Jacob is here!! "Jacob is the best"!

We have been so so blessed to have lots of family visits. Since we have moved to Wisconsin we have had nearly every member of both sides of our family come out to see us. It really is magical and heartwarming to have them sacrifice to travel and spend time at our house. We feel so loved and so blessed!

We were SO excited to hear that Jacob wanted to come out for a whole week! Jacob brings the best out in our family and I love that he requires the boys to repeat that "Jacob is the best". I think it makes Jacob feel amazing when they say it without his prompts!

The last few MONTHS have been rougher than normal. We have been battling Zakary's back pain since we moved here. He's had back problems that have come with injury and playing too hard for years, but this pain has been unrelenting for nearly three years. He has dealt with it REALLY well for 2 years. While he was laying around from his Achilles Tendon Rupture he realized what it was like to NOT have back pain. As soon as he was off crutches and walking again-the pain returned and he has really struggled to manage. He has tried physical therapy, acupuncture, essential oils, massage, a spinal surgeon (told him to stop thinking about the pain), narcotic pain medication, he found that one leg is longer than the other and has custom shoes to even that up, yoga, crossfit, an inverter table, a TENS machine, counter pressure, and all this to no avail! He continues in pain and it has become a huge interruption to his life. For three months he simply comes home and lays down. For January-March I didn't mind so much--- but APRIL!!?? The sun is shining, the grass is growing, the snow is melted and it is time to get outside--and yet, Zak is in too much pain to enjoy it.  It is torture for all of us-especially him.

So, as the time neared for Jacob to come visit my heart hoped that he would be willing to help me outside in the yard! I asked him and he said yes! He arrived at midnight on Saturday April 11th in Milwaukee.. THAT was a blast just driving home with him at 2 in the morning! I loved catching up with him! He is in love with two girls, one is on a mission and the other is a dancer. We talked about that choice a lot. Sunday morning church was great and I let him take one GIANT nap on Sunday afternoon.. and then the week was full of lots of work. We have SO many garden plots and flower areas and half of them have completely grown out of control. Jacob rototiled them all! I decided that I wanted a patio on the south side of the house--Jacob was right there putting in paver stones.. my boys mentioned that they would love a treasure box--and Jacob went to work making them. Jacob took Moses and Heber out for ice cream.. he also took them to pick out a kite and helped them learn to fly it. I also decided I wanted a rock path under a hammock and Jacob wouldn't stop working til that job was done.. To make it completely fair, I was there for some of the work and so was Zak. Even though his back hurts-it only bothers him with he stops moving-so Zak worked with Jacob on the patio and hammock paradise while home from work. Jacob did the majority of the work and still had time for kite flying, reading with the boys, putting Gretel down for cuddly naps and playing farkle. We really had such a wonderful time with him here!! Jacob really is the best! My yard and the general level of happiness that he left here is proof of that!

Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot to mention that Jacob also took us all fishing. Heber caught his first fish and then we headed to to New London to see the stergeon spawning! These fish are huge and come right up to the rocky shore to lay eggs. So cool!! 

Gretel's Birthday, Daniel and Olivia Welch Visit, March 2015

Hurray!! Gretel turned 1 year old on March 6th! She has brought our family so much joy! She is the first girl grandchild for Sue and Greg Stapp after 9 boys! I really wanted a girl so badly! Nearly every night I sneak into her room to take a little peak at her while she is sleeping! I get giddy every

To sum up our little Gretel goes like this. Her favorite foods are salty crackers, bacon, sausage, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, spaghetti. She is barely figuring out the sippy cup, and still would rather have the bottle. Drinks milk with baby oatmeal in it. She crawls everywhere. She also does this little walking on her knees move.

time!

Moses and Heber have effectively kept her away from our stairs so we do not have gates. She rarely even goes near them. She walks along furniture, but will not attempt much more than that. She loves to wrestle and often crawls right over Zak's face while he is resting. She has this scratchy grunt/scream that she does when she is unhappy. Gretel is just learning sign language. She does the sign for cookie when she wants 'more' 'please'. She also signs milk.

She naps twice a day--but is starting to fight it. She used to just roll over and zonk out.. but now she's gotta scream for at least one-ten minutes. Her hair now long enough for me to put it in little pig tails! I love to dress her in the mornings and do her little hair! It makes me so happy. Sadly the hair style only lasts about half the day..

We decided to celebrate Gretel's birthday the week later because Daniel and Olivia and Lincoln we coming out to Wisconsin to visit us! We feel so blessed and lucky when family come out to be with us. We really loved having DandOandL with us! They made it just in time to enjoy the VERY FIRST WEEK that the weather was over 30 degrees all winter! We enjoyed 50 degrees with them!

We did the Union Star Cheese Factory, which is SUCH a great place to take guests. They show you right up close how they make cheese!! It is awesome. We then had Gretel's Official Birthday Party out in the shop! We have been working all winter to heat and insulate the shop and we heated it up to 90 and put hot water in the pools so we could have a pool party in March! It worked! The water was warm, but the floor was FREEZING! So it was a fun combo! Moses and Heber LOVED IT!

