Lucy at 6 months

Lucy was 6 moths old on the 4th of July. We love our little Luc!

The boys adore her (unless she's crying alot) and are actually

surprising me with how helpful they've become.

Lucy at six months old :

Loves to grab her feet

Watches our every move

Loves having people around her, talking to her, looking at her, singing to her...

Loves rolling to her tummy

Hates when she can't roll back

Trying to sit up

Loves being in her carseat and on the go

Loves Mom's voice

Loves her soft, fuzzy tiny blankies right by her face

Loves her swing

Grabs for everything!

Puts everything in her mouth and slobbers

Learning to be a good napper, already a good night sleeper

Ticklish on armpits and neck

Scared of Max (well if she's not she should be!)

First swim!

I've taken pictures at every month but not posted them, so more pics to come...

Who knew?

So did you know that June 26 is National Pudding Day? 

Well, I read it somewhere, and far be it from this family to miss out

on celebrating a day honoring pudding!!  Our friends were with

us, and how else would we celebrate but with a.....pudding eating contest!

Before...

...after

...and in between!

The adults.

Did you seriously think we weren't gonna do it?

I was laughing so hard I thought I was gonna aspirate pudding!

Fun was had by all, the kids especially loved it.

So make a huge vat of pudding, eat your way
through it, call it a "contest", and have a

Happy National Pudding Day!!

But just a warning. 

If you liked pudding before, you may need a little break from it after.  

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Brent.  You are such an amazing dad to these kids of ours!  They adore you!  You could be lounging and having us wait on you today, but what are you doing instead?  As I'm blogging this I can hear you playing with them in the backyard.  I knew you'd be an awesome dad.  That's one of the reasons I married you!  We love you!

Happy Father's Day Dad! You have always been such an example to me of hard work, service, patience and honesty.  You are one of the most dependable people I have ever known.  I only had one grandpa and only for a few years so I wasn't quite sure what grandpas were all about.  Now I know.  I love watching you with my kids and I so appreciate  all that you do for us.  I feel like because of your example I was able to see in Brent what I knew I wanted in a husband and a future father to our kids.  I love you!!!

And Happy Father's Day to my brothers, who are great dads, and to all of the other amazing fathers in our lives!

6 more?

We are reading the Old Testament with the kids right now and with it being summer it's not happening regularly.  We finally got to it today and were reading about Abraham and Isaac.  They both wanted children badly and prayed to the Lord to bless them with children.  I explained to the boys that their dad and I had prayed to have children also.  They thought that was pretty cool.  Well, after scriptures it was Eli's turn for prayer.  Right in the middle he threw in a "Please bless Mom to have more babies.  About 6 more would be good".  The boys were exciteds and thought that was an awesome prayer.  I guess I am going to be saying some prayers of my own!

For you Mom...

I have been so bad about posting pictures of Lucy!  My poor mom called last week

and said she had no idea what Lucy looks like now because I haven't posted any pictures recently. 

 These are a month old but I promise I'll post more soon!

And.... here are Max's pictures.

We did retakes.

Dilema!

Well, it's Monday morning, school is out next week and I have a million and one things to do.  Last minute school projects, laundry, doctors appointments, finding a talent for Luke (he has a talent show this week!), finishing my planting, blog Lucy's four month pictures before she turns five months old... But it is cold and rainy and I taped four and a half hours of Lost last night.  So the question is do I check things off my to do list or do I toss the kids snacks, let them do whatever, snuggle my baby and watch the finale of Lost (one of my favorite shows ever!)??  Such a dilema!

*Edit added about 2:30 pm.
I solved my dilema!  I decided to fold massive amounts of laundry and spend "quality time" with Lucy so that I could justify watching 4 hours of Lost in the middle of the day!!  It was great but as always left me slightly confused.  Did anyone else cry?  Glad I took a lazy day-bummed that Lost is all done!

Any DWTS fans out there?

Dancing With the Stars tonight...

Evan is awesome. 

