May, June and July in Pictures

Time to get caught up on my blog!
First up, my birthday. I told my family how I put white cake batter in the pan and then put brownie batter on the top and baked it, so here are the pictures so they can see what I mean. It turned out wonderful! I've never tried it before, but we all loved it. When it first came out of the oven the brownies on the top reminded the kids of mountains. So they told me to decorate my cake like my beloved mountains. They ran and got trees from a train set and made paths with the caramel sauce and chocolate chips. It looked a lot better in person than the pictures. It tasted even better.

 I loved how the brownie batter sunk in different spots and made a marble effect.

Next up, a trip to Florida the last week of May to see our newest nephew, born last January.

 The babies are about 2 1/2 months apart.

Samuel's 7 month photo shoot:

 Fourth event: The Promised Land Pageant the last week of June

 Spencer in his Colonial attire, the rest of us in our Nephite costume. Spencer got to be the drummer boy for the Redcoats and Nathan got to be a Redcoat in the Revolutionary War scene, but the rest of us sadly didn't get to be in the Colonial scene this year.

 Everyone minus Spencer and Madalyn (maybe they were changing already??) in our Pioneer costumes after the first performance.

 Thomas was so tired after the performance he couldn't even walk upstairs. Instead, he walked in the house and crashed on the floor.

 Alexis getting to ride the pony before the 2nd performance.

 After the 2nd performance. Makenna had a fever and Samuel was knocked out as it was past 10:30pm. They did great during both performances, though. It was a lot of fun having our whole family participate.

Some random pictures:

Alexis made teeny tiny cinnamon rolls and kringles for her dolls.

 Makenna asleep at the table. I love it when toddlers fall asleep with their food.

 Kaitlyn's little bed inside a big fort they made in the living room.

 Alexis's little bed in the fort. She actually slept in it one night.

Samuel's Messy Eating:

 I posted this one to show his two cute little teeth.

 Kylie took about 20 pictures of the plum smeared in his hair.

Last Event: Alexis's 9th Birthday

 She made this garden cake all by herself. 

 They're hard to see, but Alexis bought some clip on Eiffel Tower earrings that match this dress my mom gave her for her birthday perfectly.

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

After church yesterday my kids wanted a photo shoot. Well, some of them. And I wanted a new picture of all 8, so I was happy to comply. We had plenty of time while Nathan was cooking my Mother's Day dinner but we didn't have much time because the camera battery was low and we alternated between plugging it in for a few minutes and snapping pictures. Somehow we neglected to take a picture of Kylie and Thomas on the swing for the sidebar, so I'll have to do that next week. All in all it was a great Mother's Day and my kids were in good moods which was a pleasant surprise.

 Samuel

 Spencer

 My Three Boys

 Kylie, my awesome, always cheerful helper

 Makenna

 Madalyn. I love having her in Young Womens with us now.

 Me and my girls. Kylie has us matching most Sundays. The girls knit their own scarves and have quite the collection now.

 Makenna and Kaitlyn. Silly sisters.

 My 5 beautiful girls.

 I love the back of Kaitlyn's naturally curly hair. It's starting to straighten out now that it's getting long, but I still love it.

Kylie styled my hair this morning complete with a rose she crocheted. She loves to be creative with hair and invents new hairstyles quite frequently.

I love all of my precious children and am so grateful to be a mother. Everyday I feel blessed to have such wonderful kids and I cherish these sweet and tender years.

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.