Makai Neil

This cutie pa-tootie is our Mak-a-Duke (aka, Duke, Mak, Kai, Doodles, etc...)

Makai is 4 and loving being four. He's a little small for his age and unfortunately seems to have a hard time feeling little. He feels like he's not fast and that he can't do a lot of things, but now that he is 4 that is slowly changing. Actually, now that he finally wears size 4T is what is making it slowly change. He's growing! Makai is my little sunshine when he wants to be and my attitude the next second. He's confusing. He is sensitive, but instead of crying he just gets mad.

He's our story teller. This boy can go on and on and on making up stories. He loves to talk. When he makes up a name for one of his characters he usually uses some kind of sound instead of a real name like, "Thap". He prefers that I tell him stories at night instead of reading them and then he will usually repeat my story back to me with his own twists. When I do read books he hardly lets me finish a whole page without asking me for some back story or more explanation. He also enjoys singing and can go on and on doing that too.

He's hilarious. He loves making people laugh, but he really hates when he feels like people are laughing at him. If he didn't mean to make you laugh then you better not start laughing. He gets distracted easily and hates cleaning. Usually he sits down to clean and ends up making a bigger mess because he gets caught up playing again.

He hates eating unless it's candy. He loves being in charge even though he doesn't understand what that means. His favorite thing to do is play with friends. His best buddy is Ryan and they love playing with cars and wrestling. He gets super serious when he wrestles daddy. To the point that I'm not sure he is still playing. He tells me sometimes he "loses control of my body". lol. He has an answer for everything and is always making up different scenarios that he can either solve or explain.

He is caring. Awhile ago I showed him pictures of kids who didn't have any food and it really concerned him. He asked me a couple weeks later if we could send some of our food to the hungry kids since we have too much. It was so sweet that James and I agreed we need to follow through with that on some level.

He is obsessed with superheroes. His favorite is still Spider-Man, but he also loves Hulk and Thor. He thinks he has real powers, but he told me that he can't control his powers yet. When he is a dad then he will be able to control them. (He also thinks his dad is a superhero.)

I think he might be going deaf. Or maybe he just has selective hearing. I swear I have to shout to get his attention even if I'm talking about sweets! I hope I'm joking, but I really am taking him in to get his ears checked the end of this month.

He asks me all the time when it's going to be his birthday again. He loves to snuggle and gives the tightest most amazing hugs. I love to snuggle him and let him talk my ears off. I love my little Mak-a-Duke.

Ezra James

This handsome stud muffin is our Ez Trez 

(I may have like a million nicknames for all my kids if you haven't noticed :)

Ezra is 6 and will be turning the big 7 July 17th of this year! He is awesome. He is still my greatest helper and now he is my "work for hire" anytime I'm having a hard time keeping up with the other kids and need an extra hand. He will clean the whole house for me, take out the trash, hold the baby, wipe off the table, take care of some dishes, etc. Though he never lets me forget that he was promised some sort of payment in exchange for his services.. though I'm sure he'd do it for free.

He is always going for the laugh. Whenever we have friends over, Ezra is the life of the party. It's hard to tone down his crazy sometimes. Just as much as he is crazy, he is also super calm. His energy is like a roller coaster. He crashes hard and still needs daily down time. We can always count on Ezra for a super silly moment or a heart melting sincere cuddle.

His favorite thing to do is play his Lego Super Hero wii game, but since he can't play it that often because he has a mean mommy, he also likes building things with Legos or MetroMags or any kind of blocks. He loves wrestling (actually this one might be his absolute favorite thing to do). He likes running and practicing cool tricks like roller skating. He recently learned to whistle. He would whistle himself to sleep some nights practicing (not a joke). 

He knocked out his two front teeth last year (one fell out right when he crashed into Makai's head and the other got lose the same time and fell out soon after). His grown up teeth are finally coming through though! It's so weird to see his sweet little baby face turning into a non-baby face.

He's a great eater and compliments me on my dinner all the time even if it makes him throw up because he doesn't actually like it and has a weak gag reflex (sweet potatoes are his least favorite which I just don't understand! And why I keep serving him some is just dumb of me. Though at least he tries.)

