So it’s been a LONG time since I wrote anything about our family. I have been incredibly busy with two jobs, my church calling (Primary President), family reunions, having a baby, and being a mom all the time! Needless to say, finding some quiet time when all kids are sleeping and I’m not sleeping too is pretty rare! But Justin made a comment last night that stuck to me today. I was busy planning our ward Christmas party which is this Friday and he came over to the computer and said it’s time to stop. And he took my papers and clipboards and turned them face down and took my hand so we could have some time to catch up with each other. He was right, it was time to stop and slow down what I am doing every day. So here I am, all kids are napping and I am doing something that destresses me and is a way to actually express all the good emotions and memories down and help me remember the joy in the journey, not just the destination.  What actually prompted me was my shower deep thinking. A lot of pondering  goes on behind my quiet, nonjudgmental shower curtain.  Originally it began with sending a facebook plea to all moms asking for advice on how to get your kids to get along! How to stop everything from being a fight. I was thinking about those days way back when, when I only had one child and he would wake up from bed time so happy and ready to eat anything and then play! Go down for naps, and wake up happy and eat some more and play! Go to bed happy and full and sleep all night, and I would wonder how I was so blessed with a special boy! Now it seems wake up in the morning is still happy, but it’s a fight to get both kids to eat nutritious meals and to be full. Then the cycle begins, not full enough and then fight with each other to play with toys, cry because they are tired and hungry. Try to feed them more and they only eat enough to sustain them to the next hour. Then fight for naps, mom gets peace and quiet for about 2 hours and then wake up is early and the hunger cycle continues. Only wants to eat pancakes, pb & j sandwiches, or yogurt or junk food. So the crying continues.  Bed time is a fight for 2 hours.  What happened to the fun play times and building towers and riding motorcycle toys through the house? Where is the joy in the journey rather than enduring each day?

That was how my thoughts began in the shower. But then I realized I have wonderful kids with enthusiastic and creative minds. They are energetic and curious and helpful. And then when I start looking at my picture roll on my phone, I can see all the GREAT times we had and see that I have a wonderful life. I have 3 beautiful children that are healthy.  I have a husband who has a great job and works so we can have an easier life. I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and the atonement that can be applied to all those many times I am not successful being the calm, loving mom I should be. I know why I am here on earth and what I’m supposed to do. My life has purpose and I am trying every day to be successful and improve myself and my family.  So this post is not about the things that make my life more difficult, it’s about the things that make my life so wonderful.

So to start out with, we are a family of 5! That is still so crazy to say. Justin and I will celebrate our 6 year anniversary this month and we have three beautiful kiddos! Zayden who turned 3 in July, Zoey turned 1 in April, and Evelyn, our newest addition was born in August.  Zayden…oh my little mini Justin.  He is still 100% pure boy! Trains, trucks, police cars, Curious George, Fireman Sam, Dusty Crophopper, and Lightening McQueen. These are all words used frequently in his vocabulary and play time! He also loves singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider…again and again and again. Of course other favorites are Scripture Power, ABC’s, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, 5 Little Pumpkins. So onto the season of Christmas songs! Bring it on! Maybe he will change his favorite songs! Zayden is in preschool now and LOVES it. Making crafts and displaying them on our wall is quite the adventure. He also loves going to the library and reading books, and playing with the train sets. He’s my handful right now and I am working on ways to channel his energy and curiosity to help encourage building and creating instead of destroying which I have found out is what kids do when they are bored!

Zoey my little tornado! She earned the nickname “Zoeyzilla” a long time ago. She rampages through Zayden’s train tracks and destroys the tracks and then runs off laughing. She is quite the tormentor to Zayden. But she is so loving when she chooses to be. She is the first to say I’m sorry and give a person a hug if anyone has wronged another person. But her temper reminds me of me. I’m in for a lot of work with her. She is my avid reader. Bringing me book after book she loves to turn and feel the book pages and see everything. I am so glad my children inherited my love of books.  Right now we are reading “The Mitten” by Jan Brett and they love all the animals and pictures. One of my favorite children’s books.  Zoey is my little princess of dress up. She loves shoes and necklaces. She watches me apply makeup and get ready and she copies me frequently.  It’’ll be fun to teach her to be girly and confident.

Evelyn, My Evie angel. She is perfect. By far my best sleeper and so happy. She does hate the carseat but when she is on the ground or being held or in a swing, she loves life. The older two love to kiss and play with her and we are working on being soft with her. But she loves their faces right in front of hers. She giggles and talks and is so strong and healthy. She has already begun to roll over.  She captivates anyone who holds her. Heavenly Father really gave me a blessing of an easy child right now.

Some stats: 4 months old

-Eating every 2 hours in the day, one feeding at night. 

-Goes to bed at 9ish and sleeps until 8 am

-Teething already! 

-Rolls from back to tummy (sometimes)

-Fists are always in her mouth! 

