2018

A whole year went by and I didn't blog once! How crazy! I just want to do a highlight from 2018 and do a little update on all the kids and how life is going! It might be a little long but I feel like I need to document this last year so I don't forget it all!
Rafe turned 6!!! I can't believe he is that old. I seriously hate my kids growing up. His next birthday is just a week away and he'll be 7 and I want to cry. It goes by too fast!!!! But on his 6th birthday, my sister had her baby, Henry, so I was at the hospital with her that morning. I got to be in the delivery room and it was seriously one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. She did amazing and her little boy is one of the sweetest little guys ever! It's one thing to have your own birthing experiences, and mine weren't always magical, but to see your sister go through that moment was seriously something so special. I'll never forget it!
So after Henry was born, I headed back to my parents to get some sleep before we started the birthday celebrations for Rafe. I stopped on the way home to grab some donuts for breakfast, he LOVES donuts! It's kind of a birthday tradition to have donuts for breakfast. That day we went to wahooz and let the kids play their little hearts out. We went to lunch, grabbed some cupcakes and ice cream and a redbox and just had a little movie night/birthday party with our little family. My family was helping shaunie and tyler and were visiting them in the hospital so it was just our little family for most the day. But it was a special day and now he gets to share his birthday with his sweet little cousin!

Dan and I celebrated 9 years of marriage! Crazy to think it's been that long! I love that man, and would chose him a million times over!

For spring break, we took the 18 hr drive to Monterey to see Joe and Thea and their girls. The trip started off great. We had fun staying in the hotel and swimming and ordered pizza and just had a good time. Sleeping in one hotel room with two babies is a nightmare though! One little sound and they wake up and everyone else! Once we got to Joe and Thea's we had a nice evening together. it was st. Patricks day so we watched boondocks saints-one of dan's favorites! And Dan's family has a lot of Irish in them so he loves to celebrate St. Pattys. During the movie he kept complaining about his lower back hurting. So I was trying to rub it and help him out, but it didn't subside, and was just getting worse. Joe has lots of experience with kidney stones so when dan told him what he was experiencing, Joe knew exactly what was going on. So after making Dan work out the pain for a few hours I finally agreed to let him go to the emergency room. That sounds so mean, I know, But we were in a different state and I wasn't sure if our insurance would work or not. So I was hesitant because ER trips are not cheap. I was hoping it would subside. It didn't. So he went and got lots of pain killers and stayed the rest of the night there. He was pretty drugged up the rest of our trip. We were still able to do some fun things even though Dan was pretty drugged up! haha Joe and Thea got us into the monterey aquarium, which was so amazing! So we did that for two days. We took the kids to the beach and let them play while we played bocce ball. They have the coolest park and I think we hit that up twice, maybe three times! Dan finally passed his kidney stone but at the point I was so burned out. He was able to go golfing with Joe and had so much fun, then we headed out the next day. I was dreading that drive home and everything that came with it, so I just wanted to rip the bandaid off. That dang kidney stone put a damper on our trip, but I am so glad that we went and saw joe and thea and got to hang out with them for a few days! I wished we lived closer!!

We had a good Easter, my family came to hang out with us that weekend. We colored eggs, and had an easter egg hunt and a big dinner. The usual! I'm sure we played about 20 rounds of pinochle while they were here too! It's always fun to have family around for holidays!

The boys were both in soccer for two seasons. They have grown so much and are so fun to watch! It gets a little crazy with different practices and game times. It seems like it's all we do! So we took the winter off from sports to just slow down a little. They both also played machine pitch baseball. Also a lot of fun to watch and see them grow as players. But so hard to sit and watch with jag and Rocky trying to run everywhere! Rafe also played flag football in the fall and that was pretty boring. Hahaha I think i'm going to pass on signing him up for that for a few years until it's a little more fun. I couldn't get Damon in on a team, he was pretty bummed. This year we will probably let them each pick two sports to play. I also want to get them into piano or guitar lessons. They got guitars for Christmas and I would love to have them start learning how to play!

We had a busy summer full of friends and family coming to visit, sports, birthdays, and fun celebrations.

