Ponseti Races

We got to be a part of the Ponseti Races this past weekend. Dr. Ponseti is the man who developed the non-surgical treatment of club feet. Wyatt was treated with this method and so it was really special to be a part of it. The race was last Friday and Dr. Ponseti wasn't able to attend because he had a stroke last Tuesday. His wife attended and sat in his place at the finish line of the children's races. Dr. Ponseti passed away on Sunday and will be missed. He was an amazing man. He kept working right up until the end of his life helping children like mine to be able to run and jump and play. We will be forever grateful for his work.

My Boys

I caught a great photo of my boys at the park yesterday. I love it because it shows a little bit about their personalities...well mostly Jonah and Wyatt's personalities since Emmett is still just showing off his sweet baby self. Jonah is the big brother who always asks to hold Emmett and wants to make sure he's okay. Wyatt is a little jokester. He always tries to make Emmett laugh. I love these boys.

Pirate or Gnome?

Jonah and Wyatt love anything and everything pirate. I think they are trying to recruit Emmett while he's still young and impressionable.

However, Max's grandma is pushing for the Garden Gnome Guild.

We'll see who wins in the end...

The Rest of Our Trip to Utah

We did a lot while visiting family in Utah and so I thought I'd try to record more of it. We went to a Bees game with Justin, Ashly and Fisher and decided that we will probably not be taking our boys to a baseball game again any time in the near future. They just wanted to ride the train, play on the playground, eat candy... I know, what did we expect from a 2 and 4 year old, but honestly, it was like pulling teeth just to get to the seventh inning stretch. We sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game and decided to call it a night.

We spent a weekend up at the Stirling cabin. Here's Max teaching Jonah how to hold a snake. I loving having three boys, but I just don't dig snakes and bugs and I have a feeling I'm going to have to get used to them.
Jonah needed a little reminding to hold the snake's head. Then he didn't want to hold it at all after it bit him on the hand.

Tutu (Max's mom) took us all for a ride on the Heber Creeper. The boys and their cousin Ava had a lot of fun, especially when cowboys came riding up beside the train shooting their guns in the air. They held up the train and stole the money box. When they opened it up and only found a stuffed duck, they were so angry they took hostages. It was a beautiful day for a train ride.

And here's Max showing off is mountain man skills. What a man!

Justin and Ashly came up while we were there and set up a zip line for the kids. They loved it.

I had to throw this one in just for memory's sake. This is Jonah with his bear, Argon. (It was Max's bear when he was young.) We're not sure where he got the name, but Argon can do lots of things--even some superhero things--and he often shows up in bedtime stories.

The Sunday before we left we went over to Natalie's house for a double baby blessing for Oscar and Emmett.
All in all it was a wonderful vacation. It was good to be with family and friends and to be in and near the mountains where we feel most at home.

Wyatt turned 3

It's been over a month, but my little Wyatt turned 3 back in July. Wyatt is such a sweet and playful boy. He loves to tease and he loves to get tickled. He loves to jump on the trampoline run through the sprinklers. He loves to help me cook in the kitchen and always likes to "snitch," especially when it is cookies. I usually have to tell him to stop snitching because I'm afraid he'll get sick. Speaking of cookies, Wyatt definitely has a sweet tooth. He usually asks me for a cookie or a candy by 9 am at the latest. Wyatt loves sports and is good at all the ones he's tried so far. He can hit a pitched ball over our fence--skipped right past the whole t-ball thing--and daily asks me to come play baseball. We take turns being the pitcher and the hitter and I always chase him around the bases and he is always safe. He knows all his letters, can count to 13 or so (after that it kind of jumps around until 20) and likes to color things "all the colors" instead of just one. He still loves his blue blankie and though it is probably a biohazard, I secretly like watching him suck on it because it looks like a baby's sucking reflex and it reminds me he is still little even though sometimes he acts so big. I love you Wyatt.

