Bunches O' Boys

Home Sweet Home

2012-01-13T18:27:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit late on posting this...but Sunday we got to come HOME!

But let's back up a bit first...
On Saturday daddy brought the boys to come visit and meet their sister the first time. We didn't know when we could bring her home. Each day was day by day, but we wanted the boys to meet their little sister. :)
They loved her, of course. Each of the boys got a chance to hold her, several times. We had to rotate turns because they were fighting over who got to hold her! She is much smaller then she looks in pictures - so the boys were surprised at how little she is.
Billy Jr's first words when he saw her was that she was "so cool"!

Then Sunday at midnight she had her nightly weigh-in and she had gained a whole ounce! A few hours later the doctors gave us the good news that she could go HOME!

The ride home took quite awhile. We left Seattle around 3pm and got home just before 9pm. It is usually a 3-hour trip. However we had to stop every hour to let baby out of her carseat (because its hard work sitting up right like that for a tiny baby for too long). She had to eat one of those stops also, and that takes her around half-an-hour to finish.

Adjusting at home has been difficult. I've been gone for three weeks (plus a week of strict bedrest in which I couldn't do anything anyway), so saying that our house is in disarray is an understatement.
I'm just hoping to slowly get things back to normal...but it may take a couple months!

In more big news...the oldest three boys went back to school this week. I was hesitant and felt like we were giving our homeschool dream. However, I do see how its important for them to be back to a routine, around other kids, and doing school work. I couldn't imagine doing school work with them on top of everything else right now. So I know its a good thing, but I feel like I failed at homeschooling. :(

Baby Abigail will be 2 weeks old on Monday. Her check-up today showed she's still gaining and is now within 2 oz of her birth weight! YAY!!
Our schedule is pretty crazy right now. Every three hours I wake her up to feed her, which can take 30-60mins depending on how sleepy she is. Next I have to pump for about 15 minutes. Then I have to repeat the whole cycle again three hours from when we STARTED. This is 24/7... So it was a big sleep adjustment for me at first. I was pretty emotional for a few days, running on very little sleep and dealing with "baby blues". However I feel better now. Each day I feel more and more "human" again and am slowly getting things done. Like today I gave the little two boys haircuts they desperately needed. Tomorrow I may fold some laundry. lol

Okay, enough update - TIME FOR PICTURES!

Owen loving on baby sister:

Gabe kept giving her kisses...we didn't tell him to!

Billy jr was so proud!

Biggest and littlest...

Brayden and Abigail:

Bunches O' Boys...and one little girl!

2012-01-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

We are proud to welcome our little drop of pink in our bucket O' blue....
Miss Abigail, born Jan 2, 2012!

She decided to come early, but we are happy to announce that besides being a tiny little thing - she is totally healthy!

Here is her birth story, and yes pictures too!

Our original plan was to induce labor on New Year's Eve. However, everyone's baby decided to come that day as well! Since I was stable and not in labor, we kept getting bumped from the schedule. All the labor and delivery rooms were full!
We kept waiting and wating and waiting all day. Finally that evening the doctors said they'd tried Cervidil over night to see if that would help get things started. But when the Dr. checked me I was 3 cm so no need for Cervidil! The plan was to use Pitocin bright and early in the morning to start things.
As the Dr. promised, we had a room at 5:30am and started Pitocin within the hour. Not much progress at first, to our disappointment.
I had contractions every 3 min or so but I didn't feel them much. Finally, I started to just get a little uncomfortable and I opted to have them start the epidural incase things went fast.
When I was checked, I was found to be 4 cm. The doctors said the Pitocin wasnt really kicking things into gear yet (labor).
More and more waiting...it was all still the same.
Finally around 9pm the doctors decided to stop the Pitocin for the night and give my uterus a rest to resume in morning. Talk about disappointing!
Laboring all day, to try again in the morning. We were all worried and just wanted her out. :( So I asked the Dr. to check me and see if any progress was made all day at least. She did, and I was 6cm. So they decided to keep going on the Pitocin through the night to see how things go...
Hubby and I went to sleep (epidurals work so great lol). At some point the nurse woke me up to tell me to turn over on my other side and that they were taking me off the Pitocin. I think baby wasn't tolerating it well and needed a rest. I was tired, no problem.
Back to sleep I went.
Then I was woken up a couple hours later with the doctor in the room saying she needed to check me. I thought that was weird since I wasnt really feeing any contractions and they turned the Pitocin off. Epidurals work great. lol I was found to be 9 cm!!

There was a little bag of water cushoning baby's head, so the doctor broke that and had me push a couple times to see if it brought baby down. She was still so high, that the doctor said she'd never seen someone dilated to 9cm and the baby being so high still!
Well that worked and baby came down nicely. The doctor told me to stop and rest and she'd get the rest of the team ready. Now I felt the pressure and it was hard not to push!
Finally, everyone was in place and I could start pushing. It took about two good pushes to get her head right there, and then several small pushes to get the rest of her out.
Pretty easy actually. ;) I felt like a dream..I was still waking up!

Afterwards she did great and hubby went with her to the progressive care nursery (not NICU) to help with her bath, etc. Took an hour to get an IV in her, poor thing. :( And her hands and feet are so sore from all the poking from IVs and various blood sugar, etc tests. She was 5 lbs 1 oz and 18" long.

She's done great with breathing and eating from day one. She had a tiny setback with maintaining her temperature and had to be put in an isolette (incubator). However, she's getting taken out of that tomorrow and should be in my room with me!
The nurses can't get over how hungry she is, waking up to eat every 3 hours on the clock. They joke that she doesn't seem to know she's 6 weeks premature.
We should be on schedule to take her home by the end of the week...but some things are day by day, so nothing can really be predicted.

So with that...we welcome little miss Abigail to our family! The boys haven't met her yet, but I can't wait for when they do.

Tomorrow is the day!

2011-12-30T23:08:00.000-08:00

These are my last few hours pregnant...its always a weird feeling. I think its almost better to just go into labor on your own - because then its there, its time, no going back. However, having this day set in mind makes the waiting harder and plays on the nerves.

I don't know when I'll get to start the induction tomorrow, but I'll post an update after the little miss comes. :)

Now, I just need to try and get some sort of sleep tonight! This is my last night of uninterrupted sleep for a great while. :)

New Year's Baby...Maybe?

2011-12-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

So I haven't updated since 2.5 weeks ago...
After my last post, things were going pretty well. In fact I got to go home for a week (still on bedrest ) and we were pretty optimistic. Slowly the boys starting trickling back home from grandparents' houses. However then Christmas Eve I noticed some suspicious "leaking". Although it was so sporadic and minimal that it could have been anything. My midwife told me to watch and see, so I just kept note of things and laid low.

Christmas Eve night I got to spend a glorious night in my own bed, snuggling with my boys. Christmas morning we had a nice time opening presents and having family time. However, the suspicious leaking was increasing so we decided it was time to get it checked out.

I hoped to be proven wrong.

But instead it was confirmed that my water was leaking...

In my town hospital, they can't take care of babies younger then 34 weeks. Since I was 33 weeks, that meant I had to be transported to a bigger city hospital 3 hours away. I got an ambulance ride to the jet (lights, sirens and all...but that was to not make the jet wait too long). Then the jet ride was only about 15 minutes!

The doctors here are great - so calm and reassuring. After all, they are used to much more serious cases and much more premature babies.

The plan is to wait here, let baby keep growing, until 34 weeks. Then I will be induced (yikes! Never been induced!). We're hoping to avoid a c-section, which should be a do-able. *crossing fingers*

We've been blessed to have so much great help with the boys these past 2.5 weeks. Although the boys are starting to tire of this and just want their normal back. :( Its hard for the younger ones to understand. In good news - Grandma potty trained the 2 yr old while she had him for the week! Yay!

I will be 34 weeks on Saturday, New Year's Eve...so I will either have a New Year's Eve baby or maybe even New Years! I'm nervous but hoping for a quick and relatively easy birth. I'm really nervous for afterwards and how baby will do. She could be here a few days or a few weeks...chances are she'll do great though. Apparently preemie girls do better then boys!

So that's my update for now..little miss attention getter keeps changing the plans though, so really its day by day.

I hope to have a great update with adorable pictures in a few days!

Little Miss Drama Queen

2011-12-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

So...I post this blog update sitting from the hospital. Not where I expected to be during my finals week for school, and not at 31 weeks pregnant!
But, I'm where I need to be for now, so that's all that matters.

Long story short - I woke up Saturday morning with unexpected bleeding issues and some minor contractions. We went to the hospital and was soon diagnosed with some sort of partial placental abruption. I was put on a variety of meds to stop the contractions, however they didn't seem to be working. We were told they were sending me to a bigger city hospital via helicopter (!) because the hospital here doesn't deliver babies/keep them here until 34 weeks. I was given steroids to mature baby girl's lungs and the OB tried one more thing, some lovely magnesium sulfate (sp?). It worked and I didn't have to go anywhere!

Today is day three...I was set to go home, but after a trial run last night of allowing me bathroom priveledges (uggh!) I had some more contrax this morning and a little bleeding. So back on some meds I go, and not going home today.

Baby has been doing great throughout...loving the attention. ;) But she is giving the nurses a workout-she moves so much that they have a heck of a time chasing her around with the heartbeat monitors!

So that's my update for today. I hope to have great news next time I update, and I hope to have a January/February baby still!!

30 weeks down...10 weeks (or less!) to go!

2011-12-05T00:46:00.001-08:00

Its hard to believe that I'm in the final few weeks of my pregnancy now. The time has gone really fast. Of course, now, the next 8-10 weeks will crawwwwwwl by.

Everyone is getting very excited. Thankfully we have the holidays to keep us entertained for now. However, once January 1st hits...its going to be all baby baby baby talk. I could have the baby as early as the last week of January. SO...I *could* say that I "may" have the baby next month! Wohoo!
Alex was born 2 weeks before his due date and Gabe was born 1.5 weeks before his due date. The other three boys were either on or within a few days after their due date. So...who knows?!

In other exciting news, we DO have a name! AND we were going to keep it secret, but the boys knew and they started spilling the beans. To keep it fair we announced it to everyone. Little sister's name will be.....Abigail! Nickname Abi is possible, but I also love Abigail just as it is. The middle name is up in the air, however we'd really like to honor Billy's grandmother Bonnie.

That's about it for exciting news right now. We've been busy with preparing for the holidays and me finishing up my classes (which end the week after next, wohoo!!!!). I have some cute pictures of the boys decorating the Christmas tree, which I'll post later when I'm not hiding from my homework (as I am presently...haha).

Happy Holidays!

October Catch-Up

2011-10-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

Wow what a month!

I can't believe how fast October has gone by.

First to start the month I had a birthday. It was a big one. I said goodbye to my 20's. *sniff* Now I'm officially starting my 30's! Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal. I still feel 29 at heart. ;)

Then the rest of the month was spent finishing up soccer. With Billy coaching two teams this year it was a bit crazy! We were happy to have our final games and trophy parties to wrap things up.

I have also been busy with my classes I'm taking. Pregnancy does NOT do good things to my brain. I feel the most stupid I've ever been! I can't concentrate and I just don't have any motivation to actually do my homework either. Needless to say, its been quite a struggle this month. I hope next month will be better, and then my classes will end the first week of December. YAY!

For Halloween we got pumpkins for each of the boys to carve themselves this year. Tonight we had an epic pumpkin carving session complete with junk food. We didn't finish until 10:00pm! Gabe, 2 yrs old, was begging to go to bed poor thing.
At least the boys are getting older so I didn't have to help as much with de-gutting and carving of the pumpkins. I only had to "de-gut" two pumpkins and help with a third.

I look forward to November, the holidays and spending time with family. The next two months will go by very fast I'm sure. Before I know it, it will be January and we'll be preparing the final WEEKS before the little princess comes. It seems unreal!

Okay...now on to the pictures:

Alex's end of year soccer party, this is the "trophy" this year...a personalized sweatshirt. The boys love it!

Gabe enjoying a dandelion at Alex's trophy party:

Or is he eating it?!

Playing in the leaves at Brayden's soccer party:

Billy Jr making a leaf-angel

Gabe and Billy's close-ups (I love Fall photos!)

Brayden getting his sweatshirt:

The whole team (minus one)

Pumpkin carving time! A full kitchen...

Finished products...

All a-glow!

What's in a name?

2011-10-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

Naming a person is hard.

I think that some parents don't realize this or don't put as much thought into it. That's where you get names such as Envy Burger, Bread White, I.P. Freely, Jus-N-Tyme, Violence, Holly Wood...the list goes on. (Taken from http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23631411/ns/today-parenting/t/harry-pitts-worst-baby-names-all-time/ )

However I like to consider all aspects when I choose a name - possible tease-worthy names, correct spelling, and how does the name sound on a sophisticated adult? For example, you probably won't see the next president of the United States named Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2452593/Talula-Does-The-Hula-From-Hawaii-not-a-girls-name-New-Zealand-court-rules.html) .

Then you've got TWO people trying to agree on names they like...even more added to the baby naming equation.

I don't know if we'll ever come up with a baby name, honestly. Maybe on her birth certificate it will just say "Baby Girl".

So...any ideas or suggestions? We are open to them!

And Baby #6 is.......

2011-09-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

A GIRL!!!

Bunches O' Boys will now have a little sister. :)

Its still all hard to believe right now, I was so convinced the baby was another HE. I am so not used to saying SHE and HER yet.

The boys are so very excited and happy. I got a video of their reaction to share with family and friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHYYn893qRA

Also I have some first pictures to share of HER:

One of the PROOF shots...see the arrow. :) She was being very immodest. Daddy said it was okay only this once...

