Rancheria Falls

Michael:

was so busy this week and the boys didn't see much at all of him until the weekend. In fact, all my pictures this week are from Saturday and Sunday. The other days were kind of just survival around here. Michael found a fun hike for us Saturday and I love that he loves to do fun things with us whenever he has time off. He's exhausted but still loves to play with us, and it makes me so grateful. He put lights up on our house and the boys love it! He also helped put together Bennett's new carseat, which I was grateful for because Michael is just naturally good at that stuff. I read instruction manuals for a long time, look at videos, look at the instruction manual again, and then mess with stuff. Michael just, messes with it. And we get the same result. Drives me crazy, slash, I love it. 

Maddie:

loved hiking with my boys Saturday, but we got stuck in snow on the drive there and I hated that. After we fixed the situation (and helped the car behind us fix the same situation) Michael said, "That stresses you out, huh... that just added to my day!" Haha he loves stuff like that? I love him. Michael didn't get to come to church with us Sunday because of being on call, and those Sundays always exhaust me. Doing sharing time with Bennett crawling around is not my favorite. But I taught about the Light the World campaign and I had a strong feeling of just how much children can do just that. Every child deserves to know how much Jesus Christ loves them, how much He has done for them, and how much they can do for others.

Westin:

is really struggling with how little dad is around, and it's resulting in a lot of anger. I'm exhausted by it. And also just feeling really bad that I haven't figured out the best way to deal with it yet. I even finally brought it up to our pediatrician this week, and he helped me think of some things to try. Mostly, I just really love Westin and I know he's a kind and tender boy and I feel bad that in his circumstances he doesn't really know how to act that way right now. I just want him to know he's loved, and I want him to share a really positive relationship with Bennett. This sweet boy is just on my mind a lot right now and I just think parenting is going to get harder and harder, but also better all the time. Right? I hope that's right...

Bennett:

is just overflowing with joy and I am SO GRATEFUL he is mine. He brightens my days so much. He's going to take his first steps any minute. I love how he practices standing and then looks at me with this cute look like, "Should I do it? Should I step?" He looks so big in his new carseat. He has learned that if he screams loud, Westin screams loud back, and it's a favorite "game" of theirs...  they scream and laugh and scream and laugh. While I'm standing by trying to have patience with it because I don't want to stop any positive interaction between these two. But, #screaming. Bennett is a solid sleeper and is pretty much down to one nap a day. I still do two naps a couple times a week when the transition seems to catch up with him and he's extra tired. It's fun to have our mornings back, but now preschool and scripture study with Westin has kind of been lost in the shuffle because we have no one-on-one time together.

And I'm just now realizing that probably factors into the frustrated Westin I described above.

Huh.

I'll figure that out.

Pictures from the weekend!