Saturday Adventures

 One thing I really like about where we live is that it is really family friendly.  The community has a lot of stuf geared toward families and that is nice.  back in April there was an Earth Day Festival.  I was really worried that is was going to be just a bunch of tree huggers, but it was actually really fun.  We didn't stay too long because we also wanted to take the girls up to Auburn on a hike, but there were some fun little booths and even an animal show.  We got to see an alligator, and the girls got to make braclets and play some games and win some free stuff.

 I cannot remeber why Nellie was ticked off in this picture.  She struggles at times to be happy and she does not deal well at all if things don't turn out exactly how she wants, but she is doing better and making improvements with her attitiude, slowly but surely.

 Here is our happy guy.  I swear he is never unhappy especailly if we are out and about doing stuff.  He really likes to be out and be busy.

 After the festival we took to girls hiking. It  is nice to live close to the mountains too.  We found a pretty easy trail that was near the river and a lot of it was in the shade, which was nice because it ended up being a very hot day.

 It was under this bridge which is like the third highest bridge in the U.S. which was pretty cool.  You can't even tell from this picture how high it actually was, it was crazy.  The funny thing about the hike was Lizzy was acting very scared.  You can't tell but the river was down on the right, but it was very safe. She was freaking out like we were going to fall.  Such a silly girl.

 Such a cute group!  I just love these people! Notice the girls carrying the giant water bottles, they won them at the festival, so they had to bring them.

 One very funny thing about that day was that we learned that Jane is quite the daredevil. She was pretty much the leader the whole way.    She didn't get scared and she just does her own thing. She is quite the character.  I find it so interesting and fun how different each of my children's personalities are.

 After our sweaty hike we went down to the river and took a little dip.  It is a very fast scary river, but there was this one quiet shallow section that was very safe.  The girls loved it and even Russell get his little feet in too.

I did have a hard time getting the kids to go, but poor Russ was exhausted and we needed to get home.

Good thing Kevy can haul Russ around.  He is getting too big for me to, my shoulders start hurting if I have to carry him in the Bjorn for too long.

I really love doing this with my little family.  Having time together each weekend is so fun.  It really is what life is about.

Big Boy!

Its just too easy to get this baby to smile.  You don't even have to work for it.

I couldn't figure out what pictures I liked of him because he was so cute in all of them, so I just posted a bunch.

Time keeps speeding by faster and faster as the days go along. My little man is seven months old!  I really can hardly believe it!  I don't remember feeling like any of the girls grew this fast. Of course just like i keep saying over and over, it makes me a little bit sad to think about the time gone that I will never get back.  But that being said, I LOVE this little guy.  He is getting so fun!!
 I know last time I posted about him it was that he wasn't the easiest baby, well reverse that.  It all started when he was about 4 1/2 months.  He was getting so fussy!  I couldn't put him down without him crying, he hardly took naps at all, and when he did they were maybe 20 minutes.  He was waking up 2-3 times a night, it was just getting too much!  I knew that my milk supply had dropped just like it has with every baby around the same time.  But I was just holding on to the nursing thing.  I was trying everything: pumping, feeding often, drinking tons, taking supplements, and nothing seemed to work.  I was so sad!  I have desperately wanted to nurse my babies for a year and I haven't even come close.  Well finally I came to the decision that it just wasn't enough for him and he needed formula.  The day that I switched over to formula completely he slept through the night, he took 3 almost three hour naps the next day and he was so happy and content from then on.  Then he started packing on the weight.  He gained three pounds the next three months, which for one of my babies is unheard of.  The poor boy was absolutely starving to death. I really feel like there are times when it is not the right thing to continue to nurse your baby, regardless of what others may say, but that is just my personal opinion.

