organize this!

see this crazy masterpiece of limbs and cheeks and baby blues.

this is why i get behind on documenting regularly.

i can barely keep up with these 4 crazy boys in my life. 

it happens SO FAST!!

summer turns to fall and I'm like 

what the?? 

and time just keeps on.....

but luckily while days and nights are rocketing past i manage to get the camera or phone out and snap a few pics of my favorite quad o' boys. 

 i was looking through pictures trying to organize and categorize them in to neat little computer folders 

so i could start trying to catch up on the old bliggity blog and what do you know.

i said screw this!!

so i snagged all my favorite pics from the last couple of months, 

in a very unorganized fashion, i know i'm living on the edge, and here we are!

a post about my very favorite people. 

 with no rhyme or reason, no focus, no subject.

just snippets of what our life is really like.

day in a day out.

MASS CHAOS! 

Sprinkled with love, laughter, tears, tenderness, fighting, friends, fun and a whole lot of crazy!

 and moments that remind me to STOP and take it all in!

so its ok if i don't document every outing or every holiday event!

as long as I'm living it up and loving on these boys! 

then once in while if i can throw up a post or two

 between filling chocolate milk sippys 

and the trips to costco to get the 6 gallons of milk i need to last me 2 weeks.

I'm counting that as a win. 

and i have to say that the unorganized chaos that is my life

is way better when it doesn't fit into neat little computer files!

2 & 4

 what happens when you tell your nana that you want a super hero cake for your birthday?

i bet she goes to costco or wally world and orders some subpar number with an iron on like screen print of your favorite masked hero laid carefully on top of a boring old rectangular cake. 

enter nana nancy, cake decorator extraordinaire!

i really should be doing a post solely about this cake, 

she is really setting the bar high for the many birthdays ahead  

and while i think it deserves its very own post

i have to get down the deets on the birthdays before they escape me. 

so the MOST AMAZING CAKE OF ALL TIME will have to share the spotlight.

these two birthday boys are freaking awesome!!!

I'm so glad, almost every second, that they are mine!! ;)

although i'm not sure how i have a 4 year old and a 2 year old 

when i only gave birth to them not 2 seconds ago. 

  i wanted to get gabe and mac matchy matchy jammies one last time

since gabe is fast growing out of the Toddler sizes and entering the S, M, L, XL part of life,

where its not easy to find the same prints as the "baby" clothes. 

i had no choice but to also snag a pair for the littlest little, 

because nothing is more nauseatingly cute then bothers all zipped up in the same get up!

and then there's the small detail of

 using the excuse to have left over cake for breakfast on Macs actual birthday!!

(i was so glad he complied cuz i would have hated to celebrate alone)

*

happy birthday big and middle!

i love you more then just a little! 

(thank you, thank you, i'm here all week)

L.O.V.E.

 21 Valentines day cards 

signed by GABE!

how long do you think that should take before you excuse yourself 

and go slam your head in a door 

because it would be less painful? 

 im not sure how long it "should" take 

 but it took me about 5 minutes,

i feel me and homework have a long road ahead of us,

 as it teaches me yet again
another lesson in patience!

and its adorable how hard he concentrates on every letter and how his tongue follows along proving he is laser focused, but i am not kidding when i say it took a good 90 minutes for him to fill out every last one of those lightning mcqueen  V-day cards and so help me......
i LOVE him!

we go all out for the "day O' Love" here at the Echols house.

toys and candy waiting when big and middle woke up was mind blowing. 

gabe even score his very own bottle of "cheers" which he thought was pretty amazing!!!

he reluctantly saved it for our special high class valentines day dinner!

as i said, no expense is spared. 

unless you count plates or forks or knives or cups as an expense

then i guess some expenses where spared.

but i got the very bestest most expensive plastic table cloth i could find on the dollar isle.

this style of family eating is not for everyone. 

say if you value things like manners and napkins and such,

but if you wanna blow some little kid minds throw pasta and sauce in the middle of the table 

and go to town with your hands.

to quote gabe "what is happening?" 

it didn't take him or mr. mac long to get in the spirit of things.

{it was just another meal time for mac}

  

we invited nana nancy and grandma-great over since they were dateless 

and quickly conceded that the no fork rules only applied to those 80 and younger. 

it didn't take gabe long to forgo fingers all together and move to a dog style of consumption.

but what are you gonna do? tell him to use some manners? 

you should probably just join him at that point and at least keep your hands clean. 

and while we are on the subject of holidays that are often over-hyped and under-delivered.

a very sneaky leprechaun broke in and turned our milk green. 

that was the beginning and end of it!

#saintpattysdayfail

i sure hope the easter bunny gets his her act together!!