Another proof shot:

A baby profile with yawning mouth

A head profile shot:

Daddy and the youngest two got to come along. Before the ultrasound tech. shared the news, I thought I saw what looked like girl parts but didn't want to get too excited. So as soon as she said, "well guys...it looks like a GIRL!" I lost it! I said, "WHAT?!" and immediately was bawling. I even made daddy cry a little! It was so unbelievable!

Then afterwards we started making the speaker phone calls to the grandparents. Everyone was so excited! Beyond excited....

Now I just can't wait to meet her. February can't come fast enough! I can't imagine a little girl in this house O' boys. Our life will be forever changed!

Well Loved Toys - UPDATE!

2011-08-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

So....after I told Billy about Gabe's poor old Woody doll he said we should just go out and get him a new one. :)

I had to take pictures for the blog of course!

Gabe was SO happy! He was shocked at first and just kept saying "Woody?" over and over. Finally when Woody was out of his box and had his hat on, Gabe did a little dance and squealed with delight. :)

Here are the new and improved Woody pix...

Surprise!!!

So happy!

Giving Woody doll some love...

Well Loved Toys...

2011-08-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

So Gabe LOVES Toy Story, both Buzz and Woody pretty equally. But he LOVES his Woody doll. Sadly, it wasn't made for 2 year olds. Woody has lost his voice, lost his head, and now both of his hands. :( Gabe still loves him though and takes him everywhere, even swinging with him. :)
I think its time to find a new Woody on Ebay. I'll just tell him I fixed Woody. ;)

Baby #6 Update

2011-08-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm now officially in the 2nd trimester now! But that doesn't mean I've been feeling much better, in fact probably worse. blah.

Its hard right now to wait 4 weeks in between appointments and not know/worry if the baby is still okay in there. Last I saw "him" was at 9 weeks along and I didn't get to hear his heartbeat yet, just saw it on the ultrasound screen.

So I had a gracious friend offer to let me borrow her doppler (to listen to heartbeats). I waited until I was 12 weeks to try. It took awhile to find, but I was pretty sure I found it! Today I tried again to be sure, at 13 weeks and sure enough there it was. "His" heartbeat is much faster then mine and measuring around 160 bpm. He was moving around and hard to pin down in one spot though!

It was so amazing, and reassuring to hear. The miracle of life never ceases to amaze me!
I just can't wait until February. Pregnancy is a time full of worries for me, not being able to see the baby every day and know "he" is okay.

In other news, we've been keeping busy with summer and lots of activities. We went to the coast to visit the Seattle temple and then visited my sister afterwards. The boys had a lot of fun. It was a lonnnng car ride for me across the passes both ways though. uggh

School starts in a few weeks! aack More updates to come....

One in the oven

2011-07-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

So its official! Baby #6 will be here around the first or second week of February. Hopefully not the third week of February, because I already have three of my boys' birthdays that week! BUT if this one is anything like his brothers then it probably will be!

We told the boys almost right away. Its hard to keep secrets in this house anyway. ;) Very few people knew because of our previous loss before this pregnancy (and two before Gabe and Billy Jr's pregnancies as well). But we were waiting until my first appointment and ultrasound to share with the world. ;)

So all is well and baby appears to be growing healthy and strong. I still worry, always, so continue to keep baby in your prayers for an uneventful remaining 7 months please!

What's the guesses on boy or girl? Sixth boy? Or finally a little girl to finish off the family? :) Regardless, I don't know how many more children we'll have, as Billy wants this to be our last. An even number is a nice number to stop with. :)

As with Gabe's pregnancy, I'll keep a pregnancy blog so that if you want to read about all the details you can. I'll be making that blog public here soon.

Thanks all and until next time....

Summer fun picture overload!

2011-07-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since I updated! We've been busy this summer so far. Its been a fun summer!

So here is my update, in pictures....

First we had the end of school year picnic for the boys' homeschool "school". Here is Gabe pretending to sleep on the playground.

There was a watermelon eating contest too. Here is Owen with his best bud.

Alex got to set off his rocket he made during rocket class as well.

3...2...1....

Lift off!

But I actually missed Alex's launch so here is another kid's rocket launch. Pretty cool!

Next we went camping! Fun times!

Gabe giving grandma a flower. :)

Gabe standing on the same rock his grandma got a picture of his daddy doing at two also.

The roaring creek!

Not Alex's catch, but he was still proud of it!

No more pictures please!!

A pan full of creek fish and blue gill.

The big fish daddy caught with two little creek fish.

Gabe LOVED the spicy Dorrito chips with Tapatio! Crazy kid. lol

As we were leaving, I caught this great photo of a momma deer and her baby.

Next we had some fun in Cashmere at their annual ping pong ball drop. You catch these ping pong balls from the sky and win prizes. fun fun!

Billy Jr. waiting for the helicopter with his basket on his head!

Nana's idea to catch more ping pong balls!

Here they come!

And more!

Finally we spent a fun afternoon playing in the water this week.

Camping Fun

2011-05-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend was our First Camping Trip of the year.

Much planning and preparation went into this trip. There was no way Billy would cancel it even if the sky was falling, and at some points is was this weekend!
In all though we had a lot of fun, stayed pretty warm, mostly dry, and came home full of hotdogs and ticks! ewww
I'll use the photos to explain the rest...

On the road, everyone was already pooped out.

First stop - Grandma and Grandpa's house for a quick visit. We couldn't stay long though or get out of the car because of these guys. They were all in a "frenzy" (Alex's words) because of the storm coming. See it in the background. The bees are part of Grandma and Grandpa's honeybee operation.

Finally there! The three oldest have their own tent for the first time! Here they are trying to set it up themselves. I didn't think they'd sleep in it alone - they get scared easily out camping. However they did! With some tears the second night though. :(

Billy Jr got out his camp chair and kicked back while the rest of us set up camp.

Gabe was happy with a bag of chips while we set up.

Here is Owen being Owen. ;) He is wearing the hat Brayden won for him out of a vending machine at Walmart where we stropped to get some food for camping.

Alex looks warm!

Finally! Dinner and hot dog roasting time.

Gabe loved playing with the flash lights.

Day 1 - We get up early, have breakfast and then set out for a hike. We decide to hike all around the lake. Not sure how many mile(s) it was around. But it took the good part of the morning. There were some treacherous spots that scared mommy, but we had enough older helpers to hold little hands. About half-way through Gabe (2) was too tired to walk anymore so I carried him on my hip the rest of the way. I did get some breaks when the older helpers offered to let him ride on their back for awhile too.

A cool uprooted tree we found (daddy found actually).

Our pretty view from the trail around the lake.

On the trail....

Some pretty flowers we saw....Lady Slippers?

A beautiful view of the lake. It was so still and calm.

Finally, the end of the lake. It was very swampy. We still had to hike around the end though and come out the other side. On the other side we walked the road back.

Taking a break first..

The weather held out until the very end when the thunder started and the downpour came. Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us back at the campsite when we finally got back.
The girls (cousins) were staying with them for a week so they got to visit too!

Drizzling! Warming themselves by the fire.

The girls had hot dogs too. Yumm!

The oldest of the cousins - the next generation. :) The youngest four aren't pictured.

Rock climbing.

Can't get enough of the pig tails. I don't have pig tails in my house. Just rat tails. ;)

Billy Jr and Chelsey got along like best friends. They played together the whole time - mostly digging this hole and filling buckets.

Uncle Billy (and dad to the boys) giving BB gun shooting lessons.

Gabe! :)

Grandma had the two littlest watching the BB gun shooting from a safe distance.

Buddies!

More pig tails!

Getting ready to go home now. Gabe was loving the dirt.

HUGE PICTURE UPDATE!

2011-05-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Back by popular request...

Finally a long overdue update in PICTURES!

I don't have much time to write an update out, the pictures took my whole time I have tonight. ;)

But here is the last two months in pictures....Have fun!

We got a new (used) playset for the boys finally. I went outside to take a picture of them playing and this is what I found:

I couldn't figure out how the dog got up there with them, until I watched a while longer...

All five of my guys in the top of their playhouse!

Owen happy about his Easter presents!

Happy about his Easter gifts.

Mr. Serious

Brayden was NOT a happy camper...can't remember why now.

Brayden is happy now - dieing Easter eggs.

Owen's rainbow egg.

All the boys digging into the easter egg dieing. Some are using the little tools some are just using their hands. ;)

Super proud of himself here. ;)

Our final bucke o' eggs.

Billy was SO proud of his eggs!

Alex was proud of his dark purple egg...it was the result of all the colors!

Owen's decorated egg...or hands?

Gabe's first bee sting. :( Ouch!

Billy was really proud of this egg he decorated all by himself. :)

The "Happy Easter" sign my mom drew with the kids on the back wall.

Billy flying his first kite.

The bunny my mom made with Brayden's help.

Owen found the first egg!

Wasn't sure about this whole Easter egg hunting thing.

Alex entered his first piece of artwork into the local Art contest for kids. He didn't win a ribbon this time, but we're pretty proud!

That's it for now! See ya later... :)

Guess who's 7!!

2011-04-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Owen is!

Our last kid birthday of the year (yes we get them all done and out of the way by early spring haha!)!

Owen is very happy to finally have his birthday. It's hard for him to have to wait through all FOUR of his brothers' birthdays and not get his special day yet.

So he's been planning it for awhile.

He wants a basketball cake with Michael Jordan dunking a basket on it. :?
I think I'll get pretty close to that...Ebay has cool basketball figure cake toppers. ;)

For his present he wants the Dairy Queen Blizzard maker that he's been eyeing for a long time. Uggh.

For his special dinner....he's still thinking about it.

So on to the celebration of Owen. :)

Owen is our April Fools' day baby. He was due on April Fools' day too. However I can't claim an actual "born on the due date" baby because he was induced by my doctor. ;) There really wasn't a medical reason and who knows if I would have really gone into labor on my own that day, but I'm thinking I might have. I was dilated pretty far, about 4 cm. and having nightly contractions from about 37 weeks on. I was worried about getting to the hospital in time after finding babysitters for the kids, etc etc. So my OB offered to break my water to get things moving. I jumped at the chance of course. When I checked in though, I was already contracting on my own according to the monitor...so maybe my body was already in beginning labor?

Anyway, everything went perfect. He was my first epidural baby and it really was a dream labor/birth. He was great after birth, 9's on his APGARS. He was beautiful. :)

It wasn't until after they took him to the nursery that we found out there was a problem. He was born with a semi-rare condition of not having an anal opening.

Needless to say, when my husband told me this, on April Fools day remember, I told him that it was NOT a funny joke.
They took Owen via ambulance to Seattle Children's a couple hours after he was born. I had Billy go with him because I wanted to go home and pack our stuff. My parents drove me to Seattle a couple hours after.
He was only there for about three days. The surgery they did on day two went great and he had no other complications or defects that could have also accompanied this type of defect.
We were so greatful!

Now poor Owen just has an embrassing story that he'll really hate me for telling everyone about one day. lol

Okay...now for seven fun facts about Owen.

1. He's the biggest clown I know! ;) He always says its because he was born on April Fools day.
2. He is obsessed with the name Isaac. I don't know why? But if he could rename himself, he would, to Isaac.
3. He is my most sensitive child by far.
4. He's a great little artist.
5. He's not a morning person, and is always the last one out of the house, usually missing a shoe or two. grrr
6. He so looks up to his older brothers and is always trying to grow up too fast! :(
7. He LOVES video games. I have to reign in his video game playing quite a bit.

Now...the last 7 yrs of Owen :)

Newborn...finally coming home from the hospital! Poor little guy has straches and sores on his face from the suction tubing he had on for three days (to keep his tummy empty).

First birthday!!

Second birthday with his Auntie

Proud to be Three! :)

His fourth birthday we spent at the Portland Zoo. :)

With Auntie again, for number 5!

Silly Owen is happy to be six. :)

Finally seven! Happy Birthday Owen!

Busy busy!

2011-03-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

I'm finally on Spring break and now its almost over! It was way too short.

We've used this Spring Break to totally switch everyone's rooms around. We also finished painting the master bedroom.
We moved back upstairs into the master bedroom and moved the oldest four boys downstairs into two rooms. Alex and Owen are sharing a room and Brayden and Billy Jr. are sharing a room. They'll have the main area downstairs for their TV/games.
We also will be using a corner of the living area/game room downstairs for our school area.

Upstairs we took back the master bedroom and put Gabriel into the former school room. That will be the "nursery" room.

Needless to say, its a lot of work and we're far from done.

At least everyone has a sleeping space right now though and beds are put together.

Billy Jr. who's slept in our bed the past couple years (every since he switched from a crib to a toddler bed uggh) has been in his OWN bed in his own room for the past three days. Tonight we had a bit of a set-back with him falling asleep in our bed again, but we moved him back to his bed once he feel asleep. :)

I've said it feels like we're staying in a hotel or something with a whole room to ourself, no kids in bed with us, new painted walls, and we even got a new bedset to go with our painted walls! We LOVE our room. Its a kid-free area. haha
The boys are loving thier new rooms too, although their rooms are pretty sparse right now and Alex and Owen are living in the Safari room (the former nursery painted with a whole African safari theme). They all want to customize their rooms and repaint them. Brayden wants and under the sea theme. Hmmmm Not happening. Maybe we can give him some blue walls and get some sea animal wall stickers though.
Alex and Owen want a sports theme, like maybe a basketball court. Again....not sure how to do that.

So that's what we've been up to. SO much more to do! aack I will post pictures when everything is back in its place. ;)

Please stay tuned for your regularly scheduled programming....

