An aunt again and again.

I am so baby hungry right now it is crazy. Ryan had better be happy that I compromised with five. Both my family and Ryan's family have new babies. I have a niece and a nephew and they are two days apart. If their mothers would let me I would scoop up the precious bundles and bring them home for a little while. I would definitely return them before they turn 2. Babies are truly a gift from above. Well it's late now so maybe I'll sneak into my own children's rooms and remind myself that I do have five wonderful kids and I would not trade any of them for a single thing. At this quiet moment at least.

My silly guy.

A few days ago Derek kept repeating something that Ryan and I couldn't understand. After a little patience and multiple repeats we finally realized he wanted to know where his sisters were. The problem was he kept saying "where are my girls?" It is funny that he calls them his girls. I have tried to explain to him that they are mom and dad's girls but then he goes on to tell me that he is the dad. His dad is still the Dad also but he is the dad. Maybe with this attitude he will grow up to be protective of his sisters and they will always have him watching over them when mom and dad aren't there to guide them.

Blast from the Past: Second Baby

Jenna was born in December of 2001. She was due in January and came three and a half weeks early. It seems to me Jenna had a plan though. Jenna was born on my sister's birthday. They are alike in so many ways. It is really cute for Jenna to have this connection to her aunt. Every year I let Jenna call her aunt and tell her happy birthday. She weighed 6lds. and 10 oz. at birth. When the doctor saw Jenna he said she was so cute he wanted to take her home and he made a deal with Ryan that who ever guessed her weight correctly could have her. The doctor guessed she was 6 2 Ryan was right on the button with 6 10. I don't know what I would have done if he had been wrong. But it is a fun story to tell Jenna. Jenna came home in a stocking. This picture was taken on Christmas day so Jenna wasn't even a week old yet. I love the look on Irelee's face. She had no idea what she was in for. This was Jenna's blessing dress and her first professional picture. Where did the hair go. Jenna had darker hair when she was born but even from day one I said it would go blond. Sometimes I forget how blond Jenna is because she looks more like my family than the other two older girls. This picture was taken by my grandma. Jenna is smiling at her daddy. Jenna loved and still loves him so much. When Jenna was barely speaking I would try to get her to say momma but she always said da-da instead. Jenna's first trip to Disneyland. They were so sweet together. They could just play and play. For Jenna's first Halloween we dressed her up as Cinderella's fairy godmother. This was Jenna's first birthday. We had to keep it low key due to the fact that it was December and we were trying to keep everyone healthy. Jenna at one year. Her eyes were so big. It's not as obvious from this picture but Jenna was always very expressive but even at a young age she didn't like her picture taken. Jenna was baptized earlier this year. She is very strong minded and strong willed. For those of you who know Ryan believe it or not she gets it from ME. I am hoping these characteristics will come in handy when she is older but right now we are just along for the ride. She is funny and loves to have laughter all around her.

Blast for the Past: First home First Baby.

This was supposed to be an Easter blog but I left the camera in the vehicle that Ryan takes to work so I decided to do another catch up blog. Our first home. I know this is a horrible picture but it was the only one I could find. After Ryan and I spent close to a year in California we were able to move back to Utah. I did like California but our families were in Utah and it was our plan all along. To tell the truth I wanted to move back to Utah to start having kids because that was also in the plan. I was surprised that I was able to wait as long as I did because originally I wanted to have my first baby in the second year of our marriage but everything has worked out well. I wanted to put more pictures of our first house but apparently I like people in my pictures more than scenes. Irelee was born in 1999. She had thick blond hair but it was so blond it was hard to tell it was there. Aren't they cute together. Yes, being a parent makes you tired. But, it is worth it. I always laugh at this picture because it reminds me of an old man. If I remember correctly this was her first smile. This was Irelee's first professional picture. She was wearing her blessing dress. Irelee's first Christmas. We put her in my mom's sleigh decoration and my sister took these pictures. Irelee's first Easter. She was one cool bunny. Summer fun. Look at those beautiful blue eyes. It was rare for me to be able to get a picture of Irelee without the red eye being a problem. First Birthday. Irelee got her own cake. She didn't eat it all. But she had fun destroying it. Wow, where does the time go? She is now almost eleven years old and it seems like yesterday that she was born. I guess that is what pictures and memories are for.

Blast from the Past: Our first two years.

Ryan and I had only been married for a few months when we were invited to go to Southern California with his family. Poor Cam got stuck between a rock and a hard head. Just kidding Ryan I just had to remind you why you love me. Our first car! Just kidding this one has air conditioning. I can still hear Richard telling me to smile and that my hair was in my face. I am pretty sure by this picture I had already told him a hundred times that I don't like my picture taken. But thanks Richard for not relenting and giving me something to post 13 years later. If Andrew had the keys I am sure this picture would have been a little more exciting. Hope everything is good in Russia bud. Was I really that young. We look like teenagers not newlyweds. But then again I was barely past that time in my life. This is my all time favorite picture of Ryan. When he lets his guard down and just has fun he is the life of the party. I like to take him on vacation just to see this side of him. This is as close as anyone has ever gotten to Ryan's feet. This and the following pictures would have been taken in our second year of marriage when we were living in Northern California. It was a fun time for Ryan and I. We truly got to know each other because we were away from both of our families. We had to learn to trust and depend on one another. This year may have done more for our marriage than any other. I think this was taken in Yosemite. We saw a lot of California. We had trips planned almost every weekend. This was taken on our way to Fort Bragg, I think. We had to get out and walk for a little while because I was getting carsick. We had been traveling on a narrow winding road. He is so cute! Boy am I one lucky girl!!!!!!!! I loved the house in the background. If it weren't for the missing mountains it would have been my dream home. But I don't think you can get an ocean view home in the mountains. I am sure I was laughing at Ryan but I don't know why and I can't believe he caught this picture of me. Have I told you I don't like my picture taken? I had long hair once? Really I hate to have my picture taken! Well it was fun to reminisce. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I may try to do a Blast from the Past post once a week or once a month until I am caught up we will see. Hope you enjoyed it. By the way for those of you I have not told if you would like to leave a comment go to the end of the post and click on the time. You will then be taken to the comment section. Thanks

