6 months

On Sunday my beautiful baby turned 6 months!  She had her well-child this week but I threw away her charts.  I'm not nearly as interested in percentiles and stats as I used to be.  All I want to know is that she is healthy!  It is scary to me how quickly the time has passed.  When she was born I knew it would go by fast so I tried to relish every second--I was right, its flown by.  Having 3 other kids I think makes it go faster?  At any rate, I'm at a loss of words of how to describe this little angel baby!  She slept 12 hrs last night, she eats 4-5 times in a 24 hour period, she smiles, laughs, blows bubbles, gets carried around all day by her big sister Kandace and eats baby food now!  She has recently tried more veggies, specifically avocado, which she tried today and didn't love.  She seems to enjoy all the other baby foods we've offered her.  She's getting better at getting it in her little mouth.  Its still pretty messy though.  The kids always want to help feed her.
Stahle is a favorite at child watch.  I've gotten multiple comments on what a good, laid back baby she is.  She used to take her morning nap there, but she stays awake until I get her at 10 now.  I think she's almost ready for 2 naps a day instead of 3.
Stahle you are a joy!  Thank you for being in our family!

Phipps park and a productive Saturday

Saturdays have become really busy days for us, at least I always feel like they need to be.  For a while, it was the only day of the week Michael was home and a good day to get stuff done since I had the help.  Last Saturday we packed in lots of things, but didn't actually accomplish our main goal, which was to put extra shelves in our kitchen pantry.  Michael and I went to spinning at 8:00 against his will, but it always feels great afterwards.  On the way home we talked about going on a family walk since the weather was so great, so I called some friends when we got home to see where they'd recommend and Melani said Phipps park. It was just like a 10 minute drive to the trail and then we hiked up (about 1 mile each way) and it was so fun! We borrowed the baby carrier from Audra, all the kids did really good (Janelle wanted carried a little on the way home).  It was a great view from the top--we could see the temple from the west which was a cool view.

 Stetson found a rock that looked like Australia so he thought.

 Gma Asay & gma Dorothy were in Billings shopping so they stopped by to say hi

 Stetson got a much needed haircut.  He hates this.  I thought it was fun to take pics

Kandace and Stahle

My favorite spring yet

 In all my life, I can't remember a spring like this in Montana or Wyoming.  We'll go days and days with temps in the 60s, almost 70s and it is bliss.  I LOVE to feel the warm sun on my face and spend time outside.  This was last week when Janelle and I laid a blanket out on the grass and painted our nails.  Janelle is a character and almost always has a smile on her face.  It snowed a couple nights ago but its melted since and we're back int he 50s.  Spring and summer are most definitely my favorite seasons.  I look so forward to trips to the pool again this summer but I know it will be tricky with Stahle.

Skate world

 Here's Stetson giving me the stink eye for Family fun night at stake world.  Our elementary school does these a couple times each year and skate world donates part of the proceeds back to our school.  Earlier in the year when the school was doing things like this we missed out a lot with having a new baby and having Michael gone, but it worked out that we could go this time.  Kandace is timid but a good sport about getting back up when she falls. Stetson gets more frustrated.  I had a blast though.  Makes me feel like a kid again.  We used to go ice skating every week one year in elementary school in Santa Rosa and it was a blast.  I haven't gone ice skating forever but this was just as fun.

Playing limbo

St. Patrick's day parade

 On the Saturday before St. Patricks day, I took these girls to a St. Patrick's day parade downtown.  Stetson had piano lessons that morning  Michael took Stetson and Stahle to that.  Its nice to have Michael home on weekends to juggle the kids.  The parade was fun. We met our friends the Jacobsons there.  They're in our ward and their little boy Henry is Janelle's age.  I like Melinda and its been fun hanging out with her.  Kandace was in hog heaven being able to get all the candy from the parade.

Sister love

Kandace got her hair braided at a salon in Billings prior to the weekend going to gma Asays.  I thought it was cute and it was super easy for the 2 weeks she had it in.
Kandace takes such good care of her baby sister.  She is truly a help to me and Michael and I appreciate her so much!

state bball

The first weekend in March, I drove all the kids to Jan's on a Friday and dropped off Janelle and Kandace for the weekend so the rest of us could go to state bball.  The next day was Stetson's pinewood derby and right after that we drove to Casper.  This pic of Stahle is at gpa & gma Asays.  She is the cutest EVER.  I can't get any pics off my phone to download.
  Rocky boys made it to the championship again this year and were defeated by Windriver.  It was hard to watch especially since this was a team they'd beat earlier in the season.  Sometimes the shots just don't fall.  I thought a lot about how its so important to find joy in the journey and not base our happiness on one final outcome.  This team had an excellent season and lots of  great things along the way.  It'd be easy for me to tell myself I can be happy again when Michael graduates and we he's home every night, but what a waste of 5 months.  I know I can find happiness every day in this journey.