'til the numbers end...

Brower is really enjoying his new baseball gear! He got almost an entire uniform for Christmas helping him get ready for his first t-ball season coming up in a couple months.

Good morning! Emma came in our room at 6:30am wondering if she could wake all the other children up. We told her, as we had the night before, not until 7:00am. The girls just whispered and came to ask if was time yet about five more times. Here they are, sitting in order of youngest to oldest....kind of. Ira wanted to sit next to Brower.

Here they are assessing the haul. Ira was happy with just his wodden pop out gun and Braves hat. He didn't even look at the other stuff until we practically forced him to.

Our traditional breakfast is always Jimmy Dean sausage, eggs, and cheese. We also have homemade cinnamon rolls and orange juice. It was nice to have some real food in the children after they attacked the candy in their stockings.

Here's the clan right before church yesterday. Aren't they cute in their Christmas dresses and shirts? At least the boys are smiling!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came to visit during Thanksgiving. We got a great picture before church with them. Matt was behind the camera, unfortunately, so we missed out having him in the picture too!

For FHE this week we went to pick out a tree and decorate. Everyone was very helpful. Matt built a fire as is our tradition every year toward the end of us setting up the tree. We usually have hot chocolate too, but it was too late by the time we had finished decorating. We saved that for the night after.

Emma and Savannah helped put the lights on the tree.

The doll house in the nursery at church got the best of Ira on Sunday. He split his forehead open at the beginning of the second hour. Luckily there was a doctor in the house and he brought him to his office so we didn't have to go to the ER. He is a happy little camper and healing perfectly.

Savannah had a barn dance at school on Tuesday and guess who showed up??? Grandpa and mama. Savannah was so excited to dance with a boy and show off her grandpa.

Grandpa is building blocks with the children. Selah's favorite thing to do is stack them as tall as she can.

Here is the night of the BIG GAME! We had a lot of fun with our friends. Even some BYU fans dared to enter. My parent's were leading the charge for the big blue. In the end, Utah smashed the folks from down south! What a game!

Here's our lady bug

I couldn't resist putting up another picture of Selah just happy to be enjoying someone else's birthday. She's just happy to be there getting yummy food and lots of entertainment. Here she is eating everyone's pizza crust. When we were done with our pizza, we would throw her the crust. She loved it!

Here we are at the after party. Little did Eliza's friends know, after they left is when things really got going!!! Pretty motley crew, eh?

Here we are celebrating another birthday! This time, however, we invited friends other than our brothers and sisters. Eliza had a wonderful time with her school friends. They played every game you could imagine and ran around the house screaming half the time. One of my friends came over and took the boys so we could have a girl pajama party with no silly boys hanging around. For her "cake" she requested mini brownies from Costco. I made frosting so they could frost and sprinkle them. We also had pizza and soda. Tomorrow is the ward Halloween party. I don't think we are going to be getting enough sweets these next couple of weeks!

Here is Ira putting sprinkles on his cake. The cake was still warm, so they had to frost them individually and add the sprinkles themselves. Of course they loved that! They are all now showered/bathed and sleeping snug in their beds. Time to clean up the mess!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith sent some balloons that the children couldn't get enough of. There are so many birthday's that happen around here, and we never get sick of them. There is always so much good food and fun!

Here she is eating as fast as she can.

Selah is very happy to be celebrating Ira's birthday. Mostly because she gets cake that will soon be all over her.

She loves smiling for the camera. She is walking all the time now. She prefers that to crawling. Matt will be surprised when he gets back.

Things have gotten a little crazy since Papa has been gone.

Emma and I decided to take a picture for papa before we left for church. We don't want him forgetting what we look like! We don't know when he's coming home, but we hope it's soon!!!

Matt and I are on a coed softball team right now. I was playing third base and a guy was up to bat. He hit the ball a little over my head a million miles an hour. The ball hit my ring and pinky fingers and gave me a fat hand. This all happened in the first inning. I did manage to get up to bat three times and hit them all out to the outfield...only one of them was caught. I am paying for it today. I am in a lot of pain and our next game is tomorrow. I am going to play though! I'll never get these rings off!

Happy Birthday!!! Papa and Selah are eating cake in this picture while our own personal Budah sits in the middle of the table. Look at that belly! We had a fun day of church and lots of food. Matt requested eggs and sausage for breakfast. I made that, grits, and toast with homemade bread. For dinner he wanted enchiladas. We are all very full and ready to relax.

Selah is enjoying her opportunity to shove cake in her face as fast as she possibly can. I think she's afraid that at any moment I will take it away. She loves all kinds of food and she doesn't often get much of the sweet stuff. I made a spice cake with whipping cream for icing. The birthday boy and girl devoured all that they could while we all watched.

After Selah licked her plate clean, she saw me with my cake and started toward me. Her expression is that of longing and impatience.