2011-03-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Its the final two weeks of this quarter's classes for me.

Needless to say, I'm busy.

However, I didn't want to TOTALLY neglect my blog.

So in the mean time here is my favorite quote, in honor or Dr. Seuss's birthday:

Nine Years of Nail-biting!

2011-02-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

And what a fun and crazy nine years its been!

Nine years ago I became a mom for a second time.

Brayden has been my little energizer bunny since moment he could get down and go places.
Childproofing? Nah, didn't stop him!
Baby gates? Forget about it!
Locked doors? He always found a way.
He's been a go-everywhere, climber, and explorer since I can remember.

He's also very creative and independant. He took it upon himself to ask for a piano and piano lessons two Christmases ago. He loves to jump fully in to whatever he's learning about or doing. If he can't figure it out, he'll keep trying until he does. He's helped me cook dinner since he was high enough to see over the countertops (safely of course)!

I'm proud of who he is - which is his own unique little person. I can see great things for him in the future. :)

Nine Fun Facts About Brayden
1) Brayden was my smallest baby, weighing just under 8 lbs at birth.
2) He is 1/16 Cherokee Indian, according to my hubby. yeah yeah, I know everyone has stories like that...but really, his great grandma was half Cherokee - his great great grandfather (? Grandma Beki correct me if I'm wrong!) being full Cherokee. He tans well in the summer. :)
3) Brayden loves art and loves to make crafts.
4) He loves the piano (but not to practice) and will sit and watch endless Youtube videos of piano performances.
5) Despite his video game crazed brothers, he's not big on video games. He'll play them, and he likes to play them...but not to the extent of his brothers. He loves to just go hang outside by himself...ride bikes, climb the treet, etc. I'm always kicking the other boys outside to go play with him.
6) He is a FAST runner, even outrunning his older brother.
7) He once put the cat in the drier...and turned it on. He was pretty little and I was told about it right away so I was able to get kitty out, mostly unscathed. ;) He did feel bad afterward!
8) He is a noodle KING. He loves noodles. He'd live off noodles every day if I let him.
9) He secretly likes Justin Bieber's music, but don't tell him I told you! shhhhh :) His brothers tease him too much about it, so he'd never admit it.

Now...nine years of Brayden....

Birth Day! Born the night after Alex's 3rd birthday party...two days after Alex's birthday. My first thought when I saw him was "look at his big nose!". He grew into it quickly...it was just a newborn thing I guess. haha

First birthday!

Second birthday - I LOVED his hair! The only one of my boys born with my thick, long hair. Notice the bald trend on his younger brothers...haha

Third birthday...Mr. Grumpy that day I guess..

Fourth birthday - yes that's a pink diary and pen that he's playing with. Deal with it. ;)

Fifth birthday - Got his bike and helmet! :)

Sixth birthday - Chuck E. Cheese = CHAOS ;)

Seventh Birthday - In the far corner...couldn't get one of him sitting still enough for the camera I guess!

Eighth Birthday - Same thing, just an around-the-cake photo...he must have been too busy that year!

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9!!

Happy 9th Birthday Brayden

Terrific Twelve

2011-02-23T00:34:00.000-08:00

Guess who's turning TWELVE?!

If you guessed Alex, then you are correct!

I can hardly believe myself that its been twelve years. I still remember when he was a drooling toddler scribbling on my walls. And now he's entering the pre-teen era.
Yikes!

I'm blessed to have Alex as my oldest child though, because he helps a lot!
He is a caring, trustworthy kind of kid.

12 Fun Facts About Alex:
*Alex was actually due March 9th, but as is my "norm" -he liked that last week of February. ;)
* He would have been a BIG baby if he had gone up to his due date or overdue...as it was, he was just 2 oz. shy of 9 lbs.
* He had horrible eczema as a baby/toddler and we'd have to tape socks on his hands at night. But those didn't even work. Many baby pictures I have of him, he has scracthes all over his face. :(
* He had a scary ashtma attack when he was just over a year old. He had to be life-flighted via helicopter to a bigger city hospital. I wasn't even there! I was at a training for work. It was super scary to get that call and then hop on the plane in the wee hours of the morning to join him and my mom in the PICU. :( He was there for three days, but he never had another asthma attack after that. Weird.
* He's scared of the dark ;) (Shhhhh Don't tell him I told! hehe)
* He's half Native American (thus the dark coloring...incase any of you didn't know and were wondering)
* I was a teen single mom with him for two years until I met my hubby!
* Alex hates spaghetti and Dorrito chips. Weird kid, huh?!
* Alex loves animals, especially reptiles. He desperately wants a snake. ummm no.
* Alex is learning to play the piano this year and his teacher says that he's very "musically talented", something he and Brayden have in common. I don't know where they got it from though! Not me!
* Alex "hacked" into the school computers in 1st grade. Really he just saw the teacher's password and memorized it, then used it later to change his reading scores to 10,000 words per minute. But the teacher wouldn't admit that he could have seen her password, and instead she accused him of "hacking". The school comp. tech. team had to go and change all the passwords on the computers.
* Alex is allergic to everything...at least according to the allergy test he got a few years back. He reacted either through skin/scratch test or blood test to all the allergens they tested him for. And there was a LOT. He's taken two allergy shots a week, then eventually every other week, for the last five years. This should be his last year for that. :) His allergies are a LOT better!!

Okay on to the pictures!

Birth Day, going home from the hospital!

Year one - so cute!

Second birthday - what a ham!

Third Birthday - And that night I went into labor with his first brother :)

Fourth birthday, the first combined birthday party :)

Fifth Birthday

Sixth birthday

Seventh birthday...ya got a little something on your face...

Eighth birthday

Ninth Birthday

Tenth Birthday...enter Mr. Cool

Eleventh Birthday...he didn't know the bow was on his head, haha

Number 12!! Happy Birthday Alex!
My goofy guy!

Four Fun Filled Years!

2011-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

Someone has a birthday!

And thus kicks off our birthday madness week (Brayden and Alex are in the next few days too...so watch for my posts!).

Billy Jr was born 4 years ago today. Its amazing how fast time goes.

Fun facts:
* He's also number four in birth order.
* He was my BIGGEST baby at 9 lbs. 12 oz.
* He was due on February 16th, but in keeping with his other February birthday brothers, he came just a couple days before Alex's birthday on the 23rd...who came a couple days before Brayden's birthday on the 25th.
* He has asked for a "blue cake with candles" for his birthday

I will make sure to post pictures of cake and presents later. :)

But for now, pictures from his last four years.... *sniff*

Newborn Billy Jr:

Billy's First Birthday (At Chuck E. Cheese):

Billy's 2nd Birthday:

Billy's Third Birthday:

Fourth birthday photos to come...Stay tuned!

Dancing Machine - Watch out!

2011-01-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

I finally got a video of my little 2-yr old dancing machine. :)

Gabe's 2nd Birthday Photos

2011-01-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

Finally got the photos downloaded from our little family cake party we had for Gabe. :)

The cake, Toy Story of course!

Here comes the cake!

Gabe blowing out his candles!

Yummy cake!

Billy helping Gabe get his new Toy Story shoes on. They look like twins in this picture don't they!!

Gabe posing with his new Toy Story pajamas. :)

Where do we go when we die?

2011-01-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight the missionaries were over having a discussion with us, and one of them asked Owen where do we go after we die and are judged.
Owen raised his hand proudly to answer....
And said...
CHINA.

Yep, there it is! We all go to China after we are judged. ;)

Just your boy-ism of the day. ;)

And now some cute pictures I took of my crew:

Guess who's TWO?!

2011-01-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

Gabriel is TWO!

My baby is growng up....

To celebrate his birthday, as I do with all my boys, I will retell his birth story and post some of my favorite pictures of him from the last two years. :)

First the birth story - (suitable for all audiences, lol)

Short edition!!
Gabriel was my QUICKEST baby yet! To make a long story short, my water broke in the wee hours of the morning on January 22nd. I wanted to wait around at home for awhile, like I always did with my other babies who's labor started at home, and take a shower or whatever. Thankfully, though, Billy knew better and told me that we needed to get to the hosptial as soon as possible. Whatever! He was my fifth baby, I should know when it's time to go...
Well I'm glad I listened to him, because we got to the hospital 20 minutes later and about 30 minutes from then I was already ready to push! Gabriel was born after a grand total of two hours from when my water broke at home. Whew!

Gabriel was my second biggest baby, weighing at 9 lbs 4 oz. He was perfect! :)
Oh and one interesting fact - Gabriel was born with reddish hair! The solution the nurses use to wash the baby's hair the first time is a red color, and after his bath she kept washing thinking she didn't get it all. Billy was there with her and Gabriel, and the nurse said that it was just his hair that was red. That fine baby fuzz red hair didn't last long though and it soon turned to the super light blonde hair that his brothers also have! Here is the best picture I could find of the baby fuzz red hair:

Happy birthday Gabe!

Gabriel in the hospital:

My favorite photo: The boys' first time seeing and holding Gabriel at home:

Gabriel's Blessing Day:

My silly Gabriel:

Gabriel on his first birthday:

Gabriel today - Two years old!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

2010-12-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

It's that time to say goodbye to one year and hello to the next!
I thought it would be fun to do a year of pictures to send 2010 out with a proper farewell. She was a good year to us. (Some pictures are new, never been published on my blog before, so keep an eye out!)

January...
Gabriel turned ONE YEAR OLD!

February...Billy Jr turned 3, Alex turned 11, Brayden turned 8

March...
Brayden was baptized by Billy and he joined cub scouts.

April...
Owen turned six and started his first year of soccer, with Billy coaching. AND we underwent major changes in the house, finally painting all the previously brown panel walls GREEN!

May...
We had lots of fun camping, AND got a new dog (who we only kept for a couple months...wasn't a good fit with our spoiled "only dog" Lady)

June
In June we said goodbye to public school (hopefully forever). Owen had his kindergarten graduation, and fittingly a few days later we had a summer picnic with the boys' new school. The new school is a homeschool program that allows them to go up to 8 hours a week to a school for other homeschooled kids, where they can take a variety of arts, sciences, music, P.E. classes and more. (oops can't find my pictures of there summer picnic!)

July...
In July we had lots of fun in the hot summer sun!

August...
In August Billy and I celebrated 9 years of marriage! Also, we went to the ZOO!

September...
In September we started our first year of homeschooling all the boys, and their first day at their new "homeschool school".

October...
Whew October was BUSY for us! In October we had my birthday (uggh! Last year in my 20's...*sniff*). Also my sister got married! Owen was the ring bearer. Then the boys finished their soccer season. And finally there was Halloween. We had an awesome Halloween party complete with a trunk-or-treat at our church.

November...
November was busy preparing for the holidays. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner here with Billy's family. It was so nice getting everyone together!
All nine Byington grandkids! Five boys for us, four girls for Billy's brother and his wife! :)

Cute cousins!

Everyone writing five things they are thankful for...

December...
One word...CHRISTMAS! :) And for those pictures you can just scroll down to the previous post. haha
And now to say hello to 2011! I hope you will be just as nice to us! I look forward to see what you have to bring to us.
HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL!

Christmas 2010!

2010-12-30T21:26:00.000-08:00

Only five days late...not too bad!

Christmas this year came on in a blur and went by in a blur. I don't know where the time went? It must have just been me though, because the kids complained plenty about how sllllllllllow time was passing before Christmas!

Before Christmas, however, Alex had his first piano recital. Brayden had a piano recital too, but I didn't get video of it. :( Here is Alex's piano debut though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgV0eZTTo40

For Christmas this year we had Christmas Eve with Billy's family, Christmas morning to ourselves, Christmas afternoon with my family, and the day after Christmas with Billy's brother and his family. What a busy Christmas!

My camera is gone, broken, kaput. :( So forgive my grainy pictures that I took on my back-up camera which is very old and poor quality. Uggh! I hope to get a new camera after the first of the year. :)

I still was able to capture a few of the super happy smiley faces though!

Billy Jr was SOOO excited about EVERYTHING this Christmas. Here he is super excited about what Santa brought him, which was a police car ride in toy. With real siren sounds!

Owen got an Ipod Shuffle from Santa. He's been begging for one of these for a long time!

Alex got a snowboard from Santa. He wants to learn to snowboard, but we'll start him out small and see if he likes it before we consider spending the "big bucks".

Billy in his little car again!

Gabriel got one from Santa too, a firetruck ride in car! He was really excited in this picture, but its hard to see.

Billy is WAY into Toy Story this year. He was so excited about his Toy Story pillow.

He also got a Toy Story blanket. He cuddled up on the couch with them both! He won't let ANYONE touch his pillow or blanket now...or else its WW III. yikes.

Brayden wasn't quite awake yet, he woke us up about every hour from midnight on seeing if Santa had came yet. He was SO excited. He got an Ipod Shuffle from Santa also!

Brayden was really excited about his Star Wars toy! (sorry I don't know Star Wars that well!)

Backing up a bit - here was Billy Jr telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas at the church Christmas party about a week before. He was very unsure at first, but after watching the other kids for awhile he climbed right onto Santa's lap and started jabbering away!

Gabriel....not so much.

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Contemplating a Family Closet

2010-12-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

I've heard of this idea before. Many large families swear by it. I am liking the idea more and more.

Why?

Because I'm tired of going through broken dressers like they were meant to be disposable. I'm tired of finding wadded up shirts shoved under the dresser (That's where that went! lol). I'm also tired of hauling laundry piles upstairs and down. Also, sorting out too small clothes, or out of season clothes would be a LOT easier if they were all in one area. More organized too.

