July

Another busy month! Kade turned 2 on the 2nd, Garrett 2 months on the 6, and Lindsey had a birthday of some sort on the 13th (not as exciting when you're over 30...).

Our tradition the last 2 years is to have my dad take family pictures on Kade's birthday, we unfortunately had very uncooperative boys that day so this was about as good as it got. Try again next year I guess!

This year Kade wanted basketball cupcakes so we made up a bunch and took them to lunch at the park to share with our friends!

Our friends own a paddleboard company and were nice enough to invite us to go with them quite a few times! It was so much fun and even though I couldn't go far from the sad baby on the shore, I loved just sitting watching the bigger kids jump off the docks, play in the sand, and just have fun together.

passed out after paddleboarding on the 4th.

I also went dairy free for a few weeks the end of June/beginning of July, to try to help baby Garrett feel better. He still just cried in pain often and never did poop regularly. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help much so he/we just kept suffering through it. The saving grace was that he was a decent sleeper.

We did fireworks on the 4th at Oma and Opa's with the Rice's. When we went to get fireworks, Nate (who hates fireworks) said he didn't want to buy any, blah blah blah. So I said let's just let the boys spend like $20 and call it good. Well $75 later Nate was in heaven picking out all the fireworks! It was comical with him trying to decide which ones and talking the boys into them.

Spencer lost his first top tooth in July! Tooth number 4, we've started calling him Toothless!

The boys LOVE Chick-fil-A. They ask for it probably every day. Cow appreciation day came and we made sure to dress up! We even had our nephew Everett with us and the boys were in heaven! And thankfully, it wasn't even crowded!

Nate, Garrett and I took a birthday lunch date to Tucanos since Nate had never been. It was fine, neither of us were overly impressed, especially with it being pricey. Bummer. But fun to get out! And Nate and the boys got me flowers and balloons, though Nate tried to blame this balloon on Kade...

This was my dairy-free dessert pizza birthday treat I made instead of cake since I was still eating dairy-free at this point.

The highlight of July was getting to go to the Garth Brooks concert!!! I have wanted to see Garth in concert for years! At one point Nate and I had even looked into going to one of his shows in Vegas!
My siblings and I bought my dad a ticket for Father's Day, so we went with my parents and it was just so fun! For sure the greatest concert I've ever been too! It was so memorable! The sound even went out for like 20 minutes at one point and they struggled getting it back on! Blake Shelton also made an appearance because they were filming for their duet so that was kinda cool. It was a late night but sooo worth it!

this is Blake Shelton

The Boise Zoo had a big addition that opened earlier in the summer and we finally got around to seeing it with "the girls" as my boys call them.

We finally made it up to the lake with Opa's boat! We had fun tubing with the Rice boys and I was a bit surprised I still remembered how to wakeboard since it had been a few years.

Some more fun from July

June

June was busy!

On the 6th we had a one month old! Time with this baby has just flown by, he keeps getting bigger and cuter, and I keep trying to enjoy it all, even the hard parts.

We made the leap and transitioned Kade out of his crib and into his big boy bed! He did awesome and is still my best napper/sleeper. And he loves sharing a room with Spencer. He also has some OCD tendencies (see picture 2) that have been showing lately, I think we can guess where those come from...

We had a last minute visit from Nate's little brother, Aaron, as he was moving from Montana to Arizona. Nate was glad to see him and they did "man things" like go for a hike, check out the outdoor expo, and whatever else men do.

Apparently the only pic we got of Aaron...whoops.

I had my first bout mastitis and I do not recommend it to anyone. I was miserable. Nate had to take a day off work because I couldn't get out of bed and I felt terrible. I spiked a fever of 104, I can't remember the last time I've even had a fever! Thankfully, it seemed to resolve itself after 48 hours without antibiotics.

At 6 weeks I took some time for me and went to a Billy Currington concert with my sister. It was so much fun and felt really nice to get away for a few hours and do something I enjoyed. Nate was a champ holding down the fort with 3 boys alone for the first time. The concert was exciting maybe even a little too exciting. A member of our bishopric was working security and when I bumped into him I asked if we were the only sober people there. A few minutes later a brawl broke out right in front of us and a guy came out of it covered in blood, though we never saw the other guy. Thankfully, things settled down after that and we sang our guts out, even though Billy never did sing Katie's favorite song.

We did lots of swimming in Oma and Opa's pool and both boys loved going down the slide.

We even made it fishing with Opa and the Rice's a few times. I think every boy caught a fish as some point which was pretty exciting.

We had a short visit from out favorites, Paige and Matt from PA. It is always so fun to see them and catch up. I vowed to visit PA in 2020.

Lastly, Clint Black came to the Botanical Gardens on a Sunday at the end of June. Nate and I left the big boys with my parents and drove over to the gardens and walked around the Old Penitentiary listening to him play for a bit. It was a nice getaway even if it was short and the weather was great! Plus, it was fun to hear a couple of his classics.

My favorite Kade story from June 6 (as told on Instagram),

Nate had been out of town for a work training all week. By Friday I was mentally exhausted. At breakfast I gave Kade his water bottle, still pretty full, to drink (my only defense is it’s a metal bottle so not at all see through). He kept pushing it away saying “more water.” I told him to drink it first and then I’d get him more. It turned into a big fight. Him pushing it away crying for more water, me telling him it’s plenty full and I’m not getting him more water until he drinks some of it. Eventually I leave the table to feed the baby. Kades still crying for water. Exhausted with the fight I asked Spencer to bring me the water bottle and I’d take the lid off so he could fill it up for Kade. When I take the lid off I notice floaters in the water, what I thought was tons of backwash. I tell Spencer to dump it out before he fills it up. As he’s dumping it he tells me, “mom, this is full of dog food!”
No wonder he didn’t want to drink it!

My mom's work had their annual family BBQ, this year it was at the zoo and Heaton and Laila were in town!

We also took some amateur pictures as a family of 5! Turns out I can't keep my eyes open and all the boys can't be looking at the camera at the same time.