Mother's Day flowers

These were given to me for Mother's Day by my husband. I enjoy getting flowers and don't get them very often. These were beautiful and I loved them!

The waiting is over!

Ok, so the waiting has been over for a while, but this is the first chance that I have gotten around to blogging about it. Since I am the author here, I am going to tell the story like I want to.....I know you are just dying to know what we had, but you will have to read the story to find out!
 10 days ago.....was Sunday, November 4,2012.....which also happens to be Gabe's birthday. So it was a pretty special day to begin with. We have church at 9 AM. I was tempted not to go, just because I was tired of all the questions from well meaning people about when the baby was going to come. But I went anyway. It also didn't matter to me that I was contracting, they weren't consistent enough for me to worry about. I will note that I was contracting about every 10-15 minutes but if I walked around they spaced out. So it was only consistant if I sat still. So off to church our brood went. Throughout the whole meeting block I was pretty uncomfortable, but I grinned and bore it because I honestly didn't think that we were going anywhere with this. I had driven the kids to church myself as Gabe had meetings before the block and so therefore drove us home. After we got home, I had a pretty major contraction that started me thinking that maybe it was today! I think that Heavenly Father was looking out for me as my parents actually were on their way home from my Grandfather's 90th birthday celebration and were passing through town. They stopped and we decided to have lunch. In the preparations for lunch my mom decided to also make us a lasagna that we could have for dinner the next night. I thought "Awesome! I don't have to cook!"....but I was going to help her make it anyway.....that never happened. I kept having contractions but with the contraction was the feeling of pressure, it was worse if I stood up, so I just stayed sitting down. Finally I decided that maybe we better go see what was going on as the pressure issue had me concerned.
Gabe and I drove to the hospital. He kept telling me that we were too early and that we would be there a while. I told him that I just felt like we needed to go. So we went. When we got there we were ushered to the maternity ward. I didn't want to ride the wheel chair. When we got there, the nurse who walked with us (I guess standard hospital policy) told the OB nurses that she was worried as I had had 2 contractions in the 5 minutes it took us to get down there. I guess when someone comes in pregnant with #8 it is par for the course as studies say that they tend to come faster the more you have. I was again being watched after as I was the ONLY patient there at this time. They took me in and checked me out.....8 cm!!! HOLY SMOKES! When the nurse told me that I was glad that we came in when we did. Then she asked about presenting parts.....well last week in the office I had been told it was a head. They couldn't tell. So when the OB doctor got there, he couldn't tell either. So out comes the ultrasound machine and much to my horror......we weren't head down. We weren't even breech! This baby was transverse in my pelvis meaning that we were sitting sideways and weren't even ready to come out. Then my whole world seemed to come crashing down on me when he told me that I wouldn't be able to have this baby without a c-section. They discussed it with us and told us that we couldn't risk the baby's health. Apparently all the aminotic fluid was low in my uterus and there wasn't hardly any up by the baby, so not a good situation for having a baby turned. Then to top it off, the bag of waters was so close to breaking that if it had we could have had an emergency on our hands instead of control. They really didn't want it to break and have the umbilical cord or something else come out before the rest of the baby. As much as I didn't want to, I consented to have the c-section. It was more important for me to have a healthy baby than to have the birth that I dreamed of. Thankfully, Gabe was there for the whole thing and that was a comfort. (He wasn't there for Amanda's c-section). So they prepped me for the section and I was excited and scared at the same time. So excited because it was Gabe's birthday and here we were going to meet our new baby.....yet scared because I didn't want the birth to go this way.
Let me spare you the details of surgery other than to say the staff was AWESOME and took great care of me. I will tell you that this little baby didn't want to come out. On top of being transverse, their arms and legs were curled up under them and the doctors had to do A LOT of pushing and pulling and such to get them out. So this was NOT a fun delivery at all.
They finally got the baby out and I was so happy to hear crying and screaming from the baby. Now for my theory. I had looked at all my kids and when they were born and had decided that if the baby was born on any day other than the 5th or the 9th that it would be a girl. So since we were getting a baby on the 4th, my theory stated it was a girl.......needless to say my theory is busted!!! We welcomed our 8th child, a boy, into the world at 3:32 PM.
Gabe stayed with him as he left my side to go to the nursery. I was able to touch him briefly before he left and feel how warm he was. I was happy to have a baby, not so much as what it took to get him here.

