Fishing with the Guys

The guys all planned a fishing trip with Papa. But, sadly, not all the guys could go. So those who could, went. They had a great time. The girls had a fun girls' night together of making pizzas, painting nails, and watching a movie. I didn't get any pictures of that! Oh well!!!

Here's Brandon with Jacob! Like father like son!

Jacob, Brandon, Hyrum, Papa, and Samuel made out pretty well with all of their fish!

I love this picture of Jacob with the sky reflecting in the lake. He was up at dawn ready to fish! He caught A LOT of fish and can't wait to go again! Aren't "Guys' Weekends" fun?

Brothers

Jacob loves his new brother. And it's hard not to when he's so stinkin' cute! I'm so glad that Jacob sets such a good example for his 2 younger brothers!

Ballerina Sarah

After begging for TWO WHOLE YEARS to take dance, Sarah FINALLY started ballet this fall! I told her she had to wait until she was 5 years old (and in the free public school system and not preschool anymore). She LOVES dance, her teacher, Miss Liz, and all her new friends. I never took any kind of dance growing up, so I had to make several calls to my sister-in-law, Kimber, to ask all my dance-related questions. "Do you wear underwear under your leotard?" "Do they have to wear their hair in a bun?" "Where do you buy leotards and tights?" Thanks, Kimber, for helping me make it a success for Sarah. I'm anxious to see what comes from our little Sarah Ballerina!

Note to self . . .

. . . I MUST know where Jonah is and what he's doing at ALL times! While we had some friends visiting from out of town, I heard little Nathan crying. "Oh, he's awake from his nap and ready to eat," I thought to myself. After 10 minutes or so of visiting I finally decided I shouldn't completely ignore him, and went to retrieve him. From underneath the door I saw that the bedroom light was on and I immediately knew that Jonah was already in Nathan's room doing who knows what. I saw little Nathan in his bed flailing and fighting for his life under every blanket and article of clothing from his dresser that Jonah had piled on top of his head. As I fished him out of the clothing I found this:

Apparently, before Jonah tried to smother him with blankets and clothes, he lathered Nathan's head in Desitin. Boy, that oily gunk was fun to try and scrub off a screaming baby! It really is amazing that our babies survive their siblings! I mean, stuff like this happens to the rest of you, right? Or am I that neglectful of a mom? Poor Nathan!

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Sarah turned 5 years old last week! I can't believe it! She is our only girl, our little princess, and Daddy's "Sweatpea." She is quick to share, very loving, affectionate, girly, and a great helper. Sarah LOVES to give kisses (which I kind of hope she outgrows in the next 10 years), but we love them now! Happy Birthday, Sarah! We love you!

Sarah got a princess laptop from Mom & Dad. She loves it! I usually know exactly what I'm getting the kids for gifts weeks before their birthdays. But I've been so focused on planning her 1st friend party and just plain surviving life that I found myself wandering around Toys R Us in a complete fog of exhaustion the night before her birthday, calling Brandon on my cell phone, and asking him what to get her for a gift. Great call, Daddy! She loves it!

Sarah got baby clothes from Grandma & Grandpa, and baby accessories from Nanny and Papa. Now that we have our own baby, Sarah really wants to do what Mommy does with her baby.

Here is Sarah with her purse cake!

Sarah had her 1st friend party! She chose to have a purse party. Honestly, Sarah is SO easy to please that she didn't care what kind of party we had. She was just happy to get a party. Jacob, on the other hand, is a totally opposite story! I just called my sister-in-law up, asked her what parties she's done, copied her outline, and I was done! It's so great to have such an organized sister-in-law! Thanks, Shauna! We kept the party small and simple for my own sanity. There were lots of girls we could have invited, but due to my level of exhaustion and the emotional scarring that Brandon and I endured from Jacob's last party 2 years ago when he turned 5, we kept things VERY simple. I have to say, these girls were a delight and Brandon and I have recovered significantly from our past nightmarish experience!

