Ben Ten

This was a great day... Ben turned ten on June tenth, of 2010. Magical!
You've gotta love it when kids ask for cheesecake for their birthday!

I can't think of a better first child to have! He is such a help and so good with the little ones! I am so happy to have a child in the double digits before I have number of children in double digits. (I was starting to worry for a while there!)
Happy Birthday, Benny!

Pictures...

Okay, here are some more random spring pictures


Big wolf dog that kept coming into our yard when we first moved in. He was always really nice to us, but got put down about a month after we got here because he killed another dog. Here he is trying to eat Samuel.

Trip to Denver for cousin C's baptism. Lucy inherited this outfit from her and they all looked adorable. Always good times in Denver!

Here's one of Brad and Lucy in bunkbeds in Denver. Just thought it was cute.

Jacob plays catcher. He thinks all the gear is pretty cool! Coming from a family of almost all girls, never anticipated having to buy protective underwear for my sons! There's always a first time for everything!

Ben's elementary school track meet. This was in the morning on a Friday at the high school football field and the stands were filled with spectators! (The school only has 3rd through 5th grade) This is what I love about small towns!


Lucy is finally sitting up! Well, it's been a while ago now. She is all over the place.

Cool Texas shaped cake pans! Thanks mom! That's what I love about Texas, we have Texas shaped everything!

Sam after eating Texas cake. He is by far my busiest, most messy kid. I love him!

Sam's first steak-- We are trying to train him up for the 72oz free steak at the Big Texan-- I bet by the time he's five he'll be able to do it! :)

Spring Pictures

Wow! Since we've moved we have taken a lot of pictures, but for some reason, I haven't posted them. So here's a recap of our spring:

We've had lots of "weather". Can't complain, the yard looks great, and it is so nice to have plenty of water for the garden, etc. The hail was as big as I've ever seen!



Kittens (yes, and they are all gone now!)


Baseball

Unfortunately, it is not letting me post more pictures right now. More to come...

To dispel your belief that if your child is vaccinated they won't get sick, Stephen, Samuel and Lucy all have chicken pox now. Pox party anyone? Luckily, it is mild, and hopefully it will be resolved in a few days!
In other good news we got an offer on our home in Amarillo yesterday. What a relief! Looks like it will be all wrapped up by the middle of June! It's always nice to see your prayers answered, and to find out that the Lord's time isn't too off from your own!

No pictures this week!

We have all been sick, mostly with colds, then I got mastitis on Saturday night and Eric broke out with shingles on Sunday afternoon. Not really things we want to post pictures of. It is always good to have your kids get sicker than you are to quickly stop feeling bad, and take care of them. Even though the last couple days have been tiring, I am so thankful for many things. For Eric, especially, for being such a trooper, even though he has been in a lot of pain. He is so cute, and has such a great attitude. He has also found a new love, Oatmeal Baths!
I'm thankful for the rain that we got on Monday causing all baseball games to be postponed until the end of the week. Eric can't even sit, let alone run around the field, but would have been very sad at not being able to go.
I'm thankful for the chicken pox vaccine that allows all my other kids to be safe from this virus. Lucy we have to be careful with, but everyone else is immune. Eric got the chicken pox when he was about 9 months old, and that is how he was able to get them this second time.
I'm thankful that we live just one mile from Brad's work and that he can easily do all the drop offs, and pick ups from school when I can't. Not to mention run to the pharmacy, and other errands that I couldn't do this week.
I'm thankful for my sisters and nephews for calling and entertaining Eric with songs about Calamine Lotion. He is still giggling about them!
Finally, I am thankful for our amazing bodies that we have been given that can go through so much and come out healthy and strong again. And the reminders of just how lucky we are to have our bodies and be here on this earth having this amazing experience! Life is good.

Catching Up

Time flies when you are having fun! We have been enjoying our new home and getting settled so much that I haven't had time to update. I get on to do so, and it is just too much.
Brad is recovering well from surgery and it seems to have helped a lot.

The kids are busy with baseball. We signed up the 4 oldest this year and luckily we only have 3 teams to follow. Eric is in T-ball, Audrey is in coach pitch and Ben and Jacob are in Machine Pitch. They are having a lot of fun with it, and I learning to love the small town we live in. I love that we are just minutes from everywhere, and there are no sports played on Sundays or Wednesdays! All the games are scheduled on Mondays and Tuesdays and you can watch both games going at the same time if needed.

Also, the other thing I love about our small town is that the grocery store has great sales every week, and they put the groceries in the car while I load up the kids! I haven't been missing Walmart, which I am so happy about, because it has been love/hate relationship.

I will try to be more regular about posting, but that is the story of my life. I do the best I can, and sometimes that's not very good, but occasionally it's really awesome!

Fun Spring Break!

This year we decided to take everyone to Amarillo for Spring Break and stay at my mother-in-laws for a few days, so that Brad could have back surgery. He had a microdiscectomy (you can see a similar one done on Youtube) Yeah, lots of fun, eh?
Well, Brad seems to be recovering well and apart from the fact that he can't drive, bend, twist or lift, he is still pretty helpful. The recovery is supposed to take 2-3 weeks. So, we'll just enjoy having him around. He'll probably take this week off for sure and then maybe work half days next week.
Unfortunately, he has already been back to work. The surgery was on Wednesday, and right about the time he went under his work started calling. Problems that only Brad could fix. So, just minutes after they let me see him he was trying to fix problems via phone, and then the next morning too. By the time we got back home, he decided that he'd better go in for an hour, so I loaded everyone up and drove him in. I hope they appreciated it, and that they don't call for a few days! I'm definitely grateful that Brad is indispensable to them, nothing like good job security these days!
Anyway, that's what we've been up to. Schools back in today. I wish the kids only had to go 3 days a week, or maybe every other week. I love having them home.

We're in... not yet settled

I have felt like I have been on vacation for the past couple weeks. I think mostly because I don't have any responsibilities apart from my own family, and I see my family so much more!
I love my new house and I can't believe we had Brad commute for so long. I love having him home in the morning, at lunch, and home for an early dinner. It is so nice! I feel like I have been given 3 extra hours a day.
The kids are loving school and only have occasional moments of missing old friends, school, etc. Luckily, we aren't too far away and can see most of them when we want.
We are enjoying our new church experience. We are now in a Branch instead of a ward. So everything is a little smaller, and we have to drive 30 minutes to church, but we already love it. The branch is growing and they were thrilled to have us move in and increase their numbers by more than 10% with just our family. The great thing is, that the church is true wherever you go, and it is just great to be a part of it.
I have promised to post pictures of the house, so here are a few that we've taken. Unfortunately, we didn't get all new furniture with our new house, but that's just not the way we roll!

Front of House (with Samuel)

Audrey's Room (loved how they did this room. It is perfect for Audrey!)

Backyard (this was the picture I stole from the realty site. Of course it is still winter here.)

Kitchen (I admit--this was the room that sold the house. It's huge and I love it! We will eventually get some stools to put around the table/bar. It is so nice to be in the kitchen with all the kids and not feel like we are on top of each other! I am also venturing in to the world of convection ovens. If anyone has any tips, let me know. Luckily, the ovens also work conventionally, so I haven't burned too many things!)

Dining Room (okay, so we did get new chairs for the dining room table. For those of you who have ever visited me in my married life you know that we have never had anything but folding chairs to go around our table. This was my house warming gift to myself, and I love them!)

Living Room (right after we had the carpet cleaned--I didn't want to move the furniture in, and I really want to buy a carpet rake!)

Storm Shelter (We traded our basement for this cutie in the back yard. The kids like to play in and on it!)