i got some portraits taken of the kids in november 2023, and then started writing this update about them in january 2024. it’s now september 2024 and i’m just getting around to finishing this post! life is so busy and there are so many distractions and interruptions and joys and sorrows! but i’m now determined to get this little snapshot of my four beautiful babies done, because they are growing up so fast and changing everyday.

oh, there’s no better definition of the word “bittersweet” than watching your kids grow up!

moses @ seven, then turning eight years old

moses’s imagination continues to thrive. he loves to make up all kinds of magical, other-world, superpower games with his friends at school and also at home with his siblings. he is a natural leader in imaginative games and he loves to include anyone who will participate. he is a good friend and a great oldest brother in so many ways.

moses is one of the most creative people i’ve ever met, and i find amazing creations in all kinds of places around the house. he used a bunch of leftover boxes to make his own “house” in the craft room in our basement. it had multiple rooms and entrances and creature-shaped windows and interesting decorations. his drawings are intricate and fabulous. he still loves lego and enjoys both following instructions on a set and making something entirely original on his own.

mo is a huge potterhead. he absolutely adores anything and everything related to harry potter. i’ve read aloud to him the five books, and after we finish each book we get to watch the corresponding movie together. we are now half way through book number six! from the very beginning he just absolutely fell in love with the wizarding world. he had a harry potter themed birthday party when he turned seven and he was majorly motivated by us telling him he needed to show us lots of maturity to be able to carry on and read book four (which is a bit more intense than the first three). he is nearly constantly talking about harry potter, while trying to be careful to not give any spoilers to gabriel (who is currently on the third book with daddy). last february i surprised moses with a trip to harry potter world at universal studios in california and it was just the best thing ever! he was outrageously thrilled and we had such a great time. i love watching his brain work as we read the stories together – he always has a theory about what is going to happen or how the mysteries in the books are going to be solved.

moses has improved a lot in reading over the past year. he started delving into chapter books with dogman – a series of graphic novels. he was gifted a big set of magic treehouse for christmas, and his aunt saren promised him a special date when he read his first magic treehouse and he had so much fun going to the arcade with her. now he is excited about the dragon master series of starter chapter books. staying motivated on reading and writing can be hard for mo – there is something about the mechanics and focus of it all that is a bit tricky for his very active brain. academics have been a bit of a struggle for moses through second grade and into third grade, and we are working together with his teachers to support him in the best ways possible. honestly a significant part of this is because he is just outrageously excited about playing on his school computer and so he rushes through his work to get to that, ha! he’s starting to realise that he really needs to put in effort if he wants to see progress and get good grades and for reading and math and writing to become easier and quicker.

after a bit of a rough time behaviorally in first grade, moses really blossomed in second grade. he had incredible teachers that he adored and that saw his strengths, and after a few weeks of monitoring his progress and meeting regularly with the school social worker at the beginning of the year, he really started to embrace showing more respect and focus in school. this has carried into third grade with teachers that are invested in supporting him, and we are so grateful. throughout first grade, moses was really fascinated by kids getting a “student of the month” award at school. i think both he and i wondered if that kind of acclaim would ever be in the cards for him. but after lots of progress, one day towards the end of second grade, i got an email letting me know that moses had been selected by his teachers to be student of the month…! i didn’t tell him, knowing he would love being surprised by this at school the next day. i’ll never forget waiting for him outside the front entrance of the school after the dismissal bell that afternoon – he ran towards me and exclaimed with all the excitement you can imagine, “mom! i got student of the month!” my eyes filled with tears as he told me about how he got pulled out of class, wondered if he was in trouble for some reason and then was shocked and delighted to hear he had received this award. it was a really huge moment that represented a lot of effort for both moses and me.

over the past year, moses has participated in rock climbing, basketball, tennis, and karate. as a bit of an adrenaline junkie, rock climbing was a great bit for him. he got excited about being part of a team (with his dad as his coach) in basketball, and he was so eagerly looking forward to taking tennis lessons after consistently wanting to practice in our back yard with mom or dad throwing him a tennis ball to hit. he’s had some breaks from karate because of summer adventures or trying other sports, but he always loves to get back on the mat with his awesome sensei, miki. he moved up from the ninja class to the junior class in karate and had a couple belt advancements as he learned new skills.

