Rockwell's Blessing Day

Our very last Sunday in the Midvale 7th Ward, before we moved to South Jordan, we blessed Rock. We had started to move our things over to the new house already but since we had so many friends in the ward and Josh had been serving the bishopric we wanted to have him blessed before we left. It was bittersweet to leave the ward we had grown so close to. 

The men that were in the circle: 

Everyone who came except for the few who were at home preparing lunch including Connie, my Mom and Cindy. We had a huge group of people to come support us! We had the lunch at the new house after and it was fun to show it to everyone for the first time. 

Rockwell in his blessing outfit, such a little stud 

Lyla Graduates Preschool

Lyla graduated her first year of preschool. Can't believe she only has one more year until kindergarten, so crazy. They had a little program and it was so adorable

Lyla and her teacher Laurie. She is a very sweet and funny lady, we really enjoyed having her as a teacher this year. Since we are about to move we will have a different teacher for her 2nd year. 

Easter

We went up the night before Easter to dye eggs to get ready for the bunny the next day. 

Lyla loving the cool multi-colored ones

Easter morning

Family picture, just a month out until I'm due with baby #3!

Randi's family was in town and they were staying with my parents and Wally came up that day so we had a lot of fun with so many kids for the Easter Egg Hunt 

Finding an egg in the golf cart! 

Ron and family came up for Easter dinner, and Wally requested a family "plank pose" 

Moving to the New House

We bought our first house! It made us nervous, it was stressful, a lot of decisions about what it should look like. But it was the most exciting thing to watch it being built. We would drive over every week for about 4 months to see what they had worked on since we were there last. It was like Christmas coming to see the additions and watch our vision come together. 

We started moving our stuff during the first few weeks of June and every night after Josh got off of work we would take a load over. It was long and exhausting, but it seemed to be easier at the time to not have to do one big move since we just had Rock a few weeks before. When we finally got settled in it was around the 3rd week of June and was so nice to be there and have our FIRST home! 

We started getting several deliveries from RC Willey like our fridge and couch. That truck made me so happy every time it pulled up! 

Not all the houses on our block were finished so as the last few were finished up they had mounds of dirt, dump trucks, and all kinds of fun construction stuff to play on. 

In July, as part of my birthday, we bought out first awesome outdoor home addition: the swingset. It has been played on every day and the kids love it. Best purchase ever. I put together most of it by myself at night in the garage and then Dad came over to carry it to the back and hook the swing part onto the house. It made it really feel like our own house as we added things into the yard. 

Update on the Kids

Lyla- Almost 4.5 years old
Changes clothes multiple times a day. Favorite outfits right now: Dinosaur Dress (this random pink dress she has that she has deemed the dino dress and I have no idea why but she wears it every day for part of the day.) Also her Blue "Elsa" Dress. It is just a navy dress from Gma Green but the only blue one she owns right now so it has become her Elsa Dress. See Frozen obsession below
Frozen obsessed- can quote first 5 minutes and sings all the songs. Don't even own it, it lives at Grandpa R's house but she talks about it constantly
Gets so much joy out of seeing Rockwell, especially when she wakes up in the morning. Always wants to hold him and asks when he can do things like go swimming and when she can take him down the slide at the park
Graduated from her first year of preschool and did a great job at her end of the year program singing and reciting a poem
Still has her imaginary sister Consume but told me she knows she is pretend but she still talks about her daily and can answer any question about her immediately after you ask her.

McKay- Almost 2.5 years old
Usually wants to hold Rock because Lyla is but otherwise doesn't show a lot of emotion toward him, good or bad. He does like to rub his head a lot and says "hi baby!"
Talking like crazy, full sentences
Loves to sing right now, is always "singing" non-descript songs in the car but also will try to sing along with you with songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider and the ABCs
Likes to read books together, one of his favorites is a truck book and also Brown Bear
One of his favorite things to do is tool around Grandpa's garage and get into everything
Loves to help do whatever you are working on
Always says Thanks, (pause) Mom. I think the pause is so cute
Still always up for a hug and currently tells me "I luh(love) you Mom" all on his own and melts me

Rockwell, 2.5 weeks old
Gained just under an inch and a pound since leaving the hospital!
Has officially eaten every 3-4 hours and poops every time he eats. That approximately is 108-144 feedings and diaper changes, whew! No wonder it feels like that's all we do all day.
Sleeping at night pretty well, just waking up to eat 2 times a night
Pretty sure he is going to have blue eyes
Is the light of our family right now and gets lots of love

Jason

A few weeks before Rockwell was due, Dad went out to visit Jason. His health was declining quickly from the cancer. It had only been about 9 months since he had been diagnosed. They had to stop chemo several times because of infections and it didn't help prolonging his lifespan. We didn't even know up until this time that doctors had only given him a year to live anyway.

Dad was already there 2 weeks before, had helped with medical needs, and also finding a place for him to move because he needed constant care that his girlfriend Jenn (that he was living with at the time) wasn't able to provide. A few days after coming home, Jenn called him very upset and frantic telling Dad that she wasn't sure he was going to last very much longer and needed help. He packed up his things and was going to leave the next day, only by the time he got out there, he had passed away. 

On May 14th, just two days before Rock was born, and a day before they had decided to move him to a health facility, he passed away. He was only 43 years old. Mom and Dad left the next day to help with funeral prep. It tore me up knowing that I would miss the funeral, but because I was already overdue and my induction date was only a few days away, I had to stay. I had Rockwell on the 16th, but since Mom and Dad were now in CA they missed his birth. I really wasn't even upset, I was more concerned about everything they were doing and how it was going. I had Rock on a Friday, and that next Monday, May 19th, they held the funeral at Grandma's church building. If there was any way I could have been there, I would have. Rock was only 2 days old by that point, and it just wasn't feasible. 

I didn't have as close of a relationship with Jason as I wished. I lived in a different state than him most of my life. I did talk to him a few times a year, and was always my back up when I had computer problems. (He was a computer genius!) I always tried to convince him to come to both CO and UT, but his hatred of travelling kept him away. It was an ongoing joke whenever we spoke. I even threatened to just send him a plane ticket one day :)  Even as a half brother, I will always hold memories of him close and think about him often. I am glad though that he was close with the CA family and was able to have the support of a very loving and accepting family.