Here is the idea behind the concept:
http://raisingolives.com/2009/03/laundry-help-the-family-closet/

A picture of another family closet:
http://www.lotsofkids.com/LOK-Household/Laundry/familycloset/familycloset3.php

The problem is that I don't have room in my house for an entire laundry room...as much as I love that idea. We use our space very creatively. We do have a school room that is only used for school, but I'm not willing to give that up as a laundry room.

Since we don't have a ton of kids (yet ;) haha!) we really don't need a laundry room I don't think. Rather I'm thinking of converting the master bedroom closet into the family closet.

Here is what it looks like now:

Currently the master bedroom is being used as the three oldest boys' room. However we'll be switching them back downstairs probably this summer, and taking our master bedroom back.
This closet is 11ft across and has installed in it a custom closet organization system as you can see. There are seven spots for rods to hang shirts. Only four of them are being used though, because the boys have taken the other rods to use as swords over time. ;) It will be easy to replace those rods though and have seven spots to hang shirts from once again.

However I don't know if it'd be easier to just take that whole thing out and put in wardrobe rack things. I really like this idea: http://cockrumfamily.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-family-closet-totally-embarrassing.html
Each wardrobe rack has a spot for shoes even! Shoes are another never ending battle in this house!

So I'm not sure quite how to go about this...but I'd love to hear some ideas!

Long overdue update!

2010-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

Wow September since I last posted! What's wrong with me! lol

We've been pretty busy with soccer season, homeschooling, and me taking a full load of college classes as well. Thankfully I was able to get online classes this quarter. Next quarter will be online also, however our local college doesn't have that great of variety for online classes. Eventually I'll have to take some night classes at the college. Winter break is starting now though, so I'll get a couple months class-free. YAY!!

Soccer is finally done also! The boys had a ton of fun. Billy coached Alex's team and they both really enjoyed it. Brayden also liked his team.

Homeschoooling is also going well. Its a steep learning curve, but we're getting through it. I keep telling myself that the first year is GOING to be full of bumps and challenges. Its never going to be totally easy, as easy as shipping them off on a bus each morning was. lol However, the challenges that I faced with the public school - the challenges THEY faced - were mountains compared to the little bumps we're facing now with homeschooling. I have never once doubted our decision...if I doubt anything its just the way that I'm doing things. I am constantly trying to look for new, better ways to do things then I am. Its all a big learning experience right now!
The boys are making friends in their school though. Twice a week they go to a "parent-partnered" school that one of the local school districts provide. So on the books, they are offically "public school students" still as far as the government is concerned. What that means is that they get to take a few classes a week at this school that is just for homeschooled kids. They can take one class a week at minimum or up to 8 classes a week at max. We're doing 8 classes a week which is one half day (9:30-1pm) and one full day (9:30-3pm). They are making great friends there already and fitting in great. Alex is enjoying his wood shop, karate, piano lessons, art class and much more. Brayden loves his "Dangerous Book For Boys Class" where he learns such things as how to do magic tricks, make electricity out of a potato, and make the world's best paper airplane (hey it's a fluff class lol). He also likes his art classes too, and karate, science, and more. Owen has a first grade "block" with one teacher who he really likes. Its a classroom setting like he'd get at his old school and I think its really good for him. He also is doing karate and art classes too.

Billy Jr and Gabe are just busy as ever. Billy Jr is potty trained! YAYYYYYY! And I'm thinking of starting Gabe on potty training this next year.

Billy Sr is keeping busy with work, church, and whatever I require of him as well. lol

So basically we've just been....keeping busy! :) I think life would be boring without all this business though. Its our life, and we enjoy it.

No pictures this time! I have some soccer pictures that I will upload next time. :) The bad news is that my nice camera is toast! :( I have a little one I've been using, but it doesn't take that great of photos. This is devastating for me during Christmas season! lol

First day of homeschool AND soccer season!

2010-09-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

What a busy couple weeks!
Our soccer season started a couple weeks ago, so that's always fun. Not! Billy is coach of Alex's team because they couldn't find a coach. That just makes it MORE fun! Not.

Then last week the boys started their first day at their homeschool-school. Its described as the "best of both worlds". Its ran by a couple teachers and classes are also taught by other adults with experience in various areas and an interest in homeschooling. It gives the boys the chance to get out of the house two days a week and take a variety of fun classes in a school-like atmosphere (and also gives mom a break too!). They go there three hours on Tuesday and five hours on Wednesday.

Today started our first day of homeschooling. That was fun!

I wrote all about it on my homeschooling blog: http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-day-of-school.html

Brayden had his first soccer game yesterday too! It was a bit chaotic with the two little ones trying to run around everywhere. uggh! But I did get some pictures, that I will post next time!

Okay that's it for now, running out of computer time!

Zoo Trip Summer 2010

2010-08-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

We were feeling pretty bummed out this summer that we didn't have any family vacations planned. Sure we went camping a couple times and visited with the grandparents. However a fun day out of our norm activities - just too busy and not enough money.

Then Billy surprised us and said, "Wanna go to the zoo!?" Yay!
It was pretty funny when he asked the kids...he said, "Okay we can either stay home this weekend and pull weeds"....long pause, lots of pouting, frowning and NOOOOOOOO's..."Or" he continued, "We can go to the ZOO!". The boys jumped up and down for that one!

Billy Jr didn't know what a "zoo" was but he was sure it was excited. The next couple days he kept saying "go to the zoo?"

We decided to just make it a day trip because we had obligations at church the next day. However we did make plans with my sister and her fiance to meet us at the zoo. They were pretty excited too, and soon-to-be Uncle Jeremy got us a great deal on zoo tickets.

We set out bright at early at 7am (we were supposed to leave at 6:30 but it was a pain getting those little boys - and big boys- out of bed!).

At the zoo, Billy Jr could hardly contain himself. This was the coolest thing he's ever seen! He LOVES animals and they were EVERYWHERE! Not just the normal cats and dogs either. ;)

We did bring a stroller for him, but he was running from animal to animal exhibit right along with his brothers. We thought he'd tire out, but...NOPE!

Unfortunately his excitement got the best of him and he was bulldozing through kids at each exhibit. It was a very busy day that day. In fact while I was trying to take pictures and Billy was sitting with the stroller, Billy Jr bulldozed through a little girl and the mother had a "talking to" Billy Jr. Oops! Yep...I have one of "those" kids. ;)

At the African Savannah, in the African school

Some of the African Savannah animals

In one of the African village buildings

See how excited Billy Jr is! Here he is in an hut of some kind in the African village

A full view of the hut

Such a cutie!

A bird in the rainforest exhibit

Riding the bronze hippo...the real hippos were hiding behind bushes :(

It was giraffe feeding time. Pay $5 and you can have the giraffe eat out of your hand! We just watched though.

King of the jungle (although Lions don't live in jungles do they? King of the...Savannah?)

He gave us a show and roared for us!

An African Savannah monkey

The pretty Painted Wild Dog

Up close with an elephant (not really, just used my big zoom lens)

A Tapir - at once point, as told by my sister, a child asked her mom what that was and the mom responded, "uh umm that's uh....." in which Alex quickly stepped in and answered for her, "that's a Tapir" very matter of factually. haha

The komodo dragon was cool

The boys loved the komodo dragons

Merekat Manor! They are so small in person!

A pretty owl, not sure which type

The bears!

We spent the most time at the bear exhibit. I think they were brown bears? They were HUGE though. Billy Jr couldn't get enough of the sunken viewing room - where we were behind glass just above the water level with lots of big fish (trout?) swimming for us to see. Then the bears treated us to a show and one jumped in the water and swam right up to the glass, back and forth. It got pretty crowded then with people rushing over to see (wouldn't be so bad with just little kids but even the adults were cramming in to see!) I couldn't even see Billy Jr or the other boys in the crowd, but you can be sure he pushed his way through to the glass to see that. ;)

Billy Jr at the glass below water level in the bear exhibit

Bear coming closer to the viewing area

There were two bear in this exhibit, eventually the second bear got in the water too

Come on in, the water's great!

The last shot I got of the bear in the water before I was stampeded by kids and parents

We spent nearly five hours at the zoo and Billy Jr only sat in the stroller for probably 30 minutes! Gabriel just hung out in the stroller, watching it all, and not making a peep (well except his usual periodical shrieks he does! Thankfully he blended right in at the zoo though).

A pretty snake, if you think snakes can be pretty

Elk? In the North American Trail exhibit

What do you get when you cross a Kangaroo with a Wallaby?....A Wallaroo!

A sleeping crocodile..he slept with his eyes open. Super creepy.

The Penguins!!

Tropical rainforest bird

Feeding time for the black and white Colobus Monkeys

Brayden and Billy Jr checking out the fake cow...with real fake teats to pretend to milk!

After we were done, we decided to go the Rainforest Cafe as a fitting end to our zoo day.

The boys were amazed with the Rainforest Cafe and kept finding excuses to get up and look at the sharks in the big aquarium by the door.
The down side though was the "thunder and lightning" that happened every 30-40 minutes. It freaked Gabe out big time and every time it started he'd scream and try to scramble out of his high chair. That happened three or four times during our dinner. Also, the boys were just pumped up with excitement and not staying in their chairs. I think my sister and her fiance were more worn out then we were. ;) They were used to all of the crazy-ness.
We surprised my sister with a lava cake for her birthday. They sang her happy birthday to her embarassment and then we all split the yummy brownie and ice cream lava cake.

The boys were WORN out and I got a great photo of them all zonked out in the back.

It was a fun day!

Holy Picture Update Batman!

2010-07-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I'm wayyyy behind on pictures, and updating my blog for that matter.

Rather then break these apart in several posts (too much work, not enough time!) I'm going to do one big long picture update post.

First of all - as you see in my first picture - Owen graduated from kindergarten! So fun! I've only had one other kindergarten graduation, Brayden's. They sure are fun for photo ops!
Here are a couple more kindy graduation pix:

Owen is cheesing out way in the back of this photo. The girl with the pretty dress on just in front of him was the girl he had a crush on most of the year!

Owen and his buddies!

Next we have our first camping trip of the season. It was still cold out, but we stayed warm AND had fun!

Then the next weekend, or a couple weekends later, the guys did a father's day camping trip with just the guys (one of the many bonuses of having only boys...haha) and I stayed back at Billy's mom's house with the two littlest boys and we had fun just hanging out and playing with the babies! Much cleaner then camping, and a bit more fun too. haha

Gabriel was SO worn out from playing hard, look at him just laying there in Grandma's lap!

Gabriel and Billy Jr playing in Grandma's fountain

Love these pix - here they are playing with their daddy's old toys

My favorite pic though - the original size is cooler - but I love the colors of the garden and the way the sun is shining through Billy's crazy hair. lol

Okay, that's all the pix for now. Not too bad! I have more pictures from the boys' school picnic on the homeschooling blog though - check them out here: http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/

Now you see him...now you don't...

2010-06-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Meet Prince! Take a long look because, in his case, a picture really may last longer....

Let's back up a bit....
About a week ago (not even quite a week yet!) I was perusing the Craigslist Pet section. Not that we were even looking for a new pet. Not that we even really wanted another dog. Yes, we had talked about it but quickly decided that, at this time, we don't want another dog.
Then I saw Prince, or Peanut at that time. He was so cute, and his story melted my heart. I've read numerous sad stories on the pet listings before, but I'd never thought about taking any of those animals home. However, somehow Prince just "spoke" to me. His story was such that his family was moving apart because of divorce. He was raised with two girls and they had pictures posted of him cuddling with this girls on the couch and giving them kisses. However because of the divorce, for some reason Prince (aka Peanut) was being left behind. :( He went to a friend's house who couldn't keep him, so she found another friend. This other friend had three dogs too many already and her husband said she had to find Prince a home very soon or he was going to be taken to the Humane Society. This poor little doggy lost his family already, I couldn't imagine him sitting in a kennel at the Humane Society for who knows how long....
Also, he fit our original "requirements" when we were discussing a second dog. We wanted a male, not a puppy but not too old, well-trained, and CALM. He is all of the above.

What a sweetheart he is! He's super calm and laid back. He loves cats and kids. He's perfect really....

Yes, there's always a BUT.

He is also an explorer and "mountain" climber. After the first day of having him, he got out of the fence a dozen times because the kids are used to leaving the gates open since Lady is trained to stay in the yard and she no longer tries to escape.
So we began closing the big outside gate too (that closes off the whole property from getting to the main road). We thought we had nipped this problem in the bud.

Today however, we almost lost him - TWICE.

First I noticed that Billy Jr was riding his bike in the driveway and I couldn't find Prince. Great. I run around yelling his name (which he doesn't come to yet since he still thinks of himself as Peanut). Finally I make sure the boys are secure in the yard and I run to the main road.
Yep. There he is. Cars honking and him dodging traffic. Great fun.
I catch him and bring him home. Angry, but very relieved.
Immediately Brayden and I get to work plugging up the hole he climbed out of. Which was actually a 5" gap between the house and the fence, which leads to a 4" ledge with a 20 foot drop to our driveway that slowly declines down to the ground. He had squeezed through this hole and then tiptoed down the ledge until it was close enough to the ground.

Celebrating our victory of catching him and plugging the hole, we walk back to the house to finish lunch.

The. Gate. Is. Open.

Billy Jr was playing with his tricycle again and left the gate open. I yelled a few "kid-friendly" swear words at that time (something like gosh DARN it I'm so flipping tired of this gosh darn dog getting out!).

We all go back to searching for him again. This time the big outside gate is closed though, so we should be good right?