more recently, moses broke an arm twice within two months! first it was his elbow, at the trampoline park the day before his birthday and the day before we left to spend a few weeks swimming at playing at bear lake 🙁 and then it was his wrist, falling off our backyard trampoline a few weeks after school started. after the broken elbow – which was much more painful – mo was pretty sad. it was really hard to not be able to swim in the lake with all his cousins for a while and he was very worried that he wouldn’t be able to be baptised! it all worked out – he didn’t even have to have a cast and it healed slowly but surely, and it didn’t affect his baptism at all :). after the broken wrist, mo was really cheerful and just kinda thought it was cool to have a blue cast for a few weeks!

speaking of baptism, moses chose to make his first promise with god and was baptised on july 21, 2024 in bear lake. it was a really special day and mo was earnest in learning and preparing in the months preceding. when he turned seven and a half he got to start having special time with mom and dad on sunday nights – we meet together after after his younger siblings are in bed and talk about some topics that are relevant and important as a child matures. leading up to his baptism we did a lot of gospel learning and baptism prep at these “special sunday night things” (as he calls them), and we are continuing this time now with other topics and some learning from the scriptures. a few weeks ago we talked with moses about sex and its power and beauty to connect people who love each other and committed to each other, and sometimes to make a baby! that first conversation of many we intend to have with moses on this topic went really well.

mo is becoming more aware of others and their feelings and experiences as he gets older. i have especially noticed him starting to watch out for his mom more. he has said to me on occasion, “mom, i know you are trying to take care of a lot of people,” and a few times when i’ve been visably sad when i’m with him he has lovingly inquired about why i’m upset and has given me lots of hugs and love. he has also gotten better at making friends and being a good friend. he has some great friends at school and in the neighbourhood and he loves having play dates with them. he really is such a sweet boy with a golden heart – sometimes his super active and quite impulsive brain responds before his golden heart, but he is so so good inside.

moses graduated from the let’s play music program last may and now is continuing his piano practice with an app called simply piano. he really loves playing along to songs he knows using that app. he also started attending an art class on thursday evenings, and that is so good for his soul – he is truly an artist at heart.

we have learned a lot about moses and his brain over the past year and it is such an amazing experience to witness this awesome boy grow up. we love him so, so, so much!

gabriel @ five years old, then six

gabriel was so, so excited to start kindergarten, and he had such a great first year as a canyon crest cub, going to school with his big brother. he had an awesome teacher and excelled greatly academically. a lot of his friends from preschool went into kindergarten at his new school, which was wonderful, and he also made a bunch of new friends! he was ready for full-day kindergarten and really thrived. he even was awarded student of the month one month in kindergarten! now he is slaying in first grade, having started spanish immersion and starting to do more mature things academically and socially. he has the cutest little group of close friends at school, and he also is happy to include and play with a wide variety of kids.

gabriel has the most awesome mannerisms. i adore his slow smile that shows off his dimples, enshrouded in his amazing freckles, when he is proud of himself or excited about something. when he gets “caught” doing something he shouldn’t have, he juts out his chin and widens his eyes and opens his mouth agape in such a characteristically “gabriel” expression. one of his most-repeated phrases is “did you know…” – he says this sometimes when he is just filling us in on something neat and sometimes when he’s sad and he really wants his side of the story to be heard. when he’s super excited about a surprise (like a christmas or birthday gift he knows about but the receiver doesn’t), he puts his hand over his mouth and his eyes sparkle with glee. another thing, not so positive, that is very “gabriel” is his nail biting habit. it has gotten pretty bad at times and it’s tricky to try to help him break the habit!

gabes is a deep feeler. this is definitely a fantastic quality that we celebrate in our family … and it also brings some drama! gabriel has a chart hung up on the kitchen table for “no freak out” days – he can check off a box on the chart when he goes a whole day without having a major meltdown! he told me i also needed to have a “no freak out” chart, which was fair, ha! gabe is working on matching his reaction to the situation and using his thinking brain when his amygdala wants to freak out. he’s getting better, with lots of practice with a big brother that likes to push his buttons and witness those big reactions…

in the past year gabriel has participated in soccer, basketball, swimming, karate and rock climbing! he has really enjoyed all of these physical activities in different ways. it was exciting when he got good enough at swimming to do things like jump off the diving platform and ride the big slides at the rec center. he’s the cutest ever to watch as he focuses and works hard at karate. he’s was great team player in soccer and basketball and he’s really looking forward to trying out baseball this spring.

