The *total* eclipse in our backyard! Life-changing!

Photo credit Anthon Davenport!

You know when I haven't posted in years, that something must be pretty special to post about. ;) I'm just going to cut and paste my journal entry here, which, is also saying something since I can't remember the last year I ever wrote a journal entry!

August 21, 2017

Today was a day I will remember for the rest of my life, and I’m sure into the eternities! Today we witnessed a total solar eclipse, directly in the path of totality, and it was honestly the most miraculous thing I have experienced in my entire lifetime. I truly have no words to adequately describe its beauty and wonder, but here is what’s in my mind and heart.

Leading up to it, I was so excited! I had been hearing about it for more than a year, so I knew it had to be a pretty big deal! I researched what to expect, the exact timings, and what to be prepared for. We even went to a fascinating planetarium show specifically about what happens during an eclipse totality. But knowing and experiencing are two different things!

The city was quiet this weekend, but abuzz this morning. You could feel the excitement in the air, in every person’s face you passed. I kept “eeking” in excitement! How incredible to be able to be here! Now! For this! Quite literally in our backyard! Excitement kept gradually building and building. I loved experiencing it with a crowd and hearing everyone’s anticipation beforehand. The hour leading up to it we kept holding up our special glasses to check the progress. Closer, closer, closer, closer… oh my goodness… this is really going to happen!?!? And. then.—oh. my. heart! Oh, you should have seen it! You could hear the whole city of Rexburg *gasp* in amazement!!! I was immediately overcome! With such awe! Such joy! And *such* an overwhelming connection to mankind, the universe, our Creator, and my own soul.

I could not hold back the tears accompanying all these feelings! Even afterward telling friends and family about it over the phone, I couldn’t do it without getting choked up! And I also couldn’t do it without being partly speechless. It was literally impossible for me to describe with any amount of adequacy the sights and feelings of totality today. Experiences that touch the soul must be personally witnessed to truly know them!

I don’t want today to end! After witnessing the magic of totality this morning, my mind and heart were completely consumed with it today! I have thought of almost nothing else. I feel like it has been a dream, and I am afraid to wake up and forget!

I feel so fortunate to have had this eclipse come to us! So many people today were floored to learn that we lived just three houses down from the viewing park where we all were. Three houses! The path of totality quite literally came to us, and I am forever indebted and forever grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime experience that it presented to my family’s souls!

Other things I don’t want to forget!

We had a bake sale for the kids to be able to meet people and have another experience to remember the day by. We met people from everywhere! We even had a map for them to mark their home. Italy, France, Ireland, Spain, Taiwan! Maryland, Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Washington, and Idaho! We *loved* talking to everyone from all over!

Before totality, we went on a quick walk down the street to find crescent shadows! Nothing like you have ever seen before!

Reese almost missed totality in the bathroom

Paige was being a butt, so we had her watching a show on our phone leading up to it so she wouldn’t be too disruptive; and then we were so in awe with totality that we forgot about her until toward the end, when thankfully I remembered and grabbed her to see it! Wouldn’t have been able to live that down. J

The lighting was soooo cool. It was not pitch black like I expected, but a filter-like, surreal twilight. In totality, there was a sunset all around!

During totality you could also see other planets! And to the left we saw some sort of galaxy! It was in the shape of an oval but only about ½ complete. So crazy! 

Once-in-a-lifetime experience!!!

#3

We love fall!

Reese is 1!!!

Took this little babe in for her 1-year appointment last week, which she thoroughly enjoyed right up until being poked repeatedly in her chunky thighs, the poor thing. She drown her sorrows in some stair-climbing afterward. :) Stats: 22.5 pounds (72% ile) and 28.8 inches (37%ile)--we love our short little chunk!

Some of her cute things right now:
--Waving hi and bye
--"Talking"
--High fiving
--Attempts to comb her hair and put on sunglasses and bows
--Closing doors
--Pointing
--Saying, "That?"
--Her nervous hand movements when around new people :)
--Walking along everything, just not walking! Her chubby legs just get tired too easily, I guess!

We LOVE this girl! She is so easy to love!

9 months old!

(This is the best 9-month shot I could get--suuuuper snotty and miserable, thanks to cousin Easter germs!)

Can you believe this little gal is 9 months old? We barely can. Time flies with these little adorable people!

