Blast from the Past: Baby number three.

Charlie was born December 2003. Charlie in her blessing dress. Not my favorite picture but I did love her dress. She was such an angel at 5 months. I had to put a hat on her for her pictures because at nine months she had no hair. Hangin' out with dad while he was working on his car. One Sunday morning. My poor girls, I loved to dress them alike. Now that they are such different sizes it is hard to find them matching clothes. Charlie's 1st birthday. At one year she still had no hair and I was still using honey to put bows in her hair. This year Charlie started Kindergarten and will soon be out for the summer. Charlie is very feminine. She loves pink and dolls. It is fun to watch Charlie play outside because more often than not she is surrounded by boys. At least once or twice a week I have little boys ages 4 and 5 at my back door asking if Charlie can play. At first I would ask if they wanted Derek but they always said they wanted to play with Charlie so I stopped asking. She loves to dance and wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up.

Totally losing it...

Those who know me know that my mind was gone long ago. So I am talking about the extra weight I have gained over the last 10 years. I love my children and I was happy to gain the weight I needed to help them be healthy during my pregnancies. Every time I tried to exercise while I was breast-feeding I would lose my milk so I couldn't breastfeed and exercise at the same time. Danica turned 1 year in December so in January (and after all the yummy treats and goodies of Christmas) I got serious about getting healthy. It was a little hard at first mainly the eating part. I never would have guessed that I enjoy exercising so much but like I said before I have already lost my mind. I started out walking on my eliptical for 45 minutes everyday. My secret, I would pop in a Veronica Mars episode and only allow myself to watch it as long as I was walking. Well my Veronica Mars obsession payed off because I soon found myself walking for 90 minutes every morning. For my birthday Ryan got me a wii fit so now I walk for 45 minutes and play on the wii fit for 45 minutes. I am hoping I can keep this up. I am fortunate that Irelee and Jenna get up early for school and Charlie goes a little later because that is my time for getting healthy. I have noticed that I now have energy to play with my kids and I no longer get tired in the middle of the day. I hope I can keep it up during the summer when they are out of school. Thanks for letting me pat myself on the back. Now if I could only do something about my hair losing it's color.

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.