Being a mama

Even though on Mother's Day we celebrate our moms, I always feel like celebrating the boy who made me a mom. I feel indebted to him and my Heavenly Father for entrusting him to me and for letting me be his mama. There truly is no greater calling or role in life. I'm grateful for mothers everywhere and for the many beautiful women, mothers or not, that have influenced my life. Where would be without mamas, am I right? And a special shout out to the boy who made me a mom, I love you forever Hayesie boy and being your mama is the by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. Yay for Mom! 

Walking/ Running with my Hayesie boy

I have literally walked/run with boy since the day he was born. I am so happy it's something he still enjoys doing with me, and honestly, I hope he will always still want to go for a walk with me. This time with him is something I will always cherish. I'm convinced our walks have made him smarter and us closer. I love this little guy and our walks more than I can say! 

Billy Joel 04.30.16

We were SO excited when we saw that Billy Joel was going back on tour and that he was coming to Vegas. We were even more excited when my dad said he wanted to go too! The show was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun! I also got Dad to take his first selfie! :) 

Cotton Days 04.30.16

When I was a little kid I remember Cotton Days was such a fun thing I always looked forward to going to and participating in. This year we took Hayes down and he loved it too! It was a lot different than I remember, but it was still so fun to go and show Sam and Hayes something that I always loved as a kid. I only took this one lonely photo, but at least it's a good one :) 

Cousin time with Coop

Coop has been so good for Hayes. He loves to have him around, but hates sharing his toys with him (so it's been a really good learning experience for Hayes). Hayes is really sweet though and absolutely loves his cousin. He was THRILLED when he realized they had jammies that looked alike! I can hardly wait to see these two grow up together! 

Fwends!! 04.2016

We have some really sweet neighbor boys that are so good to our Hayes. The Hardy's boys are so cute and come over and play with him and include him in whatever they are playing outside. After we got back from California, Hayes was absolutely thrilled that his friends came over and played with him. They rode scooters and played with chalk and he was on cloud 9! We are so lucky to have such sweet neighbor kids that will spend some of their time with Hayes! 

Disneyland 2016 edition

Our next day in California we went to DISNEYLAND! This was so much fun (and exhausting). We played and ate treats and about half way through the day we headed back to the hotel where Hayes took a 3 hour nap. We all had a good nap in fact. Then we headed back to the park and enjoyed the rest of the time well rest, and with much cooler temps. Hayes absolutely loved the Dumbo ride and Buzz Lightyear. 

(Seriously, I'm writing this a month and a half later and he's still talking about going to the hotel then riding on the elephant and Buzz Lightyear, his memory is amazing actually.) 

I'm so happy we could go and have this fun trip. It really was such a fun experience and I hope there are many more trips just like it in our future! 

The Beach April, 2016

We decided that for part of Hayes's birthday (and partially just because) we would head down to California and spend time. Our first stop- Huntington Beach. Hayes was not a huge fan of the water at first, but slowly warmed up to it. He loved when Sam buried him in the sand!  The water was so different this time because there was a huge sand bar just a few feet out, so I found SO many sand dollars! It was amazing! 

I always love coming to this beach and we always seem to have the best time, this go around was no exception! What great memories! 

Hayes is 3!!

Then all of the sudden he turned 3!! I can't hardly believe it! 

With our pre-birthday celebration behind us, we woke up on the 13th ready to take on 3! Hayes told me that three year olds eat donuts for breakfast, play at the park and have birthday cake, so that's what we did! He was thrilled to have presents and cards in the mail and to blow out his birthday candles, he also stuck his finger in the frosting after he blew out his candles. hahaha. 

Hayes also had to the go the doctor on his birthday, and although getting weighed and measured is pretty traumatic for him, he did good and we were happy to hear he is still a happy healthy boy! 

Since he's three I figured I'd share his three favorite things in a few categories:

Favorite Foods:

1. Mac and Cheese

2. Apples

3. Chocolate 

Favorite activity:

1. Splash pad

2. Park

3. Jumping on the tramp

Favorite people

1. Dad 

2. Mom

3. Gator

Favorite Words:

1. MOM!! 

2. "I have an idea"

3. "Guess what?!" 

We are so lucky to have this wild and equally sweet boy in our lives! 

Happy Birthday Hayesie Boy! 

Pre Birthday day of fun!

I decided to start a new fun tradition of trying to make Hayes's day before his birthday special too, just a different kind of special. A lot of times on your birthday you have a birthday party and family and friends around and it gets a little chaotic. The pre-birthday celebration is just him and me doing our favorite things together to celebrate his last day of being whatever age he is. 

This year we picked all of his favorite "Two Year Old" things. So we went to the splash pad and made cookies and painted and played in the pool out back. We spent the day enjoy being 2 and doing what 2 year olds love before he turned three. It was a special day for the two of us and I think I might have loved it more than he did. 

Miles for smiles 5k

My cousin invited us to come run a race in Cedar and since we had all been running we agreed. It was only a 5k but per usual we were all still a little nervous. Ash and I laughed when we realized we showed up in a very similar outfit. The race ended up being a lot of fun and was around the little lake in Cedar. It was fun to go and spend the morning with our family. 

Salt Lake April, 2016

The first weekend in April we headed up to Salt Lake. We had a lot of things planned and we were excited to see our family. Hayesie loved playing with Cooper and all of his toys. We had fun time walking around Kati's neighborhood and getting treats and food at the food trucks. 

 On the first night we got there I went to the Justin Bieber Concert with Syd, Ali, and Brooke. It was so much fun. 

The next day (Sunday), Sam and I had a chance to go to General Conference with his family. It was really so cool to go and to get to experience that in person. I felt like we went to such a great session and I loved getting to see all of the General Authorities in person. While we were at Conference Kati and Ash watched Hayes for us. They made his wildest dreams come true when the walked to the fire station and the fire fighters were inside and let him sit in the fire truck. He talked about it the whole drive home.