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.

My Girls

The other day I was holding Jenna and Bella was bouncing all around and laughing. Jenna was following her every move with the biggest smile on her little face. I told Bella that one day she and Jenna could be best friends and she was so excited as she leaned down close to little Jenna and said, "Yes, we'll be best friends!".

My sweet little Jenna rolled over a couple of days ago and a couple of weeks ago she began to laugh. Why is it with the first baby I was so excited for every new accomplishment and just couldn't wait until he could do something new. Now I just want my baby to stay this way and those same accomplishments invoke very different feelings for me. I told Chuck how excited the kids were to watch Jenna roll over, but how it made me a little sad. Chuck just looked at me and said, "We're not having another baby!"

Love that little squinty smile. My kids get the biggest cheeks and they just swallow up their eyes when they smile.

My Bella girl on Sundays

My Bella girl at Samuel's last soccer game tonight. We compromised on this outfit because she really wanted to wear a princess costume to the game. Instead she wore the Cinderella headband and her Strawberry Shortcake boots.

I just had to write down this conversation Bella had with Chuck tonight after our evening prayer. Bella in her prayer said she was thankful for mermaids, fish and puppies.

Chuck after Bella's prayer: I'm grateful for all those things too

Samuel: Yeah, but you can't be grateful for mermaids because they're not real.

Chuck: You're right mermaids aren't real.

Bella (approaching tears): Mermaids are too real Dad! They just live in the water!

Chuck: Actually Bella mermaids aren't real.

Bella (now even closer to crying and very upset): Yes they are Dad! They live in the water!

It was at this point I just wanted Chuck to give in and let Bella think mermaids are real. I mean do we really have to crush her imagination. But Chuck handled it well by asking Bella if she had ever seen a mermaid and then telling her he hadn't either so they could just hope that maybe mermaids were real. Samuel then told Bella maybe mermaids were once real like when it was 1966. This at least satisfied Bella and kept her from a complete melt down! She has the best imagination and is so creative.

Easter Outfits

The kids finally got to wear their Easter outfits last Sunday. This picture just fills me with joy - how lucky I am to be their mom!

With Stake Conference, General Conference and then the cancellation of our block meetings because of a scheduled power outage we hadn't been to our regular church meetings for almost a month. And I shouldn't say it, but it was really a nice break!

Getting ready to go to church without Chuck here to help is a bit of a challenge. I've definitely managed to smooth the process, but those last 10 minutes as we try and get every one's shoes on and then everyone buckled into their car seats can be brutal. Most times I arrive at church flustered because everything went to pot just before we got there! Then during sacrament meeting we just try and survive. Isaac is giving us quite a bit of trouble these days. Last Sunday, Chuck had to take him out 3 times and then I took him with me to the mother's lounge to feed the baby and he cried at the top of his lungs the entire time we were in there. Thank goodness for Primary! I get to go play the piano and watch the cute kids and poor Chuck is left to try and get Isaac to go to nursery and take care of the baby. (Now back to the kids in their cute Easter outfits - I just had to get this memory down so when this season passes I won't forget these crazy days!)

I am loving having 2 little girls to dress alike - at least sometimes! I love getting them dressed in all their pretty church dresses. Chuck always teases me that my one indulgence is buying the girls dresses.

And my handsome big blue eyed boys!

Music Recital

This week Samuel had his Let's Play Music recital.

I really love this program because it uses solfege to teach ear training for singing and then piano playing. Samuel does not love to sing like Bella and Isaac, but he really likes going to class each week because they have so much fun. I get to attend class with him every other week which I really enjoy even though it's work for me to get a baby sitter (thanks to my friends cute girls who come and watch the others!) and it's a bit of a drive. I have a great love for music and so I tell the kids they all have to learn to play the piano and hopefully with training they'll be able to sing (I don't have a wonderful singing voice so hopefully some of their daddy's genes will come into play here).

It was so much fun to watch Samuel perform. He was making me laughing with some of the things he was doing. The highlight was seeing Samuel as the genie in the puppet rendition to Aragonaise from Carmen.

Samuel with his teacher.

She really is wonderful with the kids and is very talented. Bella can't wait to join Samuel next year in class.

Isaac's Actual Bday Celebration

On Isaac's birthday I took the kids to the park for a picnic lunch. We were the only ones there for the majority of the time and the kids were having a great time playing on the equipment and climbing on the rocks.

We always take the kids out to eat for their birthday, but Chuck had city council that night so I made pancakes - one of Isaac's favorite things to eat. After dinner I pulled out the scrapbook from the year Isaac was born. On their birthdays I show them pictures of themselves when they were born and pictures from their first year. The kids love this!

Since I had already made Isaac a birthday cake for our early birthday celebration I opted to just go for the ice cream with a candle to blow out. The only thing was Isaac was afraid of the candle and ran away. I finally coaxed him to come back so I could get a picture, but Samuel had to blow out the candle because Isaac was keeping his distance.

The next night we took Isaac for his birthday dinner. We kept asking him where he wanted to go eat - with the other kids adding their favorite suggestions of McDonalds, Marv's and Pirate Island. He finally decided on Pirate Island.

Isaac actually doesn't like pizza. The kid eats almost anything, but for some reason he doesn't like pizza. We got him fries and a corn dog with lots of ketchup.

And to close the birthday celebration Chuck measured and marked his growth stick. Then we had to get all the kids sticks out and see how tall everyone was when they turned 2.

These are a few pictures that I took of Isaac around his birthday.

The kid LOVES to eat and will eat almost anything especially if it is covered in ketchup or salsa. He is a messy eater for sure - just look at the food in his hair.

Somehow he got himself stuck under his crib.

He loves to build and is actually very good at it for only being 2.

Samuel does a computer reading program every day and Isaac always pulls his chair up so he can watch what is going on. He loves to learn.

He loves to play with Samuel and Bella even though they don't always enjoy playing with him. He can be a little rough with them. Unfortunately he is going through a terrible 2 stage where he throws objects, hits and spits. (Not very fun and we're hoping this stage passes quickly!)

Loves to read.

Loves the binkie. The only bad thing about the binkie is he constantly bites holes in them and then will not use them. It drives me crazy that we are always having to buy more binkies, but I just can't bear the thought of taking it away yet. It's the way I get him to nap so well every day and go to sleep early in the evening.

The kid hates to bath. He throws a terrible fit every time he has to get washed, but he really enjoys turning on the water. I often find the water running either in the sink or the tub because he has turned it on and then just left.

The kid loves to make messes - it's part of being 2! The other day I was feeding the baby and came out of the room to find this.

We sure do love this little guy!