Hannah's Birthday Celebration!

Moving on to the double digits is such a special time in life. You are one step closer to being a "teen" or an "adult" with mom still holding your hand not willing to let go!! It is hard to see your baby grow up and change.

Hannah is looking more and more beautiful every day. She is smart, funny, a good friend, a helper, and always has something to say!

Some of her hobbies are: reading, riding bikes, watching movies, playing with her brothers, and drawing. She loves to go to friends' houses, to the YMCA, to school, and to ride in the car to listen to Harry Potter (we are now on book 5, about half way through).

For her birthday she decided 2 days before that she wanted a bike! Lots of work finding the perfect one in so little time, but we made it work! She also asked for a Blog (that's my girl!!), which we are working on putting together.

We are so proud of you "B"! You were the one who started us on this path of parenthood. Thank you for all of the things that you have taught us along the way. Thank you for being a wonderful example to your brothers and sisters. You are a beautiful daughter of God! He loves you! We love you! We hope this year will be one filled with happiness and joy! Happy Birthday Hannah!

2 New Tooths

We found 2 sharp bumps on the bottom gums!

Because reading Spot can be dangerous...

sweet conversation

A conversation between Joseph and his Mom.

Joseph just came into the kitchen and said, "I'm glad you are my Mom." My response, Oh really, why is that? "Because I like you." Than he walks out.

Sweet, simple, and to the point!

my Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to me...Happy Birthday to me...
I had an uneventful day today surrounded by 5 beautiful kids and my sweet husband.....getting Birthday greetings from family and friends. I had a couple of ladies from the ward that brought me fabulous treats! Tried a new restaurant...The Canyon...It was good food and the kids had fun! I got WICKED tickets!!, plants to make my house my home, and money to go shopping! What else could one want other than a yummy, delicious, chocolate Costco cake and beautiful flowers....oh, wait got those too! Looks like I was left wanting nothing!

My brother asked me if I was wiser? I of course told him yes and then proceeded to deminstrate and said yes when I should of said no (so I can't see into the future). But it did make me think.....I have learned in 31 years of life that there is still so much to learn!

I decide that since I was now 31 I probably need to start taking care of my body better than I have been. We joined the YMCA, so I will be trying to add exercise to my list of things to do. We will see how that goes.

6-month Report

How can it be that my baby is already 6 months? So much has happened in her little life. With Alan getting a new job, getting our house in Maryland ready, and moving, it has been a little bit stressful. But with her good nature she has been wonderful. She is such a quiet and content baby. When you come into the room and greet her, she gets so excited, kicking her legs and grinning. She is so sweet and happy. Things that she has accomplished:

• She smiles.....especially for her brothers and sisters who love to hold her and play with her.
• She laughs.....she is so ticklish. It cracks me up because she will try to hold in her laugh when being tickled, then this belly laugh will escape. Adorable.
• She rolls....all over the room. It is her way of transportation.
• She is close to crawling.....She does baby push-ups and will arm crawl forward to get what she wants.
• She has rolls....Alan and I finally got our fat baby!! Rolly-polly! She really enjoys her bottles. We did start feeding her rice cereal. There was no objections to that. Although Eden ate more of her cereal than Mim did.
• She babbles....but only when it is quiet. If it is noisy she is very quiet and doesn't make a sound. So she usually starts talking in the middle of church!!

She has been such a joy to have in our lives. Happy Half-Birthday Madam Mim!!

Parenting

After making sure that all the kids had everything ready for school tomorrow and had sent them upstairs to get ready for bed. I looked at Alan and said with a sigh , "Being a parent is hard!" He looked at me and said, "I wouldn't know."

Good Grief!!

the ride

I was upstairs organizing the "Library" when I heard the garage door go up and down probably 6 or more times. I rolled my eyes and thought, "What are these kids fighting over now?" I went downstairs to investigate and to my utter amazement Joseph and Peter were holding onto the garage door for as long as they could while Hannah was pushing the button to make it go up and down. My mouth dropped. I could NOT believe what I was seeing. Of all the things that they could be doing, this is how they were getting their kicks today!! I of course yelled with my "you are going to die a slow painful death" yell, for them to go up to their rooms, sit on thier beds, do not say anything, and do not play with anything. I have never heard the three of them so quiet before. After I had calmed down they received their punishment of not using the garage door for a week and since it would be down, that means they can't ride their bikes for 8 days because we don't ride on Sunday. I also told them, "If they don't think I am serious and decide to open the garage or ride their bikes, they will be grounded for an additional week."
Joseph later asked....."What is an additional week??" I responded, "One more week after you finish the first one." His eyes got big...."Oh." He went into his room where Peter was and told him of his new discovery. Peter replied in an annoyed tone, " I already knew what that means."
Our garage only sounds slightly different now! It's hard being the mom, trying to keep your kids safe and protected, and always ruining the fun!!

potty time!

