Collard 2022 Family Film

I made this video of pictures and videos of 2022 from my phone on a whim on New Years Day. I wanted to show it to the kids that night so it's not professional and there are repeats of songs because I couldn't find enough I liked. I didn't intend to post this anywhere permanently, but I'm too lazy to redo it and upload it all over again, so here it is in all its imperfect glory. There is something about seeing our year all wrapped up together that feels so sweet and nostalgic already. These really are the sweetest years and I love having this as a reminder.

life lately

Life is so sweet these days. Now that my kids are getting a little older, it's becoming more apparent to me how quickly time is passing and how fleeting certain stages are. I am trying so hard to soak up my kids wanting to snuggle with me in their beds, making messes, saying funny things...I realize now how quickly things change. My friend Catherine's daughter, Winnie, recently passed away after being hit by a car, and that single event has truly changed the way I look at my kids and view life in general. I am surely not a perfect parent or living as the ideal version of myself at all times, but whenever I think about how quickly someone I love could be taken from me, I want to be more present and more connected. I want to savor life and the simple, everyday moments that make up most of this time on earth. 

Hannah is my last little monkey left at home. She now goes to preschool three times each week for a few hours in the morning, but otherwise she's my right hand girl. She is a ball of fun and spunk and makes life so much fun. She is also as strong-willed as they come and I have gotten better and better at spinning things to make them her idea instead of mine. It's the only way to get through a day without too much pushback. Hannah is always singing or creating or making inanimate objects animate. She is a delight. She is a million miles a minute and has the best facial expressions. I love her so much. 

My mom's dad, Grandpa Van, was a proficient organist and would often play the organ for silent movies back when my mom was young. I never met my grandpa because he died well before I was born, but my mom set up a time for us all to go to Edison Street Theater, the exact theater and organ my grandpa used to play, to see a silent movie a few weeks ago. It was so fun! They played Charlie Chaplain's movie "The Kid." Luckily it was short, because I'm not sure my kids could have lasted much longer than the 30 or 40 minutes, but it was amazing to see the organist there play along with the movie. No music, just all by memory as he watched the film.

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love where we live. We honestly struck gold when we moved to our new house. So many kids right in our backyard for our kids to hang out with, and Robert and I love all their parents. We couldn't have chosen a better spot. After big snow storms our backyard neighbors, the Yoho's, bust out their little kids snowmobiles and set up a track around their unfenced yard for the kids to ride. Hannah and Will were out there with the crew for about 3 hours the other day. Every kids dream! Pictured above is Hannah with Will's buddy, Jace. I joked with his parents that this picture will have to go in their wedding video one day. Below is a crazy-toothed Will getting stuck on the fence...no big surprise there. ;)

One of our sweet neighbors made a ton of sugar cookies and brought some over for our kids to decorate. I'm telling you, we have the best neighbors.

Matt surprised Charlotte for her 40th birthday by flying some family and friends to Las Vegas for a weekend. Even though I don't love Vegas, being with my mom and sisters was so fun! Bob was a good sport, as always, staying home with the kids and holding down the fort in Utah. Our trip included lots of shopping, good food, a Cirque de Soleil show, and a little karaoke. I think Charlotte was genuinely so surprised. I just love her so much and am so grateful for her friendship. I can't wait to see them for Christmas!

I cannot even describe how happy the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas makes me! I love gathering with family and eating good food and turning on Christmas music and twinkle lights around the house. I honestly get giddy about it. I've felt this way since I was a kid and somehow the magic hasn't gone away for me. I love buying gifts and making cookies and seeing the lights...it's all so nostalgic for me. Last year was our first year getting a permit to cut down a Christmas tree ourselves, and I thought it was so fun. Slightly stressful, but mostly just so fun. We went again this year, but this time to a new spot. Although incredibly beautiful, this spot was unfortunately very tricky to get out of and we ended up getting stuck on our way out and having to get some help to make our way back to the main road. But...the Christmas tree cutting was still a lot of fun. We went to Smith Morehouse campground this time, just to mix it up, but we will certainly be going back to the other spot next year that is plowed all the way to the parking lot.

Minnie got the role of Crutchie in the production of "Newsies" at our local children's theater. She even had her own solo and everything and did SO well! I feel like she really blossomed in this show. She then tried out for the school production of Frozen and just found out she got the lead as Elsa! We are all so excited for her. She is excited for herself too...she carries her script around EVERYWHERE. It cracks me up.

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast this past weekend and I cannot even begin to explain how much I love a live nativity. Hannah and her cute friends dressed as angels made me melt. Have I said how much I love Christmas? I really do. I love spending it with my magic kids, even though a couple of them are now convinced Santa isn't real. The magic and the spirit are still there and I also love being the one to help create the magic. I am really excited about these next few weeks with Robert off of work, spending time with friends, and lots of time with family, especially the cutie Adseros who will be here soon. My kids are dying!

my babies (who aren't babies) right now

As the fourth child, Hannah's life has been left mostly undocumented. Sorry, Han! I always told myself I'd keep up on a blog and a journal throughout motherhood, but time has quickly slipped away and I haven't kept those promises to myself. In any case, I'm here now because I want to paint a picture of each of my kids right now as a little capsule in time to look back on. Motherhood and life feels busy now, but busy in a different way than when we had infants. I keep telling myself our family is complete, but there will always be a part of me that kind of aches for a baby. I have to remind myself, however, that although the baby stage is incredibly sweet, this new chapter with older, more independent kids, is amazing in its own right too. Their independence also gives me a little more independence, and the fact that they are all developing interests and talents and that we get to share in those, as well as sleep through the night and play games together (two of my favorite things), is quite lovely as well.