The Green Bay Packer's Stadium was a real treat! The tour is really amazing-it makes you an automatic Packer's fan! My favorite part is when the let you run out onto the field using the same tunnel as the players.

St. Patrick's Day is a funny holiday to me. But, this year, Grandma Sue sent us tattoos and mustaches for the occasion. We went to GREEN bay to see the GREEN bay packers stadium, we wore the GREEN mustaches, GREEN shirts, GREEN tattoos (some of us), and we went to GREENville's own ice cream parlor-The Twist. That is the most I have ever celebrated St. Patrick's Day-we loved it!

It was such a perfect week with Daniel and Olivia and Lincoln. We are so glad they made the sacrifice to come out and see us!

Wisconsin Dells February 2015

Last winter was BRUTAL.  I know that we were under the freezing point for more than three months straight. And for most of those cold days, we were below ZERO! We didn't go outside ever from the moment we came home from utah, to the middle of March.

We learned a lot about ourselves while being indoors so many days/weeks/months in a row--That we need to MOVE and WIGGLE and PLAY. We got a gym membership, and that was nice, but that didn't seem to be enough.

SO this year we got smart!! WE planned a trip with our dear friends, Lucy and Cody Bowman, and headed to the Wisconsin Dells! We picked the Wilderness Lodge and stayed in a condo in the Glacier Lodge portion. After we booked it, I already felt so much better. Zak did give us a scare of needing to move the date for a work thing... but, we got that all settled.. And then it was finally time to go!! I was ultra ready. I packed WAY early and I was so glad I did!

We had such a great time!!! The drive was only 2 hours and our room was as close as you can get to the sky walk over to the water parks. There were 4 different water parks and there were slides and pools for all ages. We took turns watching the babies so that all of the adults got to go out and play! Our favorite water park was the Wild Waterdome. We had the perfect day! The sun was shinning right into the dome and we all got a bit of sun. It honestly felt like Summer!! The Wave pool was awesome! Gretel fell asleep with Zak during the soft waves, but was rudely awakened during the rougher waves that came 15 min later!! Little Heber begged me to take him on water slides the whole time we were there. There were super big raft rides that the whole family could go on and both Heber and Moses loved them. Heber said he wanted to go on it 5 hundred million more times!!

I really couldn't have asked for a more perfect mid-winter trip! I felt like I had gone to Florida and it only cost us 250 dollars plus food! (and I got us all new flip flops! )

Life in the fast lane

Some people would say that we had our children very close. Moses was not yet 16 months old when Heber was born. Moses wasn't yet walking either. I vividly recall carrying them both- Heber as a new baby in the car seat and Moses as a chunky toddler-who wasn't toddling. Yes it was challenging. Yes we stayed home a lot. Yes we had two in diapers. It was awesome!!!! They have no memories without the other. And they have a super sweet brotherly bond. 

This is Moses and Heber nursing their babies. 

In march we had our baby Gretel. She is 28 months younger than Heber. I am grateful everyday that I had Moses and Heber so close. They are now 3 and 2 years old. Yes it is a challenge to have two little boys jumping and playing while I nurse. But with a little schedule and some extra patience they do really well. I love watching them play together and I love the secret codes they have invented. 

I've had several comments about how busy I must be. They have NO idea!! At 730 am I feed Gretel. We are working still with nursing because she was born with a posterior tongue tie and it has made nursing a long process. We are having it revised again on Monday. So at 830 I put her down for a nap and right then I get Heber out of his crib since he's been in there happy and awake for a good 30 min. Moses usually is already up and dressed and reading books with me by then. We then make breakfast. By 930 it is usually all eaten and cleaned up. We have one hour- if all has gone well. I clean something or prepare dinner or read to my boys. At 1030 it is time to feed Gretel. I put my boys in Alone Time. They get to play in their rooms alone for one hour. Gretel and I bond a little and she's back in bed for a nap at 1130. The boys come out after Alone Time refreshed but hungry. I make lunch and the whole making/eating/ cleaning up brings us to 1230-1245. Heber then asks to play one more minute and the it's his turn for a nap. If we didn't do alone time then Moses will have it now. If we did then he plays while I nurse Gretel at 130. This is a hard one because Moses wants attention. I used to do a letter and a number with him but now I try to get him to read a book with me or color. At 230 Gretel goes down for a nap and I'm exhausted. Moses is too. We watch a little show or read or I try to get something done around the house. I am working on this part of our day because it isn't working out well for us. At 430 I feed Gretel and Zak gets home and Heber wakes up. I feel bad that Zak comes home and I'm tied up nursing. He then gets the rest of dinner ready. And we eat at 530. The evening is filled with family time and at 730 Zak gets the boys ready for bed at 8 and I feed Gretel. At 9ish she is asleep too. Geez!!! I feel like I have run five miles but I haven't seen the outside of my house. I love my children. I love being a mom. It is so so hard. But I know this is perfect. 

