Maxson turns 5!

Maxson turns 5!

He is a special boy, he's truly a very loving boy. Takes care of others needs, is thoughtful, can be super loving, can focus very well and is a deep thinker. He's growing up so much, it's just crazy!

Just yesterday he asked me "Is God going to give us a sister?" In definitely caught me off guard. I answered "I sure hope so! But I don't know. Our next baby may be a boy or a girl, but you can pray for a sister because God answers prayers sweet boy!"

Another day we had a conversation about Sis Huff (his primary teacher) Max tells me "Did you know Sis Huff's Dad died? How will she get a new dad?" From there we had a little discussion on eternal families and heaven and waiting and it was a sweet, but quick little conversation we had together.

Another day during a prayer, Max gives such sweet prayers so often, Casey and I are always squinting our eyes open to look at each other with a little smirk with a "did you hear that?" during his prayers, he's really so so sweet and thoughtful. Things he's said during prayers lately:

-Grateful me and my brothers can be on the same soccer team together
-Grateful we can be a family forever and mommy and daddy were married in the temple
-Please that we can have a baby sister
-Grateful our elf can go bak to the north pole to talk to Santa and come back

I know there's more adorable things just can't think of any!

So he was super excited for his birthday! He saw it on the calendar way long ago and was just looking forward to the day for months! On his birthday morning he woke up and I happened to be awake trying to shew the twins back upstairs into bed at 5:45 am, he came down and I got to see his sweet face of excitement as he looked at all the decorations and his presents! I gave him a big hug and said "Happy birthday sweet boy! Now go back to bed" haha.

One the light in their room turned green we all came downstair to open presents! He was such a sweet boy excited for each one no matter how big or small.

We made waffles for breakfast because he loves waffles! And even put mini M&M's on it, lit candles and sang happy birthday/let him blow out the candles as many times as he wanted. We then got to cleaning the house and getting it ready for his friends to come over for his birthday party! He's never been such a fantastic cleaner without complaining before lol, he even started BOB fo me! he just kept asking are my friends coming over now?! (and the count down was like 3 hours haha)

His friends came over for a super hero party! Everyone was supposed to wear their favorite super hero costume and there were some cute kids! Max invited, Adyn, Brodie, Crue, Adalyn, Serenity, Owen, Meitzen and of course Bryson and Quinn (those who couldn't come were Kelly, Nathan, Mason, and Dax.) So there were a lot of fun kids! When they got here they jumped on the tramp for a long time and played in the bounce house. I led them through "Super hero super hero come alive" and then all the balls on the tramps were bad guys they had to run away from. We came in and had pizza I had picked up from Papa Murphys. I squeezed all the kids around our kitchen table and the twins were SO eager to sit on big chairs with all the big kids, it was one of those mama heart melting moments where they wanted to be big like everyone else, it was so cute haha.

Next we opened presents, then they all got to be Hulk and smash down a wall of bricks they had to keep building over and over (at this pint max was being a stinker and not participating and being pouty and that made me frustrated.) At the perfect moment Casey came home from work  and I prepped him how to be a bad guy and then told all the kids that a bad guy just robbed a bank and stole a bunch of money! Their eyes were huge (the twins were so into it) and I told them if they see a bad guy to drag them over to this chair and tie him up! At the perfect moment Casey came in with the Hulk mask on yelling he just robbed a bank! The kids were so cute all on him like flies trying to drag him over to the chair, so funny. I then gave them all a little pack of streamers and they wrapped Casey to the chair, it was just so so so funny and fun for the kids. I'm glad Casey got to be apart of the party!

They jumped on the tramp and bounce house for a while and then came in and had cake and sang to Maxson and then back out jumping and left! It was a wonderful little birthday party and I'm so glad to we got to celebrate Maxson with his friends!

We had a little down time and watched Boss baby. The kids kept eating pizza and cake all day, and then we went for a quick look at the festival of trees at a local bank. Nothing quite compared to Utah, but still fun for the kids! When we got home we let the kids stay up a watch some small Christmas movies while eating popcorn and cereal. They all felt like it was so special and it was a great night to end with all our boys right around us. I love our little family. And I love that we have been blessed With mAson as our oldest child, he really is such a great one!

Also he was so eager to measured on the growth chart for his birthday! He's right under 4 feet!

Kimber's 26th birthday

I'm not one to make my birthday a big deal, sometimes fun things happen, the past 3 years we always seem to be driving on my birthday, but once you're a mom birthdays aren't a "directly pass go" card anymore, you're still a mom, bums need to be wiped, food needs to be made, and messes need to be cleaned up.

BUT this year was finally different and was so fun and wonderful! We were at Cody and Camille's house in Arizona following our family reunion. 

To start the morning Camille and I went to Kneaders for breakfast, hello delicious french toast! As dumb as it sounds it was such a fun hour to spend with Camille talking to her with no interruptions. She's such a great sister in law to me. I also got a free pastry!

Camille then took her kids a long with our little family to Mesquite groves aquatic center in Chandler. It was a public pool attached to a school but a way cooler than normal one, it really was super fun! With big slides, toddler slides, a lazy river, big zero entry area, a fun play structure, it was lots of fun. I did apparently check their times wrong online though, M-Th they open at 10 but on Fridays it's at 11. Well it was Friday and we showed up at 10:15 ha. Luckily there was lots of shade and no humidity and kids can make creative games so it wasn't that bad.

We stayed until about 12:30, it was SOOOOO crowded by then, and within 2 minutes all 3 of our kids were asleep. Oh how I love pool outings.

