Take Home Message

I loved the weekend! I listened to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I was so uplifted. Throughout the conference, there were so many messages that hit home and made me want to be better. But perhaps the "take home" message for me was to slow down and make time for the important things. I am so blessed to have the amazing family that I have. Along with incredible extended family, (parents, siblings, cousins etc), I have an amazing husband and 5 precious daughters. They are so good and so sweet. They have the best hearts and try so hard to do what is right. People often ask if I am disappointed that I don't have a son, or comment that I have my hands full or simply just say, "wow". And to all of them I say- I am absolutely NOT disappointed, I am so richly blessed. My hands are full and I stand in awe of the lives with which I have been entrusted. These girls are the light of my life. They are everything to me and I cherish every moment that I have to spend with them. Life gets crazy at times and I am afraid that I take on too much. But the message that hit home for me this weekend was to stop and enjoy this time. I need to make time for the things that matter and glory in being the mother of my 5 precious girls.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

While I feel incredibly guilty for the following, I have deemed it absolutely necessary for the safety of my babies! I fought the urgent need to put them in this "playpen" as long as I possibly could. It was only after the third time of doing the heimlich on Aubrey that I felt I could resist no more. I hate that they have to spend their "down" time in this contraption, so I bought as many panels as I felt we could fit to make it big and enticing. I really thought that they wouldn't even notice that they were "pinned in". I researched all kinds of gates and read what other moms have done and I bought the only "good" one that fit into our budget. Despite my best efforts, it still looks like a dog pen and Aubrey hates it! Inevitably within five minutes of being in there Aubrey has this face:

Annie has acclimated and seems to be quite content.

But for Aubrey, there is nothing worse. She finds the side closest to me, and stands up with her little face over the edge and cries. How could she not love it? It takes over our whole living room.
We are going to have to try it for a little while longer to see if we can't develop a love for the gate. I have to keep these babies safe. Overnight they went from sitting up to crawling, eating everything they can find, trying to climb up the stairs, shoving things in the VCR, chewing on cords, etc. I swear with my others, we worked up to those things. Not these two, they are 100% into everything and I can't keep up. And so it is. We'll see how it goes!


And for the next desperate maneuver. Lainey has most definitely outgrown her toddler bed. She falls out everynight and climbs in bed with Hallie or Maggie. With a limited budget and one bedroom to work with, we got creative. We put their beds together and with a little ingenuity, we created the most giant king bed you could imagine. Aaron doubted me the whole way, but alas, it is perfect and the girls love it! But like Aaron says, our living space is ever evolving to meet the needs of our growing and changing family, so we'll see what is in store for next week!

Picture Overload

I really want to catch up on this blog, since this is essentially my only way to journal these days. So forgive me for the overload, but I am going to forget what we have been up to. We have had lots of fun and are staying very busy. It is helping the time pass quickly and takes our minds away from having dad gone so much. Although, I must say, dad has been with us quite a bit lately and we LOVE it! I have TONS more to update, but this is a start. So here goes, very quick update:

Maggie's front tooth gets knocked out by Lainey at Brecken's baptism.

The next day about 5 hours before Aaron's family's pictures.Lainey jumps fropm the table to the couch with a Lincoln Log in her mouth , knocks out her front tooth and does some serious damage to her face. Poor baby! (this was about three days later and she looks so much better here!)

Our first stitches. Hallie had three stitches after she fell while jumping on the bed. I thought girls were supposed to have less traumatic injuries than boys? Hmmm. . . .

A fun trip to Disneyland with Sharisse! What a treat to have her come into town and stay with us for a couple of days. We were all in heaven.

Girl's Night Out to American Idol. It was so much fun! We took Hallie and she loved it!

Maggie's First Day of Preschool. She looks so big, (especially compared to the rest of the kids in her class). She is loving it and it is good to see her happy and thriving in school.

Fun trip on the boat with Hallie's Froggie Backpack. (It gets passed around the class a week at a time and we get to do fun things with it- like flat Stanley). My dad was so cute and had bags of watermelon and popcorn made for each of the girls.

My darling nephew Isaac. He hold his own with 7 girls when we all get together. Good thing Lainey is as mischevious as little boys, so the two of them along great!

Dance Party in the living room. Happens every night around here. This night we had costumes, black lights and great music!

Erin's Birthday! We had so much fun with them. We so wish we were neighbors!

Hallie on picture day. It was hard for me to see it before, but she really does look just like I did when I was little. we watched home videos the other day and it is almost freaky how much we look alike!

Fun at the Beach! We went for dinner one night and had a blast. The kids jumped in the water before we got their swimsuits on, so we let them swim in their clothes and ride home in their swimsuits? Whatever works, right!

Fun at the Lake

My fam came in town- [minus Mark and Kody, due to a seriously pathetic effort by Delta- we MISSED you guys!] and we had a great time. We hung out at the lake the entire time and we had a ball! The kids were in heaven. They learned how to do just about every kind of jump you can imagine into the lake. They water skiied and we went to the drive in and it was so much fun! We absolutely love to be with our family. Thanks mom and dad for a great week!

Golf Lessons- this was a trip!

The Drive In- FUN!

Parent's Night Out- Thanks for babysitting mom and dad!

G-ma and the twinnie bums!

Chillin'!

Probably the ONE minute that Lainey wasn't on my lap in the water. Thanks for catching it!

Mmmmm! Summertime treat!

Great way to take a nap!

Cousins!

Magoobie!

Mama and her girlsKiddos on the boat- what fun!
Jumping In

Grandpa and Isaac

Yeah for Daddy coming home for the weekend!

Hallie waterskiing! Way to go!

Abby skiing! I can't believe they could do it. And they kept wanting to go faster!

Aubie-do!