Camping And Snakes!

We went camping with the kids Friday night and I know I say this about every activity we do, but it was crazy! Of course Trina was also there with Kambree and baby Bronson so the crazy and wild level was even up a notch.

Can I just say how amazing Chuck is - he stayed over night with the 3 kids while Trina and I went home with Kambree and the two babies. Jenna and Bronson are still waking up several times a night so we figured it would be eaiser for every one if we slept at home.

Yes, this is a picture of a RATTLESNAKE!!!! Making it's way across our campsite!!!!

The kids were in the bushes playing, Trina and I were at the camp table with the babies and Chuck was checking our tin foil dinners when he spotted this RATTLESNAKE slithering right in front of him. Let's just say there were a few moments of panic on our part as we tried to make sure the kids were out of the way. Chuck had to threaten Bella not to follow it into the bushes as he was throwing rocks to try and get rid of it.

Besides the rattlesnake visit we also had bees swarming. Note to self: don't take lemonade camping the bees can smell it for miles! In addition Bella was giving me heartattacks with her climbing, Kambree tried to run away and the babies were both crying. What can I say - it was crazy, but exciting!

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was cute. Chuck really is an amazing dad!

So Much Fun

I've taken a break from blogging because life is just busy. But my mom really likes to see pictures of the kids - so mom here's a catch up for you! I think I've finally decided I will begin posting pages from my digital scrapbook as I get the pages done. Of course this means things will be out of order and way behind, but there's just not enough time in a day to accomplish much more than taking care of and playing with the kids.


Samuel's playing t-ball and loves it.


Bella and Isaac dig in the dirt and get really dirty at every game.

Chuck took the boys to Father and Sons a couple of weekends ago. Bella was crying that she didn't get to go camping. But she was okay after Trina and I took her out to dinner. I really think the dads should be able to take all their children to the camp out not just the sons!

A couple of weeks ago I did something a little crazy. I drove by myself with all the kids to Chuck's parents home - a 5+ hour drive. Overall it wasn't took bad, but there were moments of pure torture. On the positive side no one threw up and at no time were all 4 kids crying - I had 3 out of 4 crying, but never 4 out of 4 crying at one time. The reason I attempted this was to go to a wedding of one of the girls I taught in Young Womens when we lived in Bountiful. It was a lot of fun seeing old friends.

While we were in Salt Lake we went to the zoo.

We went to the aquarium.

We had fun with the family. And we got to experience freezing cold weather with snow in May.

Over the Memorial Day weekend we took the kids fishing. Samuel really wanted to go to the fish pond so that's what we did. I love this picture because the kids were more excited about eating the treats than fishing with Chuck in the background.

We went hiking and had a yummy tin foil dinner with Trina, Wes and the kids. Notice poor Isaac doesn't have any shoes. We have had a hard time remembering his shoes lately. In the wedding picture above he was also without shoes.

We also went to the lake and soaked up the sun.

So we've been busy having a lot of fun lately!

What season is it!

So looking at Bella in this picture you would never guess it was 90 degrees outside! We were all going for a walk this evening and Bella insisted that she wear her coat because as she said, "I just want to be hot Mom". Well you don't have to wear a coat to be hot here this time of year! But I have just given up trying to reason with Bella when it comes to clothing. Today she also wore her snowboots to gymnastics class.

I was excited to go for a walk because it is just so nice outside. Bella really wanted to show us something and she was trying to lead us to where Grandma Luann had taken her for a walk a few weeks ago. But she couldn't quite remember the way and became very frustrated that we couldn't find where she wanted to take us. Let's just say the walk was like poking an eye out for all of us. (Notice how Bella finally shed the coat)


The kids were going outside to play today and Bella came downstairs looking like this. I don't let them take the nice toys outside to play because they just get lost and ruined so Bella thought she would be sneaky and stuff a Barbie up her shirt. She just didn't realize her mommy would actually not fall for this trick!

Garden

I was so excited about planting our garden again this year. (Okay so Chuck plants the garden, but I really like watching it grow and I love eating the vege's so that counts right!) We planted lettuce and I was LOVING going out and cutting pieces off for lunch every day. I really like a salad for lunch or I should say I really like eating my honey mustard dressing I put on the salad.

Then a really sad thing happened - little holes started to appear in the lettuce. At first I didn't see any bugs I just saw the holes in the lettuce. I kept cutting my lettuce, but I would cut out all the holes before I ate it. I just couldn't stand the thought of eating something a bug had been nibbling on.

Then a couple of days later I spotted the lettuce eating culprits - little green worms. So that pretty much put an end to my lettuce eating days.

But on a positive note our tomatoes are growing so well and they are so sweet and yummy! I can't wait for more to ripen!

Cute Samuel story:
Today at lunch we were reading out of the Friend a story by President Monson and how he remembered giving his first church talk about the early pioneers and seagulls eating the crickets. I told the kids this story and then we talked about how scary that would have been to be depending on your garden for food and then to have the crickets come and start devouring every thing you had worked so hard on. We talked about how they prayed and the seagulls came to eat the crickets.

Samuel then said, "Mom we should pray that something will come and take care of the worms so they won't eat our lettuce anymore."

How I cherish this time with my kids! I really look forward to making the kids lunch every day because we have such great discussions and little teaching moments that pop up as we all gather around the island. Last night I was laying in bed thinking how sad I felt that Samuel will be starting Kindergarten in just a couple of months. Then in another year he won't be here for our daily lunch discussions. Why do they have to grow up so fast!!

