Daddy's boy :)

so cute- daddys holding babies are the cutest- especially this one!!

"Candy ones"

Luke loves his "candy ones". This is the name for his pajama pants. They're normal pants, but Nate hiked them up to his ears and he looked really funny- had to get a picture :)

He's so crazy.

My Sweet Husband

Nate brought home 3 dozen roses for me on Tuesday. For no special reason, just because he loves me :) They are so beautiful- I totally don't deserve him!

Charity looked at this as a photo opportunity. (She just saw me posting this and actually asked if I had put the picture of her with the roses- I can't believe she even remembers :) It's so funny.

Kelly too :) cute little ladies- they're all set to have a sweet husband bring flowers home to them.

Uncle Steve Visiting

We had such a fun time with my brother when he came with his cute girlfriend. When you live so far away visitors are a real treat! (Not that steve's not a treat anyway....K I'm digging a hole....)

Thanks so much for coming Steve and Whitney!!! We had so much fun, hope you can come again.

Kelly in the snow

Kelly and I have about an hour a day where it's just her and I, it's been really fun. This day we were looking out the window just watching the snow fall for like a half hour. The snow was coming down in the HUGEST clumps! We both couldn't believe it. Kelly isn't one for going out and playing in the snow, but she's always got time to go outside, hang her mouth open and catch some flakes!

Sarah, if you're there, do you think these would be some you could play with for me?? Just if you're not busy with all your other business :)


Kelly's growing up to be such a sweetie. The other day she was holding Noah for me while I finished something and she totally rocked him to sleep! Not too many 4 year olds can do that! I thought it was cool, and I was proud of her. She's such a good helper with her "baby Noah".

Doh, long time no play-

driving the play doh truck


Lukey totally got into it this time :) the first time he put his hands into it, he grabbed a big chunk and ate it!!! But he learned VERY quickly that this isn't as tasty as the cookie dough :) But he did have fun after he got the yucky taste out of his mouth :)


flying the play doh butterfly


Brad takes this stuff very seriously- all business

Thanks goes out to Julie for the tin foil idea- I totally copied you from your blog- very helpful with the clean-up!

Bros

I just thought these were kinda cute- minus the messy face :)

they almost look like they're making the same faces :)

For my entertainment

I'm not sure why I'm putting these ones on here- we were just at the doctor's office and I had my camera in the diaper bag, so we practiced up on our facial expressions. This is of course Charity's mad face


and Kelly's mad face


This is Luke's "my mom's gonna be mad" face


I think this was supposed to be Brad's mad face- he needs the practice it looks like.


Happy faces of course.


This is Brad's happy face, and that's the gum he stole from my purse while I was taking pictures of facial expressions


shy


shy, she's good at this one, many of you are very familiar with this one


I think this was supposed to be shy too :)

So, Noah is doing much much better. When we were at the doctor yesterday (a much more competant, informative, friendly doctor) he told us that Noah's lungs sounded perfectly normal now, no sign of pneumonia at all. So regardless of whether he had it or not- he is doing well now. The Amoxicillin must have helped. Thankfully it wasn't anything more and we caught it before it got too bad.

I got some pictures!! They're all there!

I just love my kids!! What would I do without them!! Each one of them adds such a special little element to our family- we just wouldn't be complete without all of them. It makes me happy to know that Heavenly Father would bless me with such beautiful and happy (most of the time) kids. I am not sure I deserve it, but it's they're the greatest blessing ever. (there, I'm done bragging-- you know you would too if you had them :))


cute Brad can't take his eyes off his owie :)
and Luke's crazy little smile :)


Charity and Kelly have just become pros at the camera smile/posing, we had to compromise and put Noah on BOTH of their laps.


Baby Noah just puts up with us all :) What a cutie. Next time we'll try to prop him up a little so that you can see his face :)

A bunch of VERY random thoughts- you might need to take an intermission- a LONG one :)

So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately... I know "Uh-Oh"....and yes, I do have to share my thoughts with everyone :)...

