My Baby

Do you see this face? What a sweet little boy he is. He is so good-natured (except, of course, when he's hungry or someone takes his toy).

He loves to play the piano. What a cutie-boy! We sure do love him!

Tagged

So it is really sad that Jill has had three posts since I last read her blog. I'm usually much more on top of things than this. It has been an insane week. So, she pretty much tagged everyone on her blog and Alice tagged me in my comments (which I also haven't read in a long time), so I'll see if I can find seven interesting things about me.

Okay. So I have done stuff for an hour waiting to think of anything interesting about me, and I am hard-pressed to come up with anything. I supposed because I know everything about myself, it all seems rather mundane. Plus, I figure you all already know everything about me.

1. I have seven children -- can I just list their names for the whole list? I had them in 12 years, with the last five of them coming in just seven years -- five boys, two girls. I am an aberration in this time. Is it interesting that the last two were born at home, delivered by my husband?

2. I love to sing. My girls have a karaoke machine in their room, and sometimes if I can get away with it, I go up there when they're at school and rock out.

3. I am a do-it-yourself-er. If I can do it myself, that's my preference. I cook from scratch. I like to sew, quilt, et cetera. It grates on me that we have been in this house three years, and I still don't have a vegetable garden in, and I am reduced to buying my produce from someone else. I don't want to hire a painter, because I want to do it myself. I wish I knew how to fix my own automobile. For that matter, I'd like to build my own classic car. It's not just because I'm cheap (which is also true about me), but I just like the way I feel when I do something myself. Sometimes I look at something I've made and am just surprised that I could actually do it.

4. Okay. That was a long one. I like to read -- and re-read. I am not opposed to reading the same book over and over (although I do like to have a little space in between reads). I collect books for that reason. Libraries are insufficient, because I want to be able to read it whenever I want. I chain-read.

5. I am a pack-rat. This is a painful admission but nonetheless a true one. I am trying to improve, and I have gotten better over the years. I had an epiphany one time that I would rather have a clean house than a whole bunch of stuff. However, the sheer number of children that I have keeps me from getting rid of everything -- partly because more kids equals more stuff, and partly because I don't always have time to go through and purge.

6. I am a closet romantic. On the surface I am very level-headed, practical. I am a realist. I don't need a huge show to feel that I am loved. I am a worker, and I just do what needs to be done. However, I love Jane Austen novels. I have read the Twilight series more times than I can count. There is a part of me that would love to be swept off my feet by my husband, but of course, life can't always be a romance novel -- especially with seven kids . . . and now we're back to practical again.

7. I am also a closet athlete. Growing up I never did a whole lot of physical activities. I was too much in my head. I never thought I could be good at that sort of thing. Since I became an adult, however, I have changed my perspective. I danced in college (ballroom). I love to rock climb. I love to lift weights. I love to be strong. I like to play tennis and volleyball. I want to be able to arm wrestle my husband and win! Of course, that's never going to happen, because he likes to lift weights too, but a girl can dream.

So I don't know if I know seven other people with a blog, because two people tagged me. Jill and Alice, you're off the hook since you already did this list. The rest of you who are reading this who have a blog -- consider yourself tagged. I'm sure that won't equal seven, but you do what you can.

Happy Birthday to my boys!

I missed posting for Brandon's birthday earlier this month, mainly because I was just getting started on my blogging. Here is my sweet 12-year-old boy (yes, still sweet). He has his First-Class in Scouting (which he got the night of his birthday); he got the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a Deacon this past Sunday. (Mom and Dad took turns being sick the past couple of weeks, so it couldn't happen any sooner.) He passed the Sacrament for the first time. I actually didn't cry about it or anything. Brandon is a responsible, well-spoken, well-behaved young man. I am very proud of how he is growing up and trying his hardest with everything he is involved in.

The kid is still pure joy when he's happy. There's just no hiding it. Brandon is the fun wherever he goes, and it shows plainly on his face. What a great kid!

Cade-or-ade's birthday was this past Monday. Now he's five, but he understands that he can't go to school until next fall. He is a little disappointed about it, but he understands. He is such a good, obedient boy who always tries to do what is right. His Primary teachers love him. Although he has boundless energy, he tries very hard to sit still and do what is expected of him. He is a good big brother to Kellen and Liam, always taking care of them.

Although he is very fun-loving, in some ways he's an old soul too. He has a very keen understanding, and he is very compassionate.

We feel so blessed to have two such great sons! What wonderful boys they are and wonderful examples. Love you guys!

Patriotic Pictures

Here are some pics from the 4th of July. We had gone to watch fireworks outside the Big League Dreams Stadium. We were running late, so I didn't get my patriotic pictures before we left, so they had to be in the dark afterwards. This is in our front yard.

The two boys in the front are about to pass out.

Kellen always has to go his own way. No, he cannot just sit where you tell him to. He has to move just to spite you, I swear.

And there he is back in front. He's fine as long as he gets to decide, I guess. Look at my sweet little Liam's face. I just love that kid! (Love 'em all for sure!) The four in the back have such sweet smiles on their faces. They really had fun watching the fireworks.

Texas Weather

For those of you who live in colder climates than I do, perhaps you will have no sympathy. It's true that Texas doesn't get snowed in, and we never get below zero. We do have a couple of weeks in the 20s, which doesn't seem that cold to some of you, but that's a big swing from being 107 during the summer. Okay. Anyway, it's definitely warmer here than most other places I have lived. However, we do manage to get ice and hail storms at least once or twice a year. Well, this year we got one in April with straight line winds of 70 mph (which means it's as strong as a tornado, but going straight instead of in a circle) along with golf ball sized hail -- which I did not take a picture of. I was a little more interested in this.





Yes, that is our trampoline that we just got for Christmas in the neighbor's yard. And yes, it did knock down his fence and slice his rain gutter. So several of the neighbors came to help plop it back into our yard and put our neighbor's fence back up. I dragged the sucker to the other corner of the house and jammed it between our house on one side, the fence on the other, and the front-facing fence on a third side. Surely, this would keep it in our yard. But no, like a runaway dog, it hopped the fence to the other neighbor's house the next night when we had high winds again -- this time doing no damage besides scraping a little of the grit off some of their shingles. I did not take a picture of that for some reason. My neighbor did, but she never emailed it to me. If I can get it from her, I'll post it another time.



This next picture is just our back yard on July 8th of this year. It doesn't usually rain this late in the year. We don't see rain usually in June, and here we are in a July downpour. The kids had camped out the night before and were planning to camp out again. No such luck. Brandon and I ended up having to use all my towels several times to soak up all the water that ended up inside this tent. If you look closely, you can see the raindrops. Texas weather is crazy.

Who was that masked man anyway?

Kellen is always telling us who we are. The kids like to play a game where they say that they are someone different in the family. Brandon will say, "I'm Liam," and so forth. Kellen is very certain that no one can be anyone else. "No, you Brandon," he'll say. Well, sometimes, Kellen is actually someone else.

"You Dad. You Kenzie."

"I'n Spi-er-nan."

Why, yes, that is "The Apple Dumpling Gang" playing in the background. Who knew you could still rent that thing? The kids were loving it.

I decided to do a second blog for just my kids. I want that to be separate from my projects. The projects can be available for anyone to see, but this blog is just going to be so those of you who are far from us can still see what's going on. There's a lot to catch up on, and I don't know how much time I'll have, but I have wanted to do this for a while. I'm just rambling now, which those of you who know me will not be surprised about. Anyhoo, no pics yet. I still need to get all set up. By the way -- the crafty blog is www.thebossyquilter.blogspot.com for those of you who are interested. More later.