Thankful

I’ve decided to to a Month of Thankfulness because of how blessed I am in my life. I’ll do my best to list something every day! 

Day 1: What can I say? I’m so Thankful for this special man I call call my husband! He is honestly my best friend. He makes me smile and laugh constantly, and is my shoulder to cry on. He is my everything. I’m so grateful that I have him for Eternity. 

Sleepy Head

Lately, we have been having a hard time figuring out Daxtons sleep schedule. If we let him take a nap, we can’t get him to fall asleep until late afternoon which makes a VERY late night for him. Faith goes to sleep at 9:00pm so she wakes up pretty early so I have one kid going to bed late and one early which makes for the same schedule in the morning. If we don’t let Dax sleep, he is so cranky and hard to be around. He’s getting this little “attitude” (he LOVES the word NO!) so this amplifies his need for sleep. Most of the time, I try to keep him up so I can get sleep. Because of this, lately we have found him sleeping randomly in different places. 

One day last week, he didn’t want to come home so he decided to stay in the van. After about 10 minutes, this is how I found him.

Grandpa has been over at our house lately building our shed and playhouse. Dax insisted on sitting by him (he LOVES grandpa Don). Even after he fell asleep, he wouldn’t let go of his grandpa.

This is how he crashed last night, (excuse the nakedness, it’s hard to keep clothes on this kid lately) 

Peach Days!

Peach Days has once again come and gone. It’s getting fun again now that Daxton is old enough to figure out whats going on. It’s also getting more stressful having a kid that wants to ride EVERYTHING! This year he was playing at the Parsons sand box and decided that he was done and ran off without us seeing where he went. Luckily some great police officers found him and were following him when my friend found him and picked him up. He was only missing for about 3 minutes but it was the most scared we have ever felt in our lives! Dax LOVES the blow up toys. He went on the slide both days. The second day the guy in charge of taking tickets let him go down as many times as Dax wanted... Little did he know, Dax is FULL of energy and went down around 40 times before we pulled him  away! We have made the parades a new tradition and we go as a family (and friends). 

 During the Jr Parade, I showed Dax how to put his hand on his heart while the flag was going by. This is how he copied me. 

Handsome Big Boy Turns 3!

The best big brother ever just turned 3! I can’t believe how time flies! Every year, after his Birthday I say “next year we are just going to do something simple.” Well, those who know me, know that I love to party and a “simple” party just won’t due. I decided to have a Beach Party because of this amazing summer weather. We had all of our family and a few close friends join us in the celebration. We had a few pools set up and a slip n slide of course. 

Whats a party without food... Right? We had a weinie roast, complete with salads, watermelon, and LAVA FLOW drinks for the adults and HiC’s for the kiddos.

The Food table 

Watermelon Shark that my amazing friend Autumn made for me!

Some of the kids that came

“Waterballoon Pinata” 

 For every Birthday, I like to display a couple pictures of the Birthday Boy through the year, and I like everyone who came to wish him a Happy Birthday on a scrapbook page so we can remember who was there.  

 Each kid got their own little cake. If you can’t tell, it is a “mini sandy beach” with a towel and ball

 The cakes were a Strawberry Shortcake Trifle

 The Birthday Boy blowing out his 3 candles!

 He got spoiled with gifts

The front side of the invitation

On Daxtons actual birthday we went to the Hill Air Force Base with Grandpa and Grandma. Every time we pass it on the freeway, Dax would ask to stop and see the airplanes. He wanted me to take a picture of him in front of EVERY plane!

 It’s kind of a dark picture but he LOVED the propeller fan. He wouldn’t stop looking at it long enough for me to take a picture!

 This picture melts my heart, Dax has always been a grandpas’ boy and this picture shows it!

After the museum, Dax got to go pick out 3 airplanes (actually a jet, an airplane and a ROCKET. He will correct you if you call them all airplanes) to take home as birthday gifts. 

