Boise Trip

We headed over to Boise next to meet Kate and visit Megan and Ryan.

As you can see Kate and Tirzah were instant friends! Kate shared her toys so well maybe we will come visit again.

Kate is 4 months and Tirzah is 3 months.

Bella was also excited to have friends to play with and this trio was more than willing to play. They did get a little too strong with not enough coordiation once or twice and some of Bella's toys ended up on the roof instead of on the grass to retreive!

Looks like fun in there!

Don't mind if I do joint you!
It took forever to fill the tiny pool because everyone wanted to be sprayed.

Thank you Ryan, Megan, Kate and Bella!

Cabin with the Henwoods

My cousin Whitney came to visit while I was in Idaho. We made a quick day trip to the cabin together. I think the temperature was in the high 70s so the kids were very timid about getting in the freezing river water. By the end of the afternoon, though, all the big kids had ventured in. This picture was taken right before Izzy lost her footing and started floating downstream. None of the adults had bathing suits on and were reluctant to jump in to save her. Eventually I was able to get the canoe paddled over to her to grab onto. She was pretty upset about floating away, but it was kind of hard not to laugh because Callum, her older brother, was standing right next to her waist deep in the water saying, "just put your feet down Izzy!" She said she was trying to keep her flip flops on her feet and couldn't keep them on and stand up with the water pulling them away. I was just glad she had the life jacket on, even though she is a very good swimmer.

Twin cousins.

Rylie and Izzy
Part of our crew.
Rylie-Izzy-Mason-Callum-Zach-Tate
Taking naps are Tirzah and Whitney's three-2 year olds and Katelyn, who came to help us with all those kids!

We love Idaho!

We were able to spend Father's Day with my Dad. He spent so much time doing major tune ups on all the bikes available. I think he had 15 bikes ready ranging from training wheels to Grandma style. He even had a bike trailer we could use. Rylie and Mason had a blast biking around the drive way and down the road a ways. He earned all his praise and adoration we gave him for Father's Day.

The pacifier cousins on their twiner blankets from Nana.
I found Zach like this on Olivia's bed when I check on him one night. They were both sound asleep. He loves Olivia just as much as Rylie and Mason do. She is such a good Aunt to them and entertains them the whole time we are visiting. She would go to dance at 6:00 AM and dance hard all morning then come home and entertain all afternoon and evening. What a gal. My dad even hauled all those bikes up to the cabin so we could go for a ride down the road. I have great memories of bike riding at the cabin with my family and am so glad my kids get to do the same thing. Rylie just learned how to ride without training wheels in May and she did great on the gravel/rock road. She was a little banged up by the end, but was still happy to get back on her bike.

The bike my mom is riding is mine from my preteen years. When you have two garages and two sheds to store things in I guess you can keep everyone's bikes throughout the years. I highly doubt we will have Rylie's first bike for her children to ride when they come visit. It was so nice to have something for everyone.
Meeting Grandpa and Granny for the first time.

Mason's graduation from the YMCA preschool

Mason attended the YMCA preschool all day Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in January when we moved here. As part of their curriculum they had swimming lessons every Tuesday mornings. His favorite week was the dinosaur one. He couldn't stop talking about all the cool things he learned about dinosaurs.

Mrs. Wilkens was a great teacher.


Megan was the aide in the classroom.

Ty was Mason's best friend.

Mason and Zach spent most of each day like this the first two months of Tirzah's life. They really love her and wanted to show her everything they could. Every sound she made, every movement her hands and feets did was amazing and had to be reenacted by them to anyone and everyone. Mason has alread heard her first words and translated them for the rest of us - wow and yes. She really kind of enjoys/tolerates their love for quite a while. She doesn't look away from them until towards the end of this video and it is long. I think she loves their attention.

Just for Nana.

Mason has been dying to go to Space Aliens to eat since we moved here. So for his birthday that is what we did. After playing the games and winning tokens this is what he traded them in for. He really wanted me to take this series of pictures and send them to Nana to show her how cool they were.

Tirzah's Blessing

My family came to stay the weekend we blessed Tirzah. They drove 11 hours to be with us for a day and a half then drove another 11 hours to get the boys home for school Monday. If they didn't miss any more days of school they didn't have to take finals! It was very special to have my dad there to participate in the blessing and to spend a little bit of time with everyone at our new home in Bismarck.

We went down to the river for the first time and walked along the path. It was the first warm day we have had since moving there in January. I was a good thing we went because then it was cold again and then it flooded and it is still under several feet of water.

We found some great trees to climb and take pictures in.

Mason just recently decided he was afraid of heights. Jacob threw him in the air a few weeks before this to reach a balloon on the ceiling and he freaked out. He fell to the floor hanging onto the carpet for dear life. See how he is hanging onto that limb. He really wanted to be in the tree, but was terrified the whole time.

Very charming boys.

Zach wanted his picture taken in a different place.

The blessing Jacob gave Tirzah was beautiful.

An updated family picture.



I am so glad my family made such an effort to be with us on this special weekend.

My mom made that beautiful white blanket for me when I had Rylie. I have been so excited to use it again with Tirzah.



Happy Mother's Day!

I loved sharing this day with my mom and my new daughter. What better way is there to celebrate Mother's Day than hosting my mom in my home and hearing my husband use his priesthood to bless our daughter with my dad participating as well.