Back to Summer Update...

The summer was seriously great.  I really worried about having a Cherry Hill pass with a one month old and taking my other two kids by myself.  But, it was just fine.  London was kind of my babysitter for Madden.  If he disappeared, she had to go find them.  Luckily the baby was fine, although she did not like nursing under a cover in the hot sun...neither did I.  

 

Family vacation was wonderful, as always.  Monica and I shared a room since we were both nursing.  Funny thing about that was that in the middle of the night we would be feeding our babies at the same time.  It seemed like they just always had the same schedule.

  They even napped the same time with Mandy's baby on our hikes! 

 

 One thing Mom and Dad did is give all the kids "Warrior" shirts and taught them about Nephi. 

 

 On the front of the shirts it says, "When the goings get tough. (Then on the back) the tough get going". 

 

So whenever we were hiking at the kids got tired, they just said over and over, "The TOUGH GET GOING!"

 

  We started the vacation by going to the lake first thing and letting the kids swim on the beach.  

The days are just so short when you're having a good time.  

 

We did all of our favorite hikes, went canoeing, 

 

went and got ice cream, and just had lots of fun!

 As always, I had a baby at my feet in the canoe.  She was perfect.

 

Dean also taught Mom and some of kids how to fly fish. 

 

 London became obsessed. I did try to get pictures of the other families but, for some reason my new camera takes a year to upload photos.

 

 Of course, we have a ritual on the Sunday that we're there, we have family pictures. Mom, Dad, Madeline, and Olivia.

 

Dean and Mary's Family

 

Danny and Emily's Family

 

Mandy and Trent's Family 

 

For some reason Monica and Brad didn't get on my camera.  

 

Sorry Monica, but this is what I have of you!  Oh and of course, little Russell:)

I think what I love most about McCall, was that every morning Madeline, or Monica and I would go running.  It was a time to talk to family, it was time away from work, away from the gym, and it's always a time for memories.

Before I forget, a little update on Madden.  Madden has become really quite funny.  He is colorblind and we deal with color issues on a daily basis.  he asked me if I knew that his paint set had six blacks.  It was actually dark purple, dark blue, dark green, black, brown, etc.  Other things that he asks about is how old everyone is and things about Jesus and Satan.  For example, Madden asks me how many brothers I have, I'll say two.  Then he says, "No, you have three.  you forgot about your big brother Jesus." 

Another time I was cutting his toenails and he started screaming, "Oh big brother, Jesus!  Where are you!  Please help me, Jesus!"  I started laughing because he sounded like he needed to be in a Baptist church.  I asked him why he would talk like that.  His only response is that his primary teacher told him to pray if he ever needed help.

Madden also got the flu and asked why would Jesus make him throw up.  I said that he didn't.  Madden then asked if Satan made him throw up.

The kid is pretty funny.  Daily I'm annoyed with him but, at the same time laughing hysterically.  Stayed tuned for another update!

The Guilt....

The guilt eats away at me whenever I think of my Journal/Blog being left stagnant.  I have thought more and more recently how unfair it is for our little Hope not to have anything written down about her like I have London and Madden.  The best thing to do, although the hardest, is to start when she was born.  Hope's birth was the hardest out of the three but, no less joyful.

 She has been the best eater, sleeper, and is a happy baby overall.  I thought for sure I'd have jealousy issues from Madden, but we had none at all.  

While in the hospital Madden asked if I was ever going to come home to him. 

 No jealousy of the babe, just worried about his Mommy coming home.

 He loves his baby sister.  Every morning and all through the day he asks if he can kiss her.  London would hold the baby while I cleaned and would give her a bottle. 

 London now feeds her cereal and could probably change a diaper if I taught her, but I keep telling her no:) Things seemed pretty eventful when Hopey was born.  

I think it was about two weeks after I heard Madden screaming outside.  I flew out the garage door as he went in the front.  I called to him and ran through the front door noticing all the blood all over our driveway, steps and house.  He had split his chin riding his bike.  I ended up taking him and the baby to the ER while my neighbor watched London for me.  I thought he'd never ride that bike again but, two days later he was back at it!  That's an experience I don't want to do again.  July was a pretty packed month of fun.  

 

We blessed three of the grandkids that were born within five weeks of eachother.  I had Hope, Monica had Russell 8 days later, and Mandy had Hyrum five weeks after Hope.

 

  Crazy!  Oh, and Danny and Emily had Benjamin in October  so we had four kids born into our family this year!  

The blessings were awesome.  

 

London is holding Russell here.

I kept trying to have family pictures but, Madden can't smile at a camera for the life of him.  

 

He is full of clown faces.  By the end of taking pictures, my temper was on edge because of stinker head, Madden!  Hope wore London's blessing dress and it seemed fitting since they look pretty identical.  

Despite having babies, Mandy and I somehow ventured to the park, the zoo, and I went to Cherry Hill without her. 

 

 It was kind of funny taking turns nursing on benches or at tables at the zoo.  Once we even nursed at the same time while the other four kids ran around us. 