No.

I run down to the main road again...not there.

I look around the house again to see if he's hiding. Not there.

Then I see the slope of firewood against the back fence that he probably climbed up on and jumped out over.
CRAP. Gosh DARN dog!

I debate whether its worth it to go track him down.
I decide it is.

So I load up the messy spaghetti-O faced babies and load them in the car. I circle the block....

And finally I find him, again. This time in a neighbor's yard. He happily jumps into the car like nothings wrong.

Yes I'm happy to have him back. Yes he's on doggy lock-down right now...supervised bathroom breaks outside only.

But I don't know how long this will last. I think we'll get him microchipped very soon. Although, then if he gets caught we'll just have to pay $100 to come pick him up each time.

Oh the joys!!!

Edited to add one more picture - Lady, our first dog, and Prince the new dog.
The names are supposed to be Arthurian - Lady Guinevere and Prince Arther. But we shortened them both to Lady and Prince. We had a Merlin too, but he sadly only lived a year. I posted about him in this blog a couple years ago I believe.

Apple Blossom Carnival 2010!

2010-05-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year again! That time of year to spend way too much money and way NOT worth it carnival rides. BUT the boys love it. Ahh what we do for our children. haha

I took my long lens to the carnival this time to get some upclose shots of them way up high. I loved how the pictures turned out this year!

Before I get to the pictures, some quick updates: there's not much else to report...we've been so busy lately. Pretty much busy from sun up to sun down and beyond! There is always something to do, someplace to go, and somewhere to be. We're in the middle of Spring soccer for Owen, two boys in Scouts now, Billy's ever busy church calling, homeschool stuff, and Billy's classes to finish up his Associates degree. Aaack!
We haven't finished painting YET but we're close. Its on the back burner for now while we catch things up. We did get some thermal blinds for our living room, the school room, and the boys room. It looks sooo much better. Next I want to replace our old sliding glass doors with either some new sliding glass doors with the blinds built inside them or french patio doors with the blinds built inside the glass pane. :)
We have quite a "to do" and "to buy" list for this house...but we're slowly cutting down the list! Walls - check. Blinds - check. Floors - check.
I promise to try to update my blog more often...now to the pictures!!

Brayden's Baptism, Owen's Soccer, and more

2010-04-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

A busy busy week indeed!

Besides painting the walls, and more painting of the walls...we had Owen's first soccer game and Brayden's baptism!

On the walls: Almost done, but I guess we didn't realize how much time and work really went into painting. Perhaps we should have taken everyone up on their offers who wanted to help. I guess we thought we could handle it ourselves though?
It's been a week since we started and we have finished the living room, most of the dining room, and most of the school room. What's left includes a small wall in the dining room, the small laundry room, a tiny patch in the top part of the closet in the school room, and all of the master bedroom (which is the boys' room - blah!).
We bought posters, table and chairs, and cool school room stuff for the school room that I had hoped to be ready by Monday...but its just so much work! We'll get there.

Here are some more sneak peak photos - nothing exciting yet, but you get the idea:

The living room - you can see the green better in this photo, and the trim we changed to pale yellow, the same yellow of the school room:

In this photo you can see a portion of the school room - but its also our painting supply central, so it's pretty torn apart right now. We did a yellow on the walls and the same green as the living room is the trim in this room:

On Owen's first soccer game:
It was a rainy, drizzly day but Owen had so much fun! He was quite the ham on the field and was having more fun then caring about winning I think. So that's good! It was tricky to get get photos because I couldn't seem to catch him fast enough, or it was blurry, or Gabriel was just so fussy and didn't like competing with the camera. haha But here's what I do have:

GOAL!

On Brayden's baptism:
The day really snuck up on us, and the time too! We were almost late for his baptism. Typical for us though, drives Billy crazy. However, what can you do with five little kids and only two adults? haha
Grandma was in town and came to see Brayden's baptism, thanks Grandma Beki! He was first to get baptized and did really well, despite his nerves. There were two other children being baptized that day also. The little girl to go last was petrified of the water, the poor thing. :( Finally after about half-an-hour of coaxing, she was able to get baptized too!

As I can't take photos during the baptism, the only photos I have are of after:

Also, I forgot to post last month but Brayden also started cub scouts when he turned 8 yrs old. He's been happy about that and having a fun time. He looks forward to scout nights! Here he is in his little uniform the first night of scouts:

That's all I have for now! Check back later for finished house photos!!

A Busy Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

We had a busy and fun Easter this year. Billy took his vacation this week following Easter and so we decided to paint the interior walls of our house during Easter weekend and the first few days of his vacation. Since everyone else was busy for Easter, it was just going to be our family anyway. Billy ended up inviting four sets of missionaries (so six total) for Easter lunch/dinner. It was interesting trying to clean up the house and our paint mess while cooking a big Easter dinner. Thankfully we pulled it off though!

Gabriel very "eggcited" about his Easter eggs...hehe

Alex didn't want to pose for this picture...can you tell?

Brayden finding an egg...

Goofy Owen!

After several late nights we have succeeded with finishing the living room now...almost. There is just some trim work to be done as of right now. We're still on track to finish painting the whole house by hopefully mid-week. YAY!
Its such a HUGE difference going from the dark brown walls to a light green paint. I originally had picked out a brighter green, however I wasn't brave enough to go that bold. So I chose a lighter green, that on the paint chip was more of a lighter grayish-green. However on the walls its a bit more of a pastel celery green. In low light conditions you almost can't see the green color. Oh well, I still love it and I can't wait to see the house finished!
I'm really excited to finish the school room as well and get that all set up. I love organization...I just don't have the time/energy to do it myself. Painting the house is forcing us to clean up all those little unorganized nooks and crannies of the house however.

Its been interesting trying to paint with the kids underfoot. I'm quite tired of cleaning up dog prints, kitty prints and kid prints of paint on the floors! aack! (Thankfully it wipes up pretty easily pheww)

As we were painting, I started to do the trimming with the new green paint. Billy Jr walked in and saw me painting the new white walls with green paint and he was shocked. He said "uh oh daddy!" then he pointed at me at said "mommy a bad girl!". He thought I was ruining the white walls!

Okay - on to pictures....

Old wall next to the white primer wall:

Progress! A white primer-ed living room:

A first glimpse at our new living room!

Happy 6th Birthday Owen!!!

2010-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

(copied mostly from Facebook)

Happy 6th Birthday to my little April Fools Day baby! And boy did God play a trick on us when he was born. A normal pregnancy, and normal and easy delivery with him - ON his due date, 4-01-04 (to be fair, I was sort of induced though!). He was the most beautiful baby I had and he even started nursing right away without any struggle.
But then everything went wrong and soon after they took him to the nursery, Billy came to tell me that something was wrong with him (I won't post WHAT it was here, it would embarrass him lol but many of you know already). He said that he would need to be flown to Children's Hospital and probably have a colostomy bag for a few months or more (a bag that collects the stool because the intestine is re-routed to a spot in your abdomen-area..I think that best describes it). I thought it was a big April Fools Joke. I told him that was very nice to pull on a mom recovering from just having her new baby. But then he said he was serious and the doctor came in too.

Owen was to have surgery maybe later that day or the next day. Billy went with him to Children's (they ended up taking an ambulance). I went home, 4 hrs after giving birth, and packed Billy's and my bags. My parents drove me to Seattle to be with them. As I've said before, it was a weird feeling to be running into a McDonalds just 5hrs after I had given birth and not knowing how my baby as doing or exactly where he was.
To make a long story short, he had the surgery at 2 days old and it went very well and amazingly all tests showed no other problems and only the surgery was going to be needed. No colostomy bag either! We went home a couple days later like nothing happened.
It was a scary first couple days but all was fine in the end. Of course no one believed us when we told them what was going on when he was born. Most people thought it was a bad April Fool's joke! haha

Now Owen is my little jokester and the family clown! I'll post a video of him in the hospital that Billy wanted me to post.

Owen at Children's - after the tubes on his face had been removed. Papa holding him.

Owen just a few days old...I love this photo!

Owen three months old

Owen's first birthday

Owen's 2nd birthday

Owen's 3rd birthday

Owen's fourth birthday

Owen's 5th birthday

Owen is six!

A WAY awesome giveaway contest...

2010-03-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't seen many giveaways as cool and BIG as this!

This giveaway is for an OfficeBox from The Original ScrapBox. Take a look...its so cool. I love organization, and it looks handy for homeschooling too!

The second part is an autographed copy of The Wrong Number by Rachelle Christensen. I'm a big fan of books and love to read. I've never owned an autographed book before!

Here's is a trailer about the book: YouTube Trailer

Wish me luck!!

Why must everything be a competition?

2010-03-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

Its comical to watch the boys compete over everything, and sometimes its annoying.

I have learned to always make sure that everything is equal, that they all get the same things at the same time or else major drama ensues.

Sometimes though I slip up. Yes, I'm not perfect. haha

At Target they had these fabulous dollar bargain kids plates. The plates came in a variety of characters - the Hulk, Iron Man, and sharks. I got five plates and for some reason only got ONE of the shark plate - the other four plates were two Hulk and two Iron Man.

You guessed it....the shark plate has become the major prize that each boy fights for at each meal time. They literally have contests to see who gets the "shark plate" that night. Sometimes, usually, it ends with one boy in tears. Oh dear.

I think I need to just make a trip to Target and hopefully they'll have more of those dollar bargain plates. Then I'll buy a whole stack of shark plates and there will never be any more fighting again....

Yeah right! haha

Happy 8th Birthday Brayden (yesterday)!

2010-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late on this...too many birthdays in one week! haha
But yesterday, Feb 25th, Brayden celebrated his 8th birthday! wohoo!

He's very excited to start cub scouts on Tuesday, also we're planning his baptism to happen sometime soon...probably another month. We want to be sure he's ready and understands.

I have little time to write much more...too many things to do! But here are some photos of the last 8 years.. *sniff* They grow up so fast!

Brayden - born Feb 25th, some wee hours of the morning. My smallest baby at 7 lbs 12 oz. Also my only baby with HAIR! More even then Alex had.

Here he is about 1.5 yrs old...see his hair! I even had to give him a few hair cuts before this point. Compare Owen, Billy jr and Gabriel at this age...zero hair. LOL

Brayden's 2nd birthday - and a new hair cut. :)

Brayden's kindergarten picture:

Soccer: Brayden's favorite sport

Brayden this summer, started piano lessons. He's a natural!

This year's second grade school picture:

Happy 11th Birthday Alex!

2010-02-23T16:51:00.000-08:00

(Catching up on posts...so be sure to scroll down to see my other new posts!!)

Happy 11th birthday to Alex today! I can't believe that 11 years has gone by...

I can't believe that 11 years ago today I became a mom for the first time. Yes I was young and probably not ready to be a mom...but who really is the first time? It's always a learning experience no matter your age. What matters is how you learn and grow. What matters is the parent you strive to become.
(As copied from my Facebook status...gotta save time where I can, ya know. LOL)

Alex - Coming home from the hospital

Alex - 1 yr old

Alex - 3 yrs old

Alex - Kindergarten (I think?)

Alex - 2nd grade

Alex - 9 yrs old

Alex - 11 yrs old!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Billy Jr!

2010-02-23T16:26:00.000-08:00

(Still catching up on posts, scroll down for another recent post, pictures of the boys' birthday party)

I can't believe its been three years since this little guy was born!
He is truly the little firecracker and likes to always find new ways to challenge us. He's my little toddler tornado! haha

Billy Jr - First day home from the hospital. He was my biggest baby yet - 9 lbs 12 oz.

Billy Jr - 1 yr old. What a messmaker! The only thing I did was spike his hair...he did all the rest. haha

Billy Jr - 2 yrs old :)

Billy Jr - 3 yrs old. Still a total messmaker!

Boys' Birthday Party

2010-02-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit behind here...but Saturday was our annual birthday party we have for the boys. Because three of the boys have birthdays the same week, and Gabriel is a month before and Owen a month after...we just have one big birthday party.

We kept it simple this year with just family who came and cake and ice cream. It was a fun, stress-free, event. Yay!

Here's the pix:

Billy Jr looking through his card.

Our big combined gift to the boys!!

The cake...gotta love Costco!

Blowing out the candles...

Auntie and Owen...their smiles are just alike!

Gabriel loved his little photo book!

Alex didn't know he had this bow on his head until after the picture. haha

After the party was over, the adults played Rock Band. Tons of fun!! My mom and sister singing a duet in this photo.

The whole band, Billy on vocals, Candace (my sister) on drums, and Guy Jr (my brother) on guitar

Love this photo, even though its horribly blurry. haha My dad!

Saving my pennies

2010-01-27T14:09:00.000-08:00

For THIS:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-T1i-Digital-18-55mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B001XURPQS

I already have a Canon Rebel XT. I love it! However, there are ways it could be better...the new Canon Tli is everything I want!
AND the big selling point...it has a high quality (HD) video feature. My current Canon does NOT do any video. We rarely use our super out-dated camcorder, so we have very little family videos. This Canon Tli could take videos for me, which I'd download on the computer, and burn to DVD's. The old camcorder uses those camcorder tapes that fit into a VHS adapter.

Selling my old Canon Rebel for around $250 on Ebay will knock down my total price for the new Tli to around $500. Not bad!

So now I'm on a mission to save up for this. Wohoo!!

Terrible Two's Strike Again

2010-01-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is what happens when you turn your back for just a moment. In this case, I was swiffer sweeping the living room after having just swept everything. I come into the kitchen and look who is playing in the baby cereal. Guess who? Thankfully I had a good sense of humor, and grabbed my camera first! haha

Happy 1st Birthday to Gabriel!