Going Private

Hi friends and family. I've decided before I make any more posts that I'm going to make my blog private--looks like I'm getting some spam-like repetitive comments from someone I don't know. If you would like to continue to read it, please leave me a comment and I'll send you an invite.

Trip to Utah-Week One

We just took a fabulous 3-week trip to Utah to visit family. Everyone thought we were crazy to travel with a two-week old, but if you read some of my posts from around the end of April, you'll see he was supposed to be about a month old before we traveled. Thanks to parents with skymile buddy passes we were able to fly rather than drive. Here is the basic run down of week one.

I think this is me near the end of the flight. Emmett was the best by far on the flight--couldn't kick or pull on the the seat in front on him like the other two, couldn't fidget and climb on Max and I like the other two, didn't want to use the airplane bathroom multiple times like the other two. Jonah and Wyatt were actually pretty good all things considered, but it was only a 3 hour flight. 

Here is a photo of Wyatt with his blue blankie. Yes, I know it doesn't look that blue, more like a sickly bile-like color. Well that's because it is always stuffed in his mouth like it is in this photo. We actually have three blankets, which I try to rotate, but he usually want (in his words) the "stinky one" or the "crunchy one." I just try to tell myself that he is going to have a stronger immune system than any of us.

Max took the boys for a hike up Bell Canyon. Jonah suffered an injury that ended the hike a little early. 

We went up to visit the McQueens and got to play on Ashly's b-day present. We were going to go to the Bountiful Rec center and play in the splash park, but by the photos you can see that obviously wasn't necessary. We had so much fun in their backyard we just stayed all day and even made s'mores in their fire pit at night. We love the McQueens! 

We went to free Monday at the Natural History museum with Natalie, Ava, and Oscar. Living on student loans has taught me to find lots of free outings. I don't know why I didn't know about things like this before, but there are tons of free days for lots of fun places. For anyone interested, I think Utah's Natural History museum is free the first Monday of every month if I remember correctly.

We also went to Wheeler Farm, another wonderful free activity. I loved these horses--the epitome of I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.

I think Emmett looks like an elf in this photo.

We spent most of our time at Wheeler Farm at the back tree house. Not the one right by the old farm house, but the one by a fabulous old box elder tree over the bridge. The boys climbed all over the tree and then Max took them into the sprinklers spraying the nearby field. Max is so great like that. My thinking is usually, well if they get wet, they'll complain about their clothes feeling funny or then they'll get muddy and anyway I don't really want to get wet. He doesn't even think like this. He makes life so fun for our boys, probably because he's good at remember what it felt like to be a little boy.
Boot Scoots make Wheeler Farm especially nice. They let the boys move fast and then they don't whine about walking.

Our first week ended with a Bees game with the McQueens. I'd say we need a few years before we return to a baseball game. It was mostly us trying to barter a few minutes of watching the game for time at the playground or riding the train. They did love singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," but we left right after that. 

Jonah Graduates from Joy School

I did Joy School with a couple other moms in my ward this past year and it was a lot of fun. It is definitely a lot of work (especially when you have to go throw up during free play time because of pregnancy nausea and teach when you're pushing 9 months) but the kids were darling and Jonah loved it. I plan on doing Joy School for Wyatt this year too, just have to find some interested moms. 

Funny thing, the caps and gowns in the photo lasted only minutes. One boy wouldn't even put one on and then the others were done with them before the "ceremony" was finished. Sure looks cute though.

Time to Play Catch Up

I haven't felt like blogging for a while, but I was hoping to make this a sort of journal for my family so it is time to play catch up over the next few days. 

First, a lovely invention by Max--ball on a string hung from the tree.

Allows Wyatt to hit the ball over and over and over and over and over without requiring an involved parent. When I say it that way it sounds kind of bad, but honestly this kid could hit a ball for hours if someone was there to throw it to him. I still play ball with him sometimes, but now he can go out and hit while I make dinner or nurse Emmett. The only problem is that sometimes Wyatt hits too hard or hits it when the wind is really blowing (which by the way it does here--one of our trees fell down on our fence last week, silly us didn't take a picture) and the ball winds up in the tree. Jonah helps with this sometimes since he is way less interested in batting practice than Wyatt. 

