First Bites

Emma is now six months old! Oh how time flies! Today we decided to feed the baby. I have told the kids since she was born that she couldn't eat until she was six months old...I didn't want them to try stuffing things in her mouth. So , on August 12 when she was exactly six months old Max said..."can I give Emma a little piece of cheese?" Obviously we need to work on explaining just a little better what babies can eat. Here she is still unsuspecting.... The first bite didn't go over so well, she gagged and spit it out, but we kept trying.

She never really did like it, but we tried. We will have to keep at it for a while. I have given her fruit to chew on in her little mesh thing, so I may have ruined her. She may never like this cereal stuff now that she has tasted peaches and blueberries.

And Caleb's Off...

So I have been beating myself up for over a year, wishing that I would have taught Caleb to ride a bike while we still lived on a paved road that didn't have a lot of traffic. I havent' taught him to ride since we moved, because it is a gravel driveway, and well...i've been lazy is all it comes down too. I decided finally enough was enough. I put him on the bike held it while he got his feet on the pedels, and away he went.
That was that! Easy peazy. He now is riding all over the place. It did take him a while to figure out the steering, but once he got that down, he taught himself how to start on his own. Now that is how you teach a kid to ride his bike 10 minutes and we're done.

He's so proud of himself, and now goes out all the time to ride.

way to go Caleb!

12 years...

Happy Anniversary to the greatest man I know. I cannot believe that it has been 12 years since we got married. It seems like so much longer, and yet just a blink of the eye at the same time. Wow! how I love this man of mine. I am continually amazed at his patience with me. Even when I know I am being stubborn or unrealistic, he is so patient and forgiving. I am so bossy, and he just rolls with it and mellows me out. He is like a calm dose of peace when I get so crazy busy and life gets so hectic. I am so grateful that he chose me to live his life with. I totally appreciate his level headed view to life, he is truly my rock that I lean on. I am grateful for his insight, and how he thinks things through when I would just rush ahead and deal with the consequences of poor planning. He is always so willing to teach our children, and play with them, and give them blessings when it is needed. He is a great man, and I totally look forward to many more than 12 years with him.

For our anniversary we went to Chili's for desserts. We left Sam at home to tend everyone but Emma, we took her. The waitress was totally enamered with Emma, and eventually asked to hold her. I let her, and somehow in the course of our conversations it came up that we had 5 other kids and it was our anniversary. When she brought us the bill it said Happy Anniversary! It's on me! The charge was $0.00. I was totally floored. I am guessing she either really thought Emma was cute, or she was thinking these people are crazy to have so many kids, they need all the help they can get!

...And She's Up!...

Well, she's done it. On sunday, she sat up on my bed for Ryan, and Today I sat her on the floor while I was making dinner, and she sat there the whole time. I was amazed that she didn't do the whole falling over for a week thing, she just decided that she wanted to sit, and little Emma sat. I wonder if this is a preface to her personality? She will not let me put her in her swing anymore, and she doesn't like her walker for longer than a couple minute, but she will sit for a long time with toys in front of her. Is something wrong with this picture? She's not even six months old yet. I am grateful though, because up until now, I had to carry her in her sling if I wanted to get something done without listening to her cry. Wow, I love this little girl. She is a great baby!
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More of the Bouck's and Call's

Meal times were always just pure chaos. I loved it. Chris and Ryan maybe not so much. I loved how little Abram always told you at least 10 times what he wanted and at least once every meal told us that he did not like ketchup.
Emma even enjoyed the stream, maybe not as much as the other kids, but she did love watching them play.

Lucy had no fear whatsoever. You may think it odd that Baylee is in a life jacket and the little girls aren't, but there was a rope swing, and it got pretty deep over by it, Baylee had been over there, and Lucy and Mara were just by us in the shallow stream, loving the water.

This is on Belt Creek. The water was so cold, and this is after day two of no water in the house, so the cold creek was very welcome. I love these girls! What great friends.

This is Sam going off the rope swing. The older boys thought that this was the greatest spot on earth. Had our stomachs not been calling us to fill them, we would have stayed all night long. They all begged us to go back. We will definately have to make this a frequent stop.

These little guys are all about the same size. They had so much fun.

Abram, Nick, Max and Eli.

They all slept downstairs together, and would keep each other up talking and giggling. All Max had to do was say "Sweet" and Eli would bust up giggling so hard. I loved it.

Even though they are all potty trained, and never have accidents at night, it seemed each night one of them had wet the bed. They must have been so excited, or just plain exhausted at the end of each day to wake up and pee in the night.

What Goofy guys!

