Gratitude

Lastnight Tyler had his first sleepover. It started out as a play day and then Jared's mom called asking if he could stay the night. So, with little time to prepare myself for this, I found it strange with him gone. I know that may sound wierd, but I'm one of those who needs to be mentally prepared for certain things, like; when my husband will be home from work-I need to know there's an end in sight, also when my children will be spending the night at someone's house. Don't get me wrong, I love when they do, but each child brings something different to our family. For instance, with Tyler gone lastnight, I realized what a sense of peace he brings to our family, even when he's not being the most peaceful little thing, there is still such a strong sense of goodness and he has such a special spirit about him. I love it. So, hopefully on this Thanksgiving day we can all take a minute what blessings are in our lives, because I promise you, at times when you feel all alone and like you have very few blessings, you will be amazed at the truly wonderful blessings you really do have!!!

Moving

For those of you who don't know yet, we are moving to Portland. We leave in 2 weeks. We are very excited for the move and look forward to being by Grandma and Grandpa. They are even more excited!! So, this blog might not be updated for a while.

Happy 9th Birthday Elena!!!

It's hard to believe that only 1 year ago, Elena was getting baptized.

Now, she's turning 9 years old. I don't feel old enough to have a daughter that is 9.

I guess I'm in denial.

For her birthday, Grandma Humphrey gave her an American Girl doll,

which she loves, and her Aunt Susan and Uncle Spencer gave her a

nightgown to match her doll. Thanks by the way, very thoughtful,

she keeps twirling around in it and saying how warm it is. Also,

thanks to the other aunts and uncles who gave her some clothes,

books and other accessories to go with her doll. She loves everything

about it and becomes more excited about her doll, the more she learns about her.

Elena has been such a wonderful daughter. She always loves to help with

the baby and she even loves to help clean. She gets in these cleaning moods,

where you'd better stay away or else!!! I have no idea where she got this from???

J/K!! If you know my mother....she's the same way, but even worse!

There are so many things I love about Elena....I love how sweet she is with

her little brother. She will make such a wonderful mother one day. She is always

planning such fun games and activities for us and somehow she's always got a

surprise up her sleeve, it's wonderful. I love watching her play soccer, she has

progressed so much over the years. I love how confident in herself she is. Just the

other day, she said she was looking at herself in the mirror for "like and hour"

because she is so pretty. I love it. Girls these days are way too hard on themselves,

so I hope she will always believe this because she truly is beautiful inside and out.

Elena has been blessed with such a special heart and has a great desire to always

do good and to please her Heavenly Father. She loves the gospel and reading her

scriptures, and as a parent, I couldn't ask for anything more!

I'm so proud of you Elena!!!

Preserving Marriage.org

Elder David A. Bednar and a group of young adults from California discuss Proposition 8.

Prop 8

Our brother-in-law's sister, Shelley, is in this video about Proposition 8. She auditioned for it and got flown out to San Francisco to film. Congratulations Shelley! Oh, and we totally support Prop 8 too. Thanks SS Thurman.

I SPY!!!

There is a hidden image in this picture, see if you can see it!

If you find it, leave

it on the comments and we'll see who figures it out first.

Hint: It's little and green and alive!!!

Our Trip to the San Diego Zoo

During the month of October, kids are free at the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park, so we decided to take advantage of this. We took the kids out of school last Wednesday and went on an adventure to the zoo. Here are some pictures from our trip.

It's the small things!!

There are some things in life, that just make me smile...

Brooklyn at our trunk-or-treat at church. Every time she went up to get candy, she said, "Trick or treat. Thank you Birthday! Bye!!!" I'm not sure why she always says thank you birthday, but it's hillarious. She also says this on the phone to my parents every time too. I love how she is dressed as a butterfly, but wearing Tyler's pirate bandana with dreads. And, nothing is cuter than a little girl in cowboy boots and underwear, call me crazy, but I love it. Too bad we can't all look that cute like that. Also, Every time Brooklyn is holding Ryan and he starts to cry, she just says, "Shhhh!!!" If only it was that easy. Sometimes when life is crazy and hard, it's the small things and special moments in the day that make everything worth it!! It's these moments we need to hold onto and cherish, because before we know it, theses little rascals will be all grown up.