Hannah Mary Ann - 3 years old

The girl is a riot. She is constantly saying the most random things and seeks any attention, good or bad, from her siblings regularly. She is fun and sassy and does not lack in confidence. While she is social, she also really enjoys being by herself. When she's home with me while the others are at school, I usually know where she is because of the cute little voices she's using to play with her tiny people or dolls. Her favorite spot is behind our big sectional in the family room. We have tucked a few baskets of toys on the bottom shelf next to the wall and it's kind of like her own personal playpen back there. It's always a mess in that crevice but it's hidden from sight unless you happen to peer over the back of the couch and provides her ample entertainment. 

Hannah loves books. She has since I can remember. She "reads" them to herself and will do so for hours, especially if there are new ones to choose from. When we get home from the library with a stack of books, she plops herself on the couch, empties the books beside her, and devours every single one using her sweet little sing-song voice to read to herself, flipping wildly through pages until the pile is completely gone through. If I'm able to read them to her, she will happily sit on my lap and listen for hours. If a book is too wordy or not interesting to her, she'll either hurry me along by turning the page, or hop off my lap to grab another, even if we aren't through. She's a girl who knows what she wants.

It seems as though the past few months have been full of some weird illnesses for this girl, and it's hard to watch her tiny body struggle. She manages to get through them fairly resiliently, but there are moments when even her strong willpower can't keep her up and she's just knocked out by whatever the illness might be. Robert and a few of the kids got a pretty nasty cold a few weeks ago leading up to Christmas, and on Christmas Eve Hannah seemed like she just started to get worse. I figured it was part of what she'd had for quite some time, since she'd had a runny nose and a slight cough for weeks at that point. We enjoyed Christmas Eve at my parent's house and then Christmas morning at ours. It was such a magical holiday this year, and we were all so grateful to be able to celebrate together after such a weird Christmas season last year because of Covid. Anyhow, as we were driving to my parents house for brunch late Christmas morning, Hannah fell asleep in the car. When we started eating brunch she just continued to sleep on the couch in the bedroom. At this point I could tell she was getting feverish and she seemed altogether out of it. I hated it because it reminded me of how she'd been nearly 1.5 years earlier when she'd had her febrile seizure. I even mentioned to Robert at my parents that I felt like she might have another one. I hadn't meant to even tell this story here, but I'm already this far so I might as well wrap it up. I ran to 7-11 to get some Tylenol, since that was one of the few stores open on Christmas day. We tried to find an Instacare that was open but didn't have any luck. Our family was all heading to Sing 2 for an afternoon movie. Hannah started perking up after the medicine kicked in so we took her and she even ate some popcorn and drank some Sprite. Things seemed like they might be on the mend.

She still wasn't totally herself after the movie so we went home and called it a night. She was so sleepy so I gave her some more medicine and she went to bed early. At about 10 pm it was time to give her another dose. Robert and I had just put down the other kids and I was going to just let her sleep if she was still snoozing, because she had been so dang tired. As we were walking upstairs we heard her moan and cry a bit in her bed. It sounded weird so Robert went to go check on her and I went to the kitchen to grab her some more Tylenol. She continued to cry as Robert rocked her and then suddenly stopped. I walked in with the medicine but it was dark so I couldn't see her. I turned on the Christmas lights we had strung up around her window to get a good look at her and tried to offer her the medicine. She was totally delusional. She was looking off into space and wasn't responding to anything I was saying. She started looking around the room and it seemed as though her eyes were following something. It was incredibly eerie. Her eyes went in large circles twice around the room and I knew something was up. A seizure was coming on. Robert held her as she began to slowly shake, her eyes were glazed over and her body went limp, just like it had been the last time this happened. Robert suggested we put her in the car and take her to the hospital, but since they had to give her a shot the last time to make the seizure stop, I knew we needed to call 911 right away. We couldn't risk traffic and having her seize in the car for who knows how long. Robert continued to gently hold her on her side and I called 911. The paramedics were here quite quickly, but by the time they gave her the shot to stop the seizure it had been over 10 minutes. Her oxygen was at 50%. Scary low. Minnie and Lou heard the commotion and had run upstairs to see what was going on. They were remarkably calm, likely because they'd seen this last time and she'd been fine. My sweet neighbor, Kendra, came to be with the kids. The girls went back to bed and I rode in the ambulance with Hannah while Robert drove the car to Primary Children's. My mom came and relieved Kendra, and Robert and I had a nice Christmas evening date at the hospital as they ran tests on Han, monitoring her oxygen and testing her for Covid and other respiratory illnesses. 