This is all of us! At Memorial Falls. There was a natural slide at the top of the upper water fall that the little kids all slid down, and loved. There was a nice, random man in business clothes who happened to be at the falls when we were all there that offered to take our picture. He thought we were having a family reunion. He was amazed to find out it was just three families!

It seemed wherever we went there was water to get in and boy o boy did the kids get in it everywhere. It was quite amazing how thoroughly entertained they were when by water. This is a little stream at the stop we had when we rode the boat to Gates of the Mountains.

I was so glad that Zak and Caleb and Sam got along so well. They slept in the RV every night, and loved being the older kids. We did have them tend one night while we went out to dinner. They did a good job, and the kids all loved playing with them. The also took there bike to the skate park and rode one night. It was fun to watch them go on the jumps and in the hole.

We had such a great week and were sad to see them go. Thanks for entertaining my kids for a whole week! This was definately the highlight of our summer.

Friends!

The Bouck's and the Call's came to stay with us, and what a great time we had! They pulled up Tuesday night in a huge, and I mean HUGE RV! The kids were so excited to see all their friends, but I don't think they were near as excited as Ryan and I were to see our friends. There is just something about being with friends that you totally love that lifts your spirits, and give you strength to endure. The Bouck's and the Call's totally fill our reserviors! Thanks for a great week guys. What a great week. We had 22 people in our house, and we loved every second of it... except the two days that we didn't have water and Ryan about died when the control box on the water pump blew up on him... but other than that... Having 15 children ,ranging in age from 13- 6 months, might seem a lot, but honestly we loved every second of it. I loved the massive amounts of food we had to cook, and the hustle of trying to get them all into the car to go places, and counting...counting... and re-counting to make sure we had them all everytime we left a place. I was in heaven.

With a the technology, like Wii's and satallite T.V., movies, and the internet, we found that a simple stream can keep children of all ages thoroughly entertained for hours on end. From the adults to the babies, we could have spent all day there, with no one complaining, or wanting to leave.

We went on the boat ride that takes you to Gates of the Mountains, just outside of Helena, and it was a little boring for the kids, but pretty interesting. On our way home we took Recreation Road, and stopped at this little stream. We had stopped here last labor day, and it was just so much fun.

Memorial Falls

I awoke Saturday morning with a definate plan. I woke the kids to haul gravel

while Ryan was at the garden watering.

We were going to leave to go hiking by 10:00 am, but s they say

"...the best laid plans of mice and men..."

In the midst of moving lava rock, the phone rang and there was a mom in labor,

so I had to stick around. The kids were kinda bummed,

so Ryan just took them without me.They were looking for a hike that we hadn't been on before, Hoover Creek,

but couldn't find it.

They ended up eating lunch at Showdown Ski Resort, and then going on a hike

that we did last year after October Conference.

Memorial Falls, July 2008

They had a blast. I asked Ryan how it was to hike with five kids,
and he said it was wonderful!
They were a little hot, so they dunked in the waterfall

Mara would only dip her toesies into the creek...

it was freezing cold water

I was sad to miss it. I love the great outdoors. Nothing grounds me better than getting out in nature, but I got the house all cleaned,

and it actually stayed that way for longer than 10 minutes.

I also was alone with Emma for that time. I wonder what she was thinking.

It was so quiet and no one was bugging her. She slept uninterupted, not a norm for her.

I never did end up going in on Saturday, Just a taste of what is to come.

A Week With My Parents!

So I have been out enjoying the summer instead of blogging about it, and I have a lot to catch up on. Last Saturday my parents came, and we were oh so excited to see them. It was so fun to have them here for a whole week. That in itself is no small miracle, that my father took a week off of work to come to Montana is amazing! I kept him busy the whole time, which was probably the only thing that kept him here all week. He never once mentioned going home early. Everywhere we looked though, there was another project ready for us.




We started off Monday morning hauling away the rest of the gravel out of the back portion of our yard. I had the kids hauling gravel all week before my parents even got here. Addy was grateful to be the babysitter instead of the gravel hauler once my parents got here. They were all pretty good sports. I did have to remind them that their hour of hauling gravel was nothing compared to what little pioneer children had to do at their age. We got the gravel moved, but there was a play house in the way that was such an eye sore, so what does any normal person do? I don't know I'm not normal I decided, so I enlisted the help of my dad, and we tore it
down, which was an awful lot of work. It took all day.
We used the flagstone rocks that were in the gravel, and made a rock pathway. My dad wore a blister in the palm of his hand because he shoveled so much.

If you look really closely at this chicken, (her name is CrackJaw) She has a hairlip, my mom says. Her beak is totally crooked. She needs braces. I wonder how she survives, she is so funny looking, but she has no idea that she is any diffrent from the others, and I have actually seen her eat, so she just might make it.


