Douglas was a Shooting Star for his class in November.
In line on Monday Morning Rally w/ the other shooting stars in front of the whole school. 

The expression on his face is his, "I'm pleased w/ myself but don't want to show it." expression.  (middle w/ blue jacket)

Talmage turned 3 months old on November 20th.   What can I say about sweet Talmage.  His percentiles continue to drop. He's about 13.5lbs.   He's been waking up on his own in the middle of the night and I'm fine with that.  Sometimes he wakes around 3 and others 5 or 6am .  He loves to have people pay attention to him.  He has started giving short laughs.  He smiles more than laughs but I sense a belly laugh is just around the corner.  He keeps losing his hair and its driving me crazy!  He will sleep anywhere if he's held.  He loves to be held or in a wrap.  He's such a great baby.  We are working on his head/neck control.  I hold him outward now and sitting up so he has more time to hold his head on his own. 

Douglas turned 7 on Nov. 13th.  I had been asking him since Halloween what kind of friend party he wanted but he couldn't think of any theme so he didn't want a friend party.  So I told him he could invite two friends to Chuck E Cheese.  He liked that idea.  His actual bday was on a Wed so I had lunch w/ him at school.  He had a special french toast breakfast and my parents came over for dinner that night.  Instead of cake he had monster cookies and ice cream.  His request for dinner was spaghetti with hot dogs in it.  gross.  The rest of us had chicken parmesean.  Then on Friday Travis took Douglas, his 2 friends, and Harrison to Chuck E Cheese for 2 hours.  They came back here for a picnic pizza movie and had cupcakes and ice cream. 

7 Things about Douglas:
1.  He has glasses for reading now.
2.  He loves video games.
3.  He's well liked by kids.
4.  He's generally curteous and thoughtful.
5.  He seems to be good in math, art, and science.
6.  He likes to learn things.  He likes science experiments and learning about animals.
7.  He's very hard on himself.

Oh we love our sweet Tally wag.  I started calling Talmage that in the hospital.  I got it from scally wags, arrhh matey.  Anyways, Talmage just turned 2 months old.  The logistics first.  He dropped percentiles in weight.  SURPRISE!!!  No. Not really.  All the boys start out big and then percentiles drop by 6 months to the 5% and then head up from there.  The doctor isn't concerned and neither am I.

Harrison, Luke, and I went with some friends to a local pumpkin patch.  Douglas missed out on a pumpkin patch this year b/c his class didn't go on a field trip there like they did in Kindergarten.

And later that day Uncle Mike stopped by for a little bit.  He was on a work trip in Dallas and drove up to see us.

I'm not going to sugar coat it.  Not many people were excited for us when they found out we were having a 4th boy.  We already had 3, whats new about a 4th one it felt like.  However, a couple people seemed geniuenly excited for us.  Kari was one of them.  She made these adorable "Thing one" shirts from Cat and the Hat.  I love them so much but not as much as I love my friend Kari.  Anyway, I made sure the boys wore their shirts for easy spotting at the fair and Travis and I wore plain red shirts.  I wish we had a picture of all of us.

 This baby is seriously a blessing from heaven.  He was hand picked to come.  I NEEDED the 4th to be an easy baby and Heavenly Father delivered a thousand fold.  Perfect little one.  He had one 2 hour nap and then napped later for about 30 min.  That was all for the entire day and he didn't get fussy until the last hour.  So good.
Mommy and Harrison "flying" together.
 The boys in the bumper cars.  Harrison throughly enjoyed Douglas bumping the car.

Harrison's 5th bday was Sept 3rd but we pushed off his party for several things until Sept 28.  It just so happened that Grandma and Grandpa Hill were visiting for Talmage's blessing so they got to be here for the party.  We had been planning on a  "water party" all summer long.  The day of was overcast and we did get a few sprinkles during the party.  When I think about the party it seemed lame but Harrison enjoyed himself and the kids did too so that is all that matters.

Happy Birthday Harrison!  We love you!

September 29, 2013 was Talmage's baby blessing.  He wore the outfit that Douglas and Harrison wore that Grandma Hill made.  I asked Grandma Hill to bring down a hat because poor Talmage's hair pattern is that of an old man's right now.

Talmage and his grandparents.  Dean doesn't like holding babies and since he positioned himself in the middle he got the honors.  It made him even more uncomfortable taking pictures than usual.  ;-)

I love Harrison.  He is a special soul.  ;-)  Harrison turned 5 September 3rd.  We celebrated on the 2nd (Labor Day). 

Harrison has always been tricky to shop for because there is nothing he's really into.  However, when I was at the hospital w/ Talmage my parents and the boys came up to visit.  My mom let Harrison take pictures w/ her camera and he was in hog heaven.  My mom bought him a cheap camera for his bday but my grandma didn't want her nice Canon powershot camera anymore and gave it to Harrison for his bday.  My mom took her cheap camera back and bought other presents.  I'm super excited for Harrison this year.  I feel like this is his year.  He's doing soccer this year.  It's his first year doing anything.  Douglas isn't doing a sport until January so it's all about Harrison w/ practices and games this Fall.  Also, I switched preschools for him.  He's doing 3 days instead of 2 and I feel like this is more academic.  I'm excited for him. 

My heart is full and thankful right now.  I have felt so many "tender mercies" from Heavenly Father recently.  I've never been satisfied with my relationship with Heavenly Father.  It always bothered me how infrequently I felt of the Spirit.  However, the last 6 months something has changed.  I have felt prayers answered and known without a doubt that Heavenly Father was answering me.  I have seen the power of a priesthood blessing for the first time, not that I ever doubted it before but this was my first personal experience. 

I have recognized so many tender mercies or as I call them "throwing me a bone".  There are big and little things and the little things are a testimony to me of God being my FATHER.  My mom does little things all the time for me, not because they are necessary but b/c she loves me and is doing them to make things a little easier or cheerier, like giving me my favorite candy or a note in my lunch box.  These little things are things I might or might not have been concerned about but after the fact I have been able to recognize Heavenly Father's hand in it.  I could have lived without it but the fact that Heavenly Father is thinking of me and wants to help me with the unimportant mundane things speaks volumes to me. 

I was so worried about the transition to a 4th child, to the point where I was NOT looking forward to having the baby.  I was super concerned about Luke handling a baby and how he'd be.  I was worried about bonding w/ the baby.  I was worried that on the hard days I might not enjoy him. I had a blessing before Talmage was born but I was still not looking forward to this new change in my life.  It's only been 2 weeks but I can feel Heavenly Father in this transition.  Talmage is an amazing baby.  Nursing is going well.  Luke is actually pretty good.  I've had hard times and I'm tired and who knows maybe when Talmage wakes up more he'll be hard.  But for now, I know Heavenly Father has been with me and made these last 2 weeks a million times easier than I had imagined.

I'm still working on my patience with the kids and Travis.  I pray everyday that Heavenly Father can change that.  I love my kids.  I love Talmage.  I'm grateful that I've been able to have 4 kids, 4 perfect boys.   I wouldn't trade any of them.  And equal to all that, I'm grateful for these last 6 months and for me being able to feel and recognize Heavenly Father's tender mercies.

I wanted to see if we could get decent newborn shots before I paid for a professional.  I only want them for his baby book and I think some of these will work.  Which ones do you like the best (top 3)? We might try to do an indoor shoot to.  So honest opinions.