Her body was so tired, but after a few hours they were able to wake her and they were satisfied to see that she could walk (albeit very brief and slow) and communicate, so they sent us on our way around 2:30 AM. I, of course, was a wreck for most of the next few days, making sure to keep up on her meds if there was any sort of fever, and moving her little mattress into our room so I could hear her breathe at night. It felt like it took a million years to get better, as a low grade fever kept coming back most nights, but the cold that had caused this finally subsided and I put her mattress back on its frame in her room. She is now sleeping in there again, but sadly last night she came home from her friend's house having thrown up multiple times. She continued to throw up throughout the rest of the evening, even the water she so desperately begged for. She eventually fell asleep and didn't throw up in the night, but did come out for a few drinks of water, which she thankfully kept down. She's been a little groggy all morning, but after one throw up of some water this morning, she's held down a few crackers and additional water, which I am grateful for. She's laying beside me now as I type this, still so tired and not quite herself. I hate it! I am hoping she's in the home stretch of this, but it's just so sad to see her not feeling good.

After the whole seizure situation was over, I just kept thinking to myself how grateful I was that she'd cried that night and that we'd heard her cry. The thought of her seizing in her bed and us not knowing totally freaks me out. What if she'd lost consciousness and her oxygen levels had gotten so low she'd lost brain function? I can't even imagine. For some reason I always thought after my babies were no longer "babies" anymore that we were in the clear. That health concerns would now be over and I wouldn't feel the need to sleep beside them all night to make sure they were still breathing. But alas, here we are. Honestly, I think as a mom I'll just always feel this deep instinct to protect them, even into their adulthood. It's given me a hundred gray hairs and I know there are thousands more to go, but motherhood is well worth all the anxiety and sleepless nights. I just love them all so much.

Anyhow, back to Hannah Banana now. Speaking of "Hannah Banana"...when we were in Costa Rica there was another family from the U.S. that was staying in the same resort community as us and when we would see them at the pool Hannah would introduce herself as Hannah Banana. It was so funny that she thought it was so funny. She is constantly saying the funniest things and I wish I'd written more of them down. She says her r's as w's and for about a year she'd make statements and then turn to me and say, "Wight, Mama?" translated as "Right, Mama?" First, I loved that she was looking to me for validation. It just felt so sweet. I also loved that she called me Mama. I'm sure my other kids did here and there too, but I can't remember them doing it so regularly. It just feels so endearing. Our neighbor's name is Jocelyn but everyone calls her JoJo. Hannah says it "Dodo" and it cracks all of us up.

William George - 5 years old

The sweetest boy in all the land, and also the most emotional. He feels things deeply, which can be both good and bad. He will cuddle for a million years and is incredibly sentimental. He loves having both me and Robert in his room singing him to sleep and will lovingly hold one of us on each side while we sing "Home on the Range". He has the softest, most beautiful skin and I just love kissing he sweet cheeks and soft neck. It's so strange to me to think that one day he's going to be this big, hairy man who will likely tower over me in height. He still has a bit of baby-ness to him and I'm trying to soak it up while it lasts.

Spiderman is his current superhero of choice and he draws pictures of him constantly. He, Louisa and Robert recently went to see the newest Spiderman movie and the love for him only continues to grow. He honestly loves most superheroes and watching him play with his action figures is the best. The way he makes them fight and then fall and then scream and then fly around the house is pure entertainment. He is loud and really struggles to be anything other than full volume. He's also quite the crafter. Every time I try to throw away anything kind of interesting (an egg carton, paper towel roll or a strawberry container) he asks if he can have it and then turns it into some sort of contraption. To be honest, he's pretty artistic and has such a great imagination. I hate clutter and garbage, but I love to see what he comes up with. He has taken it upon himself to decorate his room with lots of artwork and it's taped on his wall haphazardly with blue painters tape. Stuff like that used to drive me crazy, and it still kind of does, but there is also something so sweet about them feeling proud of the space they've had a hand in creating and so...I let it go.

Will is a bit of a clown. The neighborhood friends think he is hilarious, especially his friend, Jace. He also thinks he, himself, is a major crack up. He loves to be extreme and make things a bigger deal than they are, but that might just be five-year-old boys in general. He doesn't have a lot of good friends in his kindergarten class so I think he's a little quieter in that setting, which might be good for his teacher. He struggled big time at the beginning of the year with the alphabet and reading, but in the last few months he's gotten SO much better. His teacher, Mrs. Wilson, who is a first year teacher, seemed very relieved to see his progress. I was too. I feel like he's incredibly smart, but that he just would rather be doing other things and lacks concentration. 

William is about a head taller than most of his friends. For some reason his best friends always tend to be shorties anyway, and it is hilarious to see him beside them because he is literally an entire head taller than them. He honestly looks like he could be a year or two older than them. His tiny friend Jace, is the only boy in this little section of the neighborhood, and I'm so grateful they have each other. They love one another so much. In a sea of sisters and neighbor girls, they are so happy to have at least one boy. 

