Easter

Easter this year was pretty low-key- that's kind of been the theme for this year :) I've totally been slacking on taking pictures and the bulk of March and April were spent getting ready for Kyle's big musical Mary Poppins, so other things just didn't get that much attention. We did make a point to dye some eggs, the kids got Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny, and we did a small egg hunt at Grandma's house after dinner. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Baby GIRL

With my past three kids, I've really hated being pregnant. I still do, but I'm really trying to embrace it this time. Part of the way I'm trying to do that is weekly shots of the growing bump/baby. I took at 6-week "before" picture, but really started weekly at 17 weeks, so I'll just start there (partly because Photos on my computer is lame and I can't find it), but that's okay- we get to skip the "you just look fat" phase :)

 The 17 week and 22 week pictures compared make me feel HUGE but THAT'S OKAY! Because I'm growing a child! It is pure craziness to me that a baby can grow so quickly. It went from being the size of a poppy seed to a whole pound in like 16 weeks! Around 20 weeks we found out this little one is a GIRL! Macy was neutral- she kind of wanted a boy so that it would be an even family, London was ecstatic- she wanted to share a room with the baby, and Bentley said "Oh. well, we'll just have to figure it out"... he really wanted to share his room with baby too.  I am so excited to have a newborn/baby in the house again. Bentley will be 4 in July, so it's been awhile since we've had a baby around here!

Macy's 7!

For Macy's birthday this year, she thought it would be fun to have a birthday party with the Carbonneau side of the family. We invited everyone to my parents house and then headed down on Friday night. Kyle and I hit the Phoenix Temple on Saturday morning- this was our attempt at a selfie- but the sun was WAY too bright that morning.

Funny/Sad side story. We had brought the kids bikes with us because it's beautiful in the valley right now and they needed some practice. While we were at the temple my Dad was helping London learn a few things on her bike without training wheels (mainly how to stop) and she took a pretty hard fall on the concrete. This picture doesn't so it justice, but she had a pretty swollen cheek and cute black eye. Even now (March 2016) she still has a bit of a hematoma underneath her skin from the bruise. It's gotten much smaller in the last month or so, but it's taken quite awhile to heal.

 Saturday night we all watched the Cardinals game together, minus Chris and Kati. It was pretty intense and a really good game. We had mozzerella sticks (they were playing Green Bay) and BBQed. It was a fun night!

After church the next day Chris and Kati, Steven and Meghan, and Derek and Alison all came out and we had a small party for Macy. Her only wish was a purple chocolate cake- easy peasy!

 These three had a lot of fun playing together with Macy's new lego set. She loves horses so we picked up a lego horse set for her. She still plays with it! Win!

Macy is such a smart girl and has become an amazing reader- seriously! Bragging moment: she took the DIBELS test at school and her teacher e-mailed us to tell us she got 100% accuracy on her nonsense words AND finished them all in like 48 seconds. That's a big deal! She finished the other portion with 99% accuracy. She said her growth isn't even on the 1st grade chart anymore- yay Macy! She picks up on things so fast and is really trying to read how people are feeling and wants to make you happy. She loves spending time with the family as a whole and going and doing things together. Her new favorite thing is playing frisbee golf with Kyle. We love Macy!

Bentley's sweet heart

Since Bentley was a baby his doctor has mentioned a little heart murmur. There has always been a reason it might be there (ear infection, sick, he's just little...) and we hadn't ever gotten it checked out. He ended up needing to get some shots for preschool and I really didn't want to drive to Snowflake, so I made him an appointment with a doctor at the new Summit Healthcare space here in Holbrook. The doctor there noticed a murmur and asked if we had ever gotten it checked out before. I told him no, but it still hadn't gone away and I would like to get it looked it. He agreed and said by his age (3) most of the "it'll just go aways" have happened. He set us up with an echocardiogram and sent us on our way.
We got the echo done and were told that there is a small leak in one of his valves and because of that his aeorta has to pump a little harder (high, normal range- good news) than usual to get all the blood to flow. Bentley was so good during the Echo, he just watched the screen with his heart and let the tech do his thing. He's such a good boy!

The doctor referred us to a Pediatric Cardiologist to get their opinion. In December we had the appointment with the PC and were told that everything is good, we just need to keep an eye on it. We will go back yearly to make sure things aren't getting worse, we'll just take it one year at a time.

While we were in Flagstaff for the appointment we stopped at the mall where Bentley found himself a girlfriend :) 

Merry Christmas! 2015

Even though I was sick for December, we still tried to get some Christmas fun in there. First up was Macy's Christmas program. She's the one of the very far let in the stripped shirt :) Her teacher said "red, white, and green". Apparently we are the only ones that figured a stripped shirt with all those colors would be great. She was definitely easy to find!