gabe is a total mountain man. he loves hiking and is so excited about setting goals and making plans to do different hikes. in summer 2023 he hiked the “y” mountain (to the top, not just to the “y”) with his daddy and then in summer 2024 he hiked mount timpanogos all the way to the saddle (and he could have made it all the way to the summit if his dad wasn’t a little worried about the slippery, cliff-side path!)! he said soooo many people asked him incredulously how old he was on that 14 mile trail. he has already made plans for which mountains he will hike next year and the year after and the year after that. this love of climbing mountains has translated to a love for his indoor rock climbing class too! he loves being in nature and never complains when hiking – he is tough in body and mind and just loves being on the trail.

he is an awesome reader. he started first grade with a few chapter books under his belt and he’s always excited to read all kinds of new things. reading really has come naturally to him. he is also an excellent writer, with very neat handwriting. over the summer he wrote five sentences in his “adventure journal” every single day. he’s definitely a goal-oriented person – he’s excited about making summer and school-year goals and he is quite amazingly self-motivated for a six-year-old.

gabriel fights sometimes with his big brother, but he really does love and idolize moses so much. he emulates mo in both positive and negative ways 🙂 he tends to like and get excited about similar types of things as moses, although in the past year or so he has started to blaze his own trail in some ways. like his big brother, he really likes harry potter and pokemon. he also enjoys lego building, although that interest tends to come and go. being the middle child comes withe some challenges, but gabriel is mostly very good at meeting those challenges. usually he is sweet and kind with his little siblings … although occasionally not, and he’s working on that.

gabe is an early riser and we can’t figure out how to help him sleep in a bit more! he gets himself out of bed and makes himself breakfast and then either plays independently or reads or practices the piano while the rest of the house is still in bed! he is really good at getting his daily jobs/responsibilities done and hardly ever complains about being reminded to do them. he is instinctually motivated to excel.

we sure love our gabriel, with his sweet freckled and dimpled smile and the light he truly shines.

august @ three years old

oh, august has grown so much since i last wrote a formal update like this! at three years old he aged out of the state’s early intervention program (with which he did regular physical, speech and occupational therapy) and he started going to a special education preschool within provo school district. he also did about six months of speech therapy with a private speech therapist, who would become his mainstream preschool teacher. and in the past year he completed two more three-week intensive physical therapy sessions. he has really worked hard and has steadily moved up his own unique curve. he did two rounds of genetic testing, which all came back normal, but we still worry about his delays which can be pretty significantly apparent when he’s around his peers. he’s going to have a brain mri soon and we will keep trying to support him in any possible way we can! august is a total joy and anyone who knows him just adores him!

it’s wild to look back on the notes i wrote so many months ago about his speech because now he is just a little chatterbox that can communicate almost anything … although he does always use the word “us” instead of “we” and often “me” when “i” is grammatically correct. last year he started putting two words together like, “mama home!” when i’d walk in the front door, or like “play me!” when he wanted daddy to play with him, or like when he’d get into fights with eve about whose mama i am, haha – “my mama!” for a while he said “num” for yes and then when he decided to say yes he’d say it with a long “ssss” sound at the end. when gabriel was on a soccer team nicknamed the leopards august would go to his games and holler “go leopards!” from the sidelines, which was just adorable. for a while whenever we’d go anywhere and then park the car he’d yell out, “auggie comin’!” his thank you turned for a while to just “thanks,” and now he gets a kick out of saying “thank ya!” and there was a phase where he loved to talk about himself in the third person as “augger.” his candence of speaking is very distinct – he places emphasis on different syllables and often breaks up syllables a bit when he’s talking. for a while when he wanted more time to do a specific activity, he’d say boldly, “two minutes!” and that turned into “five minutes!” with his hand held up showing all five fingers. his words have since got more distinct but he often used to say “wa-go!” for “here you go” when trying to give someone something. by far the most oft-used words that august uses (now and throughout the past year) are “i love you too [person’s name]!” which he says confidently at all kinds of random times, completely unprompted.

he is a joy school graduate! last year he went to one day of joy school per week and one day of special ed preschool per week. now he is in mainstream preschool with eve in addition to spending two mornings at his special ed preschool. very occasionally he says he doesn’t want to go to preschool – most of the time he is so excited and speeds away without a look back.

august loves cars/trucks and balls. for months he was soooo excited about a little basketball hoop that we have that goes over the top of a door – he would holler “baba hoop” with total joy whenever he saw it or thought of it! especially considering his physical challenges, he has a remarkably good arm when it comes to throwing, and even a year ago he was remarkably good at getting the basketball in the hoop! he loves to throw balls, as well as rocks into water (one of his very most favourite things ever), and as well as toys, food, rubbish, and almost anything he can get his hands on haha. he has gotten better at throwing only balls as he has gotten older. he’s so excited about cement mixers, garbage trucks, mail trucks, race cars, bulldozers, dump trucks and etc. he isn’t super interested in most shows/movies, but he has watched cars dozens and dozens of times, and he adores lightning mcqueen (who was “lightning the queen” for a while, ha!). when eating food he really likes his bites to transform into vehicles – dump trucks dumping food into his mouth and the like. he spots all kinds of vehicles everywhere we go. for a while his favourite book was goodnight, goodnight construction site and now he really loves the little blue truck books.