Emily came with us too.  Look at the three nephews...so cute. I thought for sure life would slow down once we had three, but nope.  Life just keeps on moving along.  

 

Hope was great to take to Cherry Hill.  She liked to barely dip her toes in the water.  Any more than that and she'd curl up in a ball.  The Fourth of July was so fun.  We went to fireworks the night before with my family and cousins. 

 

 I love it because the kids just run around the gold course and laugh and play.  This is me watching Madden try and wander away from everyone.

 

  After the year we lost Luke, I was on high alert.  I think it was also pretty special because Grandma Chlarson was there. 

 

 She passed away in November so this is a very precious memory of her watching the fireworks.  She loved them and commented how beautiful they were.  Hope smiled at them whenever they burst.  Shockingly, Hopey was NOT afraid of the noise. 

 The next day we had the kids ride around in my parents' neighborhood parade.  Madden was the first kid to fly around the corner on his bike.  I yelled at him to slow down but he was gone.

  When we finally found him afterwards, since Tyler and London were almost at the end, he asked us if he won the race.  Ha ha.  Typical Madden thought that it was an actual race.

London was so excited about her bike being decorated that I bought crepe paper and horns.  She had her bike decorated for days because she was excited.  One thing about London is that she gets very fixated on something and does not procrastinate at all.  

She started piano and practices either right when she walks in from school or before she goes to school in the morning.  This year I've really witnessed her become a little lady.  London is very responsible but, sensitive.  If she does something wrong, she feels horrible about it for a long period of time. 

 London also has a great memory and has become an excellent reader.  Rarely does she forget library day, her homework assignments, or things I've brought up about what we might do that day.  I see a lot of Tyler in her that way.  He is excellent and remembering anything he reads and she is the same way.  She finished her first chapter book and exclaimed, "MOM, guess where they found the horse!....in the stabble!"  I  laughed and told her it was pronounced st-ay-ble.  Now she asks me frequently how to pronounce words.

 This year in addition to starting piano, London started ballet at Clytie Adams.  She loves it so much that Tyler and I took her to the Nutcracker this year for an early Christmas gift.  Mid-ballet, she said, "When are they going to start talking?"  I guess I should have explained it a little more.  

Time for me to head out to a family dinner!

Here are some random pictures from McCall, family vacation:

I will continue to update so stay tuned.....

Hello World!

Welcome our little baby, Hope.  Okay it's been almost 3 weeks but, I've been seriously busy and sleep deprived.

She was our biggest baby weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long.  As you can tell, Hope came out ready to eat and since her birthday, has not quit rooting around and sucking her fingers!  We are doing great and I will update her special day soon.

Christmas 2012

Wow, Christmas just jumped on my back this year literally the day before.  Madden only asked for a helicopter and London asked for a barbie puppy waterpark.(Oh yeah, it exists).  

Unfortunately Christmas morning came around and Mimi and Papa's house and I realized that Santa had forgotten to deliver a bunch of presents.  One of those being the helicopter.  Oh well, London did feel a little confused as to why Madden had more gifts than she did and why she didn't get any clothes to wear on Christmas day, but she was quick to forgive Santa's mistake. 

 I seriously don't know what my deal is this pregnancy.  I totally locked myself out of my car twice in three days.  The first time I was stuck sitting at Wal Mart, praying that Mandy found me a spare key all the while trying NOT to puke in public.  Tyler was kind enough to tell me that daily he finds things in the cupboards or fridge that shouldn't be there. 

 

 Like steamed broccoli in the cupboard, cereal in the fridge, and cookie dough in the pantry.  The good man that he is shields me from further confusion and just takes care of it.  Apparently I was hit with the stupid bat over Christmas as well.  Madden was so stinking excited for Santa to come.  He and London were hilarious.

 

  We took them to Rise of the Guardians the Saturday before and it was probably the best thing we could do.  In the middle of Christmas Eve night I heard London say, "Santa, is that you?"  and "Jack Frost? Are you there?"   Too funny. 

 

 Tyler did end up coming to bed after playing Xbox until 2:00 a.m..  This is an improvement because in years past, he and Bradley (my bil) have stayed up until 5:00 a.m..  Which is what time the kids awoke this year. We had two Christmas Eve's this year.  The first was at Ty's mom's house where the kids got all dressed in their nativity best.  Tyler bought me a camera this year and unfortunately,  I don't know how to download the pics.  So further images of Christmas will have to be in the near future.  Does that make sense?  Anywho....updates for the week along with family pics:

-Madden climbed in my bed one morning and said, "You have pretty eyebrows, Mom."  Uh...thanks.  I asked him why he thought so.  He said, "I just do, but Gabey said my eyebrows were awesome!"  Okay.....

-Kids are still eating me under the table thanks to Tyler's genes.

 

-Madden will tell you that Daddy is a bad driver and Mommy is a good driver.  This is because Daddy drives slow and Mommy drives fast.

 

-London believes that the word "idiot" literally means someone not as smart as her mom. (Who told her that?):)

-Madden pulls clown faces frequently in family pictures.