Rhett's perfect blessing day--My new sister!-and some random things

Rhett's blessing day was a perfect day for us! Jess' family drove down Sunday morning and came to church with us to my parents ward. Afterwards we were able to bless Garrett at my parents home.

This picture reminds me how thankful I am for the priesthood. I'm grateful to my Father in Heaven that has blessed us with His power here on earth. I LOVE the Plan of Happiness and how everything is set up perfectly-to help us make it back to live with Him. Jess and I both, have been blessed to have a noble and righteous holders of the priesthood in our homes growing up, and I've been blessed to marry an incredible man who honors his priesthood by treating me with kindness, respect and love. (and he's hilarious to boot!) What a life!

(I'm pretty sure they called each other up to coordinate their outfits ahead of time--and they looked dashing!)

Afterwards we all ate such great yummy food. And everyone laughed and hung out and it was such a great feeling to have so many of the people we loved together in one room (we missed you Brysons, Andersons and Wares!!!)

I know I can't even come close to articulating how great that day was--but it really was just a gift! The love that Jess and I felt, and the happiness and joy was incredible! I went to bed with such a huge sense of gratitude. I'm so thankful for the gospel!

Here's most of my family:



Here's a pic of Jess' family (plus my nephew Gavin from my side of the family--we love him :)

I think Luke took this picture? Here's Jess and his mom

Classy Jess, classy.

Me and Andrea told Aubrey we'd give her a dollar each if she ate this knife full of butter...she totally did it. Here she is waiting to get it down--She's cool like that!

B.J.'S ALL GROWN UP AND MARRIED!

Aren't they adorable? My little brother B.J. got married to a beautiful and amazing girl that we all love. Kara is so great and fun and I'm so glad she's in our family! It's crazy how much she just fits perfectly.

ANYWAY...

They're wedding date was while Jess was gone in Jordan....so I had the kids...and I wanted to go soooooo badly. An awesome friend of mine (thanks Cindy!) watch Kade and Lucas, and another friend of mine gave me one of her buddy passes to get to Utah. It looked like it was going to be easy breezy...until I flew to Atlanta and found that I had gone from 9th on standby to 27th! (there was a storm somewhere...crazy airport diversions...stuff...) It was a long wait and lots of nerves were split by Jess who was texting me the entire time worrying and Rhett and me.. but we made it and it was so worth it. I was so glad I was able to go! The ceremony was perfect, and I flew home the next morning! Love you B.J. and Kara!!!

Here's B.J. and Kara at the wedding luncheon!

Here's Dad and Rhett at the reception. Rhett's middle name is Reed--named after my dad because he's amazing! I love them!

Me and Scott took like 5 pictures to get this one. We were laughing (hence the scrunched up nose there) Anyway--he's a hoot!!

I was really taken care of sooooooooo well while Jess was gone. Thanks to ALL MY FRIENDS who did so much!!! One of my friend's husband volunteered to watch the boys while we went to a womans conference. Thanks so much Tyler. Here's some pictures he took while we were gone.

Water goes in....

water goes out...


ha ha! I love it!

Here are just some random pictures that I liked from the summer...playing catch-up blog is pretty fun huh? So...here we go:

Rhett

Veges from our garden--mmmm

Okay--now for real...these are the BEST MUFFINS ever!!! We got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen and they are amazing! For real though..mmmmm

What is better then a tramp, or a slip n' slide in the summer? A tramp with a slip n'slide ON IT! You'd think anyway right? It didn't really work out so well...but it was fun thought!

This one was funny though. The boys wanted to sleep on the tramp--that's fun so we said okay. They read with the lanterns and loved it..until they came in at 2:00 in the morning soaking wet. Not from rain---but because of the humidity in the summer out here. HA HA! Who knew! (well, I'm sure we could have thought about it longer, but now we know for sure--don't sleep in the open in Georgia in the middle of the summer.)

For those of you who don't know, the boys are performing the "our garden rocks" dance. (it was pretty spectacular for awhile there....) I've never had better tomatoes! It's died since then (turns out if you leave it for 3 weeks in the middle of summer in August..it dies..go fig!



Kade graduated from Kindergarten. He's so great! This was his teacher Mrs. Copeland--she was amazing. We all loved her like crazy!!!

Jess out of the country/Swagger Waggon

(Okay...for real, how can you not love this man?)

First things first..there's a link at the bottom of this blog about our new van--THE SWAGGER WAGGON--watch it! IT's HILARIOUS!!!

Next...so much has happened and the just of everything is...I don't really have time to blog right now. Jess is in Jordan on a short 6 week TDY (Love you baby!). Life is crazy here but we've been taken care of so so well. I'm so insanely blessed. Our Father's plan for us here on earth is just so perfect. LOVE IT! Anyway--having good days and less good days but getting by just fine and can't wait for Jess to get back.