T-ball was the sport of choice last year, and Will is going to be starting baseball again this year. He's mentioned wanting to do basketball and soccer, both of which I think he might like. He's also mentioned trying skiing, which I'm hesitant to do with him because I'm feeling like he might yell at me a lot, ha! But I have a goal to get all of my kids skiing by the time they're 10, so I need to get started on the rest of them.

I had hoped when Hannah was born that she and Will would be fast friends. They've had a bit of an up-and-down relationship with each other. There is certainly love there, but I also think they know how to push each other's buttons, and will do so often. If they are playing happily together, it makes my heart swell and I do all I can to not disturb them and let them carry on as long as they will. I hope in time they only grow closer.

Will is very dynamic and animated and it's really fun to do fun things with him because he really lets you know how fun it is. Christmas with him was awesome. So was Costa Rica. He just loves life, but also feels deeply, and I think all those emotions are a bit hard to contain as a 5-year-old. I need to have more patience with him. I think the swing of emotions is hard now, but it will be a benefit to him later in life as he harnesses them a bit because he will both be able to truly enjoy life and also be sensitive and loving.

Louisa Pia - 8 years old

The girl is a bendy little pretzel. She's also a little block of muscle. Gymnastics has become her true love and she is now on the beginning team at USA Gymnastics with her friend Eliza and goes eight hours each week. All summer she was practicing her backbends and then her handsprings on the trampoline and it's been so fun to watch her really work hard for something. I'll be interested to see where it goes. So far it's costing a pretty penny, but if she loves it, we will pay for it. I'm a tiny bit afraid that gymnastics is going to stunt Lou's growth. The girl has completely plateaued as far as her height is concerned. She and Minnie are less than two years apart and she isn't even up to Minnie's shoulders. William is practically her same size (although he is big). She's just a bitty little thing.

Lou still sucks her two fingers and rubs the tag of her baby blanket on her upper lip. It was endearing and sweet for so dang long, but now I see it and I just think of the millions of dollars we will be spending at the orthodontist to get those teeth fixed. Just kidding...mostly. I've tried a few different things to get her to quit, but nothing has done the trick yet. She even does it in front of her friends and our extended family. She has no shame, which is kind of shocking to me since she's fairly aware and conscious of what others are thinking.

Sweats are currently the name of the game as far as her wardrobe is concerned. Jeans are too uncomfortable, dresses are too girly, leggings show her underwear line and are too cold, so sweats are all she's willing to wear. She kind of looks like she's just in pajamas 24 hours a day, but I've learned what battles to fight and which to let go of, and this is not one I'm willing to go after. She also has me do her hair in some type of braid/half-up situation every day.

Meat and breakfast foods are her absolute go-to favorites. Bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, whip cream and berries...she'd that for every meal if she could. Oh, and eggs. Eggs may be at the very tip top of that list. She's dabbling in making them herself, but the girl can barely see over the stove so it's not terribly easy for her.

Lou still loves to collect things. She was our "garbage girl" for the longest time, finding treasures out of all our trash, and she continues to ride a similar wave. She has a hard time throwing anything away and keeps packaging and boxes forever. "Organized piles" surround her bed and room where she keeps the random things she's always tinkering around with. She's actually a really great artist and has a journal my mom gave her for Christmas that she's been drawing these portraits of girls doing different things in. I'm often surprised at how detailed and cute her little cartoon characters are. It seems pretty natural for her.

School is a happy place for Lou, even in spite of not knowing many people in her class or loving her teacher at the beginning of the year. She has now made some good friends, including a boy named Spencer (who she's mildly obsessed with) and loves going to school. She's incredibly smart, but like Will, sort of lacks the concentration to get things done. She often will just stare off into space daydreaming or get busy doodling instead of keeping on task. It's hard to watch, knowing how smart she is, but I figure the concentration may come with time and age.

Louisa is still such a snuggly thing and completely melts the minute you hug her or lay down beside her to cuddle up. I hope she stays that way forever. She thrives with one-on-one time with me or Robert. Minnie would rather die than go on errands with me, but it would be Lou's dream come true. At some point she usually finds something or other she must have and reminds me that she has $3 at home that she can pay me back with. Money burns a hole in that girls pocket. It's gone shortly after she gets it. 

Lou is all about style and being cool. She's currently very into sweats and sweatshirts. She loves Vans shoes and anything with a bit of a tom boy twist. Sometimes her fashion sense does both of us in when something isn't clean and she just has to wear it. Getting ready for church is such a chore because she honestly likes about two dresses out of the ten or twelve she has. I used to be so fixated on what my kids wore and how they looked, and although I still want them to looks put together, I've really eased up on it because first, it's too tiring to fight about it, and second, I realize they also want to have their own style. I remember my mom making me and my sisters match and as I got older, I hated it. I feel like letting my kids have a say in what they wear is important, but there are times where I draw a line in the sand. Lou often does all she can to push that line a little further back. I appreciate her determination even if it does drive me crazy sometimes.

