Arthur

 Arthur is 9 months old! He is cute as a button, built like a linebacker, and has an award winning smile with only two little teeth. He is growing so fast, so here is a random smattering of photos to jog my memory and tell you all about him.

November 3, 2025. Fresh from the womb. He was such an easy baby in the hospital. He slept so much, didn't cry a ton, and ate well. And was SO CUTE. It was so nice to have Beck there helping us! I remember thinking in the hospital that he looked so much like his Aunt Jenna.

November 4, 2025. This is right when we came home from the hospital. The kids were so excited to meet baby brother. We waited til we got home to tell them his name. They liked it. I remember it was so cute hearing Calliope say "Awfor." Abigail in particular was smitten with him. She went on and on about how cute and small he was, and was very gentle as she held his hand and rubbed his head. 

Beck stayed at our house for several days after we came home and her help was invaluable. She was literally like an angel in our home, playing with my kids, letting me sleep, keeping track of his feeding schedule, etc. Mason's mom also came for a couple days to help, and so did Megan! It takes a village, people! I feel normally I am a nervous wreck after I have a baby, but I wasn't this time because of the support. So SO grateful!

November 7. A very squishy boy. This was probably during or right after a feeding. His bassinet was right next to my bed. He has a daddy dimple just like me! A mama dimple!

December 5. Still squishy and sleepy and sweet. I feel like he looks so much like Jenna in this picture.

January 3, 2026. His first trip to Gramps and Grammie's house! Honestly I don't even remember this trip at all. Haha I was tired! Here is Grammie working her magic with him. Introducing my kids to my parents for the first time is one of my favorite experiences ever. I think he met them briefly at Aunt Megan's house before this, at Thanksgiving.

January 6. SO CUTE. And he's got so much to say!

January 19, 2026. It was cold! We were thrilled to be able to put him in his bear suit. This is what he was wearing in our Christmas card photoshoot. He wasn't too sure about being outside at first, but he came around quickly. Look at those cheeks!

February 3, 2026. This happened while I was folding laundry. I'm pretty sure Mason put these undies on him, though I could be wrong. It was fun to see all three kids so snuggly. Calliope didn't really like to snuggle too much with him because his lack of limb control sometimes led to scratches.

March 11. Progressing from a swaddle to sleeping with one arm out. He's growing!

March 18. Once it started warming up outside I tried to take him out every chance I got. He liked to be in his swing, just like his older sisters!I remember he used to reach for that hanging elephant and lion, and he would reach out so tentatively like he was scared to touch it because it was so beautiful or something.

March 24, 2026. Obviously before he could roll over. Cute as a button.

April 10, 2026. I have NEVER in my life seen a child love bath time as much as Arthur does. He created tidal waves constantly, kicked his legs unceasingly, and didn't mind getting his face wet in the slightest. (Note: He is now 9 months of age and this has not changed. Nowadays we keep a towel on the floor during his tub time, and just change our clothes afterwards.)

April 20, 2026. He has so much fun outside. He is completely content. Nowadays he likes to be outside on walks in the stroller or swinging.

April 22, 2026. Abigail always wanted (and still wants) to hold him. We started to get more comfortable with that once he got a little less floppy and boy does she take advantage of that!

April 29. The three yahoos in the hammock.

May 20, 2026. Sitting up like a big boy at the doctor! He sat up so well really early. His posture is impeccable.

May 22, 2026. Callie warmed up to him eventually. They spent a lot of time together while Abigail was in school.

June 2. Going on a walk with Mama. He's always so quiet and content on walks.

June 3. TEETHING. Teething was rough. Also, he LOVES this walker. He's been walking around in it forever. Nowadays he ZOOMS around the kitchen. He can cross the whole thing in like 1 second. We have to be very careful because he will crash in to our ankles and it hurts like heck. Also he loves it because whenever we open the fridge he can ZOOM over to it and start to organize our condiments for us. The kids think that's hilarious, and they aren't wrong.

June 9, 2026. His first trip to the beach! We went to Holden Beach with Mimi and Papa. He really liked the ocean and sitting in the sand. And he even took a nap in our pop up tent! What a guy.

July 14, 2026. His first trip to Ice Cream Alley in McCall! He is a major fan of ice cream.

July 15. Sitting on the McCall beach!

August 9. The MOST HANDSOME BOY in his new church clothes! You can't really tell but he also has a mohawk. This outfit makes me die of cuteness!

Aug 11. He and Callie love to get into mischief together. She laughs and laughs at his antics. Here he is trying to do a little maintenance on the kitchenaid.

