6 years already.

Six years ago I was sitting, watching my new baby boy as he lay in his bili box. Blue lights shining, a little mask over his eyes so he could sleep.

Even though Henry was a whopping 8 pound 10 ounces, he was still early by 3 weeks. This tends to produce jaundice, especially in boys.

I never took a picture of him in that box because it made me so sad. He had to be in it for most of the day, and for a child that only wanted to be held from the moment he was born, it seemed to cruel to document it.

Charlie couldn't stand it either. He wanted to hold his baby brother. He had waited soooo long for a brother.



Of course now that he is ok and no longer endures heel pricks every other day, I can look on it without sorrow and I wish I had a picture. But oh well.

Henry is now 6. What?! You'd think I would stop being shocked by the aging of my children by now. But it still produces feelings of joy, surprise, happiness and panic when I realize how fast time is going by.



But who can fear the boy with bronzy hair and dimples and big blue eyes. (Which are hard to see beneath the red eye. You'd think a program that lets me use a speech bubble would let me remove red eye. Oh well).

Henry wanted a Ninjago party this year. If you don't know what Ninjago is, then you probably don't have a 6 year old boy:)

Ninjago are Lego Ninjas. I know, right?

I attempted to copy the eyes and mask of a Ninjago. Henry loved it, so I tried not to judge it by my normal standards. But for some reason the decorations and cake were really hard for me. Again, oh well. He loved it, which made it a success.




Henry, like my other children, has a gift for being extremely excited about his presents. I don't think it's that we've trained them in any special way, it's that they poor kids hardly get anything other than on birthdays and Christmas. Of course they're excited!





We're on a super hero kick this year. Teenage mutant ninja turtles, Ninjago and Captain America. I personally wouldn't put them all in the same category of super hero, but who am I to judge the dreams of a little boy? :)





I can hardly believe how big he is now. In kindergarten, riding the bus, being away from Mommy.

*sigh*



The nice thing about kindergarten and Henry being gone is that quite suddenly, he adores me again. For the past 3 years he has been almost exclusively, a daddy's boy. Only wanted daddy to put him to bed, to read to him, to bathe him. He in fact told me that he didn't want to hurt my feelings but, "I kind of like dad the best."

Ouch.

Then suddenly, being away from me for a few hours a day, produced some sort of desire to show me how much he loves me.

Now he wants to snuggle with me, hug me, kiss me, and he ASKS for me!!! For ME!!! It's honestly a big deal as anyone in our house could tell you. He still loves his dad, but all of a sudden I've been promoted!

This little man is so awesome. Not cute. Don't ever call him cute. He hates that. But he will take awesome as a compliment any day.

He is an amazing dancer. No joke. He inherited his dad's dance moves and style.


He has an adorable giggle that makes everyone laugh. He is squishy and sweet and for some reason his hair always smells good. Seriously, no matter how long it's been since he had a bath. I know that will change some day, but for now I'm enjoying it.

Each of our children bring something special to our family, and Henry's tenderness, love of fun, and dimpled smile are just a few of the joys he brings to our family.

Happy Birthday little man. You're the best!!



(Cheesy smile courtesy of my mother who gave him the biggest container of cheese puffs in existence!)

Going to Janey's house

Lack of good parenting aside, Nora made me smile this morning.

I drove Anne Marie to the bus stop this morning, which is still in our neighborhood. Henry and Nora were still sleeping but Charlie was home so I didn't worry about the 5 minutes I was gone.

Why was Charlie home, Jeff is asking? Because he begged and promised to clean all day. And I need his help. So don't judge me:)

On the way back from the bus stop, this is what I see walking down the sidewalk on our street.




Me: "What are you doing Nora?"

Nora:"I want to go to Janey's house."

Me: "Um...were you trying to walk there by yourself?" Panic!!!!!

Nora: "Noooo Mom. I was coming to find you so you can TAKE me there!"

Oh phew. You weren't trying to walk there, but you did get yourself ready and left the house without anyone knowing.

Why would that freak me out? Oh, because you're 4 and the world is scary.

Anyone else have those "good" parenting days?

I am blessed.

I am blessed. Blessed with six. The End.

13 years

Something happened 13 years ago. My second child, our second daughter, was born.

She came closest to her due date of anyone, perfectly content to hang out until SHE was ready.

We had two names picked out. When Kate came to the hospital, we gave her all the power of naming her new baby sister. Out of the two names she chose Julia. And she was spot on.



This little bug came into the world with chubby, dimpled cheeks and a disposition so bright, animated and hilarious, that we all fell in love with her.

Kate and Julia quickly became the best of friends and that continues to this day.

So what do you get for a 13 year old girl for her birthday? If I had all the money in the world then buying gifts for teenagers would be super easy.

But since Julia is pretty low key, non-fussy, her list was simple.

A horse cake. Looks like, not made of.

Something to play her ipod on, a bike (thank you grandparents!) and a fedora.

We happily obliged.









Contrary to popular belief that girls start out easy and then get hard as teenagers, that is not the case with my girls.

I could not ask for easier teenagers. Seriously. Very low drama, happy, affectionate and loving. Good grades, helpful, kind.  I don't make this stuff up folks. I would just leave this part out if I had less than stellar things to say.

Julia has been a bright spot in our family since day one. Her facial expressions, bright ideas, enthusiasm for new things (except food:), her crazy, cool fashion sense and her ability to laugh at life make her one of a kind.

I see good things ahead for this girl, my shining star.

Happy Birthday Julia, you go after whatever your little heart desires:)

Anne Marie

A few things happened this summer that reminded me how quickly life goes by.

One is that Anne Marie turned 9.

We moved into this house 4 years ago right before she started kindergarten.

It used to be such a struggle to get her to go to school. She hated it and she would celebrate when she made it 2 weeks straight without staying home.

Now, she is still my sweet snuggly girl, but she loves her friends and has grown soooo independent.

Anne Marie was my most difficult pregnancy. Not because of her, but because I contracted a bacteria that was harmless to her but that already made me sick. So adding that on top of my normal morning sickness made me the most sick of any of the six kids. Because of the kind of antibiotics I had to take, it had to wait until she was born.

So my memories of her pregnancy are not necessarily easy ones. But she made it all worth it and ended up being my easiest baby.

She would wake up from naps and not even cry. I finally would go check on her and she would just be staring at the ceiling. She almost never cried or spit up or anything. It was such a gift since I had a rambunctious 17 month old as well.

So now she is 9. And tomorrow she will be 18 and going to college. Don't think  I don't know how fast it goes by!

For her ninth birthday we wanted to do something special. The girl is a tether ball fanatic. But trying to buy one proved either stupidly expensive, or the more economical ones were flimsy and easily broken.

So searching the web we found this site and made her a sturdy, super heavy, never going anywhere, tether ball in a tire set!




Anne Marie is a gracious girl. She expresses joy over everything people give her.







Anne Marie makes life interesting for everyone in her life. She has boundless energy and has so many ideas and desire to bring those ideas to life.

She is never bored. Ever. I have honestly never heard her say that in her entire life. She can always find something to do and be content doing it. She is quite an amazing girl and we are so grateful that she is part of our family.




Happy Birthday Anne Marie-Heavenly Father knew what a gift you would be to our family, and we're forever grateful!

I'm back

I'm back to blogging. I took a longer break than expected, but no longer than needed.

See you all tomorrow.