Gabe had teased me as we got in the truck to go to the hospital as I had brought our iPad with us. I am glad I did as our first pictures of the baby were taken with it.

This was the first picture that we have of him, and the first I got to see anything other than his face all wrapped up in the blanket. They were giving him a bath when I was wheeled down the hall and didn't get to see him for a while. If you are familar with me and my family, we don't pick out names before our children are born. We don't even know which gender to focus on because we don't know what we are going to have until they are born....so now we needed a name. This is something that I have enjoyed watching Gabe for. Usually he takes the baby in his arms and says names while looking at their faces. This time we did this together. We decided that this little man would be named:

Henry Lyle 

so there you have it. We welcomes Henry Lyle into the world (on his daddy's birthday no less) on November 4th 2012 at 3:32 PM. He weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We are both home and doing well. I am cooping with a c-section and have had lots of helpers coming in. I am so very blessed to have the friends and family that I have to help me out. This hasn't been an easy birth, mentally or physically.....but so worth it.

Henry is a cuddly boy. He loves to be swaddled and cuddled close to you. He is a great eater. The rest of the kids can't get enough of him. James calls him "His Henry".  

One "Heart"y meal

I was getting the potatoes ready for our Sunday roast this week. As I was washing them and pulling them out of the bag this is what I found:

The kids wouldn't let me cut it, so I put it right into the pan as is. Can you say that we had a "heart"y dinner that night?

We are still here!

Yes, I know, it has been along time since I have blogged and yes we are still here and still moving around. We have had a lot of things going on and not a lot of extra time for other things. To catch you up a bit on our lives here goes. We went to Jacob's music performance and he was awesome! The nice thing about that was that he was suprised to see Grandma Sherry there. The smile on his face was priceless:

Wyatt had an art show/music concert on the same night. The one piece of his that I thought I would post was his mask as I was a part of the creation of that. See my previous post on the making of his mask and now here is the finished product:

We had some family pictures taken by a friend of ours. I thought that they turned out really nice. Now the problem comes in deciding which ones I want hard copies of and what size and such.Wyatt had his last pinewood derby as a Cub scout. He car did fairly well this year. We really liked the color scheme and the decorations on it (Go Pokes!).

On a sad note my Aunt Michelle passed away. We went down to the funeral. We decided that since it was also the kids' spring break we would do something fun before we went home. We were debating whether to do the zoo or the aquarium. Since it was pretty chilly out and the kids didn't have their jackets (my fault as it was really warm when we left home) we settled on the aquarium. I thought it ended up being a good choice (it was warm) and we had never been to the aquarium. It made a sad weekend a little brighter. I have a ton of pictures from there, but this one is my favorite. James was really excited to see all the fish and see them swimming around. I liked that a lot of the tanks were at his level or had a rock "wall" in front that the kids could climb on to see and I didn't have to do a lot of lifting of little people to see things! It was Easter the weekend after our trip to Aunt Michelle's funeral and as per tradition we dyed eggs. I think I got a little carried away in putting the water and such in the dye packets and we ended up dying the table and floor as well. We had fun and that was the most important thing.Last but not least we had a huge room change at our house. With only 3 bedrooms to split betwen 7 kids, it is a little harder to decided who shares with whom (other than by gender). We had a big queen size bed that Amanda had been sleeping on that we needed to get rid of and replace with bunk beds for this all to work. It really fell into place that I found someone on facebook that not only needed our queen bed (frame and all) but had a set of bunk beds! We traded straight across and then the real work began. I worked with the kids and we went through everyone's dresser of clothes (except James) and took out the small stuff and since I thought ahead and worked from the oldest to the youngest, the clothes that were too small didn't just get put away and ultimately forgotten about. I was able to try the too small stuff on the next child down and only put away the things that were truely too small for any of my kids. Then we switched some rooms. The boys had actually been in the smaller of the 3 rooms, only because for a while there were only 2 of them. We moved them into one of the larger rooms and put all 3 boys together. This means that James is now a big boy! He no longer sleeps in a crib and is no longer in my room either! We then moved Amanda and Katherine into the boys' room. Bethany and Mariah stayed put. It was a long day, but I am happy we did it. Everyone seems to have adjusted fine to the switch. Here is a shot of James on his first night sleeping in his big boy bed.

