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We celebrated Frankie’s birthday breakfast with yummy donuts. 

We spent all morning at the Children’s Museum with Lu and Carter this time, and this was the one picture I took. 

Frankie requested Panda Express for lunch and then we watched a movie and played outside at Lexi’s. Delaney and Addie gave her their gifts throughout the day and it was very low key. 

I made goulash for dinner plus some to freeze because lexi loves it. And we sent this to auntie Alli because Carter loves his lovey. 

Delaney was like, did someone say lovey? Hers is so torn up and she picks at it now, it’s pretty beat up. 

This guy! 😍😍😍 Lu and I weighed him and he weighs 13.8 lbs at 6 weeks. He’s so squishy and sweet. 

We spent our whole last few days loving on the boys. We pretty much did that the whole time, but especially the last few days. And poor addies allergies never did let up. 

Emmett loves holding Carter and Carter is such a good baby!

We organized and started our laundry Wednesday night. We didn’t leave till 2:45 on Thursday, but I was glad I got a head start on packing. 

Lu had her 6 week check up and we stripped all the sheets and washed all the towels. We finished every thing by noon and then ate lunch and cuddled babes some more. 

I cried when I laid Em down for his nap. I mess them so much already, it’s so hard being so far away. 

But what a fun covid surprise to be able to spend 3 weeks with them in the middle of March. We never could have done it without the blessing of homeschool and zoom, and it really was a blessing. 

Everybody got pictures with the boys. 

We love them so!

Carter was SO patient this whole photo shoot. He isn’t always this patient, but he must have known it was important to us. 

That belly. I die. 

My 4 girls. And Delaney will stop making that race someday. I hope. 

They are so fun and it will only get better as they get older and our trips and girl time is more fun. We’ve got lots of plans these girls and I!

Too soon it was time to say goodbye at the airport. Lexi told me she didn’t expect to be so sad after we left, and I felt the same way. 

Great Falls has the cutest airport. 

It’s like a little lodge and they even have a fireplace and recliners. 

We talked about going to Yellowstone or somewhere fun, but in the end it was more important to stay home with Lex and Carter. 

5 little gates, that’s all GF’s has. 

Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes. We finished our book, Out of My Mind, about a girl born with cerebral palsy. It was very insightful and educational and I loved reading and talking about it with the girls. I sat with my buddy again. Everyone wanted to sit by me, but being the baby won out.  

These good traveling girls on our tiny airplane to Denver. 

In Denver I had to switch seats with someone so I could sit with D, and then addie and Frankie moved to an empty row, so we sat together on all 4 flights. Our flight from Denver to Dulles was turbulent, but we landed safely and that’s all that matters. Matt picked us up and we talked the whole way home. We rolled up after 2, and then slept in till 10:30, at least the girls and I did, Matt went to work. 

When he got home Frankie opened her gift from us, a new skateboard. 

She was so excited!

It was such a beautiful day. Addie went to the library and Matt and Delaney flew our kite at the green. The rest of us decided to walk to papa’s, but first walked to pick up the whole crew. Addie looked so grown up. 

Delaney was thrilled to be reunited with T-baby. 🙄 papa bought Ledo’s for the crew and we came to our house to enjoy pizza and Jackbox. 

Saturday morning Matt and Frankie went to the skatepark. 

She loved it and can’t wait to go back!



The rest of the day was blah. We crossed some wires even though we tried not to and didn’t end up doing much. Not my favorite. 

Today we had Stake Council at 7 and then our first ever Adult Leadership Committee Meeting at 8. My presidency trained in ministering interviews and it went really well, a lot of good discussion. Then Zoom sacrament meeting. It was our turn for in person but since I had meetings I asked to switch. Sunday School, ministering, then my monthly meeting with President Boyd. All good things. Matt made lamb chops for dinner and a pudding fluff for dessert and both were tasty. I’m not crazy about lamb and it’s so expensive that I’d rather do chicken, but he really wanted to try it and it was good. We watched President Nelson’s Easter message and then got captivated by a few more Mormon Messages. We talked about Palm Sunday and Easter week. Saturday was blah but the sabbath was a delight. 

Celebrating Franks

Morning cuddles. He’s starting to do real smiles and his head is wobbly. But he’s holding it so well! Plus an Aunt D in the back doing schoolwork for good measure. 

Shortly after that picture we had a poop explosion and he took a bath with mommy while I cleaned myself up. Clean babies are the most delicious!

After tutoring and while Emmett napped, alexis, Addie, and I went shopping and then drove around the mountain looking at the interesting houses. We had such a nice time, just the big girls.  

