Eight Months

Melanie Rose

a.k.a. Rose Bud

a.k.a. Melrose

a.k.a. Nemalie

a.k.a. Mel

is eight months old.

She loves her mommy and daddy and her sisters.

She is so beautiful, so squishy, into crawling, and learning to like her Gigi.

Isn't that smile just so magical?!?!

 

Hockey With a Side of Kike

Burke, me, and the four boys who live at home went to the Hockey Club game last night.

Fun fact: we played the Penguins.

Sid Crosby in on the Penguins team.

He is one of the best to have ever played.

I explained that to the boys and they seemed less than impressed.

Zach Wilson was in attendance.

When he was announced, the crowd booed.

I thought that was really weird.

Anywho...

Kike Hernandez (Los Angeles Dodger) was also in attendance.

I was STOKED!!!

The game went to overtime.

With literally no time left, Sid Crosby knocked the puck in the goal and the Penguins won.

"I told you so," might have been uttered from my mouth.

 

The Year of the Weddings - Bubba & Suzanne's Engagement Photos

How cute are these?!

They look like little celebrities!

They have put down a deposit on their venue, chosen their caterer, and are sending out their "Save the Date" announcements.

July 26th will be here before they know it!

 

Grumpy Old Man

Gus.

Gus turned 11 on Sunday.

Gus is a grumpy old man.

Handsome, though.

Gus loves his dad.

He also loves his brothers.

Sometimes he loves his doggie sisters, Kaya and Stella.

But mostly, they annoy him.

He plays tug-of-war once a day with Stella in the backyard.

She lets him win.

Because he's grumpy, I'm sure.

Then he sleeps the rest of the day.

Gus spoons Burke all night every night.

He is Gus's favorite.

Gus mostly barks at everyone else.

It drives me out of my mind.

Gus doesn't appreciate when people come home with Brothers.

They should really just spend all of their time with him.

Gus is a big fan of hot dogs, peanut butter, and dog cookies.

He likes to lay on his couch or his chair.

He likes the warm sunshine on his body, too.

This guy, grumpy as he is, is loved.

Happy birthday, Grumpy Old Man.

 

Weekend Roundup

I introduced Hudson to Sesame Street EARLY Friday morning.

He was impressed.

But, WAY more impressed with the balloon left over from Uncle Porter's birthday festivities.

He and I took turns head-butting the balloon and laughing hysterically.

He came back over Friday night.

Daddy was on-call at work and Mommy needed to get to work that night.

He and Papa did an ice cream run.

Gigi prepped the bath and then he splashed and played in the water for a while.

Papa came in at the end to blow-dry his hair.

That's his favorite part!

Ryker had basketball Saturday night.

Burke was stuck at work, so I was the cheering section.

Heaven knows I am loud enough to cheer for whoever is unable to be there!

I told him that he played his best game yet!

Aria and Hendrix came Sunday.

Aria and Gigi made snickerdoodles.

Mostly, Aria Jane ate the batter while Gigi tried to get cookies rolled!

Hendrix is so busy.

He has the best smile and is such a cheeser!

 

Driving, Georgia, and Kristen

Last Saturday, I dropped Cooper off at the high school for his driving test.

He was "scared."

Frankly, I was too!

I picked him up a couple of hours later.

He passed.

THANK GOODNESS.

We drove to Iceberg to get shakes.

Both he AND Mom needed to celebrate!!!

Now we wait for his birthday next month to go get his license.

Hudson has a new friend.

Her name is Georgia.

Hudson is pretty okay with her.

She seems pretty okay with him so far, too!

I went to get my nails painted on Monday.

There was a lady there that looked over at me and very loudly said, "I know you!!!! You're that lady on SNL!!"

Me, "Ummm, nope."

My little nail ladies giggled.

"YES, you are Kristen Wiig."

🙈

"Well, thank you! She's so pretty. But I'm just Heidi."

 

The Year of The Weddings - Colton & Diana

This boy.

My boy.

My magical, glorious, amazing boy.

Colton is engaged!!!!!

He asked Diana to marry him last Friday night.

Jackson and Isis decorated.

He knelt down and asked her to marry him.

She said, "YES!"

We love these two.

They are so great with each other.

They've been dating for a little over two years.

Diana graduated last year. She is a surgical dental assistant. She is also a waitress at Texas Roadhouse.

Colton works at the same roofing company that Jackson does.

He worked at Home Depot for a few years and was loved.