This little monkey has turned into a foodie.  Once he realized he wasn't starving anymore he got obsessed with food.  He has to be eating if we are and I have never had a baby that LOVES everything they try like him.  He will eat anything and he has quite the appetite. He is our little chunko.  Okay maybe he isn't compared to other babies, but for one of Kevy and my kids, he is huge!  At 6 months he was 27 inches and  16 lbs. 3 oz.  He still loves his bottle too.  When he hears me shaking it, he gets all excited to the point of starting to freak out, like "get me that bottle right now!"
Russ is so much like Lizzy as a baby it is kind of crazy.  They are almost identical.  He is so social and so happy.  He really has a smile for everyone and that is what everyone says when they see him.  "I have never seen such a smiley baby!"  I love it!  He is a talker too, he really loves to talk and make all kinds of noises with his mouth.  His newest is clicking and motorboating. Unlike the girls that said dada first, he said mama!  Yay!
He is so easy to put to bed, all I have to do is lay him in his crib and give him his fuzzy blue blanket (his favorite) and he pops his little thumb in his mouth and he is good to go.  The only problem is he really likes his bed, so that makes it a bit difficult when we are out because he doesn't like to sleep anywhere but his crib.  He is such a  mama's boy, I love it.
 One cute thing about him is that he is already showing signs of liking sports.  One day when I was feeding him (which he was way into) Kevin turned on a baseball game and he was glued.  He no longer wanted to eat, he was just staring at that game.  He also really likes balls, they are his favorite toys to play with, he even said ball today.
He has been sitting up really good for a month now, and is pretty content to just sit there, but he is starting to roll all around too.  He also when he is on his back will push off so he is only on his feet and his head and start moving around.  It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen a baby do.
He is so precious to all of us!  The girls are still just as in love with him as ever.  How fun it has been to add a little boy to our family.  We love our little Russ Man.  Now if we could just get him to stop getting bigger!

Easter

We seem to have made it a family tradition to spend Easter in St George.  In our married life we have spent all but one Easter with Kevin's family.  It has been funny because we didn't even plan that, it just happened that way.

 I do love making the girl's Easter dresses and I am so glad that they think it is cool too. I found this fabric and I wanted them to have matching ones this year, I wanted Janie to have the blue because she looks so pretty in blue but she was not going to have it, she kept picking out all these crazy fabrics for her dress, but when I asked Lizzy to have the blue she was really excited and Janie was happy to have the "pinky pie" one.  That is what she ended up calling her dress.  Nellie of course was thrilled with the green, although she really isn't  very obsessed with it anymore.  I thought they turned out soo cute and I think they may be my favorites of all the dresses I have made them.

At first I was worried that one day Russ would feel left out since I didn't make him and outfit, but everyone assured me that boys don't care and besides the patterns they have for boys aren't nearly as cute as what you can buy them.

 The girls had so much fun being with their Grammie and Papi.  It was a good time.

 Nellie really wanted to take a picture of me kissing Kevy, such silly girls.  They watched our wedding video recently and we totally disgusted by all the kissing, as every kid is I guess.  I just didn't think it started so early.

 After church all the family came over and we dyed Easter eggs.  Kids always have a good time with that.

 Nellie and her pink hat.  She found this in the dress ups at Grammie's and she wore it a lot while we were there.  She is a silly kid.

 My two posers.

 It was really fun to see Kevy's sisters and spend time with them.

 After dying eggs the kids had an egg hunt outside.  We let the little ones go first so they could actually get some.

 One of my favorite pictures!  I just loved how Russ was giving his Daddy a hug.  So cute!

 Lizzy and Brinlee always have such a good time together.

Nellie and Conner get along really well too.  Such cuties!  I realize how bad Nellie needed her bangs cut.  We were going to have Kiki do it but things ended up being so busy it didn't happen so I did it when we got home.

The Red Rock

We went to St. George for our Spring Break, to visit Kevin's family.  We wanted to take the girls to see some things that they might not otherwise.  Unfortunately Kevin ended up having to work pretty much the whole trip.  But he did get a little break here and there, and so we took the kids to the Dixie rock to hike around.  They had a lot of fun and it was one of the highlights of the trip.  Nellie was really nervous at first, but got a little better after a while.  Jane was absolutely without any fear, which is always a little bit scary. I prefer the kids that are scared, because then they will be cautious.  

