Happy Birthday Faith

Today is Faith's 10th birthday!!

10 years ago we celebrated our one-year anniversary by being released from the hospital with our little girl. In the past 10 years I have learned a lot from being this kid's mom. Faith is a very smart, self-motivated girl. She is very thoughtful and very helpful with other people, especially her classmates and siblings. In her 10 years Faith has written numerous stories (one of which won 2nd place in the Reading Rainbow contest for Northern California), read dozens (probably even hundreds) of books, played many, many games, traveled throughout California (to many places I have never even been) and even into Utah and Idaho, cleaned numerous things, helped with her younger siblings bunches of times and the list could go on!! Faith has been a great example to me of faith. She loves doing what is right and encourages others to do the same. Don't get me wrong, Faith is a normal kid with faults, but this post is to highlight all of her great attributes!!

I love this kid more than I ever thought possible. When I first found out we were pregnant, I was thrilled and a little scared. I thought of all the responsibility that went along with being a mom. Then as the day of her arrival drew closer, I was more afraid of the actual delivery than of the mountain of responsibility that I was approaching. The day that Faith was born I had a C-section and the drugs for the spinal made me a little loopy! After I was returned to my room, the nurse asked if I wanted to hold her for the first time and my response was, "I don't know. Is that what I am supposed to do?" I did hold her and fell in love, but who wouldn't have. She had a bald head and huge cheeks - just what David had ordered!!

Faith is a great example to me of service. She loves to help her friends and most of the time even her siblings. She definitely balks when she is getting, or thinks that she is getting the short end of things, but she is willing to help anyone and everyone. One time I got the best compliment from another parent at school. She told me that her son had told her that Faith was the greatest because even though she was one of the smartest kids in the class she was always willing to help everyone and tried to make everyone feel great. What a fantastic kid! So, happy birthday Faith, I hope that you enjoyed your day in San Francisco and your dinner at Hometown Buffet! I love you bunches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Things I like about today...so far

So, I got tagged and I figured this would be a good way to quickly update the blog.

1. I got to go to school today. (with no kids in tow)
2. I am kicking the sugar habit! (I am determined to lose those last 30+ pounds)
3. I have the greatest kids in the world!
4. My husband drove the carpool for me today so that I could go to class. (nice guy, huh?)
5. My kids get to be involve in scouts and David is at Kiddie Korral getting the stuff for them which means I don't have to go!

So there you have it.....5 great things about today.

Happy 40th Dave

Today is David's 40th birthday. To celebrate the kids decorated the house and then we took him to IHOP. The kids were amazingly well behaved and we really enjoyed breakfast there. After spending a small fortune on brunch, we came home and did nothing the rest of the day! Well, not really. Have you ever tried to do nothing with 6 kids around? Really not possible! We spent the remainder of the day breaking up arguments, trying to schedule the rest of the week since the new semester starts tomorrow, taking Hyrum to the dentist, cleaning house, etc...ya know all the things that have to get done regardless of whose birthday it is!

So, just a quick note to Dave, if he reads this it will be a miracle, I love you and I really appreciate all that you do for our family. You are amazing and I love that you make me laugh daily. I hope you had a great day. ILY!!!

Happy 5th B'day Helaman

Today was Helaman's 5th birthday. I remember so well the day that he entered into this world. It was a painful labor....it took them 2 hours to get me my epidural. I remember that I just sat there in the bed with silent tears streaming down my cheeks and I was so sure that -- even though I had been through this twice before plus I had a survived a c-section -- I knew I was going to die!!! Then came the epidural and just 2 short hours later out came our wonderful little boy. The first few hours and even days were a little concerning - he was born with holes in his skin...there were 4 or 5 spots on his back and bottom where it looked like the top layers of skin had not formed. The doctors and nurses had never seen anything like it and we were quarantined for 48 hours while they ran tests. We knew it was a serious concern when David returned to visit us after running out to get a bite to eat and our door was decorated with caution tape and there was a cart right outside the door that had sterilized gowns, caps and masks that were to be put on anyone coming in my room. We called my dad and brother, Jarrod, to come and give Helaman a blessing and we immediately knew that all would be okay and I was able to enjoy not having to share a room with anyone else! The tests all came back normal, they never did determine what caused it and we have never had anyone else with the same problem.

So, here we are 5 years later. Helaman is such a sweet heart. He is willing to share anything as long as it is his idea. Should you ask him for something that he really loves (like his DS) he might at first say no and that he is playing, but just hang out for a second and then he will offer it to you. He loves to make people feel better and really doesn't like to see people unhappy. You can usually find Helaman watching Star Wars, playing his DS, kicking his soccer ball (yes he does it in the house all the time!), eating some kind of candy or dessert or just smiling. His smile is amazing. He has the greatest dimples. Helaman is my athletic kid and loves sports of anykind. At the school's carnival he made every hockey shot that he tried. It was so cool!! We are so blessed that Helaman came to our family and we love him so much! I can't imagine life without him!!!

This year for Helaman's birthday we took him and two friends, along with the rest of our kids, to the Sacramento Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento last Saturday. It was really fun and the kids enjoyed seeing all the big trains and then playing with the Thomas trains upstairs. We ended up back at our house to have lunch, open presents and eat cake and ice cream. It was a fun day. Today we finished up the birthday celebrations with a trip to Gamestop to spend the money burning a hole in Helaman's pocket on new DS games and then going out to dinner at Hometown Buffet. It was a great day and Helaman was so excited when he discovered that as soon as I can locate and purchase Star Wars episode 3, he will be the proud owner of all 6 episodes of Star Wars. (Please no one mention to him that he doesn't own Clone Wars!)

So, happy birthday to Helaman!!!!!!!!

Cookie Sales

The girls joined Girl Scouts this year and now we have begun cookie sales. I HATE selling things! I mean really hate it!! So this is a pitch to all listening...if you want Girl Scout cookies you can order them from us. If you don't want any that is just fine! Personally I absolutely love girl scout cookies. As a kid it was Thin Mints only. I have grown, matured and my tastebuds have blossomed...now my favorites are the Peanut Butter patties (chocolate covered Peanut butter w/cookie) and the Carmel DeLights (formerly known as Samoas). David loves the Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies! What are your favorites? and do you want to order any?