Also I don't have a picture of this, but he is very good at turning off lights with the switch. He has been practicing for weeks and weeks. Every time I tell him to hit the light, he puts his hand on the switch, pauses to look at me and smile, and then very carefully maneuvers his thumb to the top of the switch, then flips it. We say yay and get very excited when he's done. It's so much fun!

He is also rolling over super well, he throws his legs and hips over and then whips his torso over after that. Diaper changes have become more like wrestling a crocodile than changing a baby. 

He loves cheerios and all kinds of crackers, all kinds of fruit, fruit/veggie pouches, avocados, tomatoes, ice cream, and greek yogurt. He tolerates pickles and would probably eat a whole long one if I let him. He makes sour faces in between each bite but keeps going back for more.  He does NOT like eggs, or shredded cheese, though I think the cheese is mostly a texture thing.

He is currently sleeping through the night (knock on wood), and will go to bed around 7 and wake up around 6. 

He is entering his stranger danger phase of development but tries his best to be brave when other people hold him. His hair has definitely got a lot of red in it. People keep asking me where he gets that from, and I don't really know, except that Mason's got red in his beard and if the sun hits my hair just right it's got a tiny bit too. 

It's been really fun since he started crawling the week we got home from McCall. He is everywhere which is fun but also hard. He's conked his head on things, smashed his fingers in drawers, pulled lamps over, etc. He is very strong and he likes to use his big muscles. He's gotten quite fast. He's also currently in a phase where he loves to pull my hair and try to scratch my FACE so that is exciting for us both.

We love our Arthur. He's the perfect baby for our family. He is fun and sweet and sometimes snuggly. He makes us laugh our heads off every day. He's tough and smart and strong. He's got a ready smile pretty much all the time. I remember when I was in labor with him I felt so honored to be his mother. I knew he was a special spirit before he was even born. I was right.

2019 Christmas time

So, Christmas happened forever ago. It was fun.

After school got out in early December, Mason and I drove up to Beck and Ben's house in Ohio. It was a long drive but it was so gorgeous. I think our favorite part was driving through Kentucky. The scenery was breathtaking.
Also, we saw this:

Being at the Griffioen's house was SO MUCH FUN. I love going to visit family. We finished filming our Christmas music video while we were there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2rri-QE6A&feature=youtu.be

We also had a fun time playing with the kiddos

Alexa made us this lovely banner for our room

We played in the snow

Mason built this with Lex and Austin. He also had a great time pushing them down the hill on the sled!

Also while we were there, Beck and Ben gave us all of Lex's baby clothes! We haven't had to buy hardly any clothes at all for Abigail. That has been SUCH A BLESSING.

Later, right before Christmas, Lane, Michelle, and Lily drove to Auburn from Las Vegas. We spent a day or two here at Auburn, gave them a tour of campus, ate at Foosackly's, and showed them our little house. It was so fun to see them! One of my favorite moments was when we were walking around campus, and they saw a magnolia pinecone and said, "What is THAT?!" They thought it was cool and weird.

The next day we packed up our Christmas presents and drove to Destin!!!

It was gorgeous

Mason put a chair on a sand bar that was like 50 feet away from the actual shore. It was hilarious!

He convinced Lily to brave the cold water to try it out.

This was our bed!!

We love each other

Basically, Christmas was awesome. It was wonderful have Mason home from school, to be with family, and to spend time at the beach. We are so blessed!

Summer Recap

Let's talk about our (last) summer in Provo. It was SO busy. Between me being in two classes, Mason working, all the packing, my family coming to visit two separate times, the trips to the Parkeses, the trips to the Waite's, the trip to McCall, a trip after that to Las Vegas, and the three day drive to get down to Auburn, we were pretty busy most of the time.

We didn't get to do as much hiking as we would have liked, but we still got to take in the beautiful Wasatch mountains every time we looked out our window, or left our house to go anywhere. I miss the mountains.

When I think back over the summer, what I mostly remember is driving. It seems like we were always on the road headed somewhere far away.

But we also had some fun visitors come! First Ryan and Kaylyn came out to see us. They slept on 2 twin air mattresses in our studio for a few days, and then they spent a few days up at the Waite's house. It was SO fun having them in Provo!

Fresh off the plane! (Mason is paying for parking.)

We hiked the Y (and a little beyond).

Ryan said if we stood like this we'd all look swoll.

We watched a lot of Amazing Race. ("I'll bake the cake," "Because he likes to DRINK beer.")

Played a lot of Nertz.

Walked around the new temple:

We went to Cafe Rio. Ryan and Kaylyn liked it so much, they ate it again in the Salt Lake airport on their way home!

We saw the Provo River being fuller than I've ever seen it, and went to Bridal Veil Falls. The water was freezing!