 Russ LOVES the bjorn so he was so happy just chillin with his dad. We found this little hat for him to wear and he looks so big.  I am glad we had it because his arms got a bit burned.  We forgot sunscreen of course.

 Jane has adopted Lizzy's posing.  She is always putting her hands on her hips and tilting her head, and not just for pictures.  She does it all the time. So cute.

 The girls love seeing the temple that Kevy and I were married in.  They think it is the coolest thing that that was where we were married.

 Our family picture was a little fuzzy,

 The kids loved finding the little cracks and crevices to climb around in.

The girls had so much fun on the trip with their cousins.  Such cute little kids!

Family Time

 It is so fun to do stuff together as a family on the weekends, but sometimes it is too easy to just hang out and do nothing.  I decided that we needed to have a family day and get out.  The mall was having the Easter Bunny and so we took the girls there first.

Lizzy and Nellie were all about taking a picture with the Easter Bunny but Janie not so much.  I had to hold her to get her to be in the picture. 

After the Easter Bunny, we took them to a park that has some cement slides.  You get old boxes and sit on them and slide down..  It is really fun and you can get going pretty fast.  It is always fun to find something out of the ordinary to do with your kids.

Janie would only go with me, but that was fine.  We had a fun time.

Nellie found a sweet box that was really long like a train.  It really got going.  

Kevy is funny because he doesn't like to do that kind of stuff that much.  He was happy just to watch the rest of us and take care of Russ.

Little Man had fun just chillin with his daddy.  He really loves being in the baby bjorn.

Little poser.  I swear she does this in every picture.

What a cute little group!

After the girls got tired of the cement slides we went on a little nature walk.  There were a bunch of little trails to explore with a creek and lots of trees and plants.  There were a lot of mosquitoes though so we didn't stay too long there.

After the park we went to Claim Jumper for dinner because the two oldest girls had free meals they had won at school.  The whole day Lizzy kept saying "this is so much fun! Thanks Mom and Dad!"  I guess we need to do it a lot more.  Such sweet little kids!

All About Jane

There is so much to say about this little monkey!  We are so very glad that we had our little Jane and added a third girlie to the mix, it sure made it perfect. She is really the comedian in our house.  She says the funniest stuff I seriously can't get over it.  She still has that super darling voice that kids have a this age that you are so sad when they lose.  It is so hard to be mad at her because well, look at that face.  Could anyone get mad at that face?  Some funny things that Janie has said recently.  She is really funny and likes to call Lizzy "my big sis"  So much so that I was actually starting to wonder if she remembered Lizzy's name.  One day we were picking Nellie up at school and Jane said, "Are we picking up my big sis?"  And  I said that yes we were picking up Nellie and Jane said "no I mean the girl with the long brown hair."  Too funny.   She also was complaining one day when we went to McDonald's, we had only gotten cheeseburgers and Jane said "where is my toy?" so I said that happy meals cost too much money and she said "but Mom, Dad's got cash!"
Jane is such a little fruit and veggie girl,  She will climb up on the counter when my mom is cutting up veggies and just chow down, we are talking peas and radishes, peppers broccoli, carrots, you name it and she will eat it.  She especially loves oranges. When we have baby oranges around she could eat 10 in a sitting easy.  Everyday after I get Lizzy off to school Jane asks me to pack her a lunch,  she likes the same everyday, a fruit or veggie and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then maybe something else.  She puts it in her little lunch bag and then eats it sometime that morning when she starts to get hungry.
Jane likes to be like her big sisters and do whatever they do. About a month ago she decided she wanted long hair like her sisters, so she cut it "long like my sisters"  We had to repair it and get it cut, hence why she has the hair she does now, but I love it now, it is cute and sassy and totally fits her.  In fact I have had so many people come up to me and tell me how much they love her hair!
One funny thing about Jane is that she has always been a really easy going kid, but for the past year,(and its getting worse) she has gotten very opinionated about her clothes.  To the point where there is nothing I can do to get her to wear certain things, and of course the things she won't wear are her nicest clothes, the shirt that she is currently on is her cherry shirt she got for Valentines Day from my parents.  She in fact is wearing it in the picture (big surprise)  She would wear it every single day if she could.  So silly.
Right after I had Russell Janie did not like me very much.  She only wanted Kevin, and it was really heartbreaking for me.  But thankfully she is over that now!  She told  her sisters "I get to stay home with my Mama!"  like it was the best thing in the world.  It made me so happy!  I seriously adore my little Janie lady! She is such a ray of sunshine in my life!