Happy 7th Birthday Tyler!!

On October 6, Tyler turned 7 years old. Since he had a big Halloween birthday party last year, this year we just went to John's Incredible Pizza with his wonderful Aunt Michelle, Uncle Mat and Tyler's friend Luke.

Every birthday, the kids get to pick which cake I'll make them out of this fancy cake cookbook, so this year he picked a pirate ship...much easier than Brooklyn's carousel cake. Since I only had 30 minutes to frost and decorate it, I think it turned out allright.

It's hard to believe that 7 years ago our family was blessed with such a special little boy. I'm not sure how to explain how sweet and loveable Tyler is. I think his Kindergarten put it best, she put her hand over her heart, and with tears in her eyes, she said, "He is such a good boy, you can just feel it." He has such a big heart and is so gentle. So with that said, here are some pictures of our amazing 7 year old.

Is there anything in there???

Please grab a flashlight and shine it through my ears, you will see light coming through the other side!!! I really think my brain is no longer there. Sometimes I wonder how I can function on so little sleep. Ryan is not the best sleeper, he's just like Elena used to be...every 2 hours or less he wants to eat. Fun stuff. It's pretty amusing though, my brain is only able to retain information for about 5 minutes. You may think I'm joking, I only wish I was.


I find my days flying by with laundry piles that put Mt. Everest to shame, homework, wining children and soccer every night I really amaze myself that I'm able to stay awake. I thought this would be my easiest recovery since I'm in such good shape with this one, but it's almost impossible to get any rest, so this has been the hardest recovery. I'm grateful for all my friends who have brought me meals though, if not for these meals, we would be eating cereal for dinner every night. So thank you, from me and my family.

Here are some more recent pics...notice the one of Ryan lying on our Mt. Everest of laundry!!! He seemed to really enjoy it up there!!!

BYE BYE DIAPERS!!!

Last Tuesday, Brooklyn decided out of the blue to start going potty in the toilet. Of course, after just having a baby, I wasn't really planning on this now, but I thought, "Hey, what the heck?" Why not, right??? Anyways, she's been doing fantastic. She's been dry all day and even most of the nights, which for our family is AMAZING!!!! We are so proud of her, way to go Brookie!!

Blessing Day!

On Sunday, September 14 we were able to bless our new little baby. Thanks to all of the friends and family who attended this special event. Thanks to my mom for helping with such a wonderful lunch after church. It was delicious!!!

Loving our brother!

We have had so much fun with our new little boy these past 2 weeks. I'm always amazed about how much love we can have for another one, especially the kids. Elena is so cute, before I had Ryan, she said she didn't want to come to the hospital if it was a boy....funny girl. But, she is so in love with him, it's hillarious. She always wants to hold him as soon as she gets home from school. I can't imagine her loving any baby more!

Brooklyn on the other hand, has had a little more adjusting to do. She still loves him, and always says, "Baby hold me." But I'm not sure how she feels about not being the baby anymore. I think she throws about 6 tantrums a day. Fun times, let me tell you. We also had an eventful night last Friday...Elena was helping Brooklyn out from behind the giant Love Sac that we have and she was so strong that she pulled Brooke's arm out of the socket. So, off to the Urgent Care we went, I asked them if they give out Frequent Flyer miles...they laughed. Anyways, they just popped her elbow back into place and took some x-rays. Yesterday our pediatrician showed me how to put it back into place, because he says it will probably happen again. Anyways, eveyone is doing well here, I'm amazed on how little sleep I can survive on. Ryan is getting bigger every day, he now weighs 10 lbs. 2 oz.

More Ryan pics

Here's some pictures of Ryan, he's now 5 days old and getting better every day. At first he seemed to be crying if he was awake, but now he's actually awake and happy just sitting there or being held by one of the many willing participants. He is never by himself, I guess that's what happens when you have 4 older siblings. Brooklyn always jumps over by us and says, "Baby hold me!" She loves holding her little brother. She is so funny, every morning, she wakes up and kind of looks around the house and when she sees the baby she gives him this look like, "what are you still doing here???" It's pretty amusing.

Baby Ryan!

Here are some close up photos of the baby. As you can tell, he has been blessed with tons of hair. Finally one of my babies has hair, to bad I can't put it in pig tails!!!