Birthday party hats.

We went to a birthday party for our cousin Joseph this weekend. Max and Ruth are just his same age. He turned 4 last week. One of the things we did at the party was make these fun hats. Max and Ruth's were still in the car when I took these photos. The girls have been wearing them constantly. I said they couldn't wear them to school. So thanks Jen. :) What a fun craft.

Happy Birthday to me.

Well it was my birthday yesterday. I didn't have that great of a day. I kept trying to be happy all day, but everything was thwarting me. I did have a good few moments, My RS counselor came over and gave me a gift, we got to chat for a while. Also a family from my old ward came to visit me and see the new house. Today is another day. Chris will be home some time tonight and we can watch a movie and eat ice cream to celebrate. About the birthday present I'm doing for myself (setting up my formal living room) I've got the room sanded, primed and trim painted. Now I'm working on the main color and cutting in (which is so tedious). Hopefully I can finish today and place the furniture. Maybe tomorrow I'll even hang photographs on the wall.

Ruth's first day of school.

Ruth has wanted to go to school for a long time. She and Max always wanted to go with Kate. Now it is her turn to finally go to school. Unfortunately it is not with Ms. Angie. Ruth is going to the preschool at the elementary school. Her teacher seems really nice. Ruth was reluctant to go but held her teachers hand and off she went. I would feel better if they were going together. But Max can't go until he gets tested.

Hailey can ride a bike Whoo Hoo!!!

Hailey took a little longer. I think she was afraid of falling. She also had to have a few fits and fall into a rose bush before she could master bike riding. But here we are 4 days later and Hailey is riding around the circle after Audrey. Way to go HAILEY!

Audrey can Ride a bike! YEAH!

So Monday I decided that Ruth was learning how to go potty and Audrey and Hailey we're learning how to ride bikes with no training wheels. Audrey was ready to go. I had charts they could color in when they had a really good fall. I told them they would fall and to hurry and jump off as soon as they were falling. Audrey picked it up so fast. She was riding around our circle by noon. Now she is a pro. YEAH Audrey.

Big day today!

My kids are off track so Audrey and Hailey are going to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. Ruth is going to learn how to go potty in the potty. YEAH! Wish me luck.

Canning Apricots from my new tree.

Tonight were going to pick all the apricots off our tree and tomorrow I will can jam until they are all gone. We have some reinforcements arriving soon for the picking, Desiree, Lauren, Victoria and Ashlynne, my sweet nieces. But while I have been prepping for canning today I wanted to share this great website with everyone. I found this website a few years ago. I have used it every time I have canned. The site is made by a cute couple who have been canning for years, they are obviously professionals. They have photographed each step in the canning process and posted very specific instructions for each fruit or vegetable they can. I think it is wonderful. If you have any interest in canning you need to check this site out. Wish me luck with the apricots. I really hope no apricots end up on the new carpet.

http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Canning/index.html

Working Backwards... The 4th of July.

Jen and Stephen took photo's on the fourth of July. Jen sent me these of Joseph and Ruth playing together. They are so cute. Stephen took the family photo for us so it is our most recent family photo. Thanks to Grammy who always puts on great 4 of July parties. :)

First Day of School!

In a new house at a new school. My little children ventured off to school. Audrey and Hailey didn't know who their teacher was or where their classroom was. But they went off last Monday morning with no fear. It was so hard to let my Baby Cakes get on the kindergarten bus this morning. She was really excited. The anticipation this morning was intense. She was the only kid at the bus stop and the only person on the bus. I hope they stopped and got some more kids. Audrey and Hailey are suppose to go get her from kindergarten to get on the bus. I really hope they don't forget her. They will be home in an hour.

Come to our going away party and come help us move! see the details: PDF

Yellowstone

Right after our stay at the hospital with Max. Chris and I went on a little weekend trip to Yellowstone. Here are some photos. Enjoy.

Max again.

I didn't notice Max was blurry so here is another one not blurry. Maybe I just wanted to see what he looked like before the seizures he has all kinds of scrapes and bumps from falling all the time. Poor guy. WE sure love him.

Easter Sunday

Ok I know it is really late since Easter was in April but we've been busy latley. Here are the photos from our Easter. My kids are so cute.