All About Lizzy

This is months too late, I like to do it around their birthday but better late than never.  Lizzy is my BIG girl.   I can't believe sometimes how grownup she has become.  When I was younger I thought it was funny how people used to say that kids grow up so fast.  And when you are a new mom, or a mom of a lot of little ones, the days sometimes seem so difficult and the kids seem like they will never get big and it will never get easier, and it seems like the next day you look around and your kids are big. That has really happened with my Lizzy.  I can remember so vividly the day she was born and now it has already been seven years.  I have really enjoyed having a bigger kid though, she is such a great help to me.  Lizzy has always been such a people pleaser and she still is.  She really wants to make Kevin and I happy and do all the things she is supposed to do.
 She has recently started taking piano lessons from one of my friends and the first week she was really good about practicing but then she has dropped off a little, like most kids I am sure, but I really think she has the desire to do it and she does practice when i ask her to.  She is also taking sewing lessons from my mom and she is so excited about it.  I think Lizzy is one of those people that wants to do everything and be good at it too.
She is still my little social girl and loves to make friends wherever we go.  If we go play at the park she finds someone playing there and makes friends with them.  She is a really really good big sister and is already mothering all the others.  Janie is very attached to Lizzy and calls her "my big sis"  Lizzy is so good at helping out with Russell.  If she hears him crying she is right there picking him up and carrying him around the house.  Lizzy loves to read and she is really good at it.  She is reading the Fairy books and she just loves them.  Lizzy is really excited about  turning eight this year.  She can't wait to be baptized and become a member of the church and receive the Holy Ghost.
This past year Lizzy has lost 6 teeth in about a six month period of time. She was pretty much gumming all her food for a while.  It was a pretty funny sight.  But she is starting to get a lot of her big teeth in now so now she can chew a bit better.
Some of Lizzy's favorite things are:
Singing, she loves listening to music and singing.  She loves the color purple. She loves dolphins.  Her favorite food is Hawaiian Haystack, her favorite treat is anything I make, she is so sweet and always tells me what a good cook I am and how good my meals are.  What a way to make a mom feel good. We sure adore our Lizzy girl.  How lucky the last 7 years have been to have this precious girl in our lives.

Valentine's Day

One of our favorite family traditions is to decorate Valentines cookies or cakes for our friends and loved ones.  This year I made some giant heart sugar cookies and the girls got to decorate them for their friends.  We decorated them on Monday, for family night and then on Tuesday, Valentines Day, we delivered them to their friends.

 It was way cute how they all decorated their cookies.  Lizzy was going to put 20 Hershey kisses on one, so we kind of had to steer her a different direction.

 Russ and daddy had fun just chillin, watching the girls.

On Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something special for the girls.  So I made them a really special Dinner with mini heart pizzas and a special pink drink and heart jello.  I decorated the table and put decorations and balloons out.  Lizzy was so thrilled with the whole thing and thought it was so special.  She kept saying "Thank you so much mom! You are the best!"  Nellie didn't seem to care all that much, she just kept asking when I was going to give her a present.  Big shocker with Nellie.  She also didn't touch her meal, and we discovered that she had eaten ALL of her candy she had gotten from school already in the short time she had been home from school.  We really have to be careful with Nellie because she will easily overdose on junk.  She has NO self control.  I of course didn't get any pictures of the meal but oh well, maybe next year.