He's Here!

Our little guy, Emmett Stirling, finally arrived last night and he is perfect! I was induced (had my water broken) at 2:45 in the afternoon and he made his debut at 8:09 pm. I ended up asking for an epidural this time around, but he came so fast by the time I asked that I ended up going natural like the other two. Thank heavens it was quick. He's the biggest one yet weighing it at 9 lbs 5 oz. I forget how long he is--I think 21 3/4 or something close to that, but he's a big guy. Here are his first photos.

My mom was able to be there for the delivery because some great friends offered to let the boys stay at their house as long as it took. Luckily it didn't take too long. This is a minutes-old photo just in case the cone head didn't give it away.

The hospital caps never seem to quite fit my boys' heads. This one barely squeezed on.

Like I said, he's perfect. 

Mama's Boy

So still no baby yet. Max says he must be a mama's boy and doesn't want to leave yet. Max and I went to the doctor today and he said he would induce me as early as tomorrow morning, but Max has a final tomorrow at 1:00 and Thursday at 1:00 so we're going to wait until Thursday after his finals. I've never been induced. I'm more nervous for that than just going into labor on my own. This kid has to be big though. My belly is definitely bigger that it has ever been and supposedly babies can tend to be larger at lower sea levels. (I've heard this, but don't have any scientific evidence to quote so really I have no idea what I'm saying.) Having had two 9 lb-ers that came early I just wonder what that means for this one. 

Yeah...

So that widget says 0 days left till baby comes. Well, baby still isn't here. Since Jonah was 3 days early and Wyatt was 10 days early, I have to say that this whole waiting for the due date thing really stinks!

Easter

Finally getting around to posting about our Easter fun. We had a great time. Here are the boys and dad dyeing Easter eggs. I prefer not to get dye on the boys shirts so I make them take off their shirts and wear art smocks. I think it looks cute.

Max was working really hard on this egg so I had to show the finished product as well.

A friend in the ward has a park behind her house and so invited a few families over on the Saturday before Easter for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. It was great because we had considered going to a community hunt, but I know it would have been crazy. This was perfect. Every parent brought 15 eggs per child and then the dads went and hid them in the park while the kids played the game in the photo below, "What time is it Mr. Fox" where they get closer and closer to the "fox" until he says that it's lunchtime and everyone runs away screaming.

I love the completely uninhibited joy in the kids' faces. The only thing that matters at this moment is getting away from Mr. Fox and nothing could make them happier. 

After hunting and satiating their candy lust the boys wanted to play on the playground so I ended up with the baskets. Here is one of the few prego-belly shots we have of me. I've never been good about taking a lot pregnant tummy shots. Max keeps saying we should. We'll see.

On Easter morning, I was fighting a cold, the boys were both sniffly and Jonah was coughing, and it was Stake Conference...needless to say, we didn't end up going. We had an Easter egg hunt in our backyard as soon as the boys woke up--6:45 and then I was exhausted by about 10:00. Max took the boys on a walk to Mormon Handcart Park. (That's close to going to church, right?) Here are some of my favorite photos from their adventure. 
Jonah and Wyatt are really great friends right now. They play together all the time--fight together too--but mostly it is play. It's great to let them go out to the backyard and hear them making up games on the trampoline together.

I frequently get asked by strangers if they are twins. It is usually when they're sitting down since Jonah is a bit taller than Wyatt, but they do look A LOT alike. 
Oh, and last but not least, a Stirling family tradition--the egg tap. Each person holds an egg and on the count of three you tap the taller ends together. The egg that ended up "winning" this year was the Family Egg--one that Max wrote all of our names with white crayon on before dying it. It beat out 11 other eggs.