Foghorn is the name my dad gave Lou when she was about 3 or 4. The girl has always been incredibly loud, with an infectious laugh and a sarcastic and silly sense of humor. As she's gotten older, Lou has become a bit more shy and I do worry a bit that she might be losing some of her boisterous side, which I love so much. When you really know her, it's very obviously there, but I feel like a lot of people miss out on it because they don't get a chance to know her. Perhaps that's the gift of getting to know Lou...you get to see that sassy, crazy side we all love so much. 

Minnie - 10 years old

Our dragon-loving, playwright and artist. Minnie is very into a book series called "Wings of Fire" which is all about dragons. I thought it would be a short-lived obsession but after 14 books, the flame still burns bright in her heart for all things dragons. She is a self-proclaimed nerd when it comes to these things, and I love her for it. She is an amazing artist and is constantly drawing dragons or writing stories about dragons. She's also an incredible writer and writes stories with great vocabulary use and interesting plot lines. She also loves to read and will devour books if she's really into them. I didn't know it, but for awhile she'd stay up past midnight reading books by the light of her nightlight. I was a little mad, but then again, how could I be? I love that she's a bookworm!

Min loves to be social and is very comfortable in lots of different groups. She has this air of confidence that kind of baffles me, but I also love it. At times I'm afraid that she's not terribly nice to her friends because if they're doing something she doesn't want to, like playing sports, she just leaves. Speaking her mind can often come across as confrontational or rude, but Minnie just sees it as being honest. It makes me nervous because I'm afraid she has a bit of "my way or the highway" mentality, but I also think it's great because she knows what she wants and is confident in her decisions and isn't easily swayed. Again, I think it could be done with a bit more finesse and polish, but if she can keep that determination and confidence and use it with a bit of humility mixed in, it's going to serve her really well. I want nothing more than my kids to be confident in themselves and to not feel like they have to do something just because their friends all want to.

I have no doubt that Minnie will likely have a million different business ventures by the time she hits high school. The girl is constantly coming up with plays for people to come to, things to sell with her friends, camps for kids, and right now she and her neighbor friends are deep into a babysitters club effort. They have bi-weekly meetings and yet no jobs yet. Covid and the fact that they're just a tad young is foiling their plans, I'm afraid. But they press on regardless, and I admire them for it.

Minnie is quite musical and has been able to harmonize for quite some time. She tried out for the musical at school, "Shrek Junior", and got the part of young Fiona, which is what she'd been hoping for. She was ecstatic! The range for the song she will be singing is perfect for her and I can't wait to see her perform. Hopefully Covid doesn't spoil that as well.

Many things come quite quickly for Minnie, and at first it often seemed like she wouldn't do things unless she was immediately good at them. That may still be the case with sports. She has proclaimed herself a sports unenthusiast, if that can be a thing. Any time her friends start playing sports, she comes home. But other than that, I feel like for the most part she will try most things and does work hard at them and can do quite well at most everything she puts her mind to.

Min is a great student and really thrives in the classroom. She does well pretty effortlessly, which is both good and bad. Sometimes I worry that with things coming easily to her she won't try as hard as she should scholastically, but I am also grateful she comes by it naturally. She didn't really have any good friends in her class this year, but has done well in spite of it.

This girl is becoming and young woman and I can't believe it and also love it at the same time. It reminds me that one day my kids are going to be adults and I'm excited for them to be my friends. I mean, they are already, but there is something about them becoming adults and hopefully wanting to be my friend in the way I am friends with my sisters and my mom now that makes me so happy. I love my kids so much. I love that we all get to be friends and go through this life together. 

Collard Family Film 2019

As you might be able to tell, I've been on a major video kick as we practice this whole social distancing thing because of the coronavirus. I've had lots of time on my hands, except for the million hours it feels like we spend doing homeschool and trying to figure out how to make every day not feel like Groundhogs day and spice things up around here. Robert and I also recently got new phones, and although our photos and videos are all saved on the cloud, it still got me thinking about how all of my videos will just sit unseen and I'm going to be so sad if I never put them somewhere where my kids will be able to look back on them. I put together clips from all the videos I have from 2019 to cover the entire year. It was a good one and I can't believe how much Hannah changed! Watching this makes me anxious for the days that we can spend lots of time hugging and being with all those that we love, travel again and get back to a normal routine. As for now, we are hunkered down in this little home of ours, soaking up our time together. 

spring break 2019

We are STILL alive! And I miss writing about my family and and posting pictures of their sweet faces. I am just barely putting these clips from a YEAR ago together in a video and my kids have already watched it three times today. They love it so much, and it has me feeling like documenting our life here is going to have to be more of a priority for me, especially since I'm not great at documenting it elsewhere. So take this as my unofficial declaration that I am back and will be posting here more than once a year.

Last year for spring break, the Adseros decided on a whim to take a trip back to Utah. We were nothing short of elated, and quickly made some last minute family travel plans with them. Most of the Mecham side spent a few days down at a little ranch in Southern Utah, hiking and relaxing and...throwing up. Oy! Pretty much all of the kids took turns tossing, but we pressed on and managed to have a good bit of fun in spite of the mess.

