If I could move to any state in the U.S. of A. it would have to be Texas. Think about it. BBQ, Country Music and Cowboy Hats. Wherever you turn. It would be awesome. PLUS Mike would have to wear tight jeans all of the time. Sigh, hold on while I imagine it :) Just kidding. I had to add that because most people who haven't been to Texas think it's just a desert with a bunch of hicks and tumbleweeds and confederate flags. While that may be true for some cities, I grew up in Dallas and it is beautiful and definitely not a desert *Note: If you are from Utah, you are from the desert ...different climate people* The people are so FRIENDLY and homes are reasonably priced. They have some great schools and who doesn't love a good Friday night high school football game? I am rambling like this because we just got back from a week long trip to Dallas to visit my parents and I guess I am still delirious from the Texas sun. Here are a few pics to document the trip. Benson was a ROCKSTAR in the car. No tantrums at all. He just happily played with toys, read books and watched movies for basically 24 hours there and 24 hours back. How did we get so lucky with this little boy? My sister and her little family live half way to Texas, in Missouri and they were kind enough to let us bunk there on Friday night. Here are the two boys playing on the blow up bed at 10:00 PM. Both families woke up the next morning and hit the road. It was so fun to be there with the Taylors! We miss you. Factoid: Rachel and I were roommates when we met and married our husbands, who were also roommates at the time (Mike and Dan). Dan's (Rachel's husband) sister was also our roommate. Her name is Jana. I owe Jana a lot because she set up the dinner that allowed Mike and I to meet, flirt (and what a flirt he was) and eventually date. Thanks Jana! I couldn't find Mike any sunglasses before the trip, so he had to wear mine :) Sunday, Father's Day, was our first day there. Here is Grandpa Bastian with just the few grand kids that were there. Believe me, there are a lot more...We love you Grandpa! Mike and the boys on Fathers Day Had to add this. Sometimes I think my guts are going to explode with pure joy, just from looking at pictures of my kids like this. Playing with dolls with Lexi Lou in the front yard, Duh. One of so, so many swimming pictures. We swam A LOT and loved every second of it. The water was warm and refreshing and Benson was a little fish. He was going all over the pool all by himself by the end of the trip. We were a proud Mama and Papa. These three are from Feedstore BBQ. Yum. We savored every bite. We went to the Dallas Museum of Science and Nature. It was so fun! The kids loved running around and getting into everything. So much so, that we could hardly catch any of them together. I especially love the ones of our fam outside near the water. Mom never EVER let us go near that as kids, so Rachel and I had a wonderful time fulfilling childhood dreams as we raced across the bridges on the water. And when I say "raced" I mean we power walked. Rachel is 20 weeks pregnant and I...have...no...excuse. We also spent a day at Jump for Fun (one of those bouncehouse warehouse thingies). This is the only picture we got, but it expresses the pure joy Benson felt while he was there. He was running around and giggling with his daddy the whole time. Some more swimming shots and my sister, who lives in Texas with her hubby Preston and two kiddos Abigail and Sam. I had to document this (Sorry Sar) because this woman is weeks away from delivering her fourth child and braved the Texas heat and driving to be with us the whole week. We miss you! And in case you were wondering where Finn was during this whole vacation, I made sure to document where he stayed almost the whole week! I must be a bad mom or something but he literally stayed in that car seat almost all day everyday and never really complained about it. He is truly the most amazingly wonderful, scrumptious and perfect baby. Okay, not perfect. But almost. One of my very best friends from high school happened to be in town the same week I was, so we got our two broods together. This amazing lady loves families and is happily married with three kiddos. I really miss and love her. It was awesome to see what great parents her and Brandon are (Brandon is also another friend we used to run around with sometimes in high school. High school sweethearts. Awww) It was also fun to see how alike our two oldest kids are. Hmmmmm. There are a few things I'm forgetting, but this post is getting too long anyways. We loved playing all day with the Marchants, the Taylors and Mom and Dad. We loved naps in the afternoon. We loved the game playing and Psych watching at night when the kids went to bed. We love the Texas sunsets. We loved Sonic shakes and Southlake Townsquare. I loved being able to share a lifetime of memories with my husband. I loved introducing my husband and the boys to my home ward (even though I only knew about two families. I have been graduated from highschool for ten years and our ward is very transient. I hardly knew anybody). Mainly, I just loved being home. Thanks mom and dad for the amazing trip. WE LOVE YOU!

