Things I never thought I would be excited about until having children:

 

 

Plastic Christmas decorations for the tree. 

 

When my newborn finally poops after two weeks of nothing. 

 

When my three old poops in the toilet and not in is underwear. 

 

A new dishwasher after the old one got rusted out from the kids carving it with knives. 

 

A new kitchen faucet (the old one also destroyed by the kids).

 

Cuddly children.

 

Actually sleeping for 8 hours.

 

Dry pull-ups from the five year old after a long nights sleep.

 

A clean house.

 

A night out.

 

A healthy husband.

 

Brown carpet.

 

Hearing my kids laugh and play with each other.

 

Nap time.

 

Good friends for my kids. 

 

Healthy kids.

 

Sleeping children.

 

 

 

 

Things not so exciting or funny (at the time) since having children. 

 

 

Ziplock bags full of water then jumped on until they popped all over the bedroom.  Soaking the carpet, walls and celing and ruining books and games.

 

An ab wheel being rolled through a pile of poop on the unfinished basement floor.

 

Pumpkin being dropped from the top bunk and splatting, sending pumpking guts all over the bedroom.

 

Karo Syrup getting dumped on the basement carpet at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 

Multiple boxes and or bags of cereal dumped all over the floor.

 

Popping an exercise ball with a protractor.

 

Water storage water being dumped all over the cement in the basement.

 

Two (maybe three) 50 lb bags of sugar emptied and or eaten by six children.

 

Cassette tapes of a funeral being ripped out.

 

Boxes of bills and other paperwork emptied and strewn about the room.

 

Toothpaste all over the bathroom floor and counter.

 

Food storage taken off the shelves and lined up all around the basement.

 

Finding out that the kids had a secret potty in the basement.

 

Soaking muffins in water then throwing them all over the kitchen.

 

Cooking dinner only to find out that what I need has already been used in a mixture by the three year old.

 

Labeling beds, walls and shelves with black, permenant marker.

 

Stain remover being sprayed all over the laundry room walls.

 

Boxes of neatly organized photographs dumped out.

 

Diaper blowouts.

 

Kids figuring out how to pop out the screen and climb out the window.

 

Giant hole dug out with a pencel in the wall of the boys newly finished basement bedroom.

 

And the list could go on and on and on and on.



 We had a c-section scheduled for 6 in the evening so Dave and I had all day to get things ready. Clean the house, get some errands done, fold the laundry. We had to be to the hospital at 4:30 and once we got their everything seemed to move pretty quickly. The doctor got to the hospital early so before I knew it I was in the OR getting a spinal in my back and then I was ready to go. Once the doctor came in it felt like it was only about 5 minutes before we had our little baby. And it was another boy!! We were so happy to have #7 finally here! Another perfect little baby to love!

To be honest, I didn't feel super good after the surgery so I only held my little guy for a few minutes and then passed him off to Dad and the grandparents.  Who were all more than happy to hold him! 

 

 

I got a little bit of sleep that night and felt a little better the next morning which was a good thing cause the troops were on their way.  Blake's brothers and sisters were so excited to hold him.  The older kids were so good with him and new just how to hold him.  Lucas and Molly were so fascinated with him they just wanted to stare at his cute little face.  And the whole time they were visiting Molly kept climbing on my bed saying "hold him" in her cute little Molly voice as she held her arms out in front of her.  He is definatly loved by all of his brothers and sisters.

 

Dave did such a good job taking care of all of the kids and the house while I was at the hospital.  Even though Molly and Luke got new haircuts from Rachel.  I am greatful for friends and family that helped out with the kids so that Dave could sneek up to the hospital for some quiet time with Blake and I.  I got to go home two days later which was sooner than I  expected.  It was nice to be back at home.  Even with all of the chaos.

I feel so very blessed!

Little Miss Molly has hand foot and mouth disease.  Most of her sores are around her mouth and nose.  And a few in her nose.  And then she has a few sores in other random places.  One on her bum, two behind her knee, and one on her hand.  Obviously the nose looks the worst.  Poor little thing.  Doesn't seem to bother her too much though.  Lucas has had a fever and threw up once which is what Molly started out with but so far he hasn't had any sores.  We will see what the next couple of days bring.