It creeps it crawls....

She finally walks. I can't wait for her to talk. Right now all she says is Irelee. It comes out I-E. She will call for her like she has heard me do a thousand times a day. Breaks my heart, that her first word wasn't Momma, but then again I use to tell Jenna to say Momma and she would get a mischievous look on her face and say Daddy. On another note I noticed that I have not put in much about Jenna. I don't want to leave her out but the truth is Jenna takes after me. I like to include pictures with my posts and Jenna is horrible about having her picture taken. I had no idea something like that is inherited, poor kid.

Real men vacuum!

Today all of the kids were home. It was a day off from school. Being the mean mom I am (just ask Jenna) I had my kids help me clean the house. It can be hard to find things for Derek to do but even he needs to help. He probably only cleaned this small space but at least he didn't vacuum up the clothes. The only problem is I noticed something in the vacuum hose that I had to remove. I need to remember that Derek is his father's son. The second I had my back turned he decided he needed to fix the vacuum also. Had I not caught him, with the screwdriver in his hand, I'm sure my vacuum would have been in pieces. But not to worry Bud, when your fifteen and my dryer breaks you will be the first person I call. After all your father fixed his Mom's at that age. My car on the other hand will be of limits until you change the oil for me. But that still doesn't mean you can drive it.

Do I dare post this? Warning sensitive material!!

In our family we have tried to keep everything natural and low key as far as sex. I am constently telling my kids don't drink don't do drugs and don't have sex before you are married. Yes they are young and we don't get to deep in the sex issue. At the present time my younger kids know that sex is how babies are created and I feel that is good enough for now. The other day I was repeating my hopes to Charlie, she gets the drugs and drinking but I wanted to test her to see if she had picked up incorrect information anywhere so I asked her what is sex and she said sex is what makes babies, good girl. Then she continued to add "only girls have sex" that through me so I asked her what did boys have and she said "COOTIES" what a smart kid. I did get Charlie's permission to post this but hopefully she won't be mad at me later.

Does she look like me now?

Irelee is a fifth grader so she had to do a report and wax museum on an American hero. She chose Pocahontas. It was fun to read her report and learn things about Pocahontas that I didn't know. Irelee's favorite part of the whole experience was getting to wear a black wig. She even had a few classmates accuse her of dying her hair. She just laughed at them. It was nice to have a child with dark hair for a day, but to be honest with you I do love that my children are blond. When I was much younger I used to pray that I would have three tall blond girls and I wanted to name them Charlie, Sam, and Jo. With my dark hair I never imagined it would actually come true. Only one name stayed with me but I am happy I got the blonds and I even got an extra boy and girl in the mix. I must have done something right way back when.

Vote for Danica

I know I posted this picture before but Danica is now in the running for picture of the week from Parents Magazine along with thousands of other kids but she is the cutest of course. Please click on this link http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/114874 and hit the "I LOVE IT" button. Ryan says don't bother looking at the other kids because she is the cutest....trust me. As a side note we measured our ten year old today and it looks like the short lady Lund gene has skipped at least one of our kids. She is 5 foot 1 inches tall. We will see how long it takes her to pass up all of these wonderful little aunts and her grandma. She is destined to be taller than her mother and may even over take her father. But don't worry we have raised her right and even though we will have to look up at her she will not look down on us.

A week late but worth the wait.

Last year for my birthday I got to go to Disneyland. It was so much fun that I wanted Ryan to be able to have a birthday trip also. He found a snowmobiling trip he wanted to go on. We talked about it for several weeks. I was pushing him to do it, he wanted to go but he was having second thoughts and taking to long to book, I know he needed the break from work and we needed some couple time. Ryan decided the best time for him to take the trip was a week before his birthday or around our anniversary (I think he wanted to be home for the Superbowl) so it became an anniversary/birthday trip double the fun. This was our attempt to make sure we could take pictures as a couple without outside assistance. Ryan's dream about to come true. Whoever said black was slimming wasn't wearing a snow suit.

Plenty of people offered to take our picture for us and every time Ryan jumped at the chance I wanted to just jump. Am I the only person in the world that hates having my picture taken?

I took this picture while on the back of the sled. We had seven other snowmobiles in our group.

I took this picture again on the back of the sled. Our guide's name was David. Our snowmobile was behind his. It is nice to be lead dog but we had to be second this time. Ryan is great at reading a map but I am happy he left it to the experts this time.

This is us in front of Old Faithful. How appropriate for an anniversary. It was so much fun. I missed the kids but after spending 10 years of anniversaries being pregnant or breast feeding we deserved this time to rekindle our relationship. We have all that and we are still in love. Does it get any better than this?