Thanks for stopping and seeing our massive update.....hopefully it won't get so bad next time and I can actually keep up now.

Oh My!

So the day started out pretty quiet...well unless you count the fact that the kids were super emotional today. I couldn't seem to put James down without him crying. So I decided that I would just take a moment and sit with him and see if maybe he would fall asleep, as I don't think he is feeling very well. Katherine was outside riding her bike. As I was sitting in the family room rocking James, I heard this sound like a tractor truck coming down our road. I started to panic because I wasn't sure if Katherine would know/remember to stay on the driveway. So I hurried out the front door to see what was going on. This is what greeted me:

Oh My, what a sight. Katherine had seen it flying earlier in the morning and brought me out to look at it. My kids have been fascinated by the balloons and love to point them out no matter how many times we see one. We have had them fly over our house and fly low over the house, but never have we had one LAND by our house. (At least that I was around to see.)

We didn't have anything better to do....well unless you count the dishes waiting in the sink, the laundry that needs to be done, the vacuuming....you get the idea. So we just stood out there and watched and boy it was fun to watch and see how they put the balloon away. Katherine said that as the air was being let out that it looked like it was melting.

As they were letting the air out, Katherine was able to go up and feel the material. She wasn't too sure about it, but it was great. I felt it too and it just feels like the material a light jacket would be made out of. I thought it would be heavier or something.
We watched them push all the air out and then pack the balloon into a bag. When that was done the pilots called over and asked if we wanted to sit on it. Really?! Sure! We sat on it and helped push the rest of the air out.

It was pretty awesome to watch this happen. I was thinking that it was going to be a boring day, but holy cow, I guess not. Of course now the rest of the day is going to seem pretty dull compared to this morning.

Bethany's Baptism and Birthday

This year is a special one in our religion for Bethany. As this is her 8th birthday, this is the year that she gets baptized. We were on the ball this year and were able to get a date picked and the things ready way before her actual birthday because we wanted to give our families every opportunity to be able to come and help her celebrate this special day. Bethany's actual birthday was on the 5th, but her baptism wasn't until the 9th. We really enjoyed having as much family as we did come and it was a very special occasion for her. I am still amazed at how time has flown. It just seems like yesterday we were brining her home from the hospital, but here we are 8 years later. We have had a lot of fun with Bethany, but we have also had our trials with her. She has been a trooper over the last 2 yrs as we have tried to figure out how to deal with her lack of growth. After discovering that she has GHD (Growth Hormone Deficiency) and starting her shots she has grown a ton! The saying that dynamite comes in small pacakages....that describes her exactly. She might be small, but hey look out when she gets mad!

This is Bethany sporting the cake that I made for her. It was actually two cakes, but they were essentially exactly alike. The cake was a round one that you cut. But since I can't half a cake mix from the box, I had to make 2 round cakes, and since I already had the stuff to make them, I just made them both into her butterfly cakes. I hope that she loved it, she seems to from her face.

This is Bethany and her dad right before the start of the baptism. It is hard to get a great picture of Gabe, but I think that Bethany's face is priceless here. Her smile is one that she had on her face the entire evening.

Bethany holding up her new dress that Grandma Sherry got her.....notice a theme that wasn't intentional? (Hint: purple and butterflies?) No we didn't plan that, it just happens that maybe great minds think alike?

Surprise!!!