Dan's parent's came to visit for a week or so! They were here for Damon's baptism, which was so nice! I love that even though they are far away, they always make an effort to make it to these big moments! It will be special for damon to look back and remember that they were there and the effort it took for them to come across the US for him. We had lots of fun while they were here! We played lots of games, ate lots of good food, had a fire in the backyard and had smores, and just enjoyed eachothers company! We sure love grammy Val and Papa Tom!

Damon turned 8, we had a huge water party in our backyard with 18 little boys and 5 dozen donuts that were devoured so fast! They had such a good time! Damon was baptized and was lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents here to be apart of his special day! We also had tim and mikiah, colby and lia, and shaunie and tyler. It was such a special day. I can't believe that we are already to that point. 8 years old. It just blows my mind. Damon is such a sweet boy. He's so loving and conscious of others and their feelings. He's the best big brother, best helper, he is so smart and tries so hard at school, he's sensitive, has lots of friends, and tries so hard to be a good boy. And he is. I'm so lucky to be his mom and watch him grow into the sweet boy he is today!

Rocky turned one and we had a fun time celebrating her! It was so fun to make her unicorn cake and dress her up and take her pictures. She is such a fiesty little girl! She is bossy and independent and just everywhere all the time! She started walking the week of her birthday and has been running everywhere ever since! She loves her brothers and they adore her! She is just our little doll! I love to dress her up and paint her toe nails and just do all the little girl things with her. She is still super bald, has little gapped teeth like her momma, and the bluest eyes I've ever seen. Everyone always stops and comments on how blue her eyes are. She's got long dark eyelashes that just make them pop even more. She's beautiful and sweet, but also so sassy. She likes to hit and slap you right in the face. She shows no remorse and just scowls at you like it's all your fault. She also has the LOUDEST and HIGHEST scream you've ever heard. It hasn't gone away yet despite all my prayers. It seriously is the worst sound ever. We are totally those people in the restaurant when the baby screams and everyone stops and looks. Yeah, that's not fun. hahaha hopefully someday soon it will go away or just tone down a few octaves!

It was weird to think it was the last time we will be celebrating a one year old birthday party though. I love having babies and seeing them grow up, but I am ready for the next chapter.

The end of june, beginning of July, we went to Mccall with my family. We went four wheeling and exploring in the mountains, we went swimming, watched movies, played games, and just hung out as a family and it was so much fun! My boys are obsessed with fourwheelers and grandpa's big truck. They love being with everyone! It's great getting together with all my siblings and their kids and my parents and just creating memories. It was a great week! Then we headed to Melba for the fourth of July and stayed for a few days after then headed home. The 4th of July is usually when my Heiner side all gets together for a family reunion of sorts. Its always so great to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins. We have such a huge family, so it's always nice to see everyone!

In august I got to go to Lake Powell with some of my favorite people! I love to waterski and wakeboard, and I used to go all the time growing up. Being married, living far away, and always pregnant or nursing a baby makes it hard to go! I was able to go with Mike and my dad about 4 years ago, and I had so much fun! Mike and my dad go every year and meet up with some of mike's family, they have the house boat and mike brings his ski boat and they just party all week. So after going that first time, I've been desperate to go again! So I  invited myself and luckily it all worked out! Tim and Mikiah and Dan managed the kids while I was gone and I went and just had so much fun! I feel like I'm with long lost family when I'm with the Tenneys, Whitings, and English's! They are seriously some of the best people i've ever met and I will always cherish my week in Lake powell with them! It was such a nice break. I've been struggling with Post Partum depression and anxiety and having that week to myself to just escape my mom responsibilities did so much for me. That might sound bad to some people, but when you're a mom or dad, you always take a back seat to your children's needs. Your hobbies and things you love to do kind of dissapear and you just focus every day on them and their needs and keeping everyone happy and alive! haha It's exhausting. And having Raquel really kicked my butt and I just felt like I was running on fumes forever! Sometimes it still feels like that, but it's getting better! That week away just helped me balance out a little better and come back energized and ready to tackle all my mom responsibilities! Of course I had mom guilt while I was gone, I hate that. But for the most part I was able to just relax and have fun knowing that my kids were taken care of while I took some time to myself.



To be continued!