2010-01-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

I cant believe it has been a year, a whole year! This time last year I was sitting in my hospital room with a brand new little baby and Billy was getting called from the Principal about Brayden's behavior- which started the path to where we are now... Now I have a busy 1 yr old constantly trying to escape into the laundry room and splash in the dog water or eat a little dog food (don't worry, I always get him before he eats some lol)...and Brayden is home schooled now. Oh how much can change in a year!

I don't want to make this an excessively long post (although I know it will end up being long anyway hah!), but I would just like to post a little memory from Gabriel's birth day and then post pictures of him from every month the last twelve months. :)

Two days old - home from the hospital:

One month old - Blessing day

Two months old:

My smiley guy - Three months old:

Four months old:

Five months old:

Six months old:

Seven months old:

Tigger Gabriel - 8 months old (that is actually his bath robe!)

Uggh couldn't find another photo, 9 months old - when he got stung/bit by an insect at the boys' soccer game!

Sitting in his jungle room - 10 months old

Found a stray brownie and made a mess - 11 months old

Here is the birthday boy! 12 months old...

So Gabriel's birth was probably the most different out of all of my boys. He sure likes to be different! lol A quick summary, I was having nightly contractions at 38 weeks pregnant (two weeks before my due date) and asked my Dr. to induce me because I worried about having someone there with the boys. The Dr. said she couldn't, unless I was having those nightly contractions again - then to just come in and she'd "help" me along. I had my mom come over and we waited and waited for those constractions so that we could go to the hospital, but nada. We all went to bed and I woke up with a surprise at 2am. My water was breaking on its own! Talk about good timing! I wanted to wait a bit to go to the hospital, like I did with all my boys. Usually I have 5-6 hr labors so I thought I could hang out at home for at least a couple hours. Billy and my mom said NO, they wanted me to go to the hospital right away. My contractions hadn't even started yet.
We were in the car within 15 min and at the hospital in 30 min. The contractions were starting now and quickly. The rest I'm not going to go into detail by detail, although I love sharing my baby delivery stories. :) I will say though, that Gabriel was born at 4:...something AM (bad I can't remember the minutes? LOL). It was only 2 hours from when I woke up until he was born. I am very lucky that I had someone already at the house with the boys and that I listened to Billy and went right away to the hospital.
He was 9 lbs 2 oz and I forget the length (horrible!).

Now onto tonight's birthday party- we celebrated with Gabriel's favorite dinner which is mac n cheese. He had three helpings I think! Then we cleaned up and let him open his present. He had already opened the other present last night. oops. haha He got a little toddler driving wheel electronic toy thing and a playscool busy ball popper. I don't know how much he got to enjoy his new toy because all the big brothers were fighting over playing with the ball popper thing. haha!
Then we had carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. yummm He tried to grab the candle, naturally, and dove right into the cake. He loved his cake and had two helpings of cake also. Yikes! Billy jr didn't quite get what was going on because he kept asking for his birthday too. I thought he wanted cake so I got him a slice and he said "NO! Birthday. Birthday. Birthday" and pointing at the candle. He wanted to blow out the candle too. Instead I sung happy birthday to him and then gave him his cake. He was happy with that. Only one more month until his birthday anyway!

Now we're off to sleep and the house is picked up and quiet...shhhhh

Birthday photos:

Opening his present:

This is fun!

Dad showing him his new toy, as he eats the wrapping paper...

Dad set up the new toy, finally getting to play with it:

Big brothers are faster then he is! Trying to get the candle with no luck:

First bite.."Is this really for ME?"

YUMMY!!!

The aftermath!

Taking a deep breath.....

2010-01-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

...and we're jumping in headfirst to a big life-changing decision for our family.

Billy and I have decided to homeschool the boys. This has been something that we have considered and discussed since Alex started kindergarten over five years ago. It is not something we're jumping into blind or on an act of frustration. No this is not a sudden decision by any means. This is a decision that has been building and building and building until finally the literal straw broke the camel's back and we realized that it's time. We can no longer just discuss it, we have to act on it.

I spent two weeks of the boys' winter break doing hours of research and soul-searching on what we should do. The more I learned, the more I started to feel that homeschooling is really the best route we can take. Our concerns of social and academic issues were addressed as I did my research and found that it will actually be BETTER socially and academically to homeschool.

I know it will be hard and no walk in the park. I know it will require a lot of me and there will be a lot of trial and error, especially during the first year. However, I know that failing is not an option and we HAVE to succeed.

I am excited, the boys are excited, and Billy is excited. I have plans in place to keep the boys and myself on track.

For more info and to follow along on our journey, I started a blog especially for our progress and adventures in homeschooling!
http://boysnbooks.blogspot.com/

We can't wait!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! I marvel at how time flies so fast and how last new years seems just like yesterday, when I was wondering and worrying about what the next year would hold for us.
Thankfully 2009 was a good year! I just hope that 2010 is just as good, maybe even better!

We spent our night tonight eating junkfood, uggh, and watching movies. Alex and Owen are my little night owls - just like me. Brayden can't stay up past 8pm usually but he lasted until 9pm when he finally conked out on the couch. Baby Billy usually stays up late with us too, but he was asleep by 11pm.

At the stroke of midnight we, Billy and I with Alex and Owen - Brayden joined us later, ran outside to yell happy new year. Lady was freaking out because of all the fireworks and providing us with entertainment. Her fur was all fluffed up and she kept barking at every firecracker. She's in the house now, but is still running from window to window growling. She doesn't like all this noise!

Tomorrow will be a nice lazy day. Yay! Billy will be taking the older three boys to go see a movie. I think I'll take a nap..... :)

I hope your New Year's Eve was wonderful and I wish many blessings to everyone in 2010!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

The most wonderful time of the year is finally here and almost gone. It has been a lot of fun and I'm glad its nearly over. It has been one very long exhausting day.

First I will start by backing up a couple days. We have been so blessed with such a good church community and friends. We've had so many goodies and treats brought to us. Monday we were surprised with Christmas carolers and Santa! All bearing goodies too. Then Tuesday we were surprised again with the young women group bringing us gifts for the boys and us. When Owen opened his (oreo snacks and a western gun and belt set) he said "how did they know this is exactly what I wanted!?". haha Alex and Brayden both loved their gifts as well and baby Billy loved opening his and Gabriel's gifts. haha! Gabriel got a bath set and immediately baby Billy started taking his shirt off saying "help, bath...help, bath..." until I stopped what I was doing and gave him a bath right then! Billy and I also got some gift cards. We appreciated this very much and wanted to send our thanks to the young ladies and the adults who helped them! :)

Christmas Eve I spent most of the day baking because we want to start a new tradition of delivering plates of goodies on Christmas Eve instead of staying at home and focusing on santa and presents. The boys had fun delivering all the goodies. All my baking only produced enough for nine small plates which we delivered to the families that Billy is assigned to visit every month, so I apologize to those who didn't get a plate of goodies. Next year I plan to make a lot more!

Bedtime finally came and Brayden laid out cookies and milk for Santa. We discovered that we have a new little Santa's helper as Billy and I heard a sudden clatter coming from the area where the cookies were. Notice I said were. Lady, our dog, decided to help herself to Santa's cookies AND drink the milk too. Yep, she tipped over the milk and drank it all up after she ate the cookies. We didn't tell the boys. They just think Santa enjoyed the cookies and milk. :)

It took a while to get the boys to sleep but finally we did and we, errr I mean Santa, set up all the gifts and special Santa gifts (the ones that we set up and are not wrapped). Ebay was our big life saver this year! We bought most of the boys gifts used on Ebay (saved tons) and if not on Ebay, then we got them discount on Amazon with free shipping. wohoo!
Billy and I realized that we both got eachother new computer chairs and so he brought both of them in the house and put them together. yay!

We finished early, around 10:30pm but decided to relax a little and watch a movie. Bad idea. At midnight we finally went to bed but I wanted to feed Gabriel because for some reason he had refused to nurse when he went to bed. So unlike him. I tried to feed him at midnight but again he was refusing him. At that time it had been 6+ hrs since he last ate. He shouldn't have been refusing to nurse. So I kept trying but it made him more mad. Now I was dealing with a cranky baby at midnight who wouldn't nurse to go back to sleep. uggh Finally I laid him back down and he wimpered a little but went to sleep. It worried me all night though. :( I didn't go to sleep until 2am.
Annnnnnd a couple hours later, 4:30am, the boys woke us up to go open presents. Seriously? We tried to put a movie on for them (we were all sleeping together downstairs since the presents were upstairs) and hold them off until 5am but it didnt work. Finally at 4:45 am we drug ourselves upstairs.

The boys were all very excited for their gifts. I was pleased at how well behaved they were being though. They each took turns and no one got impatient waiting for his turn to open a gift. Baby Billy squealed with each gift and demanded I take his picture every time he opened a gift. Gabriel just crawled around getting into his brother's gifts and pulling the wrapping paper out of the garbage box faster then Billy could put it back in. haha

Then we surprised the boys with their big family gift. We weren't planning on getting it but this Christmas season blessed us unexpectedly and our tight budget suddenly had more room even after we decided to share the joy and buy some presents for another family who we knew was also on a tight budget. (And no Joy it was NOT us! haha) So for the family gift we got a Beatles Rock Band set with Lego Rock Band game. We told the boys they had one more gift but they had to find it. We had wrote a letter with clues that they had to follow to find it.
Once they found it they were SO surprised. They all gave Billy a big hug. :)

After presents the boys were off playing so happily and quietly. It was nice. I took a little nap with baby Billy. haha Then it was time to make Christmas dinner. Billy got a prime rib and found a recipe online that he followed. He invited the missionaries from our ward and another ward to have Christmas dinner with us. The prime rib was soooo good! We ended up having another two missionaries come join us for dinner also. But that big prime rib served our whole family and six hungry missionaries! After dinner Alex brought out his new Halo Wars Risk game and the four missionaries left were excited to play Risk with him. I wanted to take a picture but decided against it. Some people dont like their photos on public internet blogs. haha

Then on Saturday after Christmas we drove up to Billy's mom's house for our Christmas with them. It was a lot of fun and the boys had a blast. Billy brought Rock Band and it was a huge hit. We all (well maybe not me lol) played Rock Band for a couple hours! Beki got me this awesome family sign for our house. I think its my favorite present! We already hung it up: (I blocked out our last name for privacy reasons, afterall this is a public blog. But our last name is on the bottom of the sign)

Thanks everyone for the good time and I look forward to next year!

Brayden's piano recital

2009-12-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

I've also posted this on Facebook but I know some people who come here do not read my facebook page.

So here is Brayden's first public debut! haha

He did great, although against his teacher's advice he memorized the song. Of course he can read the music too but its faster to memorize it then play along with the notes I guess. Still though I think he did great having only just started playing the piano 5-6 months ago (I can't remember if he started in June or July!), and also that we have no other piano players in the family.

Brayden has always been the type to just get an idea in his head and run with it. I think its a good aspect to have. I wish I was more dedicated to learning new things and putting my mind to things like Brayden does!

Okay here he is....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUv6DXL9MKg

First Snow

2009-12-05T19:03:00.000-08:00

The boys are SO excited. I was dozing on the couch while watching a movie with them when I woke up to shrieking, first from Alex, that it was snowing. Then all the boys got into the celebration and I had boys running outside in barefeet, and Owen putting on the first pair of snow boots that he could find so that he could be the first one to run through the snow.
The first thing he did was grab a big handful and EAT it. He told me a month or so ago that he was so excited for it to snow because, "snow is his favorite lunch". hmm? I guess he just loves to EAT snow.
I told him to stay away from the yellow snow... haha

Also I neglected to update and put pictures up but Billy and the boys put up the Christmas tree last weekend. The pictures of the boys decorating the tree are too fuzzy, my flash was not on because the flash washed out the pretty lights. I need to figure out my camera settings better...
But I DID manage to get a picture of all the boys sitting in front of the finished tree. What the picture thankfully didn't show is that immediately after it was taken Alex, Brayden and Owen started hitting each other again and Billy Jr threw Gabriel off his lap. *sigh*. That's just life in a house of five boys!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. More and more I'm hearing bad news around us. Suddenly our little issues seem so trivial and we're just thankful to have each other, a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and friends and family all around us.

And now the pictures.....

The boys after decorating the tree and before World War IV (lol)

Alex first discovering the snow. P.s. don't you love his shirt? So true...

The other boys running to the back door to see the snow.

Alex throwing out the first snow ball

Owen the first to run outside in snow boots

A happy Owen with his favorite lunch!

All I want for Christmas....

2009-12-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

I just have to brag about my sweet little boys for a moment...

The boys really haven't told me much of what they want this year, except for a few ideas they've casually tossed out. However in the past it seems they've had this one special toy that they couldn't stop talking about and really really wanted.

I'm at a loss for what to get them, although I have a few ideas, and so I asked each of the boys individually what they were really looking forward to this Christmas. I asked them when they think about Christmas, what are they really excited about, or what do they really really want.

I asked Owen first and after a long time of thinking he just said, "I just want my family."

I asked Brayden next, and he said "a hamster!" after two seconds of thinking.

Then I asked Alex later when he got home from school and he thought for a long time too and then said, "I just want to be together with my family".

What sweet boys I have! :)

On a sad note, I've gotten a lot of bad news just within the last week about friends and family. So all I want for Christmas this year is healing and comfort for those who need it.

Just a photo post...

2009-11-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

I took some photos of the boys quickly last Sunday morning while we waited for Billy to return from his meeting and pick us up to go to church. They rarely are dressed up nicely, so I wanted to take advantage of it!