Stats:
19.6 pounds (65%ile)
27.5 inches (49%ile)
17.8-inch head (81%ile)

What she's up to:
--being stinkin' cute
--waving hi and bye, when she feels like it
--clapping
--pulling up onto her knees
--saying "Dada," but making absolutely no attempt at "Mama"
--crawling like she's got places to be
--still putting herself to sleep and sleeping for 12+ hours

We have a FOUR-year-old!

Our little Beckster turned 4 on Tuesday! I cannot believe I have a 4-year-old, that is so old! And so, so fun.

We LOVE. this. boy! He is everything we ever wished for-- fun, loveable, sweet, energetic, tender, silly, bright, excitable and stinkin' adorable. He and Reese are the best things that have ever happened to us.

His 4-year-old self loves:
His daddy
Airplanes
Books
Sleeping in the "big bed"
Planets
Popsicles
States
Playing tag
Letters
His "action boots"
McQueen
Wii
Cars
"Comfy" pants
Being a big brother

The poor kid spent his actual birthday in the doctor's office, with RSV. It was definitely not the funnest birthday on record, but we did buy him an awesome McQueen car for being such a trooper while he was sick. And he is having some belated celebrations this week now that he is better, so his birthday gets to be like two weeks long, lucky kid!

At the doc office on his b-day...

What little Reese is up to

So I realized that even more important than stats is what little babes are up to in life, so here are a few quick things on what our little Reesie-poo (we cannot help calling her that, it just comes out!) is up to:

--Dang happy. This girl really is just a happy little gal, always just hanging out, smiling and content unless she needs something.
--Sits up by herself for probably about 1 minute or so before she tips over, depending on her attempted adventures in that 60 seconds. ;)
--Puts herself to sleep! Yes, this girl thankfully didn't end up with her brother's sleeping habits. From just a couple months old, she has fallen asleep on her own, when she's not too wound up. Lately teething has interfered with that (no teeth yet, but lots of working on it), but in general she is ridiculously easier than Beck was even when he was three times her age, so we are happy!
--Basically sleeps through the night, since about 3 months. I say basically because we still have to get up and put her paci in usually a few times a night. Probably going to start making her crying it out soon but haven't come to that yet.
--Rolls all over. And attempts to bend her chubby legs to crawl. It's super cute.
--Is a great eater! She loves rice cereal, sweet potatoes and squash thus far. Again, thankfully different than her bro at this. ;) Beck, ever since we started him on solids at 5 months, would get frustrated and spit out his food. We seriously had to teach that kid to swallow. Reese at 6 months is actually almost better than Beck is right now... Now if she can just turn out as fun, energetic, and as great of a talker as Beck, she will literally be the perfect child to us! Haha
--Is a jumping fool. This girl goes. to. town. in her Johnny Jumper! Beck always just kind of hung out in it, but she goes crazy, jumping as if her little life depended on it! So funny to watch. I'm uploading a little video here, but it really doesn't do it justice (dang kids and their fascination with cameras!) but she is still just cute. :)

--Little bit of crazy. Reese is no Beckster, craziness-level-wise, but she definitely has some crazy to her. Like, when she is restless, she has to be shaken to sleep (don't report me, we don't shake, shake her!). Everybody thinks I'm crazy when I tell them this, but babysit my kids and you will soon discover it for yourself (Brittany knows!). And when she is on the changing table, she kicks like a bucking bronco. And after she has been in her jumper, she does gyrations all day long! Whenever she is crazy we say she is "channeling Beck," haha.
--Kicks her feet together constantly. For this reason I have to pull up her socks about 10 times a day--I need to invest in some baby soccer socks!
--Loooves the "Zumba song." So a couple months after Reese was born I started doing Zumba (until the holidays rolled around...). Anyway, one night I was being silly to make Beck feel better about something, and did a little Zumba move while boom-ba-da-booming this Zumba song. Beck and Reese both loved it, and now whenever Reese is upset, I sing that song and it calms her down. She absolutely loves it. I will do it when she's not upset sometimes, and she instantly turns and finds me wherever I am and beams a huge smile. Cuteness!
--Shares mutual adoration with her older brother. They are in love with each other! Beck thinks she is the cutest thing in the whole world, and Reese thinks he is the funniest person ever. It's adorable to witness!
--Growing up too fast! We had Beck at the end of January (yes, he will be FOUR next week!), so the first few months of his life were pretty non-busy, cooped up in our little apartment during the winter, followed by the slow-going spring and early summer months. But a July baby is totally different. Once you get the hang of things after the first couple of months, before you know it is Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, add a 3-year-old brother to the mix--and your baby is 6 months old! It has seriously flown by!

