My baby is one!

Wow!  Was it a year ago that I delivered that 9 pound baby boy?  What a year it has been!  Five children has made me dig deeper, reach farther and stretch in new ways.  I am learning to rely on my Heavenly Father more and more as I strive to be a good wife and mother.  It has been hard, yet very rewarding.

Mason has mastered the art of crawling in the past couple of weeks.  Yes, he has discovered that the pickings under the table are tasty and often available!  I'm trying to work on that! 

He has just started pulling himself up to standing.

Ever since we got back from vacation he has decided that he doesn't want a morning nap.  Most mornings I put him in the crib for an hour...he cries at least half of the time.  He does take a good afternoon nap and sleeps for about 12 hours at night...I'm not sure whether or not to give up on that morning nap!

I think he was our "cleanest" birthday child.  He wasn't too excited about the cake, but he did have fun opening his first present...the other two presents he didn't care about so his siblings happily took care of those for him!

He is such a happy, smiley little boy.  I'm so excited to get to know him as he continues to grow and develop.

Favorite Quotes

In this month's Ensign there is an article titled Our Parental Duty to God and to the Rising Generation by Elder Robert D Hales...several things really struck me as being important.

"Do we recognize the urgency of our duty to help our children understand and live gospel princeiples?"  I found it interesting that he used the word urgency...it implies that is is more that just important...it is vital that it happen NOW!

"Do our actions tell them (our children) that gospel living is not a burden but rather a joy?"

Among other things he mentioned how we need to help our children develop personal religious practices such as personal scripture study and personal prayer to help them develop faith and their own testimony.

Our Summer...What worked What didn't!

Our summer is wrapping up, we have started some school and starting to get back into our school routine.

We did a session of swimming lessons in June.  We did the T-Th for 4 weeks session, it seems to work better for us than trying to go 4 days in a row for 2 weeks.  We are signed up for another session in August.

We have one more week of the summer reading program at the library.  Kessiah and Jenessa always love that.  This year they lowered the participation age, so Sienna was able to fill out a reading log as well.

For the first time ever we did the cheap summer movies at the theater.  With Ryan having Friday's off it worked out for him to take the girls that day.

I changed up our chores just a bit this summer.  We have morning and afternoon zones.  Kessiah, Jenessa and I (with Sienna and Logan) rotate through 4 zones.  Yes, that means that one zone does not get done, the girls can do it for some extra money or it just doesn't get done that day.  I really wanted to continue with our devotional time and our morning jobs during the summer...and for the most part we did really good.

I did take the kids to a park a couple of times, but it is hot enough that we didn't stay more than an hour.  Our backyard has enough toys that I probably just need to get outside and play with them more often instead of trying to go to a park.  We've also been swimming at the Y a couple of times as a family...they have a great pool for me to be able to keep track of everyone!

I made some good progress on my continuing education credits for my RD credential.  (During my last 5 year credentialing period I was really cramming at the end...I am trying to avoid that this time!)  I also got out the scrapbooks again after too many years!  I didn't get a lot done on them, but enough to hopefully get me going again!  I also got the girls school work scheduled out through December, I wanted to be able to take most of the month of December off to do Chritmas things...which is one reason that we started early!

I did not get Logan potty trained like I had intended.  It seemed when I started pushing it he backed off and wouldn't do it!

I've been spoiled!

It's an adjustment when your baby doesn't crawl until he turns a year!  Until now I haven't had to worry too much about what is on the floor in the next room!

Starting School

Yes, we started school today...we only did a couple of subjects...but enough to get some structure back!  We celebrated in the afternoon by going swimming at the Y!

I was tired of all the complaining of boredom last week...we had all our supplies (except Kessiah's math which should be here soon)...and we'll just take some extra time off during the year because we will be ahead!

Mason is crawling

Mason officially started crawling today!  I'm so excited for him!  I guess I'm going to have to start paying more attention to what is left on the floor!  He has spoiled me by waiting so long to start really moving around.

Jenessa quote

To preface this...Jenessa has been trying very hard to earn extra money around the house for some rollar blades.

There was a library book sale this morning that I wanted to go to while Ryan was at the movies with the girls...I didn't have any cash so I was asking Ryan for some money.  As Ryan was handing me some money, Jenessa said "Why is Daddy giving you money? You haven't done anything!"  I'm thinking "Are you kidding me...I do tons of stuff around here, most of which you know nothing about!" 

I guess that's the joy of being a child!

Vacation

We just got back from 10 days of fun and family.  Here's a rundown of what happened

• Friday July 2:  We drove to Richfield and spent the night
• Saturday July 3:  We got up early and drove to Salt Lake City for Marissa's baptism, enjoyed a yummy barbecue at Janel's house and then headed up to Idaho Falls for fireworks that night
• Sunday July 4:  I woke up with a pit in my stomach to let me know that I was sick!  Ryan went with Kerry and all the girls to church...I stayed home with my boys and Patty stayed home with Christopher.  I was feeling pretty good by that evening (thank goodness).  We set off our own fireworks in the back yard that night.
• Monday July 5:  Ryan took the girls (with Kerry and most of his kids) to see Toy Story 3.  That evening we had a barbecue at Brett's house with everyone that lives in the area.
• Tuesday July 6:  We went and explored the sand dunes around St. Anthony and then went to the little water playground in Rexburg.  That evening we made smores in the backyard...yummy!
• Wednesday July 7:  We drove to Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful, went on an easy hike around several geysers and pools.  On our drive out we saw a lot of buffalo...several were very close and passed right in front of us!
• Thursday July 8:  We went to the zoo in Idaho Falls...we purposefully tried to keep this day lighter.  That evening we drove to Janel's house.
• Friday July 9:  Lagoon!  Logan liked the rides in kiddieland that stayed on the ground and didn't go too fast.  Sienna would go on anything she could and got very upset when she was too short to get on something...she was just barely tall enough for The Bat. 
• Saturday July 10:  Thanksgiving Point...we spent time at the farm land and the dinosaur museum.  Great places to take kids!
• Sunday July 11:  Church...unfortunately, Logan was so tired he couldn't handle going to nursery.  He slept on my lap during Sunday school and half of Relief Society.  After church we drove to Richfield.
• Monday July 12:  We drove home!  Aaaaahhhhhh!

Swimming Lessons

We finished a session of swimming lessons today.  Swimming is not Kessiah's favorite sport and it shows!  She will take her class again...which I expected.  Jenessa moved up and will be in the same class as Kessiah next time.  That could be good...the last time they were in the same class it created enough competition that I think it helped them both.  Sienna also moved up to the next class...she has become a little fish!  Logan was not old enough for lessons yet but I did get in the pool several times with the boys.  Logan wasn't scared the first day until he was trying to follow Sienna around the pool before class and ended up in water over his head...I was right there so no harm done.  But after that he has been very cautious and didn't even want to go in up to his chest when I was right by his side....until today!  Unfortunately, I did not get in the pool today and he was being brave again!  I had to tell him twice to come back to a shallower area.

We should get at least one more session in...maybe two...I haven't decided yet.  We have also been to the pool a couple of times as a family in an effort to help the girls feel more comfortable in the water...hopefully, that is helping all the kids!

Mason's New Accomplishments

I just went to get Mason up from his nap and found him sitting up!  That is a huge step for him!  He has never been able to get to a sitting up position from laying down before.  In the past couple of weeks he has started getting up on his hands and knees from his stomach.  He has also been able to get to a sitting up position when I put him down on his hands and knees.  But he hasn't been able to go from his stomach to knees to sitting...until today!  Yeah!