We didn't do school pictures this year because, well, it gets expensive for three kids in school now! I miss having an updated school picture on my wall though.... :(

So I took some photos myself, and while they are not professional and not the best...they'll do. :)

Here they are....

A Bold New Look

2009-11-13T13:40:00.000-08:00

So our goal is to get the house, interior, painted soon...probably in the spring. *crossing fingers* However something else always comes up.... haha

Anyway, I'm excited again about planning for my new "look" in the living room mostly. Originally I had thought of doing light tan colored walls with a dark brown accent wall. However, with the cream colored couch we bought, and the new wood floors...that was just too many shades of brown.

I NEED COLOR!

So I got the new Lowes project idea magazine in the mail and fell in love with one of their living room ideas. Its so bright. So colorful and so NOT what I would usually go for! However, for some reason I just love it.

I can see so many possibilities with decorations on the walls (which I don't really have now because I suck at decorating haha) and some green plants here and there would go really nicely.
The color scheme would be green/cream/dark brown with some gold accents here and there, darker gold. I already have dark brown coffee tables and a built in china hutch that is the same color as the walls right now-basic brown. However I'm wondering about refinishing it to a cherry wood brown. hmmm
The possibilities!

Anyway, here is the new wall color that I fell in love with and so far, unless I change my mind again, I think its what we'll go for!!

Updates with photos and video!

2009-11-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Well I am a slacker when it comes to blog updates. Here it is starting the 2nd week of November and I haven't even posted about Halloween yet!! I guess I've been hanging out at Facebook too much. oops!

Okay, updates...

Well we're done with soccer, so that is very nice! :) I posted already about Alex missing his last game and trophy party. :(

Now we are just busy with school, work, and church stuff. The usual!

In exciting news...Alex won an XBOX 360 at his school's Halloween fun night! Wohoo! He was SO excited. We picked him up just a couple minutes early, while they were still announcing winners of various contests, and then there was no school for three days due to conferences. So he didn't even know that he had won it until he came back to school on Monday and friends were congratulating him. He ran to the office...and there it was, with his name on it! When I picked him up from school that day he starting pointing at this bag he was holding before I even had parked the car. I had no clue what was going on! He was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. haha

Other news - Gabriel has finally started scooting! He just scoots a few inches backwards, but in about an hour he'll go halfway across the room. I have a little short video of him scooting once, it was the best video I could get. I also got a video of his cuteness laughing, babbling, and grunting at me. :)
(Cant figure this video thing out - so bear with me!)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=gabriel_scoot.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=gabriel_9mo.flv

Brayden is still practicing for his Christmas piano recital this December. I don't know when it is yet, but when I find out I will let you know! This is our first year doing piano, so I have no clue what to expect or what a recital is usually like. So far though he's learned three songs. Well he knows Jolly Old St. Nicholas by memory now. He also can play the first two lines of Silent Night and Deck the Halls by memory. He's still working on learning the rest of those songs though. Deck the Halls he actually taught himself. He started practicing the song by himself at home, and learned the first two lines before he even went back to piano lessons the next week.
Here is a video of him playing Jolly Old St Nicholas, although he messes up a couple times. He was flustered by the camera, and although he played it perfectly a second time - my battery ran out. So I only have this one to post for now:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=bradyen_piano.flv

Now about Halloween...it went well! We just took the boys around a local neighborhood to trick-or-treat for a couple hours. Billy Jr really figured it out and LOVED running from house to house yelling "trick or treat!" We had a hard time keeping up with him. He only lasted about an hour though and he was done. haha
So the boys dressed up as - Alex: a soldier with camo paint on his face / Brayden: a "spider king" with web on his spider king robe, but he wanted a zombie face too. Then he got hold of the red paint and went crazy on his face. grrrr / Owen: a vampire / Billy Jr: a pumpkin, just like last year. He didn't care though, and we were at Grandma's last year so no one here got to see it yet haha / Gabriel: a horse...although he pretty much stayed in the stroller for the first 30 min and then in the car with me.

I'm just looking forward to all the candy being GONE from this house...its not good for me to have it accesible. haha!

Those are all the updates I can remember for now. More to come later!

Beginning to sound a lot like Christmas....

2009-10-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

Brayden has been practicing his Christmas songs for his piano recital this winter. He's mastered Jolly Old St Nicholas and plays it over and over and over again ALL DAY LONG from memory, doesn't even need the book anymore. LOL
Now though he's supposed to be working on his new song, Silent Night. He's got the first line down but is struggling on the second line. I think his sickness got him behind a bit because he couldn't practice for a few days and forgot how the second line is supposed to go. He's almost got it though. :)

I will get some batteries in my camera and post a video of him playing Jolly Old St Nicholas. :)

But all these Christmas songs, all day long, is really making it sound a lot like Christmas around here! My favorite time of the year. :)

Sick

2009-10-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

Uggh I write this now as I have almost a 102 temp so forgive me for not making sense if I don't! haha

I just wanted to warn everyone to stay away from now because ALL of us, with the exception of Gabriel, are sick..most likely with the swine flu. I asked Gabey's pediatrician and he said all the symptoms match and since its too early for the "regular" flu, they are just assuming any case with those symptoms of a flu are the swine flu because its spread like wildfire here.

This thing is SO contagious. First Alex got it and was home for a couple days and then Brayden and Owen started their fevers the same night, and Billy Jr the next night. Billy and I started feeling sick and feverish this morning. I just pray that Gabriel doesn't get it! ALthough his pediatrician said he qualifies as high risk because of his age and we could get him some meds if he starts having a fever, probably a tamiflu type thing.

Alex went back to school today because he was 48 hrs fever free but then the school called this morning and he had a 99.4 temp. I don't even consider that a temp..and the school's own "rules of when not to come to school" sheet says any temp over 100 don't come to school. Some people just have warmer bodies. BUT it was a good call afterall because by afternoon he was up to 102. Great. He was my one well child! lol

We unfortunately had to cancel all kinds of fun plans we made this weekend, Alex missed his end of the soccer year trophy party and last game as well as the school science fair today that he was looking forward to. Owen is missing his pumpkin patch field trip tomorrow. :( And I am missing a fun weekend I had planned for months now scrapbooking with Joy. Sorry again Joy!

I just hope that we are all better by Halloween or the boys would be UPSET. haha

Okay...food is here, bgotta ruN!

General Conference Oct 2009

2009-10-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

We haven't finished watching all of General Conference yet, but we are watching bits and pieces as time allows.

For our family home evening yesterday we watched a snippet of Elder Holland's talk. Wow!

I loved the way he spoke with such passion and confidence. The talk really makes one think. Being a convert to the church, there were things that I had to really pray about for guidance and for confirmation of its truth. Gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon is one of those things I had to really pray about. I have tried to read it for a year and a half now, but I haven't quite got through it. However, when I do sit down to read (or listen on the computer) I can feel its truth in ways I've never experienced.
While folding laundry a couple months ago, I was listening to the audio files of the Book of Mormon. I was listening to the part of King Benjamin's speech. Suddenly I was just hit by this feeling...or a mix of many feelings - sudden truth, happiness..I can't really put it into words. Billy said later when I told him that it was the feelings of a broken heart and contrite spirit. I was moved to tears standing there folding laundry and listening to King Benjamin's speech...and I can't even say why or what exactly he was saying at the time that caused me to be touched so much...it was just a sudden burst of feelings and emotions.

Back to Elder Holland's talk...I loved all of it, but some of my favorite quotes was the one he quoted from his grandfather: “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”

But the most convincing part of his talk was about when Joseph Smith and his brother were in jail and about to be executed. This is what Elder Holland said about that:
"Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor.⁹ Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

Anyway, I just had to share...and I'm all fired up to finish the rest of the Book of Mormon sooner rather then to continue putting it off. I feel the holy spirit when I read it, or listen to words from it, and that can't be denied or ignored...its just...the truth.

Not a happy monster...

2009-10-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

I went to Goodwill today to see what kind of Halloween outfits I could put together for the boys. We're tired of spending $15+ on each boy every Halloween at Walmart or Target or whatever...we have too many kids for that. haha So last year I went to Goodwill and had each kid put together their own oufit for cheap.
It was great, they had fun, and we saved a ton of money.

This year I wanted to do it again, but we couldn't find the time for us all to go out together and look at costumes. SO...I thought I knew what the boys liked enough that I'd go out myself and find some costumes while the boys were in school.

I came back with what I thought was perfect for each boy...Alex is going to be a GI Joe or soldier, Brayden a "spider king" or spider wizard or something like that (dont ask! haha), and Owen a cute silly monster.

Alex seemed to like his, although I'm not done buying his outfit and still need a couple things. Brayden wanted to be something else but really warmed up to the spider wizard outfit and likes it now. However when Owen saw his....he fell apart.

He tried it on, and then cried and pouted and said he HATED IT! Billy and I couldn't stop from laughing. It was very reminiscent of the scene in the Christmas Story when the boy is made to put on the bunny outfit his grandma (or was it his aunt?) made him. LOL

So I HAD to take pictures....am I crazy, or was I right to think this silly monster outfit was super cute? Too bad Owen didn't think so...

I'm kicking myself...

2009-10-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a church friend of ours (thanks Eric!) was doing family photos at Ohme Gardens to practice his photography skills and get referrals. Just FYI, he did a great job! It was fun. :) We had never been to Ohme Gardens before, so that was really fun for us.

BUT I'm kicking myself because I DIDN'T BRING MY CAMERA!? Oh no! Even Billy couldn't believe I forgot, I always bring it everywhere there are going to be good photo op's. haha It was just so busy yesterday that I didn't even think about it.

The boys had a blast though running around all the trails and making wishes in the wishing well and looking out over the city. They couldn't believe how high up we were.

We have made plans to go back when its warmer next year and bring a lunch, and just hike around and check it all out for the day. I'll make sure to bring my camera then!

Just some updates...

2009-09-20T09:23:00.001-07:00

So I realized one of my posts on my blog was missing that I made last week!! I then realized I accidentally posted it to my other blog, my personal journal blog. Sheesh!
Make sure to scroll down to see my soccer picture update below this post.

Here is my missing post of our family updates:

--------------------------------------------------

No pictures...I need more "Kodak moments"!

So just some family updates since it's been awhile...

Me - Just loving school season. My days are quieter, although baby Billy is giving me a hard time! He's getting bored I think and I can't let him out of my sight at all.
Today I'm getting caught up on mountains of laundry. I just don't get it - I get ALL caught up and its not even a week later and I'm days and days behind. If I even miss two days of doing laundry, it's like a domino effect...trying to get caught up on the laundry I'm behind on puts me more behind on the new laundry! haha So I'm having a folding party at my place, wanna come?
I think by the end of the day I should have all the laundry clean...now I just will work on folding and putting it away the rest of the day.
Oh and I've sort of gotten over my fear of public speaking. I seriously had major anxiety about it, about any public speaking. I know that in our church everyone gets to take a turn eventually and give talks on various topics at some point. Especially now that our church has split into smaller wards, it means that we get to talk more. aaack! The only public speaking experience I remember is from high school, giving reports. I would literally almost pass out, sweating, bright red face, and could feel and hear my heart pounding. haha
BUT I had to give my first talk at church a couple weeks ago. It was just on our story of coming to the church and our temple experience. Then this last Saturday we had our stake conference which is when all the churches in our area, our stake, gathers and has one big huge church service. Saturday evening is an adults service and Sunday morning is a service for everyone. It is usually so big that they have to open up the gym and the entire gym also fills up - sometimes extending to the stage. Aaack! However I was asked to talk at the adults service Saturday evening and it was way less people. Only the chapel was filled up, with the overflow (an area in the back of the chapel that can be opened if more space is needed).
I did just fine, way less nervous then my first talk two weeks ago. I did get a little emotional during my talk, but less then the first time. Just like the first time, I ended this talk feeling like I just didn't say enough. I felt like there was something more to be said and I didn't cover it all. You'd think I'd feel RELIEF that I was done, but instead I felt like I wanted to say MORE. haha

Okay on to more updates...

Billy - Is feeling better, I think he's past whatever he had going on. We're hoping it wasn't swine flu, but all the symptoms fit. It wasn't bad enough to be hospitalized for so he never went to the doctor. He rarely goes to the doctor anyway - he's as stubborn as a mule. haha But he is better and the boys got a mild version of it, and not all of them!

Alex - Is loving middle school I think. He's got the locker situation under control now. yay! He's in band but has yet to start learning to play his instrument - which he has chosen the trombone. haha We are still waiting for it to come in at the music store.

Brayden - Had a bit of an accident at soccer practice the other day which most of you all read about on facebook already! But AFTER soccer practice, while waiting for Alex's practice to finish, Brayden was racing a group of boys. He is very fast! Suddenly a little girl was there in the way and he couldn't stop in time and ran right into her. She, however, was the lucky one. I think her knee came up and hit Brayden's nose. Immediately he ran over screaming to me and his nose was just gushing. I took off his shirt to help with the bleeding and thankfully practice was over so we went right home.
Then he kept complaining of his head hurting too and he was very sleepy. We called the on call pediatrician but we were only on hold for 30 min and then we had to hang up, but they never even called us back. :( At about 10:30pm however he starting throwing up. :( That is usually a sure sign of a head injury. Billy thinks it could have also been from the pain of the nose injury, I don't know. But Billy took him to the ER and they said to just treat it like a head injury and wake him up every 4 hours. I also kept him home from school for a day and he had to miss his Saturday game.
BUT he's okay now. Just a bit of bruising around his eyes from the nose injury, but the ENT doctor said that it's okay - not broken. Kids have lots of soft cartilage still and it just crunches and rearranges when bumped. OUCH But it usually doesn't actually break. Good to know!
I guess that's what we get with all these boys...injuries are bound to happen. *sigh*

Owen - Loves kindergarten and I think is doing very well. I'm excited for the first parent/teacher conference.