Doesn't Lucas look so cute in his new undies?  I was going to wait until the end of summer to potty train him cause that would put him at the same age as his brothers were when they finally got the whole potty thing down.  But as much as I hate potty training, I decided to start in June rather than wait till the end of summer.  That way if it didn't work the first time then we still had the end of the summer to try again.  And hopefully still have him out of diapers before baby #7 arrives at the end of September.  We went on vacation the first week of June so the next week I decided to get it going.  I stayed pretty calm all the first morning despite all of the accidents.  About two in the afternoon I started to lose it when he peed in his underwear probably 5 times in 2 minutes.  Arrrhhhgg!  What in the world was I thinking?  This was going to ruin the whole summer!  We wouldn't be able to go anywhere.  Including Lagoon which we bought season passes for.  But I stuck with it.  Even though I didn't have high hopes for him getting it.  He was about three months younger than his brothers were at potty training and he doesn't hardly talk.  Again, what was I thinking?  But I am very happy to say that he has gotten it!!  I wouldn't say that he is 100% but he does pretty good.  And we have gone out and about.  Even to Lagoon.  Sometimes he tells me he has to go but mostly it is me asking him all day long if he needs to go to the bathroom.  Or telling him it is time to go.  He has done so good!!  Which makes me so excited!  A few accidents here and there and some days are better than others.  But not too bad.  It's pretty cute to hear him he tell me he is dry.  And he loves to do it all by himself!  We just have to pay attention to when he is done so we can get him out of the bathroom before he empties the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet.  Hopefully by the end of the summer he will be 100% with no accidents!  During the day at least.  Naptime and bedtime are a whole other story.  I can dream right?! 

Up next: Potty training Molly.  She has started to strip all of her clothes off throughout the day so I might be doing her sooner than I would like.  But it sure would be nice to only have the new baby in diapers!

 Lukey Bug is 3!!  I can hardly believe it!  He was so excited to wake up and see balloons for his birthday!

 Don't you love my sweet cake decorating skills!?  Good thing my kids don't care.  We could hardly get him to stop eating his fruit snacks long enough to blow out the candles.

 Present time!  I think the fruit snacks were his favorite!  He also got a Dinosaur Train book (he loves that show), some blocks, a bike helmet and of course a bike to go with it.

 He wasn't too sure about riding his new bike outside.  It took him awhile to get the pedaling figured out.  On the tricycle he never uses the pedals so this was a new thing for him.  He had it down by the next day and then he wouldn't let anybody else touch his bike. 

Oh Lukey Lukey!  He is a character!  We love him to pieces at our house but their sure are some days where it would be easier to keep him locked in his room all day!  Sometimes he can be so sweet.  I love when him and Molly actually get along and play nice with each other.  It's really cute when they get laughing together.  But most of the time they don't get along so well.  Expecially when riding in the suburban.  They sit next to each other and usually fight over who is touching who's car seat.

We are working on getting Lucas to talk.  We started with Early Intervention and then went on to pre school through the school district.  Which he enjoys.  He does pretty good using words when he wants to but alot of the time he just points or uses strange sounds.  It's coming.  Very sloooowly.  His brothers and sisters have so much fun with him.  This little boy is very sneaky.  He likes to get into just about everything and makes lots of messes.   But he is so stinkin cute!  From the day he was born he looked absolutely perfect and so adorably cute!  We loved him then and we love him now.  Happy Happy Birthday Lucas!

And along with birthday #8 comes a baptism.  This was why he was so excited to turn 8!  He could hardly wait until this day.  I on the other hand couldn't wait for this day to be over.  I was still in the beginning of my pregnancy and not feeling super good and on top of that I had a cold.  I went home and took a two hour nap when it was all done.  But besides that, I think the day went great!  Dave did a great job baptising and confirming Zackery.  Too good of a job.  All of the cousins wanted him to have to do it twice!  Funny kids.  He even got to be baptised on the same day as one of his friends, Kyle Butters.  After the baptism we went to our church and had lunch with all of our families.  Lot's of good food and lot's of good company!

Zackery is such a fun boy to have in our family!  Most days.  Some days I want to put him out on the porch and lock the doors until Dave gets home.  Other days he is such a good boy.  He can be very helpful when he chooses to be.  He might be a little too smart for his own good!  He does so well in school.  Especially reading.  Every week when we go to church he falls asleep in Sacrament meeting.  Sometimes we even catch him snoring.  It's pretty funny actually!  I don't think he sleeps very well at night.  Somehow he knows all the answers in primary even when you think he's not paying attention.  He usually has his tie around his head like Rambo and he never leaves his shoe laces in his Sunday shoes.  Drives me bonkers!  Now that he is 8, Zack also gets to start going to Cub Scouts which he is super excited about!

Part of me wants to keep him this age and not let him grow up and part of me can't wait to see what kind of person he will grow up to be.  We just need to channel him in the right direction and I am sure he will do amazing things!

We love our Zack Attack!

 Preston had another birthday!!  In February he turned 7 and told me that 7 is so much better than being 6.  We didn't have a big party or anything but I think he had fun anyway.  He got exactly what he wanted so he was super excited.  He got a pack of 60 Pokemon cards, a remote control car and some legos.

Preston was in a hurry to get here seven years ago (he was born 5 weeks early) but has taken his time since then.  He didn't walk until he was 17 months old and now he is always the last one ready for anything.  Last one dressed, last one with his lunch made, last one to get his shoes on and tied, last one to be out the door.  Oh but we love him so much.  I love his super blond hair and his bright blue eyes.  He is a smart boy and does so well in school.  He loves to read.  Almost as much as Zack.  He is learning to play the piano and gets so excited when he passes off a song.  He also just started tumbling and he loves it!  We love you Preston!!  Happy Happy Birthday to you!!!