WOW!!

we raised almost $6000 in the auction for emily jones! i'm so excited! how freakin' cool is that?!

auction for emily jones

many of you may have heard about the tragic accident that claimed john jones in the nutty putty cave in utah last week. ben and i were lucky enough to know john and his wife, emily... we were in the same ward at BYU before we moved out to california a couple of years ago. john and emily were the most amazing couple... with the most contagious smiles and so full of love and faith. truly marvelous people.

my heart aches for emily, who is left without her best friend to care for their fourteen-month-old daughter, lizzie, and unborn child. my heart also aches for the family, especially john's mother and father. i cannot even imagine the sorrow of losing a spouse or a child. my brother, joel, passed away when i was a senior in high school from a tragic accident and now that i am a parent of my own children, i can see but a tiny glimpse of the pain my parents have been through and what john's parents must be going through now. you can read the family's statement here.

stephanie over at a daily scoop is hosting an auction all this week to raise money to donate to the john and emily jones memorial fund. head on over to check out the first auction and keep checking back this week to see lots more. some of my stenciled onesies are going to be up for auction. pass the word along if you would please! if you don't see anything you would like to bid on and you would like to contribute to the fund, click here. you can also email stephanie at stephaniewaite@gmail.com if you would like to contribute something to be auctioned. hopefully we can raise a good amount of money for emily and her little ones. what better gift can we give this christmas season?

we did it

well folks, we reached our goal. we finished the richmond, virginia marathon in under 4 hours. 3:59:38. just by the skin of our teeth. i'm not gonna lie, the last 6 miles felt like i was literally in hell. at mile 20, i was so sure that i wasn't going to make it... i mean i knew i would finish, but i didn't think i would make it in under 4 hours. i must be one ornery and stubborn cuss because i MADE myself do it. and by the time i finished, i'm not sure i could have pushed myself ANY further. seriously so stoked to be done.

doug, ben's brother, was amazing... his first marathon and he totally rocked it. ben was my rock... he stayed with me to the end and helped me push myself when i was so sure i couldn't do it. thanks babe.

the grandpa pjs

with each new baby, i get excited to pull these rad jammies out of the storage box. kadi and i bought these when joel and carter were babies. joel wore them, kadin wore them and now oliver is sportin' them. and if we ever have a girl someday, she'll wear them, too.

i must not have taken a picture of kadin in the grandpa pjs, which seriously makes me want to cry, but here's a cute picture of him in jammies at about the same age.

carter on the left, joel on the right with kadi. joel and oliver look A LOT alike as babies... if it wasn't for oliver's blue eyes, i would almost have a hard time telling them apart.

our little ballerina

i hope oliver forgives me someday, but he makes the cutest chubby little ballerina.

for those who have lost...

my friend, molly, who lost her daughter, lucy, in 2008, just launched her new website, "a good grief." it's a wonderful place for those who have lost a child to connect. you can also make a donation to help families pay for a headstone for their child who has passed on.

family pictures

meghan has done it once again. and my kids actually hammed it up this time. here's some of my faves:

hautelook

anyone heard of hautelook? you can buy all sorts of different fantastic designer and popular brands at greatly reduced prices. their sales for a specific brand usually only last from 36 to 72 hours and their stuff goes fast, so you have to be quick! just bought this michael stars cardigan... so excited! if you get friends to sign up, you get a $10 credit per person towards purchases, so click here to sign up and then tell all your friends.

7 months

ben put oliver on this little riding car the other day and it struck me how big and grown up he is starting to look. every time i look at this kid, he makes me giddy. he's such a joy to have in our family.

the virtual horse

what will they come up with next? let me introduce you to the "iGallop." apparently, it's supposed to work your abs. oliver will demonstrate for you, assisted by aunt mo mo.

sassafras pants

me: "joel, right before you go to bed you have to sit on the potty."

joel: "but i'm pretending to be a frog and frogs don't have penises."

what?!?!?!?!

i almost let him get away with it because, one, it made me laugh REALLY hard, and two, his uneducated guess was right... yep, i totally googled it.

"this is the greatest thing of my life."

that's what joel said directly after ben taught him how to blow water out of a blue pool noodle.

hehe.

i certainly hope not, joel.

the tricycle

so this morning, i was tearing through the parking lot of my complex... i was late to meet a friend for a long run and low and behold.........