Wearing 3-6 month clothes and some 6 month! 

Justin and I are doing well! Justin is busy with school and harvesting and his calling as a member of the High Council in the church. Traveling almost every Sunday makes church difficult for me but we are blessed. It’s wonderful to have him home and the kids go running to him yelling “Daddy!” He is loved by all in our home.  Me, well I choose to make my life busy I guess. I can’t stand having nothing to do at home so I plan parties and sell jewelry and go to other events. I am learning to slow myself down and not take so much on my plate.  But we are loving life in Boone, IA. Never thought I’d say that but we have great friends and a great life! Just learning to love the individual days and not just the overall experience here!

 Justin crashes a lot from all his busy work! It's tough to be tough!

Over the summer we had family reunions up at the ranch in Montana. We’ve had a crawfish boil for Zoey’s birthday, we’ve seen Thomas the Train, Evelyn was born so we had family here for her baby blessing! Halloween and Thanksgiving were all wonderful! We have been blessed with so much!  

We've had several birthdays! Justin had a surprise camping trip!

 Zayden had a pool party! 

Zoey had a crawfish boil! DELICIOUS! We will definetely do that again!

 My birthday we played laser tag and went bowling and stayed out way too late!

New Year New Memories!

When I realized I hadn't updated since November, I felt slightly ashamed of myself! I swear I had written more recently than that. Oh well, here we go! Plus it helps that I just photo dumped my phone the other night so this will be make posting pictures much easier!

Since November, Justin has been super busy with school, work, and getting a new calling. He was asked to be in the High Council so he is traveling or in meetings almost EVERY Sunday. Sunday used to be called a day of rest, but I don't think so anymore. (Especially for me with the kiddos) He is loving it and doing a great job! Sometimes it's hard to be that supportive wife when I don't see him very often and then church takes a lot of time away from each other. But I always know blessings come from trials!  He is loving being a dad to two kids. Zayden was a blast when he was an only child, but now Zoey and Zayden play with each other and giggle and laugh all the time! Most of my day is either filled with laughing and playing and happy noises or someone is crying because they were playing too hard. When Justin comes home from school the squeals of joy get louder and usually the wrestling and tickling begins. It's magic, if you sit on the floor that's an open invitation for you to be jumped on!

We finally had our own Christmas at our house since we've been married. Oh, and in December we celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We've been together 6 years and married 5, 2 kids and a dog later still doing great! Lived in Idaho, Montana, Illinois, and Iowa. 2 Bachelors degrees, a masters, and working on a Phd.  We cram  a lot of things in  a few years. 

Anyways, back to Christmas. It was so nice to be home and finally start some of our own traditions. My parents came up from San Antonio and they loved spending all the time with the grandbabies! I knew it was going to be hard when they left because the kids got so used to LOTS of attention all the time. But it was a lot of fun! 

 Zoey turned 8 months in December and was crawling and sitting up! She is such a happy baby!

 First time with Santa this year and this is how Zayden responded. Zoey had no preference but Zayden kept pointing to Dad and crying for him! Mean mom for making him sit on Santa's lap for her picture.

A few days before Christmas, Zayden started getting really ancy so we let him open up a gift from Aunt Julie. TRAINS! Oh my goodness, you'd think we gave him the world! Non stop since then we have had trains be our life! He sets up and creates new tracks daily and loves his Thomas the train.  There are days where I have to take away Thomas because he is the cause of a lot of meltdowns. Because Thomas is electric, we can't put him in the bathtub so bath time is distraught without Thomas! We try not to let Zayden take toys with him when we leave the house and that causes meltdowns in the doorway and the car. So we take Thomas away for a few days to get emotions back under control and realize that Thomas is just a toy.  Then when I bring the box of tracks and trains out, I became the world's greatest mommy again! His face lights up like Christmas EVERY time. So Thomas is a real part of our life here.  But actually living in a train town is great. In the fall, Thomas the Train comes to Boone, IA and this year we will take Thomas to ride the train since he will be old enough to appreciate it! I think we will have to do a Thomas the train birthday party for him. He would love it. Every time we drive somewhere there is train tracks, HE KNOWS! For being 2 1/2 he is very good with directions and knows exactly where we are at and if there are train tracks coming up. So from his car seat you'll hear," there's the twain twacks!"  And then he smiles and waits until we drive over them. We also will take different routes through town and wait for a train to go by so he can watch. Absolute heaven for Zayden.

My little Zoey is now 10 months old and pulls herself to standing and will walk with a walker or toy. She is such a doll! I have never encountered such a happy baby in my life. She loves to play with toys, people, pets, blankets, anything! She only will cry when she's very hungry, or sick. Other than that, she charms everyone! I can't go through the grocery store without someone making a comment on how cute and smiley she is. She is my cheesy grin, center stage girl. I have a feeling she will be like me. Oh, and quite the dancer. She stands on her tip toes and then will point one foot and put it to the side. I am thinking ballet might be in her future.