I don't know what it is about parties, but I say party and my kids say pinata! I ran off with Sarah to a couple of stores the night before her party in a desperate, last minute attempt to find a pinata. Wouldn't you know they had Spider man, jeeps, balls of all kinds, pirates, ships, and all manner of pinatas for boys? But NOTHING for girls! So, yes, we got a Mexican burro! That's the great thing about Sarah! She's happy with anything. It's a pinata, and that's all she wanted. "We'll just call it a pony, Mommy," is what she said. And a pony it was! None of the girls even cared. Normally, "Uptight Amanda" would have search store after store for the perfect pinata. But I just don' t have the energy to do it, so I let it go and bought our rainbow pony pinata! Isn't my niece, Emma cute? She's the one that finally put a little muscle into it and busted the pinata open.

July Fun!

In an effort to try and catch up a little on my blog, I'm combining some of our July activities!

We started off the month with the 4th of July festivities. I only participated in the barbecue at my house later, since little Nathan wasn't even a week old yet. But Brandon took the kids to the regular family fun. This game is called "How many grandkids can Papa squeeze into his Model A for our small town parade?"

My mom was in charge of her family's reunion this year. She did a fabulous job planning "An Amazing Race!" She put us in teams and we raced around to Grandpa's favorite places, ending in a picnic and visiting at a park. We hit Grandpa's favorite candy store, the ice cream shop (there were prepaid samples at both!), bowling, the temple where he's a sealer, and other fun locations. Here's Jacob & Jonah at the beginning of the race weeding a row in Grandpa's garden to get our first clue! It was so fun! Great job, Mom!

One clue led us to Grandma's sister's house where we had to dress up! Isn't Brandon pretty?

Our team was the last to finish (our kids kinda slowed us down, but we sure had fun)! Here we are at the park with Grandpa for our finale picture!

For Pioneer Day we, again, participated in all the fun, regular activities! I missed the community breakfast because being anywhere at 7 a.m. is practically impossible for me right now, but, again, Brandon took the kids and went to the breakfast. I was ready for the parade, then lunch, naps for me and the 2 little one's while Brandon took the 2 older one's to Fort Buenaventura, a barbecue, and fireworks by Papa! Here is Sarah, Ruth, Jacob, Emma & Bethany at the parade. All 27 of us wear our matching Old Navy t-shirts! What fun traditions! Thanks, Nanny & Papa for such a fabulous day!

And I felt it my duty to squeeze in some swimming lessons too! That's 2 weeks I'm always glad to be done with! Here's Jacob trying to gather the courage to jump off the box.

And Sarah in her favorite spot: the steps where she feels safe and comfortable. I know I've failed miserably as a mother trying to get my kids comfortable with the water. I'll work on that another year . . .

Our Baby Is Born!!!

On Monday, June 28th we brought our new little boy into the world! I was induced that morning so that he would be born into a controlled environment and not in the car! Whew! Thank goodness we didn't do that again! The doctor watched me very carefully once I hit 38 weeks. And once I hit 39 weeks she felt like the baby was big enough and developed enough it was safe to induce me. After that she felt like we were "playing with fire" and I could possibly have a very fast labor and delivery. It was a little weird being induced, waking up that morning, showering and showing up to have a baby without having any contractions. But, I have to say, a near painless delivery was pretty nice.

Here I am right before leaving for the hospital. Yes, I was HUGE and big enough to be having twins!

Nathan Kent is 8 lbs. 11 oz. and 21 1/2 inches long! He's been a wonderful baby so far, very content and sleeps a lot! Yeah!

Nathan didn't like getting his picture taken!

Sarah and Jacob holding Nathan!

Sarah loves little Nathan almost to death sometimes! She loves to help and give him kisses!

Jonah loves to point out Nathan's eyes! Hmmm . . . I hope Nathan can keep his eyes!

Jacob is so excited to have another brother!

Here's is our little family all together!

Isn't our daddy handsome? He's so happy to have another son!

We feel so blessed to have this little spirit in our home. He's so fresh from Heavenly Father. I love to look into his eyes and wonder what he remembers from heaven and what he's thinking. I can't wait to see what personality emerges from this darling little one.