Now we are six

Happy happy birthday Isaac!

Pretty in plaid

I loved dressing my Barbies up when I was a little girl. Now that I have real-live dolls, of couse I love to dress them up too! For now they let me, so it's great fun!

Sibling Revelry

Teague just loves his brothers and sisters. For the longest time he called himself Teague, and all of his siblings Noe. He can finally say each of their names now. This video is of him doing just that. (I remember when Gavin used to call Kaleb, Chachi).

My friend is a speech-language pathologist and she said her rule of thumb is- speaking by 2, understood by 3. At 2, Teague was the strong-silent type, so we began the process of getting help from First Words. Almost a year later, this is what has happened- I went to the Parents Info Night, his assessment was postponed (the assessor was sick, but we haven't got a rescheduled appointment yet), and he did get a hearing test. This was useful because it showed that even though he can hear, his ear drums don't move AT ALL! There is so much fluid behind them that they just don't budge. He may outgrow this problem, or doctors may have to fix it. We're still waiting to hear back from our doctor about this. He is talking more and more though, so maybe by the time he gets to participate in this "early intervention" program, he may not need it. I just hope by the time he starts school in the fall of 2013 he'll be speaking clearly.

Reading Nook

Teague LOVES books and lately he just can't get enough of them.


This morning he found a comfy spot and read for a good while.

A coffee table for a foot rest and a daddy for a pillow- it doesn't get much better than this!

The Reluctant Pirate

Today at school was Pirate Day for Gavin's class. He did NOT want to dress-up like a pirate at all. I'm a mean mommy and made him do it though. I volunteered that day and when I arrived at the school, Gavin ran up to give me a big hug and was all smiles. He was happy after all that he got to be a pirate for the day with his classmates!

Easter Monday

Normally, the Easter Bunny visits us on Saturday. This year Leonard didn't return home until that evening so we asked the Easter Bunny to visit us on Monday (I love that the kids get a 4-day weekend!). The kids were thrilled to get colored-chocolate lollipops and covered oreos!

Hiram was ready to dive into his first basket of goodies. Poor baby can't have any this year though. He was so kind to share with his parents!

The Easter Bunny also brought a basket for Mommy & Daddy to share (I gained 4 pounds this weekend- yikes!).

Who can resist a chocolate bunny?

The kids were sad we didn't have deviled eggs as part of our Easter feast, but we had to paint them first!

I think they turned out rather nice! Now we'll have plenty of deviled eggs.

The kids noticed they didn't have any jelly beans in their Easter baskets. After our egg hunt, they each had about 150 jelly beans each!! We were sad our neighbors couldn't join us this year, but Mommy & Daddy got to join the expedition instead.

*Later this evening we went over to our friends', the Yamada's to share another delicious feast and more Easter treats. We're so grateful for good friends, yummy food, and the promise of a new day to start dieting again, ha ha!

Easter Sunday

I love decorating for Easter. It's the only time I can embrace my love for pastels, ha ha! I finally found some "blooms" for my Happy Easter planter.

At Christmas, I can display Nativities to keep the focus on the Savior. At Easter, I didn't have any religious decor- so I made some this year. I got 8 of my favorite prints by Simon Dewey showing scenes from Jesus' life (His birth, learning from Mary & Joseph as a boy, teaching in the Synagogue, teaching the woman at the well, washing His Apostles' feet, and His Resurrection). I framed them in simple acryclic frames because I wanted the focus to be on the prints themselves. I put a collection of vases behind with spring tulips to finish it off. I was really happy with how it turned out! We used the pictures as part of our special Easter Family Home Evening too. We decided we're going to display them at Christmas too, I'll just swap out the tulips for some poinsettias.

I love the tradition of getting new Easter clothes each year. This year I indulged my passion for pastels. (I wish they had the yellow shirt in Teague's size, but he looks handsome in beige!).

Noe and her matching bunny. I just loved this skirt for her and couldn't pass up the dress too. Maybe someday she'll have a little sister to wear it, but until then it looks cute on Bunny.

*We had a wonderful morning at church, then came home to an Easter feast of ham with all the trimmings followed by strawberry shortcake. We finished the evening with our special lesson on Jesus'Atonement and Resurrection. I am so grateful that my Savior made it possible for me to return home to live with my Father in Heaven with my precious family!

So glad I'm not a single mom

My heart goes out to all the single moms out there- you ladies are AMAZING!!!

I must give a shout out to my husband. He went to Utah last week to speak at the Mormon Transhumanist Association Conference. He spoke on Joseph Smith's teachings of the "Plurality of Gods." I'm sorry I wasn't there to watch him, but I look forward to seeing the video. He was gone for four days and had a wonderful time, but he was sorely missed.

This picture pretty much sums up how I felt as a single mom- EXHAUSTED! I love my children dearly, but it is a lot of work to take care of 5 little ones by myself. I'm so very thankful that my husband is such a good father and that we raise our children together. (Do you like my stylish hair? Noe fixed it for me in 3 ponytails and 2 braids, ha ha!) I just want to give another cheer for all the single moms- keep up the great work!!

TWO

Happy Birthday Caroline-cutie!!

Happy to you!

Some people might think having your parents divorced is a hard thing, and I'll admit that sometimes it is hard because I want to be two places at once (three now that I'm married, love all our extended fams!). However, my mom always told me that I'm good at turning my lemons into lemonade. I'd like to think that's true. One thing's for sure, I feel spoiled that I don't just have two parents that love me, but I have four and I love them too. So happy birthday to my second mom!!

My best friend

My mom is just barely 20 years older than me. The older I get, the more she feels less like my mother and more like my sister or my best friend! I love you momma and I hope you have a wonderful birthday today!!

Woot! Woot!

I talked to my sister, Erika today and she told me the fabulous news that she and Jared are getting married! I am SO happy for them!! I'm also so happy that we'll get to go home again in the fall to celebrate their special day with them. Love you Eri and welcome to the family Jared!