After Southern Utah, the Adseros and our little family continued on down to Southern California where we stayed together in a beach house in Mission Beach. We were just about a block from the beach and it was so fun. My kids loved being with their cousins so much and the beach felt so good as we were coming out of a long, cold winter in Utah. We decided to surprise the kids with two days at Disneyland. They were delighted! Although it was fun surprising them, Charlotte and I both agreed sometimes the anticipation of and the thinking about the trip can almost be as fun as the trip itself. So it has been noted that we will likely not keep it a surprise next time because I think they would have been even more revved up had they known about it ahead of time.

After another round of barfs at the end of Disneyland we decided to just start heading home that night. Unfortunately, both our cars had multiple rounds of throw up and our night at Whiskey Pete's in Primm, Nevada, will forever go down as one of the most revolting nights of my life. The place was nasty to start (should have guessed it would be), and then three sick children messing the place up about did me in. I have never been so grateful to finally be home in my life after that night. Thankfully most of the sickness held out throughout the trip so we were able to really have fun on the most fun days. Unfortunately the sickness continued for both families for days, and perhaps weeks beyond the trip. It was a real doozy.

Anyhow, it was all worth it, gosh darn it. Look how happy these babies are in this video. Now I'm counting down the days until we can all do this again, sans tossing.

we're alive and i've got a million photos to prove it!

The other day my girls started asking me about pictures of them when they were babies, and of course my immediate thought was to hop on this little ol' blog because I've documented each of their births here, and I am so dang grateful I did! After looking at each of their birth pictures, they started getting glimpses of other posts and pictures we hadn't seen in ages and the they couldn't stop scrolling and laughing and then asking for more. I quickly remembered why I created this space. It is full of so many of our sweet memories and pictures that would take me ages to find in my collection of external hard drives. So, here I am again, with a major life update because if nothing else these pictures that are just sitting on my phone need to be published here so they don't get lost in the shuffle and I can come back and just stare at these sweet faces twenty years from now.

Obviously this past year has been filled with Miss Hannah Mary Ann, the apple of all of our eyes. She will be one year in about a month. Pretty surreal.

Hannah was a bit of a fussy little thing for a good chunk of her early months. She rarely fell asleep in the car and at night would wail in her carseat in the back seat of the car until we got home. It honestly made me sweat, I hated it so much. I remember William doing something similar, but Hannah did it until she was over six months. We are all praising the heavens that phase is over. She also became a mama's girl pretty early on as well, which was equal parts sweet and exhausting. Again, grateful she's grown out of that phase too. 

She didn't chunk up quite like our other kids did, (although she did get some nice rolls there at the beginning), but honestly is tinier now at nearly 11 months than any of our other kids were. She's our petite little thing.

Hannie at six weeks. Gosh, those cheeks are as good as they get.

Louisa graduated from preschool in May. Our preschool is literally just down the street and our friend Tammy from our ward runs it. I love her so much and so do my kids. Below is Lou's preschool boyfriend, Santana. She misses him so much. My girls are so boy crazy...not unlike their mother was.

I took a similar picture when I was pregnant with Hannah, but below us is the grave of her namesake, Hannah Mary Ann Dawson Wiseman. I still can't believe she's buried just down the street from us and we didn't know it.

Three month little squish.

Summer was so much fun! Lots of backyard pool time, hanging out with friends and then lots of cousin time! Willsy in his little Euro swimsuit makes me so happy.

 Four month Han!

We went with cousins up to the lake for Lou's 5th birthday. It was pretty windy and we all almost got taken out by our umbrella, but it was so fun!

Birthday cake for Lou with family! I love how she's holding out her dress here.

I don't know what it is about Will eating, but I could seriously watch him all day. He just cracks me up.

I am also obsessed with seeing my older kids love on Hannah. I mean, it also stresses me out sometimes, but mostly I just love to see them love her.

Jeremiah's Jeep was a big hit last summer, but all my kids were terrible at driving it except Minnie. He was nice to share and luckily William was pleased to just be along for the ride most of the time.

Hannah's selfie game started getting really strong.

William and his tools, man. This kid is 100% BOY. He is a love of all things tools, guns, ninjas, swords, wrestling, etc, etc. I am obsessed with him. He was such a sweet little snuggly mama's boy up until he turned two, and then he became the wildest little tornado. I mean, the sweet side is still there, you just have to dig a little to find it. 

Bountiful car show with cousins!

Face paint that they begged for and then soon thereafter begged to take off. Story of our lives but it's generally worth it.

Father's Day 2018 with this sweet daddy-o and his ragamuffin squad. We are all so lucky to have this good soul as the main man of our house. He is a human jungle gym to these little babies and they're always begging for one more story, one more wrestle and one more tickle from him. He is the most good-natured person on earth and puts up with all of my bossiness and sass. Bless him.

Backyard baby pool days with friends. Our big yard is so much fun but is so much work and Robert and I have quickly realized we aren't the best gardeners. We may need to downsize in the outdoor space in the next house we buy.