This is Gretel in an outfit we bought in Guatemala when we were pregnant with Moses. 

So it's been a while!!

Matthew and Megan just showed me how I can continue my blog with the app!!! I'm so excited for this to be an easier process!! 

As is the way of spending time with the Stapps, we had a project or two planned for our distinguished guests to accomplish. Matthew and Megan and even Lucy helped us rake and clean up our entire yard!!

Matthew and Zak had some male bonding of the typical Welch wrestling match- complete with tickling. Zak appearanlty couldn't hack the tickles-it turns out he gets totally furious and threw some almost not playful punches. For a Welch that only makes it more hilarious and fun to tickle again!! 

Easter was a blast!! It was fridged freezing- as it should be if you love in Wisconsin-but it was clear skies and no snow on the ground!! Zak and Matthew his the eggs and then gave the boys a briefing on what an Easter egg hunt really is. 

It took a little coaxing, but after a few minutes both Moses and Heber had this egg hunt all figured out. 

The grand prize was this box from grandma sue and a new pair of sandals. But the boys were so focused on eggs that they didn't even see the big boxes!!!

For lunch we went on a real walk around Appleton. It was awesome to be out in the chilly sunshine. We had a picnic on Lawrence university campus and then went to the paper discovery museum. 

Got to use my triple stroller!! That stroller spells freedom for me!!! 

Gretel was blessed at church right on Easter Sunday. She wore a dress that was made to look like the one that I was blessed in. She was a perfect angel during the blessing and that night even slept 8 hours!! That was almost the biggest highlight if the week!! 

We absolute loved having Matthew and Megan and Lucy at our house this week. We learned a lot from them and felt a lot of love together. 

Christmas time in UTAH

Just 2 months after moving to Wisconsin, we were flying back to Utah to spend Christmas and New Years with family and friends! In fact, we had the tickets booked before we even left Utah in the first place! I knew that this Christmas, especially, was going to be important to spend back at our HOME of so many years. Our flight was on Christmas Eve and it was a smooth trip with our two little ones in tow. With lots of toys and snacks and a pizza in the airport, we managed to keep them both pretty happy. We landed at 8pm that evening and from then till our 2 week trip was over, it felt as if we were going at full speed!

We had celebrated our own little christmas in Wisconsin on the 22nd and it was a blast! The boys especially loved the train table that Zak and I hand made from one sheet of plywood. They also really loved the cardboard box that my boots came in.. hmm.. We only kept the train table though.

Moses and Heber play with it EVERYDAY! 

So here was the Itinerary for our trip- I could never sum up in a great way all that happened while we were out there.. so I won't. But I'll do one line for each day.

Christmas Eve: Landed in Utah- Sleep over at the Welchs
Christmas Day: Lots of Presents at the Welch Home- Matthew and Megan are having a baby girl!
26th: Daniel's Birthday!! Went to see Les Mis!
27th:Christmas with Stapps!! Trampoline House!
28th: Started Evicting our renters-what a mess! Got to see the tubbs! Went to Hobbit with Stapps!
29th: Went to see the City Creek Mall and Temple Square Lights. Our men went camping.
30th: didn't go to church, Moses has awful cough, Heber is teething. Played Loaded Questions with Stapps-super fun!
31st: Get ready to go to Cabin with Welchs. Zak flew back to WI. Made it to cabin and got it all warmed up! So excited!
Jan 1st: Lots of Snow for sledding!!
2nd: Clean up and come home.

Moses and Grandpa Great were SO darling playing together. Giving High 5's, pinching noses and making miniature towers with mini blocks. Moses gave GG hugs and kisses every night before bed!

3rd: Hang out with stapps. Went Swimming!!!
4th: Welch boys went Snowboarding, Welch girls went Shopping! Park City!!
5th: Haley's Wedding (smith side) So fun to see relatives! So So fun!
6th: Church with Welchs, great to see home ward!
7th: My Christmas Gift to Sue: 3 hours of Cleaning her house-It was awesome!
8th: Relaxed and played games with Sue and Greg. Moses and Grandpa Great are cute friends! Ice cream with Jennica-fantastic.

In the airport with his own little suitcase! We prefer to travel in style! Although he does push it more like a stroller!

Heber's just glad to be out of the Eddie-who cares that it's 10 degrees, right? One Matthew and 2 toys is all he needs.

Moses is always a trooper in the cold

Cute Olivia praying that the pilot light isn't the only flame we get out of this fireplace. 

Fire is always the best way to heat up the cabin!

Grandma is REALLY good at Peek-a-boo!

The fabulous Four (including me) getting using every heating element in the kitchen to cook and to heat up the place!

Getting in a large bucket is lots of fun only when Daniel is around!

I had no idea why he was screaming for 15min!! I didn't look back only because I was alone driving at night in the winter and was scared to crash. Cute that he fell asleep like that!

it was so great to get hugs from my favorite uncle terry! I love you!

9th: Pack and fly back to Wisconsin! What a stellar trip! We love you all!!