Much to the disappointment of my kids, the 24th of July is not celebrated here. They think that's grounds for moving back to Utah. This year though, the three wards that meet in our building got together and had a pioneer celebration at the park. There were swimming and games, and the kids had a great time...no fireworks though, and no parade, but still fun.

I made a bunch of flower clips for Mara and Emma. Caleb thought it would be fun to put them all in Mara's hair. Have a flower! She looked stinkin' cute though.
I was amazed how much I was able to get done with Addy here, and then with my parents here... Wow! we did the work in one week that it would have taken me a month of Sundays to do. I am so grateful that they came. We got screens replaced in the sunroom(even though my dad cut off the end of his finger in the process) We got bushes trimmed and grass planted. Gravel hauled and leveled out in the driveway, freezers and fridges scoured. It was great!


I was feeling bad that we didn't do anything "fun" while Greyson was here, but they managed to keep themselves entertained. One day I found them "swimming" in the goats trough. They are "retards" in the dearest form of the word. I couldn't believe that they would actually get in there, but then I remembered... They do come from my loins, and as much as I hate to admit it, that is totally something I would have done as a kid. Maybe not the retarded pose...okay the retarde pose too.




Before my parents came, I told Addy,Sam and Noah that they could go to a movie since they helped me tend when I was at the birth center. Well, it turned into Ryan taking all the kids to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth." They loved it! It was 3D, so they all came home sporting 3D glasses. They all had to tell me all about it. Ryan really liked it to. I loved it because I got to put the girls down for a nap and clean the house in peace...and take a quick nap.
I am so grateful for family! What a great plan to get to come to earth in a group that helps each other out. I truly don't know what I would do without my family, immediate and extended. Ryan and I are totally blessed to have his parents and mine! Thanks Mom and Dad for all the work this week!

~Up~*and at 'em*

Emma was happily cruisin aroud in her walker today, and it hit me! She is cruisin around in her walker. Why? shouldn't she still be laying asleep in my arms?





I can't believe that my baby girl is already in a walker! Where does time go? I know that time is time, and that scientifically, time can't go faster than time, but I truly believe something bigger than us is at work, and time is going so much faster! I swear I just had her. She is truly the JOY in my life. I say that about all my kids though. We are going to go swimming at electric city water park tonight, and the kids are ecstatic!

Illegal Fireworks? What's That?

Happy 4th of July! We had such a great time at the parade. We got there late, so we had to sit on the hot side of the street, but thankfully a cloud cover came, and it was quite enjoyable. They didn't throw much candy, so the kids were sad about that, but they handed out popsicles and pops to everyone. We sat with our friends the Giles and the Cooks and the Cranes. I, of course, cheered loudly for the veterans. That is by far my favorite part of the parade. I love to see the little old men who sacrificed their lives so that mine could be better. Whether you are for or against war, we owe those men a lot, and I think they deserve to be stood up for and shown just how much we appreciate them. No one was cheering for them when they went by, so I of course had to make a fool of myself and be the only one cheering. After I started though, others joined in. It's amazing how after 9-11, everyone had such spirit, but now it is almost all gone. How quickly we forget.

We were lucky to get to be close to some trees, and the kids climbed trees and hid in the shade to keep cool, before the parade started. We are lucky to have a great family that has kids just the same age as ours. Porter and Noah are great friends. We went to the Cook's for a BBQ after the parade. They live right on the Missouri River. We went out to light off some fireworks at sunset, and were amazed at the view. It was georgeous, and lasted for at least a half hour. It would have been perfect if it wouldn't have been for the dang mosquitos. They were horrible.

In Montana, there is no such thing as Illegal fireworks. So needless to say, the bigger the better is the attitude here, and picalo petes, and flowers aren't even sold. Everything flies up into the air. The crazy thing about it though is that everyone and I mean everyone goes to the parking lot of K-mart to light off their fireworks before the city starts theres.

We all went, and it was crazy. I have never had so much fun on the 4th of July before. We never could tell when the city actually started theirs. Everyone had fireworks that shot up into the air like the ones that we see in Utah at the firework shows. It was amazing. There were fireworks blowing up all over, and people ducking for cover. I laughed so hard. The kids were in heaven. All around up there were just massive amounts of fireworks going off.

Mara had fallen asleep in the car, and Emma who had slept through all of the other fireworks, woke up and stared wide eyed at the event.

Next year you all need to come to Great Falls, Montana and celebrate the 4th of July with us. You will never believe it if you don't see it for yourselves. We had so much fun.