We got season passes again to Lagoon. Our kids love it so much. Every year we wonder if we are going to do it again, and then we always do. This year was especially fun because William graduated to a bunch of the bigger rides and was in LOVE!  Minnie can also no go on pretty much every ride in the park so Robert and I enjoyed trading off taking her on some of our favorites. I love that she's such a daredevil. Lou, on the other hand, spent much of her time at the park afraid she was going to get lost and clinging to us tightly. We lost her at Temple Square the day Julia and Pete got married and she spent months after the fact working through it. Julia and Pete had come out of the temple and we were all packing up to move to the shadier side of the temple for pictures. There were millions of cousins and aunts and uncles and I had Will and Hannah and just figured the big girls were walking over with someone else. However, when we got up on the temple stairs for pictures Lou was nowhere to be found. Of course I went into major panic mode. My aunt Alison ran one way around the temple and I went the other and she ended up finding her with a woman from another group. I gave Lou the biggest hug and she just melted into a puddle of tears. I guess she had just been busy playing on the stairs or something and didn't realize we'd left. She's been much more aware ever since...and so have I.

After 5 babies for her and 4 for me, Charlotte and I finally had babies in the same year! Hannah was born in March and Harrison was born in June. Can't wait to see these two together this summer! I can't help but hate that they live across the world, but I'm so grateful we get to make memories for a month or two each summer when they head to our neck of the woods.

I barely took any pictures on my phone the day of Julia's wedding. In fact, I pretty much only took videos which I put together in a little compilation which I'll link at the end. The wedding was so fun! Julia was as happy as I'd ever seen her and has been ever since. She and Pete are an incredible fit for each other and Pete has become a very beloved uncle very quickly. My kids are in love with him.

Cousin water day! Look at that baldy baby snuggled in a towel. I can't believe how much she's changed!

Mecham party up at the Collard cabin this year did not disappoint! Good food, four-wheeler rides, a little exploring and lots of relaxing made for such an incredible day.

Bob has mastered the art with sleeping with a baby on top of him.

A little fishing day with cousins at Bountiful Pond. It was only slightly stressful with those fishing lines flying all over the place. Luckily no one had their eyes pulled out by a hook. No fish were caught but a lot of M+M's were enjoyed.

Can't even believe this crew! We've recreated this picture now for three years in a row and it's so much fun to see the changes through the years.

Love these sweetie boys who learned how to punch, wrestle and hold hands with each other this summer.

Our last night together. Always stinks saying goodbye to these guys.

In August we went up to Robert's sister Liz's cabin in Idaho. We'd gone once before and this time was equally as great. Liz honestly makes everything fun and I love to be with her. We all do. We'd just found out I was pregnant with Hannah last year and it was so nice to have her there with us this year. The place is so amazing, nestled right next to a little lake. We love paddle boarding and playing on the beach Liz and Chad have created. I'm the worst at taking pictures of everyone who came, but there was a good crew this year. These are pretty much the only pictures I got.

The next week we headed to Washington DC to go visit my grandparents. It was so much fun! We did a little exploring downtown, but also spent a lot of time just hanging at my grandparent's house. I was so grateful we got to see them. It's been awhile and I've really missed them. My girls especially loved hanging out down in the basement coloring, playing with the vintage Barbie's and playing Mario on the good ol' Nintendo. As we boarded our flight home, Lou asked me if we could go there the next year for her birthday. It was obviously a hit.

Sightseeing with kids is not for the faint of heart. It was unbearably hot and we walked a ton and everyone was just so tired. We tried to go to the WWII museum and it was a major bust. William was at his wits end and so were we. Lesson learned: sightsee when the kids are all over the age of 8.

My cousin Kathryn who also lives in Maryland invited us to join her family for a day trip to the beach. It was kind of a marathon of a day, driving about 3 hours both ways, but we hauled ourselves out to Rehoboth Beach for the day, which was totally packed, but it was still so fun and great to be able to spend some time with them.

I have such a deep love for this place and these people. My grandma and grandpa are the kindest hosts and made us feel so welcome. I told my grandma to not worry about a thing while we were there, but of course she'd gone shopping before we arrived and made dinner for us almost every night. She whipped something up with things she had in her fridge one night that included mashed potatoes and chicken and broccoli and told us it was just a little concoction she'd thrown together. Minnie was SO impressed and still talks about what an incredible cook my grandma is. She's not wrong! I love everything my grandma makes, including her famous "beer bread" that she always seems to keep a can or two of beer in the fridge for and which she made for us while we were there. I love her! I also love that in this picture we are standing by Grandpa in his element...at the table with a stack of newspapers, likely some crosswords laying in there somewhere, and either the news, Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune on in the background.

First day of second grade for Minnie in Mrs. Hagloch's class. This girl has never looked back since she was a baby. She is always ready for the next adventure and as confident as can be. She performed again in her school talent show this year, singing "You Are My Sunshine" while Robert accompanied her on the guitar. She's also in acting classes right now and getting ready to perform in "Mulan Junior" as a maiden and a hun. She's our performer through and through and I hope she never loses her confidence.

