Things I'm Loving

• A boy named Drai who asked my sister to Gilbert High's prom! (Because that meant Elizabeth and my mom came for the weekend which also happened to be Kate's birthday weekend :) Elizabeth looked gorgeous for prom! 

 
 
 

• Kate is ONE! Parenting a one year old is a little less intense than parenting an infant so I'm excited for the next year with Kate! :) Cake smash photo dump:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Other birthday activities - going out to dinner, playing at the park, and celebrating my mom's birthday too!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kate loves her birthday slide from my parents and she looks so cute in her outfit from my grandma and grandpa!
 
 

• The fact that Kate's birthday is sandwiched right between her two grandmas. My mom's birthday is on the 19th, Kate's is on the 20th, and Debbie's is on the 21st. We celebrated Debbie's birthday with her favorite hot chocolate and cinnamon roll breakfast. 

• Our neighborhood bird lady! This winter when I left my back door open, I swore I could hear exotic birds from the park and we finally found out a month ago that I was right about the birds! A lady in our neighborhood has 6 birds and takes them to the park every once and a while. She tells my kids all about each bird and they listen to her talk about her birds for forever! It's so funny and fun!

 My friend took this picture of me the other day at the park! haha My lazy days where I can just sit at the park and watch my kids are over! Kate is getting too hard core and crazy on the slides!
 

•  T-ball practices... kind of. Kate looks just as bored as I usually feel ;)

My friend's instastory sums it up perfectly! haha

• David and Kate's budding friendship. No one makes Kate laugh more than David but no one makes her cry more than David either ;) They sure love each other though :)

 

• My little Crackadon ;) Jack still is our earliest riser and sometimes I'll take him for a walk before everyone wakes up. He is the sloooowest walker, always stopping for shells on the canal and stopping for rocks anywhere else :)

• Our next door neighbors! Their three kids are the same age as ours, and Kate and Jaycee are finally starting to interact a little bit more :) Here they are chilling in their backyard :)

• Sunday outings to the Salt River. We get stir crazy on Sundays and usually need an outing. I think this is the last outing of the season because the weather is getting too hot and Kate is getting too brave by the water! We didn't last long!

• Kate's gross but funny behaviors - she was crying in the car so my mom reached back and patted her head only to feel that she was crusty and goopy. Kate found a cereal bar and smeared it all over her face! haha

 

• Jack's end of the year "Spring Sing" at his school. It was so cute and he did such a good job!

Kate has started reaching for any stranger she sees! This is new for me because Jack and David were way more cautious around new people. Kate will just walk up and sit on people's laps at Jack and David's tball games and at the Spring Sing, she found a stranger to sit with behind us. haha!

Kate is ONE!

Today Kate is ONE!!!  In the last couple of weeks, she basically quit nursing cold turkey, she walks more than she bear crawls, and she can go with just one nap on the days we need/want her to. Kate has been our happiest and most easy going baby. A couple of months after she was born, we started calling her Kate "happy to be here" Hall, because she really is just happy every day! She's busy, bossy, smiley and fun, and we love her to death!

I never felt ready for Kate to come into our lives. I don't know if it was because I felt like I barely survived when Jack was a toddler and David was an infant (I thought you were supposed to block out the hard things and only remember the good?!!) but it was really hard for me to imagine how another baby could fit into our lives. Before she came, all I could think of was the anxiety that comes with a baby under one - the sleepless nights, the inconvenient two to three naps a day, the demanding nursing around the clock, and the constant crying that makes me feel on edge. And I really couldn't imagine doing all of that again while taking care of two active and demanding little boys!

But ready or not she came, and I was reminded of what I had forgotten - the early morning and late night snuggles, the little coos and squeals, the tiny fingers and toes, the miraculous breaths of a newborn sleeping baby, and the rush of overwhelming love and joy! I was reminded of God's grace - that "grace is not a booster engine that kicks in once [my] fuel supply is exhausted. Rather, it is [my] constant energy source. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light that moves [me] through the tunnel... it is not a finishing touch; it is the Finisher's touch." (Brad Wilcox)

There were a lot of other things that I didn't feel ready for this year besides just having Kate. I didn't feel ready to move across the country with a 2 week old or to send my oldest baby off to kindergarten. I didn't feel ready for the late onset of postpartum anxiety or the new-to-me postpartum insomnia. We certainly didn't feel ready to lose Debbie. But through it all, Kate reminded us that there is light and love to be found even in our darkest days, and that God is fueling us and carrying us as He changes and transforms us. God is good and Kate is living proof of that!

Happy birthday baby girl!
------------------------------------------------
Birth video one year late :)

Things I'm Loving

• Jack and his love for animals/nature! He is a reptile whisperer! A friend taught him how to catch lizards (they are fast!). When you spray them with water, they freeze and then you are able to pick them up. After many many attempts, he finally caught his first lizard and he was so proud of himself! (Poor little lizard! haha!)

 

•  My view at church! haha Poofy dresses sure are cute on Kate but they don't fit into her active lifestyle ;)

• Pogo Passes! My parents got us Pogo Passes for Christmas and we love! The pass gives you admission to different places in the Phoenix Valley (the zoo, Sunsplash, Diamondbacks games, Urban Jungle and other places). On Friday, the weather was nice so I decided to take the kids to Enchanted Island in Phoenix which we could get into with the Pogo Pass. I couldn't decide if it was worth going to because the yelp reviews weren't great but it turned out to be so fun! David's favorite friends from preschool (who are all a year older than him) happened to be there too so it kind of looked like we were stalking them but Jack and David loved having other friends to go on all of the rides with! haha 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The baby ducks were so cute!!!

Jack and David can't wait to go to Sunsplash with the Pogo Pass this summer!

• Saturday fun at Pioneer park!

 
Perfect little baby cage!

• Walks on the canal. Last week, Jack FELL IN the small canal looking for fish! It was only a matter of time... luckily it's only one foot deep! We went straight home and took a bath!

• My brother Isaac winning his district wrestling tournament! This is my favorite picture ever! Isaac got his opponent right where it counts! hahaha