The letter of announcement!

I sent this email out to lots of my friends this morning. Spreading our news. But for all of you who don't live close and can't come help. I thought you'd like to hear the news too. Here is the email. Enjoy.

Hello everyone,

We need help. Well, really we want help. I'll just spit it out. I'm expecting again.
We are really excited to add one more little angel to our family. We have also decided
that it will be hard for us to add this little joy to our small house. We've thought
of all the options of putting different kids into different rooms and shuffling things around.
We decided that with Max's new seizure disorder and the demands babies bring, we
would rather not have Max and the baby share a room. So we've decided to put our house up for sale.
It will be heartbreaking to leave our ward and all of our dear friends here. But we've decided
this is the best thing for our family right now. With all of that said, I'm calling for recruits.
Since we spent most of May in and out of the hospital with Max we haven't really got
too much done on our house. Everything got put on hold. We really would like to list our
house as soon as possible. We can't list the house until it is ready, we have a lot of
work to do first before we can list it. This Saturday we're hoping we can have a bunch of people
come help us prep the house. We have some painting, lots of cleaning, packing, and yard
work to do. It will only be a couple of hours from 8 am until noon when we can all enjoy pizza
together. Many hands make light work. I'm hoping with a little extra help we can get a lot
accomplished. I have a bridal shower in the middle of the day on Saturday so that is why we are only
working in the morning. I still feel like we can get a lot done though. Let me know if you can come
help us with this big project. Cleaning up after 5 kids can be pretty messy. We don't know if, when, or where we might be moving to, selling is the first step so we just need the house ready to sell. Hopefully Heavenly Father will bless us to sell the house before the baby is born. We love you. Thank you so much for your support all of these years.

Miriam, Chris, Audrey, Hailey, Kate, Max, Ruth and baby :)

Happy Anniversary!

Nine years today. I can't believe Chris and I have been married this long. It just seems like yesterday that I was seeing him for the first time on the soccer field and thinking he looked like LeRoyne's boyfriend Eric. What a silly fun sweet guy. I'm so in love with him. Here we are 5 kids old and nine years later. Audrey and Hailey will be baptized soon, Kate will start kindergarten, and Max and Ruth will be starting preschool. Chris is really happy with his job. I've been able to stay home and take care of our children and not have to work. How blessed we are. Happy Anniversary honey, I love you.

We're still alive.

I haven't posted in a million years. I've had a lot on my mind lately. Let's see if I can update you on all that has happened since Max's surgery. We had his 2 week check up from the surgery. Doc says, "looks good, see you in six months." But it didn't stop the seizures. He had one last week (wednesday the 23rd) and one today. Last week, with no fever and no symptoms the ER found fluid in his lungs. So they put him on a good antibiotic and sent us on our way. Today we don't know what it was. Still no fever and no symptoms. Chris just called me from Primary Childrens ER, they still hadn't gotten them in and Max was doing fine. Talking, jumping around and asking to go home. So we decided to have Chris just bring him home and I'd take him to the doctor tomorrow morning and see if he has a new virus/bacterial infection. That may have caused the "fever" that caused the seizure. Each seizure seems to be a little easier for him to recover from. Today he was looking at me and wanted me to hold him right after, before he fell asleep. I don't know what to do or think. I just want to have my healthy happy boy back.

Audrey's ear drum ruptured it caused her quite a bit of pain. We got her on an antibiotic and it healed up nicely. She's all better now.

Other than the health news. We've been working hard on spring cleaning and major dejunking. There is a dumpster that is coming around in a couple of weeks so we've got a stack coming along in the garage. Chris also tiled the floor in the upstairs bathroom. It looks really nice. It doesn't however, match the paint so we went and got paint to match and we'll get to that soon. Ruth found a permanent marker today and drew on her walls and the walls in the hallway. So it looks like we'll be painting the hall and her room in the same paint as the bathroom. It's going to be nice to have clean walls again.

I'll post Easter pictures soon. Sorry no updates in a while.

Max is great.

Max had his surgery today. He got new tubes in his ears and his adenoids removed. He's acting just fine. Hopefully he's not too fussy this evening because he's tired. I love that little boy. Now I just need to get him out of the habit of hitting people. Anyone have any ideas?