Mother's Day / Jenna's Blessing

What a special day Sunday was! We were able to bless our little Jenna Lynn on Mother's Day. Could their really be any better gift than to see my husband take our baby girl in his arms and give her a name and a blessing on this day that celebrates women and motherhood.

For many years, Mother's Day was always a little heartbreaking for me. I remember sitting through Mother's Day Sacrament meeting programs and trying so hard not to cry. At the time, I wanted so desperately to be a mother and it seemed like that blessing was very far off. Little did I realize during those difficult years how blessed my life would be.

Sunday as I looked at my new little girl and my other three little ones I could not believe how blessed and thankful I felt. I truly believe the difficulties we faced getting our family started has made me a better mom. I see each of my children as a miracle that I prayed for daily for so many years. How wonderful it is to be a mother!

Our parents, Trina, Wes, Kambree and baby Bronson were able to join us for Jenna's day.

I loved sharing mother's day with 3 very special women and mothers (my mom, my mother-in-law and my sister). I admire each of you!

Our little family

This picture just makes me laugh because I couldn't get one picture of all of the kids looking. Jenna was crying and Isaac was just mad.

Saturday morning I came out of the bedroom with Jenna and Samuel yelled surprise. I was a little confused because I couldn't see anything I should be surprised about. Then I walked around the front of the island and I really was surprised. Chuck got me a bike for Mother's Day. The night before he was in the garage forever. I was busy doing a project so I didn't even bother to go out and see what he was doing out there. Good thing since he was putting together my present.

Chuck has been wanting to get me a bike for a long time, but my form of exercising these days is trying to push a few kids in the stroller while tying a rope around someone else's bike and pulling them along behid.

I was really nervous to even get on this bike. Samuel and Bella were all excited for me to take off as they were waiting on their little bikes with their training wheels. Looking at them I was seriously wishing my bike had training wheels. I know it sounds crazy, but I have not been on a bike since I was probably 11 or 12 and I'm not even kidding! I have never even had a bike that had actual gears to shift! Yes - it's true! We just grew up riding our 4-wheeler and dune buggy all around. But it's true what they say that you never forget how to ride a bike, because I could still ride even though it's been YEARS. I didn't ride very far since I was using muscles I forgot I had and it was a little uncomfortable on my tailbone that I hope will eventually not hurt anymore.

On Sunday the kids gave me a necklace and a bracelet that they picked out themselves. They also made me really cute cards with pictures of space ships being blown up and princess shoes!


I tried to take a few pictures of Jenna in her blessing dress and it was next to impossible. She was having such a good time playing with her dress it was just making me laugh. I thought it was so cute to see her little feet sticking straight up in the air. I'm going to give it another try in a few days and see if I can actually get a few with her smiling.

I really do love this dress!

Just Darling!

A couple of days ago this is how Jenna was dressed.

I brought her out of the bedroom and Samuel said, "Oh mom, she's just darling. Good job dressing her."

Then today she was dressed like this - which I love this outfit.

I brought her out of the bedroom and Samuel said, "Mom, why haven't you dressed Jenna. She's still in her pajamas."

This is the kid who I went upstairs to tuck in the other night after I had just gotten out of the shower and he said, "Mom, I really like your hair." Whenever he sees me with wet hair he always tells me how much he likes my hair. It cracks me up because he never says anything about my hair unless it's wet.

I liked Jenna's outfit so much today I had to take a couple of close ups.

I when I showed them to Chuck his exact words were, "Just Darling".

Like father like son!

Learning from Messes

Samuel and Bella really play so well together, but this is what I went upstairs to find the other day. I try to help them keep their rooms clean, but I am not always successful! I have a baby girl who really likes to be held and personally I would rather enjoy my baby then worry about their toys (as long as the toys are contained to their room or the basement!).


This was the funny conversation we had as I looked into this total disaster and realized that someone had climbed up in the top of the closet and thrown down a lot of the Barbie toys I had stored away. (Our neighbor girl gave us 49, Yes 49 Barbies and TONS of accessories about 6 months ago. I let Bella choose 5 Barbies and some clothes and then I stored the rest up in the closet.)

Me: "Kids what happened in here! It looks like someone got out the Barbie stuff."

(I was sure I knew who had done this because Bella is my monkey girl and Samuel just likes to encourage her. He is not a climber. He thinks to much about the consequences of risky behavior!)

Samuel: "Jesus just helped me do it mom."

Me: "He did?"

Samuel: "Yep, He helped me be brave so I could climb up in the closet and get them down"

I just told the kids that they would have to pick up the mess later and let them enjoy all the Barbies. Then I laughed to myself thinking how my lunch time teaching the day before had led to this.

Every day as the kids are eating lunch I read them articles out of the Friend magazine or tell them Scripture stories as we look at pictures out of the Gospel Art Kit. Lunch used to be such a challenge, but now I look forward to this time to teach them of what really matters. The other day as we were talking about a particular scripture story I told them that Heavenly Father and Jesus can help them be brave and do hard things. Obviously Samuel took this to heart even if it was being brave to do something I considered naughty!

Each night as I tuck the kids in bed I ask them what their favorite part of the day was and then what they didn't like about that day. That night both of them told me their favorite part of the day was playing with all the Barbie stuff. I was so glad I didn't get mad at them for making such a GIANT mess, because we can eventually get it picked up. I realized this incident could have easily been the worst part of their day based on how I reacted. (I wish I could be this patient everyday! I'm working on it, but don't always succeed.)

I later caught Bella in the top of the closet throwing down the remaining Barbie items.

The kids were so excited to show Chuck and I what they had put together with a good portion of the Barbies.