What's been going on :)

Ryan already a month old! He's still sleeping almost all day, and seems to still be very mellow-tempered. Looks like he really is Sammie's twin :)

So the last couple months have been so crazy... here's a look back in pictures:

January 2nd Ben was baptized... it was perfect. The spirit was so strong and it was such a priceless experience for me. I'm so happy to be a mother!


Jan 3rd we drove home from Utah.
Jan 4th I went into labor and was flown by helicopter to Phoenix... spent 4 days drugged up and corded to a bed, and Ryan decided it was time to be born. 7 weeks early; 5 lb. 1 oz. 18 1/4" long. He was healthy and beautiful, minus the initial puffiness :)

12 days later he and I got to come back home to the family so excited to see their new brother.

His First Bath

The 6 kid line up! I can't believe how many we have, but we're loving it!

It's unreal how small he is, and yet how they'll grow so big someday!

January 26th: Very big deal.... Ben won 2nd place in the 1st-2nd grade spelling bee at his school. They had to use 4th grade level words to get them out... Ben told me after that he had to spell words that he'd never even spelled before! I was sooo proud of him. He spelled: play, running, every, camera, true, could, urgent, guard, and terrible... the one he missed was towel (toule).

February 14th, Valentines Day, probably one of the girls' favorite days of the year:
Now we're almost back into the swing of things... it's looking like it will be a great year! We feel very lucky and very loved!

Surprise... Baby #6

We had an awesome Christmas and New Years, which I'll have to blog about later, and came home to have a nice, slow, cleaning, nesting, preparing month of January to surprise... going into labor in like less than 12 hours from walking in the door. Apparently my belly size determined when it was time rather than my due date :) So Monday morning, at 33 weeks along, they had to stop my labor as best they could, fly me to Phoenix, now my 3rd time in a helicopter (luckily Ben was flying the other 2 times), and then spent 4 days in bed, drugged up until our little Ryan Jacob decided to make his debut. Born 4:39 am on January 8th, 2010... weighing 5 lb. 1 oz and 18 1/4" long with dark brown hair that looks like it might actually stay dark! He's doing well, may be in the hospital for another couple weeks before we can head back up to Prescott area, but we feel really blessed that he's doing so well and grateful for all the help from friends, family, my mom and the ward in taking care of the kids and meals and support! We love you all!

I'm having issues with photos here so see them on my facebook page

Merry Christmas!!!

Wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!! It's been a crazy year but we feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends, a roof over our heads, food on the table, a job that Ben loves and a new baby boy on the way! We hope your days are Merry and hope to see you all soon.... Love, us!

Fall Baking

Fall means holiday baking and thinking about gifts! Every year my family does ravioli with Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's just not the same without it. The recipe comes from my great-grandfather who was born in Italy. There was no written recipe, he just knew how much to put in, so the year before he died, my aunt sat down as he poured spices into his hand, she measured and wrote it down. It's a labor of love, and this is only my second time trying it on my own, and it is so rewarding. I think I ended up with over 12 dozen, I even had to pull off a gluten-free one for my hubby, we'll see how they turn out come Thanksgiving, meanwhile, until then I get to admire them in my freezer! Someday the kids will get to help out a little more, but for this year they just got to play in the flour and make it snow! Fun to clean up, let me tell you.

Last year at Wendy's awesome family and neighbors brought over some yummy treats, so I tried making some of them too... Tomatillo Salsa turned out great, but I wasn't too thrilled with the recipe I found for Jalepeno Jelly... guess I have to really hunt down Debby's recipe :) Meanwhile, anyone else have one they tried and love?

Aren't they so pretty? I love seeing the nice clean, jarred foods :) Call me grandma, but it brings back so many memories!

Happy Halloween

For me an important part of each holiday is fun/good food!!! Yay, so for Halloween we started the day off with Pumpkin Pancakes :) Banana eyes, raisin nose, and of course, chocolate chip smiles.

With all of our sickness we didn't get around to carving pumpkins until the day of, and somehow mom and dad seem to end up doing all the work, that's why we only did 3 this year.

Our creepy, fun dinner... eyeball soup, monster bites and zombie toes. Tally wasn't too excited about it, we had to un-disguise the food before she'd eat it. We'd watched all the Indiana Jones movies recently, so the eyeball soup was a little too creepy for her.


Our dressed up gang... the whole run of princesses... Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, and their brave protector, Superman! Thanks to trunk-or-treats I don't think we need to buy any easter candy, because it probably will last us that long!

Fall Fun

A couple Saturdays ago, before we all got the flu, we got together with some friends and went to a pumpkin patch and another of the local lakes. We found a few turning leaves!

Tally's 3rd Birthday

Tally had the funnest birthday ever... seriously who wouldn't give to be 3 again! Everything was so exciting. She got a huge butterfly baloon, presents all day, and even a package from Uncle Brian. She wanted her favorite color, green, cake, and mommy was a "best friend" all day long because of how excited she was about everything she got. We even got lucky enough to have Wendy and sisters Penny and Cindy come by for dinner... good timing. After dinner we did a fire in our new fire-pit dad made and it was the end to a perfect day. Now she can't wait until it's her birthday again, too bad it has to end.