There is a restaurant here that has a mermaid swimming that Lexi’s friend told us about and we decided to celebrate Frankie’s birthday dinner there, one night early so Cade could come along. They had this fun mural in their parking lot. 

A real mermaid! The mermaid actually swims in the bar area and kids aren’t allowed to eat in there, so we ate downstairs in the tiny restaurant and went up to see the mermaid several times. We showed her Frankie’s cute “Mermaids have more fun” shirt and waved and waved. Can you imagine this job? The girls are all ready to apply. 

A shrimp cocktail for the shrimp lover. 

Sissy and Cade have her their gift, a cute purse and scrunchies. 

The restaurant was cozy and everyone enjoyed their food. It was a fun evening. We popped into the bar one last time to say goodbye to the mermaid and leave her a little tip. She swam and flipped and blew all the kisses, she was awesome. 

I had the little girls in my car and we took the long way home to make time for them to decorate. 

This sweet girl told the waitress she was turning 12. 😂 I guess I’m not the only one who forgets how old I am regularly. 

She requested an ice cream cake and it was so tasty. 

Delaney made large confetti and rained it down on our birthday girl. Our first day of our 3 day celebration was a good one. 

Lu and Cade put together their new patio table and I got to hang out with Car-Car. I love his big round cheeks. 

And now, a late night movie night with the almost-birthday girl. 

Last week in Montana

Thursday morning was stressful, so I took Em for a walk and chatted with Amy and then Autumn. It was exactly what I needed, to just vent all the hard things. Notably, the hard things were not about anyone, just difficult life situations that sometimes abound. 

It was a beautiful day so we ate outside. 

Even Car-Car got in on the action. 

That night we had a special stake council meeting to talk about next steps in returning to more in-person church. Elizabeth (stake ywp), Sarah (stake primary pres), and I were texting beforehand weighing how much we needed to dress up. I did put on a nice shirt and a coat of lipgloss, but that was about it. a few minutes after the meeting Elizabeth texted how nice it will be when we can finally meet in person, but that it’s also so nice to be home as she already had put her hoodie back on, so I snapped a quick pic of myself back in my hoodie too. Meeting all these amazing women is the best. 

Also this cuddly boy. We pass him around all day, he really is just the sweetest. And I swear he’s gained another few pounds while we’ve been here. He is the cuddliest chunky monkey. 

I like finding cute pictures on my phone. We talked today about being almost 13 and she said “I have a dumb question. You know how playgrounds usually say they are for kids 5-12? Will I still be able to play on them after I turn 13?” Gah! I love this girl! I told her yes but encouraged her not to climb to the top of every play structure (like she does) when littles are around. She agreed. 

Don’t mind the spit up spot we’d just moved him from. He just looked like such a big baby boy. 

I did Emmett’s hair Friday morning, just like I used to do bubba’s 20 years ago. So handsome. 

He went to run an errand with daddy and then after his nap I took him on another mimi Emmi walk. He loves being outside and the girls take him out a ton too. It’s just so nice after a long Montana winter, and he is soaking it up. 

I let him wander wherever he wants to go, which is often in the middle of the street and since we’re on a quiet base, I let him. When I see a car we move to the sidewalk and I point it out to teach him to be safe, and as I point, he waves, and everyone waves back, it’s so cute. 

He has gotten so brave, but still likes to hold my hand going down the slide. He’d slide down, run and climb up, position himself at the top, and wait for me to hold his hand. We did that for about an hour. 

Aunt D in action. Also, can you tell she loves her St. Pats earrings and choker? 

😍

Emmett loves aunt D’s earrings too. 

On Saturday Lu and Cade took Carter to an outdoor gender reveal party. They shot a gun and somehow released the blue color that it was a boy. Interestingly, we had 2 friends reveal they were having boys in the exact same way that day. Anyways, Carter was all dressed up and looking fine. 

We went to church on Sunday but were one seat short in the car. The church is 2.1 miles from their house, so we let one girl ride in the back. Lu has a box of baby clothes she’s donating, so Delaney covered herself in clothes and requested a picture. 🤷‍♀️

Just look at the delicious little newborn belly. 

Addie and Delaney made the slime from their library kits and Cade made Emmett edible play dough so he could play too. 

Sunday was our women’s conference, so I spent a lot of the days leading up to it working on my talk and working out kinks in our plan. Even after all the anxiety and trying so hard to be so super inclusive and think of everything, we missed some things and that created some stress for us. I hope it wasn’t too noticeable for others, but behind the scenes we were sweating. 

