Good-Old Carpinteria

At the beginning of March, we went back to Carpinteria. We do love it there. WE went into the section without hook-ups again. It's such a hard decision. We LOVE hookups, but then we feel like we are in a parking lot. In the loop we camp in, we have tons of grass and space for the kids to spread out. We had gorgeous weather and a great time. We left to come home on my birthday. It was a drag to be packing and unpacking on my birthday but great to wake up at the beach! The night before my birthday, my husband and the kids surprised me with a birthday cake out by the fire. They thought they were so funny by giving me "trick candles"! Lots of air was wasted trying to blow those candles out. Then, we were surrounded by raccoons....who seemed to be stalking us for the left over cake! :)....Oh...Jonah also learned to pull himself up and stand confidently in the RV on this trip!!! Life will never be the same! :)




First time on the beach.....trying to shove sand in his mouth. Daddy quickly put a stop to that.

VERY hurt feelings that daddy stopped him.....

Jonah didn't like the cold water on his feet...so Jeremy carried him....so sweet!

March Photo-shoot of the kids

I am continuing to play catch-up. Surprised? Thought not! Anyway, I wanted to take pictures of all the kids together, so I decided to try to set up a back drop and play around at home. I took tons of pictures. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to get everyone looking half-way decent when you have 5 kids in the picture and one of them is a baby! :) My husband wanted to video tape the entire ordeal because of the stress involved. He couldn't believe I was expecting them to smile after the pressure I was putting on each of them. Maybe I'll do better next time! And maybe it's better when someone other than their mom is the one taking the pictures! :) Anyway, these are some of my favs.



This one cracks me up! Jonah is protesting the fact that Jeremy is holding his arms down.



The kids are posing like uncle Rico on Napoleon Dynamite....where he is getting his photo taken for his ID badge! :)

8 Month big boy!

Jonah got to sit in a shopping cart for the 1st time without his car eat clipped on! Shopping became a new experience! He was suddenly happy to shop with me because he could sit up and look around. He has been so bugged lately being strapped into his car seat. I was laughing that he wanted to face backwards the whole time to watch where we were going! So cute!

photo shoot... 7 1/2 months

I wanted t take some pictures of Jonah before too much time passed. I wasn't getting myself over to the mall, so I figured I would play around and try to take some myself. These are several (maybe a few more than a several) of my favorites!

Catching up!!!!-Jonah 7 months

Why do I always do this? I get so far behind an then have to post a ton of things all at once to my blog. Don't love when I do that but I should just be impressed with myself that I am still even posting at all, right? Here are a few pictures of Jonah at 7 months...he learned to "battle crawl" around and pull himself up onto things and was very happy with himself!

Youth Camp!....already?!

So, I sit here in a somewhat empty house and it feels so weird.......like a sign of what my near future holds....and I am thankful, yet resistant. My 3rd son is at a sleepover, the baby is sleeping and my husband took my oldest son to his first youth camp this morning. He decided to chaperon and go up early with the group of kids that wanted to snowboard today. I am so thankful he went. It was hard for me to see my son leave for his first camp, but having my husband there, softened the blow. I am thankful for our church, great leadership and great teaching. I am praying that this weekend has a large impact on their lives for Christ and is a great bonding experience for them together as father-and-son. So, for the 1st time, I see a glimpse of my kids having their own lives and being busy outside of our home. That is what we are supposed to be training them for but it seems like just yesterday that I held Jeremy in my arms in the hospital....and in a blink, he will have his own life as an adult! (Lord willing) ! :)

I like bananas and oatmeal!

It's been so fun seeing Jonah discover food! His favorite, by far, is bananas! The kids love to help feed him....this is never a clean task but worth it! Have I mentioned how much I love this boy!?!?!?

Isabella Mae

So, the long wait is over and Isabella Mae is here. After seeing Stefanie have such a rough time with this pregnancy, I couldn't wait for her to arrive (although, probably not as much as Stef couldn't wait)! I had the privilege of seeing her in the hospital and holding her....Here she is...in the blanket I got her and with her "Auntie Andrea" (Who looks like a drowned rat since I visited on the rainiest day of the year!...enough about me)! xxxooo

Christmas 2009...a little late

So, still catching up on my blog...something that is my forever problem...getting behind! But, I wanted to post a few pictures to remember this Christmas...our 1st Christmas with little Jonah (who is personally my favorite gift of all...I couldn't think of one other thing to ask for! )

Our Christmas extravaganza is pretty complicated. It can vary from year to yea, based on my husband's ever-rotating work schedule. We also have 2 sets of grndparents that live close, and want to have our own family time. After several years of finding out that our gifts paled in comparison to the grandparents' , and how quickly the kids lose focus of why we celebrate, we decided we really wanted our celebration as a family to be 1st. So, we wake up Christmas morning and celebrate together. Mommy makes a fun breakfast (usually trying something new each year) and we read scripture, pray, visit and get to the gifts. I love to see the kids open gifts for each other. Next year, I think I'll have them draw names to ease the madness and the spending. This picture cracks me up because Julia still has her curlers in and they are all in mis-matched PJs that they put on the night before...kind of funny to me when I see so many other people's pictures with brushed hair and matching PJ's. Oh well...that's what you get with a house full of boys and 3 Christmas celebrations to be had!

Jonah ate his stocking, rather than opening it...

...and ate the presents inside!

Our celebrations continued on Christmas eve and Louie's parents' house. Once again...food, good company and gifts.

The above picture is Christmas morning....before we left for my parents' house. "Happy" perfectly describes this baby...and I love the ear sticking out! The kids and I were heading out alone because daddy was scheduled to work Christmas Day. :(

Me and my babies!- Christmas morning

On my way, I rolled down the window and took a picture of the gingerbread men we all made this year (that's why it isn't the greatest picture). The kids begged to make these. So, mommy drew the men, daddy cut them out and the kids and mommy painted them...one for each kid.

So....we got to my mom and dad's (who were acting very strange) and when we brought the gifts tot he tree, daddy popped out from behind the couch and surprised us. He managed to get the day off but didn't tell us. I love how he loves to surprise us! :) He had been hanging out there all morning, while we took our time getting there...oops! We were all so happy to spend the day with him
My mom and dad have this bear that moves and reads the story, "Twas the Night Before Christmas"...Josh was captivated by him.


The hit of the day...Jonah's new Jumparoo.....it's like an exersaucer and a johnny jumper all in one! He loves it...what more could a 6 month old ask for ????

6 months of loving this boy....

We took the kids to get Jonah's 6 month pictures taken! Oh, how I love this boys and his face! He is the sweetest, happiest baby. He LOVES to play on the floor with toys now and has just started eating cereal and bananas...which he LOVES! Can't believe how fast the months are flying by.....:( I wish I could freeze time and stay "here" for a while....it's a really good place.

It's that time again.....

Wow, am I behind...I just found this post and the next one, sitting in y "drafts" I never realized that I forgot to go back and type in them and post them! So, now that it's January, it seems less than exciting to post about getting ready for Christmas. We did have fun though! Jonah, as you can see, loved the lights!

This year, Jeremy assemble the entire tree and put the angel on the top.

Jonah was putting his "first" ornament on the tree !

This is the 1st year that Louie and I sat and watched while the kids decorated the whole tree. They did a great job spreading them out and varying them! Another fun night for our memory! We LOVE this time of year and try to start as early as possible!