First day of kindergarten for Lou in Mrs. Barnes class. The teacher pretty much had to pry her out of my hands to get her into the classroom and it broke me a little. Lou was still really traumatized from getting lost at the wedding and really wanted to be brave but just couldn't quite muster the courage to let go of my hand. I snuck inside the school a minute later just to peek in the classroom to make sure she was ok, which she was. After about a week she was doing so much better and she now loves school so much. Such a relief!

A picture per Lou's request. She is such a ham, loves to joke and is always out to have a good time. She is truly my wild girl and that's why it killed me when she kind of lost a bit of her gumption after getting lost. Never fear, it's back in full force and we are all enjoying it thoroughly.

Hannah at 6 months! Just starting to sit up, in love with bananas and a bit of a terrible sleeper. She was born with her eyes wide open and we all laughed because she looked like a deer in headlights the majority of time up until a few months ago and it was hilarious. It was around this time that Hannah got so busy and easily distracted that she rarely nursed, wouldn't really take a bottle and only liked solids occasionally. It freaked me out because I felt like she was never getting enough to eat and was going to waste away. Honestly, looking at pictures now, I kind of feel like she has, but luckily the doctor didn't seem too concerned and now she's eating like a champ, but still tiny as can be (to a mom that's used to monster bubba babies).

I love seeing my kids playing together. My girls are obsessed with Hannah, until she comes in and starts ruining their toy "set ups."

Is it strange that I could watch William eat all day? He's just so cute! Also, we finally remodeled our kitchen and broke down the wall separating it from the living space. We love it so much. Robert and I tiled the backsplash, and as you can see in this picture, we hadn't grouted it quite yet at this point, but were just so dang excited to have a kitchen again. Because of timing between subcontractors and waiting on countertops and such, we were out of a kitchen for two months. I felt like we were camping in our own home. Praise the heavens that's over and we don't have to wash our dishes in the bathroom anymore! So gross.

I hope these two will be good friends. William was so, so gentle with Hannah up until about two months ago. I'm hoping she'll be willing to wrestle with him, because there's a good chance he won't have any brothers.

Fall in the backyard, playing in the leaves, eating apples from the tree and trying to avoid the deer poop. Pretty magical!

These two can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies, but isn't that the case with all siblings? I feel like when Minnie's at school they have the best time together, but once she's home three quickly becomes a crowd. Hopefully Hannah will even the playing field here pretty soon and everyone will have someone.

The obsession with this girl is real. I get it. I'm obsessed too. And do you see the deer in headlights?

Our Halloween super hero squad and pet cat! The kids were all very much in charge of the costumes this year. A big shout out to Costco for providing most of them.

One of my favorite pictures ever. William was SO pleased! Also, he insists he is not Superman but Superboy. He corrects us if we say anything different.

See, fun dad in action.

Cute cousin buddies in their randomly matching jammies. I think Jeremiah still considers William a baby (Will's a year younger than J) and I'm hoping that in the next year they will become good buds because Will needs a brother.

Sink baths in the new kitchen!

Christmas morning 2018! It was such a magical year with all these little Santa believers. Minnie and Lou both asked for LOL dolls, Hatchimals and American Girl dolls. Williams request was a gun and swords. Like I said, all boy. Where does he even get this stuff?

We surprised the kids with a little staycation at the Little America the week after Christmas. It was so much fun but also so tiring. I think it's a tradition we will continue year after year and I think it will just get more fun as our kids get older and we will actually all sleep at night. We went and saw the windows and the giant gingerbread house at the Grand America, took Trax to get some pizza, came back to the hotel to swim and came back to the room for candy and games and a Jazz game.

I have really made an effort to get Minnie up and going with skiing and she has done so well this year! It was a rough start after not going since she was five, but now she's rocking and rolling and it's so fun! We took William and Lou up to Park City's magic carpet to get them going too, but neither of them liked it much. Lou just kept begging to go home. I took will down with me on my skis a couple times and then he loved it. I think once he figures out how to go fast on his own he'll be hooked.

I just love these babes so much.

Hannah has become the happiest little pumpkin. She is busy, busy, busy and has been since she could control her little hands and even more so since she's been mobile. She didn't start crawling until she was about 8 months, and even then it was an army crawl. That army crawl finally turned into a real crawl and now this little monkey is pulling herself up on everything, climbing stairs and scaring the daylights out of me and she's pleased as punch. She still just feels like the tiniest little nugget to me and so I've been supplementing my milk with formula since about a month or two ago.

A bit of a better view of the new kitchen and Lou trying to help Hannah walk. Life is sure sweet. I must admit that it feels pretty daunting some days trying to meet everyone's needs, especially when they often all happen at once. Sometimes I feel like I might go batty and I hand everyone over to Bob for a minute so I can just be and regroup, but when it comes down to it this is the life I've always wanted and I'm sure these are the days I'll miss the very most when our house is quiet and toyless. I can't even imagine that. I don't want to. I guess a time and a season for everything, and I'm honest to goodness enjoying this one, even if I can't keep my eyes open most of the time.

And, as promised, here is the video from Julia and Pete's wedding. Such a good day!