Welcome to our World

Dentists, pediatricians, and optometrists are checking up on our children this summer.  I switched dentists when we switched insurance and these three did wonderfully, even in a new place with new people.  I sure was one proud momma that morning!  Danny & Natalie had their check-ups together.  Danny is growing nicely & we have zero concerns.  Natalie seems to be taking more after Kaelah:  92nd percentile for height & 44th for weight.  She is still on her Zantac, but only once a day now.   A big help was cutting all soy and beans in general out of my diet. My food sensitivity specialist also recommend limiting grains, but I haven't been able to do that very well. Between this and going off of dairy and wheat and corn and oranges last fall, by process of elimination I'm now supposed to follow the Paleo diet -- which I thought sounded insane the first time my friend Kate told me about it. After 36 hours with no grains I was so...

 Look at how much this kid loves presents.  I've said more than once he lives for his birthday and Christmas.  After attending a couple birthday parties this spring, he gave up the chance to go on a family outing to have a Transformers birthday party at his house so that his friends would buy him gifts.  Kaelah tried her best to talk him out of it, but stuff was what it was all about for him.  I am in so much trouble with this one.  (; When Dan heard the people his son wanted to invite he said, "We've got to find you some friends your our age."  Some of the younger ones were out of town, but here is who was able to come:  S (8), E (8), H (9), K (7), & R (4).  If our neighbors hadn't have been able to come it would have only been 8 & 9-year-olds.  lol.   Grandma Karyl made the cake, keeping with her tradition.  I thought the way she did the sprinkles was a clever way to work with the cake toppers I gave her to...

We waited and waited and now we are enjoying summer like never before.  Daddy is on a new softball team with friends from church...  we discovered a new place for Meigo to play (at the car wash, of all places) ...  found a new way to roll down the hill at the drainage ditch...  loved our first swim with friends.  Danny tried out soccer camp for the first time & won the award for best boy camper along with acquiring the new nickname of "Danimal"... and these two turned into monsters because of raspberries on their fingers.  lol. All three of the older children go to Stacey's preschool one morning a week for academia and to give mom only the baby to take care of.  Kaelah is also attending princess camp (dance plus a story & craft) and Danny and Michelle are in separate gymnastics classes now that Danny has moved on to an age group that doesn't need a parent in the gym with him.  My mom has been helping me transport them ...

Boy, have we got a story for you.  N's baby blessing will certainly go down in the books as being the most memorable of all her siblings due to a little drama we now call a miracle. This baby ring has been in my mother's family for 103 years.  Since Natalie filled her diaper right before it was time to go up for  the blessing, Dan took her straight to the bathroom to change her. A  minute later Michelle needed to use the restroom so I left Kaelah in  the chapel with Aunt Stacie to help her. When she was done we saw Dan  in the hallway, where we traded and I went to the mother's lounge to  feed the baby. There I noticed the ring was gone!  I checked the dress  and my clothes and the room, the hallways and started to panic. When  Sacrament meeting was over our family helped us look all over,  including the chapel. Dan checked the car seat and even went home to  look in the garage and in the house. I felt terrible. Of cours...

One year of co-op preschool down, at least one year to go.  We celebrated at our park and I was amazed how well M was able to keep up with the bigger kids.  She has really been growing fast. Happy preschool graduation, K!  She often talks to me about being nervous to start kindergarten at a new place with new people but I think she will do great.  We have a friend in her class and she has matured a lot in the past year.  I am so grateful we gifted her a year to begin school.  I think she'll be able to enjoy it now. Stacey's Preschool had their annual ice cream social and even the baby had a great time. And for one wonderful afternoon K & D spent lots of time jumping through the study window, running through the front door, across the porch and then doing it over and over again.  We all like the house already.  We've met all of our neighbors now and they seem nice and fun loving.  A big group of us were talking together and lik...

Sentimental.  Grateful.  Peaceful.  Joyful.  A few words which remind me of this Mother's Day.  We felt Natalie needed one more Sunday at home so Dan took the older three to church and I got to sit and enjoy my baby.  I feel so blessed to have this little one in our family and actual quite sad I won't be doing this again.  Other families are different, but this is our magic number.  I keep telling Natalie we want to end on a good note.  I caught this wonderful smile of hers on camera.  She is a big fan of attention from Mom and Dad.  Less of a fan of the mauling she sometimes receives from her extremely loving older siblings, especially the one that prayed for her.  We have a new Sunday tradition of visiting the new house after returning home from church and eating lunch.  On Mother's Day we took pictures of everyone in their new rooms.  Michelle wants to have a pink and purple ballerina room instead of a Rapunzel...

Dan & Kaelah got to take a weekend trip to visit Dan's family for one of our nephew's getting baptized and his little brother being blessed on the same day.  Some of my friends freaked out since Natalie was only 3 weeks old, but it was my idea, don't worry.  This was Dan's first time on a trip alone with Kaelah and they had a great time, just like when she & I visited her best friend in Cali last fall.  Dan has a great family and they got to do all sorts of things like attend our brother-in-law's work fair/carnival, watch cousins dance in their year-end recital, and meet the newest arrival to the family (other than Natalie -- he's 3 weeks older).  Kaelah looooves babies and cousins and aunts and uncles and can't wait to go visit family again.  Meanwhile, back at home, I made the mistake of trying to take the children to the park by myself.  Danny got tired of waiting for me pushing the stroller and rode all the way to the playground.  Grea...