesome

Aaron lay on the bed last night after the kids were in bed and looked, sad, tired, distraught. And before I could ask if he was ok, he said, "Fatherhood is so depressing". Um, wow! Totally caught me by surprise. So let me give the scenario of last night. Tired kids, grumpy kids, disobedient kids, bawling kids. And this father who just told me that fatherhood is depressing was so incredibly patient and calm with his kids that I was looking at him last night and thinking, "what a guy I married who is such a good daddy, his children adore him, and he works hard to be patient and loving to those kiddos". But I understand those feelings all too well. Parenting is tough stuff. Not for the faint of heart or for the weak. So when I read this article this morning, I thought....this is perfect! And so, I'm going to try to forget the times that I ignore my kids, or the times I don't reach out to others when I think they may need a little reaching to and in the back of my mind I think "I'll get to them later", or the times I blow up when my house looks like a bomb went off. I think I'll try to add those drops of awesome to my bowl instead. Like how I got up in plenty of time to have a nice breakfast with my kids this morning instead of rushing to get them dressed, fed, and out the door for school. Awesome. I watched my sisters two little kids all day yesterday. Awesome. I wrote to a friend of mine to let her know how much I love her and am grateful for her friendship. Awesome. I woke in the middle of the night to my sweet baby and fed him thankfully instead of begrudgingly because I adore him so much. Awesome. I made homemade bread and soup for my family last night. Awesome. I read books to my kids before bed last night despite their crankiness. Awesome. I read for 2, maybe 3 minutes from the scripture yesterday. Awesome. (could be better, but I'll take it for now). I squeezed my husband and let him know how much I love him and how grateful I am for him when he was feeling sad. Awesome.

And my sweet husband, who was having a moment last night, that I have way too often, is pretty awesome too. He left each of us a sweet note on the mirror this morning before he left for work.

There's always room for improving and we'll never be the perfect parents or have the perfect children. But we certainly are more motivated to be "awesome" when we focus on some of the awesome things we are doing, instead of wasting so much energy on the things we aren't.