I don't know how we managed to pull this off without the kids knowing, but we did. Gabe and I got the family a new puppy. He came to us from Washington state and we are so totally in love with him. He hasn't been with our family very long, but he seems to fit right in. He has some pretty good manners and doesn't seem bothered by all the kids wanting to put and love on him. He is about 11 weeks old now. He is a pure English Springer Spaniel and we have dubbed him Benelli. We are going to call him Ben for short. I have been on pins and needles and I felt like I did pretty good at not spilling the beans (at least to the kids). I knew that the would be excited and I am happy that they are.

So the story behind us getting Ben. We had found him on the internet shortly after Bear passed away. I knew it was really soon to be getting another one, but I missed him and needed that companionship. He would have been ready on June 4th, but we couldn't make the right arrangments to get him here. I told his "mother" that we wouldn't be able to get him. (I cried after that because I was already in love with him). Then about a week and a half ago, Ben's "mother" emailed me and told me that she still had him. She asked if we were still interested and made us an offer about how we could make that happen. I talked it over with Gabe and we decided that it was something that we wanted to try and make happen. Since Ben was currently in Washington State, one of the major hurdles was getting him to us. I think things were working in our favor, because Gabe's step sister happened to be needing to travel to Washington to get her daughter. I talked to her and asked if she would be willing to pick up a package for us....she said that she would love to! Then things began to fall into place. We had a ride for him home and the price was right. So we made the deal. But we still had to wait a week for her to be able to get there and get him to us. That was a long week. I did tell a few of my friends that we would be getting Ben, but I NEVER told the children. Then this morning, Gabe's step-sister pulled into town after a long night. We went over and I felt like it was Christmas. He is so cute and lovable. We are enjoying him a ton!

Wyatt's Doings lately.

Wyatt has again had a lot going on. We had a pack meeting recently and he was awarded his Bear.

Then he also had a birthday. We had found a cool website that showed how to make cakes without being too elaborate about it. (Just what I need). So I asked him to pick one and he decided to do the robot. I think it turned out really cute. He had some friends over to help celebrate and I was impressed that Wyatt asked for me to save the "head" for Gabe as he was working and Wyatt wanted his dad to have part of his cake too. His friends weren't too happy as the head had a lot of fun goodies on it: a blow pop, gum drops and some gum. I can't believe he is 10!

Wyatt and his friends being silly as we were showing the cake off.



Wyatt just after we finished the cake. He was a big helper in getting it done.

11 months

As happens frequently with children, you wonder where time goes, but James is now 11 months. I am continuely enjoying him. He is so full of energy and happy all the time. He loves to eat and it seems that he is always doing that, even when he isn't supposed to. He finally cut some teeth and now has 3 with a couple more close behind! He is getting so fast at crawling and loves to dash for the door when the kids go outside to play. He is cruising around the furniture and will occasionally stand by himself. He hasn't figured out how to walk yet, but I don't think that will take him very long. We love him and can't imagine our family without him.

Father's Day

My mom was here with us for Father's Day and it was nice to have her around for a minute. We really didn't do anything fun, but we did give Gabe something that he really wanted. That is a rare treat for me because usually if he wants something then he just goes and buys it, leaving me in a lurch when it comes for presents for his birthday or anniversary or something like that. James was funny as he got into the action of opening the present with Gabe. We hope that everyone had a nice Father's Day.

This is Gabe's new scope for one of his rifles. He is really liking it so far and hopes that it will come in handy for the upcoming hunting season.

Sister's Visit

It was really nice to see my sister and her family last

weekend. She came through on a Tuesday and then again on Saturday. On Tuesday we had a big BBQ and gathered all our siblings in the area and that was a lot of fun. I was so busy being social that I forgot to take pictures of that! But when she came back through on Saturday I snapped this picture of all the kids. It was so cute because the girls (my sister, mom and I) were trying to get dinner ready and Gabe called all the kids into the family room. After a minute this is what we saw:I don't think that ALL the kids were in there, but most of them and they were so engrossed in the movie that they didn't realize that we were taking pictures. Cousins are so much fun!