In my talk I shared about Chris Nikic’s cool Ironman feat and how he tries to be 1% better everyday. And then I felt like it was really important to talk about Brene browns “the story I’m making up,” and shared some of the stories I make up about my body. Without discussing it beforehand, Sister Murphy had planned to talk very similarly about how we see ourselves, and afterwards when we debriefed she talked about our talks fitting together like a puzzle. She was wonderful and I’m so grateful for her generosity of time and her amazing insights. I loved the breakout rooms and heard about several miracles happening in them, and i saw lots of tear as Sister Murphy skillfully lead our discussion. I wish everything had run as smoothly as we’d tried so hard for it to run, but one of these days we’ll have made all the mistakes and then our meetings will be perfect, right? We had 215 women there at one point, and that is pretty amazing. I’m so grateful to have been able to plan women’s conference and I’m so grateful it’s over. Afterwards i felt like Chris Nikic, like I completed my own iron man, I was so tired.
Thankfully I had all the baby cuddles to help me recuperate. Also, each of the girls knew how much I was stressing and told me separately how they were praying for me. Addie even fasted (unbeknownst to me!) and apologized for forgetting to end it properly. These girls, I swear. 🥰

Emmett slept in till 10:30 today! I read and caught up on emails, and slowly the girls woke up and joined me, and still he slept. He’s had some sleeping troubles, so I was glad he finally got a good night. Since he’d slept so late, after his brekkie we revamped our plan for the day and headed out for a spontaneous pre-nap adventure. 

We drove out to Morony Dam and hiked down to the dam and then the Missouri river. 

Our warm warm days are behind us, but it was almost 50° and we can dig that. 

The girls climbed on rocks and I tried to keep Emmett out of the water. 

The Finlayson’s have 2 cars that only seat 5, so going anywhere with Lexi requires 2 cars. Cade’s schedule is often on call and he has been called in several times, so it’s made doing anything together difficult. Also, Lexi just had a baby and I’ve had to keep reminding myself we are really just here to visit with babies and help her to rest, not to adventure all the time. Which we have loved and are totally fine with. Today ended up working out because she and Cade were able to go shopping together with just Carter, and then get lunch, so everyone won. In a really bummer turn of events, Cade is heading out to the field for a week on Wednesday, the day before we leave. Hopefully Lexi will be so well rested and the boys so worn out that the week without daddy and any helpers will be smooth and easy. 

Emmett decided he likes throwing rocks into the water, so we did that for a long time. He went from actually hitting his head with a rock because it just kind of went into the air, to actually hitting the water with a splash, in just under an hour. 

I. Love. This. Boy. 

This monkey took her shoes (and coat) off about 5 minutes after we got there. I compromised on the coat, but made her get her shoes back on. Also, these jeggings will be thanked for the service and left behind in Montana. 

Someone is excited about her Wednesday birthday. 

Our big girl walked slow with me and Emmett and we talked and talked. She’s a cool chic. 

Rock throwing action. 

And a view from the top after we’d hiked back up. 

Weird abandoned house and grey sky made for a creepy pic. 

We also drove past Ryan Dam, also home to Ryan Island and a cool suspension bridge that I almost made everyone get out and go across, but the bridge doesn’t open till May and we really were way past nap time, even for E waking up at 10:30.

Beautiful drive. *Addie shot 

We put Emmett down for a nap and the girls finished school. After, we all loaded up 2 cars and headed out to giant springs state park to see the fish hatchery. We went there last time we were here when Emmett was a newborn, so it was fun to see again. We walked around and played at the playground there. Emmett decided he doesn’t need to hold any hands sliding anymore, so we all cheered appropriately. We had planned to pick up dinner and go to another park the girls wanted to go to, but it was really kind of chilly, so we picked up dinner and came home for a movie instead. It was an A+ day of adventuring. 

Staying on base, in a quadroplex, and a house with 2 babies provides lots of nighttime noises that this older lady doesn’t sleep well with. From neighbors garage doors to helicopters flying to Reveille playing at 7:00am sharp (although I should be grateful this one plays so late, I read that some bases play this at 5:00am!) I was having trouble sleeping when we first got here, so I downloaded a white noise app called Rain Rain. They’ve got all sorts of free sounds and then some premium ones you can pay for. Every day they offer a free premium sound, and the girls and I have been having fun guessing what the premium sound is each day. Ok, it sounds really lame as I’m typing it out, but it’s one of those things that will always remind me of this trip. Delaney is picky and doesn’t like any of the water sounds. The only one we can really agree on (her favorite is shitzu snoring😩) is called Mississippi at Night, which sounds like sleeping outside in the summertime. It’s enough of an even, light sound that I don’t mind it and viola, old lady is sleeping better. 

Our time here is quickly coming to an end and we will miss this crew so much. We’ve talked about the blessing home school has been to be able to up and leave town in the middle of March for 3 weeks. What a weird, but in this instance, wonderful school year.