Papa came home a day early from his work trip that lasted a week. We decided to make it a surprise for the children. The children and I were sitting on the front porch, watching the fire flies and wishing on the first star of the night when Matt turned on his car siren and approached the house. The children were confused at first and then realized that papa was home!!! They all ran to the car yelling, "Papa's home, papa's home!" They gave him hugs and came promptly to our bedroom for their "prizes". Every time Matt goes on a trip he comes back with something for everyone. This picture is of them waiting for Matt to open his bags and call each one to him to give them their prize. They were all very happy. Eliza got a box of High School Musical Cereal, Savannah got some chocolate breakfast straws, Emma got some much needed jeans and shirts, Brower got an iron man action figure, and Ira got a cool airplane that shoots off a gun and flies around. I must

I think Brower is pretty much over the phase of letting the girls dress him up to look pretty. Ira, on the other hand, thinks it's pretty cool to be the center of attention. I don't think he gets that we are laughing AT him, not with him. At least right after he got the pink gymnastics uniform on he went straight to the back yard, filled a cup with dirt, poured water on it, and started playing in the mud. I guess I have nothing to worry about. So what if he likes pink!

Here is Brower dressed like an Egyptian during school. Each classroom had to represent a different country and us parents had to make dishes from that country for everyone to try. In this picture Brower is holding Ira's hand as they get ready for the parade.

Matt has been out of town on my birthday for about five years running. It's not a big deal to me, but he has a tough time with it. I teach kickboxing on Thursday mornings. Today in class the lady from the front desk came in with this pretty arrangement of flowers and said they were from Matt for my birthday. He wanted to make it a spectacle in front of everyone so that I would feel special. After the gym I met some friends at the Ninja Steakhouse where they cook the food in front of you. The children were entertained! It was a yummy lunch and I was happy to get to do something out of the ordinary. After that I came home, put Ira and Selah down for a nap and tried to take one myself. After all, it is my birthday! Besides, I told a friend I'd teach her kickboxing class tonight. So I'm going to need some extra energy. So, the day has been nice for me. Only one thing has bugged me all day....Selah has acquired this hideous screech. She just belts out a high pitched

Eliza just had a shower and is nice and fresh. The boys, on the other hand, still smell like dirt after having climbed trees all afternoon. Dinner that night was cheese quesadillas with black beans, corn, sour cream, and salsa. Tasty, very easy, and a crowd favorite!

Now that Selah is 11 months old I am feeling so good! I have been asked to post on my blog "how I do it after having had six children." First, I am very blessed with parent's who passed on some genes that have been immensely helpful. Second, I am always moving. There is never a dull moment. Even when there aren't any children around there are things waiting for me. There's laundry...ALWAYS LAUNDRY! And everything else around the house that needs to be tended to on a daily basis. It helps that my "outlet" is going to the gym. Working out helps me to relax. It also gives me an hour alone just to concentrate on me. That's about my only hour in the day for that! I do have a nasty sweet tooth, but for the most part, I love healthy, real food. My favorite things are homemade. I will go days without eating the cookies in my pantry because they were bought from the grocery store. I will wait to eat the real thing when I have time to bake it myself.

Okay, so I totally killed the yeast. I threw it in when the mix was scalding hot. I didn't realize what I had done until the bread didn't rise. I cooked it anyway and the kids loved the dense snack after school. I am a big cinnimon roll, orange roll, dinner roll baker, but I've never tried a loaf of bread. My mom makes the best bread ever. I remember coming home from school to the smell of home made bread. I wanted that in my home too. I also needed to get up on my food storage. So, instead of spending a lot of money on a trip to the beach this summer, we decided to buy some food for storage and a wheat grinder. Matt tried to talk me into getting a manual one. He said he'd grind as much as I needed, however often I needed. Yeah, right!!! I saw the future of that not turning out in my favor. So I got a great cookbook and put it to the test. Bread is so much easier and fast than rolls! I can't wait to try different recipes!

I think I figured it out! I am so excited that I got it right this time! I want to start baking my own bread weekly so that the children can bring something healthier to school in their lunches. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I finally bought a wheat grinder, 300 pounds of red wheat, and some bread tins. Now that's REALLY from scratch!

Everyone was very happy to celebrate Savannah's birthday on Monday. She also had a party in her classroom on Wednesday, where I brought cupcakes. Saturday her friends will be coming over for a swimming party. So she has a fun filled week of cake and partying!

Papa came home from work with an ice cream cake for Savannah on Monday. He had to leave town on business Tuesday morning, so we celebrated a little early. She got a lot of things, including a bike. But her favorite was the jelly bellies! She also liked the lip gloss and mirror.

Brower, Ira, and Papa causing a scene.

RULES: Erase my answers, enter yours, and post it on YOUR blog. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things, nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. Kinda fun to see what people come up with. WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Heather 4 LETTER WORD: hack TV SHOW: Hardball (I can't stand Chris Matthews) BOY NAME: Hansel-Ha GIRL NAME: Holly OCCUPATION: Harlot A COLOR: ?? SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Hair BEVERAGE: hot cider FOOD: hot wings SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: handles A PLACE: Havana, Cuba REASON FOR BEING LATE: Hot husband wouldn't let me out the door! SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Holy Cow

Brower was very anxious to get to class and start the day. I can't believe he is in school!

Time for class and mom won't let go! He was so happy to be there. He feels like a big boy now. He was a little nervous because he didn't know any of the children and had never met the teacher or been to the school, but he handled everything very well. He just wanted to get on with the day!

Selah's pretty happy to have me mostly to herself now.

Ira was very excited to see Brower off to school today. I think Selah will be happy for some alone time with mom too!

Papa does the boys hair. Don't worry, this is just the middle stage. What a sweet little brown eyed boy we have. Looks can be deceiving!