So we were finally able to find another little car for Nate's commute! It was a WAY good deal on a Ford Taurus (Jared and Paulette- I PROMISE we are not trying to copy you. It is really just a bunch of coincidences!). We're hoping it will last all of his driving to work and back here, and then get him to and from Oklahoma City every couple of weekends while he is in training there. Seems like a good little car.

Yesterday when I dropped off Charity at school I realized what a big girl she is (yes, Annie, it happens to all of us and quite often for me :)). It hit me that she is doing something that she has never seen anyone else (in our family) do! She is going to school! The first one! I just thought what a huge amount of courage that would take. I always had my big brother to look up to. He did everything (well, almost everything) before I did, so I always knew how it was going to go- I knew all about the Mayflower on the first day of school, as well as the plane ride. I knew we were going to do Shakespeare Plays and I totally wasn't scared at all to try out- all because of my big brother. So it amazes me that Charity has so much courage and is so good at being the oldest! She makes sure she says good bye to EVERYONE, individuatlly, at least once, as she jumps out of the car. She tells me to have a nice day and to "be good too" :) She's just such a big girl. I'm so proud of her. I can tell that she was made for the role she is in. Heavenly Father didn't make her the oldest on accident. She's so good at it!

Today when I was dropping off Charity (yep, I do it everyday, can't seem to find anyone in afternoon kindergarten that will carpool!) - I was confused with the dilemma: do I let people cut in front of me so that everyone can move around and get out of the school parking lot smoothly, thus ticking off the soccer-mom in the car behind me, or do I just be a complete jerk and whiz on past, ticking off the soccer-mom in the car that's been sitting there since the bell rang with her signal blinking away??? I mean really?? For the last little while, I made it my goal to not be rushed in that parking lot. To not be the one honking at every single car that stops or gets in my way. And to try to go out of my way to be a courteous driver, even if I am in a school parking lot. But then today as I let 2 cars go in front of me and the person behind me was honking (and giving me a pretty nast look in my sideview) it hit me that maybe, just maybe, letting people go ahead of me wasn't the right thing to do. Who knows. Just goes to show you that you can't please everyone!

Last night in the car the kids were all asleep except Luke and Noah. Out of nowhere Luke started laughing. It wasn't just a one time thing, he was laughing hysterically for like 3 minutes at least, he kept saying "whunny, mommy, whunny" and it kept getting more and more exciting to me :)! I couldn't imagine what it was he was laughing at. He finally stopped laughing long enough (to breathe and) to tell me that it was the "babeee, whunny" that he was laughing at. Now how CUTE was taht!!! I was totally on a cloud thinking, "my two-year old and his new baby brother are totally BONDING! They must be feeling each other's Spirits and knowing that they are eternal buds or something!". Well, at the next light I finally turned around to see just what it was that had bonded these guys for eternity, and to my surprise, I found Luke with his foot stretched clear up and over Noah's carseat. He had had his foot (with the shoe on) on Noah! Probably on his face I would imagine. And he was just having the time of his life!!!! SIGH!! Well, at least Noah wasn't crying. Couldn't be too bad, since Noah has perfected the art of informing me when he is in pain (or needing to be topped off :)). But anyway- I was a little disappointed to say the least. :) Luke's still just a normal little 2-year old having a good ol' time while being strapped in a carseat for hours, next to his baby brother.

Yesterday when we were taking Nate to work we heard them announce on the radio that the inversion was really bad and that "you should avoid going outside"! AVOID GOING OUTSIDE?? How WEIRD! Then I looked around and knew what they were talking about. Totally made me miss Alaska. You can see for MILES and MILES on a clear day there- and there is no such thing as "inversion". I remember standing at that spot out by the airport and being able to see Mt. McKinley hundreds of miles away~! Oh well though, just something else to remind me of Alaska. Don't take fresh air for granted. That's my new motto. I guess I still would have to choose family and friends (and Jalepeno Bites from Arby's and Olive Garden and Target and Temple Square) over fresh air though. :) (I do miss Alaska though!)