She is the perfect addition to our family. We just love her and her sweetness!

Reese's 6-month stats!

Forgot to post Reese's 6-month stats! Her Mammaw (who is a godsend and is here taking care of us post-surgery) was nice enough to take her to her appointment since I was drugged and out of commission. ;) Oh, p.s. I had surgery on my nose one week ago today. Nothing super serious, I've just never been able to breathe well out of it (deviated septum), so we decided to get it taken care of since we had already hit our max-out-of-pocket expenses with Reese. Anyway, the stats!

(I haven't taken any 6-month pictures yet since the surgery, but here is a cute one of her just a few days before her 6-month b-day.)

Weight: 16.2 pounds (56%) Height: 25.8 inches (52%) Head: 17.3 inches (86%) She's teenier than Beck by 4 pounds at that age, but has the same body-to-head ratio, haha. Means they're smart, right? ;)

Two posts in 2013 already, I'm on a roll!

Blogger app test on my SIII!

Just typed up a whole post on my phone and, of course, it got deleted! Seems to happen every freaking time! I guess this is how my mom feels when "the internet erased everything!" Except that mine literally was erased and cannot be saved by an Edit, Undo. Lol, love my cute little mom.
So now I'm too impatient to poke out another post, and too tired to go do it on an actual computer.  So in summary: I discovered something about myself--I am not an iPhone person! It was pretty and fast but not for me. Enter Samsung Galaxy SIII--life. changed. Love it!
One sad thing about the Android world, though, is that its Blogger app stinks for some reason. And since that is honestly the only hope for my blogging life, it's easy to see why I almost literally never blog. BUT I am going to give it another try! So here we go:
Me lately.
Reese lately.
Beck lately.
Adam lately.
Hope this works and that you all are doing well!

New iPhone Blogger app test! ;)

I just entered the world of iPhones! I am loving it so far and hoping its Blogger app will also not disappoint, so here is a test run! Some pics from our Thanksgiving trip to Boise:

Some videos!

Things are fun and crazy over here, and it seems like my absolute last priority is blogging! So, in summation of our lives recently, here are a few videos!

Beck riding his bike for the first time! Isn't he doing good?!


Adam finishing his first marathon! (I had been waiting at the finish line with the kids for about an hour and a half, watching anxiously literally about every single second, but the one time I got down to talk to Beck and tell him to stop freaking out, and that we could go pet everyone's puppies after Daddy finished--of course Adam came down the finish line right then, so I barely saw him! But at least we saw him!)


Lindsay's surprise visit! She came to Utah (from California) to see her brother who was getting a double-lung transplant, but because she had the teensiest cold, they wouldn't let her see him. Which is super sad, BUT it means she got to come visit us instead! We didn't tell Beck, so this is is Lindsay pulling up to our house!


Reese talking and being cute. I think this was when she was about 2 or 3 months old (our dumb video camera's date/time got off somehow).


Beck being a rock star. :) p.s. No clue where he learned this from, he's just naturally cool, I guess. Haha. I got him this little guitar at D.I. and he was soooo excited. Then he was playing with his dump truck Tonka toy that plays rock music when you press a certain button, and he put those two things together and was on top of the world! ;)


Reese "singing." One of the cutest things I will ever witness in my life! The last week or so, whenever we sing, she gets super excited and wide-eyed and starts "singing" with us. This video doesn't totally do it justice because I had already sang her a few songs, but it's still flippin' cute!


Oh, and here is a recent fam pic while I'm at it!

Popcorn tossing!

It was a loungy, movie kind of day since I'm a little under the weather, but I wanted to still do something fun and somewhat interactive so I came up with this, and it ended up being pretty darn fun. And messy. ;)

Watch this, you'll laugh--an interview with an awesome 3-year-old ;)

We have the cutest, funnest, smartest 3-year-old ever. And I'm sure you all do too! ;) We did this interview with Beck the night before we had Reese. We just love this kid, and are so grateful his little sis will have such a good and crazy example to look up to. :)

Reese pictures!