He made the switch a few months ago.

We are so proud of these two.

They are incredible.

They are saying next January is when they'll tie the knot.

We'll keep you posted!

 

Porter is 18!

Our Porter Graysen is 18.

This kid is an old soul.

He has a few more months of high school.

He is starting night school, after work, each night at DTAC.

He is studying Diesel Mechanics there.

He is wise.

He is talented.

So talented.

He is handy.

He is motivated in the things that he loves.

Porter works on his truck all of the time.

He also works on everyone else's trucks and cars.

He just built a gun.

He goes coyote hunting as often as he can!

He built his own welder this year.

He built an enclosure for a bearded dragon, that has still not joined our family.

He wants to be rule the world, I'm pretty sure.

I am positive he will!

Porter is our very independent, introverted kiddo.

He shows us love by serving us... some mornings, I'll go out to my car and he'll be standing in the snow scraping my windows.

He gets the pool ready every spring.

He makes sure the car has an oil change whenever it needs it.

 
We love him so much and can't wait to see what he does!!

 

January's Family Dinner

January's family dinner was a success.

All 22 of us were in the same house!

Melanie Rose has not been the biggest fan of Gigi.

But, we changed that on Sunday!!

Look at all of that curly hair Miss Delilah June has!!

She is the cutest!

Mr. Hendrix Jay has tons of curls, too!

And that orange hair is going no where.

These three are the same age-ish.

Hudson born at the end of June; Delilah four days later; Hendrix two months later.

They are VERY busy!

The grownups.

That's so crazy to call my babies, "Grownups!!!"

Ryker getting cuddles with Hendrix.

Cooper is the favorite uncle... always.

I live for these dinners.

My mama and Gigi heart just burst!

 

Cooper & Dad One-on-One

Burke asked me early yesterday morning if I wanted to go to a Jazz game last night.

I don't like to leave the boys on weeknights.

With Coop's 16th birthday coming up next month, I asked him to take Cooper instead.

I stayed home with Porter and Ryker, who had basketball.

I love getting pictures.

That smile says it all.

Coop is a sensitive, kind, friendly, athletic kid.

He chooses good friends.

He works hard at school and at his sports.

He is also an almost-16-year-old boy.

Sometimes the attitude is strong with this one.

That makes it even more important that he get one-on-one time with us when we can swing it!

They ate in, what I call, the "Yummy Room."

All the food you can imagine.

Comfy seats.

TV's all over.

You come back at halftime to get snacks and drinks, too.

He even smiled for pictures that Dad made him take.

Awesome seats.

Time with Dad.

Practice with driving.

Perfect!

 

Just Because

This girl of mine.

She's had a rough year.

She gave birth to our beautiful Melanie Rose in May, just a year after delivering our beautiful Delilah June.

She had a c-section and had her tubes tied.

She had another rough recovery from her c-section.

Then she started having more health issues.

It was determined that she needed to have her gall bladder removed after several ER visits.

Her gall bladder was removed.

Then she got even sicker.

And sicker.

And sicker.

She was yellow.

In pain.

Throwing up.

The doctors went back in to see what was happening.

It turns out she had a few stones stuck in the bile duct that was blocking her liver.

Those were removed.

Look at this girl.

She is stunning.

She and Jackson are a fantastic team.

They have beautiful girls.

She is a fabulous mama.

I love her for so many reasons!

 

The Year of The Weddings Continues

Sunday night, Burke and I drove to South Jordan.

This is where Braxton & Rian's mom (Michelle) lives.

All of the parents met each other...

That is Suzanne's mama standing behind Bubba (Braxton).

Besides meeting the parents, we also did a food testing.

NOTE:

I've never been a part of a wedding that is so fancy.

I did not understand why we were food testing, but I was NOT mad.

I'm all about this!

We taste-tested street tacos.

It was a 10/10.

That means no more food testing!

Suzanne is VERY much on it!

She has spreadsheets and checklists and all the things!

They now have a date, a venue, a caterer, and a bartender!

Love these two so much!

 

Weekends

We are in the throws of winter basketball.

Ryker is becoming more aggressive, which I love to see.

He loves to play with his buddies.

I love watching him...even IF basketball is my least favorite season!

While Hudson was napping on Saturday (for three hours in our portacrib), Gigi made bread.

I felt like this was the best batch I've made so far.

And the smell in our home always makes it worth it!!

And this...

Isis sent me this.

I can't get enough of these babies and their amazing parents!