Billy Jr - Is very busy, very much into his terrible two's. haha I think he misses his brothers. I can't wait until he's old enough to start preschool. I think he would really like that.

Gabriel - Is almost 8 months old! Can you believe it!! He's eating cheerios and crackers already. He still refuses any bottle or pacifier though. We're not pushing the pacifier anymore, but he will eventually need to take a bottle! Maybe I'll try to find a beginners sippy cup instead.
He is starting to sit for small amounts of time, however I need to be working with him more and letting him down on the ground more, because he should be sitting well by now and even starting to try to crawl. I just hold him way too much I guess. haha

So that's about it! I hope to have a picture update next time...soon. :)

Soccer Season!

2009-09-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Soccer season is in full swing. We're busy with games/practice usually Monday through Thursday. I love Fridays. haha
Soccer is fun, but our evenings and weekdays are so crazy!

Here are some pix....

oh but first, here is a pic of Gabriel's eye after we assume he was stung by a bee or something at Brayden's soccer game. It was really painful for him the day it happened, but by the next day it was fine and the swelling was gone by about day four and is totally gone now.

And now Alex's soccer pictures:

And Brayden's:

First day of school

2009-09-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

The first day of school was a success, for the most part!

The day started off well - everyone up early, got breakfast made on time (eggs, hashbrowns and little piggies), and got everyone dressed on time. However at some point it went downhill, probably when I thought Alex's school started at 8:40am when it really starts at 8:25am.
So I drop the little boys off at school first and that went well. Owen just got out with Brayden and didn't even look back once. They just walked to the playground and played. :)
However then I took Alex to his school (middle school!) and NO ONE was outside, no buses, no parents dropping off kids...uh oh. I walk Alex inside and help him with his locker and then found a teacher to take him to his classroom.
BESIDES that, the rest of my day was very nice and relaxing with just Gabriel and baby Billy. :) I got some things done and was in a great mood all day!

After school, Alex ended up missing his bus because he couldn't get his locker open. Apparently, he couldn't open his locker all day and had to have teachers help him. :( And then Brayden got a pink warning slip from school already. Owen had a great day though!

BUT it was all short lived...Owen came home with a headache and "burning eyes" and Alex said he felt sick. A couple hours after they got home, Owen was asleep on the couch with a fever and Alex's fever was brewing. He got his fever later that evening. :(
So now I have two kids at home, feeling better, but they've had fevers within the last 24 hrs so I didn't want to send them to school.

Here's to hoping that the second week of school goes better!

And to end this..just a cute picture of Gabriel that I love. That facial expression!

Fair Fun

2009-08-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Friday was free kids day at a local fair. In my mind I'm thinking...$8 for me, free for the kids, a small amount of gas to get there - good deal! However of course I had to get the boys some of the famous pronto pups (big hand dipped corndogs) and huckleberry lemonade. Still...about $14-ish dollars later that's not THAT bad of a deal!

The boys had fun and that's all that mattered. :)

I think the biggest hit was the free petting zoo with all the baby animals - pigs, cows, chicks, rabbits, puppies and kitties. :)

Okay I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Alex had fun playing with the older chicks. They would all chase his finger from side to side.

Owen loved the bunnies:

A couple of the baby pigs to pet:

The big momma pig and her new "litter" (what do you call a bunch of baby pigs?) of piggies:

Sweet sleeping babies:

Baby chick up close:

Calf sleeping - is that a heart shaped spot on his head?

Mr. Tom Turkey

Owen was petting the pigs wet noses:

This pig LOVED being scratched behind his/her ear:

The boys all petting a friendly sheep:

This dog looked SO bored with her "fame" haha And then she barked after I took this picture!

Update part two

2009-08-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

I had technical difficulties last night with some of Gabriel's photos - but here they are now! Be sure to scroll down and read yesterday's update. :)

These are Gabriel at 7 months making silly faces!

A month of updates and pictures

2009-08-26T00:05:00.001-07:00

Its been so long since I last updated! I'm trying to remember what all has been going on, a lot obviously! I just have too much to type that I've been avoiding coming here because it required downloading pictures, resizing pictures, uploading pictures and so on...haha

Okay let's see...well first of all was our biggest news and biggest thing we did in the last month...we went to the Spokane temple to be sealed as a family. It was wonderful and I'm so happy we had so many friends come with us. The boys did great and just as told. Alex was even moved by it all and said he was "so excited" and "felt like crying" (in a good way!). I've been having a hard time really explaining or talking about it much, and I think I finally know why. Someone at church (forget who now!) summed it up when they said that it's just hard to put into words. And that's true, its just hard to put into words. I can say it was great, wonderful, special...but those just sound empty to me. Just words that I've repeated over and over because I don't know how else to describe it. But we are excited (using Alex's words now!) and can't wait to go again soon, this time just without the kids all having to be there. haha
I don't have any pictures unfortunately. I left my camera at home because I knew there would be many other cameras. LOL So far I've seen a neat photo on Jenn West's blog of our car pulling away from the temple with the temple in the background and our lovely surprise window paint saying "Just Married (Forever)" on the back of our car. West's blog post: Time and All Eternity
Some other friends had decided to surprise us by painting all over our car windows. haha Somebody also got pictures of all of that but I haven't seen it yet either.
We had another good friend take some semi-pro photos of us posing with and without the kids outside of the temple and in the gardens. I'm excited to see those photos as well. I will post them when I get them!

So that was our highlight for the month. After we got back from Spokane that day, we promised the boys that if they were good we'd take them to the little traveling carnival just down the street. And so we did, even though we were so tired. Billy got some good photos of me riding with the boys. Those little traveling carnivals scare the heck out of me I tell ya! I can handle big rides, but the whole time I'm on these little rides I'm thinking about horror stories I've heard or wondering have safe and well put together this ride is. aaack! We made it through though. ;)

The rest of the pictures are just of Gabriel, who is SEVEN months old now!! He makes the cutest faces when he's either grinding his teeth together (uggh) or blowing bubbles. He's eating some food now but mostly just likes chewing on his teether biscuits or his little mesh safe food feeder.

Updates for the other boys - just starting soccer practice and games will start soon. School starts in one week so I'll first day of school photos for that soon. YAY! I can't WAIT. But I also am not looking forward to the once again early mornings..no more sleeping in. haha These boys have actually be sleeping in all summer, even the babies, and so we all get up around 8am. NOT after school starts. yawwwn

I guess that's it for now. Our life seems like it's constant coming and going and scheduling and doing something every night...so I can't really remember if anything else is newsworthy to update on!

Enjoy the photos!

Carnival:
At the haunted house:

Trying to make these little rides fun:

Owen and Billy Jr playing the expensive fishing game, uggh:

Owen caught a "fish"!

Billy Jr did too!

But he will NOT touch it!

Gabriel in his cute hat at the carnival:

Gabriel first time with his little mesh safe food feeder:

Yumm not so bad! Frozen strawberries!

The aftermath of frozen strawberries:

And first taste of baby food, which he HATES:

And sorry these are so fuzzy, but this is another photo of the closest I could find to showing all six of his teeth!

Ooops!! Having technical difficulties for the rest of the Gabriel funny faces photos, but I'll post them when I have my program up and running again. For now here's the only one I got saved:

Little swimmer

2009-08-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

We had a fun night last swimming with friends. (Thanks Joy for inviting us!) It was also the first time I tried to put Gabriel in the water. He's splashed at the river's/lake's edge before but didn't spend a lot of time actually all the way in the water floating.
So last night I took him in the pool with me and it was so cute! I kept calling him a little dolphin because he just kept kick kick kicking his legs under water. I don't know if it was a natural instinct to try to swim in in water, or if he just liked the sensation on his legs. He wasn't trying to splash the water with his legs, but rather he looked like a frog trying to swim. I think if I would have let go of him he would have just swam around! haha
I may have to start taking him to the YMCA pool with me too!

A short little Brayden funny

2009-08-05T15:28:00.001-07:00

Just a quickie for the day...
(posted on my Facebook too)

After swim lessons, we are walking out and Brayden looks at me seriously and sadly and says, "Mom, I'm not a swimmer...I'm a sinker".

I couldn't help but laugh, the poor little thing!

I just told him that's what swimming lessons were for and everyone sinks a little when they first learn to swim.

On the path to the temple

2009-07-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

I also have a private blog that is basically my electronic journal. It's where I write down personal thoughts and feelings I have related to our faith-finding journey.
I wanted to post about some BIG plans we've been making that I've neglected to really talk about here because this is a public blog and many different people read it. However it is a really big thing and a big part of our life so I'm going to post a bit about it here too.
Here is an excerpt from my private "Finding Faith" blog....

"....I've grown a lot in the last year. No longer am I doing this for my family only but for MYSELF as well. I now realize the importance of it all and my testimony is growing stronger everyday. Everything makes sense, everything fits and it's like a giant light bulb...has gone on and lit my way. I still have a lot to learn because life is a never ending lesson and I will always have more to learn. However, I feel that my faith is stronger and my doubts are gone. I'm not nervous for the temple, nor do I feel unworthy. Rather, I can't wait to go and I feel Heavenly Father all around me."

I've posted a little bit before about our temple plans but things are finally set in motion and in a little over two weeks we'll be going through the temple to be sealed as a family.

What does that mean?

Here is a short (three minute) video that's very cool on temples and why we build them:

When we are sealed as a family, it means that we are being sealed, or bound, together as an eternal family - that death will not part or end our marriage. We will be married for all eternity as well, and we will all be together in heaven as a family.

As I said before, this is a big thing and an important thing to us. We are very excited.

It's been a long, (VERY long if you account for the time before we joined the church), journey to get here with opposition and trials along the way. However, it makes us appreciate it that much more and learn and grow from the hurdles we had to overcome. With lots of prayer it has all worked out and we're all set finally to go, together, as a whole family. :)

~Bethany

Mini-Updates

2009-07-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

We've been doing plenty this summer, but I just haven't got the camera out much to take pictures or had really anything exciting to put on the blog just yet. :)
Mostly we've been doing swimming lessons and just trying to keep the boys occupied. haha
This week starts Brayden's visit with my parents. It will be nice for him to have some time away by himself and for me to get a bit of a break too! haha The other boys will have turns too.

Also this coming week is finally Billy's vacation! wohoo! We had grand plans of going to Utah and had many things planned there, BUT things don't always work out and the more we thought about taking all the kids on such a long car trip - especially the babies - it seemed like it just wasn't the right time to go.
Then we had planned on camping for a few days but the camping spots we usually go to either have burn bans (no campfires!) or are all filled up! So I think we've found a compromise to still have fun and camp a little. We'll try camping with no fire for one day and if its really no fun (no cooking marshmallows or roasting hot dogs or sitting around the fire at dark!) then we'll stay at Grandma Beki's and do some fun things there.
The remainder of his vacation will be spent getting some projects done. Work on vacation! wohoo! Unfortunately he doesn't have any time during the week or weekends for these projects so his vacation will be the only time he'll have!

Let's see..other updates...
We took the kitty we rescued to the Kitty Rescue now so he's just waiting for a home. He's at Petco every Saturday afternoon if anyone wants to see him. He's super cute and SUCH an energetic little thing, always wanting to play. We'd take him but we already have animals coming out of our ears here (well not literally yikes!) Three cats, three lizards and a dog. Brayden is begging me for a guinea pig and Owen and Alex are begging me for a fish tank. *sigh*

Okay that's about it for now....the pictures I'm posting aren't anything too exciting but I sure was excited when I found these camera lens that Billy had gotten me for a birthday present or something but I never used them. I didn't have the time to go through and check everything out - I just used my normal lens.

It's a super cool lens (macro?) for zooming in on things way up close. Everything else in the background fuzzes out. I'm excited to try it out some more, maybe on our vacation on some pretty flowers or butterflies, etc.
Here are the pictures I took to try out the lens:

Some leaves on a plant...

The dragonfly decoration on my doorway:

Some windchimes in my doorway:

And now an up close picture of Alex's lizard...you've been warned! It's really cool though. For a size comparison, his lizard's head is only about the width of 1.5 to 2" although it looks much bigger in this picture:

Summer Fun

2009-07-03T17:02:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some cute summer pictures I've been taking. Not much of an update. We've just been really hot and really busy! haha
We're looking forward to the 4th of July and just hanging out at home and watching the fireworks in the park.

Brayden and Billy Jr cooling off with some frozen blackberries yummm

What's all over YOUR face?!

What are you looking at?

hmmm what's that thing you're doing with your fingers in pictures all the time and how do I do it?

I think I almost got it....

There - got it!

Brayden threw mud at me!

The oldest and the littlest....

Billy Jr LOVES the kitty. Its his buddy...

Kisses...

Bye bye easy bedtime....

2009-06-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

Baby Billy has always been my easiest child to lay down for naps, bedtime. I would lay him down and he'd play quietly in his crib until he fell asleep. Easy as pie.

I just bragged last week that baby Billy is still in his crib and hasn't figured out how to climb out. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut...

Tonight marks the first time he's climbed out of his crib. I've laid him down for bed now tonight three times...going on four.

Oh dear. Now what will I do? He can open doors and climb over baby gates. HOW do I get him to go to sleep? wahhhhh

Just what I needed - more stress and hard work. haha