Samuel Squirt

It's not a nickname that has stuck or anything, but I sometimes call Samuel, "Samuel Squirt." This post is all about him. 

On April 28 he turned 6 months old. He weighs 16 lbs. and is 25" long. That is 25th percentile for weight and 4th percentile for height. Most of our other babies were in the 95 percentile so he seems small to me although strangers are always guessing he is a lot older than he is, so I guess he's not that small.

Samuel is so much fun and I'm so glad he's in our family. He lights up when he sees me and is easily excitable. He loves any toy or thing he gets his hands on. He acts like it's the best thing he's ever seen. The child before him seemed to complain a lot so it's wonderful to have a baby who is so easy to please.

 Playing in a mess of receipts I was going through. He had a ball!

 Keeping me company in the kitchen. I just love him hanging out with me because he's soo happy and adorable. He cheers me up and calms me down if I'm feeling grumpy or overwhelmed.

 All of our babies born in this house (4) have loved the stair post. They reach for it and suck on it and I can hardly pry them away from it. One night Kylie watched him and thought it was hilarious so she snapped some pictures.

 He looks so innocent now as a 6 month old. I wonder what he'll be like as a 2 year old. :) I sure hope he stays as sweet and easy as he is now.

April Happenins

April was a really fun month. Nathan spent the first week in Florida visiting family while we had our spring break at home. We planned lots of fun activities to do together and I feel like I can honestly say I spent almost every waking moment interacting with my kids. We played board games together; watched movies; baked; went to the park; went on walks; and talked, talked, talked. One of my favorite things about my children getting older is that they are so fun to talk to. We reminisce about good times, laugh about funny stories, talk about the Gospel, and plan the future. I am never lonely when Nathan is gone because I always have someone to talk to.

 Spencer and Thomas begged to sleep on the trampoline one night. They enjoyed reading, jumping, and finally crashing into sleep only to come in in the wee morning hours because they were too cold.

 The girls and I had a big cake decorating day. It turned out way bigger than planned. First we all tried a new cupcake recipe. Then new frosting recipes. Then we decorated them. The main problem was the choclate cake with white icing. Didn't look so good. But it tasted wonderful and even though Kylie was disappointed it didn't look as fancy as she thought she could do, we had fun being creative.

 The next day the 5 girls did a tea party with the hundred leftover cupcakes and 3 big cakes.

 General Conference chaos. Actually, the house was blissfully quiet for 2 days straight, so I shouldn't call it chaotic; it just looked chaotic because 7 children had conference packets all over the place, the two little girls had dolls, the middle children had snacks out, and the baby had his toys out. All in all it was a wonderful weekend; maybe the best conference weekend we've ever had.

 Kylie with her buddy, Kaitlyn on Kaitlyn's 4th birthday.

 Alexis is still doing a cooking project with me every Friday. On Good Friday she chose to make little Easter bunny rolls. Some were plain and some were filled with cinnamon/sugar. I've really enjoyed cooking with her this school year and we've all enjoyed eating her snacks!

 Samuel enjoys riding on his buddy Spencer's shoulders.

 Samuel is the most excited, drooly baby we've ever had. He's almost always kicking his arms and legs and making excited noises. He's a joy to have in our family.

 Easter morning. Lining up to go downstairs to get candy the Easter bunny brought.

 Alexis drawing Kylie who was working on her school on the computer.

 Spencer sketched Madalyn who was playing the piano.

 Our busy beavers watching a movie. We love to watch Duggar episodes occasionally when Nathan is at the temple or out with the missionaries. I cross-stitch and the rest of the kids either knit or crochet all the way down to Kaitlyn. 

 Our tornado party. 

We got pouring rain and hail and tornado warnings one night when we were at the church for YW so we rushed home to watch the news. It was so exciting that we popped popcorn and turned it into a party until 10pm when we all went to bed.

March Pictures

Here are some pictures of things we've been up to lately. 

Weekly or bi-weekly bread making day. I also do a huge batch of granola on this day and the kitchen is a mess. With only one oven, it is on all day and I'm in the kitchen all day switching food in and out and cleaning up all the crumbs of granola the kids make from snitching a handful as they run through the kitchen on their way to the back yard to play.