He still has a very "matter of fact" personality and can be very serious sometimes. When he gets tired he is just like his mommy and either gets really sad, or really goofy. He loves to be in charge and really tries his best to set a good example for his siblings. He loves sitting by himself and reading books. He is so particular about his space and how he sets up his area around his bed. 

He is thoughtful and always kind and very trustworthy. I can always rely on him.

What can I say? He's simply the best 6 year old I've ever had!

First Grade

Ezra is in first grade this year. We homeschooled last year and found it to be extremely difficult. I hesitatingly made the decision to put him in public school for first grade. I found a school out of district that had more of the things I was looking for in an elementary school, so we applied as a transfer student and got accepted.

It was incredibly difficult for both Ezra and me with many tears and discomfort. Ezra cried every time I dropped him off for the first 3 weeks or so and would sometimes cry after I met him for lunch in the cafeteria and then left. He was begging me almost daily to homeschool him and it made my heart ache.

For now he's still in public school. Is it the right choice? I honestly don't know. We don't fight as much, so we have a better relationship, he has made some friends, he understands what a full day of school means and he is learning some things that I wouldn't have even thought to include in our curriculum. I am happy to have more time to take care of our other kids, but I still really miss my Ez.

I really think my heart is still set on homeschooling. I loved that we could focus on what he's good at (like math.. they don't do much math at all at his school and it's so frustrating!) Thankfully his reading is improving and I am not pulling out my hair any more when we sit and read together. He is learning and growing and his teacher is great so it's working out okay.

I do plan on homeschooling through the summer regardless of what we decide for him next year. I'm pretty sure Makai will be going to public school for kindergarten so if he goes then I'm sure we'll end up sending Ezra back as well, but I'm keeping my mind and heart open trying to figure out what is best for these babies. I just wish school was three days a week for like 4 hours a day and then he was mine the rest of the time. That would be ideal. Ugh. Toughest decision I've had to make as a parent so far :/ Wish me luck!

Here is Ez Bez on his first day of school:

Sleeping Babies

The way kids sleep just cracks me up. I love peeking in on my babes before I go to sleep and finding them half off their beds, with their bums in the air, or curled in a ball over just their pillow. There is something so sweet and beautiful about a body at rest ;)

Oh Ezra. How is this even comfortable? I guess it was keeping his head from bobbing. lol

Makai was in a timeout on the wall and four minutes was apparently too long to wait. I found him like this and almost didn't want to move him. 

This is how I have found Deklan napping a few times lately. My theory is that he just gets up to play after I have tucked him in and then wears himself out so much that he just can't quite make it back into his bed. Though at least he had enough energy to throw the blanket around himself.

Last but not least...Brynlee was holding her dolly's arm! I was in love when I saw this tender little moment. She loves cuddling this thing and it makes me smile.

GAH! I love sleeping babies! Just found Dek-O with his bum in the air :) They are my favorite things in the world when they're sleeping!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from those crazy Tressler's!

We had a great Christmas this year. James got the day off which was totally unexpected, but it was so great to have him home! We even braved our first big Holiday dinner together and even though there was some stress involved, we both really enjoyed working together and making yummy food! The kids all had a wonderful and happy Christmas. We hope everyone had a good Christmas and is now enjoying the start to 2015! 

Halloween

Halloween this year went like it does most years.. We waited forever to pick a costume and then finally decided to shop in our costume closet instead of the store. Ezra was a police officer, Makai was Thor, Deklan was a pirate and Brynlee was a cabbage patch funky fairy ;) Yeah, I made the last one up. lol.

We went trick or treating with a lot of our friends. Here the kids are with Haley and Ryan waiting for it to finally be time to beg people for candy!

Our neighborhood had some good houses and some lame ones. A lot of people didn't answer and some that did didn't have any candy. The kids had a good time running around together though, and we came back with enough candy to fulfill mommy and daddy's cravings, so we're good.

Maybe I'll try to plan better for next year. I always have big ideas and then not even time or "know how" to make them happen. Ezra wants to be luigi and Makai wants to be "Hulk Smash" next year. Maybe we could all be Mario characters! Yeah, probably not gonna happen, but I just might wear a black or orange shirt next year so I'm going big!