2013 wrap up

2013 is over and i'm ready for a new year, with a fresh start and a whole new set of adventures!

don't get me wrong 2013 has been good to our family of 5

but new can be good, new can be fun, and new WILL BE pregnancy free!

here are a few fantastic things i forgot to document 

but are still worthy to be on record...

in no particular order. 

* 

cousins are sorta like the cherry on top of the most perfect chocolate drizzled sunday. 

they are friends that you can count on being around forever. 

even when they move across the country.

they are family and they will always come home.

and when they do...

 you go torture yourself trying to get the perfect picture  

to hang on the wall so you have a little piece of them when they have to leave again. 

Our first date was on February 7th 1996

he took me to a monster truck show and bought be a snow cone. 

i mean talk about knowing how to win a gal over!

fast forward to july 16th 2013- our 12 year anniversary! 

we had 2 kids with one on the way.  

we've laughed, traveled, cried, fought, made up, grew up, and a thousand other things.

i'm so lucky to be married to someone i want to be with even when i want to be alone. 

he is the best husband, dad and friend.

i'm one lucky lady!

and mr. echols is one lucky guy to be married to someone who "lets" him go on backpacking trips

with no cell service, for 5 days, with a bunch a dudes. 

while she is pregnant, with 2 crazy little men at home!!!

but since he is pretty fantastic and deserves a break from the daily grind.

i guess going on a "man trip" every year to someplace beautiful to become one with nature

is a good thing!!

especially when he catches more fish with his lightning mcqueen fishing pole then 

everyone else with their fancy flies and poles and lures and what not. 

i had my doubts that he was even able to catch a fish!

his history as my guide.

bets were made....debts collected....i've learned my lesson... he can catch a fish!

and you know how fishing is the perfect segue to a first hair cut....

well obviously it leads us to this handsome little dude

 and the lovely locks that were snipped and the tears that were shed

all to end with a sucker, balloon and a smile. 

man the price of beauty is high!

or $13.99 + tip, but whatever!

one might ask..

how did you forget to post halloween costume pictures? 

well i was 8.75 months pregnant, 

my feet and hips where in competition to see who could inflict the most pain

and to be honest these two are lucky they even had a costume to go trick or treating in!!

the weather even cooperated and was warm enough for a costume that was not october proof.

and man did they work their costumes like the little models that they are.

 the cutest Neverland pirates i've ever seen. 

grandma and grandpa had their annual halloween party and as always it was fantastic. 

why you ask is there no pictures of arron and myself in some clever costume sure to win a prize and be talked about around water coolers all year? 

.... did you not read the part about being 8.75 months pregnant? 

as mentioned above,

winter started out unseasonably warm and these "too cool for school"  dudes 

soaked up every last warm ray of sunshine that 2013 had to offer. 

i mean literally they were outside everyday 

with no coats or boots or snow hats (unless used as an accessory to be highly fashionable)

it was heaven sent for their mama as i tried to check off all the things on my never ending "nesting" list before little man #3 arrived.

and while waiting for above mentioned #3,

#1 went from toddler to little boy right before my eyes. 

its mind-blowing the transformation that happens when you blink. 

because thats how fast it happened.

panic sets in if you think about it too long,

about how you waited and waited for a baby and then you got one and that baby isn't a baby anymore.

and it literally was only yesterday and tomorrow is catapulting at you at an unprecedented speed.

and you are trying to capture every single moment 

(except the meltdown, i wanna pull my hair out moments, because those are not your finest hour)

all while trying to live in the moment!

its exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. 

this is Gabers on his first and last day of nursery

now he is going to be a sunbeam and i'm going to have my very own kid to watch in primary programs. which is something i've always wanted, to have my own littler person wave at me from on the stage while not singing the words to the songs they've been working on all year. 

but i didn't want it to come so fast....? 

i'd hold him back in nursery if he wasn't already a foot taller then everyone in there! 

so as you can see a lot happened while we were waiting for Pax man to show up 

and oh boy was he worth the wait. 

we are all so in love with him and his cheeks and his freakishly long fingers and toes.

he's been to his first Utah football game and secured a place in his big brothers hearts as well as mom and dads. 

 i found out i was pregnant when mac was 6 months old.. to say i was in shock would be the understatement of the year (2013 to be exact..haha)

but now it makes perfect sense, i don't know what life would look like without him.

so the best gift of 2013 definitely goes to the arrival of mr. pax 

and becoming a family of five!

whose to say we won't be a family of 6 someday, that is still in the 

"To be determined" category.

but it will NOT be in 2014!

i'm taking a year off!

CHEERS 2013