Easton- 4 months old

I thought that having 5 kids could no way be harder for me then it was when I had 4.  I mean when Brett was born Stockton was only 18 months old and It was insane! But low and behold I was wrong. Easton has been a hard baby. I'm pretty sure I haven't had one as fussy as him.  None of my kids took a binky so that always makes things harder too.  Finally now that he is 4 months old he is getting a little easier.  He sometimes sleeps through the night but it's super hit and miss.  Some nights he is up every hour and then the next night he sleeps all night.  He is starting to love toys and tries to eat all of them.  He doesn't roll yet but he does want to sit up all the time.  Easton has his daddy wrapped around his finger.  All my boys say he is their favorite brother. 

 He is so healthy! Only a few minor stuffy noses for this kid.  He loves attention.  He loves to have someone talking to him.  It doesn't take much to get him to smile or giggle. If I'm holding him he wants to stand up and jump on my lap.  He melts my heart.  I'm so lucky I get to be his mom.

December

For the sake of time that I really don't have I'm not going to do as many posts about our December.  Here is a quick month in review: 

My brother and his wife blessed their new baby Jett the first weekend.  

 Our annual friend Christmas party was awesome this year! The white elephant gifts really do get better every year! We are lucky to have such wonderful friends!

Bryan captioned this "I just did a little christmas toot" 

 The ward party- sleepy East with Santa

 The first official day of Christmas break we had a ton of new snow.  It was the prefect time to build a snowman. 

 Blake did Jr. River hawks basketball.  We never saw his coach...not sure why the guy signed up they never showed up. Bryan stepped in a lot and helped out.

 This is Bryan and a guy in our ward who helped coach Blakes team.

 Christmas break at Grandma's- I do have pictures of my kids at her house too.. but oh well.  Everyone went to see the new Star Wars movie and we mostly hung out at their house.

Christmas eve! My wonderful Grandma Jenkins came to spend it with us.  It is her first one without my Grandpa or Martha so I wanted it to be nice.  Bryan cooked a really yummy dinner and we watched "it's a wonderful life".  One of the greatest movies of all time.  She loved it and so did we.  My parents were also with us this year and that made it so much fun.

Christmas morning Easton was still asleep so he missed the pre present picture.

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was so nice to just hang out at home.  

Palmer Christmas Party

Every year we have Santa come and give the kids presents with the Palmers.  This year two of the 5 families live across the country so they missed out but we had fun anyway.  It was Eastons first time with Santa! 

My amazing aunt Martha

It occurred to me the other day that all the people we have been praying a lot for this year have died. My boys have said to me this is the year of death. Blah it feels like they are right. We started off the year with the death of our friend Alan Blad. From cancer. I hate cancer. Then we lost my beloved grandpa Lowell Jenkins July. During that same time my amazing aunt Martha went from doing pretty good with her cancer to having a kidney infection to being put on hospice. It's been a long 5 months for her on hospice. They didn't think she would last a day off her ventilator but she did. I was lucky to go see her a couple of times before she passed. The first time I went it was just after my stupid kidney stones and I wasn't feeling the best but my mom was in town and we decided to go see her. Martha's eyes filled with tears as she told me how touched she was I would take time out of my busy life and not feeling well with my kidney stones and come see her. I was embarrassed she felt that way to be honest. I didn't feel deserving of her thoughts and prayers (she told me she was offering for me) while she lay in bed not being able to really move. Let me tell you about this angel on earth.

Martha is my moms oldest sister. My whole life I have loved her. To know her is to love her. There is not one piece of her that was possible to not love because she was the most amazing person. She is the only person I know who really had charity for everyone. She showed love and kindness to everyone she met. She made you feel so important to be around her. Your happiness is always more important then her own. She never never said an unkind word about anyone.  Her kids don't even remember her talking down about anyone.

I spent the summer of 2004 working at my families paint store- Bennetts Paint. Martha is the local expert on paint colors and had the best eye for color.  She really was talented.  What a honor it was to work with her.  Even last June I had her over to my house looking at my carpet to help me pick a color to paint the babies room.  I never got around to painting it though.  Anyway when I worked with her she would have this huge line of people waiting for her to help them with their paint and the rest of us would be standing around.  We would help her where we could.  There were many days she would be eating lunch at 5pm because she was so busy and could never tell someone no. If you needed help she would want to be there to help you.  She was just that sort of person.

5 years ago we found out she had breast cancer.  After going through treatment for the next year or so she was ruled cancer free! She enjoyed some time with her family and her grandchildren, which were the light of her life.  In the spring of 2014 she found out that the cancer had come back but was now in her bones.  She was very, very sick and in a lot of pain for much of that year. That fall they changed up her meds and she felt well enough for me to take her family pictures.  I will always consider it a honor that she asked me to take them.  I felt like at the time they would be their last family photos together and I was right. I'll never forgot after we were done being at her house and she made this big meal for everyone.  She insisted I stay to eat because she had made enough for me and my family but my boys were home with Bryan.  She was so tired and worn out from all her health problems but she was still running around her kitchen trying to get everything ready.  She was out of breath even but would never complain.  I got to show all the edited photos to her soon after and she was so happy with how they turned out.  When she got the big group photo printed she was showing it to me all framed in her living room.  She kept telling me how happy she was about it and how as soon as I decided to start a business she was going to tell all her friends about me.

That December I bought her a simple little meal while she was not doing very well.  I came in to say hi for a minute but insisted they start eating before it got cold.  (they is Martha and her daughter Emily). Martha said the prayer and with tears streaming down her face said how grateful she was of me bringing her this meal.  I felt so underserving of her love.  It was such a simple thing for me to just make some extra food but she just appreciated it so much.  Again, no one made you feel so loved as Martha.

Fast forward to July- the day after my Grandpa Jenkins went on hospice Martha had a bad kidney stone attack.  Because of her chemo her body got an infection from that and couldn't fight it.  Her body crashed and she wasn't about to breath on her own.  She missed Grandpa's funeral because she wasn't even really awake in the hospital. She beat the odds and lived after they took her breathing tubes out. She lived another 5 more months on hospice.  I went to visit her for the first time after I had my own dumb kidney stone and was honesty feeling really crappy.  She had never seen my baby and I wanted her to meet him.  She was always so loving to my kids.  Martha teared up and thanked me for taking the time to see her.  I felt bad I haven't been to see her sooner so I again felt so underserving of her love.

She died the 5th day of December.  I feel like their is a whole in my heart from her passing.  Even though I didn't get to see her all the time I feel like something is missing by knowing she is gone.  I loved her so much.  I will miss her hugs and kind words.  I wish I was more like her.  I wish I could tell her I love her again.  I hope she knows.

Child Lab

I really loved the USU child lab for preschool for Stockton. He looked forward to it everyday.  He would tell me all about his friends and his teachers.  Most of the time he didn't remember anyones name.  The teachers told me he usually just called the kids "hey best friend!". He always came home covered in paint and with lots of drawings.  He had a journal that he filled with tons of pictures.  They would go somewhere every week on a field trip and he loved seeing new things.  Its was a pain to drive him there every day- it was 4 days a week for 2 1/2 hrs) but he loved it so much I put up with it.  I have to admit now he is home all the time I love how much it has freed up my life.  Because he did a semester in the spring I only planned on him doing fall which is what they told me he could do.  They were going to let him in one more semester but I decided to have him home and help him get ready for kindergarten. 

 His fav teacher Gloria- she was the head teacher and was great for Stock

 He had two teacher Lindsays  The one below came to our house to meet up with stock.  She was so cute with him.

 This is his best buddy Miles.  He will miss him.