Eden has been showing an interest in potty training for about 2 months now. I am the one who has been hesitant to potty train her because of how busy we have been. But true to Eden, she has been persistent, and any time her diaper is off she wants to sit on the toilet.
Today something actually happened!! It was a whole family affair. Everyone came in and congratulated her and cheered. She has never been more proud. She just sat there smiling and clapping her hands. It was adorable. So I guess it is time. I would hate to miss this opportunity, when she is willing and ready. It will be nice to have only one in diapers.

My set of Wheels

Since we have been in Washington my kids new favorite thing to do is ride bikes. They will race around the house and ride in the driveway. Joseph felt that his bike with training wheels was slowing him down. He asked Peter if he could have his old bike. We fixed the seat and started. He did meet the fence and a tree before he realized that it was just like his bike with training wheels. It took all of 5 minutes before he was cruising around. He is so proud of himself!! It was fun to hear all of the advice from Hannah and Peter, the "professionals"!!

First Day of School

The first day of school was great....for almost everyone. Hannah made a couple of new friends and loves her teacher. Peter had a hard time but it didn't come out until day 2 when he was crying in my arms wanting to stay home with me (hard moments for mom). Joseph was indifferent. It is going to be hard having him only in 1/2 day kindergarten when he was gone all day everyday last year. Eden and Miriam is going to really enjoy all the walks to and from school. Once we get on a schedule or more into a routine I think I will like school even more....this half day kindergarten will be hard.

We made it!

Here we are in our new house with everything crazy.

Moving is never easy and things just don't go as you expect them to. We got to WA on Thursday. Alan came a few hours early and picked up our cars, then picked us up at the airport and drove around to see the area and ended up at our house. I love it....the kids love it. We then went and ate dinner and slept at our realtor's house.

The next day was the day they dropped off our stuff. It was madness. So far only a couple casualties have been found. I stayed away with the kids most of the day. We went and got their school stuff, then to Costco (of course!!). We then went home to eat with Alan. Then we got lost...literally. I did eventually find my way back, but it took us probably 1 1/2 hours to find our way. It was funny though, because when we went to dinner that night the kids wanted to go to a McDonald's with a play place. So far we hadn't seen one, and the kids began to explain to Alan that when we were lost they had seen one...so if we just got lost again we would find it!! Wouldn't be great if it truly worked that way!!

Saturday was just filled with unpacking boxes. The kids were completely bored. They had nothing to do. Joseph said that it was the most boring day EVER!! Hannah stayed in her room all day "unpacking" and "organizing" her room. Peter and Joseph helped me a couple of times unpacking boxes from the kitchen but then it got scary with paper flying everywhere and me not knowing where I was going to put things. Then a neighbor stopped by with her 4 year old son. She invited Joseph over to play for a little bit!! She could not have offered anything better!

We have been eating out or unhealthy since Friday. My body is feeling it, but what can you do when you don't have a fridge. It seems like everything that is good for you needs to be put in the fridge. We had ordered a fridge previously, but found out yesterday that it wasn't going to be delivered for another 2 weeks because it was on back order. Frustrating! We ended up finding one locally that will be delivered this Friday. Thank heavens, I never realized that you couldn't live well without a fridge.

We also just got our washer and dryer today. I am so excited about them! I have never had brand new ones. It shrinks our laundry room though. We thought we had all this room...not the case. But I would rather have a washer and dryer then more space.

The other thing that we have missed is a functioning kitchen sink. We didn't have a faucet or garbage disposal/drain pipes until this morning. Nothing like working out of one bathroom. It makes me wonder what the pioneers did. I guess I am just spoiled. But I think I will keep it that way! So we now have all of our showers installed and most of the bathroom sinks. Two of them had pedestal sinks and we decided that we wanted to have cabinets instead but we haven't picked them out yet. Alan also decided that he would install our toilets instead of paying a plumber to do it. It's easy enough....he has replaced every toilet we have ever owned except one....which was brand new.

I had a great picture shot that I thought I would get in the morning when there was more light....but the kids had it all cleaned up to surprise me by 7:30 in the morning. Sweet kids! I had filled...not just covered the ground...but FILLED my formal living room (which is empty) with 5 boxes and paper from those 5 boxes. It was amazing how much paper they used to wrap all of my china. I couldn't believe it. But my darling kids got those giant black leaf bags and filled those up until all the paper was gone. It would have been a perfect picture!!

All and all we are doing well and enjoying our new house and the area. It is beautiful and so far the weather has been perfect!!