A preview for Aunt Laura.....

Oh how we love baby Mia...and her cheeks!

Sara Joy Feltwell

This Awesome lady was both of my boys first grade teacher. She has quit teaching to have babies and we couldn't be happpier for her. We love you Julie! Sara is BEAUTIFUL!

Tea for Two...little Gwynnie's 4th birthday!

This year Gwyn decided a tea party would be the way to go for her birthday. She loves her American Girl dolls so it would be tea for two.
I won't lie....I had a great time preparing for this!
I think it turned out lovely. I forgot to take pictures of the tea bags that they took home with their prizes...schucks!
We had a fashion show to begin with....The girls and Talon (the one boy there) loved this. I took pictures of all 12 of the kids but to post them all might put me over the edge. We took some video of it so maybe I will post that.

Then we had a lovely High Tea. We had heart, butterfly, and flowered shaped pb&j sandwiches. We also had my favorite cucumber finger sandwiches, melon balls, veggies, and COOKIES galore! Instead of tea we had apple juice.....thought the kids would like that a little more.

Grandy, Aunt Amy, Aunt Laura, Amelia, Monson, and Mia came just for the party! What a treat. Grandy brought this tray full of cupcakes for Gwyn. They were so cute with pictures of Gwyn on each of them. She is so fun a creative.

We decided to try to keep it small but in our neighborhood alone there are 12 kids that she plays with, and Piper (from another neighborhood) is always invited. They don't really have a choice in being friends!

Gwyn got some lovely things from her friends.

They played a game called put the sugar cube in the tea cup...

See Gwyn's amazing dress???

My mom made it for her for her birthday!

After eating cupcakes they all went to jump on the tramp in their fancy dresses!! I loved Piper with her petti-skirt that wouldn't stay up.
It was a fun party!

I can't believe she is four already....It's all going to fast. I am trying to make every moment count.

P.S. If you were wondering what my boys were doing during this time....What else? Dressing up and scaring the girls. 11 little girls 1 little boy screaming there lungs out....not so much fun.

First Harvest

We planted our first garden in St. George this spring. We have all been so excited to watch it Grow. We planted a LOT of tomatoes because 4 of the 6 people in this house LOVE them. Gil being the #1 fan of tomatoes he askes first thing in the mornings if we can go check the tomatoes. We have been watching a few of them for a couple of days trying to decide how red we should let them get....

So when I told Gil it was okay to pick them he couldn't stop cheering. We picked them, I took some pictures and then we promplty came in and ate them for breakfast. There is nothing like garden fresh tomatoes. It's going to be a delicious summer!

Abe's Tonsil Outage

We decided to invest in a little stock in the Halls company because our second son Abe has lived on them daily for 8 months. His poor throat has been bothering him so much his teacher bought them to give when he needed them (with my permission of course.) He has had strep throat 4 times just this year. In March when he was coming down with it a third time and me my 1st I decided enough was enough and I was calling an ENT. Abe has actually asked me if we could go to the doctor so he could take out his tonsils, not understanding that would require surgery and two weeks of recovery. When we finally got into the ENT he said Abe's tontils were not huge but very scarred and still infected. He told me we coudn't clear them up unless we took them out. We were in 100%.

This is a picture of Abe standing outside the hospital feeling a wee bit nervous with his scrap of silky blanket that never left his side as a young child. It's good to have an old friend like that with you when your a little nervous.

Mr. Abraham was getting prepared for his surgery. You can see he is doing pretty well with everything.

Abe was not in love with his Surgery attire but after we figured he looked like a mushroom guy from Super Mario Brothers he was in.



A little hiding from the camera....what, who doesn't want every event in your life photographed?

Starting to get a little nervous.

When the orderly came to take him to the prep room he asked Abe if they had given him happy medicine. Abe told him "not yet." He seemed surprised and told us that is wasn't common to see a boy his age so calm and content right before surgery. Abe and I laughed when I asked him how his older brother would be acting. He immediatly began whimpering and hit the fetal postion......he is quite good at impersonating his big brother. We were all glad this was happening to Abe not Tuck....Tuck doesn't handle anything that my include needles and bood very well. In all honesty Abe was being VERY brave. He only got a little upset when the doctor asked if he had any loose teeth and he had to show him his incredibly loose tooth he had been holding on to for months. Abe hates to pull teeth, he will wait until they come out on there own. The Dr. told him he might have to pull it so that he didn't swallow it during surgery if it were to come loose. He was not happy about that.

