Elena reaches a decade!

I can't believe Elena is 10 years old...and she reminds me of it every day by saying, "I'm 10 now!" Elena is such a beautiful, funloving, funny, creative and confident young lady. Elena has a great sense of humor, which of course, she got from me!!! Recently we've noticed one of her talents, she is a great artist. I believe she inhereted this from my grandma! She is also quite the litte photographer! One of Elena's favorite things to do is read. I often find Elena off in her own world as she reads. She is an excellent reader, she reads so fast, I think one day she could be an auctioneer! Being a great big sister is one her best qualities. When I was pregnant with Ryan she told me if it wasn't a girl, she wasn't going to "love" the baby. And now, after a year of having another little brother, I always tell her, I can't imagine if we had a girl, because I can't imagine her loving anyone any more than she loves him. Now that she is the "BIG 10," she is a great help to me. She gets in these awesome moods where she wants to organize....I believe that this is definitely inhereted from my mother, and me (before I had 5 kids). One of my favorte things is putting the other kids to bed and then hanging out with Elena, since she's older now, she gets to stay up a little later than the others. I love this time! She is such a wonderful daughter and such a great example to me of being a great missionary. I'm so grateful she is in our family and setting such a great example for her younger siblings! I know that with all these talents inside one little body, she will have so many options open to her when she grows up! Keep up the good work baby! Love ya!

Tyler is 8! (I know this is a couple months late, but hey, better late than never, right?

Tyler is now 8 years old, and I can hardly believe it. When everything in our home is crazy and and kids may be crying or whining, I can always count on one thing in our family to bring us peace, and that's Tyler. I'm not sure how to explain how awesome this little guy is. I guess I'll just give an example of what his kindergarten teacher once told me about him. She put her hand over her heart, got all teary eyed and said, "Tyler is such a good boy, you can just feel it!" He has such an amazing calmness about him, and let me tell you, with 5 kids...life can be crazy, but whenever Tyler is around I feel this amazing Spirit around him! Our family wouldn't survive without his sweet presence. I'm always so impressed how caring and kind he really is. His concern for others feelings and happiness is always present. Besides his emotional growth this year...I have to mention his physical growth...now that he is taller than his older sister(which she hates), I know the day will soon come when he'll be taller than me. He's already almost to my chin. I love it! Tyler takes after his dad in many ways, his love for the outdoors and his great talent he has with animals. They feel so comfortable around him, it's so neat to watch this. I hope one day he'll work with them. Tyler has this amazingly contageous laugh, and it's hard not to bust up laughing just by the sound of it! It's so wonderful to see what a great brother he is and we are just so blessed to have him in our family! I love you Tyler and look forward to this next year of watching you grow ! Thanks for being you!

Attempting to make cakes!

So, here are a few of my recent attempts at making cakes.

Please remember I'm no professional...obviously, it's just

something I love to do for my kids on their birthdays!

So, enjoy the pictures! One of my favorite things was

the rainbow cake I made for Tyler. The inside was so

bright and colorful. The kids loved it!

Ryan

One year ago today, we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy! It was one of the greatest days of our lives. It's amazing how with each child, you feel your heart grow that much more. Ryan was definitely a surprise baby and he continues to surprise us every day. Sometimes he seems much older and smarter than a 1 year old. His favorite activity now is climbing our 3 flights of stairs. Never having stairs with any of the other kids, we are so impressed with how cordinated he is. It only took about a week of going on the stairs to master them. Throughout the last year, it's been very fun to watch Ryan grow. He seemed to hit all the major milestones right on schedule. For instance, around 11 months he decided that he's just going to start walking. Same with crawling, he all of a sudden just decides he's going to crawl, no practice at all, he just started crawling. It's amazing. It's like secretely knows how to do these things, but he's just waiting until the right time to do them. He is obsessed with cars and balls, but he does have a strange phobia of ball pits. Go figure! Any time he can be the center of attention, which is quite often, he always laughs and smiles when people laugh at him! He knows he's being funny! It's so cute!

My favorite thing about Ryan is his little dimpled smile. He lights up the room just by smimling. He's also the best hugger. Any chance he gets he's giving everyone loves. Such a sweetie, it just melts your heart. All of his older brothers and sisters love him to death. They are so great with him, he's never at a loss of attention! He's definitely the most loved little baby ever. Happy Birthday little buddy, we love you and look forward to many more amazing memories!

P.S. I love how the kids are always sticking things on his head and face, poor little guy!

Summer Fun

Here are some pictures from our beach trip. We spent a few

days at the beach with some friends and had a great time!

I love how the kids play in the ocean water as if it was the

slightest bit warm...on the contrary, after getting my feet in

the water, they started to ache because it was so cold! I guess

kids are more resilient.