One day Kylie had fun putting Samuel in a bowl, then went around showing everyone, laughing, and taking pictures. He's such an easy-going baby he didn't mind a bit.

Nathan took this picture of the kids on a typical morning. Every morning they get up and go to the reading spot. I call them down for family prayer and breakfast at exactly 7:30. Some days I wonder how long they would stay there if they were never called down. They are so quiet and some mornings I think nobody is up yet. We still get 100+ books from the library and the kids love to read.

One Sunday morning the older girls couldn't get Makenna to wear this dress they really wanted her to wear so they put it on Samuel instead to see if it would make her want to wear it. She didn't care in the least (she's a stubborn 2 year old) and the rest of the kids got a good laugh at seeing Samuel in a pink dress.

Samuel absolutely loves the maps! When he's laid down by it he will kick and be all excited looking at it. When I read out loud during school I will often stand in front of the map so that he can look over my shoulder and coo and be visually stimulated. It's so cute how happy he is to see it.

Where Nathan sits most of the day reading his scriptures and working on his laptop. He spends the morning doing ward mission leader stuff and the afternoons on job related stuff.

Every morning when Kylie practices her violin Samuel loves to sit and listen to her.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! 

 Kylie loves to pick out our outfits for church and make sure we all coordinate. 

 She also had fun making these cupcakes. I love how she really gets into things and makes even little holidays fun for all of us.

 Kylie fixed all the girls' hair into clovers with 3 buns.

 Spencer enjoys giving his buddy a ride on his shoulders.

 Samuel turned 5 months at the end of the month and is so adorable. He continues to be a happy, easy baby. He loves playing with toys and drooling on anything he gets into his mouth.

We celebrated Nathan's birthday with the missionaries on March 26, the night before he left for Florida. His birthday wasn't until the 30th but he would be celebrating it with his grandparents and cousins in JAX. I made a pork loin, potatoes, rolls, salad, and fruit salad.  

While I shaped a bunch of rosettes-my idea of fancy rolls--Kylie shaped this REALLY fancy roll. Everything she does is fancy! It turned out gorgeous and I'm sure it tasted delicious hot out of the oven with butter all over it.

 Madalyn made the Christmas tree and Alexis made the turtle.

 We had angel food cupcakes for dessert.

 Our eighth child and we finally got one of these fun toys. I've always wanted one and Samuel was lucky enough to get one from Santa this year. I just pulled it out and he loves it. 

This picture has a glare from the windows, but it was cute how happy Samuel was sitting between Madalyn and Kylie during FHE this week. The kids were doing a scripture chase and he just sat there grinning.

Meeting the Duggars!!

I love the Duggar family! I think they are amazing. I am astounded at how good of a job JimBob and Michelle are doing in raising their children. Their whole family are polite, courteous, loving, and always reaching out to others instead of thinking of themselves. I sure wish I could emulate Michelle and be as patient and sweet as she is. Over the past few years when Nathan is working late and I'm going crazy, we eat dinner early and then put on a Duggar episode. It calms me down and cheers me up and recharges me with energy to handle the whole bedtime routine. Also, it brings a good feeling into our house as everyone starts talking as nice as the Duggars do. When I heard they were coming to Raleigh I jumped on the chance to go see them. We're so glad we did! We had to take two cars since we don't all fit in our van anymore, but it was still a fun family outing. 

 We had to wait in line for 2 hours, but it was worth it!

 Finally reaching the beginning of the line! We're next to go in!

The event was a book signing and they let about 10 people go in at a time to have their book signed and talk with the Duggars.  Our family is 10 people so we got to go in together and have the Duggars to ourselves for a short time.

After waiting for 2 hours, Samuel fell asleep just as it was our turn!

The 4 Duggar girls who wrote a new book.

 Alexis talking to Jinger about them both being the only left-handed people in their families.

 The whole family was just as personable and sweet as they appear on TV. I couldn't believe it. Michelle kept saying what a beautiful family we were and was so genuine as if she really wanted to be our friends. I'm so glad we got to go. I just hope someday they'll be interested in the Church. Wouldn't they make great Mormons? :)