Daxton, we sure love you. You’re the sweetest little boy who never stops making us smile. We love you so stinking much and are so happy to have you in our family!

Our Special Grandma

In the early hours of morning of Friday August 17th Our Dear Sweet Grandma Lilly passed away. I will never forget this amazing woman and her wonderful example. I love her like my own grandma and it seems like I've known her my whole life. I'm so happy that I had the chance to be a part of her life and that she was such a major role in mine. We decided to name our little girl after her a couple months before she was born, we thought that it would mean a lot to her. After Faith was born, I mailed her a birth announcement, with her full name FAITH LILLIAN WESTOVER. I promptly received a voice male from grandma. It was such a tender message that I saved it for months. The night she passed away, I listened to it. It was so nice to hear her sweet voice. I was saving it so that when we decided to tell my sweet daughter about her wonderful great grandma, that she could hear her sweet voice tell her how much she meant to her. I erased this message tonight by accident so I want to document the sweet words, as many as I can remember, so that she can at least read them one day. This is what I remember. Through a teary crackly voice...

 "Becky, I just got that darling picture of Faith. I'm so honored to have a grand daughter named after me. I want you and Brian to know how much you mean to me, I love you so much. Please come by and visit me soon."

Every time I would talk to her, she would say, “hows my namesake” or “hows Faith Lillian” or “where’s that sweet little girl” with a huge smile on her face.  Then she would walk as fast as she could to a chair so that she could hold her. When she was put in a nursing home to recover from a broken arm a few weeks ago, I made it a goal to visit her as often as I could so that she could see Faith. If you know our Daughter, she doesn't let many people hold her. First thing I would do when I got there was put Faith in her lap and she would lay there in what seemed to be the most uncomfortable position and just smile and let Grandma kiss her. I know that those moments were heaven sent and I will cherish them forever. One of the times I took Daxton to see her,  we were going to leave and he said in the sweetest little 3 year old voice imaginable, "I sorry grandma lilly, I sorry you have a owie on your arm. You have a bandaid?"   and then he said LOVE YOU! And skipped out the door.

While I miss her so very much and I think of her often, I know I can't be selfish and I know that she is with her sweetheart, her son and her grandkids that have gone from this life. I'm so happy to have known this sweet woman. I love you so much grandma Lilly, and although my heart is filled with sorrow right now, I know you're happy. Please watch over our little family and keep us safe. And most of all, Dance the night away! 

 

    

How do you measure (1/2) of a year..

I can’t believe my baby is 6 months old!!! She is such an amazing JOY to our family! She is the perfect addition.

Some of the many things that make her adorable are..

~She LOVES her bed! We put her in it at nap time and bedtime with her special blanket from her grandma. She Grabs her blanket, puts it up to her face, Sticks her feet straight up in the air, falls to her side and smiles. Most of the time we won’t hear from her again until she wakes up, and usually she wakes up smiling too. 

~She is the PERFECT baby as long as her mom or dad are holding her. She’s not a huge fan of anyone else. 

~She LOVES her big brother and laughs at him when he pays attention to her. 

~She has to get out of the house at least once a day, she loves to go for drives and doesn’t mind her carseat. 

~She refuses to roll. She can roll, but just doesn’t like to do it. Until a couple weeks ago, she would go so sleep and wake up in the same position, She now has figured how to scoot in her crib and ends up in all sorts of positions.

I can’t imagine life without this little cutie and I Thank my Heavenly Father every day that he sent her to our family! 

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY FAITH!

Independence

Happy 4th of July! It's my FAVORITE holiday! Unfortunately, Brian had to work today so we had to celebrate during the day without him for the second time in a ROW! At least we get to spend tonight with him! Dax is so fun, He loves fireworks! We went to the Willard festivities and he had a blast! He loved the carnival games and rides. It's going to be a new tradition for us, hopefully Bri can Join us next year. I sure am thankful for the men and women that have fought for us to keep us free.