OUR TRICYCLE!

the culprit had left it on the basketball court. did i take a moment to do what i should have done last time (stop and put it in a safe place)? you bet your little fanny i did! i slammed on the brakes and threw it in the back of the car. the tricycle has been restored to us! it totally made my morning.

and something else to make you smile, cute kids in the bath tub....


joel and kadin wanted to get swaddled up like oliver. i love that kadin is pretending to be asleep...

cement cereal

aka rice cereal. i swear, no matter how much i wipe, that stuff never comes off his face.

oliver is 6 months now. wow that went by fast. i realized as i was typing this that i don't talk about oliver's demeanor very much. he is an absolute angel. the perfect third child. both joel and kadin were pretty good babies, so we were sure that we would have a tough baby this time around, but he's the best tempered out of the whole lot. maybe if we ever get a girl, she'll be just like me and give us a run for our money. :) anyway, oliver is such a joy to have in our family. he's so happy, hardly ever cries, sleeps like a log and eats like a champ. and those bright blue eyes and his squishableness (if that's a word) are just irresistible . this kid's chunkiness seriously astounds me. so for your squishing pleasure...

oliver and his cousin tyler. tyler was born about 3 1/2 months after oliver.
ben's dad made this cradle for his babies long ago... we took a picture just like this of joel and carter (tyler's older brother) right after joel was born. joel and carter are 3 months apart, too. we just HAD to recreate the cuteness!
and a little video for fun...

eye candy for triplets

a friend of mine had triplet girls about a month ago. i made some onesie sets for them and they just turned out too cute not to share.

bandaids

we've been swimming a lot this summer... about 3 or 4 times a week. the bottom of our pool is literally like sand paper and joel is all over the place when he swims resulting in this....
and some tears...
but he still keeps going back for more. kadin is cold blooded like his mommy and sticks to the spa most of the time, so he doesn't end up with so many owies. see he's happy...

cat and gabi's wedding

one of my best friends, cat, was married at the end of june. her husband, gabi, is totally stellar.... i couldn't think of a better man for her. ben's parents were kind enough to watch the kids for us while we hopped over to denver for the event.

posing.
doing the dew after a LONG day.
us with the happy couple. sorry your eyes are closed, cat... i guess we should have taken another one.

brothers

lucky dogs

i hate to rub it in, but ben and i won VIP coldplay tickets from a drawing at ben's work. we get free parking, a free meal and really awesome seats. ben's good pal from work was in charge of drawing all the names for a bunch of concerts and she knew how desperately ben wanted to see coldplay... i think she rigged it, but she swears it was legit. :) lucky us.

in other news... joel left our tricycle out in the breezeway of our apartment a couple of weeks ago. we were heading out the door that evening and i didn't want to take the time to put it away. i thought, "who's gonna steal an old, rusty tricycle?" think again. the next morning, it was gone. nice. it was a hand-me-down, but i'm stilled bummed. next time, i'll know better.

mr. happy

oliver is 5 months old today. as you can see he has quite the sturdy base, so he's starting to sit pretty well.
tummy time.

camping in the redwoods

we went camping a couple weeks ago with some good pals the drummonds, the harmans and the laytons. fun times. here's a few shots.


joel whizzing around on his new scooter. i know... he doesn't have a helmet on. he has one and he knows he's supposed to wear it, but he snuck off without it, the stinker.

new beds all around

well not for ben and i, but for all the boys.

bunk beds!







and a new crib for ollie. $150 at target! ...and it's darling. can't beat that.

embarrassed.

i'm am officially a moron. i was waiting in line for gas at costco tonight and my car dies... out of gas. apparently the 22 gallon tank that they advertised in the handbook of our new honda odyssey minivan is really a 19 1/2 gallon tank. i called out to this indian guy filling his tank in the line next to me to help me push the van forward. wow. my car is REALLY heavy. a couple more indian guys in line behind me hopped out of their car and helped us. good thing i was next in a humongous line that i had been waiting in for 20 minutes already. i was so embarrassed my hands were shaking. thanks to good samaritans number 1, 2 and 3 for helping out a silly girl.

4 months old

chubby man oliver enjoying checking out the world. this kid is so sweet and pleasant. i can't believe he's already 4 months old.

trip to washington

ben had a conference in portland for work a couple weeks ago, so we all got to tag along in our new mini-van. kadi just had a baby, so we were so stoked to see the new little guy and visit with his family. here's a few pics from the visit... sadly, we didn't get any of baby tyler. :(

this is the view of silver lake and mount st. helens from the porch of ben's parents house. so ugly, right?

boating on silver lake.

this is the assumed position of joel and carter when on the boat.

big joel.

how cute are these boys?