That night Camille lined up 2 babysitters for our 6 kids and we went out on the town!

First Olive Garden, a Cutler favorite, always. 

We tried doing a quick game of bowling at Fat Cat's but found they didn't accept POGO passes on Friday nights, darn.

But just a couple doors down was the sweet tooth fairy where I got a free cookie!

Then off to an escape room! Have you been to one? None of us had so we were very slow and needed lots of hints, ha. They lock you in a room and theres a bunch of puzzles you have to try and figure out to unlock locks on drawers to get more clues. It was really fun :) We somehow finished with about 5 minutes to spare, ha.

At this point I was so tired and could have easily called it quits. But luckily there were 3 party animals in my midst who were like "more! more!" So we went back to fat cat's and each did $10 worth of arcade games. Mostly the boys just loved it an had a blast but it us girls joined in on a few too. Some miraculous way Casey and I beat this on game and got a ton of tickets and were able to get 2 little nerf guns for our boys, they were so happy the next day, ha.

After that! (See how this night keeps going?!?!) we drove over to the soda shop, same complex, there I got a free drink! (really casey got a free drink because I don't really like soda, ha). 

We had such a great time laughing with them, it was the best birthday in a long time. 

Thank you Casey, Camille, and Cody! It feels great to be 26!

Snow, super heros, and a birthday

This seems like a distant memory, sometime in february i believe. So much white snow. So cold. So dreary. I do know it was so fun for Max to go outside and play in it though. It took SOOOO much effort for me to get all 3 kids out there and playing but it was still very much fun.

Bryson

Quinn

Celebrating Casey's birthday pathetically. Probably only with decorations and a cake and like 3 presents.

Maxson turns THREE!

A little Mr Maxson had a birthday while we were in Wyoming! He woke up giddy to the traditional birthday decorations, faces and all. 

He and Casey got in the hot tub for his birthday which he was so totally excited about.

He loves getting in the "hawt tub!"

Max and I made the birthday cakes early in the morning when he awoke and then Aunt Tayli decorated them for us in the afternoon. Max was super stoked over the decorated cupcakes.

So excited to finally get to blow out his candles in the evening!

He counted the cupcakes and candles lots and lots.

We sang happy birthday to him about 7-8 times and he just kept blowing out the candles over and over, ha. We kept singing fast and faster, he just loved. it!

He went on a money hunt in the evening which he totally ate up. He sure does love money oddly enough already. Not clue why!

Love this crazy little boy of ours with all our hearts, he's truly the best.

**Update on potty training!**

Day 1 was miserable. 1 go in the potty and 4+ accidents
Day 2 was awesome. 8 successful potty trips and zero accidents! (I put a pull up on him when he and I went outside to play in the snow, it was wet when we came in but whatever).
Day 3 was awesome. No accidents,  6 successful potty trips.

I'm not sure what to do when we go out of the house (play outside go somewhere) just today while playing with friends at the church building I asked him a million times to go potty and then he finally peed his pants WHILE he was out of the gym get a drink at the drinking fountain RIGHT NEXT TO the bathroom for pete's sake! I don't want to rely on pull ups over the next few months, I just want him to do it! Any suggestions?

I was honestly about to give up after Day 1. He was AWFUL. Day 2 game changer was I finally convinced him to wear a longer shirt and no underwear and he went by himself every time. He would absolutely not go when I asked him to even when he drank tons of juice, ha. He likes to dictate his own actions I see. I love looking at how proud his face is when I'm cheering him on after going potty. He's trying to hold back the smiles but can't. SOOOO I hope this sticks and we do it this time around!!!!!

A Birthday Celebration: Cake! and a Carousel!

I couldn't believe how these boys devoured their cake. They had just eaten a big dinner! No problem, they were all over it! We used whip cream for the frosting which was nice and messy without being overly sweet and thick, thumbs up.

 Bryson could not wait to dig in.

 Quinn was little more hesitant but got into it later, he didn't get very messy though just straight in the mouth

 They just loved the cake. When they finished their cake and you were holding a baby, they tried to lean way far forward to the cake you were eating (Oreo of course for the adults!)

 So lucky to have my mom there! And Katie is literally a family member in our home right now, she's  a HUGE part of their lives the past year.

 Bryson digging in.

Quinn digging in.

 The next day we made it to the carousel! That's our 1 year birthday celebration for our kids. It was way too little and fast and totally made us adults sick, ha. But they loved it, both babies had huge smiles on their faces :)

The end of birthday celebration week!

A Birthday Celebration!

I was so excited to celebrate these babies! We began the morning with candles on our waffles, a birthday call from Grammy and Grandpa where they opened the cutest books in the whole wide world. We went for a walk with friends, they took a nap, played a while, and then took another nap.  When they awoke we opened presents, ate dinner (lasagna), and then invited friends over to eat cake and sing happy birthday to the babies. It was a great day!

 Bryson's faces

 Quinny's faces

 The birthday boys!

 Casey's Grandpa and Grandma sent them $1 each, so we had Max and Casey go to the dollar store to pick out gifts for them. He found them (really annoyingly loud) little toy trucks they they immediately put in their mouth. Max was SUPER eager to help them open gifts..and then play with their gifts, ha, luckily the babies did not mind.

 Granny and Papa gave them some PJ's and sparkle sticks

 And lastly we got got them these bog stuffed animals that they were over the moon about.

 Our Aunt Katie got them THE CUTEST jackets in the whole wide world. So beyond adorable I can't stand it. Wish they came in my size!

 I'm hoping we'll get lots of use out of them!

Tomorrow: cake!