Hello friends and family!!! I can't believe it's been over 2 1/2 months since my last blog post! We have been so busy for the last few months! Here's a quick recap and you'll know why I haven't had time to share any pictures or stories about the kids for a while:
Month of March: Kenzie's first month of life, Eli was super super busy with school, I was recovering from my C-section, Tan spent half the month with Gra Gra (my mom) while she was here helping and other half getting used to all the changes in his life.
April: We watched General Conference during the first weekend in april and it was wonderful! We spent a week in San Diego during Eli's spring break. We went to his brother, Ali's, wedding and now we have a new (and very beautiful!) sister-in-law, Nikki. We spent the rest of the week hanging out with Eli's mom and Ari & Christian at the beach, the zoo, etc. We didn't do too much because Kenz was still so new. But it was so fun to be with family, even if it took 2 entire days of traveling to get there and back from Vermont. We had to run to catch our connections many times! When we got home, we celebrated Easter and Tan loved all the candy, of course! The end of April had HUGE rainstorms in Vermont that caused major flooding all over. Tan definitely got in some good puddle splashing time!
May: We blessed Makenzie Ella on May 1st and it was a beautiful blessing and beautiful day. Her middle name is a combination of my grandma's Eleanor and Stella, and Eli had a great grandma named Ella. Kenz looked like a little precious angel! She wore my blessing dress so it was really special for me to dress my little daughter in it. My sister, Aly, came to visit us on the 7th and Tan spent a few of those days in the hospital due to a bad asthma attack where he was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and spent half of his hospital stay in the pediatric ICU. Maybe I'll get around to telling that story later. Thank goodness Aly was in Vermont during that time because she took care of Kenzie a lot while Eli and I were at the hospital. Kenz loved the aunt bonding time! But I also did some Vermonty things with Aly so that her trip out here was worth it, things like a visit to the Ben & Jerry's factory, participating in singing time at the Von Trapp Family Lodge (it was started by the Von Trapp family when they came to Vermont after they left Austria), sampling cheese, apple cider, and maple syrup, eating at "farm to table" restaurants, and visiting Joseph Smith's Birthplace. We even got to sing in my ward together on mothers day! Aly and I flew to Colorado with the kids while Eli stayed at home because he couldn't miss school. We spent the next 11 days with the entire Archer clan, minus Eli :(. It was heaven! Tan had a blast playing with his cousin Wes and Kenz liked meeting all of her Archer aunts, uncles, grandpa, and 2 girl cousins. There was lots of baby time going on in the Archer home! On the way home, the kids and I missed our last leg to Vermont and spent a night in a hotel in New Jersey. It was an adventure! We had a fun memorial day - we watched a parade, I took the kids for a run with our new awesome stroller, Tan played in the blow up pool with his friends, and we had a BBQ with many of our friends.
June: We spent last weekend in Palmyra with our friends, the Clarks, and we had a fabulous time seeing the sites and hanging out. We loved sharing spiritual moments with our children and being in the place where the Gospel began. I really do know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the forest we call the Sacred Grove. The spirit permeates the whole grove, even when it's pouring rain. It was a fun, short trip. And I love our friends and road tripping with my little fam! On Saturday we are going to Boston for a family reunion type of thing with Eli's extended family.
Whew, so our life has just been a whirlwind of adventures for the past few months! Those things combined with normal life have made life pretty busy for all of us. The weather has FINALLY warmed up so we spend a few hours outside everyday. Tan is learning the joys of blow up pools and water toys! We have really missed the sunshine and warmth so we are making the most of it before the cold sets in again in September! It was a BRUTAL winter and spring with tons of snow and rain and cold. So we desperately need a good summer so that we will stil be in love with Vermont!
The kids are good and cute as ever! Tan will be 2 1/2 next week! He is still spunky, fun, sweet, intense, loud, creative, musical, a stick and dirt lover, and happy. He is constantly singing and making up songs. We are thankful that his asthma is under control right now and hopefully it stays that way. None of us want another hospital stay. The goal for avoiding that is keeping him healthy and away from any sicknesses. Kenz is 3 months old and is a smiley guru right now and makes the cutest little happy noises ever! She started sitting in her bumbo at 2.5 months so she is ready to look around and discover her world. But she still has some newborn-ness in her and wants to be cuddled and rocked - I LOVE it! I wish that she would never grow out of it. She is such a chill and calm baby and brings so much joy into our family. Tan adores her and wants to be next to her all the time. I'm excited to watch their relationship develop.
WOW that was a long post. Sorry everyone! And here comes lots of pictures. But you know us, we love photos! They are out of order because there are pictures from our nice camera, our point and shoot, and Eli's iPhone so the file names were grouped together by camera when uploading them. Happy summer everyone!!!