Overall, Christmas was wonderful! Everyone was spoiled and had a great time! Oh, one more little train item. On Chritmas eve we opened a package to the family with pj's and hot chocolate and treats for the kids and...The Polar Express!  We watched that Christmas Eve and Zayden has loved it ever since. I am debating putting it away for the year until next Christmas or letting him continue watching it since he loves it so much.

 Winter in Iowa has been super cold! But it's been cold everywhere! Or normal winter weather has been in the -20's. So staying inside or going to other friend's houses has been our saving grace! But occasionally we do go outside to play in the snow. Zayden used to be against gloves until he realized they kept his hands warm. Now he will let us put them on him.  I tell you what, the terrible two's are real!  Not a day goes by that he isn't crying over something or refusing something.  But then he will ask so politely for a piece of chocolate and say Thank you for everything that it melts you and you forget the 20 minute tantrum before. He also says bless you if you sneeze. We didn't teach him that one, he picked up that one on his own.

I have been extremely busy as Primary President and Zoey usually comes with me. And since she is miss adventurous and crawling everywhere she usually gets into the primary closet and is playing in the back of the primary room with the chairs or toys. It's hard to keep her distracted enough to not bother the children. The kids love her and always want to play with her. As soon as I get to church I am swarmed with kids, teenagers, and adults wanting to hold her. She never wants for attention at church. 

I can never resist buying cute church dresses! It's a shame she only wears them on Sundays!

 My little princess, so happy! I love hearing her wake up from a nap happy and talking to herself and scrambling around the crib to some imaginary friend. Then when you open the door, she presses her face to the walls of the crib and laughs then pulls herself up really fast to pop up and laugh and smile at you! Those are wonderful mommy moments that make my day a lot better! Sometimes, Zayden will hear her waking up and even though he is in another room he will say "Zoey?" And then before I can stop him, he's run into her room laughing calling her name and then she will squeal back! Two kids really is a lot of fun at this age!

Recently I have loved buffalo wings! Usually I am a BBQ kind of person and couldn't handle buffalo style wings. But we have loved having date nights in Ames at Buffalo Wild Wings. Plus it's fun to watch the Olympics and have all the kids enjoying food and tvs. Zoey loves the french fries and celery sticks!  Zayden loves the french fries too. In fact, that's all he would eat there besides drinking a huckleberry lemonade. 

 We've even tried to make wings ourselves. Sweet Baby Ray's has a great buffalo wing sauce, in case any of you are curious! Delicious, not too hot but yummy!

Since I have discovered one of our grocery stores has these fun shopping carts, I will continue to do my shopping there! The kids loved it! Zoey is finally big enough to sit in it on her own and she has a blast! Plus it leaves an entire cart for my groceries instead of only partial because I had to put the carseat in the basket!

 Bath time is play time! Zoey is my water baby! Both of them LOVE the water, but she is the queen of splashing and not caring what temperature the water is or what parts of her get wet. We can hold her under the shower and she doesn't care if her eyes get water in them or her hair gets wet. She is so happy! She has started to become a toy hoarder in the tub. She must have watched Zayden too many times. He does that also. So now she takes all the toys and then laughs at Zayden. I'm really going to have to watch her when she is a toddler.

A few stats,
-20 lbs 5 oz.  at 10 months old!
-Eats EVERYTHING! but especially loves adult food. She is not a huge fan of baby food. She likes to eat what mommy and daddy are eating.
-Sleeps great! We can put her down at 7:30 and she will sleep until 8:30 and I will still have to wake her up so we can go work out at the gym.  However, to get that sleep schedule, I have to knock her down to 1 nap a day, which  coincides with Zayden's nap so that is nice. Or do 2 really short naps.  But I would rather get my night sleep.
-Almost walking! She will stand on her own for a few seconds but won't take any steps without support.
-Says Da a lot!

Zayden
-will turn 3 in July
-29 lbs. (He's my skinny child!)
-Very picky eater, his diet is pancakes, waffles, German Pancakes, oatmeal, greek yogurt, fruit, pb &J sandwiches, corn, juice, granola bars, french fries, sometimes chicken nuggets (but they have to be dino nuggets), and cereal. His favorite is Raisin Bran with the granola. I wish I could get him to eat other things but if you force him, he makes himself throw up. So I limit the snacks and try to get him to eat in bulk the healthy stuff he will eat. I hope he will grow out of it soon. It doesn't even help to have him watch Zoey eat something, he will still turn it down.
-Loves Thomas the train, Cars cars, tractors, books, balls, he is starting to get into riding toys like scooters. He is an all american boy.
- Says please and thank you for almost everything. He is still hard to understand sometimes because his pronunciation isn't great but it's getting better.
-We are hoping to start potty training this summer so he can go to preschool with one of his best buds in the fall. Wish us luck!

I think that about wraps it up for the Maughan's! I should be able to keep up a little better now!