auggie is so affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. he went through a phase of being really into giving me “huuuuuuge kisses” where he’d press his lips to mine for a full ten seconds or so and then giggle his head off with glee when the kiss ended with a smack.

something very characteristic to august is how he twists his wrists quickly when he’s very excited. this “stimming” was kind of concerning for a while but as we’ve sort of ruled more things out and determined august is probably just a late bloomer with some low muscle tone, we find his wrist twirling just so endearing. it’s just his way of expressing himself – his excitement comes right out of his body through his wrists! he also straightens his legs super straight and rigid sometimes when he’s feeling a lot of joy or wonder.

august loves to play with marble run (he is so darling in how excitable he is about the marbles going down the tracks!) and also loves to play with our big car track. his favourite song is thunder by imagine dragons and he also asks for songs from cars and the song good thing going on by mat kearney. he rides a big yellow bus to (his special education) preschool and that is pretty exciting! he’s always looking for his school bus when we are out and about. last school year he rode the bus to and from preschool and this year he gets to ride to school with his dad and brothers and then ride the bus home.

august did a six-week class with his twin sister called “tumbling tots” at the rec center and he was darling trying all the different activities and challenges, especially excited when they involved balls. his dad just signed him up to do a “smart start” basketball class in a few weeks and he is pumped!

aug has the best giggle/chuckle/laugh and he just absolutely delights us with so many of his mannerisms and ways that he says things. he was potty trained by early 2024 but he still has accidents quite often, so it’s a long game on always getting everything in the toilet for this guy. when he’s aware that he’s really gotta go, he says, “i’m bouting to pee my pants!” and we run to the bathroom 🙂 august is jolly and mischievous and silly and fun – and occasionally very, very upset or angry. he is learning how to contain his body and voice when he’s mad! he loves to spin around on the basket swing in our back yard and somehow he never gets sick to his stomach from that! he refuses to ride his scooter but likes to push around on his balance bike. he loves his cousin simon, he held his own as the only boy in his joy school class, and he is starting to make friends at preschool.

auggie really, really loves his daddy. the only creature on earth he loves more than ian is my sister saydi’s dog, scout. august had a teddy bear that was so special and loved – and it was the same teddy bear ian had as a toddler! – and we lost “bear bear” in an airport when we were on our way to japan this past summer. august was a bit devastated but bounced back suprisingly quickly, and then we found a stuffed dog that ian also had growing up and gave that to august. he named the dog stuffie “scoutie” <3

august is beloved by everyone who knows him, and most of all by his parents!

eve @ three years old

eve is our sassy, sweet, spectacular little girl. have you heard of the longfellow poem that goes, there was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. when she was good, she was very good indeed, but when she was bad she was horrid? she doesn’t have a curl on her forehead, but the rest of the poem describes eve well – she is mostly pure incredibly delightful sunshine, but sometimes she is quite the demon, haha! she knows what she wants and feels her feelings deeply and advocates for herself very firmly 🙂 she is sugar and spice and she is absolutely our dream girl.

evie thrived in joy school and became best friends with the three other little girls in our group – she loves them so much! now she goes to the most magical amazing preschool (where gabriel went for two years) with her twin brother and she is loving it! she was sooooo excited to start preschool, and so ready when the first day came! she also gets to have a weekly rotating play date with her joy school pals. in the past few months, eve has become kind of obsessed with our across-the-street neighbour, who is just a few months older than her. she is constantly asking to play with margot, and when margot cut her hair into a bob eve decided right away she had to do the same thing. she loves to play with margot’s barbies and knocks on margot’s door pretty much every day. margot and evie often include august in their play, but sometimes they want to play with “just the girls.”

she comes to my bed to cuddle every single morning when she wakes up. she snuggles right in and sometimes holds my face in her hands or nuzzles her face into my neck. it’s the sweetest thing ever and even though it’s sometimes really early i just love it so so much. eve’s strong weapon is her volume. she can be so loud and also persistent in her loudness which is sometimes really hard for me to cope with! she must have about twenty stuffies in her bed when she sleeps, she loves having chocolate milk for breakfast, and her favourite thing to listen to in the car is a podcast called silly stories for kids.

