why not celebrate all them boys

Birthday season has come to an end. Until next year. Owen was blessed Sunday, September 20th, so we had a family party Saturday night for all of the fellas in da house. We've had a family party every September I think since Dallin's first birthday, so this has been a fun tradition. But now with a July birthday that kind of changes the game just a little. So we'll see what happens next year. Also Saturday morning we had a very small party for our 3-year-old. Dallin has had parties for the last couple of years with his friends and now that Adam is old enough we had a party just for him. We asked Dallin whether he wanted a small party or if he'd rather take one friend and go someplace fun. He chose to go to Jump and Shout. And maybe I am a bit preoccupied trying to make sure things are fair for my second child. How do you make sure every child feels just as appreciated and loved? I think I will struggle with this forever. I feel guilty that Dallin is more often getting the new clothes and things and Adam gets the hand-me-downs. And darn it, Adam's birthday is even after Dallin's and Mark's in September. By the time Adam's birthday comes around I find myself almost wanting to be done with birthdays and I have to work extra hard to make sure Adam gets just as much attention for his birthday. We started perhaps a new tradition where we decorate the birthday boy's door on his birthday. (And Maria, if you've happened across our blog then yes, I stole this idea from you. And now you know I secretly have read your blog and if you've found ours then now is the time to say so:))

Dallin got his door decorated too but tore it all down right away to get to the toys and candy before I could get a picture. Here is Adam in front of his door which is only halfway torn down. Mark and I agree that this picture of Adam captures his personality well.


We were so fortunate to have such great support from our family at Owen's blessing. During the blessing I of course got a bit emotional, and a lot of the emotion was due to thinking about how blessed Owen is to have such great people around him who love him.

Here's our little family


And Baby Owen...


With Dad:


Four generations:



Owen is smiling more and more each day. Pretty much an awesome sight. You understand?


There is a baby shower at my house this weekend so I can't relax quite yet. But soon, very soon.

except we'd get the fresh-squeezed lemonade

Three

Check out this handsome kid! He's three today!

Adam is really good at being cute. He has such a sweet disposition. Mark has noticed that when he (Mark) raises his voice or gets upset at Adam, he (Adam) will try to soften the mood by changing the subject or trying to do something funny. That's a talent, if you ask me. Lately he has been playing the part of A-Cat (Dallin is D-Dawg). The subdued cat alter-ego fits him well, and he does a very convincing "meow." When we are driving in the afternoons or mornings Dallin and Adam like to look for school buses. The other day Adam sees a small school bus and says, "Look! It's a little bus. And I'm a little boy! So we both match!"

We are so blessed to have Adam in our family. He adds such joy to our lives! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Two Months

When Owen first smiled at me it was only one side of his mouth. It was a couple of weeks ago now but I remember exactly where we were when he smiled and I remember feeling a rush of love and joy for my little baby. It was a moment where I felt the swell of tears coming to my eyes and I held them back. Why did I hold them back?

Owen is such a joy to us. I remember the days after he was born and after we returned home from the hospital as one of the greatest times of my life. I might attribute some of it to post-baby hormones because I was also very emotional. Mostly, I think it was a beautiful blessing to feel so close to my Heavenly Father after welcoming another one of his children to the earth. It was a blessing too that I was really only experiencing the post-pardum highs and none of the lows this time. I felt gratitude deep in my heart constantly those days. I had a clearer vision of what is important in this life. I feel those things now too, but the moments come in instances instead of constant feelings.


Less-thoughtful writing:

Owen is doing much, much better sleeping at night now. We still haven't quite managed to get him on a predictable schedule for the entire day. Generally, the day starts out well and he takes great naps until sometime in the afternoon or evening when he wakes up early from a nap and then he has a hard time going to sleep from then on. By nightime he is overtired and has a hard time settling down and staying asleep. But, by the time he does get to sleep he sleeps really well and only wakes once, or sometimes not at all, during the night. And now he is going right back to bed in the middle of the night after he eats, so I really can't complain.

Tuesday we take a triple-visit to the doctor. Owen's two-month visit, Dallin and Adam's yearly checkup. Should be a rodeo.

