Our Ultimate Life

My word! Our baby boy is one. Beckham has been my sweetest baby. He snuggles us constantly. He'll reach out for me or Justin and once I pick him up he puts his head in the crook of my neck, and at bedtime he'll pat my back. He will melt your heart! He is cruising but not walking/standing yet. He's got 8 teeth - I tracked it and he had 100 new foods from the time we started solids to his birthday. His baby phase has been especially special. Something about having older brothers to love on him too has made this addition so much joy. We made it exclusively breastfeeding for one year. He still nurses and I'll follow his lead and just keep going while he's still interested.

Also - I've been keeping a secret! I am pregnant with baby number 4! This baby and Beckham will be the same distance apart as Emmett and Logan. I have had the best pregnancy ever. Hardly any fatigue or sickness. I think in my first trimester I threw up a total of a handful of times. Amazing compared to the seven weeks of Hell that was my first trimester with Beckham. I kept my regular exercise routine up during the first trimester and then decided to hire a personal trainer for the rest of pregnancy. In the past I have wanted to incorporate more of my lifting moves but I haven't known what is safe so I just threw it out all together. But this time I want it to be different and I am loving her programming.

13 weeks still in non-pregnant pants. I'm 15 weeks now in pregnant pants

9 weeks

8 weeks

7 weeks

6 weeks

Positive on April 11th 2022: I remember distinctly because it was Beckham's 10 month photo day. I was totally shocked and surprised! I was hoping to have the gumption to get pregnant over the summer but this is much better - lots of the mental work was over before I knew what had begun. Between that and me feeling so good, this pregnancy is moving along quickly for me.

We decided to tell Emmett and Logan about this new baby on Beckham's birthday. We did a scavenger hunt and at the end there were six cupcakes (oh my word I can't believe there will be six of us!) which we handed out to everyone and then asked them who the last cupcake was for?! After lots of prompting and pictures the figured it out.

I also decided to become High Low Fitness certified. May 7th I did my training and since then I've been submitting videos to get officially certified. I have earned 5 of my 6 credentials and I submitted what I hope were my final videos this week so let's hope I'll be official soon. I'm doing classes Tuesday and Saturday and I might scale back or stay the same as I feel it out. I had two free classes to give people a chance to check it out and on my first official night nobody showed! Haaaa! It was honestly fine - I ran through the routine and made sure I hit all my moves just right and used that space to record my videos for submission. I am also using the summer to finish the four credits I need to finish renewing my Idaho teaching certificate.

Justin had some fun with work and play. He traveled to Las Vegas for a Tableau Conference. There were thousands of nerds who gathered to learn all the newest and latest with this software. One other guy from work went too so they got to meet and turns out they have a mutual friend from their BYU-I days. Last weekend he traveled to Cedar City to play in the Utah Summer Games ultimate tournament. T-Rexburg which is the club team he coached 10 years ago is still going strong. The current team competed and over ten years there is now a large T-Rexburg alumni network that came out to play. I was so jealous to miss out! The mixed team took 2nd place (out of three but hey, a medal is a medal) and the men's team took 3rd out of 10.

I talked Justin into buying a camper! We are excited to take it to the Beal campout next week. I am absolutely thrilled with it. There was not a lot of used inventory older than 2021 so we lucked out with this very well-kept 2014 18-foot trailer. It's the perfect size for our little family. We can keep it small and simple forever or move up in camper if we decide we are big camper people. I hope to take the kids out on two or three more camping trips this summer. Dad went with me to pick it up on Thursday morning which was nice quality time with him. Logan wanted to come and see the camper first so he tagged along with Beckham while Emmett stayed behind with Granny. Dad helped me get the hitch on (and off!) and offered a lot of general camper/camping advice during the drive.

lol we are VIP for a year ... whatever that means

Other pictures and updates:

I love this picture - balance bike, mud boots, life jacket: check check check!

We met Chase and Rachel at Rigby lake - the four cousins had sooo much fun playing pretend at their campsite.