last year eve went to dance class for a few months, but for some reason she refused to participate! i would watch her on the video screens they have set up at the studio and she was just so defiant, either sitting by the mirror while the other girls danced or occasionally kinda joining in only if a teacher was holding her. i eventually took her out of class because even though she’d be excited to go it didn’t make sense to bring her if she wasn’t doing any of the dancing! but then – margot signed up for dance class for this school year. and this caused eve to be committed – haha! now she goes to not one but two dance classes every tuesday (creative dance followed by acro dance (tumbling)) and she participates fully and absolutely loves it. she is often asking how many days until dance class and she loves her little dance leotard/skirt and she even got a set of ballet shoes this time around. she gets to go to dance in margot’s car and i pick the two girls up when they’re done.

our girl is a total chatterbox. she almost always has something to say, and she also likes to sing made-up (or occasionally non-made-up) songs or pick up a book and pretend to read it out loud. i made some notes about common things she was saying last year: “i got it!” /”two minutes! no, four minutes!” (when it was time to leave an activity or toy and move onto something else) / “can i please…” / “grandf-father” (when talking about my dad) / “why??” (that one i bolded because it is said a lot!) / “no way!” / and she went through a phase a few months ago where every once in a while she’d randomly ask, “do you know the muffin man?” ha! her most common phrase these days is “i know that!” which she says even after i’ve answered a question that she just asked, haha! recently she has become determined that we must say four things to each other (sometimes multiple times) before i close her door at bedtime: “i love you so much, goodnight,” “you’re the best,” “sweet dreams,” and “see you later.” she has a fuzzy blanket she is in love with that always needs to be placed over her body, then her flower blanket on top of that and then her star blanket on top of that.

eve loves pink and in the summer was very excited about her pink swimsuit. we got a pink potty for potty training and tried that last july and it was quite a disaster. we tried again with eve after august was potty trained in early 2024 and it was a total breeze and she never looked back.

she loves to dress herself (in her regular clothes) and to dress up in dress-up clothes. this has tempered a bit, but she had a phase where she was pretty obsessed with dress-ups and would go straight for them at any friend/cousin/joy school/grandparents’ house. we had to put some boundaries around appropriate places to wear dress-ups, and most nights she would sleep in a princess dress of some kind.

eve got a cute dolly for easter in 2023 that she named “baby abby” after her cousin (who is not a baby, but an adult that has a baby!) abby. she liked to do her hair like baby abby, with two buns on top of her head. she only had eyes for baby abby for a while, but then she got excited about the american girl doll i had as a little girl and gave to her, kristin. then gabriel gave her a moana doll for christmas and she got a stuffed unicorn in mexico that she named maria, and for a while it was all about moana and maria. more recently she has bought some princess barbies with her own money, and that rapuzel and elsa are probably the most special right now. it’s a revolving door when it comes to beloved dolls for evie.

i’m a little sad she’s more into princess dolls than baby dolls now – our girl is growing up. eve things it’s the funniest and best thing ever when i act sad that she’s getting bigger (it’s not an act, i really am so so sad about it!). she giggles with delight when i ask her to please stay little or when i tell her she cannot turn four!

eve likes to watch a little show when i’m doing her hair in the mornings. (she doesn’t get to every morning, but most, for just a few minutes.) last year she was mostly into watching miss rachel or daniel tiger but now she asks for bluey or something princess on disney+. she still likes to listen to and sing daniel tiger songs. evie is often watching out for auggie and that is so sweet and cute. when i go to pick them up from preschool i see all the kids marching in a single-file line (i think they pretend they are on a train) to the gate … all the kids except for august and eve who are marching side-by-side, holding hands – awe. that said, sometimes eve fights with august and isn’t super nice to him … we are working on it! she loves to ride her scooter (and sometimes balance bike) on the driveway / front path. she was soooo excited leading up to school starting about the mornings we would have “just the girls” time while all the boys are in school. we both really love that time! eve is our pickiest eater, although she has gotten better with this lately. she likes to jump on the trampoline and swing on the swing in the backyard with august. she’s a tough girl and doesn’t mind challenge and dirtiness when we go hiking or play in nature. she makes the most characteristically-eve little sounds when she’s excited or grumpy.

yes, evie is our dream girl. we love her so, so, so much!

can’t believe how lucky we are that these four amazing souls are ours! (yes, this last photo is the result of some photoshop head swapping 😉 )