When the dcotor came into visit with us before surgery Abe asked if he could keep his tonsils. The Doctor (who is very young) laughed and told him he actually had never had this request. He told him he couldn't but he would be happy to take a picture of them for him. So Bob laughed really hard when the Dr. came out to tell us Abe's surgery went well, then showed us these pictures. The two ugly meaty objects are his very scarred tonsils. The little yellow stone looking objects are infection pockets they took out. And can you guess what the long stringy thing is???? Oh yeah, that's right, a huge BOOGER. Here are these very educated men who have just finished performing surgery on my prescious son and they are totally being boys saying, "dude, check it out, that is a huge booger.....put that in the picture he'll love that." Boys!

The Dr. did tell us his tonsils looked like an adult persons very scarred tonsils and that he should do MUCH better now.

They did have to pull his tooth, the chances of him swallowing it were too great.

Sugar Baby did really well, and we hope his recovery is quick. When he woke up and was coming out of his sleep, he was very teary. He told Bob and I it really was hurting but that he was "so happy" to have them out (as he wiped a way his tears). Sweet boy, I feel bad that they have bothered him so much.

I will say he has loved the picture and he LOVED to show it to everyone espically the booger. So that was our big event this week, stay tuned to see our newest adventure next week Birthday Party/Girls Gone Wild.

Our very own thespian.....

I have wanted to video tape this for weeks now. (Now I have my new Flip Video so I can) Bob and I discovered Gwyn's singing and dramatic effects a few weeks ago while driving. We were both in tears laughing at how much she feels this song.... This is her early morning rendition! Enjoy!

Single Parenting

There are some upsides to being home with just the kids during the week.....I get some fantastic time with them. My big boys have been so good to help me out every night after dinner. I usually feed the kids then ask the boys to take the littles outback while I clean up......

Well this particular night they all headed to the sand box..... I kept hearing giggling from all of them. I kept thinking to myself what a sweet sound that was.

I finished up in the kitchen and walked out side to find this going on! I couldn't help but laugh and grab my camera. We had spaghetti this particular night and I made them strip down to eat (not the older boys) So I couldn't be mad. Truly seeing them having so much fun together made me so happy. I was laughing and had to grab my camera...if you are offended by the pictures sorry! I love a little skin showing:)

Gil did get a little tired of the mud fight so he headed under the tramp with a few tears.

Move over Brooke Shields.....Gwyn will now be starring in the Blue Lagoon.

I got the hose and told them to hose down before they hit the shower..... Little miss is SO much tougher than I was as a child her brothers don't throw her for a loop at all.

Abe LOVED hosing every one down.....maybe a little too much.

I have to say that I was worried how my patience would be with the kids while Bob is gone. I am surprised at how much more patience I have with the kids. I am not a naive enough to believe that it is all my doing, I know that there is a higher power helping me out, but I am so enjoying my time with my older boys. I have let things go like blogging...sorry, my social life, my reading time, and my workout-time. It's always amazing to me when you serve someone how much you love them. I am so use to my husbands help and how capable he is, that I get a little lazy in my own parenting. It has been a real blessing and wake up call to have to be everything for my littles that I found so much more patience and happiness with and in them. It is still hard and I count down the days until Bob gets home, but I am trying to find every positive thing about this job and just feel grateful we have one. I look forward to the days he is home every night again. So while I slack in many areas (like blogging) know it's for the best cause....my family! I have never felt more blessed to have four kids as I do right now!

TTFN!

Just getting ready to celebrate......

This handsome boy's........

Baptism on Saturday!

Okay...two more!

Bob looked at the rest of the pictures and told me I missed the best one! What can I say Laura is beautiful!
One more shot of Mia couldn't hurt either.