In the mean time Luke turned 4 (hopefully Jess will blog this one for me..on account of he will write it with the right...shall we say--'umpf'?) my mom came to help me with the kids after Jess left, and Jess' mom came after that! Getting used to 3 little ones is INSANE, but an adventure I love.

Here are a few pics of the recent events.

Who's seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? AWESOME! Here's Jess in Petra last weekend.

For Lukes birthday we had 11-3 year olds....and then later we added swords..it was nuts! (more on this later!) But he LOVED it and that's what it's all about right? (right?)

My mom and Luke watching a show...I think this pic is just precious!

Here's Jess' mom right before she left. These amazing moms SAVED me. THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Rhett is 6 weeks old today! Woo woo! He is getting sooooooo big sooooooooo fast.
(and not to mention sooooo cute!)






So...we bought a van awhile back...a Toyota Sienna. We love it, it's spacious, runs awesomely well, looks nice, and it's silver--woo woo! ANYWAY, my friend posted this music video about Sienna's "The Swagger Waggon and I died laughing! LOVE IT! So..watch it and laugh...cause it's so great!

Rhett

Garrett Reed Joseph Winn is HERE!!!

Thursday the 25th at 11:11 p.m. Garrett was born at 7 lbs 15 oz (our biggest) and 21 inches.
Thursday morning was looking like any other morning...but I was 2 days overdue, so, to get things started I decided to head to the gym. After 2 1/2 miles on the eliptical and going swimming with Lucas (so fun) we started home. Contractions started on the way--hooray!
They were still 8 minutes apart so I got ready, and waited for Jess to get home. By then they were 7 minutes apart, and not bad at all. We stopped at McDonalds got some food, took the kids to our awesome friends the Lindquists and headed to the hospital. (my doc said to go once they were 5-7 minutes apart)
The entire way there, things were going so easy, I was eating my chicken sandwich, chatting and...well...not screaming or anything, so we were almost certain we would be sent home. We got there at 6:00, they hooked me up to the machines, and I was a 5 and "in labor" so the admitted us! YAY!!!
This was the most chill, easy, calm labor EVER. I got to a 7, they gave me an epidural, and a few hours later (of the best labor ever)--GARRETT!!!
They gave him right to me and he didn't have to leave the room for at least an hour! They bathed him right there in my room. It was so nice to not have him swept out before I could see him and not see him for hours (both Kade and Luke's delivery was like that).
ANYWAY--Rhett's awesome. He did great in the hospital, and he's been GREAT at home. The boys are sweet with him and love to give him hugs. Luke sings to him when he cries and likes to read to him. Kade loves being an older brother again and is so kind and loving with him.
Jess has been AWESOME!!! Being in the military is amazing because they give Paternity leave so he's was able to take 10 days leave. (He goes back Thursday...I'm a little worried cause he's been doing SOO much) I love him. He got up with the boys every morning, got Kade off to school, letting me sleep, planted a garden...and just rocked! We love to just watch Garrett and all his funny faces.
ANYWAY--we love him and he's awesome!

Here are some pictures and a video of his first week!

Jess and Rhett in the hospital

Me and my BOYS the morning after Rhett was born

His first bath-(he really did kind of like it...that was just before the camera came out)

Here he is a bit calmer

Here are the boys decorating Monster Easter Eggs

Jess and Luke (and Kade once he was home from school) planted 2 Square Foot Gardens! YAY!! We're so so so excited. There are already so many sprouts! Vege's here we come!

The boys are in charge of watering, so far so good!

Lucas reading to Garrett

Sewing, Kade's Poetry Competition, and Fatty

So, today's my due date...and no baby--BUT I got to go to Kade's poetry competition at Kade's school! It was adorable. Kade was one of the kids voted from his class to compete in the K-3rd grade competition. I recorded him practicing the night before, and when I recorded him today, it didn't work so well (our recorded is pretty old). ANYWAY, it's super cute though, he memorized it so fast and surprised me by not being nervous when he performed it.

Here's his practice (coupled with a bonus of Kade 'rapping' it and Luke 'break dancing'. They make us smile!

Also...I have some great friends (love you ladies) and my friend Jessica threw me a surprise baby shower where everyone gave me diapers (AWESOME). It made me cry a bit...so nice! ANYWAY, there are a lot of us that are due soon (16 from my ward are pregnant right now!) but here are 4 of us from the shower. Cute girls!

Here's a picture of me today...40 weeks pregnant!

I had so much fun sewing new bedding for this baby! So...here's the baby room. We had a super old ghetto couch from DI that we wanted to keep...but for it to look different. So I re-covered it and it looks a little better. (we call it the squinting couch...cause it looks good if you squint--ha ha) I used the cheapest material on account of...I didn't know how to make a cover, and it needs TONS of fabric....but I like it tons better so, there you go.