Not sure why the judges seem to get on him so much. 

He was better than Erin tonight but they scored the same.

And did I hear her complain that she's too tall and skinny?

Cheryl's hiney in that first dress? 

I don't need to see your cheeks like that!

Nicole is ridiculous. 

And Derek's choreography is unbelievable! 

That 50's paso?  Sooo good!

And aren't horizontal stripes supposed to make you look bigger?

Then how come they made Brooke Burke look even tinier?

"The Phase"

Eli was standing next to me, looking at my hair and said "Mom, you're starting to get gray hair!"  (jokes on you kiddo, I've been getting gray hair for 8 years!  hooray for hair color!) And then he said "It looks like you are going through The Phase."  I asked what the phase was.  Is it possible he had heard about menopause?  And excuse me but I'm way too young for that!  He told me, "The Phase means you are turning into an old person like grandparents and your mom and dad"  Ouch for me.  Ouch for my mom and dad.  Leave it to Eli to be polite while being brutally honest. 

Brent's Birthday

Brent just had his 37th birthday!  Yowza!  We were just talking about how we still feel like the majority of people we know or see on TV are older than us.  Then we find out they aren't even close to our age, but quite a few years younger.  Ouch.  I guess the mirror doesn't lie...oh well, atleast we feel young, right?  

Brent had a great day that the kids and I planned because we think he is awesome!!

*Breakfast with friends (was supposed to be golf, but the weather didn't get the memo about my birthday plans)
*Lunch with the kids (they surprised him by signing out of school early to take him to lunch.  Which he payed for.  Surprise!)
*A massage (he's never had one before and is now looking at the budget to see how he can afford one every month)
*Opened presents from boys (golf balls, a movie gift card and Diet Coke in every form it comes in.  Cans, 2 liter, small bottle...
*Dinner and cake with friends

Hope you had a great day babe! 

We love you!

Lucy's Blessing (better late than never!)

Lucy was blessed back in March. We couldn't do it during sacrament meeting because our bishopric was being changed that day. But we had family coming to town and didn't want them to miss the blessing, so since we're the last ward in our building we just stayed and blessed her after church. It was the simplest solution.

I have to admit I was a little bummed not to be able to do it during church, but it ended up being just fine. My parents had flown out for the blessing and Brent's parents ended up being able to come, as did a couple of his brothers and his sister-in-law. It was nice to have family here and alot of our friends

joined us too.

It was simple and sweet, just the way I like those kinds of things. I managed not to turn into a blubbering mess, even though on the inside I was dying that this was our last little baby to be blessed. Still kills me! I am so grateful that Brent has been able to bless all six of our kids.

My friend, Emily, took some pictures of Lucy in her dress. I loved her dress! It was exactly what I wanted and she looked so pretty. It sure was fun dressing her all up. Another sweet friend, Stephanie, made a little bracelet for her (and one for me with a charm that had Lucy's picture in it) and my sister even made some sweet little shoes to match.

Easter

I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!  I loved that Easter fell on conference weekend.  Brent's sister came into town Friday with her family so we had fun with them.  I, of course, forgot to take pictures.  So here are couple of us that I forgot to post last year, back when we had five boys and not a girl in sight!

Here are the highlights of our weekend fun...

Neighborhood egg hunt: 

-Max's first egg hunt!  He loved it and then cried when it was over. 

-I could only get pictures of Eli and Owen running. 

-Garrett opted out this year.  Is he already getting too big for that stuff?  Sad! 

                       

Conference: 

-Actually managed to hear some talks, even with 11 kids running around! 

-Brent went to the priesthood session at the conference center with our brother-in-law. 

-Sunday morning I went with my sister-in-law and her three older girls to Music and the Spoken Word and conference. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is amazing!  I'm also always amazed at how quickly it quiets down to the point of being able to hear a pin drop when the prophet enters. 

-Brent took Garrett and Eli to the afternoon session, again at the conference center.  We were lucky to have tickets so that we could all go.