Brynlee's Baby Blessing

Our Beautiful Brynlee Bear was blessed August 3rd, 2014. The blessing was given by her handsome and gentle daddy, James. It was a wonderful blessing. She was blessed with virtue to last her through her life which was my favorite part. I teared up when the idea of her being a mother and raising Heavenly Father's children was said. It made me feel so connected to her and I realized I am raising a mother who will raise more mothers so I better do a good job!

She was calm the whole blessing even with the feathers from her bow tickling her face while she was bounced ;)

She's an angel baby and we're all in love.

Ezra and Makai's Birthday

This summer I decided to do another combined party for Ezra and Makai. I was planning on having it before the baby came, but since I was induced early we opted for later which worked out better for them anyways since it ended up being right in between their birthdays. We did a pirate party. And since we did it the same weekend as Brynlee's baby blessing, we were lucky enough to have BOTH of their grandmas here for it too!

I had so much fun planning their pirate party. Aside from the pool party portion of it being rained out, everything went great.

I had to drink a lot of root beer to get these invites. lol.

I'll save you from the individual pictures of the food and just give a summary because I felt cool having my dishes labelled. lol. We had peg legs (corn dogs), cannon balls (cheese balls), Pirate ship (watermelon fruit bowl), 7 sea dip (7 layer nacho dip), Chips ahoy cookies, fish and chips (goldfish and potato chips), buccaneers jello surprise, just a standard veggie platter that I don't know if I named and then some pirate marshmallow pops and cupcakes. 

My mom worked hard painting this for a ball toss "feed the shark" We still have it :)

I spent a lot of time drawing and cutting out swords from cardboard for a couple of months before the party so we could start with a "decorate a sword" table. I also had telescopes for them to decorate. This was so cute to see kiddos getting creative! 

My prized pirate marshmallow pops

Treasure hunt. I found this plastic chest at walmart and just spray painted it. We made a special trip to the beach and I filled it with sand and then mixed in lots of treasure! 

yeah.. there were a lot of kids! 

pin the flag on the treasure map 

Dek-o had to get in on the action too.

MakaDuke went a little crazy with the jello.

Singing Happy Birthday to my big boys! 

Grandma Lene was there standing guard around Brynlee while she slept the whole time! She's seriously so easy! 

The line up for the treasure hunt. I was shocked they all waited so patiently for their turn.

Our walk the plank that Deklan claimed the second James set it up. 

We also had a "ring around the sword game" and a cannonball toss that we never got to. Kids got crazy and just ran around instead. lol. It was so fun. A lot of work, but well worth it.


Ezra turned 6 on July 17th and Makai turned 4 on August 14th. They both got new bikes for their birthday!

Walk the Plank

For Ezra and Makai's pirate party this summer I made a plank for a "walk the plank" game. It's so silly how walking across a board can be so much fun for kids. My kids loved it and even had to dress up in character while they played with it around the house.

I have some goofy children and I just love them to pieces! (notice sweet B Lee in the background? She's an angel baby!)

My Baby Shower

I have some incredible friends who went above and beyond to make this baby shower extra special. With this being my first girl after a "long" wait, they decided it needed to be a big deal and it certainly was. I feel so blessed to know these women and to call them my friends. They are amazing.

The room pre-shower

Sarah and Katie

Sarah and Ashley

A good chunk of the planning committee (there was actually a committee!! haha)
Dana, Sarah, Katie, Ashley, Lesley (and Katy behind the camera)

walking in with my girly escort

Eating lunch. They served wonderful food.

obviously the present table ;)

opening presents with my girl, Haley (aka Ezzy's best friend and my little sugar)

They did so much DIY stuff for this shower it was so touching.

Loved this little display. And the table next to it had a book display for  signed books instead of cards. It was a great idea and Brynie B got her first princess books here!

My favorite flower -stargazing lily on every table. Above and beyond!

Sarah made a gorgeous cake that I didn't get a picture of so I am trying to track that down. They had games and beautiful prizes and yummy food and treats. And most of the decor they sent home with me for Bryn's room!

I am just so honored and I feel so humbled to see the work that they put into making this shower special for me. I know it wasn't easy and sometimes it probably wasn't even fun, but any time I told them to simplify I was shot down and told that they wanted to do this for me. It brought me to tears. It lowered my stress of a scary pregnancy and helped me to focus on the excitement of having a baby girl. I can't say 'thank you' enough. I love these girls and I loved my girly shower!