No afternoon nap? No problem Mom! This baby...he is amazing.

Bedtime right before his birthday

Granny and Gramps come to the kids' soccer games which I think is the cutest. Beckham goes straight to Granny wanting to be picked up to snuggle her.

fake crying boys on my four day weekend without Justin...lol I had to document their ridiculousness

Later I found them in my room reading zoo books - the lows and highs of parenting summed up between these two photos

I told the kids they could earn money for legos by weeding with me. They picked lego sets that were out of their budget so now we're doing lots of chores and tracking each dollar until they earn their big reward.

Each of us took a flowerbed we were responsible for. This was mine...

All weeded

One of my students needed to get rid of some kittens - we are always happy to take two! These two have been so sweet. They follow Emmett and Logan around like puppies.

Father's Day singing time: I had the primary presidency help me bring as many ridiculous props as we could possibly find. If the kids were singing well they got to come up and "decorate a dad" - we reviewed a ton of songs and wow - what a way to know if the kids know their words or not 😂 I've neer heard them sing so well.

Last soccer game of the season - Logan dribbled up the ball and scored! It was amazing!

Photo drop from Justin's phone

Old Rexburg buddies

Both kids napped one day so we had a late night. We did scriptures on the porch at sunset. It was a happy moment.

What a fun first week of summer. Tuesday we had the first soccer practice for the kiddos and Thursday was their first game. Emmett scored the first goal of his game! He scored twice - well done buddy! Logan was quite miserable during his game; I think he just wanted to go home. Ha!

Thursday I took the three kids to Idaho Falls. I went to the orthodontist and got myself a power chain for my top teeth - yeesh! My top and bottom front teeth are definitely on the move. I'm about halfway through with my treatment. We got Wendy's for lunch and the kids used their egg money to pick out a toy at Target. I wanted to update my home decor in the family room so I got to do some fun shopping too. From there it was grocery pick up and home in time for soccer.

Saturday we got up and did chores around the house before we headed to Craters. Indian Tunnel is open after being closed for 3+ years! Justin had never been through the whole thing before, and of course neither had the kids. As we were going Justin was like, "Are you sure it opens up at the end? Everyone else is turning around..." I told him, "You - unlike them - have a local with you!" The kids absolutely loved it and the weather was perfect: overcast with a drizzle here and there but it kept it from being too hot. We popped in at home for lunch and then pressed on to Idaho Falls. I talked Justin into JUST LOOKING at campers ;) I also needed to return some Target items. We actually found a couple campers that we liked and may decide to make a move on one next week. I would absolutely love to have one in time for our Bear Lake Beal campout.

Singing time rarely gets spiritual for me but today it hit me hard. With 11 o'clock church I have allowed myself the luxury to prep the morning of (although I decide which songs a week in advance). I was prepping for "A Child's Prayer" and on the way out the door I remembered I had this idea to post two main questions the song asks with a few answers the verses give. I cut those into strips and taped them around the primary room. We sang through the song once and I had two kids go find the two questions: Heavenly Father, are you REALLY there? And do you hear and answer EVERY child's prayer? They posted them on the board. We sang it through again and then I had three kids go find my three answers: Pray: He is there. Speak; He is listening. He hears your prayers. After they posted them I asked the two questions again and then shared the answers and started crying: Pray - He IS there Speak - He IS listening. I was blubbering quite a bit and we tried to sing the second verse through once after that.(Logan was very concerned..."Mom, why are you crying?") I could see the primary teachers were crying too and it was just a powerful moment. The kids mostly looked confused but I hope they felt the spirit testify to them that Heavenly Father hears their prayers.

This little moment came at a tender time for me. I have been feeling like my prayers have been going unanswered. I've been feeling hurt, disappointed, confused, and sometimes frustrated/bitter about it. But I am so grateful today for the strong spirit I felt as I shared this Q&A in singing time. Heavenly Father, are you REALLY there? And do you hear and answer EVERY child's prayer? He IS there; He IS listening. He hears your prayers.