Warning: This is a long, boring post. You might not even want to attempt to read it. Phew! We have been busy busy busy little bees around here. I will just explain what we have been up to in pictures I guess! First of all, we drove up to Wisconsin to see my niece Reese (it rhymes!) 's baby blessing. It was sooo much fun to visit with my sister and her sweet family and we had a great time at church with them. We actually have gone up there fairly often since we moved to Chicago, but I rarely remember to take pictures. Hence the pictures stolen from my sisters blog. Thanks Brooke! The first one is the whole clan in front of their church. A few days after that I met up with Brooke's family at the Museum of Science and Industry. Oh my goodness, the kids had a blast running around and looking at everything. Benson was in heaven because his most favorite friend in the whole world was there: his cousin Tanner. Benson was copying everything Tanner was doing and laughing hysterically at it. He also still makes "Tanner faces" at me and repeats things Tanner says. I get a lot of requests during the day to go to "Tanner's House" as well. I'm so sad they recently moved away to the far off land of Utah...which leads me to my next destination... The Hedins were quickly packing up to leave, so on May 12th we took the kids to spend a last "Fun" weekend with the Hedins. We played at the park, ran around their house and went out to eat and ate the best Fish Tacos EVER! That was a quick trip but very worth it. (No pictures of that weekend yet, I think Brooke has them all...) The next weekend my brother in law, Ahem, Dr. Hedin was graduating from Medical School. My parents came up for the occasion so I threw the kids in my car and met up with everyone in Wisconsin again. It was very cool to see a medical school graduation and see the students and the families honored. The kids didn't get too bored, thanks to the help of two IPads and one Kindle Fire. We love technology around here. Benson, again was in heaven because he was with Tanner and Katelyn. After the graduation, we said our goodbyes because it was the last time I would see them all before they moved. Lots of tears on both sides...I really hate having to leave my sisters. Still can't believe she had the audacity to up and leave me :( and take Benson's favorite friend with her. I then drove back to my house with my parents and enjoyed and short visit with them! (Pictures of that to come as well, Brooke still has them all...but she is moving so she has an excuse) The next weekend was memorial day weekend and Mike's family had gotten tickets to the Senior PGA tour in Benton Harbor, MI so we hauled it up to MI on Friday night and spent the night at Nannie and Poppa's house (with a lot of car trouble on the way up, like always. It's not a DeVries' family vacation without it I guess!) Saturday the boys all went off to the tournament and the girls hit up the outlets! Benson and Finley did awesome shopping with me all day (due to their doting Nannie and Aunt Allie who seriously entertained them the whole day and spoiled them with hot dogs and ice cream and rescue packs! Thank you!) That night Mike and I were about to head home when we made the last minute decision to go to Mike's parents house instead in Adrian, MI. Who cars that we only had one change of clothes! They had a washer right? We had the best time there. We explored the backyard. They have the most gorgeous yard I have ever seen. It is huge, with a river running through it, a pond next to their house, a sand box for the boys, trampoline, firepit and canoes and paddle boats to play around with. They really do have everything. Benson was beside himself with glee. He loved running around with his Nannie and Poppa and Allie, Andrew and Dano. Mike and I enjoyed our paddle boating adventure. We all enjoyed church. They have the sweetest ward and I feel like more people know my name there then in my own ward! Ha ha! Memorial day was fun, we got to see Uncle Andrew march in the parade and then celebrated with a little Mexican food. (I can't find the pictures of our last adventure there, so here are some pictures of when we went up for Easter weekend. Can you see how much Benson loves it there?) This weekend we headed up for Great Uncle Bob's 90th Birthday Celebration. Mike and I headed up early to spend the day at the beach and we had a great time! It was especially fun to have a little two year old to swim around with and build sand castles with. Kids are so fun, no matter what age they are. We love them. Finn had a great time chillin in his tent and splashing in the water. That night we headed out with the whole family to celebrate at Tosi's. We loved it. Happy Birthday Uncle Bob! Well that is it! We are really trying to soak in the family time while we have it. We just decided that we might as well travel while we live close, cause we don't know when it might change! Now on to our next adventure: TEXAS! We will be leaving this Friday and I can't wait. I sure love summer.

Here's what I prayed for (referring to Camille's last post) both times - happy boys. I feel like we've got two very happy little guys. Here's what I didn't pray for, but maybe should have - solid eater. While Finley nurses like a champ, he has not developed quite the appetite for solids yet, which is fine...I just think it's fun when I can participate in the feeding...but I can only feed the dude solids since...you know...I not "equipped". So here are some pictures of my failed efforts to introduce Fin Fin to the wonderful world of FOOD!