I pretty much had no energy and my poor kids decided if Mom wouldn't make gingerbread houses then they would just watch them on YouTube. Sorry girls! Next year, I promise we'll make ginger bread houses!

At the beginning on the month we got to have our first ultrasound of the baby! My due date with Bentley was way off (it got pushed back 2 weeks at my 19/17 week ultrasound) and I was not a happy camper, so I appreciated when the Doctor suggested a dating ultrasound. This one was right on track with what I guessed it was. Due date is officially July 5th!

 Another reason I'm glad the kids are in preschool, they did so much holiday stuff! I was able to chill and they still got their fun hates and candy canes!

 We did get a little snow this year- not much, but a little bit! Here's London enjoying some!

 and what's Christmas without the tamale making?!

 Around this time I called my mom. I was dead, the house was a mess, and we were struggling. She originally thought she'd come for a two or three days- and ended up staying for a week! I'm telling you, I was worthless! It was so nice to have the house all clean, dinners cooked, and for someone to make cookies with the kids. Thank you Mom!


I'm pretty sure she stayed the week before Christmas break. After she left I had Kyle home for 2 weeks- and I was determined that by then I would be over the morning sickness stage. Well, Christmas came and went, and my morning sickness didn't. Oh well.

Somewhere in December Macy lost her first tooth!! Woo-hoo!! She was getting a little worried since most of her friends had already lost their teeth. She got a whole dollar from the tooth fairy!


We spent Christmas Eve at the annual Gardner Party. Complete with Mexican food, pinata, and pin the nose on the snowman. The kids had a blast and, of course, I was exhausted. We got home around 8 and the kids opened their Christmas jammies.

Christmas morning was fantastic. Kyle and I were up at 6:30 and started making breakfast to see if it would wake up the kids. We had our traditional Pancakes for a crowd. London was the first one up, followed by Macy, and a little while later Bentley came sleepily in.

 Bentley was the most excited about his playdoh, London loved all the "mystery" things Santa brought (the little balls that have a mystery character), and Macy was so excited for her kindle fire.

Dad got the family a cool basketball hoop. Macy and London loved it and Bentley took it upon himself to be the announcer- pretty cute announcer if you ask me!

After we played with all the presents we went over to Marie's house for Christmas dinner. We had lots of family over there and took a little break to go to the Culture Hall and let Bentley ride his new bike around while Kyle and David played with their new drones. We had a great Christmas!

What's one more?!

We are having a baby! I'm due July 5th and we are excited! The end of 2015 was a pretty rough year for us. I was downright sick from about 6 weeks up until 16 weeks. The helicopter ride with Bishop really was the funnest our year got. Even for Thanksgiving and Christmas- we were pretty low key. I feel bad for that- but you do what you can.

For Thanksgiving we had the cutest little pilgrim come home from preschool! I love all the cute little things the kids make and do there, we are so lucky to be able to these programs here in Holbrook. 

Thanksgiving was spent in Buckeye. We hadn't announced to anyone that I was pregnant yet, but they all guessed it when I went to bed a 8 o'clock. Luckily I had a pretty good weekend with the sickness and was able to eat! The next day we did some shopping and found Bentley's twin!


We stayed down in the valley until Saturday to catch my nephew Nathan's baptism. I was excited to be able to go, we haven't been able to make the other boys and was excited to finally get to be there. That morning I started getting a headache and was starting to see floaties in my eyes. The floaties turned into pretty blurry vision, and because of the pregnancy I wasn't really sure what I could take. I decided to just get on the road to the baptism and just take some tylenol. Driving down the road my tongue and left arm started going numb and it really started freaking me out- I never get headaches left alone numb arms! We stopped by urgent care where my parents took the kids to drive them to the baptism and then were told to go to the ER. The called us right back, did a few tests, and said I had a migraine. Probably hormone induced. I was pretty miserable. They gave me some Benadryl and fluids that helped a lot. That along with an hour nap and my vision and limbs were normal again. My head still ached, but not nearly as bad. We had totally missed the baptism by this point, so my parents met us to swap kids and we headed back to Holbrook.

The rest of November/December was pretty much spent with me on the couch. Kyle picked up some paper and plastic utensils that were a life savor. Even if the house was a mess, at least we didn't have tons of dishes every day. He jumped in the minute he got home from work to help with the kids until they went to bed. I felt like this pregnancy knocked me out a lot more than the other kids, but being sick without a baby still is a lot easier! Bentley could get his own drink and no diapers to change. There are definitely benefits to waiting till the youngest is a little older before getting pregnant again!