Well, that's all I really had to say. I appreciate you all letting me write down my feelings. For some reason it is easier for me to post a blog entry than it is for me to just sit and write in my journal. Must be the hope that someone actually might read it. Cut and paste now I guess.

New Haircuts

All of the kids got their hairs cut for Family Home Evening on Monday. They all looked so nice I wanted to get a picture of all of them together, but I have yet to pull that one off. Here are a few- Brad wasn't really in the mood yesterday, we'll see if we can sneak one today :)

Kelly's was the most drastic and she keeps looking in the mirror and telling me that she really likes her haircut, so that's cute. SHE wanted to cut it. She's braver than me- I would have kept it long. And Charity keeps lecturing me about how she wanted to get her hair cut and not just trimmed-- maybe next time :( unless I can convince her otherwise- her's is just so long now- seems sad to cut it). But anyway-

Oh, duh.... you can't even see his hair in this picture. This is again his new cheesy face for pictures- guess we'll have to get his later too- I couldn't tell how it looked from the thumbnail :)

Luke's getting pampered whether he wants to or not

I'm not sure why, but charity wanted to do Luke's hair :) Brad got in on the action and decided to cut his toenails too (he's not really cutting them I don't think he knows how to use the clippers)



This is Luke's latest cheesy face :) I think he's hilarious.


After he got his hair done he was pushed around in the laundry basket for a while. These kids must be bored :) (Actually this picture was taken the day before :) It's hard to tell though since Charity is still wearing her ballet clothes-- it's cuz she wears them everyday it's the first thing she does in the morning- put on her tights and leotard)


Oh the fun we have when Mommy's nursing.

Just some Random Pictures

Luke and Charity enjoying some yogurt here.

Cute little Noah :) I keep trying to get pictures of him smiling, but it's just not happening. I'm too slow.
Here's Lukey "chinning" Noah's hand this time. (I had to come up with a name for his weird quirk)

It's rare that Luke can get this close and not be hurting Noah- he's just not grasping the concept of being SOFT. We're working on it though and I assure you no Noah's were harmed in the taking of this picture. He was nice with him for a minute :)

Super-Cheesy but WAY FUN Valentine's Day!

Nate and I had a fun time making Valentine's a fun day for all of us. Nate made us all heart-shaped ham and egg sandwiches for breakfast. We had pink pop at lunch. Then for dinner we made this yummy casserole with hearts on top, with the heart shaped dessert bars and cherry cheesecake icecream served in heart-shaped pie crust cups for dessert. None of it was my idea- but I think we're gonna make this a tradition- it was really fun. The kids got to make heart-shaped sugar cookies and frost them as well. I don't think I've ever thought that much of Valentine's Day other than the going on a date and exchanging gifts with Nate (which by the way, my husband is so the best!! He went all out this year and spoiled me like crazy! He's so thoughtful!), but so it was fun to actually make it a fun holiday for the kids too. We had a good time with Heidi and her date too- thanks so much for coming and spending that time with us-- if I've said it once, I've said it a million times- it's so fun to be back near family again!!!.

We finally went to the doctor....

It's been a while now that the kids were sick. We didn't have any kind of insurance until yesterday, and even though most of them seemed to be doing much better I still thought it might be smart to just take them all in and make sure everyone was okay. And it's a good thing I did--- They ALL had ear infections (except Noah of course, those wonderful breast-milk immunities are doing their job) Charity and Brad both had them in both ears. Who woulda thought!! Some kids are really good at faking like they're sick when they're not- mine are good at faking like they're not sick when they ARE! It was interesting taking all five of them to see the doctor at once. Took me like a half hour just to fill out all their forms while nursing Noah and referreeing the rest of them. Then that little tiny doctor's office....
Thanks to the kids- everything actually went okay- better than I had pictured :) I really feel like I'm adjusting to five better than I ever would have imagined. It's been a huge blessing, and I'm grateful for how well behaved they all usually are.
When I got out all the medicine to start handing out doses I just couldn't resist the urge to take a picture of it all. It's happened once or twice where we've had a few kids sick at a time, but never this much medicine!! Now we can start getting better!!