We went to a concert in Park City to see a band called Superbubble. They played funk. It was a little weird.

We took them on a tour of campus:

We went to Swig like 100 times, and somehow this is the only picture I have documenting it:

We took the train up to Shell and Nate's house, and on the way we taught ourselves to play Texas Hold 'Em. (Although Ryan pretty much knew how to play already.) Also, Kaylyn had to use the train bathroom to change her pants, and she was so afraid of it! But she did it anyway. I've never used the bathrooms on there. Or on an airplane.

Then once we were in Layton, Nate took us on a canyon adventure while Shell stayed home with the kids. It was weird doing that without Michelle there... all the rappels seemed so much scarier!

Ryan and Kaylyn both were climbing all over the place the entire time! And they enjoyed hiding behind rocks and trying to scare us. It worked one time.

Kaylyn lookin fly in the slot canyon

Team building

Smiles all around

Nate, our fearless leader

 Ryan rappelling

Mason being cute

Who's buns are those way up there?

Why, they're mine, thank you for asking. This was a big scary rappel. I think it was about 80-90 feet, if I'm remembering right. I had a nosebleed right before I went down. There were tons of biting flies at the top. And it was so scary!

SO RELIEVED TO BE DONE.

And then Kaylyn blew through this one like a total champ!

And then nate put us all to shame with the record descent.

We had to cross some really cold water!

And then Ryan stepped on a cactus in his bare foot. (His shoe and sock had a giant hole that left his big toe totally exposed!

And then on the hike back to the car, we got to see some amazing views

We explored around Temple Square in Salt Lake.

We weenie roasted and Kaylyn taught a bunch of people songs on her ukulele.

And of course I can't leave out these two gems.

It was a blast. I hope Ryan and Kaylyn consider going to BYU one day, because it is a special place, and living by the Waites ROCKS.

Then, just a little while after Ryan and Kaylyn were home in GA, the Griffioens came out to play! It was so great to see them. We did a lot of the same things with them as we did with Ryan and Kaylyn, anthough I didn't take nearly as many pictures. I did really enjoy one night when Beck and Ben met Mason and I at Swig, and then went back to our apartment to play Nertz. They are so fun! (Also, it's a good thing we saw them that night, because we reminded them their flight was the next day. They thought it was the day after. That was a close one!)

It was also so fun seeing their kids. We spent some time up at the Waite's house again with the Griffioens and it was fun to see all the kids playing together.

We also picked the neighbors raspberries, which were delicious!

The trip to McCall is always such a treat. It is fun seeing Mason's family and spending time with everyone. The highlights for me this year were playing frisbee golf with Maddie and Tony, going on the ski-do things (basically giant jet skis), and playing corn hole with my peeps. I love this reunion! Also, as an added bonus this year, Mason's parents got a sweet cabin within walking distance from the place we usually stay. Mason and I slept there the first night, but then we roughed it in our tent by the lake the rest of the week. As per tradition.

Also, Mason and I did a race! Neither of us trained too intensely for it, ha, but we both had a good time. It was called The Wasatch Half/10K. Mason did the half, I did the half of the half. It was so beautiful. It was fun to actually not care about my time and to just take it slow and have fun.

That same day (a Saturday) we drove down to Vegas to see the Parkeses for our last hurrah. Mason forgot to bring his church clothes! Luckily he had some old clothes from high school still in his closet. (Which afterward, we cleaned out thoroughly!)

On our drive back, we hit a deer on the highway outside of Fillmore. The thing totalled our car! We are so grateful we are both ok. We were going about 80 mph when we hit it!

It ended up being a tender mercy. We were both ok, we got some money from our insurance, and we didn't have to tow our car behind us on our drive to Alabama, saving us money on the trailer and the truck (we got a 12' instead of 16'). Also, everyone we had to work with after this (AAA, the highway patrol guy, Progressive...) was so nice and helpful and explained how everything works in great detail to these two ignorant college kids.

Then the rest of the summer was filled with packing and loading and taking finals and quizzes early.

 Our vacuum just decided to completely die while we were doing our final cleaning. 

All loaded up in our 12' budget truck!

I'll save pictures from the drive for another post.

The things I miss the most about Utah are:
-The dryness. It is SO HUMID HERE.
-The mountains.
-And most of all: the Waites. I miss being close to them. I wish they could move to Auburn so we could still hang out all the time.

I realize that I missed a couple things we did this summer, like hiking Horseshoe Canyon with the Waites, for example, and our last hurrah at their house where we just sat around and talked for like 4 hours. But an incomplete blog post is better than no blog post!