My friend did a post like this and I thought it was so helpful that I actually bought a few of the items she suggested. Thus, I am going to do a similar post for you. Aren't I sweet? Here are a few baby items I am LOVING this time around: 1. Aden + Anais swaddle blankets. I love, love, love these. I would never stop typing love except for the fact that I'm lazy, so just understand that I REALLY love them. Okay? They are lightweight and made from breathable fabric so you don't have to worry about your baby overheating in the night (I constantly worry about this. Anyone else?) Plus they are huge, so I could swaddle my little chubbers until he was a year and it would probably still fit. 2. Motorola Baby Monitor. I can't remember what specific brand right now, but it is seriously wonderful. We had two monitors die on us when we had Benson so we were determined to get a good one this time. It has absolutely no static and only responds to "sounds" (not breathing, or little noises in the room). Basically, it is absolutely silent until we need to hear him and then he comes in loud and clear! The base just plugs into the wall and then the portable hand held thing gets carried around with you! It has a battery life that lasts all day. We just plug it in when we go to sleep and then I take it downstairs with me in the morning and it lasts all day. I can't tell you enough how much we love this monitor. 3. Baby ESP app. I was really skeptical of this at first, but after doing the trial version I fell in love. Just try it. It's an app for your phone or IPAD or Kindle or whatever that allows you to track your baby's EVERYTHING. It is wonderful. I'll stop now. Just try it. 4. Taby Tray. Okay, so I didn't get this exact brand but it's the one I would have gotten had they had it in store. It's basically a tray that snaps around the car seat that allows your older child to eat, play, color, whatever, on a flat surface in the car (it sits on their laps, kind of). Seriously? Wonderful. We are about to use ours for Benson on a long road trip and I am very excited. 5. Phil and Teds double stroller. It had rubber air inflated wheels that will go over anything. It is thin enough to fit through most aisles and doors and it has stadium seating so we don't look like a tank coming through the mall. A little pricey new in stores but we got it on Craigslist. And last of all, if you are still reading, here are a few places I love because they are kind to nursing Mothers. 1. BUY BUY BABY! I was shopping here the other day when I stopped the sales associate if there was a place where I could feed my baby. She told me there was a room in the back. I walked back, expecting a chair in the bathroom and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a whole room dedicated to nursing mothers. It was decorated nicer than my nursery at home, they had two rocker glider floor models pulled in there, with a really nice and clean changing table, a sound machine, wipes, lots of space, temperature control and a small table and chairs with toys on it so the older kids can play while you are taking care of the baby. It was seriously amazing and I am going to recommend that store to everyone, even if they only use it as a quick place to nurse while they are out shopping. 2. Motherhood Maternity. If you ask them for a place to feed your baby, they will lead you back to their family dressing rooms and you can wheel your stroller in there and everything and nurse in the seat provided. Nice! 3. Target. Same policy as Motherhood maternity. Just ask for a place to nurse and they will let you use the family dressing rooms. Private and clean, plus your kids can be contained while you are busy.

Breastfeeding has gone SO WELL this time around. I can't tell you how many times I prayed before Finn was born to have a baby who was a good feeder. I struggled a lot a lot a lot a lot with Benson and feeding. I was supplementing by the time I left the hospital and was done with it by 6 months. In the end it was the best decision for our little family. I was a much happier mommy not doing it, and Benson was a much more satisfied baby taking a bottle. But it still made me sad knowing that I wasn't giving him the best (well, that and because I felt like I had to hide the bottles when I went to anywhere...didn't want the guilt trips from other mommies...still remember the time I was feeding Benson a formula bottle in the mothers lounge at church and another mom started telling me about the evils of formula and how her friend's husband had sneaked a formula bottle to their daughter once and she FOREVER after had digestive problems and horrible immunity problems from one bottle of formula. Really? Did you not notice I'm sitting here giving my own baby formula? You did? Just checking) Long story short: it was traumatic both breastfeeding and making the decision not to. Hence, my prayers that Finn would be a good feeder and that he is! Today I went to playgroup and I wanted to stop by the store afterwards, which meant that Finn would need to eat. I quickly nursed him in the car before we left. The whole time I sat in the car just saying a prayer of thanks that my baby would do that. It seems so small, but having a baby that will nurse on the go when needed is my own little miracle, and I love it. Granted, the kid loves to nurse about every two to three hours. He is almost six months and apparently that is a lot. I've been told many times that he doesn't need to nurse that often, but I don't mind. I really don't. It doesn't bother me. I love it. I feel like I'm getting exactly what I prayed for and it's awesome! Thank goodness for answers to prayers! And on that note, I prayed and prayed and prayed that Benson would be a good sleeper (that was what was important to me at the time) and he was! And still is! So I'm feeling very blessed today. I've got my good sleeper (but bad feeder) and my great feeder (but horrible sleeper). I wouldn't have it any other way!