Crazy Hair day

The girls had a dress up day at school. It was a Crazy Hair day. I was thankful that I remembered in time to do this to their hair (I am including 2 of each girl as you have to see the front and back):

I did Mariah's first and then Bethany said she wanted hers to be the opposite of that....so I did my best.

Then after the kids left for school I had Katherine come to me and ask for her hair to be crazy too. So I did hers and this is what it turned out like:

The last concert

No, it isn't the last concert that we have to attend...EVER.....just the last one for this year. Amanda had her last band concert and the music was FANTASTIC. I love going to concerts like these, because they bring me a lot of memories of the concerts that I used to go to with my mom. I also love it, because of another reason. I get to go by myself and enjoy. Gabe stayed home with the rest of the kids. I would love for him to come and listen to her play too, but with as many children as we have babysitters are hard to come by. I like that it gives me a break and I get to enjoy the music without having to chase or worry about unruly children.

Amanda is doing wonderful with her music. Shortly after this concert, the band went to their music festival and did a great job. Amanda did a solo on her clarinet, but we still aren't sure of her score. I know that I was never confident enough to do a solo, but I remember I did play the accompaniment for my best friend as she did her solo. Way to go Amanda. And might I add that I LOVE this dress on her.

Portfolios....again

This is going to be an ongoing post on this blog...only because with my children all attending the same school, they have found that this event is a great way to celebrate the children and the writing that they have done throughout the year. This year, I was lucky....I only had 2 kids.....next year, I will have 3 again. I am thankful to friends and family who were able to come and help me get to the party. This year I had one person with the kids at home (their Aunt Mindy) and I had a great friend who was on her spring break from her teaching job come and listen to Mariah while I was with Bethany. Thanks ladies for your help......be on the lookout for next year when I will need 2 people to go with me and one to stay home and babysit. The girls did a great job and have come a long way with their writing. Keep up the good work Bethany and Mariah.

The Cat in the Hat comes back

I know that I have been slacking lately, so there will be a lot of posts in a short amount of time to play catch up. The first is the Cat in the Hat....again. They had a Books and Breakfast day with the Cat in the Hat. I must have been crazy, but I took 8 kids with me. I had my nephew that day. I have a few notes to self about this event for next year. 1. If we go right away like we did, get in line for the breakfast before doing anything else....sure there may not be any free books left, but you won't have several grumpy children to deal with and 2. Don't bring a stroller, car seat or any other bulky item.....there is no room to manuver because there are a ton of people. It was neat to see all the people, but we decided to ditch after seeing all the displays and getting our free books. I figured that if I went home we could make the breakfast that we being served just as fast as if we had been standing in line.
This is Bethany and Mariah with our newpaper:

Front Page News!

It isn't very often that you can have 2 of you kids on the front page of the newspaper. But I did. My girls were on the front page! We went to a Book Blizzard Carnival at there school. They had lots of games related to reading and when you won the game you got to chose a book to take home. I decided that I didn't want to take all 7 kids with me and since Gabe was doing some church work that night, I left Amanda at home with Wyatt, Jacob and Katherine and I took Bethany, Mariah and James with me. While we were sitting in one of the classrooms playing bingo, I noticed that the photographer from the paper was there. I then saw that he had taken pictures of my girls. Then after he was done and before we left for the next game, he asked me their names and ages (which usually means that he is considering using that picture). And sure enough this is what appeared:

School Starts!

Yesterday I sent all of these to school:

And now I am left with only these at home:

Need I say more? Besides how can one resist that smile of Katherine's. It was hard to send them all back to school, but it had to be done. It is really quiet around here while they are there, but I think that it will make the older kids appreciate their sibling a bit more when they get home. In a couple of weeks Jacob will also be starting school. He will head to Head Start where he will have the same teachers that Mariah had 2 years ago. We are looking forward to that as he really needs that extra stimulation. All I can say is that as much as I love my children, I am thankful for this break from having all of them at home....sometimes that can get a bit overwhelming.