What the Smiths have been doing

...Or at least some of it. Blogging has been the last thing on my mind lately. Actually, technically that is not correct because I still think about blogging. I think "I should blog about this" or " I should take a picture so I can blog about this," or "This would be a cute title for a blog post about this," but the actual blogging doesn't get thought through. But anyway...


Birthday Season is in full swing around here. And boy have we been making a season out of it. Mark's birthday came and went and I hope I did enough for that this year because I was feeling less-than-thoughtful with a brand new baby. He got some new clothes (all practical stuff that he pretty much needed). I thought it was nice of myself to actually get out and do some shopping for his birthday. And as a symbol of his fatherhood his gift was disguised as a diaper box. Or looking back, maybe subconsciously I was trying to send him the message: "Sorry if your birthday is lame, remember that we have a newborn." It's even the newborn size that we haven't used for weeks.





We went out to dinner as a family to Chik-Fil-A. No babysitter required. But Mark does enjoy Chik-fil-A. Whenever we go, and after the boys are finished eating and are playing in the play area Mark generally has a peaceful moment where he looks around the restaurant and lists a couple of reasons why he likes going to Chik-fil-A. And since we were celebrating we got TWO milkshakes: one for me and the boys and one for the birthday boy. But of course he shared anyway. And, Chik-fil-A is a little obnoxious to type with the dashes in it.


Dallin's birthday was on Sunday and I didn't get around to posting about it. But I plan on it--then I will be tricky and post-date it so it looks like it was posted on his birthday. You know, it just makes the most sense to do it that way :)


He had a great, long birthday weekend. On Saturday he went to Primary Activity Day at the church for a couple of hours. Then we picked up his friend and went to get pizza and played for a few hours at Jump and Shout--inflatables, climbing stuff, etc.


Then we gave him his present, a bike, so he could ride it around on Saturday instead of on the Sabbath, his birthday. Saturday he had a great day and by the end of the day he kept repeating things like, "I love my bike," or "That was nice of you to get me a birthday card," etc. I just said "I'm glad you liked it," instead of telling him that the bike was used and the birthday card was sent in the mail from Bashas.' I didn't want to discourage his thankfulness. Or something.


Sunday he took advantage of his birthday with requests like: "Do you want to play with me Dad? It's my birthday," Or "I don't want to change out of my church clothes. It's my birthday." And he enjoyed having his birthday on a Sunday since he saw so many people at church that wished him happy birthday. Grandma Smith (Mark's mom) made Dallin's request of waffles for dinner at their house that night.


Monday, Labor Day, was a fun-filled one. We got a couple of tasks done around the house that morning then went to the Smiths' house for water balloons and bottle rockets. Should have taken pictures. Then we came home for Adam's nap and went next door to swim at the neighbor's house.


We still have a couple of parties and a baby blessing planned to finish out Birthday Season in a couple of weeks. So all of the boys will be celebrated this September. I almost think we should have waited a couple of months to have Owen so he could have had a September birthday too. Then he wouldn't be left out you know. Not that we exactly can or want to plan our kids' birthdays, and don't worry, it's just a joke. We'll take them whenever it is that we get them.

Five

Happy Birthday Dallin!


Dallin is getting older-looking and acting more and more grown up all the time. I am so grateful for this little boy. He is a sweet brother and just adores his baby brother Owen and is so helpful when I ask him to run and get me something or do something when I am holding the baby. I try not to ask too often because I don't want to take advantage of his thoughtfulness. He is just starting to learn to read basic words with short vowel sounds. He loves to learn and is always asking questions about numbers and words or anything else. Here are some things about Dallin this year as answered by him:

What do you like to do?
"It's hard to choose 'cuz everything's fun."

What are some of the things that are fun to do?
Go to the zoo and look at the animals and look at the squirrel monkeys.
Play in the water and play with my friends.

What kinds of foods do you like?
Pizza, sandwiches with spicy mustard and meat and cheese, and mac and cheese.

What are you going to do now that you're five?
I don't know, it's hard to choose.

What is your favorite job around the house?
Vacuuming to get one dollar bills.

What do you like to do with Adam?
Run as fast as you can. Dance.

What do you like about Owen?
How he's so cute. And he's so tiny and I love him very much.

What is something crazy about our family?
Because we have three boys.

Dallin really has grown up over this last year, in more ways than one. It's so rewarding to watch. We love you Dallin!