-Spiritually uplifted and inspired-check!

Easter:

-No Easter outfits, no baskets.  Just kept it simple. This was what each of my kids got.  And a candy-I'm not completely lame.

-Huge Easter feast!  I don't always do that, but with family in town to feed I had a good excuse to go to town on dinner.
-Lucy was not set down for two days-her aunt and cousins were eating her up!

You had me at polka dots

Why are baby bathing suits so cute?  Could it be because the babies look so stinking cute in them? 

And how unfair is it that chubby, dimply thighs and buns are totally cute on babes and totally not-cute on adults?  Anyhoo.  I digress. Saw this piece of yum and had to have it.  I've been pretty darn good about buying girl things so far, but sorry Brent.  I have a feeling it's gonna get ugly. 

I know.  Lucy can't swim, and if she goes in the water could just wear a swim diaper.  But that wouldn't be as much fun for me!  Oh, and Lucy will look so cute in it too!!   

I love you, little navy bathing suit.

 You had me at polka dots.

You had me at polka dots!

(What's up with me and Jerry Maguire quotes?)

What's that you say?  Need a little taste of the cutie pie who will be wearing the bathing suit?

Did you know the human head weighs 8 pounds?

Remember the kid from Jerry Maguire?

We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship...

What could possibly make a 1 1/2 year old sit so still and be this mesmorized?

Little Einsteins!

(Disney Channel m-f, check your local listings:))

If we utter those words Max comes a runnin'

Ya, ya I know 1 year olds don't need to watch tv,

but I gotta bathe so...
Plus it does have classical music so it counts as educational, right?

All dressed up and no where to go

I am so used to having boys and just throwing a onesie and some pants on 'em.  Lucy has been so tiny she was only fitting into a few pajama/one piece type outfits, some onesie/pants outfits too.  I occasionally put a bow in her hair and I love the girl stuff but apparently I am not that good at it yet. 

My sweet friend came over to see the babes the other day.  Lucy was still in pajamas that she had spit up on.  No bow.  No cute outfit. The horror! 

 Well, my friend immediately set her own baby down, asked if she could dress Lucy and proceeded to wash her down, lotion her up, pick out a new outfit (she's growing! things are starting to fit!), get her dressed, and get a bow in her hair.  She picked her up, gave a her a little snuggle, let out a sigh and said "There.  All better Lucy."  I was cracking up because I never think to "dress" her every day.

Rookie!

So look how darling she is in all her "dressed for the day" glory. 

Thanks Em!  What would this poor little girl do with out you?

Of course she looked so cute that I felt the need to take a million pictures...

    

Luke's Birthday Part II

Have I mentioned before that Luke loves sugar? 
Well he does and he's got the fillings to prove it!
 No matter where I hide anything with sugar in it, he finds it.

I think he can actually sniff it out. While galloping! (refer to #5 in previous post)

So I thought he would love a cake made of sugar, sugar, and more sugar.  And he did! 

He called it his Willie Wonka cake. 

Brent and I loved Garrett's present for Luke. In about 10 minutes he busted out a Wonka bar with a Golden Ticket inside that was good for a sleepover in Garrett's room.  Pretty crafty.  And sweet.  Luke loved it. 

One of our birthday traditions has been that Brent always

takes the kids' birthdays off from work so that he can spend the day with them. 

I love that Brent does this and
I know the kids will remember the birthdays
spent with Dad (and missing school!) more than the gifts they got.


Luke did NOT want to miss his actual birthday at school. 
I mean, his teacher had it on the calendar and everything!

So Brent took him out the day after and after a day of fun
with Dad that included bowling, mini golf, a haircut, and a movie...

...we had a late night the a few of Luke's friends. 
Three girls-apparently he likes the ladies! 
They played and decorated cupcakes with the leftover candy I had. 

Sugar high-crash from sugar high-bedtime!  Done! 

Luke's 7th birthday was a success. 
We're glad you had a good one buddy!